A few weeks ago, I read a post by Stowe. He mentions Andy Sernovitz is doing a one day crash course on word of mouth marketing. Never heard of Andy before, but I trust Stowe.
Andy’s area of expertise is on point. Cool. It’s in Chicago. Score. It’s a thousand bucks. Crestfallen. We can afford to send half our team (one of us, but not both).
After a bit of clicking around their site, I find: the Gaspedal crew reserves a few seats for “scholarship” attendees. We apply and get one, and that helps us cover the other’s way. Awesome, as my father would say.
The course was amazing, interactive and mind-bending. We left with ideas that altered our road map - some of them could be implemented the next day.
Would I recommend this course? Yes, yes and yes.
Is the course right for you? Honestly, I truly believe that every employee of a small business or a large company should be an evangelist for that entity, and I certainly plan to send anyone who works for us to Andy. If you’re some dude working for the man, the man, marketer or C level, you need to go. Our course included bloggers, trim/ molding sales and marketing peeps, a Yahoo! community manager and a lasik doc.
If you can’t make it, or it’s too expensive, then I suggest getting Andy’s book.
A final thought regarding the cost… If you have a marketing budget, seriously consider redirecting some of the spend on yourself and go to the course. You won’t be sorry. If you are, call me - my number is in the footer - I’ll buy you a drink.