Building in Public: Island Time / Give the People What They Want
Busy few weeks since getting back from the Conference known as Experimentation island. Big shout out to American Airlines for delaying my flight multiple times so I got to really sit and experience the splendor of the Jacksonville airport as I slowly succumbed to the flu.
Curious what you missed? https://vimeo.com/1063595651
Not into clicking on links? Then you missed community, camaraderie, open discussions, new takes on old ideas, and keynote speakers taking the stage to parody songs written by Josh Silverbauer (he wrote one about me for last year’s Marketing Analytics Summit and it was awesome.).
In the spirit of Wil Reynolds (who gave the best conference closing keynote I’ve ever heard), get out of your comfort zone and go to conferences that are tangential at best to your industry. You’ll be amazed at who you meet, what you learn, and how you can apply it to the thing(s) YOU do.
One thing the conference (and the flu haze) got me thinking about was how hard it is to clearly say what you do. Like, actually say it, not just talk around it.
You’re Talking A Lot — But You’re Not Saying Anything
Something I’ve struggled with throughout my career is to succinctly and accurately convey what you do. Can you do it without the big windup and the caveats and the meanders and the jargon? What’s your elevator pitch?
Maybe you’ve got it down pat when you’re in meatspace, but what about online? How do you convey what you do on your site — without the attention-ruining Wall of Text?
I personally HATE when I go to a site and it’s just a swirl of lingo and marketing language but none of it MEANS anything — at least not to me. Just talk to me like a normal person!
I’m just as guilty of this as anyone; while I can point out the things that annoy me on other vendor/consultant/agency sites and that cause my eyes to glaze over — I find myself falling into that same pattern.
And yet — outside of a fairly narrow spectrum, I, and ELK Strategies, are an unknown. So the challenge is: how do you convey expertise, knowledge, professionalism, trust AND the services you’re offering — in a compelling, straightforward way?
No — I’m asking because I have yet to figure that out. I don’t think many others have either. I’ve been tweaking the copy on my site; I’ve tried to simplify the language on the homepage while adding a more fleshed out Services page, etc. It still doesn’t feel right. I couldn’t put my finger on why until I had an extremely illuminating conversation about this with a friend of mine in the public media space the other week.
During our call, I got the impression that they were really interested in what I had to do and yet I was doing my hardest to make them UNinterested.
Them: “So, what’s ELK Strategies all about?”
Me: <deep breath> “WALL OF TEXT”.
Them: immediately changes topic.
Later in the conversation:
Them: “So I think we could likely work together but I’m not the decision maker but I’ll put you in touch with them. How do you think you could work together? What would you offer them?”
Me: <deeper, Kirby-esque breath) “WALLOFTEXXTTTTTTTTT!”
Them: “How about this other thing instead, that is much simpler?”
Me: “…oh yeah, that’s cool.”
In other words, I had a potential client sell me on what I should be selling them.
I never said I was a sales guy, and I’m learning how to be a consultant in real time — but damn.
Sure, I could have continued to push forward, hoping to win them over by drowning them in what I thought I should be saying, which was “WALL OF TEXT AND ALSO SOME DATA JARGON” but sometimes when the lightbulb goes off, you need to pay attention (is that even an aphorism?). Instead:
Simplify. Not for you. For potential clients.
Maybe I’ve been thinking about this all wrong — maybe it’s not a Data Strategy/Business Intelligence/Data Literacy/Analytics & Measurement flywheel that moves the needle at the moment. That’s a pretty big swing in a time where organizations may not be as amendable to that. Maybe large scale contracts aren’t the move.
I think the answer might be smaller-scale solutions — but not less impactful ones. Expertise, packaged clearly, priced fairly, and aimed directly at what people are asking for.
I’m not done refining the offer — but I’m starting to think that clarity, simplicity, and a little humility might be the strongest strategy of all.
Talk to people. Listen. Ask questions.
And then — if you’re lucky — they’ll tell you exactly what they need.
Your job? Make it easy for them to say yes.
Give the people what they want. Just…not all at once.
