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The One-Person Marketing Team Survival Guide · Imperfect Marketing

• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Kendrick Corman.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a coach, consultant, or marketer, you know marketing is far from a perfect science.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why this show is called Imperfect Marketing.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Join me and my guests as we explore how to grow your business with marketing tips and, of course, lessons learned along the way.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hey there.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Kendra Corman, and today we're gonna talk a little bit about a story that I'm a little embarrassed by, but I think a lot of you are going to relate to it.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: A while back, and I'm saying years, like before the podcast, years ago, I went dark.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean I missed a week of social posting.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I was gone months.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: No emails, no LinkedIn, no podcast because I didn't have one, no nothing.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was exhausted.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was tired.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was busy.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't want to, and so I didn't.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had a speaking gig come up.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: The person had called me, said that they hadn't seen anything and they were wondering if I was showing up the next day.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, of course I was, because that was part of why I was busy as I was speaking and doing networking and all the things that was growing my business.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: But they thought I wasn't going to be showing up to the event because I had disappeared.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's how dark I went.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: The silence was so loud, people assumed I'd quit my own business.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: That hit me hard.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because I realized when you're one person and you're a one-person marketing team, going quiet doesn't just mean you're not posting.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: It means you're not there.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It means when people go to check and see if you're real, they don't see you.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: They don't find you.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's been X number of months or X number of years since you've posted anything.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And in business, if you're not there, that has a real cost.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to talk about how to survive being a one-person marketing team, right?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're solopreneur or a one-person marketing team or you feel like you are, without burning out, without going dark, and without driving yourself into the ground, trying to be all places to all things, right?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be everywhere at once.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start here because I want you to understand really what's at stake.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: When you're a small business owner, a solopreneur, or even a small team, visibility is your business.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Period.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Marketing isn't just lead generation.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's I still exist signaling.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And when you stop signaling, people stop believing you're still there.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: When you go quiet, your audience doesn't think, oh, Kendra's just probably busy.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure she's around, right?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: They think, did she close?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Did she quit?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is something wrong?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then they move on.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's always somebody else posting, someone else showing up, someone else filling that space in their feed.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the real sneaky thing about going dark, I think, is how fast it happens nowadays, right?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: You skip a week and then two weeks, and then you tell yourself, oh, I'll get back to it on Monday.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't, right?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because Monday becomes the next Monday.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly you look up, it's been three months, four months.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the longer you've been gone, the harder it feels to come back.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll get back to it next week, is the most expensive sentence in marketing because next week turns into next month, and next month turns into wait, has it really been this long?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad if you're in this spot right now, because I'm sort of there a little bit right now, right?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: My podcast is the only thing that's keeping me afloat lately, even though I have the best intentions of doing more and writing more personal content.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right now it's just the podcast that's been posting.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you this again, not to make you feel bad, but because I've been in this spot.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know that it's 100% recoverable, but only if you take it seriously.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, when was the last time you went a little dark?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Be honest, right?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Just notice it.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll come back with what to do about it.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because before we get into the tactics of what to do, I need to say something to you that I wish someone had said to me years ago.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do it all.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody is doing it all.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: The people who look like they're doing it all, they have a team or an agency, or they're faking it.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So pick one.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I'm serious.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Every time you scroll through LinkedIn or Instagram and see someone who's posting daily, sending newsletters weekly, podcasting, doing YouTube, running ads, hosting webinars, and running their business.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's a team behind that.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's help.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's something you're not seeing.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or there's no business.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: But when you compare your behind the scenes to their highlight reel, you're gonna lose every single time.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to give you a permission slip, right?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I want to have a piece of paper here for you.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's permission to pick, permission to skip platforms, permission to ignore trends that don't fit you, permission to ignore the advice that you hear at the next networking event, permission to do less so that you can actually do it well.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: The cost of trying to do everything is to do nothing well.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or worse, doing what I did, burning out and disappearing entirely.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I know because I did it.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: The pressure to be everywhere is what kills one person, even small marketing teams.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Not the work itself, it's the pressure.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about what to do instead.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the framework: five things.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Simple, not easy, but simple.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, pick one primary channel, not three, not I'll do LinkedIn and Instagram and TikTok and a podcast.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: One.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: The channel where your audience actually hangs out and where you have a natural energy to show up.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Natural energy to show up is the key, there, right?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Both of these have to be true.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: If your audience is on LinkedIn, but you hate LinkedIn, that's a problem.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta find the overlap.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then master one channel before you add a second.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you, doing one thing brilliantly beats doing five things badly every single time.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Then I want you to pick one supporting channel, but only for repurposing.