Love letters for my mentors
I advise you on a narrow wedge of the marketing pie: how to start a single-person freelance or consulting practice. As you get your business up and running, you will probably proceed to additional marketing efforts that deepen long-term relationships with your best people (such as blogs, e-newsletters and PR programs). I have some ideas on where you can get guidance along this path so I wrote this page to share them.
Something about the Internet brings out the cheesiest, the most hyped, the most find-out-these-secrets-and-get-rich-quick garbage. It’s incredible how many sleazy and exaggerated emails I read (or at this point, delete).
But a few mentors stand out for how highly I value their insights over the years.
I recommend these mentors because I have found their information to be highly valuable.
- None of them promises you will make money quickly and instantly attain the big-toy luxury life of your (supposed) dreams.
- Those that have spiritual or motivational aspects to their programs inspire your desire to serve your market while also valuing your work monetarily.
- All guarantee their products and services. (I have never had reason to test these guarantees, which are directly between you and the provider.
Even if you are not ready for the types of advice these mentors give, now is a good time to subscribe to a few (or even all) of their newsletters. (They’re all free and I trust that they fastidiously abide by their stated privacy policies.) Over time you’ll determine the ones with whom you are most simpatico.
Please note that the links below are affiliate links and I may profit from any purchases you make.
Mark Silver, Heart of Business
Mark’s tagline for his Heart of Business practice is “when you want to make a difference, but need to make a profit.”
That sums it up perfectly.
I have spent more money with Mark than with anyone else on this list. That’s because he is the only one with whom I’ve signed on for a long-term group coaching relationship, which included flying all the way from Chicago to Oregon to attend his annual seminar on “The Sacred Moment: How to Talk to Potential Clients with Integrity and Heart, and Still Get Paid.” (I heartily recommend it, such an emotionally intense experience left me exhausted—but extremely inspired—for days.)
Working with Mark is about finding our “jewel,” i.e., our unique personal quality, and transforming it into a profitable business. He teaches that the answers to many marketing decisions reside more within us than “out there.” Clearly, Mark does not recommend selecting a niche based on keyword searches or what’s the top seller on eBay. (Yes, there are those who do!)
Mark and wife Holly share their vulnerability, having developed a business despite personal fears, administrative setbacks, personal financial and health problems and the same swings in the economy that we all observe. We definitely are not talking The Secret here or how to maintain a cheerleading tape on constant loop in your brain. Their teachings address both personal and professional challenges. And when you are self-employed, personal and professional challenges all blend together, right?
Their online membership group is called “The Business Oasis” and I love it. Approximately 400 people providing thoughtful input on marketing, tech support, how to work with clients, emergency income generators to keep the utilities turned on, spiritual journeys and more.
As you may have guessed, many members offer, for want of a better descriptor, New Age personal services. There’s yoga instruction, Reiki, nutritional guidance and personal coaching, but you’ll see IT experts and bookkeepers, too.
In part, that’s because the business advice here is just as solid—or even better—than the rest of the advice out there in the marketplace. When these guys dissect copy for a website or sales letter, they go deep and really improve it. The same is true for the rest of their advice—really top notch.
Mark reconciles your “mission” with the financial well-being you must maintain to serve your people long term. He soothes your fears with a cup of herbal tea . . . and he also motivates you to maintain your business-building momentum.
Oh, and Mark and Holly recently adopted twins. Isn’t that cool!
In short, I recommend Heart of Business highly. Start with three free chapters from his Unveiling the Heart of Your Business book and weekly ezine—you won’t be sorry. Here’s where to get it.
Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound
Joan Stewart’s Publicity Hound program offers a tremendously meaty free weekly newsletter, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week. My favorite feature is “Help This Hound.” Each week someone writes in with a unique publicity challenge. Readers are invited to suggest innovative solutions, which are presented the following week.
Every week I scroll down to “Help…” and compare my hasty ideas with those that made Joan’s cut. I often find myself saying, “Wish I had thought of that.”
All these brainstorms illustrate one of Joan’s fundamental themes: Traditional press releases accompanied by those traditional photos featuring jumbo checks and gigantic ribbon-cutting scissors don’t cut it anymore.
Click on the “Free Press Release Tips” on Joan’s home page and she’ll send you 89 powerful press release tips. You’ll get one tip a day for—you guessed it—89 days. Again, these go far beyond the technicalities of formatting a release with mind-expanding, clever fill-in-the-blank concepts for headlines that punch up the ho hum.
