Marketing With Confidence - Jennifer Barthe

Marketing with

Confidence How to eliminate fear and procrastination when it comes to marketing your products, services, and yourself

By Jennifer Barthé

Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

This eBook is based on the blog posts found on:

© 2009 By Jennifer Barthe Copyright holder is licensing this work under the Create Commons License, Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Special thanks to Steve Pavlina and David Meerman Scott . Steve helped me realize the importance of marketing from the conscience and David helped me understand the power of transparent marketing.

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Marketing with Confidence

Table of Contents

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1 Introduction 3 Playing the Waiting Game 5 Sincerely Believe in Your Product or Service 8 Get Out f the Wrong Line of Work 12 Get Rid of Your Excuses 22 Focus on Social Contribution 24 About the Author

Jennifer Barthé

Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

Introduction Alright, so you’re having a really hard time putting yourself out there and asking for what it is that you want. Perhaps you’re self-employed and need new clients. Or maybe you’re unemployed or underemployed and need a new job. Whatever the case, the idea of facing rejection is strong enough to keep you in your comfort zone. Some of us were taught as children that it’s rude to toot your own horn or bring attention to yourself. Growing up in the Southern part of the US, I was always told by adults that “Children were to be seen and not heard”. As adults, many of us are still remaining unseen and unheard. We prefer to remain in the background, in our comfort zones, avoiding failure. Who wants to fall flat on their face and experience the pain and discomfort of disappointment? But by staying in our comfort zone, we deny ourselves of the opportunity to grow and live full lives. We prefer to remain timid and in return subject ourselves to long-term disappointment, frustration, resentment, and even jealousy.

Page 1

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson American Poet

Marketing with Confidence

The purpose of the book is not to teach specific marketing tasks. Instead my aim is to help you recognize why you’re procrastinating and letting fear keep you from marketing yourself, your services, and your products. There are tons of marketing books that will tell you what steps you need to take in order to promote yourself. However, very few of them describe the type of mindset you need to have in order to feel good about what you’re promoting. This eBook aims to fill that void.

Jennifer Barthé

“Whether you be man or woman you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” James Allen American Author

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Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

Playing the Waiting Game

Perhaps you’re waiting for the right business opportunity or job to show up. Lots of people think that all they need to do is create something and people will automatically come their way. Unless you already have an extensive network, only telling a handful of people about your product or service is not going to get you far. You must be willing to promote yourself on a daily basis, no matter how hard or slow it can be. Does this describe you current state of mind? - You’re often stuck in “planning mode” and unable to action. - You’ve read business books but rarely implement the lessons learned. - You think something “out there” needs to change before you can succeed. - You consistently ask others for advice before you’ll take action. - You believe that talent and experience is all that one needs in order to succeed. Page 3

“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.” Paulo Coelho Brazilian Author

Marketing with Confidence

What if I told you that the only thing you needed to succeed in life was simply passion combined with self-discipline? Passion by itself is not enough to get us to the finish line. Our level of passion is dependent upon our present mood. Some days we may be extremely passionate about something, but on the next day we may not. Passion by itself is not very reliable without self-discipline to back it up. Self- discipline combined with passion helps us get things done when we don’t feel like it. It allows us to stay up until 5 in the morning to finish an important project. It makes us exercise even though we’d rather stay in the house. It pushes us to go to work in the morning, despite our a long commute or a boring job. Self-discipline combined with passion creates a consistent flow of action. How can you develop the habit of self-discipline and combine it with passion?

Jennifer Barthé

“You win by working hard, making tough decisions and building coalitions.” John Egler American Politician

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Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

Sincerely Believe in Your Product or Service

One of the main reasons people procrastinate when it comes to marketing, is because they don’t really believe in what they’re promoting. It doesn’t matter if they have years of experience. Being talented is not important when you lack faith in yourself. Even having connections won’t matter if you don’t believe in your ability to create and provide quality products and services.

