Kevin C. Whelan

Marketing Strategy Advisor and Mentor

Dirty taps run clean eventually

This idea was shared by Julian Shapiro on Twitter and I had to share it with you.

One of the most rewarding things I do is help people create consistent content for the first time, whether that’s on their blog, email, or social media.

The metaphor is simple: When you first turn on a dirty tap, the water will flow dirty for a while. But if you keep it running for long enough, it will eventually run clean.

It works the same with almost anything you create. Your creative work and ideas will start out being not very good. Downright bad even.

But when you commit to the process, it’s only a matter of time before your work begins to flow pure.

Your bad ideas leave your system, your work becomes a little easier, and the output a bit stronger every time you publish. Eventually, you can produce great work.

But it only happens if you trust the process and stick with it long enough.

Related: If you haven’t read The Practice by Seth Godin, go out right now and buy it.

When you launch something new

When you launch something new, you never know whether it will succeed or not. By definition, you’re taking a leap of faith.

You’ll always feel excited when you begin. But by the time you launch, you might also feel resistance, imposter syndrome, or even downright fear of embarrassment.

And that’s okay. That’s how you know you’re creating something.

You don’t have to have all the answers when you begin. In fact, you never will.

But you do need to trust that you’ll make good decisions along the way. Business is an iterative process, after all.

If you go into your new venture knowing you’ll relentlessly follow the needs and wants of your best customers, it’s really only a matter of time before you succeed.

There are exceptions, but it’s really not much more complex than that.

Today I launched Mindshare, a rebranding of the Mentorship program I started a few months back.

It’s a community for marketing consultants seeking to sell their expertise instead of their hands.

It also includes resources and a private podcast feed with thought-provoking strategies and long form interviews to help you grow your marketing business around your expertise, not just your labor.

If you want the backstory, I talk about my story and how it led to this launch here in this Twitter thread:

And if you want to package and sell your marketing expertise instead of your effort, check out the Mindshare Community and become a member.

Your thing isn’t for everyone

Whatever you’re selling… know that it’s not for everyone.

It’s not for most people, either. And if you get disappointed when someone doesn’t buy or like it, you’re looking at it the wrong way.

Instead, create something for someone specific. A single, ideal person, not an “avatar”.

If it turns out someone else enjoys it more, consider making them your ideal customer instead.

It’s a lot easier to over-deliver for an already satisfied customer than it is to figure out what someone who isn’t satisfied will want.

Make what you sell as good as it can possibly be then continually improve it for those who actually value (and pay) for it.

This is the definition of customer-centric.

Lest We Forget

When I was seventeen years old, I tore three ligaments in my knee playing hockey.

It took six months to get a surgery and several more afterwards before I could walk without crutches again.

I recall vividly watching people walk around, unaware of how lucky they were to be able to move without crutches. To jump, run, and play sports.

We don’t really realize how lucky we are until we lose things in life.

And today is my birthday, so I’m in a particularly reflective mood.

It’s also Remembrance Day here in Canada. A time to think back and remember those who fought during WWI (and many wars since) so that we could enjoy our safety and freedom today.

May we use this day to remember our fallen soldiers, but also how lucky we are to have love, health, people who care about us, and people we care for.

It’s easy to forget how lucky we really are.

Lest We Forget.

Slow is fast and fast is slow

This morning, I was cooking two eggs for breakfast. I dropped them into a pan that was not fully heated yet, which meant the eggs were taking a while to start cooking.

My instinct was to crank up the heat all the way, but that would have overheated the cast iron pan, causing the eggs to burn before the sunny-side-up yolks were sufficiently cooked.

And it got me thinking about marketing. I’m always thinking about marketing.

It reminded me that while yes, you can speed up results in the short term with tactics like advertising, the true and best way to do marketing is to take things one step at a time.

