Make Marketing Suck Less

Dr. Michelle Mazur (00:00): Do you remember the game Mad Libs, where your partner would ask you for a noun, a verb, an adjective, a number, a beverage, another noun, then at the end, your friend would read you back the Mad Lib, and it would spit out a pretty hysterical, usually nonsensical, and sometimes vastly inappropriate story? The other day, I discovered a piece of software that claimed that it could create a social media post in just three seconds, and literally it was based on the game of Mad Libs, Social Media Mad Libs. So you would fill out things like your client's title, their biggest misconception, what they really want, and then the software would spit out a post that you could copy and paste into your social media platform of choice. To me, this type of posting is the pinnacle of playing the game of communication, wanting to post quickly to score points, be consistent, get those likes and shares, and be seen. Meanwhile, we're not really thinking about what our mission is, what makes our clients unique, what makes us unique?

Dr. Michelle Mazur (01:17): And that type of Social Media Mad Libs, it actually robs you and I. It robs you of your biggest strength, because in every game there is a player and that player has unique strengths. And that's what I want to talk about on the final installment about playing the game of communication, how we can opt out of playing the game and bring more of you into how you communicate about your business. So let's do it. 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.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (02:45): Now, you might be wondering, Michelle, how did those Social Media Mad Libs posts turn out? Was I able to create something and post it in less than three seconds? The short answer is, hell no. The long answer was that those posts, they just didn't sound like me. They didn't reflect my values. There was this heavy emphasis on scarcity. So, for instance, I created a post about my new Three Word Rebellion Mini Audio Workshop, and if you're interested in that, that's over at threewordrebellion.com. It spit out this post that said shit like, "This offer is only available forever and there are infinity copies left," because I don't use scarcity in my marketing. And, of course, There's going to be infinity copies of an audio workshop that I deliver by a private podcast feed.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (03:43): And yeah, there were a few posts that I could have spent time doctoring them to make them sound more like me, but then, what the hell is the point of using the software? Because the software is supposed to save me time and now I have to fill out this huge intake form to spit out a Mad Lib that doesn't sound anything like me, that doesn't really represent my business and my brand. And that is the problem with playing the game of communication. We think in marketing, when we're playing the game, it's like, "Okay, I just need to create these post be consistent and then clients will come to me." But if the posts don't represent you, because you are the biggest strength here, then you're just scoring points to score points instead of really creating a meaningful connection.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (04:39): And the father of integrated marketing, Don Schultz, says that he believes that anyone anywhere can copy anything your business does. They can copy your services. They can copy your marketing strategy. They can copy your customer experience. They can copy the kinds of deliverables that your business creates and that might be scary for you. I'm sure it's scary for you. Except Schultz believes there is one thing that is unmistakable, uncopyable, and uniquely yours in business, and that is how you communicate with your audience and your perspective clients. Now, growing up, all of my friends were into playing Dungeons & Dragons and you're like, "Wow, Michelle, you must have hung out with a bunch of nerds," and you would be totally correct because nerds are awesome. Now, I could never get into D&D, but what I really loved was being able to create a character, because each character in the game had different strengths. You had the warriors who were super strong and great in battle. You had the elves who were the archers.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (05:52): You had the wizards who were pretty much the strategic masterminds, whipping up spells that could stop the enemy. And each character was completely unique. No two characters were alike in Dungeons & Dragons and that's what made the game so interesting. Even though I hated playing it, I'd watch my friends play it for hours, because that was entertaining to me. I was a very strange person, but that uniqueness is the key. Your character, you as the player in the game, is your strength. And when we rely on swipes and templates and cookie cutter formulas and blueprints, it robs us of that uniqueness and it robs us of how we authentically communicate. And when we play the game, we tend to look at how other people are doing things and we think, "Oh, that works for them. It will work for me." Now, if you listened to my end of 2021 episode about the meh messaging of 2021, you'll have heard me rant about the phrase "magnetic messaging".

Dr. Michelle Mazur (07:15): And last week, I sent an email to my list about differentiation and how when I typed in "magnetic messaging" into Instagram, it brought up a ton of posts from different people. All of these people had the same message about magnetic messaging. And when we're all speaking the same, how do you know who's good? How do you know who's different? How do you know whose perspective you resonate with? And not only that, these people are all competing for a very small piece of the market. They're all saying the same thing and they're just all butting heads against each other for the same piece of the pie. Whereas, when you actually communicate what you do in a unique way, so, for me, it's the Three Word Rebellion, for Donald Miller, it's building a story brand, for Tamsen Webster, it's the Red Thread, each of us has carved out this unique place in the market that we can truly own, where we can be different, where our strengths are apparent versus sounding like everyone else.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (08:28): And we see this in other ways too when people use the same marketing tactics like, "Oh, I know we talk about this a lot on my sister podcast, Duped: The Dark Side of Online Business." But income claim marketing, sometimes I can log into social media and all I see is reports of $80,000 months, $40,000 months. "Oh, my client had a $30,000 launch. My client had a $50,000 launch," and I'm like, "Who cares? Why are you telling me this? What makes you unique? What did you add to actually get them there? Don't just tell me how much money they're making. Anyone can tell me how much money they're making, but what is your unique perspective on that?" And we also see the same things with the stories. We're always told that we should be telling our story, but it's the rags to riches story that we should be telling. "I was down on my luck sleeping in my best friend's basement next to their pet rat and now I have my business and I'm a millionaire and I have a Tesla and I live by the sea. Isn't that awesome?"

