ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Seth Godin - Marketer and author
Seth Godin is an entrepreneur and blogger who thinks about the marketing of ideas in the digital age. His newest interest: the tribes we lead.

Why you should listen

"Seth Godin may be the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age," Mary Kuntz wrote in Business Week nearly a decade ago. "Instead of widgets or car parts, he specializes in ideas -- usually, but not always, his own." In fact, he's as focused on spreading ideas as he is on the ideas themselves.

After working as a software brand manager in the mid-1980s, Godin started Yoyodyne, one of the first Internet-based direct-marketing firms, with the notion that companies needed to rethink how they reached customers. His efforts caught the attention of Yahoo!, which bought the company in 1998 and kept Godin on as a vice president of permission marketing. Godin has produced several critically acclaimed and attention-grabbing books, including Permission MarketingAll Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow (which was distributed in a milk carton). In 2005, Godin founded Squidoo.com, a Web site where users can share links and information about an idea or topic important to them.

More profile about the speaker
Seth Godin | Speaker | TED.com
TED2009

Seth Godin: The tribes we lead

Filmed:
2,377,169 views

Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.
- Marketer and author
Seth Godin is an entrepreneur and blogger who thinks about the marketing of ideas in the digital age. His newest interest: the tribes we lead. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
So sometimes I get invited to give weird talks.
0
0
3000
00:15
I got invited to speak to the people
1
3000
3000
00:18
who dress up in big stuffed animal costumes
2
6000
3000
00:21
to perform at sporting events.
3
9000
3000
00:24
Unfortunately I couldn't go.
4
12000
2000
00:26
But it got me thinking about
5
14000
2000
00:28
the fact that these guys, at least most of them,
6
16000
3000
00:31
know what it is that they do for a living.
7
19000
2000
00:33
What they do is they dress up
8
21000
2000
00:35
as stuffed animals and entertain people at sporting events.
9
23000
4000
00:39
Shortly after that I got invited
10
27000
2000
00:41
to speak at the convention of the people
11
29000
2000
00:43
who make balloon animals.
12
31000
2000
00:45
And again, I couldn't go. But it's a fascinating group. They make balloon animals.
13
33000
3000
00:48
There is a big schism between the ones who make
14
36000
2000
00:50
gospel animals and porn animals, but --
15
38000
2000
00:52
(Laughter)
16
40000
2000
00:54
they do a lot of really cool stuff with balloons.
17
42000
3000
00:57
Sometimes they get in trouble, but not often.
18
45000
2000
00:59
And the other thing about these guys
19
47000
2000
01:01
is, they also know what they do for a living.
20
49000
3000
01:04
They make balloon animals.
21
52000
3000
01:07
But what do we do for a living?
22
55000
2000
01:09
What exactly to the people watching this do every day?
23
57000
5000
01:14
And I want to argue that what we do
24
62000
2000
01:16
is we try to change everything.
25
64000
3000
01:19
That we try to find a piece of the status quo --
26
67000
3000
01:22
something that bothers us, something that needs to be improved,
27
70000
2000
01:24
something that is itching to be changed -- and we change it.
28
72000
4000
01:28
We try to make big, permanent, important change.
29
76000
5000
01:33
But we don't think about it that way.
30
81000
2000
01:35
And we haven't spent a lot of time talking about
31
83000
2000
01:37
what that process is like.
32
85000
3000
01:40
And I've been studying it for a couple years.
33
88000
2000
01:42
And I want to share a couple stories with you today.
34
90000
2000
01:44
First, about a guy named Nathan Winograd.
35
92000
2000
01:46
Nathan was the number two person at the San Francisco SPCA.
36
94000
4000
01:50
And what you may not know about the history of the SPCA
37
98000
2000
01:52
is, it was founded to kill dogs and cats.
38
100000
4000
01:56
Cities gave them a charter
39
104000
3000
01:59
to get rid of the stray animals on the street and destroy them.
40
107000
3000
02:02
In a typical year four million dogs and cats were killed,
41
110000
4000
02:06
most of them within 24 hours of being scooped off of the street.
42
114000
4000
02:10
Nathan and his boss saw this,
43
118000
2000
02:12
and they could not tolerate it.
