When I lived in San Francisco in the late ’90′s, there was this local Mexican restaurant chain that offered a completely awesome promotion:
If you got a permanent tattoo of their logo, you got free burritos for life.
Now, this promotion probably wouldn’t work everywhere, but in the tattoo’d oddity-land that is San Francisco, it was a massive success.
Why?
Because their burritos were really fucking good.
I mean EPIC good. In a sea of REALLY good Mexican food, their food rocked.
That, and they had a cool little dude in a sombrero riding a corn cob rocket for their logo (see logo to your left), so it wasn’t a big stretch to have it forever.
At the time, I was like eighteen, and was still pretty ok with paying four bucks for my burritos (and had not yet popped my tattoo cherry). But, I totally thought about it. And nearly fifteen years later, I am STILL thinking about it.
So my questions are: How can you create a brand that people will love so much, they want to tattoo it on their forehead? {….and yes, one guy actually did that.} What are you doing today that people will be talking about in fifteen years?
The answer is like stupid simple:
Be fucking fabulous at whatever it is that you do, and be REALLY god damn cool.
The world is completely packed full of people. Every single one of them is waiting for someone to inspire them somehow. And you know what? A bunch of them are waiting…
Patiently.
For you.
They’re sitting at home right now patiently waiting for you to give them a reason to LOVE you.
I WANT to love you. I want to love anything. Seriously.
I spend most of my life trying to find anything that blows my skirt up enough that I would actually want to tattoo their message on my birthday suit.
How many things in your life do you love enough to tattoo on your body?
Really, think about it.
Make a list.
I’ll wait.
Are you one of those rabid Mac people that would plant an apple on your left boob? {Were it not for your fear that they might update their logo again…}
I KNOW for SURE that a few of you have something superhero (or Star Wars) related already decorating at least one cheek on your derrière.
Come on, you can tell me.
What do you love?
More importantly, what do your clients/customers/readers (let’s just call them ‘your people’) love about you?
Is it you unique voice?
Your killer message?
Your fabulous brand design?
Your Über-success?
Your amazing whatever-ness?
If you are sitting there thinking, “Crap. I’m not really all that awesome. Nothing I do is really all that cool,” then I have news for you…
You’re wrong.
Like, REALLY wrong.
Like, more wrong than you have EVER been about anything.
At the very least there is someone out there who, right at this very moment, envies you for your amazing ability to find cool things to read {yeah…. like you loved me for my humility… riiiiight}.
Someone out there knows less than you do.
Someone out there could benefit from something only you could teach them.
You just have to find your something… ….but…. That’s really just half of it.
Once you find your something, you have to figure out a cool-as-shit, rock-star way of telling the world about it, so that your people can find you.
That’s marketing.
Yup. I totally just defined something that you thought you already understood.
I know, I am totally blowing your mind right now.
See, that’s MY thing. I am sooooper good at finding accessible ways of explaining stuff. MY people {you} find me and love me because they know I will help them {you} figure shit out that they {YOU} didn’t even know they {you} didn’t know.
I have spent a LOT of time figuring out how to teach this stuff without making myself into one of the tool-ish gurus that give me indigestion. I came up with all kinds of wrong ideas. Now mind you, these are right ideas for LOTS of people, and I am not trashing those delightful folks. What I’m saying is that these were wrong ides for me; these were wrong ideas for my people.
Books? No. Too long. Nobody ever really reads business books all the way through because they think they already know most of the info written in them. People buy business books to have an expert tell them that the stuff they think they already know is actually correct. Yes, you might learn some new stuff, but chances are, you already decided before you opened it that you were smarter than the writer. It’s ok, you can admit it.
Free content/courses? Isn’t that what a blog is? I give stuff away all the time. Your reading it right now. As much as I wish it did, your appreciation doesn’t pay my rent.
Video? I’ll probably get to that…when I lose ten pounds, but until then, I’m going with, “No. Too lazy.”
In person seminars? Let’s just say that weekly presentations in business school have left me scarred. I’ll get over it eventually. So, what’s my right idea? Glad you asked.
See, I know that you’re soooooper smart.
I know that you already know about half of what I would write in a book or put out in a freebie, or teach you in a Power Point, and I am certain that you are certain of that too. I also know that you are WAY too busy to sit down and read another two-hundred pages about how to build a better business.
