Marketing Advisor, Mentor, & Educator

Kevin C. Whelan

methodology

Collecting your insights

I’ve started collecting insights lately.

They cover a wide range of topics, including insights about myself, business, human nature, and a variety of other areas.

I’ve been trying to write them down in case I forget them. They feel valuable.

Here are a few examples I’ve collected:

  • Finding and hiring good people is a major pain—and therefore it’s a valuable thing to offer in my work.
  • I’ve always been more of a strategist than a technician—even since the days as a teenager when I recruited volunteers to create content and build technical areas of a website and forum that attracted thousands of visitors a month. I need to continue leaning into my natural skills and tendencies in ways like this.
  • Memes are an extremely effective form of marketing and communication.
  • More than anything else, people hire coaches to instil confidence in themselves—which also happens to drive results in the process (ideally combined good advice).

These are fairly personal to me. They won’t mean as much to you as they do to me. You may not even agree with all of them!

They’re just a few examples to show you what I mean.

Do you have an insights list? It might be worth keeping a note on your phone for the moments when inspiration strikes.

The real benefits of a well-defined process

Whether you know it or not, you have a process.

Maybe your process is to wing it with each new client. Or, maybe you follow a rough process from memory with each new client.

Or, if you’re really in the upper echelons of marketers, you have one written down and clearly-defined.

There are plenty of benefits to documenting a formal process, including:

  • More consistent and predictable outcomes with each new engagement
  • Less cognitive load and stress when delivering your expertise
  • More repeatable documents and systems you can use in your engagements
  • Better outcomes with less effort and time using those supplementary resources
  • Close more deals by showing clients you have a rigorous process to apply
  • It becomes a system that improves every time you use it, which benefits the entire cycle

If you want help building your process—or Methodology as I call it—hit reply or email me (hi@kevin.me).

I’m refining one of my offers and it might just be right for you.

—kw

Developing your own teaching framework

Mindshare Methodology

Do you have a core framework or way of categorizing all of your lessons and ideas in a way that is easy to remember?

I have a five-part framework helping marketing advisors build and run a profitable advisory business.

Those five pillars include:

  1. Niche/Specialization
  2. Credibility
  3. Methodology
  4. Business Model
  5. Marketing

Everything I teach or talk about can be organized into one of these buckets. Here are some practical examples of how I use it:

  • All of my blog and audio content is categorized into one or more of these pillars.
  • When I compile my book this year, I’ll organize chapters around these core ideas.
  • When I diagnose a challenge with one of my mentorship clients, I often look to their biggest bottleneck within this framework.
  • When I do a comprehensive course, you bet it will follow these five core pillars.

Core frameworks are valuable for you and your students. They help you organize your thinking and they help your students internalize your teachings more effectively.

To create one of your own, start with the outcome you promise, then figure out the big pillars involved in helping them achieve it.

It can be three parts, five, seven—it doesn’t matter as long as it’s not too many. I’d keep it under seven.

Try it out and let me know what you come up with.

(And for the record, this idea is tagged under Methodology.)

Marketing from a standstill

This is a preview episode of the private podcast that comes with a free Mindshare Community membership. Join today for more members-only content and community.

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What do you do when a client comes along looking for your help, but until now, they haven’t been doing much (or any) of their own marketing?

Do you take on the work, turn it away, or do you use this as a chance to educate them on what to expect?

Personally, I prefer the latter. And if it seems like they are bought-in to reality, I’ll consider working with them.

In this episode, I talk about how to be fully conscious when clients like this come along, how to educate them about how long things should take, and ultimately to manage expectations.

Slow results are the cost of marketing from a standstill. Like an engine, it takes time to rev up.

They either get it or they don’t. Better to know up front before you start working together.

Permission to change your mind

Your thinking will get updated.

You will advise your clients to try things that won’t work.

You will pivot your strategies and tactics based on new information.

In this episode, I give you permission to change your mind and update your thinking—regardless of any sunk costs.

You and your clients need to expect it to happen.

In fact, it’s the only ethical way to operate.

Listen in to hear more.

5 ways to level up your strategic messaging skills

Clearly communicating the value of your products and services is essential to getting people to buy from you.

This is what strategic messaging is all about.

That’s why I invited Billy Broas to present on just this topic next week for members of my email list, the Mindshare Community, and any other marketing professionals who wish to join (feel free to bring a friend!).

