Make Marketing Suck Less

Michelle Mazur (00:00): Sometimes you just need to know something is possible. As you're digging in to find your three word rebellion, you begin to realize that encapsulating your expertise into just a few words is a heavy lift, but it is possible to find that three word rebellion, that core message you want to be known for. And when you do, that message can have a ripple effects in your business. That's why on this week's podcast, I'm featuring five experts talking about their three word rebellion and what it has done for their business. The aim is to give you inspiration and drive to find your own three word rebellion while helping you decide what you want this message to do for your business. Let's do it.

(01:00): Get ready for the Rebel Uprising Podcast, the only podcast dedicated to business owners who feel overlooked for their expertise, skills and experience. Let's claim your expertise and turn your complex ideas into unmistakable messaging that grows your business. I am your host, Dr. Michelle Mazur, the author of The Three Word Rebellion and your Rebel Troop Telling Guide to Building a Business That Gets Noticed.

(01:30): At this point in the Three Word Rebellion book, you've done the free writing and hopefully you've done some initial analysis and developed your word bank, and you're really digging in trying to pair down that mass of words and ideas to find the three word rebellion that really encapsulates the change you want to create. So as you read chapters six and seven this week about three word rebellions in the wild and the ultimate test of any three word rebellion, the intrigue loop, I wanted to give you some inspiration from other experts who found their three word rebellion.

(02:16): You'll be hearing from five experts, some who just found their three word rebellion, and others have been working with their message for quite some time. You'll get to hear what their three word rebellion is and the impact it has had on their business. So while you listen, I want you to think about what you want your three word rebellion to do for your business. Knowing your message's job, the three word rebellions role, the impact that you want to make with this message is the key to unearthing it. It's what gives you the motivation to keep going and to find this message.

(03:05): So let's dig into these experts stories. In an industry where everyone is promising the same thing, talking about what they do in a similar way, how do you stand out? This three word rebellion points the way.

Cassie Christopher (03:23): I'm Cassie Christopher, a registered dietician nutritionist, and my three word rebellion is The Courage to Trust. And the courage to trust has helped my business in three distinct ways. One, it has helped me communicate that what I do is about so much more than food. Yes, as a dietician, certainly I talk to my clients about food, but there's a lot of these intangible benefits, which really is the second way my message has helped me, by communicating these intangible benefits, which really are more interesting to me. I think they're more important in the grand scheme of things. Someone looking for a dietician who's talking about things like courage and trust, if they're hooked by that or interested in that, there's a good chance they're probably going to be the kind of person that I want to work with.

(04:20): Lastly, my message has helped me really capture people's attention. Like I said, having the people who are interested in words like "courage" and "trust" from a dietician. And then I can define what that means and go deeper. It's about hooking people and then taking them into the story of my message.

(04:41): I know that this is working not only because I have sales to prove it, but even just the other day, a woman had booked a call with me and she said, "Your approach, it makes so much sense to me. It makes sense why we would need to go into some of these more emotional and softer skills rather than approaching food in my work." So I so appreciate Michelle and my three word rebellion, it has really made a big difference in my business.

Michelle Mazur (05:08): What I love about Cassie's three word rebellion is that never in a million years would you expect a registered dietician to be talking about trust. Carbs, yes. Calories, sure. Trust? No way. And that message, the courage to trust, makes people curious.

(05:31): And the second thing this three word rebellion does for Cassie is it cuts to the heart of what her work really does for her clients. It gives them the courage to trust themselves, their bodies, and the decisions they make. And unbeknownst to her clients, this is what they really want. Her three word rebellion says something completely different. It is having a completely different conversation in her industry that makes her right clients flock to her.

(06:06): And on a nerdy wordsmith note, I view Cassie's three word rebellion as a thought starter. "Courage to trust" is the beginning of a thought, and then she can pair her three word rebellion with a result. And this is from Cassie's website, "The courage to trust yourself around food, the courage to trust your body and what it tells you, the courage to trust that food is not the problem and neither are you." It's just a brilliant way to, yes, be known for a message that's different, but also be able to pair that three word rebellion to more specific results of her work.

