A couple of weeks ago I finished Seth Godin’s altMBA. I’m not sure if you know who he is? He’s the bald guy who always wears a business shirt, colourful glasses with a tie to match. He’s articulate, knows his stuff and happens to be one of the best marketers and strategists currently roaming the planet. His course is only five-weeks long, though while it’s short, it picks the practical jewels out of an extended and much more expensive MBA.
While it’s housed online like so many other workshops that seem to be filling our inboxes, this one is very much live and collaborative. It brings different members from all walks of life together. We’re divided into time-friendly regional cohorts, mine being Asia / Pacific, the US / Canada / UK & Europe being another.
You get 13 prompts which need to be shipped / shared over the course of 30 days. You meet members from all over the world on a Zoom call then get paired off into groups. You work collectively through the prompts on Slack, on Google Docs and a host of other apps you’ll uncover, the majority of which are introspective. Everyone is there to make a change or some kind of decision. They’re given the space and the tools – the time is always a pressure, to make that call.
I’ve always been sceptical about what I deem to be -˜Self-Help’ books or programmes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for bettering myself, improving where I’m at and adapting to change. Given the state of flux the world seems to find itself in with massive digital transition for so many industries, we need to be outward-looking. Actually, maybe a bit of both. Outward looking in terms of where the change is occurring, and inward-looking in terms of what we need to do to change with it.
This isn’t a hard sell for the course. Though it’s fair to say I enjoyed it. It was expensive, though if you’re anything like me, once you’ve got skin in the game you’ll work harder at it. I made some good friends, heard some killer ideas and I’m now part of a global network that I’ll work hard to maintain. I’ve included images for a few books this self-help avoider actually found quite useful.
I’ve also dropped in a video I had to put together as one of my prompts for change. I got creative with it and opted to sell my ability to write by talking about a book I’d written, without actually talking about the book itself. Think I nailed it. It just took me a couple of hundred takes and some whiskey to finish it. Enjoy.Â