Thinking With Mitch Joel

Welcome to episode #461 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . Inspiration is everywhere. And, as they say, the future is here... it's just not evenly distributed. So, where do you go to see the future? There are few that I trust when it comes to individuals who are truly able to point to trends that turn into something meaningful. In fact, there are only two. I do love the work being d...

Welcome to episode #460 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . Tim Ferriss just launched a TV show. It's called, The Tim Ferriss Experiment , and - by all accounts - this is the exact line of work that Tim was meant to do: use his body, mind and spirit to help us all learn how to get better and hack our lives towards excellence. Tim is such a fascinating character. While he describes hi...

Welcome to episode #459 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . I can be old and cynical when it comes to building a personal brand. It used to be that digital media allowed all of us to present ourselves in a three-dimensional way. While that statement still stands true, we have a swath of people presenting themselves in really silly and unprofessionals ways online. Figuring out how to...

Welcome to episode #458 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . The title "Marketing Technologist" gets tossed around a lot these days. Most brands believe that this is an individual who can understand and implement better marketing automation solutions. I think that's short-sighted. For over a decade, I have watched Stephan Spencer become a true marketing technologist. This is someone w...

Welcome to episode #457 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . Joseph Jaffe is widely regarded as one of the top marketing bloggers ( Jaffe Juice ) and podcasters (both Jaffe Juice in audio and Jaffe Juice TV in video). He is the author of four excellent books ( Life After The 30-Second Spot , Join The Conversation , Flip The Funnel  and  Z.E.R.O .) and his latest business venture is, E...

Welcome to episode #456 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . Brands are in a very difficult predicament. It's not something that is easy to write, but it's true. Competition is fierce and it's getting more complicated, because the types of channels and messages that a brand can create has become boundless (thanks, digital marketing). With this digitization of everything, consumers con...

Welcome to episode #455 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . I have always been skeptical of individuals who proclaim themselves to be futurists. I often joke that I am a presentist . How far into the future can these people see? How far do they really look? Are they ever right? Recently, I was presenting at a private corporate event outside of San Diego, and Gerd Leonhard (the well-k...

Welcome to episode #454 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast .  Rohit Bhargava is here to help. The trend curator, founder of the Influential Marketing Group , and the bestselling author of five business books (including his latest, Non-Obvious ), has a special skill when it comes to seeing trends in business, marketing and communications. His signature annual, Non-Obvious Trend Report...

Welcome to episode #453 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . I can't remember when I first heard of Nathan Sawaya , but I knew his work long before I knew the artist's name. That's what happens when you see a sculpture made of LEGO . That sculpture stopped me dead in my tracks. It was very evocative... almost disturbing. Yes, those same little bricks that get jammed into our feet at t...

Welcome to episode #452 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . When a friend like C.C. Chapman tells me that I have to meet someone, I am there in a heartbeat. Prior to the introduction, I had never heard of Erica Dhawan . Erica was in the final throes of writing her first book, Get Big Things Done (which she co-authored alongside Saj-Nicole Joni ). The book is based on her research, in...

Welcome to episode #451 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . If ever there was a book written about what marketing "could" be, it would be The Cluetrain Manifesto . The book was published in 2000 and presented 95 theses organized around the Internet, culture, society and business (it also happens to be one of my my most loved books). Many point to this book as the genesis of social me...

Welcome to episode #450 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . We live in amazing times. We are both at the frontier of what is coming next and also in the midst of being connected like never before. We're seeing humanity develop, evolve and leverage technology to do amazing things. There are many pessimists, but Steven Kotler is an optimist... and a fascinating one, at that. Steven Kot...

Welcome to episode #449 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . I'm a total business book nerd. You knew that already. I do my best to read everything (literally). In the past few years, I have been (somewhat) disappointed in the genre. There has not been that many releases which have blown me away (and some of my peers). That being said, when the topic of business books does come up (wh...

Welcome to episode #448 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . Joseph Jaffe is widely regarded as one of the top marketing bloggers ( Jaffe Juice ) and podcasters (both Jaffe Juice in audio and Jaffe Juice TV in video). He is the author of four excellent books ( Life After The 30-Second Spot , Join The Conversation , Flip The Funnel   Z.E.R.O .) and his latest business venture is, Evol8...

Welcome to episode #447 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Mirum Podcast . Saul Colt fancies himself as one of the leading word of mouth marketing professionals in the world. At the core of his work, is helping brands find, develop and nurture real brand evangelists. This isn't about making people smile, so that they talk about you on Facebook , it's about finding the right customer for a brand and...

Welcome to episode #446 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast . I have known Bryan Eisenberg forever. Back when I first started publishing music  magazines on the Internet (in the mid-nineties), there were few people writing about the power of the Internet from a business and marketing perspective. There were message boards and email lists... and that's where I first started readin...

Welcome to episode #445 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast . Don Tapscott could well be an international treasure when it comes to the Internet and the digital economy. He recently published a majorly updated version of his seminal book, The Digital Economy. It's hard to believe that this book is celebrating its twentieth anniversary. So much has changed. It's fascinating to go...

Welcome to episode #444 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast . On Monday, January 26th, 2015 in Toronto, I will be taking part in a live public debate with Andrew Keen abut the value and merits of the Internet. The event will be moderated by GigaOm 's Mathew Ingram and will act as a kickoff to this year's Advertising Week . It's strange to call this a debate, as there are many con...

Welcome to episode #443 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast . A lot of people follow Ted Rubin . I'm not just talking about his 250,000-plus followers on Twitter . Over the years, he has spent his fair share of time working with both brands and agencies at the intersection of technology and marketing. If you go back even further, Ted worked with Seth Godin at Yoyodyne (which was...

Welcome to episode #442 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast . Peter Shankman believes that, in the end, customer service is everything. While he is a veteran of the public relations space (we actually met when I was working as an account guy in a PR agency, long before I joined Twist Image ), a passionate entrepreneur (he launched Help A Reporter Out ), and a multiple-times bests...

Welcome to episode #441 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast . As the year comes to a close, many marketers are left wondering, what is on the horizon for 2015? What are the key trends and areas of focus that we should all be paying attention to? Are there macro trends that our brands need to be ready for? How will marketing play a bigger role in business? Mark W. Schaefer is a re...

Welcome to episode #440 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast . If you're in the agency business, you know the new business development and pitching grind like no other. As we all know, pitching for new business is the lifeblood of any marketing agency. Winning the pitches... no matter how great of a closing record you may have, is such a strange thing. There is no real science as...

Welcome to episode #439 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast . How do you make change? How do you take the time to think about what's next? What you're going to do? How you're going to do it? Does change come from a blog post? A tweet? A podcast? I'm lucky. Very lucky. I get to do things like this. I get to spend an hour with Seth Godin . While he likes to poke around at what's co...

Welcome to episode #438 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast . There's an infamous line from the 1976 film, Network , in which longtime fictional television news anchor, Howard Beale, screams, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" We've (probably) all done this at one point in our professional lives (granted, not the extent of Beale!). Some of us actually m...

Welcome to episode #437 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast . How many writers do you know that have written books about space, the Grateful Dead, viral marketing, social media, public relations and more? This is the life of David Meerman Scott , who in marketing circles is probably best known for his bestselling business book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR (which, for many,...