Let’s face it. Most of us don’t market ourselves as consistently as we should.
We get busy with client work and putting out fires. Or life happens. And before we know it, our work pipeline is completely dry. So we go on a desperate blitz to find work. Which often leads to poor decisions and unnecessary stress.
Fortunately, there is a way out of this treadmill. It’s all about developing a consistent marketing habit.
Sounds good on paper, right? But how do you make it happen in real life?
That’s what my guest today will show you. Austin L. Church is a writer, brand strategist, and business coach. He’s a good friend and a wickedly smart dude who truly understands how we can change our behavior by making simple and easy adjustments to our daily practices.
And in this episode, he’ll show you how you can do the same for your marketing—and how you can finally put an end to the damaging feast-or-famine cycle. We’re talking practical stuff you can apply starting today.
I hope you get a lot out of it. And, here’s a link to Austin’s Morning Marketing Habit program. I encourage you to check it out.
The notes that follow are a very basic, unedited summary of the show. There’s a lot more detail in the audio version. You can listen to the show using the audio player below. Or you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.
(02:43) How important has solid marketing been over the past 13 years in your business growth?
I’ll flip it a little bit and say the times when I was not marketing consistently and was not seeing the business growth that I wanted, the root problem was inconsistency with marketing.
(06:01) Why do you think marketing is the one area where writers, copywriters, marketing strategists admit they either hate, dislike, or just procrastinate on having to do it?
I think we have a lot of head trash surrounding, “I don’t want to be the type of person who needs attention”. Maybe you grew up in a family where wanting or needing attention was this bad quality or bad trait. But if you’re in business and you rely on getting clients online, then you have to get attention and to get attention, you have to put yourself out there.
(14:43) How can he actually start enjoying or learning to enjoy marketing?
So one of the things is just to make it smaller, it grows into this impossible undertaking in our minds. So, what is your minimum viable marketing? One of the things I recommend right out of the gate is have a little lead tracker. You can think of it as a CRM, in a Google sheet and put all clients in there.
(21:34) I’m here at my desk. I’m supposed to spend 15 minutes on marketing. What now?
If you have some simple tools, a list of past clients, a referral or introduction request, email, and then a day of the week when you’re just going to send a handful of these emails, it really doesn’t take that long.
(23:14) I will add something else. The first two or three Mondays are going to be dedicated to creating that toolkit.
You don’t even have to create your own tools from scratch, find someone whose perspective you trust, steal their tools, hand over your email address, get the tool, customize it, and you should be ready to rock and roll in like 17 minutes. You’re writers, so you can grab their templates, make them your own, and great – you have it every Monday for the next seven and a half years.
(27:06) How do you psych yourself up?
One of the first things I do is I make it easier on myself. And the way that I do that is by making it a habit. I do it the same time every day.
(32:59) What is the hardest part of developing that habit?
I really do think it’s the mindset. It’s worrying that you’re going to get on people’s nerves.
(36:42) I know that you have a wonderful program to help people develop this habit and actually make it happen. Tell us a little bit about that.
It’s 30 really short lessons with an assignment each day and the idea is that if you do a little something each weekday. It’s called Morning Marketing Habit.
Where can I send people to learn more about you?
Freelance Cake
Austin L. Church on LinkedIn
By the way… whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your freelance business:
1. Grab a free copy of my book.
It’s called Earn More in Less Time: The Proven Mindset, Strategies and Actions to Prosper as a Freelance Writer. The title says it all. 😉 — Click Here
2. Join my implementation program and be a case study.
I’m putting together a new implementation group this month. If you’re earning $5k+/month (or the part-time equivalent) from your freelance business … and you’d like to grow your income quickly with better clients … just email me at [email protected]
3. Work with me privately.
If you’re a 6-figure writer who’s trying to earn more in less time, with less stress, I might be able to help you get there faster than you think. Just email me at [email protected] and put “Breakthrough” in the subject line, and I’ll get back to you with more details.
