5 reasons why you shouldn’t hire me

Everyone wants to put their best foot forward. But me? In dating, just like in my work as a digital transformation expert, I like to use the “raccoon strategy”. I put my faults, problems, and shortcomings first and reveal the good parts later. So let me do just that in this blog post and list all the reasons why you shouldn’t work with me. If I didn’t offend you by the time you get to the end, then maybe we are a good fit to work together. maaaaaaaaybe.

Because you’re JUST getting started

You have the idea. You register the business. You buy the domain. You’re excited and you want to start with the “best foot forward”. What’s next? Well, you don’t want to hire me – or anyone else.

If you’re in your first 12 months of business ownership, the next step for you to is to get your first 5-10 clients through word of mouth and your existing network, before you worry about a website. You need to test the demand of your product/service, have conversations with your customers to find out WHY they love you, and generally learn more about what’s important to them

You could at this point hire a branding expert (I can recommend Ana from Intooit, she’s brilliant!) to help you refine your value proposition, but it would be a much better investment if you did this after those first few sales and clients rather than before.

Because you are broke / struggling with profitability

A holistic digital strategy is definitely good for the bank account (and your mental health), but you don’t want to pay for it with your last few dollars or even worse if you don’t have the cash right now.

While digital marketing can help any business at any stage, I prefer working with businesses that are on solid footing and want to optimise & expand, rather than acting as the miracle worker.

If you can’t afford it right now: look at the 17,201 ways that you can use to improve your traffic & conversion rate for free over here on my friend Stewart’s channel or check out the FIRST100 group training program where I consolidated all my strategies and implementation advice in 12 streamlined playbooks (and it’s only $200/month) + weekly implementation calls.

Because you have a big ego

My approach to digital strategy and digital marketing is based on a decade of professional experience working with organizations in 15 countries and 20+ industries. So when I recommend something, it’s not my idea vs your idea… but rather my experience vs your opinion.

When you think you’re the only one with the right answers and can’t trust other people’s advice, me or anyone else you hire will be the wrong fit.

Because you care about appearances and vanity metrics

If having a certain amount of followers matters to you, please leave this website and don’t come back. If you’re also obsessed with your office looking a certain way or people dressing the right way to come to work… I don’t think this is going to work.

I love what I do and I work hard, but I am all about driving results and change – not sending you reports that “look beautiful”. Your follower count, respectfully, matters only to the wrong people. And those press mentions? 90% of them are a waste of time that will never bring back enough traffic or SEO juice or sales to cover all the work required to work with temperamental models, influencers and journalists. Harsh? I’m biased by my own experience which has confirmed this more times than I can count. And yes, I’ve had clients who were featured on Vogue, Elle, BBC… and some who had 10k, 25k or even 150k followers on Instagram / Facebook / YouTube.

Vanity metrics are called vanity metrics for a reason. They’re only pretty on the outside.

Because you’re resistant to change

Change is hard for everyone, myself included. No one likes changing habits, workflows and processes. But that’s exactly what gets me hired as a digital transformation expert. So if the transformation part is outside your comfort zone, needless to say, you should definitely not hire me.

The problem with this is that eventually, 1 month or 10 years down the line, someone who is instead willing and open to change will overtake your top spot in your industry, and force you to close down / sell / change. So please do reconsider 💜 I am sharing this for your own good.

Am I… serious?

I am. I work alone, and I don’t outsource or delegate my work, so it’s important to only work with organisations who are a great fit with my values and working style. It just turns out better for everyone else in the end!

Every time I onboard a new client, I like to share a quick Google Doc with questions that help me understand them better. Here’s what I share about my own working style:

I’m informal and easy going. I’m always down for a laugh and an extra espresso. A last-minute change of plans doesn’t bother me especially if it’s a better option than the initial idea. I don’t like being stressed, so I’d rather do things in advance and have a buffer vs last minute. 

I’m full of ideas but I believe data knows best. I work in intense bursts of energy which sometimes take place at night/weekends – please let me know if I should schedule those emails to only be sent on Monday morning!! I love measuring results more than keeping meticulous track of how many minutes were spent on something. I can be very obsessed about the smallest details of important things (ie the traffic channel that brings 80% of the $$) but adopt a “done is better than perfect” attitude for the least important ones (ie …. Social media?). I don’t sugarcoat things and never really understood office politics.  I only use ethical, “white-hat” practices. 

Giulia – Client Workbook

If you’re still reading and need help with digital marketing or digital transformation, I’d love to meet you – this is my bookable calendar. Let’s talk!