Bringing out your character's ‘edge' for connection, engagement and sales
Your ‘backstory’ doesn’t help you grow your business directly.
But, it does help lock in some important things.
It gives us your values, motives, character traits… Things that can be ‘woven in’ to marketing in later stages. So it’s important for the founder to do.
One question I ask in the backstory work is “What are some of your pet peeves?”
I’m trying to figure out what pisses off the character.
What annoys them.
One guy said:
“Maybe it’s when I say something in a certain way that it’s not understood in the way that I meant it…”
Hmm. We’ll need more than that.
He wasn’t able to come up with anything tangible.
His ‘edge’ was vague.
And this, my friends, is the topic of today’s article
Revealing your character’s edge in your marketing.
Behind closed doors, among friends, or with family, we all have a pet peeve or an edge. Things irritate us. Or we avoid certain things. Or, we have weaknesses or flaws or obsessions that we work on.
But in the ‘marketing’ game, we often have negaphobia
‘The fear of bringing out anything that could cause negative emotion.’ Problem is, a completely positive (or neutral) character, business story, or marketing campaign isn’t natural.
It doesn’t resonate.
Stan Lee, who was the creator of Spiderman, talked about this in in an interview. And why Peter Parker was such a relatable character.
“He's become the most famous. He's the one who's most like me - nothing ever turns out 100 percent OK; he's got a lot of problems, and he does nothing wrong, and I can relate to that.”
Basically, he was a normal guy.
He was shy. Or not very social. Whatever. And so readers could suddenly relate to him on a whole new level.
Service businesses are ‘character driven businesses’
So if there are two services, and one provider is more relatable or magnetic, they will attract more clients, and work with them for longer.
We’re all looking to work with (and buy from) people that we can relate to. Or people that we respect and trust.
When you bring out your edge, you highlight your goodness as well. And when you work on this in marketing and deliver, it may - I’m not saying it will - but it certainly can help to - amplify your engagement in social media, and sales in emails.
Fear of the Edge
Why do we avoid the edge? Robert McKee talks about how this plays out in marketing, it’s called ‘negaohobia.’The fear of the negative. And it’s prolific in marketing and branding. Everything is so perfect. But that’s not the way that life is.
So in marketing, or with a business character, when there’s no edge, or it’s too perfect. It pushes us away. Marketers get stuck in this trap because they don’t want to be the ones to bring negative emotion to the brand (or personal brand), but they also see that without it, there’s no polarity or engagement.
There’s a house around the corner from me that won’t sell.
On the sign it says: “Perfectly renovated.” And has some new paint.
Now I’m not saying that’s stopping the sale, but nothing is perfect. It reeks of a cover-up job, and something is hidden.
Contrast that to a photo I saw of a T Bone steak.
“Humanely raised, but occasionally verbally abused”.
It’s a bit tongue in cheek. But that’s it, right? The farmer is looking after these cows, one steps on his foot or something, I don’t know, and he starts swearing at the cow. That’s how it really is. So that’s more trustworthy.
A compelling character doesn’t replace quality service
It amplifies it.
Bringing out your ‘edge’ won’t make your results better with clients.
But it makes you more trustworthy, because you are relatable. It’s not a gush of vulnerability. It’s just the removal of the masks that we tend to wear as business people, that helps you attract more clients and work with them for longer.
The three places we can start to bring out your character ‘edge’ include obstacles, pet peeves, and weaknesses or obsessions.
Step 1 - Obstacles the character faces
Imagine you watch an ad on TV. And it opens up with a scene of a happy family. There’s the parents, and the daughter Jane, and the son Billy. And they’re happy as Larry. Everyone is smiling.
It makes you smile.
Then that fades and it opens to the second scene, which is another even happier family. Wow! super happy. Everything is perfect.
That lasts for a few seconds.
You’re like “OK…” this is a bit weird. but whatever.
Third scene comes on.
Somehow. It’s an even happier family. In disgust, you throw your remote control at the TV, or you turn off Youtube or whatever you’re watching, and you never buy from that brand again.
Why? Because without a negative setup, every positive is cancelled out.
Every positive needs a negative setup
Or else it ain’t a positive. If there’s only positive in the lead up to more positive, it all gets cancelled.
So obstacles of some kind are important. And you can just bring that into your world with emails or whatever.
Obstacles like nearly losing a retail store. Or staff issues. Or whatever it is. Some of the biggest businesses I’ve worked with have gone bankrupt, or gotten down to the last ten dollars in their account, before rebuilding.
And those obstacles make great content today.
Step 2 - Pet peeves, or things you’re against
I was speaking to a business owner yesterday who’s building two websites at once. Not just one, but two at the same time, for two different businesses. And so he’s doing all kinds of writing and photos that he’s putting up.
Anyway he’s snowed under with all this work and he said that the thing that really helped him was to use ChatGPT. To write the copy.
And I don’t know if he knows my view on chat GPT or whatever.
But I think he did. So I told him I could never do that, but it was great for him because it was faster.
But Chat GPT is one of my pet peeves.
All these gurus that come onto the scene saying if you don’t do it, you’re screwed, they’re kind of in the pet peeve basket too.
Now a lot of people disagree with me. And you might disagree with me. And that’s OK. But that’s the point about pet peeves, or things that you’re against. People won’t always agree with you, but they’ll like the fact that you stand for something and that you have your feet firmly planted under you.
Flaws is another way to do it
A book I’m reading right now is all about Leonardo da Vinci.
And there were only a couple of works that da Vinci actually finished. And only a couple of portraits. One portrait that he did as an older man is called the Turin portrait. And he drew himself with this setup of three mirrors. And what he did was he didn’t skip over any wrinkle! He drew himself all weathered. And it’s very deep. Every time you reproduce it, you get a different emotion comet through, because it’s so deep.
And the contrast to that is a portrait that a student did. That’s side on. Profile. But because he was the student, he hid all the flaws, and made da Vinci look great.
Longer, straight nose. Thinner eyebrows. Better hairline. Better beard. But in the end the thing is, nobody really wanted that side profile. Everyone wanted the Turin portrait.
So the flaws are something that we want to bring out as well.
That we’re socially awkward. That we don’t trust crowds or whatever.
Not to dumb ourselves down for marketing or social media, but to remove the ‘perfection’ mask, or buffer, that blocks connection.
Step 3 - obsessions or weaknesses of the character
There was an interview with Sylvester Stallone, that you can find. I think it was zurich film festival. A lot of people don’t realise that he’s one of the few who have directed and acted in so many films.
But anyway, he was talking about compelling characters. And he said you have to be careful, if you make this superhero character, people completely switch off. And you get torched for it, as a director.
“Let me make it simple. When the character becomes stronger than the audience, you lose your audience. The character has to have as many problems as the people in the audience, then they can relate. Like here’s a guy. He’s tough, he’s world champion. But he’s scared. He’s still nervous. And I don’t care who you are, when you sit in front of a crowd, you get nervous. It’s that connection.”
“It’s very important to use the ten or fifteen identifiable things that we have in common: pride, ego, jealousy, false pride, fear, insecurity… That kind of thing is what makes the character absolutely relate to the audience. When I don’t do that, it’s a disaster. And I have done that before.”
And you bring that out, by wrapping it into your world or content, so people can identify with you.
We’re subconsciously looking for it, to connect with you.
It’s like the whole interview thing when you go for a job. The HR department runs the job interviews, and the whole point of them is to find the weaknesses or flaws of the candidates, because in the CV’s, nobody puts in their weaknesses. Then they ask in the interview, and the people say “My weakness is that I work to hard” or something. Which of course misses the point completely.
A lot of people talk about authenticity.
And it seems to have morphed into something where you’re supposed to share internal struggles, or find emotional moments to leverage in your life, to create vulnerability.
And maybe that’s it.
But to me, that can be a never-ending trap. And rather than fixate on the word ‘authentic’ (the root of the word is from authentes "one acting on one's own authority," which has little to do with how it’s often used), we can look at the word ‘natural.’
What are some of the natural ‘edges’ of the character?
Rather than being afraid these may repel people, what happens if you relax and let these out?
A lot of times, you’ll see engagement jump, as people finally have something they can relate to, that shows them you’re a real person.
Finding the right topics for your first five website articles
An interesting story from a designer, who’s breaking into the car scene.
He showed me a ‘builder’ in Australia who’s known for his unique cars. It turns out, that back in 2006, this guy started to document his first car build through a simple website.
And, each step of the way, he wrote an article about it.
Soon, the car community got hold of the story, and people flocked to watch it unfold.
Now he’s got a horde of fans a half-million strong on different platforms, and has created a full-time career doing the work he loves.
The entire process, driven by one article at a time.
Not from a writing expert, but a self-taught car guy.
I’ve had a similar thing happen
In December 2017, I started to write blog articles, that were sent out as emails.
This was while I owned a gym in Melbourne. So I was writing about my perspective on health, stress, training… Everything that kind of ‘surrounded’ the gym, but wasn’t the training itself.
Before I knew it, the emails started to get replies.
And soon turned into workshops about those topics.
I was a little surprised to be honest. It wasn’t 2006 anymore, the whole internet was crowded (more on that later).
Later, the blog posts also made up about 30% of my first book.
And to this day, writing blogs and articles has been one of the most powerful tools to help create positioning.
Why do articles work so well?
They don’t all work well. There are a lot of articles that are just words…
But, there are two types of articles that work very well and cut through the noise for a story-driven biz-ness. One is where you’re helping your customers, or ‘players’ win the game. This is giving them specific learnings, or tools to move forward on your new path. Or, in basic terms, you’re teaching them how to do things, or look at things the right way.
The other type that works well is celebrating players (clients, audience, peers) that are winning the game. I like to do these with case studies.
Both of these do two specific things:
They help your people win.
And, they aren’t self serving.
So while a traditional funnel clamps around your people, and reduces the possible places for them to go (buy, or don’t buy). Expanding your article bank increases the possible places for your people to go in your world (read more on this, or go over here to learn that… and, if you want guidance, you can buy).
This is much less needy, which is why the positioning power of articles is so strong.
But everyone can write articles…
Sure can. Especially now, as AI can spit them out in seconds.
But the increase in volume is mostly at the lower end. Most of the articles out there are ‘placeholders’. Trash that people put up to try and game SEO, or look smart.
With a little practice, you don’t just write an article that adds to the noise. You write an article that stands out.
And this is something different altogether. Something people click on, look forward to reading, and come back to, because it helps them win.
There are three ‘big’ areas to focus on
If you’ve ever tried surfing, you know it ain’t easy to learn. There’s the bit that you see - someone riding a wave. But that’s maybe 20% of what’s really going on. Then there’s the other 80% that’s hidden. And this is always the case with complex tasks like surfing (or writing).
And still, if you can master three things - positioning, paddling and standing up, you’re almost there.
You won’t be Kelly Slater, but you’ll be riding some kind of wave.
And it’s the same with writing. It’s complex stuff. As Hemingway said, 80% is unseen.
But still…
If you focus on the ‘big three’, then you’re going to be pretty far along. The big three for articles include topic, structure, and the all important, entertainment or drama
Here we’ll cover ‘Topic’
This seems simple, but it’s nuanced. Because the problem is, as the expert, you’re so close to the subject matter that it can be hard to know exactly what to write about, that can be helpful for your people. So if we just ‘put out’ articles, they tend to miss the mark.
So, what we’re going to do is, break it down into three parts: writing for your clients (not for you), being specific, and staying unique to your world.
We’ll work through these specifically. Then, you can write your first five articles for your website and start to position as an authority in your niche.
First, the Skeletons…
Let’s bring some ugly skeletons out of the closet. Because it ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. Writing is a blue-collar job. It takes effort, and time.
Here are the three struggles we all face with this:
You won’t see anything happen straight away. Even if you’re a bit obsessive, and pound out all five articles and publish them today, you won’t see a radical change in inbound phone calls tomorrow. This will come over time.
The articles take a while to write at first. For me, they are pretty fast. A couple hours. But that is after hundreds of the darn things. I recommend putting a timer on it, so you spend a little time each day. And then you’ll get faster over time.
There’s a cumulative effect for positioning, not a linear effect. This means that the more you write, the stronger your position as an expert. One article will do nothing for positioning. Ten does something. At 100, you have ‘mass’.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s dive in so you can start writing some articles and positioning like a service champion.
Step 1 - Find the Topics: ‘Write first for your clients, then for yourself’
Let’s go back to the surfing example.
In surfing, at a high level, there are two or three directions you can go. You can be a free surfer. You can be a big wave surfer. Or, you can be a competition surfer.
And of course there’s overlap. But a lot of free surfers and big wave surfers ain’t comp surfers.
Why?
There’s politics. There ain’t a lot of prize money for the most part. And there’s a lot of travel.
But most specifically, they’re surfing for a judge. And it creates a particular style of surfing, that some people don’t want to do.
In service businesses, we’re ‘surfing’ for a judge.
We are being judged by the people we want to help. Even if a few of us love to write, this isn’t fiction. So we gotta help ‘em. We put out articles for the clients. And this is our main North Star.
The article topics should stem from what your people need. Either by directly asking them, or, noticing the obstacles and behaviour of your customers.
And what about the ‘writing for yourself’ part?
Well that’s the benefit we get. The positioning comes as a result of the transformation that we make. It doesn’t come just from writing.
So this will help us to identify the topics for the first five articles.
The first task is to look in your messages and conversations for client obstacles.
In Creator Club, we use email, and a closed community platform that has posts and messages. And, there’s the calls as well. You’ll have your own platforms that you use. So if you start with your messages or emails, look through to find the obstacles or questions that people have.
Typically, the obstacles you find will be a little blurry or broad. Because people don’t tend to be perfectly specific with their questions, and they’re confused by the obstacle.
Example:
We used to own a gym, and sometimes if someone wasn’t training for a while, they might say “I’m a little burned out with work”. That’s certainly an obstacle. But it isn’t clear what that means.
It could be food, recovery, time off, training dosage et cetera. But at the moment, just write it down as it is.
If you don’t have messages with clients, or emails from them, then the next step is to talk to your clients and just listen to them. Make a mental note. Then when you’re done, go and write it down.
You’ll hear all kinds of things.
Example - one of my friends is a real estate agent. She said that one thing people talked about was the hassle of changing all the addresses for bills et cetera after buying the house. So she made a note, and sent an email out about that.
Try to accumulate ten obstacles that you’re hearing from your clients from messages or conversations.
Step 2 - Create Specificity by Drilling Down
“… A good story is in the details, the little things that most people don’t notice but enrich the entire presentation.”
- Richard Garriott
One of the things we can do to make our storytelling more powerful, is to create specific images with words.
Here’s an excerpt from Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” (1926)
“In the morning I walked down the Boulevard to the rue Soufflot for coffee and brioche. It was a fine morning. The horse-chestnut trees in the Luxembourg gardens were in bloom. There was the pleasant early-morning feeling of a hot day. I read the papers with the coffee and then smoked a cigarette. The flower-women were coming up from the market and arranging their daily stock. Students went by going up to the law school, or down to the Sorbonne. The Boulevard was busy with trams and people going to work.”
The specifics are what create the scene. And it’s processed much differently from just a series of events.
In other words, specifics create a more compelling story.
And the same is true for your articles. Your audience is reading the articles as they move through their own story in their lives. They’re dealing with specific ‘scenes’. Or obstacles that pop up. With your articles, you want to meet this level of specificity.
But the obstacles you got from the clients are pretty broad…
Exactly.
Break the obstacles down into chunks.
Let’s go back to the burned out gym person.
Well, we don’t know exactly the obstacle. It could be time management. Energy. Or, the training load.
So, you can either ask more questions (usually best by simply saying ‘interesting, tell me more about that…’ rather than trying to lead the question). Or, you can take a stab at it and outline specific obstacles that could lead to the burned out feeling.
Now, if it’s starting to feel like your articles are limited. And they ain’t solving a huge problem… Good.
They should be limited.
They should address an exclusive obstacle, that’s narrow, and demonstrates your understanding of the client’s world.
Solve for one action in the scene of the obstacle.
The overall scene is one of a burned out client. One action in that, might be how they eat, or organising the food for the week ahead, so there’s less to worry about, and they have more energy. Solve for that one action.
Another action might be setting up an evening routine for better sleep, to restore energy. Sovle for that one action with an article.
What we’re doing, is rather than looking at your client’s journey in these big sweeping strokes that make sense to you as a guide, we’re zooming in to look at the one thing that they’re dealing with, and showing them a solution for that.
Because once they have a small steps solution, they will move forward with the action, and feel confident to take another one.
And your article has done its job.
But it’s going to leave so many obstacles open…
Perfect.
Time to write another article topic.
You might have this one ‘burned out’ obstacle becoming your five topics:
Sunday food prep template so you have time and energy all week to train
How to regulate training so you ‘build’ instead of ‘burn’ your energy
Three ways to adapt your training when you have heavy work deadlines
3 Pre and post workout meal ideas to recover faster and feel fresh again
Winter endurance - how top athletes stay motivated in the colder months (it ain’t what you expect)
If we do this right, we can take a few major obstacles that the client has, and break them down into five specific topics.
Then a new obstacle will give you five more…
Step 3 - Unique to Your World
This isn’t one a lot of people talk about.
But if you think about your overall business story, it all takes place in a particular ‘world’. So for example, in my world, I don’t do a lot of video. So it wouldn’t make sense for me to write a big article about being confident on video, even if it felt like that might help solve a particular obstacle for the client.
Another example right now is the AI and ChatGPT thing.
I have peers that are yapping on about the best prompts. And how to win with that stuff. Personally, I think a lot of people are just chasing the shiny object. And I’m yet to see real good work come out of it. So I don’t write about that. I just leave it.
Same with Facebook ads.
Same with managing your tax.
Both can be important things for a service biz-ness. But they ain’t part of my world, which revolves around story-driven business and marketing. So, we leave them out.
In an interview I did with Janet Forbes, who’s the co-founder or World Anvil, an online world building platform with 2.5 million users, who describes this as sticking to your ‘Meta’
“You don't wanna build a mild wide and an inch deep. That is, that is not a good ‘world’ setting, but it's also not a good brand. You can't be everything to everyone. And so for me, that, that concept of meta is something that really applies to pretty much everything in my life, and I think a lot of stuff in, in business really extrapolated from that, which is choose what it is you're trying to do and then choose the focus points that you're going for.”
If you start to do all kinds of ‘general’ articles that are outside of your world, you’re going to blend in with the masses.
Focus on your world, and the story that you’re creating with your business, and only write articles for that.
This will start to describe your ‘system’
While we started out taking core obstacles that your client is facing, and boiling them down to small, specific steps we can help them with, we also have another opportunity here.
We are outlining parts of our system.
So even though these are just your first five articles, they should point to the general way that you do things, or your overarching system in your business.
And over time, this becomes an overarching asset that can help your clients win.
And helps you make money as a business through expert positioning.
Back when I got into strength training, the second guy I became obsessed with, was Louie Simmons, from Westside Barbell.
The first place I went to, was his website.
I spent hours gorging on his haphazardly written in Louie speak, but infinitely helpful articles, that outlined his conjugate training system.
Then I bought the book. And the training certification et cetera.
The point is, it started out with his articles. By my count, there’s over 1,000 of ‘em.
And while his articles were solving specific problems or obstacles, they were also outlining a much larger system that I was learning at the same time.
And so it is in Creator Club.
Here, for example, we’re talking about how to find the topics for your first five articles. Well, that’s a key part of our system, which is setting up your weekly long form marketing, or asset building.
Summary
The first step to writing articles, is the ability to find topics that are relevant.
And while that sounds easy, I know what this is like. I’ve written hundreds of articles, and a TON of the early ones were just made up topics. And sometimes they hit the mark. But a lot of times, they missed completely.
It’s much better to have a system for finding your topics.
The first step, is to write for your clients - listen to the obstacles or challenges they’re facing.
The second step, was to turn that into specifics. We went through one example. But the idea is the topics want to ‘feel’ almost too small. They’re helping your clients win in one little step, rather than a huge leap (which they couldn’t implement anyway).
The final step, is to stay unique to your world and system. This guarantees that you keep building brand and positioning around a core area of expertise. And it also helps the reader build a deeper relationship with you.
Want help with your copywriting?
Download 18 Point Copywriting Guide for some simple tips to help
Three signs you may have a business identity crisis
The other week, a business owner told me how things have changed since working on their ‘story.’
This is a community gym who’s grown significantly. One thing she said caught my eye:
“When we started, our business was in an identity crisis. Cash flow was tight. At the time of signing up my partner and I had a 5 month old baby…. Having an expert guiding us on what was the most important aspect to work on first, giving us simple tasks and reminding us what we were already doing really well, helped more than we could have imagined. Our business became focussed, we re-established our identity…”
Here’s the cool part:
“…And we became confident in who we were and what we had to offer again. And Confidence is infectious.”
While it’s nice for me to hear all that stuff, the thing that stuck out to me was the term “identity crisis.”
I decided to steal it!
An identity crisis (could also be called a narrative crisis), is when the biz is clear on their ‘niche...’
They have their persona.
They know their ‘people’.
They know how they help them.
And they know they help them in a way that’s ‘deeper’ than the surface level transformation of that industry.
And yet…
They still feel lost, marketing isn’t working well, and they find themselves looking at other businesses on social media.
In the work we do, we tend to attract more ‘unique’ businesses. And with a more unique business, when this kind of crisis pops up, it can seem even worse because the owner doesn’t think anyone will understand them.
Which is fair enough, because, they’re unique after all.
So you get this internal crisis, combined with doubt that anyone can help, or there’s anything anyone can do... And it’s crippling.
And the worst part is, you can limp along like this, for a while, which strings out the frustration over time.
Anyway, the first step is to understand this crisis, so we can try to get past it.
In the RA MA article, I talked about what may be the best story driven marketing I’ve seen.
And how a story driven business is very different from a claims based business.
In a claims based business, the owner looks to sell their offer as the main priority, and does this through making claims that they’re the best, before clamping around the prospect with various funnels.
With a story driven business, their main focal point is a broader change that they are making in the culture.
A change that’s relevant because there’s been a shift in the buyer’s world.
That shift is called the catalyst, and their offer is simply a key stepping stone for this change to happen.
A business identity crisis happens when a story-minded business owner, ain’t clear on their story.
They ‘want’ to be story driven.
But they’re confused on the narrative.
So filling out a niche sheet, or client profile, is easy. But, it doesn’t help with the confusion, which often spreads throughout the team and into marketing. It’s especially obvious when you have multiple CEO’s or co-founders and you put them into different rooms, they try to explain the story of the biz and you get different answers.
And when the crisis rears it’s head, you can try to ramp up outbound marketing or sales, but it never feels like there’s a strong momentum, or that the buyer doesn’t trust the business.
(From the customer’s perspective, there’s no compelling story that can build trust.)
