Authenticity is the New Black
This month’s newsletter is about how authenticity (real authenticity, not the fake stuff), is actually a great marketing tool. I promised the people who read the newsletter and wanted more examples of people who were using their authenticity to attract their perfect clients: here are three more examples.
This is a person who actually eats nothing but raw food, and wants to help you do the same. Perhaps this isn’t as much of a stretch as some of the other businesses listed below; her clients are not going to be put off by the raw-food-only mission. But if you come to her site not as one of the converted, you might be surprised to see how adamant (and convincing) she is about eating nothing but raw food. Yes, people actually do this, and I can say from (limited) experience that raw food can be pretty tasty.
This is a consultant who teaches corporate marketing department people how to use social media. There is a certain amount of cussing going on in her blog, plus at the bottom of her “About” page, she says this: “Okay, my ACTUAL mission is “To Be a Joyful Conduit of Truth, Beauty and Love,” but that tends to draw a lot of blank stares in traditional networking-type situations. Plus it doesn’t cover much in the way of worldly overhead outside of your average ashram. (Although I swear I’m putting it on my next business card anyway.)” She charges $120/hour. Read a few of her blog entries; you’ll see a person who is authentically herself in all her opinionated glory.
And the last one for this blog post, is Escape from Cubicle Nation. The woman who owns this business said this to a group of corporate executives (and reported the story in her bio): “Wow – you look just like the gang members that I work with. They look at me like that when they want to intimidate me. What’s up?”
After a tense silence (when I was wondering if I had finally lost my mind), they burst out laughing and immediately changed their demeanor.”
When was the last time you wanted to tell a room full of corporate executives that you were training, that they looked like a group of gang members? Did you go ahead and do it?
I’m on a quest for more authenticity; in plumbers, chiropractors, dentists, contractors, and all other types of businesses. Anybody got more examples?
Tags: Authenticity, Marketing, Success
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Hey! That’s me!
I guess I need to do a better job of refining exactly whom I’m there to help. While I certainly have done presentations to corporate types, I specialize in helping solopreneurs or very small businesses to get their marketing straight online.
As for other examples, here’s a shortlist of folk I think do it well (besides Pam, who is, indeed, as awesome and hilarious and smart as she comes across):
Naomi Dunford (http://ittybiz.com)
Mark Silver (http://www.heartofbusiness.com/)
Adam Kayce (http://monkatwork.com/)
Havi Brooks (http://www.fluentself.com/blog/)
Gary Vaynerchuk (http://garyvaynerchuk.com/)
I could go on and on…most of the people I like to hang with IRL have turned out to be people who matched up with their online personas: Gretchen Rubin, Jonathan Fields, Chris Brogan—oops…there I go, going on and on again.
Do I get extra credit?
You definitely get extra credit. Thanks for making the “authenticity” list longer.
Since I teach business plan workshops and occasionally use puppets to make complex concepts lighter and easier to understand, I’m pretty happy about the move to greater authenticity in business. It’s like being in high school again; someone said “Be Yourself,” and this time they actually meant it.
Hey! That’s me too! My blog (http://asafarilife.blogspot.com) and my website are both places where I let myself flow onto the page. Sometimes it’s not pretty or stylish, and it’s all me, all the time. Thanks for this post. I love it.
xoxo,
Laura