In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. -Desiderius Erasmus (1500)
Translated into marketing-speak: She who bothers to be even slightly better than average wins the business.
Since we now live in a world where average equals mediocrity, it doesn’t take much effort to be better and do better than your peers. A lot of people are very uncomfortable with this assessment, but I stand by it.
Another way of looking at it, through the lens of another common expression, is that “80% of success is showing up” as Woody Allen put it.
So that’s what we’re looking at for the next few days. Take an inventory sometime:
- Where do you show up now?
- Where should you be showing up?
- What are some things that YOU do in your practice that makes you better than average?
- What else can you do in your practice move beyond being seen as “mediocre”, e.g., just another practitioner?
For the next few challenge tasks, I really want to focus on that second one: Where should you be showing up?
Even better, let’s break it up into a few more pieces:
- Where should you be seen digitally?
- Where should you be seen physically?
- Where should you be seen in media?
Let’s start with your digital footprint. Again, if you’re not showing up in the right places, then the right people won’t be able to find you. Since we’re talking about 941 work, there are certain places online that you should be.
First among them is probably LinkedIn. Have you looked over your LinkedIn profile lately? Is it complete? Do you have a photo? Do you have a bio describing the kind of client you’re looking for, and an offer for a lead magnet? Are you posting occasionally? Do you write articles on the LinkedIn “blogging” platform?
Take a few minutes to spruce up your LinkedIn profile today. Don’t end the day without at least a photo and a link back to your website in your bio. While you’re on there, post a single status update offering a lead magnet to your B2B connections that might have 941 problems. For what it’s worth, your elevator pitch makes a great bio or status update item.
The other place that you absolutely, positively need to be seen online is Google Maps. I guess more appropriately it would be Google My Business. At this moment, there is no more important online listing for you to grab. Without it, you’re probably not showing up on Google Maps, which is an incredibly common place for people to look for local service providers such as yourself. In addition, if you haven’t claimed your Google My Business listing, you’re missing out on the #1 SEO “hack” that exists.
So go do those TWO things today. Spruce up your LinkedIn profile, with appropriate 941 tax resolution verbiage and an offer. Then go claim your Google My Business listing if not already done. These two things should take less than 30 minutes, so are good to combine into one day.
If you’d like more guidance on the Google My Business portion, watch this training in the Gold/Diamond Video Vault. If you’re not yet a member, start your 14-day trial of Gold membership.
