E26: Self-Promotion for Creatives with Ilise Benun

Today we are going to talk to Ilise Benun, who is a business expert for creative professionals. She’s the author of seven business books for the creatively self-employed, a national speaker, the founder of marketing-mentor.com, and a coach and mentor for various types of professionals. She helps them with marketing and with finding more clients to help them achieve their goals.

With 30 years of experience, Ilise has so much excellent insight to offer us. You won’t want to miss today’s show!

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• What made Ilise want to go off on her own as an entrepreneur and help creative businesses by becoming a marketing mentor.
• Ilise’s thoughts on why creatives tend to resist self-promotion and put marketing at the bottom of the priority list.
• The progression of Ilise’s career when she moved from organizing to marketing, as well as how her organizing skills still come in handy in her marketing-mentorship business.
• Why Ilise likes specialization when it comes to choosing a group of people to help.
• Why business-owners often need an outside perspective to see what needs to be done in terms of marketing most effectively.
• Things that have and have not changed over the years when it comes to marketing, despite and in spite of the new technology.
• The main marketing tools that Ilise recommends: networking, outreach, and email marketing, and how they all fit together.
• Tips for identifying which market or specialization is right for you, including what factors to consider.
• Ilise’s thoughts on dealing with negative thoughts when dealing with frustrations when it comes to marketing.
• How Ilise helps her clients overcome excuse-itis.

Links:

• Ilise’s podcast
• Marketing-mentor.com
• The Magic of Thinking Big
• The Most Human Human
• How to use YouTube for Transcription
  

Quotes by Ilise:

“There’s a conflict in the mind of a creative person between business and creativity or art. Sometimes it seems like those two things cannot live together in the same person. I don’t think it’s true.”

“I am a believer in the idea of specializing. If we specialize in a particular market and the needs of particular people, then we become much more competent at helping that group.”

“Relationships are everything when it comes to marketing…. Whatever tools you use, the most important thing is developing relationships.”

“Excuse after excuse after excuse is going to get in the way unless you don’t let it.”