All Audiences

How do you know if your product or service is any good?

1. When you promote it, people show interest
2. When people buy it, they tell you they like it
3. People refer you to others (usually)

If you’re not seeing any of these things, it doesn’t necessarily mean your product or service isn’t on the right track.

But it is a signal that something may need to improve or change.

And the only way to know what to improve is to talk to the people who buy your product or service (if any).

If nobody is buying, talk to people you want to buy and think should buy what you offer.

Usually, it’s a mismatch between where they want to go and what you’re offering to help them with. It could also be a messaging or positioning problem.

But you won’t know unless you talk to people. Especially the people you aim to serve and the people who actually pay you.

A little switch, nuance, and adjustment can go a long way. But only if you actually talk to your current and ideal clients.

There’s no way around it.

I have two fiddle leaf plants on my landing—both in the best spots for indirect but bright light.

One, however, is not doing so well. I repotted it a long time ago and it’s just not thriving like the other one.

Every time I walk past it, I look at it. I almost don’t see the bright vibrant one beside it sometimes. I think of what it needs to bring it back to full health.

And it’s like that with a lot of areas in our life. We focus on the things not working and ignore the ones that are.

It also works the same with your business.

If you have clients who demand a lot of your time, take up your energy, or otherwise stress you out—it will pull your attention away from those who pay promptly, get the most value, refer you the most, and ultimately are the best to work with.

Prune the plants that aren’t working so you can focus on the ones that are.

I was watching a TV show the other day about people living off the land in the Alaskan wilderness.

Each of them cited adaptability, hard work, and self-sufficiency as the reason they’re able to live so remotely. They had some modern technology, but none of that outweighed their self-driven work ethic.

In your business, it’s no different. It should be hard. You should push yourself and your comfort zone. Which is why you should actually like what you do and who you do it for. That’s how you sustain it.

That doesn’t mean it should be stressful. There will be stressful days and moments, sure. But ongoing stress isn’t going to serve you. It will only hurt your performance and burn you out.

At the end of the day, there is no shortcut to success. It takes work. Hard work. And a bit of grit. At least some of the time.

Hard work and a little grit will enable you to be consistent with your marketing, deliverables, and results. And consistency is what builds a business.

At the end of the day, nobody can succeed for you.

There are lots of ways to keep score in business.

Money is the obvious one. But we all know that money will only get you so far in life. The real answer is your level of “big-picture” happiness.

How happy are you with the way things are going? Are you miserable or do you generally feel like you’re on the right path?

Sure, things might get hard sometimes. They might be hard right now. But do you generally like where you’re headed?

Money is absolutely a score in business. It’s the lifeblood.

But it’s not the score in business. Especially for a solo consultant or small business owner.

You won’t always love every minute of what you do. You’ll have bad days, weeks, months, or even longer.

But if you’re not big-picture happy with your business, you need to make a change.

Don’t wait too long.

 

Today marks the 140th consecutive day writing to this blog.

At this point, the momentum is strong. The habit is formed. And it’s actually harder to not write this article than it is to write it.

On the other hand, it’s been a few months since I wrote something on my coworking consultancy blog. Inertia is kicking in, I can feel it.

The thing about momentum is that when you have it, it’s relatively easy to keep it going. But once you lose it, it’s really hard to restart it.

Inertia is the counter-force to momentum. Both are equally powerful, but work in opposite directions.

If you’re facing inertia with your publishing schedule, try to just get something out the door. Anything will do.

One thing will lead to the next and before you know it, you’ll have momentum. But only if you are consistent.

And when you do get that momentum, be sure to keep it going.

Inertia is always beckoning.

This month, I was featured on the Mitch Gray Show—a podcast on a mission to create messages that will engage, inspire and equip leaders to empower those within their influence.

Mitch is a great interviewer. He asks thoughtful questions that provoked me to go deep and answer questions at a very personal and authentic level.

In this episode, we talked about the work I do as a marketing advisor, mentor, and even discussed the coworking industry where I do most of my work.

If you’re a marketing consultant, you’ll hear how I view the world and work as an advisor and it might help shape your perspective on our work.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll benefit from hearing my thoughts on how to succeed and grow as we come out of the pandemic era stronger than you went into it.

Here are some of the topics we discussed:

• What it means to be an advocate for your clients
• The trend I’m seeing towards distributed marketing teams and fractional CMOs 
• My thoughts on going forward after dealing with the pandemic for the past year 
• How to evolve and innovate your business—even if it means changing your identity along the way 
• How to help your business come out stronger on the other side of the pandemic
• How I view my role as a mentor to other marketing consultants—and what motivates me to do so
• My thoughts on daily blogging and why it works to grow a consulting business
• The role passion plays in developing your career path—and how it led to where I am today 
• The rise of coworking, where it’s headed, and my experience consulting in that industry 
• Why even coworking spaces should specialize in a specific target market 
• And a variety of other interesting and thought provoking thoughts, questions and answers

Give this a listen here and be sure to subscribe to his show on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts.