44
120000
2000
02:14
So they set out to make San Francisco
45
122000
2000
02:16
a no-kill city:
46
124000
2000
02:18
create an entire city
47
126000
2000
02:20
where every dog and cat,
48
128000
2000
02:22
unless it was ill or dangerous,
49
130000
3000
02:25
would be adopted, not killed.
50
133000
2000
02:27
And everyone said it was impossible.
51
135000
3000
02:30
Nathan and his boss went to the city council to get a change in the ordinance.
52
138000
3000
02:33
And people from SPCAs and humane shelters around the country
53
141000
3000
02:36
flew to San Francisco
54
144000
2000
02:38
to testify against them --
55
146000
3000
02:41
to say it would hurt the movement and it was inhumane.
56
149000
4000
02:45
They persisted. And Nathan went directly to the community.
57
153000
4000
02:49
He connected with people who cared about this:
58
157000
2000
02:51
nonprofessionals, people with passion.
59
159000
2000
02:53
And within just a couple years,
60
161000
2000
02:55
San Francisco became the first no-kill city,
61
163000
5000
03:00
running no deficit, completely supported by the community.
62
168000
4000
03:04
Nathan left and went to Tompkins County, New York --
63
172000
3000
03:07
a place as different from San Francisco
64
175000
2000
03:09
as you can be and still be in the United States. And he did it again.
65
177000
3000
03:12
He went from being a glorified dogcatcher
66
180000
2000
03:14
to completely transforming the community.
67
182000
3000
03:17
And then he went to North Carolina and did it again.
68
185000
2000
03:19
And he went to Reno and he did it again.
69
187000
3000
03:22
And when I think about what Nathan did,
70
190000
2000
03:24
and when I think about what people here do, I think about ideas.
71
192000
3000
03:27
And I think about the idea that
72
195000
3000
03:30
creating an idea, spreading an idea
73
198000
2000
03:32
has a lot behind it.
74
200000
2000
03:34
I don't know if you've ever been to a Jewish wedding,
75
202000
3000
03:37
but what they do is, they take a light bulb
76
205000
3000
03:40
and they smash it.
77
208000
3000
03:43
Now there is a bunch of reasons for that, and stories about it.
78
211000
4000
03:47
But one reason is because it indicates a change,
79
215000
3000
03:50
from before to after.
80
218000
2000
03:52
It is a moment in time.
81
220000
2000
03:54
And I want to argue that we are living through
82
222000
3000
03:57
and are right at the key moment
83
225000
2000
03:59
of a change in the way ideas are created
84
227000
2000
04:01
and spread and implemented.
85
229000
2000
04:03
We started with the factory idea:
86
231000
3000
04:06
that you could change the whole world if you had an efficient factory
87
234000
2000
04:08
that could churn out change.
88
236000
2000
04:10
We then went to the TV idea,
89
238000
2000
04:12
that said if you had a big enough mouthpiece,
90
240000
2000
04:14
if you could get on TV enough times, if you could buy enough ads, you could win.
91
242000
3000
04:17
And now we're in this new model of leadership,
92
245000
4000
04:21
where the way we make change
93
249000
3000
04:24
is not by using money
94
252000
3000
04:27
or power to lever a system,
95
255000
2000
04:29
but by leading.
96
257000
2000
04:31
So let me tell you about the three cycles. The first one is the factory cycle.
97
259000
3000
04:34
Henry Ford comes up with a really cool idea.
98
262000
4000
04:38
It enables him to hire men
99
266000
2000
04:40
who used to get paid 50 cents a day
100
268000
2000
04:42
and pay them five dollars a day.
101
270000
2000
04:44
Because he's got an efficient enough factory.
102
272000
2000
04:46
Well with that sort of advantage
103
274000
2000
04:48
you can churn out a lot of cars.
104
276000
2000
04:50
You can make a lot of change. You can get roads built.
105
278000
3000
04:53
You can change the fabric of an entire country.
106
281000
3000
04:56
That the essence of what you're doing is you need
107
284000
2000
04:58
ever-cheaper labor,
108
286000
2000
05:00
and ever-faster machines.
109
288000
3000
05:03
And the problem we've run into is, we're running out of both.
110
291000
3000
05:06
Ever-cheaper labor and ever-faster machines.
111
294000
3000
05:09
(Laughter)
112
297000
5000
05:14
So we shift gears for a minute,
113
302000
3000
05:17
and say, "I know: television;
114
305000
3000
05:20
advertising. Push push.
115
308000
2000
05:22
Take a good idea and push it on the world.
116
310000
3000
05:25
I have a better mousetrap.
117
313000
