I was meeting with a client and the discussion was getting off course.
And it’s easy for that to happen. We all have multiple passions and he kept bringing all the different things he wanted his company to do into the discussion.
I looked at him and said. “OK, so if someone is referring to you. You are John the _____ guy. What’s in that blank?”
I think this is a good question to ask ourselves.
So if I’m “the marketing gal, that directs my course.”
But it doesn’t limit me. I can talk about business, about writing, about politics, about dogs… it’ll just tie back to marketing if it’s on this blog or has to do with this business.
You are “NAME, the ____________ person.”
Think about how those fill out, and how you’re spending your time, your money, your energy to get there.
Sometimes, other people might perceive you as something that you don’t necessarily want to be.
For example, I internally cringe when someone says “Oh you’re Nicole, the Facebook girl.” I mean, I like Facebook and all but I don’t want to be a one trick pony. So how can you overcome a blank people have filled in on your behalf that doesn’t feel quite like you? Here are a few ideas:
- Pull back on your marketing related to “the thing you are already known for” and plug other stuff.
- Hold an event about the thing you *want* people to know you for.
- Ask your best customers who you’ve done other work for to write reviews about that other work on Facebook, Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, etc.
- Offer a bundle/package, putting your popular offering with a less popular offering.
- Create a separate company/website that does the different thing you want to be known for, and do both things in a separate kind of way (this is called the ‘can’t fight city hall’ option).
For my own efforts, I’ve done an SEO online course that I’ve been promoting the crap out of. I have been actively asking people who I WordPress Coach and provide other services for if we can use them as case studies. We built a separate ecommerce business to showcase our abilities related to content marketing and web development.
While I still get “Facebook girl” every once in awhile, actively diversifying (and probably growing out my natural graying hair color) has gotten people to see me as other things, like “the SEO lady” and “the GiftMDI lady.”
So remember, you’re a multipassionate entreprenneur/jack of all trades/complex person, but make sure how people know you is deceptively simple. And with a time and effort, you can change your reputation, at least for some of the people you run into.