Why do we need better marketing?
To be honest? I hate selling.
I think there are a lot of people out there that are dying to start their own business or even just make some money on the side. A lot of different things can hold them back but one of them is usually the idea of selling.
They don’t want to do it and it’s easy to understand why.
Selling feels like a foreign concept to us unless you’re a used car salesman. That’s how many of us view selling.
We don’t want to be the Girl Scouts standing outside of the grocery store asking if you’re interested in some cookies. We also don’t want to be door-to-door solar panel people trying to explain the benefits of installing something on your roof.
But we all know one thing to be true: you can’t make money if you don’t sell.
Before the Internet and Social Media, I don’t think there was any other way to sell than to get in front of random people and hope that someone in the crowd would buy from you.
But we don’t live in the before. We live in the now and the now is a wonderful place.
This now gives us access to millions of people for free and because of that, the dynamics of marketing have changed. People are falling in love with individuals and not brands.
Instead of looking at the New York Times for a book review, they wait for their favorite Booktuber (that’s the YouTube section of book lovers) to let them know what they think.
Do Conversions Come Before the Relationship?
The old way was focused on conversions. How can get I get as many people in this room to buy from me?
The new way is focused on relationships. How many meaningful connections can I make with people so that selling doesn’t feel like selling and buying doesn’t feel like buying?
If a friend tells you about a restaurant are they selling you on it or are they telling you about it because they know you’ll love it? That’s how relationships work.
You look out for your people and that’s how I view modern marketing. When I post on Threads or LinkedIn, I do so with the idea that I need to help my people. I need to get them over whatever hump they’re trying to climb.
I’m not pretending that I don’t want to make money. It’s that I understand by helping others money will follow.
Competition Is Heating Up
Let’s face it, everyone and their mama is starting an online business. Not everyone is starting something in your niche, but chances are there are plenty of people already there.
And that’s okay.
Your goal isn’t to go and find another niche. Your job is help your people better than anyone else can.
You don’t feel bad for helping people. Helping people feels really good.
But you need to make money and that’s usually where things change for people. They’ll justify why they need to sell harder because:
- That’s just how you make money
- Everyone else is doing it
- You aren’t making money with your current approach
All of these are legit issues. I want to show you though that in the long term if you go out of your way to continue to help people, you will be rewarded.
You will have no competition.
I Want the Big Dogs
There are some big names that I’m competing against. They have audiences 10,000x bigger than mine.
At the moment, there is no possible way for me to reach their level of success by doing the exact same things as them. They are already doing them and people know them for that so why would me doing the same work out?
It won’t.
But what I do see from them is a lack of helping. A lot of surface-level content that is only meant to bait you in closer to buy the big thing.
So what can I do to compete? Do a better job of helping.
The Greatest Joy in Life
I believe the greatest joy in life is creating. To be able to create is the most amazing thing and I think deep down everyone wants to create.
It doesn’t matter if it’s fishing, building LEGO sets with their kids (or by themselves), baking, gardening, writing a book, or building a business, we love to create.
The Internet allows us to turn our joy of creating into money, but for many people, doing that kills the joy. You might love to garden, but then you decided to start a YouTube channel and it now feels like gardening is a chore because you’re worried about your YouTube views.
This course is about showing you how to make a living out of creating without losing the joy.
That’s why we need better marketing.
Because the world has changed. The dynamics between a business and its customers have changed.
You have changed.
Good Marketing vs Bad Marketing
I reference Seth Godin a lot in this course and for good reason. His philosophy of marketing is exactly how I see it. We share the same Worldview on what marketing should be.
Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem. Marketing helps others become who they seek to become.
Does that sound like traditional marketing/selling to you?
Bad marketing is about hype, interrupting customers, pressuring them to do what you want them to do, about scamming the customer into buying a product they may not need or want.
Good marketing helps customers. Good marketing should be a positive force in the world.
How much marketing have you come across that feels like a positive force in the world? Compare that to how many people you come across that want to better their lives, but don’t know how.
It’s not that we need less marketing. We actually need more of it and we need it to be better.
I want you to love marketing because you love helping people.
Marketing Hiding in a Course
This course is the perfect example. Everything within it is marketing but not marketing in the way that you might think.
Instead of telling you to go buy my offers, this course is meant to bring you closer to my world. To help you see that there is a better way to do things.
There are no downsides to me putting this course out there for you.
Good marketing helps customers.
Next Lesson: The Audience >>>>>