Ok maybe I’m being a little cheeky, but last week’s email has me feelin GOOD and ON A ROLL.

Let’s dive in … I’ve got so much to share.

And I’m really gonna just put it all out there.

Did you do your homework?

At the beginning of this year …

(I had a baby in between then and now, so I think my delay is forgivable)

I sent an email imploring you to consider one KEY question, above all others, which is vitally important.

​Read it here if you missed that one.​

It’s a question I dig into with every client and prospect.

I actually had a prospective client recently and I kept pumping the breaks on our conversation and their direction in order to try to dig to the bottom of this question.

But “What do I really want?” Is often a hard question to answer for people.

(We ended up not working together because we couldn’t get clarity on that - which would have led to a disastrous misaligned project)

I think there’s resistance because it forces you to confront the unknown, which is uncomfortable.

Sometimes the broad answer is “I don’t know what I want.”

The problem with accepting that is, if you don’t know what you want, then the result of any project can’t be well defined, and success for that project is entirely up to subjective interpretation of feelings at the end of it

In other words, it’s a crapshoot.

I’ve had plenty of projects that went like this. Where the work I did was exemplary (obviously I’m bias) and produced the results (but the results were objectively great) I thought were right for the business …

But since they (and in the early days, myself as well) were unclear on what they actually wanted, they couldn’t define the project as successful and either keep going or make appropriate adjustments.

Let’s maybe make this simpler, and talk about email.

What do you really want?

EMAIL EDITION

In my effort to distill solvable targets, especially with relation to email, I’ve focused on things which can be controlled (“more money” and “more sales” can’t be).

Most people, when they think about growing their business or improving their email, think about metrics like: Open rate. Click rate. Conversion Rate. Reply Rate. Subscriber number. Opt-in rate. etc.

I’ve figured out a different target.

This is a target which can be focused on for ANY business, no matter what, and which when combined with the right long term perspective, creates inevitable growth.

In businesses that depend on the relationship with their customers in order to grow, this is possibly the most powerful target to aim for.

It’s not open rate.

It’s not click rate.

It’s not lead number.

It’s not even sales (because sales can be artificially inflated in the short term with detriment to the long term of the business).

All of those metrics may be used in understanding and determining this metric.

It’s a metric which doesn’t rely on specific audience, platform, the whims of the market, etc.

Simply put, it’s …

Mindshare.

Credit to Lukas Resheske for putting the right word to my designs (I was explaining the key I focus on and he dubbed it Mindshare).

Mindshare, in essence, is the emotional attention you build with your prospects/customers.

Emotional attention encapsulates positive relationship, measured attention, intention to go deeper, and all the behaviors you WANT in an ideal prospect and customer.

Who buys from you?

Those who know like and trust you.

Those who look forward to hearing from you, and miss you when you are gone.

Those who believe in you and what you are doing.

Those who are passionate about what you are creating/offering.

Those who believe that you will get them what it is they desire, one way or another.

Those who feel good being in your presence.

Those who have an unassailable, undeniable attraction to you, your brand, your vision, your process, etc.

The line that ties ALL of these together can be encapsulated as Mindshare.

Mindshare, when measurable, is the highest form of leverage in a marketing system.

When you aim for increasing mindshare, everything else you do after that is easier. Offers/selling, pivoting, fixing problems, accelerating growth, expanding audiences, jvs, etc … everything becomes easier when you build MINDSHARE.

Focusing on your open rate doesn’t have the same leverage. More opens by email? Great! But are more people buying?

More clicks! Great … why are they clicking?

More subscribers! Great … are they really who you want to be subscribed?

I can (and probably will) go into great depth on each metric, what’s important about it as well as the fallacies surrounding it.

Mindshare is absolute because it DEFINES the perfect individual you WANT as a prospect and customer.

When you have an audience of people hanging on your every word, it’s like a pond full of ravenous fish … you need to but drop a worm on the surface and you’ll have a roiling feeding frenzy.

Mindshare is about creating your own starving crowd … but what they are hungry for is YOU, and anything and everything you create which serves their needs and desires.

Why is this the ultimate target?

Because it orients all of your decision making towards creating more mindshare, which creates layers of a system that build on each other, and heightens the effectiveness of every interaction.

I’m going to spend time unpacking this.

I’ll show you what Mindshare is to me (specifically, with examples).

I’ll show you how I create Mindshare.

I’ll show you how I measure Mindshare.

And through this I’ll give you the tools and frameworks to see how this can be implemented for yourself.

Oh, and I’m only doing this through my email list here. I’ll probably tease it on LinkedIn and maybe Twitter. But here is where I feel good about going deep on subjects.

see you in the next one