-2 min readen
Getting back in the groove
Shift happens. It has been a while since I published here. An aging body brings about such fits and starts whether it is an individual or an organization. My infirmities occurred at the same time my f...
Jerry Fletcher
Consultant Messaging Master, Professional Speaker
Portland - Oregon
Consultant Marketing Master, International Professional Speaker, I guide consultants and consulting organizations to become more memorable and more profitable. Jerry Fletcher, CEO of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. is an expert at Trust-based business development. He speaks on Marketing internationally. Jerry enjoys movies from indies to blockbusters, reads mysteries for pleasure and is exploring music from symphonies to blues. Speaking: To Consultants, Coaches and Professionals and the organizations that serve them on Trust-based marketing to build their business, their brand and a life of joy. WHYos Certified so attendees can discover the purpose that is built into their DNA. Let them see the real you! WHYos based Team workshops to take your organization up a notch. One on one consulting for critical projects for elite clients only. I've worked with clients from Singapore to Spain to develop 7 figure revenues.
204 articles
Topics
Articles by Jerry
2024
1 articles
2022
4 articles
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Product Gravitation
Consistency The key element in building a brand across multiple platforms is consistency. You cannot change the words and pictures willy-nilly. It is particularly important to say things the same way...
-3 min readen
Consultant Marketing Social Media Differentiators
Being more memorable Just publishing on a host of social media platforms on a regular basis can make you more memorable. Being consistent in one area of expertise can make you remarkable. Delivering c...
-3 min readen
Consultant Marketing Website Time
Every marketing conversation I have with a consultant sooner or later gets around to their website. The status reports I’ve heard in the last week fit into these untidy categories: “I’m between an old...
-4 min readen
The Brand Timeline
The Brand Timeline Recently, while developing my product called Brandr I realized that most folks don’t understand that Brand has three time components: Now, Later and Long term. Now, the Short term T...
2021
23 articles
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing Solo DoubleTrouble
You made the break. You decided to put your consulting career on the front burner. You decided that it is time to make that side hustle your full-time job. Two considerations. You need to think about...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Brand Sound
. Dave and I had lunch Thursday. It was good to hear how the little golf product company he founded was doing. He has come a long way from when we met in his kitchen to put together the promotional ma...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing A More Powerful Pitch
It amazes me every time. A coach oriented approach can eliminate proposals. You figure that a consultant would know about and use a Value-Based Presentation. The sticking point for most is the discove...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Credibility Index
What is your credibility index? If you are a consultant it is a pretty good bet that you have a profile on Linked In. How credible does that profile make you to your prospects? Here’s a simple way to...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing The Ladder
Gail asked me, “Do you remember how you used to start that speech sitting on top a step ladder?” “Sure”, I said, “Every business owner has a place they want to get to. For some it is a simple thing bu...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Digital World Speaking
. I spoke live on Wednesday. It was only the third time this year. My expectation from the run-up back and forth with various staff members was that this would be a well-managed professional event. It...
-3 min readen
20 Years Ago
. I was startled by my wife screaming, “Oh my God!” over and over and over. I ran to the family room and she gasped, “Turn the TV on.” My daughter joined us about then rubbing sleep from her eyes. The...
-7 min readen
Conversations Get Closes
. “I put all this time and money into SEO and I’m still not getting any new business!” It is not an unfamiliar complaint. It is the lament of every consultant and entrepreneur that provides a service...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Journey to Success
No one ever said it would be easy. Then again, only a few folks, over time, explained what it takes in a way that was completely accessible to those ready for the advice. Some of the best known are: B...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Diving In
. Are you thinking of bailing out of a full-time job to start a consulting business? Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane isn’t a good thing to do on a whim. On the other hand with a little pre-pl...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Your Junto
. I was researching Peer Groups commonly called masterminds as an extension of Credibility to Cash my planned three day intensive for Consultants, Coaches and other Independent Professionals. Credibil...
-4 min readen
Elite Rage
When you’re that good you expect to be treated with deference. You get used to people taking your word as the expert. You won’t admit it but it feels good to have that ego polishing occur. That expect...
