Kevin C. Whelan

Marketing Strategy Advisor and Mentor

Why you need to prune your clients sometimes

I have two fiddle leaf plants on my landing—both in the best spots for indirect but bright light.

One, however, is not doing so well. I repotted it a long time ago and it’s just not thriving like the other one.

Every time I walk past it, I look at it. I almost don’t see the bright vibrant one beside it sometimes. I think of what it needs to bring it back to full health.

And it’s like that with a lot of areas in our life. We focus on the things not working and ignore the ones that are.

It also works the same with your business.

If you have clients who demand a lot of your time, take up your energy, or otherwise stress you out—it will pull your attention away from those who pay promptly, get the most value, refer you the most, and ultimately are the best to work with.

Prune the plants that aren’t working so you can focus on the ones that are.

Nobody can succeed for you

I was watching a TV show the other day about people living off the land in the Alaskan wilderness.

Each of them cited adaptability, hard work, and self-sufficiency as the reason they’re able to live so remotely. They had some modern technology, but none of that outweighed their self-driven work ethic.

In your business, it’s no different. It should be hard. You should push yourself and your comfort zone. Which is why you should actually like what you do and who you do it for. That’s how you sustain it.

That doesn’t mean it should be stressful. There will be stressful days and moments, sure. But ongoing stress isn’t going to serve you. It will only hurt your performance and burn you out.

At the end of the day, there is no shortcut to success. It takes work. Hard work. And a bit of grit. At least some of the time.

Hard work and a little grit will enable you to be consistent with your marketing, deliverables, and results. And consistency is what builds a business.

At the end of the day, nobody can succeed for you.

The real way to keep score

There are lots of ways to keep score in business.

Money is the obvious one. But we all know that money will only get you so far in life. The real answer is your level of “big-picture” happiness.

How happy are you with the way things are going? Are you miserable or do you generally feel like you’re on the right path?

Sure, things might get hard sometimes. They might be hard right now. But do you generally like where you’re headed?

Money is absolutely a score in business. It’s the lifeblood.

But it’s not the score in business. Especially for a solo consultant or small business owner.

You won’t always love every minute of what you do. You’ll have bad days, weeks, months, or even longer.

But if you’re not big-picture happy with your business, you need to make a change.

Don’t wait too long.

 

Momentum and inertia

Today marks the 140th consecutive day writing to this blog.

At this point, the momentum is strong. The habit is formed. And it’s actually harder to not write this article than it is to write it.

On the other hand, it’s been a few months since I wrote something on my coworking consultancy blog. Inertia is kicking in, I can feel it.

The thing about momentum is that when you have it, it’s relatively easy to keep it going. But once you lose it, it’s really hard to restart it.

Inertia is the counter-force to momentum. Both are equally powerful, but work in opposite directions.

If you’re facing inertia with your publishing schedule, try to just get something out the door. Anything will do.

One thing will lead to the next and before you know it, you’ll have momentum. But only if you are consistent.

And when you do get that momentum, be sure to keep it going.

Inertia is always beckoning.

Podcast Interview on the Mitch Gray Show: Why Marketing and Mentoring Matters


This month, I was featured on the Mitch Gray Show—a podcast on a mission to create messages that will engage, inspire and equip leaders to empower those within their influence.

Mitch is a great interviewer. He asks thoughtful questions that provoked me to go deep and answer questions at a very personal and authentic level.

In this episode, we talked about the work I do as a marketing advisor, mentor, and even discussed the coworking industry where I do most of my work.

If you’re a marketing consultant, you’ll hear how I view the world and work as an advisor and it might help shape your perspective on our work.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll benefit from hearing my thoughts on how to succeed and grow as we come out of the pandemic era stronger than you went into it.

Here are some of the topics we discussed:

  • What it means to be an advocate for your clients
  • The trend I’m seeing towards distributed marketing teams and fractional CMOs 
  • My thoughts on going forward after dealing with the pandemic for the past year 
  • How to evolve and innovate your business—even if it means changing your identity along the way 
  • How to help your business come out stronger on the other side of the pandemic
  • How I view my role as a mentor to other marketing consultants—and what motivates me to do so
  • My thoughts on daily blogging and why it works to grow a consulting business
  • The role passion plays in developing your career path—and how it led to where I am today 
  • The rise of coworking, where it’s headed, and my experience consulting in that industry 
  • Why even coworking spaces should specialize in a specific target market 
  • And a variety of other interesting and thought provoking thoughts, questions and answers

Give this a listen here and be sure to subscribe to his show on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts.

 

Everything is a signal

Your logo is a signal.

Your website is a signal.

The polish of your content is a signal.

The frequency of your posts is a signal.

The quality of your case studies is a signal.

Your consistency (or lack thereof) of your publishing is a signal.

Everything you do (or don’t do) sends a signal to the market about what you do and how you do it.

