Derek Sivers podcast

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And if only 1% of those people… Sep 27, 2009

Show notes

A musician had manufactured 10,000 copies of his CD, in anticipation of 10,000 orders that were sure to come through that week.

He had bought a quarter-page advertisement in the back of a magazine with a circulation of one million people.

He kept saying, “If only one percent of the people reading this magazine buy my CD, that’ll be 10,000 copies! And that’s only one percent!”

He bought 10,000 padded mailers and mailing labels. He converted his garage into a big mailing center.

He kept saying, “Maybe we can get like 10 percent! That’s 100,000! But worst case scenario — if only 1 percent — that’s still 10,000!”

The magazine issue came out, and… nothing. He bought an issue. There was his ad. But the orders were not coming in! Was something wrong? No. He tested it. Everything was working.

Over the next few weeks he received four orders. Yes, total CDs sold: 4.

He forgot there was a number lower than one percent.

I think of this every time I hear business plans that say, “With over ten billion iPhones sold, our app is sure to…”

Emphasize meaning over price Sep 21, 2009

Show notes

A musician named Griffin House used to sell CDs at his gigs for $15. He’d mention it once or twice from the stage, and sell about $300 per night on average.

One day his manager, Terry McBride, asked him to try a completely different approach. He said:

Tell the audience, “It’s really important to us that you have our CD. We worked so hard on it and are so proud of it, that we want you to have it, no matter what. Pay what you want, but even if you have no money, please take one tonight.”
Say this again before the end of the show. “Please, nobody leave here tonight without getting a copy of our CD. We’ve shared this great show together so it would mean a lot to us if you’d take one.”

It changes the request from a commercial pitch to an emotional connection. Allowing them to get a CD for no money just reinforces that.

As soon as Griffin made this change, he started selling about $1200 per night on average, even including those people who took it for free! The average selling price was about $10.

But the important part came next:

Because every person left each show with a CD, they were more likely to remember who they saw, tell friends about it, listen to it later, and become an even bigger fan afterwards.

Then, when the band returned to a town where they had insisted that everyone take a CD, attendance at those shows doubled! The people that took a CD became long-term fans and brought their friends to future shows.

So, whatever you’re selling, emphasize the meaning of it, not the price.

Is there such a thing as too much freedom? Sep 17, 2009

Show notes

I’ve always used freedom as the compass to guide my decisions.

We moved a lot when I was a kid. I lived in five states and countries by the time I was 5.

I left home at 17 and went off to college as far away as I could.

I joined a circus for 10 years. Then I quit my last job in 1992, vowing to make a living making music and never have a job again.

A few years after I started my company, I delegated all of my responsibilities, making myself unnecessary to the operations of my company, so that I was free to go live anywhere and do anything.

My email was filtered by the customer service staff. Hardly any needed my personal reply, so I was free to go days without checking email.

I gave nobody my phone number, and said no to all meeting requests, so I was free to work on my own schedule with no appointments to interrupt.

I gave away most of my stuff, including my entire recording studio, to my employees. So all I had left were some clothes and my laptop. Free to travel lightly.

I eliminated all physical mail, setting my necessary bills to electronic payments, and had tax forms go to my accountant. I was free to move without notice.

I moved to London for a year, just because I could. I hardly told anyone I was gone. Most people thought I was still in Portland. Then I went to San Francisco for a few months, India for a month, and Iceland for a month.

Friends back home would say, “So what did you do in Iceland?” I’d say, “Same thing as you. Same thing I’d be doing anywhere else. Just programming, working, writing, reading, living.” Living the laptop life. Location agnostic.

Switching countries was like switching rooms in your house. Why not go sit in the den for a while? Why not do some writing in the kitchen for a change How about the back yard?

How about Berlin for a while? Brazil? Buenos Aires? Beijing? It’s a big world. Why not do my work in each of these places?

I could be anywhere, but didn’t have to be anywhere.

But even though I had freedom of location, I still had some responsibilities to my company — CEO/owner type stuff. And I was still the main programmer, so in all of these places, I’d still be working mostly on the backend programming, improving the site and service.

My company grew 1000% while I was gone, from 2002 to 2008. But once I left for good in 2008, I really had no more responsibilities at all, and might never again.

I had done it! I’d reached the final destination of my life-long pursuit of freedom! Awesome, and overwhelming. So… Wow. Now what?

