Art Marketing Buzz

Alright so first I will give you an apology for the funky formatting of this review. Weird. I know. I did this as a book report for one of my classes. I am finishing my masters degree. Weird. I know. At my age, not old by any means but not a typical college student either, I will not use the degree. It is the knowledge I crave. I have this bent to continue and learn marketing, copy-writing and that skill set that will keep me moving forward helping artist market their gifts. I learn more valuable information from being an entrepreneur and doing what I do.  Th college enviornment is a different perspective.  Art marketing is such a tiny little niche. As an artist I understand the need, as an entrepreneur I have a passion for marketing, not because of the logical-connect-the-dots-for-money, but because in and of itself it is an art form composed of the power of the word. In marketing art we utilize the power of psychology, sociology and many other sciences just like taking a brush to canvas or any other “technical” aspect of art uses science. I want to bridge that gap and utilize my right brain talents to combine the ever so slim left brain component in a synergy for producing and marketing art that I could not have had with either piece standing alone. Hence my passion for marketing. I digress, here is the review of Seth Godin’s, “the dip”

Critical Review “the dip” 1

Running head: Critical Review “the dip”

“the dip”

A LITTLE BOOK THAT TEACHES YOU WHEN TO QUIT (AND WHEN TO STICK)

A Critical Book Review by Tim O’Neill

Program Evaluation MGMT 551

Purdue State College

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Seth Godin’s book, “the dip” caught me off guard. I had heard the musings and rumbles,

felt the groundswell and partook in the many viral aspects of the internet launch of his

NY Times Bestseller but…it caught me off guard. His book has everything cool that

reflects the marketing genius of Seth Godin: The title creates curiosity, the title printed

without caps creates its own emotive response, (typically negative), it has a shamefully

simplistic dust cover and pencil drawn illustrations. Again, it uniquely screams, “buy

me”, “read me”. All typical of Seth Godin, what I didn’t expect though is content created

solely on a muse. No reference, or very little anyway.

This author, for those that don’t know him, is a phenomenal success by most people’s

standards. Seth has written a few New York Times bestsellers and is the editor of the Big

Moo, yet writing is not his main profession. He is the founder and CEO of Squidoo and

also one of the most popular bloggers worldwide. He is a serial entrepreneur. The target

audience for this book is not the folks who are content with mediocrity, or skating

through life on a whim. It is written for the motivated, those that want to stand apart and

excel.

The trail to Seth’s thought process is revealed in “the dip”. His basic premise is, be the

best in the world at what you do. I can hear many saying…yeah right. Isn’t there only

one best in the world? As Godin defines it, “Best as in: best for them, right now, based

on what they believe and what they know. And in the world, as in: their world, the world

they have access to.” (chap. 1, pg 10 “the dip”) The temerity of the statement “best in the

world” is unbelievable until you bounce it back on his prospective. Truly, best in the

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world can change according to timing, knowledge, the breadth of the “world” of your

potentialclient and other factors I would not have thought about. I happen to agree. In

fact, with his definition, it makes it believable, possible, even probable given time, effort

and a directed passion in your niche.

So what is the dip? Well, really a type of summative evaluation on a micro scale. It is an evaluation of personal goals, and where you are in terms of reaching them… as you’re striving for them. Andy Wibbels, another blogging expert and internet marketing guru defines the dip like this, “It is the escape velocity to superstardom. It is the ritual hazing of academia. It is passing the bar exam, getting your 2 top abs visible and then wanting to go for the whole six pack, memorizing a complete piano concerto or taking a microbrewery macro.” (Wibbels, Andy. May 29, 2007.) I love that. Seth explains it in a different manor though. It is the point after which starting a new project the newness wears off and the doldrums of commonality and repetition cause an introspective look at why you started the “project” in the first place. That is the dip. It is the “keep your eyes on the prize” mantra that I learned as a kid. Seth drives further though to say that just a few curves can define most situations you face while striving for accomplishment. There is the dip, which I have explained. The cul-de-sac, which as its name implies, means you work on and on and go in circles with out much change in the view. There are other curves explained in “the dip” but these two account for the bulk of the situations in our life’s.
Following the rabbit trail of Seth’s way of thinking we also then bump into quitting. He believes that quitting is not a bad thing and in fact “strategic quitting “(chap. 2, pg 16 “the dip”) is one of the unbidden secrets of success. The evaluative process comes in determining what types of situations cause you to want to quit, and when it is beneficial
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to quit as opposed to trudging onward. Likewise if you know what potential hazards the dip will throw at you, part of the evaluation process will be determining whether to start down a specific path to begin with. As an entrepreneur I find comfort that someone has recognized the power of quitting and put a different spin on a typically vilified taboo. While Godin is not encouraging serial quitting he is in fact suggesting an introspective evaluation of present circumstance to help determine if you are in a cul-de-sac.
In conclusion Seth’s book really did catch me off guard. I expected a little book chocked full of numbers, graphs and systematic scientific evaluation. What I found was an insightful peak at the way a multimillionaire in my field thinks, an insiders view of the various reasoning behind seemingly unsound decisions primarily based on anecdotal euphemism. It was a great read, motivating, thought provoking and totally unexpected. What does this have to do with program evaluation…everything.
For more information about the dip you can get another outside perspective from Guy Kawasaki at
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/04/the_big_dip_ten.html, or hit one of Seth’s blogs at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/the_dip/, or http://www.squidoo.com/theDipBook

Reference:

Godin, S. (2007).the dip.
New York: Penguin Group.

(Wibbels, Andy. May 29, 2007. “The Dip” by Seth Godin (book review). Retrieved November 14, 2008 from http://andywibbels.com/2007/05/the-dip-by-seth-godin-book-review/