That doesn’t mean you need to have the best logo, website, content, or whatever.

Sometimes, you trade polish for consistency. Or you don’t focus on design but nail the details of your content instead.

Whatever you do, just know that every little thing you put out there (or don’t put out) is a signal to the world about your values, standards, or even your abilities.

Choose the right ones for you and be mindful of the choices you’re making—conscious or not.

How to ask people to do things the right way

I delegate a lot. It’s the nature of being a strategist and advisor.

And with that, I’ve had to learn how to do it effectively. We all need to learn this skill, and yet so few people have it.

It all comes down to how you structure your request.

Personally, I hate when someone tells me to do something. Even when they say please.

Why? Because it’s usually phrased as a command, not a request. And if I wanted to be commanded to do things, I’d join the army (or get a J.O.B.).

Here’s an example of an innocuous request:

“Please do this task and follow up when it’s done.”

Why oh why does this rub me the wrong way? They said please, right?

The main reason, at least for me personally, is they’re not really asking you to do it. They’re telling you to do it. They’re flexing their authority—whether they really have it or not.

Sure, it might be my job. And yes, I might do the thing they ask for.

But there’s a better way to ask. A way that will make people feel better when they receive your request.

How?

You actually ask. You form it as a question, not a command. Which means you are actually making a request.

Here’s the better way to structure this sentence:

“Can you please do this task and follow up when it’s done?”

You might be like most people and think this is purely semantics. Or that I’m being overly sensitive about this topic.

But I’d disagree. Especially because tone rarely comes across in text—which is how most requests are made these days are made.

Your implementation partners, staff, clients—and whomever you’re asking to do something—are your peers. Regardless of their role, they’re not your subordinates.

They’re professionals doing their job.

By commanding instead of requesting, you’re implying that you’re in control of their work.

You’re not. You’re doing your job and they’re doing theirs.

By actually forming your request as a question, it shows you respect them and their time. You’re not telling them (even if you are), you’re making a request.

It might be subtle, but I’d much rather do something for someone who asks than perform a task by someone who commands it. No matter what the circumstance is.

I see it all the time and I honestly think it’s the difference between a good delegator and a bad one.

Rookies command. Seasoned vets ask. No matter the job, no matter the task.

Actually ask.

Know why people should invest in you

Most purchases in business are investments. It’s especially true in marketing.

A business could either retain the revenue they generate, or trade it for something they believe will generate and/or save more money down the line.

Of course, there are cases when people buy things for purely emotional reasons—such as for ego or enjoyment purposes. But in general, most purchases are treated like an investment.

If you want to be able to sell consulting services at any price, it’s critical you understand the value of the investment people make in you—even before your clients or prospects are able to add it up in their heads.

If you can’t make a legitimate business case for your services, don’t expect your clients or prospects to be able to, either.

Know why people should invest in you and be ready to explain it.

How to get good at marketing

There’s really only one way to improve your marketing skills. And that’s through sheer practice and experience.

There are no books or shortcuts that will “hack” your way to being an overall better marketer.

Instead, it’s a series of trial, error, learning, applying, and sharing ideas as you go along.

One book at a time. One client at a time. One coach at a time. One project at a time. One article at a time.

If you’re lucky, you get to work with smart people who help elevate your game along the way.

If you’re smart, you’ll continually invest in your education at the same time. You’ll focus on learning how what you do creates measurable business results.

But beyond that, there’s nothing but time, elbow grease, and commitment to do great work to make you a better marketer.

Aim to do great work.

Great copy is assembled, not written

Whenever I create a new service, I try to do as little of the actual copywriting myself as possible.

I like to assemble the copy instead.

Rather than writing a services page from my head, I prefer to ask my prospects questions, listen to their exact words, then assemble a sales page that reflects back their goals and aspirations using their own language.

From those conversations, I also include a scope of work that I believe with reasonable confidence will help them achieve their ideal outcomes.

No clear goals means no scope, which means no service.

It’s the same whether you’re doing a proposal or writing a service page. You need clear outcomes to create a service that will get them there.

That’s why I also never write up a service/sales page until I sell it first.

Instead, I believe in creating content to attract an audience and then simply inviting people to reach out if they need help.

Eventually, someone will reach out looking for help with their situation. The conversation begins, and so does the process of developing a service that I later productize on my website if it makes sense to do so.

Once you sell a service a few times using the goals and language of your prospects, the page basically sells itself.

When you use real language from your sales conversations, the copy is far more nuanced and specific to real-world pains, needs, and desires.

If you want to write good sales copy, start by talking to your prospects, getting clear on their goals, why they matters, and the value of achieving them (or not).

Write the service using their language and refine it with every new prospect who comes to you.

If you do it right, your service page will feel to them like you’re reading their minds. Like you’ve created the solution just for them—before they even talk to you.

Great copy is assembled, not written.