HellOnline

So I know I’m a little late but I just watched Seth Godin talking at Google on Google Video (found the link on Presentation Zen). The video itself is pretty interesting, Seth has a lot to say and his delivery is great. What follows are some thoughts I jotted down:

1. Seth Godin looks disturbingly like a young Lex Luthor.
2. It is hard to ignore the irony of watching Seth Godin praise Googlers for delivering a great experience while cursing at the horrible performance and low quality of Google Video.
3. Seth Godin is a great salesman. No doubt about it. He’s especially skilled at selling himself and that’s what he’s doing throughout the video. He starts out, though, by selling the audience themselves:
   

   “You guys have built something for the ages… I’m quite intimidated to be talking to you at all… I have no business telling you anything…â€?

   When talking about the simple design of Google’s homepage in ’99, He talks about the decisions You’ve made. Remember, this talk was recorded in Feb. 2006, how many were present in Seth’s audience who had any effect on those decisions? One person? Two people? Maybe five, yet Seth keeps saying You, A brilliant thing that You did. You, my audience. You, the guy sitting at the 3rd row, employee number who-even-counts-anymore… The capital Y is palpable, he’s almost pointing at the audience when he says it.

   Before presenting his ideas, Seth buys his audience’s agreement: The two giant marketing wins I want to outline, You know what they are but I wanna describe them. This simple statement – you already know what I’m about to tell you, it’s not news to you, and so, of course, it’s true.

   Then he goes on. He goes on to describe the major ideas of almost each one of his books. Free Prize Inside, Purple Cow, IdeaVirus, Permission Marketing… they’re all there. He may have skipped the Red Fez but I’m sure that’s an oversight. The only thing missing is the Amazon link with the embedded affiliate ID. In a talk dubbed “All Marketers are Liars,â€? Seth Godin definitely proves he’s one of the best. Marketers, of course.

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