Seth Godin — Coaching Tim on Overcoming Resistance, Lessons from Isaac Asimov, Writing Secrets After 8,500+ Daily Blog Posts, The Dangers of Authenticity, Practices for Consistency, and Much More (#728)

Illustration via 99designs




“I did five years of Akimbo . It was in the top one percent of all podcasts, and then I just stopped. And I stopped not because I didn’t love it — I did love it — I stopped because if I kept doing it, there’s something else I wouldn’t do instead. And creating a vacuum is required so that I will do the hard work of filling the vacuum. But if I just keep doing the thing, then there is no vacuum.”
— Seth Godin



Seth Godin is the author of 21 international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about work. His books have been translated into 38 languages and Seth’s books include Tribes , Purple Cow , Linchpin , The Dip , and This Is Marketing . Seth writes one of the most popular marketing blogs in the world, and two of his TED talks are among the most popular of all time. He is the founder of the altMBA; the social media pioneer Squidoo; and Yoyodyne, one of the first internet companies. His new book is The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams . 



Please enjoy!



Listen to the episode on  Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Overcast ,  Podcast Addict ,  Pocket Casts ,  Castbox ,  Google Podcasts ,  Amazon Music ,  or on your favorite podcast platform .



Brought to you by  1Password  easy-to-use and secure password manager for individuals, families, and businesses ; LinkedIn Jobs  recruitment platform with 1B+ users; and Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover  sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating .



Listen on Apple Podcasts



Listen on Spotify



Listen on Overcast


#728: Seth Godin — Coaching Tim on Overcoming Resistance, Lessons from Isaac Asimov, Writing Secrets After 8,500+ Daily Blog Posts, The Dangers of Authenticity, Practices for Consistency, and Much More



This episode is brought to you by 1Password ! I’ve been using 1Password for more than a decade. It’s one of my favorite products, and I’ve made it a requirement for everyone on my team. As data breaches affect everyone, you need 1Password. 1Password combines industry-leading security with award-winning design to bring private, secure, and user-friendly password management to everyone.



It is an award-winning password manager trusted by millions of users and more than 100,000 businesses, from IBM to Slack. It beat out 40 other options to become Wirecutter ’s top pick for password managers. Right now, my listeners get a free, 2-week trial at 1password.com/Tim .







This episode is brought to you by  LinkedIn Jobs .  Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future,  LinkedIn Jobs  can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer.



Using LinkedIn’s active community of more than 900 million professionals worldwide,  LinkedIn Jobs  can help you find and hire the right person faster.  When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you can post a job for free.   Just visit LinkedIn.com/Tim .







This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep ! Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at the perfect temperature . It pairs dynamic cooling and heating with biometric tracking to offer the most advanced (and user-friendly) solution on the market. Simply add the Pod Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. It also splits your bed in half, so your partner can choose a totally different temperature.



Conquer this winter season with the best in sleep tech and sleep at your perfect temperature. Many of my listeners in colder areas enjoy warming up their bed after a freezing day. Go to eightsleep.com/Tim and save $200 on the Pod Cover by Eight Sleep this winter. Eight Sleep currently ships within the USA, Canada, the UK, select countries in the EU, and Australia . 







What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments .







Want to hear the last time Seth Godin was on the show? Have a listen to our conversation here , in which we discussed the changes of aging, getting over momentary lapses of optimism, finding significance and making a difference, ethically reclaiming meaning from work in the Quaker surveillance state, circumnavigating false proxies, employee retention, soliciting useful writing feedback, and much more .


#672: Seth Godin — The Pursuit of Meaning, The Life-Changing Power of Choosing Your Attitude, Overcoming Rejection, Life Lessons from Zig Ziglar, and Committing to Making Positive Change



SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE




Connect with Seth Godin:




Website  |  Seth’s Blog  |  Instagram  |  Facebook




The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams by Seth Godin | Amazon



Other Books by Seth Godin | Amazon



Seth’s previous appearances on the podcast: 672 , 476 ,  402 ,  343 ,  177 ,  138



The (Urban) Legend of Ernest Hemingway’s Six-Word Story | Open Culture



Steven Pressfield on Writing Exercises, Muses, Lucky Charms, and Beating The Resistance | Writing Routines



The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield | Amazon



No Biological Free Lunches | Tim Ferriss



Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud | Amazon



A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math, and Language | xkcd



Top Ten Stupid Pet Tricks | Letterman



Dune | Prime Video



The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro | Amazon



The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin | Amazon



The Real “Rules” of Haiku | The Poetry Place



Long Form AI | Seth’s Blog



Claude AI | Anthropic



ChatGPT | OpenAI



Conan O’Brien Says Larry David Is “Exactly Like He Is on ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm'” | Exclaim!



