In today’s episode, I’m talking about how established experts might think they suck at marketing, but they can make it their superpower. Take me, for example, I’m living proof that this is true. In the past, I’ve felt like no one was listening to me, and only heard crickets. But now I’m having daily conversations leading to sales, and I’ve grown this podcast by 45% in the last year.
First of all, there’s my freebie. People actually use my download. They know me for it and tell me if they see something similar on a different website. So many of us just want to see the tools we create help others. I get some great opportunities to guest teach on podcasts now that I was never getting before. It’s taken me some years, but I have gone from being afraid of even giving an elevator pitch to being comfortable chatting about my business with anyone who asks.
This episode is kicking off a new series where I will chat with some fun guests, including a mentor of mine. But first, I want to address the problem and what I see as the possibility of being on the other side of the self-blame game around being bad at marketing.
Marketing is Hard for Many Small Businesses
Small business owners already wear a hundred different hats. But on top of that, the internet offers up a thousand tricks, types, and hoops to jump through. It’s easy to see how things can get insanely overcomplicated. It’s not your fault that you are not understanding your marketing strategy completely. Seth Godin wrote a book, This Is Marketing, and he talks about how we all just marinate in terrible marketing, and that’s not really what you should be understanding.
In 2017, I started this podcast because I struggled to keep up with everything that social media algorithms require of me. After 20 years of experience, social media requirements feel cringy, and it’s getting worse. It doesn’t fit who I am and how I want to show up. I didn’t want to dumb down the important conversations about topics like financial stability.
Social Media Isn’t the Only Marketing Tool
My goal is to help change the culture among small business owners, and I enjoy speaking about that powerfully, but I do not like stuffing tidbits into 8-second clips. I am sales focused, but I don’t like many marketing tactics I have seen. I have many more important things to focus on in life than the things that don’t serve me and my goals.
I believe in learning and implementing deeply, not widely. My clients pay a premium, and I want to present myself in a way that commands that price point. Social media doesn’t apply to me, and it doesn’t appeal to my buyers. I succeed with relationship marketing. Whether it’s referrals or connections I make personally, I’ve found that this form of marketing has allowed me to provide for my family.
So I advise you to stop looking for one specific social media strategy or algorithm trick you read about online. A sustainable business needs to have a marketing foundation that allows owners to use the tools that make sense. The solution is to reframe your perspective, lean into your empathy, and know that marketing is experimentation.
Shift Your Marketing Focus to Them Instead of You
Instead of focusing on you, what you want, and your outcomes, focus on the people you want to serve. Shift your attention to the people you want to support and help. Align your strategy around your customers’ needs. Business owners want to grow their businesses and make more money. At the end of the day, making more money and watching your products make the world a bit better will bring you happiness. Your target market needs to see your offerings as valuable, mission-critical, and worth the value. The easiest way to do that is to understand why your customers buy.
The next podcast episode will dive into the Jobs To Be Done theory. It’s something I talk about in my Bold Profit Academy often. It’s a framework that helps you understand what your customers want and why they buy. The focus is on the specific progress someone wants to make and why that’s important. It’s a human-centered way of viewing people and is very empathy driven.
Business owners who utilize this framework will be able to state their services with more specificity. People should know why they should hire you. If you can understand the motivations as to why people buy, you’ll understand what is actually urgent and relevant for your prospects.
What’s Up Next on the Podcast
Next week, I will talk to Jim Kalbach, the author of The Jobs To Be Done Playbook. He’s a teacher, and I take his teachings and put them to use. We will discuss how this theory has changed my business, but I wanted to give you a little background on why this was important. I used to suck at marketing, but this helped changed my whole perspective. Come back next week and share this podcast with others who might find this information useful.