2000
05:27
And if I can just get enough money to tell enough people, I'll sell enough."
118
315000
4000
05:31
And you can build an entire industry on that.
119
319000
3000
05:34
If necessary you can put babies in your ads.
120
322000
3000
05:37
If necessary you can use babies to sell other stuff.
121
325000
3000
05:40
And if babies don't work, you can use doctors.
122
328000
4000
05:44
But be careful.
123
332000
2000
05:46
Because you don't want to get an unfortunate juxtaposition,
124
334000
2000
05:48
where you're talking about one thing instead of the other.
125
336000
3000
05:51
(Laughter)
126
339000
2000
05:53
This model requires you to act like the king,
127
341000
4000
05:57
like the person in the front of the room
128
345000
2000
05:59
throwing things to the peons in the back.
129
347000
2000
06:01
That you are in charge, and you're going to tell people
130
349000
3000
06:04
what to do next.
131
352000
2000
06:06
The quick little diagram of it is, you're up here,
132
354000
3000
06:09
and you are pushing it out to the world.
133
357000
2000
06:11
This method -- mass marketing --
134
359000
3000
06:14
requires average ideas,
135
362000
2000
06:16
because you're going to the masses,
136
364000
2000
06:18
and plenty of ads.
137
366000
3000
06:21
What we've done as spammers
138
369000
2000
06:23
is tried to hypnotize everyone
139
371000
2000
06:25
into buying our idea,
140
373000
2000
06:27
hypnotize everyone into donating to our cause,
141
375000
2000
06:29
hypnotize everyone into voting for our candidate.
142
377000
3000
06:32
And, unfortunately, it doesn't work so well anymore either.
143
380000
5000
06:37
(Laughter)
144
385000
3000
06:40
But there is good news around the corner -- really good news.
145
388000
5000
06:45
I call it the idea of tribes.
146
393000
5000
06:50
What tribes are, is a very simple concept
147
398000
3000
06:53
that goes back 50,000 years.
148
401000
3000
06:56
It's about leading and connecting people and ideas.
149
404000
4000
07:00
And it's something that people have wanted forever.
150
408000
3000
07:03
Lots of people are used to having a spiritual tribe, or a church tribe,
151
411000
4000
07:07
having a work tribe,
152
415000
2000
07:09
having a community tribe.
153
417000
3000
07:12
But now, thanks to the internet, thanks to the explosion of mass media,
154
420000
3000
07:15
thanks to a lot of other things
155
423000
2000
07:17
that are bubbling through our society around the world,
156
425000
3000
07:20
tribes are everywhere.
157
428000
2000
07:22
The Internet was supposed to homogenize everyone by connecting us all.
158
430000
2000
07:24
Instead what it's allowed is silos of interest.
159
432000
3000
07:27
So you've got the red-hat ladies over here.
160
435000
2000
07:29
You've got the red-hat triathletes over there.
161
437000
3000
07:32
You've got the organized armies over here.
162
440000
2000
07:34
You've got the disorganized rebels over here.
163
442000
2000
07:36
You've got people in white hats making food.
164
444000
2000
07:38
And people in white hats sailing boats.
165
446000
2000
07:40
The point is that you can find Ukrainian folk dancers
166
448000
3000
07:43
and connect with them,
167
451000
2000
07:45
because you want to be connected.
168
453000
2000
07:47
That people on the fringes
169
455000
2000
07:49
can find each other, connect and go somewhere.
170
457000
4000
07:53
Every town that has a volunteer fire department
171
461000
2000
07:55
understands this way of thinking.
172
463000
2000
07:57
(Laughter)
173
465000
6000
08:03
Now it turns out
174
471000
3000
08:06
this is a legitimate non-photoshopped photo.
175
474000
3000
08:09
People I know who are firemen told me that this is not uncommon.
176
477000
2000
08:11
And that what firemen do to train sometimes
177
479000
3000
08:14
is they take a house that is going to be torn down,
178
482000
2000
08:16
and they burn it down instead, and practice putting it out.
179
484000
3000
08:19
But they always stop and take a picture.
180
487000
2000
08:21
(Laughter)
181
489000
1000
08:22
You know the pirate tribe is a fascinating one.
182
490000
3000
08:25
They've got their own flag. They've got the eye patches.
183
493000
2000
08:27
You can tell when you're running into someone in a tribe.
184
495000
3000
08:30
And it turns out that it's tribes --
185
498000
2000
08:32
not money, not factories --
186
500000
2000
08:34
that can change our world, that can change politics,
187
502000
3000
08:37
