Marketing Advisor, Mentor, & Educator
Kevin C. Whelan
I have a question for you…
We know that consulting and coaching are forms of advisory work.
But let me ask you this:
A course, book, video, or any other form of one-directional educational content that tells you what and how to do things. Is that advice?
If you want to play along, hit reply with a simple yes or no with your initial thoughts.
More on this soon—but I’d love to hear your take.
Hey—happy Friday.
Here’s the latest for you…
I recorded and published two audio recordings yesterday.
Episode 190: Analyzing where my advisory clients come from (a general vs. niche business comparison)
Do you analyze where your clients come from? It might surprise you when you do.
In this episode, I break down where my advisory clients came from.
I also compare my where niche consulting clients (Everspaces) vs. my general consulting clients came from to see if there was a difference.
And let me tell you, it was enlightening.
Episode 191: Noticing your quiet inner voice—and what to do about it
What is your quiet inner voice telling you?
The one that whispers. You barely notice it at first. But when you do hear it, you’re inspired.
Should you explore it?
Maybe you don’t take it seriously at first. Maybe it feels like a pipe dream. It’s not always rational. Sometimes it’s idealistic. Regardless, when you pay attention to it, it feels directionally interesting.
Where does it come from?
I’ve noticed that it shows up when I take time away from my business. It shows up on vacations, bike rides, long walks, or while reading a good book. I’m not sure if it’s the truth or just a passing random idea, but it feels worth exploring.
So what do you do when that voice says something? Do you jump to action or think about it until it no longer inspires you? Is it valuable or random? That’s what I cover today.
It may just be the very thing that helps you create unique, valuable, and lasting work.
Or maybe not. Who knows.
That’s all for now – have a great weekend.
—k
Okay, so there’s some concern going around about a recession.
Will it impact your business? Is it already impacting your business?
Some of you have said that leads are drying up and clients are canceling services with you. So let’s get in front of it.
Here are a few ideas to consider here if you want to thrive during a recession or market downturn:
When COVID hit, my advice to my consulting clients (not marketers) was to a) get expenses in check so they could weather a potentially long storm and b) lean into marketing harder than ever before.
And while this advice is applicable to us as marketers again today, there’s a big difference between the COVID scare and an economic recession. The main difference is how much money (or lack thereof) is floating around.
I’m not an economist, but I see four big things happening now:
And with that, companies are forced to tighten up. At least in some areas.
So what should you do?
As marketers, you have a remarkable ability to be nimble in times like these.
Remember that, unlike other discretionary business spending, marketing is still necessary and even more important in hard times than in good.
Here’s a great thread by Asia Orangio with data on how companies have fared when they leaned into marketing vs. pulling back during recessions.
Learn this stuff. Advise your clients on it. Be their fiduciary.
Your job is to help your clients make a financial business case to work with you.
Stay close to the ROI. Talk in terms of investment and returns—not just tasks and deliverables.
I can’t emphasize this enough. Focus on value, not deliverables.
Your clients are always thinking about how one thing creates more business profit or financial impact than it costs. Show them. Use my KPI sheet available in the MindshareOS package.
Focus on the KPIs that are moving the needle in terms of customer acquisition, retention, repeat purchases, and revenue per client/transaction.
Look at secondary metrics like volume and costs per lead, conversion rates, number of net new customers, account expansion, audience growth, and partnership opportunities.
In uncertain times, people want optionality. Use that to your advantage.
Your goal should be to position yourself as the better alternative to in-house marketing employees and teams.
You do that by having rare expertise (see #5 below) and flexibility.
Instead of hiring a new marketing manager, companies can hire a fractional CMO along with their recommended contractors for execution work—often for less than the cost of a senior marketing hire.
They can then turn on, off, up, or down the individual channels as-needed.
This is the flexibility they’re looking for.
I have seen this trend in marketing departments happening for a while and believe it will continue.
Agencies and freelancers who are willing to evolve what they deliver every month instead of sticking to a fixed scope of services will reduce the chance they’ll be fired and replaced with more flexible options.
Be nimble. Your value prop is greater expertise (and output) for the same or less than hiring internally.
Oh, and long contracts won’t be ideal, either.
Have down-sell options available.
If you’re 2x more expensive than all the other contractors, you’re at risk of being chopped.
Be proactive about reducing your fees (and scope) in cases where the value or demands require it.
Otherwise, clients think their only option is to fire you entirely. Think about this and make recommendations before they ask.
If you do drop your fees, drop your scope as well.
No discounts here. Price drops always include a scope drop.
My lower-cost services are often more profitable per hour than my high-ticket stuff. I give people better pricing when they buy more, not the other way around.
Don’t chop your fees when your clients need you to grow.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that three clients have expanded scope with me in the last few weeks. Smart operators know they need marketing leadership now more than ever.
Scale up or down as needed.
Make yourself irreplaceable.
In the coworking niche I serve, there’s literally nobody (that I’m aware of) with my combination of marketing expertise and industry knowledge.
Sure, others have both traits independently. But I keep investing in my unique knowledge combination of marketing strategy, tactical execution, and industry-specific trends.
You simply can’t hire an employee or agency who can do what I can or bring the same value per dollar. At least… not easily. 🙂
And that has helped me increase scope with two clients in the past couple of weeks in the coworking industry (and one more in another industry).
Stay consistent with your publishing, even if it seems like it’s bearing little fruit. Deals take time to form.
Talk about the state of the industry you serve. Share stories about what others are doing. Teach people the ways of flexibility and adaptability.
Make connections with your peers (i.e. in the free Mindshare community or via social media circles). Talk shop to stay on the pulse of things.
Be an advisor to your potential clients before they even hire you. That’s how they know you’ll be a good asset when they do hire you.
Don’t get desperate, know your value, and keep doing your thing.
Market downturns affect all of us differently. But clients are still hiring and doing marketing. They always will.
It’s up to you to help your current clients get the best results possible in a flexible manner while leading your audience/potential clients, much in the same way you would advise your own clients.
Remember, people flock to leadership in uncertain times. Be the guide.
Oh, and don’t forget to focus on the ROI—even if it’s a longterm process.
Companies are hiring in-house and outsourced marketers differently than they did before.
I’m seeing less reliance on using a single in-house marketer or even one full-service agency to “do everything” for them.
Marketing has gotten too broad with too many specialties to work like that. But there’s still a long way to go.
In this episode, I share a prediction on how marketing teams will continue to evolve toward a hybrid in-house/outsourced way.
I’ll get into how I see things evolving and why this presents an opportunity for you.
Agree? Got another view? Hit reply and let me know.
Working with business coaches in the past has coincided with some of the most transformational periods of my business.
I can point to the places where my business dramatically improved and it almost always intersected with some level of coaching.
Often, I hired them because I was making big changes and wanted to de-risk the process. And maybe I would have succeeded anyway.
Either way, the results are inarguable.
With that said, it’s easy to feel a little paralyzed when you hire a coach and work with them long enough.
It’s easy to feel like you’re not “allowed” to make any significant changes to your business without them telling you to do it.
But that’s not true, of course. It’s your business. You have to keep innovating.
The best way to work with a coach is to treat them like an advisory committee.
You’re still in charge. You still run your business and listen to your instincts.
And yes, you still act on their advice—even if it makes you a little uncomfortable (it should).
But along the way, keep making adjustments that feel right to you.
Give your coach a heads up about what you’re thinking. Do a gut check. Run it through their filter.
Listen to what they have to say. That’s why you hire them, after all.
But keep taking action based on your own gut instincts, too.
Nobody is responsible for your success except you. Your gut, combined with an experienced coach, can be a formidable combination.
Keep taking action.
What do you do when clients ask for your advice but do their own thing anyway?
In this episode, I talk about why this happens, how to prevent it from happening, and how to both give and get the best possible advice.
Have you had this issue before? Hit reply and let me know what you did.
Give this a listen.
Alastair McDermott had me on his podcast recently, The Recognized Authority.
We chatted about the transition from selling execution to advisory services and knowledge products, what it means to be a fiduciary for our clients, some ethics and trust considerations, niching, and a whole lot more.
Give this a listen and subscribe to his show to hear from other great guests he’s had on his show before, including Alan Weiss, David C. Baker, Jonathan Stark, Philip Morgan, and Chris Do coming soon.
I interviewed Dagobert Renouf of Logology last week on how he’s been so successful on Twitter.
Dagobert is extremely active and publishes a meme every day of the week, which is a big hit for his 30k+ audience.
But like any successful story, there’s an underlying mindset and strategy that makes the tactics more successful.
So I wanted to dig into those. And he delivered.
We’ll get into the specifics of:
Listen in to hear this episode—it already changed my thinking and approach to Twitter.
Mentioned links
> Click here to listen or add Mindshare Radio to your podcast player.
P.S. You’ll hear me saying “mm-hmm” a lot, which may be slightly annoying to the listener (it annoyed me) so I will fix that for future episodes!
I recently decided to switch from daily publishing to a more flexible format.
In this episode of Mindshare Radio, I break down the reasons why I started publishing daily in the first place (549 days ago) as well as the reasons for giving myself permission to publish whenever I want instead.
I’m still extremely bullish on daily content. It’s a highly powerful tactic if it aligns with your strategy.
But for now, I’m choosing flexibility. Listen to find out more.
Listen to the full episode here.
P.S. I’d love your thoughts. Hit reply and tell me what you’re doing related to publishing.
I’ve decided to stop writing daily. Or at least, to feel like I have to write daily.
It’s been 548 consecutive days including today. I’ve loved the process. It’s helped me think through and articulate my ideas.
But like anything, if you feel like you have to do something, it can become a chore. And nobody wants to read somebody’s chore.
Instead, I’ll write when I want to write.
I’ll still keep the fire under my bottom to publish often. I like the forcing function it creates to show up at a keyboard and publish my best idea that day—whatever that is.
But I won’t feel like I have to publish something. The difference is subtle.
Writing daily has allowed me to build traction with my mentorship work, develop a community, and clarify my thinking. I’m grateful for that.
I plan to keep doing this work a long time. It’s rewarding to me. I’ll just do it at a pace that feels right for me.
So maybe I’ll write to you again tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll skip a day.
Regardless, I’ll do what feels right, not what I feel I have to do.