Marketing Consultants

I never thought I’d start a YouTube channel, but here I am.

I’m starting to take some of my audiologs from the Mindshare membership and publishing select video versions to YouTube.

Yes, there will be rambling. No, it won’t be highly scripted or polished. That’s just not my style for this kind of thing.

I’m far more focused on helping than perfectionism. But I do promise to learn and improve the format as I go.

This is my way of doing things.

So hopefully, you will still add my channel to your consumption mix.

Subscribe here: https://youtube.com/@kevincwhelan

—kevin

I’m a big fan of productized marketing services.

But that doesn’t mean I’m married to my off-the-shelf services when a prospect comes along.

By default, I evaluate every opportunity through a custom lens before thinking about what to propose.

I want to diagnose before prescribing.

Most of the time, my off-the-shelf consulting services are perfect as they are. But many times, especially for bigger companies, my productized services need to be adjusted.

After all, there are a lot of factors that can impact scope, value, and therefore price dramatically.

By treating every opportunity as a custom engagement, I’m able to actually get to the heart of the buyer’s needs and prescribe the ideal options for them (and me).

This often means more money for me and better-fit solutions for my clients.

When you blindly sell whatever productized service you offer, it limits you from seeing what the buyer actually needs.

You end up pushing a solution that isn’t really the right fit. Your mind becomes closed to the possibilities.

It also prevents you from seeing a potentially more profitable scenario for you! Maybe you need to do half the number of calls or deliverables for 5/6th the price to get a result. Who knows.

It’s a little more work to treat every prospect as a custom potential engagement, but it sure does work a lot better for everyone.

Hope this helps,

—kw

Dru Riley, founder of Trends.vc, recently offered to feature me as a Founder of the Week in their newsletter.

If you’re not subscribed, here’s an archive to see what it’s all about. I highly recommend subscribing.

One of the questions they asked was, “What I’m bullish on?”

The best answer I could give was the thing I’m building—and why I think it’s so useful:

I’m bullish on a hybrid consulting business model that combines 1:1 advice with access to additional resources, training, and community—for a reasonable cost.

The most impactful investments I’ve made in my business have been investing in coaches and education. But they’re often super expensive and not easy to sustain financially.

So, I’ve been trying to build my membership around asynchronous 1:1 advice (i.e. Slack audio/text DMs), live group calls, community, and a library of content and resources. Or for the self-learners with a lower budget, providing access to training and community for more independent learning.

I think this hybrid model provides the most leverage to the consultant (i.e. me in this case but also anyone who wants to do it) while simultaneously providing personalized advice, creating the most value to clients in a cost-effective way.

This is the future of consulting/coaching/advising as I see it: personalized advice WITH templates, training, live group calls, and peer support.

Take any part away and it’s less valuable.

Group coaching has its challenges. You can only go so deep, and it can sometimes feel impersonal.

Private coaching is expensive and hard to sustain long enough to get the results you want (aside from a new strategic direction, plan, and ideally a few wins).

And while self-learning can be extremely valuable, especially when participating in a community with other people doing similar things, it can be hard to follow through on the implementation. And it’s easy to become overwhelmed.

Mindshare aims to combine all of these things—without the expensive price tag that comes with any kind of 1:1 advice or high-ticket training.

I’m closing the doors tonight for a little while to keep up with my current workload and further invest in the membership.

If you wanted to get in, now’s your chance.

See you inside.

—kevin

 

 

I was on a podcast the other day and the topic of brand came up.

Branding is a funny term. It means something different to everyone.

I won’t get into the definition of “brand” with an audience of marketers, but I do know one thing: brand has a lot to do with how people feel about you and your business.

Which is an odd thing to consider for the logical-minded people (me included). Isn’t it all about facts, data, and analysis?

Brand breaks that mold. Brand implies you can do something expensive and non-linear that sends a signal to the market about things like quality and value.

For me, it’s things like spending a little extra on illustrations for my website. Or sharing ideas consistently for hundreds of days in a row to my email list. Or investing a little extra (okay, a lot extra) into my audio/video quality.

In isolation, none of those things matter. But over time, they send a signal. They tell people I intend to show up with my best effort and bring a high-fidelity presence to the table.

I’m no brand wizard, but I do know one thing: investing in brand is inefficient. It’s not logical. You will waste some money in the process.

