Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:58 — 12.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

Let’s get something out of the way. If you’re genuinely a jerk, then this won’t work well. 😉

Genuine means you’re real, not hypocritical. It means you’re YOU. Whatever that is.

I can explain using myself (as always, it’s easier to pick on myself than to pick on somebody else). Here are a few bullet-point factoids about me:

• I’m an introvert. I’m not socially awkward or even reserved, but I don’t gain energy from being around lots of people. I prefer deeper conversations with fewer folks. Outwardly, I can appear like an extrovert though.

• Communication is key for me. Firstly, I’m drawn to other communicators. People who are wall-huggers and so reserved it requires great effort to draw them out…those are NOT my kind of people. I respect them and I understand them, but I’m not likely going to be a good fit for them because it’s honestly just too distracting for me. That’s on me.

• Candidness is important. People who couch everything they say and appear overly measured in their communication exhaust me. Again, I can appreciate and understand them, but that exhaustion factor is a deal-breaker.

Now I could go into a prospective engagement intent on fooling the prospect. I could feign that the way I really am isn’t so much really the way I am. Here’s the problem: that’s really bad for the prospect, should they become my customer and it’s equally bad for me because I don’t be able to deliver the quality of service I want. The money isn’t worth it. For either of us.

But plenty of people do it. They chase the money, no matter what.

This isn’t about being happy as much as it’s about being true to who you are and your core strengths. My core strengths are closely tied to who I am as a personality and communicator.

If you need a person who is the life of the party at a big gathering, I’m not your man. The mere thought of it makes me want to go back to bed.

If you’re a person needing somebody to quietly listen to you as you peel back your most confidential vulnerabilities, sign me up. Right away.

I keep secrets. Always.

I maintain confidences. Always.

I listen intently. Almost always. 😉

I don’t make judgments and tell people what to do. I don’t even have the urge.

I quickly and easily forgive. It’s my top core character strength. Forgiveness.

By knowing these things about myself I can choose to go all in on these, or I can choose to try to be something I’m not. When it comes to attracting customers you can fool some of the people some of the times. You may even be able to fool a lot of the people a lot of the times. But at what cost? To them and to yourself?

I’m unwilling to pay that price or to ask my customers to pay it. We both deserve better.

I’ve got good friends who are quite the opposite from me. They hate sitting down to have deep conversations. And don’t even think they’ll sit still if you want to discuss how you FEEL. Or what you’re THINKING. They’re uncomfortable. Instead, they’re comfortable having conversations that are 100% safe, where there’s no pain, no emotion, no chance for conflict. Good to know. I’d never suggest that any of them roll the way I roll. Instead, I’d suggest they steer clear from doing what I do because faking it would make them miserable. And how good do you think they’d be at it?

That’s what I mean by being genuine.

The hard part is our need for business. We all need business. New business. Repeat business.

Depending on the nature of your business, being genuine can take on a different context. For me, as a solopreneur in the professional services trade, it’s personal to ME. If you’re selling cars and have a sales staff, then it’s less personal to you as the owner of the place, but it’s still relevant. Because YOU drive the culture and the culture is going to be a reflection of you.

Over the years I’ve had some favorite eating places. As a customer – and a prospective customer – I’m fanatical about two things: food and service. And not in that order. I’ll suffer lower quality food for superior service (although it’s funny how rarely that happens). I will not suffer poor service with stellar food. The food just isn’t going to be worth the aggravation to me. That’s personal to me, as the customer.

I’ve known restaurant owners who were fixated on the food. The food was always spectacular. Sometimes the service was equally spectacular. Sometimes not. Hit and miss. Very infrequently have I gone to a place where the food was spectacular and the service was POOR. I assume it could happen though.

The owner to values the food above all else drives a culture that produces great food. He may not get all the fine details of superior service though. He could do one of two things: up his game in that area (not likely something he’ll be able to sustain unless he really experiences a conversion) or hire somebody who is as fanatical about service as he is food (in my opinion, a much better option where both can soar with their strengths).

That’s what I mean by being genuine.

