The How. What Motivates You?

I don’t know how to classify this post. It’s half about motivation, and half about big ideas, branding, and marketing.

I’ve had this thought in my head for a while. It sort of derived from reading an article by Derek Sivers, which you can read here.

What marketer doesn’t know Seth Godin? As much as I respect his big ideas, there is not a lot substance in a lot of them in my opinion. Now that’s just a matter of what influences and motivates me.

I feel anyone can throw out big, somewhat obvious ideas. Few can execute those ideas effectively.

This weekend, while doing some blog reading, I came across a guy named Gary Vaynerchuk. He’s been the keynote speaker at conferences, and has been in the media quite a bit. I’ve never heard of him before this weekend. On the surface, when watching some of his keynote speeches, he seemed to me to be full of ideas like Godin. He talked about the need to love what you do and to be genuine. That way, the story you tell is rock solid, and your audience will be engaged. Plus work won’t seem like work since you’ll be loving what you’re doing. So I thought; great Gary, but how?

I was intrigued enough to check out some of his Wine Library TV videos. And there it was. Gary practicing what he preaches. To me, that smacked me in the face with motivation–to see him execute his big ideas in a big way. To see first hand his genuine love of wine and how he describes flavors when tasting, even someone like me with a small interest in wine can’t help but suddenly get the urge to indulge in some.

Maybe it’s the way I’m wired. I relate to execution (the how) rather than lofty ideas.