A marketing degree, 10 years’ experience in the industry and as a trainer and speaker in social media marketing, I set out to market my company and myself in 2014. I soon discovered that wasn’t the case. Marketing for people was easier than marketing my own abilities.
When you’re marketing other people and other people’s products or services you don’t have concerns like ‘what will people think?’ ‘who do I think am? ‘what if people don’t want me and my stuff?’ I quickly learnt that mindset is a key element to successfully marketing you and your business.
After 7 years in business, having worked with thousands of entrepreneurs to market themselves successfully, I’ve discovered 3 mindset shifts that can help your marketing succeed and bring more clients.
1. Experts aren’t all the same
We often get worried about trying to be an expert when we are promoting our own businesses and ourselves. The result is that we tend to play it safe and not be an expert.
You might be thinking ‘there are so many experts out there, what makes me different, why should they listen to me? I have nothing to add or what if I don’t really know what I’m talking about and I get found out?’ The good news is there is space for many experts in every industry!
Let’s take the example of famous chefs. Although they all work with similar ingredients, their style, training, and influences can make them all different.
It’s the same for you in your industry. How you are different from other experts will depend on your education, experience, training, influence and personality. But it doesn’t mean that it is not valued or that it shouldn’t be shared. While you don’t claim to be an expert, or have the right way of doing things, it is your point of view.
“As marketers, we should be changing the mantra from always be closing to always be helping.” — Jonathan Lister
2. You may not be liked by everyone
It may not sound like much at first. As many people I admire, I want to feel liked. In the past I had to worry about what others might think of me and my words. This was just before I took to the stage to share it with the world on social media. This sentence proved to be liberating as I grew older.
One of the main reasons entrepreneurs don’t show their face is because of fear of what other people may think about you. Even hiding their brilliance and keeping it to themselves. However, I encourage you to do so. Showing your face can help you attract people.
When someone sees me live on social media or speaking on stage I am being completely authentic, they get to see the real me, they get to see what I’m like and they get to decide if I’m for them or not. If I’m not for them, that’s fine.
They will discover this by showing up and I give them an opportunity to do so before they choose to work with us. If I am showing up authentically then they understand who I am and what I am like, when they do work with me and they don’t get any surprises. Because I am selective in who I choose to attract,
3. What’s the worst that could happen
I have a saying among my students ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ I make them ask themselves this question every time they are too scared to do something – and being too scared to do something normally means they’re worried to put themselves out there and are concerned about being seen as an expert.
So let’s take speaking as an example. It’s a great way in which you can be seen as an expert, get yourself out there and grow your business. But let’s say you are scared of speaking. Let’s say you are afraid of speaking. Now, think about it for a moment and then write down the worst possible outcome. Instead of dismissing this part, I urge you to think about it. You have a brain that loves to place us in fearful and doubtful situations. I invite you to take a few moments to hear it and then write down the messages it gives you. My fears might include ‘what if I fell over on stage, or what if I forget my words, or what if someone in the audience knows more than me.’
Then once you’ve made your big list of everything that could go wrong I then want you to think about what you would do if that thing happened? If you lost your words, what would you do? Well, in reality no one would know and you could carry on or if you’re like me you could say “I lost my train of thought” and keep going.. No one is going to die, no thunderbolt is going to come from the ceiling and strike you down because you forgot your words.
When I do this exercise with my students, once they have thought about things that could go wrong and what they would do about them, I then ask them to write down ‘and what would you do if it went right?’ What would that mean to you and your business if it actually went the way you hoped it could go?
They soon come to realize that all the things that they fear that once stopped them from putting themselves out there from approaching a new client, to offering to speak on stage or being interviewed for a podcast, actually is really not that bad. Often the worst that could happen is they say ‘no’ and that’s ok, you’ve lost nothing!
As you can see, most of the marketing we do for ourselves means putting ourselves out there in the world and that can be scary, but instead of letting that fear stop you, lean into it and show up – your perfect customer is waiting for you!
The post 3 Mindset Shifts That’ll Elevate Your Marketing Immediately first appeared on Addicted 2 Success.
The post 3 Mindset Shifts That’ll Elevate Your Marketing Immediately appeared first on Addicted 2 Success.
