Is it possible to love Seth Godin even more? — Frequent Questions

Q: Is it possible to love Seth Godin even more than I already do?
A: I didn’t think so. I was wrong.

love Seth Godin

The illustration to Seth’s bio on his website. He’s actually a little taller than this.

Look, I’ve been a raving Seth Godin fan for probably a decade. Ever since my then-partner brought home his book—well, compilation—The Big Moo. It was the first business book I’d ever read that didn’t sound like pompous bull.

More recently, I forked over some pretty decent money to attend his one-day workshop in New York last December and was rewarded with the best idea I’d had all year, the 5×15 Writing Challenge. We’ll be doing another one in late December.

And I jumped at the chance to be part of the pilot of his Marketing Seminar this summer. Again, money well-spent.

I thought for sure the only person in the world who could possibly be more of a Seth Godin fan than me would be Helene, his wife. And then I found his interview on the Why I Write podcast. Now my fandom of yesterday pales in comparison to my fandom of today.

Do you love Seth Godin too?

The Why I Write pod is produced by the National Council of Teachers of English, so Seth made sure to note that an English teacher somewhere along the way told him he was a terrible writer. He never took another English class again and whenever he needed to write something he would just talk it out. The result: “I write like I speak.”

Later on, the podcast host trotted out the inevitable question: “How do you manage to write every day?” And Seth paused, unwilling to accept that there’s anything unusual in having and expressing ideas on a daily basis. Then he said something like:

“Look, we’ve already established that I write like I speak. And when was the last time you ever heard of anyone getting ‘Talker’s Block’? No one is astonished to hear you say more than two sentences in a day.”

You’ll hear more about this podcast soon. But listen to it yourself. If you don’t love Seth Godin already (how is that possible?) I promise you will before the 25-minute podcast concludes.

  • mindset
  • writing