The earliest references to "T-Shaped" skills come from the 1980's in describing how recruiters were looking for job applicants with both breadth of skills and depth of strength within those skills. Though the concept is easy to grasp, it's difficult to fully understand, and appreciate.
Branding the Existing
I have been an active fitness buff for decades. I had to be. After three surgeries during my early years in college for a serious elbow injury my doctor essentially told me to use it or literally lose my ability to straighten my arm. I quickly became a student of health and fitness.
As I gained muscle and strength, and straightened my elbow, I learned about Joe Weider, the man who had discovered and trained Arnold Schwarzenegger to be a body-builder. Weider also created a billion dollar industry.
Weider did not invent weight lifting. He branded it then monetized it through creative verticals. He promoted it everywhere - in magazines he established, books he wrote, competitions he sponsored, gyms he invested in - he took a holistic approach to building this brand and changed the world of fitness in the process. The brand ultimately became the "Weider" brand. Ever heard of Muscle and Fitness Magazine? Shape Magazine? Mr. Olympia? that was Joe Weider.
This Goliath emerged from branding concepts that already existed. The "Weider Principles", for instance, were basic weight lifting concepts he co-opted by putting his name on them. He then provided a comprehensive explanation of how to perform them in books and magazine articles. It was marketing genius. He took concepts that already existed, practices everyone in the fitness industry already understood, and laid claim to them. For instance, the "Weider Principle of Forced Reps" is essentially having a friend help you lift that weight for one more repetition. Hardly and innovation. But he claimed ownership of it - and it became his "creation."
What is it
T-Shaped Marketing" is the same thing. The concept has existed for years, it's just that no one had applied a name to it. Naming it = monetizing it. Very smart. Especially since the efforts to monetize the concept require the components that actually describe the concept. Huh?You may have heard of holistic learning or being a generalist? This is the stuff of T-Shaped marketing - (the newest buzzword in marketing), where, in today's dying "attention economy", the ability to muster multiple skill set modalities to forward a brand is the new baseline requirement for a marketer. The ironic twist in this story is that the person who coined the phrase didn't really understand how to be a T-Shaped marketer and thus, lost out on the monetization of the concept. I won't name him. Everyone has epic fails in their lives.
Holistic teaching means utilizing core subjects as a combined discipline (math science, history, English) to teach concepts in a comprehensive manner. That's essentially what T-Shaped Marketing is - Marketing by way of multiple skill sets.
For instance, when I was a history teacher, I teamed up with the other core subject teachers to teach a unit on research skills. Using the premise of developing a Family Tree Portfolio, our students had to use history research techniques to discover ancestral roots, science to learn about how physical traits are passed down, math to generate population projections and work through demographic statistics, and writing to express these findings. It was a great project that culminated in "Family Tree Night" where the kids presented their findings to their families.
Oh, one pitfall here... one kid told the science teacher that the whole dominant/recessive trait thing didn't seem to work all the time. After all, both his parents had brown eyes and his were blue.... yeah, he was adopted and didn't know it.
T-Shaped Marketing explains the importance of a holistic approach to marketing in utilizing cross-discipline competencies. Typically, this refers to driving website traffic and increasing conversion rates, but it applies to all aspects of sales and marketing. Those disciplines are numerous:
Yeah. I've been doing all of those things for years in marketing and building my publishing company - actually, I did a lot of those things as a teacher too - but never realized I was engaged in "T-Shaped marketing". I'm not bragging here because I am certain there are a multitude of people who are T-Shaped Marketers and just don't know it.
Does it matter though? Do we need to be aware of it? Well, yes. Why? (That's for my next article to explain)
Honestly, I've only recently been tasked via a few short run contracts with actually bringing these skills together to rebuild and promote an existing domain. I rebuilt one site entirely in html/CSS/Java, utilizing all of my marketing skills (including many of the above listed), while learning along the way about current SEO trends. And to my great surprise, within 30 days, this work boosted the site's Google ranking from virtually zero to second page rankings - 30 days. And that was just the test site I'd put on a backdoor page on my own server to share with my client. (sorry, can't legally share that info - NDA applies.)
I didn't reinvent the wheel. I'm not claiming to be SEO royalty. I'm simply saying, I combined the totality of my skills into one effort, and it worked - tremendously. Sadly, the site launch was put on hold by the client (hence the NDA thing). Another story altogether.
I'd Guess you are T-Shaped
I've brought this concept of holistic approaches to a lot of work I've done throughout my life. I didn't invent it. Many people utilize several skills to achieve a goal in their work lives. I'd bet if you are reading this, you are a T-Shaped person too. Constantly seeking new information is a trait of the T-Shapers.
However, effectively combining and applying them is essentially a new skill entirely. How do you do that? I think I've got a lock on it. And I just branded it! :) (No, I have no intention of trying to make it the next big thing, or to monetize it)
But before the big reveal: (article to come) Any suggestions as to what I should call it?
Branding the Existing
I have been an active fitness buff for decades. I had to be. After three surgeries during my early years in college for a serious elbow injury my doctor essentially told me to use it or literally lose my ability to straighten my arm. I quickly became a student of health and fitness.
