Using marketing as a self-growth tool with Frances Khalastchi

Design Feeling

#012 - Throughout my design and technology career, I believed that marketing was just fluff. Hence, I never invested much time and energy into it, even to market myself. In this episode, Frances Khalastchi reframes that common notion of marketing into a tool for self-growth. With a background in graphic design, cultural theory, sociology and art history and 20 years in corporate, third sector startup and government communications, Frances co-founded Better Bolder Braver, a marketing community for coaches.
In this episode, Frances talks about using marketing to increase one’s self-awareness, empathise with customers and prevent burnout. She also mentions how working out loud can help us get over our need for perfection and why it’s ok to chase perfection in your work your work without having to be a perfect human being. We also discuss the role of communities in helping us find safe spaces where we can try new things, get feedback and iterate.
In this episode:
- Starting with your mindset - your values and practical and emotional limits
- Niching to prevent burnout
- Marketing yourself as an employee
- Meet your customer where they’re at in their journey of consciousness
- Working out loud
- Product perfectionism vs people perfectionism (one of them is bad for you!)
- The role of community in our lives
- And much more
Shownotes
Better Bolder Braver Community
https://betterbolderbraver.com
Happy Startup School
https://www.thehappystartupschool.com
Leapers: A collective of freelancers
https://www.leapers.co
Frances Khalastchi on LinkedIn
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/franceskhalastchi
Many Meanings and Uses of Art: Frances’ interview on the Stepping Off Now Podcast with Kendra Patterson
https://steppingoffnow.com/e57-interview-frances-khalastchi-on-the-many-meanings-and-uses-of-art
Show credits
Illustrations by Isa Vicente
https://www.instagram.com/isadezgz/
Music by Brad Porter
https://prtr.co/
Episode edited by Niall Mackay
https://sevenmillionbikes.com/

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Chapter

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. About Better Bolder Braver (00:02:42)

3. Frances's journey from arts to marketing (00:04:57)

4. Use marketing as a self-growth tool (00:11:07)

5. Niche to prevent burnout (00:13:13)

6. Marketing yourself as an employee (00:14:42)

7. Empathy-led marketing (00:19:46)

8. Meet your customer where they're at in their journey of consciousness (00:22:50)

9. Dealing with imposter symdrome (00:24:25)

10. Working out loud (00:27:20)

11. Perfectionism in your work vs perfectionism in you as a human being (00:31:56)

12. Impact of the pandemic on communities (00:42:58)

13. Summary recap (00:53:10)

14. Finding Frances online (00:55:36)