I’m in the habit of getting into habits.

We talk all the time about people who are “just born with it,” don’t we? John Mayer plays guitar like a kid out in the rain. Donald Trump has a nose for making large sums of money. With a football in his hands, Tom Brady is as close to Jesus Christ as anyone on this earth is likely to get. We believe that playing guitar and making money and throwing a football come easy to these supermen, don’t we? You and I can’t do these things; we weren’t born with it like them.

But here’s a little secret: Nobody is born with anything.

Outlier Theory

If you’ve ever Malcom Gladwell’s fantastic book Outliers, you’ve heard a variation on this theme. Gladwell does a reasonable job convincing his readers that what we have all come to recognize as innate ability is often nothing more than a figment of circumstance. Many of the best hockey players in the world are born in January. Why is this? Because in hockey-heavy countries like Canada, the age cutoff for boys is January 1. That means that the kid born on January 2 will be older — and therefore more physically and mentally mature — than everyone in his league. This makes him the best player in the league, which then qualifies him for all-star teams and travel leagues, which allow him to play more and receive more specialized instruction, which in turn make him a better hockey player. And so the cycle repeats itself. All because he was born on January 2, and not December 31.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

Now, Gladwell takes this hypothesis to some pretty frightening places. Our ability to succeed, he says, is largely based on circumstances over which we have very little control. And even when we can control them, there is always a competitor who comes from slightly different circumstances with a sharper angle to success.

I’m going to put a positive spin on  this theory.

Outliers Have Good Habits

See, a large part of our successes in life have to do with the habits we create for ourselves. People who are unsuccessful are thus because they do not have habits that enable them to succeed. People who work in dead-end jobs develop habits of going to and coming home from them without ever changing anything. And when the get home, they wish for a better life. Much of our lives are spent wishing for things that we could have with a change of habits.

For example: I have a goal to publish a book on social media. In order to do that, I have to be well read in social media. That means I have to develop a habit to read every night until my brain is saturated with social media thought leadership. And then I have to get in the habit of writing it (because God forbid the thing actually sells), and then I have to get in the habit of being more social to promote it to people.

If I don’t develop these habits, I might have a book, but it will never sell. Most writers think that developing a habit of writing every day will give them the ability to write a great manuscript. And they’re right: to become a better writer, you have to make it a habit to write continually. But being a good writer does absolutely nothing to guarantee that you’ll sell a book. In fact, there are a lot of really shoddy writers out there who sell millions of books. You could probably name a few off the top of your head. Selling books and writing books require different skills. And lots of writers don’t have all of those skills.

Habits are Decisions

To sell a book, I had to first decide I was going to sell it. That was easy. But deciding to do something doesn’t mean that one day you’ll wake up and magically the thing will be done. Quite the opposite, in fact; deciding to do something just means that you’ve committed to dedicating a portion of your daily resources to doing that thing until it is done.

So I decided to sell a book. Then I started doing research into what it would take to sell a book.

Wait. See what happened there? I didn’t say that I researched what it took to publish a book first in order to inform my decision to sell a book. I know I want to sell a book. I’ve wanted to for a while. I made my decision first, and then found out what it would take to get there. I think that’s important.

Now as it happens, selling a book is no easy task. But like most difficult tasks, it’s easily separated into smaller and very manageable tasks. For example, to sell a non-fiction book, you have to put together a pitch package. The package is comprised of a variety of elements: sample chapters, a table of contents, a rough market analysis, etc. To write a good pitch package, you have first decide you’re going to write a good pitch package, and then make it a habit to work on it every day. (Or night, in my case.)

Every task associated with selling a book can be accomplished the same way. Decide you’re going to convince the best agent around to sell your book. Then make it a habit to learn how to find and persuade agents. Decide you’re going to finish your manuscript on time, and then make a habit to meet your word quota every day.

