I just finished listening to This is Marketing by Seth Godin for the second time, and I finally get it. When you choose your customer, you choose your future.
Case Study
In the world of trailwalking, there are people called angels. Somewhere deep in the mountains, where shops are too far, and water is scarce, you might meet someone dedicated to providing supplies. Sometimes they leave supplies on the trail, or in what they call honesty stores — an unmanned store where you can take anything you like, and leave the money. Then they replenish the store upon their return in a week or so.
Angels carve out time and make an effort to go to a remote place to serve adventurers on a journey — their journey — and help them in a small way. This is what it means to choose a customer. It is identifying someone on a journey, figuring out how to serve them, and then showing up generously for their sake.
Crucially, great customers pay you, not because it costs you time and effort to serve them, but because they want you to keep showing up for them and people like them. When you keep showing up, they tell their friends, which is how businesses grow. So, if you are looking for more customers, serve the ones you have because they likely belong to the same tribe as the ones you want.
This is marketing: Find the people you care about. Make a promise to show up in a meaningful way. Then, show up no matter what. Choose your customers. Choose your future.
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