 Email this page to a friend
True Connection MarketingA Recorded Seminar by Doug Lipman
Contents:
"So generous, and so TIMELY! I am just now cobbling together a storytelling business plan for an organization here that helps folks get started in small businesses. The points on marketing are GREAT-GREAT-GREAT!" Why We Hate Marketing The other day, I coached a storyteller. I said, "What is the area of your storytelling life that most holds you back? What is it, if you got a hand with it, would make the biggest difference?" He didn't hesitate. "Marketing," he said. "I hate to call up folks cold and 'sell' myself. But I suppose I should just get more disciplined." He was right about marketing. But dead wrong about cold calls. They are the least efficient way to get bookings. And discipline wasn't really what was missing for him, either - his problem turned out to be a lack of good marketing information. I spent the rest of the hour giving him a few of the basic concepts I've learned in these last 30 months of reading, listening, thinking, and trying things out. He left saying, "I understand now - what to do, and why it will work. I'm so relieved to be un-stuck!" After he left, I began to think about the similar struggles of so many other professional storytellers - part-time, full-time, or "I would like to work more as a storyteller, but I don't know where to start." Most of us - and that includes me, several years ago - find marketing distasteful. We would rather do our art. And we associate marketing with manipulative, invasive messages from companies we distrust, trying to convince us to buy things we don't need. With that mindset, it's a miracle that we do as well as we do! Sadly, the nature of our society does not give us the chance to avoid marketing. But it does give us the opportunity to market in a way that:
"During the workshop, I suddenly had a personal revelation about how much of my energy and time gets siphoned off by activities that do not advance me towards achieving my dream. I came away far more committed to achieving what I really want....I have found it much easier to say no to things which do not advance my major goals. I am getting more accomplished - and really nurturing my relationships with my peers."
My Marketing Story
I've been free-lancing since 1971. That's 31 years of being responsible for my own paycheck - of doing my own marketing, one way or another. In the beginning, I approached getting work the way I had approached getting jobs: write a resume, "apply" for jobs, call potential employers. I didn't like selling myself, but the fear of hunger made me willing to try anything. I hated the idea of "marketing." That meant, to me, manipulative advertising. Plus, it seemed so hard to describe myself. I didn't want to be defined by one way of describing myself. At the same time, I wasn't sure which ways of describing me were really accurate. So I'd tend to put it off. Still, every year or so I would face a calendar without enough work on it to support me in the coming months. So I'd try something, anything. I did what other folks seemed to be doing. I spent many months and many dollars on a printed brochure - that my friends all loved, but never got me more than a job or two. I tried mailings. Fliers to post on local bulletin boards. Workshops on marketing. Much more. I read what people said about advertising. Marketing. Selling. Most of it made no sense to me as an independent artist. Some of it seemed worth trying. Some of it helped - a little. But it always felt like a shot in the dark. I'd do what the experts said to do - as well as I could. When it didn't work, though, I had no idea how to fix it. When it did work, I had no idea how to make it work better. Worst of all, I had no clear idea how to adapt their ideas to my unique situation. I felt like a bumbling magician, never getting the spell just right. Other magicians claimed to have "the way," but the prosperity gods seemed fickle and hard to please. I dreamed of having a tape out, so I'd be a "real" storyteller. I had a tape published. It earned a few hundred dollars a year. It bought me a little more credibility with some folks. But it didn't change my life. I recorded ten more tapes. More of the same. I dreamed of appearing at the National Storytelling Festival, so I'd be sought after near and far. I appeared at the National Storytelling Festival - twice. It helped a little, but didn't change my life. I dreamed of having a book published, so I'd be famous and sought after. I had a book published. It helped a little, but didn't change my life. I had three more books published. More of the same. Then, two and a half years ago, I was coaching someone who wanted to take her storytelling into the realm of motivational speaking. I went with her to an all-day seminar featuring eight famous public speakers. There was a "bonus" ninth speaker at the end of the day. We almost left before he spoke, but then he began to tell a story - about a way someone had reached him through well-designed marketing. Suddenly, I glimpsed a new possibility: this was an approach that I could try out - and improve easily if it didn't work. For the first time, I could fully imagine adapting a kind of marketing to serve my work goals - and, at the same time, meet the goals of the folks I worked with. This new approach was based on three principles that, deep in my heart, I knew all along had to be at the basis of my efforts:
After hearing this speech, I went on to discover the whole world of "direct response marketing," which is based on those principles. I bought books, listened to tapes, attended workshops - as I had done before, with different approaches. This time, it changed my life. For the first time, I used one idea - that I learned in a $1000 seminar - to earn an extra $1000 a month! For the first time, I learned how to fix my failures and improve my successes. I learned things I didn't even know I needed to learn: how to further develop mutually profitable relationships with existing customers; how to use what I already knew and the customers I already had to increase my income without great expense; how to make and test new products and services quickly and easily; how to make much more money by specializing than I could as a "jack of all trades" - and much more. But there were problems. "Direct response marketing" actually works - and it works for small folks like me much better than traditional marketing does. But, like any powerful tool - even storytelling - it can be abused by those out to make a quick buck. How could I separate the wheat of true insight from the chaff of manipulation and shallow values? How could I use these practical techniques in a way that didn't compromise my own voice?