Dr. Michelle Mazur (09:32): And we do what is popular, what we see other people doing instead of what is truly authentic to us. And we do the popular to score points and we do the popular because we're unsure, we're uncertain, and we don't know how to communicate our unique value, our strengths. And here's the deal, playing the game of communication rarely works to attract the kind of clients and opportunities you want. Yes, it works for those popular brands and those celebrity entrepreneurs that we all know, but for people like you and I, we just end up blending in with everyone else. So when we focus on actually communicating, creating shared meaning with someone else, we have an opportunity to opt out of the game and we have an opportunity to really figure out how we want to uniquely communicate in this market, how we want to use our strengths and our abilities as a player in this game.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (10:50): If you're listening to this podcast and realizing that, "Hey, you know what, I'm not having the sales that I want to have my business isn't generating the revenue it should be generating," then it might be time for you to work on your message and figure out that comprehensive strategy for how to build that argument for your work and turn people who don't know you at all into people who are ready and willing to sign up to work with you. And this is exactly the work we do in the Three Word Rebellion Messaging Intensive. So if you're digging this episode and you're thinking, "Yes, this is my next step, or it could be my next step," then I encourage you to go to drmichellemazur.com/3, the number three, W-R. That's drmichellemazur.com/3WR and apply for a free consultation call. That way, you and I can discuss if messaging is the right move for your business. Now back to the show.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (12:08): So what can you look to when you're really looking to show up, I hate the word authentic, but really show up as yourself, as the person who is best suited to solve a specific problem? You show up in your strengths, and, for me, I feel like there's such a lack of people in online business actually claiming what makes them an expert. There is nothing that annoys me more than going to and about page and not seeing a statement of why someone is credible to do the work that they do. And one of the things I encourage all of my clients to do is to state their expertise. If you've been in business for 10 years, state that, if you work with caregivers, and, yes, I'm thinking of a specific client of mine who I know is listening, so hello, Charlotte, but tell us how many years you've been a caregiver yourself. All of that adds to your experience, your expertise. It makes you credible.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (13:19): Just don't tell some story or just don't speak like, "Well, the About Page is really about your client." No, it's about what you can do for your perspective client. So own your strengths, your expertise, your experience, and be bold and loud about that, because no one can copy that. No one in the online space can say that they have a PhD in communication specializing in persuasion, that they've been in business for 10 years, with 25 years of experience in communication. That is all uniquely mine. And I want you just to own your strengths, own your expertise. Next, and this will not be surprising to any of you who've listened to this podcast, your unique point of view is, we dim our unique point of views all the time. Or I see posts all the time that's like, "Unpopular opinion," and then it's totally something that everybody agrees with. It's like, "Unpopular opinion: Testimonials aren't the best judge of character for who you should work with."

Dr. Michelle Mazur (14:32): Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. They show the top 5%. That's not unpopular, it's true. But what I really want you to dive into is what your unique perspective is on your industry and how you do the work you do. Clearly, the Three Word Rebellion book is a great place to start teasing some of these things out so that you can state firmly what you're against and also tell the world what you're for and where you want to move your clients to, the change you want to create for your industry. Another way to really stand out and to use your unique strengths, your ability to communicate, is by building an argument for your work. And I did a podcast episode about how to think about building an argument for your work, because we rely too much on templates for our web pages and our social media and our sales pages and all of that, then we get very nonspecific like, "Oh, you're overwhelmed," or, "Oh, the leader is on the verge of burnout."

Dr. Michelle Mazur (15:43): But that's not specific. That could apply to anyone. And so when we build an argument for our work, we really look to the voice of what our clients are saying. What are they telling you? When someone hires you, what are the words they're using? Because I can guarantee you those words will be unique and something you can use to build the argument. You can also talk about who the villain is in the story you're telling. And that villain is never your client. It's someone who lives outside, but also your unique solution, your Three Word Rebellion, all of that. Building an argument for your work is really a one of a kind act and it is a way for you to stand out in this crowded market. And then, finally, speaking of building an argument for your work, the work you do is unique. You have a unique methodology, a unique way of working with people, and it's so important that you create a framework.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (16:52): Even if you're a coach and you're like, "Oh, all my work is so customized," I can guarantee you, there is a high level framework that you use with all of your clients that you are just not thinking about. That framework is uniquely yours and it's a unique way to structure your offer, position your offer, communicate what it is you do. Once we have our unique framework, it just makes, for me, and I've talked about this before, sales are so much easier because I know exactly what I'm going to say. I know my process really well and I know how I communicate that process resonates with my right client. So with that, it is time to let the game of communication go to use the point system that these platforms have given us to give us some directional feedback of what is working, what isn't working, but never letting those points that we're trying to score really undermine our own mission and our goal.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (18:03): And it's time for you to amplify your own uniqueness. Because if communication is truly the only way we have left to stand out, it is time for you to go deep, focus in on what makes you different, and then amplify that so that your right people can find it. Don't be afraid to be uncopyable, to say things that will turn off certain people, to use your strengths, to let go of all the templates and the formulas this online space gives us and really think about, how can you communicate and create a meaningful relationship with the people you most want to serve? 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 super fans 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.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (19:22): 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.