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By Casey Grey
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Marketing is a tough gig.
If you're doing it online it's easy to track where the lead came from and what they purchased. How do you track other forms of marketing that don't involve "clicking"? Even the sandwich board outside your restaurant may be deceiving in terms of the numbers. Perhaps somebody came in because they saw your sandwich board, however, their friend had mentioned your restaurant the week before. The sandwich board was the tipping point. So do you count that one as a referral or the sandwich board that worked? At The Conscious Builder, most of our projects are referrals. Second (a far second) would be project signs. Third doesn't even matter because those two account for almost everything. Do people find us online and reach out to us? Absolutely. But they rarely hire us. They usually have a referral from somebody else they know and are using us to price check. So do we stop doing everything else and just focus on referrals? No but this does help us focus our time and energy on the appropriate leads when they come in. Everything works together. Once they're in the door, we need to prove that we can deliver and that we're here to stay. Yes, most of our work comes from referrals but people refer us because of the work we do as well as all the other things we do as a business. Today, everybody is fighting for your attention. Heck, the fact that you're reading this is impressive because you could be doing anything else. Why am I writing this anyways? I'm not trying to sell anything. I'm doing it for numerous reasons but there is a result that is happening. I'm proving to you that I'm committed. More importantly, I'm proving to myself that I'm committed. With commitment comes confidence and with confidence anything is possible. The best marketing is committed. How you prove it is up to you but I suggest you prove it to yourself first. Get out there and commit! Spread your story! Share your message! Not sure what that is yet? Perhaps that should be your first commitment... I'm still working on mine too... Creativity often does not get the recognition it deserves. It's not easy.
It requires space and time. Space to let your mind be creative and time to let your mind find the space. The most creative ideas rarely come when you're trying to be creative. They hit you when you're in the shower, taking a walk, reading a book, gardening, exercising or whatever you do to take a "break" and give your mind a rest. Creative people don't give themselves time frames to be creative. They continue onwards and take advantage of the moment when it hits them. You can't plan for it. So, do you need a creative idea? Stop doing and start being. I would like to believe that I don't judge people based on first impressions but I know I would be lying to myself.
It's in our nature. We're wired to make quick assessments and analyze the situation so that we know how we "should" act. Unfortunately, in today's world, these quick assessments can work against us. If we're only judging the book by it's cover, we could missing all the potential that lies within it OR we could be fooled only to find out that there's nothing of value beyond the cover. Is the cover important? Absolutely! The cover is what gets people's attention. It says "Hey! Look at me! I'm important! I have value to share!" And if it truly does have something important to share, something of value, people will soon find out and continue to spread the word. And if it's garbage, people will find that out too... And likely share that as well... So what is more important? The cover or what's beyond the cover? I believe they're both equally important. They need each other in order to survive. How you present yourself is your book cover and everything inside of you is your story. When you show up, people will judge you unconsciously. They will see the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the way you carry yourself, how you speak, how you listen and anything else that they think is important. The thing is, just like when they look at the cover of a book, they're making all these judgements based on their views of the world which were formed by their past experiences. What does that mean? It means that ten different people could judge you ten different ways. So does it matter what clothes you wear, what car you drive or how you act? Yes. But not because of what other people are going to think... Because of what YOU are going to think. You are judging yourself more than you are judging others and I bet you are meaner towards yourself than you are towards others. Be YOU. Being a carpenter, I'm a fan of working with wood.
Framing a house with wood. Wood siding. Wood trim work. Wood cabinetry. Wood flooring. Wood railings and so forth. Wood, if used and treated properly, can last well beyond our lifetime on this earth. But now there are all sorts of other "faux" wood products out there. Personally, I'm not a fan of fakes. Wood represents so much more than just a look from a distance. There's a texture to it. There's a story behind it. It evokes a feeling. Am I against other products? Absolutely not. As long as they're not trying to be something they're not. Sometimes you can "fake it till you make it" but you'll never be able to go against your nature. "How much does it cost to build a custom home?"
I get this question all the time. That's like asking how much does it cost to go on vacation. It depends what kind of vacation you want to go on. Questions like this set up both sides for disappointment. One of two things will happen.
