Be a Blessing Marketing
Turn the Work You Love To Do Into Your Sales System
It’s frustrating to be a coach, teacher, freelancer, or creative who’s put in the work to become great at what you do and still struggles to make a decent living doing it.
I get it because that was me for WAY too long.
Here’s why talented difference makers struggle to make a better living doing work that matters with people they care about (and a simple way to fix that).
You’re wary of funnel building, overwhelmed by the work involved in creating a podcast or YouTube channel, and loathe the idea of investing the time and effort necessary to grind out content for an organic or paid-ad social media strategy.
But you do it (even though it doesn’t feel good) because it seems to be the only way to attract the awareness, attention, trust, and permission necessary to earn interest and investment in what you do.
And what happens?
You end up spending 80 - 90% of your time doing stuff you hate and only 10 - 20% doing what you started your business for in the first place, and you STILL aren’t making a decent living.
What to do?
Are you ready to join the next solopreneur success circle? Click the orange “I’m ready” button below to learn about our next Close the Gap cohort!
Last weekend, I met with a group of coaches, freelancers, solopreneurs, and creatives. I shared a handful of principles that have helped me escape the gurus’ hustle and grind tactics and generate full-time monthly revenue by working just a few hours a day doing work I love with people I care about.
It was my latest example of what I call my “Be a Blessing” marketing strategy (h/t Nic Peterson).
It INVERTS the usual approach of spending most of your time doing marketing and sales so you can do the work you love.
INSTEAD, you get to spend almost all of your time doing the work you love, and it BECOMES your marketing and sales.
In three 30-minute calls, I shared time-tested and scientifically vetted principles for effectively and efficiently spreading any idea, cause, product, or service that makes a difference for others, even when they seem distracted and divided by world events.
We set the table by talking about allegiance capital, the distinction between intelligence, learning, and knowledge, how to teach smart people to learn, and the rocky road between action and intention.1 2
Then, we dove into the core content. Here’s what we covered.
Day 1 - How to Clarify & Fund Your Priorities
Day 2 - How to Set Up & Maintain Your Success System
Day 3 - How to Sustain & Optimize Your Endeavor
My only intent on these calls was to show up as fully and generously as possible and be as helpful and useful as possible to everyone who showed up.
The feedback was amazing. Here’s what a few attendees posted on Facebook.
“This was such an amazing discussion! So many gems and hard to pick just one. If I HAD to pick just one, it's the reminder that we are sufficient just as we are. Thank you, Scott!”—Nazli Nomanbhoy
“Scott took his time and patiently explained some principal-based ideas and exercises + the implementation to go along. He also might have spent some time answering some of my Qs. Overall. This is the kind of stuff that when put in practice is not sexy ...till it is.”—Yusuf Fareed
And here’s what another shared.
As a coach and teacher, these calls were amongst the most meaningful and fulfilling I’ve ever hosted. I learned a ton from the participants and felt I contributed real value.
There wasn’t any pitch associated with this series. There were no funnels, digital marketer gimmickry, paid ads, and nothing for sale. The only links shared were for additional free resources.
So, what’d I do?
I inverted the usual approach of spending most of my time doing marketing and sales so I could do the work I love.
Instead, I spent almost all my time doing the work I love, and it BECAME my marketing and sales.
Did I prosper beyond the good feels? Turns out, I did. Here are the numbers.
Everyone who attended became a subscriber. Most are now paid subscribers
Membership in the Creative on Purpose community grew by 20%.
Traffic to my site was twice the daily average every day of the event, and I never shared the link to the site.
Two of the 14 participants enrolled in my Catalyst program over the weekend, with a third coming soon.
You can verify these results in the screenshare of my Google Analytics dashboard displayed during the bonus call.
How did I prosper without designing an experience around an intent to pitch an offer to participants?
Here’s my take. Profits and prestige aren’t the point of doing work that matters. They’re side effects.
Showing up, being present, and helping people achieve their goals in life and business demonstrated my competence, compassion, and capability.
I proved my principle-based process works by letting them experience it.
But here’s something that even surprised me. Fourteen people showed up for the first day’s call. Only seven returned for the second and third day.
Why? Here’s what I think.
Most people want a sexy tool, tactic, or strategy that will get what they want fast and without having to do the work. They want a silver bullet, a magic pill, or a guaranteed blueprint.
After day one, everyone could see that I wasn’t offering that kind of quick fix. Half of the participants were hoping for a roadmap. I offered them a compass—a philosophically grounded set of principles that would provide them with a compass to navigate an earned path to sustainable success and growth.
A 50% retention rate is actually quite remarkable, especially given that the second half of each call was a 1-3 hour Q&A and implementation session.
Those who stuck with the calls learned that a principle-based approach that works in any life or business endeavor but requires intention, integrity, and effort isn’t sexy until it is.
Hacks, tricks, and blueprints that promise instant results are alluring. I’ve certainly been guilty of heeding these seductive siren calls. But time-tested and scientifically vetted principles facilitating sustainable success that compounds over time are way more attractive (and only get more so over time).
So, if you want to make a better living and a bigger difference, my advice is simply to be a blessing. Show up, do your work out loud and in public, and let ‘em watch. The rest will take care of itself.
IMPORTANT: Be a Blessing Marketing is NOT a marketing tool, trick, tactic, or hack to achieve a short-term revenue goal (although it definitely can). It’s a principle-based strategy. It only works if you’re really good at what you do and are prepared to share your best work in a non-transactional manner.
If you want a more detailed plan for how to build a sustainable business without feeling like a pitchy carny or a sneaky con artist by doing more of the work you love with people you care about, see the replay of the bonus session below.
Paid subscribers can access the replays of each session below (including the 3+ hours of closed Q&A, the implementation portions of each call, and the bonus call where I revealed the entire process).
If you’re committed to defining, developing, and delivering the difference only you can make and making a better living while you do, I invite you to consider upgrading your subscription now.
You can try out our weekly community calls and access the premium content and the replays of last week’s calls listed below for seven days.
If you decide a monthly paid subscription isn’t for you, cancel your subscription within that 7-day window. Your account won’t be charged, and you can return to the free plan.
And if working together to make things better with us isn’t your jam, no worries. This kind of stuff isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay.
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Here are those replays.