Billy Broas is a marketer and copywriter who has worked with some of the top online course creators and coaches, including the likes Tiago Forte, David Perell, Ali Abdaal, and Ryan Deiss.

On Friday, March 11th at 12pm EST/9am PST, Billy will present on his 5 Lightbulbs Messaging Framework for about an hour, with some room for Q&A at the end.

You can register for free here: https://lu.ma/mindshare-x-billy

Here’s how Billy describes this framework:

The Five Lightbulbs model creates a supportive structure for your marketing message. Using this system, the messages you write will provide value to your prospect and tie back to your core messaging.

That second part is important. Each piece of marketing content should advance the sale. When we take this approach—and turn on all the Lightbulbs—we notice a number of benefits, including:

  • Attracting more serious buyers and fewer tire-kickers
  • Having customers who “get it” and don’t question everything
  • Enjoying less friction and higher conversions when the pitch is finally made

During this session you will:

  • Draw the framework along with Billy (bring something to draw with—coloured pencils are ideal)
  • Run your product (or a client’s) through the framework and see how it strengthens your marketing message
  • Hear the ways Billy is using the framework with clients & his vision for its future

One of the common reactions from entrepreneurs and marketers who learn this model is a feeling of relief.

They are relieved because they finally feel a sense of control over their marketing. And because they know how everything ties back to their main goal: Getting a new customer to say “yes.”

Does this sound interesting to you? 

Register here and feel free to bring someone who may also be interested: https://lu.ma/mindshare-x-billy

Everything is feedback

Paying attention to feedback from your target market is critical to your growth.

If you’re not getting any feedback, that’s a form of feedback.

If you’re getting positive feedback, that’s a form of feedback.

If you’re getting critical feedback, that’s a form of feedback.

If you’re getting lukewarm feedback, that’s also a form of feedback.

You can either fight against what you’re seeing or you can keep shifting what you do until most of the feedback you see is positive.

You’ll never get perfect feedback on everything, but you can remain detached so you can see the feedback you’re getting for what it is.

Keep your eyes wide open so you can shape and grow your business.

Where real innovation comes from

It’s hard to innovate if you’re paying too much attention to your competitors.

The best you can hope to do by watching them is to differentiate.

And while differentiation is a smart strategy, innovation is what will make you a market leader.

Real innovation comes from working with your ideal clients, not from watching your competition.

Strive to serve your ideal clients better and better every day. Remove any pre-conceived notions about what your business can for them. Think outside the conventions (and limitations) of your peers or industry.

You’ll be more able to innovate—and therefore lead—when you watch your ideal clients more closely than your competition.

Show, don’t tell

Most people don’t know what you do. They’re not even sure if you can help them.

It’s your job to help them understand it, and the best way to do that is to show, not tell.

Consult a little during the sales calls. Open up your methodology Trello board to an interested prospect. Teach what you know as part of your marketing. Give away templates. Build case studies.

Words won’t sell what you do. Showing people will.

Have you ever considered being a mentor?

Have you ever considered offering paid mentorship to people “like you” from earlier stages in their journey?

I’ve heard this desire come up a few times lately, so I thought I’d ask.

Clearly, I’m one of these people. I’ve spent the last two years doing just that. It’s highly rewarding and worth pursuing, though it does have some nuances.

Some of the factors you’ll need to think about include:

  • How to know whether it’s a good idea for you 
  • How to test the waters without going “all-in” on the idea
  • How to package, price, and deliver your offering
  • How to offer it publicly without confusing your existing clients
  • How to find clients who actually want to pay for it
  • How to handle your first few mentorship clients
  • The tools and mechanics of delivering a mentorship program
  • Whether to do individual or group mentorship
  • And a variety of other non-obvious factors to consider

In my eyes, mentoring is a little different from coaching.

It’s typically aimed at people who are a few steps behind you on the journey and want to get similar results to what you’ve accomplished.

Coaching tends to be a little broader in terms of who you help and what you help them do. It’s not always about following a similar journey to yours.

My question to you: If I offered an inexpensive workshop on how to create, sell, and deliver a paid mentorship service, would you be interested in that?

Hit reply land let me know so I can gauge interest and possibly ask you a couple questions to help inform it.

If I get enough interest, I’ll put this together.

—kw