It’s subjective, too. You do it based on how you feel and how you want your audience to feel. Which means there’s really no “right” way to do it.

By spending inordinate amounts of time on a marketing initiative, or going above and beyond with your audio/video setup (the way you show up these days), or even going against the grain and purposely producing something ugly (brutalist design, anyone?), it tells people you’re invested in the success of what you do.

So how are you being inefficient in your brand-building efforts?

Perhaps it’s time to create an inefficiency budget to help you explore, innovate, and build your own brand value.

—kevin

P.S. Doors close on Mindshare this Friday at midnight. Yesterday’s training was on “Camera, Lighting, and Audio Setup for Your Home Office Studio“—one of over 15 workshops among the many other resources you’ll find inside the membership. Join today.

I’m a big fan of audio.

Audiobooks, podcasts, course content, YouTube videos—you name it. It’s by far the best way for me to learn and consume information.

That doesn’t mean I don’t read. My eyes work just fine and I enjoy reading. I just have less time to sit down and read long-form content.

I’d rather be working.

Chances are, your clients are just as busy, which is partly why I recommend short frequent posts vs. regular long ones as a primary marketing tactic.

With audio, you can take it on the road. You can listen while doing chores or walking the dog. It’s easy to consume a lot of information that way.

Reading, on the other hand, requires all your focus and attention—something that is at a premium for me and most of the people who hire me.

I also like to use it as a way to deliver content and coaching to Mindshare members.

I have a Slack channel dedicated to my #audiofiles—a quick and easy place to drop ideas and thoughts members can use in their own businesses.

I also do asynchronous advising via audio Slack DMs for Mindshare Engage members (and some of my consulting clients).

They help to create more nuanced back-and-forth communication between calls, saving hours of calls and making it easier to convey more information without long text DMs.

Slack even transcribes it and lets you choose the playback speed, it’s great.

Today I recorded an audio file that I shared with members and I thought I’d share it with you, too.

It’s a follow-up to yesterday’s email about programs vs. campaigns and I get into the nuances a little more about the benefits and how to use it in your marketing.

It’s not polished (doesn’t need to be). It’s from a walk I took this afternoon.

If you’d like to listen, here’s the MP3 recording.

And if you’d like me to talk about more ways to leverage audio in your marketing and the delivery of your services, reply and let me know.

—kw

If you turn on the shopping channel, you’ll notice one thing. It’s always on.

It’s much like your favourite news network—there’s always a story in action.

Both of these are programs. They’re always on. They’re reliable.

This is similar to how I think about marketing—with campaigns and programs.

Programs are the things you do regularly and with consistency.

They’re the news or shopping channel for your audience. They are working all the time to maintain awareness, hold attention, and ideally do some unobtrusive selling.

People look forward to them.

They could be your regular short emails. Or your social media content. Or a weekly YouTube video. An ongoing podcast. Or all of it combined.

These are ongoing, frequent, and ever-present marketing activities that keep you top-of-mind with your clients.

And then there are your campaigns.

These are your big pushes for a limited period of time based around often short-term objectives.

They could be for a sale. Or a promotion. Or distributing in-depth content. Or establishing a new offering.

Both are important. But if I had to prioritize only one, it would be establishing a robust program.

Your programs keep people warm. They build trust. They build relationships. They educate. They offer value. They even sell.

Your campaigns are designed to help people take action or drive a result. They’re the big push for whatever it is you want to get out there.

But without a good program, your campaigns will feel pushy and unwelcome. People rarely buy expensive things without adequate warmup.

The better your marketing program, the more effective your campaigns will be. 

Do both, but I’d suggest building the program first.

—kw

P.S. I’m closing the doors soon to Mindshare for a little while. If you have been considering joining, now might be a good time.

The last time I emailed you was September 8th. That was 28 days ago.

And if you’re anything like me, you probably received about 1,400 email newsletters since then.

Fourteen hundred.

(That’s because I get about 50 newsletters per day. 🙈 )

You might not be as bad at unsubscribing as me, but there’s a good chance you’ve seen a LOT of newsletters flow through your inbox since then.

You might even have forgotten who I am or what you signed up for! Several new people have subscribed since then. I feel bad.

That’s why one of the things I advocate for is a frequency approach to content with occasional high-potency posts sprinkled in to flex your expertise.

