Make Marketing Suck Less

Dr. Michelle Mazur (00:00): What if the online business game is rigged? There's such a sense of rugged individualism and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, when it comes to building an audience and your business. These celebrity entrepreneurs, with their huge audiences, teach you in their courses that if you want a business that's like theirs, an audience that is like theirs, then you need to do what they do. You need to show up consistently. You need to provide great value. You need to blog, podcasts, do videos, host webinars and workshops, build your email list, run ads because that's the way you build a successful business. But what if that's not really how they did it when they started out? What if, what we've been told to do to build your audience and build your business isn't the best way for you to do that? That's what we are diving into on this episode of the podcast. Let's do this.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (01:17): You're listening to the Rebel Uprising podcast. This podcast is dedicated to helping passionate business owners become recognized leaders who make more money and impact the world by turning their messy, complicated ideas, into thriving thought leadership businesses. I'm your host, Dr. Michelle Mazur, and I'll be your no-bs guide in the art of building a business that gets noticed. Each week, I share strategies, tools and insights on how to turn your complicated ideas into great messaging and solid business structures. Are you ready to create an uprising in your industry? Let's do this. Way back in 2018, I was listening to an episode of James Wedmore's Mind Your Business podcast and it was an episode where he was interviewing Amy Porterfield. The episode is called Playing Big with Amy Porterfield, in case you want to check it out. At the beginning of the episode, he and Amy were talking about their superhero origins story, which is really the story of how their businesses got started and how they met.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (02:31): Now, Amy and James are people who sell you courses. Whether that course is how to build your business or how to create a course and build an audience around your course. But some of the messaging they have around what they do is this idea that, hey, if you don't have an audience yet, it's no problem, I'll teach you how to do that. And why I'm bringing that up and why it's so fascinating, it's because of what Amy says at the beginning of this interview. And she and James are basically talking about how they started their business, how they started building their audiences and coming up with their first course. Now Amy said, "I started becoming friends with Lewis Howes, then he saw some of the content I was putting out there," and he said, "I think you should create a Facebook program and I'll help you market it."

Dr. Michelle Mazur (03:28): Now James asked Amy, "what went through your mind as soon as he said that?" and she was like, "hell yeah, I think it was a hell yes, because I knew I was meant to create courses. I didn't have a list yet and I didn't really have a big audience, so I didn't know at the time what a big deal that was going to be for me." True. She didn't have a list or a huge social media following when she just started out. She just had Lewis Howes and his huge platform, plus his marketing team and his Facebook ad spend to help her fill her webinars and sell a $97 program. Now James' story is exactly the same thing. He was approached by Lewis to do a YouTube marketing course. So he created the course, Lewis promoted it, filled up the webinars with Facebook ads and the rest is history.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (04:29): So this story fascinates me, right? I want to say first that this isn't anything about schadenfreude or throwing shade on Amy and James. Really, good for them. They built partnerships and relationships and, really, I believe that's one of the things we should be doing more of in business. So they had that advantage of the partnership with Lewis Howes, but they also had another distinct advantage when it comes to building a business that I don't think we talk enough about. That advantage is being first to market. The Lewis Howes story happened in 2011, 11 years ago, which is like a 100 years in internet time. Both Amy and James had this advantage of being one of the first to create courses around how to market on Facebook and how to do videos for YouTube. And when you're first to market, you get an advantage of establishing yourself as the expert who does this thing and then that creates momentum around your business.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (05:51): And as your brand evolves and grows, those people come along with you, they evolve with you. So there's a huge advantage to being first to market. And I see this in my own business, like Donald Miller Building a StoryBrand. StoryBrand was, literally, one of the first books about how to do messaging. So I shouldn't be surprised when people are like, oh yeah, this is the book you need to read, when it comes to messaging. I also think about Sue B. Zimmerman, who is a friend of the pod. She was really early in the Instagram game. And when you're first, it just gives you this momentum, especially when you're first and you're explaining something that people think they need to use to market their business, or they do need to use to market their business. That makes it so much easier for you to establish yourself as the expert, the go-to authority.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (06:53): So this sets us up for this paradox. We are fed this message by marketing that, hey, if I can do it, you can do it too. So if I have the big audience and I'm making seven figures, then hey, I can teach you how to do it. But what if that's not the case? Because I've seen so many people follow the strategies that they are taught in these courses and they don't see the level of success. Guess what? It's not our failing, it's that we just don't have those advantages, right? We're not first to market or we don't have a big break with somebody's huge platform, who can promote and market us and do ads for us. So what does this mean for you? Does it mean that you are completely screwed because you didn't have a big break and you weren't first to market?

