I Sold This All Wrong (And What Fixing My Own Positioning Taught Me)

Here’s how I f*cked up the positioning of a hands-on certification program about… yes… positioning. I want you to see that “getting your positioning right” isn’t easy. It moves. It morphs. And we all screw up sometimes.

When I first launched the Stand The F*ck Out Certification Program, the pitch was:

Become a Stand The F*ck Out Certified Marketer

Help your clients stand the f*ck out, command higher fees, and continue to build your street cred.

I was inspired by other certification programs for marketing business owners, like StoryBrand, which focused on the badge and its credibility as their main selling point.

My initial hypothesis was as follows:

Job: What’s the specific goal marketing business owners want to achieve? To become more credible.

Struggles: What obstacles and challenges prevent them from reaching that goal?

• Avoid reinventing the wheel with each client
• Avoid taking on low-paying clients that drain their soul

Segment: Who do we serve? UK-based seasoned marketing business owners who want to apply advanced positioning, branding, and lead-gen principles to their client’s businesses.

Category: What is this thing? A certification program.

At first, it was working. I had loads of calls, and it felt like the plan worked as expected. But after the initial wave of demand faded, I felt something wasn’t right.

I was having lengthy conversations on LinkedIn with my exact segment (experienced marketers service providers in the UK), yet there was no genuine interest. I wasn’t sure why until I got the feedback I was looking for:

“I’ve been thinking about it. 100% honest with you and myself… I don’t think I need a certification. Or maybe my ego can’t handle the idea that I would need a certification because I have been a marketer for eons and across industries.

I fell in love with B2B when I worked for a small software company when ‘content marketing’ and SEO were new. Moved from that into brand to help companies find their souls.

Freelanced/consulted. Started my own agency… that didn’t survive the pandemic… and now am back on my own trying to figure out what I want because this world is wearing me out.”

It hurt a bit, but it was so so so helpful to me. I had finally uncovered why it felt so hard to sell this thing.

All my previous conversations were starting to make sense. Of course, those people don’t really care about the badge; they know their shit, and they know that’s not what is going to help them sell more (until, at least, the STFO Certification becomes more widely known).

In other words, most of them were probably thinking…

• “I don’t need a certification to find clients.”
• “I’ve been in marketing for years. I don’t need a badge to prove I know my stuff.”
• “I’m not looking for a piece of paper; I’m looking for actual results.”

The real reason people would sign up wasn’t for a badge.

It was for the work they’ve been avoiding, like fixing their positioning with no distractions, no excuses, and no way to bullshit themselves out of it.

What I changed

So, I made changes to my initial hypothesis:

Job: To become more credible. → Fix their positioning.

Struggles:

• Stop procrastinating on the foundational work they’ve been avoiding for years
• Getting out of their own head
• The other two are still relevant but not as important/urgent to prospects:
  • Avoid reinventing the wheel with each client
  • Avoid taking on low-paying clients that drain their soul

Segment: UK-based seasoned marketing business owners who want to apply advanced positioning, branding, and lead-gen principles to their client’s businesses. (No changes.)

So, I flipped the script:

The certification is the cherry on top, not the main selling point. Those people can’t read the label when they’re inside the jar. They don’t want to sit through boring lectures; they want ACTION. Brutal clarity on their positioning, brand, and message. Challenging feedback they’ll love to hate. That’s what they really want.

The badge, a spot in the STFO Certified Directory, or the exclusive license to use the STFO Methodology with their clients are all nice-to-haves.

Become a Stand The F*ck Out Certified Marketer → Fix Your Positioning. For Real, This Time.

Help your clients stand the f*ck out, command higher fees, and continue to build your street cred. → The STFO Certification Program is a 2-day hands-on workshop for professional marketers who want to charge more, attract better clients, and finally nail their positioning.

And then, I lead by answering the BIG objection I heard time and time again:

Not yet another certification program.

Yeah, you’ll get a badge, but that’s the least interesting part, trust me.

Here’s what this actually is:

• Two full days of intense work on YOUR business with smart, ambitious, and no-BS marketing business owners who get it.
• No fluff. No best practices nonsense. No watching slides while pretending to take notes.
• Just real, sometimes uncomfortable work to fix what’s keeping you stuck (and help your clients do the same).

The lesson

Positioning is a work in progress, even for people who wrote books on positioning. And I have no problem admitting this.

The shift wasn’t dramatic. Same program, same people, same price. But the framing changed from “get certified” to “fix what’s broken.” And that made all the difference in how the right people responded to it.