More Than Demographics: Why Yes, Your Unique Voice Matters

A personal take on how representation, branding and messaging works

• There is not only room for you, but a need for you.

• Stereotypes can be a barrier to entry for many people.

• Relating to your ideal audience through your marketing is more important than the product you're selling.
  

Using your unique voice is one of the most important things you can do for your business.

In the beginning…

There were good, hard-working people that were close to burnout that said, "I don’t wanna work for someone else. I wanna be my own boss, choose my own clients, treat people the way I think they should be treated and help people the way I want to help them."

And God said: Let there be entrepreneurs.

A couple hundred years later, people were getting frustrated with their daily grind. They were growing bitter at the part-time job that, with enough overtime and other people quitting, became a full-time career and was sucking the creative life force out of them.

"I don't wanna serve others in this way," they said. "I don't wanna be told what to say, what to wear, what to do - that's not the message I want to send out into the world. I wanna be myself and encourage others to be their unique selves. I wanna create what I wanna create for them and get paid to share what I have to offer."

And God said: Let there be influencers.

"I don't wanna have to hustle every single day. I wanna be able to gut something out, put the work in for a little while and then go on autopilot to recoup and enjoy life while I'm still young."

And software development, app creation, digital programs, AI and passive income came to pass.

And it was good.

…Until it wasn't.

Until the only ones doing it were the snakes in the grass that no one wanted to be like. Until it became dirty and manipulative and a giant bait-and-switch pandemic that no one with a soul wanted to be associated with.

Saying you were involved with any of those pseudo-careers made you "one of them," and though you secretly wanted the same things they did, the thought of becoming like them disgusted you into never wanting to do anything like it.

It was envy turned enemy because they were successful. And if that's what it took to be successful, you wanted no part of it. That was not what you envisioned when you originally said you wanted to do it, therefore, it was no longer what you wanted.

And just like that, you went from ambitious revolutionary to fear-based conformist, all because of the way "they" were doing it.

That's where representation, branding and messaging come in. Because it's not just about seeing someone else do it. It's about seeing someone else do it well.

There are a quantifiable ton of female marketers out there, doing the freelance thing. But unable to get over the OG connotation of the term "entrepreneur" (which, to this 80s baby meant hustle-savvy yacht-hopping frat-boy), I wanted no part of it.

I could not get that image out of my head, no matter how many women my age, or younger, were doing it.

Why? Because they weren't like me. They were just female versions of those same frat boys, some, with less spikey hair.

...Then came online marketing guru Amy Porterfield.

I suppose I should thank the algorithm because somehow, she and her ads ended up in my Facebook feed.

And even though I kinda, sorta already liked Marie Forleo (creator of the preeminent digital marketing programs "B-School" and "The Copy Cure") in the way that men like Joe Rogan or Tony Robbins - out there, but worth a listen, I still felt like for some reason… this was different.

I didn't know why, but I bought her book. Signed up for all the freebies. Read all the emails.

I liked her. I believed her. She made the "dream" feel real again; reminded me that it was a dream in the first place. A tangible one. Like, maybe, perhaps something I might want and be able to do for real. Someday.

I started thinking about what it was I once loved about marketing, advertising and PR. Back before constantly changing social media algorithms, over-saturation of every market and catchy-but-cruel clickbait destroyed my teenage hopes of working in NYC and becoming Helen Hunt's character in What Women Want.

It was copywriting. I didn't know there was a word for it, but that was it; that's what I wanted to do.

I wanted to write the words and design the ads and spend days and days researching and writing clever phrases that attract and guide people to act in a way that suggests one brand over another. Innocent and easy enough. Pure creativity and yummy qualitative analytics. Ooo, I get chills just thinking about it.

That was the dream, one day, long, long ago.

And then came Nicki with the Comprehensive Copywriters Academy (CCA, and also "Fired Up Freelance" and "Filthy Rich Writer").

…Could I maybe do that for a living? She certainly convinced me.

And not just convinced me in the sale-sy, sleezy, leaves you feeling duped kind of way, but in the "I believe it again," "I want it again" way - which is so much more important since emotion drives our action and dictates whether we take the action or a similar one again and again.

That's called loyalty. It's the opposite of buyer's remorse.

And it feels good.

I clicked purchase because her words gained traction with me and I believed her.

I still didn't know why… I just knew it was true: Those two women got me to believe again and convinced me to spend my money.

But how?

When Amy Porterfield's book came in the mail, I didn't read it right away. I had kinda forgotten about it, and moved on to other things, like drinking and feeling sorry for myself, or looking for exotic jobs like 'barista' to get the f*ck away from anything related to sitting at my computer for 12 hours per day and not sleeping because I couldn't stop thinking about all the things I shoulda, woulda, coulda been doing to pay the bills and "get 'er done" or…

(*Breathe. You're not there anymore, Kim. Come back to us now).

Then one day, I cracked it open. And right there on page three of the freakin' introduction was the following two sentences:

"I was 31 when I left my final nine-to-five job to start my own business. Before that, I held countless jobs, with positions ranging from event planner for a non-profit organization, a sales coordinator in the publishing industry, and a marketing manager for Harley-Davidson dealerships."

I laughed out loud. And penciled in the margin, "SAME! Knew it..." with a smiley face.

A few days later I dove into the CCA program and heard Nicki narrate that she too had held countless jobs before she found copywriting, including events, social media, working at a gym… and writing screenplays.

I smirked. Shook my head. She had done it as well, and I could follow where she led.

Point is: it was validation.

I may or may not actually have a whole heck of a lot in common with these two women. Neither of them will likely show up to a bar in SoCal on a Wednesday night for a Los Angeles Litas event on their new motorcycle and wanna talk about pipes and gear for hours on end.

But they sold me. They spoke to me how I wanted to be spoken to and shared with me what I wanted to hear in the way I needed to hear it.

They had been where I had been (empathized with my pain point), felt what I had felt (related to me using emotion), wanted what I wanted (appealed to my aspirations), showed me what was on the other side (vividly painted the "after" picture) and then said, "here's how I can get you to where I am now" (presented the solution).

And it was gooood. Real good.

THIS is how representation, branding and messaging work.

It's not about having the same demographics, it's not about "saying what they wanna hear," it's not about pandering, it's not about appealing to the lowest common denominator, you don't have to "find your niche" and it will not make your target audience too narrow.

It's about knowing who your ideal customer is, being yourself, and directing everything you say, do, and put out there as though they were the BFF you want to get paid to help the way you want to help them.

It's not magic. They didn't swindle me. They sold me. Because they convinced me.

And they're each now running their own multi-million dollar businesses. Because they convinced a lot of other people too.

…And you can do the same.

With strategic and on-point representation, branding and messaging.

Or, by clearly defining your ideal client avatar, relating to where they are, and appropriately addressing the problems and dreams that they currently have that you or your product can help them with.

Need help getting there?

Give me a call and let's chat a bit about the best way to share your story and use your unique brand voice to find, attract, convert and keep your ideal customers.

I can't wait to be in your corner and see what you can do!