The Biggest Brand Building Blunder: You Can’t Have A Party Without People

There’s a misguided notion that if you create a good enough product or service offering, news will miraculously spread and, before you know it, you’ll be on TV, radio, stages across the globe and rolling in money. Sorry to break it to you, folks, but it really doesn’t work that way…

SOME years ago, when I was still co-running a PR business, we had a panicked call from an events company that needed our help.

The people behind the business had put together a huge festival, spanning a showground arena and halls, and it was due to take place in just a few weeks’ time.

They had successfully sold pitches to traders and exhibitors, lined up speakers and demonstrators, organised entertainment and attractions for outdoors.

On paper, it looked to be a tremendous occasion.

There was just one problem… with so much focus on building the event, they’d forgotten about the need for an audience. Without footfall, all those exhibitors would be shouting into a vacuum.

We were really honest with them… back then, given the timescales, there wasn’t much that could be done outside of a concerted social media effort and trying for some local media coverage. Given the limited budget they had available, they really were looking for a bit of a miracle.

Despite the constraints, the events company asked us to work with them — we were absolutely clear about the mountain they had to climb but, at the very least, they needed to be able to demonstrate to their exhibitors that they’d done something to publicise the event.

Given the odds stacked against us, we did pretty well and the events company had at least a few hundred people through the turnstiles. In a smaller venue, they might have been able to get away with it, but a few hundred people spread over such a large arena looked like a few grains of rice in the O2.

Needless to say, that was the last event the company ran. Shortly afterwards, everything was wound up.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH YOU?

Well, maybe nothing… or, maybe EVERTHING.

You see, so many people are desperate to make their mark in the world today — to be the best business owner, the best speaker, the best coach, the best author, the best [fill in your own blank here] that they forget about the need for an audience.

Too many are getting things all inside out and upside down; there’s this misguided notion that if you create a good enough product or service offering, news will miraculously spread and, before you know it, you’ll be on TV, radio, stages across the globe and rolling in money.

Sorry to break it to you, folks, but it really doesn’t work that way.

YOU CAN’T TRIUMPH WITHOUT A TRIBE

It doesn’t matter how good you are… if you haven’t put the work into building your audience, nobody will see your efforts. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to post a video and a few pics on Facebook and end up going viral without putting the effort in first.

I work with all kinds of businesses, coaching them through confidence, personal brand and visibility and, believe me, this is one of the most common marketing mistakes people make.

It’s why people burn out.

It’s why people give up.

It’s why people say ‘social media/marketing/PR’ doesn’t work.

It’s why businesses collapse.

It’s why dreams die.

If you write a brilliant book, but you don’t put the required effort into promoting it, teasing about it and creating interest before it hits the presses, chances are you won’t have people queueing up to buy. In an ideal world, you would have started working on your personal brand and building your tribe before you even started the book, so you already had a tribe of advocates ready and waiting to buy and helping you to spread the word.

This applies to pretty much anything when it comes to products and services. It’s easy to look at someone who appears to have it all, who regularly attracts positive media coverage, who seems to have an audience hanging on their every word, and assume success appeared overnight.

OVERNIGHT SUCCESSES RARELY HAPPEN OVERNIGHT

I remember a time when people used to say I’d suddenly started to appear out of nowhere — I was popping up in newspapers and magazines, on radio, on podcasts, on social media feeds. I’m sure some people thought I had some magical ability to appear wherever they were — a bit like the shopkeeper in Mr Benn.

The truth is, I’d been plugging away behind the scenes for a long, long time before that happened. I’d been blogging, building my tribes on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, writing for magazines, speaking for free whenever the opportunity arose — hell, I was turning up to the opening of an envelope!

I’d taken the time to work out what my story was; what it was that was driving me to reach more and more people, why that was important to me — more so, why that was important for *them*.

Even before that, I’d taken the time to work out what my story was; what it was that was driving me to reach more and more people, why that was important to me — more so, why that was important for *them*. I’d worked out my mission, envisioned my end goal and started striding towards it. Every step I took got me closer to that intention.

That needed some kind of strategy — I’d made sure I was recognisable, that my images on social media all carried my brand identity and that I was absolutely speaking my truth. With me, what you see is what you get — there’s not some special ‘Business Taz’ or ‘Stage Taz’ that’s different from the Taz chilling on the sofa at home (with the caveat that I might be lounging in PJs, rather than rocking the branded T-shirt and bright pink, sparkly Doc Martens).

I haven’t embellished my story, I don’t talk about stuff that doesn’t resonate with me or that I don’t know enough about, and I’ve been careful to ensure that the ‘brand’ I put out there is absolutely authentically aligned to the real me. I live and breathe my truth in every moment — that’s part of my value set and really important to me.

