The Power of Perseverance!
Perseverance in communications is key! Whether you are persevering with a story, persevering with a difficult client or persevering with a piece of potential business, it’s a very powerful trait to adopt and, with some skill and a bit of luck, master. Perseverance is also essential when you start your own company – it’s a time when you have successes and a legacy under your belt, but when you’re also trying to get people to buy into your new identity, your new company and your new goal in life – something that’s not only new to you but to everyone else as well!
When I started www.fiveinaboat.com, the very first company that I approached as a potential client was a business called Lickd (https://lickd.co/). Operating in the music space, Lickd is a digital platform that helps content creators legally use the music they love when making videos. Providing commercial music from real labels, Lickd’s software ensures that, if you as a creator license a song from its platform, you will NOT get a claim on your content, affording you the luxury of being able to publish your video without fear of getting landed with a bill or of you losing your ad revenue at the end of it.
Meeting with Simon and Paul (COO and CEO) back in May was great. I immediately liked both what they are trying to do with their platform and them as people. Smart, bullish and with a total focus on putting the power in the hands of the creator, I realised very quickly that they are in this for the right reasons while tackling some of the very real challenges that creators face when trying to make content.
Our meeting went well and I was asked to write a proposal which I did and then it went silent. We stayed in touch, mainly because I stalked them every month, and I then got some feedback on my proposal which was all very positive. YES…. they wanted to work with me – result! And then it went silent again. More stalking ensued and then some more stalking and then an apology for the stalking which obviously continued with more stalking and then finally, after six months of persevering, it paid off and yesterday I had my first official workshop with Lickd. BIG WIN! Which goes to show that if you believe in something enough, and if that something or someone believes in you, eventually you will get the result you want! So here are my top tips on ways of persevering without pissing off your potential client as sometimes that can happen as well!
1. Check in regularly – but not too regularly. Once a month seems to work for me without coming across as too invasive or just plain creepy
2. Stay abreast of what they are doing as a business – follow them on socials, like and comment on their activities. Be part of it even if at that point you aren’t officially part of it!
3. Create newsletters or a format for sharing information about what your business is doing in a way that resonates with their business – new hires, coverage wins, fun facts, key insights – it all helps in keeping your brand top of mind
4. Be careful how you communicate. Bullshitting people is not cool, plus most will see through it. Neither is too much flattery as it will come across as disingenuous! Be clear, be to the point, be timely, and most of all be relevant!
5. Have an opinion – if you want people to remember you, have a voice. Be prepared to speak on issues, put your head above the parapet and take a stance – having a view on something is far better than sitting on the fence.
6. Be yourself – whilst perseverance is absolutely key, the law of averages dictates that you will not win everything. However, being yourself will mean that those companies that like and believe in that ‘self’, will work with you and will champion you and will make it worth every bit of time spent on getting them to say that all important YES!