This is a story that was created for the purposes of highlighting what can be accomplished when it comes to creativity in the Digital Main Street ZigZag workshop.

Internally, we had a lot of discussions about what creativity is and how to showcase it.

Because we are in the marketing industry, we felt we needed to come up with higher the average results to help people understand what’s possible.

And it led us to push ourselves quite a bit.

The question we arrived at was a simple one but incredibly difficult to answer.

How do we take a random piece of content, like the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme, and connect it to our businesses in a creative way?

How do you take something completely random and have it make sense within the context that you want?

Suffice to say, all of us struggled to make it happen. Some of us weren’t able to come up with something meaningful enough to present, for some of us it took almost to the last minute to create a way to connect Humpty Dumpty to our business.

This is the story of what I was able to come up with.

I’m kind of excited to learn what you think about it.

This is a story about two people with completely different ways of doing marketing and business for that matter. One is Humpty, the other one is Humphrey.

They are the same but completely different.

Humpty Dumpty does things the way most people do, Humphrey Dumphy does marketing the way most people don’t even know exists.

So grab a cup of coffee, get comfy on your chair, and take it all in.

Thank you for taking the time to read my work.

Once Upon a Time

In a land far far away not related to Disney in any way shape or form, lived a egg shaped humanoid called Humpty.

Humpty had a dream of making it big. Not sure how, not sure when, but he always dreamed of having a beautiful pan shaped house, an egg shaped wife, and tons of little mini eggs running around the house.

Cars, boats, bikes, and the ability to travel around the world to see the different realms. To have the capacity to live the way he wanted to live.

One day, he decided to take a risk and start his own business. He heard that in order to make any real money, you needed to be your own boss. You couldn’t work for someone and live well.

So off Humpty went and opened his busines near the cliff that was precariously being held together by this concrete wall. It was a little sketchy, but hey, rent was cheap.

You can’t beat cheap right?

The older Humpty got, the more desperate he got to attaining his dream.

He wanted the house, the cars, the lifestyle, and he wanted it as soon as possible. In order to do that, he needed to make as much money as possible.

So that is how he structured his business, to make as much money as possible no matter what.

Due to his money first mentality, Humpty decided that it made no sense to provide any sort of value to people before asking for money. Money needed to change hands first before he was willing to help.

And in order to make as much money as possible, he wanted everybody in the realm to come buy from him only.

So, he needed a way to market to people to get their money without providing any value…

But how?

“Oh, well” said Humpty, “let’s just tell people what we have for sale so they come!”

And so his marketing started.

No plan, no strategy. No real understanding of who to market to.

Humpty just started marketing for the sake of marketing, because if you build it people will come.

“We have this in store! We have this for sale!” And a thousand different ways of saying the same thing, went to the various marketing channels the realm had available.

The town bulletin board, the flying monkeys dropping flyers everywhere, and of course the rooster union who for a lucrative fee could wake everybody up every morning by yelling your message instead of the regularly scheduled program.

But all of these methods required a lot of money to keep using, which started putting a lot of pressure on the business.

In the back of his mind Humpty became worried this pressure would start causing his business to crack. He could almost hear a crunching sound echoing across the store. It made him nervous…

Surprisingly, this marketing seemed to somewhat work. Humpty was getting some clients through the business, but nowhere near the number he wanted, or needed, to keep his climbing expenses going.

So he started resorting to altering his marketing to make more “appealing” claims.

“We are the best there is because of all the stuff we have!”

“Everything is on sale all the time!”

“Highest quality items across the realm!”

Somewhere along the line, he got desperate enough to start promising things he couldn’t keep.

Certainly not to every client at least.

And the cracks on the business started to show.

“What’s the competition doing? Let’s copy what they have since it’s clearly working for them.”

Crack.

“Let’s find free templates, hacks, tips, tricks, so I can do as little as possible on this.”

Crack.

“I need more people buying. Find me cat, preferably with a hat, that is willing to do marketing for the cheapest amount possible.”

Crack.

“Why isn’t this working? I’m paying you the smallest amount of money I can to get me results!”

Crack.

“Why isn’t this working?!?! Marketing has to be the issue. Marketing companies are there to simply take your money and never provide results! Yeah, it’s not me it’s them!”

The irony was completely lost on Humpty.

Humpty Dumpty started a business by the wall.

He treated customers and employees as a means to an end, so he can benefit and no one else.

Focused on money above everything else.

No plan, no strategy, no meaning behind his marketing. Passed off his responsibility to learn how to grow the business on others.

Made outrageous promises that he could never keep. Sell, Sell Sell, now, now, now.

Failures started mounting, making Humpty more desperate and overwhelmed.

He went through great lengths to do and learn as little as possible on that side of the business.

He tried to be everything to everyone all of the time.

Made his store a little bit of everything all of the time.

Never going too deep, never becoming the best at anything. A Jack of all trades and a master of nothing that mattered.

He worked 24/7 on all the wrong things because he had no direction, no idea on where to go from where he was.

Eventually, enough cracks broke the business apart.

None of the king’s horses nor the king’s men could put his business back together again.

Once Upon Another Time

Once upon a time in an alternate universe exactly the same as Humpty’s but tooootally different, lived an egg shaped humanoid named Humphrey.