Attracting the right customer mean we have to get very in touch with ourselves as entrepreneurs. We are what we are. Yes, we should grow, improve and develop ourselves…but I’m never going to grow into an extrovert (a person who gains energy by being around a bunch of people). Those situations will always drain my energy. If my business required that behavior I’d need to partner with somebody who had that strength.

So this isn’t about you do you – implying that whoever you are and however you roll is just how it is and how it’ll always be. I’m working daily to get better, but I’m not working to completely change my stripes. I know who and what I am. I want to become a better version of myself, which means I have to lean MORE into my strengths and recognize my weaknesses, which may require somebody else’s help.

That’s partly what leveraging the power of others is all about. Recognizing what others may be able to provide that we can’t. Or something that might be very hard for us, distracting us from being as great as we could be at our strengths.

Be genuine. Figure out how to best dazzle your customers and your prospective customers. Leverage others to help you create the culture and workflow that will produce remarkable results.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:57 — 3.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

After today I’ll be away the rest of the week because I lost another WHO in my life.

Who you surround yourself with matters!

I’ve surrounded myself with some important WHOs. Over the weekend I lost one of them, a very close family friend I’ve known all my life. His son, Stanley, was my lifelong best friend. I lost Stanley on May 12, 2013 (I mentioned Stanley in another podcast I produce at LeaningTowardWisdom.com). Johnny Elmore was his father, an evangelist and a mentor of mine. That him in the black suit just after he wedded me and Rhonda almost 42 years ago. Johnny had just celebrated his 88th birthday, but he was in poor health. Still, we were all quite surprised by his sudden passing in his sleep.

But I’m not here to talk about me or him so much as to remind you of how important it is to invest in the WHOs in your life. Because when you lose a who you realize what you’ve lost.

The wisdom. The challenging questions. The insights. The support. The love. The concern.

Gone.

As I think of all my time with Johnny and how close I was to his entire family I’m sad for the loss, but thankful to have had the relationship for so long. I may have gone my entire life not knowing Johnny all that well.

The hours invested in conversation with him about the Bible and matters of faith that have served to help me be who I am…would not have happened. The hours spent laughing and enjoying the snarkiness and shared humor…I’d have missed out on those, too.

But I didn’t miss out. I took advantage. And as we begin this new week, and a new month, the last month of 2019 I’d like to encourage you to take advantage of the people who surround you. The people who can provide you with wisdom, challenging questions, insights, support, love and concern.

Lastly, I’d like to urge you to be that WHO for others, too. All around you are people who need your wisdom, challenging questions, insights, support, love and concern. Will you give it to them today? You should. It’s the best way I know to create a legacy…a place of such importance that you’re missed. Not merely because a familiar face is gone, but because of the impact you had on the lives of others.

Be well. Do good. Grow great.

Lord willing, I’ll talk to you again next week.

Randy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:17 — 10.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

“We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.”         – Harry A. Ironside

Harry was a preacher in Chicago. Anybody familiar with the Bible has to have an awareness of gratitude and being thankful. Mostly to God, but also for each other and whatever we’ve got stewardship over. That includes our businesses.

As powerful as thanksgiving is you’d think we’d more easily embrace gratitude. We don’t because we’re often too busy comparing ourselves and our circumstances to others. They seem to be better off. Their business seems to be achieving more. They don’t seem to experience the problems we do. Their opportunities seem vast compared to ours. Before you know it we’re jealous, envious and very unhappy.

Before I go dark the rest of the week I decided I wanted to leave you a message of encouragement. It just didn’t feel right to be quiet without first provoking you to consider the truth of what Harry said long ago. Harry died in 1951. But gratitude and being thankful don’t change. If anything they just grow in power over time if we’ll devote ourselves to perfecting the practice of them.

You’re Only So Many No’s Away

I’m starting with this notion because lately, I’ve encountered so many people struggling through a variety of challenges. Each is tempted to think they’ve got it wrong. Or that success will never happen.  Resilience is hard.

