Welcome Readers of Seth Godin
Welcome Readers of Seth Godin,
First Thing is First
I realize that my PDF [All PDFs here if you don't know what I'm talking about] isn’t as pretty as most of the others. This was by design. In retrospect, I should’ve made a pretty header with a picture (or at least gotten someone else to; I am not very good at those kinds of things). Also, I should’ve invited a bit more conversation. I’ll do that now.
If you read my PDF on Seth’s site, even if it was just a bit, even if you only clicked one link, please shoot me an email and introduce yourself. I love meeting new people, particularly those passionate about marketing and the spread of ideas.
The reason it was so simple (and plain) is that this was a rare opportunity and I wanted to seize it by providing anyone who read my PDF with the most comprehensive view of what makes me tick.
[Update: If you would like to download just my single PDF, with an updated header and a bio picture included, feel free to do so here.]
Here’s a Bit More
Since many of you are viewing this page for the first time, I thought I would try something a little bit different to introduce myself.
We’ll skip the part about where I was the coolest little kid ever. I was, and that’s pretty much indisputable. I played virtually every sport there was to play in high school, though by this time I was starting to realize that I might not get to be a professional baseball player. Prior to this realization I did give one girlfriend an autographed baseball (by yours truly of course) for her birthday.
So Why Marketing?
I ended up attending Texas Lutheran to continue my life’s passion of playing baseball. I fell in love with this tiny school of approximately 1,400 and its small community. It didn’t hurt that I got to be a member of 3 championship teams. Prior to my senior year I was just working in the fitness center and was looking to make some extra cash.
That’s when I started making a little extra money and learned how to network. It’s also how I came to discover my insatiable desire to learn everything I could about marketing. I was a Communications Studies major and an English minor, and I wanted to be a sports writer or maybe a lawyer. When I found out how long I would have to toil making virtually nothing in an over-saturated and super competitive field I stopped sports writing. And when I decided I didn’t have time to study for the LSAT while writing my senior thesis on the road in hotel conference rooms I forgot about law school. I knew marketing was the answer.
So there’s only a handful of Masters in Marketing programs in the country (not to be confused with an MBA), and one was in my backyard, only a few miles away from my hometown, in College Station. Ever since I’ve been completely infatuated with marketing, the spread of ideas, and the conversations with people, brands, etc.
My Top Five Strengths
According to the Strengthsfinder quiz I took when I entered A&M’s marketing program these are my top five strengths: (I consider them to be very accurate).
Competition – “If you can compare you can compete, and if you can compete, you can win. You like other competitors because they invigorate you.”
Communication – “You like to explain, describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. This is why people like to listen to you. Your word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act.”
Maximizer – “Excellence, not average, is your measure. Transforming something strong into something superb is thrilling. You don’t want to spend your life bemoaning what you lack. Rather, you want to capitalize on the gifts with which you are blessed. It’s more fun. It’s more productive. And, counterintuitively, it is more demanding.
Belief – “You have certain core values that are enduring. Your belief theme causes you to be family-oriented, altruistic, even spiritual, and to value responsibility and high ethics-both in yourself and others. Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you.”
Relator – “Once the initial connection has been made, you deliberately encourage a deepening of the relationship. You want to understand their feelings, their goals, their fears, and their dreams; and you want them to understand yours. For you a relationship only has value if it is genuine.”
Miscellaneous
- I was once a highly ranked chess player.
- I had a 3.94 GPA in undergrad.
- I coached the College Station Twelve, a 10-year-old select baseball team.
- I enjoy running long distance and lifting weights.
- My favorite quote is, “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice your gift.” – Steve Prefontaine
- My senior thesis was, “The Lure of Luxury: Online Identity as it Relates to Online Entrepreneurship.”
What You Should Read on This Site
- In short, whatever you want.
- The ‘Top Posts’ on the right sidebar.
- All of the blogs in the blogroll are phenomenal.
- My contributions to other websites are typically some of my best work.
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