Humphrey had a dream of living the life he always wanted to live. Not sure how, not sure when, but he always dreamed of having a beautiful pan shaped house, an egg shaped wife, and tons of little mini eggs running around the house.

Cars, boats, bikes, travel and see the different realms… you know the drill.

One day, he found something he enjoyed doing, but above all, he realized how it could help others in the realm.

He took his idea and his conviction to help and started a business. He found a place to rent by the cliff supported by a concrete wall.

It was cheap, it was dingy, but hey it was a place to start.

Humphrey knew he needed help if he was to realize his goal of being the best business at solving this particular problem that some people, not everybody, had.

He started learning about what it means to serve customers well, how to make clients happy, and how to show people that he was the best solution.

Naturally, that allowed him to learn about marketing.

Humphrey learned that marketing is how a business comes together to serve customers better, and that’s everyone’s job.

It wasn’t just a department or a team member, it’s was a guiding principle that could influence anyone that interacted with the outside world on behalf of the business.

Marketing was not about selling, but about serving in a way that built a trusting relationship with a client. By being the better solution and keeping the promises you made to them consistently over a long period of time.

By treating people like people, and not walking wallets.

This realization got Humphrey to realize he needed to follow a plan, a strategy, if he was to consistently provide value and keep the relationships he would build along the way.

So that’s exactly what he did.

He worked hard to create a company that put people first.

That provided value before asking for a transaction because he knew that generating trust towards his knowledge, towards his services, was the highest competitive differentiator there is.

While everybody yelled, he would help instead.

He targeted only people that needed what he provided, and people that liked what he liked, that believed what he believed. Treating customers with respect, making them feel special, and guiding them to the best solution for their problems, even if it didn’t lead to a sale.

He listened and talked to them, he didn’t sell to them. He helped people when they needed it, not when the business wanted it.

Humphrey was passionate about he did and dedicated to pushing the boundaries of how well it could be done.

He was uncompromising on the excellence his business provided to his clients.

He chose to focus on only a few marketing channels. To do a few things really well. Marketing channels that could help him connect with people even when he wasn’t in the same room.

His marketing didn’t feel like marketing. It was natural, it was simple.

He knew people bought when they were ready. When they had a need, so Humphrey focused his attention on bonding with people so they remembered him.

His strategy was very clear. Choose a few things and do them really well. This meant that he needed to learn how to do them really well.

He couldn’t just try things once and expect it to work right away. It had to be consistently improved upon in order to make it great.

He consistently improved his business, pushed the boundaries of how well it could be done.

Experiment, review results, improve, test again.

Humphrey had an active appreciation of the business’s potential to make a positive impact in the lives of the people it came into contact with. Including employees, suppliers, community. etc.

So he surrounded himself with people that were willing to make a positive impact as well. He sought to learn and be advised by people that believed what he believes. To work with people that consistently provided quality.

He tried to be good to his suppliers, good to his employees, good to his customers, good to the community he was a part of.

The business didn’t control him, his customers didn’t control him.

He worked to improve, not work to stay alive.

He improved to make customers happier, not make more money. He knew money was a result of doing something. What he chose to do was more important to him.

Then he met Jamie, another egg shaped humanoid, and they lived happily ever after.

Unexpected Journey

Everything we do, we choose.

There’s something magical about this line that was written by Paul Arden in his book Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite.

I really can’t make it justice describing it myself, and as many of you know a picture is worth a thousand words so here is the full excerpt that leads to this:

So what kind of business are you running? Humpty or Humphrey?

What kind of business would you prefer to run?

Ultimately the option is completely up to you.

At the end of it all, when you look back at your business, will you regret the way you ran it?

Will you regret not having a strategy that pushed you to your goals faster?

I used to be like Humpty, then I learned through experience and luck when finding mentors, what really makes a difference. Then through effort and determination, I became something closer to Humphrey.

I chose to be better. I chose the hard path.

Money is a result of what you do, so what do you choose to do in order to get money.

As Steven Pressfield says in The War of Art, “You have a choice. Do it or don’t do it.”

If you want to learn and be more like Humphrey, that bakes marketing into his entire business and focuses on building relationships. Marketing to people like people.

Then welcome, my name is Jiun and I’m a marketing strategist.

I created my consulting company for the sole purpose of helping businesses that want to be like Humphrey, build marketing strategies that connect and attract happy customers.

But it’s not easy.

You are choosing the hard path, to deliberately think differently than the average business owner.

You are choosing to do marketing in a way that builds trust and relationships long term.

You are choosing to make people happy with what you do, not make a sale. You are trusting that the selling will take care of itself.

You are entering a whole new world.

A world where you have the ability to work with people you want to work with.

To do great responsive marketing for the few people you can make happy.

To surround yourself with positivity.

To love what you do. To love going to work, to love leaving work. The joy of contributing something great and unique to the community and the world.

To have a business with a purpose, a meaning.

To be an empathetic and ethical difference maker.

If this is what you choose to do, and are ready to enter this world, then click on the button below to schedule a time to meet.

Let’s get to know each other and I’ll tell you all about my passion for this.

Ready?

P.S.
Thank you for reading all the way to the end. It means a lot to me that you took the time to go through this and read my story. If you’re happy where you are with your marketing or aren’t looking to meet no problem. I would appreciate it if you sent me a message and told me what you thought of my story.