Today, I heard Seth Godin speak in Boston, promoting his new book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?. He’s an unbelievable public speaker, marketer, entrepreneur and author.  He’s the founder of the “permission marketing” concept.  Below are my tweets from the day (most of the quotes below are directly from Seth; my favorites are in bold).  You can see more from the hashtags: #sethbos, #sethgodin and #linchpin.

What revolutions do is that they create opportunities about things that are seemingly impossible

Is all you did during the revolution was to increase Twitter followers to 10,000?

If the system is changing and everyone has access to the machine (internet), you need to do something different.

The value in being creative is making a new map

Once you graduate from school, you can say “I successfully graduated from school”. You need to do more

We don’t need human wikipedias, we need people who solve problems.

Permission marketing = Personal relevant messages are better than spam.

Human beings like to do what other human beings are doing. We like to be in sync (clapping exercise)

In this new market, there are many pockets of “in sync”

People think buying a book is the same as reading a book. Ha ha

Doing something remarkable gets people to “remark” on it. Ppl need to TALK about you.

Krispy kreme was “remarkable” because they sold dozen for price of 4. Ppl brought them to work so everyone talked about it!

Messages spread to Tribes (Connect to one another in same way such as a mission)

You don’t have to have charisma to be a leader. You get charisma from being a leader (I disagree)

Little mismatch socks is not a sock company. They just mastered “being in the conversation”

9:51:26 AM: What learn in B-school? How get ppl to do what u want and how fund it. NOT how to figure out what YOU want.

9:52:56 AM: More ppl are killed by deer in the US than sharks. But sharks R a visceral fear for us. Another visceral fear is being laughed at.

10:00:27 AM: Forgot my real camera so this is the best I can do!  http://moby.to/o3ap18

10:00:48 AM: The risk of failing has never been lower in the history of mankind  (LOVE this)

10:03:57 AM: Do you get invited to meetings because you’re going to make things happen? Make yourself indispensible.

10:04:43 AM: Key thought for today so far. Be REMARKABLE. Do something ppl will talk about

10:07:52 AM: Challenge the lizard brain (status quo, visceral reaction)

10:08:37 AM: Think about who your tribe is… If you don’t show up tomorrow, who would miss you?

10:14:52 AM: Little mismatch socks is not a sock company. They just mastered “being in the conversation”

10:22:00 AM: Do you have to be a visionary and someone who makes things happen? NO: you can find ppl to execute your ideas

10:24:20 AM: Another pic  http://moby.to/v0h93z

10:28:12 AM: Access to information is no longer scarce. (we don’t need to go to library anymore)

10:28:59 AM: Parents who home school ON TOP of regular school will set their kids apart (aren’t kids busy enough already???)

10:31:54 AM: Seth defines freelance work diff from entrepreneurship. Hmmmm. How? Is see freelance as a type of entrepreneurship.

10:34:10 AM: This idea that “my boss won’t let me” is BS. you’re asking wrong question. Need to make a SMALL success first.

10:35:41 AM: What is company politics? Conflicts, fear and power between people

10:46:56 AM: If you’re doing something and the market isn’t noticing, it’s not the market’s fault. It’s yours.

10:47:36 AM: RT @LBKinson “Every once in a while you meet an American Airlines’ employee who *does* care.”

10:49:38 AM: Everyone is motivated by diff things. If you’re going to lead you need to figure out what that is for each person.

10:52:06 AM: Talking about a newsletter he started that showed what ppl in co are doing. Everyone wanted to be in the NL. (Sounds like blogging)

10:55:20 AM: How do you know if it’s lizard brain speaking?   when lizard says no, do it. Lizard always sounds same (same voice)

10:57:12 AM: Make the lizard your friend. If you don’t listen to it, it will go away.

10:59:49 AM: The day before vacation you get more done than in whole week before. Why? We dont procrastinate and put things off.

11:01:19 AM: If all you’re going to do is make change happen, you can compress your day. (don’t go to meetings, Seth says!)

11:02:26 AM: Think of the idea through the lense of “will ppl give me permission to talk to them” without it feeling like spam

11:04:19 AM: If the ppl who you’re trying to reach, have a place (or community) they go, your idea has more of a shot than if they don’t.

11:11:30 AM: “I think college marketing is the biggest scam ever. There’s no evidence that it really should cost what you pay for it”

11:15:42 AM: It inconceivable to me that google, Twitter and Facebook will be the 3 legs of the stool

11:16:39 AM: You can’t have a business book without an x axis :-)

11:20:31 AM: I don’t know the inside of your brain. I’ve never been in there. (ha ha, and a good lesson for relationships)

11:22:03 AM: Get in the habit of overcoming the trivial fears. That’s ignoring your lizard brain.

11:23:21 AM: Do you ever get tired of blogging? No.  All blogging is to me, is to write down what I’m noticing. (LOVE this)

11:24:51 AM: Ever see a plumber who has plumber’s block? Or a talker who has talker block? No! So? No writer’s block. It’s part of who you are.

