My Advice to Marketing & Sales Pro’s On How To Build Your Equity Portfolio

Most entrepreneurs in all disciplines of marketing and sales are familiar with the idea of working on your business, not just in your business.

Another familiar concept and strategy is that residual income is always the best type of revenue stream for building long-term wealth.

Yet, I see so many of my fellow cohorts in the digital marketing world continue to work only to serve a handful of clients, hustling and sweating like mad to offer them their monthly services. Then when a cheaper bid comes around, or a global pandemic comes thundering down, their customer base declines. 

As a professional marketer who has sold and delivered services to hundreds of businesses for decades, I'm all to familiar wit the rat wheel of having to consistently generate new clients, while trying to hold onto the ones you already have. It's exhausting and not that profitable.

This business model is broken in two ways:

• If you try to serve clients who have a small bandwidth for success, they tend to be fickle, complainers, and cheap. This not only drives you mad, it leaves you broke.
• You’re spending more time building other people’s equity positions in their businesses versus building long-term equity for your own business/investment portfolio.

The Change That Changed My Life

About four years ago, I knew that my new purpose for augmenting my knowledge and skills in marketing and sales had to go beyond the idea of how to better serve my clients.

My knowledge needed to serve me by giving me control and influence at the Equity Table

Rather than just learn new, better strategies and systems to serve others - still a valid purpose and business model to this day - I had to leverage that knowledge to get a piece of the equity pie.

Observation: One of the most common weaknesses in a business is marketing and sales. These are my strengths! I could offer my strengths not only for my routine fees, but also for a piece of the business. This piece could come in the form of stocks, profits, or both. 

My Personal Rebrand Move

Once I determined that my skills, knowledge and experience in marketing and sales had a lot to offer, tremendous value in fact, I decided to rebrand myself as an author.

Why?

Many years ago, I had the amazing opportunity to meet with The New York Times bestselling author, Grant Cardone. He shared with me an amazing insight: becoming an author breaks a glass ceiling.

Glass Ceiling is defined as an, “unofficially acknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession.”

Once Grant gained author status, and then bestseller status, he was now open to newer markets, bigger media opportunities, as well as networking with many more top influencers in business. 

Bingo! I need to become an author.

So, I began writing my first book - Power Branding Secrets - and then published it in 2015. Versus handing out a card, I now gave an autographed book.

I now had a reputable position as an expert. I have been leveraging this ever since, experiencing better opportunities in networking. Moreover, I am asking for more as compensation, including equity positions in a few cases. 

Becoming An Author Is Easier Than Ever

Let’s dispel with the first misconception: Being an author is not just writing a book, necessarily.

The word authority is derived from the word author. One of the definitions of the word author is, “the maker of anything; creator; originator.”

Authors are viewed as authorities, to a greater or lesser extent. The better the content, as well as the larger number of the followers of that content, the greater the authority. 

You could author a YouTube series, a podcast, blog posts, music, or even micro content on TikTok. If you are making anything to be consumed, creating and originating some form of content, you are an Author. 

Some people create viral videos and then get invited to be showcased on Ellen DeGeneres’ show. Justin Bieber was discovered on YouTube.

What Now?

Start your rebranding as an author of content. Get better at your content, as well as how to distribute that content with optimization, email, paid ads, and a whole host of methods to get more eyeballs on it.

Consistency will bring more people and opportunities to you. Now, with that new found fame, ask for a position at the Equity Table.