Seth Godin is without a doubt the world’s foremost marketing expert. He is the only blogger I subscribe to daily and read without fail and I was over the moon to hear him speak and meet him at The Art of Sales conference.
Seth Godin
The purpose of The Art of Sales event is to provide the 2500 attendees with cutting edge business information to give them a competitive advantage. Five top-notch speakers were featured. In addition to Godin, Barbara Corcoran, Keith Ferrazzi, Sally Hogshead and Jerry Greenfield were keynotes.
Godin spoke about the importance of facing failure in order to move toward success, permission marketing (Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers), embracing change, approaching your work like art and sincerely leading others.
His style of speaking is very engaging, naturally humorous and although packed with loads of information, is easy to understand. Always intelligent, logical and practical, his tidbits always resonate so strongly with my world view that when I hear him say them, it’s almost like they are self-evident and should have been obvious long before he points them out, although of course they are Godin’s personal fresh and insightful take.
He also gifted all audience members a copy of his book Poke the Box.
Corcoran was possibly the best speaker of the day. Although she started off slow and possibly too intimate, soon it became clear where she was heading with her speech and it was non-stop nuggets. She emphasized that perception creates reality and the importance of taking big and rising to the occasion, power of statistics, leveraging the press, how everyone wants what everyone wants, expanding before you are ready, shooting the dogs early, appreciation over money, fun at the workplace and moving ahead during bad times.
Her presentation was choc-a-bloc full of concrete advice and actionable items. As she sincerely shared her approach to business with intimate examples, she really connected with the audience and made all her hard work and great achievements (she started her company 15 years ago with $35,000 and sold it last year for $66 M) seem easy and doable.
Keith Ferrazzi reminded everyone of the importance of cultivating deep, supportive relationships around you. In his words, managing a relationship is not being manipulative, it is simply saying it is important enough to prioritize. He also suggested striving to create sincere bonds with people you admire but may think are out of your reach.
Sally Hogshead spoke of fascination and how each of us has an innate ability to be fascinating that we simply have to tap into. Although quite the stunner and a very listenable speaker, she conveyed the weakest amount of information at the event aside from underscoring that in a competitive environment, the most fascinating option always wins.
Jerry Greenfield, one half of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
Co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, Jerry Greenfield closed the event with a heartfelt talk about maintaining the core values of your company through a “values-led” business model. He and his partner have always prioritized social responsibility through creative management and made it a strength not a weakness.
