– posted by Sophia (our Marketing Intern)
The best part about working with LeahAndMark is that I am now giving myself permission to look at everything as inspiration. I don’t know for sure yet, but I have an instinctive guess that I need to be willing to let in strangeness and serendipity. So I’m actually seeing things for once rather than staring through them: patterns of bricks on my walk from my day job, pictures of blindingly white kitchens in magazines; a single jagged orange flower in a curbside garden.
I’ve been reading Julian of Norwich lately. God does not despise what he has made. It lends a certain underlying reverence to observing the world.
Mark and I are tossing around some titles for what is temporarily named ‘Project5A’. It’s was a slow process of looking for a perfect word, or a good enough word, or something. The best we’ve come up with so far is “SuperShockWonderWow.” At least that would be noticeable right?
I’m utterly terrified of marketing.
Mark says I need to learn to network (his exact words: “Get over the fear of telling people about your business”), which means actually talking with a much higher volume of people than I am used to, which…ugh. Can I just sit in the corner with a cup of coffee? (That’s a lie. I don’t drink coffee. Tea. Hot chocolate. Something.)
On the bright side, apparently a big part of this networking thing is just asking people questions about themselves. As Mark says, “Just get to know people; eventually they will ask you about your job/really cool secret project,” and that’s a philosophy of marketing I can get behind.
My instinct is to say that I should probably have a clearer idea of how Project 5A is going to work before I start trying to answer questions about it. But maybe that’s wrong. Project5A is not going to happen without a lot of people involved, at least tangentially, so maybe it’s okay to tell people about our crazy ideas before they’re fully formed. Maybe having people ask questions about Project5A will help me figure out where the gaps are, figure out what I don’t know – and what Mark still has cooking in his head.
(Of course, there’s also the risk of getting bloated with Stuff beyond the initial idea. Pare down, pare down, pare down. Trust in the awesomeness that is our awesome idea, executed well.)
And I probably have more of a vision for Project5A than I think I do. I have a starter list of networking events and vendors, both of which I am adding onto as my “homework.” I also am starting to mull over ideas for three opening promotional projects — what awesome things can I do with an incredibly limited budget that reach the highest number of targeted clients – and not only that, but also convert into actual sales?
We don’t have time to market for ‘brand recognition or awareness’ – we’re marketing for revenue – the true purpose of all marketing. Having the tangible goal of three opening promotional events in mind is helping to focus me (pare down, pare down, pare down, and then get moving). Plus it’s the fun part. Rooftop tea tasting followed by base jumping? Yes, please.
Thank you.
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