260. What Seth Godin Thinks You Should Know About Storytelling + My Origin Story

Productive Insights Podcast — Actionable Business Growth Ideas — with Ash Roy

In this episode, Seth Godin and I discuss the power of storytelling.

I also share something I haven't shared publicly before — the reason I started Productive Insights after a tragic event in 2008.

This is my story. Feel free to skip around using the timestamps below.

Timestamps

0:00 Intro

2:23 Story is not "once upon a time ..."

2:55 Strategy if often based on our story

3:16 Your story influences your choices

4:02 My story: Why I launched Productive Insights

4:44 Unhappy in a corporate role with a CPA & MBA

5:12 Our first son died in our arms

5:28 The irony: my wife’s a high risk obstetrician

5:51 The decision to quit an unfulfilling career

6:03 Our time on this earth is very limited

7:15 Fortunately our story ended well

7:44 Turns out I’m married to a hero (heroine)

8:21 Why I hadn’t shared this story publicly (since 2008)

9:03 Why being a (revenue) millionaire is meaningless

10:35 The problem with metrics

10:44 Some of the happiest people make $10 a day

11:00 Money is a story we tell ourselves

11:09 My story took a funny turn

11:09 The million dollar lie

12:26 Shortcuts aren’t

13:06 Why the smallest viable audience matters

14:59 A simple strategy to earn money

15:26 Find an audience who’ll pay you to solve a problem

16:47 The alternative to hustling

17:09 Create the right conditions so the customer wants to buy

19:16 Harness the power of compounding

20:41 Imposter syndrome

21:01 We’re all imposters

21:34 How to sell by creating tension

21:45 How Seth used his book to create tension and sell

21:45 Seth explains exactly how tension works (in selling)

23:25 Seth’s advice on how to build a membership community

23:33 The Productive Insights Membership program (currently taking applications)

24:24 The story of Joe Mancuso

25:55 How Joe Mancuso created sales tension with Seth Godin

27:20 Goal setting

28:20 Seth’s view on goal setting for business owners

29:42 Why corporate goal setting is often myopic and encourages bad behaviour

30:26 Pick your customers, pick your future

30:52 If you’re not firing customers, you’re not serious about them

31:36 “You make me better every time I see you” Seth Godin

Learn more about the Productive Insights Membership program here

https://www.ProductiveInsights.com/me...