About 2% of cold calling results in an appointment. Sixty-four calls a day. That’s a lot of rejection, but it’s not limited to just salespeople making cold calls. Anybody pursuing growth or success is going to endure a lot of rejection. A ton of no’s pile up in our lives.

I was a young man still in my teens when an old man posed what I’ve always thought was a brilliant question – and a terrific viewpoint.

“How many no’s are you willing to endure to achieve success?”

I had no idea how to answer that. Being young and confident I said, “A lot. As much as it takes, I guess.”

“How many do you think it’ll take?” he asked.

“I have no idea. Not many I hope,” I replied.

“How different would it feel if I could tell you precisely how many no’s it would take? If I told you it was going to require you to endure 97 no’s — how would you feel?”

“I’d likely get busy knocking out those no’s,” I told him.

It dawned on me that my approach to the defeat or the no’s was THE thing I could control. I also knew nobody could possibly know how many it might take.

“Just remember, you’re some number of no’s away from achieving whatever you want,” he said. “Whatever that number may be, resolve that you’ll muscle through them until you get what you’re after.”

I’m thankful that we’re all just so many no’s away from figuring it out. That doesn’t mean my current course, or yours, will result in success. We may have to adapt, iterate or completely blow up what we’re currently doing. Even so, we can make those adjustments and dig in to knock out the no’s that stand in our way. I’m thankful for that.

Failure Isn’t Fatal. Or Final.

I’m thankful that our failures don’t have to define us. And that our failures don’t have to knock us completely out of the game. I’m thankful we can live to fight another day because we can always adjust our course. If we get it wrong – as we often do – we can fix it. We can make it right.  It’s one of the tenets of my business philosophy.

Your Success Or Failure Has No Impact On Mine

I care about your success. I want to be a resource to help you avoid failure. However, my own individual and personal success aren’t impacted by yours. This is why comparing ourselves to others is so futile. And dangerous!

Part of this is the scarcity versus abundance mindset argument. I grew up being taught that zero-sum was how life worked. In other words, the pie is limited. There’s only so much. If somebody else gets more business than you, then they’re taking a piece of the pie that you’ll never be able to get. It fostered a competitive spirit that was not only unhealthy but wrong.

Don’t get me wrong. I hate losing. I want to win. I’m competitive. And I rather enjoy besting another business. Or another person. But it’s not born of thinking life is limited and that the zero-sum game is real. We’ve learned the markets and the universe is a large, large place. There’s room for all the good, quality players. There’s never enough room for the pathetic, sloppy businesses. Not for long.

Discontentment and disappointment are driven higher when we spend time comparing ourselves to others. Whenever you view somebody as more successful then you begin to feel victimized by the world. Nothing good comes from it and their success hasn’t robbed YOU of anything. You’re robbing yourself by behaving foolishly.

Arrogance and pride are driven higher when we spend time comparing ourselves to others. Whenever you view somebody with less, you feel superior. You look down on them and it makes you feel better about yourself. In all the worst ways.

No good comes from looking at others.

Leverage The Power Of Others

The first murder in the Bible happened between brothers. In Genesis 4:9, “Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Cain killed his brother when he should have been watching out for him. Helping help. Supporting him.

Permit me to use that to help teach us that we should surround ourselves with some safe, trusted people who can watch out for us. We all need people willing to serve as our “keepers” in the sense that they’ve got our back. They help us see things more clearly. They help us vet our choices. They help us think through things.

They don’t judge us. They don’t second-guess us. They don’t tell us what to do. But they devote themselves to helping us figure things out.

I’m thankful for people like that. Thankful to have a few select people who surround me who make all the difference in the world to my life.

Enjoy your family and friends during this Thanksgiving holiday!

Be well, Do good. Grow great!

Randy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:59 — 19.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

We wrap up this week’s series on Marketing In The Moment with some thoughts about multiplying our marketing. One obvious way to do that is with money, but writing checks isn’t my point today. If you can write bigger checks and effectively drive business growth, then by all means…write the checks. Most of us don’t have unlimited funds though. Most of us have a lot more fear than funds.

