Make Marketing Suck Less for Expertise-Driven Solo Businesses

When you’re an expert you’re in a pretty exclusive club, filled with a small number of other humans who are passionately and a bit obsessively interested in your specific topic. So of course it’s easy to talk to the other experts in your club. But how do you translate your expertise and make it interesting to other humans? How do you translate it so other human beings want to pay you for it? As a...

What if the common business advice about how to grow your business is not meant for you?   What if how you've been taught to market and sell was meant for the masses and not for someone with your very particular set of skills?   If marketing doesn't seem to be working for your business, let me tell you, there's nothing wrong with you or your business.   It is because the way you've been taught to...

“I don’t know if I’m expert enough to work with you.”   I hear this all the time from potential clients, and it’s usually followed by a list of certifications, years of experience, loads of transferable skills, frameworks they’ve developed to help clients, and years of getting them results.   So yeah, they are definitely expert enough.   But I understand why people feel this way, and why you, too,...

“If I can do it, you can do it too!”   After all, you just need to be one step ahead of your client, and if you have a rags-to-riches story about how much you’ve overcome, that gives you authority!   Messages like these have ruled the online space since its inception. These messages cast the widest net possible and basically say anyone can own an online business. No specialized  knowledge? No prob...

Today, we’re celebrating the 300th episode of the Rebel Uprising Podcast.   Recently, someone asked me what it takes to get to 300 episodes of the podcast and for me, it was about playing the long game. I just kept turning on the mic, week after week, month after month, year after year.   The podcast has always been a strategic business priority and a core piece of my marketing strategy. But the r...

It's that time of year when you're casting a big vision, making plans, setting goals, and thinking about the projects that will move your business forward in 2023. But as Helmuth von Moltke the Elder said, no plan survives contact with the enemy. And no business plan survives contact with reality. So what do you do when reality sucker punches you in the gut? We are gonna talk about this and why th...

How do you decide who to trust in your business? When you're thinking about joining a program or hiring a service provider, do you make those people earn your trust, or do you just default to trusting them? When we first meet someone new, we want to believe the best in people. We want to believe that they are trustworthy, so we trust them until they give us a very good reason not to.  However, tod...

The online business industry is in the middle of a trust crisis. People have been duped. Your potential clients are skeptical. Heck, you are skeptical. And that makes people reluctant to trust again, which impacts your business because you are kick ass at what you do. You consistently deliver great results. You show up and do what you'll say you do, and most of all, you give a damn about your clie...

There’s a game Maggie Patterson, my co-host of Duped, plays with me all the time. It’s called “Can I Tell What Makes You an Expert?” We go to an about page of someone who’s doling out advice like candy on Instagram and see if we can tell why they’re credible to speak on this topic. If we can figure it out, great! They earn our respect and trust. But nine times out of ten, I have no clue why they a...

“I’ve been burned before.” I’ve heard those four words more this year than in any other year I’ve been in business. Potential clients who fill out my intake form tell me about another “messaging coach” who didn’t deliver on their promises, or the person who they hired created messaging that was unusable in the client’s marketing, or they didn’t see how the message was ever going to bring in client...

You're just one course away from recession proofing your business! Or are you? The message around recession proofing is everywhere these days, but what do you really need to know about surviving, and even thriving, in this economy? Will the course or the membership site be the ticket, or are there other skills you want to cultivate to build a sustainable business in uncertain times? Those question...

There has been a disturbance in the force. Or, a shift in the market. When I first started offering brand messaging in 2018, the economy was cooking with gas. The stock market was on fire, the job market was stable, and consumer outlook was positive. And when the economy was great, clients would come to me with the hope that their message would allow them to reach their full potential. Maybe that...

It doesn't feel the way I thought it would. Once my clients land on their Three Word Rebellion–the message they want their business to be known for, the message that they will be leading with–it’s not uncommon for them to say something like, “I thought this would feel different.” There’s an expectation that landing on your Three Word Rebellion is going to be some type of peak experience. The skies...

