My Wish Came True: Meeting Seth Godin

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Today was the day! I had the pleasure of meeting Seth Godin in SLC and hearing him speak about his new book The Dip. It was fun (and a lot of work!) to be part of the WordMob team that brought Seth to Utah. For fun I presented Seth with a magic wand cookie with his name on it because of his kind link to Start Up Princess last Fall that greatly boosted our readership and traffic, plus a cookie that looked exactly like the cover of his book made by Cookies by Design…very fun. Thanks to Ash Buckles who took the photo! I took detailed notes, but Phil Windley beat me in posting, so here they are.

Something that really impressed me about Seth was that when he arrived literally seconds before he was to present to a few hundred people, he was able to shift gears from travel frenzy to presentation mode very quickly and he was completely unruffled when he found out that there was no projector (how our team missed that minor detail is beyond me! Sorry Seth!) In fact, I could see Seth and Phil Burns discussing the projector and it was very simple, Seth asked where it was and Phil said there wasn’t one, apologizing and Seth just smiled, patted Phil on the shoulder and moved on… he improvised and set up his laptop as cue cards on the side and just casually referred to them as he moved forward with focused energy, I was on the front row so I could see the laptop screen, but for the average guest, no one would even know that Seth had cue slides to follow. Seth is a master story teller. Not only can he write, but he’s animated, he’s interesting, and brilliant. He’s well-read on a variety of subjects (the Q&A demonstrated that well) and he’s just plain nice! I’ve had the opportunity to get to know him a tad via email and I can tell you he cares about people and cares about others’ success. It’s a beautiful thing to see in a superstar like Seth Godin.

As a WordMob team member I was able to take a sponsorship table and I was excited to meet several people at the event and share Start Up Princess with them…surprisingly there was very few women entrepreneurs there I didn’t already know–Start Up Princess members who attended were: Fairy Godmother Janet Meiners, Fairy Godmother Erika Wilde, Lorri Randle, Carolynn Duncan, and Monica Buckle. I did meet many Start Up Wizards though…it appears that I need to find another venue for marketing to women next time, this event was primarily male, but regardless, it was fun to have a sponsor table and participate that way.

Today’s Magic Wand: I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite things Seth said in his presentation:

You shouldn’t get an MBA! There’s very little statistics that it helps you in the end to make more money than those who don’t get an MBA. Instead, he’d like to see you intern for a non-profit for 2 years and figure out how to share their message with the world, even if you don’t get paid for it, you are only out your living expenses, not tuition too…you’ll have real world experience which is the most valuable kind.

(So, Seth does that mean that my 2 year volunteer-service as Program Director for One Heart Bulgaria was my MBA? Sounds good to me.)

He also said that “there’s a worldwide shortage for superstars in the world!” Think about niches…if you own a niche then you are the superstar for it. For example, Erika Wilde is the superstar for floor mats, I’m sure she never thought of being a superstar for floor mats when she was a little girl, but she is and now she’s making a great online business because of it.

Ultimately “The Dip” isn’t about quitting…it’s about mastering, being the best in the world and give yourself permission to do something else that you can master.”

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