that can align large numbers of people.
188
505000
2000
08:39
Not because you force them to do something against their will,
189
507000
4000
08:43
but because they wanted to connect.
190
511000
2000
08:45
That what we do for a living now,
191
513000
2000
08:47
all of us, I think,
192
515000
2000
08:49
is find something worth changing,
193
517000
2000
08:51
and then assemble tribes that assemble tribes
194
519000
5000
08:56
that spread the idea and spread the idea.
195
524000
2000
08:58
And it becomes something far bigger than ourselves,
196
526000
2000
09:00
it becomes a movement.
197
528000
3000
09:03
So when Al Gore set out
198
531000
2000
09:05
to change the world again,
199
533000
3000
09:08
he didn't do it by himself.
200
536000
2000
09:10
And he didn't do it by buying a lot of ads.
201
538000
2000
09:12
He did it by creating a movement.
202
540000
3000
09:15
Thousands of people around the country
203
543000
2000
09:17
who could give his presentation for him,
204
545000
3000
09:20
because he can't be in 100 or 200 or 500 cities in each night.
205
548000
5000
09:25
You don't need everyone.
206
553000
3000
09:28
What Kevin Kelley has taught us is you just need,
207
556000
2000
09:30
I don't know, a thousand true fans --
208
558000
2000
09:32
a thousand people who care enough
209
560000
3000
09:35
that they will get you the next round
210
563000
3000
09:38
and the next round and the next round.
211
566000
2000
09:40
And that means that the idea you create, the product you create,
212
568000
3000
09:43
the movement you create isn't for everyone,
213
571000
2000
09:45
it's not a mass thing. That's not what this is about.
214
573000
2000
09:47
What it's about instead
215
575000
3000
09:50
is finding the true believers.
216
578000
2000
09:52
It's easy to look at what I've said so far,
217
580000
3000
09:55
and say, "Wait a minute, I don't have what it takes to be that kind of leader."
218
583000
3000
09:58
So here are two leaders. They don't have a lot in common.
219
586000
5000
10:03
They're about the same age. But that's about it.
220
591000
4000
10:07
What they did, though, is each in their own way,
221
595000
3000
10:10
created a different way
222
598000
4000
10:14
of navigating your way through technology.
223
602000
2000
10:16
So some people will go out and get people to be on one team.
224
604000
3000
10:19
And some people will get people to be on the other team.
225
607000
3000
10:22
It also informs the decisions you make
226
610000
2000
10:24
when you make products or services.
227
612000
2000
10:26
You know, this is one of my favorite devices.
228
614000
3000
10:29
But what a shame that it's not organized
229
617000
2000
10:31
to help authors create movements.
230
619000
3000
10:34
What would happen if, when you're using your Kindle,
231
622000
2000
10:36
you could see the comments and quotes and notes
232
624000
4000
10:40
from all the other people reading the same book as you in that moment.
233
628000
3000
10:43
Or from your book group. Or from your friends, or from the circle you want.
234
631000
3000
10:46
What would happen if authors, or people with ideas
235
634000
3000
10:49
could use version two, which comes out on Monday,
236
637000
3000
10:52
and use it to organize people
237
640000
3000
10:55
who want to talk about something.
238
643000
2000
10:57
Now there is a million things I could share with you about the mechanics here.
239
645000
3000
11:00
But let me just try a couple.
240
648000
2000
11:02
The Beatles did not invent teenagers.
241
650000
3000
11:05
They merely decided to lead them.
242
653000
3000
11:08
That most movements, most leadership that we're doing
243
656000
3000
11:11
is about finding a group that's disconnected
244
659000
2000
11:13
but already has a yearning --
245
661000
2000
11:15
not persuading people to want something
246
663000
2000
11:17
they don't have yet.
247
665000
2000
11:19
When Diane Hatz worked on "The Meatrix,"
248
667000
4000
11:23
her video that spread all across the internet
249
671000
3000
11:26
about the way farm animals are treated,
250
674000
3000
11:29
she didn't invent the idea of being a vegan.
251
677000
2000
11:31
She didn't invent the idea of caring about this issue.
252
679000
2000
11:33
But she helped organize people,
253
681000
2000
11:35
and helped turn it into a movement.
254
683000
2000
11:37
Hugo Chavez did not invent the disaffected
255
685000
3000
11:40
middle and lower class of Venezuela. He merely led them.
256
688000
2000
11:42
