Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

Fuel for your marketing

I was watching Modern Family the other day.

Jay (Ed O’Neill) scored a stay for him (and the whole family) at a posh hotel.  In his mind everything was perfect because he had an Excelsior level room.  This was the “top floor” and the best experience that the hotel offered.

So he thought…

He tried taking an elevator to the “top floor” and security shut him down.  He learned his Excelsior privileges were second best.  Excelsior+ was the top floor and the best plan available.

He was pissed.

He even went outside to count the floors of the hotel. 

It was funny.  It seemed stupid even.  But guess what?  Most of us do it everyday.  

I had a college professor that bought nothing but leather bound books.  He paid about $100 for each book when he could’ve purchased the paperback for around 20 bucks.

And even if you don’t do it, your audience does.

Why buy a Gucci mini bag for $1600 when you can get a purse at Walmart for less than $20.  

A Ford Explorer will get you to work just as easily as a Range Rover.  You’ll save about 50k too.  So why do people do it?

Status baby!

Status is a great source of pride for most people.  It makes us who we are.

It works in reverse too.  

I know a guy who buys all his clothes at Walmart and would never consider shopping at Macy’s or Saks Fifth Avenue.

The bottom line is KNOW who you are talking to when you write emails and copy.

Seth Godin said, “It’s possible to use the status hierarchy as a sort of fuel”.

That’s right.

Use status as fuel to make what you say bigger, better, and last longer.

For free daily email tips like this, go to https://adamstreet.net .

Adam

Chernobyl, Zombies, and why going small matters

Let’s talk about ZOMIBES! 

But first, let’s pick up where we left off with Seth Godin’s Marketing in Five Steps.  To recap, here’s the first steps:  

1.  Invent a thing worth making, with a story worth telling , and a contribution worth talking about.  

2.  Design and build it in a way that a few people will particularly benefit from and care about.

And the third step is:

To tell a story that matches the built-in-narrative and dreams of that tiny group of people, the smallest viable market.

I would have thought this was crazy talk had I not read Kevin Kelly’s essay, 1,000 True Fans.  If you haven’t read it yet, do it now!  https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

1,000 True Fans is about how an artist, musician, author, etc. needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

Back then I was racking my brain trying to figure out how I could make it as an indie comic creator.  Web comics were just taking off and I just couldn’t see how I could survive doing the ‘indie comic thing’.  

When I read 1,000 True Fans that all changed.  

I realized I didn’t need a horde of fans just yet.  I just needed a few.  A small viable market of people who liked what I did.  

This was empowering.  Every time someone told me they didn’t like my art instead of my self-esteem taking a hit, I had a different thought.  My art wasn’t for them.  So I built my audience one fan at a time.

Back then, I started from scratch but you don’t always have to.

You can also find and ride the wave of an existing small viable market.

Did you notice zombies were kinda popular for a while?  

Before the zombie craze went Chernobyl, my friend Adam Miller (and his buddy Rich) released a comic anthology series.  And let me tell ya, they milked it for years.  

Miller knew not everyone liked zombies.  But ENOUGH people did and that was enough.

An old saying comes to mind…  “Think global but act local”.  Have your big goals in mind but act on finding and satisfying your minimal viable audience.  

If you need help finding your smallest viable market contact me today. 

https://adamstreet.net/contact-me/

Adam

Lil Nas X ‘gets’ Seth Godin

Let’s pick up where we left off.  Breaking down Seth Godin’s Marketing in Five Steps.  To recap, the first step was:  Invent a thing worth making, with a story worth telling , and a contribution worth talking about.  

The second step is: 

Design and build it in a way that a few people will particularly benefit from and care about.

Years ago I met a lady who was a teacher and school principal.  She took over a small charter school in a low income area.  Her K-3 classes were full of kids with with low test scores.  In a couple of years she turned the school around.  How did she do it?  With music.  

It seems math, science, and things that bore the pants off 2nd graders is more fun when you sing it. She said the tougher the child or learning disability the better singing and music is for them.

Surely you’d think the media would pick up on this.  They should be implementing programs like this all over town, right?  

Nope.  Almost no one knows about what she does and most educators don’t care.  They think she’s crazy or that her school is an isolated case. That kind of thing can’t work “here”…

Famous rapper Lil Nas X used to be an aspiring rapper on Twitter.  He promoted his songs using memes and short videos. You’d think an aspiring rapper would file his song on the Billboard rap charts.  Where everyone loves rap.  He didn’t.  Nas listed his song Old Town Road on the country chart.

Almost no one cared.  Except Billboard who removed Old Town Road for “not being a country song”.  With all the chatter Billboard’s decision caused, two weeks later Nas’ song was No. 1.

Build it and they will come.  No.  This ain’t field of dreams.  

Build it for one, make it cool, and she will tell her friend.  That’s what Seth is talking about.

Adam

Old School Marketing is so Gangsta

Seth Godin is an OG (original gangster) of marketing.

I would recommend you read all of his books.  The man is just that good.  His audiobooks books can be a little monotone but his content is off-the-wall good.  

His newest book, This is Marketing is a new “old” book.  Brand new book but what Seth talks about is old school.  Forget the glamour and glitz of trying to reach the masses.  Reach a few people instead.

   

It’s really important if you got pulverized by 2020.  It’s like starting over again or you may have started a completely new biz altogether.  Your transformation starts with your marketing.

I wanted to do a break down on Seth’s Marketing in Five Steps.

The first step is to invent a thing worth making. with a story worth telling , and a contribution worth talking about.  

Why are you offering coaching or marketing courses?  And why should anyone buy it from you.  The transformation?  Well, duh but you can get that from anywhere with a good google search. 

Your story and your why is what makes ‘your thing’ worth making and telling.

Look at Lily Born, this kiddo started her own cup company.  You may think the story is that she is a child entrepreneur.  That’s cool, but those story grows on trees.

The real story is when Lily was 8, she noticed her grandfather, who has has Parkinson’s, spilled  his drinks a lot.  She made him a cup from moldable plastic and later a ceramic cup for coffee.  She eventually started a business and made The Kangaroo Cup.

Yes, her cups solve a problem.  But she invented a thing worth making, and her story is worth telling.  And people talk about it.  Kinda like now…

That’s actually the litmus test for your product.  If it’s not unique in it’s own way that people talk about it you need to do two things.

You either need different people to show your offering to or you need a different offering.  

Sometimes it’s both but iterating will get you there.

Next time we’ll talk about Seth’s second step.

Adam