 

Your logo is a signal.

Your website is a signal.

The polish of your content is a signal.

The frequency of your posts is a signal.

The quality of your case studies is a signal.

Your consistency (or lack thereof) of your publishing is a signal.

Everything you do (or don’t do) sends a signal to the market about what you do and how you do it.

That doesn’t mean you need to have the best logo, website, content, or whatever.

Sometimes, you trade polish for consistency. Or you don’t focus on design but nail the details of your content instead.

Whatever you do, just know that every little thing you put out there (or don’t put out) is a signal to the world about your values, standards, or even your abilities.

Choose the right ones for you and be mindful of the choices you’re making—conscious or not.

I delegate a lot. It’s the nature of being a strategist and advisor.

And with that, I’ve had to learn how to do it effectively. We all need to learn this skill, and yet so few people have it.

It all comes down to how you structure your request.

Personally, I hate when someone tells me to do something. Even when they say please.

Why? Because it’s usually phrased as a command, not a request. And if I wanted to be commanded to do things, I’d join the army (or get a J.O.B.).

Here’s an example of an innocuous request:

“Please do this task and follow up when it’s done.”

Why oh why does this rub me the wrong way? They said please, right?

The main reason, at least for me personally, is they’re not really asking you to do it. They’re telling you to do it. They’re flexing their authority—whether they really have it or not.

Sure, it might be my job. And yes, I might do the thing they ask for.

But there’s a better way to ask. A way that will make people feel better when they receive your request.

How?

You actually ask. You form it as a question, not a command. Which means you are actually making a request.

Here’s the better way to structure this sentence:

“Can you please do this task and follow up when it’s done?”

You might be like most people and think this is purely semantics. Or that I’m being overly sensitive about this topic.

But I’d disagree. Especially because tone rarely comes across in text—which is how most requests are made these days are made.

Your implementation partners, staff, clients—and whomever you’re asking to do something—are your peers. Regardless of their role, they’re not your subordinates.

They’re professionals doing their job.

By commanding instead of requesting, you’re implying that you’re in control of their work.

You’re not. You’re doing your job and they’re doing theirs.

By actually forming your request as a question, it shows you respect them and their time. You’re not telling them (even if you are), you’re making a request.

It might be subtle, but I’d much rather do something for someone who asks than perform a task by someone who commands it. No matter what the circumstance is.

I see it all the time and I honestly think it’s the difference between a good delegator and a bad one.

Rookies command. Seasoned vets ask. No matter the job, no matter the task.

Actually ask.

In order to succeed in business, you generally need four things:

1. The right product or service
2. The right customer to buy it
3. The right message to describe it
4. The right marketing plan to build awareness

If something isn’t working, it usually means at least one of these four things are off. And you can’t succeed without all four working.

But here’s the thing: you rarely get it right out of the gate.

Business is about tweaks and adjustments. And even when you get it right, the target moves again.

If something isn’t working in your business, ask yourself:

1. How many people are you reaching?
2. Is it resonating with people? If so, who?
3. How many are expressing interest?
4. How many actually buy it?
5. How many stay or buy again after making the first transaction?

Great marketing comes from asking the right questions and iterating until you get the best answers.

Just because you’re having challenges, doesn’t mean you need to change all four factors or stop trying.

Better to look for the answers one factor at a time based on what you’re seeing than to throw the whole thing away or give up.

Keep tweaking the dials on your system until you get it right.

Bitcoin has seen a tremendous rise over the last decade. The last year in particular.

Why? The underlying premise is the fact that there will only ever be 21 million coins in existence. Which means they’re inherently scarce. Unlike any fiat currency, which governments can print more at any time.

There are far more reasons why Bitcoin has seen such a surge in popularity, but that’s the crux of it.

If Bitcoin could arbitrarily create more supply, it would have little to no inherent value. And it’s the same with your consulting practice. 

There are two ways to be scarce:

1. Stay small
2. Be uniquely specialized 

I like being a solo consultant because my availability is inherently limited. If you want to work with me, you better either wait in line or pay the price (which goes up as I get busier).

I also like being specialized because it means my skills are rare and therefore more valuable to those who want what I offer.

Do you want to work with a generalist consultant, or me, the guy who specializes in exactly what you need?

If Harvard decided to expand and create multiple campuses around the world, would it still have it’s cachet? My guess is it would lose a LOT with every new location.

If Harvard accepted just anybody into their school, would it still be as valued? I’d guess no. Having a Harvard degree says a LOT about your academic caliber.

That’s because they’re small, which means they need to be selective, which reduces supply, which drives up price, which can be reinvested into the quality of the educational experience, which increases demand, and so goes the cycle.

If you want to increase your value, increase the scarcity of your availability and expertise.