Just because there’s uncertainty, doesn’t mean there’s a crisis…
Even in with a clear business, uncertainty can still pop up sometimes. That can be normal.
So, here are three other signs, that hint that an identity crisis may have implanted itself at the root of the biz-ness. And that the overall narrative needs to be addressed to restore buyer trust.
Sign 1 - Watching other businesses for direction
In a claims-based business, positioning is built comparatively. So this means using price, location, speed, or some other attribute (usually shown on an x/y axis) to outperform other businesses, and then claim that performance. This means it makes sense to spend time on other business websites, and try to see where everyone is sitting, so that you can over-index on your point of difference.
In a story-driven business, we focus on ‘absolute’ positioning. This means we’re creating a movement (even if it is small), and don’t want to really look at what others are doing. We literally avoid comparison based positioning, and focus that energy on helping the clients to win in this new story we’re creating.
Example:
On the Fitness First website, the first thing we see is “Start Today and Get up to 15% off”.
This is price driven positioning.
The first thing they want you to see, is that it’s likely cheaper.
On the Anytime Fitness page, they’re showing how the game has changed, and you don’t need to follow the old rules of fitness anymore.
This is story driven positioning.
Sign 2 - The CEO(s) looking to staff, or customers to clarify the story
There’s an audio clip from the Howard Stern show (worth ~$500M), where a caller, Evan, rings up to give feedback.
“Hey Howard, how’s it going? I want to give constructive criticism on your show.”
“Not necessary.” Stern replies.
“What’s that?”
“Not necessary.”
“But you need feedback” stammers Evan.
"No. I figure out what to do, by me. I’m in charge of me, and I’m in charge of my show. What do I need feedback for?"
"Because your show is a community" says Evan.
"If I thought of the show as a community, I’d be doomed."
"Evan. Your feedback is irrelevant."
"How dare you?" Evan's getting fired up now.
"I’m telling you my process Evan."
"But I’m a paying customer!" Evan yells.
"I don’t care. Quit."
"I don’t care what you think. I care what I think"
"The way that I was an innovator was to IGNORE the feedback!" Howard continues
"Call Ryan Seacrest, he probably listens to feedback... He worries about what people think of him… A show that everyone loves is hardly my show."
“Most people don’t like my show.”
Evan swears at Howard and hangs up.
Stern takes it to the extreme.
But fact is, if you’re getting input on the overarching narrative of the business (why you exist, why now, and the future you want to create) from staff, customers, and everyone else, then it’s very difficult to have a core, singular narrative.
Note: This doesn’t mean we don’t do customer or client research.
Research on the client’s world helps us to clarify the story. But this observation happens in a research phase, not asking on an ongoing basis.
More: Customer or client feedback is great for shaping offers (stepping stones for the client to move forward in the story), but not shaping the narrative. That’s the founder or CEO’s job.
Sign 3 - Marketing is start-stop, or very difficult
"Good marketing tells the story, great marketing is the story"
- Bernadette Jiwa
Content marketing then, falls into three categories:
1 - Updates on the characters in the world and documenting the story (to build trust)
2 - Helping the audience move forward on the new path (with or without the offer)
3 - Celebrating wins of clients (or non-clients) who are winning on the new path (i.e. they’re helping drive the story)
Basically, you’re marketing should attract more people to the overarching story.
And this means it’s pretty simple, once the narrative is clear.
So, if marketing (content marketing, networking, projects, asset building) feels really draining, it’s a sign that when we go to do it, we don’t have a guiding business story, and we’re relying on thinking in the moment.
What does ‘easy’ marketing look like?
I met with a business owner last week. We had fleshed out their business story in recent months.
“I’m wondering what to do this month for marketing, I’m understaffed, and short on time…”
We went back through his overarching story.
And pointed to the fact that his sales have been best when he’s leaned heavily on that story in the past.
And destroyed any over-thinking about it all.
Once we were done I told him he shouldn’t be asking me about marketing, because he knows the story, and know what performs.
He agreed.
Typically, it takes him a minute or two to film a video and post it for marketing. They don’t do edits. They don’t do scripts. They don’t need to, because the story is clear.
If you’ve come through the internet marketing world, you may have been indoctrinated to think that any hurdle you have is a niche hurdle. Or a messaging hurdle.
And if you make it through that, you may have been told it’s an ‘effort’ hurdle.
Sometimes that’s the case. But a lot of times, the feeling of the ‘identity crisis’ is around the narrative, or business story.
When this happens, the owner, CEO or staff can get frustrated doing more and more niche work, or working harder on outbound sales or marketing, when really it’s about clearing up the narrative, or story.
When everyone in the biz knows what the business is doing, or the story that drives the business, and how their niche, or persona, fits into the story, it creates confidence.
There’s no need to watch other businesses, marketing is simple, and there’s no need to ask the customers or clients to steer the business direction.
There’s one unifying message that acts as a north star not just in marketing, but business strategy and decisions.
Clarity creates confidence, and, as we heard at the start, confidence is infectious.
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Switching to a story-driven business (global gym case study)
There’s a reason most of us in small business bailed on corporate. We don’t like blindly following rules. I was talking to an architect:
“I’m lucky I get to change my work each day…” he said.
“I would never survive doing the same thing over and over”
No doubt. Small business owners are creative, and like to do things their way.
One side effects of this, is we can tend to shun big biz.
They started their business to upset the status quo… Which often leads to seeing ‘what’s wrong’ with bigger institutions.
I do this all the time.
But, truth is, there’s also lots to learn over the decades from some bigger businesses.
And once in a while, a big biz-ness wisens up, and shifts their messaging
From an archaic institution, to a story-driven business…
One example of this, is Anytime Fitness.
I noticed this because a friend had recently bought into a franchise.
Anytime is a global fitness chain.
Now, it has over 600,000 members. That’s a ‘big box’ globo gym. Most small gyms or studios hate these kind of places.
But, in late 2022, Anytime saw record numbers of Australians joining their network.
So, the customer is buying.
But this wasn’t always the case…
Here, we’ll break down how the switch to a story driven business happened.
And, how even for big business, adopting a story-driven model is possible, and can help build a bigger horde of fans…
We’ll look at three points in the business messaging:
The strength of a main story (a ‘catalyst’ or change, the old path, new path, and opportunity for the client)
How to win on the new path, or in the new story you’re creating
Success stories, to prove that the new path (then your offer) helps people win.
And when we compare these for the old version of Anytime Fitness, with the new version, we see a solid example of a ‘switch’.
Note: We do this mostly through the website. While that’s not the only way to do it, if you can’t get the website ‘story’ clear, there ain’t much hope for anything else…
The Old Version…
We’re going back to March, 2018
Anytime Fitness has been around a lot longer than this.
And while going way back to 2009 was fun for me, it ain’t particularly relevant. Because a clear story didn’t really exist.
(The ‘O.G’ messaging was mostly about a ‘quick, low cost’ gym)
So the first version we’ll look at is in 2018. Let’s look at the three different points:
Part 1 - The ‘Strength’ of the Main Story
Here’s the main header:
“Be a part of the biggest fitness community in Australia” is an attempt at positioning as some kind of leader.
But it’s feeble.
Mainly because leading in number of members has little relevance for a gym client. (Leading in ‘results might be better).
So, there’s a ‘relative’ position.
But this lacks any story element at all:
There’s no catalyst or change, no conflict (old path vs. new). There’s no indication of what the world looks like, who the main character is (who it’s for), what success looks like, or any information about the guides…
The old version ain’t a story driven business, it’s just a message around ‘mass’. And does little to raise urgency or necessity for the buyer.
Moving down the website, the confusion continues…
“Epic is waiting” has no relevance to anything. What is epic? What is the outcome?
This is a ‘stand-in’ word, to try and elevate emotion.
But that does little for the buying cycle…
Overall, the strength of any ‘main story’ is close to zero.
Part 2 - How to ‘win’ on the new path, or in the new story
While the blog was there in the top navigation, there was little on how to win in the game of fitness.
The blog wasn’t advertised on the main site.
This is common with ‘claims based’ business (i.e. ‘we don’t need to build assets or educate because we think we’re the best’)
Part 3 - Success Stories
These are completely missing. Which is often the case when the story ain’t clear.
Stock photography was the default setting. And the visual story was random.
It’s not even clear if the people in the photos have anything to do with Anytime Fitness.
There are no specific success stories.
The New Anytime Fitness - The Switch to A Story Driven Business
Here’s the new top of fold for the site. Straight away we can see a difference…
By 2022, Anytime Fitness had switched to a message around “Any Body, Any Time”
This was across their website and content at a franchise level.
Same as before, let’s look at the three key questions to see if there’s a story-driven business underneath.
Part 1 - The ‘Strength’ of the Main Story
We can look at this from three points.
These were all missing in the previous version…
The change or ‘catalyst’ in the culture. This is needed in any story-driven business.
And in this case: the customer now makes the rules on what fitness looks like
This shift that happened around 2020 was around trust, and choice. All of a sudden, businesses saw that the customer could choose who to buy from, and had 100% of the buying power. More, that it was no longer about businesses ‘forcing’ a particular way of doing things onto the customer.
We saw this with Apple allowing customers more control with advertising settings on their phone.
Uber eats and the explosion of ‘get what you want, when you want’…
And the saturation of smaller gyms, yoga studios, coaches… All offering different ways of serving.
In this case, Anytime didn’t point out this change exactly.
Partly because they didn’t need to…
The main thing is they created a ‘head nod’ statement around the change, that their target customer agrees with.
Here we go, right at the top of the site:
Anyway, a change, or catalyst means there’s now an old path, and a new path:
The old path - Play by the rules. You have to look a certain way to train.
The military boot camps.
The bodybuilding style training…
The old path was about fitting in, and doing things a certain way.
The new path - We’re here to tell you that you can go your own way… and we’ll support you
And in the Anytime ‘world’, they will help you, with cardio equipment, trainers, weights… Whatever you need, they’ll support you and guide you.
For their target audience, the new game creates a feeling of being welcome, no matter who you are.
And it also creates ‘conflict’ with the old path. Critical.
Also, notice the lack of ‘claims’…
Before, there was the claim that “epic” is waiting right around the corner. That’s all gone!
A lot of smaller gyms fall into the claims trap:
Get into great shape by summer. Live your best life with us. Et cetera.
Big, often broad claims, that mean you blend in quickly…
Now, the only ‘claim’ Anytime makes is that they’ll support you every step of the way.
Part 2 - How to ‘win’ on the new path, or in the new story
On the main page, now they direct you to the article bank. There are hundreds of articles over the years, to help readers win. In particular “motivation quotes for anybody” - focusing on not just gym motivational quotes, but motivational disability quotes, motivation quotes for women et cetera. The story is even stronger the deeper you go.
There are also recipes and training tips.
Part 3 - Success Stories
Strong success stories are proof that the new story they are creating actually works.
So, we would expect to see a bunch of stories of a diverse group of people (‘any’ body), winning, in a range of ways, because fitness looks different now.
And, we wouldn’t expect to see transformation photos, strength gains, or more typical gym success stories.
Because that was (in their world), the ‘old path.’
Here we go:
I didn’t highlight the other messages, but here they from left to right
My childhood medic alert bracelet broke, and I took that as a sign to be the one in control of my own journey.
It motivates me to better my health & well-being for the longevity of my Paramedic career.
I need be physically & mentally strong enough to support Sam.
My motivation is to NEVER SAY NO TO ADVENTURE!
Being able to visit and do photography of incredible animals and scenery.
These are missing a few things as far as success stories go… But they’re trying.
These stories tell us: Anytime Fitness is a place for any body to come in, and find out what fitness looks like for them, so that they can go out and do the things that they love.
The focus of this case study was to show that there’s no biz-ness that’s ‘too big’.
And that if you want to clarify, or flesh out your business story to help with marketing (and business strategy), it’s very possible. Even if you’ve been going for eight years.
The main learning though, is that there is one unifying story here.
Any body. Inclusivity. Fitness done your way.
Anytime didn’t try to mix multiple story arcs (maximal strength, women’s training seperate, yoga etc).
They might have those offers within the world, but they would exist as quests that the customer goes on, once they’re bought into the overall story.
Once you clarify your business story, you know stand alone, and know where you’re going in your strategy and marketing.
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Why Thinking ‘Small’ May Be Best, Even if You Want to Grow Big
The first business I opened, was a small retail store.
The floor space was around sixty square meters, and ten minutes away, was Rebel Sports, a big chain sports store. The sales reps for the shoe companies used to come in, and talk about the order sizes that Rebel would make.
Ten times bigger than my orders, for any particular shoes.
Man.
I did the numbers in my head. How many shoes they must be selling. Multiplied by the price of the shoes… Plus, they sell a whole bunch of other stuff as well besides shoes.
And here in my little store, I was picking my orders, balancing my budget with what I expected to sell each quarter.
Often, I’d catch myself thinking about ‘more’. How do I catch up with these other guys?
But the fact is, our business was successful because we were the opposite of Rebel.
We grew, because instead of thinking ‘big’, we thought ‘small’.
While they focused on scale, we focused on service. Our staff were good runners. We would custom order shoes for customers. We supported local races. And, we built a horde of raving fans, that continued to buy, to the point where even after they would leave the country they would call up the shop, and place an order for shoes to be sent to them.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of chasing ‘big’, when often, thinking ‘small’ is best.
Even if the goal is to grow over time…
Let’s say you open a bakery.
Well, there’s a lot of bakeries in my town. There are cheap ones. Gluten free ones. Bakeries with a café tied to them. There’s a pet café with a bakery tied to it!
And in your bakery, you have a few customers, but you want to grow.
What are your options?
Install the point of sales systems that work better?
Get a better website or brand package?
Learn to do home delivery?
All that can work. But, what about thinking small? Zooming in to your unique business, the customer, and the story you’re inviting them to be a part of, and how this affects your products and service, so that it’s memorable enough for people to talk about?
Rather than chasing bigger, think ‘smaller’, focusing on one, two, or ten individual customers, and figuring out how to surprise and delight them, so they talk (online, offline, whatever).
(I have a friend Kat, who did exactly this with a sourdough bakery on a little island in New Zealand. And by delighting a few customers, she quickly was in so much demand she was maxed out).
Focusing on ‘small’ doesn’t mean staying small. (But it can).
It’s a way of thinking, that helps you to build your business the way you want, and service your customers, properly. Which, if you want, allows you to create scalable offers and systems, on top of a story that resonates, to grow.
Or, you can do what Ruby and I do, build a business you love that’s just the right size, so you can live the life that you want.
But how do we stay out of the ‘hype’ culture, and avoid feeling like we’ve got to ‘chase’?
We focus on three principles:
Set upper boundaries on services and offers
Drop the word ‘scale’
Realise you can lead, even if you’re in a team of one
Step 1 - Why set upper boundaries on your service or offers?
A few weeks ago, I found out that my friend had some t-shirts made for his personal training business. They said ‘Uncommon Strength’ on the front, and the graphic was a Jimmy Hendrix style font.
So I asked him for a large, and he said they were sold out. But I could put my order onto the next batch.
I’m still waiting for that shirt…
Since there was limited supply, I want one. And it keeps pulling my attention.
Another friend of mine, just announced she has some shirts for her business as well. I wanted to support her too, so I looked at the shirts. It directed me to a print-on-demand website that does shirts for you. There were ten different designs, in different colours and sizes. And, they’re always in stock, because they are printed to order.
After five minutes on the site, I left the whole thing, knowing I can go back whenever I want.
No urgency.
When you set an upper boundary, you restrict supply creating desire and demand
This often (assuming there’s a quality service), increases demand.
A little while ago, one of the brands Ruby follows, Sézane, did a ten year anniversary product drop. They had told their customers it was coming, via email and social media. When it went live, it all sold out in thirty minutes.
A lot of people missed out. Including Rubes.
In fact, some people were straight up furious, raging in the instagram comments.
But you know what? It just created more demand. And the result was, the next clothing drop sold out just as fast. Now there’s a reputation, and they’re always selling out.
But, how do you sell more?
Do you need to sell more?
If it’s revenue that’s the question, you can adjust pricing, or, you can repeat a similar offer a couple of times per year, creating a constant ‘drip’ of supply, with high demand.
Setting boundaries reduces overwhelm
The other week Ruby ran a small networking dinner for women in business.
It was a chance for a dozen women to come together, and catch up. Anyway, the first thing she did, was limit it to fourteen people. Then, when she sent out the first email with the invites, she was already coming from a place of limited supply. She wasn’t trying to get 100 people in.
Fourteen is easy to deal with. When she organised the emails, the location and the decorations, it was low stress.
Then, at the event, everyone got a chance to talk to each other.
Could she have made it bigger? Sure, but would everyone have been talking about how intimate and special it was afterwards? Probably not.
Now, she can run a second one, at a time that she chooses, and it’s highly likely a lot of the women will already want to come back.
Everywhere you look, people will tell you to chase ‘more’
And certain businesses and offers are suited for that. Many of the businesses we work with have evergreen, highly scalable offers. But what happens when we slow down and look small first?
Rather than trying to get the customers excited and market and sell with hype, we can explain the situation, see if it’s for them, and invite them in rationally.
It destroys neediness from your sales, and makes you more magnetic straight away.
Which, paradoxically for you as the business owner, means you can ship the work more easily, produce more over time, and invite more people to work with you.
Step 2 - Staying ‘Focused’ When Everyone Yells Scale
Every time I check on instagram, I’m hit with some advertisement about how so and so agency just scaled to 100k months. Or how to go from zero to ten million dollars in three years. Fact is, the entire space has been ‘scale-washed.’ Brainwashed into thinking that the only way to go is up.
The first thing to realise is - and this is from someone who’s seen behind the scenes for a lot of businesses... It ain’t always what it seems on social media.
And I won’t go into names, but more than a few of these guys might be showing the flash online, but behind the scenes the profit (and often revenue) ain’t there. I heard one guy was a big name coach, but turned out the dude is struggling to pay the bills.
Marketers know the ‘scale’ angle is attractive
It looks like you can suddenly get ‘high ticket leads’, without doing the work over time. ‘Scale’ has become go to word, to get the lifestyle of holidays by the pool at the lake Como mansion.
Now, this isn’t to say businesses shouldn’t grow
A lot of businesses we work with, grow. That’s the point. We’ve had clients from from 30k months, to 150+ k months. Growth is a great idea for the right business.
But they didn’t grow because they focused on getting bigger straight away.
Instead, on each step of the journey, the business owners check back in, to see how they can create a better service and a more compelling business story with more humanity.
When the business story is kept as the North Star, and customer service is a priority, the business owner can choose to look at systems or ways to leverage growth.
But trying to cram people in is rarely the path that gets there.
Realise you don’t have to scale
You may want to, and that’s fine.
But you might get your business to the perfect place where you can travel, take time off, work good hours doing what you love, and serve your customers or clients in the way that you enjoy.
For a lot of people, this will be the sweet spot of business, rather than trying to triple it in size.
There’s a gym based in Sydney that has ruffled a few feathers. It’s built specifically for executives, there’s a laundry service, one to one coaching. And the membership pricing is around $400 per week. More than most gyms. Anyway, what they did was limit the membership to 100 spots. In a city of millions, that ain’t a lot. From there they built a story that resonates with a particular group of people.
Within a year or so, they were full.
Now, they’re onto their second location, with the first membership capped.
They are growing, but it came from focusing on each individual member, one at a time, without racing to be huge.
And, they’re doing work they enjoy.
We found a similar thing in Creator Club, our business coaching membership
In a world where most business coaching programs are trying to get thousands of people in, we help a few of the right business owners do work that matters, that gets them to where they want to go, and have a biz-ness they love.
Some of that model doesn’t scale easily.
And that’s OK.
So, we’ve limited the spaces for the coaching. As I write this, we’re full.
And from there, we create small, specialised offers on the side for specific skills or tactics that businesses want to learn.
Step 3 - You Can ‘Lead’ Even When You’re Small
But can you become a small business ‘leader’ if you don’t grow a huge team?
I think when most of us in business think about leadership, what we’re really referring to, is the ability to take creative risks on new directions, and invite others to come along.
It ain’t about team size.
When you write your article, and ship it to the world, in a sense, that’s leadership.
When you run an event and invite twenty people to come, your leading.
A lot of our clients have VA’s, assistants, part time staff, or remote workers, and all of this can come under the banner of a team that you lead. But if you’re flying solo, you can also lead yourself, and the clients that you serve.
To lead means, not to follow
You’re creating a new business story, and opening the door for others to walk through.
All business owners should aspire to be leaders, but it has more to do with marketing positioning, than it does having to have staff or a team.
A lot of times, when a new business owner comes in, they say how they’ve been listening to the latest podcasts on how to get success in business. They’re fired up, and ready to ‘scale’.
I say well, OK, what’s your offer? What’s your marketing?
A lot of times we find that this is where we need to work. The basics.
This is a kind of guru syndrome. Focusing on scale, rather than starting with an attractive offer for the people you want to serve, then finding more ways to serve them that are in line with that story.
And until we can circle back to the work that matters for a few people, it’s hard to grow at all.
When we take the focus off of rapid growth, we can focus on helping customers win
When we do a good job, people talk about it. They hang around. They want to come back. Instead of chasing for more, we find ourselves with opportunities to serve more.
Whether that’s more people, or the same people, for longer.
Scale, growth, and stacking revenue have a particular place and time. But if the process to ‘scale’ gets away from humanity, or the reason why you’re in business in the first place, then the end result rarely works out.
All that’s to say that if thinking ‘big’ ain’t working, try thinking small first.
Build a business you’re proud of for your particular audience.
Then, grow bigger if you want to.
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Business story ‘catalyst’ - engaging your audience w/out the hype
An email from a meditation teacher. He’s tweaking his messaging to be a more story-driven biz-ness:
“…to reply to your previous [article] about RA MA. The ‘technology’ angle is one i'm taking seriously and something your article reaffirmed. I’ve been reframing my work around the concept of 'awakened intelligence' and opposing it to artificial intelligence and the dangers it poses… I believe this reframe solidifies my work and business, and gives it the context it needs to be successful.”
A big hurdle we face in service businesses is, “how do you help people take action?”
As buyers, often, it’s easier to do nothing, than it is to buy.
Marketers try to overcome this with claims. Claims about the problem we say the customer has. Claims about how great we are at solving it.
But with so much ‘claims’ noise, it’s hard to cut through to build trust.
So no matter how long you make that social media copy… how many emoji’s or how many client testimonial screen shots… in a saturated market, it can all get blocked, and…
The buyer stays emotionally unengaged.
Naturally, or course, we don’t pay attention to claims.
But, we do notice ‘change’. Change in our bank balance. Change in the weather. Change in clothing trends. Change in politics. Change attracts attention, and in some cases, almost ‘forces’ us into action.
[This kind of ties back to my view on social media even. A lot of brand people will say you want the grid to all look the same. But I think of brand more like the story. So have your grid changing. Do different things. And trust that the story will make sense over time. Much less boring.]