What You'll Learn After two and a half years of studying, tinkering, trying, and revising, I'm ready to share what I've learned. In this 90 minute telephone seminar, I'll tell you:
Obviously, I can't teach you everything I've learned in 90 minutes. But I can teach you the key concepts that underlie all the others, and the most productive techniques - enough to begin to change your life - guaranteed. "Since our last session I have been quite busy with my business bringing in $ between the raindrops this summer so I can have a security blanket for a tour I am planning for next summer. I have more clearly defined my market and distilled it...and am familiar with the specific benefits I have to offer. Thanks again for your support!" What This Will Cost - and My Guarantee
An hour and a half of private consultation with me costs $187.00 and up. A week-end marketing workshop costs $500 and up. Of course, you could do what I did, and learn from the marketing experts directly:
But you don't have to re-invent this particular wheel. Instead of learning all this yourself, you can attend this 90-minute telephone seminar for just $29.95 - and get the key concepts and the most immediately useful techniques. Get this information on tape! And if you can't attend, you can pre-purchase a tape of the seminar, for the same low $29.95 price as attending! (The CD version is $39.95.) In fact, if you do attend, you will still find the tape useful for review and absorption of the many practical ideas on it. Until the beginning of the seminar, you can save an extra $5 by buying both the tape and the seminar for only $54.90 (plus $4 shipping and handling for the tape). And if you're a member of the Storytelling Workshop In a Box, you receive substantial, additional discounts - up to $19.97 more! I guarantee that you will learn techniques and principles worth ten times the cost of admission - or your money back. You can't lose! Don't be left out - there are only 29 spaces available on the call!
Quiz: Why You Should NOT Register...
Take this 3-question quiz to find out if you should not register. Why don't I want some people to register? There are only 29 spots available on this conference call line. I fully expect there to be a waiting list. My priority is to help those who are qualified to take advantage of this information. If you do not qualify, there may be other ways you and I can work together in the future. But please think carefully whether you meet the following criteria: 1. This workshop gives you proven methods for communicating your strengths to the folks who want them. If you're brand new at telling stories and haven't developed your basic strengths as a teller yet, you have a storytelling problem, not a marketing problem. I'd be happy to work with you in a coaching workshop, instead.
On the other hand, if you have been telling but don't know how to articulate your strengths, that's a marketing problem. I can teach you a process to learn to describe what you do to a chosen market - even if you can't yet describe it yourself. 2. If you are completely flummoxed emotionally by the idea of putting yourself out there - if you can't bear the thought of marketing yourself - then you have an emotional issue to work on first. You may want to seek out a therapist or peer counsellor for help.
On the other hand, we all have feelings about marketing. If you have some slack here, the methods and principles I'll teach you can help you get started, with concrete steps, on a path that can lead you out of paralysis and into effective marketing of your storytelling. 3. It's common for us to wish to be rescued. Ask yourself: are you willing to give up the daydream that someone will come along and do the marketing work for you? If not, you probably shouldn't register. This seminar tells you how to use marketing effectively on your own behalf. But that means you'll need to actually take charge of following up and implementing the ideas.
On the other hand, perhaps you haven't taken action in the past because no action seemed both possible and in accord with your values. If that's the case, this may be the perfect opportunity to begin to use marketing to change your storytelling life.
"Since the workshop, I have kept moving on finding a venue(s) for my long story. Many thanks!" What's a Telephone Seminar?
A telephone seminar is like a conference call with many people on it. Once you register, you'll receive the special phone number to call at 7pm Eastern time on Tuesday, June 4. (On June 4, you'll make an ordinary long distance call to the special number in California. There is no extra charge for the call - that's between you and your long distance provider. If you pay more than 9 cents a minute for your long distance, let me know, and I'll put you in touch with some cheaper calling services.) You'll have a chance to introduce yourself briefly. Then I'll present you with the most jam-packed 90 minutes of useful information you can imagine. I'll stop a few times for questions and answers. The seminar will end officially at 8:30pm Eastern time, but I'll stay on the line an extra 25 minutes to take additional questions and help people line up additional resources to carry out the techniques they have learned in the seminar! When you register, you'll receive helpful instructions about how to make best use of the call, and how to download the workshop handout in advance. Worried about not being able to take in all this information? I recommend buying the tape of the call, which is available for only $29.95 plus $4 shipping and handling! Buy them both at once, and save another $5. That means you can get both the tape and the call for a mere $54.90 (plus S&H). (Add $10 for the CD version.) I advise that you register immediately, to avoid disappointment. Once 29 people have signed up, that's it!
Register or order the recording using the secure online form at Telephone seminar catalog page, or mail,
Talk to you June 4!
All the best,
"I loved your workshop and the way you so gently and positively worked with us. I am so full of your excellent attention! I appreciate all you did to help me on my path to publication."
"I am amazed at your business skills along with your knowledge of the world and the powers of storytelling. Keep doing what you do best!" HOME . SERVICES . PUBLICATIONS . STORIES . ARTICLES . RESOURCES Doug Lipman This page was last updated on Friday, November 28, 2003
|
.
, fax, or call your payment information to the numbers below.
