Every marketing consult I do is different depending on the client, but over time I’ve noticed a few different recurring themes across dozens of clients.
One thing is what I call “the TEDtalk problem”, which particularly seems to afflict creatives and small business owners.
Basically: when it comes to talking about their work, or their product, they feel a pressure to speak in a very formal, ‘professional’ way. This goes beyond just vocabulary or grammar, it’s largely about the way the work is presented. This conflicts with the vibe of their work, and their personality, and they flinch from it.
What does that look like in practice? Often, they have all these items on their todo list like “make a tiktok” or “post on blog” that they keep procrastinating on. And it’s for a good reason, it’s because they feel like the task they’ve assigned themselves is incongruent with the essence of who they are and what they do! So the procrastination is actually protecting them from what feels like a transgression.
I have good news: you don’t have to give TEDtalks if you don’t want to! You get to define your own audience, you get to define your own style. Instead of addressing an audience directly as if you’re a speaker on stage, for eg, you could record videos of yourself having a casual conversation with someone about your domain of expertise. If you don’t want to talk too much about yourself or your product, you can actually devote your time to talking about the problem that your product addresses. That too can sell, and oftentimes actually sell better than polished material that feels forced or fake.
Have you found yourself feeling stuck when it comes to pitching yourself or your work? I’d love to hear about it!