Making good eggs means letting the pan heat up to the right temperature, adding the oil when the pan is hot (not before), letting the oil heat slightly without burning it, and then finally, dropping in the eggs and waiting until they have reached the perfect level of doneness.

Doing good marketing means deeply understanding your ideal client or customer, delivering unique and distinct value in your business, doubling down on your strengths, making trade-offs with your resources, and building out the foundational systems that will support sustained results over time.

You can make fast eggs or you can make eggs the right way. To me, the fast way is to do things the slow way.

Do things in the right order, at a speed you can handle, and you’ll get magnificent, repeatable results you can enjoy over time.

Sometimes you will need to crank up the temperature to get an egg cooked quickly. But we can’t pretend that’s the right way to do it.

Slow is fast and fast is slow.

To be a thought leader, you must be prepared to be wrong sometimes

There’s a reason there are so few thought leaders in the world.

To lead in any capacity means putting yourself out there, making decisions, and then being responsible for the outcomes of those decisions.

Of course, thought leadership is not the same as having an opinion. Everyone has an opinion.

But few people are willing to make regular professional assertions and lead the conversation in their work or industry. It takes guts to do that.

Why? Because it’s one thing to be wrong with your own private opinions, where only few people care and the stakes are low. Anyone can do that.

It’s another thing entirely to publish original thoughts that may be imperfectly formed or could end up being wrong later on. Not to mention, your professional reputation is on the line every time.

Having this skin in the game and showing up regularly is what separates the opinionists from the thought leaders. This process forces you to continually refine and test your ideas. To make them better over time.

Which means accepting you’ll be wrong sometimes. But continuing to show up with new, more refined perspectives and ideas each time.

That’s what it means to be a thought leader.

Why you should publish your consulting prices on your website

TLDR: Most consultants don’t publish their pricing. While custom quoting based on value isn’t wrong, it can lead to a poorer buying experience, less trust at the beginning of the relationship, and even fewer opportunities overall.

I’ve been thinking about renaming the Mentorship and turning it into its own entity.

And as with any new project, there comes a point where it’s time to register a domain. The fun part. 😉

The ideal is a getting a .com. But most of the .coms I like are already registered. Some are used already for businesses and some are listed for sale.

And as I consider buying a domain, I’m reminded of the differences between published and unpublished pricing—both in how I feel and my propensity to take action.

The three kinds of domain pricing

There are at least three scenarios when buying a domain that is listed for sale:

  1. A published price
  2. Inquire for price
  3. Make an offer of at least $X

The domains I’m most interested in pursuing have a “buy now” price. They list the price and give you an option to buy it immediately. One fixed, transparent fee.

Tempting. The number rattles around in my head for a while.

The domains I have the least interest in pursuing are the second two kinds (contact or make an offer).

Why? Because I assume they will be expensive and/or a hassle to negotiate. I’d rather not even try unless I was really excited about a domain.

The funny thing is, the domains that don’t have a listed price may still be within my budget. But without the price listed, I assume it will be expensive and I’ll get into some complicated, used-car-style negotiation.

Which is fine for some, but not my preferred way to purchase things. I’d prefer to buy one off the shelf if I can.

It’s the same with consulting services

Most consultants don’t publish their pricing. They want to talk to the buyer first and see what they should charge based on the size of their company, the severity of their pain, and/or the scope of the work involved.

Which is fair. Pricing on value and scope makes sense. It’s not always possible to scope out a productized offer.

But it can also make for a poorer buying experience for clients. They already come to you because they’re out of depth in their expertise. They want help.

They don’t want to be subject to price discrimination, and they don’t want to negotiate on something they aren’t even sure how to negotiate on.

Most projects I see can be fit into one of my productized consulting services. The problems I solve are usually quite similar. Your business might be different, but I’m willing to bet you see similar patterns in your engagements, too.

On this site, I break my services down by levels of involvement from me.

On my coworking consultancy website, they’re broken down by company size/stage and by levels of involvement. That’s because the value and work involved in each tier are vastly different.

