Calling Seth Godin a marketing genius would probably be an understatement. And to think I haven’t heard of this guy until a few weeks ago is making me feel left out. In “Tribes: we need you to lead us” Seth makes the reader aware that through the Internet, we all have a platform to make an impact and lead using our areas of expertise or to make a difference in this world.
Just what is a tribe? As Seth points out “A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader and an idea. For millions of years, humans have joined tribes, be they religious, ethnic, political or even musical (think of the deadheads). Its our nature.”
With the advent of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and others), anyone with a computer, Internet access and a voice can create a tribe. A classic example of tribal leadership was Al Gore – after losing elections in 2000 against President George W. Bush, he decided to reinvent himself with a strong impactful message urging everyone that “Global Warming” is causing massive environmental change. This lead to creating entirely new industries from “green household products” all the way to laws that now prohibit certain activities that may harm the environment. The list goes on.
While Al Gore may be a high profile individual – after all, he was Vice President of the United States, today, there are people out there just like you and me that attract millions with their unique voice and a need for change.
Take Patt Flynn for example: He was working a 9-5 job and got laid off. Although his circumstances are pretty common these days due to the economy, he turned negative into positive and started working from home. Today, he makes tons of money from his home office and started a blog to teach others step-by-step on how to become successful in online marketing. Today, Patt has millions of followers and his tribe continues to grow – to boot, he is very transparent, right down to publically displaying how much he earns on a monthly basis!
If at this point, you’ve been thinking to yourself that “oh man, I too have a voice and want to make a change or show people my areas of expertise”, you’re in luck! While there is dozens of books on the subject including “how-to” style web sites, there are also gurus out there that can teach you for a small price (well, maybe not that small).
Brendon Burchard is a New York Times best selling author and also the founder of Experts Academy. If you are an expert at something and want to tell it to the rest of the world and create an empire out of it, then this is the guy to learn from. Brendon went from zero to millionaire in 2 years (making 2 ½ million dollars) from his book deals, seminars, speaking gigs and packaged products. Anyone who wants to become an expert and build a tribe should check this guy out.
I hope you enjoyed my first book review. Reading Tribes has changed my life and how I view the Internet and society as a whole. I can no longer see someone popular or influential without having the philosophies of this book in the back of my mind.
Please comment below and let me know what your unique voice is and if you plan to create a tribe in the future. I would love to hear that others out there are doing the same.