The reason Wednesday’s podcast focused on measuring marketing was because we need to know if we’re getting a return. Whether we call it CAC (client acquisition cost) or something else, it’s urgent that we understand what kind of investment is required – in time, money, effort, talent, etc. – to acquire a client. When you’re starting out that’s super hard — and it may even be impossible.

Let’s suppose I knew I could invest $1,000 to get a client. And let’s suppose a typical client resulted in $5,000 worth of business. Well, the math is easy, provided we know the profit margin exceeds 20% ($1,000 is 20% of $5,000 — which would enable me to at least earn back the money I spent to acquire the client). But wait a minute. That’s just break-even at getting the client. What about the time, effort and expense to deliver any value to the client? The margin has to be vastly better than 20% in order to make that $1,000 CAC worthwhile.

If the margins are 80% then a $5,000 client can produce $4,000 of profit. Question: Would you trade $1,000 for $5,000 gross? For $4,000 profit? Duh! Of course, as fast as possible. So you COULD write that $1,000 check all day long if you knew it would result in one typical client. It’s one way to multiply marketing.

Of course, things often look easier and more attractive on paper than in the wild. Client or customer acquisition is hard. Else all we’d need would be enough money to get started. Say, that’s first $1,000 check. We’d profit $4,000, then we could theoretically write four $1,000 checks and end up with $16,000 profit, then write sixteen $1,000 checks and end up $64,000 and sky is the limit.

It doesn’t work that way in real life though. We write the $1,000 check, we hustle, we talk to anybody and everybody we can talk to and all we hear are crickets chirping. There are NO guarantees.

Multiplying marketing is about improving odds. Not much more.

I know you’d like promises, guarantees and solid solutions that work every single time. They just don’t exist. Sorry.

What does exist is a lot of hard work, a lot of fear, even more, rejection and somewhere out there – in the future – a point where you figure something out and it works. But know this. It won’t keep working so you have to keep moving, like a shark constantly prowling for something to eat.

The big idea that leaps to my mind when we talk about multiplying your marketing is attention. We used to call it visibility back in the pre-Internet age, but it really is attention. Whether it was advertising on radio, TV or the newspaper. Whether it was a PR campaign that was traditional or perhaps guerilla marketing where we were willing to be a bit off-the-wall. It all boiled down to our need to be seen or heard. We needed people to notice. Visibility has long been the key to success. At most everything business-related.

I know some “influencers and thought leaders” who quite frankly aren’t any sharper (or as sharp) as some people nobody knows. In fact, I know far more business people who are vastly superior to “influencers and thought leaders” but because of their lack of visibility nobody gives them credit. Out of sight, out of mind.

The majority of influencers and thought leaders I know have one skill over those anonymous brilliant people. They self-promote. Well. They’ve figured out how to get people’s attention. The really good ones aren’t just good at it, they LOVE it. Introverts like me hate it, but I appreciate those who can do it…and especially those who do it well.

Multiplying your marketing means you increase the attention coming to your business. But more specifically it means you increase the POSITIVE attention coming your way. I say this in spite of the fact that there seems to be tremendous evidence that even negative attention can be leveraged to pay off. I’m just not willing to go there because it’s not how I want to play the game.

How can we leverage – multiply – having people say good things about our business? How can we leverage or multiply the positive attention for our business?

At heart, I’m a merchant and an operator. Those are my roots so I admit that bias upfront. Those roots mean I’m always thinking about the end-user, the customer. But first I’m thinking of the shopper, the prospect. Without them, we have no hope of getting a customer. We need people interested in our offer. That’s where it starts.

The operator in me focuses on multiplying our marketing with our existing customers. That’s why it’s the second leg of the business building trifecta:

1. Getting new customers
2. Serving existing customers better
3. Not going crazy in the process

So for starters, if you’re not currently dazzling your customers then I’m going to push you to start there. Fix that. Today. Right now. Don’t focus on anything else until you get that mastered. They’ll start talking about you. They’ll tell others how great you are and that’ll result in growth.

