Seth continues to demonstrate the use of new currency: free. Here’s his personal addendum to the best-selling Linchin. It’s called Insubordinate.

Seth asks, “What the opposite of insubordinate?” The answer requires a label none of us entrepreneurs and small business owners want to wear: SUBordinate. So, I reckon the world of opportunities awaits the insubordinate. Wonder if corporate America could turn the insubordinates loose?

Download your free 40-page ebook Insubordinate. (shared with permission of the author)

Get an MP3 of Seth Godin’s small group presentation of Linchpin in Manhattan recently.

There are NO tips, NO habits, NO secrets, NO steps to success in this clip. HOWEVER, if you’ll pay close attention to it, and to the subject, Chris Brogan, you will see a way under-utilized key to success anyway. Chris doesn’t talk about ROI, making money, building connections, or creating compelling content. All his does is share a simple story about his experience of becoming a Duck Master at the famous Memphis Peabody.

Would YOU please watch the video and then share your thoughts on what “secret” Chris demonstrates? (If you’re a politician, PLEASE watch this about 99 times so you’ll get it. We desperately NEED you to get it.) If you’re a fan of Brogan’s already, just enjoy. You already know why he’s successful.

I shot this video in the lobby of the Memphis Peabody Hotel after a Chris Brogan keynote arranged by Amy Howell and sponsored by FedEx, Pinnacle Airlines, The Memphis Peabody, Social Media Club Memphis, Vanick Group, Judy Mclellan and Howell Marketing Strategies. Right after shooting this, I went to lunch with Chris at Huey’s where Chris was kind enough to let me carry the official Duck Master cane and receive the local glory commensurate with it. (The fried pickles from Huey’s were fantastic.)

[Glenn Le Santo's fun clip of Trey Pennington with Chris Brogan in Exeter, England earlier this year for Scott Gould & Drew Ellis's LikeMinds Conference.]

Thank you to Bob Burg and Thom Scott for inviting me to be on the program at this year’s Extreme Business Makeovers where I would share the platform with Zig Ziglar. Zig is my role model in so many ways. When you read my blog posts, you’ll see Zig’s fingerprints all over my philosophy.

Thank you Zig. You are an inspiration and I am grateful for the time you spent with me.

Step into your best life, by design, with Dr. Mollie Marti. She’s a performance psychologist warmly passionate about helping you see, craft, and realize your own best life.

Dr. Marti took a break from the Extreme Business Makeover conference in Orlando to share with me her current project and to talk about what it takes to design a “best life.”

What are some hurdles to designing your best life? Dr. Marti says the “continuous influence of information” has lead to fragmentation and diffusion of focus. One must focus energy, time, and effort on few things. Thinking through and establishing boundaries can help.

She agrees that mindset—what you choose to allow into your mind and what you choose to dwell upon—plays a significant role in your life design. Attending events such as the Extreme Business Makeovers where you hear solid content, but more importantly, where you connect with people who care, will help clear the clutter from your mind and give you the support you need to take action.

To stay connected with Dr. Marti’s content and community, check out her new project Best Life Design.

Dr. Mollie Marti: Web | Twitter

New York City is the city that never sleeps, never stops, and is filled with people. In a place where 15,000 to 20,000 people can be in a single building at a single moment in time, how in the world could you possible distinguish yourself as a small business owner?

When I was there last week, I walked everywhere I could. Eventually, I got tired of walking. So, after a quite fruitful visit to B&H Photo, I hailed a pedicab, better known as a rickshaw. My driver was the prototypical New Yorker. Rugged, intense. Watching him pedal me and my gear (NOT an easy task!) through crowded streets, I respectfully said, “Man, what a way to make a living.”

He said, “Naw man. I love it. This is the best way to BE New York.”

As he dropped me off at my hotel, I whipped out my video camera and started interviewing him. His response serves as a decent model for all entrepreneurs and business builders. Without any hesitation, he took advantage of the camera, instantly launching into a captivating presentation defining who he was and the significance of experiencing New York City from one’s own personal “chariot.”

