A Different Kind of Evangelism from Guy Kawasaki

Call me ignorant ("Ignorant!" yelled Jeff from a few feet away), but up until yeseterday I hadn't heard of Guy Kawasaki. His seminar at eBay Live! was billed as "The Art of Evangelism," so I went with some trepidation, half-expecting a bearded prophet calling down fire and brimstone on the masses. Instead, what I found was some very pragmatic and practical insights into the world of business and marketing, coupled with Kawasaki's deliciously subversive wit.

Guy Kawasaki defines evangelism as "the process of convincing people to believe in your product or idea as much as you do." At this session, he talked about how to use secular evangelism to get customers, employees, and partners to believe in your cause.

I still hadn't got my bearings around the vast Mandalay Bay Convention Center, so I was a few minutes late reaching the seminar room. Outside, a solemn-looking woman intoned, "Standing room only." I found the room packed - there must have been at least 300 people, many filling the aisles and sitting on the floor. Most were furiously taking notes as Kawasaki went through his presentation on stage. I managed to squeeze in at the very back of the room, right next to Kawasaki's AV guy, who was recording the event.

Kawasaki was going through a series of principles (I guess you could call them "commandments" to go with the evangelism metaphor). When I got in, he was explaining how eBay was "democratizing commerce." He looked an unlikely prophet in his aloha shirt and breezy manner, but he had a rapt audience. "Commerce is no longer the sole territory of huge corporations like Wal-Mart, or even Amazon," he explained, adding that thanks to eBay, one person making dolls had the power to change the world.

Kawasaki kept his audience engaged for more than an hour, often digressing into entertaining yet insightful stories from his years of experience in business and technology. Among his "commandments" was one he called "Niche Thyself," where he urged people to identify an area of business where they could offer a unique product or service that a lot of customers would find valuable.

As his last piece of advice, Kawasaki urged eBay entrepreneurs not to let their great ideas be shot down by skeptical experts or so-called successful people who had lost the art of exploring the unknown. His mantra was "Don't let the bozos grind you down." Among the examples he gave was a quote attributed to Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of IBM - "I think there is a world market for about five computers."

I flagged down one of the attendees as she exited the seminar. sojo2004 (pictured on the right), an eBay Trading Assistant, and a seller of educational toys and vintage postcards, had clearly been entertained by Kawasaki's quirky presentation, but said she had also picked up many useful insights. "His 11 ways to evangelize your business were very practical," she said. "I have 25 years of marketing experience, but after this I'm going to go back and rethink my strategic plan. You know, you get lazy with eBay listings -- you pour your heart and soul into the first few listings, but after a while you tend to coast along. But now I'm going to go back and start all over again."

The seminar ended with a demo of My Collectibles, a new eBay destination that lets you display your favorite collection with others, provided by Kaboodle, a member of eBay's Developers Program.