And so now, everything I do furthers and builds ‘Brand Taz’ — I don’t need to turn it on, because it’s just ME. You might say I’m organically marketing myself.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

This is important because it’s nigh on impossible to skip steps when it comes to building on your personal brand, attracting an audience and building a tribe of advocates (or Tazvocates, in my case).

The groundwork needs to happen first — live videos, networking (online and off), regularly showing up, being seen. You can’t just throw a party without first attracting enough people to invite.

It’s not a case of ‘just’ writing a book, creating a product, becoming a speaker or training to be a ‘coach’. People need a reason to believe in you, a reason to keep coming back for more.

It’s not a case of ‘just’ writing a book, creating a product, becoming a speaker or training to be a ‘coach’. People need a reason to believe in you, a reason to keep coming back for more.

You need to be able to cut through the noise and stand out from the crowd and, yes, you can do that with the right skillset, but you won’t achieve greatness on that one skill alone. As someone once said to me: you cannot be a secret and a success at the same time.

You need to keep chipping away, stay focused on your end goal, on your driver, your ‘why’. It takes time, but eventually, that nose to the grindstone stuff begins to pay off.

DON’T LET YOUR EGO WIN

Your ego will tell you it’s all plain sailing. Your ego will allow you to believe your own hype and it’ll lead you into one hell of a fall if you’re not careful.

Sure, you can hit Google and find a way to ‘buy’ fans for your social channels, but that won’t help you when it comes to selling tickets to an event, hitting the best seller list or shifting your amazing new product. Fake fans don’t buy.

You can count up all the people you have following you on LinkedIn, Facebook, Insta, Twitter, YouTube, all the people on your mailing list, and your ego might get a lovely, fuzzy glow… but they won’t all buy from you either.

It’s really, really, devastatingly easy to convince yourself that your fanbase is

more powerful than it actually is, and

that’s when it’s easy to step on that rake

and get smacked in the face.

Reality bites.

It really does.

It’s really, really, devastatingly easy to convince yourself that your fanbase is more powerful than it actually is, and that’s when it’s easy to step on that rake and get smacked in the face. Reality bites. It really does.

GET SOME PERSPECTIVE

Let me give you a little dose of perspective:

I’ve been a ‘professional’ speaker now for a number of years. I’ve spoken across the UK and overseas, appeared in some of the most impressive venues and been booked by some big names. I command a pretty decent fee for my corporate gigs, but I still don’t earn enough to get by on speaking alone. Not yet.

My 1–2–1 coaching and consultancy work keeps me busy too, but clients don’t just drop out of thin air — I still need to regularly put the work into staying front of mind and building and cementing my tribe.

My online programmes tick over nicely too, thank you very much, and again, I still need to put the effort into promoting and maintaining them.

And my books? They’re doing really well and there are more in the pipeline, but I couldn’t go and get a mortgage based on book sales alone.

You have to start at the beginning and keep taking steps, and you have to be prepared to take a few losses and a few breakevens to make things work.

You have to start at the beginning and keep taking steps, and you have to be prepared to take a few losses and a few breakevens to make things work.

Take my 13-Month Spiritual Empowerment Programme, for instance: ‘The Big One’ is now in its ninth year and we close the doors at 21 delegates; there’s usually a waiting list and we now ‘interview’ everyone who wants to take part to make sure the programme is right for them, rather than just accepting everyone who applies. The first year I ran that programme, I had six delegates. I barely covered my costs. Many would have thrown in the towel instead of hanging in there.

Here’s another example…

About six years ago, I turned up to give a free talk at an event, peacocked my way into the large room and waited. And waited. Two attendees. That was it. TWO.

How did I handle that?

I pulled up some chairs, sat down with them and turned it into more of a coaching circle. Those two delegates got some awesome tools and both of them went on to buy tickets to my events, join my tribe, buy my books and recommend me to others. I don’t know exactly how many clients those two people brought my way, or how much money that free session for two people turned into, but it was definitely worth the effort in retrospect.

KEEPING IT REAL

In the early days, planned ‘business’ videos attracted enough hits to encourage me to keep going, but it was an off-the-cuff, very personal video that really positively impacted ‘Brand Taz’.

We need to remember that people buy people. It’s not so much ‘business to business’ or ‘business to consumer’ as ‘human to human’ — H2H.

I sat in my car one day and recorded a 10 minute long video, talking about the time I lost my passion for life, tried to check out and ended up breaking my back; I talked about how much I would’ve missed out on if I’d been successful in my attempts to get off the world, about how, even when life feels hopeless, there is always hope.

That video was unscripted, my hair was a mess and I was in my gym gear. I hadn’t anticipated sharing that video with anyone other than Facebook friends, but I neglected to switch the privacy settings and it went viral.

I ended up on BBC radio, in HuffPost, Kindred Spirit and Diva magazine, as well as a number of regional newspapers and magazines. I also ended up being asked to create a bespoke version of my #UnleashYourAwesome empowerment programme by a local authority in order to give extra support to people who’d been through domestic abuse.

