TRE 11 Seth Godin
I interviewed Seth Godin this morning via Skype. He is the author of Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, published last month for Kindle, nook, Sony Reader, and hardcover. It’s a great read, and if you purchase it on Kindle by about March 1 you’ll receive a free personal addendum, Insubordinate, in which Seth describes several people who qualify as linchpins. What’s a linchpin? That’s someone who has found his or her true work, as an artist does, and is overcoming the resistance of the lizard brain to actually ship stuff that matters, because it’s original and given freely.
In the early going, my own lizard brain resisted with a couple of clever arguments (noted in this blog post) to Seth’s exhortation, which will come as no surprise to him. Lizard-like resistance is what a linchpin always faces and overcomes.
In addition to his new book, we talked about Seth’s critique of the traditional publishing industry and his vision of how Amazon, or someone, could remake the eBook platform into something much more compelling as a way for authors and readers to connect.
I prepared for our conversation by watching videos of Seth’s TED talk in May, 2009, and his presentation at last year’s O’Reilly Tools of Change conference.
Here is a complete list of Seth’s previous books.
Click here to download this episode.
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Tags: iPad, Kindle, Linchpin, Seth Godin
February 25th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Great stuff, Len.
I have to say, Linchpin has really stuck with me since I read it. By identifying and naming the Lizard brain, Seth has really woken me up to how big a role it has played in my past decision-making. I’ve had a half-baked ebook project for awhile, that I kept finding reasons not to finish it. But lately, I’ve pushed it into high gear.
Need to kill the lizard!
February 25th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Excellent!! Now, if only Amazon would let us poor benighted Australians buy Linchpin, my positive expectations about e-publishing would be wonderfully and completely met.
February 25th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
You and Seth \get it.\ It’s refreshing, too, to hear you both speak so eloquently about the future of reading. Thank you for doing what you’re doing. It’s fun.
February 25th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Loved it! Nice line of questioning by you, I always enjoy Seth’s viewpoint of the publishing industry.
February 25th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
What a great interview, and from my own home state. This book has in a very short time changed my entire outlook on what I do and given me insight I don’t think I would have gotten anywhere else. I am committed now to not listen to the lizard brain and SHIP!
February 25th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
I downloaded Linchpin to my iPod, Nano, and iPhone via my Audiobooks account and within minutes heard content that paid for the book (audiobook). Although the information on artists starting getting a bit long for me, the second half of the book pumped me back up!
Yes the lizard brain tries to protect us but we need to break out and be a genuis more than one time in our lives.
Although I don’t always agree with Seth, I think he probably prefers it that way thereby creating debate and thought.
February 25th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Great interview. It offers the opportunity to focus my writing toward readers, rather than toward a publisher’s acceptable format.
Along those lines, as valuation for my opinion, my Captcha words assuring I’m human read “Mr dumbness”
February 25th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Great interview. I get it. However, all this talk of apps seems a bit redundant to me – like a step backwards from the social media context. Apps to me are just another device – It has become Apple speak. An “App Centric” world – now that is Apple speak and i think it’s going in the wrong direction, at least long term.
I think there’s much beyond the concept of Apps… looming. In fact in a way Amazon is already there with thier website. They just need to get closer to the customer and cross the web / user barriers by getting thier info into social media like facebook.
February 25th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Excellent interview, Len! The discussion of the Publishing industry was enlightening to say the least. Keep up the great work!
February 25th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Hey Jeanette from Australia? Brick and mortar bookstores have Linchpin. Saw it in Dymocks last week.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:19 am
[...] ~ TRE 11 Seth Godin [...]
February 26th, 2010 at 7:52 am
This was an amazing podcast. I found it extremely informative and intersting. I can see why Godin is so successful.
February 26th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Thanks for a great interview. I listen to everything Seth does (if possible) and this is really a well done interview. You don’t talk much and you lead him in a very subtle way…which is nice. So well done. Excited to explore your blog some more.
February 26th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Len:
Fantastic format, super interviews and a great voice.
I believe that “The Listening Edge Podcast” would be more appropiate, considering that technology seems to be bringing all of us where all started: the spoken Word.
By the way, what tool are you using for your audio clips?
February 26th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Thank you for putting this up! I’m a huge Seth Godin fan. I love how concise his daily blog posts are and how easy his books are to devour. Linchpin is great!
February 27th, 2010 at 9:53 am
Excellent 27 minutes, Len. I look forward to listening more.
I think that “app” that Seth mentioned makes sense. Its convenient for ebook readers, the app is simple to develop and its going to be financially viable for the app-developer/owner.
