How Seth Godin Manages His Life — Rules, Principles, and Obsessions (#138)

“We can’t out-obedience the competition.” – Seth Godin

I expected this episode to be amazing, and Seth 10x’d expectations. He’s incredible.

Seth Godin (@thisissethsblog) is the author of 17 bestselling books that have been translated into more than 35 languages. He writes about the way ideas spread, marketing, strategic quitting, leadership, and — most of all — challenging the status quo in all areas. His books include Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip, Purple Cow, and What to Do When it’s Your Turn (and it’s Always Your Turn).

Seth has founded several companies, including Yoyodyne and Squidoo. His blog (which you can find by typing “Seth” into Google) is one of the most popular in the world. In 2013, Godin was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame. Recently, Godin turned the book publishing world on its ear by launching a series of four books via Kickstarter. The campaign reached its goal in just three hours and became the most successful book project in Kickstarter history.

If you only have a couple of minutes, you should definitely listen to this segment on how to handle life transitions.

In this episode, we cover dozens of topics and stories, including some he’s never discussed publicly before. Here’s a small sample:

• A list of the audiobooks he listens to repeatedly, some once per month
• His morning routine, breakfast, dietary habits, and email processing
• Meditative practices
• Why he’s fixated on and mastered coffee and vodka, despite the fact that he consumes neither
• Suggestions for going from “wantrepreneur” to entrepreneur
• How to determine if you’re better off a “freelancer” or “entrepreneur,” and the differences in his mind
• Why he has the most impressive cookbook collection our mutual chef friends have ever seen
• His rules for saying “no” to opportunities, how he thinks about public speaking, etc.
• His recipe for honey oatmeal vodka, and his favorite chocolates in the world
• Thoughts on improving how parents educate their children
• General philosophies and guidelines he uses for life management

Enjoy!

You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

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Want to hear another podcast related to leadership and marketing? — Listen to my conversation with Derek Sivers. In my conversation with Seth Godin, he mentions that this was his favorite episode. “I love Derek,” were his exact words. In this podcast, Derek discusses developing confidence, finding happiness, and saying “no” to millions (stream below or right-click here to download):

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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What advice from Seth did you find most helpful? More importantly, how will you apply it to your life? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

• Learn more about the high-end audio community – Audiogon
• What to Do When it’s Your Turn (and it’s Always Your Turn) by Seth Godin
• First, ten – A simple theory on how to discern between a good and bad business idea
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
• Make Good Art – The commencement speech by Neil Gaiman
• Read books by Cory Doctorow
• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
• The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
• Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
• Goal Setting, How to Stay Motivated, and Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar
• The Pema Chodron Audio Collection by Pema Chodron
• Leap First by Seth Godin
• The Art of Possibility byRosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander (Get it on Audio)
• Just Kids by Patti Smith (Get it on Audio) [Note: “The single best Audiobook ever recorded.” – Seth Godin]
• Debt by David Graeber (Get it on Audio)
• Get crazy about chocolate – Rogue Chocolatier, Askinosie and Cacao Hunters
• Learn more about Seth’s altMBA
• Replay by Ken Grimwood
• Learn more about Josh Pais’s Committed Impulse acting lessons
• Visiting New York? Check out, By the Way Bakery

Show Notes

• How Seth Godin prepares coffee and vodka [5:05]
• The story behind the most impressive cookbook collection [9:37]
• Seth’s most recommended cookbooks and methods [11:32]
• On railing against various industrial complexes [15:07]
• How Seth Godin consumes media [18:07]
• Seth Godin’s rules for speaking engagements and why he developed them [20:42]
• How to navigate big transitions in life [28:07]
• On the decision to publish a daily blog [31:24]
• Seth Godin’s writing process [33:07]
• Seth Godin’s top business decisions [38:44]
• Discerning between good and bad ideas [42:44]
• Determining if you should not become an entrepreneur [48:30]
• How Seth Godin processes email [51:44]
• The philosophy of categorically saying ‘no’ to specific distractions [57:32]
• Why everyone should blog every day [1:01:42]
• The opportunities Seth Godin is happy he said ‘no’ to [1:04:49]
• The story of money [1:06:38]
• When you hear the word successful, who is the first person that comes to mind and why? [1:09:49]
• Things that Seth Godin has changed his mind about [1:10:40]
• Things that Seth Godin believes that most people would find crazy [1:11:52]
• Most gifted books [1:12:24]
• What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted Seth’s life [1:24:34]
• Seth Godin’s eating habits and morning rituals [1:30:34]
• The value of having an office [1:32:37]
• What would Seth do to educate children [1:34:22]
• Suggested practices for overwhelmed parents [1:37:34]
• Seth Godin’s current projects [1:38:52]
• Who helps tell Seth Godin when he is wrong [1:43:32]
• What advice would you give to your 30-year-old self [1:45:49]
• How Seth Godin gets over periods of discomfort [1:47:29]
• Seth Godin’s meditation process [1:49:47]
• If you could put one billboard anywhere, with anything on it, where would it be and what would it say? [1:53:01]
• Seth Godin on commencement speeches [1:53:02]
• Asks or requests of you, the listener [1:54:58]
• Talking about the almond cookies [1:56:38]

People Mentioned

• Marco Arment
• Chris Schlesinger
• Zig Ziglar
• Chip Conley
• Steven Pressfield
• Rick Rubin
• Neil Gaiman
• Bill Gross
• Jacqueline Novogratz
• Susan Piver
• Jay Levinson

The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.