What if you were given the opportunity to have lunch with Seth Godin or Donald Trump but you could only pick one. Who would you dine with? Would the choice change if you were paid $5,000 to sit down with Donald but it would cost you $5,000 with Seth?
If given that choice I would chose Seth gladly paying the $5,000.
Why would I make that illogical choice when I could have been PAID $5,000 to have lunch with Donald Trump? Because it’s not about them it’s about me.
I would chose Seth Godin because he has had a bigger impact on me and my business. In my opinion, he is also more humble and approachable. I believe that I can become like Seth but it would be very hard to replicate the same business playbook as Donald Trump. I can start a website that makes money by connecting people. I can’t, and don’t want to, build a 50 story skyscraper in the OC and call it Mobley Tower. I think that best way to make your first billion today is different than when Trump did it. Maybe that belief comes from the fact that I’ve done experiments with Seth’s teachings but I don’t have a lab that would work for doing trial and error in major real estate development projects (once again all about me). I can have a feature page on Squidoo but becoming the next “The Apprentice” isn’t high on my priority list.
Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a bash Trump and praise Godin post. They have written two of my favorite books (All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
interesting article!
So true! I’ve had Seth’s blog setup with my RSS for quite some time now because he continually reminds the reader (self included) to be relevant and genuine. It’s not about being the biggest name or fastest growing. It’s simply about taking care of your clients and your people.
That’s why we’ve developed BLACK BOX MERCH. Not because we have all the products out there (which we do) or because we’re the nicest (which we try). It’s because we’re not afraid to tell a client they’re making a poor investment (surprisingly, often necessary) and are concerned more about making a client look good and develop a relationship than floundering for a small piece of the market. We are interested in the experience, not a transaction.
With pride, I invite you, Paul, and your readers to check out http://BLACKBOXMERCH.com The client focused online store will be up in the next few weeks. You will never see a bazillion products, just the key ones we recommend for a specific industry. Anybody can pull a product out of a hat, but who’s willing to recommend the tested and proven? Visit the site again soon; but in the meantime, feel free to call. We want you to be satisfied with your experience.
http://BLACKBOXMERCH.com
http://twitter.com/BLACKBOXMERCH
Donald Trump is the ghost of marketing past (“promotion”), or in-your-face-you-gonna-buy-yet? methods. Examples of these businesses include most of the banks that are failing right now. I’m not saying people can’t learn a lot from Donald Trump, but compared to Seth Godin…
Seth Godin is the ghost of marketing future (“attraction”), in which companies focus on creating amazing experiences for customers to encourage word of mouth. Examples of this kind of business include Zappos, Amazon.com, Google and Facebook.
I’d also go with Seth Godin, hands down!
Great post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on these two very different approaches.
You made a valuable comparison, and I agree with you that if we are going to use our time to network…connect….or whatever….that spending it in the best places/with the right people makes lots of sense. It it is not pertintent, it can be interesting, but probably will have no long term benefit. On the other hand if it is pertinent, it will stay with you for a long time…maybe even forever.
A good example is recalling Keynote speakers at the National DMA Fall Conference. Years ago I recall hearing Gerald Ford speak, as I recall he was “former president” at the time…it was interesting being that he was a “celebrity”, but that was all. More recently Sir Richard Branson, also a celebrity attention getter, was the keynote. But since he had actually started various Virgin businesses, it was interesting, but he also offered some advice or ideas that could be adapted into our our businesses.
I have not read Godin’s books, but I fully agree with your blog. I am a Christian who coaches business owners on what it takes to be successful in God’s eyes. We are fortunate to be an ambassador for the Almighty via our market place. I encourage my people to begin each day with the prayer: How can I be an instrument of Your peace? Doing so allows the entire day to be honoring to God. He gets to use us as He so chooses. This is in striking contrast to waking up and asking: How much can I accomplish today? I do not know Mr. Trump personally and yet I will assume the public personna is reasonably accurate. As such, we get to, every morning, decide if our agenda is God honoring or is behaving more along the lines of Mr. Trump. Thanks for your blog.
I would break the rules and have both donald and seth at the lunch. I’d then take the cash that donald gave me and give it to seth. Impressing at least Seth and hopefully infuriating the Donald. This would make some nice PR for myself too. ha!
Thanks for the post Paul, I agree with you entirely!
I completely understand how people would think making this decision was insane… of course people might think it would be better to meet with Trump due to all of his success and wealth, but it’s really a question of goals…
In order to succeed in your business and your ventures, you need to be very aware of your end goal… have a clear picture of what success looks like so you’ll know when you’ve achieved it. So when deciding who to have lunch with you would need to evaluate who could assist you in the most in reaching your personal goals.
Trump has years of business experience, yet I still have the tendency to view him as the “old guard” … the way business had been done in the past. He’s attempting to stay relevant and keeping his brand in public view, yet I feel it is a declining brand where Seth is more actively growing his brand in this new business environment.
In Seth’s blog he focuses on brand building, social media aspects, and minor little observations he sees through daily life. It is easier for me to grasp useful nuggets from his writing that I can use as I build my own brand or business. As I continue growing and enjoying my wedding photography business, I am able to glean a lot more practical advice from Godin that can be implemented immediately.
