Seth Godin has been challenging conventional business ideas for over a decade with influential books like Purple Cow, Tribes, and Linchpin. Here are some great videos of Seth Godin sharing his ideas about marketing, challenging the status quo, and being remarkable. I also included my notes of the top takeaways from each video.
How to get your ideas to spread TED
-The television industrial complex is not working like it used to.
-In a world where we have too many choices and too little time, the obvious thing to do is to just ignore stuff.
-No matter what we do for a living, we are in the fashion business.
Times Square with Seth Godin Delivering Happiness
-Books spread ideas with authority.
-Zappos is a service company that happens to sell shoes.
-Happiness’ best friend is kindness and passion’s best friend is generosity.
Seth Godin On Books, Business And Life Good Life Project
-A book is a souvenir of an idea.
-Seth got 900 rejection letters in a row.
-A hundred years ago no one went to a place to work where someone told you what to do.
-Every business plan is wrong.
Art and Science and Making Things World Maker Faire 2012
-Public school is an industrial system that was designed to prepare people to work in the factory.
-There is no data that shows that famous colleges perform important tasks better.
-The person who invented ships also invented shipwrecks.
-Almost every big innovation to come out of Silicon Valley was not liked by venture capitalists.
All Marketers are Liars Google
-Technology doesn’t win. Technology gives you a shot at marketing.
-Permission marketing is the privilege of marketing to people who want to be marketed to.
-When we are buying Chanel No. 5 or Fancy Feast cat food, we are buying the story.
Seth Godin Keynote IABtv
-Any job that can be written down precisely is replaceable at a cheaper price.
-It is far easier to find competent people than ever before.
-We are seeing a revolution from corporations to collections of individuals who run tribes.
Seth Godin: The tribes we lead TED
-Most leadership is about finding a group that is disconnected but already has a yearning.
-If you’re not upsetting anyone then you’re not changing the status quo.
-The thing people want more than anything is to be missed.
-Being a leader gives you charisma.
Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain 99U
-The rule at 37 Signals is that when you run out of time or money, you ship.
-What you do for a living is ship.
-Insist on trashing early, not right before you ship.
More Seth Godin Videos:
Seth Godin Explains Why You Need a Tribe Loic Lemeur (12:23)
-Successful products are not the ones with the most features.
-The hard thing is to do something that people choose to talk about.
Seth Godin at the 2012 Edison Awards Edison Awards (22:29)
-The people who are winning are playing off abundance not scarcity.
-The wind is at your back if you enabling the community to get smarter and more connected (versus being more private).
Seth Godin: Medicine Ball Session Pilot Girl Productions (54:02)
-Art is the act of touching someone through your emotional labor.
-The reason Ford made all Model-T’s black is that the paint dried 4 hours faster.
-Americans spend thousands of dollars that they don’t have so they can stay connected through cell phones and Internet.
Seth Godin Interview on Behind the Brand (20:35)
-We live in a project world.
-If I fail more than you do, I win.
-If you’re not curious, you’re not going to learn.
-It’s easier than ever before to start a business.
-No one gives you initiative, you have to take it.
-No one ever died speaking in public.
Getting Weird with Seth Godin (27:17)
-Demographics doesn’t matter, psychographics matter. It doesn’t matter where you were born, it matters what you do.
-A brand is a set of expectations people have about a company.
Seth Godin on The Hour (8:28)
-The recession is a forever recession. It is the end of the industrial age.
-For a long time people got paid above average wages for average work, but that is coming to an end.
-You need to recognize the voice of the lizard brain and then move on.
Seth Godin Talk on Tribes Mixergy (1:13:46)
-Humans like doing what other human beings are doing.
-When you root for a sports team, you are rooting for yourself. When they win, you win.
-If you can’t get 100 people to share your book with their friends, then you shouldn’t write it.
Seth Godin Interview with Giant Impact (7:12)
-Fire your customers who take up 80% of your time and provide 20% of the value.
Seth Godin Interview on The Social Network (starts at 2:14 mark)
-Seth raised money for Icarus Deception using Kickstarter.
-Art is doing personal work that may fail that connects to another human being.
-Seth writes every day as a discipline.
-Today, the cost of being wrong is much lower.
-Seth focuses on only working on things that might not work.
Seth Godin Inteview on the Icarus Deception Behind the Brand (44:27)
-We are trained in school to follow a map instead of giving directions.
-We’re too focused on avoiding criticism.
Creative Commons photo courtesy of Michael Galpert