Applying The Pat Flynn Method At Crimson
Our CEO, Cheryl, was recently inspired by the “Pat Flynn Method”. A skilled entrepreneur and author, Pat Flynn educates fellow entrepreneurs on all things business. From ethics, to financials, and even company reputation, Pat’s principles are a great asset to any business. Learn how we plan to continue applying the Pat Flynn Method at Crimson. Maybe you’ll learn a thing or two to apply to your own business or job as well!
Servant Heart
Rather than trying to sell a product or service right off the bat, recognize that your clients may, more importantly, need support. Build a trusting relationship with your clients through educational and helpful content or connections. As entrepreneurs, it is critical to understand your clients—their pain points, interests, needs—and offer solutions or guidance. It should be a goal to serve first before asking for something of theirs in return.
Authenticity
While social media is a great way to present your work and team to possible new clients, it can, at times, feel phony or a little too perfect. Don’t be afraid to be a little more transparent, showing even the things that might feel a little funny. We love to showcase our designers and company culture on our social media. Sharing a glimpse into company happy hours or some of our numerous events allows us to show our work-hard-play-hard attitude and our joy in celebrating every small victory. Incorporating lifestyle content reminds our audience that we provide a lifestyle, not just a service. This allows us to connect with followers on a personal level.
Don’t Be Afraid To Experiment
Testing new ideas whether in your business plan or in your social media strategy helps to validate and confirm your ideas into full on action plans. It can be easy to fall into the trap of following the same strategies that you are comfortable with. Trying new things can help your brand to stay fresh—you may even discover a better course of action. Pat even has a book (“Will It Fly”) that acts as a guide for testing new ideas before making a huge commitment!
Build Your Ecosystem
Think of all the platforms your business is accessible or active on. Blogs, Instagram, email marketing, etc. The more the merrier isn’t necessarily the goal here. Instead, it is important to be active on platforms where your client base is as well. Building your ecosystem of platforms makes your brand more accessible to possible new clients. Consistent content marketing and SEO tactics help to build long term relationships with your clients and expands your audience reach.
Superfans
Yes, it is important to increase your audience reach, but no, it is not everything. In all honesty, reach is a vanity metric, a statistic that looks good but doesn’t truly benefit you. Think of it like this: you reached a million accounts with a viral reel, but you didn’t reach your ideal audience. Those million views start to seem useless. The truth is, you don’t need millions of followers or endless viral content. Creating a core group of “superfans” that you engage with consistently builds your online community and ideal audience. Personal interactions through tagging others you collaborate with and interacting in your comments helps to build your team. We call this team our “raving fans”. We want to delight and serve anyone who walks through our doors and create these raving fans for our services.
Methods In Action
Now that you know more about applying the Pat Flynn Method, how can we grow with this further?
- Begin with an empathetic heart. Understand the needs of your clients and how you can help.
- Experiment, especially when you’re comfortable. Your goals should always be progressing.
- Build your team, supporters, and ecosystem. Focus on the relationships, not just the metrics.
As a small-sized company with big goals, we always enjoy new guidance from thought leaders such as Pat Flynn. Discover more of Pat Flynn’s advice and his expertise at his website—we recommend checking out his books too for further insight!
