I’m actually getting to this really late…11PM! Here’s a writeup of this mornings reflection on marketing:

YESTERDAY, I got more specific about what people might want to see. In other words: what is their frame of mind? What do they desire? Do they want solutions? Patterns? To relate? Something to follow? Then, I started to get more specific about my values. To be clear, my “marketing month” IS NOT about changing my activities to meet other people’s desires, though this is a perfectly fine marketing approach. Instead, I want to create clear AREAS OF OVERLAPPING INTEREST between the audience that’s here and my values/activities. That is a meeting of interests.

So what are these “overlapping interests”? How do they relate to defining a viable market? Hm. Maybe the following:

• The OI can be succinctly labeled, and recognized as desirable by people who desire such things
• The OI, labeled, is a clear, tangible or visceral benefit that is desirable.
• The OI benefit can be quantified or qualified as being better or part of the road to being better.
• The OI benefit is transactionable, acquirable, or actionable.
• The transaction strengthens the bond between buyer and seller.

I had a list of personal values. Reversing them gives me some characteristics of the people who would also be attracted to my values, which forms the foundation of overlapping interest:

• People who want to succeed through excellence, originality, and putting things in the world.
• People who wish their work to reflect themselves.
• People who like optimism, enthusiasm, and desire to connect with like-minded people.
• People who practice “explore, learn, build, share” and the related “seek inspiration, develop mastery, create opportunity” activity structure.
• People who appreciate good knowledge and want to share it
• People who seek creative independence like myself

Converting the above into a set of benefits/artifacts/desires (sort of a jumble)

• The highest quality
• Originality
• Impact the world by putting things into it…a “maker” or “creative”
• Work reflects values: optimism, active personal growth and development, community of like-minded people
• A well-defined creative process
• High quality supporting knowledge and tools
• Creative Independence

Let me reprocess that into something more compact:

• Creative Process
• Creative Independence
• The Tools
• Technique and Know-How
• Happiness through Making: Exploring, learning, building sharing
• Happiness through Impact: Seeking Inspiration, Developing Mastery, Creating Opportunity

And let me try to distill that one more time:

Creative Independence

• Happiness through Creative Process: Explore, Learn, Build, Share … it’s the stages of creativity
• Happiness through Connection: Sharing, Creating Opportunity
• Happiness through Shared Values: optimism, personal growth, connecting with like-minded individuals

Being a Maker, a Creative

• Happiness through Directed Action: Seeking Inspiration, Developing Mastery, Creating Opportunity … creativity
• Cultivating a set of purpose
• Putting things into the world

Tools & Techniques

Imbuing the pursuit for Creative Independence with

• Originality
• Quality
• Independence
• Productivity
• Excellence

And that’s as far as I got before the timer went off. Still not at the point where this is feeling like a distinct statement or focusing point. Tomorrow I’ll try to achieve that.