I like reading business books to improve the way I run my company. And an “app for entrepreneur” is a very appealing idea to me.
February 27th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
[...] audio interview: my hyperbolic rants and a few insights about the future of ebooks. Double last-minute bonus: an audio interview about linchpins and software and [...]
March 1st, 2010 at 12:24 pm
[...] Recently, the The Reading Edge Podcast had Seth on to talk about book marketing and what he did to launch Linchpin. But, Seth spent the majority of the time laying out some powerful next generation ebook publication and marketing strategies. [...]
March 1st, 2010 at 10:06 pm
[...] audio interview: my hyperbolic rants and a few insights about the future of ebooks. Double last-minute bonus: an audio interview about linchpins and software and [...]
March 1st, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Wow. Great interview! Seth was DEAD on with his comments about the publishing industry. It amazes me the publishing industry hasn’t learned any lessons for the music industry. The writing is on the wall and Seth is right. They have only 3 choices (listen to the interview to hear the choices
)
Great work Len. Thanks for all that you do!
Greg
March 1st, 2010 at 11:50 pm
Oh by the way it was interesting when I went to the Kindle store to look at several of Seth’s other books…many were priced at 14 to 15 bucks! I won’t be buying any of those books, not at those prices but I think I will grab Linchpin for 9.99!
March 4th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
[...] mention The Reading Edge’s interview of Seth [...]
March 6th, 2010 at 6:07 am
Thanks Len!
Thanks for providing another high quality interview.
March 6th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Enjoyed you and Seth.
The discussion makes one wish to be an app developer!
Regards,
-MC
March 7th, 2010 at 6:16 am
Linchpin + “lizard brain” . . . so after 30+ years doing what I do fulltime, why now do I discover this terminology? I assumed all I had was “drive” or “inspiration”. This stuff is waking me up! Keep it going! Good work.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:33 am
I wonder if his large frontal lobe is the reason for his insane ability to think write and generally be awesome…
April 3rd, 2010 at 7:57 pm
[...] about daily sketches, some thoughts on publishing inspired by a Seth Godin interview, taking a hard look at our publishing schedule, and extreme swear [...]
April 16th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
[...] Edgerly interviewed Seth Godin on February 24th for The Reading Edge podcast. (It took me forever to get that pun, for some reason). Though Godin was there ostensibly to talk [...]
April 30th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
I love Seths books. I bought LinchPin when it came out and got a lot out of it. BTW, excellent skype interview!
May 11th, 2010 at 12:42 am
[...] Reading Edge Podcast put up a bit from Godin a few months ago talking about his book Linchpin: Are you Indispensible, and in particular [...]
May 13th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Just bought the book, I’ll be back to say more
Thanks for posting!
June 26th, 2010 at 11:12 am
Thanks for sharing your thought about this book, I had heard about it but wasnt sure what it was about,
I like your writing style,
I will come visit more often and tell my friends on facebook.
thanks
July 11th, 2010 at 1:59 am
Awesome book. You get it here:
http://www.wepapers.com/Papers/112844/Insubordinate_by_Seth_Godin.pdf
July 11th, 2010 at 3:14 am
(I meant the Seth Godin’s newest free eBook, the an addendum to “Linchpin”)
August 27th, 2010 at 10:45 am
…
Extremely inspiring publish, Many thanks !!…
September 15th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
[...] Another idea for Vook: make one single Vook app and let readers access titles from there. Reader data collection is a mighty powerful thing. Just ask Seth. [...]
October 1st, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Name: Mark Robbins
Email: submit@abcdesignstudio.com
Comment: I love my Kindle! I never read so much until I purchased an ereader. Buy Kindle Online
January 8th, 2011 at 2:48 am
That was cool! You’ve interviewed a very good author. I envy you. It’s nice to know something that comes primarily from the person itself. Thank you for telling us what Linchpin is.
March 10th, 2011 at 3:38 am
[...] Here is the email exchange. You can also click on the thumbnail on the right to view a screenshot of the actual email. And if you want to listen to the podcast, you can grab it here. [...]
March 13th, 2011 at 9:14 am
Anyone know where to find this?
In his book Free Prize Inside on page 131 it says
*Bonus: An annotated, revised version of the following is found in the latest version of the endnotes, available for free at http://www.freeprizeinside.com
I found the end notes
But I do not see the new list of Edges?
June 1st, 2011 at 2:43 am
I was browsing through the pages and I ended up on your page. I wondered what that book is all about. It made so curious that I wanna have the copy of that right here, right now. Seems inspiring and I am already so excited to have a copy of it. Thanks for the information you shared.