🔌 This marketing strategy needs to be studied

👋🏾 Hey Friend!

Here’s what’s headed your way in this week’s issue:

• New podcast alert!! I appeared on The WE Pivot Podcast this week 🎊

• Shaboozey’s simple yet beautifully executed marketing strategy 🏆

• A question from Taraji that’ll send chills up your spine 🔥

• A dope ass track from Doechii 🎶

📣 THE MANIFESTO 📣

These are the House Rules! Get into it.
And when you’re ready…memorize it so you know its real!

I AM A STRAIGHT UP ORIGINAL™.

I am unapologetic in my beliefs and obedient to my gifts.

I do everything with intention because I am passionate about my assignment.

I cannot stand cookie cutter…I value MY story. 

And I do not ask permission.

I control my own narrative.

🎊 THAT NEW NEW 🎊 

Hot off the presses! This is something new that you’re gonna love!

I had a great time running my mouth on The WE Pivot Podcast, talking about how women entrepreneurs can use their own stories to build their brands instead of following around after everyone else 👀 We talked about:

• How I struggled to find $49 to work with my first marketing coach

• The importance of sales psychology in marketing work

• The KPI’s you need to know to see if your stuff is working or not

• Why you need to repeat some stories over and over (and over) again

• My free story workshop and how it helps build confidence in your content

My fave quote from the interview (from Yours Truly)👇🏾

“When you find the thing that you are here to do, the message you are here to get out into the world…everything gets easier. You literally have to just turn on the mic and talk.”

Click below to listen!

🏆 ON THA COME UP 🏆

This past Thursday, Sept 26th, the second annual 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards took place.

And this year, a Nigerian-American singer-songwriter by the name of Collins Obinna Chibueze took home the awards for New Artist and New Artist Song of 2024.

Maybe you’d recognize him by his stage name better — Shaboozey.

The song Shaboozey won the award for “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, which is considered a remake of J-Kwon’s 2004 hit.

Maybe you saw him surprise the audience with his country hit, complete with a J-Kwon cameo, at this year’s BET Awards.

Maybe you recognize his name from when he became the first Black male artist to simultaneously sit atop Billboard's Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts over the summer.

Or maybe you recognize his name from the group of young, Black musicians that Beyonce included on her record-breaking album Cowboy Carter earlier in the year, in an effort to bring more eyes to the Black faces in the genre.

My point is…Shaboozey has been around this year, in the best way.

Yes, he’s been working at his craft for more than 10 years, but the way he has been able to capitalize off of the press of Beyonce’s surprise country album needs to be studied, okay?!

Here’s what I noticed: 

Shaboozey was READY.

Now y’all know how Beyonce is, we will never know what her studio process is so just stop asking!

But by all accounts, the songs included in Cowboy Carter were a surprise, with some folks saying they recorded their parts several years ago. So it’s very likely that Shaboozey wasn’t completely ready for the floodgates when they opened.

But was he prepared?? 1000% percent yes.

🔥 Cowboy Carter was released on March 29, 2024.

🔥 On April 4th (less than one week later), Shaboozey drops a teaser for the “A Bar Song” video, which shows him sitting at a bar, singing the first verse.

“My baby wants a Birkin, she’s been telling me all night long…”

🔥  On April 12th, the full song and video is released everywhere. Immediately, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” hits:

• #1 on iTunes

• #3 on Apple Country Music charts

• 1M streams on Spotify…overnight 🤯

• 3M global streams in 24 hours

…And it found a nice comfy spot on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for 8 weeks, the longest running number one single of 2024 so far.

Now we can get into the Beyonce of it all, but be clear, my girl Bey gone need a lot more space for the deep dive into the brand that I’ve got planned for her (more on this later!).

But if you pay attention, you’ll see how Shaboozey ate this marketing strategy right on up!! It’s actually super simple, but the devil’s in the details and everybody ain’t ready when their opportunity comes. (I’m not gone name no names 👀).

Let’s use my old trusty JUST THE BASICS Marketing Method to show the simplicity and focus of Shaboozey’s campaign.

STEP ONE : PICK YOUR CLIENT

Shaboozey was already streaming songs into the millions years prior to 2024. His song “Start a Riot” was even featured on the soundtrack for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. But, he still wasn’t a household name. 

