Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

Welcome to the Wild Side – Going Entrepreneurial

My dad worked for General Motors for 37 years, his only full-time employer. My wife’s dad worked for DuPont for 35 years after a brief stint with IBM. Who knows – he might have been with IBM for 37 years if they had permanently assigned him to the Nashville office rather than sending him to Upstate New York. They used to be the norm – but now their career paths would be considered anomalies.

Welcome to the wild world of independent work.

Have you considered – or been forced to consider – going entrepreneurial? I love the independent work world – but it’s a wild ride!

My career, which began at a local church as a youth pastor, and which includes three significant “employment” eras – plus a 5-year run of having my own company serve as my sole means of support – has been a much different path. This past week I concluded a three-year return to the corporate world. I moved to Nashville in late 2005 to launch a specialty book division with Integrity Publishers. When Integrity was acquired by Thomas Nelson, I served in the same publisher role with a much larger company over a well-established business unit.

With the publishing industry in a major funk – and no bailout being trumpeted on CNN – now was and is the time for me to get back to running my own business. One of the first responses I got to my announcement was from a good friend, also independent and entrepreneurial in mindset, who sent me a text that said “welcome back to the wild side.” As someone who thought he might be bankrupt and then wealthy and then bankrupt all in the same year, I can only smile – I can’t argue with his choice of words.

I’ve been asked if I’m worried about not being with a company in what may be the worst economic times since the Great Depression. Well, last I heard on TV, General Motors needs money from the government this week or it may be forced into Chapter 7, which means the doors would close. What safe place is there in the workforce today?

I’ve been told I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I’ve been told I’m crazy. Both statements are undoubtedly wrong – and right – for different reasons! Bottom line, I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all plan for navigating the white water rapids of today’s workplace. My inclination is that I won’t return to corporate (never say never), but I wouldn’t recommend that as the plan for everyone. Know thyself.

Have you considered – or been forced to consider – going entrepreneurial? I love the independent work world – but it’s a wild ride! I would offer three simple observations that might serve as counsel and advise for someone reading this.

  1. Everyone needs more than one “customer.” Your employer may be your boss and your means of financial support, but your employer is also a customer for your services. Is it smart to have one customer? Maybe it was in a bygone era but in times of economic turbulence, when many companies are struggling to stay alive, that’s probably not the case. But isn’t that kind of thinking disloyal and dishonest? I’m obviously not condoning or advocating the stealing of time and resources from the one paying you, but there’s nothing dishonorable in using gifts and skills, some of which may not have an outlet in your primary job, in ways that meet the needs of other customers.
  2. Hard work is the order of the day. Duh. That may seem too obvious to mention but let’s face it, we do live in an incredibly comfortable epoch of world history – with lots of our free time devoted to entertainment. A friend – and yes, he, too, is independent and entrepreneurial in his mindset – sent me this word of wisdom recently: “He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgement” (Proverbs 12:11).
  3. Ultimately, there is no security in your own labors. So what’s the point in trying? There is great reward in working hard and working savvy, but the only true security is found in faith in God. The words of Job, who was the wealthiest man of his day, who lost his wealth, his health, and his family in a series of calamities, still ring true today: “Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless, for he will get nothing in return” (15:31). Trust God more.

So whether your company is definitively in the black or the red, whether your career is booming or languishing, whether you have made the move to the independent work world or are happy in corporate, all I can say is it’s a jungle either way, so ‘welcome to the wild side!’

Murketing and the Fine Art of Sincerity

At its best, murketing is selling something you've sincerely bought into.

At its best, murketing is selling something you’ve sincerely bought into.

“Fast Times” just released their top 10 business books for the year and Rob Walker’s Buying In was second on the list.

Amazon’s starred review says:

Brands are dead. Advertising no longer works. Weaned on TiVo, the Internet, and other emerging technologies, the short-attention-span generation has become immune to marketing. Consumers are “in control.” Or so we’re told.

