1. How to Get
Seth Godin’s
Your Ideas to Spread
Evaluated by
Alan Herberger

2. Seth
Godin
is an entrepreneur,
blogger and
award winning
author with
a passion for
marketing in
the digital age.

3. In his talk How to Get Your Ideas to Spread,
Godin’s thesis is two-fold:

4. 1. Successful ideas are ideas that spread
through niche markets.

5. 2. In order to spread, an idea must be
remarkable (in that it is literally
remarked about).

6. To illustrate this point, Godin uses the
example of a purple cow, explaining that to be
spreadable, an idea must be notably different.

7. The 4th of the
TED Commandments
(“Thou Shalt Tell a
Story”)
was used effectively
throughout the talk.

8. The talk starts by
hooking the audience
with a story about
the successful (and
unsuccessful) uses of
idea spreading in the
initial marketing of
sliced bread.

9. The 8th of the
TED Commandments
(“Thou Shalt
Remember All the
While: Laughter is
Good ”) was also
used well, humor
playing a major role
in maintaining
audience interest.

10. Godin made good use of Duarte’s rule of “Design, not
Decoration”. All of his slides
were very minimalist in nature, the vast majority
containing only images.
In this regard, the visuals were also an excellent
display of Reynold’s concept of Restraint.

11. Unfortunately, the talk
itself was a bit less
restrained.

12. Though not as problematic
as in some of Godin’s
other talks, there was a
tendency towards too
many examples and too
little discussion.

13. As a result, some points
were left under-explained
and some parts of the talk
passed by in a blur.

14. Seth Godin is by
no means a dull
speaker, but
because of his
pacing issues, I
can only give him
a
4/5
on dynamism.

15. In certain, technical ways,
Godin’s talk was actually
better than Sir Ken
Robinson’s. Godin’s
speech, for example, had
a complete absence of
“ums” and “uhs,”
whereas Ken used them
frequently.

16. Despite this, however, I
found Sir Ken Robinson’s
speech to be more
stimulating.
I believe this to be for two
reasons:

17. 1. Godin’s pacing issues
mentioned before

18. 2. Godin’s tendency to
make far-fetched
comparisons

19. Listening to this talk has confirmed to me
the importance of restraint in public
speaking. With more restraint, many of
Godin’s mistakes would not have been a
problem.

20. My advice to the class would be to get as
much mileage as possible from your
examples. Saying a lot with only a few
examples is better than having a lot of
examples with no time to discuss them.

21. Citations
• TED Logo
– http://www.jdean3.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ted_logo1.jpg
• Toast
– http://www.dinkuminteractive.com/how-habits-are-holding-your-
company-back/
• Cows
– http://www.brianbatchelder.com/2009/06/-photo-by-matthew-
billingsleyviscerali.php
• TED Commandments
– http://www.timlonghurst.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2008/05/tedcommandments.jpg
• Zen Garden
– http://creattica.com/ipad/zen-garden/60759

22. Citations
• Seth Godin
– Title slide: http://sideoftheroadsessions.com/2012/05/seth-godins-
naming-things/
– Bio slide: http://www.simrendeogun.com/seth-godin-geniuses-
leaders-lizards-at-taom/
– Speaking: http://b.vimeocdn.com/ts/218/948/21894889_640.jpg
– Portrait: http://shaneheywood.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/seth-
godin.jpeg
• Sir Ken Robinson
– http://artsoced.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/robinson_ken_email.jp
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