Differentiation is hard. So many folks say what makes them different is “putting the client first” or some such tripe. (Of course we should put clients first, but just stating it doesn’t mean much. We don’t know if it’s true. And it’s not a differentiator.)
A helpful way to think about differentiation is to think about what secret(s) do you know that most people in your world do not, that would unlock great value for your ideal clients?
Much of the background for this episode comes from Peter Thiel’s book Zero to One, which has a chapter on secrets. (I am not a fan of Thiel’s view on government, and I don’t agree with everything he has to say about business, or even secrets, but I think Zero to One is a worthwhile read, partly because his main secret is that capitalism and competition are enemies, not friends.)
And if you’re a solo professional, looking to craft a compelling set of stories (don’t forget your origin story and your “secret”), nurture relationships with journalists, partners, clients, and prospects, check out Mimiran, an “anti-CRM” designed for all this, instead of for a VP of sales to keep track of a sales team. You can also get more training on secrets here.
The Wine
No adult beverages because I had to do this in the morning! (I’m drinking coffee.)
Unlike CRMs built for the VP of sales to keep track of a sales team, where contacts are just statistics, Mimiran is built for relationships, networking, and referrals.
(In Mimiran, every contact has an “Ideal Client Profile” and “Ideal Partner Profile”, so it’s easier to make connections for others. You can also track your referrals, and what business resulted. Make follow-up a breeze, and more, with Mimiran’s emphasis on the Relationship part of CRM.)
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John Tyreman went from drumming in a band in high school (and realizing that promoting the music is often a bigger task than making it) to working for a digital marketing agency (and helping them start a podcast) to starting his own agency which now focuses on helping consultants start and promote their own podcasts.
John hosts the Podcasting in Professional Services podcast and co-hosts the Breaking Biz Dev podcast with Mark Wainright.
Podcasting expert John Tyreman provides tips on using your podcast to get clients, including:
Figuring out the right format for your podcast.
How to get guests without stress.
How to promote your podcast.
What equipment you do (and don’t) need (it’s easier to get started that you think.
And so much more.
And if you’re a solo professional, looking to convert podcast energy into clients, you’ll want to use Mimiran as an “anti-CRM” to hone in on your ideal clients and guests, nurture relationships with them, and use lead magnets as a way to convert listeners to conversations and clients.
The Wine
Reuben is having another glass of Petroni Sangiovese from California (!!), not usually known as a hotbed of Sangiovese.
John has an FML (that’s “Fear Moving Lions”) Hazy IPA.
Unlike CRMs built for the VP of sales to keep track of a sales team, where contacts are just statistics, Mimiran is built for relationships, networking, and referrals.
(In Mimiran, use the Mission & Positioning Screen to figure out how to address your ideal audience. Then use the Lead Magnet feature to translate listeners to leads and conversations. And, of course, make sure to create and nurture relationships with your guests and other contacts with Mimiran’s emphasis on the Relationship part of CRM.)
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In this episode, Lydia Lee from Screw the Cubicle (what a great name!) takes us through her journey of overcoming burnout and creating a fulfilling, sustainable business that works for her, instead of her spending her life working for it. She now “works” most of the year from Bali, but travels around the world, having started before being a “digital nomad” was a thing.
She burned out of her corporate job, but then found herself burned out working for herself, feeling too much pressure to work on projects just to make rent. She wanted more time for hobbies, play, and fun, integrated into daily life, instead of waiting for a vacation.
She did an experiment to work from the road– she didn’t just move to Bali. (Although she had planned to work on the road, with her partner, but then they ended up breaking up just before she was suppsoed to leave.)
But she did end up starting her Screw the Cubicle blog from Bali.
If you want to think about setting up a base somewhere else, try it for a month or so (or even a week). See how it goes. It doesn’t have to be permanent. And of course, life can get in the way (listen for the literal exploding toilet story).
Speaking of the exploding toilets, Lydia had to generate cash, so she partnered with her web designer in the Philippines, and put together a website package for coaches to make some quick cash.
