She Wrote the Book On It

At my retreat in the Cotswolds, this past summer, I gave everyone salmon-colored Kate Spade notebooks that read on the cover:

She wrote the book on it.

It’s a theme I teach and live and breathe and bleed. Everyone’s always asking, “How do you market yourself? How do you get people to notice you?”

(For the record, this question is a little bit like asking, “How do I have sex?” In other words, not exactly a straightforward process—unless you have found yourself in a very, very unfortunate situation.)

While there’s not one answer, there is one question you can ask yourself, over and over and over again:

What am I writing the book on?

Those handmade soaps—they’re just soap, but they’re writing the book on hilarious soap packaging.

Those hair ties for guys—they’re just hair ties, but they’re writing the book on making it cultishly cool for dudes. (And the co-founder in that video also happens to be the person I wrote about here in Chile in 2012. HOW'S THAT FOR FULL CIRCLE? I'll be writing more about their story soon.)

That bookkeeping service—they’re just bookkeepers, but they’re writing the book on making this EASY + HIP for business owners. (Their on boarding process is even fun.)

All of these things exist because they insist on something.

The best marketing isn’t a marketing activity at all–it starts with the statement you're making by getting into business in the first place.

What do you insist on?

When you're passionate about something as a rule, you don’t have to pay over and over and over again to muster it.