In Buying In, New York Times Magazine “Consumed” columnist Rob Walker argues that this accepted wisdom misses a much more important and lasting cultural shift. As technology has created avenues for advertising anywhere and everywhere, people are embracing brands more than ever before–creating brands of their own and participating in marketing campaigns for their favorite brands in unprecedented ways. Increasingly, motivated consumers are pitching in to spread the gospel virally, whether by creating Internet video ads for Converse All Stars or becoming word-of-mouth “agents” touting products to friends and family on behalf of huge corporations. In the process, they–we–have begun to funnel cultural, political, and community activities through connections with brands.

Walker explores this changing cultural landscape–including a practice he calls “murketing,” blending the terms murky and marketing–by introducing us to the creative marketers, entrepreneurs, artists, and community organizers who have found a way to thrive within it. Using profiles of brands old and new, including Timberland, American Apparel, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Red Bull, iPod, and Livestrong, Walker demonstrates the ways in which buyers adopt products, not just as consumer choices, but as conscious expressions of their identities.

Part marketing primer, part work of cultural anthropology, Buying In reveals why now, more than ever, we are what we buy–and vice versa.

I’m halfway through and enjoying the book tremendously. I would simply argue that murketing is not a new concept but is as old as commerce itself. Anyone else ever been asked by someone if they can bring over a pizza only to discover that the real agenda was not breaking bread but a sales presentation? My personal experience with that exact scenario, probably atypical, was as bad an example of murketing as you’ll ever witness.

But whether done online or as a door-to-door visit; whether done well (which probably means sincerely or with the appearance of sincerity) or poorly (you tricked me into thinking you cared about me but it sure appears that you only want to sell me something); whether the starting point is as a provider or purchaser of the goods or service; the blending of who we are with what we offer – murketing – is perhaps the most proven form of selling and marketing ever known.

A man known as the “greatest salesman in the world” (think of the Og Mandino classic by that same name) was also a great example of a murketer. St. Paul was nearly obsessed with defending his sincerity in sharing the gospel – to the point that he maintained his trade as a tent maker so that no one would accuse him of being a money grubber. A typical self-defining statement from Paul can be found in 2 Corinthians 4:2 (The Message):

We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don’t maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don’t twist God’s Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God.

The prevailing definitions of murketing in Buying In is “marketing that parades as non-marketing” – which sounds a lot more like something from Machiavelli’s The Prince than Paul’s letter to the Corinthians! At it’s best, murketing is selling something you have sincerely bought into.

But no matter what direction you tackle the concept of murketing – a technique to be learned, a ploy to be wise to, an interesting study of the Internet and emerging sales behavior or a “same old, same old” yawn – it’s hard to refute the notion that the best selling in life comes from those who have most bought into that which they are trying to sell.

That’s why we like our personal trainers to be fit, our dessert chefs to be plump, and our preachers to be holy.

Now, about that pizza I was bringing over!

When Less Is More

When Less Is More

SUPER SIZE ME!

The 2004 documentary, Super Size Me, followed producer and director Morgan Spurlock as he ate at the same fast food restaurant three times a day for 30 days. Every time he was asked if he would like to “supersize” a meal, he said yes. During that time he put on 24.5 pounds and reported mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and liver damage. It took him more than a year to lose the weight he put on.

Folks, Spurlock was a professional film producer, so do not try that stunt at home!

His exaggerated foray into the world of too much of the wrong kind of food is a great reminder that less really can qualitatively be more.

Just as less fat, sugar, and processed wheats often adds up to better health, there are countless other “lesses” that would help you experience significant “mores” in life.

There are times when less is more.

Imagine a departure from partaking of too much escapist entertainment … of holding grudges and harboring resentments … of filling in too many blanks in the calendar … of overspending … of overeating … of gossiping too much.

Just think of how much more health and peace is available when you pursue a path that Robert Frost described as “less travelled”!