Podcast Review: Seth Godin’s Startup School #3 – Creating Scarcity
Rating: 4 / 5
I don’t know how many episodes will be in Seth Godin’s Startup School series, but here we find him at episode #3, which is just as good as the first two. For more background on the series see my review of the first episode.
In #3 the titular topic is “creating scarcity” in your business as a starting entrepreneur. This is actually the second step after you figure out what is hard about your business. The thing that is hard or difficult to do or make forms the core of your business because that’s what makes your product, whatever it is, attractive to customers. As an example, Godin notes how many entrepreneurs will spend a lot of time working on their company’s logo, which is comparatively easy, but doesn’t contribute as much to the business as your product. Then, when you make that product scarce, then you’re able to charge more for it.
This part of the podcast demonstrates what Godin does well. He is very good at distilling ideas down to clear, core elements, and explaining them simply. At the top of the podcast he says that most nonfiction books could probably be only six pages long; giving you the Cliff’s Notes of the book can be quite sufficient. But we derive pleasure from reading a longer piece, which is why we want to read a whole book. In a lot of ways Godin delivers that six pages, which is why I think his presentations work well in the podcast form.
There are more questions from the audience participants than the first two podcasts. The beginning of some questions are difficult to make out as the engineer rushes to turn up their microphones, but Godin’s answers are mostly complete enough to make the gap only a minor annoyance.
Although I think listening to the three episodes in order will be most useful, episode 3 also stands on its own pretty well. I definitely ended the episode feeling a bit inspired, with some ideas to jot down for the future.
