Michael Schein is the CEO of MicroFame Media, a marketing agency focused on the needs of consultants. He recently sat down with ALM Intelligence's Liz DeVito to talk about what he's been up to since their last conversation in 2016.
ALM Intelligence: It's been four years since we last connected. What's new at Microfame Media?
Schein: First of all, I have to tell you what a pleasure it is to be talking to you again after all this time. As someone who has worked so much with consultants, being in your magazine always feels like receiving an award. To answer your question, in addition to the ins-and-outs of running our marketing agency, a lot of my attention has been focused on a book I have coming out with McGraw Hill on January 12. It's called The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World's Greatest Propagandists, Self-Promoters, Mischief Makers, and Boundary Breakers. I very much consider it part of MicroFame Media because it details all of the principles and strategies our work is based on.
Basically, when I first went into business for myself about a decade ago, I quickly found that all the usual sales and marketing books didn't do anything for me. So I started studying all of history's mischief-makers and seeing if I could ethically apply what they did to generate attention and emotion and sales to my own stuff. It worked like a charm. I finally got around to putting it all in a book, and I'm happy to say the reaction has been really good from the people who have read advance copies.
ALM Intelligence: What are the most in-demand topics consultants are requesting?
Schein: Right now, the consultants I've been interacting with are thinking about what practically everyone else in the world is thinking about– how to adjust to the world of COVID. In many cases, in-person interaction has always been their strength. Of course, there's the on-site implementation of their services. But also, many consultants use speaking engagements at conferences as a way to market themselves. Now they're trying to learn how to replace those old methods without losing anything in the process. It's almost as if every other topic has been put on the backburner, which makes sense.
ALM Intelligence: Have you adapted your approach to creating content in any way
Schein: There are two different ways to answer this question. On one hand, we've had to get creative about producing and delivering content for our clients and ourselves. Fortunately, I have a lot of smart friends I can steal ideas from. For example, one friend of mine has traditionally made a major percentage of his income from speaking gigs at large corporations. In normal times, a company would fly him out to their location, he'd do a one hour talk for $15,000, stay the night, and fly back the next morning. That's obviously not happening right now. But instead of falling apart, this friend of mine called his clients and proposed that instead of doing a single one-hour in-person talk at $15k, he would record four virtual talks at $2,000 apiece. The client got to keep using the videos again and again and my friend made even more money without having to travel.
So from a tools and techniques point of view, there are all kinds of ideas like that floating around. However, on a different level, my research on hype reassures me a lot. Throughout history, people have used every form of content from epic poems to radio broadcasts to move minds and attract attention. As long as you understand the underlying principles of mass psychology, the form you use to get your message out there is the easiest part to adapt to whatever situation you find yourself in.
ALM Intelligence: What is the outlook for content marketing and how are you preparing for it?
Schein: With respect, I think content marketing is just one of those buzz terms that comes up every so often to help simplify and describe a wide range of activities. Is blogging content marketing? Of course. Webinars? Sure. How about sharing your ideas with five people around the coffee machine at a conference? Maybe, maybe not. However, those five people might have more impact on your achieving your goals than the five hundred people who read your latest blog post.
ALM Intelligence: What are you working on now that you're particularly excited about
Schein: You know, for most of the history of our business, we focused exclusively on actually doing marketing and promotion for B2B clients. That's still at the core of what we do.
But ever since I started going around speaking about hype, a much more diverse set of people — artists, musicians, authors, aspiring YouTube influencers, game designers, early-stage entrepreneurs – -have been asking me about it. Of course, a lot of what they want to know is in the book I just wrote. At the same time, as anyone reading a publication called Consulting Magazine most certainly understands, there's no substitute for working with an expert. We ultimately decided we need to offer something for people who want to learn and master these strategies but who don't have the budget or inclination to hire a full-scale agency. So we just created and launched our first Hype Strategies Workshop. I'd say that's a project I am just incredibly excited about.
You can reach Michael by email at mfs@microfamemedia.com or by calling +1.646.392.7004
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.