-3 min readen
The Brutal Truth About Trust
Ya got it or you don’t. I was having coffee with a former client. He asked a favor that involved me contacting a person who had spoken for an organization I handle marketing for. He wanted the slides...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Credibility to Cash
I came back from Miami with a 90 Day plan . I’m 10 days in and I’ve finally handled most of the consulting business actions that piled up while I spent 3 days in a retreat and two days on airplanes. Y...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Discovery Meeting
The Dance Welcome to that part of a new business tango where you sit down with a prospect and learn about her/his operation and get to ask questions from which you will develop a proposal. You need to...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Assessments
Do you really want to know yourself? The premise of every assessment I’ve ever seen is that you want to be analyzed so as to know yourself better and thereby: Be able to build on your strengths Overco...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Trust Story
Since March first I have been scheduled to speak on Trust 15 times. I admit, I’ve been doing some outbound marketing to get some dates but the remarkable thing is that so many of these events have bee...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Word Man
Cult Classic There’s a cult classic movie called “Eddie and the Cruisers.” It’s the story of a driven young rocker from the shore who pushed everyone he made music with to levels they had not dreamed...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Pillow Talk
If you’re lucky. Not everyone has a partner outside the business they can talk to candidly about how it is going. For the majority of consultants who are solopreneurs the only chance they have is when...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Trust Factor
I’ve been asked to speak on Trust 4 times between now and the end of April. I’ll be sharing information that has remained timeless along with research findings being updated now. A Fortune Cookie I sp...
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing Magic Words
We’ve been meeting on Friday mornings for at least a couple years. A Mastermind I had attended a conference on gamifying products in the fall before Covid struck. On the last day Luthie asked, “Would...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Trust Barometer
I’ll be keynoting on Trust in April. Every time I’m asked to present on Trust I look for new information I might bring to the audience. Online Resources I always start with a review of the usual suspe...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Juggernaut
I was zooming today with the founder of an organization using Mighty Networks as the software they use to manage their expanding community. One of the reasons he cited for that selection was the abili...
2020
36 articles
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Doveryay, no Proveryay
Jim sent me a link. It was for an article in the New York Times. In it the writer, Bret Stephens summed up his concerns under this headline: Donald Trump and the Damage Done The key As Mr Stephens put...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Your Voice
Say what? The right words can make you memorable at introduction. Past that you have to work at being quoted to become unforgettable. It’s all about being current, consistent, and considered in your o...
-3 min readen
Consultant Marketing Stages of Success
Not everyone is a customer. Online or in person you will meet a host of people. Some will, over time, become customers. But most will not. Many will be contacts forgotten almost as quickly as they pas...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Synchronicity
It is Friday the 13th as I write this. That has always been a lucky day for me. And this week has proven positive as well. Monday, I attended my local NSA chapter monthly meeting. Virtually, of course...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Virtual Virtuoso
Professional Speakers are out in front. I don’t mean on stage but rather in figuring out how to make the most of presenting virtually. I asked in a “mastermind” group, “Anyone else finding that you kn...
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing Shaping the Quiz
Under the urge You set out to share your knowledge and make the world a better place. That is what lurks at the heart of consultants, coaches and all the independent professionals that provide service...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Building a List.
It begins. I’ve stood on stages on three continents and said: “Your e-mail list is often your single most valuable corporate asset” Jerry Fletcher That is especially true if you are an Independent Pro...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Real Customer Service
I ntegration ain’t easy. I know. I’ve spent a large part of my digital life trying to make it work. It’s tough enough trying to overcome race, religion and all the labeling humanity puts in the way of...
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing Tech Trap
It’s great until it isn’t. It can be the backbone of the sharing of your body of intellectual property or it can delay the release by days, weeks or months or, in some cases years. Change The inherent...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Trepidation To Elation
Lindsay joined the local chapter. I welcomed her by e-mail. She is a newbie in multiple ways: · A new college graduate A new MBA A new member of IMC (Institute of Management Consultants) A wannabe con...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing For Startups
You’ve decided you’d like to be a consultant but you’re not sure how long it is going to continue as a side hustle before becoming your full-time gig. You’ve done some time in the 9 to 5 world and lea...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Soundtrack
I have no clue where this idea came from. Perhaps it was watching the credit roll on an old movie that used rock songs from my misspent youth as the background to everything from chase scenes to tende...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Pain Payoff
Numerous coaches in my life have all said, “No pain, no gain.” They were physical coaches. They were talking about my body. The brain discussion was always about handling or overcoming the pain. But p...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing The Essence
Time is of the essence. It is. Contracts for consulting may include this phrase followed by specific goals that must be met by a certain time. BUT Time is of the essence in multiple ways for a consult...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Listen or Lead?