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertaking.” Samuel Johnson English Author

Let Go No one wants to admit that they’ve invested a significant amount of time into a project, task, skill, or product that’s mediocre. Instead of facing the truth, we try to justify our lack-luster results. We hear ourselves say that “It’s the economy that’s to blame. If more people were interested in what what we had to offer, then business would go up. If companies we’re hiring more, it would be easier for us to get a job” and etc. But why do we like to hold to our excuses?

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Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

Why is complaining so comfortable? Complaining protects us from making mistakes. How to Let Go You know it’s time to let go of a product, service, job, or just about anything when you: -

Cringe every time you tell people about what you’re promoting. Pray that people don’t call you back complaining about what you sold them. Spend all of your spare time immersed in leisure activities to avoid reality. Find yourself unable to get past fear, procrastination, and worry. Do just enough to get by or not get fired. Don’t take the time to cultivate our abilities or talents. Complain about what’s not working, but do nothing to change the situation. Talk about what you’re going to do instead of actually doing it. Continue to invest in a business that’s not working but you stay to save face. Do the same things over and over again but expect different results. Keep yourself busy when all you’re really doing is spinning your wheels.

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“Working hard and working smart sometimes can be two different things.” Byron Dorgan American Politician

Marketing with Confidence

Just because you’ve invested time and effort into a project, product, or your career, it doesn’t mean you have to stick with it if it’s not working out for you. I’ve written plenty of blog posts that have never published. In 2008, I created three other blogs before launching Jennifer Barthe.com in 2009. It took me weeks to re-design the layouts of my old blogs and to come up with writing topics. Yet, because I didn’t really believe in what I was doing, I took all of the old blogs offline. Even though I worked really hard at creating nice web designs, the quality of my content was sub par. I had invested time and money into these blogs and read plenty of blog marketing articles, but I never did anything with what I learned. I could have saved face and kept on blogging for months, putting out superficial posts and building a bit of web traffic. However, I didn't want to live my life that way. It was the same story with my marketing career. I had invested years into my identity as technology marketer, I didn’t like my job anymore, and I knew it was time for me to walk away. I was too scared to do anything about it though.

Jennifer Barthé

“Risk means everything from being honest about your faith, to moving, to quitting a job that's paying you a fortune but it's not what's in your heart. Risking things is one of the biggest fears we have.” John Tesh

So for months, I didn't do anything but focus on figuring out why I was having such a hard time getting ahead. After 9 months of intense journaling and reading, I realized that I letting go of what no longer served me was only the first step, to really make progress I would need to go a step further. Page 7

TV PersonalityMusician

Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

Get Out of The Wrong Line of Work

No matter how hard I tried, I could not operate at my fullest potential while being in the wrong career. Duh! I had to allow myself to let go of the ledge and move on to something better. I needed to find out what I really wanted to do with my life. Sometimes we can fall into the right line of work through trial and error. Or we might have to try out ten things before finding that which we’re good at. It’s precisely for this reason that being between jobs and careers could be a blessing in disguise. Turn Around and Change Direction If you’re self-employed and not doing well, then maybe you’re in the wrong type of business. Or you could be in the right line of work, but your products need to be upgraded or replaced. If your career has become stagnant, then get out of your current job or upgrade your skills. Whatever you decided to do, take a step back and ask yourself how you can do things better. It makes no sense to hold on to your old way of living if it prevents you from experiencing true joy. Page 8

“You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go.” -T.S. Eliot American Poet and Critic

Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

If you don’t really believe in: -

Your products or service, I mean really believe in them Your abilities and talent Your right to success and true happiness The fact that you can make a difference in the lives of others Putting your conscience ahead of money Proving people with social value Then you will always procrastinate and make excuses when it comes to market your business or yourself.

