Podcast

March 27th, 2025

The Apple Cart: S2, E2: How to be Disruptive and Stand out With Your Marketing

In this episode of the Apple Cart, I’m joined by Stephen McCormick to talk about being disruptive with your marketing and how to stand out even in traditional industries.

Stephen is an MSP Community Influencer and Marketing Expert based in Birmingham. He has over a decade of experience working in IT and is an active member of the Tech Tribe.

He’s a strong advocate for wellbeing for small business owners. He’s also a digital content creator, presenter, a regular at events in the managed services channel, and a very prolific world traveller.

Listen to the Interview

How to use Disruptive Marketing to Stand out

For more traditional businesses, it can be hard to stand out. And disruptive marketing is hard to understand. So Stephen explains there are simple things they can try first.

“For example, if you’re an IT company, share photos of yourself and your team. People would rather see those than pictures of routers and computers!

“Make yourself your main selling point. And remember, you’re in business to provide a service. You help people with something that they could probably do themselves, but they don’t want to do. They want a trusted partner to actually help them deliver what they need to and help.

“Think of marketing and sales as one person helping another. You want to build a relationship where you’re both growing in business. You understand what you both need to succeed, and you support each other so that happens.”

Why Business Owners are Afraid of Disruptive Marketing

In some sectors, particularly managed services, business owners are more comfortable with the technical aspects of their work. But, Stephen says: “Marketing and social media is everywhere, so you can’t avoid the need to promote your business.

“You have to stand out and try disruptive marketing. You need to persuade people to trust you and work with you. Because otherwise, you won’t achieve the levels of growth that you’re looking for. We all need to stay ahead of the curve.

“And when you do that, you set yourself apart from your competition. But you need to be brave and find that confidence to be in a room full of potential customers and actually meet them and get to know them. Of course, the same applies online.”

Disruptive marketing

How to Communicate Your Value

So often, value is tied up with how much you got paid in your previous job. And that’s why, for self-employed people, it’s important to understand and use a value-based pricing model.

Says Stephen: “And that’s not how much you think your skills are worth. Instead, it’s about it’s how much value you bring to your clients. If you’re delivering a product or service and it helps them make sales, that’s value.

“It might be a skill that comes as second nature and it only takes you a couple of hours to deliver that service. But if you can generate more sales for clients, it’s worth a lot.” Of course, Stephen and I agree that that’s sometimes easier said than done! You need to have confidence in your abilities.”

The Pros and Cons of AI in Marketing

Depending on your own opinion, artificial intelligence might be making disruptive marketing easier. Or you might think it’s stifling creativity. So I was pleased to dig into the pros and cons of AI as a business owner and as a marketer.

“For instance, AI makes research easier. My dad had to do his uni research in libraries, and at school we used Encarta discs. But when I got to uni we used Athens to research online. That makes it quicker. But you need to evaluate what AI provides.

“And that is the benefit, and sometimes the detriment of the internet as a whole. You can have the info but you need to be able to apply critical thinking. I think the problem is it is over-reliance on it – it seems great, but is it really?”

Stephen agrees: “One concern is that we publish more things AI-generated. Which is referenced by the next AI tool and the one after that and so on. And that means the information was wrong to start with, but people see it repeatedly in different places and can’t see that it’s actually false.”

Timestamps

  • 00:45 – 02:54: What an MSP is, and why your small business might need one
  • 03:54 – 08:18: How businesses in traditional sectors can use marketing to stand out
  • 08:57 – 11:57: Why business owners are afraid to be disruptive
  • 13:45 – 18:36: How to communicate your value
  • 21:59 – 24:15: Being creative with video
  • 24:57 – 29:14: The power of collaborative thinking
  • 31:01 – 35:52: The pros and cons of AI in marketing
  • 36:20 – 38:01: Stephen’s health journey

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