Anyway, so we can think about a whole business ‘story’ as starting with change, or, a ‘catalyst’, that kicks the story off into action.
In another article I pounded out about RA MA Institute, we saw the ‘catalyst’ was the ‘Technology Age’:
And each business will have a different catalyst.
The raging dentist…
Now that I think about it, there’s also a dentist that my wife goes to, his name is Dr. Steven Lin. Now, a lot of people don’t like this guy. They ‘rage’ against him. But he’s got a horde of fans as well. And his whole business story is really built on this idea that there’s been a ‘catalyst’ in the food industry. The soil quality is down. We’ve lost a lot of nutrients. And people are short on calcium, and vitamin K2, and it’s hurting their health.
So some of his content is on tooth care.
But a big percentage is pointing to this change. And he’s constantly getting trolled. Because some people prefer the status quo. But then his fans defend him against the trolls. But he has a great business. In the end, he’s a dentist. But the story is built around this massive catalyst, that creates a movement.
Deep down, most of us know that a catalyst is important for a story
And when we ain’t clear on an overarching catalyst in our business story, we try to make our own…
We can resort to what I call the five ‘dark horsemen’ of tactical marketing: claims heavy, hype heavy, false scarcity, false urgency and sudden discounts…
But as consumers, we catch this…
We can tell when there’s a lack of a narrative, and we sense claims based, self-serving marketers. It doesn’t mean we won’t buy, it just means we’re buying because we have to, rather than getting on board with a movement.
A story-driven business needs a change strong enough to be a ‘catalyst’, to drive the story forward, and help clients take action
What is a ‘catalyst’?
In chemistry class they talked about it as something that speeds up a reaction.
But what about a catalyst in a story?
Wiktionary.org defines it:
“an inciting incident that sets the successive conflict into motion”
The literary catalyst is one of the most important elements in a story. In fact, without one, there ain’t a story.
And in business, if there ain’t a story, all we have is claims and convincing.
OK so back to our meditation friend. This is what our friend is tapping into:
Selling a meditation service on its own is difficult. It is broad, non-urgent, and is difficult to inspire someone to take action, now.
But rather than bringing in the five dark horsemen, he’s zooming out to clarify his business ‘story.’
And looking for a ‘catalyst’ in the culture, that we agree with, and that helps us take action, now.
Is this the right one for him?
Possibly.
It’s worth looking at what we need for a catalyst anyway.
The other night Ruby got the first season of “Yellowstone”. (We’re behind the times, mostly because we were stuck on Seinfeld for another round…).
The first episode of a series is always interesting. They’ve gotta introduce characters, the world, and then, there needs to be one (or a few) catalysts, which kick off the story. So anyway, a bunch of stuff happens in that first one. But the major incident is one of John Dutton’s sons (he’s the main guy), gets shot. Straight away you know it’s on, and is the catalyst that will spark the story and major conflict.
And that’s the thing, there’s a lot of little incidents. But that was the inciting incident. It was big enough to force action.
And same in the biz-ness story. A little change ain’t going to do anything, Jimmy.
The change needs to be important enough to be a ‘catalyst’.
Around twenty years ago, Audi sensed that the market for diesel cars was shifting.
But the problem was, they needed to prove that it would be important.
They were early.
So what they did was, they redesigned their Audi R10 Le Mans 24 hour car. They build a whole new car. And they put a diesel engine into it. They realised that if they could be more efficient, they would stop less, have a higher top average speed, and could be competitive.
They won a few years in a row.
Instead of just yapping on that ‘people might like diesel more’ in a market where petrol cars were booming, they showed that winners were already using the new diesel technology. By winning with it.
This became a strong catalyst for diesel consumer cars.
Going back to our friend with the meditation service…
A key step - whatever his catalyst ends up being - will be to see how he can ‘show’ that some people who are using meditation are thriving.
And how those who are ignoring meditation are struggling.
This makes the ‘catalyst’ strong enough that there are real stakes. That can impact their bottom line, identity, social status, or other important factor. Something that means his people need to pay attention.
I.e.
** In the beauty industry, it could be that you are with the trend vs. being left behind.
** In the fashion industry, it could be that you’re riding the wave of reinvention or renaissance, like Sézane.
** In business, it could be that your customers want to be a part of your story because of where you’re going and what you do, versus ignoring you and you go broke.
2 - The catalyst needs to be controversial (to some), but, a ‘head nod’ (to others)
This happens every few years in the diet industry.
The Keto diet called for living on ‘ketones’, by cutting out carbohydrates (‘carbs are useless’)
This was controversial.
But, when they present the ‘new information’ that led to this, it was also a head nod for some people.
CrossFit did this also. Weighted exercise for time was controversial.
But, when they presented the change in functional fitness, and studies they had done, it was also a head nod for some and became a catalyst.
If the catalyst or change has no controversy, then it isn’t a catalyst. Controversy happens when a change is proposed relative to a status quo.
Look for a head nod, but look for some haters.
3 - The ‘catalyst’ must be absolute (not your opinion)
“People are looking for something different” doesn’t cut it.
There should be some kind of evidence to the catalyst or change.
Example:
There’s a physiotherapy business in Brisbane, FKB Physio.
Frances Brown helps mostly older women with rehabilitation and bone density, and strengthening. Rather than ‘avoiding incidents’, now they know it’s better to ‘build resilience’ in the body.
The catalyst that she can point to is new information around osteoporosis and osteopenia.
Which means the old path of avoidance is no longer helpful. And the new path of strength is much better.
As people are naturally aging as well, there’s a second level of urgency (or a second ‘catalyst’).
A strong starting point if she decides to double down on that position.
Note: In the most powerful cases, the catalyst is spoken about in content or on a site, which creates the old way of doing things. And highlights the new way. For example, Frances can point to the previous way of doing things, and bring this out in content and in presentations. Then point to it almost as the ‘enemy’, which creates conflict, and a more engaging story.
But this ain’t always the case.
With Sézane, we saw the catalyst is isn’t overtly pointed out. However, it’s pretty clear it’s in line with the technology age that really took off around 2012. The ‘old way’ is succumbing to the technology, with boring, flat colours, and lack of ‘experience’ in life. The new way, is the renaissance.
Conclusion
A lot of businesses want to say they are ‘carving a new path.’
But for this to be true, there had to be an ‘old path.’
One of the responsibilities that we have as marketers is to name that old path, and point to the change in context, or ‘catalyst’, that means it’s no longer working.
(Otherwise, why not just stay on the old path?).
When you do this, you tap into one of the deeper laws of human nature. That, we don’t want to be left behind…
We want to be current, and up to speed with the crowd. So, we pay attention, just like we pay attention to change in general.
And this also creates natural ‘conflict’ in your story (old vs. new), which is important.
Examples of catalysts could be a trend (this season people want ‘colour’) or this could be a seismic cultural shift (RA MA Institute). Or it could be new information, or an external event.
Either way, now, rather than buying your offer because you convinced us, we can buy into your story, because we believe in where you are going, and how you help us navigate and transform in this new world.
Now you are carving a new path together, as a movement, rather than trying to get them into your program or work as a short term solution.
Your offer is simply the best, or most obvious way for us to move forward in that story.
The Sézane masterclass in worldbuilding and story-driven marketing
One thing that’s going on ‘round the here lately is Ruby is learning French
She’s using the app. She also follows this lady on instagram, who, each day, goes through a French word. She might explain how to pronounce a syllable or something. Plus, she also follows a bunch of French fashion brands, and artists.
Well Ruby was watching this video about how to say a word, and at the end of the lady pointed to her t-shirt. Talking about how she’s done a collaboration with another brand, Sézane…
Now, I normally wouldn’t be so interested in all of this.
But I knew that Ruby had bought a bunch of Sézane clothes over the years. And that this French fashion brand has blown up. In particular, a few months back she came into the office after they had a sell-out clothing drop, and it all went in thirty minutes.
Before she could get any…
Anyway, so my ears pricked up at this video.
I pointed to the phone.
“They’re in the French culture ‘world’, not the Fashion world” I blurted out.”
“Who?” She asked.
“Sézane”
“But this lady is teaching French, not selling clothes”
“‘Zactly!”
And this is a really key thing for service businesses to think about.
“Market the world, before the offer. Sell the world, before the offer.”
Most service businesses position ‘relatively’ through claims.
For example, a gym might say ‘we’re not CrossFit’... or “we can help you lose weight faster, here’s our proof.” Or a nutritionist might say “You need to fix your mindset around eating. Here’s how…” Coaches: “It's time to change, I’ll help you.”
This puts you smack in the middle of the ‘claims based’ marketing noise (‘claim’ to solve a problem the business describes), that is so filled with hot air, promises, and general chatter, that it’s almost impossible to stand out.
Especially now, where consumers need to trust a brand much more before purchase.
So a lot of times, this leads to discounting, or being ignored, or, both…
But when you sell the world, before the offer, you’re a story-driven business. You’re taking the position of a ‘movement champion’ rather than a claims based marketer in the middle of a sea of red noise.
And by championing a new movement that the client wants to be a part of, your offer (or Sézane’s offer in this case) becomes the default choice for anyone wanting to ‘wear’ the French culture.
Let’s break down how Sezanne does this, so you can apply the thinking to your own biz-ness as you see fit…
Note: Should we pay attention to product businesses if we run a service? Absolutely. Hospitality businesses are great as well.
Step One: Sézane clearly defines their ‘world’
You can think of your ‘world’ as your meta. The genre, or setting of your business. Where you’re located, the characters, the colours et cetera.
Your ‘world’ infuses everything you do. Because it’s where the story takes place.
(Go back through the articles or podcasts for more on this)
This is part of the ‘story’ as explained on Sézane’s ‘About Page’:
So, what do we know now…?
First, from the name, the site title, we know that the brand is French. With a coastal vibe.
We know that they are about a ‘new story’, because they told us.
More:
Further down on the ‘About’ page, in the film “10 Years of Creation as Told by Victor” where he talks about Sézane, he states:
‘The Parisian life, symbol of their Renaissance, and their Revolution’.
‘Renaissance’ is French for ‘re-birth’. Or creating a new version, or a new story.
More:
On the about page, they have something called Sézane en Rose. ‘On the first Wednesday of every month, we wear pink to raise awareness and support breast cancer organisations across the world.’
OK, so here’s what we have:
** The ‘world’ is mostly for women.
** The ‘world’ is about French culture.
** The ‘world’ is colourful, musical, and has dancing
** The ‘world’ is about Renaissance and Revolution.
** The ‘world’ is about fashion.
While we know they sell something to do with fashion, nothing has been said about the product yet.
As we take in this ‘world’, we start to look deeper at the story as it could apply to us as the consumer. Which is always the main reason the business exists. I.e. to make a change for a particular group of people.
Why look at the ‘world’ first with marketing?
You don’t have to. But it’s typically fixed from the backstory of the business owner a little bit.
Plus, it creates an ‘immersive’ way of thinking, that allows the customer to go on a lot of deeper journeys:
“I eventually came to believe that instead of conceiving of a story and then creating a world in which it could be told and make sense, I should create the world first - then let the player have access to all of its capabilities as they negotiate their own story.”
- Richard Garriott
Note: Some people like to create the story first. And that’s OK.
Others, will try to just create the offer. A solution for a particular problem.
And there’s nothing wrong with that either. But in a crowded market, if you create the world first, or at least in line with your core narrative, you shift to becoming a ‘story-driven’ business, that stands alone.
Step Two: Define the Story, or Narrative
OK, so the ‘world’ is defined.
Remember, this is just the setting, or theme for your business story.
Let’s look at that main business story. This is the ‘game’ the business is helping their customers play.
This is why your business exists. It must make some kind of consistent change.
For example.
In Creator Club, the overarching ‘story’ is you learn the skills to build a unique, well-known and profitable business.
Let’s look at a gym:
Inside the world of a gym, there must be one overarching narrative.
You get stronger. Or you get more flexible. Team training. Or you get more fitness so you can show up at your job better.
(Gyms that lack a core narrative can struggle over time)
OK, back to our example, Sézane.
In the Sézane world, there is one core narrative:
To embrace your version of your own renaissance. To have your own ‘French Revolution’.
Now this started in France, where they began. But soon, it spread.
And, once Sézane spread to other countries, it was about a ‘new’ sense of culture, life and energy.
For Ruby, for example, she has European heritage, she went to France when she was young.
And now living in Australia, she has a craving for that culture. So, she started to learn French, et cetera.
[Note: Often, your core narrative is more powerful when it coincides with a cultural shift, or ‘change’ that makes it more urgent. For example, although not stated on the site. Sézane’s ‘renaissance’ narrative, of a new, more energised future, is in contrast to a lot of the technocratic, or more ‘muted’ lifestyle that is more common now. In this sense, they are rising up in the face of a change, presenting a new opportunity to buyers.]
Variations to the narrative
Note: For most businesses, there are a lot of variations to how that major narrative will play out for each person.
I.e. People may go to your gym for slightly different reasons. Or some people do certain classes, and not others at a yoga studio. Because they don’t follow exactly the same path.
Here’s a specific example:
In Creator Club, there are full time employees building side businesses.
There are architects. Trainers. Coaches. Consultants.
All building story-driven businesses.
And while that is the main narrative, some people are using it to become more confident in all parts of their lives. Others are using it to meet people, and take advantage of the social aspect of the live events. Others, are purely focused on revenue.
And you’ll find in your business, that people have all kinds of directions they can go.
And you can either try to control that. Or, you can build your world in more ways so that they can develop their own stories in their own ways.
(And stay within your business world.)
Anyway, let’s go back to Sézane, if you think about the French Revolution or Renaissance ‘story’, well there are different facets to that narrative.
The clothing
The food or the art
The people, and community
The music, and dancing (that period was known for a lot of music)
The language
You can probably see where this is going in terms of offers and content…
But once you define the over-arching narrative of your business, things get a lot easier.
Let’s look at two more examples.
Let’s say you’re a Yoga Studio.
Well, if you are clear on the overarching narrative - let’s say it’s preparing the mind and body for the modern world (similar to RA MA institute).
Well, what are some of the ways that could play out…
The client gets better at ‘skills’
The people come together to meet each other at ‘community events’
The client learns ways to build physical strength
The client learns ways to improve their relationships
The client goes to classes specifically to clear the mind
All of these help the customer progress further on the overarching narrative.
OK, last one.
Let’s say you’re a Real Estate agent.
Well, the over-arching story might be for the customer to become a proud home-owner and welcome and respected member of the community. OK, some of the quests, or ways that could play out:
Finding a home
Financing a home
Setting up your home
Meeting your community
Maximising your home for re-sale
Your ‘world’ will have tools, and assets that help people to go down one, or any of these paths.
This gets clearer as you learn more from customers, and look for more ways to help them.
For more on narrative, check out the RA MA article here.
Step Three: Create offers to help clients move forward in their story
There are two kinds of offers. Paid. And Free.
A lot of free offers might fall under the ‘content’ banner for service businesses.
But they are still offers!
When I saw Ruby watching the video, she was learning how to say certain words in French.
It’s both entertaining, and, is helping her to feel like she’s moving closer to the goal. That was the ‘value’.
She’s paying for the ‘free’ content with time and attention… That’s the trade. And, this is helpful when you think about your content, because you can learn to see it like a paid offer. It has to provide a benefit for the reader.
If the content is obviously moving the reader closer to the sale, it’s usually a benefit for you.
If the content is obviously moving the reader forward in their story, then it’s a benefit to them.
OK, let’s look at the Sezane offers.
We’ll break them down to both ‘paid’ and ‘free’.
‘Free’ Offers:
App that you can get to check out latest styles. This seems self serving, but remember in fashion, it’s also helping the audience create vision
Educational and inspirational content on social media
French lessons
Clothing / outfit ideas
Inspiration through showing customers dressed in Sezane.
One of my favourites - a Sezane playlist, which is used at the official Sezane l’appartement store in Paris
Other notable content:
Multiple dance collaborations: Sezane x LA Dance Project
Dance videos on the website
About the staff videos that are interesting
General content (social media) is largely grouped into three categories:
Examples of customers who are moving forward in their own story of ‘renaissance’
Education, ideas or tips to move forward in the story yourself
Product offers (how to actually buy the clothes to move forward in the story)...
This takes us to the paid offers…
‘Paid’ Offers:
Clothing
Cookware from collaboration with chef
Men’s clothing
Bags
Shoes
Jewelry
Swimwear
Maternity
Glasses
The clothing we expect from a clothing brand. But all the offshoot offers? Simply other ways to ‘surround’ yourself with your own French Renaissance.
Finally let’s look at the influencer collaborations:
Collaboration with Jamie Beck, author, photographer
Collaboration with Elénore Toulin, who does cooking content (French Chef)
Collaboration with Suzanne Meyer dancer.
Collaboration with G. Kero, a particularly colourful artist.
In each case, influencer collaborations are not set up just use other people’s audience to make more sales or awareness (usually the influencer is much smaller in audience size)
They are set up because they benefit the customer first and foremost, by uncovering more of the main narrative (renaissance), in a different way - i.e. through music, or art.
Alright, so the offers in a business should not be ‘presented’ with their features, or as stand-alone offers to make money for the business.
This includes ‘free’ offers, like content.
But rather, as stepping stones for those who want to go deeper in the world, and progress further on the main narrative, or story.
A story-driven business supports this even for non-paying customers. Because they are driven by the story. Customers pay for the deeper level of guidance, support, or in this case, immersion with the clothing.
Sézane ain’t wildly popular not because their clothing is well designed (it is).
It’s not wildly popular because it’s driven by influencers.
They are wildly popular because they have created a story that resonates, with an immersive world.
Rather than trying to ‘sell’ the offers all the time, they have a limited amount of stock of the clothing, and a much bigger amount of content, world-building, and tools to help inspire customers to move forward in their own narrative, or story of ‘renaissance.’
They are not just a clothing company.
They are champions of a movement: create your own ‘renaissance’.
All that is to say, if you want to build a story-driven business, your three areas of focus are:
What is the world (setting, and overall theme).
What is the over-arching ‘narrative’ taking place in that world?
What are your offers. These are stepping stones to move forward in the main narrative of your business.
Want to add more offers? Run a live event?
Great, what do your clients need to move forward in their journey, or story?
Want to inspire your clients to go down more quests, spend more time in your business?
Great, add more depth and detail to your world so they can explore.
‘Eazy-Email’ Three story-driven ideas for email marketing and articles
Claims-based marketing is out.
Story-driven marketing is in. Act accordingly.
When I was an up-n-comer-gym owner, the rage was to run Facebook ad campaigns for 6 week challenges in the gyms.
Challenge was $300 or so, and then try to ‘sell’ em on the back end for the membership.
We ran one. It was moderately successful on the front end. But only a couple stuck around. The problem (even then) was we did things differently to other gyms (slower, stricter et cetera), and the people who came in just wanted the challenge deal. It’s the whole ‘not part of the world for long enough’ deal.
Anyway, I don’t know for sure anymore, but from what I can tell, a lot of those tactics ain’t working like they used to.
People want to go deeper now, they need to trust you more, and they are hesitant to act unless there’s a catalyst.
Enter the world of longer form content: emails and articles
Longer platforms where you can hash out your compelling business story, talk about the change that’s happening in the culture, that’s important, and show people how to progress.
But how do we come up with ideas?
“We don’t know where we get our ideas from. We do know that we do not get them from our laptops.”
-John Cleese
I have to say, I get a few ideas from the laptop (watching old interviews, et cetera).
But largely agree with Cleese.
The most compelling stories seem to come from the real world, our business, and the people we serve.
When you do this well…
Every time we read your article, or email, we’re getting more clarity on your business story.
So here are three types, that work great for a story-driven business.
Type One: Strategies, ideas, or tips to move forward in your new world
If you’ve followed my other work, or are using a story-driven approach to your own marketing, then you’ll be familiar with the idea that in your business, what you’re really doing is creating a new ‘world’, or a new future for your clients.
And that this new world, is important because of a some kind of change in the culture.
Example:
Say you’re a lawyer, and there’s a shift in the business climate, people need more support, and the old way of dealing with cut-throat lawyers on a per-minute basis is dead.
The new, high-trust way is having a lawyer support your with a fixed job fee.
Or…
You’re a premium, online personal trainer, and people are spending more time at home, are more stressed, and are less active than they used to be. The old model of exercise prescription doesn’t suit where we are now.
This calls for a new type of strength training that’s more holistic…
Or…
You’re an accountant. There’s been a change in the culture because Xero and other software takes care of a lot of the admin work…
So the new world is where you service clients more like an advisor, or even business mentor, helping set KPI’s or strategy.
In each case, there’s a change we’re pointing out. This creates an old way of doing things, and a new way, or new ‘world.’
This ain’t the only way to do it. But it helps to position you as a leader, rather than a salesperson.
And because you’re now an evangelist of the new path, there’s an opportunity to deliver ‘value’ - i.e. how to take another step forward in your new world.
So anyway, this is one way to find stories for emails and articles. Look for tips, breakdowns, case-studies that could help people to move forward in your new way of thinking, so they can thrive in the new environment.
Note: This is very different to a ‘general’ tip that you see a lot of. Because it’s in the new way of thinking. Therefore, helps to tell the story of your business more clearly.
[Yep, this article is an example of exactly that.]
Type Two: Stories of client wins [or other people who are aligned with the new world]
When you’re leading a new charge, you want to celebrate that whole new direction and way of thinking, not just your service or offer.
This is where a lot of service businesses fall short. They celebrate specific ‘successes’ or testimonials of their clients, but it’s often self serving and obvious.
“Here’s my client Brad, look at his results. I was responsible for that. Buy from me…”
Hmm.
Instead, what happens if you broadly discuss, and celebrate wins of people who are making progress in the new world that you’ve mapped out.
Let’s go back to the examples:
The small business lawyer celebrates the small business that’s thriving in the new economy.
The premium trainer celebrates other practitioners or athletes training in the new way.
The accountant celebrates businesses that are succeeding with KPIs and business goals.
Clients who are winning.
Peers who are winning.
And other industry leaders who have a similar vision, and are part of your new way of doing things.
All can be gold stories for your emails and articles.
[even in some parts of the health niche, where there are rules around testimonials. This is fine, because you are telling a broader story, not drawing a direct conclusion from your service]
When you think about success stories, think about ‘success’ in the new world, or new way of doing things.
This will open up a lot more opportunities for these stories.
Example:
In a recent article, I wrote about some of the best story-driven marketing I’ve ever seen. This (so far) has been one of the most highly viewed articles on the site.
The click through rate was astronomical.
But if you look at it, I just elevated a business that has great story-driven marketing, RA MA institute.
I didn’t work with them.
I just celebrated them, because they ‘got it’.
Our podcasts? Often the same thing. They’re filled with examples of businesses that we elevate.