Moving to a new place, learning a new language, a new culture (“yes” might be a polite “no” or “maybe”).
In 2015, she made the most revenue she had ever made, but hit a health scare and felt burnt out all over again. She had too many programs, too many balls in the air.
She realized that while she was a minimalist in her personal life, she was a maximalist in her business, always trying to do more. She then realized that success was not just about money, but about having free time and a feeling of spaciousness. What might a business look like that would be optimal for her life?
What boundaries would she need to put in place, on herself and her clients? (Being asynchronous in client communications has been a huge help.)
While money isn’t everything, we shouldn’t be afraid of it, either. We need to get clear on how much money we need– what’s your “enough” number (which can change over time)?
Your costs that you need to cover. (You may also find that you can eliminate a lot of costs that aren’t essential and aren’t making your life better.)
If those basic needs are met, what about the things we’d like to do– remodel the house, take a long vacation, etc.
Given a certain amount of money that Lydia wants to make, how can she make that money most effectively and efficiently, instead of assuming that she has to keep her nose pressed to the grindstone. (For example, she takes the month of December off from client work to “Marie Kondo” her business, eliminating work and delegating tasks.)
Lydia also reminds us that being an “expert” means different things to different people– if you’re helping people in first grade, being in second grade is perfect– you don’t have to be a professor. Being too advanced might actually get in the way.
When getting started, don’t over-invest in superficial stuff like a fancy website. Make sure you’re doing great work for people.
“Success” doesn’t necessarily mean becoming a billionaire. Lydia knows people who work 20 hours per week and live by a lake. Define what success means for you, and follow that.
The Wine
Reuben is having a glass of Petroni Sangiovese from California (!!), not usually known as a hotbed of Sangiovese. Lydia is having kambucha.
Unlike CRMs built for the VP of sales to keep track of a sales team, where contacts are just statistics, Mimiran is built for relationships, networking, and referrals.
(In Mimiran, use the Pipeline Planner to figure out how to translate your “enough” number into the number of leads, conversations, average sales price, etc, that you need to meet it.)
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In this episode, veteran marketer Kristin Zhivago (and author of Roadmap to Revenue: How to Sell the Way Your Customers Want to Buy) discusses how you can uncover your best customers’ buying behaviors so you can align your marketing to attract your best customers, and then make it easy for them to buy from you.
Kristin was always a tomboy, into mechanical things, and as a teen, she started selling machine shop tools for Pratt & Whitney, but her miniskirt (her description, not mine) didn’t get her the sale when she couldn’t explain why one drill bit was better than another. She realized she was going to have to get a lot more knowledgeable about sales and marketing, which led to her opening an ad agency in Silicon Valley in the late 70s, but the Mac came along and she realized that companies were going to start bringing marketing in house.
In 2017, she started her latest agency, Zhivago Partners for companies that struggle with marketing after some initial success.
Kristin found that it’s easier to teach engineers marketing than marketers engineering. But you still need to teach them, otherwise you get:
“Dead Chicken Marketing”
In other words, you don’t sell KFC as “Dead Chicken Cooked in Oil at X Degrees”. You sell it as “finger lickin’ good”.
Kristin’s Approach
It’s not rocket science: Interview customers and reverse-engineer the buying process.
People are using AI to build personas… but we can’t figure out their mindset that makes them want to buy. We need to understand:
Their desires
Their concerns
Their questions
You probably only need to talk to 5-7 people.
Who do you talk to? Not your friends… they trust you already. Interview happy customers who represent customers you would like to work with. They are going to be happy to help.
Here are some questions you should ask:
How was it?
How do you feel about it?
What brought you to us?
What else did you look at?
What were you looking for?
If you were the CEO of our company, what would you change or fix tomorrow?
What trends do you see in the industry?
What’s your biggest problem?
What phrase would you use if you were searching for a solution to this problem today?
Is there anything I should have asked you, that I didn’t?
(Sometimes you can skip quesitons if people have already answered them.)
