Michael Bungay Stanier worked with Seth Godin on a book project where Seth moved the launch from December to September, giving them six weeks. Michael describes Seth as 70% genius and 30% crazed maniac, handling most of the editorial and design work while juggling travel and other commitments.
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You and I have a mutual acquaintance, a mutual friend. We've both done some work with and for this man, Seth Godin. Tell us a little bit about that project and about working with Seth.
Yeah, it was an exhilaratingly fast-paced process where you basically come to the conclusion that Seth Godin is about 70% genius and 30% crazed maniac. And that's a powerful combination. We had this great moment where at one stage Seth calls me up and goes, so Michael, I know we were looking to publish this in, let's say, December, but we've decided to move it forward. So we want to move it in September now, which is about, I think it's about maybe 6 weeks away. I was like, well, that's wonderful and yet hilarious, Seth, because like, you know, this is my side hustle. I've actually, I'm traveling for the next 6 weeks. I've got a thousand other things on, and I would love to have hit that timeline, but that's just absolutely impossible because I'm the guy doing pretty much most of the work here. I'm like, I'm formatting it, I'm rewriting some of the essays, I'm structuring it, I'm doing a lot as the kind of the editor and the creator and the kind of mind behind this. And Seth was like, so we'll be launching in September then. I was like, all right, I go, yeah, this is, uh, this is, uh this was less a conversation and more a strategic decision. So, you know, I ran around like a headless chicken for that period of time. We got the book out and it was fun and a success. And I actually wrote— I just remembered I didn't mention this in the previous interview, so it's good that we should get to it. There's 800 CEO Reads put out a monthly— they kind of publish some manifestos once a month. And I actually wrote a manifesto called Speed at the Speed of Seth. And it's one of 2 or 3 manifestos I've written for them. And if people are really keen, they can kind of dive into the— what the experience was like working with Seth there, and both the, as I say, the prizes and the punishments.