Bob Marley did not invent Rastafarians.
257
690000
3000
11:45
He just stepped up and said, "Follow me."
258
693000
3000
11:48
Derek Sivers invented CD Baby,
259
696000
3000
11:51
which allowed independent musicians
260
699000
3000
11:54
to have a place to sell their music without selling out to the man --
261
702000
4000
11:58
to have place to take the mission
262
706000
2000
12:00
they already wanted to go to, and connect with each other.
263
708000
3000
12:03
What all these people have in common is that they are heretics.
264
711000
4000
12:07
That heretics look at the status quo and say,
265
715000
2000
12:09
"This will not stand. I can't abide this status quo.
266
717000
3000
12:12
I am willing to stand up and be counted and move things forward.
267
720000
4000
12:16
I see what the status quo is; I don't like it."
268
724000
3000
12:19
That instead of looking at all the little rules
269
727000
2000
12:21
and following each one of them,
270
729000
3000
12:24
that instead of being what I call a sheepwalker --
271
732000
5000
12:29
somebody who's half asleep,
272
737000
2000
12:31
following instructions,
273
739000
2000
12:33
keeping their head down, fitting in --
274
741000
3000
12:36
every once in a while someone stands up and says, "Not me."
275
744000
3000
12:39
Someone stands up and says, "This one is important.
276
747000
4000
12:43
We need to organize around it."
277
751000
3000
12:46
And not everyone will. But you don't need everyone.
278
754000
3000
12:49
You just need a few people --
279
757000
2000
12:51
(Laughter) --
280
759000
4000
12:55
who will look at the rules,
281
763000
2000
12:57
realize they make no sense,
282
765000
3000
13:00
and realize how much they want to be connected.
283
768000
2000
13:02
So Tony Hsieh does not run a shoe store.
284
770000
3000
13:05
Zappos isn't a shoe store.
285
773000
3000
13:08
Zappos is the one, the only,
286
776000
2000
13:10
the best-there-ever-was
287
778000
2000
13:12
place for people who are into shoes to find each other,
288
780000
4000
13:16
to talk about their passion,
289
784000
2000
13:18
to connect with people who care more
290
786000
2000
13:20
about customer service than making a nickel tomorrow.
291
788000
3000
13:23
It can be something as prosaic as shoes,
292
791000
2000
13:25
and something as complicated as overthrowing a government.
293
793000
2000
13:27
It's exactly the same behavior though.
294
795000
4000
13:31
What it requires, as Geraldine Carter has discovered,
295
799000
3000
13:34
is to be able to say, "I can't do this by myself.
296
802000
3000
13:37
But if I can get other people to join my Climb and Ride,
297
805000
4000
13:41
then together we can get something that we all want.
298
809000
5000
13:46
We're just waiting for someone to lead us."
299
814000
2000
13:48
Michelle Kaufman has pioneered
300
816000
2000
13:50
new ways of thinking about environmental architecture.
301
818000
4000
13:54
She doesn't do it by quietly building one house at a time.
302
822000
3000
13:57
She does it by telling a story
303
825000
3000
14:00
to people who want to hear it.
304
828000
2000
14:02
By connecting a tribe of people
305
830000
2000
14:04
who are desperate to be connected to each other.
306
832000
3000
14:07
By leading a movement and
307
835000
2000
14:09
making change.
308
837000
2000
14:11
And around and around and around it goes.
309
839000
2000
14:13
So three questions I'd offer you.
310
841000
2000
14:15
The first one is, who exactly
311
843000
3000
14:18
are you upsetting?
312
846000
2000
14:20
Because if you're not upsetting anyone, you're not changing the status quo.
313
848000
4000
14:24
The second question is, who are you connecting?
314
852000
3000
14:27
Because for a lot of people, that's what they're in it for:
315
855000
3000
14:30
the connections that are being made, one to the other.
316
858000
4000
14:34
And the third one is, who are you leading?
317
862000
4000
14:38
Because focusing on that part of it --
318
866000
3000
14:41
not the mechanics of what you're building,
319
869000
2000
14:43
but the who, and the leading part -- is where change comes.
320
871000
4000
14:47
So Blake, at Tom's Shoes, had a very simple idea.
321
875000
4000
14:51
"What would happen if every time someone bought a pair of these shoes
322
879000
5000
14:56
I gave exactly the same pair to someone
323
884000
2000
14:58
who doesn't even own a pair of shoes?"
324
886000
3000
15:01
This is not the story of how you get shelf space at Neiman Marcus.
