Today, I spoke to Guy Kawasaki, who is the co-founder of Alltop.com, and the author of ten books including his latest called Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. I interviewed Guy back in 2008 so I wanted to catch up with him again this year. In this interview, GUy talks about what enchantment is, the difference between push and pull technology, how to enchant your boss, and more.
Guy, you’ve written a lot of books, including “The Art of the Start.” What made you write another book and call it “Enchantment”?
I wrote this book in order to enable people to change the world with their products, services, and idea. I’ve been evangelizing something since 1981, and I wanted to compile, clarify, and distribute what I’ve learned about changing people’s hearts, minds, and actions.
One big–and ironic–lesson is that the more innovative, your cause, the more you need to enchant people. Thus, the word “enchantment” best captures the depth and intensity of what it takes. Also, I wanted to own a word the way Tom Peters owns “excellence,” Malcolm Gladwell owns “tipping,” and Robert Cialdini owns “persuasion.” I want to go down in history along side the giant, Dale Carnegie.
How do you define “enchantment,” as it relates to business and
entrepreneurship?
Enchantment is the process building upon a foundation of likability, trustworthiness, and a great cause to delight your customers. It creates a relationship that is deep and long-lasting–that is not transaction oriented.
Can you explain the difference between pull versus push technology? Why is it important to use both?
Push technology are services like email and Twitter.This is where you send stuff to your customer. All they have to do is read it.
Pull technology is when you have to convince people to come to your website, blog, or Facebook fan page.
Each has strengths and weaknesses. Push technology enables you to take your marketing to people, but you may irritate them. Pull technology places a much greater burden on you because content must be attractive.
Enchantment involves the use of both push and pull technology. Each product, market, and the depth of your relationship with each person determines when and how to use these two methods. It’s important to use both because, honestly, you can’t know in advance what will work. Enchantment requires experimentation to get it right.
How do you go about enchant your boss to get ahead at work?
The single most powerful method you can use is to drop what you’re doing when your boss asks for something and fulfill her request first. Yes, this is disruptive. Yes, she might not know what you’re doing. Yes, what you’re doing may be more important in the big picture. But this is the best way to enchant your boss. Just like the book and play, “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.”
What are your top three tips for overcoming resistance as an entrepreneur?
- Provide social proof. This means that you should make it easy for people to see that many others have embraced your product or service. For example, the appearance of white ear buds was social proof that the first iPod was popular which encouraged more people to buy iPods which mean there were more white ear buds to see.
- Show people your magic. This means you should show people how you make your product, cook your food, or service their car. Take them inside the blackbox and show the process with factory tours and open kitchens. I learned this from NovaScotian Crystal in Halifax. During the summer it opens a garage door to its factory so that people can see how its craftsmen blow glass. Guess what? More people buy its products because of this.
- Find a way to agree–on anything. Two diplomats finally worked out a trade dispute when they discovered that they agreed on something: both had wives who forced them to go to the opera, and they both hated opera. When you’re not making much progress with a person, try to find something to agree on: music, movies, sports, food, whatever it takes.
Does this sound like rocket science? It shouldn’t because it isn’t. Enchantment is the art of the possible. It results from small, personal acts not throwing money at problems. In practice, money is usually the enemy of enchantment.
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Guy Kawasaki is the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web, and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures. Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. Kawasaki is the author of ten books including Enchantment, Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
