Sean Johnson - Intentionally - The Education of Sean Johnson

Getting Acclimated (0)

The transition to my new role has been fairly smooth so far. Our list of projects looks as daunting as ever, but I’ve got a good team of guys working on them with me. They’re hard working, talented and eager to learn.
In the next month or so, I think we’re going to get this process […]

Barcamp (0)

Barcamp is coming to New York in about a month, and it should be a lot of fun. Amit Gupta is putting it together, and if his track record is any indication (I first heard of the guy when he was working on the phenomenal ChangeThis with Seth Godin,) I’m sure it will be fantastic.
Everyone […]

Promotion (0)

Got promoted last week - I’m no longer the ambiguous ‘Director of User Experience’ but a full-fledged Creative Director. It’s a pretty cool feeling - since college, I knew that if I were going to bite the bullet and work for someone else, this would be the kind of position I’d want.
Whatever creative faculties I […]

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Google just keeps it coming. In the coming weeks you might start seeing little telephones next to sponsored ads on Google pages. It’s called ‘click-to’call’ and it allows you to call the company directly from your computer - likely leveraging the technology they’ve implemented in Google Talk. Google apparently pays for the telephone charges, and […]

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The extremely talented Andy Rutledge weighed in on the home page design for auction mega-giant eBay earlier today. His analysis was pretty thorough, and he managed to take a page that was extremely cluttered and hone in on what he felt were the most important pieces.
Andy does a great job of focusing on creating a […]

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I’m famous.
If you haven’t read this book yet, you should - it’s hard not to read the pieces without feeling compelled to do something immediately to change your organization and/or your life. Pick up a few copies for your friends as well - it’s a worthy cause. In fact, I know what a few people […]

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Love this email newsletter design - very well put together. Animated GIFs are making a comeback, mark my words….

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Good stuff. Back in my premarketing days this was the kind of stuff I’d stress contstantly - it really doesn’t take much to leave a strong positive impression on your customers. In fact, I would submit that the little touches like these are often the most important thing that should be on your company’s agenda […]

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One of the greatest business minds we’ve seen died today, leaving behind a legacy of thought work that could be unmatched. The Peter Blocks, Michael Hammers, Michael Porters and Tom Peters of the world were all heavily influenced by this man’s writing and thinking on all things management. The ideas he penned in the 60’s […]

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I have a few buddies in the world of programming who are getting pretty scared of Google. I’m starting to see why.
Google is now offering it’s analytics service for free, allowing you to track your web stats, keyword campaigns and the relationship between traffic and conversion. If tracking your website ROI wasn’t easy enough already, […]

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It looks like Sony has gotten caught with its hand in an enormous cookie jar. If you’re a nerd, you’ll find this stuff fascinating (how smart are these guys for figuring out what Sony’s up to! And how likely would I be to see them at a party?) If you’re not a nerd, you should […]

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How cool is this? I’ve never wanted to switch banks because of a promotion before, but this is pretty clever.

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I’ve casually read about microloans for some time now. The concept is fantastic - having individuals and businesses make minature loans to enterprising people in third-world countries. Often, contributions as little as $100 are enough to give a fledgling company the capital (and confidence) it needs to be successful.
Now it looks like we can all […]

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I’ve casually read about microloans for some time now. The concept is fantastic - having individuals and businesses make minature loans to enterprising people in third-world countries. Often, contributions as little as $100 are enough to give a fledgling company the capital (and confidence) it needs to be successful.
Now it looks like we can all […]

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The economic boom in China is astounding. According to an article in this morning’s NYT, Shanghai will construct more office and work space this year than can be found in all of New York City.
I’ve been interested in China for a while. The opportunities available seem limitless. But one has to wonder about the risks. […]

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Like many other people, I’ve been anxious to see what Seth Godin’s new company, Squidoo was going to be about. This morning, I learned the answer.
If Google and Wikipedia and the like provide you with the full, unabridged version of any topic, then Squidoo is the executive summary. It’s aim is to provide you with […]

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What in the world is this? My German is rusty, but the last frame says something like “The safest cars in the world come from France.”
I’m not a car person, but I’d be curious if this makes car people want a Renault…

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A brilliant woman brought this to my attention this morning…
The recent issue of Forbes had a feature on the richest men and women in the world. Not too many surprises, but get a load of this: the majority of individuals on the list didn’t have a college degree.
I don’t think this says that the education […]

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Finishing up reading Buzzmarketing by Mark Hughes. It’s a fantastic, quick read, full of examples from companies large and small who’ve successfully built word-of-mouth in a systematic way. The great thing about it is that it moves beyond theory (we all know that WOM is the perfect mechanism for growing a business,) and gets into […]

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Had a meeting at TCU yesterday. The school’s mission is to prepare students to be leaders in the global community, and they mean it. They encourage their students to experience anything and everything life has to offer, and as a result the vast majority of their students participate in fantastic internships, join numerous student groups, […]

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In business school, there’s a principle. A rule. An unarguable precept that serves as the background for just about every business that’s been started in the past 100 years.
That rule says that the purpose of the business is to provide as much value to shareholders as possible (i.e. it needs to make money, and lots […]

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I got in a small car accident tonight in Carrollton, GA.
The police officers gave me perhaps the best customer service I’ve ever experienced in my life. They were friendly, and seemed to be more concerned that everyone was okay than about the details of the accident (it was my fault, as usual.) They gave us […]

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Almost 18 months have passed since I finished A Bright Red Package. Before coming to NYC, I had found time to speak at a number of schools in Colorado and Washington. The entire time, I was consistently confronted with one glaring, apparent fact.
It seems as though students don’t care. Not enough.

They didn’t care enough to […]

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Seth Godin (quite possibly the most intelligent, forward-thinking person alive) has written a fantastic post on the importance of call centers.
Offshoring is a trend that probably won’t be reversed - there’s simply too much momentum, too much to gain and too little to lose. But there’s an all-to-common error that’s made when companies fail to […]

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I’ve been on this whole ‘globalization’ kick lately, and some of my friends find it amusing. And why shouldn’t they? Next week, something else will be dominating my thoughts…like the harsh conditions faced by the Alaskan dung beetle, or who will be quarterbacking the CU Buffaloes this fall.
All very important issues.

But this whole China/India/downfall of […]

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Do yourselves a favor.
Go to your bookstore and pick up Three Billion New Capitalists.
I’ll wait for you to come back…
Everyone claims they know all about China and India and their meteoric rise from relative poverty. But this book takes you into how they got there and where everything is headed, and does so in an […]

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“We’ve got to be the ninja: Accept death before going into battle,” Steinhour says. “You have to be like that if you’re going to give it everything you’ve got for a client.”
Crispin Porter + Bogusky are the brains behind the ‘Subservient Chicken’ campaign that generated over 385 million hits last year with absolutely no promotion. […]

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Listening to a pretty fascinating book right now. Freakonomics is written by two guys - a writer for the New York Times and a young economic whiz-kid. While they both sound like they have egos of monstrous proportions, they do run off a series of consistently thought-provoking findings. For example, money has almost no effect […]

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When you’re looking people to add to your team, pick the learners.
In my short time as a working professional, one thing has become very clear to me. There appear to be two types of professionals - those who have a passion for what they do, and those who don’t.
We’re beginning to dig our heels into […]

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I need one of these.
A 25 year-old MIT student has designed an alarm clock that rolls off the dresser and across the room once you’ve hit the snooze button. Balancing that all-too-blurry line between brilliant and ridiculous, it passes the only marketing test that matters - it makes me want to get one.
Does that make […]