Brand Therapy Newsletter #2: I Was Wrong
Lessons from My Lunch with the Past
I was standing in a sea of thousands of people holding my lunch tray. Dude, total flashback to high school! Like in high school, I was searching for the best place to sit amid the thousands of marketers who had gathered in San Diego.Running through my mind was the same mantra I use in Los Angeles while looking for parking space. "The right space will appear." "The right space will..." when I heard "Liese!"It was Rachel Globus who I had known in my past life as a magazine editor/publisher. She had been editor of Event Solutions (sadly now gone ... I mourn the loss of any form of media) and was living in San Diego with her husband and adorable son. We both had gone on from journalism to the world of social media and marketing.We easily fell into a geeky rabbit hole talking about changes in Facebook and Instagram. And we talked about the day-long workshops we'd started in 2009 helping people navigate this new world to grow their business on Facebook and Twitter because -- gasp -- this was before Instagram!
They were fun workshops - my favorite one was the one pictured, held at a flower shop that ended with wine, DIY floral making, and community building.Rachel and I laughed and talked about what would have happened had we continued on. We would have been speakers at the event we were attending. Heck, with what we both know about producing conferences, we might have even done an event like it ourselves.We laughed, but later I had to think hard. Why did we stop?There were the usual reasons, but looking back, they were just excuses and justifications. I've done some more workshops here and there and hindsight always adds clarity, but I was wrong not to take a deep breath and push through in a very strategic and intentional way.Happily, I am pushing through now.If you are also looking to make a big change in your life or business, it's a process of little by little. It's not something that often happens overnight. So give yourself huge kudos for starting, then keep going!Make the time to make it happen. And listen to the messages.My message? Seth Godin's e-mail. He wrote...
"I was wrong.In 1993, in my role as founder of an internet company, I rejected the idea of the world wide web. I saw Mosaic (and then Netscape) and decided it was stupid, a dead end, a technology not worthy of our tiny company's time.That decision cost me a billion dollars.Within nine months, I saw what others were seeing. I saw the power of widespread connectivity and how it was more powerful than a centralized host.It still wasn't easy to say, "I was wrong."The cost of a do-over is often less than the cost of sticking with a decision that was made in good faith, on insufficient information.We don't have to be wrong.But we regularly get a chance to make things more right."
That last sentence is so "Sethian" in its phrasing I had to read it several times, which may have been the point!It sunk in deep.That was the message I needed to continue on with Brand Therapy Sessions. The first sesh is currently under way and going great. I love Mondays thanks to this intrepid beta group!The second Brand Therapy Sesh will be announced this month and I hope you can join us.Until then, here are three Brand Therapy Tips for you.
APRIL POWER TOOLS
3 Brand Therapy TipsPOWER OF THREE Why three? Because our brains are wired for the Rule of Three. Says Brian Clark at Copyblogger, "If you want something stuck in someone's head, put it in a sequence of three."When you are writing your next email, marketing piece, Facebook post, invoke the Rule of Three for a message that is 1) engaging 2) persuasive, and 3) memorable.POWER OF THE PRESSIf you are trying to get media for all your hard work here is a good way to go DIY.Pick three publications that you can see your story/yourself in. Go deep into those three -- learn the names of the editors and reporters, know what they write about, learn their editorial calendar. Then begin to send to alternate news releases and story pitches at least once a month that will be of interest to their readers.Why? Traditional media is like social media - you need to build a relationship of trust and familiarity. Just like social media, you are building your audience (this time it's the media), so when you have something you want to say, they will be listening.POWER OF HELLOSocial media is leaning heavily toward us creating more engagement, not growing vanity metrics.Content is king, engagement is queen ... and we all know where the real power rests!Here is one important thing you can do to create more engagement and it follows the rule, be the love you want:Find a half hour in the day to leave comments on other people's posts in your community or desired community. Make them four or more words (not "love it" or an emoji) so you are not seen as a bot. And reply to those comments that people leave on your posts. It's simply about creating a conversation.And here's a quick check in to make sure you are getting more from social media marketing.With Seth Godin's words ringing in my ears, and now, hopefully in yours too, let's all go out and make things more right!