Where do you go, when you can be anywhere, and don’t have to be anywhere?

What do you do, when you can do anything, and don’t have to do anything?

What if you had no ties? Nothing holding you to any one place. What if you had unlimited plane tickets? What if you never had to work again?

Is there such a thing as too much freedom?

This story isn’t coming to some conclusion where I answer the question. I’m still living the question.

Imagining lots of tedious steps? Or one fun step? Sep 12, 2009

Show notes

If we hate doing something, we think of it as hard. We picture it having many annoying steps.

If we love doing something, it seems simple. We think of it as one fun step.

If you ask someone who hates running how to do it, they’ll say, “Ugh… First you put on running clothes. Then you have to stretch. Then you put on your shoes. Then you go outside. Then you get all sweaty. Then you have to cool down. Then you have to shower. Then you have to change. Who has the time?”

If you ask someone who loves running how to do it, they’ll say, “Easy! You just put on your shoes and go!”

Once you realize this difference, it’s helpful to notice how you think of a project.

Even if you say you want to do something, if you catch yourself thinking of it in many tedious steps, maybe you don’t really want to do it. Why would you? It sounds awful.

People often ask me about starting my company. “It must have been so difficult! That’s a huge undertaking! How did you manage all of that?” But I just answer honestly, “There was really nothing to it. I just made this little website, and people liked it. That’s it.” I barely even remember the details. In my head it was just one fun step.

Now I have to pay attention to that, with each new project I start. How many steps am I picturing?

Sprezzatura Aug 30, 2009

Show notes

Watch Elizabeth Gilbert’s great TED talk called “Your elusive creative genius”.

Absolutely amazing speech. Emotional, universal, insightful, educational, and funny.

She comes across so nonchalant, light, and conversational. Effortless.

I was there at the conference, and saw it in person. It was the hit of the conference.

When the conference was over, she asked me to walk with her back to her hotel, so we had a good 15 minutes to chat.

She told me she had finished her new book on New Year’s Eve (it was now mid-February), so I said, “Congrats! Have you been relaxing in the last 6 weeks since then?”

She said, “No! I started preparing that talk the very next day! I’ve been working on that little 18-minute speech full-time, almost 8 hours a day, for six weeks.”

Aha! Now that’s sprezzatura!

“Sprezzatura” is an Italian word that means “to hide conscious effort and appear to accomplish difficult actions with casual nonchalance.”

I really admire how much work it took to research, write, edit, then practice that speech so that it seemed effortless.

It inspires me twice.

First for its own sake: for being such a great talk.

Second for finding out how much work went into making it.

When you think someone is amazing by DNA or destiny, you can be inspired by their work because it’s so unattainably beautiful. You can be amazed and think, “I could never do that!”

But when you find out they’re amazing only because of unglamorous persistent sweaty hard work, you can be double-inspired, thinking, “Wow! I could do that!”

My old girlfriend was not a musician, so one day she said, “I would like to be a pop star. It’s so easy! They never have to work. They just hang out all the time, being famous.”

She was sincerely shocked when I told her about how it’s actually a lot of work.

Sprezzatura.

Prince was my biggest musical hero in the mid-80s. I didn’t take him seriously until Miles Davis raved about him.

First I admired his music. It inspired me for its own sake.

But later I found out about his work ethic. Nonstop perfectionist rehearsals, 18-hour recording sessions, recording hundreds of songs just to release ten.

Discovering this was a major turning point in my life. I now had a workaholic musician role-model. It was attainable! Just by practicing, I could do that!

So as an artist, it’s good to practice and prepare so well that you can put on an effortless performance with sprezzatura. Let most people think you’re just a natural genius.

But then it’s also good for other artists if you quietly reveal how much work went into it, to inspire future generations to practice, practice, practice.

What do you hate not doing? Aug 29, 2009

Show notes

When we wonder what’s worth doing, we ask ourselves, “What do I really love?” or “What makes me happy?”

That question never really goes well, does it?

Maybe it’s because there’s a long list of things that make us happy, and we need to narrow it down further. Or maybe because the things with the deepest rewards don’t always provide shallow pleasures along the way.

So try this question instead:

What do you hate not doing?

What makes you feel depressed, annoyed, or like your life has gone astray if you don’t do it enough?

Answers to this double-negative question seem to be better indicators of what’s really worth doing.

