Category: Branding

The “Ramsey effect” and the next wave of tribes

Sarat PratapchandranLeave a comment

Twelve years ago, Seth Godin in his book “Tribes,” taught us how groups of people create movements and lead change. Godin showed that “assembling a tribe and leading it” is the new marketing.

America’s debt free guru, Dave Ramsey has proved this well. The “Ramsey Tribe” has transformed shared interests of a group to a passionate goal.

Every day, tribe members visit Ramsey in his studio to give out their visceral “debt free scream,” a testimonial that keeps the cult stronger together. Over $50 million worth of “debt free screams” happen annually through in-person visits or through his talk shows.

This led Ciorstan Smark, faculty at the University of Wollongong to analyze the “Ramsey Tribe” and the criteria used by Godin in “Tribes” to find out their relationship. Smark’s article “Tribes in personal finance? The Dave Ramsey Phenomenon,” in Social & Behavioral Research in Business (2012), found that “Ramsey’s Tribe” relies on his rigid, no-nonsense process urging people to first be debt free and to stay focused on building wealth through self discipline.

While screams make money for Ramsey, from her kitchen in upstate New York, Indian homemaker, Mia has created a different tribe. “Mia’s Tribe” are addicted to her spicy cooking shows and simple renderings of her daily life. They are so attached to her that they can’t miss seeing her for a day.

Marketing built on empathy and trust will help you lead tribes. You will create movements and here are my predictions for the next wave of tribes:

  1. Greater connections and loose leadership structures- Newly formed tribes will have greater communications among members and the outside world. Marketing will build stronger connections among tribe members despite loose leadership structures. Promote self discipline among members if you are leading a tribe.
  2. Trust – Marketing shared interests among tribal members is key but trust will play an important role. Grow your tribe with empathy.
  3. Tips and clues: Your days as a leader offering tips and clues are numbered. Meaningful, valuable content is necessary to keep your tribe together.
  4. Shorter attention spans and longevity: Shorter attention spans will dominate tribes of the future. Market content that energizes the group, builds togetherness and sustains engagement.
  5. Meaningful social cohesion : Greater social cohesion will build your tribe faster than just subject matter expertise. “Ramsey’s Tribe” meets regularly at churches with their Financial Planning University and shares stories of why they got broke and why they have to live on rice and beans.
  6. Lack of transparency equals harsher punishments: Tribes are global movements that can take on powerful corporations like Boeing. When you fail, admit mistakes quicker and be transparent. The Boeing saga and the Iranian fiasco show why it’s difficult to build tribes that will stand by you during a crisis.
  7. Idea sharing is the norm: Tribes are sharing ideas of resistance across a dozen capitals from New Delhi to Hong Kong every day. This is creating headaches for governments trying to find solutions.
  8. The death of monarchies and huge corporations: Marketing will help the growth of internal tribes that will bring the downfall of monarchies and huge corporations around the world. Tyrants and greedy corporate leaders will fall to tribes who want to create a better future for their people.

Take challenges headlong: 7 lucky tips to boost efficiency

Sarat PratapchandranLeave a comment

Kristin Romaine runs CO+FOUNDATION , the world’s first coworking space that provides resources for for-profit and nonprofits to work on a shared space. Located in downtown Phoenix, Romaine is charged with securing resources for this vibrant start-up and she practices “fanatic discipline” to take it to the next level. Romaine and her colleague, Kay Transtrum recently shared a few tips that can make us more efficient at work. I’ve used some of these and they will help you get things done and end your day well. They are all free tools for collaboration that we can easily use and I’ve mixed some of my ideas and Romaine’s to offer a few tips for the work week.

  1. Plan your day the night before. Choose 3 major things that you can do well. If you have others, do it after the first three major ones are tackled. Try to do work in increments of 30 minutes.
  2. Follow success guru, Brian Tracy’s “Eat that frog,” concept that will help you prioritize. I’ve tried it and it really works. Here is a video to get you started.
  3. Invest a couple of minutes between major tasks to play some Web games. Play small games for a couple of minutes and this will interrupt patterns in your brain and help you work efficiently. A friend’s company encourages employees to play ping pong inside the office to get them distracted amid tough projects and tight deadlines. Find something that will work within your space and it does not need to be fancy.
  4. Use Boomerang from GMail to schedule your emails. According to Romaine, the basic service from Boomerang will help you schedule a sizeable number of emails at different times of the day. This will help you work on them at your leisure and have them go to different constituents at different times. The tip here is to use your downtime to take care of emails that you can easily schedule.
  5. Use Google Keep to calendar your tasks and priorities. It is easy to use, free and very intuitive.
  6. Meditate for ten minutes, twice daily. This will help you get refocused and take on challenging tasks with ease. This will also offer you good ideas to deal with conflict and manage people better.
  7. End your day thinking about impact and on a positive note. Romaine and her colleagues follow their own rule: #LDTNMW (Let’s Do It No Matter What).Think of how much your work has moved your organization forward and let’s do it no matter what!