episode 5
===
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to the Best Life Business Marketing Podcast. I am your host, Amy- Lynn Denham, and today I am stepping a little outside of my comfort zone, a little outside of the realm that I usually work in here on this podcast, and I am just going for it. A lot of the time the things that I talk about here are pre planned.
I do have like a whole, list of topics that I want to cover for the listeners of this podcast because I want to help you grow in your own marketing. Um, and I want you to help you grow in your business. I want to help you create a business that allows you the freedom to live the life that you want and or need to live.
For me, that's all about creating a business that works with my health. I do have some ups and downs with my health and it requires a lot of tender loving care for me to keep [00:01:00] my body in a place where I can get out and enjoy the world and where I can run my business successfully or do any kind of work successfully.
So it's a very precarious balance for me as I believe it is for For a lot of people. Um, I want to help everybody who is listening to create a business that supports their life in the way that they need it to. Whether it is because you are working while having a chronic illness, or if you are, you know, putting yourself through school, or you've got young children, or you're a caretaker for someone else, or you're just tired of working within a system that is not working to your benefit, and you want More freedom.
And you want more space and time to have more fun and enjoy your life. There is no shame in that. You don't need to be doing this just because something might be difficult. Maybe you just want something to be even better. And so a lot of the episodes Of this podcast [00:02:00] are going to be focused on helping you build that By teaching you certain things in regard to marketing or by sharing inspiring stories from people who I absolutely adore More on that soon.
There will definitely be some more people coming onto the podcast very soon I've got some interviews lined up. I'm super super stoked about but But but but but but today Today I want to talk about something entirely different that I was just talking to one of my friends about because I am fired up on this topic.
I am really, really fired up and I feel like I should have made this like, honestly, my very first episode. Because It matters for everything that we're going to talk about here. It underpins my entire business model. And to be honest, I don't think I have made it clear enough, whether it is here on this podcast or over on my website, [00:03:00] um, in my Facebook group or wherever you're connecting with me, especially, I have not made this known well enough on Instagram.
So I'm going to make a lot of clips of this episode. So here it is. Marketing doesn't need to be a dirty word. It doesn't need to be a dirty practice either.
But it is. It really is. A lot of the time it is. Even for me, it is. When people ask me what I do, I try to find a way to word it that doesn't actually include the word marketing, even though that's in my freaking URL. I'm literally denhammarketing. ca. I'm like, how do you get away from that? Um, you don't. It is what it is.
And it's the truth. That's what I do. I do marketing, but here's the thing. I do it differently. I refuse to step into that mold [00:04:00] that I see, which I dislike. I dislike that mold. I don't want to work within that mold. That mold, I want to do it differently. And so my best clients are going to be the ones who understand that.
And let me tell you, I have turned away a lot of work and there have been really amazing, like financially amazing opportunities that have come along where even they have chosen to walk away. They are like, girl, you are not the right fit for this. And I'm like, nope, yep, nope. Yeah, you're totally freaking right.
I am not the right fit for this because I refuse. To do what I call dirty marketing. I do not want to manipulate anyone into making a decision that is not right for them. And that is unfortunately what marketing has been for a very long time. For a very long time, it has been how can we trick people into [00:05:00] buying this thing that we have to sell so we can sell as much of this thing as possible so we can make as many people as possible happy.
Get this thing, use this thing and convince them they need this thing and that they love this thing. And let me tell you in my education and in my other experience in this business, I have learned that the best way to make someone think they need something is to emotionally manipulate them into thinking they are not good enough.
And in order to be good enough, they need this thing. Okay. This is where all of the cosmetics get sold to us. This is why people pair a celebrity endorsement with a product or a service. Oh, I want to be just like you. And so I'm going to need to buy this thing in order to feel at least for a moment, at least for a moment, [00:06:00] like I am more like you because I feel like I am not good enough just as who I am.
And I'm saying it, that's bullshit. That is absolute bullshit. You are good enough. I don't care who you are. I don't even care. I don't. You're good enough. You don't need some product or some service or any of that to prove who you are, to prove how good you are, to prove that you matter. None of that is going to change if you're not feeling like you do to begin with.
So let's just own the hell out of that. It doesn't matter what we buy. It doesn't matter at all what we buy, what we put on our face, what we put on our body, what we inject into us, whatever, none of it matters to actually make you feel, truly feel and believe that you are good enough. That comes from a completely and entirely different place.
So I'm just gonna throw that in there, but when it comes to marketing we do not need to be doing [00:07:00] this and I'm really hoping that we can as a group of people who are Creating businesses to serve our best lives that when we go forward with our own marketing we can do it in a way that serves the best lives of others Because this isn't just about ourselves.
This is about each other. This is about community. This is about creating a place where people can feel safe to find the things they want and need without being strong armed, without being manipulated, without being treated like they aren't smart enough to figure out for themselves if this is the right fit or not.
And this is a big thing that pulled me toward inbound marketing in my work. This is a big piece of my puzzle that I haven't really shared and I just really want to get out there right now. I came into marketing as a freelance writer. I was doing [00:08:00] copywriting. I just knew that I wanted to be a writer. Um, I wanted to I want to write my story which will it is on the docket by the way, it's coming one day Uh, I wanted to write my story, but I also wanted to write fiction and whatever I just needed to have my pen in my hand or my fingers on my laptop and I was going to be happy So how else could I make money out of that immediately while I slowly built this other stuff in the background?
I could do copywriting, right? So I became a copywriter, and I started writing copy for blogs, and for websites, etc. Emails, all of that. And I realized, well, this is all part of something. What is this part of? This, oh crap, this is marketing. I don't, I didn't want to be part of that. Really? Like I was like, marketing?
