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It’s easy for personal brands and SMBs to get overwhelmed in a sea of marketing and branding voices, choices, and channels. Robby Fowler taps into 20 years of personal brand experience to help you clearly connect the dots between your branding, marketing and business strategy. To avoid being another burnt-out leader or under-performing brand or business, tune into this podcast. Build a personal brand and business that breathes life into you and your customer.
Robby Fowler: Hi, I'm Robby Fowler
youâre listening to the 4 Wins.
Each week, solopreneurs and entrepreneurs
like you discover something to
try, apply, ponder, and relate to.
You can get this four WINS newsletter in
your inbox by signing up at robbyf.com.
That's R-O-B-B-Y f.com.
And you can access any links or visuals
in this issue or explore past issues on
my substack at RobbyFowler.substack.com.
The 4 Wins, issue 262.
Win #1, Something to try.
You're at a birthday party.
When you get a flashback.
It's a younger you with friends
cry, laughing at how you each sound
after sucking on a hit of helium.
It's a moment only visible to you private.
No one else knows why the rye
smile emerges on your face.
Remember privacy, believe it or not,
it did exist before AI companies in
Google Chrome, kinda like a fax machine.
Hey, and I've seen those in the wild.
Take privacy back with Helium.
It's an ad blocking and
privacy obsessed browser.
Run all your favorite Chrome browser
extensions, while Helium blocks, ads,
trackers, phishing, and a host of other
scary spies you didn't even know existed.
You can watch a short demo on my YouTube.
Wait, what?
Yeah, more on YouTube and win number four.
Win #2, Something a client recently asked:
We're in part three of our series, 'Why
Doing more marketing makes everything
worse (and what to do instead)?
Here's the challenge.
Clients tell me, I know I need to
post more, but I've got nothing left.
That's in fact what clients share
with me in some version of that.
Once they feel safe enough to be real.
This week we're gonna look at outcomes
and activities, or it's not the âeFâ word.
Let's talk outcomes first.
You might be surprised, but most
of my clients are not crystal
clear on the outcomes they're
actually after from their marketing.
More leads.
Well, sure.
Growth.
Yeah.
Uh, more scratch to deposit
in the bank each month.
Yep.
But when I press, these are fuzzy.
They're more like jello than concrete.
In short, the outcomes their marketing
should be serving are unspoken, or they're
vague or they're impossible to measure.
They're about as specific as my
old classmates referring to every
teacher in high school as miss!
And boy, do you wanna
see a teacher get mad?
Now let's talk activity and outcome
because they are not synonymous.
So here's something else.
Outcomes are difficult to achieve
while activities are simple to copy.
For example, any college sports fans
worth their assault would never have
picked Indiana to win a national
championship, let alone in football.
With all eyes on the miraculous
turnaround, Indiana's head
coach has become famous for his
approach to practicing less.
Now, I want you to watch how many football
programs copy Coach Cignettiâs activity.
Then seeing how many of those
actual football teams achieve
a national championship.
As one handsome devil once said,
"Outcomes are difficult to achieve
while activities are simple to copy."
And lastly, it's not
the F word that's 'eF'.
Let's put a bow on this.
For most business owners, what your
marketing is missing isn't effort.
It's actually a foundation.
The foundation is your core message built
around a radical empathy for your client.
And your foundational core message is what
all your marketing activities amplify.
And that's also what your brand embodies
kind of like fruit to a fruit tree.
Decide the outcomes you want to achieve,
determine the message your audience
needs to buy what you're offering,
and then you decide where and how
to say it-- all those activities.
Skip this and you'll end up
chasing all the activities.
Build it and it works regardless of
what channels or activities you employ.
It works whether you choose podcast
guesting, in-person, networking,
LinkedIn, or anything else you do
to achieve the outcomes you want.
And next time we'll take a look at this.
While you probably can't pour your own
foundation and why that's not a weakness.
Win #3, Something to think about.
Win #2, well, it had a
killer line worth revisiting,
especially with the rise of AI.
Here's the killer line.
Outcomes are difficult to achieve
while activities are simple to copy.
AI awaits at our beck and call, right?
It's like a puppy that's anxious to play.
It can easily become a black
hole for you and me to chase
endless marketing activities.
Have you felt that?
Because I know I sure have.
Win #4, Something personal
My inner me goes by a different name.
It's my quote, 'preventer me'.
In Win #1, I mentioned YouTube
with fear, trepidation.
My aim-- now I really wanna say
promise, but my 'preventer me'
recoiled when I tried to say
that and downgraded it to 'aim.'
My aim is to share this
4 Wins issue on YouTube.
Starting today, Friday, sometime
before midnight, like Hawaii time.
Even though I'm central.
Honestly, I've aimed to
do this for quite a while.
And every time I got close my
'preventer me' would fire off questions:
'Are you gonna use that camera?,'
he'd say.
'How do you plan to showcase
and edit the tool or resource
portion for win number one?'
'Please tell me you're not
simply gonna post to the audio
on your YouTube like it's 2024.
Are you for real, dude?'
'Come on.
Let's face it.
You've got a face for newslettering,
bruh, and for that matter, a studio for
newslettering.'
'The chances of you doing this
with any consistency and hitting
10 views is slim to chicken, pal.'
Yeah, that's my preventer.
Me.
What a swell fella he is, right?
Even better.
He's with me anytime an idea shows up.
Awesome sauce.
To combat him, I've prayed.
Made you an 'aim,' excuse me--
made you a promise, and fired
up a handy AI robot to be my
'no-Turning-back-now' Drill Sergeant.
'Boys,' he says through a cloud
of cigar smoke, 'Buckle up.
We're going to YouTube!'
Sir.
Yes sir.
Keep building a life-giving brand.