How to Make a Habit

How easy is it to make a habit? Well, where do you stop for coffee every morning? Do you shower in the morning or before bed? In what order do you open applications on your computer when you start it up for the first time every day? And why do you do those things?

Oh, but you could just as easily go to another coffee chain for your coffee, right? Or you could shower at night, if you wanted to. Or you could open your browser before you open your email client next time. Sure, you could do all of those things. It’s not that difficult to change your habits.

Exactly.

Every day people change their brands of toothpaste, quit smoking, start going to church again, decide to take the stairs rather than the elevator, and so on. People change habits to make their lives better. The same is true of changing your career path, as well. Decide what you want to change. Then get in the habit of changing things.

Photo credit: Bitpicture

There seems to be a common theme among professional marketers that very few ad agencies know what they’re doing when it comes to modern digital marketing. The term “advertising” itself conjures up images of tall, angular men with slick black hair and overwhite teeth telling you why you should spend millions of dollars on a page in a magazine. Maybe it’s Mad Men transcending culture; maybe it’s the knee-jerk reaction of people who are scared of what the future holds for their profession — or who couldn’t make it in the ad world and so endeavored to find their own path to success. Whatever the reason, “advertising” has become synonymous with “old marketing,” “old media,” “outbound marketing,” “direct marketing,” and other so-called dirty words.

Now, let me be clear. I agree that there are better ways to invest money than on banner ads, billboards, TV spots and magazine ads. But notice the diction: there are better ways to invest money. I didn’t say there are better ways to spend money.

Spend Where the Money Is

By now you’ve probably got the core concept. The digital realm is slowly becoming a daily stomping ground for people of all ages. That growth has been relatively steady since the inception of the Internet. And because it is growing, you should invest in it. The work you do in new Web sectors will provide a return as the Web grows.

But let’s make one thing very clear: we are still transitioning. And while we complete this transition, there is still value in those old media. People still buy old media. They still watch TV in real time. There are products and services out there whose buyers are not the most web-savvy on the planet. And even the web-savvy users are affected by tangible media, as well. To reach those people, you need to buy space in old media. You need to purchase (rather than attract) their attention.

Invest Where the Money is Going

As I said, I agree that you should invest in inbound marketing. I think that’s the way things are heading — to a world in which online presence matters more than offline presence. And I think that will be true across almost every industry imaginable. And the sooner and more deeply you commit to creating a formidable online presence, I think, the better off you will be in the long run. But where are your buyers right now? Are they reading that magazine? Are they watching that TV show? If so, why not buy an ad in it?

I’ve come to this understanding after reading some of the stuff published in Ad Contrarian (which will amuse and offend my new marketing peers as it has amused and offended — and ultimately enlightened — me). If you haven’t read it yet, it’s wroth an RSS subscription, especially if you’re in the ad/mar/com line of (fire) work.

Social Capital Grows with the Web

See, here’s the thing about social capital. As with any other capital, it has the ability to grow seemingly on its own, just by investing it in the right places. When I was a consultant, for example, I could tell prospective clients that I’d been on Facebook since it was opened to Boston students in 2003. I could say I’d been blogging since darn near the inception of Xanga.com. And that I was watching online video on a 14.4k modem when a google was just a really big number.

Today, that translates into authority. Of course, when I owned my Xanga blog, I was all of 14 years old and had dreams of being a wealthy poet. (I might as well have wished to be a unicorn.) But the point is that I was there. I was blogging, in the technical sense, and I kept it up. That means I’ve been a blogger for quite some time; longer, in fact, than almost any CMO in the country.

Think about that. I can walk up to the CMO at your company right now and ask him (or her), “How long have you been blogging?” And in most cases, I can guarantee that I’ve been doing it longer. Five years ago, that wasn’t relevant. Today, it very much is.

Now, let’s put that into its proper context. What are you doing today that people will consider to be tremendously valuable in five years? In eight? In ten? Are you planning that far in advance?

Maybe you should start.

Photo credit: epicharmus