No “yes.” Either “HELL YEAH!” or “no.” Aug 26, 2009

Show notes

Use this rule if you’re often over-committed or too scattered.

If you’re not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, say no.

When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” — then say no.

When you say no to most things, you leave room in your life to really throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say “HELL YEAH!”

Every event you get invited to. Every request to start a new project. If you’re not saying “HELL YEAH!” about it, say no.

We’re all busy. We’ve all taken on too much. Saying yes to less is the way out.

I miss the mob Jul 16, 2009

Show notes

I was in Las Vegas for a conference, taking a taxi from the airport to the hotel.

I asked the driver, “How long have you lived here?”

He said, “27 years.”

“Wow! A lot has changed since then, huh?”

“Yeah. I miss the mob.”

“Huh? Really? What do you mean?”

“When the mafia ran this town, it was fun. There were only two numbers that mattered: how much is coming in, and how much is going out. As long as more in than out, everyone’s happy. But then the whole town was bought up by these damn corporations full of MBA weasels micro-managing, trying to maximize the profit from every square foot of floor space. Now the place that used to put ketchup on my hot dog tells me it’ll be an extra 25 cents for ketchup! It sucked all the fun out of this town! Yeah... I miss the mob.”

(Sure we could bring up other issues with the mob, but let’s just leave it as a metaphor and a lesson.)

I told this story a lot at CD Baby. MBA types would ask me, “What’s your growth rate? What’s your retained earnings rate as a percentage of gross? What are your projections?”

I’d just say, “I have no idea. I don’t even know what some of that means. I started this as a hobby to help my friends, and that’s the only reason it exists. There’s money in the bank and I’m doing fine, so no worries.”

They’d tell me if I analyzed it better I could maximize profitability.

Then I’d tell them about the taxi driver in Vegas.

Never forget why you’re really doing what you’re doing.

Are you helping people?

Are they happy?

Are you happy?

Are you profitable?

Isn’t that enough?

Barking Jul 11, 2009

Show notes

I’m in New York City. Across the street is a man pacing on the sidewalk. He’s insanely barking something at the top of his lungs. Everyone is avoiding going anywhere near him.

I get closer. I try to figure out what he’s screaming about. Finally I hear it. “20% coupons for window shades! 20% off! Window shades! Get your coupons here!”

Yeah… uh… that’s not working.

A week later, I’m hanging with a friend in Union Square. The whole time we’re talking, there’s some man yelling in the background. It’s almost like he’s singing a repetitive phrase — always an F falling to a D. Again I’m curious, so I get closer to hear what he’s yelling. “Help feed the homeless! Help feed the homeless!”

Ah! So he’s trying to help! But again, everyone is avoiding him.

Then it made me think: How many of us do this?

Maybe we weren’t getting the results we wanted, so we thought if we shouted louder, more people would hear.

But people avoid those types. If someone always pitches his business to friends at parties, he won’t get invited to parties anymore.

In England, I heard the word “barking” used as slang for “insane”. (It’s short for “barking mad”, get it?)

When promoting, make sure you’re not barking.

When things aren’t working, be smarter, not louder.

The mirror: It’s about you, not them. Jul 07, 2009

Show notes

If you see a gorgeous painting that fascinates you, does it matter if you find out the artist didn’t pay her taxes? Would you stop enjoying the painting?

If someone shows you a great way to memorize names, does it matter if you find out that person is an alcoholic? Would you no longer trust their memorization techniques?

When I buy a book that has a picture of the author on the cover, I rip off and trash the cover before I even leave the store. I don’t care who the author is. All that matters are the ideas inside the book and what I do with them.

James Brown was my biggest musical influence. I even named my band “Hit Me” in homage to him. I had posters of him on my wall. But when I worked at Warner/Chappell Music in the early ’90s and they told me he was coming to the office that day, I went home early to avoid meeting him. I didn’t want the complete flawed man to taint that flawless music that changed my life.

Maybe the examples seem silly, but it was important to me to remember that what matters is what I get out of their work, not the person who made it.

I often tell people about a great book I think will help them, but sometimes they dismiss the book because they heard something they didn’t like about the author. What I think they’re really saying is, “Now that I’ve proven that the messenger is not perfect, I don’t have to listen to anything they say.”

But the act of reading a book is really about you and what you get from it. All that matters is what you do with the ideas, no matter the source. Apply them to your own life in your own way.

It was never about them. It’s about you.

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