Making noise in a busy world - BOLDNESS with Marketing.
image shot at Aro Ha
When you start building something or get good at some service you want to sell to people, you sometimes do the numbers in your head about how many you’d have to sell to make X amount & so on (I do it too). Sometimes these numbers are so inflamed but you’re allowed to dream right?
The problem comes once it’s out there & the results or sales don’t pick up as quickly or as expected? What went wrong?
I’ve learnt one crucial thing in my life: If the results aren’t apparent, then something is wrong. Maybe what you have sucks but what I’ve learnt is this: oftentimes NOT ENOUGH WILLING PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE.
1. Law of Averages
There’s a principle called "The law of averages," it speaks to exposing your offerings to a wide audience knowing only a certain percentage, usually 1% or 10% will buy (conversation rate). This means if you want 100 sales, on a 10% conversion rate, 1000 people need to know what you have.
The myth: "Hustle in silence & let your success make the noise."
This only applies if you’re a massive artist like Drake who uses secrecy drops to sell albums. Otherwise, when he began he was putting out many mixtapes because nobody knew who he was!
The same is true for you, you haven’t done shit until you’ve made enough noise in the world. The biggest brands in the world are everywhere! This is why brands use celebrities. TO BE SEEN!
2. Omnipresence
This must be your aim. Use everything! Post your pictures, reach out to radio stations etc. Expose yourself to at least 1 million people.
This is the only place where quantity beats quality. Ask yourself: Does going to the gym once a month for a 2-hour hard session beat going 4 times a week to the gym for 30 min sessions? No! I’ve seen a lot of people who wait for things to be perfect before they do anything or put themselves out there but understand that perfectionism is nothing more than procrastination dressed up to go nowhere!
3. Law 28: Enter action with boldness - The Case against hesitation
In the book 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. He speaks of law 28 which is to enter action with boldness:
“If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.”
Boldness and Hesitation:
Hesitation puts obstacles in your path but boldness eliminates them.
Once you understand this, you will find it essential to overcome your natural timidity and practice the art of audacity when it comes to all of your marketing or self-promotion activities.
The following are among the most pronounced psychological effects of boldness and timidity:
- Being bolder with your message
Entering action with boldness has the magical effect of hiding our deficiencies.
When putting together a con or entering any kind of negotiation, go further than you planned. Ask for the moon and you will be surprised how often you get it.
Lions Circle the Hesitant Prey:
In a first encounter, you demonstrate your willingness to compromise, back down, and retreat, you bring out the lion even in people who are not necessarily bloodthirsty.
Everything depends on perception, and once you are seen as the kind of person who quickly goes on the defensive, who is willing to negotiate and be amenable, you will be pushed around without mercy.
- Going Halfway with Half a Heart Digs the Deeper Grave
If you enter an action with less than total confidence, you set up obstacles in your own path. When a problem arises you will grow confused, seeing options where there are none and inadvertently creating more problems still. Retreating from the hunter, the timid hare scurries more easily into his snares. Hesitation Creates Gaps, Boldness Obliterates Them.
When you take time to think, you create a gap that allows others time to think as well.
Your timidity infects people with awkward energy, and elicits embarrassment. Doubt springs up on all sides. Boldness Destroys Such Gaps.
The swiftness of the move and the energy of the action leave others no space to doubt and worry.
- Audacity Separates You from the Herd
Boldness gives you presence and makes you seem larger than life.
The timid fade into the wallpaper, the bold draw attention, and what draws attention draws power. We cannot keep our eyes off the audacious—we cannot wait to see their next bold move. You must practice and develop your boldness. You will often find uses for it. The best place to begin is often the delicate world of negotiation, particularly those discussions in which you are asked to set your own price. How often we put ourselves down by asking for too little.
When it comes to sales and marketing, it’s better to suck and be seen than not to be seen at all! Stop holding yourself back because of limiting beliefs or thinking what you have isn’t good enough to be adopted by people. To create for an audience of 1000, you must first create for an audience of one. So never despise the day of small beginnings and understand that you must start and keep going in order to get there.
So shamelessly promote yourself because the world won’t do it for you. Marketing is about being able to get your message out there in such a way that it sticks and is automatically spread by people long after you’ve done the “talking.”
