Marketing Advisor, Mentor, & Educator

Kevin C. Whelan

Marketing Consultants

Who are you intrinsically interested in serving?

You probably like what you do. You’re a marketer who built a career doing work that excited you.

Maybe you started out as a designer. Or writing. Or coding websites. Or making videos.

Over time, you realized your hobby had real business value. You broadened your skills and operated at a more strategic level.

So where do you go next in your career, assuming you have a choice? You always have a choice.

To me, the answer is to do work for people you enjoy serving.

It doesn’t mean you have to do unprofitable work for people with no money. Do that for fun on the weekends or as a way to give back outside of your main business.

But ideally, there should be some intrinsic interest in helping the type of people or industry you serve.

It will make a big difference to the longevity and success of your business. Without it, you’ll eventually wear out and want to do something else.

Phase into helping those kinds of people. It doesn’t need to happen overnight. But it’s worth aiming for.

At the end of the day, it’s good to do work you enjoy. Most people don’t get to do that. But it’s even better if you can do work for people you truly enjoy helping.

The road is long.

Set a goal, create a system, and put in the work

I came across this Twitter thread by Justin Welsh today and it made a lot of sense.

He talks about the four things he did to grow his audience by 14k+ followers in the last 10 weeks.

  1. He does a touch-base tweet every morning to provide motivation and keep his target in the mode of building.
  2. He does an educational tweet every afternoon or evening with a goal of helping even one person keep growing.
  3. He does a step-by-step tweet once per week to add deeper value in a tactical way. He claims this is what powers his growth.
  4. He engages with 5 people in his niche every day.

What do I like about it?

I like that it’s a simple system that works (for him).

But the thing to remember is that it won’t work unless he puts in the work.

Systems make knowing what to do simple. But they still require you to put in the work. Simple doesn’t always mean easy.

Take this general approach with your business and your clients’ and you’ll see the results.

Set a goal, create a system, and put in the work.

Make time for tinkering

The other day, I made an argument about why you should only chase one shiny object at a time.

My point was that when you pursue too many business ideas, you end up succeeding only partially at any of them… if you’re lucky.

And while that’s true from my experience, I think there’s an important distinction to make: tinkering.

My entire life, I’ve been a tinkerer. Mostly as it relates to technology.

It’s this curiosity and explorative nature that led to the career I have today.

Some 20+ years later, I still find myself tinkering with technology and getting a lot of benefit from it.

These days, I explore everything from web3 to photography, video and audio production, web development, new software, hardware devices, and a lot more.

I’m not yet sure what benefits these explorations will have yet, but I do know it will lead somewhere. It always has.

So don’t be afraid to tinker. Make time to explore your interests. It can be good for business.

But when it comes to the business ideas you decide to run with, choose wisely. Build one thing at a time.

Not because it’s a forever decision, but because you don’t go far without focus.

Bring your best self

As an advisor, your work will almost always create discomfort—in you and your clients.

And at times, things may even get stressful. If it were easy, they wouldn’t have hired you in the first place.

But as a professional, it also helps to bring an air of positivity. To bring your best outlook to the project and add energy vs. being the one in the room who absorbs it.

It doesn’t mean you have to be blind to negativity. You do have to be willing to say the hard truths and call out the emotions in the room at times.

You even need to be ready to throw a few elbows, too. You’re not a punching bag, after all.

But it does help to stay constructive and carry the best outlook possible to the table. 

You owe it to your clients and they will appreciate it. And that’s good for business.

Bring your best self.

Chase one shiny object at a time

Last week, several members of Mindshare got together for our monthly community coffee meetup.

The meetups are a chance for us to talk shop and get feedback on our immediate situations from others in the group.

One of the trends I noticed on this call—and in other contexts before this—was people wanting to do multiple things at once.

Multiple businesses, multiple target markets, and multiple value propositions across each.

There’s no shame in any of this. Literally all of us fall into this trap at some point. Including me.

That’s because as marketers, we have the skills to launch a number of ideas quickly and fairly easily.

We can help all kinds of businesses. We can do all kinds of things for people. And there are tons of opportunities everywhere.

But the problem is, when you chase too many things, it becomes hard to succeed at any one thing.

Our attention gets diluted, our energy is dispersed, and our time is always scarce. Our work suffers as a result.

And that doesn’t even take into account how the market perceives you.

When you confuse the market with mixed messages about various projects, markets, and claims of expertise, they begin to wonder what—if anything—you’re truly expert in.

It’s hard enough to get one idea off the ground, let alone multiple.

Better to get one thing going successfully first. Then, if you aren’t happy, consider trying something new.

Chase one shiny object at a time.

Be liberal with your pruning

If you own houseplants, you know they often thrive better when you prune the dead leaves and branches.

That’s because the plant can use all of the available resources to invest in the areas that are growing well.

It’s no different in your business.

Got people on your email list who don’t open your emails?

Prune them. They’ll hurt your deliverability.

Got clients who don’t value your expertise?

Prune them. They never will.

Got services that are no longer profitable?

Prune them. They’re hurting your bottom line.

Doing things you no longer enjoy?

Prune them. You’ll never be great at work you don’t enjoy.

Business isn’t just about adding new and better things. It’s also about the relentless pruning of the things that no longer benefit you.

Be liberal with your pruning so you can make room for better.

These are your people

What you do is valuable to someone.

They pay good money for your products and services.

They show appreciation for what you do.

They share your content and read every word you write.

They tell people about you and engage with you on social media.

They write testimonials, give constructive feedback, and take joy in your success.

These are your people. They may not check all of the boxes above, but they probably check a good number.

Do your best work for them and more people like them will follow.

What to do when nobody is buying

Sometimes, your offers and positioning are strong, there’s just not enough people seeing them.

A 5% conversion rate is considered pretty decent in the world of marketing, after-all (depending on context, of course).

Keep showing up, get in front of more people, iterate slowly with the feedback you do get, and the results will follow.

You can’t rush the growth of a consulting business—especially a new one.

It only works if you keep showing up.

Your work gets easier as your prices go up

The longer you consult for a niche, the more streamlined your work will become.

You processes will naturally become more refined and results will generally happen more easily.

You’ll develop systems, tools, templates, and strategies that you can re-purpose and use in unique ways with each client.

But your prices will go up. That’s because your value will go up, too.

This is your friendly reminder that value is not tied to your immediate effort, it’s tied to outcomes. 

Don’t price based on effort, price based on value.

—k

P.S. I raised the prices across the board for my services. I’m now booking into February/March of 2022 for new 1:1 coaching clients.

If you want to secure yesterday’s pricing for the new year, hit reply to see if we’re a fit. This is a quick last call as a courtesy.

How to make hiring you more compelling

When your clients hire you, they’re not buying the thing you’re selling.

They’re buying the benefits of that thing. A business outcome with real value attached. 

They may be fairly confident you can deliver on the scope of your work, but whether they will actually achieve the business outcome they want is a gamble.

And they are acutely aware of this fact.

Since it’s a gamble, it’s your job to make their bet less risky for them.

Guarantees are forms of de-risking an engagement. Specializing also reduces risk. Demonstrating proof of your credibility helps a lot, too.

Avoid putting all the risk onto your clients. Specialize, prove credibility, and offer guarantees for your services.

Your work will be a lot easier to sell at high value when you do.