345. This is Strategy with Seth Godin (Part 2)

The Greg McKeown Podcast

Greg McKeown

Education, Business, Self-improvement

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Seth Godin is a renowned author, entrepreneur, and thought leader in marketing and business. With over 20 published books, including bestsellers like "Purple Cow" and "Tribes," he has reshaped how we think about marketing strategies, leadership, and creative innovation. Known for his daily blog that reaches an extensive readership, Seth is a pivotal figure in modern management, often compared to legendary thinkers like Peter Drucker. Recently, he authored "This is Strategy" and is a seminal voice in understanding and navigating complex systems. Episode Summary: In this Part 2 episode, Greg is joined by the legendary Seth Godin, whose work in business literature and marketing has influenced millions globally. Godin and McKeown explore how viewing the world through a systems lens can empower anyone to take strategic, high-leverage actions that yield significant results. The discussion highlights the profound impact of naming and defining elements within systems to influence outcomes and decisions. Seth shares personal anecdotes, emphasizing the shift from passive observation to active engagement, using empathy as a strategic tool. The episode is rich with insights on navigating change, avoiding false proxies, and how companies and individuals can reinvent themselves by unearthing these vital, albeit often hidden, opportunities. Key Takeaways: Systems Thinking: The importance of understanding and navigating complex systems to take strategic, high-impact actions. Empathy as a Tool: Using empathy not merely for kindness but as a practical tool to serve and understand others' underlying motivations and goals. Changing Perspectives: Transitioning from passive observation to active engagement can unlock opportunities for personal and professional growth. Avoiding False Proxies: Identifying and rejecting false success metrics to focus on actions that truly matter. Curiosity's Power: Embracing curiosity to uncover underlying truths and leverage points in any interaction or system. Notable Quotes: Seth Godin: "I think that empathy sometimes gets put into the ghetto called kindness. And I'm in favor of kindness. But empathy is also a really practical tool." Greg McKeown: "Curious people just understood somehow that the system gets more interesting behind the surface." Seth Godin: "If we can just try to imagine what it is to be the node that they are, try to imagine what their internal system is like or what their deep goals are, we can serve them without manipulating them." Resources: Seth’s Blog: Seth's Blog Seth's Book: This is Strategy Follow Seth on X, Instagram, and LinkedIn Affiliate links are used where appropriate. We earn from qualifying purchases, thank you for supporting Greg! Join my weekly newsletter. Learn more about my books and courses. Join The Essentialism Academy. Follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome everybody before we get to the podcast itself a reminder to sign up for the one minute
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0:14.6	Greg McHughan.com forward slash one M w. W and every week you will get one minute
0:21.3	or something close to it of the best thinking to be able to help you design a life
0:29.6	that really matters and to make that as effortless and easy as possible. So go to Greg McHughan.com
0:37.0	forward slash 1MW. Welcome back everybody. This is the Greg McEwen podcast and I'm here with Seth Goden
0:52.0	who has been a part of the world, the genre of business books,
1:00.8	of course going back originally particularly known for his marketing
1:05.5	prowess but he's been writing for so long now
1:10.6	uh... you know twenty books i'm sure the number is not precise that he is a part of the
1:16.8	modern world of management like a Peter Drucker was in his time Seth is a part of the world of thinking in that sense.
1:30.6	Infinite number of people get his daily blog and he has just written a book called
1:37.0	This is Strategy, which I'm going to put to him in a moment is about strategy but seems to be almost as much about systems as it is about strategy
1:48.5	Particularly the idea I think he is trying to inspire the reader to be able to navigate complex systems in order to be able to take high-level
1:59.5	leverage strategic action that gets the kind of future that you want. So, naming is so disproportionately important and powerful because it takes it from behind the curtain and gives
2:36.8	it tangibility and then it formulates an object in our mind, right?
2:42.1	It becomes its own node, let's say, and you can, then you can
2:46.1	manipulate it, you can look around it, you can turn it around. Let's have a look, like a, like a Tony
2:50.6	Stark, 3D, you know, frame of, okay, let's zoom in, let's enlarge it, let's look at what's going on.
2:58.8	Right. And so for me, when I turned 20, the flip was this. I used to say fairly often, here we go again.
3:09.0	And I flipped it to, oh, that's happening again, what should I do?
3:14.0	And that's a fundamentally different form of action taking.
	...

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