As I gained muscle and strength, and straightened my elbow, I learned about Joe Weider, the man who had discovered and trained Arnold Schwarzenegger to be a body-builder. Weider also created a billion dollar industry.
Weider did not invent weight lifting. He branded it then monetized it through creative verticals. He promoted it everywhere - in magazines he established, books he wrote, competitions he sponsored, gyms he invested in - he took a holistic approach to building this brand and changed the world of fitness in the process. The brand ultimately became the "Weider" brand. Ever heard of Muscle and Fitness Magazine? Shape Magazine? Mr. Olympia? that was Joe Weider.
This Goliath emerged from branding concepts that already existed. The "Weider Principles", for instance, were basic weight lifting concepts he co-opted by putting his name on them. He then provided a comprehensive explanation of how to perform them in books and magazine articles. It was marketing genius. He took concepts that already existed, practices everyone in the fitness industry already understood, and laid claim to them. For instance, the "Weider Principle of Forced Reps" is essentially having a friend help you lift that weight for one more repetition. Hardly and innovation. But he claimed ownership of it - and it became his "creation."
What is it
T-Shaped Marketing" is the same thing. The concept has existed for years, it's just that no one had applied a name to it. Naming it = monetizing it. Very smart. Especially since the efforts to monetize the concept require the components that actually describe the concept. Huh?You may have heard of holistic learning or being a generalist? This is the stuff of T-Shaped marketing - (the newest buzzword in marketing), where, in today's dying "attention economy", the ability to muster multiple skill set modalities to forward a brand is the new baseline requirement for a marketer. The ironic twist in this story is that the person who coined the phrase didn't really understand how to be a T-Shaped marketer and thus, lost out on the monetization of the concept. I won't name him. Everyone has epic fails in their lives.
Holistic teaching means utilizing core subjects as a combined discipline (math science, history, English) to teach concepts in a comprehensive manner. That's essentially what T-Shaped Marketing is - Marketing by way of multiple skill sets.
For instance, when I was a history teacher, I teamed up with the other core subject teachers to teach a unit on research skills. Using the premise of developing a Family Tree Portfolio, our students had to use history research techniques to discover ancestral roots, science to learn about how physical traits are passed down, math to generate population projections and work through demographic statistics, and writing to express these findings. It was a great project that culminated in "Family Tree Night" where the kids presented their findings to their families.
Oh, one pitfall here... one kid told the science teacher that the whole dominant/recessive trait thing didn't seem to work all the time. After all, both his parents had brown eyes and his were blue.... yeah, he was adopted and didn't know it.
T-Shaped Marketing explains the importance of a holistic approach to marketing in utilizing cross-discipline competencies. Typically, this refers to driving website traffic and increasing conversion rates, but it applies to all aspects of sales and marketing. Those disciplines are numerous:
- Deep Dive Analytics (including the competitors)
- Market Analysis
- Branding and Sub-Branding
- Graphic Design Skills
- Omni-channel Approaches
- Behavioral Psychology (yep - this is a great component)
- UI/UX Development (user interface/experience)
- Speed Optimization (bounce rates boom if it takes more than 5 seconds for a page to load)
- Accessibility/Responsive Design
- Content Strategy
- "Classic SEO" (keywords, links, URLs, etc)
- Gray Hat SEO
- Basic html
- and quite literally, dozens of other skills...
Yeah. I've been doing all of those things for years in marketing and building my publishing company - actually, I did a lot of those things as a teacher too - but never realized I was engaged in "T-Shaped marketing". I'm not bragging here because I am certain there are a multitude of people who are T-Shaped Marketers and just don't know it.
Does it matter though? Do we need to be aware of it? Well, yes. Why? (That's for my next article to explain)
Honestly, I've only recently been tasked via a few short run contracts with actually bringing these skills together to rebuild and promote an existing domain. I rebuilt one site entirely in html/CSS/Java, utilizing all of my marketing skills (including many of the above listed), while learning along the way about current SEO trends. And to my great surprise, within 30 days, this work boosted the site's Google ranking from virtually zero to second page rankings - 30 days. And that was just the test site I'd put on a backdoor page on my own server to share with my client. (sorry, can't legally share that info - NDA applies.)
I didn't reinvent the wheel. I'm not claiming to be SEO royalty. I'm simply saying, I combined the totality of my skills into one effort, and it worked - tremendously. Sadly, the site launch was put on hold by the client (hence the NDA thing). Another story altogether.
I'd Guess you are T-Shaped
I've brought this concept of holistic approaches to a lot of work I've done throughout my life. I didn't invent it. Many people utilize several skills to achieve a goal in their work lives. I'd bet if you are reading this, you are a T-Shaped person too. Constantly seeking new information is a trait of the T-Shapers.
However, effectively combining and applying them is essentially a new skill entirely. How do you do that? I think I've got a lock on it. And I just branded it! :) (No, I have no intention of trying to make it the next big thing, or to monetize it)
But before the big reveal: (article to come) Any suggestions as to what I should call it?