Ryan and Joshua

Finally.

The book on minimalism that I’ve been looking for… one to help people finally understand what this movement is really about. Written by my friends Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, known as The Minimalists.

On this show, Joshua and Ryan join me to talk about their latest book, Minimalism: Live A Meaningful Life. This isn’t, however, a book about minimalism from the standpoint of owning less than 100 things, without a car or living a life in solitary.

This is a very personal and transparent account about stripping away life’s excess to focus on the five things that matter most towards living a happy, meaningful life: health, relationships, passions, personal growth and contribution.

I’ve created a list of people I am sending this book to. You will too…

You can purchase the book here (affiliate link):

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Serial entrepreneur, minimalist, world traveler, author and publisher Colin Wright joins me on this special edition of Intrepid Radio, the first edition of IntrepidTV. Colin blogs out of Exile Lifestyle, and recently published his latest book, My Exile Lifestyle.

Colin Wright

On today’s episode, Colin and I discussed his latest book; the lessons he learned from publishing this book and from running his publishing house, eBookling; minimalism and how most people have the wrong impression of it; the simple step one has to take to build a life, and a brand, worth talking about; and we discussed the thrill of his world travel adventures, and where he is going to next.

You can purchase Colin’s latest book here (affiliate link):

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Are you keeping things simple?

When people visit your website, is it perfectly clear what action you want them to take? To contact you? To buy from you?

Do people following you on the social web know who you are, and what your company does? Are you spread too thin…spending time on too many social networks?

Do you have your hand in too many business activities? Are you launching too many side projects? Are you confusing your potential buyers?

The reason I ask these questions is that I think many of us could use minimalist principles in our marketing: stripping away the clutter and distractions, in order to focus on what matters.

We need to simplify our message.

We need to remove the clutter from our website.

We need to be more intentional about the social networks that move the needle for our business.

Whether or not you ultimately conclude that you need to simplify your marketing, you at least should frequently ask yourself these questions.

Your basic marketing plan consists of seven key components:

1. Know your market. Is there someone who needs and is willing to buy what you sell? Sadly, too many small business people never get their head around this simple question, and thus end up meandering aimlessly, never knowing their simple, true marketing path.

2. Know your customer. Who are they? Where are they? How do they buy? Knowing who they are, where they are, and how they buy ultimately makes decision-making and tactical choices much simpler.

3. Determine your niche. You don’t fix cars. You only fix German automobiles. Much easier to target and focus on owners of German cars as opposed to everyone else (rest of the planet) who owns a vehicle. Simpler approach, simpler message, fewer tactics, less costly.

4. Your marketing message, your company story? How will you move your market to action? To buy? Problem is, most don’t know the simple answer to this question, so they throw too many noodles on the wall, hoping something sticks. And as a result, they are spreading a confusing message.

5. Your marketing tactics. How are you delivering your marketing message (social media, television ads, media buys, email marketing). Knowing precisely the tacticial options that work best for you to communicate to your niche target market, keeps things simple and easy to execute.

6. Your marketing goals. How many sales do you need to make your profit goal? Knowing this answer keeps steps one through five in better focus, knowing exactly where you are striving to go.

7. Your marketing budget. This funds your marketing program — what does it cost to execute steps one thru six… Keeping things simple on steps one through six is how you keep your marketing budgets affordable.

Is your marketing too cluttered? Are you asking the hard questions to understand this? Are you doing the necessary pruning to keep your marketing program simple? Are you subtracting the fluff from your marketing plan, so that you are focused only on what truly matters most?

This probably goes without saying, but I will say it anyway: There is too much noise in the marketplace. The more you can do to make things easier – and simpler – for your buyer to understand how you can help, and how they can buy…is a worthwhile process.

What do you think?

Joshua Becker

About eighteen months ago, I decided to work towards living a simpler life, and embraced some minimalist principles into my life. I started a small blog on the topic. And I even wrote about minimalist marketing.

That’s why it was such a pleasure to welcome Joshua Becker to Intrepid Radio. A blogger and author, Joshua is one of the principle leaders in the minimalist movement, and one of it’s most appreciated writers. He has written two best-selling e-books, and blogs out of Becoming Minimalist.

Joshua and I had an important discussion about what the true definition of minimalism is, how to best educate people about what minimalism will really mean to them, how to practice minimalism with a family, and the signs exhibited by a person who could benefit from minimalist principles. And oh, we talk about the Red Sox too…

Don’t miss this conversation. Joshua and I agree that minimalism is about stripping away the clutter (both physical and mental) that distract, and serve to prevent you from living a more meaningful and fulfilling life…

You can purchase his latest e-book, Inside Out Simplicity here. This was a great read, and changed my thinking on how to live life day-to-day…

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We’ve all experienced it.

You went to a website, but didn’t take action. You read a sales brochure, but tossed it aside when you finished reading. Or you said “Let me get back to you!” after a sales person pitched you.

