Confessions of an Advice-Averse Marketer
When I think about where my life and the trajectory of Beginners intersect, I feel a tension between knowing and not knowing. Personally, I prefer to live in a world of question marks: few plans, lots of space, and ample time for thinking. Living in a state of not knowing, but wondering, is my natural inclination.
Professionally, Chris and I have many years of experience in marketing and communications in the tech ecosystem, and, even more specifically, in startups and venture capital. Our professional world operates almost exclusively on the idea of tips—of knowing the answer, having certainty. Clients pay us to tell them how to get things done, based on our experiences and sense of what will work.
Often, what works, ironically, is content that is itself advice-driven. (How many VC posts have you read offering a list of helpful tips for founders? Don’t answer.) The professional world is a set of nesting dolls, one thought leader inside the other, with more advice always waiting to be revealed.
This knowing/not knowing tension has led to a bit of an impasse when it comes to marketing the agency. Sure, we know a lot of stuff. But I also hate being told what to do. I imagine myself as the recipient of a Beginners marketing email and think, ugh, who are these people trying to tell me how to do my job? (This is how I respond to most marketing emails.) And yet, we need to get the word out, to tell people what we’ve been up to, and offer some wisdom to cement our place as experts and attract clients.
I suppose what I’m asking is: Does successfully marketing an agency require certainty? Or is there another way to instill confidence?
Part of what we love about the name Beginners is that it holds many meanings, including this one: the importance of keeping a beginner’s mind. Yeah, we’ve been doing this for a long time. But our best attribute is staying open to what new experiences have to teach us. We’re all still figuring this stuff out as we go. Yesterday’s advice worked…yesterday. Tomorrow? Who knows. The world is changing—tech, marketing, and communications is changing, too—so let’s acknowledge that, keep our eyes open, and keep moving.
Last week, I gave a talk at the Empire Startups Fintech Conference about the rules of “post-doge” marketing. If you are insistent on consuming listicle-based professional advice, you might enjoy it. Ask me for a walk through.
Thanks for listening, and expect to hear from Chris next time. —LC
Favorite Moments from New York Fintech Week
🔹 Watching Ruth Foxe-Blader win the Newlywed Game (expertly moderated by Sam Reichstein)
🔹 Having coffee with my old Anthemis colleagues Elise Brown and Katie Palencsar at an outdoor cafe mid-eclipse
🔹 Staying at this cute and convenient hotel in Queens
🔹 Connecting in-person with two of our favorite clients (and colleague Sali Diakité)
🔹 Wearing a hat from a delightful Brooklyn bookstore that sparked conversations about literature everywhere I went—revealing that The Three-Body Problem is the tech bro book of the moment
🔹 Attending Julie VerHage-Greenberg’s breakfast where I got to meet women from InformedIQ, Sweater, Skipify, Elementus, and other interesting startups
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What Does Beginners Do?
Beginners is a brand, communications and content agency for people who start things. We help entrepreneurs tell stories about themselves and their companies. This looks like: defining key messages, creating content of all kinds, and working with the media, event organizers and other influencers in order to build reputation. Our current clients are venture-backed startups and VCs, but we work with anyone telling an innovation story.
Final Thought
Speaking of books, what did you think of Burn Book?
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