Make Marketing Suck Less

Michelle Mazur [00:00:00]: “I wish I didn't have to market. Why can't people just see I'm an expert and hire me on the spot?”

I can't tell you how many times I've heard this very thing and I get why us Experts think because we are damn good at what we do, that people should just recognize that and give us their money.

I also understand how much it hurts to watch someone who has half the experience and expertise that you possess, get the clients and the opportunities that you know in your heart of heart that you should have, or at least be in the running for.

That's why I wanted to make a case for why experts like you need to market your business.

Period.

Full stop.

So let's dive in.

Michelle Mazur [00:00:56]: Welcome to Make Marketing Suck Less. The podcast that knows marketing is freaking hard, especially when you're a solo business owner trying to juggle it all. I'm your host, Dr. Michelle Mazur, author of the 3 Word Rebellion and founder of the Expert Up Club. Forget the latest marketing fads and tactics promising social media stardom. I'm here with research-backed strategies to help you clarify your message and get twice as effective with your marketing. And while I can't promise you'll ever love marketing, I'm here. to make you hate it a tiny bit less.

Michelle Mazur [00:01:44]: Why don't experts want to market? This question has vexed me for ages. I've always loved the Michael Lewis quote, who is the host of the podcast Against The Rules, who says “the kind of people who spend time developing these exquisite expertises are not the kind of people who sit around thinking about how to market themselves.” And, yeah, that's true. As Experts, we'd rather be working with our clients or teaching or deepening our expertise instead of marketing.

Michelle Mazur [00:02:24]: Now I was just doing case study interviews for the Expert Up Club with one of our members, Diann Winger. She is a psychotherapist turned business coach for highly ambitious women. And she said something that really struck me. She talked about the fact that Experts are only Experts in the eye of the beholder. Most of the time, we are deemed Experts because we get degrees, certifications, publications, and someone outside of you says, “Hey. You're an expert. I see that” Especially if you have a background in academia. Like, once you have earned the accolades of expertise, people see you and seek you out and defer to you.

Michelle Mazur [00:03:24]: Now in business, that just doesn't happen. The people with the best marketing get the attention. They get the clients and the opportunities. Expertise doesn't really factor in. I can't tell you how many About pages I have been on where I am not sure why that person is an Expert in what they say they do. The About page is all about me. It's all about their story, and I'm like, “Hey. Like, why do you feel like you're qualified to do this?” That question is literally unanswered, and people still hire them.

Michelle Mazur [00:04:09]: And meanwhile, you're sitting there with your expertise kind of hiding out. You know you're really good. You know you get results and you're still not making it visible. And that's why I wanted to make this case for why you should put forth the effort, the time, the energy, the thought power it takes to market your business for 3 very specific reasons. Number 1, if you don't market, people don't know you exist, period. They don't know you're there.

Michelle Mazur [00:04:48]: So here's a fun story. I was working with a SaaS company, and we were gathering their Voice Of Customer research. And I asked them the question, “What's your client's biggest challenge?” And they said to me with a straight face, “They don't know we exist yet.” And I'm like, “Oh, sorry, buddy. That is not your client's biggest challenge. Your client's problem is not that they don't know you. That is your business's problem.” You're the one who has to solve it because there's a whole wide world of people out there who are completely unaware of your existence. And I like to think about that whole big wide world because it is an abundant place where there are people you could help, but they just don't know you are there.

One of the jobs your marketing does for your business is to make people aware of you. This is the grow part of the Grow, Engage, Offer framework that I'm always banging on about. People can't hire you on the spot if they don't know you are out there and that you're able to help them.

Michelle Mazur [00:06:18]: And that brings me to reason number 2 why you really need to market your business outside of people can't hire people who don't exist to them. Reason number 2. Your marketing makes your expertise relevant to your Right Fit Client. Because even if your Right Fit Client knows you exist, your job is to make your expertise relevant to them. The biggest messaging mistake I see for Experts is that their content speaks to other Experts in their field. They're having an intellectual discussion with people who would never hire them.

It's your job to translate your expertise into a marketing message that is relevant to your client, resonates with them in a way where they feel like, hey, you're talking to me. It shows how you solve their problem and communicates the benefits and value of solving that problem with you. Marketing like an Expert has very little to do with the ins and the outs of your expertise and everything to do with making your expertise relevant to your Right Fit Clients. And if you remember nothing else from this podcast, people want to benefit from your expertise, not be the Expert themselves and they will hire you because your marketing makes you visible to them and speaks to the benefits of your expertise.

Michelle Mazur [00:08:13]: Alright, before we head in to the third reason why Experts must invest their time, energy, and skill into marketing, I wanted to let you know that there is a community for experts like you. The Expert Up Club is a curated community where Experts become recognized and sought after leaders in their niche. If you're listening to this episode thinking, “Shit. I need to make my expertise visible so people can hire me.” The club might be a great place for you. So join us for the open house of the Expert Up Club to find out how we can support your business in growing your audience or filling up your client roster and even creating a bigger ripple effect with your work. Come join us on March 20th. The link to sign up is in the show notes. So click on this episode in your podcast player to pop up the show notes and sign up there, or you can always go to drmichellemazur.com/openhouse.

Michelle Mazur [00:09:23]: Now, let's go back to the third point of why you need to market like the expert you are. You have a mandate to communicate. This is one of the core values of the Expert Up Club.

Now, the reason why I created the Club was to change online business for the better. As an Expert, you are the one who should be hired because you're the one who can get results. People are always getting duped by business owners who only have their own personal experience to rely on. It's the, “If it worked for me, then it works for everyone” mentality. And you and I know that is just not true. Experts know that there's not a one-size-fits-all solution for every problem out there. And we have the ability to take what we know and tailor it to our clients and what our clients need.

Now I get it. Quick fixes, silver bullets, proven formulas are sexy as hell, but they just don't work for everyone. People get duped because they don't know there's another option. They don't know who the real Expert is. So their choice is between a pseudo Expert who's relying on their personal experience and is very good at marketing and nothing. You're not even in the running because they don't know to look for you. And that's why you have a mandate to communicate, why you need to market so people can hire you before they spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on solutions that just don't work. And this is why I am doing this new series on the pod called Market Like An Expert to encourage you and give you the tools to get out there and be seen as the Experts your clients know to hire and that's why you have to market. It's good for your business because if people see you as the alternative, they know to hire you.

Michelle Mazur [00:12:17]: Your clients feel smart because they see how your expertise is relevant to their situation and they're not getting duped by people who don't know how to get results. So next week, you'll want to tune in because we are talking about marketing tropes that don't work for Experts. From rags-to-riches stories to giving your expertise away for free, there's a lot of bad marketing advice that keeps experts from actually showing up as the Expert you are.

See you next time.

Michelle Mazur [00:12:59]: If the Make Marketing Suck Less pod is making your marketing more effective so that your clients can find and hire you, please share the show with a friend. The easiest way to do that is through pod link. 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 Make Marketing Suck Less podcast is a production of Communication Rebel. Our production coordinator is Jessica Gulley-Ward. The podcast is edited by Steven Mills, our executive producer is me, Dr. Michelle Mazur.

The make marketing suck less podcast is recorded on the unseated traditional lands of the coast salish peoples, specifically the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish people, original stewards of the land, past, and present.