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is not gonna be a second full-time job because it could be, right?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is a, I made this thing for my primary channel.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm gonna copy and paste it, maybe with some light edits to a second place.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Podcast becomes LinkedIn clips, newsletter becomes Instagram carousels.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're not creating new content, you're stretching the content you already made.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then you need to set a minimum viable rhythm.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is the big one.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about this carefully.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Don't plan your marketing for your best weeks.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Been there, done that, have the t-shirt.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Plan it for your worst weeks.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you can sustain when life is on fire, right?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's your real rhythm.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Everything else is a bonus.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just so you know, when my life is on fire, the only thing I can sustain is the podcast with some cross-posting and promotion.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: That is all.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: That is all I can do, nothing else.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us plan our marketing, like we're gonna feel motivated and energized every single week.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: At least that's sort of what I do.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's not really how life works.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So instead, I want you to ask yourself what's the absolute minimum I can do every single week, no matter what.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is it one post?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Is it one email?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is it one podcast episode every two weeks?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, that's your floor.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Commit to that and build from there.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And one of my favorites, batch like your life depends on it.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Don't write one post on Monday and another on Wednesday and another on Friday.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's the most exhausting way to do this.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Pick one day a month or two days a month and create everything in one go.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: The brain switching cost between doing the work of your business and doing the marketing of your business is what really kills solo marketers.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Batching can fix that.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, it still can be personal and personalized.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: It can still feel relevant.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's just less often.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to do that.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, I'm gonna tell you to build your I'm still here safety net, even on your worst week, even when everything is on fire.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: One post, one email, one something, just enough to tell the world, hello, I'm still here, right?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's the safety net that would have saved me from going dark for months.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's the part I missed.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a minimum to keep the lights on plan.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: So when life got hard, I just stopped.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do not be like me.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Build the safety net before you need it.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I do love AI.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk a little bit about AI because if you're a one-person marketing team, AI is not optional anymore.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's leverage and you need leverage.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: AI is not a magic content factory.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going to run your marketing for you, despite what they say on all the TikToks I'm watching.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: What it is, is a way to move remove the friction from the parts of marketing that drain you.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, where does AI help you when it comes to solo marketers?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one is repurposing, taking one podcast, turning it into a LinkedIn post, three short captions, a newsletter, and an outline for next week's video.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: AI is incredible at this.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: It could take you hours.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And with AI, it takes minutes.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And flowing into that, okay, it writes those, but it can also be first drafts.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: When the blank page is the enemy and it regularly is the enemy, AI gets you that roughed draft in seconds.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're not publishing what it writes, you're editing it, adding your voice, making it yours.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: But starting from something is a thousand times easier than starting from nothing.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then think about brainstorming when you're tired, right?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: That can really, really help you and save your energy.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when it comes to planning, I think about asking it, here's what I want to talk about this month.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can you help me build a posting calendar?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly, the overwhelm of what do I post goes away.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: All right, here's the rule.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: AI handles the friction.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: You handle the soul, your voice, your stories, your personality, your words, weird, specific jokes.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's the part only you can do.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: AI just clears the runway so that you can do it.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: The marketing task you dread the most, that's where AI should step in first.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Don't use AI for the parts you love, use it for the parts you avoid.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's pull all this together.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: You do not need to do more marketing.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: You need to do less marketing, but on purpose, with a plan, sustainably so that you don't disappear when life gets hard.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Going dark for months almost cost me a speaking gig, and who knows what else?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'll never know about it.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let that be your story.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: So now let's talk about three action steps for you this week.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: One, pick your one primary channel, just one, not more than one, write it down.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to commit for the next 90 days before you even think about adding another.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, what is your minimum viable rhythm?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: What can you sustain on your worst week?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's your floor, not your goal.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's your floor.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Anything above that's a win.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Three, I want you to identify one marketing task you dread.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to hand it to AI starting on Monday.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Just one, see what happens.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not 10 things, just three.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because if I gave you 10, you wouldn't do any of them.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually want you to do these.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before you go, I'd love to hear your I went dark story if you have one.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I told you mine, tell me yours.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, send me a DM, email, tag me on LinkedIn, wherever you find me, because I'm not gonna judge you.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm literally the worst offender, unfortunately.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if I get enough good ones, I might do a little follow-up episode where we can talk about how people came back from going dark.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: If this episode hit home or you know somebody that it would relate to, send it to one other marketing team that you know.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: They need to hear it too.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, have a great rest of your day.