EP 336: Marketing Without Scale With Brand Strategist Felicia Sullivan
b'In This Episode:\\n\\n\\n\\n* Why brand strategist Felicia Sullivan doesn\\u2019t bother with using social media to find clients* How she uses coffee dates to make long-lasting relationships* Why she prioritizes consuming remarkable content and how it helps her meet the people she wants to meet* How she uses Medium to deliver remarkable content on the platform her clients are most likely to be engaging with\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\u201cDo things that don\\u2019t scale.\\u201d\\n\\n\\n\\nThat\\u2019s venture capitalist Paul Graham\\u2019s advice to new entrepreneurs.\\n\\n\\n\\nWhat he means is that instead of trying to appeal to the masses or market an idea with a million-dollar advertising budget, start by wooing 1 person at a time.\\n\\n\\n\\nI\\u2019ve always loved this advice and found it to be unfailingly effective.\\n\\n\\n\\nBut\\u2026 it\\u2019s possible to take this idea too far.\\n\\n\\n\\nWhen I say it\\u2019s possible to take the idea of doing things that don\\u2019t scale too far, I\\u2019m talking about the tendency to assume that you do things that don\\u2019t scale until you can do the things that scale.\\n\\n\\n\\nFor Graham\\u2019s audience, that is totally the right idea.\\n\\n\\n\\nBut for small business owners, more often than not, the idea is: do things that don\\u2019t scale\\u2014and then do them some more.\\n\\n\\n\\nAnd this absolutely applies to how we build audiences or find customers.\\n\\n\\n\\nThe activities that have brought me the biggest leaps forward in terms of the size of my audience were things that came from 1:1 interactions. The things that have brought in incredible clients? They certainly didn\\u2019t scale.\\n\\n\\n\\nIt\\u2019s not that scale isn\\u2019t possible\\u2014it\\u2019s just that scale is a potential result not a method.\\n\\n\\n\\nThe best path forward for most small business owners is a marketing strategy that doesn\\u2019t scale: referrals, word of mouth, networking, interacting with people online. Even creating highly valuable podcast episodes or newsletters!\\n\\n\\n\\nToday, I\\u2019m talking with Felicia Sullivan, a brand strategist who has built a thriving business on marketing activities that don\\u2019t scale. Felicia works with startup founders and small businesses doing $10-20m in annual revenue\\u2014folks who aren\\u2019t looking for business help on Instagram.\\n\\n\\n\\nSo Felicia spends her business development time on 3 things: coffee dates, writing long-form articles geared directly to her prospective clients, and referrals.\\n\\n\\n\\nThis episode answers some of the questions I\\u2019m most frequently asked about when it comes to marketing businesses that aren\\u2019t built on online courses (which, you know, is most of them).\\n\\n\\n\\nGet ready to take some notes.\\n\\n\\n\\nLet\\u2019s find out What Works for Felicia Sullivan!'