I'm tired of doing what I'm "supposed" to do

As a business owner, I've sometimes followed trends, but mostly, I don't have an interest in doing what others tell me I should.

One could argue that starting this newsletter is me jumping on a trend, which is fair. Except this isn't strictly about business to me. So, let me share what I want to do in this space and how it's part of a bigger change in how I'm going to approach my business and even life in these changing times.

Before I get into the shift, let me share what I do for those who aren't familiar.

Who is Karen Wilson, and what does she do?

I'm a strategist, and that influences the services I provide. My business is KCW Consulting, but, oh, how I wish I had chosen a different word because "consulting" definitely doesn't have a better reputation than "marketing."

The process goes like this: I get to know my clients and what they want to accomplish, the space they work in, and then we map out a strategy that's tailored to them and their needs.

Whether I'm developing a messaging framework, building systems and processes, or produce a full marketing strategy, the outcome is clarity about the right steps for their business.

I don't promise results because there isn't any foolproof way to ensure revenue growth or leads, and I don't trust people who say they can. (If there was a way to do that, we'd have very few failed businesses.)

Challenges of being a marketing strategist

Like any area of expertise, there are different levels of understanding people have about the work you do. I've worked with clients who understood the value and their most significant benefit was validation and greater confidence in decision-making. But over time, I've learned two critical pieces of understanding make some business owners hesitant:

1. Many people don't know what a strategy is or why it's so valuable to have one. The biggest advantage of working with someone like me is an outside perspective. You can validate what you already think and act on, but more importantly, you can get feedback on aspects of your business that you may not have considered.
2. Like strategy, it's not uncommon to find that not everyone knows the full depth and breadth of marketing in business. (I often refer to business owners without a marketing background as "accidental marketers.") Most are focused on the promotion aspects of marketing. However, in a small business, marketing is part of just about everything you do: market research, the design and delivery of products and services, packages and pricing, messaging, customer service, systems and processes, and more.

I'm not the most expensive in the work I do (by far), and that's intentional. But I'm also not the most affordable. As much as I try to make my services as accessible as possible, it's still an investment to work with me one-on-one. And right now, times are tough for businesses. That means marketing is getting cut (when it's most needed), so my business is slow.

This brings me to why I need to change how I work.

Marketing has a bad reputation and it's deserved

I've known this since before I left tech marketing. When I say the reputation is deserved, I'm not talking about the marketers. Generally, the marketers I've worked with have been talented professionals, many of whom I'm grateful to call my friends to this day.

The problem with marketing is that it's become too sales-focused. There used to be this professional disagreement between marketing and sales as to who was more important or which one is above the other in the hierarchy. I'm pretty sure sales has won thanks to business intelligence tools, automation technology, and the push for unceasing growth. Marketing in most businesses works in service to sales.

We all have a different picture that comes to mind when it comes to sales. One of the most common is the caricature of a car salesman who's out to take advantage. (I have yet to meet anyone who reminds me of that, but it persists.)

This is in direct contradiction to my personal definition of marketing, which is:

Marketing is a group of collaborative disciplines that work together to connect people with a problem to the right solution.

The "right solution" may not always be your solution. I've had calls with prospects that I could have worked with, but what I'd be able to provide them wasn't what they needed. I referred them to other professionals who could better meet their needs.

Since the days of Jack Welch, there's been a continuing shift in how big business operates and it's infecting small businesses due to the attention the big guys get.

For example, I once built a website for a CEO to do a demo for a product that didn't exist. I was very green at that point in my career, and I would never do that today, but I learned how far some people are willing to go to increase revenue.

Ultimately, that CEO wasted about 18 months and countless hours trying to build up a customer base for a product that didn't exist and others already did better. They never made a sale and ended up referring every potential customer on to another company after damaging the trust they'd built.

Marketing should be influential enough to stop that kind of deceptive, waste-of-time practice before it goes so far. Unfortunately, that's not the reality in every company, even one as small as that one (under 20 people).

For micro businesses like mine, it's that much harder to be seen and heard. That's why I'm getting rid of the practices I don't like.

Unpredictable times call for change

While most businesses shy away from talking about the policies and events that affect our very livelihood, I'm not going to do that anymore. Even talking to clients, I'm known to express that it's impossible to separate our lives from the business we run because the two are inextricably linked.

And yet I've only ever talked about a policy concern once in the last decade.

Looking back at that post, there's a lot I'd like to change about what I said, so I'm going to revisit it for the present times five years later.

I'm very politically engaged, but it's not something I've talked about in the context of my business because it's just not done. (Unless you're a processed meat company, apparently.)

For me, it's time to speak up. I'm watching what's happening in my home country (the US) and I know we can't avoid being impacted by it in Canada, but I want to do my part to prevent us going down the same path.

Big business has the chambers of commerce that stick up for them with the government. But for those of us in the micro business world, I see very few people even talking about the issues we face that are almost never addressed.

More than ever before, we need to support each other.

I'm still figuring out what makes sense and how to go about this, but I know that it starts with thinking differently about the world and our place in it.

So, come with me as we reframe everything.

Karen