My people need fast, easy-to-swallow solutions to their EXACT problems, so they can learn, grow, and get on with the building of their shiny rocket ship to success.
With that in mind, I created The Short Attention Span Guides.
Stay with me, this is the good part… and no, I am not about to sell you something (at least not right now).
The SAS Guides are designed with YOU in mind. They are:
- Short
- Clear
- Singularly focused
- Easy to read in about twenty minutes
- And, most importantly… super freakin’ cheap
The SAS series breaks down like this:
- Each guide is focused on one topic. A few titles include: Marketing Basics, How to Find a Good Idea, SEO Basics, etc…
- All of the guides follow the same basic format: five modules of no more than five points each.
- Each point is simple, clear, and in BOLD TYPE, so you can scan it for tips or read the deeper dive explanations for more learning.
- The guides are broken into four categories: The Basics (new skills for anyone who feels a little green in a certain area), The Niches (industry specific learning, like ‘Etsy Basics’), The Intermediates (the more heady stuff), and The Specials (limited edition offerings from some of the business and blogging world’s coolest people).
The idea is to create a one-stop-shop for self-directed business learning. You know your strengths and weaknesses better than anyone. The SAS series lets YOU decide what you need to learn and when.
The Short Attention Span Guide store opens for business on April 12th. There will be much fanfare and free shit, and there will also be a KILLER sale happening for the first month of the launch. Some of the cool free stuff will only be released to my hard-core-borderline-stalker-people {for the love of god, stop taking my picture at the supermarket… you know who you are…}. Are you one of those? If not, sign up for the list.
I’ll make it worth your while, promise. OK, enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What are you doing RIGHT now that is COOL AS SHIT that you would like more people to know about? Please, tell the class {that’s code for ‘leave a comment’}. If it’s sooooooper cool, I might even write your name up on the board with a big gold star.
first, i want to say that i love your idea for bite sized modules, categorized for the purpose of allowing people to pick what they want to learn. the reason i love it is because it is brilliant. the reason i think so is because it is quite similar to the idea i had for the DIY product i am designing (well, i WAS designing, but then put it on the back burner for this book I’m co-authoring, but still plan on completing and releasing late summertime).
Aside from that, the points you make in this post are spot on. I find it very self validating how you, one of my favorite writers of awesome stuffs, posted this and at the same time I posted an article about being effin legendary (very similar content).
the part i agree with the most is the part where you talk about how someone out there is waiting for you (me). the idea is that you want to be awesome to the people around you, but that doesn’t mean EVERYBODY. you simply make your mark amongst the select few in the world (who will be in the thousands or even millions) that GET you and your message. they benefit from your awesomeness, and you benefit from their buying your stuff.
so, i look forward to the release of these modules.
keep it up Illana, you totally blow my skirt up.
Oh, and to answer briefly your question about what brands I love…here is a short list:
Android
Google (I know, redundant)
Volkswagen
Kashi
Blue Diamond (the almond people)
Host Monster (for their amazing customer service)
Just to name a few. :)
Bite sized chunks for the info overloaded masses! Brilliant and I’m in. See you at the supermarket ;)
Yay! I am SO excited to pull back the curtain. Soon, baby, soon!
NICE post. Intuitive LOVE Magnet with a playful pounce. Wakey, Wakey! I’m really good at creating non-bickery community. Competition and bitchiness? Oh.So.Boring. There’s 6 billion people in the world, and abundance for all. I love, respect, and am fascinated by women. Each one of you is a unique, beautiful treasure in all kinds of shapes and sizes. We all get to blaze, shine, or glow.
I love it when my comments are more fabulous than my actual post:)
I’m working towards making my brand synonymous with Awesome. I’m also considering tattooing my QR code on the inside of my wrist…although it might be more entertaining if I did it on my ass and said, “Here. Take a picture of this. It will take you right to my site.”
Wow. I am coming up with ALL kinds of new uses for The Comparative Shopper app on my phone.
OMG! I’m first, what Witchcraft is this?
Illana, YOU ROCK : )
Now seriously, I do bring a new dimension to The Craft and I’m not talking airy fairy hocus pocus stuff. I’m talking about honing the skills that make the Universe answer when you ask. Any book can tell you stuff you already know (like you said) but none can tell you specifically where your cauldron is leaking, in which direction to place it, and how much to stir it… I take my clients’ Witchiness to the next level*
…..I put a spell on you…and now you’re miiiiine!