And while I still need to have sales conversations with prospects, they come to me sufficiently warmed up and qualified. They have given each option thought and consideration.

Plus, their guard is not up. They know I won’t opportunistically make up a price on the spot.

And that begins the relationship on the basis of trust. I’m helping them choose from a set of options, not selling them on anything or making anything up.

Which means they get to buy a service, not be sold to.

Big difference.

Reminders about trust

Trust is your most valuable asset as a consultant outside of your expertise.

We tend forget what it’s like to buy things we have little expertise in. Should it be $5k or $10k? The experience is daunting with all the subtleties and nuances.

And when prospects don’t see pricing, they might assume it’s because you’re very expensive or you’ll try selling them into something they don’t feel comfortable with.

And because of that, they may hesitate to reach out, which could lead to fewer opportunities for you.

Nobody wants to be sold into anything. They want to buy things they actually want.

An idea to try

Try packaging your consulting services into common buckets based on what you’ve already successfully sold in custom engagements.

Keep the scope flexible but have constraints. It needs to be nimble enough to handle variability but not so vague it can be stretched due to unrealistic expectations.

But be sure to keep a custom option available for those odd cases, which rarely get called upon, when you need to scope something unique.

It has worked extraordinarily well for me over the years. And frankly, I think it’s just a better buying experience for everyone—especially your clients.

How to get started as a marketing freelancer or consultant

Someone asked me today how to do what I do for a living. I think they meant working for ten clients instead of one boss.

They currently work in the marketing department for a fast-growing company. They know they could potentially earn more doing it full time for themselves, but their question was one we all have at some point:

How do you even get started as a marketing freelancer or consultant?

To me, the answer was obvious. Start on the side.

Tap into your network and see who needs help creating a website, doing social media, or whatever it is you do best.

Someone you already know needs help with this… badly.

Start small. Be honest about your skills and experience. Charge just a little. Do the kind of work you already do, but as a freelancer. 

Be sure also to save your side-hustle money. You might just need it when you make the leap.

Then, just see if you like it. You probably will. Everyone does, even if it’s hard for a while.

Oh, and don’t tell anyone you work with what you’re doing, of course. Unless your employers are fine with you moonlighting, but even then I’d keep it low key.

This isn’t legal advice, so do what you need to do.

And as I wrote about yesterday, the best thing to do if you’re even considering going out on your own is to start a blog.

Publish stuff about the work you do. Give advice on your area of expertise or simply share things you learn in your day-to-day work. Just don’t talk about your employer or anything private without their permission.

Bonus points if you write and publish something daily. Big bonus points. That’s usually reserved for the vets.

But I digress…

Eventually, you may go full time. You may work up the guts to take the leap, or fate may impose itself upon you. Either way, all you’ll need to do is turn your blog into a business website by adding a services page.

Easy peasy. You have a business. Now the real fun begins.

Do you need a website if you’re new to consulting?

The short answer is no.

Chances are, your first few clients are going to find you via word of mouth anyway.

But if you want to grow a real business, you’ll eventually need one.

After all, would you trust someone who said they could help your business if they didn’t even have a website? Didn’t think so.

When I had a corporate job, I wasn’t “allowed” to work outside of hours without disclosing it—something I don’t fully agree with, by the way.

So I started a blog teaching what I knew at the time about marketing and web design. I shared my posts on LinkedIn and Facebook—no mention of any services.

And because of that, people in my network reached out to see if I could help them with their website or marketing, too.

Having a marketing blog let me at least point them to some of my ideas and look reasonably credible.

When I eventually left my job, I had months of content history built up. All I had to do was add a services page and it was officially a business.

So however you plan to find clients, you’ll want to look good “on paper”. People need to trust you if they’re going to pay I you.

Your website is your proof of credibility. Keep it simple, but definitely have one as soon as you can. It’s never been easier to get one online.

If I can help point you in the right direction, reach out.