Sure, we do elevate and celebrate clients as well. Success stories. But you can go bigger, for your emails, and it helps you to build your narrative of what you’re about. It shows that you aren’t just in this for ‘you’, but you’re also passionate about the cause or change that you want to make.
[I’ve seen some clients thrive almost exclusively on client win emails, and new world strategies/tips emails. i.e. Type 1 and Type 2.]
Type Three: Stories that reiterate why the new world is important
Yesterday I hosted a workshop for a podiatrist company that has a couple of business locations. They have a new world, or new game that they’re playing which is very different from the old school podiatrists. They use more strength training, and their focus is building capacity up in the body, rather than relying on orthotics and support for life et cetera.
Anyway, it’s not enough for them to just pop up once and say “You know, things have changed. Now we do it this way.” Or throw it on the sales page. They have to consistently point to the old way, and how it isn’t equipped to help us anymore.
Same for all of us.
Why I yap on so much about world building and story-driven businesses, and why we are seeing them thrive in the new trust-economy. Not enough to just drop it once, you gotta repeat it. (“It’s provocative… It keeps the people goin.”)
You need to keep reminding us of the macro shift, or importance of your new world, in the content. That’s where the story is told. That’s where the sale is largely made.
So stories around this shift can be great for content like emails and articles.
Another example:
Everyone knows Brené Brown for her work about vulnerability. Well what she did was she researched ‘shame’ for years. She kept uncovering more information about why ‘shame’ has become an important topic when it comes to vulnerability in today’s culture. That things have changed, and we need to learn to bring out shame et cetera. Kept talking about it.
Point is, she re-iterates this shift around needing to talk about shame in the new culture.
And this is something we can resonate with, and drives up the necessity of listening to her.
You see this in political content all the time. They do it almost daily. “So and so did this or that”. And then they say “See! They are so bad”. This helps to raise the stakes, and reiterate what the vision of the future could be like with that person leading.
Some health coaches do this well too.
They constantly point to the declining food quality, or the drop in testosterone for men in general, whatever. And by bringing this up over and over, it doesn’t focus on the individual’s problem, but speaks to the changing context, and why working on health in their way is more important now than before.
Whether you’re in design, professional services, coaching… remind us why your work is important ‘now’, by telling stories about the relevant change in the culture.
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This may be the best story-driven marketing I've ever seen
It’s RA MA Institute.
Here’s the breakdown…
A few months back I visited a friend who runs a gym.
He was talking about getting some clarity on the business ‘story’, to try and bring the staff together, and be more connected around a vision.
Very important, and of course at the heart of content marketing, decisions, et cetera.
Anyway, he’d see my other work. Where, I’ve talked about how we help businesses with story-driven marketing, and how this can also bring the team together powerfully. He asked if we could run a small story strategy workshop up at their centre.
A couple weeks later we met at his lair, and started off the team session.
After lunch, once we’d loaded up on a home-made slow cooked beef, we got into the real ‘juice’ of their story strategy.
To guide us through the five stages, I gave them the following example.
Some of the greatest story-driven marketing I’ve ever seen…
The Story-Driven Marketing Structure
The business I shared with Matt and his team was the global studio that is RA MA Institute. RA MA is a Kundalini Yoga Institute founded by the late, great Guru Jagat, that provides “Yogic and Meditative Experiences for True Freedom and Fulfilment.”
They offer in person experiences, online yoga classes, retreats and more.
So they’re a yoga studio and community, but certainly unlike any other…
[A personal note. I first came upon RA MA through watching the changes that I noticed with my wife, Ruby, when she found Guru Jagat’s work in 2018. Over the years, Ruby went deeper into the RA MA world, through Kundalini teacher training, the business training, et cetera.
Ruby made a lot of life-long friends from RA MA.
Three things:
I’ve never worked professionally with RA MA, or anyone affiliated with them
I have only respect and appreciation for Guru Jagat, and the path she and the team carved with RA MA. This article is about ‘marketing’. To me, marketing is the story. It’s the overall change that we’re making. It’s truth. So I ain’t trying to pigeon hole Guru Jagat’s work into marketing speak, I’m just observing from my lair, through a story-driven marketing framework.
Since Guru Jagat’s passing, RA MA Institute may have changed. I’m not sure, as I haven’t watched as close personally. This article is based on RA MA as I saw it, prior to Guru Jagat’s passing.
It’s also clear that Guru Jagat was a great marketer. She knew what it meant to create a narrative:
"You do have to create the narrative and you shouldn't be afraid"
-Guru Jagat
Anyway, all images, quotes and ideas are directly from the RA MA website at various times, from Guru Jagat’s book Invincible Living, or from Yogi Bhajan’s work, who originally popularised Kundalini Yoga.]
Anyway, Matt and the team shrugged when I mentioned RA MA…
But as we dove into the story strategy… it was a different vibe altogether.
We could see how clearly the story structure allowed Guru Jagat to champion a new ‘movement’ that RA MA followers and members could get behind, that spearheaded a new direction in the culture.
STEP ONE - Point out a change in the culture that impacts your people
Most service providers lead by talking about their service, or at best, with a ‘problem’:
“We have a great community.”
“You can’t find a good gym”.
“You’re struggling to lose weight”.
“You’re tired of accountants that take too long.”
And typically, the more urgent, and painful the problem, the better.
There can be two issues with this. First, we can put up with a problem for a long time. Even for life. Second, when you tell someone they have a problem, it can put them on the defense.
They can ‘armour’ up, and then are not receptive to the message.
But when you point out a cultural change that is important to us, and happening now, then we will often pay attention, and become more receptive.
This is the catalyst for the hero (your customer) to set off on their quest.
Here’s an opening ‘slide’ of the old RA MA site:
More:
It ain’t just a once-off on the site. Guru Jagat relentlessly, repeatedly reiterates this message.
"We're in a new trajectory on the planet. This is a new time with new challenges, requirements, and rules of engagement than even five years ago.
And she ain’t alone. There’s ‘lineage’ to this (more on lineage value in marketing another time).
Her teachers, predecessors and elders, all the way to Yogi Bhajan, who first brought Kundalini to the West in the 1960’s also pointed to this change:
"We will find people getting empty, more perturbed, not able to bear enough, not having much tolerance, and very argumentative. It is not the fault of people. It is the result of the power with which the psyche flows on the planet... What is coming is very proper, qualified, calculated, and demonstrative insanity. Whenever a nation goes through a demonstrative insanity, it changes the order…”
-Yogi Bhajan
This ‘change’ coincides with the shift into the Aquarian Age. Which a lot of yogic schools talk about.
But Guru Jagat repeatedly points to this shift. Constantly reminding us of the urgency, and attacking it from different angles and schools of thought.
Example:
In other places, she used the terms “Digital Age” and “Technology Age”, pointing to the shift to the digital reality / reality hybrid life-style we now have.
From what I can tell, Guru Jagat also coined and embodied the “creation culture”, which coincided with this change that we’re going through as a culture.
Note: While there is already a sense of the ‘problem’ that could be tied up with this change, it’s the change that is in the spotlight. This is a macro change. It’s not the individual. This was also pointed out by Yogi Bhajan:
“It is not the fault of people”... “It is the result of the power with which the psyche flows on the planet”.
Very specific, urgent, and major.
Again, while uncomfortable, a static problem can be ignored. A changing problem, or accelerating situation with high stakes, cannot be ignored.
Watch animals, they pay attention to change. Not static problems. Watch your own behaviour around your phone, your inbox, your bank account. We pay attention to change over static problems.
Step one in this story-driven framework, is, point out a change or catalyst that is relevant to your customers.
This satisfies one of the key questions in marketing: “Why now?”
STEP TWO - Raise the Stakes (create tension through vision)
Marketers will tell you that there are two drivers for change. We move ‘away’ from pain, or potential loss (go to the doctor). Or that we move towards pleasure, or gain (train to get stronger).
You must show both, by creating both positive, and negative ‘vision’.
Show how recognising the change will lead to a positive future for the customer.
Show how ignoring the change will lead to a negative future that they can’t ignore.
RA MA and Guru Jagat did this eloquently:
“For the past 15 years I’ve watched the pressure of the Technology Age consume more and more of our fading attention span and vitality”
“The required upgrade is creating a very palpable pressure. With the demands of technology and the massive shifts in economic, geopolitical, and societal values, our human operating system is also upgrading. We have the choice to either consciously participate in this shift or be in conflict with it.”
She shows the positive vision both personally through her own example (demonstration marketing: starting fashion brands, producing music, creating the institute).
She also points to other Creators:
“After… becoming introduced to the technology of Kundalini Yoga, every part of me has become more awakened. I’m clearer, stronger, more conscious, more creative than ever. I’m in a place I always wanted to get to but couldn’t quite figure the way before”
-Alicia Keys, Recording Artist
Contrast creates tension.
We’re presented with a choice between two visions. The vision of chaos of the mind. And the vision of having the strength to deal with the Digital Age, and the Aquarian age. And therefore having very positive personal power, relationships, health and business.
To bring this home, Guru Jagat regularly repeats the stakes:
“Either the technology is using you, or you're using the technology”
I believe the ‘technology’ she refers to is two fold. The technology that we have, AND the Kundalini ‘Technology’ - mantras, kriyas, et cetera.
STEP THREE - Show What’s Possible for The Customer
Notice at this point, there is still no mention of the service! There’s no mention of the membership.
But here, Guru Jagat helps you see what was possible:
“In this pressurisation, something incredible has emerged, mainly a viral need for wellness on a deeper and deeper level; a quick and efficient way to release the pressure. To see that possibly there is a way to live that is more vital, more inspired, less based in fear and anxiety. There is a different way.”
“You can do it right now, in very little time, be connected to a deeper pulse of your life force, which manifests as instantaneous clarity, effectiveness, creativity, bravery and the like”
In some yoga circles, the benefits remain a bit theoretical and mystical. People show yoga poses on the beach. Or they speak with a spiritual tone, or have the green juice.
But Guru Jagat followed Yogi Bhajan’s lead of integrating yoga into business, community, fashion, technology and daily house-hold life. For the audience, this is a tangible way to show the possibility.
Don’t tell the customer what is possible for them. Show them.
Show them what life is like because of having your service, not having your service itself.
Powerful businesses, and leaders of powerful ‘movements’ are able to show the new reality that is available in this new time, based on playing a new game.
Or, more bluntly nobody cares about what we do. They care about what it does for them, and how it improves quality of life, status, opportunity, fulfilment.
Guru Jagat demonstrated this well, because she has the empathy and skill to show the intersection of the technology, with modern life aspirations (not separate to).
STEP FOUR - Teach people how to get the result through your features, education, and ‘world’.
By this point, we can see Guru Jagat as a voice, or a possible ‘guide’ to navigate this urgent change that’s happening.
What she then does, is, she shows how the features, or offers that she has can help you.
Without trying to ‘differentiate’ from other yoga schools, or services, or even talk about ‘em, you can see her selection of tools is wildly different. This is because she is presenting a new game, for the new age. It’s not the same game as before, because the times have changed (step 1).
Here is an incomplete selection of offers. Note that many are free, and simply take you deeper into her world:
Base Level and Free ‘Features / Offers’ within the community
**' ‘Invincible Living’ by Guru Jagat - Book
** Any number of Yogi Bajhan books on the Kundalini Technology
** Reality Riffing Podcast (free) for relevant conversations
** RA MA TV community channel (YouTube, free) for classes
** Fashion labels and clothing collections
** White Sun music (Mantra, sound technology to upgrade consciousness, health, energy)
And more…
RA MA Institute Offers:
** 3 Studios for in-person memberships - Los Angeles, New York and Mallorca
** In-person Workshops (available online too)
** In-person Kundalini Trainings (available online too)
** RA MA Yatras, camps
** Immense Grace and Aquarian Women’s Leadership Society Annual Programs
All very helpful.
Now, this is a LOT of resources or features…
Which, gives us three signals:
It reiterates the urgency and significance of the change (the characters are committed)
It shows there is depth to the world / technology (lineage, long term prolificness)
It is overwhelming if we were to try and implement it alone.
This last point is a positive, not a negative (just have one offer? List out multiple features and benefits).When we see the scope of the task, we understand the value of the guide…
And, we are in a perfect position to seek out the core offer:
Monthly RA MA TV membership (Recorded and Live options)
A membership, with all the classes, guidance and community, for $19 per month.
Step four is important (and one of my favourite.)
On a website, this will be your features.
But in a broader picture, it will include some of your content. We’re in a time where some people are saying ‘less is more’ with content. Or ‘don’t share too much, because there’s already so much noise out there.’
But make no mistake. While each business varies, step four favours the prolific, the energised, and the enthusiastic business owner. Guru Jagat was all of the above, and more.
More:
Many people think of content as “what should I put out?” from a perspective of the ego. And there can be a lot of subconscious stuff going on.
If we can see it through this story-driven lens, the question shifts to “what can I share today that may help, inspire, or energise people who are on board with this change and new game?”
Your content is helping to build your narrative, strengthening the relationship with the characters, and helping those who are on board. It feels less graspy, because it’s story-driven, not ego driven.
STEP FIVE - Show Proof of The Story Coming True
At this point, Guru Jagat and RA MA have presented evidence of a major, urgent shift (step 1). They’ve pointed out the stakes (step 2) - if you ignore the change, you get insanity. If you embrace it, you get personal power, energy and fulfilment. They’ve called you into action personally (step 3), and provided all of the resources to get there, even if you choose to go on your own, creating zero neediness (step 4). Now, like at the end of any story, we want to see proof.
In sales, this is called creating ‘certainty.’
Proof that it works, and proof that it addresses the original urgent change.
In your service, this is success stories, case studies testimonial videos, and of course, as mentioned, personal (or team) demonstration.
And this shows us another key, broader content pillar: show (don’t tell) examples of how people are adopting the change, and winning in your new world. Even if they aren’t your clients, by highlighting their wins, you are still marketing and selling the overall story.
What if you don’t have a lot of testimonials?
Two options - one is you do some work for free and get ‘em.
The other option is you double down on demonstration value. Create videos, audios or written assets to show the work that you can do.
A story strategy works best when people are talking about it
Yesterday I was talking to a client who just ran a three day launch for his business. Huge success.
Half way through though, he got some haters.
Another guy from a similar business was razzing him about it. “It wasn’t fair.” “He was ‘stealing’ clients” et cetera.
Of course none if this was true. But this is what happens when your story is clear and strong. You will have something for people to say yes to, and talk about with a positive energy…
And something for people to rally against.
And Guru Jagat had plenty of people rallying against her. I’m neither well versed in this enough to write about it, nor is it important to go deep here. But Yogi Bhajan and Guru Jagat both had trolls, haters, non-believers and more. Not only that, they wrote publicly about them, and the stories spread far.
This can be stressful. It also creates more engagement and awareness.
Lukewarm stories do not spread.
A story strategy works best when all the characters are on board
When we finished up the workshop, the best part wasn’t that there was a clear narrative for Matt at the CEO / Founder level.
It’s that the team was bought in.
Through clarifying their own unique story for the gym, they could see why they were drawn to Matt in the first place, because although it was hidden, it was at the heart of the business all along.
And now they could see how they each contributed to the story as individuals.
RA MA was the same. Clear characters were elevated, and their magic, strengths, and quirks were brought out. So while they were different, they all relayed the same story.
One of the biggest obstacles for small businesses is when the team (characters) have a disconnect with the overall story strategy.
At best it creates doubt, and resistance around talking about the story, or posting content. At worst, it creates ‘Lone Wolf’ mentalities, and an energetic hole in the business, leaking growth and profit.
At RA MA, not only was Guru Jagat constantly talking about this ‘shift’ to the technological age, but so was her husband, her peers and colleagues, her mentors. And it all resonated with exactly the same story.
“The most engagement ever”
A couple of weeks after we ran the workshop, I checked back in with Matt.
He’d done a few Instagram posts and videos in line with the clearer narrative, and updated the website to visually tell the story.
Those videos had the most engagement they’d ever had.
His one-to-one spots in the next few weeks sold out.
Their next monthly workshop sold out.
Their team began posting more on social media, and generating their own engagement, which all acts like a web, and tells the bigger picture story.
Of course these results come from a number of factors, and results always vary. But with a clear story-driven strategy for marketing and decision making, life gets a lot easier.
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Building a Compelling 'Character' and Personal Brand
“Let me make it simple. When the character becomes stronger than the audience, you lose your audience. The character has to have as many problems as the people in the audience, then they can relate. Like here’s a guy. He’s tough, he’s world champion. But he’s scared. He’s still nervous. And I don’t care who you are, when you sit in front of a crowd, you get nervous. It’s that connection.”
“It’s very important to use the ten or fifteen identifiable things that we have in common: pride, ego, jealousy, false pride, fear, insecurity… That kind of thing is what makes the character absolutely relate to the audience. When I don’t do that, it’s a disaster. And I have done that before.”
This was from an interview with Sylvester Stallone, as part of the Zurich Film Festival, back in the early 2000’s. You know not many people realise, Stallone is one of just a few people who have directed, acted, and written a lot of major films.
Anyway, when you look at what he said, well, there’s some incredible insight for marketing, sales and business in general.
And in particular, for this topic of creating a ‘relatable’ and compelling character or personal brand. Because a lot of businesses ‘lose’ their audience because of how they show up in marketing.
So this is something that can drive engagement and sales almost above all else.
Your Character Driven Business
Years back, I watched a screenwriting docco, it was talking about the two different types of story. Plot driven, vs character driven story. Basically, a plot driven story is where something is happening, and characters come in to attend to it.
The other week there was a car accident not far from my house. I could hear the crash from the desk. I went out there. And nobody was injured. One old guy hobbled out from his house and seemed a little bit out of it, lurching around. But none of the characters that were involved had any further motive. There was nothing to be done. Eventually the cops came, they towed the car away, et cetera. But the police came as part of their job. It was a plot driven story.
I tried for the life of me to turn it into a compelling email. But I couldn’t. There were no compelling characters.
And so it is with the most engaging stories. A key character drives the plot forward, inside the world where the whole story exists. We identify with the character, because they are not only relatable, but they’re also compelling. We’re intrigued, and we want to follow along with what happens not just in the story at large, but to them specifically.
In the world of business, we used to have a lot more plot driven businesses. Concrete companies, big airlines, big chains of restaurants. Largely ‘faceless’, and really just there to fill a market need and generate profit.
Richard Branson, was probably one of the more well known guys to shake this up. He built ‘big biz, but put his character into the centre.
In small business, especially with the internet, we all have a character driven businesses.
People identify with the characters (often ‘first’), resonate, build trust, then are open to buying what they have, when the need arrives. If you have a service business, the only way you can continue to engage customers for a long time, is through the customers feeling as though they have a relationship with you.
Just yesterday actually I went to buy a new dive knife. I drove twenty minutes out of my way to a local store. Paid 50% more than what I could pay online, waited in line, then drove home. I could have bought the thing and had it delivered. But the point was I have a relationship with the store owner.
I want him to win, so I support him. The stronger he can help that relationship to become, the better for him.
Most successful service driven businesses in the modern economy are character driven businesses.
Yes the service solves a particular problem, but we also know enough about the character to have a relationship with them, respect them, and want to associate with them as a person.
Some people call this personal brand…
To me, the difference - and why we call this ‘character building’ - is we’re always looking at how the character is driving the story forward. How are you driving your biz-ness story forward? So it’s the story that the character is both telling, and creating as they move forward in business, rather than just the reputation, or ‘brand’ of the service provider.
A lot of people think about ‘personal brand’ as how they dress in a facebook video, what colours they wear or put on their instagram feeds, and what glasses they have on. But that doesn’t tell us about their profitable promise - or what their mission is in the world. And this is how the character, or brand, is truly defined.
Sure your ‘looks’ impact your character. But most importantly, your character is defined by how they do what they do.
Anyway, let’s look deeper at what makes a character compelling
OK I’ll be up front here. In Creator Club, we have something called the ‘character compass’. This is a four point character profile system, that I’m not going to go into right now. One, because it takes a lot more depth - and usually one-to-one coaching (and another set of eyes) to really get it right. And two, because this article would blow out, and I sense the word count is going to be high enough as it is.
BUT we will cover a couple of the main points, or kind of ‘dance around’ this…
1 - The Character Must Show that They Are ‘Effective’
The other day I interviewed Janet Forbes - one of the co-founders of World Anvil, a worldbuilding platform with a hefty 2.5 Million users.
“Compelling characters are competent. They should have agency within the setting. They should be able to do something. They shouldn't just stand there dithering and sweating, right? We want to see characters doing things and being good at them. Not everything, not all the time. We want to see them do one thing that's really good.”
If you’ve been following my stuff for a while, you’ll have seen me talk about the key ‘intersection’ for character building.
That at any content, we want to a) demonstrate mastery, and b) show our character.
And this mastery part is something Janet is speaking to here. If you can do something very well as a service provider, that tends to be powerful…
I have a bad ‘spending’ habit in winter.
I’ve learned that winter is basically my achilles heel. In that, if I’m not careful, I’ll stop training, and just sit around and work, and that’s no good, so I spend money on new training programs. Because when I pay, I pay attention.
Anyway, I bought a sprint program from a guy that I’ve followed for a long time. And the number one reason I buy from this guy, is he is at mastery level, and he demonstrates it, daily.
I mean really. He’s 38 years old, 95kg, 179cm and as strong and as fast as I’ve ever seen for an ‘everyday’ guy. 150kg snatch. 300kg deadlift. Slam dunks a basketball hoop. It’s nuts. So anyway, I buy from him because he’s very good.
In my world, we teach service businesses how to grow a business they’re proud of. So, I demonstrate how I’ve done that. Three times. In my writing, I’m actually demonstrating it. By producing books, articles, emails… and having fun with it at the same time, it’s demonstration of the system that I recommend: Clarify your character, create your profitable promise, and build out your world with content.
Anyway, all that is demonstration.
So the first and most important question, is how can you demonstrate competency in your area of specialty. (If you haven’t narrowed that down, then it’s hard to demonstrate).
2 - The Character Shows that They Are ‘Active’
In a character driven story, the character needs to be driving the story. Sounds simple, but so easy to miss. Change attracts attention, so we’re looking for characters that are changing, or creating change. If you’re strength coach, how are you getting stronger as well? Or what seminars are you running? Or what book are you writing? How are you moving the story forward? What decisions are you making?
We work with a small business lawyer. That’s a field where you might think it’s pretty boring, right? Terms and conditions? Yeah. Not too exciting. So, how does she show ‘active?’ Organising events. Networking. Showing things that are happening. She’s running an event this week.
Janet also shared her thoughts on this:
“They make decisions. Even if it's a bad decision, they still make a decision and do something because watching a character that is indecisive is like watching paint dry.”
Yep.
