MBA2334 Must Read: Linchpin by Seth Godin

0:09Heyo! Welcome to the$100 MBA show, powerful business lessons you can count on. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. I'm also the co-founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started back in 2014. And today's episode is a must-read episode. On our must-read episodes, I share with you a book that has influenced me as an entrepreneur. I share with you its takeaways, its insights, and why you should read it too. Today's must-read is Linchpin by Seth Godin. This is a book that I read maybe about five or six years ago, but I wanted to revisit. And when I went through it, I realized this is a must-read.

0:44I got to share this with our audience. Lynchman is a book I read about five or six years ago, but wanted to revisit recently. I gave it a review and realized, you know what? This is a great book. I should share this with you, our audience, as a must-read episode. If you're a follower of the show, you know that I'm a big fan of Seth Godin and his books. They're short, they're concise, they're to the point, they open your mind, and this book is no different. If you're overwhelmed with business books with their jargon and the market-y talk and the strategic talk, you're going to love Seth Godin because he cuts right through that.

1:18And Linchpin is a book that explains why you need to be indispensable in whatever you do. Whatever you provide in your business, whatever your secret sauce is, whether you're a coach or a creator, or you provide a service or a product or an experience to your customers, you need to be fantastic. And this book explains why and how, how to do it. There are three major takeaways in this book that we're going to break down in today's episode. And then we're going to wrap it up by showing you how you can use this book to create an action plan for yourself so that you're indispensable, you're unique, you stand out from the noisy crowd that's out there on the internet and become a linchpin.

1:58Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. One of the first things that Seth Godin does in all his books is he tries to explain to you why he's writing this book. What's the whole point of this thing? Who are these linchpins? And the first thing he does is he describes that linchpins are incredibly passionate about what they do. They pour their heart. They pour their minds. They pour their energy. They pour everything they got into their craft, into their business. They're all in all the chips in the middle of the table kind of people. Okay. And if you want to stand out, if you want to become like the best of the best in your game and whatever you do, whether you're a podcaster and you want to be the next Joe Rogan or Lex Friedman.

2:39or you're a YouTuber and you want to be the next Mr. Beast or you bake cookies and want to be the next famous Amos Cookies. The point here is that if you want to be the best of the best, you got to put everything into it. Full focus, full force. The second thing that describes the linchpin is that they understand they need to overcome their fears to become good at what they do. Fear of failure, fear of disappointment, fear of falling on their face in front of everybody, embarrassing themselves, Fear of not being as good as they need to be right now, but will be in the future. Fear plays a huge role in stopping us from being successful.

3:16And linchpins understand that I got to overcome that fear to make it to the other side. And the third aspect of linchpins is very, very interesting. It's giving without expecting anything in return. And this goes with anything you do in your business, in your life, in your career. Most people are trying to be strategic. They're trying to be tit for tat. They're saying, hey, what's the ROI on this investment of time and money and energy? Linchpins are going full force, giving all away their advice, their content, their best selves, not worrying so much about how much am I going to get back for doing this?

3:57If you look at the big names in your industry, the influencers, they're putting out so much value into the world. And you only can do this if you're not constantly reevaluating and stopping and asking yourself, should I put this out? Should I save this? Should I charge for this? They're just really trying to put their best foot forward and doing their best, not worrying about what's going to be the return on investment, so to speak. Yes, they're going to create products and services and have a business and sell something, but they're not constantly trying to nickel and dime their customers and make them feel like they're getting just enough value for what they paid.

4:33They're generous with what they give. And Seth Godin talks about in the book, this last point is something that a lot of people get caught up in. They just don't understand the value of giving without not worrying about ROI. They want to be strategic constantly. They want to be tactical. They think that's being smart. But in fact, it's just exhausting them. I just wrapped up watching the show Succession, which is an HBO show about a big media company and the family behind it. It's four seasons long and no spoilers here or anything like that. But basically nothing changes throughout the four seasons because everybody is doing the same thing over and over, trying to hold on to power, hold on to money, trying to play both sides, trying to be overly strategic, not being generous.

5:16And they don't grow. They don't move forward. They're just miserable. And it was one hell of a metaphor for what Seth Godin is talking about right now. Now, I want to mention that this book is not just a business book. Seth talks to people in careers trying to be better at their job. He talks about the value of even if you're a barista at Starbucks and you're the friendliest, smiliest, upbeat person that works at that Starbucks, you're most likely going to be promoted faster, sooner, more significantly than everybody else just because you are being better. You are just putting yourself out there.

5:49You're unique. You're adding value to this business. So how can you be more valuable to the business? How can you be more valuable to your own business? And this is what this book explores. How do you become 100 times more valuable? You're indispensable, whether you're in a job, a career, or in your own business. And the reason why most people don't do this, where they give the extra mile, where they try hard, is because they are afraid that these efforts will fall short. They're afraid it won't pay off. But you can't play like this. You can't hedge your bets in business, in life, in your career.

