2 Powerful Techniques for DYI Branding

 

 

I had a business set back. I recently traveled all the way to America. While I was there I met with an illustrator to discuss the illustrations for my book. Unfortunately, the meeting left me discouraged.

I returned to South Africa 10 days ago to find I am still reluctant to return to working on my book. When I think about my book, I think “Oh yeah, that.” The “that” I am avoiding thinking about is: “No one is going to care.” Without a list, a robust social media campaign and concerted, consistent effort, no one will care about my book. So said the illustrator and I believed her. So I should be back at work but when this truth bomb bubbles to the surface of my consciousness, I quickly stuff it back down under a bunch of better, happier thoughts, like I do with the grief and loss I feel for my favorites sweater. It went through the wash.

The Pressure to Go Big

The illustrator, whose intentions were good, talked to me for a good long while. She encouraged me to bring more of my personality to my website. She pointed out how important it is to develop a social media presence and to concentrate on building a list. All true. I acknowledge.

In the end she concluded that she, in her integrity as an artist, could not just do my illustrations but would need to mount an entire rebranding effort. And, in answer to my direct question, admitted that her efforts would cost me $150/per hour.

As a business person I have to ask, what is the potential return on that investment (ROI) for me? At those rates I will have to sell 50 three dollar e-books for every hour she works on building my brand. I am thinking to go from zero to selling 1000 books a years is going to take many hours of effort on her part.

I would have very much like to hire her. I would willingly turn over my style, my public persona and my illustrations to her. I might very well enjoy being considered a though leader, a mentor, someone with followers, fans and gravitas but in the end I told her no.

To me this is walking my talk. The premise of my yet to be published book, the one in need of illustration, is: choose a business that will give you the lifestyle you want. The lifestyle I want is to travel, study and learn. I also want to share my lifetime’s accumulation of wisdom with those young and not so young emerging entrepreneurs who can benefit. To reach these people I need to keep my prices down.

To invest thousands of dollars in an effort to sell copies of a $3 book is not a good business decision. And, I have to remind myself, this is business. My book is not about my ego, it’s about my legacy. I want to share it but I don’t want to hype it and I don’t want to hype me.

Still, I do believe the illustrator, and many others, when I am told, if I build it, no one will care.

So, where does that leave me? How do I find a pathway, a daily routine that will balance my life style with my personal and business goals?

Welcome the Core Questions of the Lifestyle Business Owner

The good news is, the questions I need to answer for myself are the questions many business bloggers are blogging about. To borrow some guidance all I needed to do was poke around the web sites of a couple of internet success gurus. I choose Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich 
since working less is on my list of must haves for my business. And a new comer to my awareness, Marie Farleo, a young woman who describes herself as an “on online marketing and lifestyle expert”. Marie is young and definitely on the rise, more importantly, she seems to have this branding thing under control.

 

What Tim Ferriss Had to Say

I found these useful and powerful questions embedded in this Q&A podcast by Ferriss.

The question Tim suggests one should ask first is, “Why do I have to build an audience?”.

Ferriss advises that when setting goals for your business, or your life, it is wise to ask “Why?” three times. This is a problem solving technique with powerful self-awareness possibilities. I am already familiar with it. I explain it in detail in my book. In fact, I suggest one go even deeper, ask why five times.

For Example

 

Why do I have to build an audience?

I want to sell 1000 copies of my book in one year. (Notice my measurable goal)

Why do I want to sell 1000 copies of my book in one year?

To cover my costs and to verify I have created something of value for the people I think I can serve.

Why do you need to cover your costs?

Duh.

Why do you need to create something of value?

This book is my legacy. It is what I have learned over a long life time of failures and successes. I choose to believe that all my learning, all my doubting, all my painful coming-to-terms-with has created wisdom and value and, now that I no longer strive to do it, I would like to share it.

Why do I need to share my life’s learning?

I am at a time in my life when I am ready to stop doing it for me and instead help others.

Now let me explore the suggestions from Marie on creating a brand with my personal “Why” as a touch point.

What Marie Farleo Had To Say

In an episode from her video blog, Farleo answer a question for an emerging lifestyle business owner about how to set her emerging massage business apart from others. Marie offers a formula she calls the four P’s. Farleo suggest every business owner consider their business in light of their personal Ps.

I have listed those Ps below followed with my own thoughts. Your thinking will be different.

Purpose

My purpose is to sell books to those people who can benefit from my unique combination of business building experience and life coaching.

To stay busy and relevant while living a retired lifestyle and slowly traveling the world

 Principles

To coach emerging entrepreneurs, not advise or mentor. Coaching is non-directive, coaching allows to build the business of their choice.

Be compensated fairly but not be in it for personal profit. (See the envelope story below)

People

I am pushed over and over to narrow my niche. It is always a struggle for me. I know there are people out there who need to know what I have learned over a lifetime of struggle to be true to myself and make a living. Who exactly they are, where to find them on line is hard for me to guess.

Generally I would say

Young, ambitious 20 somethings with a drive to do something important and make money

Middle aged successful but restless …. People

Young mothers seeking a way to do it all

Those souls with a yen to be an entrepreneur but who don’t know where to start.

What Pisses You Off?

Farleo’s final P is, What Pisses You Off?

What pisses me off? I am reminded of a story I heard once upon a time, long before the internet.

A man saw an ad in the paper saying

“Learn the Secret To How I Made A Million Dollars”.

Send me ten dollars and I will reveal my secret to you.

The man, keen to make a million dollars, (which meant something back then)

put his $10 bill in an envelope and mailed it off to the address in the newspaper.

Then he waited. After a week he thought his answer might be forthcoming so he started checking the mailbox every day. It took another week for the answer to arrive. The man, excited to begin his new life of unlimited wealth, luxury living and financial freedom, tore open the envelope and read this secret printed inside.

“I made a million dollars from people like you sending me $10 bills”

That business model, in the age of the internet, it is astoundingly common. “Buy my digital Information product for $197 and I will tell you how I created a multimillion dollar online empire.”

Often the information received turns out to be fluffy enthusiasm and motivational maxims, double spaced in large font and, even worse, based on the assumption the outcome you want is exactly the same as the outcome they created.

This pisses me off.

So for me, from this thought exercise I conclude:

What sets my business apart is the many, many years it took me to learn what I have to say about the practical day to day process of discovering and building a business that is personally right for you.

I am the antithesis of Ferriss and Farleo, who are young energetic, good looking, confident. I am wizened and wise (maybe), experienced and still struggling every day to understand who I am and how I can serve and I am a small business owner. I choose to be a small business owner and I hope to help other small business owners in whatever way I can.

What I can do is share with you my own journey as I begin once again to launch a new business and  my book.

So, that’s that.