LIVE

20 mins with
Seth Godin
An Instagram live chat with Peace Itimi

Image credits - Seth Godin Made by Disha

 Intro

The birth of this conversation started a couple of months

ago when Peace Itimi started reading Seth’s book called -
All Marketers Tell Stories. These caught her attention:

Go tell a story, if it doesn’t resonate, tell a different story.

When you find a story that works, live that story. Make it
true, authentic, subjected to scrutiny. All marketers are
storytellers and all losers are liars.

A great story is true because it is consistent and authentic.

Great stories are trusted. No marketer succeeds in telling a
story unless he has earned the credibility to tell that story.

This conversation is a follow-through with the book to

discuss the art of telling authentic stories beyond
“storytelling” as a buzzword.

20 mins with Seth Godin / Peace Itimi 2

Chapter 1

How do brands leverage

authenticity to build a
thriving business?
Seth: promise that you can’t keep because everyone
Authenticity is a crock, it’s a myth. Authenticity is hustling. But the thing is, no one wants to be
is not important. People are trapped by hustled. 
authenticity. We need to get the language right.
Have you ever met someone in the world who
Authentic now means “do whatever you like”, said “I wish someone would hustle me?” We
“do whatever is in your heart”, “just say it”. No don’t want hustlers. Don’t hustle people. Show
one wants an authentic Doctor,  No one wants up in a way you’re willing to be consistent.
an authentic lawyer. No one wants an authentic
The last time you were authentic was when you
friend. 
were three months old in diapers. Ever since
We want someone who is consistent. We want then, you’ve been doing stuff on purpose.
someone who is going to do their best even if Doing it, because you hope it’ll work. Do it on
they don’t feel like it. We want someone who is purpose in your profession.
going to make a promise and keep it. That is
how we tell the stories that actually matter.

If you say “Oh! I was just being authentic”, what

you are trying to do, is give us an excuse for
why you were being selfish. Don’t be selfish. earn trust and attention,
between and among the
What it means to be generous, is to be
people you are interacting with.
consistent. And so the idea of telling a story is
to make a promise, one that you can keep. It
gets so tempting in this busy world to make a

20 mins with Seth Godin / Peace Itimi 3

Chapter 2

What really is the

hack for creating a
great story?
As content creators, we are always trying to create a These people who are supposed to be your friends, aren’t
great story and sometimes we get stuck. What really is really your friends. These people who are giving you likes,
the hack for creating a great story? How do you know don’t really like you. They are all just little metrics. Metrics
that the content you’ve created will resonate and be they are putting in place to get us hooked.
loved by people?
The alternative is to say, who exactly am I here to serve?
Seth: Who am I trying to help? How can I make a promise to
My friend, Bernadette Jiwa, wrote a story about this at them that resonates in their own language.
storyskills.com and she’s running a workshop with us at
There’s a Zulu term  - SAOBANA which means “I SEE YOU”
thestroyskillsworkshop.com. 

It doesn’t just mean I see your face. It means I see your

The first thing to know is - Story skills are skills just like
parents and your grandparents before you. It means I see
ice skating skills or juggling skills or surfing skills. They are
your dreams, your hopes and your fears. It means I see
skills and you can get better at it. You can learn.
who you are trying to become.
The second thing to know, the biggest one is - You can’t
If you can see the other person truly, then telling them a
tell a story to everyone. You have to tell a story to
story isn’t that hard because you know how they are
someone. You have to be specific. The idea is, the
listening. What we have to find is the empathy to show up
smallest viable audience. Not the biggest possible
for someone we care about and be willing to ignore
audience, but the smallest audience you can thrive with.
everybody else.
Peace has got 10,000 people following her on Instagram
Peace:
but not all of those 10,000 people are waking up this
It’s not about trying to create a perfect story. It is about
morning saying - “should I look at Kim Kardashian or
finding that one person you care about and creating a
should I go check out what Peace is up to”.
story for them that will actually connect and resonate with
You pick your people and your people pick you. them and solve their problems. If you have one person you
care about and create content for them, then they’ll pick
Social media has made us feel jealous that our numbers
you and people like them will pick you.
aren’t enough. That’s how they make money. These
people who are following you aren’t really following you.

20 mins with Seth Godin / Peace Itimi 4

Chapter 3

What are your

thoughts on
community building?
Community Building is becoming a trend. all talking to each other in the comment. They
There’s a lot of pressure to build a community, won’t be having that conversation if it weren’t
who would be loyal to us, to build a sustainable for you. That doesn’t mean you can turn around
business. What are your thoughts on this? and say, send me money. That’s not the deal.
The deal is, you are able to establish a
Seth:
connection and earn trust and attention,
I wrote a book about it called “Tribes”. They are
between and among the people you are
not your community. You don’t get to own
interacting with.
anyone. We don’t get to own any community.
We don’t get to own any community. They are If you bring them a new opportunity, some of
already a community. They’ll probably be them who like to go first will jump at it and say
connected even if you weren’t there. “yes I’m in. I’d like that ability to do it”. It’s not
about manipulation. It’s about opening doors
What we get to do is show up for a while and
and turning on lights.
lead them. What we get to do is connect them
even more deeply but they will not follow us to
wherever we want to go, they’ll follow us
wherever they want to go.

