BOOK SUMMARY

here has been more than enough written on the transformation that the digital age has brought with it. But as the authors of Brains on Fire tell us, perhaps weve missed the point. Because its no longer a B2C and B2B world, its a P2P world. The Internet revolution, as it turns out, is not about technology and social networks, its about people. And while technology has changed dramatically over the past 20 years, people havent. They still rely on the guy down the street to recommend a good gardner. Or depend on the lady next door to recommend a nice restaurant downtown. You see, as our world has gotten a whole lot larger, it has also gotten a whole lot smaller at the same time. This is a book about what to do when the people have all the power. Again...

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are much more e power, movements people hold all th In a world where the dene a movement: eres how the authors igns. H powerful than campa community around a ers people to unite a and empow A movement elevates tion. ny, brand or organiza cause, passion, compa common its d around these days, ters throwing this wor marke However, with many out how to spot the re is your eld guide ab So he easy to get confused. n: ement and a campaig rence between a mov die ign, not a movement. d an end, its a campa If it has a beginning an around to participate. as kindred spirits are on as long Movements continue sounds like you have g and the vocabulary meetin in a If you are sitting in a World War II, you are rategy session during of a st e middle of an landed in the middle e like you landed in th ovements feel mor campaign meeting. M inspiration get used. like passion, love and ords evangelical sermon. W ng to somebody talk tached, you are listeni is dry and de If language you hear e separating the , people have a hard tim movements about a campaign. In youve likely heard ever been to Toronto, n. If youve me from the equatio e playos, even e are going to make th the year w somebody say this is essional hockey. or never will, play prof ver have, though they clearly ne

BELEAF

Movements arent about the product, they are about passion. Movements start with the rst conversation. Movements have inspirational leadership At rst, you are going to have a lot of trouble accepting that you cant create a movement around a product or a service. You need to create a movement around something people are passionate about. And that passion has to be both internal and external, not just external. Heres why: Passion is contagious. If your entire company wakes up every morning with a re under their **** because they are passionate about what they do, you literally cant prevent it from spreading outside of your proverbial four walls. So how do you create that passion?

MOVEMENTS ARE ABOUT PASSION!

Burn

Baby

Burn

First, you dont create it, you nd it. You cant just sit in a boardroom with

your top executives and decide that your company is now going to be passionate about something. You need to go out, talk to your employees and customers and nd out what they are already passionate about. At this point, its quality insight that you are after, not quantity. Resist the urge to have focus groups and marketplace studies youll rarely uncover passion in those settings. Instead, consider grabbing a cup of coee with an employee. Find out what keeps them up at night, and what gets them out of bed in the morning. Over time it will become crystal clear what connects what your company does to the lives of the people you serve.

Second, this passion isnt something that magically appears out of thin air movements start with the very rst conversation. These rst conversations create your rst passionate advocates, and they are critical to your success. Listen to them very closely, and then give them whatever they need in order to help spread the word about your organization.

Third, movements have inspirational leadership. However, the leadership

doesnt come from within your organization it comes from your community. These can be paid or non-paid positions, and the people you choose should be knowledgable about your space and your organization. But most importantly, to steal a turn of phrase from Spinal Tap, they need to have a passion dial that goes to 11. Rock on.

ier barr te a join crea n to to rso ays a pe st w the e be ly allow f th r of o e on ess emb s Witn One s to i m you ntry . As vah ther is no to e eho t th gh a he J dible a d by u hro ty. T isite e n t ev uni incr up i u ar mm ow n is e, yo co io sh com izat hen ays In order to an you alw w, w org and ime hey kno create a movement rs, t ow, nd t ght mi uite e. eco u kn recr he s n yo rst tim t where the leaders take r T rso thei wo. ha e pe ere the of t so t s on ownership, you need to create es be pair t th 4 tim will asn s e a barrier to entry. Surprisingly, at w proces ther r th is the one of the best ways to grow n the t th ano ally i pea i oc y re ple. your movement is to make a The u are 4 peo yo st time at lea conscious eort to keep people y the now b you k u unity, out. Incentivizing people to join ck if yo comm ome ba c your movement by giving away free stu is most ikely to e you l Ar in the e people likely a recipe for disaster. Its pretty easy to fall into now som already k this trap, because we love large numbers. It just feels rse you are. ent? Of cou movem better to have 1,000 people to take our free t-shirt sense of This also creates a and stress ball, than to have 10 people sign up and be

TE A REA

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100% committed to the cause. But, if we are to learn from the movements that Geno and his gang have been involved in, well take quality over quantity any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.in charge of who gets in, they will treat that responsibility with great care. They not only spread the word on your behalf community, they become stewards of the community itself.

ownership in the group. When you put your community members in charge of who gets in, they will treat that responsibility with great care. They not only spread the word on your behalf community, they become stewards of the community itself.

WELCOME!
(MAYBE)

Advertising and Traditional Marketing

None of this would mean anything unless it it made a dierence to the bottom line whether that bottom line is prots, saving the whales or whatever your cause may be. Fortunately, movements get results. Results that you couldnt even imagine when you rst launch a program like this. Advertising and traditional marketing is a one-way street, with little or no interaction between the consumer and the company. That is a shame, because customers are good for a **** of a lot more than just buying stu from you. This is obvious to Hermann Simon, who is the author of Hidden Champions of the 21st Century, which is considered by many to be the Good to Great of the mid-market. The companies he proles in his book are #1 or #2 in their marketplace (Jack Welch would be proud), have less than $1 billion in revenues, and are generally not very well known. He found a couple of very interesting things in his study:

CULTIVATING CLOSENESS FUELS RESULTS

88%

88% of insanely successful companies have an unusually high percentage of their employees having customer contact. In fact, these companies have about, on average: more customer contact than larger companies do.

5x

Staying close to your most demanding customers compels performance and innovation. This enables you to charge higher prices and earn higher margins. One thing is for sure this isnt an industry like traditional advertising where your return on investment lives in a fairly narrow band, 19 times out of 20. However, for those who are willing to put in the work and reap the benets, creating a movement looks like a real opportunity to create some outsized returns for your company. Making money and making a dierence in your customers lives, it seems, goes hand in hand.

If you are ready to take a good long look at overturning some of your traditional practices, and are willing to put in the legwork to create a movement, this book is for you.

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