“The lessons we remember are the lessons we learn the hard way.” – Seth Godin
Seth Godin (@thisissethsblog) is the author of 17 bestselling books that have been translated into more than 35 languages. He writes about the way ideas spread, marketing, strategic quitting, leadership, and — most of all — challenging the status quo in all areas. His books include Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip, Purple Cow, and What to Do When it’s Your Turn (and it’s Always Your Turn).
Seth has founded several companies, including Yoyodyne and Squidoo. His blog (which you can find by typing “Seth” into Google) is one of the most popular in the world. In 2013, Godin was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame. Recently, Godin turned the book publishing world on its ear by launching a series of four books via Kickstarter. The campaign reached its goal in just three hours and became the most successful book project in Kickstarter history.
His last episode was quite a bit longer and dug deep into his bio, routines, philosophies, and suggestions.
This one is much shorter — think of it as philosophical steroids. It may take a few minutes to get into, so be patient. Here, you’ll find pithy, actionable things that you can implement, such has how to keep track of the right things and how to create a narrative that serves you best. It’s very simple, but it’s a foundational skill and mindset that I try to practice myself. This was a fantastic reminder.
If you only have 5 minutes, you won’t want to miss Seth’s thoughts on the one thing that most marketers do wrong.
Please enjoy round two with Seth Godin!
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- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
Want to hear another podcast related to leadership and marketing? — Listen to my conversation with Derek Sivers. In my first conversation with Seth Godin, he mentioned that this is his favorite episode. “I love Derek,” were his exact words. In this podcast, Derek discusses developing confidence, finding happiness, and saying “no” to millions (stream below or right-click here to download):
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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- Connect with Seth Godin:
- Seth Godin’s TED Talk about tribes
- Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
- American Motorcycle Culture: The One Percenters by Tim King, Salem-News.com
- Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas by Seth Godin
- The Beatles in Hamburg
- Bob Marley and the Wailers
- The altMBA
- Pieper’s Full Bar Review Course
- Seth Godin: How to Overcome the Fear of Failure at CreativeLive
- Seth Godin: Keep Making a Ruckus
- Nike Decides Not to Do Business with Sears by Nat Ives, The New York Times
- Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
- Almost 90% of Americans don’t know what ‘gig economy’ is by Heesun Wee, CNBC.com
- Hamilton: An American Musical
Show Notes
- In an economy based on connection, real connection comes from people who seek to contribute to the community first. [05:20]
- What’s the one thing most marketers do wrong? [06:26]
- How do you build a tribe from scratch? [07:26]
- What limiting self-beliefs did Seth change in order to become successful — and how did he change them? [08:57]
- Seth’s opinion about quality versus quantity in the age of the constant hustle mindset in online marketing. Can you win without being everywhere? [11:11]
- We already know about shortcuts. Seth explains the longcut. [13:10]
- Seth talks about mastermind groups, why our industrialist education models are failing, and what his altMBA workshop might look like for grades K-12. [14:39]
- How does Seth deal with fear — and does it ever stop? [20:48]
- If Seth didn’t have his blog, email list, books, and network, how would he go about building a tribe and making a ruckus today? [22:25]
- Seth defines “brand” as the story of you — and explains why you need to tell it in your words instead of letting it be told by someone else. [27:27]
- How do we decide what’s essential, indispensable, and useless? [32:19]
- What Seth has against online comments. [35:37]
- How will marketing change as more people leave full-time and get into the gig economy? How are we supposed to remain remarkable? [36:06]
- How does Seth recommend we choose projects? [38:17]