325
889000
4000
15:05
It's a story of a product that tells a story.
326
893000
4000
15:09
And as you walk around with this remarkable pair of shoes
327
897000
2000
15:11
and someone says, "What are those?"
328
899000
2000
15:13
You get to tell the story on Blake's behalf,
329
901000
2000
15:15
on behalf of the people who got the shoes.
330
903000
2000
15:17
And suddenly it's not one pair of shoes or 100 pairs of shoes.
331
905000
3000
15:20
It's tens of thousands of pairs of shoes.
332
908000
2000
15:22
My friend Red Maxwell has spent the last 10 years
333
910000
3000
15:25
fighting against juvenile diabetes.
334
913000
3000
15:28
Not fighting the organization that's fighting it -- fighting with them, leading them,
335
916000
3000
15:31
connecting them, challenging the status quo
336
919000
4000
15:35
because it's important to him.
337
923000
2000
15:37
And the people he surrounds himself with need the connection.
338
925000
5000
15:42
They need the leadership. It makes a difference.
339
930000
3000
15:45
You don't need permission from people to lead them.
340
933000
3000
15:48
But in case you do, here it is:
341
936000
3000
15:51
they're waiting, we're waiting
342
939000
3000
15:54
for you to show us where to go next.
343
942000
3000
15:57
So here is what leaders have in common. The first thing is, they challenge
344
945000
3000
16:00
the status quo.
345
948000
2000
16:02
They challenge what's currently there.
346
950000
2000
16:04
The second thing is, they build a culture.
347
952000
3000
16:07
A secret language, a seven-second handshake,
348
955000
3000
16:10
a way of knowing that you're in or out.
349
958000
3000
16:13
They have curiosity. Curiosity about people in the tribe,
350
961000
3000
16:16
curiosity about outsiders. They're asking questions.
351
964000
3000
16:19
They connect people to one another.
352
967000
2000
16:21
Do you know what people want more than anything?
353
969000
2000
16:23
They want to be missed.
354
971000
2000
16:25
They want to be missed the day they don't show up.
355
973000
2000
16:27
They want to be missed when they're gone.
356
975000
3000
16:30
And tribe leaders can do that.
357
978000
2000
16:32
It's fascinating, because all tribe leaders have charisma,
358
980000
4000
16:36
but you don't need charisma to become a leader.
359
984000
2000
16:38
Being a leader gives you charisma.
360
986000
3000
16:41
If you look and study the leaders who have succeeded,
361
989000
3000
16:44
that's where charisma comes from -- from the leading.
362
992000
2000
16:46
Finally, they commit.
363
994000
3000
16:49
They commit to the cause. They commit to the tribe.
364
997000
2000
16:51
They commit to the people who are there.
365
999000
3000
16:54
So I'd like you to do something for me.
366
1002000
3000
16:57
And I hope you'll think about it before you reject it out-of-hand.
367
1005000
3000
17:00
What I want you to do, it only takes 24 hours,
368
1008000
4000
17:04
is: create a movement.
369
1012000
2000
17:06
Something that matters. Start. Do it. We need it.
370
1014000
4000
17:10
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
371
1018000
2000
17:12
(Applause)
372
1020000
5000

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Seth Godin - Marketer and author
Seth Godin is an entrepreneur and blogger who thinks about the marketing of ideas in the digital age. His newest interest: the tribes we lead.

Why you should listen

"Seth Godin may be the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age," Mary Kuntz wrote in Business Week nearly a decade ago. "Instead of widgets or car parts, he specializes in ideas -- usually, but not always, his own." In fact, he's as focused on spreading ideas as he is on the ideas themselves.

After working as a software brand manager in the mid-1980s, Godin started Yoyodyne, one of the first Internet-based direct-marketing firms, with the notion that companies needed to rethink how they reached customers. His efforts caught the attention of Yahoo!, which bought the company in 1998 and kept Godin on as a vice president of permission marketing. Godin has produced several critically acclaimed and attention-grabbing books, including Permission MarketingAll Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow (which was distributed in a milk carton). In 2005, Godin founded Squidoo.com, a Web site where users can share links and information about an idea or topic important to them.

More profile about the speaker
Seth Godin | Speaker | TED.com