It's hard to believe that this is the last week of the Three Word Rebellion Book Club .  You’ve claimed your expertise, you’ve discovered your motivation for starting your own movement and why it’s important for experts to step up and lead. And you’ve heard from some experts about how their Three Words Rebellions have impacted their businesses. Finally you’ve done the hard work of unearthing your...

Sometimes you just need to know something is possible. As you're digging in to find your Three Word Rebellion, you may begin to realize that encapsulating your expertise into just a few words is a heavy lift. But it is possible to find that Three Word Rebellion, that core message you want to be known for. And when you do that message can have a ripple effect in your business. In this episode, I'm...

Experts can spot BS a mile away. And I believe that is what makes marketing so hard for them. They see the pseudo-experts out there, marketing their businesses and all they see are the big promises, the quick fixes, the big rewards for little effort, the easy-to-follow blueprints, and think, “That’s not how any of this works.” Experts look at those kinds of marketing messages and ask themselves if...

Do you ever say to yourself, “I wish I didn’t have to market my business. I just want to work with clients. Why can’t I just do that?” It would be great, right? If the results you get for your clients could just speak for themselves. If people would land on your website and think, wow, she’s a badass expert, I’m going to book a call. But it doesn’t work that way. People need to know your business...

In an industry where you hear “you just need to be one step ahead of your clients,” claiming your expertise is a rebellious act. When I first started my business, a well-intentioned friend advised me not to use “doctor” in my branding because I would intimidate people. Clearly, I did not listen to that advice. The hard-earned expertise of my Ph. D. in communication, plus my 25 years of experience,...

As we dive deep into your messaging this summer, I wanted to let you know about an absolutely free opportunity to get more support on creating your one-of-a-kind message that makes you the obvious choice for your client. It’s the Three Word Rebellion Book Club. In September, we’ll read the book and do the exercises together. You’ll get bonus book content that will help you unearth your Three Word...

As we dive deep into your messaging this summer, I wanted to let you know about an absolutely free opportunity to get more support on creating your one-of-a-kind message that makes you the obvious choice for your client. It’s the Three Word Rebellion Book Club. In September, we’ll read the book and do the exercises together. You’ll get bonus book content that will help you unearth your Three Word...

As we dive deep into your messaging this summer, I wanted to let you know about an absolutely free opportunity to get more support on creating your one-of-a-kind message that makes you the obvious choice for your client. It’s the Three Word Rebellion Book Club. In September, we’ll read the book and do the exercises together. You’ll get bonus book content that will help you unearth your Three Word...

As we dive deep into your messaging this summer, I wanted to let you know about an absolutely free opportunity to get more support on creating your one-of-a-kind message that makes you the obvious choice for your client. It’s the Three Word Rebellion Book Club. In September, we’ll read the book and do the exercises together. You’ll get bonus book content that will help you unearth your Three Word...

Welcome to the Summer Deep Dive. In June, you were able to listen to messaging makeovers, and now it’s your turn to make over your own message. This is a six-part series that was carefully curated to help you get clear and feel confident about your messaging, so you can show up and be radically consistent in your marketing, be known for your work, and lead people to hire you. Today: How to stand o...

Welcome to the Summer Deep Dive. In June, you were able to listen to messaging makeovers, and now it’s your turn to make over your own message. This is a six-part series that was carefully curated to help you get clear and feel confident about your messaging, so you can show up and be radically consistent in your marketing, be known for your work, and lead people to hire you. Today: Why you should...

Welcome to the Summer Deep Dive. In June, you were able to listen to messaging makeovers, and now it’s your turn to make over your own message. This is a six-part series that was carefully curated to help you get clear and feel confident about your messaging, so you can show up and be radically consistent in your marketing, be known for your work, and lead people to hire you. Today: How to Assess...