If you’re not an ever-present part of people’s awareness, you quickly become invisible. Like the Shopping Network, you want to be a program not an event.

Content has been the lifeblood of my business. It’s been the origin of most of my leads—whether indirectly or directly. 

That’s why there’s no greater guidance I can give you than to publish content yourself. Ideally at a high frequency.

It’s especially true when you launch a new venture or want to begin to fill your pipeline. People notice high frequency.

I wrote daily for around 500-600 days in a row until about a year ago when I dropped the habit as my daughter was born.

But that writing habit got people aware of me and helped get the membership off the ground.

Whatever your approach, content can be your best friend. It’s how people know you have expertise to offer (the thing they are buying from you).

It’s the sampler that makes buying less risky.

But it’s so easy to let it slide. And once you let it slide for a week or two, it’s hard to get it going again.

This is your reminder to get it going. Keep it short and frequent. Think base hits.

Then worry about sprinkling in some home runs from time to time.

They’ll be a lot easier to achieve once you have some momentum.

Have a great weekend!

—kw

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Brad Hussey—a former web designer turned creator, educator, and community builder.

In this episode, we talk about things like:

• How he made the leap from employee to full-time web designer
• How he successfully sells web design courses on platforms like Udemy, Awwwards, Teachable, and other places
• How these courses lead to people hiring him for web design services, training, coaching and even requesting more courses—creating a flywheel for his business
• How he leveraged his expertise into a partnership with Wix, where he hosts and maintains the Creative Crew Community
• How his partnership with Wix is structured and run in terms of compensation and accountabilities
• A breakdown of his revenue streams, including services, community, courses, sponsorships, ad revenue, and affiliates
• His thoughts on publishing his courses on his own website and on learning platforms for a double benefit
• How he built and monetized two YouTube channels with tens of thousands of followers across both channels
• His advice on how to grow a YouTube channel—and how it benefits his business
• And a lot more!

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Brad’s Website
• Creative Crew Community
• Brad’s audio/video equipment
• Kevin’s audio/video equipment
• BeCreatives – Unlimited Video Subscription Agency
• Video Huskey
• $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau 
• The Almanac of Raval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson 

Listen here or subscribe via your podcast player.

—kevin

P.S. Like this episode? Share it with another marketer and help them build a more leveraged and profitable marketing practice, too!

“My market only wants done-for-you services”

Let’s suppose this is mostly true. And let’s assume it is easier to sell done-for-you services than advisory services.

Because for the most part, these suppositions are valid.

Under what circumstances would a buyer be happier to pay you than some other done-for-you agency or freelancer?

A few circumstances come to mind based on my experience:

1. You’re more specialized than the done-for-you options
2. You have more experience with their specific needs than the done-for-you options
3. You can introduce an entire world of talent at direct cost vs. whoever they can profitably hire onto their team
4. You have more proof that you actually get results for your clients
5. You bring templates and methods they can quickly deploy with almost no required learning about their business/industry
6. They like you better in general (ok this was just a bonus one)

The key here is efficiency. That’s what clients want most.

Done-for-you might seem more efficient on the surface, but if the agency or freelancer is learning on the client’s dime, it’s far less efficient.

And it’s much less likely to work in the end.

What the client wants most is the best result possible with the lowest risk at the fastest pace—ideally with minimal disruption to their total workload.

The thing is, you don’t want clients who have no time to invest in their marketing. It almost never works.

Which means you can be the more suitable fit, even if you don’t offer done-for-you services. Even if requires your clients to roll up their sleeves a little.

You can be the one with tried-and-true methods, templates, examples, people, and unique expertise that can be deployed right away.

They only demand done-for-you because they don’t see why your services are actually the more efficient option.

They think you’ll waive your hands and tell them what to do but won’t help them execute. That’s why the term “advisory” needs to be used cautiously and with care in your messaging.

You’re more like a producer. Or a fixer. Or a guide. A strategist with a briefcase of useful goodies.

Don’t sell “advice“, sell more efficient outcomes. Prove why.

—kw

P.S. I mentor a few people 1:1 asynchronously via Slack DMs in Mindshare. The price is insanely accessible at US$299/mo. and goes up to a whopping $US399/month at the end of next week. Details here if you’re interested.