Sideways Marketing loves to help individuals market themselves. On top of helping companies come up with strange and unusual ways to sell themselves, the company also takes on individual challenges.
As an example, Sideways Marketing’s founder, Louis Sideways, recently sat down with a guy named Ray who had a problem.
“What’s your problem?” Sideways asked Ray.
“I’m having a hard time keeping up with my friends. I don’t like just sending out texts every couple of weeks that say, “Hey, how’s it going?”
Sideways considered the problem. “What interests do you share with your friends?
“Not too much. We’re all chronically online and constantly read the news.”
“There you go,” Sideways said. He got up to leave.
“What are you talking about?” Ray asked.
“You said they’re into being chronically online and constantly reading the news, so use that.”
“Just talk about how we’re all online all of the time?” Ray said. Ray had a notebook on the desk in front of him, but the notebook contained only his name and the date.
“No, you should stop doing those things. Don’t read the news. Be chronically offline,” Sideways said.
“Then how will I talk to them?”
“You can call them up and say, ‘Hey, I stopped reading the news, what’s been going on?’ Then they get to tell you about the news.”
“So I would only be informed through my friends?”
“Yeah. Now instead of wasting time on the news, you’re using that time to connect with your friends,” Sideways said, and then he added. “It helps your friends, too.”
“How?”
“Now they have a purpose for reading the news. Instead of just feeling bad about the world and spinning out over situations they can’t control, they now read the news so that Ray knows what’s going on.”