Dear fellow zoomers,
Today I want to talk to you about one of the first lessons I learned when I joined the workforce. Marketing strategies are often thought to be exclusive to certain industries, and I can’t tell you how many “unfortunately we have decided to go in another direction’s” I’ve received because of not being a marketer that has stuck to a specific industry (just no fun!) But I am a firm believer that marketing strategy, and life strategies, can be cross-applied to many different walks of life, and marketing careers, so today I will share with you a thing or two I learned when I started my first job at the ripe age of 15.
The first lesson I learned was about investing in myself. I was working at a Christmas ornament kiosk, drawing by hand on elaborate ornaments for people. I had come across the opportunity to work for them out of sheer luck, I was walking out of a different interview where I had been notified post-interview that they wouldn’t be able to consider my awesome candidacy as an elf for the Christmas tree exhibit because I wasn’t yet 16. I followed that up by walking around the mall talking way too loud about how I needed a job only to be stopped by the owner of the ornament kiosk who asked me if I had good handwriting. He quickly tested how I did on some paper before offering me the opportunity to work at the kiosk.
My first few days my tip jar remained empty, my boss would come to check on me ever so often and eventually asked me if I knew the secret to getting good tips. Of course I didn’t so he went on; “Your first tip has to come from you. Stick a dollar or two in the jar when you start your shift, after you do, people will be more likely to leave you a tip.” Each shift I came in for I would leave a few dollars in the tip jar, just like he said, and as the season progressed I began making enough tips to pay for my lunch and then some.
The lesson being – the first person who should and will invest in you, will always be you. Do not forget to stick a few dollars in your tip jar, when people see the investment you have made, and the commitment you have shown to high-quality work, they will be more likely to invest in you too.
Today The Less Than 1% Club is 100% bootstrapped, I have left the ultimate tip in my own tip jar. I work daily to ensure I provide other marketers with humor, insights, and resources that will be able to give them a high-quality community that serves them. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know our work is worth value, I wouldn’t even accept a traditional internship to graduate college, because I knew my worth then was more than offering myself as free labor. But what I want to remind people of, that I have seen many times over in business, is that some of your best work, and insights, need to be free. The people who need you, who will become your customers, will still come back to you despite you providing them with everything they need to get the job done because they still want you to do it. The people who can achieve it themselves because they found your advice will follow you as loyalists having seen that you are a reliable source of information and they will share your insights with others.
By gatekeeping yourself from sharing, by not putting that dollar in your own tip jar, you are withholding the best parts of yourself that are worth showcasing, and you are inhibiting other people from seeing your commitment and investing in it too. This is true for personal brand as much as it is true for an organization providing a service or product. So, my fellow zoomer, leave a dollar in your tip jar!
Until next time!
Signing off for the day.
Claudia Cherrington Lopez 