Marketing "My Way": A 6 Month “Experiment” Begins

Charlie - A Master "My Way" Practitioner

How long does one have to feel crappy inside about the way one is approaching something, for example marketing, before realizing there’s a better way?  Apparently far too long when that one is me.

 

BACKGROUND

Ever since embarking on my business remodel – and more importantly – hiring two bang up coaches for a pretty penny to help doulah me through the birth of my new business baby – I’ve been in a marketing froth.

You see, up until now (my guilty secret) I’ve never given a rat’s ass (wherever did that statement come from?) for “traditional” marketing.  Make that any marketing.  Yes I threw a business web site up, but even then, I never chased after clients for references.  Never anguished about updating the website too much, except every year to update the copyright year. And you see, the thing is, I never had to.  (Give a rat’s heiney about marketing that is).

Instead, I did my one-on-one relationship marketing, I reluctantly put up a Linkedin profile when that became all the rage, but most importantly - I helped clients successfully make positive changes happen in their career and in their personal and professional life. There were more folks promoted than I can count.  New career and life paths forged.  There were career transitions, salary increases, new skills learned, vastly improved 360 feedback and performance results, improved work life harmony, on-boarding, off-boarding, lots of “this really matches me” jobs found and/or created…..and in turn……these happy clients and HR Business Partners referred their friends, family, colleagues, and employees on to me.  And so it went. On and on.  It was organic.  It worked.

Somehow though, upon embarking on my business remodel – I tossed all these old ways out  – certain that because I was making  some big "paradigm shift" changes to my business – these old ways wouldn't work.  That to attract my new “ideal clients” I would now have to market in a whole new vomit and fear inducing way.  Oops.  Did I just say vomit?  That should have been my first clue. The fact that my two fabulous love them to pieces coaches, Amy Ahlers and Christine Arylo, are both marketing power houses (attracting clients, coaching and helping hundreds of people a year AND raking in the big bucks to boot) only added more fuel and froth to the marketing story I was telling myself. 

OH THE STORY-LICIOUS LIES WE WEAVE

A story that went something like this:  To be over the moon successful (as successful as say my coaches are?) I must now do marketing in a whole new “everybody who is wildly successful is doing it this way” way if I hope to achieve the results I wish and dream for in my business (even if my business model is nothing like theirs).  And thus believing this story, I frothed.  The mere thought of some of these new marketing concepts making me want to toss my lunch.  (In defense of my coaches, they never said I had to do these things, it was all me.  Me and my inner mean girls for sure!)

WHAT'S REALLY IMPORTANT? WRITE A NEW STORY

Then I wrote my Positive Penny post.  And all became crystal clear.  Being and expressing myself authentically in my life and in my work is crazy important to me.  It’s what brought me to this point in time in life.  It’s what spurred me to get out of a corporate job and into coaching 15 plus years ago.  It’s what sparked the current remodel of my business.  When I think about why I do what I do – it’s because I want so much for others, like you, to live and lead an authentic life connected to wisdom too.  

To know who you are (warts and all) and to express yourself authentically.  To share your gifts, talents, and wise intelligent fully expressed self with all of us.  I want your heart to sing at work.  Hell, I want your heart to sing everywhere. Because ultimately – all that positive energy oozing out onto the planet has got to have a positive impact on the Earth.  Better than oozing non-stop negativity – right?

My authentic self?  She’s a bit of a rebel.  She doesn’t want to do what every other service provider and their momma is doing to market – unless doing so makes her heart sing.  Her heart sings when she writes, takes photos and creates beautiful, sometimes inspiring, sometimes informational, sometimes awareness shifting, sometimes “just because” blog posts for you. 

It sings when she contemplates creating a new and beautiful web-site.  A space that invites people in to take time out and stay a short while. A space where they can nourish, nurture and refuel their busy hard working souls.  Perhaps leaving a little more inspired, uplifted, informed and energized as a result.  A space that allows potential clients to reach out for help to make their personal and professional lives hum at ever evolving levels when they feel / know it’s time to do so.  She – who is me - wants marketing to be fun.  To evolve.  Organically. 

THE 'MARKETING MY WAY' EXPERIMENT

So I thought to myself, what if I gave myself full permission to “market my own way” for the next 6 months?   What if I treated this as an experiment - as something to try on to test and see how it works for me?  To see if giving myself space and time to do things my own authentic way garners the results I want.  The relief, joy, and palpable enthusiasm I felt as I thought about this was all the "YES" I needed.  And thus, the 'marketing my way' experiment was born.   At the end of 6 months, and probably at points along the way, I'll take a pulse check and measure results.  If I’m not getting the results I've envisioned, I'll consider making adjustments at that time.    

CO – CONSPIRATORS

I shared my marketing epiphany and experiment with budding co-collaborator (and heck of a cool gal Fiona) who is working on a business remodel of her own.  She’s a little ahead of me remodel wise, and on our collaboration calls, has jokingly referred to Sales and Marketing as “S&M”. (If you don’t get what that means, please don’t ask me to explain, ask Fiona.)   When she heard about my experiment, her response was an emphatic “I want to do that with you too”!  So off we go, together, doing this thing called marketing our own way.  

Calling it an experiment though doesn’t work for her – which is just fine by me.  It doesn’t matter what she calls it, as long “her way” works for her.  I’ve invited Fiona to guest blog here about her experience, so stay tuned! 

What About YOU?

Where in your life are you aching to try on a 6 month "XYZ My-Way" experiment?  You know the place I'm talking about.   Maybe it's about marketing and developing your business too.  Maybe it's about how you approach your health and well being.  Or perhaps it's about how you lead your organization, team or project.  Or it might be about how you approach parenting, or relating with a loved one.  Or maybe it's about how you approach finding a new job, or develop yourself professionally.  Whatever it is,  do share!  We'd love to hear all about it!

(Remember please – I’m advocating for positive, highest self-expression here.  Not – let me beat you up and cause you pain cuz that’s my way of expressing myself ways.  Nothing that will cause intended harm to other living souls please).  

STAY TUNED!

I'll be blogging some time soon about initial results, which popped up immediately in the first two weeks of the experiment.  Mind boggling actually.....so stay tuned for more from me and maybe Fiona too about the marketing "MY WAY" experiment!