All Audiences

There are at least two ways to do marketing: the legitimate, straightforward, integrity-focused way, and the fly-by-night, bloated, hacky, and shortcuts way.

Below is an excerpt from a great little website by Brad Frost called Death to Bullshit that articulates exactly these two extremes.

I highly recommend checking it out and clicking the “Turn bullshit on?” link in the upper right to get the full experience.

We’re bombarded by more information than ever before. With the rise of all this information comes a rise of the amount of bullshit we’re exposed to. Death to Bullshit is a rallying cry to rid the world of bullshit and demand experiences that respect people and their time.

What is bullshit?

Bullshit lies on a spectrum somewhere between ineptitude and outright deception. Bullshit can be characterized in a few different ways:

• Superfluous or unnecessary
• Cluttered, clunky, or needlessly complex
• Intentionally deceptive or insincere

Popups, jargon, junk mail, anti-patterns, sensationalism, begging for likes, tracking scripts, marketing spam, dark patterns, unskippable ads, clickbait, linkbait, listicles, seizure-inducing banners, captchas, QR codes, barely-visible unsubscribe buttons, 24-hour news networks, carousels, auto-playing audio, bloatware, sudden redirects to the App Store, telemarketing, ticked-by-default subscribe buttons, “your call is important to us”, pageview-gaming galleries, native advertising, the list of bullshit goes on and on and on. This bullshit assaults our senses in a desperate attempt to capture our attention.

People’s capacity for bullshit is rapidly diminishing.

“When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive.” —James Gleick

We as human beings are trying to maximize our signal and minimize the amount of noise we’re exposed to. Our willingness to be inconvenienced, interrupted, and insulted is dwindling. We’re finding more ways to circumvent bullshit, whether it’s through tools like ad-blockers or actions like cutting cable.

As the landslide of bullshit surges down the mountain, people will increasingly gravitate toward genuinely useful, well-crafted products, services, and experiences that respect them and their time. So we as creators have a decision to make: do we want to be part of the 90% of noise out there, or do we want to be part of the 10% of signal? It’s quite simple really:

• Respect people and their time.
• Respect your craft.
• Be sincere.
• Create genuinely useful things.

This site and accompanying blog explore the themes of information, bullshit, and craft. Enjoy.

Love,
Brad

When you first get started in marketing, you might have a tendency to throw tactics on the wall until things work. Or if you are feeling desperate, you might try some “hacks” to get people to use your thing.

It starts small. It looks like a new feature or idea. Next thing you know, you’re laying on piles of BS until you can’t even call what you’re doing marketing anymore.

It’s good to be hyper-aware of this slippery slope. To remember that good marketing is about service, value, and simplicity. Not hacks, gimmicks, or shortcuts.

There are no short-cuts and the cream always rises to the top. Avoid BS like a hawk.

 

P.S. Be sure to visit the main site and turn on the BS to get the full experience. 🙂

Something I’ve realized lately in my consulting work is that every company has a “lemon factor”. Mine is no exception, by the way.

And if you don’t quickly get clear on what it is, it will come back to haunt you.

Now that I’m aware of this truth, I ask my clients the question up front, what is your lemon factor?

They won’t always know or be able to accurately assess it themselves, so it’s my job to investigate just to be sure.

This knowledge is crucial for helping companies grow. Most of us are partially or completely blind to them. We get used to them.

What is a lemon factor?

A lemon factor is basically your biggest weakness. It’s why people shouldn’t or don’t buy from you most often.

Maybe you’re in an undesirable part of town or maybe you’re a jack-of-all-trades and master of none.

Whatever it is, it’s crucial you know what’s your lemon factor is so you know how to compensate for it.

What is the best way to compensate for it?

Double down on your X factor.

Your X factor is the thing that gives your company an edge. It’s your competitive advantage and the thing that makes you uniquely compelling.

Both the X factor and the lemon factor are essential things to be aware of so you can mitigate risks and compensate by focusing on what you do best.

You can’t ignore the lemon factor—both in your own business and your clients’. All businesses have them.

If you do ignore the lemon factor, it will become a blind spot in your work that will severely limit your potential down the line.

Know your lemon factor and compensate with an equally strong (or stronger) X factor.

Most of my work has come to me as a result of content marketing—over a million dollars’ worth over the past 5 years.

The problem with content marketing when you’re a solo consultant is it can be difficult to find time (energy) to create content on a consistent basis.

And yet, it’s the consistency that matters more than one-off great content. At least in terms of attracting opportunities to you.

If you’re not creating content, my best advice to you is to just start. Create something and make it better later.

Starting is the surest way to force yourself to build the habit and improve the work you put out.

It won’t be great at first, but that’s fine. It just needs to become a habit so you can become consistent.

Once you have mastered consistency, then try to make your content excellent.

There are countless examples of people who put out imperfect content that adds value and thus serves its purpose. Their content may not win awards, but it’s consistent and valuable, which is what counts most.

The alternative is to try to make everything you produce perfect from the get-go. The best it could possibly be.

