building a business

one story at a time without doing the death clown show

The best way for me to start doing something is to give up on it.

Earlier this week I wrote about giving up on “content marketing.”

For those interested in the topic, I suggested that people check out The Tilt and Creator Science.

I was giving up on any notion of being a creator online, deciding instead to focus on doing something practical - my handyman business.

But even a handyman needs marketing.

And marketing is an act of story telling.

And storytelling is an act of story collecting.

And of exaggeration.

And of slight of hand.

The most liberating thing about no longer focusing on ‘how do I sell something that people don’t really want or need - like therapy or a clown show about death” and switching to selling something people really need like when they’re late for work and the plumbing is screwed and they need their toilet snaked out a or the glass cleaned up and a window covered with a board and measured with an order into the glass company?

I can tell stories that connect.

With that in mind, I’m going to take my own advice and collect and retell my broken telephone versions of the stories of this place - Dartmouth - as well as recount some stories of real estate and renovation in all of their painful hilarity.

And these stories will all be designed to build trust and connection with the handyman clients that I’m going to be serving.

And that?

That’s content marketing.

I’ll share some of it here.

But right meow?

I’m curious about how I can help build a business by telling stories that matter.