Peanuts by Charles Schulz



You Don’t Need More Time | Seth’s Blog



Isaac Asimov: Centenary of the Great Explainer | Nature



Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” | Auburn University



Clue VCR Mystery Game by Parker Brothers | Amazon



When Siskel and Ebert Were the Names Above the Title | The New York Times



The Wizard of Oz (1985) | MobyGames



This is Akimbo (A Podcast from Seth Godin)



The Rise and Fall of Squidoo | Wizzley



Tango World Record: Tim Ferriss and Alicia Monti | Live with Regis and Kelly



Sinecure Definition & Meaning | Merriam-Webster



Chilean Sea Bass: How Patagonian Toothfish Was Saved | MSC



The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln | Abraham Lincoln Online



“Advice for Authors” Search Results | Seth’s Blog




SHOW NOTES




[06:14] Writing a provocation rather than a prescription.



[13:08] Divvying up concepts.



[16:25] Comprehension over complication.



[18:58] How Seth fulfills a blog post’s purpose.



[22:28] Claude AI vs. ChatGPT.



[23:41] How Seth Godin as a Service (SGaaS) maintains consistency.



[27:23] Simplification over exaggeration.



[31:56] Working with Isaac Asimov and getting a Clue.



[36:53] How Seth moves life’s story forward (even when he loves the current chapter).



[43:28] Why does Seth write?



[44:59] Is an ounce of prevention worth a pound of sinecure?



[45:15] Parting thoughts.




MORE SETH GODIN QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW



“If I can show up with something in your bones you know to be true or interesting or worth thinking about, but I can say it in a way that would benefit you if you could share it with your friends and colleagues, that’s a great blog post.” — Seth Godin



“I can read a blog post I wrote 14 years ago, and I might not write the same one today, but it rhymes with the one I would write today because there is a voice that this character has that I’m very comfortable with.” — Seth Godin



“I did the first thing that all writers do when I got ChatGPT, which is I asked it to write like me, and I was pleased to discover it was a parody of me. And being able to be parodied is a really good sign, and that’s what it is to have this voice is to say — I could exaggerate it in six different directions and people could tell I would be parodying it. But like the Peanuts comic strip, Charles Schulz did it every single day, and it’s very hard to tell which decade a Peanuts strip is from.” — Seth Godin



“I try to reduce ideas to their essence without becoming hyperbolic because the voices of social media amped up the hyperbolic part. That’s not a simplification. That’s an exaggeration.” — Seth Godin



“There’s an assertion at the beginning that creates a tension, and then a release of that tension that lands an idea.” — Seth Godin



“I did five years of Akimbo . It was in the top one percent of all podcasts, and then I just stopped. And I stopped not because I didn’t love it — I did love it — I stopped because if I kept doing it, there’s something else I wouldn’t do instead. And creating a vacuum is required so that I will do the hard work of filling the vacuum. But if I just keep doing the thing, then there is no vacuum.” — Seth Godin



“My whole point of view is that life is projects — it is not a job.” — Seth Godin



“I am not a high performer. I am interesting.” — Seth Godin



PEOPLE MENTIONED




Ernest Hemingway



Steven Pressfield



Scott McCloud



Superman/Clark Kent



David Letterman



Larry David



Charles M. Schulz



Isaac Asimov



Stanley Kaplan



Rick Rubin



L.L. Cool J



Beastie Boys



Peter Olotka



Gene Siskel



Roger Ebert



Arthur C. Clarke



Ray Bradbury



Michael Crichton



Byron Preiss



Jerry Seinfeld

The post Seth Godin — Coaching Tim on Overcoming Resistance, Lessons from Isaac Asimov, Writing Secrets After 8,500+ Daily Blog Posts, The Dangers of Authenticity, Practices for Consistency, and Much More (#728) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss .