rule of marketing

The #1 Rule of Marketing

 

Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.” — Robert Collier

 

Earlier this week I was at dinner with friends where a variety of conversations were taking place at the table. My attention was suddenly pulled to a conversation about yoga.

Now, the truth is that yoga as a topic would not normally grab my attention. I think yoga’s great, but it’s not really a top-of-mind interest for me. Normally, my mind would have filtered this conversation out and my focus would have remained on the interaction I was already a part of.

However, this yoga conversation was different. My friend was recounting a recent experience where she ran a workshop for veterans to help them process trauma stored in their bodies through restorative yoga. She explained how one participant had a big emotional release at the end of the workshop as her body let go of anxiety and tension that had long been stored in her muscles.

That got my attention.

I immediately switched my focus to her story. Ever since I read The Body Keeps the Score last year, processing trauma through movement has been at the top of my mind as something that could help me and others close to me to improve mental health. Read more

How to uncover and leverage your unique genius

Focusing on your unique genius and strengths in your business, body of work, and daily activities provide you with the greatest opportunity for fulfillment and growth in your work.

Leveraging your strengths is also your greatest opportunity to create value for others and to contribute to something bigger than yourself.

When used in the right way, your strengths are a competitive advantage and a key element for strong brand positioning as a thought leader. A strong brand position helps you stand out and attract your ideal audience and customers.

Understanding your unique genius also helps you create courses, products, and services that leverage your strengths. When you do this, you create greater results for your clients and students. Read more

Are you taking this opportunity for granted?

I told her she was overlooking a huge opportunity.

I was on the phone with a client who wanted to build a personal brand as a thought leader in the homesteading niche.

She and her boyfriend recently purchased a plot of land. She was waiting to start the brand because they have a lot of work to do before they can move there.

I told her that would be a mistake to wait. Then I gave her the following advice.

“Capture everything you do, starting now. Shoot videos with your phone, take photos, and/or take lots of notes to turn into blog posts. But whatever you do, start sharing your journey online now. There so much you will be doing in the coming months that will be fascinating to the audience you want to attract.”

Building a fence around the property.

Setting up an address with the Post Office.

Researching what kind of solar panels to install.

All of these topics would make for excellent audience- and brand-building content.

One of the best places to find compelling content is in your day-to-day activities. Read more

It’s important to have practices in place to intentionally counterbalance that with noticing the good.

When your brain is a real @$%&*

Think of one of your most vivid memories. What’s the first thing that comes to mind?

Was it a good memory or a bad memory?

When I was given this prompt by a friend, the first thing that came to mind was receiving a phone call from my brother telling me that my dad had passed away.

Research tells us our minds are more likely to remember bad memories than good ones. Scientists believe there are deep-rooted evolutionary reasons for this.

In other words, our brain can be a real @$%&* sometimes.

Perhaps this is related to why we are much more likely at the end of the day to dwell on the things that went wrong or didn’t get done rather than what we did well.

We’ve all had those moments when we doubt our ideas, feel like we haven’t done enough, or impostor syndrome gets the best of us. Read more

Self-efficacy is defined as a person’s perceptions about how capable they are at executing a course of action and handling given situations.

Do Your Intended Customers Have All Three of These Reasons to Believe (and Buy)?

My seven-year-old daughter is away for a week-long sleepaway camp for the first time.

When we presented the idea to her earlier this summer, she immediately started dancing around and singing excitedly about what it would be like to be away from her parents for a week.

I was both inspired by her bravery as well as caught off guard by her eagerness to be rid of us!

Upon further investigation, we realized her courage originated from a show she’d recently watched about kids going away to camp for the summer.

Watching a story about kids her age having a rewarding experience at sleepaway camp had fed her belief that she would be fine being away and would enjoy the experience as well.

Your intended customers often need a similar dose of self-efficacy before they will say yes to working with you.

Self-efficacy is defined as a person’s perceptions about how capable they are at executing a course of action and handling given situations.

Your marketing can do a perfect job of getting someone to believe in you and your product, but if they still don’t believe that they are capable of successfully reaching the outcome, they won’t say yes and invest.

This is especially true if they’ve previously tried other solutions and failed to reach the desired goal. Read more