Why didn’t you take any action? Why didn’t you buy?

Well, there could be dozens of reasons. But one common reason might be the message – and message delivery – was too complicated. And you didn’t know how to proceed.

This happens all the time…

1. The potential buyer can’t find the “Buy Now” button on the website. There was too much crap on the website.
2. There isn’t an easily identifiable “call to action” on the brochure. All the “Pulitzer” prize-winning copy and photos, and design elements look great. But it is all clutter.
3. The seller didn’t make the simple ask. Oh sure, the seller said a lot of cool stuff, used a lot of big words, but never actually asked for the sale…

My co-host Stone Payton and I had Theo Jamison on our High Velocity Radio Show recently. She was speaking about some simple, yet profound and meaningful, actions a business could take that would have a dramatic and positive impact on their customer experience. I mean, seriously, these were simple and inexpensive ideas…

Stone said something like “and I bet the business said it was too simple to work, right? Only complicated solutions could possibly work.”

He’s right. Why do we make things so complicated in business? Process can be simple. Design can be simple. Systems can be simple. Sales can be simple.

We have a tendency to think that fancy design, bells + whistles, and flowing flowery language are impressive and make potential customers say “ohhhhhhh.”

But most of the time it clutters and confuses.

You have something to sell. It is something that people need. It can make their life better, their business better. So why do we insist on making it harder – and more complicated – for people to buy?

Minimalists strip away the clutter to focus on what matters, on what is most important. So, strip away all the clutter so that your customer can buy from you. Without having to crawl through a complicated maze of words, pics, buttons, ads, graphics and platitudes to do what they really want to do – become your customer.

What do you think?

[my original Minimalist Marketing post]
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[pic from borderfilms on flickr]

Alicia Arenas

I had the real pleasure and honor to be invited by Intrepid friend Alicia Arenas to contribute a guest post to her blog, Sanera, the People Development Company.

In the spirit of March Madness, Alicia has a fine collection of marketing thought leaders assembled for a daily publication of some great, thought provoking content on marketing. Her series is called March Marketing Madness. I am honored to be included in this list. My sincerest thanks, Alicia!

HERE IS MY POST, called “Unclutter Your Marketing.”

P.S. By the way, Alicia’s blog is really good stuff. You should subscribe to her RSS feed.

People love a good story. Stories teach. Stories draw people in. Good stories make you stick around to see how it ends. More importantly, good stories are remembered. And MOST importantly, good stories are retold…

And yet, so many entrepreneurs fail to market themselves effectively with storytelling. Why do they fail at this? I happen to have a theory.

[And I am not talking about those who DO NOT use storytelling in their marketing.]

My theory is they are too exhausted from trying to tell too many stories. All at once. See, they are reaching for too broad a market, casting too large a net. And in the end, they will confuse the market – and exhaust themselves – and do a poor job targeting – and reaching – their core target audience.

A minimalist strips away all the clutter and excess, enabling them self to focus only on what matters most. As marketers, we need to apply the same principle to our message.

If we are telling too many stories, the message will be lost. Those we are fortunate enough to have listening to us will be confused.

This process is simple:

1. Identify your MAIN target market.
2. Determine the ONE message that will move that market to action.
3. Deliver your message – your story – to that market, free of clutter and distraction.

Simple.

What do you think?

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[The original post on Minimalist Marketing that inspired this series]
[photo by _marmota on flickr]

cartoon by @gapingvoid

Have you ever attended a networking session, and encountered this scenario? Say a mechanic gets up to speak, and he says “A good lead for me today is anyone you know who owns a car or truck.”

What the?

Hearing this is like nails on a chalkboard for me. I have a feeling this guy is thinking this is good for him, in that he is casting a wide net to catch ALL fish.

But sadly, this is a sign of a completely LAZY marketer. Someone taking the easy way out. And my guess is his business is struggling. I mean, seriously. What does he think I am going to do, give him my entire rolodex?

In fact, this mechanic is doing the exact opposite of what he should do to grow his business, and find MORE customers. He needs to do what will feel quite counter-intuitive to him – laser focus on one specific niche.

What happens when you cast too wide a net? You find very few clients.  And what happens then? You take on TOO MANY of the wrong clients. And then you are overwhelmed with too much “bad” work, and probably for too small a fee.

Either way, applying some minimalist principles to your targeting process will pay big dividends to your marketing program.

Focus on ONE type of prospect. Just one. In the case of the mechanic? Don’t narrow your focus to Fords. Narrow your focus to Ford pick-ups.

[This doesn't mean the mechanic can't help fix a Chevy should it pull into the garage - it just means his marketing focus should be on Ford pick-ups...ONLY.]

But this only works under two conditions:

One, that you become the best in the market at fixing Ford pick-ups. You should become known as the go-to guy in the event anyone’s Ford pick-up needs servicing. I mean it…the best in your market.