Whoever is interviewing needs to be tuned in. If you detect doubt or subtle nuances, dig in. It’s easier to have a third party do these interview– people are more willing to open up– but you can do it yourself, if you want.
Interviews generally take 30 minutes or less.
Record them (with permission).
Don’t use machine transcription– use Rev.com for human transcription. Edit the transcript to clean it up (and anonymize if you’re using a third party).
You could use a Virtual Assistant who really knows your business, and can do interviews well.
Be honest if you don’t know something.
AI may not be great at exact transcriptions, but it is very good at summarizing findings.
Tech giants are putting “powered by AI” in and on their offerings, and last week Nvidia, the top supplier of dedicated AI chips, briefly became the largest company in the world by market cap (over $3 trillion).
AI technology, which has plodded along, helpfully, but much less glamorously than some enthusiasts have been predicting for decades, has leapt forward, with huge advances in text processing and creation (not to mention images and videos).
This has spawned an industry of AI experts, some of whom are actual experts, and many of whom just want to hock the latest shiny object.
As a computer software nerd who wrote a (now ridiculously primitive) artificial intelligence program for his college independent research, I’ve been impressed by the new batch of tools, headlined by ChatGPT (GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer– here’s a Wikipedia article if you want more nerdy details), and also worried about the implications.
However, there’s no doubt in my mind that these tools provide independent consultants with tremendous capabilities, like having an always on-call intern who can perform tasks that might take a real intern hours or days in near real-time.
So I sat down to have a chat with ChatGPT itself. (Yes, this is wild.)
If you haven’t used ChatGPT before, its primary interface is a chat format, as the name suggests. But now you can literally have a spoken conversation. (There was some controversy over this feature, as it seems OpenAI wanted to license Scarlett Johansson’s voice, and when she declined, they released a voice that sounded a lot like hers.)
Note that in the first few exchanges, this is purely real time. In the latter part of the interview, I edited ChatGPT’s “thinking” time. Hopefully this gives you some sense of what the interactions are really like without belaboring the conversation too much.
It was a very weird situation, and I found myself by turns amazed, off-put, and frustrated. Perhaps like having a conversation with a person?
Anyway, ChatGPT gives some sensible advice for using AI, some of which I agree with and some of which I don’t.
Helpful Prompts
Turn a Zoom chat text file into contact information (note you may or may not want a tag column, and you’ll want to substitute in the name of your group, event, etc):
> Take this zoom chat and parse out contact details, in CSV format, adding a column for "Tags" with the value "Virtual Austin Group" in each row.
Take a chunk of contact info like an email signature, LinkedIn contact info panel, etc, and create a record in Mimiran. (Adjust the parameters for your CRM.)
> I'm going to give you some contact info, and I'd like you to parse it out and create a URL for me, starting https://app.mimiran.com/contacts/new? and then whatever fields you parse from the text, in URL parameter form. You'll be looking for first_name, last_name, email, phone, mobile_phone, linkedin, facebook, twitter, calendar, title, and company, ok?
Proofreading.
> I'm going to supply an article and I'd like you to highlight text in bold italic font if there's a grammatical or spelling error, and note superfluous that could be removed without losing meaning with square brackets. Provide a summary of your work at the end of the article.
When running this post through ChatGPT, I got:
Summary:
• Spelling and Grammar Errors:
• new (missing article “the” before “new”)
• Johansen’s (should be “Johansson’s”)
• Total: 2 errors
• Superfluous Words Highlighted:
• [–] (dash after “Transformer”)
• [in near real-time] (phrase “in near real-time” is redundant)
• Total: 2 instances
Note that it was very good at catching errors, but has a bit of a hard time with superfluous words. (Or at least, I disagree with its assessments here.)
The Wine
Reuben had a glass of Bergstrom Oregon Pinot Noir. (Actually from a previous effort to record this episode that I was not happy with, so I redid it. Not sure I’m entirely happy with this one either, it’s a little strange trying to have a conversation with a machine.)
Tim Hyde wasn’t a great student, but was always interested in entrepreneurship. (He failed his Year 11 business assignment.)