(06:53): Now on to our second mini case study. Sometimes a three word rebellion can help you powerfully name something your clients are experiencing and reframe that experience into something that is hopeful and uplifting. Sometimes, a three word rebellion lights the way and reframes a negative experience into a positive, into a strength.

Annie Tremmel (07:24): Hi, I'm Annie Tremmel. My three word rebellion is The Unconventional Child. When I first started working with Michelle, I was really struggling with my messaging and getting my point across in a way that felt good to me. I work in the parenting space. I really wanted to stay away from defining a family and a child through my words in my messaging. A big part of my methodology is allowing people to define those terms for themselves within their family and with their kids. So it was hugely important to me not to impose my own values or stereotypes or generalizations on the families that I work with, but I couldn't figure out how to do that and still call in the audience that needed what I do, the people that need the work that I do.

(08:12): So I continued to struggle, but once I was working with Michelle, she was amazing. She just knew how to pull everything out of me. And in that work, we were really able to create this three word rebellion that is just perfect for what I do. It's positive. It is validating for the families that I work with. It's very much normalizing for people who are struggling with children. Above all, it just feels good. It's got a great connotation to it, and it just describes exactly how I want my families to feel, how I want them to view themselves and just in a really positive way. And frankly, I'm just so much more confident. So five stars for Michelle. Can't say enough.

Michelle Mazur (08:59): For this three word rebellion, it was important for Annie and I to make it feel like a sigh of relief for the parents she works with, a way to name what's happening with their child and normalize it. Now, what Annie didn't mention, that many of her clients are secretly worried that there is something seriously wrong with their kiddo, that they're having some type of serious mental health issue, and really they're not. The families that she works with, their kiddo just interacts with the world in a different way.

(09:40): And for her parents hearing "the unconventional child" sparks that glimmer of hope that maybe there is nothing wrong in their kiddos, just a little unconventional. With Annie's three word rebellion, we named something powerful for her clients that made them curious to know more and instantly gave them the sigh of relief they didn't even know they needed.

(10:14): Next step, we have Laura Gatsos Young, a copywriter who knows the importance of messaging and yet was struggling to do it for herself. This is how her three word rebellion, "belong to your customer," has impacted her business.

Laura atsos Young (10:29): When I think about how my three word rebellion has changed my business, it really became the foundation upon which I build all my content and sell my services. When I explain my three world rebellion of Belong to Your Customer, clients immediately want to learn more and how they can use the copywriting and marketing strategy to do it. It has opened up so many opportunities and sparked so many meaningful conversations. I'm so grateful I've come to it.

Michelle Mazur (10:53): Why I think Belong to Your Customer works so well for Laura is that, number one, it aligns perfectly with Laura's values in her business. Everything she does for her clients is centered on how her clients can better connect with their customers in their copy and their marketing, which brings us to the second reason it works well. Since Laura's work is centered on the language of the customer, the work she does creates a sense of belonging for her clients' customers. In a world where there are millions of copywriters to choose from, Belong to Your Customer says something that no one else in her industry is saying. And for her clients who want their customers to deeply identify with their brand, Laura is the natural choice for them.

(11:53): Next up is a three word rebellion from someone who read the book, did the work, and found her three word rebellion on her own, and it's made quite an impact on her business.

Heidi Taylor (12:06): Hi, my name is Heidi Taylor and my three word rebellion is, Ask Like an Expert. Here's how my three word rebellion has helped my business. It's made talking about my business and my expertise infinitely easier. My three word rebellion liberated me from all of the other things I thought I should be talking about in my business, and it's provided me with a very specific focus. My clients wanted the confidence to be the kind of business owner who can leverage their expertise to ask.

(12:37): In fact, my three word rebellion allowed me and gave me permission to create a weekly offer on Instagram Stories called The Intake Form Reviews. And because of it, I was able to show my clients how to ask like an expert, and I continued to get paying clients because of that free weekly offer. It's provided me with the important constraint of focus by focusing in on and niching down on what my clients had been asking me for but didn't have the exact right words for. And now that I'm known for my three word rebellion, it's led me to selling a premium coaching offer. I'm so delighted and over the moon by my three word rebellion in all of the ways that it continues to pay me back because I did the work and found my three word rebellion. Thank you so much, Michelle.

