Best practices don't always work for marketing. If you want to stand out and get noticed, don't keep doing what everyone else is doing. That's the advice from Mike Michalowicz, who is one of my favorite writers and my guest on today's show. Mike is the author of a string of popular entrepreneurial books, including Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan, Clock Work, Fix This Next, and his latest book, Get Different. By his 35th birthday, Mike had founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies. He then became a small business angel investor and lost it all.

Mike has since devoted his life to discovering and sharing the very best small business entrepreneurial strategies. Thousands of companies have used his advice to drive profit, run on automatic, and determine what moves to make next. We discuss some of the concepts in his new book on how to market and get noticed. We talk about how and why we need to be different from other businesses in our field when marketing. If we want to share our products, gifts, or knowledge with the world, we need to stand out. It's our responsibility to do so.

We talk about what holds people back and the importance of being different from your competitors to get noticed. We talk about sharing what makes you unique, not being too outrageous, and how showing weakness can be appealing. It's also essential to get relevant data and enough data to understand what is working. Mike shares his system of DAD or differentiate, attract, and direct. We also talk about conducting the right marketing experiments and more.

And be sure to subscribe to The Self-Employed Life in Apple podcasts or follow us on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss an episode.

Everything you need can all be found at jeffreyshaw.com

Mike Michalowicz thank you so much for being here!

Remember, you might be in business FOR yourself but you are not in business BY yourself.

Be your best self. Be proud and keep changing the world.

Guest Contact –

• Mike Michalowicz
• Mike Michalowicz LinkedIn
• Mike Michalowicz YouTube
• Mike Michalowicz Facebook
• Mike Michalowicz Instagram
• Get Different: Marketing That Can't Be Ignored!
• Mike Up In Your Business
• The Dip: The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)

Contact Jeffrey –

• Website
• Coaching support
• My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available!
• Watch my TEDx LincolnSquare video and please share!

Valuable complimentary resources to help you-

• The Self-Employed Business Institute- You know you're really good at what you do. You're talented, you have a skill set. The problem is you're probably in a field where there is no business education. This is common amongst self-employed people! And, there's no business education out there for us! You also know that being self-employed is unique and you need better strategies, coaching, support, and accountability. The Self-Employed Business Institute, a five-month online education is exactly what you need. Check it out!
• Take The Self-Employed Assessment! Ever feel like you're all over the place? Or frustrated it seems like you have everything you need for your business success but it's somehow not coming together? Take this short quiz to discover the biggest hidden gap that's keeping you from having a thriving Self-Employed Ecosystem. You'll find out what part of your business needs attention and you'll also get a few laser-focused insights to help you start closing that gap.
• Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Having reviewed hundreds of websites, I can tell you 98% of websites are not. Fill out the simple LINGO Review application and I'll take a look at your website. I'll email you a few suggestions to improve your brand message to attract more of your ideal customers. Fill out the application today and let's get your business speaking the right LINGO!

Host Jeffrey Shaw is a Small Business Consultant, Brand Management Consultant, Business Coach for Entrepreneurs, Keynote Speaker, TEDx Speaker and author of LINGO and The Self Employed Life (May 2021). Supporting self-employed business owners with business and personal development strategies they need to create sustainable success.