The only thing that’ll be easy for you to market is what’s not working in your life. You won’t have problems telling people about the bad economy, the lack of jobs or business. It doesn’t matter how many business books you read. It doesn’t matter how many blogs you subscribe to. It doesn’t matter how much education you have. If you don’t have faith in what you’re promoting, you’re just wasting your time and giving people sub par service. Let go of what’s not working and see how much fun authentic, conscious marketing can be. Don’t be so stubborn.

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“Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.” Friedrich Nietzsche German Philosopher

Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

Get Rid of Your Excuses

Excuses are comfortable because they allow us to justify our actions. We get sympathy from well meaning folks and that make us feel good. Unfortunately, excuses only lead to long-term denial and resentment. When we hold on tight to our reasons for why we can’t do something, we settle for life’s bread crumbs instead of the whole loaf. Isn’t it better to just let go, face our fears and go after what we really want? Here are some of the common reasons why we don’t let go: Excuse #1: “I’m scared of being rejected. So what? If someone rejects your offer or product, then move on to someone who does want it. If you’ve got a worthwhile product or skill and market it like hell, then in the end people will come looking for you! Please remember though, that not everyone is your ideal customer. Trying to sell to anyone with a pulse is a waste of time.

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“Several excuses are always less convincing than one.” Aldous Huxley English Novelist

Marketing with Confidence

Excuse #2: “Only Marketing people know how to do Marketing.” Everyone knows how to market a product, service, or person. When you badmouth a certain former US president (you know who), you’re practicing word-of-mouth marketing. You didn’t read a book or get a degree in mass communications to learn how to do it. You just opened your mouth and let your opinion out. Marketing is simply telling people about a certain something . Every time you tell someone about the latest sale at Macy’s, why you don’t like McDonald’s burgers, or post videos of your new car on YouTube, you’re marketing. Excuse #3: “I’m only looking for a job, I don’t have time to learn marketing.” If believe that you don’t have time to learn how to market your skills, then you could be costing prospective employers millions of dollars to NOT be employing you. Think about all the great things you could be doing for a prospective employer, how much money you could make for them and yourself, and how you could improve their product line. If you’re really good at what you do , then get out there and let people know. Screw sending out resumes whenever a job opening pops up. Network with recruiters and companies on social networking sites, in person, blog, podcast, do whatever it takes.

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Jennifer Barthé

“Complainers change their complaints, but they never reduce the amount of time spent in complaining.” Mason Cooley American Writer

Marketing with Confidence

Excuse #4: “I don’t know how to market.” Earlier, I showed that bad-mouthing a certain former US president is considered to be a form of marketing. Anyone can get good at marketing themselves and their products, provided their willing to learn. When you first start out, it can be a bit scary, but if you keep trying, you’ll build up the skills needed to succeed. Improving your marketing skills is easy, just as long as you really believe in what you have to offer and you’re willing to work hard. There are plenty of great books, CDs, blogs, podcasts, college courses, and real life situations to help you get your feet wet. Even if it takes you a while to get results, don’t give up. The benefits of learning how to market what you really believe in includes: - Helping millions of people improve their lives (the Internet can help with that) - Becoming an expert in your field - Being in able to meet your physical, emotional, and financial needs The only benefit of not learning how to market is that you get to complain about everything. But who wants to be around a complainer? Page 12

Jennifer Barthé

“If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.” Anthony J. D'Angelo

Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

Excuse #5: “I’ve read marketing before, they don’t work.” Perhaps you bought a book and did what most people do after reading it,

NOTHING! One of the worst habits you can develop is to be addicted to buying self-help and business books and not using them. You’ll fool yourself into thinking you’re making real progress because: -

Buying books feels like you’re really doing something about your situation You get to tell all your friends about which trends and authors are hot You entertain yourself by reading interesting material You let other people borrow your stiff, which makes you look smart

But here are the REAL The benefits of the habit:

“Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt.” Henri Frederic Amiel Swiss Philosopher

- You waste money and time - You stay in denial - You’ll experience emotional highs and lows whenever the novelty wears off Page 14