Michelle Mazur (13:25): Rebel truth time. I hired Heidi because of her three word rebellion. When I was working on my sales process, the idea of having a process that let me ask like an expert lit me up. I wanted my sales process to showcase my expertise, and I didn't know how to do it. So ask like an expert made me think, "Yes, please, that's what I want." Followed by, "Oof, I have no idea how to do this," which made me want to hire Heidi. It was exactly what I needed to hear to reach out to her.

(14:07): And I love how this three word rebellion gave Heidi a clear focus on her business and even allowed her to create a new Ask Like an Expert offering. And that is the power of having your messaging clear. Your three word rebellion should be leading people to work with you. It is that initial spark that gets people excited to know more and eventually work with you.

(14:40): Now on to our final three word rebellion. This one comes from a coach whose expertise is in emotions and business. Stacy Fisher's three word rebellion is Emotions That Work. Now listen in to hear how it's impacted her business.

Stacy Fisher (14:58): My three word rebellion ties together two threads of my work: emotions and entrepreneurship. When I worked through Michelle's process, I discovered that I was rebelling against a couple of things. One, the old handbook that says emotions don't belong in business, and the emotions that stop many innovative ideas and small business adventures from even being brought to reality.

(15:25): Emotions That Work gives me the yes, it reminds me why I'm doing this work. We need emotionally-aware small business owners and entrepreneurs. We need leaders that have emotions that work. And it reminds me of the work that I want to be doing. And it has at times even been a subtle check on my own emotions as I sit down to record an interview or write something. It's that subtle reminder of, "Are your emotions working? Are your emotions at work? What emotion is fueling you right now?" It grounds me to that core message, which then made writing, talking, creating, adding new products and services all comes from emotions that work.

(16:11): It's given me clarity and focus as I do my work, and I don't doubt or have to recreate the message when I'm speaking about it. also, after I had had it for a while, I loved the play on the "at" and "that": emotions that work at work. And I noticed a shift in the ease of posting about my work, talking more about my work, and really tying it all together around that three word rebellion.

(16:39): The depth of work that Dr. Mazur has created in her three word rebellion takes you deeper. It's a thoughtful explorative framework that connects you to the message inside. And I am so thankful that I did this work with her.

Michelle Mazur (16:54): What's interesting to me about Stacy's three word rebellion is how it ties two seemingly unrelated areas together. Now, if you are a multi-passionate, this should be really appealing to you because I know a lot of my multi-passionate clients are like, "It's impossible to encapsulate all that I do for my clients into just three words," but Stacy shows you that it is. You can condense your many interests into a concise message that works for your business.

(17:31): And like Heidi's three word rebellions, Stacy's message has given her so much focus and allowed her to build her content from that focused place. Everything she says in her marketing leads back to her three word rebellion, that message she wants to be known for. And this makes her marketing so much easier, which is what your message should be doing for your business. Once you nail down your messaging and all the supporting pieces of it, which we're going to be talking about next week on the podcast, it becomes easy to market your business because you have focus.

(18:17): Now it's your turn. As you work on your three word rebellion this week, ask yourself this question: what do I want my three word rebellion to do for my business? This will give you the motivation to keep going, to keep digging, so you can use your three word rebellion to communicate your expertise.

(18:41): If the Rebel Uprising podcast is helping you claim and communicate your expertise so that your clients find and hire you, please share the show with a friend. The easiest way to do that is through PodLink. You can find the show at pod.link/rebel, and that page will allow anyone you share the show with to subscribe and start listening in their favorite podcast player. That's pod.link/rebel. The Rebel Uprising podcast is a production of Yellow House Media. Our production coordinator is Lou Blazer. Our production assistant is Emily Kilber. The podcast is edited by Steven Mills. Our executive producers are Sean and Tara McMullin. The Rebel Uprising podcast is recorded on the unceded traditional land of the Coast Salish Peoples, specifically the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish people, original stewards of the land, past and present.