Finding People Who Are Interested

First, they have to know who we are and what we do. Marketing’s real job is to have prospects raise their hands to say, “You’re talking to me.” The more we can multiply our marketing, the more hands we should see go up. The more hands go up the more people we should be able to convert into customers. Remember, we’re going to dazzle every single one of them, too.

Think of going into a big ballroom full of people. Are they all prospects? You have no way of knowing. You could work the room interacting with as many people as possible. Let’s assume you’re not going to be that sleazy “here’s my business card” kind of person. Instead, you’re going to be thoughtful, engaging and interested. So you’re trying to get to really know as many people as possible. It’s a good strategy. Time-consuming, but good. And it beats standing on a chair shouting to the entire room, “I’m Randy and let me tell you about my company.”

Multiplying your marketing would be putting on an event where you give a keynote address about something congruent with your expertise (and what you do in your business). By hook or crook, you get as many people into that ballroom as possible only this time you’re not working the crowd. You’re on the stage at the front of the room with a mic in your hands.  The room is more likely filled with prospects simply because they responded to come hear you speak on a topic that speaks directly to what you and your business do. You give your speech, hoping to give folks as much value as possible. There’s no sales pitch, but a high-value presentation, along with refreshments and an atmosphere for folks to mix and mingle before and afterward. Your company sponsors the event, but otherwise, you let folks ask how you might help them.

It’s not just quantity, it’s quality. Can you approach your marketing to improve the quality of the people in the room – meaning, the people are more likely to be a fit for your business than not? Yes. We can all do that.

It’s time to put on our thinking caps and figure out ways to do that more effectively. That means we need to be more creative. We’ve got to stop waiting for an epiphany to hit us. Get clever. Get creative. Take some risks. Have some fun. Get in front of more people. Get more people into your world.

We’ve all got marketing challenges that require us to multiply our marketing as we can get the attention of more people. Here’s the goal – we reach more people thus giving more people the opportunity to know what we do so they can figure out if we’re the right solution for them. If what we do provides high value, then we earn enough profits to keep doing it for existing customers and for new customers.

We’re driven to want to serve and help more people. By multiplying our marketing we multiply our business and our positive impact in the world. Growing great is the pursuit. We can do it.

Me? I’m spreading the word about a unique opportunity for business owners to achieve accelerated growth in their business, their leadership, and their lives. It’s a 7-member mastermind group that serves as a board of advisors helping each member make better decisions.

If you’re the owner of a business doing at least $3 million in annual revenues then please go check out The Peer Advantage by visiting the page and click that apply now button. No obligation. We’ll jump on the phone, have a conversation and together we’ll figure it out.

Next week is Thanksgiving. I’m going to be traveling all week so go back and listen to some episodes from the archives because I won’t be producing any new episodes next week. Lord willing, I’ll be back the first week of December.

Thanks for listening!

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:18 — 9.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

A UK business guy produced a brilliant little video about how 1 in 8 men in the UK have NO FRIENDS. Entrepreneurship is lonely. Extremely so.

The Peer Advantage by Bula Network doesn’t promise to provide you lifelong friends, but the value proposition does include removing the loneliness of owning and operating your business. It’s about improving the company you keep by surrounding yourself with other entrepreneurs who understand the challenges and opportunities of your life. Because they’re much like you. Find all the details at ThePeerAdvantage.com

On Monday we talked about monitoring your marketing. Today we continue our series on “Marketing In The Moment” with a focus on measuring our marketing. Don’t worry. I’m not going to get technical. In fact, I’m going to shockingly simple.

Does it drive business growth?

That’s the only measurement that matters. Short-term. Intermediate-term. Long-term. It all matters.

The only thing that matters is business growth. Is your marketing fueling growth? If not, then it ain’t working.

“But our marketing tells our story…” blah, blah, blah, blah.

We love to convince ourselves that our marketing is having this invisible positive impact that can’t be measured. No it’s not.

The only growth I know of that’s invisible…until it IS visible is cancer.

