Posted by: Kevin Casey

Okay. Meeting Seth Godin and picking his massive cranium was on my bucket-list for quite some time, and, unlike my dream of playing in the NFL, this one could conceivably come true.

So taking 2 days in the USA to join a collection of like-minded marketers and listen to and learn from one the world’s best marketers was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I could not pass up.

So now, rather than having to fly 6 hours, switch planes, get through long lines in Customs, and pay the attendance fee, here is a hassle-free way to digest the top ten take-a-ways from the Seth Road Trip.

#10. Don’t run out of money. It always takes longer and costs more than you expect to spread your idea. You can budget for it or you can fail.

#9.  You won’t get it right the first time. Your campaign will need to be reinvented, adjusted or scrapped. Count on it.

#8. Irrational, strongly held beliefs of close advisors should be ignored. Who cares if they don’t like your logo.

#7. If it makes you nervous, it’s probably a good idea. If you’re sure you’re right, you probably aren’t.

#6. Focusing obsessively on one niche, one feature and one market is almost always a better idea than trying to satisfy everyone.

#5. At some point, you’re either going to have to stick to your convictions or do what the market tells you. It’s hard to do both.

#4. Compromise in marketing is almost always a bad idea. Extreme A could work. Extreme B could work. The average of A and B will almost never work.

#3. Google. Read. Learn. There are a million clues, case studies, books and proven tactics out there. You can’t ignore them until you know them, and you don’t have the time or the money to make the same mistake someone else made last week. It’s cheaper and faster to read about it than it is to do it.

#2. Stop talking about technologies like Facebook and Twitter and start being remarkable to be spreadable. Boring doesn’t spread. Even if you join Facebook or tweet ’til you drop.

And the number one lesson learned from Seth Godin…

#1 Create a tribe.

Tribe management is a whole different way of looking at the world. It starts with permission, the understanding that the real asset most organizations can build isn’t a vaporous brand but is the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who want to get them.

It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies.

So permission is used to build a tribe, to build a group of people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, and it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about.

Instead of looking for customers for your products, you seek out products (and services) for the tribe. Jerry Garcia understood this. Do you?

People form tribes with or without us.

Lots more of this stuff to wake up to everyday by subscribing to an RSS feed at sethgodin.com.

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4 Responses to “Here’s Some Free Seth Godin!”

1. Bob Moakler says:

   September 22, 2010 at 6:45 pm

   Kevin,

   Sounds like it was a great trip to the mountain of global learning. I love the city , the retaurants, bars , music , the sports teams. I bumped into your good wife at Brenda Chaytor’s on Sat. night , they were alll having a good laugh.

   I am off to Florida on Friday AM for a few days. We can grab a beer when I return.

   Cheers
2. Gord says:

   September 23, 2010 at 6:09 pm

   Which guy is Seth in that picture???

   I really like #6… focusing on a single niche/market and not moving to the next until that one is in hand (or the momentum is such that the ball won’t roll back down the hill) is the best way to achieve your objectives with the (no doubt limited) resources you have.

   Great list.
3. Kevin Casey says:

   September 23, 2010 at 6:26 pm

   Seth is the guy with the head built for the bigger brain that I!
   I could have done a list of 20 Seth-isms – maybe will do a second version. Thanks Gord
4. Natasha says:

   October 13, 2010 at 5:32 pm

   The amazing Seth Godin. Thanks for sharing!