Seth Godin, bestselling author of 14 books (Tribes, The Big Red Fez: How to Make Any Web Site Better, and Linchpin, to name a few) writes on an array of topics. Known to many as a marketing genius, Godin's blog (www.sethgodin.typepad.com) offers daily reflections on subjects ranging from how to differentiate yourself or your service from your competitors, to discussions about scale, to customer service and leadership.

While you can make the argument that each post is really about marketing, the ideas themselves have relevance far beyond product pitching and positioning. What Godin offers his readers is a depth of understanding of human nature that can be applied to almost any endeavor.

The fact that he has founded dozens of companies—many that have failed—gives him insight that learning professionals should find valuable. Practitioners who work in learning and development need to know their content, of course, but they need to know their tribes equally well.

How do you make your training delivery relevant? How do you differentiate the course you're facilitating from any other course someone could take? How do you scale your efforts—and how do you know that what you've done has worked? Godin offers these insights.

He also shares a great deal of free content and resources on his website, www.sethgodin.com. Manifestos, e-books, and PDFs all are offered with his encouragement to "have fun, and please share."

Godin isn't afraid to try new things and to share what he's learned.