Personal Development

Seth Godin on Playing the Right Game and Strategy as a Superpower (#792)

30 January 2025
Bourahima


Seth Godin is the author of 21 internationally bestselling books, translated into more than 35 languages, including Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip, and Purple Cow. His latest book, This Is Strategy, offers a fresh lens on how we can make bold decisions, embrace change, and navigate a complex, rapidly evolving world. Seth is the founder of the altMBA and The Akimbo Workshops, transformative online programs that have helped thousands of people take their work to the next level.

His blog (seths.blog) is one of the most widely read in the world. Seth is also the creator of The Carbon Almanac, a global initiative focused on climate action.

Please enjoy!

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

This episode is brought to you by Cresset prestigious family office for CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs; AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement; and Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business.

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#792: Seth Godin on Playing the Right Game and Strategy as a Superpower

This episode is brought to you by Cresset Family Office! Listeners have heard me talk about “making before you manage” for years. And for me—as a writer and entrepreneur—I definitely gravitate toward making. So it’s important that I find the right people who are great at managing. That’s why I trust this episode’s sponsor, Cresset Family Office. 

Cresset is a prestigious family office for CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs. They handle the complex financial planning, uncertain tax strategies, timely exit planning, bill pay and wires, and all the other parts of wealth management that would otherwise pull me away from doing what I love most: making things, mastering skills, and spending time with the people I care about.  Experience the freedom of focusing on what matters to you with the support of a top wealth management team. Schedule a call today at cressetcapital.com/tim to see how Cresset can help streamline your financial plans and grow your wealth.

I’m a client of Cresset. There are no material conflicts other than this paid testimonial. All investing involves risk, including loss of principal.

This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. 

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This episode is brought to you by Shopify! Shopify is one of my favorite platforms and one of my favorite companies. Shopify is designed for anyone to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs the resources once reserved for big business. In no time flat, you can have a great-looking online store that brings your ideas to life, and you can have the tools to manage your day-to-day and drive sales. No coding or design experience required.

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Want to hear the last time Seth Godin was on the show? Listen to our conversation here in which we discussed why hiding behind words like “quality” or “perfection” as a means of postponing action to avoid risk is a cop-out, what Isaac Asimov and Gary Gilmore can teach us about writer’s block and other common procrastinations, the selfishness of authenticity, how to sharpen attitudes, the futility of reassurance, separating genre from generic, and much more.

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

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Website | Seth’s Blog | Instagram | Facebook

SHOW NOTES

  • [00:06:08] A home run for Seth?
  • [00:06:35] What the word “strategy” means to Seth.
  • [00:08:33] Real-world examples of good business strategies.
  • [00:11:31] The core ingredients of enacting a successful strategy.
  • [00:12:21] Systems.
  • [00:19:00] Time.
  • [00:23:06] Games.
  • [00:27:30] Empathy.
  • [00:33:04] Don’t try to burn big logs if you only have a little bit of kindling.
  • [00:35:09] Systems don’t start out selfish, but resilient ones often end up that way.
  • [00:40:40] Shortcut shortcomings.
  • [00:43:30] Feedback loops.
  • [00:45:52] The network effect.
  • [00:52:15] Tension.
  • [00:53:40] Affiliation status.
  • [01:00:43] How early successes make later successes more likely.
  • [01:06:05] Volunteer firemen.
  • [01:07:05] Expanding the circle of now and circle of us.
  • [01:09:41] Freedom from the feeling of fear.
  • [01:11:02] Picking customers and competitors.
  • [01:14:24] Guaranteeing attendance while building community.
  • [01:20:45] Community leadership.
  • [01:27:32] Perspective-changing exercises and scaffolding.
  • [01:32:16] The Strategy Deck.
  • [01:35:06] Good decisions vs. good outcomes.
  • [01:39:51] How Seth avoids false proxies in the hiring process.
  • [01:42:10] Gauging acceptance of feedback.
  • [01:45:27] How Seth uses AI.
  • [01:50:25] Enshittification.
  • [01:52:41] Parting thoughts.

MORE SETH GODIN QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“When you pick your customers, you pick your future, and when you pick your competitors, you pick your future.”
— Seth Godin

“You don’t get better clients by doing a good job for bad clients, you get better clients by becoming the freelancer good clients want to hire.”
— Seth Godin

“Systems don’t start out selfish, but resilient ones often end up that way.”
— Seth Godin

“If you do average work for average pay, AI is going to be able to do it cheaper than you.”
— Seth Godin

“If you want to make change happen, you have to create tension on purpose. Not stress. Stress is bad. Stress is you’re trapped. Stress is life is bad. Stress is you want to leave, but you can’t. Tension is what happens if I pull a rubber band back and then let go.”
— Seth Godin

PEOPLE MENTIONED

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.



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