Making a Ruckus with Seth Godin

 

Are you familiar with Seth Godin? If not, simply search “Seth” and you’ll see why I’m thrilled to have him as a guest on the most recent Talk About Talk podcast episode.

If you are familiar with Seth, then you already know why I’m so excited about this interview.

It would not be an exaggeration to say Seth changed my life.

 

In 2018, I read a Seth blog, where he invited candidates to join the inaugural cohort of The Podcasting Fellowship. In writing my application for that program, I came up with the title of this podcast.  I remember typing,

“…the topic of my podcast will be communication skills.  Basically, my podcast will be talk about talk…”

Wait! I thought. That could also be the name of the podcast!  I checked the URL.  It wasn’t taken, so I bought it – pronto.  Then I legally secured the trademark. Here I am, six years later, interviewing Seth for the 171st episode of the Talk About Talk podcast!

Seth is a prolific writer, with over 30 books (>80 if you include books from his previous career).  A few of his notable recent books include:

This is Strategy (2024)	This is Marketing (2018)	The Song of Significance (2023)
Purple Cow (2009)	The Carbon Almanac (2022) Seth’s all-volunteer community project

When I interviewed Seth, I focused on questions that I’ve never heard him answer before, and things that I thought YOU might want to ask him.  Questions like:

• What’s the most important communication skill?
• Do you think about your personal brand, Seth?
• What do you mean by “Making a Ruckus“?

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Seth in this week’s episode as much as I did!

1. Seth’s Take on Personal Branding
2. The Most Important Communication Skill
3. Consistency versus Authenticity

 

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1️⃣ Seth’s Take on Personal Branding

Have you heard Jeff Bezos’ famous quote about personal branding? “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Bezos’ definition is a productive mental exercise when developing your brand. What do others think and say about you, especially when you’re not in the room?

Seth Godin takes this idea one step further:

Ask yourself: given my personal brand, what do others expect me to do?  What is conceivable for me?  What is inconceivable for me?

I love this!

Seth also talks about how every brand needs a genre. Just like you understand what kind of movie you’re seeing when it’s sci-fi, just like you know what kind of book you’re reading when you read chick lit, you need to declare your genre so people can understand the kind of work you do.

FTD is a florist.  Marriott is a hotel chain.  Andrea is an executive communication coach.

• You know you can buy flowers from FTD.  But what else? Maybe other gift options delivered to your door?
• You know you can stay at a Marriott hotel.  But what else?  Maybe a Marriott cruise?
• And you know Andrea can coach you on your communication skills through this newsletter, the podcast, and bootcamps. But what else? Maybe a book? A TedTalk?  Hmm…

You get the idea.

Here’s your homework.  Ask yourself:

• what do others say about you when you’re not in the room?
• what do others think you’re going to do (or could do) next?
• what’s your “genre”?

 

 

2️⃣ The Most Important Communication Skill

First, what do YOU think is the most important communication skill?

If you ask me, the most critical communication skills are confidence, listening, and storytelling, probably in that order.

I was dying to know Seth’s answer to this question. So I asked him:  “What communication skills should we all work on?”

His answer was something I never expected:

Seth always gets me thinking.  Here, he suggests people don’t want to communicate because they are afraid to be seen.  They don’t want to take a stand because then they’d have to take responsibility for their messages.

Another author I read recently, Sylvia Ann Hewett, in her book Executive Presence 2.0, says that people with exceptional executive presence are the people who put their stake in the ground, say what they mean, and back it up. They make the tough decisions.

This is about having confidence in your ideas and beliefs.  This is when you make a ruckus!

 

3️⃣ Consistency versus Authenticity

As you’ll hear me mention a few times in the podcast episode, Seth always makes me think.  He has smart, innovative ways of thinking about things. This is Seth making a ruckus.

Here’s an example. When Seth and I were talking about brand consistency and authenticity, he made the statement: “Professionals are consistent. They’re not authentic.”

What do you think?  Do you agree?  “Professionals are consistent,  They are not authentic.”