I gave $1000 to Seth Godin | STFO 🤘

I wrote a medium article seven years ago following my first interview with Seth Godin. The article went "viral" with over 28,000 reactions.

Let's revisit it...

Most of the so-called marketing “influencers” out there are celebrities.

They’ve made it.

They’re not in the trenches anymore.

They forgot how to “do” marketing; their employees promote their new books for them, build their new websites, launch their new products…

All they have to do is sign their name under whatever new projects and Ka Ching! the money starts rolling in their bank accounts.

That’s what I thought when I was preparing for my interview with the marketing GOAT.

At the time, Seth had published 18 books, and he is regarded as one the best marketing minds alongside Ogilvy, so he doesn’t need to be in the trenches anymore.

I challenged him to take himself out of his comfort zone and see if he still “got it.”

For example, I asked him to:

• come up with a business idea on the fly
• explain EXACTLY how he would launch this new business
• describe how he would find his first customers

There was one catch, though...

He couldn’t use his name to promote it; he had only a budget of $1,000 and 90 days to be successful.

What follows is the exact 5-step process Seth Godin uses to launch a new business (from scratch) with only $1,000 in the bank and 90 days to spare.

(1) Market WITH people, not AT them

Let's start with that quote from the interview:

The time of scammy, in-your-face marketing is over.

20 years ago, you could come up with an average product, invest a few thousand dollars in TV Ads saying that your product was the best, and sell 10,000 units of it.

Not anymore.

People are immune to bad marketing.

Don’t believe me?

When was the last time you bought SEO services from a cold email? When did you last subscribe to a new marketing software from an automated Insta DM?

That’s right: never.

We expect to sell using those shady techniques, yet we HATE it when it happens to us.

The first step towards launching a new business, according to Seth Godin, is to change your mindset. You can’t develop a product or service and THEN decide to market it.

You have to involve people in the process.

Your customers are humans just like you.

They’re not just a number on Google Analytics.

Treat them as such.

(2) Focus on the *tiniest audience* possible

In 1970, Yvon Chouinard, co-Founder of Patagonia, was selling “homemade gear out of the back of his car, supplementing his income by diving into trash cans and redeeming bottles for cash”.

As of 2020, Forbes estimates Chouinard’s net worth is $1.2 Billion.

I had the same dilemma when I started my podcast. I wanted to reach ALL the marketers on the planet.

I realized that I would stretch myself too thin if I was going down this road.

So, I trimmed my audience to the bone.

At first, I focused on tech marketers sick of shady, aggressive marketing. My audience evolved with me, but one thing remained: folks who loved the podcast the most were people sick of marketing bullshit. And who are really, really, really sick of it? Marketing freelancers, small business owners, and the marketers who work there.

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So, how do you pick a tiny audience?

This part takes discipline.

You probably have an idea of a product or service you want to offer; now it’s time to select the bullseye: who are the people who will benefit the most from using your product or service?

When I asked Seth Godin to come up with a business idea on the fly, he came up with a concierge service to help tourists find an Airbnb in Paris.

But “tourists” could be anybody: are we serving a Japanese family looking to go to Versailles for the first time or a Brazilian businessman who wants a place to stay near Bercy for a seminar?

So, Seth trimmed down his audience: he would help Californian families with young kids find the best place to stay in Paris for their holidays.

This is much more specific, and all of a sudden, the problems they face and the solutions we can offer become much more specific, too.

Californian families want high-speed internet to talk with their relatives who stay in San Diego. They want to see the Eiffel Tower from their balcony, just like they do in the movies. They want to taste the best croissants Paris has to offer since they can’t find any in San Diego.

See what I mean?

You might fear that the audience you’re thinking of is too small.

Here’s a tip from positioning expert Philip Morgan: if there’s a conference especially organized for it, then your audience is big enough.

For example, did you know that there’s a conference for handcrafted soap makers? If the handcrafted soap maker conference organizers managed to make money from such a tiny audience, so can you!

(3) Create a remarkable product

I'll share the rest of the article tomorrow 😘