Seth Godin is a disruptive thinker in marketing and education. Rather than old models of trying to impose your marketing message on your audience, he found success by following a more friendly invite model. He has a 6-hour Udemy course called Modern Marketing with Seth Godin that neatly summarizes his philosophy and how to apply it. The primary work on this philosophy is This is Marketing. Before dismissing this out of hand, accept his assertion that marketing and leadership are synonymous. I'm going to make some observations here, but there is so much value packed into this book that it is better to let this article inform why as a leader you should read this book.
As leaders, our calling is to make a difference so that we can make things better for those whom we seek to serve. "Serve people in a way that they need or want."
"When doing the best version of our work, our responsibility is not to make it for ourselves, but to bring it to the person we seek to serve." We give our best to our customers.
Leadership. Seth's makes a bold statement by saying marketing is leadership: "Marketing is the act of making change happen. Making is insufficient. You haven't made an impact until you've changed someone." It is the "generous act of helping someone solve their problem...helping others become who they seek to become." Marketers offer solutions, opportunities for people to solve their problems and move forward.
Culture & Irrationality. Seth talks about culture by saying culture is strategy. This is a bit different than the statement that "culture eats strategy for breakfast." His point is that how an organization operates is rooted in their culture. That culture is born of a combination of explicit and implicit decisions. Therefore, to change strategy you have to change culture. To be an effective leader, you have to listen to the hopes and dreams of your audience. You have to listen to their frustrations. You have to invest in changing the culture. Tactical problem solving is not leadership. Steering the culture in the right direction is.
However, when attempting to change culture, remember that people will act according to their current irrational urges and ignore information counter to their beliefs. They will instead accept information that reinforces and allows influence by the culture they identify with. People do not make rational choices. You do not make rational choices (even with objective data I preach about).
Smallest Viable Market. The Smallest Viable Market is the smallest number of people, usually only one persona, that sustains your business. This is true of leadership. In finding that audience, we begin with a worldview and invite others to join that worldview. Most leadership training talks about the first follower (with the accompanying humorous video). Without an audience, the leader is a lone nut. Leadership is about finding the audience that will sustain the change you seek to make.
Marketing Promise. Seth suggests you keep your marketing / leadership promise brief. "My product is for people who believe <this>. I will focus on people who want <this>. I promise that by engaging you will get <this>." For those familiar with Value Proposition development, the marketing promise results from understanding the value proposition. It is a way of describing it.
Problem First. Effective marketers do not begin with a solution and trying to find clever ways to fit that solution to the problem. Instead, find the group you seek to serve (remember servant leadership's mantra), a problem they seek to solve, and a change they seek to make. Amateurs design a network and use cases without deep understanding of their audience wants and needs.
Commodity Suckout. Seth points out that it is easy to create a commodity product. There are thousands of people trying to create Todo list mobile apps. There is only one Todoist. If you look at their marketing, you will see that they focus on helping people complete the work they want to complete. They seek to serve. Several organizations can offer network connectivity, that's easy. Do not focus on the easy.
Focus on building a culture (which is strategy) that is focused on serving the customer's need...with dignity. When I spent a few days with Walmart technologists, they were indoctrinated with the Walmart philosophy of best price and value for the customer. Serving the customer was part of their conversation.
Leadership Role, Authenticity and Emotional Labor. Seth argues that we should not bring our authentic selves to work. It informs who we are. But, as leaders we play a role. We bring a leadership persona. For thirty years, I have said, "it's another beautiful day in paradise." The circumstance does not matter, I say the same thing. Sometimes it sounds sarcastic because the day is crappy. Leaders cannot display all they truly feel before their audience if we are to serve them. This is why sarcasm is a poor leadership / management device (though my favorite type of humor). This is why leadership is emotional work. We can grouse behind closed doors, but the audience should not see. Seth will tell you "protect yourself. You will be needed tomorrow." He says this better than I could:
As leaders, our calling is to make a difference so that we can make things better for those whom we seek to serve. "Serve people in a way that they need or want."
"When doing the best version of our work, our responsibility is not to make it for ourselves, but to bring it to the person we seek to serve." We give our best to our customers.
Leadership. Seth's makes a bold statement by saying marketing is leadership: "Marketing is the act of making change happen. Making is insufficient. You haven't made an impact until you've changed someone." It is the "generous act of helping someone solve their problem...helping others become who they seek to become." Marketers offer solutions, opportunities for people to solve their problems and move forward.
Culture & Irrationality. Seth talks about culture by saying culture is strategy. This is a bit different than the statement that "culture eats strategy for breakfast." His point is that how an organization operates is rooted in their culture. That culture is born of a combination of explicit and implicit decisions. Therefore, to change strategy you have to change culture. To be an effective leader, you have to listen to the hopes and dreams of your audience. You have to listen to their frustrations. You have to invest in changing the culture. Tactical problem solving is not leadership. Steering the culture in the right direction is.
However, when attempting to change culture, remember that people will act according to their current irrational urges and ignore information counter to their beliefs. They will instead accept information that reinforces and allows influence by the culture they identify with. People do not make rational choices. You do not make rational choices (even with objective data I preach about).