The popular press was crowing about how populism was sweeping the earth because social media had given everyone a voice. Then a pandemic got in the way. Suddenly marketing gals and guys are debating w...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Crafting Identity
SEO is only part of the equation. I agreed to sit on a panel after a presentation on SEO the other day. The presentation was well done if a little lumpy because the presenters were not used to using Z...
-3 min readen
Consultant Marketing The Right Words
They arrive in my inbox as attachments. The request is: “Here’s the latest, take look and see if it will get your agreement.” Or, “How can we make it better?” Sometimes it is just a simple, “Please ed...
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing Automagiced
“I don’t have to be there in person.” First I had to teach consulting clients how to use Zoom. We walked through lighting, checking the background and the inevitable foul ups. Then we did a little ref...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Cruise Control
My promise. I tell the consultants that meet me in-person or on-line that I can help them build their business, their brand and a life of joy. I may meet them when networking, speaking at a live or vi...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Going Virtual
Meet via Zoom, phone or in-person? Frank and I will be Zooming in the morning. There was a time when that statement would have drawn quizzical looks and, in all likelihood, some snide comments. No mor...
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing A Tasty Webinar Slice
Have you noticed how often you are seeing offers to attend a webinar show up in your e-mail? Is the apparent increase because of sheltering in place? Has the world suddenly become more receptive to on...
-7 min readen
Consultant Marketing Elephant in the Room
When there’s an elephant in the room, you can’t pretend it isn’t there. My clients and others in the consulting community finally “got that” this week. You may have noticed. There was a marked increas...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Capitalizing Now
He roller coaster He got early warning He got muddy water He one Mojo filter He say one and one and one is three Got to be good looking 'Cause he's so hard to see Come together right now Over me ” the...
-5 min readen
Stir Crazy
I had lunch with a client yesterday. Neither of us could stand being at home alone for another day. We did sit on opposite sides of the conference table which is just by chance about 6 feet across. Th...
-4 min readen
An Imagined Letter
A friend passed this on to me. I don't know the author but I felt it should be posted here. An Imagined Letter from Covid-19 to Humans Stop. Just stop. It is no longer a request. It is a mandate. We w...
-4 min readen
Pride Goes Before
I thought the quote from the King James Bible was, “Pride goeth before a fall” The actual quote is : “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” It characterizes the attitude prev...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing From Nobody to Somebody
Normally I don’t sell from the stage when I speak. At least not for the last 15 years. I just about always collect contact data to begin a relationship. And I always take the time to visit with anyone...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Brand Building
Andy asked me to sit in on his Brand Marketing Summit over the weekend in Los Angeles. As one participant summed it up: “This was a successful young guy translating traditional branding for Millenials...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Baggage
In an hour or so I’m headed for the airport. Packed this morning. The usual. Essential electronic components in a computer sized wheeled carry-on and a small, good for up to three days, carry on case....
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing It’s Not the App
I’ve been doing testimonial videos for a client this week. I’m not a video production expert. My equipment is rudimentary. I use Camtasia to edit. But the quality is sufficient for web sites and the c...
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing in the Beginning
I was interviewed on a Podcast last night. I had approached the interviewer because of a post she had put in a group I’d been asked to join on Facebook. Usually I don’t engage on that platform but the...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Getting Ready to Get Ready
I offered a free 3-Day Challenge. Two thirds of the room signed up. I figured it was a good way to build trust while working out some of the kinks in the first of a series of new experiential products...
