Building a one-match fire

I was a camp counselor for years.

Here’s the thing about being a camp counselor: you build a lot of fires. You build so many fires that you start to differentiate between their types.

• You’ve got your standard teepee fires for your long, all-night campfires.

• You’ve got your standard log cabin fires for cooking mountain pies or banana boats.

• You’ve got your standard pile-of-logs-and-quart-of-gasoline fires for satiating a hoard of screaming ten-year-olds who only have s’mores to look forward to after a day of rain.

I’ve built all these fires dozens of times, but none of them are the type I actually like to build. Teepees, log cabins, even the under-appreciated lean-to, none of them compare to the power, the satisfaction, of a one-match fire.

As the name suggests, a one-match fire is a fire that you light with only one match. One single match to light a fire that burns and burns until it has to be extinguished. That’s the real accomplishment; a full evening of warmth and revelry born from a single spark. That’s a one-match fire.

That’s also a gross misrepresentation of what it takes to build a one-match fire See, one-match fires don’t come from a single spark. Sure, they’re lit with one match, but they’re built through careful planning, diligent preparation, and applied effort. Taking the time to build a good base, create tinder, gather kindling, taking the time to assemble it all carefully, that’s how a one-match fire is born.

So hear I am once again relating business to building fires. Currently, I feel like I’m in the “assemble it carefully” phase. I set up a business email this week (matt@bahnfyrepr.com), I’m sending Monday’s newsletter (subscribe here) via actual newsletter software, and I’ve spent a lot of time working on a marketing plan. Soon, I’ll be ready to strike the match, and it will only grow from there.

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Something that would REALLY help me build this one-match fire is a full calendar! I’ve got some open time for consultation calls and I would love to help you with your messaging. Book a call with me here or shoot me an email if you have any questions!

give me an hour of your time

One hour, that’s all I ask. One hour and I will recontextualize EVERYTHING about how you market your business, event or offering. I promise.

I did my first consultation call under the Bahnfyre banner last week and it went incredibly well! The Butler AM Rotary reached out to me because they were struggling to sell tickets for their annual event, Ghosts and Giggles. When we had our consult, they were 3 weeks out from the event and something to the tune of 70% undersold. That’s a scary place to be, but they won’t be there for long!

While they were ~70% undersold, they were also leaving ~80% of their marketing possibilities on the table. In less than 60 minutes we:

• Established a social media strategy

• Identified a plethora of local businesses to partner with

• Changed their ticket-sale URL

• And reworked some of their print marketing.

That’s a broad overview; we tinkered with our fair share of specifics as well.

My point here is this: It’s hard to see what you’re missing. When you’re creating a business or leading an event, marketing tends to be low on your list of priorities. That’s understandable! But with low priority comes low effort, and with low effort comes missed opportunity, or whatever Uncle Ben said.

So give me an hour of your time. Let me see what you’re missing. Every single suggestion I had for The Butler AM Rotary cost exactly $0, so I promise not to sticker shock you. This is what I’m great at. Please, let me help you.

Bahnfyre Day 1: Clear a Spot

• 7:30a - Crunch on website to be ready for 11a launch

• 10:30a - Acknowledge that I could tinker with website forever

• 10:55a - Create “Coming Soon” graphics

• 10:59a - HIT PUBLISH

• 11:00a - Host first master class on content marketing

• 11:55a - Change sweaty shirt

• 12:00p - Social/Email announcement blast

• 12:03p - Silence notifications

• 12:05p - Breath and eat

• 1:30p - Check notifications

• 1:31p - Tear up a little bit.

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If you want to build a fire, the first thing you have to do is find a spot. Make sure it’s free of debris and contained, then let everyone know where the fire will be so they can be mindful of it too.

Here’s to more good days and thank you all for the love and support!

-MC

you’ve got to start somewhere, right?

“It all begins with an idea.”

Every time you insert a new textbox on Squarespace, that’s the first filler sentence. Now, I love “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” as much as the next guy, but I’ve been particularly inspired by this new placeholder. Because it does all begin with an idea, and, if you’ve got a few moments, I’d like to tell you mine.

In late 2022, I finally landed my dream job, albeit my third dream job. For the first time since I graduated college, I was able to add something that felt “professional” to my resume. I got to go home for the holidays and tell my family that I was “an Account Manager at a marketing firm.” Not particularly flashy, I know, but it was what I set my mind on after flaming out at my two previous dream jobs.

Fast forward to early 2024 and I was about to flame out again, but this time for a different (re: better) reason. I spent over a year at a firm that wasn’t providing results. We peddled a content marketing service that myself, as well as a number of my coworkers, knew wouldn’t work. Don’t get me wrong, my coworkers and I tried our best, but blood, sweat and tears can’t grow success out of thin air. I loved my clients, I loved the content we made, but leadership was so adamant we stay the course that I was forced to watch many of those beloved clients file for bankruptcy. I wouldn’t do it anymore, and that was my idea.

I finally developed the courage and resolve to put my foot down. To puff my chest out and say, “No. I know what I’m talking about. I know how I can help people. And it’s time for me to do it.” So I quit, and I’ve spent the last three months building on that idea. Building Bahnfyre.

Bahnfyre is my way to share my knowledge, skills, and experience, sure. But it’s really my way to help people. To balance the cosmic scales of digital hucksters promising virality for double the price of rent. To show people that social media, and by extension content marketing, doesn’t have to live behind a shroud of overwhelm and special skills. To do what I’m good at: starting fires.

-MC