Seth Godin's best tactics for building remarkable products, strategies, brands and more

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Lenny Rachitsky

Technology, Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Seth Godin is a legend. He’s a marketer, teacher, entrepreneur, and author of more than 20 books, including Purple Cow, Permission Marketing, and Linchpin. He also writes one of the most popular and longest-running blogs in the world (approaching publishing 10,000 in a row!) and continues to shape how we think about marketing, brand, product, and creating lasting change in the world. In our conversation, we discuss:

• How to build remarkable products that spread

• The four critical strategic choices that determine your future

• How to develop good taste and high standards

• The role of tension in great strategy

• How Seth used Claude to write his newest book

• Much more

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/seth-godins-tactics-for-building-remarkable-products

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Where to find Seth Godin:

• Blog: http://seths.blog/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethgodin

• Website: https://www.sethgodin.com

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Seth’s background

(05:17) Understanding good taste and upholding high standards

(08:09) Become the best at whatever you do

(09:48) Seth’s journey as a product manager

(14:09) What people often get wrong when building products

(16:00) Building a brand in the age of AI

(19:04) Using AI to enhance writing

(22:40) Four critical elements for an effective strategy

(27:38) The role of tension in strategy

(29:15) The concept of the purple cow

(33:11) "Safe is risky"

(34:56) The power of systems

(37:07) Better waves make better surfers

(38:10) Rebranding vs. re-logoing

(43:07) Empathetic leadership

(44:14) Conclusion and farewell

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Referenced:

• Seth Godin on the Tim Ferriss Show: https://tim.blog/2024/03/20/seth-godin-3/

• Persuasive communication and managing up | Wes Kao (Maven, Seth Godin, Section4): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/persuasive-communication-wes-kao

• Spinnaker: https://spinnaker.io

• Ray Bradbury: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury

• Arthur C. Clarke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke

• Isaac Asimov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov

• Roger Zelazny: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny

• Herbie Hancock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_Hancock

• Fahrenheit 451 (game): https://www.filfre.net/2013/09/fahrenheit-451-the-game/

• RTFM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTFM#

• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com

• Claude: https://claude.ai

• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com

• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com

• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com

• P.F. Flyers: https://pfflyers.com

• Steve Blank’s website: https://steveblank.com

• Marissa Mayer on X: https://x.com/marissamayer

• Jaguar unveils new logo ahead of electric relaunch: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgr0pw00n7qo

• IHOP Becomes IHOb, the International House of ... Burgers: https://www.npr.org/2018/06/11/618844977/ihop-becomes-ihob-the-international-house-of-burgers

• Oreo’s Super Bowl Power-Outage Tweet Was 18 Months in the Making: https://www.businessinsider.com/oreos-super-bowl-power-outage-tweet-was-18-months-in-the-making-2013-3

• Tesla’s New ‘Ludicrous Mode’ Makes the Model S a Supercar: https://www.wired.com/2015/07/teslas-new-ludicrous-mode-makes-model-s-supercar

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Recommended books:

• This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans (Create a Strategy to Elevate Your Career, Community & Life): https://www.amazon.com/This-Strategy-Better-Elevate-Community/dp/B0D47T8S7N• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable: https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-New-Transform-Remarkable/dp/1591843170

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Before you came on, I asked on Twitter, what should I ask Seth Godin?
0:03.0	The most recurring theme actually had to do with AI.
0:06.0	How do you think all these new AI companies build brands to distinguish and differentiate themselves?
0:10.0	AI very soon is going to stop being a feature, the same way electricity is not a feature.
0:16.0	What AI companies and all companies need to do is say, what's in this for the user? What promise do I want to make?
0:22.1	A difficult promise, a remarkable promise. And then how do I keep it? You wrote a new book. You
0:27.1	basically talk about how a great strategy has tension at the center of it. Tension is at the heart
0:32.8	of every art form and every innovation. What we do when we launch a new product, we say, we have this
0:39.3	thing that can do X and now the person is imagining what their life might be like if that
0:45.0	were true. If they fall in love with that possibility, now there's tension. Did you tell the truth?
0:50.3	Is it going to work for that? There's the section that stuck out to me, these kind of
0:54.5	four insights that basically determine what your life is going to be like outside of actually
0:58.5	building the product. For a product person, these are the critical choices and you probably
1:04.3	have glossed over them. Today, my guest is Seth Godin.
1:13.6	Seth is an absolute legend. He's published 21 books, including 18 international bestsellers.
1:19.6	He's been blogging every single day for almost 10,000 days in a row now.
1:24.6	His writing and his advice have inspired me and so many people all over
1:29.3	the world for the past few decades. He shares wisdom and advice around stuff that everyone can
1:34.5	benefit from, including how ideas spread, when to quit, how to lead, how to stand out,
1:40.5	and most of all, how to change everything. In addition to his writing and speaking,
1:45.7	Seth has founded several companies, including Yo-Yo Dine and Squidoo. He also started the Alt-NBA
1:50.7	program, and as you'll hear in our conversation, he actually started his career as a product
	...

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