6:25You have to just give it all up. You got to try. You got to put it all on the field like they say in sports and let the chips fall where they may. Listen, you're going to spend eight hours a day at work or whatever or in your business. You might as well just go all flat out. The day will go by regardless. So just work as hard as possible. Add as much value as possible to your business. And don't worry so much about, hey, is this actually going to pay off? Now, obviously, you want to work smart and you want to make sure that you're working on the right things. But when you have decided on that, you go ahead and you work and you give your all.

6:59Hedging your bets never works in business, in negotiations, in life, you name it. Now, in the third part of the book, Seth really focuses on this concept of giving with not expecting anything in return. Seth's not talking about some corny three-day email course that you put out just so that you can grow your email list. No, he's saying put out your best work. Give it away for free. That's how you become unique, indispensable. Now, you might be saying, if I give away my best work, what do I sell? Well, people don't really buy products. They don't buy courses or coaching. They buy the experience.

7:42Let's give a very simple example. Let's say you're going to a new upscale restaurant in your neighborhood. And let's say the food is not the best food you've ever eaten in your life, but it's not bad. It's pretty good. The owner welcomes you with a free hors d 'oeuvre or a free appetizer. You have an incredible experience. They're super kind. They light the candles on the table and they're quick and easy with the service. The ambiance is beautiful. The experience is fantastic. Listen, you're going to eat. You're going to eat. And most people, when they dine out, they're looking for an experience.

8:17And you're going to enjoy the meal, and then you're going to have dessert, and then the owner's going to come by and say, hey, I hope you enjoy the meal. Listen, if you come back next week, just give the maitre d' my card, and we'll give you a free dessert. Now, in this moment, you're thinking, I had a great experience. What a wonderful time. What a great ambiance. What a great service. You're not thinking, well, is the dessert really that great for me to come back for the free dessert? No, you're thinking, hey, this is awesome. Let's come back and then we can cash in this coupon. Yes, the restaurant owner gave away a free appetizer and potentially a free dessert, but they might just earn a customer for life.

8:53And not everybody's going to come back and not everybody's going to come back for that free dessert. And it shouldn't stop the restaurant owner from continuing to do the same thing with all their customers, giving them that special treat in the beginning and then the incentive to come back. And don't worry so much about, is this paying off? Do the right thing. Do the thing that's going to give the great experience that they're looking for. Same thing if you're a coach or a creator. Create your best content, whether it's a YouTube channel or a podcast like this one. Run your website where you're giving away the stuff that can change people's lives.

9:25They'll then be interested in learning more about you and be like, hey, I love your content. Can you work with me? Can you coach me? Can you hold me accountable? They want the experience. And guess what? Experiences are high value, which means you can charge more, which makes a great business model. So don't stop giving away your best work because, oh, there's plenty of people that are not going to buy and that's a big waste and they just ripped me off. No, you're forgetting about everybody else that you're going to earn trust with and the power that that's going to give you by being a differentiator, by standing out, by being a giver, by actually transforming people's lives that allows you to have customers, allows you to earn customers in a deep and meaningful way.

10:09I say this all the time. The best thing I've ever created in my life is this podcast, which is absolutely free. I give out my best advice, my best work, my best experiences to try to help you through your journey as a business owner. I know that not everybody listening is going to buy something from me one day, and that's okay. I'm not doing it in a tit-for-tat fashion, right? If that was the case, I would charge for this podcast, but I don't. Instead, what I do is I give freely. And I enjoy the process of giving my best work out there and putting that on the world. And it requires you not to be afraid and to trust that it will come back tenfold.

10:47This is why Linchman is such a powerful book and I wanted to share it with you. So would I recommend it? Highly recommend it. It's a short read. It's easy. It's fun. And it might be a gateway for you into the other books that Seth Godin has written. We've reviewed them here on the podcast before. Purple Cow is one of my favorites. One of the best marketing books out there. But highly recommend you pick up Linchpin by Seth Godin. Thanks so much for listening to the$100 MBA show. If you love what you hear, please hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app, whether it's Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Podcast Addicts or Overcast or whatever it might be.

11:20By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically and you get access to over 2 ,300 episodes in our archives. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Some books are going to open your brain wide open. They're going to be game changers. Some books are going to be tactical and give you the strategies you need to implement things in your business. And some books are going to be those reminders you kind of knew but needed to hear. And needed to hear in a different way so that it actually impacts you in a big way. Lynchpin is one of those books. Go ahead, pick it up, read it, enjoy it.

11:51Thanks so much for listening, and I'll check you in Wednesday's episode, Q &A Wednesday. I'll see you then. Take care.

12:06Thank you.