And this is a key one for coaches, consultants… If you’re like me, you’re mostly working with clients. A lot of my work is at a table, or behind a screen. Or in a client’s place of business. It’s not particularly ‘active.’ So I ‘create’ active around this. I’m writing book two. I run live events. I go see clients, film parts of it and turn it into content.
I’m putting effort in to ‘show’ the active.
This ain’t that hard. Because if you’ve got a business and you’re trying to grow it, then you want to be ‘doing’ things anyway. We call this ‘time lining’. What is on your timeline? What are you doing in the future that you can showcase? A workshop? An offer launch? We typically do this with a client in a 90 day plan.
But the basic takeaway is if you want a more compelling and ‘exciting’ character, set up some events on your timeline that you are driving, and then show how they unfold! Remember, it doesn’t matter if it’s a perfect decision or a perfect event. It can be total chaos. It can be a ‘bad’ decision. That’s no problem. Whatever. It still is more compelling than doing nothing.
3 - The Character Must Be ‘Relatable’
“A ‘world’ really, is its people. Like when we are reading a a story, what we're connecting with is the people. When we are playing a game, what we're connecting with is the people. They're the conduit for all the emotions. And the emotions is really what we're talking about here. It's not just creating compelling characters, but creating characters we can connect to.”
One of the big problems with social media, is it’s taught us to bring out this shiny, polished exterior.
And this goes back to what Stallone talked about at the start… The polished character is too ‘strong.’
When he says strong, it ain’t just ‘strong’, but he also means the character is too ‘perfect.’ No flaws. So what do we do here? We want to show that we’re effective. But it also ain’t about being perfect… Some people go into the whole ‘faux vulnerability’ road.
The latest one I’ve seen is these videos of guys that they put on social media, where they’ve broken up with their girlfriend, and they’re having a proper cry. And they put some music behind it. And it goes viral. Look, I’m not saying you can’t cry as a guy or anything… But why stop, turn on your phone, film that, and then post it? The only reason you’d do that is if you’re trying to get social media traction from it. Overblown vulnerability. I don’t think that’s ‘it.’
Instead, what about if you just looked at yourself practically, and saw some of the weaknesses that you have, or nuances, and brought them out?
I’m obscenely impatient. I’m next to useless in a large crowd, and I’m about a year behind any current ‘trends.’ Thankfully I’ve learned to channel my addictive personality to coffee and writing (before it caused any serious harm), but I have that to deal with as well. I’ve got all kinds of problems, and dysfunctions, and while I don’t put them front and centre, I make a point to bring them out where I can.
The point is, the world doesn’t need another hero. The world wants someone they can relate to.
No matter what your opinion is on these people, Elon, Oprah, Robert Kennedy Jr., Connor McGregor… They’re all at the ‘top’ of their game, but they bring out their flaws. And it means people can connect with them. They don’t try to be virtuous. They just show up as themselves.
Anyway, this could be one of the most powerful ones. It’s kind of the same as cutting out the whole ‘coach speak’ thing. Or just writing your copy like yourself.
“But the most critical thing is you need to make yourself connectable, is you need to relatable. People have to understand you are a human and, and you are a human like them in some way. You must be relatable. And I think the danger of of a lot of us is we create these, like Teflon exteriors. We try to be perfect. We try to create the non-stick version of ourselves. But it's okay to say, “oh, you know, just give me a second to get my coffee. You don't wanna speak to me before I've had my coffee.””
Spot on Janet.
4 - The Character Must Show They Are ‘Growing’
When we think about the three parts of a story, we’ve got 1) a character, 2) who goes on a journey and faces obstacles, and 3) who then undergoes a transformation. What’s the transformation? That’s growth. That’s the change.
So as a service provider, or a human, the question is how can you show growth?
How can you show progression, or change? What does this look like for you?
“Characters that are good characters react to what's going on around them, and they grow. They are interactive with the world. And I think the, the big parallel here is that you are interactive with your people and you show progress in who you are. So, you know, if somebody knows you for a long time, they should get to know you better and they should see you, you blossom as a person.”
So you want to show some sort of growth. It’s so easy to get locked into doing things the way we’ve always done them. But you know what? That can be dead wood? Almost as soon as you’ve started to do something, you’ve got to think of how you can change it, you know?
And, this growth thing is as much the internal transformation of the character as it is the external changes in behaviour. Because it’s all related right? So to have a service provider come out and say “I’ve changed, I’ve adjusted my ways. I used to think that, now I think this…” That’s powerful. It inspires us as an audience. And it gives us the idea that we can change as well.
When I was younger, there was a show on TV called the Biggest Loser. They’ve stopped running it. For a few reasons. One is I don’t think it would be socially acceptable anymore. But also I think because there were a bunch of health issues with it. Like the trainers were pushing these people so hard to lose weight.
That I think one of them got sick, or something happened. It was too stressful.
Anyway, people love those kinds of shows, because they’re filled with obstacles, and trials and tribulations, which is how we grow. So we see them change physically, but also we see the mental shift as well.
And we identify with that. We all want some kind of change. Showing your growth is important.
Conclusion
OK, that’s enough for this article. As I said earlier, the word count can really get up with this stuff. But there’s enough here for you to implement in your work, and start to build a more relatable character, much faster.
And while you may or may not be a fan of Sly Stallone and his movies, the guy speaks the truth on character.
Bring this into your content and delivery, and you’ll really have a personality that’s cookin’.
People will be able to engage and buy like never before.
How to use short online articles to build authority and reach
In 2016, the internet was already rammed with articles. The ‘blog phase’ popped ten years prior, and everyone was deep into the ‘Optimise SEO’ stage. It was crowded. And still, it was an article that tipped me into buying my first business coaching program. With a tidy sum of $20k for a one year program at that.
The article was titled “Top Three Mistakes Gym Owners Make”. I already trusted the guy a bit. Then I read the article and booked a call pronto.
At that time, I’d personally been writing for a while, but that experience was a key turning point to start writing for my business.
I started with blog articles for our gym and since then it’s only accelerated. I’ve had written posts go viral on social media, sold hundreds of thousands of dollars with the written word, and have personally grown a lot from pounding the keyboard.
Anyway, now the game has changed, again.
Since the ‘great online shift’ in 2020, there’s AI copywriting bots, ChatGPT, and content seemingly everywhere.
If I open up social media, I’m blasted with the best prompts for AI, or how to get AI to write an entire book.
[Which is ironic, because I’m deep in the throes of writing ‘book two’ now, and the AI thing does sound tempting some days, even though it ain’t for me.]
And we’re largely dealing with this noise the only way we know how - avoiding the whole mess. Or, holding back because we’re told that in short order our ideas or work won’t be worth diddly because of AI.
Anyway, I love a ‘zag’, and this is exactly what I see available to service businesses right now.
While the ‘chaff’ will be neck deep with the AI noise, the high value ‘wheat’ is still rare.
Because when we look deeper, while advances in technology ‘should’ have made producing articles and online content easier, it ain’t always the case.
Personally, I don’t know anyone who has suddenly become a prolific (and effective) creator because of faster computers, AI, or anything else that’s come along.
That paradox isn’t new.
Isaac Asimov, for example, produced around 5000 print-ready words every day (much more, but they were edited down). And this was from attacking the typewriter.
More:
William Blake was a poet another hundred years plus prior. He rabidly produced content - hundreds of poems, books, art and more, through ‘relief etching’. I don’t know what that is, but it doesn’t sound fast.
And today people struggle to tap out a tweet or instagram post.
The point is, technology isn’t necessarily making people any faster or more prolific.
Because the bottleneck ain’t the typing, it’s the thinking.
Which, unless you’re completely tuned out, isn’t getting replaced any time soon. This means there’s a great opportunity, still, to ‘zag’ using online writing to stand out, build an audience, and create raving fans as a service provider.
Here are a four ways to use online articles to do exactly that.
(And one way not to use it)
Reason why not #1 ‘Do it for the SEO’
SEO is how your website ranks when we search your category. So if you’re a lawyer, and I search ‘lawyer in Sydney’, where do you come up? Truth is, if it ain’t in the top one or two, then one could argue that you’re nowhere.
My friend was telling me about the dating scene with Tinder. He said basically the top five or ten percent of the guys get almost all the girls. And the rest of the guys get nothing. I don’t know if that’s true. That sounds close to SEO to me..
So SEO ‘optimisation’ is choosing to fight tooth and nail to stay at the top.
Part of the theory is, you can produce wordy, ‘seo-friendly’ blog posts on your website, and this will help your case. So I *should* fill this post with the words ‘business coaching’ and ‘service business coaching’ as much as possible.
And all that organic content can help me move up when you search for “business coaching.”
I see that as a bonus. But not the ‘game’ itself.’
The game the Creators are playing in the modern economy, which is built on trust, is to become known specifically. So rather than search ‘business coaching’, I’m relying that you got here because you searched for my name, Creator Club, or, you are already on the email list or social media following.
So the blog thing may still help general SEO. I heard through the grapevine that it does. But to what extent, I’m not sure.
Either way, to me it’s better to use the articles in the three ways as follows.
Reason Why #1 - Populate your site to build a position of ‘helpfulness’
The law of reciprocity says that if you’re hungry, and I give you an apple, at some time in the future you’ll feel like returning the favour. Maybe if you’re generous you give me an orange because I like them more.
The problem is the way a lot of tactical marketers rely on ‘reciprocity’ is broken.
“If they download your lead magnet and you give extra value in a five-email nurture sequence, then they’ll buy”
Maybe. Not usually though.
We are looking much deeper now. And in some cases we even ‘sense and reject’ the attempts at so-called reciprocity.
But still, when I land on the MIT online learning website, and see hundreds of free courses that I can do, it creates a position in the mind. It’s memorable. I’ll go back.
When someone lands on your site and sees that you’ve done some work, and are not just trying to convert every poor soul who clicks on your URL into a sale, it creates a strong position.
I see this with my own articles all the time.
When my articles go out with an email, there are a few click-throughs. But over time, it builds. People notice the value even in the email, and they come back to the article later.
This is the goal, the ‘coming back’ part. We want to position your business in the minds of your customers, so you become the person they want to go back to, in order to go deeper and learn more.
And while we don’t track this, we find that there’s a certain ‘quality’ to the conversation we have with potential clients on the back of reading an article or from podcasts, rather than from social media.
What if people get to your site and just think you’re using AI to populate the blog?
There was an article the other day about how Christopher Nolan said he wouldn’t use CGI in one of his movies:
“I find CGI rarely is able to grab you. It tends to feel safe. Even if it’s impressive and beautify, it’s difficult to make you feel danger.”
And so it is with AI blogs. The discerning customers that you seek to serve are probably going to know the difference. And this gets into all of our character work, and personality marketing which we talk about everywhere.
Populating your site with helpful content shows that you can help, and often creates a ‘sticker’ website.
Not a shabby position at all.
Reason Why #2 - Blast to email, then take them deeper
The average email I send out is around 400 words. Sometimes longer, often shorter. The email is a one-to-one setting, the person opens it up while they’re on the couch, or at the desk. They read through it, get the insight and that’s it…
It’s a closed loop.
But when you write a longer article, focused on a specific idea, you link to it in an email, and give people a chance to go deeper.
Now they can click on the link, and dive into your world.
The trick is to make sure the front end email has enough juice in it. You want to ‘sell the consumption’ of the article, so there’s a clear reason why they would want to click through.
This gives you fodder for your email (summary, or intro to the article), but has a much longer lifecycle, because the article sits on your site for a while.
Reason Why #3 - Use as fodder to approach publications (the modern day CV).
Let’s say you’re a nutritionist, and you want to expand your audience.
One way would be to leverage ‘other people’s audience.’ One woman we work with is a movement coach online, she does this a lot through her podcast. It’s given her access to hundreds of thousands of listeners.
But you can use articles to do this too.
I’ve even had people message me even after doing an instagram post, asking if they can share the writing to their weekly email. Instantly putting more eyeballs on my stuff, which is a good thing.
Let’s say you want to go bigger. You could write to magazines, publishers, or websites to see if they’ll feature your work. But when you do that, they’re going to ask you for samples, or get you to point back to your site or other work that you’ve done.
This is where your articles come in…
If you have three, six, ten helpful articles on your site that you actually put some work into, it will help your case.
They can make a decision then and there if your style of work would suit their platform. And at the very least you’re going to make a real impression with them, rather than just reaching out for a favour out of the blue like most of the cold DM’s that try to flog you things.
If you’ve got that itch to write, and you’ve got a certain level of mastery in your niche, articles can be a great opportunity to connect with more people, and expand your online network.
Your articles don’t have to be long, and even still they can help you stand out dramatically.
Not only that but you can cross-publish to medium, LinkedIn, and any other platform to ‘fatten up’ your whole business world online.
Building your world out to a much deeper level than is possible just on the short form chatter.
Something to think about.
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How to Make Your Business ‘World’ More Addictive
A lot of restaurants serve multiple courses. But only some take you on a journey.
Back when we lived in Sydney, we were on a shoe-string budget. I had just opened a retail store, and I had spent everything I had. Still, for special occasions, there was a restaurant we would go to by the beach, called Pilu.
They had a set degustation menu, with six different courses.
You got to know your wait staff as they brought out each plate, and talked about the food. Which region the pork came from. Where the cheese was sourced. Why they chose a certain wine. Then there were the stories about how the restaurant started.
Anyway, we used to stuff ourselves until we could barley stand up, partly because we were so tight on cash and partly because it was so good. We would talk about the experience for days.
Sometimes, we’re in a rush. We want a $1 coffee from the gas station because it’s fast.
But most of the time, we want to be part of something meaningful, that we can talk about, and remember.
And, the difference between the two, is often the depth of the story and detail of the world around the product or service.
Most businesses lack ‘depth’ or detail in their worlds.
Their clients are only loosely engaged. They end up competing on price. Or, with a case of ‘comparative superiority’, where they declare why the customer should come to them, not somewhere else.
But that’s a frustrating cycle to be in. And in the modern economy, where customers are demanding deeper worlds, and more trust, it’s rarely successful.
When we work to create deeper stories, we end up with more addictive worlds that people can engage in.
This changes people’s relationship with the business. It creates more referrals, longer lifetime value of the client, and a more satisfying business for both the creator and the clients.
Last month I was checking out MIT’s online courses
These have been going for about twenty years. They’re free. You can study computer science, geometry, mathematics. Anything. I was going to take a geometry class.
I sat on the decision for about four days.
Not because of the investment (it was free), but because I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to be a part of.
I knew if I took the course, and didn’t feel that it resonated with me, I would bail on it.
In the end, I decided to can it.
MIT is one of the great learning institutes in the world. As an engineer, part of me nerds out on that stuff. But it ain’t that different from Pilu, where a ‘takeaway’ degustation just wouldn’t be the same. It’s not just the information, or the food that has value. But all of the detail of the world that we learn from the staff, and from being ‘in the building.’
In a business, it can take time to create this ‘addictive’ depth
Some never develop it. Maybe they don’t want to - they would rather just be a run-of-the mill biz. But usually it’s because they have no idea that they can, or they focus only on the transaction. They don’t realise there’s a strategy to create more detail and engagement. So they’re constantly fighting with promotions, retention tactics, or trying to stand out in the noise by being louder.
When we first opened our second business, which was a gym, we had no detail at all.
The world was far from addictive.
But over the years, we started to accumulate stories.
Our programming got better.
We got a dog.
We did different merchandise runs.
We ran a lot of events that built a history.
I started to write blogs and create content.
Slowly we created a more compelling and detailed world.
But what we learned, was that ‘time’ isn’t necessarily required for this. You can create an addictive business world that people love to come back to, through a strategic process.
Here Are Three Ways You Can Add More Depth to Your Business World to Create Addiction and Meaning For Your Clients:
Step One: ‘Backstory Everything’
When I was young we went to Disneyland. I remember going around on all the rides, but the thing that I remember most was the depth of the world. You could go on the Matterhorn ride, then when you went to get a drink or a hot dog, you could buy something to do with Matterhorn. Then you could learn all about the history of the ride, or the backstory.
There is a timeless lineage for everything in the park. From Mickey Mouse, to the physical park itself. Each feature has a story.
Disneyland is an addictive world for people for a lot of reasons, but one of them is the level of depth created through backstory.
The movie Dune based on Frank Herbert’s book is another example.
Alongside the film there’s a ‘behind the scenes’ book, all about the worldbuilding that they did. The book made a way for true fans to learn more about the backstory, or lineage, of each part of the movie. They talked about how the props were built, who designed the costumes, how they put it all together.
Another example I talk about is Quentin Tarantino, who wrote pages of dialogue and story of his characters, before he would write the whole script with them.
He was ‘manufacturing’ back story (even though it never was shown), because he knew that if it existed somewhere, it would give more depth to the characters.
One of the most helpful things we can do early on with established business owners is build out a more detailed and real backstory.
Not because a soppy story will help them ‘get clients,’ but because a richer, deeper world with lineage is more immersive.
In my own work, I talk about parts of my marriage, the lair that I write from, or whatever is going on in my own life because it creates depth and context.
What happens if you go through your business and uncover, or even ‘manufacture’ back story with everything that you do?
Where did your logo come from?
Where did the music come from?
Where did you learn the style of programming you do at your studio?
Whether it’s Westside Barbell, Disney, Oprah, Lord of the Rings, or Virgin, deep and addictive worlds have backstory built out for almost all parts of the business.
Step Two: Tie Things Together
In The Dark Knight there’s a scene where Batman shuts down the lights when he’s fighting Bane.
Bane says:
“Oh you think darkness is your ally. You merely adopted the dark, I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man, and by then it was nothing to me but blinding… Shadows betray you, because they belong to me.”
Bane’s strength in the dark is suddenly tied into his back story of growing up in the prison cave.
In our membership Creator Club, we use Circle as a community platform, not Facebook. I’ve been off of Facebook for a few years. I’m inept at that platform, and actively avoid it because of distraction that it creates. So this is the reason for Circle.
I write books, articles, emails, because personally, while I like instagram to connect with friends, et cetera, I don’t like to spend the time on those platforms. Nothing wrong with those that do, but that’s just me.
Plus, I’ve always enjoyed writing.
My desk right now is riddled with yellow paper.
That’s because my grandfather built a concrete company with a yellow legal pad as his organising tool. Now people have the most complex ‘task management’ tools, even though they don’t necessarily get much done.
Complex is trendy.
Well I kind of counter-trend that and go simple, so that’s the connection to the yellow paper.
Building in those connections with your world creates a lot of depth.
The less ‘random’ you can make it, the more connected and deeper it gets, and the deeper the relationship is that we can have with your business.
Look at the art on your walls. The type of diary you use, how you set up your service. It can all be used as fodder for content and stories.
Making a point of tying things together can be profitable.
Step Three: Create a Unique Language Set
In Tolkein’s work, there’s an entire language set that almost nobody can even understand. He was deep into linguistics, so spent a lot of his time creating new languages for the book.
Richard Garriott did something similar with his games. He created symbols and languages that you could understand in any country, so people could decipher secret scripts and codes in the games.
The addiction level (and money-making ability) of these games was immense.
In my own work, I purposefully make up words, misspell names, and create new concepts. Even the whole world building schtick for service business is really not something that anybody talks about.
But Creators have this whole language set around it: Allied Worlds, Character Building, Magic and Technology, Player Types, et cetera.
In 2020 I interviewed the marketing guru Seth Godin.
He has an ability to come up with new ideas, and tie them to a language set: Purple Cow, Linchpin, Tribes.
These are ideas and concepts that already exist. But he explained them in a way that was compelling, made sense, and was easy for people to take that language and run with it, spreading his ideas further.
In your own business, you also can come up with a new and unique language set.
Start off with just a word or two.
Something you’re already using, that you can amplify and bring out into your world.
Or a secret handshake (side note, one of the businesses we worked with did this very well, building out a whole secret handshake in their gym. We capitalised on it by filming it, then distributing that across content. Engagement skyrocketed in those months, for a few reasons).
Conclusion
The ‘depth’ of your business world ain’t something a lot of people talk about.
It ain’t ‘scalable’. You have to think.
But if you look at the most powerful business worlds over time both past and present, you’ll see they often have an extraordinary level of depth built in.
And you don’t need to wait for your business to be decades old either.
The founder of Aesop Dennis Paphitis built depth into the Aesop space from day one. Eventually creating a billion dollar company.
The more depth you create, the deeper your clients can go.
You can tie this into your content, your delivery and even your business strategy and offers. And the deeper you are, and the richer your world, the stronger the relationship can be with you and your business, and the stickier your service becomes.
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Worldbuilding vs. typical marketing tactics - Build a business they seek out
A few years back I was getting into a lot of triathlons. I had no idea, so I appointed myself as a ‘mentee’ under my new friend Pete.
I like to think it wasn’t all self-serving (Pete happened to be a local pro and future world champ). That I created some value for Pete and his friends... But either way, he taught me a lot.
One day we were out on a ride and he was giving me some advice.
Apparently, I was training too hard. Trying to fit in too many sessions each week. I said that I thought that was the point. I was trying to keep up with him.
“No, you want to train ‘easy’. Everyone is training too hard, and going too hard. They get injured, and never reach their potential. You want to go easy.”
I was half way through arguing this, and a few people passed us going up a hill.
I couldn’t help surging a bit to try and catch up with them.
“That’s exactly what I mean!” he laughed at me.
“The goal is to train easy, and get better over time. Your capacity goes up. Your technique gets better. So if you want to rest, you rest. Train the next day.”
In that one conversation, I had gone from someone who knew Pete, to someone who was in his world. I understood how it worked.
Pete created a ‘paradigm shift’ - “Everyone else is training hard, but it ain’t working. Over here we train easy.”
Pete’s world was different.
His mentors were different.
His food was different.
His schedule was different (with a lot of sleeping)
His whole world was different to any other triathlete.
It was exclusive to him, and the only way you could interact with him and go deeper was to enter his world. In the small biz world, Pete would have been what we call a ‘worldbuilder’.
When we think about marketing, it’s easy to start start with what we’ve got for our service, then ‘add’ marketing tactics.
Photoshoots
Better video
A better website with more SEO
In that traditional process, we also look at our 'positioning,’ or how we sit in the market relative to others.
“They do the service that way. We do the service this way.”
It’s a ‘relative’ way of looking at your business, which compares you to others in your field.
I’m a big coffee drinker.
And, I’m in the ‘selective’ coffee snob sub-category. So sometimes, if I’m out I’ll even grab one from the service station. One day I saw one of their signs: “All Arabica Beans”. This is because a lot of the cheap places use Robusta, which is even cheaper (albeit stronger).
They also have a big “$1 COFFEE” sign.
‘Relative’ positioning. The beans are a different type. Convenient, and cheaper. That’s the drawcard.
Then they clarify that positioning through the signage.
You might be familiar with the gym space, this same thing happens all the time:
When you go through a mall, you’ll see a 24/7 gym with some kind of sign: “$0 Joining fee, Flexible contract”. So this is more attractive than the gym down the road with the joining fee.