The release of Beyonce’s album to a diverse audience allowed country newcomers to take a peek at him, as well country mainstays and pop fans who became a lil country-curious.

The best decision he could have made was to release a song that hit that group square on the head. A song that capitalized off of more Black eyeballs that normally wouldn’t have any idea he was over in the country scene.

Enter a hood classic with some nostalgia sprinkled on top. Now remix that so your new audience feels safe in this space.

And voila. Magic.

STEP TWO : CREATE A FREEBIE

So how was he gonna pull their attention and quick, so he wouldn’t miss his chance??

Remember that teaser he dropped 6 days after Cowboy Carter? 

Yep. He dropped a freebie at the exact moment when all eyes were on him.

shaboozey

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One verse off the song, long enough for you to catch his Dope + Different® swag. Very “if ya liked that you’re gonna love this” coded.

And it worked. We followed and we waited.

We only had to wait another week.

Did he know like I know, that people are most engaged with you when they first meet you? And that you only have a hot second to engage with newcomers before they forget about you? Looks like somebody did!

STEP THREE : CHECK YOUR EMAIL LIST

If Shaboozey had just left us on read while we waited, it would’ve been a mistake. But we’re already clear that he and his team are on top of this marketing thang.

This year he’s sat down with Rolling Stone, MTV, the BBC, GQ and even Harper’s Bazaar. He also stayed true to his county flavor, showing up at Stagecoach and Billy Bob’s Texas.

With every interview, performance and headlining tour, he’s adding new members to his community and making sure we stay connected. 

Every time he releases a new single or video, he funnels all of the new eyeballs to that one thing instead of a link in bio or something like that.

Look at that, you could even call it a launch 🙃

STEP FOUR : HAVE A SOLID BRAND MESSAGE

Shaboozey calls his music, “Music for the modern cowboy”. But if you notice, even while that’s his elevator pitch, he’s done an excellent job defining what a modern cowboy even is.

When we create a brand message, we have to have focus and we have to be specific for it to work. So we have to know the stage the person we’re talking to is in.

What Shaboozey does is allow you to connect and associate yourself to the music and the visuals, then he drops the hammer on you — this is actually cowboy music.

You my friend, are a cowboy 🤯

And all of a sudden, you’re in.

He’s saying “this is who we are too”, and giving his people a safe space to land while they explore the possibilities.

And Shaboozey? Turns out he was your gateway drug. That thing that you tried and you liked, which led you to try (and like) something else.

He calls himself a a storyteller, and with a background as an artist, he oversees the production of his records, writing the treatments and then directing most of his videos, all to get you from point A (curious listener) to point B (a gd modern cowboy).

STEP FIVE : WHATS YOUR ANGLE

Finding his loophole seems to be the easy part, simply because of the demographics of what’s considered “country” music.

Shaboozey is a tall, Black man from VA with wick locs and a passion for blending his semi-southern roots with his immigrant dad’s love for country. He says, “I had to learn to embrace being different, embrace being my own artist. I just had to start making the music I would want to hear.”

Word.

He was uniquely positioned for his rise in 2024. But it’s the execution that gets most people. Even when they know a strategy and get in position, that doesn’t mean they do what it takes to make it happen.

Call it fear, or…never mind, it’s all fear lol. But the test presented itself and Shaboozey aced that shit.

STEP SIX : CREATE YOUR CONTENT

By the time you get to the content, it’s a breeze. 

Shaboozey planned out some heavy hits early on for the new audience that was surrounding him, then he connected the dots for fans all summer. And it looks like the people like what they hear!

If you hit steps 1-5 correctly: 

🔥 Define your audience

🔥 Give them some value

🔥 Have ways they can connect with or follow you

🔥 Create a simple brand message they can understand

🔥 Give it to them in a way that only you can

…When you get to 6, all you gotta do is YOU.

🔥 YOU’VE GOTTA SEE THIS 🔥

A clip that made the rounds this week that you must take with you on your journey.

“What if I had listened to those people…?”

Taraji always got a word worth listening to!

Press play ▶️

blazegroupllc

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🎵 VIBE OF THE WEEK 🎵

If you’re gonna be coming up with dope ass ideas and strategies, you’re gonna need some dope ass music to inspire you! Here’s a tune that I’ve got on replay this week.

🪩 KEEP THE PARTY GOING 🪩

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