The Underdog Challenge Begins

Incredible! Exciting! Challenging! Just a day in the life of underdog marketers - me (Penelope) - a public relations & media professional, magazine editor, and author; Terry Reeves, a marketing and brand salience expert; and Dr Alex Davidovic; PLUS a very keen and very broke 18-year old who wants to start his own fitness business. My cohorts (Terry and Alex) and I are about to embark on an incredible journey that will put our reputations on the line.

Five hours ago, Shaun McCowat contacted Alex. Shaun is 18 years old, has never had a business, knows nothing about marketing, has never created a website, has no money to spare, yet he asked Alex to help him out. Shaun knows Alex is a highly respected internet marketing guru so you have to admire his guts (or gaul) in contacting him in the first place. But Alex is a pretty decent guy and he thought the challenge of helping such an 'underdog' would be worthwhile.

Alex knew we also loved a good challenge and that this was a BIG one. The challenge in helping Shaun grow from zero to hero was so energizing that Alex sped over to see us - in fact, he forgot about the speed limit and was promptly caught by a policeman with a hand-held camera - he got a fine of $196! Great start to the Underdog Marketing Challenge.

We rarely exceed the speed limit - between the three of us we have only ever had four speeding tickets. We don't take unreasonable chances in business and when it comes to driving we don't put other people's lives at risk by speeding or breaking the road rules. But Alex says just thinking about the challenge ahead caused him to put his pedal to the metal right in to the hands of a waiting policeman.

But Terry and I could understand his excitement; so because we already have more than enough clients we discussed the customer service elements. Could we help Shaun and still provide excellent time and services to our current (paying) clients? Well, Terry and I were pretty excited about wanting to help an underdog so we decided we would just have to lose even MORE spare time to help people who badly needed quality marketing information but who couldn't afford to pay for top consultants.

Now this is where the fun begins - we will be documenting Shaun's progress every step of the way so we can share the information with YOU. You'll know what we do, when we do it, why we do it, and how what we do for Shaun can impact YOUR business.

So keep an eye on this blog and the Underdog Marketing Challenge for regular up-dates on Shaun's story. Plus that crazy girl who works here will probably want to keep her wild friends up-dated on her own party-crazy-high-speed blog too.

AND, if you have had hurdles in business that you've overcome, then share them with us. Post a comment here. I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers - Hot Pepper Head Honcho