Dr. Michelle Mazur (07:57): No, it's not. You are not screwed, but you might want to change your approach. So first let me get this out of the way. Do I think you should build your email community? Yes, I do. Do I think you should stop marketing? No. You want to keep marketing and getting the message out there, but it's about thinking about this in a different way, knowing that we do not have the same advantages as these celebrity entrepreneurs. So first, I think, we should start by having real conversations about what it takes to build an audience and a business. Talking about the messy middle, the how do you keep showing up when nobody's paying attention? Because that is a phase in business and it can last a very long time, but we don't talk about it, we just see the end worthy results. So to that end, I want to put a bug in your ear that I am going to be hosting a community project about exploring the messy middle of achieving success.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (09:09): And you'll be hearing more about this on next week's pod. But right now I want you to know that this conversation is going to be about what we don't see, the bits that come before the Instagram worthy end-goal or the TED talk or the publishing deal or the feature in Forbes. I really want to have a conversation about the loneliness, the rejection, the showing up to do work when no one is paying attention. And that little bit of envy that happens when you see someone less qualified, get the opportunities you want. There's also the frustration about people not getting our work. So let's talk about what we don't see when people are showing up to advocate for their work, day in and day out. Let's shine a light on that messy middle on the work that happens when no one is watching and you feel like nobody cares because all business owners go through that.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (10:19): So if that sounds like something you're interested in talking about, participating in a conversation about. So you can get a sneak peek and be one of the first people to sign up for this community project at drmichellemazur.com/me, that's M-E, drmichellemazur.com/me. There's no cost. There's just community and conversation while we do this. All right. Second, speaking of community, stop thinking about audience building and start thinking about community building. This story about Amy and James highlights a really important part that's not talked about in online business. The importance of relationships and community. We're just fed this message of like, you can do this by yourself, just run ads, create a great opt-in, but we really need access to other people. I mean, I always tell my clients you can't create your marketing message in a vacuum. We need to talk to people, build each other up, promote each other's work.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (11:34): And Amy and James are so successful because they had a built-in audience when they started. They had that support and access. Now I was recently listening to an episode of What Works with Tara McMullin and she mentioned a study that Mighty Networks conducted on the creator economy. It's called the New Creator Manifesto, I'll hook it up in the show notes, if you want to check it out. It's a pretty interesting study. But one of the insights in that is that we should be focused on building community not audiences. Focus on building relationships and having other people in our community build relationships with each other. This is how we can start to band together, to lift more people up. So each of us can impact more people with our work. Now, finally, this last piece of insight is go specific instead of broad. Another insight from the Mighty Networks study is that creators' niche, instead of growing broad.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (12:45): Now don't get hung up on the niche word. I know people talk to you all the time, it's like, you got to find your niche, got to find your niche. But I think the way we approach that is completely screwed up. There's a ton of ways to niche and it doesn't necessarily have to be on a person or an industry. You can niche on a problem. There's lots of ways to niche, I'm going to talk about that in another episode. But what I want to get across to you here, what's really important here, is ask yourself the question of how big of an audience do you really need? Now I did a podcast on this in 2021, I'll hook that up in the show notes as well. But this goes back to Kevin Kelly's idea of a 1000 True Fans. If you can get a 1000 supporters of your work and they pay you a $100 a piece, that's a $100,000, right?

Dr. Michelle Mazur (13:36): And for many of us, especially, us service providers and coaches who charge the value of our work, you might not need that many people depending on that business model. But the important part of this is to get super specific about who you serve and who you want in your movement. And then talk to that person, create a message for that person, use their language. And for me, one of the ways this has been showing up a lot is in my email community. I have fallen in love with writing to my email community. And there's a reason why, it's because I'm getting specific. I also use Ann Handley's questions from Everybody Writes. Any time I sit down to write an email about what's the business purpose of this email, but most importantly, what's in it for the person reading it.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (14:40): I answer those questions and then I take a moment just to think and visualize the person reading that email. I think about what they're doing. Are they on their phone? Are they on their desk? Do they have a cat in their lap? Or are they in their car waiting to pick up their kids? They've been in all of those places, but it allows me that moment to connect with my person before I write and that, to me, just creates more intimacy, more specificity. And I've noticed a difference in my email. I get so many more responses. I get people commenting about those emails on sales conversations or if I'm on a podcast interview, but it's that deeper connection and that speaking to that one person that makes a huge difference. The bottom line is that the way we have been taught to create a business, that game is rigged.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (15:45): And it's always going to be easier for you to build a business if your first to market, or you have the support of somebody who already has the marketing systems built and who already has an audience, a community, a platform. But for us, for people like you and me with the tiny but mighty audiences, our charge is to keep going because I know that there's someone out there right now who needs exactly what you do. Your job is to reach them. And that might take you changing your approach, thinking about community, going deep instead of casting your net wide and focusing on that community that you're building, that tiny but mighty community. That's how you and I can make an impact with our work.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (16:42): Thank you for listening all the way to the end of the show. Your support means the world to me. Did you know, the Rebel Uprising podcast has a quiz that can help you pinpoint the number one way to build an audience of superfans while staying true to your unique personality? We do and it's called What's your Rebel Roadmap to Exponential Impact and Influence and you can take it at therebelquiz.com. If you're loving the podcast, do us a favor, rate and leave us a quick five-star review wherever you listen to your podcasts. It helps more people, like you, find the show. Until next week. Remember your ideas matter, and now get back out there and cause an uprising in your industry. You got this.