Then if you look at their socials, it reflects this. An effort to clarify that positioning, and make it clear they are the best choice on price. This can happen a lot when a market gets crowded.
But, this is the old way…
Enter the Worldbuilders…
Now we live in the modern economy, people are looking for more.
As buyers, we need to trust businesses at a much deeper level. The alternative to this - a completely different paradigm, is a story-driven approach, where you build a world. Much like my friend Pete did with his ‘world’ of triathlon (a game, that ended up with him winning the title), you create a way for people to enter your world, and go deeper, or ‘advance’ over time.
And get to where they want to go through your service…
Let’s go back to the coffee shops.
LORDS is a local coffee shop in Newcastle. They have great coffee, but nowhere does it say what kind of beans they have. Nowhere do they advertise their low prices (they aren’t low). Instead, they focus on the customer experience. Which, is totally unique. Their content becomes an extension of that experience, with wild, interesting videos that get a lot of attention.
LORDS has a slew of different characters that they bring out.
They have a clear backstory.
They have different products, or ‘magic’, that help you to move forward in the LORDS world and LORDS lifestyle.
[note: Andy Raskin calls new features your ‘magic’ in his narrative building work. This seems very close, but realise that this stuff stems from storytelling, gaming, and fantasy. We have used the term ‘magic’ slightly differently in worldbuilding, typically linked to a character in the service business. So I might have the ‘magic’ of writing. But I can teach you that ‘magic’ through a profitable promise - which is a writing workshop.]
Great coffee is a pre-requisite to thrive as a coffee shop.
But LORDS doesn’t focus on the transaction. They focus on the experience you get when you have the coffee.
In fact, three new coffee shops have opened up right next to them.
But it’s only strengthened their world. As people go to the new shops, they see LORDS, and a percentage of them are intrigued. Once they are hooked on the experience and the relationships they form, they never leave.
And so it is with worldbuilding.
Let’s look at a brief contrast of the typical way of looking at marketing, versus a worldbuilding approach:
Traditional marketing or ‘positioning’:
“We are here, competition is over there.”
“Our pricing is X, that’s great value.”
“We do it this way, they do it that way.”
Seek more attention through more noise, faster edits et cetera
“Come to us because it’s worth it, and here’s a discount”
Here’s a standard testimonial
This is transactional
Now for something entirely different…
Worldbuilding:
They are doing this thing, but we think the culture has changed…
You can tell, and we can tell (supporting facts if needed)
That’s why we are building this new way of doing things, in a totally new world
Hello, I’m John, I started this thing - This is who I am, this is my experience and personality. (A character in the world.)
This is my profitable promise - how we help you, it’s the ‘magic’ in our world.
Here are some details of our world. Some will surprise you. They exist because they’re cool, and part of our culture.
And this is what the future looks like that we want to build. It’s different.
We are selling the vision and the ability to play in this world, the lifestyle it creates, and the type of person you become, not just our offer that helps you solve a problem.
But if you’d like to join, here’s how you can buy
This offer can solve your problem and help you advance in the world.
When you get a win, we will help you celebrate. In fact, that’s a big chunk of our content.
Yes, the world solves a problem. You need your expertise...
But, we are building around the experience, not just the transaction.
And there’s a lot more attention to detail.
This is not unlike the online gaming culture.
In his book Explore/Create, Richard Garriott talks about how in his early online version of Ultima, he was surprised how many people became online friends, and even got married, after having a shared experience of the gameplay. In one situation, there was a group of twelve people that played together. Suddenly one of them didn’t log in for a few days. They didn’t know where this guy lived in real life. But they eventually found out that he died. They were distraught. This is the power of a strong ‘world’, and similar mission. The mission, the world, and the characters have as much value as the actual point of the game.
Let’s look at a couple of business examples
The first one is Gene Simmons, and his KISS world.
I know, this ain’t a service business. Or, is it? In Simmon’s empire, he has all kinds of businesses, including financial services. And all of them are tied in to his character, that he created on purpose.
Let’s take a look at what he did (I highly recommend his books)
He decided he wanted to be ‘big’
He looked around, and saw that the American culture had changed, and was craving something exciting
He built his new way of doing things - changed his name, came up with the costumes, and the flames, and the performances
They became the band ‘KISS’ and trademarked the faces
Their shows were consistently over the top. If you come, you will be blown away.
The merchandise became ways to affiliate with the band (and world)
They started selling different ways to play in the KISS world
People even went over the top and got tattoos et cetera
KISS and Gene Simmons related products are like any others, and you can buy into the magic in 158 different ways…
To be honest, Simmons built a universe, not just a ‘world’. And it was so unique that people started to copy him, hence the trademarking of the face paint…
But a ‘world’ doesn’t have to be so big.
Maybe you’re a solopreneur. Let’s look at one woman we work with, Amy, who is building Warrior School, a training approach for women.
Women are trying to exercise to get a result all kinds of ways
But the culture has changed. We are more stressed now, plus, we have more information now (new information)
You can tell, and I can tell (in fact, Amy shares how she ‘used’ to train the other way)
More: here are supporting facts about women and training…
That’s why I am building this new way of training to get better results. It is based on more fluid training style, and health. I’m an evangelist for this style of training!
Hello, I’m Amy, I started this - this is who I am, here’s a whole bunch of my personality
This is my profitable promise - I’ll teach you the magic you need to get strong, feel good and have a body you love
Here are some details (‘world building’ across podcast episodes)
This is what the future looks like when we train this way
I’m passionate about this training, not just my offer. I want more people to have this lifestyle.
But if you want help, here’s how you can go deeper in my world.
This offer is part of my magic
We all will celebrate your wins (here are some wins of the other women doing it this way).
Once your world is clear, and you are playing your own game, you get to choose the marketing tactics…
Whether you do instagram reels, or tiktok, is not as important as the underlying story, and where you are taking your customers.
This is what the world is build on, this is what we seek out, and where trust is built.
More:
Now your pricing can be independent. As a customer I’m not paying for a similar service that I can get somewhere else, I’m paying to be immersed in this world and go deeper (advance in the world).
How this can go wrong…
Let’s wrap up with some traps we see come up:
If the world doesn’t stand for anything. This is a common flaw, and no amount of social media tactics can save this. The world has to be ‘about’ something, because that’s why it exists. This means in one sense, it’s exclusive (and we can’t get anything like this elsewhere).
When the world is too available, or too open to feedback. Imagine reading The Lord of The Rings books, then half way along, there was a poll, where Tolkien asked the readers what “should” happen… It would completely destroy the story. Sure we want to be listening to customers, but our job as a world builder is to surprise them, and create new and deeper experiences
When characters in the world have a different idea on what it’s about. This is big if you have a team. The characters must be aligned on why the world exists, or else the world will cease to exist. The stakes are high here.
If you don’t have a way to go ‘deeper’. Let’s say you just use social media for marketing. Well… that’s not your world technically. That’s Zuckerberg’s world. So what you need is a place for people to go deeper with your marketing, ideally before they buy. We recommend an email list. And you can ‘reward’ readers on your list by taking them deeper into new things.
When the world ain’t ‘rich’ enough. In your world, you can develop language, tools, magic, and ‘inside’ ways to talk about what you do. This should be totally different to anyone else’s world.
Because you’re still ‘chasing’. Sending DM’s to prospects, running around doing things for free. Discounting. With world building, your goal is to clarify your message, and then amplify exposure to that message and world. Then at each exposure point, create opportunities for people to go deeper (join my email list).
With a lot of lazy, or more tactical marketing or positioning, you would see how your service fits in ‘relative’ to your industry.
They do this / We do this, at this better price.
Well, the bet is there is no longer a safe ‘positioning’ practice like this. The game has changed and we now seek a much deeper level of trust. You can no longer enter a market, with a slightly cheaper service.
Or a slightly faster service…
Or be a bit more convenient, or helpful, and survive…
People want to immerse themselves in your world, understand your culture, and go deep, before they buy. And then, they often want to buy more from you, to go deeper over time.
Choosing your marketing 'type'
What type of content fits your business world?
How do we decide on what type of content marketing to do for our business?
Should you teach? Tell stories? Tell jokes?
Is it all trial and error?
Or is there a system we can use to decide?
If we don’t know what type of content we want to do, how do we stay the course and not get lost into oblivion?
There are so many possibilities open to us with marketing, it can drive us insane.
Example:
With one of the businesses we work with, he had a system of putting up a video each day on social media. Mostly entertainment and inspirational stuff. They might be seen by a few hundred people. Or a few thousand. But then one day he put one up that went viral. Thirty-five million views. We were celebrating it, but you couldn’t help sense that other people were a little envious of this sudden exposure. Which also doubled his audience…
And so it goes as a service business:
You see peers, or colleagues sending different kinds of emails, or starting podcasts. Someone gets a great result, and it’s tempting to cross over to the latest platform or trend. You can hope that a similar thing can happen to you.
It reminds me of the video game ‘pong.’ Where you tap the ball back and forth with the two sliders.
In business we can end up blipping back and forth. Not just with different platforms, or mediums for marketing, but different types of content altogether.
You need a North Star with the type of content that you do.
What do we mean by type of content?
In one of Robert Greene’s books, The 50th Law, that he wrote with 50 Cent, he talks about how fifty created his own kind of music.
When 50 Cent came up, he had a period around 2000 where he had been shot, and went into hiding. When he was out of action, he reinvented himself. He stewed on the feeling of being at rock bottom. And then he started to write music from that angle. Suddenly he put out a song, right when people had almost forgotten about him. His songs were angry, and reflected the story that was unfolding in the streets real time.
More:
Because 50 Cent was still potentially ‘wanted’ by the people who had come after him, he wouldn’t show his face. As more of his songs came out, they were heard all over the city even though he wasn’t there.
A lot of other rap music was being played at the time.
The problem was though, it was too polished:
“The music on the radio was all so packaged and produced. Even the tough stuff, the gangsta rap, was fake. The lyrics did not reflect anything form the streets that he knew. The attempt to pass it off as real and urban angered him to a point he could not endure.”
50 Cent created his own type of content. He told stories, exposing what was really happening. People loved it.
It’s much the same for us with service businesses.
When we look closely at any page, or business that we love to follow, we see that they have a core ‘type’ of content that they become known for.
Another example:
My wife Ruby loves to follow along with this family over in the States, who run a farm. Their social media account is called Ballerina Farm. Every day they will upload ten or twenty short videos to show what happened that day at the farm. Sometimes it’s feeding the pigs. Sometimes it’s an update on the cow that got stuck in the ditch and broke a leg. Sometimes it’s about shipping out orders to their customers.
Now they have a global audience of raving fans, obsessed with their whole story. They tune in to watch everything to see what’s happening next.
This is what we call a story-driven type of content. Or, we engage with them to get updates on the story.
Someone who follows that business, or marketing ‘type’ of content might also follow other types.
Maybe they watch for the information or the entertainment, a la Gary Vee.
Maybe they also follow other accounts because it links into part of their lifestyle like a fishing channel.
We look to different types of content for different reasons.
As a business owner, you have a choice on what type of content you create…
And while you aren’t ‘locked in’, now this is something you can become known for.
Plus, when you know what type of marketing you want to do, you can get much better at it.
Let’s take a look at some different types of marketing.
Five Different Types of Content
When we look at creators, entertainers, and content producers, we find there are some key types of marketing or ‘content’ that we love to follow:
Latest industry news and updates (especially if it’s controversial)
Humour
Great storytelling
Alternative views, or deep expertise
Insight into pain points, and then discussing solutions
Typically, you’ll want to stick to one or two types, per platform.
Example:
For us, on social media with the Creator Club account, we are about Insight into pain points, and alternative views.
The emails are a different. They are alternative views, blended with insight into the lives of the characters of our world.
This is because the emails are where the inside ‘scoop’ happens. They are more about story, and an alternative view to the whole small business chestnut.
This is largely because I’m always attracted to story, and it suits my personality and our world.
(This is also the type we primarily teach in Creator Club, as it aligns with a ‘world building’ lens of business.)
Give yourself a constraint
In the early 2000’s, AUDI had to revamp their race car for the 24 Hour Le Mans races.
At the time they saw that diesel cars were becoming more popular across all parts of the auto industry. And, to ‘spearhead’ this movement and make them more attractive to the customer, they wanted to create a high performance diesel race car.
This gave them a constraint.
What they did was they used that constraint and said “OK, how else can we go faster?” Sure they pushed to build a powerful car, but also they saw that if they could build a car that stopped ‘less’ than other cars (better fuel consumption) they would be faster across 24 hours.
In the end, that’s exactly what happened. The new R10 had a fuel consumption of 41L/100km. In comparison, at the same time, a formula One car had an efficiency of about 75L/100km.
So the R10 was able to get more laps per stint than other cars. This was a key reason why they won three 24 Hour Le Mans races.
A similar thing happens with your marketing ‘type’.
When you not only know where you want to show up, but also how you want to show up, you have a constraint in place, and now you can improve the work.
Where you show up, and the type of marketing you do is important. Because this is also how you will build a relationship with your audience, and present your offers and sell.
How do we decide what type of marketing to do?
There are three major factors that can drive our marketing type. This has nothing to do with the latest ‘trends’ in the industry.
Why?
Because if you were to change your type with every shift in trends, then you would be constantly chasing. Now. This doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate new trends into your work, but that’s at a more tactical level.
Method 1 - Use your personal strengths and characteristics
When I was fourteen I had to write a short story for school. At the time I was reading these adventure novels. So basically what I did was I wrote a story in the style of one of these adventure novels about going to an island that was covered with sea snakes.
And as we walked around the island, we had to dodge all these highly venomous snakes (sea snakes can’t really harm you, but in my story they were dangerous).
Since then, I’ve always enjoyed the mix of information and story.
Now, are there better storytellers than me? Of course. Are there better copywriters? Sure. Are there better teachers? No doubt. But I have come upon a unique type of content that only my journey could create.
People talk about A.I taking over copywriters, but there’s no chance that can happen really, because it only ‘recreates’ what’s been done. It can’t come up with a new story like the one above.
You get to choose, one ‘type’ of marketing that suits you
If you’re very analytical, or more information driven, then you might specialise in succinct tips or education. Or the latest news in your industry.
If you’re a comedian, and can speak or write in a funny way, then you will want to do comedy. You could do email and social media that is funny, and that’s super popular.
Or, if you like story and have an interesting world, simple share what’s going on, and show us how the story unfolds.
Method 2 - Look at the type that maps to the psychology of the people you want to serve
In marketing, there’s a constant pressure to jump onto the latest trends or platforms, whether that’s twitter or facebook groups or TikTok.
One thing we want to think about is that the type of marketing that you choose is going to overlap or attract certain types of people.
Example:
One of the trends that I saw come out that I immediately didn’t like personally, was when people would do short videos, and ‘point’ to different text on the video as music played. It was this big trend that would take a lot of the posts viral. And this may not be accurate, it’s impossible to say - but my guess is that the people that I want to work with aren’t really into these kinds of videos either.
On the other hand, I believe that smart people read books. And I know, there’s technically no difference between audio books and books. But with a book you can’t really be doing anything else. You have to stop other activities in order to read it. Whereas with an audio book, you can walk around. The point of that is by writing a book, I’m speaking to ‘committed’ people that actually stop to read a book.
By telling stories, you are speaking to people who value story and meaning
…And don’t need the quick tip cheat sheet to try and get to the result.
On the other hand, if I write longer articles, they aren’t going to be suitable for a CEO that has their day stacked from 5am to 8pm and is driven in a corporate career.
Anyway, when you think about a type, consider who you want to speak to, and who you serve as a customer. Make sure that your marketing type is compatible.
Method 3 - Standing alone
The final angle with choosing your marketing ‘type’ is to stand alone. Now, this isn’t going to be totally possible, all the time. But basically what it is, is looking at a ‘unique’ type of content, relative to your industry.
Let’s say you’re a personal trainer.
Well in that niche, maybe everyone is doing tips on exercises. Well, instead of tips, you could focus on storytelling, or humour. This actually happened a few years back, with a guy his name is James Smith PT. He’s blown up now, but basically started out at zero and doing humour posts. It was totally new in the niche.
Personally I kind of think this way about story…
In the coaching or consulting world, there’s a lot of education, a lot of tips, and a lot of more virtuous advice.
So by prioritising story driven-content, I have a unique and personalised angle.
You’re not ‘fixed’ to just one type of content. But if you think about it like music, you’ll quickly see the edge in having a guiding constraint:
If you were to sit down to write a song, it would help to know what genre, or kind of song you are writing.
And what type of music you are wanting to excel in. This means you’re clear on how your listeners will feel when they tune in, and you can improve your craft.
Content marketing is much the same.
If you ain’t clear on what type of content your want to do, it’s easy to jump all over the place.
You won’t have a clear bearing on what you’re doing and it gets harder to improve your work.
If you are clear on your content type, whether that’s story driven, cutting edge tips, humour or otherwise, you’ll know exactly how to get to work each week. And then you will quickly start to improve your craft.
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Listening vs. Leading (and why polls so often fail)
About eight years ago when I owned a gym in Melbourne we were making some changes to the class timetable. There was a new class we wanted to introduce, to make use of an empty time slot in the middle of the day. Plus, people had been asking us about a midday slot.
So what I did was, I put a poll into our Facebook group, I think we had 85 or 90 members then. And I provided some different time options, to ask which one would best suit people. As expected, the Monday 12pm time slot was the most popular, with at least twenty votes, and plenty of comments that people would want to come to that time.
So, we put the class on. One person showed up. Most of our classes had eight to fifteen. Then the next week, two people. But then instead of climbing, it went down. Back to one. After six weeks, and relentless internal marketing of this new class, it was still barren. I’d been duped. Of course it wasn’t intentional, but I realised that what customers ‘say’ and what they do, are two totally different things. And from this point forward, I realised that ‘listening’ to the market is of course important, but ‘leading’ the market is even more powerful.
The other day I was talking to a good friend of mine who founded a big CrossFit gym down in Melbourne. It’s an institution, and has held over 200 members for as long as I’ve known the guy.
More:
While still a co-owner, he’s since moved north and started another training business.
Now the size and longevity of these businesses doesn’t come by accident. I mentioned on the phone that I always thought he was great at World Building - which in a sense, is using creativity to build your unique business so it is like no other, that has elements of your personality, values and interests. He said something really interesting - and I’m paraphrasing here:
“It started with me building what I wanted. I built the gym that I wanted, with the music that I wanted. And the programming that I was interested in. Everyone else was doing this common CrossFit font, and it all looked the same. So I did something totally different. I built my own thing.”
He went on:
“Once people started to come, then it changes a bit. You have to find that balance, where you’re building something that you’re proud of, but it’s also for them. But you have to lead.”
Very astute.
And his ability to make decisions and lead is largely why he is still going strong.
And while he knew his market like the back of his hand, he never took their lead, and rarely ‘listened’ to them directly.
It turns out that listening to the market ain’t always guaranteed.
And, that as a creator and service provider, you have to watch, notice, take hints, and often lead your customers.
We aren’t always sold this idea though. It seems like everywhere you go marketers are telling you to listen to your audience. And survey your people to get responses. There’s polling services, survey monkey, and every social media platform is equipped with voting tools, and poll plugins.
It seems like every other day where you might open an email, or be on social media, and see someone asking the audience:
“Would you like it if I did this?”
“Which out of these would you like?”
“Which would be better out of these…?”
“What should I do about this..?”
And these get engagement. Just not always results, as we’ve seen.
I believe one aspect of this is that what we say as customers, and what we do aren’t always the same thing, as was the case at our gym. A lot of times, we might give a response to a poll or question, so that we can be seen as a person that gave that response. Even when the results are anonymous, it still gives us a chance to say a certain message, even if it conflicts with our behaviour. I remember working with clients as a personal trainer years ago. They would often say that they had given up sugar or dairy, or some other vice over the past month, but then later talk about a certain kind of cookies they loved and had the last weekend, or something else that they had supposedly stopped having. I didn’t even care about the food, they just brought it up in conversation - but it’s always interesting to see the difference between what we consciously say, and perhaps unconsciously do.
Another factor I believe is that we love to be led, surprised, and in some cases, directed.
A few months back I was at a nice restaurant in town. I took a few guys out for a meal, and straight away the waitress came up and ran us through the menu. She outlined how the degustation worked, and as each meal came out one of the head guys would come out and explain the dish, and what they had created.
Every season or so, they change the menu.
No customer feedback.
No survey forms.
No polls on social media to ask what to do.
They take the creative and emotional risk to make the changes themselves, and lead the patrons to something new and exciting.
This is the risk we take when we start a business.
If you could just poll the public to ask them what they want and what they would pay for it, then go ahead and make that for less money than they would pay, then you would instantly have a risk free business. But that aint the case. Business must have risk in order to have reward. And thus leading and creativity is part of the job.
So what does listening to the audience really mean?
Surely there is value to listening to the audience or your customers?
Of course. But it might not look the way that we think. And ‘asking’ your audience ain’t the same as ‘listening’ to them. A few years back I ran a business retreat, and brought in some guest teachers. One guy was a free diving instructor, and we took about twenty business owners through their first free diving session. He taught them all kinds of breath holds, and relaxation techniques. It was a big hit. Did the group ask for this? No, it was a total surprise. But at the same time, I was ‘listening’ to this audience before I booked the guy. Basically what I mean by that is they all were adventurous kinds of people and when I would watch what they’re doing and what they were interested in it was always cool stuff. Then I would post things about free diving or spearfishing, and they would get into it. So they could never have thought of doing freediving at a business retreat, but if you did ask them before, they would say (or show) that they like adventurous things.
‘Listening’ to your audience is really watching your audience’s behaviour, and then using creativity and innovation to come up with new ways to help them.
There was a famous clip which was a caller that called up the Howard Stern show because he wanted to give him some ‘feedback’ on the show.
And Howard basically told the guy that he didn’t want his feedback. That it was his show, and he was running it the way he wanted. The guy said that it was a community, and Howard Stern just told him to go find another community who cared.
It was a little extreme - and I’m not recommending you do that exactly. But the point of it is still there.
If he changed the radio show because this guy told him to, then he would have to start listening to all of his callers. What’s going to happen when the 100th caller chimes in with changes to make to the show? By the end it would look like total trash.
I’m not for or against Stern - I’ve never listened to his show. But this clip makes it clear that he gets that it’s his role to lead the audience. Sure to ‘listen’ to what he sees that they are looking for and find entertaining, but then to ‘lead’ them in his work.
I don’t know if this is helpful for you.
Except to say that if you’re looking for your audience or market to give you ideas directly, or tell you the best way to run a program or service, then you may want to go deeper. See how you can ‘listen’ to them by watching what they do, how they act, how they buy, and what they struggle with, before looking for direct verbal advice.
