My Big Decision: Seth Godin on firing his biggest client

Thursday, July 15, 2010 | Posted by: Fiona Cullinan
Categories: My big decision | Tags: business, entrepreneurs, entrepreneur, My Big Decision, marketing, customers, crisis, Seth Godin, clients, fired

Seth Godin has the top-ranked marketing blog in the world, is the author of 12 best-sellers and invented the concept of permission marketing. But in his days as a book packager, he was hated by his biggest-paying client and had to make the toughest of business calls, as he reveals in Grant Thornton’s new My Big Decision interview.

This month, we’re proud to introduce Seth as the latest subject in our My Big Decision series, which interviews leading business voices about a critical moment in their life.

(Previous interviewees include high street fashion entrepreneur George Davies  and Financial Times economist agony uncle, Tim Harford among others – see the full list below.)

Now a highly successful author and world-famous marketing guru, Seth revisits his days as a young book packager who, after six years of chasing, finally landed the kind of client that could take his book business to the next level. But when the deal turned sour, it created a moral (and potentially financial) crisis, resulting in the critical decision to let his biggest client go.

Find out what happened in Seth Godin’s My Big Decision interview

– and never miss a My Big Decision podcast by subscribing to the series in iTunes.

And if you’re wondering what the dolls and the miniature Seth Godin are all about in the podcast, we’ve posted a little bit about his ‘Mini-Me’ here

Check out previous My Big Decision podcasts:
• Coffee Republic’s founder, Sahar Hashemi
• Dot-com entrepreneur turned investor, Julie Meyer
• King of the High Street, George Davies
• Freakonomics author, Stephen J Dubner
• Financial Times economist agony uncle, Tim Harford 
• Online theorist, Chris Anderson   
• Cultural commentator, Fons Trompenaars

You can also browse our previous My Big Decision posts – or why not subscribe to Elevate’s RSS feed and find out who’ll be next to reveal the critical moment that helped make them who they are today.