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing, Get Off the Rollercoaster
Click, click, click. A pause. A rush. Twists, turns and bumps. And then it begins again. The consultant marketing cycle is often like a ride on a rollercoaster. Market, market, market. Do the work, Do...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Not a Selfie
Turn your phone around. Point it at your client. Successful consulting is all about them. Get their viewpoint. Speak to it. Use graphics that touch them. Tell their stories. Stop selling and let them...
-5 min readen
A Life of Joy
When people ask what I do I answer: “I’m a master of consultant marketing. You know how everybody tells you how you have to be memorable but nobody tells you how to do it? What I do is guide independe...
-4 min readen
Midnight in Zanzibar
Sometimes your kids inherit your wandering ways. My daughter did. Each year, she celebrates Christmas and New Years by leaving the country. Since she works in the Federal Government it is a good idea...
2019
36 articles
-3 min readen
Signature Story*
They fired me! The board I had so carefully nurtured told me to be gone by Monday. It was a long evening and a longer night. Somewhere in the middle of it I got up and went into the den. I automatical...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Networking is Alive!
Last night as I was about to log off for the night, I came across a question and comments on networking on a site on which I sometimes comment. The question was: “Are you networking in the face of the...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Modalities of Memory
Are you unforgettable? If you are not memorable you will not get the business. It is that simple. But getting to unforgettable requires that you understand how you can become fixed in a prospect’s mem...
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing Website Anatomy Part 3
Does your site pass the first panel 3 second test? Parts one and two dealt with that first panel, the three seconds you had to brand yourself/product and the 4 additional seconds you had to get across...
-5 min readen
Political Brands, Home Pages and Swag
We don’t select who we vote for because of slogans. Or do we? At the climax of the last Presidential election I wrote that the man I now call Agent Orange did do one thing brilliantly. His catch phras...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Credo
A friend shared a familiar symbol with some unfamiliar words at a conference we were attending a week or so ago. A choice It reminded me that all things are both good and bad and that we have the choi...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing Website Anatomy Part 2
Part one dealt mainly with the essence of creating a value proposition that concentrated on understanding your prospect. Panel by Panel These days we concentrate on panels more than pages. Why? Becaus...
-7 min readen
Consultant Marketing Website Anatomy Part 1
You claim to be unique. Why isn’t your web site? Is yours truly different? Probably not. Can your home page first panel pass the three second test? Three seconds is all you have for your brand to regi...
-4 min readen
Ennui can ruin your day.
I missed a telephone appointment this morning. I could cite the insomnia that had me rattling around at 2:30 in the morning and the fact that I’d turned the alarm off but those are excuses for the mai...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Fee Anchors
You’re a consultant. The question every prospect asks is, “What are your fees?” When I was starting my practice as a marketing consultant back in 1990 I figured I should do a little research into fees...
-4 min readen
No Lasting Shadow
10 Candidates 4 interviewers 3 hours in prime time O inspiration. Last night the 10 remaining Democratic candidates for President of the United States debated in Texas on nationally aired TV. Since I...
-3 min readen
Consultant Marketing Napkin Diary
I don’t have one but I wish I did. I can see it. A three-ring binder filled with paper napkins, each depicting a concept that can change the way you think. Most of them are white but a few pastels are...
-5 min readen
Consultant Marketing 4 Proposals
It has been a long week here at the south end of the sidewalk. Wasn’t feeling particularly well and editing video always tuckers me out. A challenge The bright spot in the week came when one of my cli...
-5 min readen
Who Decides?
Back in college, I was a bit of an activist. (It was the 60’s) The war I was protesting was the war for our minds. There was a group called the “Citizens for Decent Literature.” The CDL was trying to...
-4 min readen
Consultant Marketing Productizing
Hidden profits. Jim and I were talking over lunch about turning an approach he had evolved over the years into a “named product/service.” He was into what to name it. I reined that conversation in by...
-4 min readen
The Morphing Climate Brand
I was listening to the radio as I drove downtown to have lunch with Kent, an old friend who hasn’t escaped the agency business yet. The announcer noted that it was now official: “Climate Change” will...
-6 min readen
Consultant Marketing Eye on the Money
It has been a long week here where the sidewalk ends. Getting ready to get ready I agreed to part company with a client that has been on and off multiple times over the last three months. He is brilli...