If you’ve been pumping money into marketing year after year and the needle of business growth isn’t doing anything more than creeping…then it’s not working.

Time to get tough. Probably with yourself. Most of us are prone to think more highly of what we’re doing than we should. We have strong beliefs in what we’re doing. That’s why we’re entrepreneurs. Those beliefs serve us well. Mostly. But not always. Delusion comes easily when we desperately want to believe something will work. Or when we embrace the belief that it IS working even though there’s little to no evidence.

True story. Bob’s business has spent (a’hem, “invested) hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for the past decade. Growth has almost never exceeded a 3% increase in gross revenue. Profits have grown some years only because of cost cuts. Bob is convinced the marketing is necessary to maintain the current performance. Each year he’s convinced of it. But he can’t prove it.

Nothing in Bob’s business indicates that the marketing is doing much more than making Bob feel like he’s doing something. Until a struggle to become more profitable provokes Bob’s wrath…now Bob wants to find out. Enter the 80/20 rule. Folks dig into the marketing to see which 20% is playing a vital role. They assume some of the marketing IS working to provide some growth.

In the process, the team takes a hard look at the things they believe are absolutely NOT working. Those things that aren’t doing anything to push the business forward. They identify almost $200,000 worth of costs. That’s right! COSTS. Not investment.

Fearful they begin to chip away at it rather than make one big clean cut. They inch the number down month by month over the course of 9 months. No measurable change. Nobody notices. But the bottom line notices! Bob notices. Suddenly Bob’s business is much more profitable. A 5% bottom line is now 8%. Bob has long dreamed of a 10% bottom line but felt it was unachievable.

My point isn’t to cut your marketing budget so you can make more money. That’s not the recipe. The recipe is to STOP pouring money down the drain. The recipe is to figure out what’s working to grow your business and what isn’t.

Bob gets ill just thinking about that $200,000 that’s been spent year after year. Said Bob, “I’ve spent that much money for the past 12 years or more.” No point getting twisted up with such thoughts though because Bob really doesn’t know the impact one way or the other. Years ago that money may have driven some business. The lesson is, be mindful IN THE MOMENT. Is it working TODAY?

How long do I give it?

It’s the big question everybody asks. How long is too long? How long is long enough?

Think about how life rolls today. We move fast. Our attention span is short. Very short. So here’s my question. If you begin some marketing campaign today and you do it consistently for 90 days without any noticeable growth…is it working?

We both know the answer. No. At least not in its current form. Now, what should you do? You’ve got 3 basic options: 1) cut it completely, 2) keep doing it as is or 3) tweak it (iterate it and keep trying). Here’s the good news. Two of those 3 choices are smart. You’ve got a 66% chance of getting it more right than not.

Don’t just keeping doing what you’ve always done UNLESS you know it’s driving business growth.

You hear me say it all the time. Put it on trial for its life. Make your marketing prove it’s working. If it can’t prove itself, then do something different. Don’t just keep throwing money, time and energy at it. Tweak it and keep trying. Or cut it and do something completely different.

If we could just eliminate that deadly choice that is all too easy to maintain, then we’d drive more profitable growth.

The easy option: let’s keep doing what we’ve always done even though we’re unsure if it’s driving business growth.

There’s another reason to avoid that habit. It promotes stagnation. We get complacent. We deepen our delusions. All the more reason to shake things up and try something different.

When it comes to measuring marketing avoid the temptation to begin your sentences with “I think.” Bob found out – in dramatic fashion – that what he had been thinking for years was completely untrue. Hundreds of thousands of dollars that might have been more wisely invested in things that would have grown his business were tied up in marketing he thought he couldn’t survive without.

False assumptions can kill our business. Start weeding them out. Besides, most of our marketing decisions can be corrected if we get it wrong. Except the decision to keep doing what we’ve always done.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:28 — 11.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

Marketing In The Moment – A 3-Part Series

This week I plan to briefly discuss marketing. Today we start things off with monitoring your marketing. Wednesday we’ll talk about measuring your marketing and on Friday we’ll discuss multiplying your marketing.