I still get work off the back of that video, not to mention the people who still get in touch to say it saved their lives. That really does happen — and that’s worth more than all the corporate contracts in the world.

SUCCESS

I’m sharing all this with you because you need to understand that magic doesn’t just happen. People don’t just appear in the limelight and become ‘successful’ (whatever that means for you) without first putting in the legwork, and — no matter how amazing you are — you need to put the effort into building an audience in order to attract business, clients, gigs, sales and contracts.

When I won my first book contract, my publisher wanted to know about my social media reach and audience. They’d seen my writings, wanted me as an author, wanted to publish my book, but they needed more than that. My publisher needed to know there was a tribe of people waiting to buy my book.

No matter how brilliant my book proposal or writing, if I hadn’t first put in the legwork needed to build my tribe, I probably wouldn’t have won that first publishing deal. You need to apply this methodology to everything you do when it comes to products and services. Don’t try to skip the steps.

No matter how brilliant my book proposal or writing, if I hadn’t first put in the legwork needed to build my tribe, I probably wouldn’t have won that first publishing deal.

You need to apply this methodology to everything you do when it comes to products and services. Don’t try to skip the steps. In the case of a book, you might argue that you’re self publishing, so don’t need to convince anyone of your reach. That may be true, but good luck selling your book without an audience.

STEPS TO TAKE

So, how on earth do you get started? Let me first reassure you that’s it’s never too late — even if you already have products and services out there, you’ll only ever grow their popularity by growing your audience.

1. Get PR Savvy
2. There are plenty of good content coaches out there who can help you to get the right stories in front of the right journalists, according to your target audience. They’ll help you to understand what makes a good story and how to get the editors interested. At some point, you might want to employ a PR agency to do it all for you but, while you’re building and growing your cashflow, it’s worth getting some guidance to help you do it yourself. I work with Asha Clearwater, who works both as a content coach and PR, and she’s totally ace (she is also my wife, though, so I may be a tad biased).
3. Work Your Social Channels
4. Don’t treat social media as a shop window — use it as part of your networking strategy. Make sure you’re using the channels your potential clients will be using too. Post regularly and remember to engage with other people’s posts too — two-way conversations rock, and many of the social networks will count your own engagement efforts when their algorithms are deciding how many people — and which people — to share your content with. If you’re willing to put the effort in, you might want to consider finding a good, ethical ‘pod’ to join, where a group of people all agree to support each other’s posts to help with reach. If you take this option, make sure you don’t end up in a situation where feel obliged to engage with low-quality posts that do nothing for your own reputation. Don’t just ‘post and run’ either — use your own pages and profile as well as groups on social media. Get to know people. Talk to them. Be of service. And remember, it’s not about pushing your products so much as being entertaining, informative and educational; give people a reason to comment on your posts and keep coming back.
5. Network
6. Face-to-face networking is still really, really powerful. Again, don’t expect to make sales at every meeting but, instead, see it as marketing — you’re building trust, likability and brand awareness. Aim to network ‘through’ the room — create enough of a positive impact that people want to connect with you outside of the event and recommend you to others who weren’t even in the room. Remember to follow up afterwards too — networking doesn’t end when the meeting does.
7. Remember Your Message
8. …and stay on it! Hold onto that image of where you want to end up and remember why you’re doing this work. Let the mission drive you and please, please let it be about more than money. Reaching for cash’ll get you so far, but you’ll find a ‘soul’ mission will take you much further.
9. Keep Showing Up , Keep Going AND Growing Your Tribe
10. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Impatience won’t create anything other than stress and anxiety. Give yourself some perspective and know that reputation takes time to build. Hang in there.

If this has been helpful for you, I’d love to know. Drop me a line or leave me a comment and, if there’s something else you’d like me to write about on LinkedIn, do let me know.

Until next time,

#UnleashYourAwesome,

Taz

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Taz Thornton is the author of Awesome Sauce — a free, weekly positive life and business round-up, with good news stories, positivity tips and visibility hacks for your brand. In a few minutes each week, you get a dose of optimism and some awesome advice to get seen and stay happy.

Taz is a best-selling author, inspirational business speaker and multiple TEDx speaker, consultant on confidence, personal brand and visibility, and an award-winning coach (UK’s Best Female Coach 2018 — Best Business Woman Awards). She is also the creator of the #UnleashYourAwesome and #BrandMastery personal and business development programmes, as well as #UNLEASHED — an affordable confidence, content and cashflow building programme for coaches, healers and therapists.

Taz has been featured on BBC, ITV, in HuffPost, Diva, The Daily Mail and countless other newspapers, magazines and podcasts. Taz is also a regular columnist for the America Out Loud talkshow network. In 2019, she was named as one of the most inspirational businesswomen in the UK.

Find her on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Insta.