This is Week 25 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I’m applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week here and at the Marketing Mix blog.
In hindsight, some years or months or weeks seem to take on themes, and this was one of those weeks.
I was a bit hobbled and fuzzy-headed from a cold, but it had cleared up enough by Friday afternoon for me to identify it: support. This week was all about support, both learning the difference it made for me personally, and realizing what a difference it would make if I applied some of the lessons to my own business in general and my marketing in particular.
It’s funny, because behavior-as-marketing is a concept I talk about to clients one-on-one and to groups during presentations. (We have an interview with Jonathan Baskin, who literally wrote the book on brand as behavior, both yours and your customers’, right here on the Marketing Mix.) I lean medium-hard on the idea before I launch into my new media marketing spiel because I’ve noticed that in the face of tools as glittery, new and (seemingly) free & easy as social media, we tend to dismiss things like follow-up, thoroughness, kindness and creating a feeling of safety as old fashioned or beside the point. Maybe they are, but I’ll tell you, just like getting a heartfelt, handwritten thank you note in the mail—not to mention an unexpected gift—real support is rare and feels amazing.
This week was a bonanza of lessons about the joy of support, and the difference it makes in the way I feel about products, services and people. How, exactly? Let’s enumerate…
Accountability as support
Attending my first meeting of a small accountability group (they don’t call it a master mind group, but it’s the same general idea), I feel like I’ve found both a lifeline and an ongoing tutorial on the far-reaching benefits of support.
Not only is it a relief to know I have three people who will help me to stay on track with my stated next actions, it’s also great to enter into this relationship knowing of the tangible successes the other group members have achieved from this collaboration.
Structure as support
Odd for a Virgo, I know, but most manifestations of structure—9-to-5 jobs, marriage, brassieres—have felt as much like prison as they have support. While I have gone back to more rigidly calendaring my day (and pretty much sticking to it), I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed it.
A new teleclass that I’ve been taking is slowly changing my mind about the role structure can play in making you feel supported, and how in turn that support can motivate you to take the actions necessary to grow and change. The architects of the class have done nothing less than a stunning job structuring the entire course, from web pages to automated email updates to follow-up PDFs. This, on top of the spectacular job they do with the actual teleclasses themselves.
What’s more, I have a sense of how much care and work has gone into building this structure, and that, too, makes me feel supported and motivates me to do my best with my work. Mark Silver is the master at making clients feel seen, heard and taken care of; if you have the opportunity to take a class from him, I’d highly recommend doing so.
Timely attention as support
I’m notorious for not returning phone calls quickly…or ever. I’m better at email, but far from consistent.
I’ve begun a work relationship with two people recently—one, a fine artist and the other, a web designer—and both have impressed me with the simple courtesies they’ve shown around checking in and following up in a timely fashion. At this Saturday’s PresentationCamp LA, one attendee, Jason Womack, not only took it upon himself to transcribe all of the attendees’ contact info into a GoogleDocs spreadsheet, he emailed it to us while the (un)conference was still in session. All welcome surprises that made me feel good, feel supported, and feel more likely to recommend them to other people as useful and trusted resources.
Snacks and treats as support
PresentationCamp LA was a gigantic lesson in the value we place on feeling supported and cared for. Cliff Atkinson, who led the core group of us facilitating the event, encouraged us to do what we could to make sure the day would be comfortable and pleasant for attendees—stuff that included procurement of food and beverages (and books, and other treats!) as well as a comfortable place to hold the event—BLANKSPACES, which was awesome.
We worked hard to find sponsors who’d help us with our budget and needs (thank you, sponsors!), and the results were spectacular. The attendees loved the event, and are excited about doing another. (Me, too, although I need some serious recovery time. This kind of support is hard work, until you build up your muscles.)
Translating it to my own business
If my lackluster performance with working the calendar has not been a dead giveaway, I’ll come right out with it now: I’m ambivalent about my business, and have been for a few months now. While I can see the advantages to throwing myself more fully into marketing and promoting myself as…well, a person who helps people market and promote themselves, there’s a part of me that just plain likes writing—enough to consider seriously the idea of scaling way back and taking a non-challenging job to free myself up to write.
But another part of me feels like I may still have learning to wrest from it, as well as service to deliver to people who need it. I’ve already got some ideas in place about supporting both prospects and plain, old readers with improvements to the website, the newsletter and yes, even my phone process.
We’ll see how it works. In the meantime, I’d love to know your experience with support from either end: as a provider or a recipient. What have you come across that’s made you feel great? What have you created for your clients that’s made them feel great?
What can you teach me about how to make you feel great?
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