Look for ways to take what you are seeing, or things that you think they might want, and creatively wrap solutions around that.
How can you lead your audience or clients more powerfully?
Something to think about.
Go from ‘lost in the weeds’ to ‘the business that leads’ - Seven ways to tell your business story at a deeper level
We live in a fast paced world, and your market can go from cold to hot, or from hot to cold, in a diabolically short space of time. Right now, a lot of markets are cold. There’s a competitiveness in all niches like never before, and patience is low while bitterness is higher than usual.
Many people don’t see these things, but when you’re in business, you see it early and clearly. You may notice your marketing ain’t quite as sticky, or there’s less foot traffic coming in. Or fewer inquiries.
At the subtle level, you might notice a slightly different tone or mood in your market.
This is not only normal, but expected as part of the game. And whether it’s there now or not, it’s guaranteed to hit at some point. One thing that can really help through these periods and all periods of business is building a strong core relationship with your audience, or positioning in a way that allows them to know who you are and what you do at a deeper level.
While this ain’t going to create total immunity from changing market forces… your business story will have meaning for your audience and you can built trust with your core network.
One word I mentioned in that last sentence was ‘story.’
If you read some of these articles, or emails - or even listen to the podcast, you’ll see most of my stuff is riddled with stories and it’s one of the main ways I like to write or communicate. But in this article, I don’t want to talk so much about ‘storytelling.’ Mostly because there are enough tactics out there on story structure, and how to go about it (including our copywriting guide, which you can get down the bottom of this page).
But on top of that, storytelling is only a minor part of ‘telling the story’ of your business, which is quite different.
Telling the story of your business happens on a much longer timeframe, and can include elements of your brand, your messaging, marketing and delivery.
One example is Nike. While it’s a huge brand that spans all kinds of markets, we all know the origin story of Phil Knight and his waffle-soled shoes, and the tagline of ‘Just Do It.’ Nike has history. We are clear on what to expect from the brand and whether we buy it or not, we’ve got a relationship with it.
Another example is a gym we did some work with. Three guys opened a gym, but before that they were all in the film and lighting industry. They were training BJJ, lifting, and doing movement training, but had nowhere to go that did all of them. So what they did was they created a gym. The tagline for the gym is “Fight, Lift, Move”. And it’s no surprise that in a lot of their content, there’s cool video, and they are good at marketing. Because that was their background, and they’ve created a unique culture that a lot of people want to be a part of. I’ve met people who used to train at that gym, and they always say how they’ve moved away now but it’s impossible to find a place to train that even compares.
This doesn’t just happen naturally. We have to communicate the story and world of our business, and what we’re about.
When you do this consistently, your audience will know more about you before they even step foot in your business, and already can tell that they are aligned with you. And because your story is unique, you will go from a ‘fits inside the box’ business, to a unique and compelling business, with a clear back story and direction for the future.
Let’s go through seven ways you can do this:
1 - Share your your back story
When Ruby and I moved up from Melbourne, I wasn’t really sure if I was going to do a coaching program. I had run a one-to-one program before, and it was great, but I needed a different model, and I knew it would be a lot of work to get it going. Soon though, a few business owners came to me and started to ask about coaching. Eventually I went away and drafted up an idea for the first offer and came back and showed it to them, and they were really excited about it. We started the first program and haven’t looked back.
Now, I’ve told this story one hundred times. Plus other stories - the story of the running store... The stories of the gym... And the story of building the Creator Club program. People start to ‘know’ the story. The point is, it can feel like you share the same stories a lot, but your back story helps to clarify your past experience and motives. It won’t resonate with everyone, but that ain’t the point.
The point is that it resonates with your audience - and it will - because the very fact that you are doing the work you do now to help these people, means you share a similar set of values.
2 - Why now is an important time for your business to exist
Why is now an important time for you to be doing what you do?
When we started up Creator Club, we focused exclusively on small service businesses with a creative streak. It’s an important time right now for small business, and we wanted to focus our attention on helping them learn the skills of marketing and sales, and learn how to build out their world powerfully to make money.
The timing for all of it actually was very interesting. The program we ran prior to Creator Club, which was like a test program, kicked off the day before all of the Covid lockdowns in Australia, which went alongside the biggest wealth transfer from small business to big business in history. A bunch of small businesses struggled, so the support on the coaching side and marketing - helping them build their world more powerfully - was key. And in the end, a lot of the businesses we worked with over that exact period had record growth, which was cool.
Thinking about ‘timing’ is key for telling a deeper story in your business. It not only creates relevance, but also urgency and motivation for you and your clients.
3 - Show how you came upon your current solution
As an expert in your field, you probably have a ‘right way’ of doing things that you know works. But maybe you didn’t always do it this way?
Typically, we all start out trying to do things some other way that doesn’t work, and then we go through hell to figure it out: we study, we get mentors, we learn, we try again… then if we are successful we can emerge on the other side as a guide.
In my first retail business, I shunned online marketing completely. I didn’t do social media, or email marketing. Instead, I ran thousands of DL flyers out to people around the block and did exclusively offline networking. But that was a mistake. While we grew the business, we missed out on obvious gains (this was right at the dawn of Facebook). Since that time, I learned how to balance it out. Now we do a lot of offline work as well as online.
Anyway, this whole ‘arc of learning’ is the path you took as the guide. But when you don’t share that journey, you only speak from the ‘finished’ position. It isn’t always relatable for people who are going through the whole mess right now.
4 - Show us what you want (your vision)
We’re naturally drawn towards people that are on a mission. If you can show us the vision you want to create and what is important to you, through the action that you are taking, we can resonate with you and your world. This is one of those cases where actions speak louder than words. It’s easy to talk about this stuff. But we want to know what you want, or what your vision of the future really is, not just what you say it is. We see this all the time with big business. They might say they’re about customer service, or innovation… But then when they don’t innovate in years we’re a little underwhelmed.
One of the visions we have around Creator Club is the roaring success of creative service business owners. Like an army that’s building a higher energy future, we’re teaching people to create, produce, market and sell their service effectively, so they can make a great living doing what they love. We ‘show’ this through the events we run, through our content, and even case studies we provide.
The only way we can really know what you want is for you to show what you want. Show your vision, and you will be telling your business story at a deeper level and we can resonate with your character and world.
5 - Bring out the ‘characters’ in your world
You may have all kinds of people in your world. Staff, writers, people helping you out. Depends on the size of your business and how you like to do things.
In our business, it is pretty tight. We take care of all of the main work - the writing, and of course any business coaching. We’ll outsource smaller things like videography, media, and some admin. But we are the main characters. So we don’t hold back on showing up as who we are. Our values are pretty clear, and our interests are also clear. We show what we do, and how we do it.
I did some work with a gym out west of here. We covered a lot of world building, and character work. Basically what we did then was brought out a lot of the ‘character’ of the main coaches, and then members as well. Almost instantly there was a strong interaction with the audience, and not only attendance, but client numbers were up almost 50%. This is because the character is such a key part of the story. It helps us build a relationship with the business, and we can decide to be a part of what they’re about.
6 - Showcase and elevate the people you serve (case studies, profiles)
One of the biggest subconscious questions we can have as customers is ‘does this business ‘get’ me?’ - Does the service provider understand who I am, what I’m about and what I need? In our offer framework, we call this establishing common ground. Basically without common ground, people will just assume you’re out to sell something to them, rather than understanding them and helping them.
Anyway, one way you can do this is through case studies, or interviews you do with clients to help showcase their great work. When you showcase or elevate the people you help, you’re showing what’s possible through your service, but you’re not pedestalising yourself. This allows the audience to imagine their own story, and see how your service could help them get where they want to go.
We do this a bunch of ways. On the website main page there are shorter testimonials. We’ve done YouTube documentaries with businesses that we’ve worked with. In podcasts, we’ve interviewed a lot of the small business heroes that we’ve worked with, and then in emails I’ll often share stories about how a business got success in a certain area, to bring an insight to the business owners that read the emails.
7 - Show how you help your people get what they want
When people come upon a new business, it can be hard to understand how it all works. And when we don’t understand something, we often stay away from it. On the Apple website, they allocate around thirty pages (on average) for each product they sell, which shows how the product works, the technology in it, and what it allows you to do.
In our world, we use content as the main tool to show how we help. In World Building terms, we call this ‘magic and technology’. So we use content to explain the magic. If you read the emails, or listen to the podcasts, you’ll start to understand how our coaching works. When things start to ‘make sense’ in this way, the world becomes more inviting.
Another way to think about this is the concept of x-ray vision. We always want to help people get more clarity, and another layer of x-ray vision. So you don’t need to give everything away, but part of the job in telling the story of your business is to shine some light on the work you do, so that people can start to ‘get’ what you do, and see how you really help.
Three ways to put it into practice
It’s all well and good to ‘know’ how to tell the story of your business at a deeper level, but it’s another thing to actually do it. The job for your marketing department (which is probably you), is to drip-feed this stuff into your marketing, so that your story seeps out over time.
Soon, you will go from a ‘fits inside the box’ business, to a unique and compelling business, with a clear back story and direction for the future.
Anyway, here are three ways you can practically bring out your story. Having the energy and motivation is up to you.
** Social media posts - you can really use this stuff as a storytelling platform if you want. Again, not to tell a story on every post, but to document your business, where you came from (backstory), who you help and where you’re going. You can even take each of the above categories, and twist it into social media posts that really are unique to you. You’ll notice that these aren’t high ‘value’ posts. They are there to build resonance with the people that you serve.
** Long form articles and podcasts - A lot of the businesses that we work with write a weekly article or blog post. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is positioning - it’s difficult to position powerfully just with social media. The second though, is the longer format lets you tell micro stories that bring out your overall business world.
** Everywhere you show up: speaking, organising events, guest articles you write, the book you want to do. Everywhere you go as a business owner is a chance to strengthen your position by telling at least some part of your story. This doesn’t always mean it’s going to be your origin story, but bringing out what you stand for, what you want, and where you want to go is a powerful way to build trust and resonance.
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Build your marketing rhythm to become well known, with less stress and zero ‘start stop’ chaos
We all run into a bit of luck. Sometimes you do marketing that goes really well. Or someone shares your content, and you get a bunch of traction and maybe some enquiries. Right time, right place. Or sometimes the latest algorithm version gets a hold of it. We had one guy put up a video recently that ran up to 33 million views. It was great, his audience doubled.
But when this happens, it’s an event. It’s not something that we can rely on.
Because it’s not a system.
Even if I were to say to the guy who got 33 million views ‘can you do that again?’ all he can say is that he’s continuing with what he was doing before… But he can’t make something go viral again.
Every once in a while I like to nerd out on physiology or physics papers. There was a Russian scientist back in the day, his name was A.A. Ukhtomsky. Anyway he was talking about rhythm in nature. And that rhythm is really the thing that’s needed for any separate parts to become a system. That all systems in nature have a rhythm to them of some kind.
It’s the same with marketing. Once you have a rhythm, you’re like a lighthouse that’s blasting light out with a frequency. People see you - they know where you are, and what you’re doing.
A lot of new service business owners lack ‘rhythm’ in their work. So what happens is they get really excited, and put out some content, or plan a podcast, or emails for marketing. And then they don’t get the response that they were looking for, so they stop. Then they start up again later once the energy comes back. That’s called ‘start-stop’ marketing. I went through this right at the start as well. But not only is this kind of marketing not effective, but you never build a body of work, and you get steered by your emotions all over the place.
But with bigger businesses, there is always some kind of marketing rhythm (sometimes this is offline focused).
In fact, there are exceptions (usually where the marketing isn’t improving over time, or the service needs work), but it almost gets to a point where the more consistent the marketing rhythm, the better the service business does. This is painfully clear with online businesses.
But what about if your business is full?
We still recommend marketing consistently, or in line with whatever rhythm you set up.
One way to think about this is your marketing is basically like a pulse. Blood pumping through the system of your business. So, marketing is a sign of health for the biz. When we see the rhythm start-stop, we would call that ‘arrhythmia’ in the body, and it ain’t good! Similarly, arrhythmia in marketing isn’t good either.
Consistent marketing can help you build your brand, connect with future clients, open up collaboration opportunities, and more.
What kind of rhythm is best for your biz?
What kind of volume / frequency should you do?
I don’t know sonny.
It’ll depend on your biz-ness, your time and ability, and where you’re at. But let’s start with two assumptions:
1 - Some rhythm and consistency (say, over a 12 month timeframe) is a good thing
2 - We have to walk before we can run. So if you’re new to the game, then your ‘rhythm’ is gonna look pretty johnny basic, as you build the muscle to keep up the work.
That second point is kind of important. There are a lot of podcasts and newsletters out there that are one season in, then stop. Probably about the same as the number of books that are half written. A lot of this is because the project sounded good on paper, but it’s just too far outside what the person was ready for.
A better option is to layer it up.
Layering means you’re starting with the most basic step - establishing a core piece of content for a rhythm. This gets you going, helps people find you and then you can add to it once you have strung together a few reps.
Typically, I like to see up to three months worth of the first layer, before the second layer is added.
OK, let’s break them down with some examples:
Layer one - Weekly (or monthly) content rhythm on one platform
In the world of short form videos and tik tok, many-a-newbie business owners start off with shotgunning onto social media.
I think part of this is the gurus telling us to do it.
And a big part of it is that’s where most people are paying attention on the consumption side.
And if this is what you want to do, then all the power to you. However, the downside is - you don’t build a body of work. You don’t have a way for people to go deeper. And you’re trying to flesh out ideas for your marketing (helping your clients) with 40 second videos that are right alongside videos of cats and dogs and people doing double back flips. So basically that’s to say it’s easy to lose your track, and not really have much in the way of actual marketing.
The alternative, is to start to build a rhythm with one core piece of pillar content each week. Or month. And I have to say that, because I know a few business owners who do full-blown magazines (awesome), but these are more like a quarterly cycle, or monthly at a minimum. So even a weekly cycle is too short for these guys. And that’s OK.
But for most people, a weekly cycle is great, and what it can look like is this:
** A weekly article that takes people deeper into a topic, or tells some stories. You can publish this on your site, on medium.com, or now all the rage seems to be sub-stack. Which, I don’t really understand why you would do that versus email, but whatever.
** A weekly podcast. This could be a solo episode, or interview with someone in your industry (‘how to’). Basically an audio version of the above. Personally I am better at pounding on the keyboard, but some people thrive on doing audio. You could publish this to the normal platforms, or keep it on a private app, or host it on the website.
** A short video that brings some value to your people. You could talk about something in your industry, or tell some personal stories or BTS on what’s going on with the business. This could be as short as three or five minutes. And definitely doesn’t need to look professional or anything. In fact, sometimes the more ‘raw’ the better.
And more.
Basically, it’s just a chance to create something that’s helpful for your people, on a time cycle that you can commit to for three months.
(The way I do it is this - the article is on the weekly cycle. I’m ‘thinking’ about the article and outlining it in the front end of the week, and then writing it in the back end. This means that by the time I sit down to write it, I’m pretty clear. Editing is very minimal - I might show it to Ruby quickly, but that’s pretty much it. I’m ready to publish as soon as it’s written. Then it goes out on the email…)
Layer two - Multiple pieces of content, or split content into short-form
In the second step, we’re presented with a choice.
Do we do a second article, or podcast this week?
That can be a great idea.
A lot of high level podcasters in particular do multiple episodes (there have been times where I’ve recorded as many as four or five episodes per week)… And once you have done ‘one’, it’s a lot easier to do a second or third.
Or, you can start to split that core piece of content up a little more and share it to short form.
This is what we do.
So what happens is the weekly article is written, and over that week, I know what the short form content is for the Creator Club instagram page. So the posts we do over there are typically photo, with what most people call ‘long form’ captions. But really the captions are super short in the scheme of things (say, compared to this article). So each caption might take me ten or fifteen minutes to write. And it’s talking about something loosely related to that week’s article.
This sounds a little boring - like it’s not doing lots of cool videos and that kind of thing on instagram.
But firstly, I couldn’t care less (and i suck at flashy videos).
And secondly, it allows the rhythm to continue in the easiest way possible.
Anyway, all of this is to say that in your second layer, either do more of what you were already doing, or, look at splitting it up onto another platform.
Layer three - Daily content on short form platforms
We typically will do four or five pieces of content on short-form platforms each week.
This is on top of the weekly long form content (article and podcast).
This is about 15 minutes per piece of content, which is 1.25 hours per week.
And for us, we use email and instagram.
As I mentioned before, this is basically topics that are ‘derived’ from our main article topic, or, they are posts about what we have coming up on the timeline. Or both. But the point is that in this layer, you are starting to ‘flesh out’ one platform on a daily cycle (at least - you can do more here).
(Remember, the core weekly piece is still going.)
OK, let’s pause and talk about this. This can sound like a lot here. You’re doing some kind of weekly article. Or a podcast. Then you’re blasting things out into a shorter form platform like Twitter or Instagram. That’s a fully fledged marketing rhythm my friend! The thing to remember though if this feels overwhelming to you, is that if you followed the above progression, you wouldn’t be here for at least six months anyway (three months per layer), to adjust. Sure there’s the odd person that can jump here faster. But for anyone new to marketing, you want to build to this point. And basically what that means is, when you’re here, it’s not more or less stressful than at the beginning, because you’ve adapted along the way.
Now - a final caveat. This ain’t going to work if you get lost into the instagram doom scrolling every time you go online. This is a post and move on kind of thing. We’re talking about marketing, not consuming, and you want to watch out for sucking loads of time with this stuff.
Layer four - Bring in a second core platform
OK, so you’re sitting at a core long form each week (article, or podcast), and some short form content, if you want.
This means you’re taking your audience deeper on something, and you’re showing up frequently as well. From here, you can add more core platforms or different types of media.
Example:
Say you’re writing a weekly or monthly article.
Well, now you could add a podcast.
Or, say you have a weekly podcast… Plus some instagram.
Well, now you could add a weekly email to your strategy.
Basically what Layer 4 does, is it allows you to start to ‘surround’ your audience, providing content from various angles, and on various mediums.
Again, this ain’t going to work out if you try to jump straight here. Go slowly, and adapt over time.
Layer five - And on we go…
From here, you can add more depth to your content, or, you can show up more frequently in any of your content streams. Or, you can add more streams, like speaking, or a book.
Ultimately what you’re creating here is omnipresence with your marketing. But it’s really going to start to be up to the individual at this point, and remember there will be a time and energy cost associated with this (i.e. you may need VA support, or outsourcing of some media).
Five ‘caveats’ to help bullet-proof your marketing rhythm
** We only covered one possible progression of a ‘rhythm.’ Other variations include simply emailing once per week, then increasing that to 3-5 times per week. Or, you could write a book once per year and do speaking around it. There are a number of ways. The point is that you can see how we can build a rhythm for marketing with our business, and go slow enough to adapt so that it isn’t stressful (bite off a little less than you think you can chew…)
** Build your unique version. Your articles might be short. Or your podcast could be a Q&A panel with multiple guests. Or you could write poems each week on your Instagram stories. I don’t know. But you can build a version that’s unique to you. And it’ll look different to yours truly.
** Use reminders. Personally, I don’t automate much of this whole process. Because it’s so simple. I just put it out there when it’s done. But I do use reminders. Because sometimes I get busy, and forget to start outlining that weekly article. Which can turn into a bird's nest if I let it go.
** You don’t have to show up where everyone else is showing up. This is the concept of ‘show up alone’ by the great Dan Kennedy. Basically, we don’t need to follow the latest trend to succeed or stay relevant. For example, I write, and I don’t do flashy videos. Even though everyone says they are the way to go. I’m happy to show up in my own way. And you can do your way too.
** When you get derailed, just jump back on the plan. Look - you’re going to falter if this is new for you. When that happens, and maybe you miss a day, or a week. Then that’s fine, just get back on the horse, and write an email, or outline an article. Or regress a layer to get your mojo back. But either way there’s no benefit in sulking or looking backwards - just start fresh and forge ahead.
If I could choose between a consistent marketing rhythm, or a few viral posts over a few months, I would take the rhythm any day of the week. Even if there was less output, and even if it seemed kinda boring. Why? Because you can add impact. You can ‘juice’ it up on some steroids and improve the work. This is something you can’t do if there’s no rhythm.
As you build your marketing rhythm, it might feel like you’re going slow. Like you’re stuck in second gear. And you want to go faster.
But stay the course. Soon people will start to see your work. And then they can pass it along to a friend. When the new person has a look around, they’ll see a bunch of stuff there, because you’ve built a backbone, or a ‘body of work’ over time.
They can see you as a professional, and you can build the trust and reputation you are looking for with your business.
All while keeping your energy up and having fun creating along the way.
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Run your first live event (and over-deliver to create clients and raving fans)
There are few strategies that are more powerful in helping you grow a service business than getting in front of people. Sure it’s nice to ‘get on a call’ or have a link to book you on a zoom. But getting in the room, standing in front of people can’t be beat.
Personally I’ll go to great extents to be ‘with’ people. One reason - which is ironic because I don’t like big crowds - is that I DO like good people. I like spending time with them. I like helping them. I like collaborating with them or working with them.
But why are they so powerful for business (and in particular, for the brand-newbie?)
Back in the day, infomercials blew up on TV because of the sudden ability to ‘show’ people how you can help them in real time, streamed to the masses. Demonstration is one of the best forms of marketing that there is. A live event is similar, and although it’s much smaller, your ability to steer the energy in the room is much higher. There is a much stronger connecting or energetic transmission.
When you are early in your biz journey, you just can’t afford to sit around and wait for people to find you. You need to be actively working to position yourself in front of the people you want to help. Live events are a great way to do that, and instantly will put you at the ‘head’ of the room, even if all you do is organise it and get other people to speak.
Ruby and I have run events a bunch of times, from the very first iteration of business:
Soon after I opened a running retail store, I didn’t have many customers, but I realised that having customers would be a good thing. And that the customers weren’t just going to find me. So, I sponsored some races, and created some events in the store. It was a small store, but that didn’t stop us from doing running technique workshops and nutrition talks, and packing out the little shop.
These rarely led to big purchases on the night (sometimes a few bits and pieces) but helped to ‘position’ the store as the leading independent running store in the area.
Later, when we owned a gym we did a slew of ‘em.
In fact, before opening the gym, we did a ‘tour’ of events going to other gyms. We would turn up with forty or fifty goodie bags. The contents of which we mostly got for free from event sponsors. And then we would talk about stress and recovery while we were at these gyms, because this was a fairly new thing back then. When we eventually opened a gym, we kept doing workshops around nutrition, health, training and mindset. Sometimes we would run them. Sometimes we’d get a guest in to take it.
In all of the cases, it helped to meet new people, build a network, sell products and services (both physical and digital) and cement our positioning.
Now these events don’t need to be big.
And there’s no harm in just starting out by having an info night, or a get together with colleagues or clients.
But there are a few things you can do if you’re planning your first live event to make it more powerful.