11:25:37 AM: Freelancers get paid when they work. Entreprenuers get paid when they sleep. They have a system that works when they’re not there.

11:26:35 AM: Job of entrepreneur is to ask difficult questions, make diff decisions and hire ppl

11:35:22 AM: What should you say to ppl who push traditional ideas? Which people? My parents! (ha ha!)

What do you think? He’s pretty amazing, huh? For those who were there, is there anything I missed?

This week I was in  NYC for the 140 Characters Conference, which is a conference about the “State of Now.” It’s my 2nd year here (recap from last year), and a lot has changed for me in the past year. Below are the top 30 highlights for me from the conference. The schedule is here if you want more information on the speakers, and there are videos of each of the session on the site too.

If you’re looking for more tweets from the conference, take a look at my post LiveBlog from #140Conf.

1. The half life of a tweet is 4 minutes, and falling – wow! ~@johnborthwick
2. Children are learning and soaking in things all the time. “My fear is that school will break them of that habit” ~@chrislehmann
3. Sometimes, the teacher is the one adult in a kids life who make a difference. Never forget our teachers. ~@chrislehmann
4. People can tweet their prayers, I print them, and put them in the wall ~@thekotel (I LOVE this idea!!)
5. Even the mere act of writing the prayer can change someone’s life ~@thekotel
6. Why are you doing so much social media? Because it works. ~@jeffreyhayzlett
7. People don’t take pictures, they capture memories, moments. That’s what Twitter is like ~@jeffreyhayzlett
8. Every tweet you send out is sharing a part of yourself ~@jeffreyhayzlett
9. Even if there’s a new way of selling, the basics of communication and rules of engagement are the same@Donny_Deutsch
10. Don’t forget the brand. Always reflect your brand value in everything you do. Don’t let the technology get in the way. @Donny_Deutsch
11. Any selling that’s self-serving will fail @Donny_Deutsch
12. Worry more about being impressed rather than impressing. Women say that about men in dating a lot ~@AndreaSyrtash (she said that, I didn’t!)
13. I respond to everyone who writes me, because they took the time to write me ~@AndreaSyrtash (I wish everyone did that, but they don’t)
14. You can’t have intimacy without vulnerability. In dating and in Twitter. Ask questions, admit you’re wrong. ~@AndreaSyrtash
15. People want to be challenged, not changed. ~@AndreaSyrtash
16. The more you can engage people, the more they get engaged ~@AndreaSyrtash
17. There’s a core “goodness” in Twitter… they want to do good ~@AnnCurry
18. We thought Twitter was really dumb when we first saw it ~@SomeEcards (but now it’s a major part of their business)
19. Risks of engaging and being able to communicate in a more human way, are not as problematic as not engaging. ~@jnjcomm #pharma
20. Sometimes you’re at a game and want to tell people. Other times, you’re at dinner & there’s no need to push that to Twitter ~@jwYES!! (talking about Gowalla)
21. It’s not a game, it’s a utility to help people learn about places. The game is just the tool to do that. ~@dens
22. A “ghost” tweeter? that sounds like the basis for a new album right there. ~@mchammer
23. You’re only a stranger once ~@lizstrauss
24. Monitoring aggregates the data. Listening is a 1:1 thing. ~@lizstrauss
25. Bring your community in, open your heart, and listen. Align your goals together. ~@lizstrauss
26. If they help you build it, not only will they come, but they’ll bring they’re friends back to help you build it too ~@lizstrauss
27. Journalism is NOT dying, it’s changing ~@msholman (I couldn’t agree more… so sick of hearing that phrase)
28. 5 tips to grow your business on twitter ~@SmallBizLady
    • Know your target customer — make sure your stream communicates consistently with that customer
      • On Twitter you have to give to get. You should use a 4:1 ratio of promoting others to promoting yourself.
    • Participate in twitter chat (#smallbizchat) – end small business failure by learning how to avoid the failure
    • Use @replies… don’t just RT, tell them why you liked content
    • Auto-DM’s are OK. Don’t tell me to go to site or FB, but tell them why I should care (I don’t agree with this!)
    • If you use Twitter the right way, it can grown your business
      • Twitter has leveled the playing field.  You can have power on Twitter if you use it the right way. You have to communicate consistently
29. 5 reasons why small businesses fail: ~@SmallBizLady
    • People don’t realize what running a biz is going to be like
    • People don’t save enough money before you start your bis. Need no paycheck for 1-2 yrs
    • They don’t focus on target market
    • No network; Network = net worth — twitter is great for that
    • Financials/budget – know your financials
30. Comments exploded. No one was talking to the host, they were talking to each other. ~Media Roundtable Panel

If you’re interested in following the people above, you can follow my list here, or follow everyone on the list here.

What did I miss?  What were your highlights from the conference?