Imagine a nearly impossible scenario: your job requires you to pursue the objectives of the city government AND the objectives of the merchants and business owners in the city. In other words, your job requires you to be both a politician and a business man, oh, and a serious community builder, too.

That’s exactly the job John Harvey, City Centre Manager of Exeter, England has. He fulfills the job superbly and in doing so, establishes a powerful model for politicians AND business owners, too. The foundation of the model is a humble leader who actually cares about the people around him. Built on that foundation is active involvement in the community in person and through every available media, including social media.

In our interview, he outlines the steps necessary for cities and communities to thrive in the future (and cautions against “looking backward,” as well). Our interview takes place in the green room at the Exeter Conference Center during the Like Minds 2010 conference which he credits as stimulating £100,000 worth of business for the city.

John Harvey: Twitter | Web

Wonderful people at LikeMinds 2010 in Exeter, Devon, England in February. Speakers came from three continents and 350 attendees came from around the world, too.

Soon I’ll add a post or two from my experience at LikeMinds, but for now, I’ll simply post this video of one of the sponsors of the event, Molly Flatt of 1000Heads. (The speakers all received a quite cool Kodak ZA8 digital camcorder, so I’m sure there’ll be tons and tons of video content coming about LikeMinds.) This video does NOT give you three steps or seven secrets for getting more followers, increasing the number of fans of Facebook; it is simply social. That’s all. It features one person; one person who’s really cool to know.

Molly Flatt: Twitter | Blog | Work | The Guardian | Finch’s Quarterly

Molly’s post on LikeMinds (for those still discussing the “content” of LikeMinds, please consider how Molly interacts with the “content.” Her post strikes me as a brilliant post-event post and one that highlights a robust reflection of “value.”)

Bet you heard the economy stinks, right? Bet you actually might even FEEL something that sure feels like a stinky economy. As of this moment, Edelman Digital has 30 job openings. How do I know this? I heard it directly from Rick Murray, President of Edelman Digital.

Rick says Edelman is always on the lookout for people who are naturally curious, not self-absorbed, and are willing to boldly be creative. Since July 2009, Rick’s division has added 50 new employees and he says he needs 30 more right now.

You can hear our conversation about Edelman’s cultural transformation to embrace social media, what tools have their attention at the moment, where they see social media heading and what’ll be required for companies to leverage it, and, most importantly, his exact words on what it takes to grab one of those 30 job openings at Edelman in the USA (he says they have even more openings outside the US).

Rick Murray: Twitter | Web

UPDATE: Just heard from Rick (2/23/2010 11:00pm). He clarified that Edelman has 30 job openings in DIGITAL right now PLUS more openings in PR. If you needed a bright spot on the economic horizon, take a look at Edelman, be bold, put your serious/fun game face on, and do something to show your personality (and your track record of results). Now is the time to launch.

The Brandbuilder (Olivier Blanchard) posted another solid entry on his blog again today. (I read his blog most of the time, but especially over the past few days, since he, Chris Brogan and I will be heading to England to speak at the Like Minds Conference next week). He titled the post “The answer to most of your business problems is simply this: Be helpful.” It reminded me of the long running “Be” series written by Warren Weirsbe of the last century.

With the world continuing to change so quickly (new technology, new media, new publishers and more), maybe it’s time to refocus on helpful stuff that doesn’t change—principles and admonition that have stood the proverbial test-of-time. Here’s a start:

The Be-Attitudes for a New Millenium

shhh…be still, be quiet, listen: experience the sensation of new life. And, yes, I'll be a grandfather this year. As soon as my grandson arrives, I'll post pix of him!

1. Be alert.
2. Be quiet.
3. Be available.
4. Be visible.
5. Be responsive.
6. Be generous.
7. Be helpful.
8. Be quiet.

Be alert: there’s an inherent conflict implied. You may either be self-centered or alert. (Being alert to one’s own self doesn’t quite fit.) Companies, politicians, and people who are alert are focused outwardly, which sets them up for success.

