An interesting couple of conversations that have happened in the office over the last few days.

1. Thor had a discussion with a potential JV partner who asked us if our “branding is deliberate”?

2. The SalesDemon (AKA Pat Cash) had a conversation with someone who’s been on my list for a couple of years who said, “I used to really like Leela. Then she started swearing all the time. I don’t know why she did that. She lost so many of her ideal clients.”

Let me tell you a story about where I found myself at the start of my speaking and events career.

Thor and I were selling like mad things to fill rooms, using whatever JVs we could pull off, whoever we could find who was interested. We made some money. But I was miserable. Why?

Here’s a snapshot of people in our rooms then: Median age was 52. Predominantly women (when I DID get men, they were suits). Median income was below $50,000. And typical business structure was “Something that allows me to be at home with my kids”.

I met some really lovely women, people I really liked – but not the people I wanted to work with.

I was a 29 year old, heavily tattooed, ex-punker – proudly childless by choice. Trained by one of the greatest marketing minds of our time. Used to hanging out with entrepreneurs with businesses in the $5Million+ Bracket.

I made a decision about mid-way through 2009 that I wanted to change the people who were in my rooms. I wanted people like me.

If you look at the Roadshow over the last 2 years, you’ll see that we’ve totally achieved that.

So – is my branding strategic? Abso-fucking-loutely.

Why did Leela piss off a bunch of her “ideal clients”? Because they’re not my ideal clients. Never were. Nice enough people, not MY people.

I was not put on Earth to help hobbyists make a few dollars. I was not put on Earth to help people make money doing shit they hate. I was not put on Earth to wear beige, serve tea and be nice to everyone.

I was put on this Earth to lead rampaging armies.

My army is the army of the disenfranchised. I call them “alternative entrepreneurs” – some of them are in alternative industries (bands, tattooists, fashion designers), but they are also Mormons. They’re born again Christians. They’re mothers and fathers. They’re grandparents. They’re young and single. But they all have something in common. They’re looking for something different. They’re tired of the wealth creation scene (or have never been interested in it). They just want information without the NLP, Hypnosis, Pretty Veneer Bullshit. They’re attracted to us BECAUSE of the swearing – BECAUSE we’re different. I could never attract them by acting like everyone else – because THEY’RE not like everyone else. And neither are we.

I spent a long time looking for the places in which they congregate and then I realised … they don’t. There is no community for them. Because I hadn’t created it yet. That’s why I built the League of Bootstrapping, Streetfighting, Motherfuckers. That’s why it includes chapter meetings every week. That’s why I even built “crass, crude language” into the title of the program.  Because I WANT to alienate people who can’t cope with it. Because they’re too mainstream – and there’s a million places out there for the mainstream to congregate. But only one place for my disenfranchised army of alternative entrepreneurs.

Welcome home, motherfuckers.