I listened to a Skypecast sponsored by Typepad today, with Seth Godin. I knew him briefly in my days working with Fast Company, read most of his books and have always liked him. He didn’t disappoint me this time either, declining to pitch his new book Small is the New Big by saying if we were interested we would go to his blog and buy or download it. But what he did say warmed my heart.

His message was simple. He talked about blogging being a force for authenticity in the world,
citing the fact that one couldn’t really lie consistently day after
day, and eventually the real ‘you’ would be known. And once we let
ourselves be known, people begin to relax and others can’t help but tend to love us.

In answer to someone’s question about the best, fastest way to build a massive readership, he said that it didn’t really matter. If we were telling the truth to 5 people, it was far better and more effective than talking crap to 50,000. He gave a big boost to all the small bloggers who were there, and prioritized the sharing of what is real and true in our lives rather than slavish devotion to some supposedly effective business strategy.

You can listen to it yourself here.