And two, you are going to have to adjust your marketing program to target owners of Ford pick-ups. This is easier than casting a large net, I promise. But it does require some creative thinking, some strategy, and a sustained effort over time to reach out and build real relationships with owners of Ford pick-ups.

The other minimalist impact on your marketing as a result of narrowing your focus? You then also simplify your marketing message. What you say to Ford pick-up owners is different than if you had to speak to ALL car and truck owners. [And if you don't understand this concept...call me. We need to talk.] But if you are targeting too many people, you probably have too many marketing messages. As a result, your message is muddled, and your marketing suffers…

Narrowing your focus to a specific niche simplifies your marketing, and makes it less complicated. Selling is hard enough. Don’t make it more complicated than it has to be.

What do you think?

[See the original post that inspired the Minimalist Marketing series]
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cartoon by @gapingvoid

I am as big an advocate of fully engaging on the social web as anyone…

By this, I mean that you should blog. You should read other blogs via your RSS reader, and be a part of conversations on those blogs. And you should be active on all those other social web tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Foursquare, etc. etc…

But you know as well as I do that if you are not careful, you can lose control. And your activity on the social web will be ALL CONSUMING. And you can spend HOURS playing in the sandbox and not advance your business goals.

It has happened to me. And I am working hard to figure out ways to simplify my presence and activity there. Without sacrificing the benefits.

Here is my best advice to you in terms of how you should view the social web as a marketing strategy for your business:

FOCUS ONLY ON ENGAGING AND SERVING PEOPLE.

If you only do this, you will be on the right path to getting the results you want on the social web. Here are some tips to apply minimalist principles to your social web strategy:

Keep Connections Relevant. It really is quality over quantity. Who cares if you have 100,000 followers if none of them care what you say? Don’t focus time and energy on just racking up hollow follower counts (and do the things listed below, and your list will grow naturally).

Look out for a few key words. If you help authors, you should be searching for messages that contain the word “authors.” You will find someone who needs your help – if you are looking and listening.

Strike up sincere conversation. Don’t just send out one-way sales messages. Find people you can help or want to know, and talk to them. It is these conversations that will lead to business opportunities.

Share with your community. If you are not trying to generate a meaningful conversation, then you should be focused on sharing meaningful content. This helps your network, and can lead to conversations too…

That’s it. Your time on the social web really should be kept that simple. Make it a goal to connect in a meaningful way with ONE person a day. Before long, you have quite a powerful network.

Too often, we get distracted and just lose our way. We get caught up artificially growing our followers, or playing with shiny new tools, or focused on self-promotion.

So keep it minimal. Keep it simple. It is easy to lose sight of your real business purpose on the social web. Keep your goals, and the activity you do on the social web, simple. Follow only the right people. Read only the blogs that help you advance your cause. Do this, and you’re on the right path!

What do you think?

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Not long ago, I published a post about Minimalist Marketing, where I listed several ways to simplify your marketing. The post received some great feedback, so I thought I would explore some of these individual concepts more deeply and thoughtfully.

The first concept that I want to talk about is KEEPING YOUR MESSAGE SIMPLE.

What do I mean by this? Well, simply put, have you ever been asked this question –> “So tell me, I am not entirely sure I know what you do, so what exactly is your business?”

This probably means that the marketplace doesn’t quite know how to pin you down. They can’t say in one sentence what it is you are/should be known for.

You need to be able to tell your story in one sentence.

Examples? Abe Lincoln saved the union. FDR got us out of depression and won the war. Gary Vaynerchuk is the wine guy. Google does search. Todd helps entrepreneurs become intrepid marketers. You get the point.

It takes a lot of strength to choose a specific path, for there is a natural tendency to want to be known as a generalist in your field, capable of handling most any task or function. And it is usually born out of fear of losing out on business.

But these days, this can be a problem. With all the clutter in the marketplace, it is important to have one sentence that tells your story.

You have to make a conscious decision to simplify your message. Target towards a niche. Focus on one thing. AND, once you achieve this, you must do it well and be the best…

Here are three things to do to help you achieve this:

1. Thoughtfully and carefully determine the ONE thing you want the market to know about you. What is your one sentence story?
2. Keep that message consistent on ALL communications. [business cards, the social web, websites, face-to-face networking conversations, etc.] A consistent delivery of the message will help it become memorable. You simply cannot assume that hearing it one time means the message was received and cataloged.
3. TEACH/GUIDE your community and your network to also be consistent when they talk about you. Discipline on #2 will go a long way towards achieving #3, but when you see people talking about you in ways that complicate that message delivery, you need to address it.

It goes against the grain to try to simplify your marketing. With all the communication tools that exist, all the competition, all the chatter, all the conferences and events, it is easy to throw a lot of noodles against the wall and hope a few stick.

But, it is important to be minimalist in your marketing, and be disciplined to keep your message simple.

[photo by _marmota]

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