When you're going to make big decisions, get clear on what you want, what you absolutely need and what you can do without. Our eyes are often bigger than our stomach. As a business, we share a lot. Between the Youtube channel, our podcasts, meetings and emails I send out, I (and we) give away plenty of information. Heck, on this blog alone I share a lot!
All that stuff I'm happy to do for free. I'm clear about that. When people reach out though, at what point do I start charging for the knowledge and experience that I have? What do I do with people who just want personalized information and don't want to pay? The key is to get to the root of why they're reaching out. "Why do you feel I (or we) can help you?" "Why did you specifically reach out to us?" These two questions alone will tell a lot. Read between the lines. Don't just listen to the words, listen to how they say the words. If possible, watch their body language. You don't need to sell. Ask the right questions and people will sell themselves. P.S. You will need to ask for the sale as well :) I had a really great conversation with a woman last night named Marty. Typically I'm the one trying to explain my family but I quickly found out what it was like to be on the other side of the conversation when she said that her dad is also her uncle and her brother.
Wait... What? There's a riddle for you. Her mom was unable to raise her so her grandparents legally adopted her, however, her uncle was the one who ended up raising her. That means that her biological uncle is the one who she calls dad because he raised her but he is also her brother because her grandparents legally adopted her. We talked about numerous different topics leading from our buses (since we're at BusFusion) to parenting (since we both have kids) to the education system (since she's a school teacher) to travelling (since her and her partner just got back from a 6 month trip) to meditating (since part of that 6 month trip was spent in an ashram) to health (since she cured herself of cervical cancer without using western medicine). It was an amazing feeling to sit around that camp fire last night. Numerous conversations were being had about god-knows-what, marshmallows were being roasted and people were jamming and creating some amazing music. (There was even a guy who pulled out a flute!? When was the last time you saw somebody pull out a flute around a camp fire!?) What hit me was the diverse group of people all coming together for one common interest, the VW Bus. Just like Marty and myself, everybody around that fire had their own story. People aging from 2 to 82 (give or take). We have all come from different backgrounds. We have all experienced pain and we have all experienced love. We have done things that we are proud of and things that we are not so proud of. And somehow we have all been brought to this one location. Never underestimate the power of one common interest. That's all it takes to connect. I believe we underestimate the power of repetition. Doing the same thing over and over again. Until it's engrained in our subconscious. Until we can do it in our sleep.
Doing scales on a piano is boring. It's mundane. It's tedious. So is practicing a curveball as a pitcher in baseball. So is running the same football play over and over again. So is doing free throws in basketball. So is going to the driving range for golf. So is doing the same meditation every day. But this is the work that separates the best in the world from the "pretty good". It does not take that much work to become "pretty good" at anything. But "pretty good" is just a hobby. If that's what you want, then it's perfect. It's really easy to have a "pretty good" life. Most people don't just want a "pretty good" life though. Most people want to be the best. However most people are not willing to do what it takes to actually become the best. They want the reward without the investment. Everything worth having in life requires an investment if you want to maximize it. Whether it's time, money or something else, you need to have skin in the game. You need to be committed. Do not expect to have an outstanding relationship with your spouse if you're not willing to put the time into working on the relationship. Do not expect to be a millionaire if you're not willing to learn how to manage your money properly. Do not expect to make the Olympics if you're not willing to practice more than anybody else. Do not expect to create a billion dollar company if you're only willing to work 40 hours a week. Do not expect to be the best if you're not willing to work the hardest. Is there such a thing?
When is a good time to talk about the troublesome topics? When is a good time to work on the difficult items? When is a good time to go inward and focus on the challenges you face? Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the hard stuff in life is typically the most important stuff. But why is it so hard? Because we're more focused on ourselves than the outcome. There is only one race... The human race.
We all look up at the same moon and the same sun. We were born on the same planet. We are all trying to figure out the same thing... "What's my purpose? Why am I here?" Remember that next time you have a misunderstanding with somebody. Chances are you would be acting and thinking the same way if you had the life experiences the other person had. Although we have different life experiences, we are all having the same experience... The human experience. |
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