If you want to reach more of your audience, and you’re allergic to “business tactics” and selling feels sleazy, I know where you’re coming from!
Colin, 10 Years Ago:
I was so excited the day I left my safe job as a financial literacy guest speaker to work for myself and build a business where I could have a wider impact.
A week later, I had a rude awakening… I didn’t like running a business very much.
I wanted to speak to audiences and have a big impact, but now I had to spend time on things like branding, pitching, marketing, and selling to get there.
Those things make me feel salesy, uninspired, easily-distractible, and sleepy.
Colin, Now:
This year I celebrated 10 years running a successful business – I know this works!
It’s because, over time, I have been able to reimagine these “tactics” in human-first language that remind me running a business or growing a program is really about supporting other people and finding “win-wins” by working together.
At the 2023 HEFWA Summit on the beautiful University of Oregon campus, I gave a talk on what I’ve learned. I want to share the quick-version of these concepts here, then offer you a free resource too!
(These are my takes, based on working with lots of programs, and please remix them so they work for you!)
Here are four Business Tactics REIMAGINED:
Branding = Clarity
Creating a brand is about being curious and really listening to your audience as individuals with problems you can help with.
Your brand isn’t just a logo – your brand is how the people you’re trying to reach describe what you do and what you are like. Not sure what they’d say? Ask them! “What do you think I do?” “What qualities would you use to describe me?”
Pitching = Stories
Pitching means recruiting others to your vision, and using real-world success stories to bring your numbers to life.
Data only tells, but Story sells. Stories create an emotional connection and move your listener to act. Enhance your quantitative data with stories of students who improved their finances and you’ll move funders & higher-ups to want to support you. Ask them to set small goals, check in on them, and if they make an improvement, now you have a story!
Marketing = Showing Up
Sending out mass emails may be easy, but each recipient is an individual who wants to feel like you’re speaking right to them.
Don’t wait for them to come to you. Go where they are, and show them you care, then invite them to follow-up with you (and make it easy by inviting them in the presentation/conversation, not after). Guest speaking will guarantee good attendance and you can make a real connection with them even if you only have 5-10 minutes.
Selling = A Next Step
People will only act on your advice if they know you, they like you, and they trust you. So focus on that before you ask them to do anything.
Earn their trust and then offer them an easy next step (so easy that it’s more tempting to do than to avoid.) A “sales funnel” (yuck) is really just a journey, and it feels a lot less gross when the only thing you’re “selling” is that they take a next step to improve their situation. Each step moves them further along their journey to knowledge and financial success.
I don’t know about you, but Having a Clear Message, Telling Stories, Showing Up for Your Audience, and Giving Them a Next Step feels a lot more relational and genuine and fun to spend time on!
Putting even one of these into practice WILL lead you to more visibility, more funding and more impact. 🎉 🎉
Those are the four concepts I’ve reimagined in a way that works for me and makes marketing and business stuff more meaningful and enjoyable.
Now here is my Free Offer to you: Take advantage of my training module Serve More Students, and use code HUMOR to get it for free! I give you simple exercises and actual questions to ask your audience to help you apply each of these to your own work. I also share some real life examples of people who have done this successfully that I know you’ll relate to!
(Click the link here or click the image below.)
