So not like this is a secret or anything, but I probably mention Seth Godin or some Seth-related-concept a dozen times a day.
At least.
His ideas and his vocabulary have changed the way I think about (and talk about) just about everything in my life.
They also explain things. Those guys on the corner with the Greenpeace stickers and clipboards? The ones everyone is ignoring? It’s not that we don’t care about saving the world. It’s that interruption marketing is over, guys.
Why did my business take off like crazy when I stopped hiding the fact that my business partner is a duck? Because it was remarkable in the sense that it made people remark on it.
And so on. And now he’s come up with the Baxter.
“But often, if you’ve created something worth talking about, it’s something that hasn’t been done before. Which means it needs a name.
So name it.”
Now I just happen to know (but only because of a bizarre late night game of Balderdash with my wonderful uncle) that baxter is the name for a female baker. Insane, I know.
But not anymore. I guess the Union of Female Bakers will have to come up with something else …
Because Seth Godin owns the concept now. Because he knows about doing magic with words — and teaches the rest of us how to do it too. Not just by example but by explaining what’s going on behind the scenes.
And since I am a huge fan of being a maker-upper of words (destuckification, biggification) and concepts (At the Kitchen Table, the life of the Pirate Queen) …
Well, let’s just say I’m looking forward to cooking up some Baxters of my own. No, not that kind.
p.s. I think adding to the collective vocabulary is one of the most powerful things you can do in your work and in your life.
p.p.s. Three more terrific thinkers I look to as great transformers-of-the-collective-conversation.
Malcolm Gladwell. Stephen Jay Gould. Dan Ariely.
For having given me new and wonderful words for important concepts that I didn’t realize were important concepts: LOVE.
p.p.p.s. Sometimes just playing around with unpacking a word (like we’ve done here on the blog with especially icky or potentially-icky concepts like “marketing” and “networking” and “thinking big“) can be a very useful practice.
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Havi, I think you’re up there with Seth in the adding-to-the-collective-vocabulary category. I’m all about semantics, so I loved this post. You took a concept that we’re all exposed to all the time, and you broke it down into a literal, simple explanation.
How could we not love someone who nails the word for destuckification?
Zoes last blog post..How to Make Your Own Creative Mini-Retreat: Creating Tangible Inspiration
Hmmm…come up with the Baxter, eh?
I did that. About 7 years ago.
When we named our cat Baxter.
Think I can convince Seth that Baxter is already taken and *he* needs to find a new word?
Actually, I should probably just tell my kitty to enjoy his 15 minutes. 🙂
Victoria Brouhards last blog post..Being Me, Not a Metaphor
Have you seen the movie The Baxter? It’s super funny, especially the (all-too-brief) scenes with Peter Dinklage. Anyhoo, I thought of it when I read that post by Seth:
“A Baxter, as defined by the film, is the nice, dull guy in a romantic comedy who is dumped at the end of the story for the protagonist. Much light humor is made of showing Showalter as a Baxter in several typical romantic comedy clichés; for instance, he is shown being left at the altar as a former love is claimed by her High School sweetheart, and being left in college at a pep rally for an underdog sports hero.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baxter
You has inspired me now. 🙂
The Meditationap:
Meditating & napping all at once. It’s holy revolutionary. hee hee hee 🙂
Goddess Leonie | GoddessGuidebook.coms last blog post..Website Goddess: Woo! Course to get your website groove on!
Can I just (re)add “frabjous” to the collective vocabulary. The Very Reverend Dodson (aka Lewis Caroll) is one of my heroes, not in the least because he coined so many words, including “portmanteau” for words like “slithy”. One pill makes you smaller, one pill makes you small… 🙂
Oh my goodness, sweetie!
I think this is the SHORTEST POST you have ever written!
I don’t know what else to say about that. Just noticed and it was REMARKABLE ( in the sense of being something to remark on. I am actually a HUGE, RAVING FAN of your abundantly worded posts.)
I’m also a huge fan of language and playing with words so this has given me some interesting thoughts to munch on.
chris zydels last blog post..Creative Miracle Grow: The Crazy Wonderfulness That Can Happen When Someone Believes In YOU!
Since my opinion means absolutely nothing, I can give it. 🙂 I find the “Baxter” thing very irritating. It’s too obvious. And, I must have a totally non-web/marketing/un-marketing brain because I can’t make sense of the first sentence of his post: “If you make something remarkable, that’s because there’s something to talk about.” I do love words and I have trouble with those.
So this post (and Karen) reminded me of something I heard or read somewhere that I kind of like, and if someone can tell me the origin I’d be thankful: “Marketing is the price you pay for being unremarkable”. (I take this in a corporate sense since I work for a gigantic corporation) Please discuss.
Thorin Messers last blog post..Mindfucking
Now on top of building a site, writing, speaking, and working, I need to come up with words and phrases. Sounds more exciting than the alternative, if you ask me!
You post and thread above have reminded me why I sometimes think marketing departments are no longer doing great marketing (and I work directly with them).
Jonathan Vaudreuils last blog post..More than a post a day
@Thorin – I *would* discuss but I got way too distracted by the title of your last post. Actually, I think that this whole concept (and how any one of us will interact with it) is going to depend a lot on our personal associations and experiences with the dreaded M-word. Will be interesting to see what comes up. 🙂
@Chris – no worries, my sweet. I have no plans to start doing shockingly pithy posts. For one thing, it takes me way longer to write short than it does to write long.
Just wanted to see if I could do it (took over three weeks of trying every single morning before it actually happened, which has to be some kind of embarrassing record).
@Gilbert & Goddess Leonie – Slithy! (One of my all-time favorites) Meditationap! (Something I’ll need to work into my vocabulary) Yay.
@Karen – I’m not sure why you’d be any less entitled to an opinion on this than any of the rest of us. You’re more than welcome to chime in on this …
It sounds like you’re feeling uncomfortable because this concept could be used for manipulation and horribleness. And — if you’re thinking about the creepy M-word as a way to manipulate people, than yeah, this concept from Seth might seem really gross.
On the other hand, if you’re thinking about the M-word more in terms of “how do I make it easier for the people I really, truly want to help say yes to the thing that will help them get what they want and need?” …
Well, in that case, it would be a useful exercise to come up with the kinds of words that would help your Right People make the changes they want to make.
My sense is that, like a lot of things, this concept could be used for good or for evil. I tend to kind of assume that the people who read this have already made the decision to use their powers for good, so your point was a useful reminder to me that I need to be more clear about that.
@Sally – I *must* see that movie! Will report back. Yay!