Across industries and niches, entrepreneurs are confused and stalled by the ever-evolving marketing monster. Here are the 5 areas you should focus on in your 2020 marketing plan. They are all about who you are and how you show up for your tribe. Which tools and strategies you should use, we’ll figure out. The right strategies and skills are important, but what I have often seen is that a tendency to strive to become professional ‘corporate-like’ brands instead of making the distinctive and unique qualities solopreneurs naturally have the very cornerstone of the business. In the 2020s, the human-centered approach ought to be the pivot of marketing strategy, and that starts with showing up as a relatable human.

1. The happy customer is your best marketer

Distrust, discomfort, disrespect and a sense of overstepping boundaries arise in many of us when exposed to traditional marketing. This nasty gut feeling is sparked when we remember the decades of...

It’s never been easier or more difficult to build a powerful personal brand business.

• On one hand, there are really no barriers to keeping skilled people from sharing their knowledge and create a profitable personal brand.
• On the other hand, there is so much information out there about how to do so, and most of it has become irrelevant because what used to work is no longer working.

But for sure, if you are ahead of someone and you have great teaching skills, you can help them solve problems and build a business doing so. Zero barriers - except maybe your mindset and beliefs. You just need to figure out how.

With that in mind, here are five things that personal brand entrepreneurs should be doing each week. Most of them, you need to do a lot more of when you are new in the game, but all of them are things you should continue doing far beyond the start-up phase.

1. Have a real conversation with a customer

Talking to your customers might appear so obvious a task it does not...