Be quiet: so much of the world is consumed with “getting the message out.” (Please, if you catch yourself saying, “we just need to get our message out,” rest assured your message probably just isn’t worth getting out. Whenever you hear those words, picture Saint Jude and hear the words as, “I am confessing I am a failure.”) When you’re quiet, you can listen. When you listen, you increase your chances of getting a message IN. The rest of the world needs you to get the message IN; they’ll probably be okay even if they don’t hear your message. If they know you heard theirs, you both win.

Be available: yep, this is a 24/7 world. Banker’s hours went away as an acceptable measure of availability a long time ago. Being available means having enough media options available for your customers to express themselves to you when and where they want to. Being available also means responding through those same channels. For instance, if you’re a politician who has made the choice to dive into social media, you have chosen to make yourself available to your constituents through social media. Yes, you do indeed have a moral obligation to be responsive to them there. If you do not want to pay attention to them and respond to them then you simply should not be there in the first place. This far into the social media product life cycle, if you don’t have the knowledge and the decency to follow your constituents back on Twitter, for instance, you have no business saying you represent them. It really is just that simple.

Be visible: don’t breathe a sigh of relief yet. Being visible probably doesn’t mean what you think it means. It doesn’t mean non-stop self-promotion. Instead, it means having a sufficient presence wherever “your people” might be hanging out they know you’re there when they need you. If they’re on Twitter, be on Twitter. If they’re congregating on Ning, congregate with them. (But stay out of their way. You’re there for when they need you, not to get them to do something for you.)

Be responsive: blinding flash of the obvious, or as Grandpa would say, “a healthy dose of just plain common sense.” If “your people” ask you a question, give them an answer. (See, it would probably be cool for you to be visible wherever they’re getting together to ask these questions, huh?)

Be generous: the days of protecting your turf are long gone. Just watch what’s happening to the dinosaurs grasping at DRM. Take a look at how well John Piper’s books SELL. He also gives away a PDF of every one of them for free.  (More, much more, on this in Spitball Marketing. Also in Napoleon Hill’s work, Zig Ziglar’s, Bob Burg’s, The Bible, etc.)

Be helpful: see Olivier’s post and Chris Brogan’s post. Help people solve their problems; good things will happen.

Be quiet: do a little research on how quietness is linked to humility is linked to greatness. It’s amazing to think through the names of the great ones who radically changed the world quietly. (Yes, the loud ones changed the world, too, but it often took the following three or four generations to clean it up, too.)

The world is changing. If Einstein’s famous quote was appropriate when he first uttered it, it is surely appropriate today: “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking as when we created them.” Maybe even a little twist on his expression would fit for today’s world, too: “We cannot solve our problems or seize upon our opportunities with the same way of being we enjoyed last year.”

Maybe you have an even better twist?

“Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (MacBeth, Act V, Scene V).

Amidst the fury to embrace “new media” there’s a silent opportunity to reconnect with some very old media—the Shakespearian play, (quite possibly the ultimate social media?). Shakespeare captured the intensity of the human condition and crafted it into a drama actors and observers could live together. The modern tweeter, blogger, marketer, and even leader can learn much from Shakespeare.

What could a leader learn from MacBeth, you ask? The play where one simple act of ambition lead to another, and then another, while the blood flowed and corpses piled up? Where mayhem launched from a single conversation between friends? Hmm…

MacBeth and leadership. That’s precisely the topic the Warehouse Theatre will explore with a pre-show panel. The panelist—me, Russell Stall of Greenville Forward, and Shakespeare expert John Crabtree—moderated by Kenn Spark of BMW, will explore leadership in light of MacBeth on February 10th, from 6:30-7:30p on the Warehouse Theater Pelham Stage. The event is free, BUT they’re asking that you RSVP for the Warehouse Theatre Forum.

If you’re dying to know what leadership lessons you can learn from MacBeth, please join us February 10th.