-4 min readen
A Shot, No Dark
I got shot yesterday. It was by appointment. How to avoid this if you’re younger and smarter Seriously, we old guys have managed to learn a few things over the years when it comes to long term health:...
-5 min readen
Consultant Website Concerns
Pull the trigger! I’ve worked one on one with hundreds of consultants and spoken to thousands more over the years. Their single biggest complaint: “ I can’t get clients to move as quickly as they shou...
-6 min readen
Getting Back On Course
I looked at a lot of ways to say this but I figure the truth is the best way to discuss anything on a platform backed by the elephantine memory of the internet. I’m still standin’ Z-axis Marketing was...
-3 min readen
Are You Market Ready?
I have a standard answer to the question, “How are you?’ “Sweet, lovable kind, thrifty, brave, clean and all that other boy scout stuff… would you like to buy a bridge?” Jerry Fletcher It is a bit sil...
-8 min readen
Honor
There’s a water jet fountain in the small pond outside my patio doors. It’s as if a whale has surfaced from somewhere under the earth and is clearing its blowhole… for eight hours a day. It cranks up...
-3 min readen
Your CRM & Friendly Persuasion
“So what more info should I have about somebody other than their Contact data? That should be enough for a good salesman like me,” said Tom. “Tom, I responded, “why not make it a little easier on your...
-4 min readen
A Quantum View of Brand
Brand is not static. It evolves. It changes, morphing, at times, beyond all our hopes, bending in a direction we had not anticipated. You can influence a brand but you can’t control it. That has been...
-4 min readen
Pearl of a Pal
A call in the night. Just after 3:00 AM my phone rang in the tiny Barcelona hotel where I’m staying. It was Gail. The phone announced her name as I blundered to the desk trying to find it in the dark....
-4 min readen
Behind the facade
Behind the facade Don’t breathe a word of it. Seriously, don’t let on how you feel. Don’t give anyone even an inkling of what is going on behind that unresponsive mask. Really, who needs to know? Sorr...
-3 min readen
Fate and Your Brand
There are turning points Seldom if ever do we know just where or how we change the course of our lives. For one it is the choice of continuing in school. For another it is deciding to take on the bull...
-6 min readen
Building a Solopreneur Consulting Business
It depends Being a solopreneur in any field has its good and bad points. Being alone means there is no one to report to, no bureaucracy to keep informed in triplicate and no support staff. On the othe...
-4 min readen
Off the Grid, Kinda
Somewhere in the Atlantic, 3 days out of Miami. I made all the connections (one by seconds) to board the Norwegian Star bound for Tarragon, Spain because a dock in Barcelona had been damaged. Tarragon...
-3 min readen
And so it goes.
The words are mine. I was looking for a way to end a comment on beBee and they just leapt from my fingers onto the page. So I used them again. And again. And yet again. They became a kind of signature...
-4 min readen
No Pain No Gain
It wasn’t intentional. She hit my bad knee from the side going full tilt. I dropped to the floor in agony. I was angry but I couldn’t stay that way. She looked to be about 6 years old. She had to reac...
-4 min readen
The Cascade Effect
He’s young, not yet 25. Over the weeks as he has coached me in the gym he’s become more relaxed with me, relaxed enough to share some troubled thoughts. I’ve forgotten what triggered the mental withdr...
-4 min readen
Collaboration ain’t Creative
It happened again. Some twit that never had an idea of her own was espousing the wonders wrought by the “new normal of collaboration.” She had the audacity to think her dispassionate embrace of teamwo...
-4 min readen
Yellow Brick Road to Business Success
Dorothy and her friends in the Wizard of Oz are told to follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road. You don’t need a wizard to get to success. You just need to be clear about where you are headed. W...
-4 min readen
Brand in the Clutter
I can’t resist an infographic chock full of information that can impact my business. The March 4 issue of Adweek included one based on research from Toluna and Moveable Ink. It is all about e-mail. Ma...
-4 min readen
Be Direct to Change Contacts to Contracts
George called today to defer a scheduled meeting for himself and his sales team. “Why?” I asked. “Remember,” he said “how I couldn’t understand why you were so adamant about sending handwritten thank...