Marketing with Confidence

- People will start to see you’re all talk and no game - You’ll lose faith in yourself Excuse #6: “I don’t want to feel like I’m selling something.” When you’re promoting anything you believe in, whether it’s your business or yourself as a job applicant, then you’ll feel bad if you don’t tell others about what you have offer. Now that doesn’t mean you try to make everyone your customer or you apply for every job in sight. However, it means you focusing on providing real value to the people who need your services most. Excuse #7: “I’m shy and don’t feel comfortable promoting myself. Read books on self-confidence and get over the shame of tooting your own horn. If you’re doing something worthwhile, don’t feel bad about telling other people about it. People can tell how you feel about yourself by the way you speak, dress, and by what you talk about. If you don’t come across as confident, you’ll have a hard time getting what you want. Perpetual shyness is just a way to avoid rejection. Excuse #8: “I’m too old, young, live in a small town, am broke…” It’s never too late or too early to learn or do anything new. There are people 16

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Jennifer Barthé

“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” St. Augustine

Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

and 60 years old using Facebook. I’m 28 and am writing this book. It costs next to nothing to market a product online and you can promote it from any location, just as long as you have Internet access. Money, age, location, and skill level is not an excuse for doing nothing. Excuse #9: “I DO believe in what I’m promoting, shut up.” Then how come you’re not dying to tell everyone about what yourself? If you’re spending more time talking about why people aren’t buying your products, hiring you for a job, or even taking you out on dates, then you’re right, you do believe in what you’re promoting. Trouble is you’re promoting bad news that no one wants to hear but you! Ultimate Excuse: “The economy is bad, ain’t no jobs, and business is dead.” Opportunities are available for those who really want them. It may not be easy to create your own luck, but it’s certainly not impossible. Lot’s of people have prospered in bad times and through personal hardships. Want to know what really hard times looked like? Life During and After the Civil War President Lincoln had to deal with a war-torn nation and the economic tensions between The North and The South. The Southern states (Confederacy) were cash Page 16

“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.” Katherine Hepburn American Actress

Marketing with Confidence

poor and depended upon forced slave labor to feed its economy. The Northern states (Union) had skilled laborers and its economy was depended upon Industrialization. During the Civil War (1861-1865), money was tight for both sides, but the Confederate states suffered the most. When the Confederacy seceded from the Union, it started printing its own currency. But when the Union began to block the Confederacy's trade routes, preventing Southerners from getting food, clothing, and weapons, widespread panic and inflation took place. Basic food staples such corn and bread became too expensive for the average family. In addition, farmers could not afford the grains needed to plant crops and many of them went bankrupt. As the war progressed the number of slave revolts increased (a good thing) and more slaves ran away. However, many of the slaves whom stayed behind, were subjected to increased violence and diminished food supplies. They were forced to work barren lands and weren’t even allowed to keep the small amounts of food they grew. Damage from the war also accounted for failed crops. Soldiers from both sides Page 17

Jennifer Barthé

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln Former American President

Marketing with Confidence

slaughtered farm animals, crops, and stole food. Everybody in the South was either going hungry,bankrupt or crazy.And to think, for what? They weren’t even winning the war! There were riots and protests all over the place. During The Richmond Bread Riot of 1862, 3,000 hungry people people went into the streets of Richmond, Virginia, shouting “Bread or Blood!” At that point, people were more concerned with eating rather than fighting a losing war. But despite all of these problems, a few individuals made good of what they could find during and after the war. These people created their own good luck.

