Attraction Marketing — Is It In Your Future?

Originally published in July 13, 2016 on “Own Your Own Beach” blog.

Hi my name is Jill, I am a Baby Boomer, and I use Attraction Marketing to share my stories and life experiences.

Attraction Marketing is a marketing strategy that attracts Customers and Clients to you who already want to buy what you have to offer and its principles work for ANY business in ANY niche.

Some people know what they want when they are young, but I didn’t.

Some people graduate from college at age 22, ready to blaze a career, but I didn’t.

Some people take off focused … full speed ahead, but I didn’t.

Yet I am here to tell you that I have succeeded despite the roundabout, stop-and-start route I’ve taken through life. With the example of my hardworking parents, and my own dogged persistence and openness to change, I’ve done well in management and in real estate, and now in Attraction Marketing.

I’m a boomer enjoying life and work. And now, finally, both are on my terms.

But they weren’t always. Unloading trucks, unpacking merchandise and stocking shelves for J.C. Penney was my first job. Next, I did the same thing at a men’s clothing store.

A customer, noticing my strong work ethic, offered me a job at his company, writing technical manuals for a defense contract they had just landed. “I know nothing about that,” I told him. “We’ll teach you,” he said. I learned every day.

At Allis Chalmers, I put together procedure manuals about nuclear reactors; again, this was something I knew nothing about until I began.

Then I moved on to a graphic arts company where I assembled text books for colleges.

At my next job for a company which was building tanks and trucks, I wrote technical manuals. My boss asked me if I’d try supervising workers, and I said, “Well, I’ve never done that, but sure, for three months, I’ll do it. After that, if you think I’ve done a good job, I’ll expect a raise and a title.”

Within a few months, I was manager of the department, and eventually, Manager of Logistical Support Division. I was making more money and handling more responsibility. But after 16 years, a change of executives led to our parting ways.

Meanwhile, I had gone to college, a new course here and there, for many years. At first I thought I wanted to teach physical education, but then I wasn’t sure. I was basically spinning my wheels like a hamster in a cage, not getting anywhere. I found myself torn between the hopes of higher education and the need to pay my bills. If I could just get certified in this or that, I could get a better job that would allow me not to struggle so hard to merely survive.

But then one day, I discovered my employer had an education assistant program. I joined in a heartbeat and began taking three courses a semester. It was do or die. I did, and graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration.

Life led me south to Myrtle Beach. After taking inventory of my peripatetic career, I realized I had developed strong managerial skills, an ability to write, and recent experience in lease management.

I discovered, to work in lease management, in South Carolina, I would need a real estate license and this way I could do both leasing and selling.

No brainer here!

I began doing both, focusing on the baby boomer generation retiring to South Carolina.

Nudged by a friend, I tried marketing on the Internet.

My first YouTube video on finding retirement homes in Myrtle Beach went “viral” in my market.

Since then I’ve done more. I put myself online with a website and not one, but four blogs. Before my online marketing, I was kind of flopping out there, but soon, traffic picked up big time.

Now I sell one to two houses a month at an average of $127,000. My niche is the 55+ (Baby Boomers) and older. I’m a boomer so I can relate to my clients issues — getting older, needing food medical care, having nearby shopping, surviving after a spouses’ death and more.

Not long ago, I sold a house to a couple, 83 and 84 years old respectively. They had lost everything to Hurricane Sandy. Their grandson, a neighbor and college student, reached out to me. His father and he hoped the grandparents would move south, but they had lived in New Jersey all their lives. For three days I drove them around, showing them hospitals and doctors, places to shop, houses and how to get around.

On the third day, they asked, “Can we look at houses now?” While they ate lunch, I researched places they might like, and before afternoon was over, they had a found a home.

See, real estate is about more than knowing houses. It’s about showing kindness and reaching out. It’s about setting people down and making them comfortable, building rapport so they know, like and trust you. It’s about exploring options and relationships. I always say real estate is a journey, and it is my responsibility to help people make sound decisions on that journey.

Recently, I began my own business doing Attraction Marketing. Never heard of it? Neither had I, but you will.

Attraction Marketing is attracting people to you — not to a product or to a company, but to you. You can do this by starting a website or blog https://www.facebook.com/OwnYourOwnBeach/ where people get to know you.

If they leave their e-mail address or phone number, you can establish a personal relationship with them, and keep in touch. Then, when they need a service you provide, they think of you. Or you can offer a service you suspect they might need.

When I started, I was looking for something not expensive to start up but with the potential to change people’s lives. The service I provide is helping people create a better lifestyle through helping others.

On my blog, I share my story, something I really enjoy doing. I teach people how to market themselves, how to set-up their blog and how to share their story.

Some of my clients are stay-at-home moms and retirees wanting to try something different. Some are retirees wanting to take advantage of the Internet to share their travel photos or to write down family stories.

One reason I’ve succeeded, I think, is because people can relate to me.

My father was the oldest of 13. He quit high school to help, his Parents, provide for his family. He worked in the concrete business, but when he came home, no matter how tired, he had a big smile for his siblings and me.

My mother believed in education and dragged us to the library every week where we were each required to get one book and read it. At night they helped us with flash cards, spelling words and penmanship. They worked so hard.

I owe them so much. I’ve worked all my life, and plan to keep going. I meet a lot of nice people through my work. Plus every day is a new learning experience.

When I look back over my life, I see that another reason I’ve succeeded is because I’ve been open to change. Whether it was a different job, or learning on the job, or moving from Michigan to Pennsylvania to Virginia to South Carolina or adapting to technology.

Change has been a part of my entire life.

Some boomers my age resist change, but where would I be without change? And who knows where I’ll be a few years from now?

Retirement? Not now, maybe not ever.

You know, I moved to Conway right outside of Myrtle Beach, because I wanted to be near the beach. You know how many times I’ve been to the beach in the past sixteen years?

Three maybe.

When life is this exciting, who wants to go to the beach?