“Cats, cats, cats! That’s all you write about on social media! What about dogs? You’re turning me into a cat hater.”
“You work with Chrysler? For God’s sake – don’t know you know only weak-minded idiots buy Chryslers?”
“I can’t believe you’re writing only about petunias! That is discriminating against impatiens. Your growing tips work just as well for impatiens, you know!”
“I would think that you, as a veterinarian, would know that large animals have health issues, too. Why do you focus your practice only on small animals?”
“Why do you write only about attorneys? If I were an attorney, I’d be offended!”
Pretty whack-a-doodle, right? And yet…and yet…if you replace all the so-called offensive words in these comments with the word “women,” then you’ll get a taste of the bizarre comments that will you never see on social media. Well, except for my LinkedIn posts.
All of these comments come from men – but not all men take that attitude. In fact, the overwhelming majority of them have complimented me on my tips and a few have suggested (nicely) that they work well for men, too.
Agreed. And I’m pleased that so many people (of all ages, genders, nationalities, economic standing, etc.) find them useful.
That’s the whole point of coaching – to give people the tools to help them come up with their own solutions.
Speaking to and for women
But when it comes down to why I focus on women, the answer is simple: I speak to and for women. This is my passion – and my business. I’ve been passionate about women’s issues since the early 1970s when I first read the book, “The Feminine Mystique.” And then I spent the next 30-some years focusing on my own career – I was the woman who needed the most help.
When I turned 60, I said to myself, “If not now, when?” and chucked the whole “working for a paycheck” thing to build my languishing coaching business. For the first few years, I did anything that came in over the transom and while I learned a lot, I realized it didn’t make me happy. And I certainly wasn’t passionate about building websites for people.
It was just in the last six months or so – as I was tottering dangerously near the cliff of burnout – that I decided, “Screw it” and threw it all away to follow that long-ago passion – helping women succeed.
Because, as every successful business person knows, if passion drives your business, you cannot fail.
Anti-failure, pro-woman
That’s me. I’m anti-failure. And pro-woman. I want to be successful by helping women succeed. That’s what drives me.
In my quest to build my business around helping women, I started doing long-form posts on LinkedIn. It has been a massively successful strategy in terms of reaching my target audience. I have more than 3,700 followers who subscribe to my posts and many, many more who read them (one post — “How much are you worth?” — had nearly 67,000 views, the most so far). All I need to do now is convert!
From the data gathered since I started publishing these posts in November, it became clear that I received significantly more views and engagement on those articles that spoke specifically to women. Not only were they written for women, but if you needed an even bigger clue, “women” was in the headline.
So guess what I did? Made sure “women” was in the headline. This, too, is a business tactic.
But here’s what puzzles me – if you are not a woman, and you don’t like articles written for women, why are you reading them? Are you a masochist? Looking for something to chap your cheeks?
If so, move along. Don’t go away mad; just go away.