UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, Revised and Updated

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Why You Can’t Learn From Millionaires

YOU CAN ADMIRE and take points from someone but you shouldn’t try to be that person or company. You don’t see behind the curtain. The crib notes of its success don’t show the other 99.99 percent of the things it did to get to the place it is today. Frankly, I can’t learn much from someone who made millions years ago and is running that business today. The tools are different, as is that person’s leverage. You can take tips and inspiration, but managers’ opinions may not be as practical with today’s tools. What worked in the 1980s may not work today.¹⁰² There are better, more efficient, cheaper ways to get in front of your marketplace today than ever before.

As an example, a friend of mine told me about a speaker at a recent conference she had attended. She made a gabillion dollars.¹⁰³ She got on stage in front of hundreds of business owners and stated that the audience was wasting its time using social media and being on Facebook and Twitter. She said the audience was better off focusing on the branding practices of Coke and the other Fortune 50 companies. My friend said that you could see the look of panic on the attendees’ faces. The people who had been building real relationships online to help their businesses grow were now being told they were doing it all wrong by someone they aimed to be like. The speaker also admitted that she got to where she was today by lying to a buyer of one of the store chains to get her product placed. Oh, ...