A Review of Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions


Guy Kawasaki Practices What He Preaches

I received a review copy of Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions and an email that said Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki) would be open to an interview.  I immediately responded with some date and time options.  At first, I wasn’t sure who sent the email.  I had assumed it was a publicist or an assistant, even though it came from Guy’s email address.  But when I responded with an interview request – it was Guy and I who had the email exchange.

You might be thinking, “So what?” But I didn’t expect a personal exchange with Guy Kawasaki.  After all, he’s a well-known author and businessman who has more important things to do than play secretary and schedule interviews.  In fact, lesser-known authors have assistants and publicists for that.  But not Guy.  He’s got assistants and publicists, but there are some things he chooses to do himself.  I suppose you can say that Guy was already giving me a preview of what practicing enchantment in your business and marketing looks like.

Enchantment will teach you how you can turn your best self into a customer-enchanting machine. I’m going to review this book inside a phone conversation that I had with Guy.

Enchantment Isn’t About Rainbows and Unicorns – It’s About Good Business

The theme of Enchantment reminded me of Jeanne Bliss’ book I Love You More Than My Dog and Tony Hsei’s book about Zappos, Delivering Happiness. I was curious to know if these books are hinting at a trend extolling a way of being that businesses can practice which will enthrall customers, make them fall in love with you and be yours forever.  Here’s an excerpt from my chat with Guy about this observation.

Ivana: Is there a trend toward people being drawn to companies that enchant them?

Guy Kawasaki: I don’t know if it is a trend. I’d be happy if it were.  Social media has a lot to do with this.  Twitter and Facebook are so inexpensive and so fast that you can create relationships with thousands, if not millions, of people.  Twitter and Facebook have allowed me to reach an audience I would never have reached [without them].

Maybe people are tired from being in a funk.  Maybe they want to go to a higher calling than just surviving.  To declare “enchantment” as a new way of being might be taking myself too seriously.  I do think it’s time to get out of this funk and use the technology that is available.

Ivana: Why should the traditional business owners open up to being themselves?

Guy Kawasaki: It’s good business.  An enchanted customer is a much better customer base than a dissatisfied or neutral customer base.  You get to sell them more stuff and they go out and tell more people to buy your stuff.  It’s also good from the perspective of energy level.  They are more understanding when you make a mistake and your employees aren’t fighting this aggravating battle.

Enchantment Packs Thousands of Ideas and Actions in a Few Hundred Pages

In true Guy Kawasaki style, this book is written for the busy, but engaged business owner.  In fact, you can literally get the core messages from the book from reading the six-page table of contents!  Pick your chapter, turn to that section and get an idea, inspiration or strategy in under 10 minutes.

Rather than tell you what I think the best chapters are, I asked Guy for his recommendation to readers who might be cynical about enchantment as a strategy.

Ivana: What are the best chapters to read if you’re cynical about Enchantment?

Guy: “How to overcome resistance to your enchantment.”  You can have this great product and be trustworthy and reliable – but where you really test a person and a concept and a book is when you encounter resistance, not when people fall all over you.  I think that’s the real test: How can you overcome resistance to your company, product or service?

To answer that question, here are just a few ideas from the “How to Overcome Resistance” chapter.  I don’t have space to go into the details here, but you will get the idea.

  • Provide social proof. The idea here is that if other people are doing it, liking it, buying it – so should you.
  • Create the perception of scarcity. This isn’t a new strategy.  People assign more value to something they think is rare or in short supply.
  • Show people your magic. When people see how your magic works, they develop an interest in what you do.
  • Find one example. In other words, personalize what you do.  People don’t react to news or stories about vast numbers of people dying or children starving.  But tell the story of a bird shot down because it toppled a couple of domino exhibits in the Netherlands and you’ve got an audience.

There are many, many more examples and ideas in Enchantment that you can use to make your business a more powerful representation of yourself or the purpose of your company. But you’ll have to read those for yourself.

Enchantment Online

Many books have an expensive, custom Web site that you can visit.  But Guy Kawasaki did something a little different with Enchantment.  He decided to use a Facebook Fan Page as the Enchantment website.  When you visit, you’ll see an entire interactive community posting enchanting pictures, making comments and sharing examples of enchanting experiences.  It’s everything Guy Kawasaki preaches all on one page.  I have to say it’s one of the only fan pages that I visit regularly to see the pictures and comments.

Can YOU Do Enchantment?

If you’re wondering how you could ever find the time to personally manage your social media marketing enough to be “enchanting” to your customers, remember that Guy Kawasaki writes, speaks, travels, sits in meetings, takes his kids to movies and plays hockey every day.  And he still makes the time to create an enchanting experience where it counts.  So if he can do it, you can do it.

Pick up a copy of Enchantment if you’re looking for more effective ways to get and keep customers. Along the way, you’ll find that reading Enchantment might give you insights into being a happier person as well.


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Ivana Taylor Ivana Taylor is the Book Editor for Small Business Trends. She is responsible for directing the site’s book review program and manages the team of professional book reviewers. She also spearheads the annual Small Business Book Awards. Ivana publishes DIYMarketers, where she shares daily do-it-yourself marketing tips, and is co-author of "Excel for Marketing Managers."

4 Reactions
  1. Martin Lindeskog

    Ivana,

    Thanks for an inspiring interview and blog post! I have to add Enchantment to my buying and reading list in the near future. Have you listened to Amber Mac’s & Leo Laporte’s interview with Guy Kawasaki?

  2. Nothing more than following few steps and out of the blue you turn into a customer-enchanting machine. I have to admit that I have never been much into books that provide you with a crash course and remodel your personality in a split of second. On the other hand it can come in handy to busy people who don´t have time for long reading thanks to its briefness and thought through structure.

  3. Hi Eli –

    I wouldn’t go so far as saying that reading a book will turn you into a customer enchanting machine. In fact — far from it. And I think you’ve hit on my one reservation about this book. And I had asked Guy Kawasaki that. His response was that this is nothing more than following Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. I think it’s also a little more basic than that – like “What I learned in Kindergarten” –

    Maybe our business-y (not sure that’s a word) culture has somehow made being human or who we are – something to be avoided. And the tide appears to be moving towards more of that now.

    So the idea is to be who you are naturally – which I assume is enchanting 🙂

  4. At the end of the day perhaps more about trust than enchantment. Guy discusses many things on his blog that all come down to being social with people and treating them right.