What We Learned From a Morning With Guy Kawasaki

Yesterday we had the honor of hearing Guy Kawasaki speak at Belmont University here in Nashville, TN and took away a bunch great insights. We couldn’t keep them to ourselves so we thought we’d share a few of the best nuggets!

**Bonus Tip – Don’t let the Bozos grind you down. Guy used the example of being offered the CEO position at Yahoo and saying no because it was a long drive to work. Estimated 2 billion dollar error that he jokes seriously about.

What we got out of the talk: Guy talks in his point about “Get Going”, that you need to get your product out in the social wave. Use Facebook, Twitter, Google + and any other network that allows you to spread your brand. Something we always like to hear from leaders is using social to increase your brand awareness through various social channels.

Kawasaki mentions that brands need to Polarize People, even it it makes them upset. He uses the example of the Scion xB and how Toyota can create a car that is perfect for the 26 year old, with a golden retriever and a set of skis but at the same time gets the 57 year old with kids say, “How impractical is that!?”.

Lastly, Guy talked about how to hire within your organization. Typically a company will hire someone who is less educated then themselves so that they hold power of knowledge over that employee. For example; “A+” People  hire  ”A” people. “B” people hire “C’ people and “C” people hire “D” people until you get all the way down to Z and suddenly you wonder why your business is failing. The right way to do this is for Type A people to hire Type A+ people. This will be the first step a business takes in creating a brand of influence and leadership.

I’d definitely recommend hearing him speak if you have the chance!