Photo Credit: usembassykyiv

I’m publicly taking and publishing the required exercises in Seth Godin’s Professional Freelancer Course on Udemy. The required exercises force you to ask: “Am I Taking This Path for The Right Reasons.”

I completed the Lectures Six through Thirteen this morning. It’s great stuff taught by The Godfather Himself: Mr. Seth Godin.

Seth asked his course participants to go all-in and publish their assignments. As I perform the course exercises, I will continue publishing the results. It’s Seth teaching his students to write down, commit to, and deliver on our personal manifestos.

Here’s my continuing public contribution and commitment to Seth’s class:

What Do People Buy When They Buy Something From You?

When my clients buy from me, they are investing in and trusting in three (3) things:

1. My teaching expertise to help them understand the business implications of integrating traditional marketing methods with newer, digital marketing methods using The Internet.

2. My expertise as a marketing strategist who understands that 99.99 percent of the time a 21st century prospective buyer’s intent originates from either a Google Search on his/her smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop.

3. My expertise in teaching and instilling confidence in my clients so they learn through disciplined practice how to become confident marketing strategists on their own.

If I’m doing my job right, the successful business outcome is each of my clients at some point will tell me: “Cool, Tony. We’ve finally got the hang of this digital marketing stuff. We don’t need your help anymore. We’ve got it from here.”

I’ve never taken flying lessons to earn a pilot’s license (maybe that’s a personal goal I should pursue — someday). I view my role as analogous to being a superior flight instructor. A superior flight instructor inspires confidence and develops expertise in his/her student pilots. These are the student pilots who learn quickly and are excitedly counting down the days to their “first, cross country solo flight.”

That’s the type of confidence and competence I want to inspire and develop with my clients. If I’m teaching the right way, my clients will have the confidence and competence to “fly solo without me.”

Sooner Versus Later.

Leave Out The Easy, Repetitive Stuff … What Are You Doing That’s Difficult?

There are two (2) things I’m doing that are difficult when working with my clients:

1. Explaining we can measure online activities or the steps a prospective buyer takes during the online buying process (and how that links to revenue generation and sales). I debate this issue at length especially if a client team member is strongly wedded and comfortable with traditional advertising tactics and practices.

Even though I know how to demonstrate a prospective buyer’s online behaviors via Google Analytics or SpyFu Competitive Intelligence Tools, I’m dealing with a powerful resistance to change.

2. Convincing my clients that at some point in our business relationship, they shouldn’t need me anymore. My approach and philosophy contradicts a traditional agency’s or management consultancy’s business model built on securing lifetime revenue streams.

I know firsthand. I lived and practiced those business models for two decades.

If I’m serving and teaching my clients the right way, they’ll refer me to four or five other companies who they think would be a great match.

Your Turn

Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear from you. I’m here to read, listen, and learn from YOUR PERSPECTIVE.   Comments are open. So let’er rip!

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