In the 90s, he got into IT, coding, and project management. Liked the patterns and predictability of code.
In the late 90s, a friend of his asked him to join what we would now call a social media site– it was a community site for his hometown of Canberra. Tim and his friend tried to sell advertising, which netted them cases of beer, tickets, etc.
However, clients came back saying that their ads didn’t work. Tim noticed that the sales and marketing programs were like software programs– they would get to a certain point and break or crash.
Tim started another business to help firms with digital marketing, and had some connections that turned into clients. (Tim had a friend who spent $50K on a YellowPages ad, and Tim remembers seeing the YellowPages books propping up computer monitors and realizing that marketing was going digital.)
Tim shares some lessons he’s learned, including:
When your clients are shifting where they are, you can go with them, or you can go out of business. You need to be where your clients are.
Figure out where your best clients hang out (online and off). Know them well demographically and psychographically. What do they do? (Professionally and personally.) And record that in your CRM, so you can find the common attributes.
When you understand where your best customers are, go hang out with them. It could be on social media, on the golf course, etc.
If people don’t know you exist, they can’t buy from you.
You don’t need many new clients. You can focus your efforts.
If you have too many prospects, have them apply to work with you.
We don’t need massive numbers, we need consistency.
If you’ve got a CRM, make sure you take notes, and put them in your CRM. (Amen!)
Your CRM is not a cost, it’s an investment, and it’s not a very big investment. But if you don’t use it, it won’t add value for you. (Amen, again, but maybe I’m biased…)
A CRM should help you have a deeper relationship with your clients. Think about getting a cheap second monitor to keep your CRM open all the time.
Most of us spend a lot more on our cars than our CRMs. But even our cars require ongoing maintenance and expense. A CRM is like a car for our business– it helps us get somewhere much faster.
We don’t put enough focus on sales and marketing, which deprives our business of oxygen, allowing the business to serve us, instead of us serving the business.
A lot of fear in business comes from not knowing that comes next. That’s why having a predictable system for sales and marketing (and other aspects of business) is so helpful.
Dunbar says we can have about 5 intimate relationships. To have a good relationship with our prospects, we need a CRM.
People want to do business with people who make them feel good and important.
The Wine
Reuben is having a glass of Beau Vignes California Cabernet.
Tim has green tea (it’s 7AM in Australia when we record the episode). “A little early for whisky.”
Steve started working at his parents’ health club when he was 18, and he started picking up tips from some of the clients.
He learned the power of networking and providing value and over time, built a network of thousands of people
Steve learned to offer value, without expectation of getting anything in return by watching what older successful business people were doing with him.
Last year was Steve’s best year ever, because people invite him to work with him.
This sounds great, but how do you make money in the near term?
Go out to your network and find 5-10 people you can campaign for. (Steve has 16 partners like this) and get referral or commission payments in return. If you do this properly, it’s a win-win-win.
How much time do you spend “networking” vs “working”?
From 0-$1M, you’re hunting and gathering. Meet 10-15 new people every week. Some of those people will introduce you to more people. During COVID, he met 500 new people in less than 2 months.
Steve estimates that about 10% of your overall contact list will be part of your “inner circle” that you really stay in touch with.
When you bring value to that inner circle– say it’s 500 people– your universe changes– you don’t know exactly when or who…
When making introductions, don’t try to sell anybody, just connect people. Keep it short and sweet. You don’t need a 2-3 paragraph referral.
You never know who someone can introduce you to– it’s not just about the sole individual you’re meeting, but about the people they know.
How do you gain the “Networking Superpower”?
Shut up and listen. Don’t just shut up– make sure you’re really listening.
Ask questions.
(Bonus tip that was not part of the episde, but Steve says that hosting a podcast is great practice for asking questions and shutting up and listening.)
Serving is a skill (or you can call it a habit). It’s not hard, but you have to practice.
How can you build this habit if it feels terrifying, especially for introverts?
Write down 3 questions:
what are you challenges?
how long have you been doing it?
what are your goals?
(Don’t like those questions, come up with 3 of your own open-ended questions.)