Dan Dawson
http://ddphoto.cc
Very provocative post Paul. I think your goals are in line with Seth’s more than Mr. Trump, but why not do both?
If the internet marketing guru met the real estate guru in practice . . .can you imagine the impact?
Thanks for the mental stimulation.
-Andy
I agree, as Seth is one of my heroes. Shortly after we launched http://www.thebschool.com, I read Tribes and felt very validated since a lot of the principles discussed in that book are at the core of what we are building.
Fortunately, you didn’t mention the haircut issue.
I think it would be a great lunch, but I’m wondering if it’s possible to have Donald’s bankers pick up the check…
Seth – We can ask Donald to pick up the tab but with the response to this post so far I doubt he would want to. So where are we going to meet for lunch? NYC or Corona Del Mar, CA? I’ll bring my AMEX and a check. .:paul
I haven’t read either book but just based on this post…I am thinking I want to read Seth’s book! We are all about the experience of our clients and their clients! We are about being “pully” not “pushy”…
We are about showing true integrity in the music business and all our relationships matter deeply to us….so it is about giving them a great service that furthers their careers and therein we are furthered.
Thanks for the information Paul!
Kathy
Paul,
definitely Seth Godin. He seems to surf the current trends much better than Donald, and is more useful for those of us that have tried to create micro-businesses taking advantage of “the long tail” of marketing.
Also, recent book recommendation: Nudge
Thanks Glyn. Is this the book that you recommended?
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Yes, that’s the one. It has some fascinating things to say about the clever use of defaults etc., and creating purposeful choice architecture. Given that humans tend in certain directions (inertia, strong avoidance of loss etc.) how can we best position choices so that they are “nudged” in the right direction?
e.g. if you make enrollment in a company IRA the default choice, with an option to opt-out, you get an enrollment of around 85%. If you ask people to indicate whether they want to enroll, and they need to take specific action without there being a default, about 15%. Creating the right defaults, while allowing an opt-out, moves people to better decisions.
The authors talk about the Reflective Brain vs. the Automatic Brain. We need to use one (reflective) to control the behavior of the other (automatic). So, in our wiser moments, when we are in the grocery store, we do not buy ice-cream when we are trying to lose weight. This thwarts the actions of the Automatic brain when it decides we need a huge bowl of ice-cream at 11pm.
Same principle applies to addicted gamblers banning themselves from casinos. There reflective action (put myself on the banned list, voluntarily) controls their automatic (non-thinking) action = “I have a sudden urge to gamble with this month’s mortgage payment.”
Makes for interesting reading. Enjoy!
Wow. You’re so much smarter than me. Thanks for teaching me something today. I’ll have to add that to my reading list but first I need to finish Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?
While both men would be interesting, I’d prefer a different Trump — Ivanka Trump. From the interviews I’ve seen, she’s creating interesting brands and handling Trump properties well.
yikes- I wish I had time to read. Marketing toys is usually more of a hard sell than a soft pull, but Lego has been showing lots of growth using their educational outlets (and a hybrid method of Godin’s suggeted technique)… we’re still killing Lego at retail but their strategy will pay better long-term.
As for me, I do not know much about Seth Godin’s entrepreneurial side (I think I should read his book). However, I agree that it takes different elements to make a millionaire today than yesterday. In fact, I think that is the only way. The opportunities are different and we are different.
For the lunch, it really depends on what kind of expectations I would have. If I hope to make a contact, Seth Godin would probably be a better choice. As Paul said, he is more approachable. And I think the lunch would be more interesting. However, if my expectations of learning valuable insights or creating a contact during a single lunch were very low, it would be better just to take Trump’s $5000. It is all about weighing the risk and reward.
I read the Art of the Deal at about the same time I started to consume Ayn Rand’s novels. 1987-1989. I loved it. It was so simple and straight forward. The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are equally uncomplicated but they are all about personal responsibility, personal integrity, self confidence and business. Both contain good stories. All 3 are books I needed to read and both authors were influential in my decision to go into business, eventually marketing books. I knew nothing about Seth Godin until Paul Mobley gave me two of his books. The power of telling authentic stories in a low-trust world. What a concept. I never would have consciously picked up on it, but I now know that the reason my prospects and customers stay on the phone with me and increase their orders is because I nearly always tell them (what I think) is a an interesting and true story about the acquisition, author, the production or design of the product. Something they would never hear about in a radio interview, read in a press release or catch on my website. Sometimes it is a story about my personal involvement in the development of the product. My cold calls are never scripted. Trump is legendary but I think lunch with Seth Godin would be far more interesting. Seth was a book packager among other careers and I’m sure he was successful in most his ventures. I’d pay for lunch w/Seth but I’d insist that The Donald pick up the tab, and it would be dinner. I know what I’ll be reading on the train home tonight. Thanks Paul.
Having read 1/2 of Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars so far I think my original idea of a “story” and his idea of a “story” are rather different. He’s a brilliant guy, an obvious guru of marketing and someone with an interesting world view.