I received notification Adam Urbanski, Millionaire Marketing Mentor & Profit Explosion Strategist, was following me on Quora. 

Did I follow back? 

You bet I did!

And since the whole premise of Quora is to ask questions, I jumped right in and asked Adam a question and, surprisingly, got a mouthful in response!

My question:

“Adam, what would you say is the ONE thing that sets your mentoring “personality” or “style” apart from other mentors? What are you bringing to the table other marketing mentors aren’t bringing? Thanks! “

Adam Urbanski:

Melanie, one could almost think I paid you to ask me this two-fold question! But I’ll answer it anyway.

First, my “personality” or “style”:

This is a very subjective evaluation, meaning everyone perceives others differently and relates to different character traits or skill sets. In my opinion the top three distinctions setting me apart from others are these:

I’m a natural ADVANCER. I take ideas and immediately a) simplify them to the few most necessary components that needs to be considered, b) explore potential for greater ROI and introduce a simple way to expend it far beyond the original thought, and c) provide the big-picture strategic plan with the first few step-by-step actions that must be taken (This is definitely a very unique ability of mine)

I despise stupidity, laziness, complacency, and other bullshit commonly disguised as “being nice”. So I tend to rock the boat a lot by calling things as I see them. Having a lot of business experience (more on that in a moment) I’m able to quickly size up ideas and projects and give them thumbs up, down, or “here is how to modify this to make it workable.”

I don’t care about not offending people. Real life results are the feedback I use to evaluate progress, not the “my clients had clarity and felt better about their business after working with me” crap other people try to sell as their success cases!

I love big thinkers and fast action. If you like to argue for your own limitations and keep exploring option till cows come home – go elsewhere! Enough said on this one, yes?

Now, for the “what do I bring to the table that other Marketing Mentors® don’t” part…

Wow, now you are really getting me started, but I’ll do my best to remain calm and objective. 😉

So first, let’s look at the definitions of a few words and the use of term “Marketing Mentor”.

According to wikipedia:

 Coach: one who instructs or trains.
 Consultant: one who gives professional advice or services
 Mentor: a trusted friend, counselor or teacher, usually a more experienced person.

The key distinction between the first two and the latter is “more experienced”. A common understanding is that a mentor is someone who has “been there and done that”. Where as the joke about coaches and consultants is kind of like the one with teachers – those who can’t…

When I started my business in 2000 there were no other people using the term mentor – period! Not in the online world. And to my knowledge no one in the off-line world. (My mistake for not claiming the exclusivity sooner!) And there were definitely no people using the two-word combination “marketing mentor”. By the time I officially changed my company name to The Marketing Mentors® in 2003 a couple more people started using the term as well.

Today, seems that everyone who took a marketing course or read an ebook on marketing is calling themselves a “marketing mentor”. But as they say, in the land of the blind a one-eyed man is king – so it seems to be today in the world of marketing training. More and more “one-eyed” idiots teaching things they know nothing about.

So, back to the question – what makes me different.

I built my first business into a seven figure plus a year company in less than 10 years!

I did this starting with just $194 – and I mean that’s all the money I had plus a suitcase of clothes! AND, I didn’t speak English to start with (which explains all the spelling and grammar mistakes you might be finding in this answer!)

I built and sold four businesses!

Since selling my original business (in a fast food industry) I built another company that has since sold millions of dollars of information products, coaching, training, consulting, speaking, and mentoring services online and offline!

I developed a very specific marketing methodology to take ideas and so-so businesses (especially service-based businesses) and turn them into successful, sustainable, and scalable companies!

Since starting my The Marketing Mentors® business a decade ago I also helped a number of other marketing gurus (noticed I didn’t say “mentors”) get their start and guided several of my students and clients to build seven figure companies.

Bottom line – I’ve been and done there when it comes to building a business, creating marketing strategies, developing advertising that works, having belly-to-belly sales conversations, and turning ideas into an actual business.

Unfortunately, many people out there who abuse the term Marketing Mentor® today don’t have any real life experience actually building a business. They are great coaches and consultants, but they shouldn’t call themselves a mentor – because they have never done it themselves.

Finally, just one “minor” detail. Anyone who currently provides any type of business development/marketing training and coaching/consulting/mento ring services and uses them term Marketing Mentor® as their title is actually infringing on my registered trademark! (you can see it at http://tess2.uspto.gov/bi n/showf…)

Just sayin’! 😉

Important NOTE: Just so we are clear – I don’t think that every marketing coach, consultant or trainer out there sucks or is an imposter! Not at all. There are many amazing experts to work with. If they haven’t built great businesses of their own, they have dozens (or hundreds) success case studies to prove how amazing they are. All I want to point out is this: don’t fall for the sweet talk, do your homework (and use your brain) when hiring people to help you grow your business.

To see the question page with all answers, visit:
http://www.quora.com/l/wY6rl8VEtG

Adam, thank you for being YOU.  🙂

I’d like to encourage my loyal readership to connect with Adam and get better acquainted.  You’re about to befriend a guy who’s one in a million!