Marketing Advisor, Mentor, & Educator

Kevin C. Whelan

Marketing Consultants

Belonging to a genre

In Seth Godin’s book, The Practice, he talks about belonging to a genre. It’s been a while since I read it, so I’ll riff on the concept a bit because it’s an interesting way to view the world.

Belonging to a genre means being similar to people or things in an existing category. You quickly “get it” when you see something that belongs to a genre you’re familiar with.

Bob Marley was part of a genre of reggae artists. Jaws is part of a few genres, including cult classics and classic thriller films. Tony Robbins is part of a genre of motivational speakers.

All genres are made up of peers who do similar things but have their own unique angle or perspective.

Belonging to a genre makes it easy for the market to understand you more quickly. They have a context to place you in.

And with that context, they can more easily see where you stand out or are unique.

It’s the difference among people within a genre that that compels people buy or engage. We want things belonging to a genre we like, but we choose which ones to engage with based on their differences.

It’s good to belong to a genre. The question is, what genre do you belong to, who are your peers, and how are you unique?

Playing in traffic

There’s a concept I resonate deeply with that will help you generate more activity in your business.

Carl Richards calls it, “playing in traffic”.

It generally means putting yourself out there. Creating content, engaging with people, and interacting with the world.

The more of it you do, the more likely it is that good things will happen.

It can be intimidating or downright terrifying when you’re not used to it. It takes practice. But it’s an essential part of running a successful advisory business. 

If you’re not playing in traffic, you’re all but invisible. And when you’re invisible, nothing happens.

Publish a daily or weekly email. Interview people in your target market. Reach out to past colleagues and contacts. Publish videos of you talking or doing a webinar. Make noise and stand out any way you can.

Good things happen when you “play in traffic”.

This work is hard

No matter what you do, the work will be hard.

You may love marketing. You probably have a passion for your craft.

And yet, it’s still work. No matter what.

If you’re not working with people you are intrinsically driven to help, you won’t be able to sustain the work long enough to be the best at it.

And you want to be the best at what you do.

Choose your niche wisely.

How to scope a consulting service

The scope of any consulting service should be determined by the goals of your ideal clients.

If you start with an idea in your head about what people want, you almost always get the specifics wrong. You need real-world input from your ideal clients.

At very least, have conversations with people in your ideal target market. Understand their pains and the context around their goals.

Build backwards from there.

You can do this in your research process, it doesn’t need to be done exclusively during sales conversations.

If you get clear on the goals of your ideal clients using real-world input, the scope and price takes care of itself.

What does a marketing consultant even do?

One of the questions I get from clients and students alike is, “what do you even do if you don’t do execution work?”

This is an important question. You will inevitably be asked some version of it. And when you do, you’ll want to have a response internalized.

This is also important if you’re still wrapping your mind around the value of your brain without doing the actual execution.

The main four things to know is this:

  1. Your job to act in their best business interest at all times.
  2. Your mission is to get a result with whatever tools you have at your disposal (though not your hands if you can avoid it).
  3. You’re a facilitator of outcomes. You’re a guide. You are not the pack mule. You can’t be everything.
  4. Niching makes your expertise rarer and immensely more valuable independent of execution.

Here are 22 ways a marketing advisor adds value without doing execution:

  1. Create an insight- and data-driven marketing strategy
  2. Create a marketing plan that actually gets implemented
  3. Bring a proven process that makes things more efficient
  4. Source outside specialists to perform specific tasks
  5. Help them develop and manage a financial budget
  6. Help them measure results in a non-ambiguous way
  7. Help them limit mistakes they could easily avoid
  8. Hold them accountable to their goals and promises
  9. Coach them on their marketing skills and mindsets
  10. Bring rare subject matter expertise they can’t find elsewhere
  11. Help them achieve their goals faster by knowing what to do
  12. Bring examples, templates, and resources they can use
  13. Help them create lasting habits, systems and processes
  14. Challenge their assumptions about what they can or should do
  15. Provide a neutral, outside perspective on their business
  16. Connect them with others in their industry or niche
  17. Assist with the market research and analysis process
  18. Draft proof-of-concept wireframes, content, and other materials
  19. Help them sell their business, attract investors, or report to stakeholders
  20. Help them hire an in-house marketing manager when the time is right
  21. Guide their marketing from a higher level without getting lost in the weeds
  22. Think strategically on their behalf

When you eliminate the need to use your hands, your time is freed up to work on higher-value things that ultimately help them save time, avoid problems, and get better results.

