Issue #28: The Full Monty

You can’t generate demand. Only tap into it. I’m tapping.

Love, Love, Love

Love is all you need

Yes, please tell it to the Beatle who got shot to shit. Anyway, you should be reading this on Valentine's Day, that is, if I ever get around to writing it in time. And since I’m here, in front of my laptop, not out cavorting with my wife, you’ve already figured how much stock I put in this marketing hoa…liday. However, this here newsletter is almost exclusively about SELLING –

No, for real, you read that right. I’m just selling in this one, treating it almost like an offer page. So, if you ain’t interested, you can go ahead and tune out, your brother here won’t hold it against you. Or, you know, you can stick around and give me pointers to make it better for YOU, the CLIENT.

– it should be just what the Love Doctor ordered.

Tapping

Fitting as subheadings go, especially on Valentine's Day (more crude jokes incoming), but I assure you that the point stands… erect.

So, let’s assume you have a business. Selling who knows what. How do you know you’ve struck the mother lode? Simple: you can’t mine what’s not there. Whoever tells you that you can create demand is on some wishful thinking shrooms.

The fastest, easiest, and most logical way to tap into demand is to give the market what it REALLY wants. Not what you want it to want. And I don’t mean it in the “let’s get viral, attention spans deficit, hook me clickbait titles” style. No, that’s still malarkey.

What’s not malarkey is actually listening to your clients.

This. I did.

If it were up to me (it totally is) I’d spend my days focusing on writing and just writing. But I’m a professor at heart (thank you, college), a trainer by trade (yeah…) and I soon discovered in my freelancing career that I like coaching and consulting people.

(It also helps that writing without strategy is a fool’s errand)

So… after a year of “just writing” — which you can read as totally offering strategy and consultation but not charging for it (DUMBO!) — I launched my VAI CONSULTANCY package. When that worked like a charm, I started pondering a STRATEGY PACKAGE.

Aaaanduhhh… It’s HERE!

The Full Mon…. The VAI Strategy

Yes, I wanted it to call my package The Full Monty. I mean, it’s fun, and it’s about getting naked until you get to the good part, BUT!

Let’s be real… few people would get the joke and fewer still have seen the movie.

So it will be called the VAI STRATEGY (you lot need to get more cultural).

The rest of this newsletter (the offer) will sound like a bad SEO article:

WHY?

Well, because I found out I’m good… really good at it. And because you tried other approaches, and it didn’t work for you. You could just ignore my offer and suffer the missed opportunity cost. Cool, but for how long?

Who asked?

The better part of my clients. And when people who took my VAI CONSULTANCY package realized how good it was, and how much value it brought hem, it was a no-brainer. But don’t just listen to me, check out their feedback:

How does it work?

Building on the massive success of VAI CONSULTANCY, VAI STRATEGY offers you the following stages of working together:

1. The business perspective (act one)

• A full analysis of your branding efforts so far

• Insights on Services

• Insights on Clients

• Insights on Competition

• Insights on Positioning

Result: You’ll know what, who and how to target.

2. The branding perspective (act two)

• Insights on Communication strategy

• Insights on Tone of Voice

• Insights on Point of View

• Insights on Testimonial Analysis

• Insights on KPIs (Correlating Business Objectives and Branding Objectives)

Result: You’ll have the macro branding strategy

3. LinkedIn strategy (act three)

• Sketching your brand on socials

• Deciding on the Content Pillars and Content Calendar

• Coaching on engaging in Comments and DMs

• Reading and using Analytics

• Framework for Implementation

Result: Your very own bespoke LinkedIn strategy. So in depth, you can even start posting and reaping the benefits without a dedicated writer.

4. The final touch (act four)

• I’ll create the framework for your future website/newsletter/interview series.

Result: You get your next project mapped out with the brand strategy in mind.

What you get at the end of the process:

• Recording of our meetings so you can review the whole thing

• A Strategy Document which will inform all your future actions

The best part?

It’s not an ALL or NOTHING kind of deal. You can choose whichever of the four acts, or the whole thing… as in… The Full Monty.

Why no testimonials yet?

‘Cause I just launched the damn thing. But two strategies are already done. One is in progress, one is already booked. Testimonials will follow, keep your eyes peeled.

Why now?

I took me a whole year to figure out how to package the whole thing. In the two years I’ve been active, I also figured out one thing:

Most of my clients want writing. Almost half of my regular clients want consulting. All my clients NEED strategy.

A more stylized offer, resembling VAI CONSULTANCY will show up sooner or later on B00ls and on my LinkedIn page. But I’m shipping the minimal viable product now, because people keep demanding it.

And Elz is right…

And WHAM! that’s my new service: VAI STRATEGY.

Let me know what you think, will ya?

Cheers!

Speaking of new projects

I started working on translating and adapting Philip Charter’s The A-Z of Rotten Uncles to Romanian!

It’s vivid and wondrous enough that your kid will get lost in it, but also Little Prince enough that most adults will read it tongue firmly burrowed in cheek. It got quite a few complicit chuckles out of me, I can tell you that.

It’s short, sweet and to the point, and you’d be hard-pressed not to find similarities with the real world. I mean… the Uncle from Romania is called Vlad, he wears a tracksuit… like I do around the house, his hair is curly, and he sports the same pattern of balding as yours truly.

Adding insult to injury, Phil?

Anyway, you can get the English version here.

Once the Romanian version is out (sometime this year) the lovely readers of B00ls are in for a surprise. I can’t spoil it just yet, but it involves a bonus on purchasing the book.

- Bonus?! It’s more like a steal!

- Shut it, MadVlad!

Well, the bonus involves… stay tuned, and you’ll find out (disgruntled and muffled sounds)

Going forward

This has been one of the shortest and most structured issues of B00ls, as my wife will be quick to point out once she reads it. Love you, honey :D.

In case you’re not done reading:

Previously, on B00ls: Issue #27: A Founder’s Worst Nightmare, a Writer’s Biggest Problem

Do not kill your darlings

Next time, join MadVlad as he takes on…

Issue #29: Fuck You, Grandma, I’m Making a Splash

My first time on a Podcast. Watch me, motherfucker!

In the meantime, you can get access to the full archive here if you missed any other issue.

Time to start doing, not just reading?

If you liked my stuff, this is how we can work together:

1. I write for you. Check out my Experience and Recommendations on LinkedIn.

2. I offer consultancy services for Founders, Marketers and Writers who want to find their voice and BE RELEVANT. (Recommendations up on LinkedIn)

I’m still open for Consultancy calls despite having a new offer, chill.

3. I handle Brand clarifications and Brand building for Founders, Marketers and Writers who want to BE RELEVANT and get results the right way.

(uh, this whole e-mail was the offer, come on)

Are you a writer/marketer/founder who wants to BE RELEVANT?

Reply to this e-mail if you’re interested in the above.

Know somebody who’d also like that? Share my newsletter and point them in my direction. I’ll give you a beer/coffee (gotta keep that gut slim, na?) if you’re ever in Brașov.

Cheers

If this was the first, but also last time we meet: Thank you.

I write for myself, but you reading my writing gives it additional meaning. I literally could not resonate without you. So let me help you BE RELEVANT.