You Are A Media Company
The best thing about writing a newsletter is hearing from readers.
Vendula is starting her one-on-one coaching business to help professionals newly promoted to leadership positions.
She writes:
"If you have any ideas about how I could attract clients it would be very helpful. Companies often use big training companies and I need to persuade them with my marketing message that my service is also worth it."
Let's break it down. Here are Vendula's challenges, as I see it.
She needs to make people aware of her business.
She needs to prove herself.
She is competing with the big guys.
A Shift In Thinking
One way to approach these challenges requires a shift in how we view ourselves. Vendula is a media company. We all are.
Here is what I mean. Everyone is consuming information on phones, in apps, on YouTube and social media in the form of images, video and text. It's how we gather information to make many of our personal and professional decisions.
Putting great media out there—guides, newsletters, articles, videos, quotes or anything shareable—shows people who you are, what you're about and how you can help them.
Better Than The Big Guys
Here's the great part. Vendula can create stuff to share online that is just as good or better than the big guys. Better because it's uniquely her.
For example, she was going to pay someone a lot of money to make whiteboard videos. We found a great tutorial on how to do it yourself.
There are free or inexpensive tutorials and tools to help you make just about any media. (Something I've tried to focus on in the Tools section of the newsletter.)
So, what else could Vendula do?
Start her own leadership newsletter with TinyLetter.
Tweet and Instagram beautiful motivational quotes with Canva or Spruce.
Post lots of helpful articles about leadership here on LinkedIn.
Teach an online class about transitioning into a leadership role on Skillshare or YouTube.
This is where people find things. This is where she can shine brighter than the big guys, because people hire people they know and like.
Sharing her knowledge through her own media allows people to quickly and easily get to know her and, more importantly, understand how she can help them.
It's All About Your People
One more thing. It's not about the number of people who find Vendula, it's helping the rightpeople find her. The people she wants as clients. That's what matters.
There are no guarantees. It may be a while before people notice. There will be mistakes. That's okay. She's human. What she's doing is hard.
But it's easier than ever to show people that no one can do leadership training like her (or the way you do your thing for that matter).
That's the huge advantage we all have today. Same as the big guys, but better because we're real human beings making real human connections.
Dive in. Create lots of shareable stuff. Give it away. Work at it. Get better. People will find you. Connections will be made. Opportunities will come. Because not only are you great at what you do, you're a great media company, too.
Hi, I’m Keith Monaghan.
I’ve created and managed e-mail marketing campaigns to millions of subscribers for companies like NBC Television and Lucasfilm (yep, the Star Wars people).
My work as a Market Researcher has helped creative teams with projects for Nike, The CW Network, Upworthy, THX, Specialized Bicycles, Umpqua Bank, and other companies you may have heard of (and many you probably haven’t.) You can learn more abut me and my work here.