Embrace The Cheese. (You Cheddar Believe It, Solopreneur):
I love cheese.
(There's a reason that a week ago I was chock full of cheese).
Maybe it's my French ancestry. Maybe it's that cheese is awesome.
At any given time, I have at least 3 types of cheese in the fridge (this morning I had to decide whether to grate fresh parmesan, feta, or good ole' cheddar on my eggs. Feta won).
My favorite t-shirt says “Sweet dreams are made of cheese… who am I to dis a Brie?” (It captures my love of both 80s cultural-references + cheese in one fell swoop!).
So you can imagine my horror when someone recently mentioned that cheese gets much harder to digest as we age.
Whaaaaaat?
As I ease into middle-age, I can stand the occasional creaky knees and grumpy “What are kids wearing these days?!” thoughts.
But I cannot abide the idea of losing my ability to eat le fromage.
My first reaction to this news was to think, "I better eat as much cheese as I can NOW, while my body can take it!”
Challenge accepted.
Speaking of cheese:
A client recently shared that she's nervous about spreading the word about the new course she’s creating.
“I don’t want to be cheesy!”
It's not just that she enthusiastically embraces puns and humor in her content, and doesn't want come across as a goofball.
She particularly fears sounding cheesy and “salesy” as she markets her program to others.
This is a common fear, second only to “I don’t want to be sleazy.”
So I gave her the same advice I’m giving myself as I face my impending lactose-intolerance-doom:
Embrace the Cheese.
In your marketing and content, it's okay to risk sounding cheesy.
Why?
You probably aren’t as cheesy as you think, unless you’re copying word-for-word from direct-marketing mailers from the 90s and infomercials ("But wait…there's more!").
Many of us immersed in our professions aware of the clichés and jargon that seem cheesy to us, but forget that these are brand new to the clients we're trying to reach. (I remember the therapy-client who was BLOWN AWAY when I told him to “Stop ‘shoulding’ on yourself," though it's become a cliché in therapy-world).
Cheese works. Your enthusiasm, your humor, and even those common marketing-phrases out there actually lead people to want to pay for the help you offer, to invest in their results through you.This is a service to them.
“The thing is, Jane, I am kind of cheesy. That’s my humor! So you’re saying I should keep my personality in my course?”
Ding ding ding! (my client got it).
Embrace the cheese if that’s who you are. It isn’t cheesy if it’s sincere.
If you’re being authentically you, your ideal clients will love your particular variety of queso.
There's no need to try to play it cool. (Obviously I've released that need, having said the word “cheese” almost 20 times in one post).
Gouda go,
-Jane