Seth Godin took the stage at the Webflow Conference on Thursday, September 18, 2025, and dropped what can only be described as his Greatest Hits album in a 30 minute keynote. It was part storytelling, part marketing clinic, part reminder that the game has changed (again).
Instead of giving you “notes,” we’re turning this into a playbook—because Seth’s ideas aren’t meant to be admired, they’re meant to be used.
Here are the moves.
1. See the System (Before It Sees You)
The Monkees vs. Succession. Forty million viewers in the ‘60s vs. three million today. The system has shifted: there is no longer “the masses.” There are many small pockets of attention.
The $40 Billion T-Shirt. Seth had early internet access and wrote a book instead of building Yahoo. The lesson: missing systemic shifts is expensive.
👉 Playbook move: Don’t just use the tools. Step back and see the systems. Ask: What’s the water we’re swimming in that no one else sees?
2. Decide What You Actually Make
Seth argues we don’t make products—we make:
Stories
A difference
Decisions
Change
👉 Playbook move: Before you launch anything, finish the sentence: We made this for ___, so they could ___. If it doesn’t end with change, it doesn’t matter.
3. Don’t Race to the Bottom
Commodities compete on price. That game is rigged.
Coffins in Russia sorted by price.
Diamonds: the box at Tiffany’s is worth 5x the stone.
Drill bits aren’t drill bits. They’re smiles when the shelf gets hung.
👉 Playbook move: Compete on status and story, not cost. Build something worth remarking on (a Purple Cow).
4. Build Scaffolding Across the Chasm
Every product adoption curve has:
Early adopters (they bought Humane AI pins, even if they didn’t work).
The masses (they wait until Netflix is obvious).
The laggards (their VCR still blinks 12:00).
Between the early adopters and the masses is the chasm—where most ideas die.
👉 Playbook move: Early buzz isn’t enough. Build scaffolding—community, rituals, language—so regular people feel safe joining in. Think of the dancing guy at the festival: the third follower makes it safe, not the first mover.
5. Permission > Interruption
Spam, ads, SEO tricks—they’re crumbling.
👉 Playbook move: Deliver anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who want them. If your audience wouldn’t miss you if you stopped tomorrow, you don’t have permission yet.
6. Six Words to Build With
Seth dropped six anchors for modern marketing:
Sawubona (I see you). People want to be seen in full.
Enrollment. Participation must be voluntary.
Consistency > Authenticity. Professionals keep promises.
Peculiar. Be specific, not generic.
Empathy. Go where they are, not where you wish they were.
Tension. Change only happens with tension—it might not work is part of the deal.
👉 Playbook move: Build your project around these six words. Check your last campaign: which of these did you embody, and which did you ignore?
7. Own the Tools, Don’t Be Used by Them
AI, TikTok, the algorithm—they’d love for you to be unpaid office plankton.
👉 Playbook move: Use tools to create change, not shortcuts. If AI just makes you cheaper, you’re disposable. If it makes you more distinct, you’re indispensable.
8. People Like Us Do Things Like This
This is the marketing sentence of all marketing sentences. Culture is built when a group identifies themselves through action.
👉 Playbook move: Define your “people like us” clearly. Then create the rituals, products, and signals that let them say, this is what we do.
Harley tattoos. Walk-a-thons. Free hugs. The point isn’t the product—it’s the belonging.
9. Surf the Wave
If your boss says “failure is not an option,” Seth’s reply is brutal: then neither is success.
Printing press before glasses.
Cars before roads.
Surfing only works because waves keep changing.
👉 Playbook move: Stop waiting for perfect conditions. The leap into the void—the stomortality—is the point.
10. Be in the Room
The most important photo in physics: 27 people, 17 future Nobel Prize winners. You didn’t get invited because you were famous. You became famous because you were invited.
👉 Playbook move: Get in the rooms where culture is being shaped, not where it’s being recapped.
Final Riff: Make a Ruckus
Neil Armstrong told Seth, “There are footprints on the moon.” The impossible happens when people use the tools, see the systems, and decide to lead.
This is the invitation: you don’t get a map. You get a chance.
Make a ruckus.
🔗 Watch Seth’s full talk here: YouTube link
🎧 Keep riffing with us on the Seth Said What? podcast.