The idea of amplifying and creating community earn trust and attention,
is this. This isn’t television. This isn’t broadcast. between and among the
It is - How do I give people a chance to talk people you are interacting with.
about something. Because you are in the world,
Peace… the 500+ people watching this live are

20 mins with Seth Godin / Peace Itimi 5

Chapter 4

When change happens,

how do you take your
audience along?
People grow, People change and People underrated. Then one day she said, “I don’t
evolve. If you are trying to build a personal want to make music like that, I want to make
brand, you’ll experience evolution. Your music like this.” A whole bunch of her fans said,
stories, your journey and more will experience we don’t like that music and she said, “Okay!
change. When that change happens, how do You have my old records, listen to my old
you take your audience along with that change records. My new records aren’t for you.”
as you switch niche? Do you take them along
That’s what we have to do if we are going to
or you abandon them?
truly do our work. We have to figure out, where
do we seek to go? Who do we seek to connect?
Where do we seek to lead? Maybe people will
Seth:
come with us, maybe they won’t. You have to
Authenticity is make-belief. Your personal brand
have the guts to do that or else you are a fraud.
is a promise you made. It is who you said you’ll
There’s a difference between being consistent
be when they liaise with you. A brand is what
and being a fraud.
we expect.
You don’t want to be a fraud because you are
If you don’t want to keep making a promise,
willingly doing something you know isn’t right.
make a different  promise. You know Joni
That’s not what I am arguing for, I am arguing
Mitchell, an American Pop singer from back in
for being consistent in pursuit of the change
the old days? From the 70s. Her personal brand
you actually need to make.
was selling songs that you could sing around a
campfire. Songs that reminded you of people
you went to high school with. She was

20 mins with Seth Godin / Peace Itimi 6

Chapter 5

What would your

advice be for a
starter?
If you are just starting your journey as a
marketer, what would your advice be for that
person?

Seth:
Marketing is not about advertising or hype. The best way
Marketing is about making a change happen.
That’s what we do, we make change happen. to make things
Change is hard when it doesn’t work because
better is by
you tried to do something and it didn’t work,
and change is hard when it does work because changing them.
when the world changes, it doesn’t always
come out the way we expect.

So, if you care, then you should make things

better. The best way to make things better is by
changing them. 

If you care, you are willing to fail. You’re willing

to fail in service of making things better.

20 mins with Seth Godin / Peace Itimi 7

Chapter 6

What is your
favourite failure
story and why?
Seth:
I have failed more than most people on
purpose. I have failed financially, professionally.
I have failed with products that didn’t work. My
biggest failures are the things I didn’t have the
guts to try. 

I am really proud of the things I launched that My biggest

didn’t work because I did it with good intent
failures are the
and I did it with care. The people I didn’t find
the energy to help, the doors I didn’t open, the things I didn’t
lights I didn’t turn on - I can’t get that chance
again. That’s what gets me out of bed in the
have the guts
morning. How do I show up today without to try
missing that opportunity. I’ve walked away and
made mistakes that cost billions of dollars. It’s
not the money. It’s what we do with all the
privilege we have. Are we going to spend all our
time watching YouTube videos and cat emojis? I
think we could do something better.

20 mins with Seth Godin / Peace Itimi 8

Chapter 7

One advice you have for

entrepreneurs, content
creators and marketers?
If our readers forget everything you have said
in this book, what is one advice you have for
entrepreneurs, content creators and
marketers?

Seth:
Don’t listen to advice. We learn by doing things. We learn by
The reason that I launched the workshop is
doing things
because people like you and others are out
there doing the work. In 1992, I said the World
Wide Web was stupid and it wasn’t going to
work but here we are. Don’t listen to advice,
just do good work and do it again.

20 mins with Seth Godin / Peace Itimi 9

Bonus

Seth, What will be

of value to you right
now?
This last question is by my friend. She says,
Seth, What will be of value to you right now?

Seth:

That’s easy! That’s why I’m here right now.

What I need
Because, there are hundreds of people who can from the people I
make things better. If hundreds of people
reading this right now all made things better, teach is to teach
that’ll be so much more efficient than me trying
other people.
to make things better. What I need from the
people I teach is to teach other people. The
way we are going to change the world isn’t by
some world leader putting out a proclamation.
It’ll be by hundred people like you, making
things better.

20 mins with Seth Godin / Peace Itimi 10

Keep doing
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