Candid Newsletter: Taking my own advice - finally!

Welcome to my very brave first readers! 👋 😄 

I’d like to say you’re reading this because I’m excited to write a newsletter - tbh I’m not. I subscribe to very few newsletters because they tend to become spam.

So, keep me accountable to this promise — I will not send you rubbish!

Then why this newsletter?

I was recently challenged to build my email list by 100 in the FORGE community with Darnell Brown. And I had to admit (with quite a bit of shame) that I didn’t actually have an email list — a real sin for marketers honestly. 😅 

And if you’ve been a client of mine, then you’ll probably see it as pretty hypocritical too. Since I’ve definitely pestered you about:

• Owning your audience platforms,

• Being able to contact your audience,

• The importance of building a reliable channel for content distribution,

• Etc. etc. etc.

And I really am sorry for sounding like a hypocrite — it really is vital to start building your email list from day 1.

I didn’t think I needed marketing

At first at least, because I was a “freelancer” who was finding one or two gigs every quarter. Some of them may have been full-time for a while, but permanent or long-term.

At first, I often said that all I needed to find clients and make money was:

• A solid LinkedIn presence,

• Regular meetup/event attendance to learn and network,

• Coffee chats with key people in my network

And it really was enough — as long as I was freelancing.

But now I run the community and have a few digital products alongside my usual client services. All of which take regular marketing to remain relevant and make money.

So, now it’s time to put on my big-marketer pants!

It seems easy to do for my clients, but there are always a bazillion reasons not to share my own work. And this echoes something I learned from my community members last month: lack of confidence is the biggest blocker to success.

So instead of doing many things by myself behind the scenes, I’d like to use this newsletter to:

1. Talk candidly about my journey of being fully self-employed,

2. Share resources, events and opportunities in the Candid Community,

3. Spotlight content and work from consultants in this network!

There are always a million reasons not to press publish - but there’s no way to grow if I only stay in my comfort zone.

So, here goes nothing! 📧 

Thank you Darnell for the challenge and whoever is still reading and didn’t press “unsubscribe! 💪🤩 

And honestly - I really did enjoy writing this 90% more than I thought I would!

Please hit “Reply” and let me know if it was 💩 so I don’t send you rubbish again.

Got a brand or marketing question?

Submit it here for me to answer in my next newsletter!

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