Success Means SELLING OUT!

What a sell-out! I’ve heard it several times in the music industry. Some garage band breaks into the big leagues and suddenly they are set apart from the “real,” hard-working musicians. They gave in to pressure; they sold their soul to a record label.

It’s not just music either. I have an artist friend that experienced the same thing in the fine art field. What about people who climb the corporate ladder – you know they must have done something underhanded to get to where they are so quickly.

I think it has more to do with having a solid marketing plan han it does with selling out. You need a marketing plan for whatever you pursue. You don’t have to be representing a fortune 500 business, run a ma-and-pa storefront or volunteer hours every week at a local nonprofit organization to have a marketing plan. You need a plan to move your career, your aspirations and your life forward.

If you are looking for a job, you don’t just put a one-size-fits-all résumé together and send it out blindly to 120 companies (I know people who say they have done this). There is no plan, no personal, customized contact, no follow-through; just waiting and waiting.

Writing a hit song and burning a CD for your mom, cousin and four friends is not a marketing plan. Sending that CD to your uncle’s friend that use to work for a big radio station 10 years ago or playing at an open mic every Wednesday for three months is not a plan.

You need to put yourself out there and you need to sell out. Selling out is perfect, it’s the best, it is what we should all aspire for. Selling out is the end goal; not the means to attain the goal.

“Selling out is the end goal; not the means to attain the goal.”

Whatever you do or create, you want it SOLD OUT!

A musician pulls up to his venue to see those two beautiful words under his name on the marquee.

The author of a novel looks through the bookstore shelves to find an empty space where her books were sitting just days prior to her NPR interview.

The athlete who after years and thousands of hours of training signs with a college for a free-ride.

The artist who gets the contract to provide the sculptures for the new civic center.

Every one of these people SOLD OUT. None of these outcomes happened by accident; yet many of us tend to believe they just got lucky or they’re the best at what they do or that they were born with that natural talent.  Talent is important, luck maybe, but the need to get the word out that they existed and were available was a major key that lead to their success.

The fact is that most people go through life without a personal marketing plan – so not only do they flounder, they don’t attract any attention or assistance in getting to where they want to go. Why, because no one knows about them. When no one knows, no one cares.

I know a lot of musicians, writers, artists that love to play their muse, but they shun any marketing.  They feel that marketing their work devalues it or themselves.  Their art now becomes a commercial piece. I know this first hand.

Write good music, write a book, create an intriguing story and the masses will be drawn by word of mouth. News of your talent and hard work will spread like wildfire; right?

That unfortunately is very, very rarely the case.  I realized after creating my album that no one cares. I’m not being bitter about it; I’m merely saying that I didn’t connect with anyone on a deep enough level to draw them in. I didn’t market myself enough to ever sell out.

You can’t always count on friends to carry your message. You need to put together a plan that is independent of everyone you know – though many friends may turn out to assist you if you know how to engage them.

So you want a job, you want to pack a night club, you want people to buy out your inventory of artwork. Great, because you need to start with the desire otherwise you will go nowhere.

Here is a simple, free strategy for a job seeker or musician or an artist to get to sold out.

  1. Have a presentable draft (not striving for perfection-just getting enough ideas or material together to spark meaningful dialogue)
  2. Get a group of peers together and have a mastermind/brainstorming session (the biggest hurdle for anyone is allowing yourself to be vulnerable)
  3. Talk about your product, service, idea or you (It all comes down to marketing you)
  4. Be open to hear what needs to change, what the strength of your product/service are
  5. Discuss ways to market and campaign[1]
  6. Think through packaging the product correctly (if it is you for a job, how do you present yourself to stand out from the crowd)
  7. Take the suggestions and create a finished piece
  8. Now implement your marketing strategy and adjust as you go
  9. Make a list of 20-50 influential people who your product or service fits and social network your way in front of them
  10. Make a simple website or at least a Facebook fan page

You have the ideas or a finished product already, just take that and all together a group of your caring friends start. Once you have feedback and direction, keep going. Don’t stop with a little negative feedback. Take it and use it for what you can. If things at first don’t work out, ask yourself, how can I best use this information to move me forward even faster? Implement a personal marketing plan and get ready to sell out.

For many more marketing strategies from the master of free or low-cost marketing, check out Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing and the Guerrilla series of books that have followed. Like the Chicken soup for the Soul series, many of these books are written by experts who take the principles of the original Guerrilla book and apply it to various professions, fields and situations.

[1] A campaign is a series of promotions or marketing pieces that lead to an end goal

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