Building a business is easy.
That’s not a typo; I’m not trying to make you feel bad. The actual act of building it is easy.
The same frameworks, formulas, strategies, tactics, and hacks can be applied by anyone. Nobody has a monopoly on those things.
Getting past yourself is the real challenge. Every high I’ve had with my businesses occurs when I’m in a state of flow and it feels like I’m not thinking. I’m doing things on instinct.
Every low occurs when I start to think too much. When I analyze every single move that I make. When I get in my own way.
- Is this tweet good enough?
- What kind of funnel should I create?
- Why does that other guy sound so much smarter than me?
- Why is nobody commenting?
And maybe you know how it goes. Each question doesn’t stop at that question. It starts a cascade of events where you begin to question everything.
- Was this the right niche?
- Did I choose the wrong name?
- Do I even like doing this?
Do yourself a favor today and look at the successful people you follow in your niche. Can you honestly tell me that you can’t do what they do?
Do any of them do things that completely blow you away and make you think that you don’t stand a chance? In a bubble, everything everyone else does looks possible.
The problem occurs the second our ego needs protecting.
“We optimize for short-term ego protection over long-term happiness.” – Shane Parrish
You’re told that you need to be consistent. You understand that. It’s not even a question.
And yet so many people drop out of this game because their egos can’t take it. They’ll say it’s for other reasons, but it’s the ego.
It’s also the ego that prevents you from doing the obvious things that will level up your business. You can’t do something until it can be done the right way.
Or some shit like that.
The battle is always won or lost in your head. Not through the algorithm. Not through your funnel.
Your head.
How do you fix this? You go for the quick wins. But the quick wins have to make sense to you and they have to be things under your control.
For example, you can’t say one of your wins is making your first $10,000 because, unfortunately, that is out of your control. You don’t know when people are going to buy.
So make your win something you can track and that you know over time will help you grow your business.
My quick win for this month is 1000 Tweets & Replies. I can control that. It’s black or white. I either reach it or I don’t.
What happens with all of those tweets will be anyone’s guess. That part is out of my control. But what those tweets will also do is:
- Gain me some type of exposure
- Give me more data to work with
And more importantly, it puts my ego to the side. That would completely change if I made my quick win to get 5,000 followers. Then I’d be staring at my analytics every day and panicking anytime someone unfollowed me.
But with 1,000 tweets my ego looks inside and sees there is nothing going on so he goes back to sleep.
The best way to win the battle is to ensure it can never start.
Your Odd Marketing Tip
Email your audience every single day for 1 week without promoting anything. If you do have links, make them links to resources that aren’t yours.
“But that’s too many emails. People will unsubscribe.”
What this does is three things:
- Those who don’t care to listen to you will finally have a reason to leave.
- Those who do want to listen to you will get more value and wonder what’s the catch.
- Helps you find your voice with your emails. The emails don’t even have to be strategic. Tie a story into what your people want in your niche and you’re good.
You’ll be greatly surprised by how many people do not mind being emailed daily as long as it’s something that educates them or entertains them.
It’s the perfect way to move them along the Customer Journey and deeper into your world.
My favorite post that I’ve written this week is Designing for Extremes. If you can get good at that you’ll dominate your field.
And that’s that.