Smallest Viable Market. The Smallest Viable Market is the smallest number of people, usually only one persona, that sustains your business. This is true of leadership. In finding that audience, we begin with a worldview and invite others to join that worldview. Most leadership training talks about the first follower (with the accompanying humorous video). Without an audience, the leader is a lone nut. Leadership is about finding the audience that will sustain the change you seek to make.
Marketing Promise. Seth suggests you keep your marketing / leadership promise brief. "My product is for people who believe <this>. I will focus on people who want <this>. I promise that by engaging you will get <this>." For those familiar with Value Proposition development, the marketing promise results from understanding the value proposition. It is a way of describing it.
Problem First. Effective marketers do not begin with a solution and trying to find clever ways to fit that solution to the problem. Instead, find the group you seek to serve (remember servant leadership's mantra), a problem they seek to solve, and a change they seek to make. Amateurs design a network and use cases without deep understanding of their audience wants and needs.
Commodity Suckout. Seth points out that it is easy to create a commodity product. There are thousands of people trying to create Todo list mobile apps. There is only one Todoist. If you look at their marketing, you will see that they focus on helping people complete the work they want to complete. They seek to serve. Several organizations can offer network connectivity, that's easy. Do not focus on the easy.
Focus on building a culture (which is strategy) that is focused on serving the customer's need...with dignity. When I spent a few days with Walmart technologists, they were indoctrinated with the Walmart philosophy of best price and value for the customer. Serving the customer was part of their conversation.
Leadership Role, Authenticity and Emotional Labor. Seth argues that we should not bring our authentic selves to work. It informs who we are. But, as leaders we play a role. We bring a leadership persona. For thirty years, I have said, "it's another beautiful day in paradise." The circumstance does not matter, I say the same thing. Sometimes it sounds sarcastic because the day is crappy. Leaders cannot display all they truly feel before their audience if we are to serve them. This is why sarcasm is a poor leadership / management device (though my favorite type of humor). This is why leadership is emotional work. We can grouse behind closed doors, but the audience should not see. Seth will tell you "protect yourself. You will be needed tomorrow." He says this better than I could:
Emotional labor is the work of doing what we do not feel like doing. It's about showing up with a smile when we're wincing inside, or resisting the urge to chew someone out because you know that engaging with him will make a bigger difference....If you need to be authentic to do your best work, you're not a professional, you're a fortunate amateur....We don't do this work because we feel like it in the moment. We do this work, this draining emotional labor, because we are professionals, and because we want to make change happen. Emotional labor is the work we do to provide service.
Irrationality and Fear. "When someone doesn't act as you expect them to, look for their fear."
When People Reject You. Seth suggests that when someone rejects you, it is better to try to explain and justify why they are right. This grows your empathy. Fill out this statement "for people who want what you want <this>, and believe what you believe <this>, your choice of <this> is exactly right."
People Like Us and Culture Change. One phrase that comes to mind when I think of Seth's writings is "people like us." "Everyone acts in accordance with their internal narratives." Changing behavior is about a desire to fit in. So, "people like us, do things like this." If you are trying to lose weight, then "people like us who are slim do things like manage calories and exercise." Of course, we belong to many tribes (another book of Seth's is on what it means to be in a tribe), so who we are is complicated. There is no universal culture, only a complex mix of tribes. This is one reason why culture change is hard, each tribe has a checksum that keeps people in line, and a mix of those checksums will gang up to reject a broadly applied culture change. So, Seth says pick one tribe and change that one. He says:
When we are comfortable knowing we [as leaders] work to change culture, then we can:
Map and understand the worldview of the culture we seek to change
Focus all our energy on this group. Ignore everyone else. Instead, focus on building and living a story that will resonate with the culture we are seeking to change.
That's how we change a culture, by caring enough to want to change one culture and by being brave enough to pick just one.
Status quo. Seth argues that the truth cannot change culture, so it does not matter that you are right. He reminds us that people are irrational and will do what is in their immediate best interests. It shifts because culture shifts. The engine of culture change is status. We are pack-minded, so there is an alpha and a runt. We will focus on status over rationality. "A clash of status roles happens in any bureaucracy that only knows how to measure today's status change." He spends a chapter on status, so I won't recount it all here. He talks about status by affiliation and domination, and how to understand status to lead change.
Leaders don't lead tribes. I'm jumping to nearly the end. He has a book dedicated to Tribes, which is summarized pretty well in This is Marketing. Leaders do not lead tribes, they find tribes that let them lead them.
Set includes a marketing worksheet that is as useful for selling a product as changing a culture:
- Who is it for, what's it for?
- What is your audience's worldview, and what are they afraid of?
- What story will you tell (that is true)?
- What change do you seek to make?
- How will it change their status?
- How will you reach the early adopters?
- Why and what will they tell their friends?
- What is the network effect that will propel this forward?
- What are you building and are you proud of it?
--
Ben
In tenebris solus sto