Joan’s ingenuity, combined with decades of professional media experience, inform the tons of free advice she offers. She also sells very reasonably priced info products on such hot topics as social networking (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) and TV and radio publicity.
Joan also offers one-on-one advice. More expensive (of course) but worth every cent. I talked with her for a single hour and received detailed critiquing of my marketing and a wealth of both specific details and big ideas for how to proceed.
Now I’ll fess up. “Help this Hound” is my second favorite feature in her weekly online newsletter. My number one favorite feature is the “Hound Joke of the Week.” So scroll down all the way for a joke about dogs. OK, so I’m no intellectual.
Subscribe to Joan’s free newsletter and you’ll immediate receive a checklist of “89 Reasons to Send a News Release” and “Top 10 Tips for Free Publicity.” Here’s where to get it.
Marcia Yudkin, Creative Marketing Solutions
Marcia Yudkin is low key in her presentation style yet amazingly dynamic in her understanding of communications and marketing. She is really smart and experienced over a broad range of disciplines—marketing, information products, website development, publicity / public relations, copywriting, magazine writing and even business naming.Her weekly online newsletter is called The Marketing Minute, and believe me, she’s true to her word. Anyone could read her feature article in 60 seconds yet the newsletter is surprisingly rich. Subjects range from little-known Internet resources to broad principles. And unlike some experts, she doesn’t take the obvious and turn it into five bulleted “secrets.”
Marcia is thorough. She supplements state-of-the-art advice with the truly unusual. Consider her sales copy for “101 Ways to Turn Content into Money,” which includes consulting with Hollywood on your expertise on her list. Any farther out of the box and it would be tumbling out the UPS truck.
There’s a lot of interesting free content on her website. I especially enjoy the website makeovers. I love looking at the “befores” and then comparing my revisions with what Marcia recommends.
Then there is Marcia’s “Marketing for More” program, which is her membership group and blog. Participants submit highly specific questions about their business plans and she responds promptly with assured recommendations based on her extensive experience.
Marcia is decisive. She moves her own projects ahead at full speed. She is an especially excellent mentor and role model if you are able to bypass mental blocks and stay on target.
Be sure to sign up for Marcia’s free “Marketing Minute.” (You can spare a single minute, right?) You’ll also receive “Publicity for Profit: 18 Case Studies of Media Coverage.” Here’s where to get it.
Robert Middleton, Action Plan Marketing
Robert Middleton is simply the senior expert on professional-services marketing (though not necessarily the oldest). He started consulting with small businesses in 1984 and continues to make a major contribution to the field. He’s the Bruce Springsteen / Paul McCartney of freelancing and consulting.
His major opus, “InfoGuru Marketing,” is the Encyclopedia Britannica of current marketing practices. He bills it as a complete marketing course and reference manual. The book alone is 288 pages, plus it is packaged with audio tutorials, a support forum and 150 pages of additional information. The price is surprisingly low considering what you get. (Specific prices vary by format and mail service.)
But although Middleton has the heft and stability we associate with that long shelf of gold-embossed, small-print tomes, he continues to expand his tool kit with the times, including social networking, blogs, diverse media, etc.
Start by subscribing to his free weekly ezine, The More Clients Ezine, which adds hundreds to its subscriber list each week. (Deservedly so.) Then proceed to his website and start reading. But first ask your housemate to pull you away from your computer in an hour or you may eventually find the dawning sun’s rays poking you in the eye.
Since I love website analysis, my favorite page is the Website Tool Kit. Scroll down to a humongous set of links to websites that follow his model. You’ll feel like Ali Baba pushing open the cave to find piles of gold coins. Such fun if you’re a fellow website lover.
Despite being in this business for decades, Middleton continues to reinvent himself and his vision. He reframed his brand in January 2009 as “marketing for professionals committed to making a difference.” Previously it had been “marketing for independent professionals who are struggling to attract clients.”
So if you have feared that you may want to redefine your niche or even your career in the future, remember what Bob’s move teaches us: Re-niching is a positive sign of personal growth, not admission of a past mistake.
Sign up for Robert’s free “More Clients” ezine and you’ll also receive his new report, “The Contribution Factor.” It expands upon his new vision statement and helps you value your own work in new ways. Here’s where to get it.
Need some advice on whom to turn to? Give me a call at 630.771.9605 Central time or send me an email and I’ll help you figure it out.
© 2008-2009 Diana Schneidman