Marketing Advisor, Mentor, & Educator

Kevin C. Whelan

Marketing Consultants

Should you aim for quality or consistency with your content marketing?

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.

Taking a breather

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.

Looking for early signs of life

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.

How to sell more of anything when it launches

Have you ever noticed movies are teased out in cinemas more than a year in advance—often before shooting is even completed?

As you get closer to the premier, trailers get longer, more frequent, and more vivid.

You could call this pre-selling or marketing, but I call it “priming the pump“.

I work with a client in e-commerce who comes out with new products a few times a year. As soon as the idea is formed, we start talking about it.

We talk about it in vague terms at first. Being a little coy and playfully mysterious with the details. We don’t even talk about expected launch dates yet.

As things get closer, we talk about more details of the product. How it works, how it’s made, what’s included, etc.

Eventually, we get more specific about the date it’s due. Spring of ’21, then April of ’21, and then finally, April 1st, ’21.

Save the date.

The point is to get people thinking about it long before it’s even available to purchase. You want people to buy in their minds long before they are able to actually buy it.

It’s like a faraway object that becomes clearer and more detailed as the date nears.

It just feels different.

Any time we do this, the products sell extremely well. You can see it in the comments on social media, people are eager to learn more and can’t wait to get their hands on it.

When the day comes that it’s finally available, it launches with gusto. Big success.

When we don’t do this process early and often enough, not so much. It’s more like a soft launch.

If you’re planning on selling a new product or service, even if it’s just an idea, talk about it way in advance.

Plant the seed and wait. Nurture it.

Maybe you end up creating the product/service, maybe you don’t. But as that becomes clearer, so too are the details you share.

If you want something to sell when it launches, prime the pump, prime it early, and prime it often.

Oh, and by the way, I might be launching a mini course next year for marketing professionals on selling strategy and advice instead of execution.

Stay tuned for more info. Notice what I did there?

You can’t move forward while standing still

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.

Interview with John Meese on creating what your customers need

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.

What do you do when you don’t feel like showing up?

One of the ideas I admire from Seth Godin is the idea that a professional don’t need to be authentic. A professional needs to show up, whether she feels like it or not.

That’s what they are paid for.

When you commit to whatever you’re working on, it’s important to think like the plumber does, according to Godin.

The plumber does not deliberate about whether they will fix your faucet based on how they feel that day. They show up, take care of business, and go home feeling proud of their day’s work.

Creative work can feel different. Putting out content or creating client work can feel like you’re putting some of yourself out there to be judged.

It feels personal.

And yet, that’s exactly what the creative professional must do. We must put our “boots” on and do the work, even if the work is not our best that day.

Just because our work makes us feel uncomfortable, doesn’t mean we’re excused from doing it.

Otherwise, we’re not really professionals.

Putting in the reps

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.

What makes a good consulting methodology?

Yesterday, I talked about how having a methodology as a consultant is the path to compounding leverage.

What I meant by that is with every new engagement your work gets better, results are more predictable, and you use less personal resources (time and energy).

So what’s in a good methodology?

For me, my coworking consulting methodology involves a 100+ point checklist. It’s broken out by channel in the approximate order that I typically build things.

I build it out in Basecamp as a project template. With every new client, I duplicate the template and invite the client into it so they can see a list of all the things I hope to accomplish with them.

And while every client is different, it allows me to give my clients visibility into the expected roadmap while ensuring I follow a similar pattern with each engagement.

As I run the process each time, I flesh out the information attached to each checklist item in my template. I might also add additional resources, links to training videos I create on Loom, or any other number of things.

Now, the next time I audit a website or do an email marketing build-out, I have a more efficient process to rely on, saving me time and my clients money.

The three main things to have in your methodology are: 

  1. An approximate order of priorities for building things
  2. Documented systems and templates you like to use
  3. Supporting resources and training for you and/or your clients

Timelines will always be contingent on a client’s internal resources and capacity, so I fill those in on an as-needed basis.

The result has been interesting. My engagements are more streamlined and everyone knows what’s on the roadmap at all times, as well as what has been done so far.

But the real interesting part is that I can create training around it. I have a whole membership section and course covering a broad portion of what I do in my consulting engagements.

This is where the leverage really kicks in. I’ve been doing this in the coworking industry for only a few years but it’s really just getting started in terms of how I run my consulting work.

I highly recommend you start standardizing your methodology today.

It’s the path to leverage in an expertise-based business.

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The compounding power of turning your work into a methodology

One best things about consulting is you get better at it every day.

Each of your learning experiences makes you smarter and more effective—especially if you focus on a niche specialization.

And if you’re really smart, you package those learnings into your methodology. Your way of creating repeatable results.

Think of your methodology like artificial intelligence. The more you show it scenarios, the smarter it gets.

But for that to be true, you need to continually tweak your approach, document new ideas, and improve your system with each piece of feedback you encounter.

If you want to succeed in selling your expertise, you’ll want a well-organized methodology.

If you don’t have one, start today. Then, keep making it better. Forever.

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