There’s a lot to unpack in all of these, but the bottom line is this: advice and execution are best sold separately.

Once you and your clients internalize this, it’s hard to see it any other way.

The 5 major problems with execution work

One of the biggest challenges I hear from marketing consultants is they’re getting stuck doing execution work instead of advising.

Managed advisory/fractional CMO services are a great way to ease into advisory work. In the short-term, it can be an exciting and highly profitable line of work.

But if you don’t manage to shift into pure advisory work, it will soon create a lot of unnecessary stress and it will hold you back from growing your business.

In this episode, I break down the five biggest problems (and the sub-variations thereof) with doing execution work as a marketing consultant.

These include:

  • Lack of time to learn, market yourself, and work on your business
  • Becoming an order-taker vs. being seen as an advisor
  • Being out of alignment with your clients’ interests
  • Feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and scatter-brained
  • No ability to scale your offerings and grow your business

This was a longer episode than usual, so I’ll talk about how to break free from execution in a future episode. I’ll also cover the significant upsides it creates for both you and your clients.

Execution is by far the most time and energy intensive thing you do, but is much lower value than you may think.

I’ll get into all that and more in future episodes. For now, give this a listen and let me know if you relate.

—k

Have a bias for action

When you’re standing still, all you can see is what’s around you. To get new information, you need to move.

But many of us get paralyzed when we’re not sure what to do. We think but don’t act. And then nothing happens.

If you’re willing to take imperfect steps, eventually you’ll find what you need to succeed. No mistake is unfixable.

So when in doubt, just move.

Try something. Create a proof of concept. Put out the feelers. See what happens. Adjust your strategy. Everything can be undone or adjusted.

Having a bias for action creates momentum—and momentum creates progress.

You can harness momentum, but you can’t steer a parked car.

Your niche and your identity

Choosing a niche is a personal process. It becomes part of our identity.

We become “the (insert niche/positioning] guy or gal”. And nobody wants to be “the X guy or gal” if it has no affiliation with their personal identity.

You can do it for a while, but it may become difficult to sustain longterm unless you can find some greater meaning in the work.

If you can pick a niche that aligns with your existing identity, you’ll be more likely to stick with it long enough to see the benefits that only come with commitment over time.

The association can be general, such as being someone who likes community, so they serve the coworking industry (this was me).

Or someone who wanted to be a teacher, so they work with online educators. Or someone who enjoys healthy living, so they serve the wellness industry.

With a little introspection, you’ll know if there’s a general association between the niche you choose and your identity.

If you can draw a line between the niche you choose and parts of your identity, it’s a good sign.

Refuse to phone it in

As your business grows, you’ll get busy. So, you’ll raise your prices.

New clients will pay higher prices and your old clients will likely keep your older rates until they attrition or something happens.

On the one hand, you don’t want to lose the “safe” revenue they represent. You also don’t want to have “the talk” about raising your prices.

So, you accept lower margins with your old clients and make it up with new, higher paying clients.

But that only works for so long. And it’s a slippery slope.

As you get busy, you’ll mentally begin to justify doing less work for them. The busier you get, the more tempted you’ll be to cut corners.

If they signed up today, they’d be on a much lower plan or paying significantly more, you reason. So you do less without telling them.

And that’s the problem.

Your clients deserve better. They deserve your best work. And if you can’t do it at that price, they deserve an honest discussion about what you’re willing to do (or not do) today.

Your prices should make you slightly nervous and excited to do great work. Those nerves will keep you on top of your game. And that’s what your clients are paying you for.

Refuse to phone it in—even with your old clients. Either find a new service to offer, raise your prices, or refer them to someone else.

Work for the people who love it

For some people, your work is too expensive.

For others, you’re alarmingly cheap.

For some people, your work isn’t any good.

For others, your work is a godsend.

For some people, your personality is a turn-off.

For others, your personality is enchanting.

One thing is for sure, nothing you do will be for everyone.

At best, a small, small percentage of people will like your work. An even smaller percentage will love it.

Find the people who love what you do and work for them.

The rest will take care of itself.