On Marketing, Writing and Permission: Chatting With Seth Godin

Editor’s note: This interview was originally published in April 2009

Seth Godin needs little introduction. He popularized the topic of permission marketing; his numerous best-selling books, including Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends Into Customers, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable and most recent release Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us have received international acclaim.

In addition, Tribes has appeared on The New York Times, Business Week and The Wall Street Journal best-seller lists. The Miami Herald listed it among the best business books of 2008.

I first became a Godin fan when I worked as a consultant at Peppers & Rogers Group founded by customer strategy gurus Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. He also came to speak to us at Google in 2006 – and it was standing room only.

Laura Cococcia: Your latest book, Tribes, invites anyone to be a leader of change by connecting to a “tribe” of those with similar ideas and passions. I love the concept and believe in it.

The Internet now gives everyone the ability to publish their ideas – which I think is incredible. Since you’re clearly the idea expert, how would you suggest that people publishing blogs, e-books, newsletters, etc. differentiate their ideas to help grow their readership?

Seth Godin: I think you need to come up with useful and remarkable ideas regardless of whether or not you need new readers. After all, the only ideas worth talking about and using are the ones that have impact. In my experience, the idea is only part of the challenge. How you talk about it, what you name it, how the idea spreads (is it in a pdf, a blog post?) matter as well.

LC: You’ve written a number of books and continue to post on your blog. Is there a particular author you’d credit with inspiring you to write?

SG: I became a book packager (sort of like a movie producer for books) because it’s a great way to make a decent living selling ideas. From that, I morphed into an official author, and it was business books that inspired me. Jay Levinson, Tom Peters, Dr. Laurence Peter, Don Peppers, Napoleon Hill, and certainly Zig Ziglar were all guys I read.

LC: What are you reading right now?

SG: I’m reading a lot of sociology and Buddhism and economics. Lewis Hyde, Marcel Mauss, Thich Nhat Hanh… I read about ten books at once.

LC: Finally -– what advice do you have for aspiring writers just starting out on their writing journey?

SG: That’s easy: write. With blogs, you no longer have an excuse. It’s not someone’s fault you’re not published. Write.

You can visit Godin’s Web site or blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Tagged as: Interviews, Laura Cococcia, Motivation, Writing