Below we go through three key factors that can help you convert a normal gathering into a high value event to creating clients and raving fans. I’ve written this particularly for ‘micro’ events, which are anywhere from 5-40 people (we’ve had some clients start out with only three or four people showing up, and still build success over time), so you can apply these things even if it’s your first event.
I’ve also assumed here you have some ideas on who the event is for, and what it’s all about.
One. Leverage ‘Immersive’ Content
A while back I read an article about how kids would learn new tasks in a lot of traditional communities of the Americas. They used something called Learning by Observation and Pitching In (LOPI). Basically the way the communities taught the kids wasn’t through ‘assembly line’ school systems. But through involving them in the community tasks, and the kids helping to actually do important jobs, they learned much faster. The elders in the community would gently guide the kids - nodding encouragement. Or slowing them down, until they got it right.
I’m sure you’ve done a lot of this kind of learning yourself. And it’s also something we can do in live events. It doesn’t mean that the event is all work. But creating content that is ‘immersive’ or involves the people at your event is powerful.
When you think of a kid, when they learn to ride a bike, they get super excited. This is because they know that they ‘did’ something. Or they were immersed in it fully. They didn’t listen to someone talk about it. They didn’t read a manual on it. They did it. This is how we define ourselves. Through our actions, not what we think or read. And this is how we’re defined both in the eyes of others, and in our own mind.
There are a couple of ways you can make your content more immersive:
01. Give people an exercise to do right at the start of the workshop:
Something to get them paying attention early. Or you can do things throughout the event.
In one workshop that we ran, Ruby had a great exercise to get people going. She cleared a big whiteboard, and gave everyone a post it note. On the note, they wrote out something they wanted to get out of the day. Or something they wanted to let go of - like a fear maybe. Anyway, then they put all the notes up on the board, and you could see other people’s notes. Even though it was anonymous, everyone could see that their thoughts were similar. It sounds minor, but it’s a great way to build connection, without just launching into the talk about whatever it is that you’re covering.
02. You can go more extreme:
In some events, we’ve done free diving, big movement sessions. Walking meditations. All kinds of stuff to make it immersive.
Tony Robbins takes it even further - he gets people walking on hot coals.
He does that because it gets people involved, and immersed in the experience, and gives them a story to tell when they get home. The coals aren’t really that hot. It isn’t dangerous. It’s a trick. But it is powerful because it’s immersive. People can say “I did that.”
That’s the goal.
When you make your content more immersive in your event - and not just straight speaking, then people will pay attention and get involved. It will be something that’s memorable.
Now, if you can’t make it immersive - say you’re just giving a talk - you can still offer a small task. Something that they can do after the event, a worksheet, or a goal they can execute on.
Two. Create a Unique Experience from your World
I’ve been to a few different Yoga workshops, mindfulness events and meditation events. And some of them are unique, and bring something new into the mix. But a lot of them are the same. There’s the same relaxation. The same breath pattern. Then there’s the ice bath people (which I’m not into myself), and now all the gyms have the same ice bath days.
It’s not that these things aren’t good, or helpful.
It’s just that as soon as you jump on a trend for something, by definition it ain’t really unique to your world. So current trends aside, the question is what can you do from your world, that’s unique?
In 2014, Chanel ran an interesting experience at their fashion show that was a good example of this. Basically what they did was transform the Grand Palais into a functioning supermarket, with fresh produce and shopping baskets, and all of the food items were emblazoned with the double-c logo. There was even a hardware section with Chanel brooms and hammers. Anyway, people lost their mind, and stole a bunch of the stuff. They kept it for themselves as a memento, or sold some of it off later. It was total madness, but a great example of a unique experience, that people couldn’t get anywhere else.
Let’s look at an example -
Say you’re a strength coach and you want to run an event.
What’s something you can bring in that’s unique to you?
Maybe there is a way of training, a type of music, or a type of food you could bring in?
Maybe you could decorate the space into some kind of theme from your world?
Live events are great to help you build your business world and brand. But you need to put in some effort to think about how you can do it.
Three. Give them Something to Share
What happens when people walk out of your event?
Do they read through the material?
Do they go home and think things through?
What about having something to share?
A while back I was ‘enrolled’ into a self help seminar. It was a two day event, and half way through they were getting us to look at areas of our lives where we thought we had communication gaps, or things we had left out of integrity. For example one guy stood up, and he had a fight with his father, and hadn’t talked to him for years. He was crying, et cetera. Anyway, the crowd cheered the guy on, and so he called his dad and made amends. So we all had to go out and make this ‘phone call’. So when you left the seminar, you didn’t have a physical thing to share, but you shared a conversation, and you had a story to share. And this is basically how the program grows, they got more people to sign up because more people would hear these stories.
Giving people a story to share is the best. Word of mouth still accounts for a huge amount of business, even with online businesses.
Most of the people we work with find us through a conversation they have with someone else.
Or they’re referred to us from another business.
But we also create tangible things that people can share. We send out t-shirts to new Creator Club members that they can wear. We host live events and create content and photos.
Every step of the way we are looking for one small thing we can bring in that can help people get an experience worth talking about, or something to share.
What is something that people can share from your event?
What is a story they could tell?
Final Words on Running Your First Live Event
The first few live events are never easy. Mine were small, doing running technique classes with ten or twelve people. But they were successful enough that I decided to keep going. And then like all things, they get easier over time.
Another friend of ours started her first live event as three people meditating on Bar Beach.
Each full moon they would get together to do it again.
After a year or so, there were 600 people.
They opened a yoga studio soon after, and instantly had a horde of raving fans ready to come in, and sign up.
So the most important thing is to start. Pull out your little secret diary and pencil something in, so you can put these prompts into practice, and start to do your marketing.
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Taking Your Biz to the Next Level: Focus and Stamina
Your mind hits a prolonged mental block.
Annnnd your business is flat, just like it was last week, and last month.
But, you know it doesn’t need to be this way, because your offer or service is solid, and people have bought your stuff before. But, you just can’t seem to get a grip on doing the work that matters.
And it’s diabolically frustrating. And it’s painful - and what better way to avoid pain than to distract ourselves. Which, when we finally catch that distraction, is even more frustrating.
How do we break this cycle?
How do we switch from being entertained by social media and distractions, to feeling interested or driven by our work, so that we can go to the next level?
This must be at the root of thousands of self help books. Some say to do more through time blocking or brain optimisation. Others say to do less and you’ll be more effective at getting key tasks done on your business. It can all get confusing, quickly.
Here I’ll share three steps that have been helpful for me.
These have saved me in business at least twice (once I’ll share below), and are behind how I got the first book done in a few months, publish articles, and podcasts. In fact, every stage of growth in any business that I’ve been involved with, has come from this.
The steps are: Create “death ground” urgency, Know what matters, and Find Focus.
1 - Create urgency
There’s a great book by Robert Greene, called 33 Strategies of War.
A lot of people know Greene’s other books, especially 48 Laws of Power. But 33 Strategies of war is great. It’s not about war tactics. It’s about strategy and philosophy, and can be applied directly to business. Anyway in one of the chapters he talks about a concept called “Death Ground”. Basically what this is, is when you’re in war, you position your own army so that their back is against the wall. This eliminates all ability to procrastinate or remain lazy. Then your army becomes more effective and stronger.
The idea underneath this is that our procrastination or inability to focus becomes our worst enemy.
“You don’t have time for this display, you fool,” he said in a severe tone.
“This, whatever you’re doing now, may be your last act on earth. It may very well be your last battle. There is no power which could guarantee that you are going to live one more minute…”
“… Acts have power,” he said, “Especially when the person acting knows that those acts are his last battle. There is a strange consuming happiness in acting with the full knowledge that whatever one is doing may very well be one’s last act on earth. I recommend that you reconsider your life and bring your acts into that light… Focus your attention on the link between you and your death, without remorse or sadness or worrying. Focus your attention on the fact you don’t have time and let your acts flow accordingly. Let each of your acts be your last battle on earth. Only under those conditions will your acts have their rightful power. Otherwise they will be, for as long as you live, the acts of a timid man.”
“Is it so terrible to be a timid man?”
“No. It isn’t if you are going to be immortal, but if you are going to die there is not time for timidity, simple because that timidity makes you cling to something that exists only in your thoughts. It soothes you while everything is at a lull, but then the awesome, mysterious world will open its mouth for you, as it will open for every one of us, and then you will realise that your sure ways were not sure at all. Being timid prevents us from examining and exploiting our lot as men.”
- Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan ,Carlos Castaneda, 1972
Our first business was a running retail store.
I’d sunk all my cash into getting as much stock as I could, but still couldn’t fill up the wall of shoes.
So I had sporadic models, with half size runs.
Anyway, rent was over $5k that first month, and I was already running low.
My back was against the wall. I needed sales.
So what happened was a Nike representative came to me. His name was Mike. Mike from Nike.
And Mike helped me out with a contact list of emails, of all the podiatrists and trainers in the area.
Basically what I did was emailed all of them for an introduction, and then went out and met them.
I think I emailed 271 people.
I met up with twenty or thirty.
It was enough to get a few referrals, and then the word of mouth started to spread.
If I wasn’t ‘back against the wall,’ would I have emailed them?
Probably, but it may have taken a lot longer.
As long as we have the ability to act, creating a positive pressure to act is a great way to see change. The only problem, is you need to find a way to manufacture this urgency. For most people, they’re living in a pretty comfortable life. So there really isn’t much urgency. And we have a lot of things to distract ourselves with - social media, Netflix et cetera.
We need to figure out some way to create the urgency despite all of this comfort.
One way is to actually create it. Make the metaphorical ‘death ground’ more real.
Sink a bunch of money into something. Invest in a marketing project. Invest in a mentor. Invest in a book you want to publish.
Figure out what a meaningful amount of money is to you, and then put that on the line. It needs to be enough to create urgency, so that you wake up and you move.
Now, having said all that, I don’t know if it’ll work for everyone. I’m reminded of one guy I worked with when I was a personal trainer. And he had a heart attack. And then he made it through, but the doctor told him that if he doesn’t change up his health quick - he was a highly stressed out accountant - then he probably wouldn’t make it much longer. And the dude wasn’t that old. Maybe mid sixties. He was literally on death ground.
But then this guy came in, and he wasn’t even that committed to his training. It was sad. If there’s one thing that will help with health - it’s some movement, and fixing up your diet. He just couldn’t be bothered though. He was an awful client. Always late. He had too much money, but not enough sense.
So it might not work for everyone, but it’ll work for most people.
2 - Know what work actually matters
Say you’re really focused on your business - you’re on death ground - but then you’ve got to figure out what the heck to work on. Do you work on your offer. Do you work on your sales process? Or what about your marketing?
To be honest, this is where a mentor can come in. Someone who has overcome the force of resistance, and overcome distraction, and is keeping you on track with the right tasks.
We need to either immerse ourselves in the problem very deeply to know where the work lies, or, we can consult or talk with someone else who is familiar with the problem and benefit from their insights.
Both can work, but either way it’s important, and can lead to growth.
Example:
I’ve seen business owners at $30k months want to stop, and start a new business on the side to make more money… My job - why they would pay me, is to slow them down here. We would talk through this, and realise that there was still a lot of potential and work to be done with the main offer. And in fact, even from a financial perspective, it would be a lot easier to grow through the first offer, than it would be to create an entirely new offer for a new customer segment.
When he kept going, the guy went to 50, 60, 80, then $100k + months, all from this one principle.
Figure out what matters relative to your mission, and stick to it.
3 - Find your focus
How do we stay the course?
It seems like such a simple task.
And yet, it’s fraught with difficulty for business owners all over the world.
A while back I met a guy from New Zealand who had built an online education platform. Basically it was a SAAS product. Anyway, the business was seeing some success, and soon the guy was making good money with this startup. The problem was, he was also spending it. He was starting to go out, drink more, gamble… Because there was so much money flow, it was a case of why not have some fun? Anyway, soon they started to think about growing this company and exiting it. Or selling it off. And so he talked to his own mentor, because there was no way that he could grow it doing what he was doing. What happened was the guy basically forced him to lock himself in his office, and do sales calls. So he was constantly calling, setting up meetings with educational facilities, making sales.
Eventually this created the uptick they needed in the user base.
And soon he sold it off for somewhere between $30-$50 million dollars.
Once we know what to work on, we need to figure out a way to find, and hold, our focus. And the way this dude did it was through brute force.
Personally I go on a slightly different angle. I prefer interest-driven focus.
I’ll explain with an example.
Right now I’m writing the second book, which is on World Building. It’s no easy task to write a book. It takes some work. And a lot of time.
And to be honest, there’s a lot of other stuff I’d rather be doing than sitting there and pounding out words on a keyboard.
BUT…
When I can reframe that situation, and reconnect with the fact that I am actually deeply interested in the topic, and that it is interesting to me to write and teach these concepts, then I can really write.
And so this is the concept of writing from a place of interest.
And so it is with all of my work. To an extent, there’s really no difficulty in staying focused, because as long as I have enough energy, this is the main thing that is attracting my attention at the time. Or in other words, it’s easy to focus on things that hold our curiosity.
This leads us to the final point there…
I don’t know about you, but to me, when I’m in a low energy state, it’s easy to get distracted.
So this sounds super cliched, but figuring out what gives you enough energy, and what takes energy away, and maximising, or limiting, accordingly, is super important.
For me, to stay focused I need enough food and enough sleep. Maybe some walking and some training here or there.
It ain't super complicated, but it is important.
When we want to grow a business, it takes what can feel like an incredible amount of work.
One way to reframe this, is see it as a large amount of energy, that you are directing into the work, and not into a bunch of other random things. Simple right? Not always easy though. But that’s OK, because our three steps are:
See that if your hand isn’t being forced into urgency and action, then you need to force it yourself.
Put yourself on Death Ground somehow.
The second thing is you want to be focusing on the right thing.
If you get this wrong, you can spend all kinds of time doing random stuff, that feels like working, but doesn’t get you anywhere at all.
Ask some questions, get some help, and make sure you know exactly what it is that you need to focus on.
Our last step, is to get focused.
Some people seem to thrive by brute forcing this. Others, like myself, tend to do better when it’s interest led. i.e. orienting the work itself towards problems you like to help solve anyway.
If you follow these steps, and create ways to be interested in the work as you go, you’ll be surprised by your output, productivity, and in many cases the growth and maturity of your business.
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How to add more depth to your character for cut-through content
We can only move fast in our marketing and cut through the noise when we have a clear direction, so we don’t get bogged down in overthinking.
Why is it so hard to settle on a direction?
Why do we get stuck on marketing, and content creation as a coach or creative business?
Is it lack of engagement with the stuff we do put out?
What about if we aren’t clear on how our ‘character’ shows up in the business story, so we’re left flapping around on social media looking for ideas on what to say?
The other day I was talking about content with a coach who works with women.
We opened up Instagram and looked at a bunch of women who are in her ‘space.’ You could count the number of posts before there was either one of those boring Canva tiles with a quote on it, or a shot of them in a bikini or with their top off on a cliff or beach. It’s like, is this still happening? Are we not bored of this same thing yet?
In my experience, compelling marketing and a strong business brand is driven by a bunch of different things.
One common thread is an unfolding story.
And for coaching and creative businesses, this is what’s called ‘Character Driven’ story, or a ‘Character driven business’, which is basically the opposite of a plot driven story.
Do you have a character driven business?
The way I think about this is if you plucked you out of the biz, and put someone else in, would it change the business significantly?
For most people we work with, it would, right? Their business would be totally different without them. A couple of months back I talked to a woman who bought an online coaching business - but the previous business owner was kind of an influencer. So what happened was, he sold them this business, then walked away, but he was the main overarching character.
So when he left the scene it makes this huge gap in the business.
You see this when a lead character leaves a business, or passes away. Occasionally the business can recover, but it’s tricky.
The way most people solve the content or marketing problem, is by downloading some kind of planner. Just the other day I was hit with an ad on social media to download a planner with a bunch of ‘done for you’ content. I couldn’t think of anything more stupid. That has to be the fastest way to eliminate all independent thinking and character building. Or they outsource their marketing to a social media manager. And this puts the creator into what’s called a ‘content first’ mindset. Meaning, if I could just get my content right, then I would see success. Or, “my content just isn’t resonating”.
But when you see engaging content, consider that it’s the output from the character, the business story and their world.
Cut-through ‘content’ has to come from this core of the business.
Come back to your character first, to drive cut-through content.
A while back I was watching a show about how Quintin Tarantino developed the characters for his movies. I think he was talking about Pulp Fiction at the time. In my view, Tarantino creates some of the most compelling characters in film, and it’s our nuanced relationship with his characters alongside what those characters do, that drives so much engagement and creates a cult-like following with his stuff.
Basically what he does is, he writes out twenty or thirty pages of dialogue between the characters in some random situation.
Say, talking about some current events.
Now, he knows he isn’t going to actually use this dialogue for anything in the film.
It’s basically thrown away.
But what it does is lets him get to know his characters.
And from there, he does something wildly effective.
He let’s the characters drive the story.
We’ll simplify how this happens below, and how it relates to your business.
But great marketing, and a great brand, has very little to do with how ‘polished’ the colours are. It has very little to do with having the right Canva branding package. And it even has little to do with what is being ‘said’, but it has a LOT to do with who is saying it, what they stand for, what they want, and what they do.
If we get stuck on content, or if we want to power up the marketing to create a more compelling story, we can always come back to the characters in the business, and world. Where are they going? What do they want to create exactly? And what events are out there on the timeline?
Example:
Let’s say you’re a yoga teacher.
And you’re trying to figure out what you want to do for content or marketing.
Well you’ve got some educational stuff you could do.
You could do the classic yoga pose on the cliff top with the yoga pants on.
Or, you could come back to what you really want, how you want to help people, the future you want to see, and what you are doing about it?
If you want more people to live a less stressed out, balanced life, with more energy, what are you going to do about that?
You could run events? What kind of events? When are they held and why are they different because you are running them?
Now you have a timeline, and you are doing something in a certain way.
This character driven content is less of a stand alone piece of marketing, and more about a ‘sliver’ of interesting information that is documenting how part of the story or work is moving forward. Your content shows how your world is developing.
Questions that can help character-driven content
Let’s look at the Joker from The Dark Knight. I’m aware I’m using film examples here… But understand that your business is a story very much like a film or novel. Sure your offer solves a problem, but it does that through a compelling story, that people want to be a part of.
So when we think of the Joker, we have a very clear, and compelling character.
We know exactly who he is, how he evolves, and how he behaves.
Any ‘content’ from the Joker isn’t just driven by what he says, but that we know what he wants, what he needs, what he stands for, and therefore HOW he does something. This is what makes the Joker the Joker.
EXAMPLE:
In the scene where he’s walking out from the hospital after blowing it up, with a smile on his face, although he is evil, we are immensely satisfied. Why?
Is that the darkness in us resonating with the event?
Maybe. But I don’t think so.
It’s that how he walks, how he executes his plans, and the fact that his wants and needs are being met (for now) bring us closer to the character.
What does your character want, exactly?
When we get stuck in content, we can come back to what your character wants and how they are evolving. Because it’s the character’s desires that drive the story forward. But this has to be specific.
In the Joker’s case, it is to create total chaos in Gotham city, and continue the battle with Batman. This is specific. This isn’t just “I want to commit crimes.” That wouldn’t be compelling or specific for us to resonate with, because any obstacle that pops up would be too easy to overcome, and it would be boring.
In Tony Robbin’s case, it’s about wanting to end poverty and wanting people to be empowered. His desires drive his world forward.
Another example, let’s say you’re a bit of a gun personal trainer, and you love your training:
** You might want to master a particular movement yourself (infinite fodder for story)
** You might want to help a particular demographic of people in your town or online get healthy in a certain way
** You might want to win the battle against some industrial food company that you think is making people unhealthy
** You might want to help people look and feel great so they can meet their dream partner
As you can see, the want is personal, but in a business setting, it’s going to involve creating some kind of change for your clients.
For me, my wants could include:
** Giving small business owners the supreme skills to build their world and their business
** Teaching them the basics of marketing so they can succeed
** Supercharging small business so it can defeat the slow, technocratic, big business giants
** Helping and inspiring others to be strong, creative and successful in their businesses
OK, so now what do I do to satisfy those wants?
** Write “All in” a book that is a guide for coaches and creative business owners
** Run live events both online and offline
** Offer coaching for small business owners through Creator Club
** Write frequent emails, and release podcast episodes with tips to grow a business
And so on…
So one thing you can do, is take some time, and write out what your character wants, being very specific.
What does your character need?
This is much deeper. It’s rooted in our identity, and our values.
The Joker needs chaos and carnage. He needs the battle with Batman, and even in his own words, he would be lost without him.
These are literally what he stands for.
For me, my values are strength, success, integrity… These are the things that I work for each day, and together with my wants drive how I actually do what I do.
So some people try to come up with these values, or what your character finds really important, or ‘needs’ by writing things out.
But the real way to do it, is to watch your behaviour.
We only know that the Joker needs chaos, because he is always doing things that create chaos.
We only know that I value strength, because I train each day. It’s what I do.
So take some time to look at your behaviour, to see your unique set of needs.
It could be to be loved, to have comfort, to be creative, to make progress…
If I want to help people get strong, and I have a need for love and creativity, I’m going to have a very different coaching business than if I want to help people get strong, and have a need for progress and efficiency.
Your wants plus your needs give us how you do something.
How you run an event
How you teach a class
How you exercise.
How you do a podcast
How you buy online
How you create a coaching program
And even how you dress, look, walk and talk.
This is why as business owners, we can learn so much more about our customers by watching their behaviour than we can by listening to what they say that they want.
When you are clear on these, you can exaggerate them in your content.
Each article, podcast, or post you make is a chance to show more of your character, what they are doing, thinking, and working on. This will bring cut-through character and personality to your content, so your audience can build a relationship with you.
And all of this is to say, just like in Tarantino’s films, this creates a big chunk of your own character, and can drive your content forward much easier.
Conclusion
If you’re stuck with your content, or aren’t sure how to stand out… instead of leading with “I have to create content”
Ask the question of
“Who am I, what does my character want, what is happening on my timeline, and what can I share from that?”
Your content will now have:
** Desires that we can resonate with because we have desires ourselves
** Much more story and internal narrative
** Nuances and quirks in how you do things, which create relatability
** Conflict and obstacles that get in the way of you getting what you want, which creates engagement
** Personality comes through as you deal with it all
** Story unfolds through the events on your timeline…
You’ll notice straight away that you start to stand apart from the crowd, and will be on your way to building story driven marketing campaigns and a horde of raving fans.
Take the 147 Question Character Building Quiz
Personal brand building on ‘steroids’ to help you get clear on your character in business, so you can find your voice, create cut-through content that resonates and drive your business story forward. ** Includes Bonus Video: Character Building ‘Lost Files’