As a student, an obsessive reader, and as a professional, I think this is the plot I feel most attracted to. For me, the attraction started with Beowulf and John Gardener’s Grendel at a very young age, and never left. I would also argue that for our modern lives, this plot is the most applicable in marketing and in life.
Overcoming the monsters, in a classical sense, can be found in every culture and language. For the Greeks, it was the Minotaur that lurked in the heart of the labyrinth (We should note that part of the fear came from its human side). In early French literature, monsters are represented by the Beast, another animal who is frightening because he is more human than we would wish. This pattern isn’t accidental: the scariest monsters are the ones we understand the best.
For Havi Brooks, the monsters we face are literal. They speak to her; she fights with them, and sometimes even has long sit down chats in her head with them. They hold us back, they create stuckness, and they tell us that everything we do is pointless and wrong.
As business owners and operators, I think our monsters give voice to our imposter fear. They tell us all the negative possible outcomes, and help us to discount the positive ones. In addition, they tell us not to talk about them, as we want to seem in control and professional. This makes them difficult to use as a marketing tool, but also very effective. Truthfully, we don’t use monsters when we market because we spend so much time in their company. This is sort of a shame, because absolutely everyone has these internal monsters, and everyone wants to know how to get them to shut up and go away.
Almost everything you market addresses a monster issue. I advertise writing services. Most of my clients hire me because they want to get rid of their writing monsters; they’re tired of sitting around and having their monsters chatter at them about how they’re awful writers and their copy won’t sell a damn thing. For them, hiring a copy writer helps keep the monsters at bay. That’s a really powerful motive to buy something.
If you are a service provider, you are the anti-monster. Overcoming monsters in a business sense takes one thing: expertise. And as well all know, running an internet business is about positioning yourself as an expert!
Here are some ways you can market yourself as a monster killer:
Don’t Lose Sight Of The Results:
I hired my business coaches because of this tactic. They promised not only more free time and less stress, but more income by the end of the process. Their focus on not just the process, but the results of the process was an essential component of what made me sign up with them.
Now, demonstrating that you have a positive track record doesn’t have to be as complex as setting up a big portfolio on your site. You can go that route, but there are some quick and easy ways to do this as well. Many people do money back guarantees: they have so much faith in the quality of their product that they are willing to put their money where their mouth is. It’s simple, quick, and a really powerful marketing tool. When you focus on results, the monsters can’t argue very much.
Be Transparent:
Monsters generally speak in what-if statements, I find. “What if you don’t really know how this works?”, they say, or “What if this is just a big waste of money?” I think these monsters are probably louder if you’re a one person start up, but everyone experiences them. Help your clients out by building your business based on transparency. Don’t surprise them: lay it all out in advance so they know what they’re getting, and on what timetable. It’ll help your marketing, and make the process smoother on your end.
Acknowledge That Monsters Exist:
All businesses have the same sets of fears, and we all are fairly quiet about them because we want to be professional. Being the person who acknowledges this, and talks about it openly can really set you apart from the pack. We all want to be experts, but we also need to make sure that we’re treating the client as an equal. Ultimately, we’re more alike than we are different, and acknowledging that when you market can be really effective.
If you’re new to the blog, or if you missed a day, go check out part one and two of this series!
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