The Obvious Choice: Timeless Lessons on Success, Profit, and Finding Your Way Hardcover – January 14, 2025

onathan Goodman’s The Obvious Choice is a game-changer for entrepreneurs, coaches, and small business owners who feel stuck in the endless cycle of content creation and social media obsession. Goodman challenges the idea that success depends on “winning the internet” and instead presents 15 timeless lessons focused on human connection and business efficiency.The book stands out because it cuts through the noise and provides actionable strategies for building trust with customers, improving profitability by cutting out unnecessary work, and creating content that actually converts—without relying on algorithms. Goodman’s writing is clear, engaging, and often humorous (his “bad-dad jokes” are a welcome touch), making complex business strategies feel approachable and practical.One of the most valuable takeaways is his four-step content creation framework, designed specifically for business owners—not influencers. The focus on authenticity and human connection over vanity metrics makes this a refreshing read in today’s social media-driven business environment.If you’re tired of chasing likes and feeling like you need to “go viral” to succeed, this book offers a smarter, more sustainable path. Highly recommend it for anyone serious about building a business that lasts.

This is one of my favorite books I have read in a long time. Engaging, and practically helpful. As a small business owner, I sometimes find modern day business books to be a bit fluffy and lacking in substance, steps, and specifics. The Obvious Choice gave me several key takeaways and action plans to get moving in the right direction. Maybe it’s because I’m also a trainer starting to scale things, but I really connected with Jonathan and felt like he gave a crap about the reader. Really good!

John gets it.Probably the best business book I've ever read, which cuts directly to the core of organic marketing - human connection. An easy read that's filled with humor and jam-packed with stories for why businesses succeed or fail, The Obvious Choice teaches you how to play your own game that's not dependent on social media.If you're having a horrible time in business, chances are something is fundamentally wrong. READ THIS.

Jonathon's take on how to build a business is refreshing and reassuring! In a world where we're told success is to be won on the internet, he advocates for building trust through genuine relationships and community; focusing on customer acquisition rather than social media likes. His book is easy to read and gives a needed perspective into ways to find success.

A few takeaways...One thing that jumped out to me when I was re-reading an early chapter on social media was that something interesting appeared on my FB feed earlier that day.I'd been following a business coach/influencer for about five years. Also was part of one of her coaching programs.Between her FB page and FB Group, she has 27K members, and probably way more if you add other social media platforms. She typically posts and does FB live multiple times a day.One day, she just went silent.Then, out of nowhere, she wrote that "I’ve been gone longer than anticipated. Nearly 3 weeks since my last content post on social media."I'm pretty sure she's been wildly profitable. But that kind of commitment to social media comes with a price. And she explains some of that in the rest of her post.I guess all I'm saying is that I wouldn't have noticed it before.After re-reading the chapter on building the type of business we can withstand long-term, I realized just how difficult this has been for her.And that having to take three weeks away, probably for good reason (I don't know why) really hurt her business. I can't imagine building expectation like that and waking up every day knowing that in order to get a few customers, I need to perform like that.I found this book insightful and easy to read with lots of great stories and examples and advice.I did, however, take offense to Jon's stance on pizza on page 91. Jon, pineapple absolutely belongs on pizza.

In my line of business (fitness/nutrition coaching), it’s easy to get caught up with what social media influencers are doing and trying to emulate them, because lots of “followers” must equate successful businesses, right? And if I don’t get the “follows” I must be failing? Wrong! By reading this book I identified things I was doing wrong trying to chase clients, spinning my wheels in the social media grind, overwhelming potential clients with too much information on things that don’t matter to them and not focusing on what really matters…what they want and who I am!This is a great, easy read with many moments where I cringed, recognizing “I do that” (when I shouldn’t be doing that) while also learning the skills and simple tasks I should be focusing on to really find success. Love Jon’s style of writing, knowledgeable and realistic, but also whitty with random interesting tidbits thrown in!

So easy and fun to read. Not just a strategy book, but really a perspective shift. Game changer. So good my gf stole it from it as I was reading it and we had to share it 😂