Goal(s): What are you trying to achieve.Horizon: What's the time frame for success.Investment: How much time and/or money will you need to put in.ROI: Look at how the level of effort compares to the perceived level of impact.Capabilities: What skills or technology do you need.The best approach is often a strategic blend of two archetypes tailored to your concept or need.

Successful Self-Promotion: The Factors

<ul><li>Each archetype has a different return on investment when you consider the level of effort and level of impact.</li><li>You want to avoid things that are high effort, low impact and low effort yet low impact.</li></ul>Consider the following: Distribution, Website, Editing, Mailing list/CRM, Social, Music, and eCommerce

Return On Investment

Don’t go it alone. Instead, team up with folks who are complementary and collaborative. It could also be an individual, a trio, or a village that works together. It can be more fun than going solo. It’s also far more rare.Examples: The Holderness Family’s Wordle videos, Unf_nish_d Biz, The Fearless Brands community, Rising

The Team

Focus on a signature achievement, recognizable expertise, or persona - and then market the heck out of it for years.Examples:<ul><li>Recognizable campaigns such as "Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful"</li><li>Powerful speeches such as Eva Galperin given at TedWomen</li><li>Breakthrough point of view such as best-selling Atomic Habits by James Clear</li></ul>

A Recognizable Campaign

Create something you're known for and that can be consumed by or engaged with others.There’s usually a creative idea or handle, and commonly appears as video or audio content.Curation: curate a community that people want to be a part of.Pros: Great to build your network, gratifying for ego, plus revenue potentialCons: Requires a hook, time intensive; potentially $$ investment

Show Your Skills

Advertising people know the power of the marketing stunt, a PR-worthy activity that captures the spirit of what your brand is all about or puts an exclamation point on the promise you want to make. This is right out of an ad agency playbook but applied to individuals: Do what others haven’t. Be the first. Or the biggest Y.

The Stunt

<ul><li>Workhorse approach that believes sweat and consistency pay off</li><li>Post every day on Linkedin.</li><li>Write an article every two days on Medium</li><li>Create a newsletter on Substack or Linkedin</li></ul>Examples: Scott Monty's Weekly Newsletter Timeless & Timely, Tim Denning's Timeless Leadership, Ann Handley's Total Annarchy

The Machine

Here is a typical ecosystem of platforms to enable self-promotion:Distribution:  Anchor, owned by Spotify. It has some basic editing and sound effect features and is free to use with some basic analytics. Website: A podsite service called Podpage.Editing: Descript, a transcription tool, to record and edit WYSWIG each episode. Mailing list/CRM: Mailchimp eCommerce: Gumroad Links: A paid version of Linktr.eeSocial: No surprise, Instagram is the biggest driver Music: Distribution to Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Amazon Music etc. can be done through Distrokid.

Supporting With The Right Capabilities

You’ve made progress on your personal or professional story and now you want to turn that into action. Where do you start, what does it look like. and what can you expect from the investment and the…