If you’re serving, having something that you can ask for help with, too, so you don’t turn people into takers. (Steve Ramona calls this the “Infinity Loop”, because he has trouble saying “Reciprocity”, which is what Bob Burg calls it. Check out Bob’s Sales for Nerds interview here.)
Can you make every day Christmas for people in your network?
“Short term money is when you sell someone. Long term money is when you build a relationship.”
The Wine
Reuben is having some EQ Sauvignon Blanc from Chile. It was a little early in the day for Steve.
Meridith was the shy kid in class who didn’t want to speak up. Someone suggested she take acting classes, which meant she got to use a script and be someone else, so she didn’t feel like she was being judged, which built up her confidence. She even got into improv, and taught at Second City. Improv forced her to bring herself into the conversation, and to realize that “messing up” is part of the process. Eventually, she got good enough that she started teaching others to speak. (Although even now, she notices flaws in her delivery– it’s not about being “perfect”.)
Special Tips for Zoom
Don’t be lazy– be engaged. (“everyone has resting bitch face”)
Show up well-let, alert, nodding, acknowledging, etc. Look alive and engage.
If you’re taking notes, tell people.
Keep it interactive (this goes for all speaking engagements, but especially Zoom, where there are so many distractions).
A Talk is a Story, Not a Data Dump
Especially for technical people– make sure you’re telling a story. People will only care about the data if they care about the story. But don’t make the story about you, make the audience the hero.
Frances Frei of Harvard Business School talks about the “Triangle of Trust”– Authenticity, Empathy, Logic. You need these 3 things in your communications. Too often, people get stuck in the logic, and neglect the other 2 pieces. (This is similar to Aristotle’s Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.)
Don’t overemphasize your slides! Work on your slides last. (Same thing goes for visuals, props, etc.) For every one, ask yourself if you need it. If they don’t support your story, skip it. You should know your talk well enough that if all the tech fails, you can still deliver your presentation.
Delivering Your Talk
It’s your party– host the party you want to have. Want music, colorful visuals, lots of shouting out? Do that…
Have a pre-presentation ritual to ground yourself. (Meridith does up to 35 push-ups.)
Do not stand behind the podium (try to move the podium to stage right — your right– if possible, so you can occupy center stage) or hug the curtain at the back of the stage.
Move with purpose to convey changes in thinking or circumstances, not just fidgeting.
Record yourself, if you can. (Don’t practice in front of the mirror– it’s distracting.)
Devote as much time as you possibly can for practice. (And practice out loud. Practice the transitions.)
You can break your presentation into chunks– for example you may want to practice a 45 minute presentation in 15 minute blocks.
End on a Strong Note
Be as simple as possible with your call-to-action. (“Please find 30 minutes on my calendar. Here’s my QR code. I’ll give you a moment to grab that on your phone.”)
Don’t give them multiple things to do (“go here to connect with me on LinkedIn, here to get on my calendar, here to get my freebie, etc.”)
If you do a Q&A session after your main presentation, don’t let it just fizzle out. Wrap up the Q&A and recap the main idea(s) from your talk and give your call-to-action.
The Wine
Reuben has a glass of Chateau Franc Bigaroux St Emilion Grand Cru 2019, while Meridith, living in New York City, and having consumed her bottle of wine the night before, goes dry.
It also has a “mad-libs” style wizard to help you lay our your mission and positioning, including your origin story and customer stories so you can hone and share your unique perspective with ideas from a page of content headlines that could serve as a basis for your talk.
Plus, Mimiran makes follow-up a breeze, so staying on top of those busy editors is easy. And lead magnets let you convert your exposure into leads and conversations.
Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):
Alistair’s first job out of school was writing assembly code for IBM mainframes, then went to Sun Microsystems to work on their Solaris operating system. (He may be the nerdiest guest we’ve had.)
He didn’t like working for someone else, and started an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) business. (He started a couple of projects on the side, before he quit his job.)
He also took a course on starting a business, and reached out to the teacher, who gave him a hook up for a cheap trade show booth, because another business had backed out at the last minute.
