Marketer

Content Creator vs Writer and Public Speaker

by JimRaffel on May 16, 2012

Image of creating contentBy the time you read this, I will have changed every online profile I can find from “businessman, writer, and public speaker” to “businessman and content creator.” This refined tagline is more descriptive of what I actually do and easier to say when someone asks what I do. It’s about understanding my current position and shifting that positioning so the world has a better idea what it is I do on a daily basis.

Position and positioning

Before I start throwing buzz words around, let’s settle on a couple of definitions. For our purposes, “position” is where we currently are. Think of it as reality. You may not like it, but you and your audience know and understand your position. It’s neither good nor bad at this point. It just is. “Positioning” on the other hand is the act of shifting your position from what it is to what you want it to be. So there is not such thing as a bad position; just bad positioning.

If you are going to make the effort to shift your position, it’s important to know where you are and where you want to be. For example, I love creating content of all kinds. That can be blog posts like this, videos, public presentations and even private, small group presentations for our customers. While that can all be called content creation, the terms writing and public speaking don’t encompass all I do. My position is content creator, yet I was telling the world I was a writer and public speaker. That means my positioning statement was inaccurate.

Align your position and purpose

Your purpose is what drives you. It’s what makes you want to get out of the bed in the morning and kick some ass on a daily basis. On a personal level, my drive is to stay self-employed for the rest of my life so I can be a disruptive innovator without having to justify myself to others. One level down from that purpose is my current business goal of promoting open color systems in which no one business or individual “owns” color. It’s a color democracy of sorts.

A lifelong purpose of disruptive innovation requires that I spend a great deal of time evangelizing change. That requires communication and communication requires content creation. Putting it all together, lifetime self-employment dictates that I be a decent businessman, and being an evangelizing disruptive innovator requires that I be a content creator.

Labels vs positioning statements

If you are like me, then you are not a big fan of labels. A personal tagline is a type or label, but it’s a necessary one. If you can’t tell people who you are and what you do, how on earth do you ever expect them to want to work with you?

What’s your current position and is your positioning statement properly reflective of that position?

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Continue Reading 0 comments }Content Creation Wednesday, Marketer

Why disruptive innovation means
telling people it is time to change

by JimRaffel on May 14, 2012

image of innovation

Telling people what they want to hear and what they already believe to be true will not inspire action. Promoting new thinking and ideas requires you to tell folks what they may not want to hear or even believe.

Selling a new concept

Think about the early days of social media. Ten or even 15 years ago, not very many people thought blogs and online chat (which is what Twitter really is) would change the way we communicate both personally and professionally. Sure Twitter, Facebook and WordPress are only tools; but they are tools that quite frankly changed the world.

Your product may not have as big a potential footprint as FaceBook or Twitter; but if it’s innovative and challenges the current paradigm you are going to face the same challenges these technology startups once faced. You need to explain to the potential audience for your good or service why they would want to change the way they currently do whatever it is your technology is going to give them a better way to do.

In the case of FaceBook, Twitter and WordPress, that meant showing that communication could have greater reach over the internet. Communication could be richer and multi-channel. For some, that could just be knowing that with an internet connection you’d never have to feel alone again. I’ve utilized social media tools to build support groups that have helped me change my life. That’s a powerful message you don’t achieve without getting folks to think outside the current box they are living in.

Disruptive Innovation

The changes social media have made to human communications are disruptive in nature. For example, phone calls have become less important and fax machines virtually unneeded. When you are part of the disruptive innovation process, you need to let people know change is coming. You also need to let them know that this change is for the better and will change their world in big and small ways.

I’m lucky to be in the middle of some disruptive innovation right now. We spent three days last week sharing a message that many may not have wanted to believe or hear quite yet. In every case however, they listened and responded positively. The message worked because we presented it along with a higher purpose. We were sharing a way to fix something in our industry that is broken.

Think about human communication. It’s still broken, but I feel social media makes it better. When used correctly we can create virtually instant conversations including hundreds or even thousands of people. We’ve democratized the dissemination of information. No longer do media outlets have a stranglehold on the distribution points of knowledge. Sure that means we have to do more vetting ourselves but I’m up for the task and I sure hope you are too.

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Marketing strategy to grow business online

February 8, 2012

Two years ago, I created the diagram that accompanies this post. I was preparing to meet with Joe Sorge to talk about how to leverage online activity to grow our respective businesses. On the surface, it might seem strange that a restaurateur and niche market software guy could have similar marketing strategies. The reality is [...]

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How to remain relevant like Madonna

February 6, 2012

Why are folks so impressed that Madonna at “her age” has remained relevant for the better part of 30 years? Sure, audiences in the entertainment industry can be fickle, but don’t we all face the challenge of remaining relevant in our chosen careers? Last night, I watched her performance during the Super Bowl and then [...]

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I don’t find time to write; I make time

February 3, 2012

Hardly a week goes by that I don’t field the “How do you find time to write so much?” question. Until earlier this week, I wasn’t comfortable answering that question or even quite sure how to answer it. It turns out the answer is simple: I make time to write, I don’t find it. Making [...]

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How to close more deals

January 30, 2012

I thought about entitling this post “How to make more money,” but the reality is the techniques discussed here are about closing deals that may not have direct monetary implications. Sometimes closing a deal is as simple as setting out to meet and have coffee with an influential person in your chosen industry or profession. [...]

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Enterprise Me or Serial Entrepreneur

January 16, 2012

Lately, I’ve noticed people using words like “serial entrepreneur” or “solopreneur” to label and describe their personal brand. It’s not that I don’t like those words. I think both are quite catchy. My problem is that when I think about some of the folks using those words, I think that they’ve missed the mark and [...]

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Why the personal branding labels you choose matter

January 3, 2012
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Business owner, blogger, speaker, and gadget lover That’s what the about page on this site and most of my social media profiles told you about my personal brand until recently. Businessman, writer, public speaker That’s what those same sources will tell you about my personal brand today. Why the difference isn’t so subtle Business owner [...]

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The power of partnering

October 21, 2011
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I’ve spent most of this week at the SGIA trade show in the booth of our business partner Mutoh America. Over the last year or so, we have developed the ColorVerify product line and this is the first show where we have demonstrated the solution live to attendees. My role has been to do two [...]

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What affiliate revenue can mean to you

October 11, 2011
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The picture with this post was taken just as the Milwaukee Brewers won game 5 of the National League Division Series. My wife and I were at games 1 and 2 of the series as well. With one child in college and another starting next fall, I’m 100 percent sure our budget would not have [...]

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