Clara Barton Clara Barton was a nurse for the Union during the war. She created a program to help bring medical supplies and health care to soldiers located in remote battlefields. After the war ended, she established a relief program to help relocate missing soldiers. She personally went into battlefields and searched for the dead and wounded who were left behind. Next, she set up a program to help war-torn families on both

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Jennifer Barthé

“An institution or reform movement that is not selfish, must originate in the recognition of some evil that is adding to the sum of human suffering, or diminishing the sum of happiness.” Clara Barton Nurse and Philanthropist

Marketing with Confidence

the North and the South get food, money, clothing, and emotional support. Later in life, she established a little organization you’ve probably never heard of, The Red Cross. Years on non-stop work for a cause greater than herself and all of the toiling in the battlefields looking for missing soldiers, diminished her health. Yet despite this she continued her work. She traveled all over the world to establish Red Cross offices in Europe, Turkey, and China. In addition to her selfless dedication to the Red Cross, she tirelessly fought for the equal rights of freed slaves and for women’s right to vote. Clara was an un-married woman, living in war damaged 19th century America, and yet she managed to accomplished quite a lot. Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland in 1818. He illegally learned how to read as a child and taught other slaves how to read in secret as a teenager. He was repeatedly beaten with whips because of his kindness towards others. On his plantations, he was always tired instill hope in the other slaves, convincing them that slavery would one day end. He taught them that they were human beings who were being stripped of their basic rights. He escaped slavery at age 21. Page 19

Jennifer Barthé

“A man's character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him.” Frederick Douglass American Author/Activist

Marketing with Confidence

After becoming a free man, he built a prolific public speaking career at the age of 23. He published his autobiography by age 27. He was not only a tireless advocator for the equal rights of slaves and but also for American women. After the Civil War ended, he served in public office as the President of the Reconstruction-era Freedman's Savings Bank, a bank set up by the US Government to help the freed slaves become financially independent. He was also the first African-American to be nominated for President by a major party roll-call vote during the 1888 Republican National Convention. He later lost to Benjamin Harrison for the final Republican Presidential Nomination. Douglass, a former slave in the 19th century,managed to accomplish quite a bit. He was also married to a white feminist at a time when women weren’t allowed to vote and interracial marriage was illegal in some parts of the country. If Clara Barton and Frederick Douglass could shake things up at a time when minority groups were oppressed, the nation was in ruins due to a brutal war, and NetFlix wasn’t invented (ok, bad example), then what’s stopping you?

Jennifer Barthé

“A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.” Frederick Douglass American Author/Activist

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Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

Focus on Social Contribution Once you decide to stop pimping so-so products or services, and are ready give up your excuses, then it’s time for you to start focusing on what you can do to make a difference in the lives of others. Your main concern should be to focus on creating or providing a valuable service to others. The product can be your skills, something your company has created, or a service you want to offer.

But what if you don’t know what you want to do? Ask yourself the following questions until you can come up with answer: What am interested in? What do I have offer? What are the real benefits of what I’m offering? How am I denying people of the services they need when I don’t market myself? . Page 21

“Men value things in three ways: as useful, as pleasant or sources of pleasure, and as excellent, or as intrinsically admirable or honorable.” Mortimer Adler American Philosopher

Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

If I need to improve my skills, how can I get started today? Am I willing to price my services accordingly? Keep asking yourself these questions until you can come up with answers that makes sense to you. Conclusion It’s doesn’t matter how much time you spend learning how market yourself or business, you will not be able create consistent results if: - You’re not passionate about what you’re doing - You don’t want to develop the self-discipline necessary to market on a consistent basis - You’re marketing a mediocre product or service and you know it - You like to make excuses for why why you can’t make it in life - You’re not interested in proving real value to other people I’ll close this book with a wonderful quote from the Buddha: “A good person gives in five ways: out of faith, with respect, at the right time, generously, and without denigrating the other."

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“To succeed in life in today's world, you must have the will and tenacity to finish the job.” Chin-Ning Chu Chinese Businessman

Marketing with Confidence

Jennifer Barthé

About the Author Jennifer Barthe is a former a technology marketer who now spends her time teaching others how to perform authentic online and viral marketing. She is dedicated to taking the fear out of marketing, thereby helping people market their skills, services, and products with greater ease. She blogs and podcasts at www.jenniferbarthe.com and can be found on Twitter several times throughout the day. She currently resides in Boston, but loves to hang out in NYC on the weekends.

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