He got a lot of leads at the tradeshow, but didn’t know what to do with them. So he asked for help again, and learned to create offers. (Some of the leads needed SEO, and some needed a website.)
Alistair ended up calling this business Website Doctor (a brand he still uses).
However, he realized he had no specialization. Every project was different. Everything required word-of-mouth.
He started planning a podcast in July 2014 and he launched in April 2021. He didn’t know what audience he was trying to target.
Alistair groups business development strategies for consultants into 3 buckets:
Referrals (how most consultants operate)
Outbound sales (yuck)
Inbound (the Holy Grail for Alistair)
Alistair has worked with a lot of coaches, but Philip Morgan, author of The Positioning Manual for Indie Consultants (great book, btw, and I need to have Philip come) was a key influence that Alistair reached out to ask for help. Phillip helped him niche down, from “Marketing for Consultants” to “the Recognized Authority”.
If you’re a local brand, you don’t need as much differentiation, because you only have local competition. But if you want to compete globally, you need to niche down and become the “recognized authority” in that niche. “If you’re everything to everybody, you’re nothing to nobody.”
If you pick the right niche, there are more than enough clients.
When you niche down, you can become known for what you do, unlike being a generalist. You avoid the blandness of generic content. You avoid the constant learning curve of being a generalist. As a specialist, you can go beyond the surface level, and the people in your tribe, know that you get them and their issue(s). You want to be like the doctor or lawyer who deals with your particular problem all day, every day.
Most common specializations are horizontal (problem-based) and vertical (industry-based). Ideally, you do both.
David C. Baker says you should have at least 200 businesses in the market you’re targeting.
Note that you can experiment with your positioning with test campaigns or even just testing when you speak to people.
List your past projects. What was the client’s ability to pay? How much did I like working on the project? What patterns emerge? This is how Alistair figured out how to zero in on consultants.
Alistair’s 5 Steps for better Positioning:
Past Client Analysis
Skills & Interests Assessment
Small Scale Research to validate ideas
Craft Test Positioning (“I help these people solve this problem” or some variation on that, but keep it simple. This also makes it easy to keep a history of your evolving positioning)
Validate and Iterate. Every time someone asks, “what do you do?”, you get a chance to do this.
Then create content, in whatever format you like, aimed at helping your niche solve the big problem you help them solve. This is a great way to market for an introvert, and it lets people arrive “pre-sold”.
The Wine Whiskey
Alistair enjoys some Jameson Crested Irish whiskey (quite a solid pour, I might add, although I didn’t really give him a chance to drink it during the episode).
Reuben has a glass of Rokkosan 12 year old Japanese whisky.
It also has a “mad-libs” style wizard to help you lay our your mission and positioning, including your origin story and customer stories so you can hone and share your unique perspective. Plus, Mimiran makes follow-up a breeze, so staying on top of those busy editors is easy. And lead magnets let you convert your exposure into leads and conversations.
Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):
For the past few years, I’ve done a December episode where it’s just me, talking about things I’d like to make sure I pass on, because I found them so useful (and because it typically took me way too long to figure them out).
In this episode, I talk about boiling the complexity of sales and marketing down to a simple 2 Step Sales Process.
This is specifically for folks in relationship business– if you’re in ecommerce or groceries or other more transactional markets, this is not for you.
If you’re in a relationship business, you’re in a conversation business, because conversations are the building blocks of relationships.
So if you’re in one of these businesses, here’s your 2 step sales process:
Figure out exactly who you want to have conversations with.
Have conversations with them.
That’s it.
If you do that, good things will happen. If you don’t, it will be more of a struggle.
Check out the episode for more details, naturally, and check out these additional resources.
It also has a “mad-libs” style wizard to help you lay our your mission and positioning, including your origin story and customer stories so you can hone and share your unique perspective (in other words, figure out exactly who you want to talk to). Plus, Mimiran makes follow-up a breeze, so staying on top of those busy editors is easy. And lead magnets let you convert your exposure into leads and conversations.
Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):