But more often than not, it leads to either procrastination or sporadic content—which isn’t a great strategy.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with wanting to create only the best possible content. Go for it if you think you can do it consistently from a standstill.

But for most people, getting started is the path to publishing great content. They just need to put in the reps first before they can get there.

If you want business results, get consistent and then increase the quality.

This year has been a whirlwind for all of us.

The uncertainty that took us by storm at the beginning of 2020 and then the long year that followed has left many of us tired and beleaguered.

When the pandemic first hit, I thought I’d see my business get crushed. More than half of my revenue comes from the coworking industry, after all.

Luckily, I was able to sustain a full deck of clients for most of the year, resulting in by far my best year yet.

But with all that busy-ness, I haven’t had time to think about my own business. To plan strategically about what I want 2021 to look like. I’ve even let a lot of my marketing slide for my coworking consultancy, too.

Not to mention,  I’ve almost completely neglected my own personal needs—as I’m sure you and many others may have done also to some extent. I’m extremely grateful for my health, family, new son, and fortunate business results for the year, but it’s taken a toll.

So, my plan is to unwind over the holidays and zoom out from my business a bit. To spend time away from the computer, letting my mind wander and regain the creative energy it needs. To nurture the soul.

There’s nothing like separation from your work (and long walks) to give you perspective on what you want your next steps to look like. This year has been a stressful one, so I think we all need and deserve some time to think and recharge.

That’s my plan, I hope and encourage you to do the same.

When you create something new, you rarely know if it will work.

The best thing you can do is look for early signs of life and build around them.

I launched Mindshare a few months ago. It’s a private mentorship podcast with resources and a community for marketing consultants.

I don’t know if it will work yet. But I’m noticing early signs of life.

There are 17 current members so far. Some I’ve never met before. Some I’ve met online. A few I know in person.

I sold most of the memberships via Twitter—the only place I talk about it aside from my personal blog. One person even came from a one-day trial run of Twitter ads.

There’s also a half dozen or more people who join the monthly coffee meetups on Zoom that we host. A decently high ratio given the number of people in the group.

I don’t know if the idea has legs yet, but I’m seeing signs of life and I’m personally enjoying it a lot.

There is still tons of work to do and it’s early days yet. For now, I’ll keep watching for signs of life and giving it the attention it needs to grow.

Are you starting something new? Look for the smallest signs of life and build around those.

It could be anything, from increased conversations to new introductions, your first paying client, or some new subscribers to your list.

All that matters is you build around the signs of life and keep doing that until you’ve reached your goals.

H/T to Mark Butler who shared this idea before on a podcast.

For the last 37 days, I’ve been posting one new short article a day.

At points, I feel tired or unable to come up with anything original. So I share something I found that day or express an idea that’s been bouncing around in my head.

Some days, I feel like not publishing something. Missing a day. It would be so easy.

I’m still in the process of finding my daily rhythm and voice with this blog. But there’s one thing I know for sure: it’s a lot easier to steer a moving car than a parked one.

My best advisory clients take action. They’re doing things, allocating time and resources to their marketing, learning what’s working, and iterating on the fly.

We don’t always know which ideas will gain the most traction or which will get the best results.

But I can guarantee one thing: not taking enough action is a surefire way to not reach your goal.

I’d rather be moving and fumbling than standing still.

Because after all, you can’t move forward while standing still. And you can’t steer a parked car, either.

I was interviewed back in June of 2020 by John Meese, a serial entrepreneur and author of his new book, Survive and Thrive: How to Build a Profitable Business in Any Economy.

John is an interesting guy. He’s worked with Michael Hyatt as the Dean of Platform University, he co-founded a WordPress theme business, and currently runs a small coworking space in his home town of Columbia, TN.

In this podcast episode, we talk about the ways companies are adapting during COVID—something we’re all still dealing with today.

I shared a stories and ideas for pivoting with the times, doubling down on the needs of your best customers, and keeping your business moving forward so you come out stronger on the other end.

Lots of good ideas in this one.

> Give it a listen here.

I can’t put in the reps for you.

I can’t make you read that book, finish that course, or write that next blog post.

I can’t make you show up consistently. I can’t make those trade-offs or hard decisions for you, either.

What I can do is put in my own reps.

I can read that book, finish that course, and write this blog post for you to read.

I can show up consistently and make my own trade-offs and hard decisions.

With any luck, it will help inspire you to do the same. It’s nothing special, it’s just doing the work. Even when it’s not comfortable or easy.

Nobody can put in the reps for you. This is your life, your business, your future.

Put in the reps. If not for you, then for the next person.

I came across this video clip of Seth Godin in a recent interview by Carl Richards.

He talks about knowing which clients are right for you and who aren’t. The more time I spend in marketing, the more true this appears to me.

I also love this section of the excerpt for the video, presumably written by Carl:

“Most people you meet will not be for you. They may look like they could be for you, but they are not for you. The more people that what you do is not for, the stronger your work will resonate with the people it is for.”

This is magic.