No. And I remember when I was in university. So I took psych and getting my psychology degree, there was definitely parts where we talked about marketing and I learned [00:09:00] about the, you know, Jedi mind tricks you could play on people to get them to do things. And I did in my actual work, learn a lot about behavioral economics, which is how the experiences people have with your business can influence the behaviors that they.
that they do. So, you know, if I go to your website and it's really difficult to navigate your website, I'm probably just going to click right off your site and not actually make a purchase versus if I go to your site and it looks great and it's easy and I can find everything I need. I am way more likely to continue all the way straight through to add to cart.
Um, But that's not all that's just a portion of behavioral economics. I'm not going to get into all of the details But one of the things that stood out was using tricky words To get people to [00:10:00] make decisions without even realizing it Basically, it's like hypnotism It's the same principles on how hypnotizing people works.
And it's a concept called priming. You will show people images or words that will make them more likely. To actually make a purchase. Now, I wish I had the example nearby that I'm thinking of, but I'm hoping that somebody out there understands what I'm saying. There were games that we would play when we were kids, where we would actually say a bunch of things to our friend.
It'd be like, okay, say a color. And they'd say a color. And what number comes after three? And then they'd say four. And I don't remember the exact one, but you'd get them to keep doing it. And then you would say. What do cows drink? And then the person would say milk and you would laugh at them because you were like, they drink water, you know, but I made you say milk because everything you [00:11:00] thought about was milk related.
You just didn't realize it. And that's part of the tricks that we can play in marketing to make people Make a purchase and not even realize that they were manipulated along the way. One of those things that has come up is to use the word buy like B Y or B Y E a whole bunch of times in your, um, in your marketing copy.
So that at the end of your email or whatever, where there's a button and the button will say buy B U Y and they will be more likely to click it. There have been actual studies done on this. This is actual stuff that works, but is it okay? Like, that's not a world I want to live in. I don't want to be somewhere where someone's doing that to me.
I don't want to be somewhere where I am making a purchase because somebody made a flashy TikTok video that I saw a million times just because it was funny, but it wasn't related in [00:12:00] any way to what I want or need. And it probably wasn't even related to what they're offering, but I'm just so familiar with this brand that I'm like, Oh, I trust them.
Even though I know nothing about them and as more and more information comes out in our world, it is becoming more and more clear how much is going on that we're not aware of inside of large corporations and yet we have thought we could trust them simply because they felt familiar to us.
And I'm over it. I am so over it. I have not wanted to be a part of that. I have done everything I can to not take those types of jobs even when I was really struggling to make ends meet because I just do not believe in it. This is what brought me into the world of inbound marketing and long term marketing and relationship marketing.
I love to work in a place [00:13:00] where we are building the foundations that bring people to our businesses. Even if it means they're trickling in slowly at first. So I'm talking about creating blog posts that people find through Pinterest or find through a Google search, creating a website experience that is absolutely phenomenal and showcases exactly what you do and showcases exactly who it is right for.
For so that you pop up in a Google search so that you pop up in a, you know, businesses like this near me, sort of a search. Yes, this is not as flashy as an amazing, you know, tick tock video that goes viral. Yes. This means your sales may happen slower. Yes. This means you may need to invest in advertisements that help your right fit client or customer.
Find you and get into your mailing list in order to see what you offer, where you can [00:14:00] build a solid relationship. And yes, this requires you to turn away your wrong fit customers and help them find a better solution for them. And all of that flies in the face of traditional marketing. It reminds me of Miracle on 34th Street.
Where the Santa Claus guy is Telling people to go to a different store because they have a better price or because they actually carry What they're looking for and the store is pushing back against this guy like don't do it Don't do it. Sell them something else instead, you know, don't help these people But why not?
That is the honesty. That is the human connection that we have been lacking for so freakin long and we need in this world So if you're fired up about this, like I'm fired up about this, if you want to create marketing for your business and create a community where we are all moving forward in [00:15:00] this direction of honesty and transparency and community, Then hit me up.
Let me know. Obviously I'm going to plug something here because I think it is important I have a facebook group where I am really hoping to bring together more and more people who want to move forward in this way Who want to support each other in this way and who want to support their customers and clients in this way So if you're fired up like i'm fired up Join my Facebook group.
I'm going to throw it in the show notes and share this video video. It's not a video It's a podcast and i'm putting it out here raw. I'm not even fixing that Share this podcast Share it show it let people feel this with you Understand why you feel this way let them Talk to you about it bring up conversations.
Like let's make this larger than just i'm throwing a podcast out here Yes, it'll help my business. If you share this, I'm [00:16:00] completely transparent in that respect. Yes, it will. And I'm hoping that you'll help lift me up in that way because I'm working damn hard over here. And it will also help you though.
It will help you find your people. It will help you find people who believe similar to you believe. And who don't want to work in this world where marketing has to be a dirty word. Where marketing has to be a thing, I'm ashamed to say that I do. Where marketing has to be a thing where we manipulate. We don't want that.
So if you're looking to build a community, and if you're looking to build a future where that is not what we are doing. Where we are instilling Instead, building businesses that are honest, that are respectful, that are respectable, that help people find what they need, what they want, instead of telling them what they should want or need.
Then you're in the right place. So share this if you're able I will really appreciate that But otherwise throw a comment or hit me [00:17:00] up email me jump on my website and find me whatever you need to to connect And if you have anything you need help with in this regard, let me know I'm here for you and I will help you find the right resources for your situation.
All right. Thank you very much for listening. That's all I want to say today. I'm going to go meditate now because I need to calm down. I love you all. I wish you the greatest success in your businesses. Thank you for listening.