By monitoring I mean you take a good, hard look at your marketing. So many of us are stuck doing what we’ve always done even though it may have stopped working many years ago. We just keep doing it because it’s all we know to do. And perhaps we think doing something different is beyond us.

One business owner told me years ago – during a conversation about leveraging the power of an online presence – “You might as well try to teach me to fly the space shuttle.” That sentiment is too prevalent, especially among traditional, non-hi-tech business owners.

I can understand how business owners in their 50’s or older may be intimidated, but that’s no excuse – or reason – to avoid marketing in the moment. Romanticizing what once worked is futile. The past isn’t coming back. It’s over. Time to move on and figure out what we need to do today. THAT is precisely why I’m starting this little series on monitoring or taking a closer look at what you’re currently doing.

The hard part of monitoring is seeing things as they really are. Blind spots galore surround marketing efforts. Lots of marketing challenges stymie us: 1) marketing people who have an agenda to do something other than drive business growth, 2) false belief in efforts that haven’t worked in a long time will eventually return to their former glory, 3) failing to realize (or remember) what the marketing efforts are supposed to accomplish, 4) believing that doing what we know to do is better than doing nothing (or better said, believing that there’s no other option – like learning something new), 5) failing to believe that learning and implementing a new strategy will help us and 6) a million other excuses (or reasons).

Step 1 – Forget yesterday. It’s over. Market for today while keeping an eye on tomorrow.

About twice a year I go out my front door and there on the porch is a big fat paperbound book. It’s 2 to 3 inches thick and wrapped in plastic. It’s one of those 3rd party phone books that some marketing outfit convinces poor stupid business owners to advertise in. I pick it up and immediately toss it into our recycle bin. I’d bet 99% of the people who get these throw them away. The other 1% are just keeping it to look at the ad they bought.

Things that once worked – and perhaps worked well – stop working. Things change. Technology has altered our lives forever. And it’s going to keep changing things. Twenty years ago I recall hearing Steve Jobs talk about how voice was going to be the future. I didn’t understand that. Nobody I knew understood that. But with Siri, Alexa and all the other voice-activated tech that now surrounds us — I get it. Voice is faster. While driving my car I can tell Siri to text my wife, then I can dictate the message and say, “Send.” Done. My phone never left the cradle while I kept my hands on the steering wheel.

The things we could do in the past to get people’s attention – those things don’t work any more. Newspaper ads. Billboards. Yellow Pages.

My son started a home inspection business last year. I advised him to do two things, knowing that dazzling the client wasn’t anything I had to teach him (he learned that when he was just a kid). One, use your iPhone and record short videos of some interesting things that can help homeowners, real estate agents, and potential clients. Two, encourage clients to leave you a 5-star social media review. He’s done both and mostly he’s got all the business he can handle. By the way, you’ll notice that the two things I told him to cost no money. They require some time and effort, but they’re not capital intensive, which is super important when you’re starting out. That’s marketing for today! Easier to do when you’re in your 30s perhaps and you’re starting a new business. But doable no matter who you are.

Step 2 – Learn it. You can. You must.

Shut up telling yourself that you can’t learn anything new. Rubbish.

Do you have to become a world-class expert? No. My son is not a world-class expert at social media marketing, videography or any other marketing strategy. He’s world-class at dazzling the clients. He’s also learned enough to execute the marketing that will drive business. And he’d rather invest in learning than spend money at marketing that may not provide any return. So should you.

You have to teach yourself or get somebody to teach you enough. Failure to learn up-to-date, modern marketing will result in hurting you and your business. You must know enough so you can figure out if it’s a smart strategy or not. No way to do that if you’re completely ignorant about it.

I’ve invested hours and hours learning how to do many things that aren’t necessarily right up my alley. In 1997 I figured out a way to put an audio file online. One thing led to another and by the early 2000s I was putting audio online regularly. Here I am today podcasting – something I’ve been doing for at least 15 years. I still couldn’t pilot the space shuttle (if we had one), but I can do many other things because I made it my business to learn how.

Step 3 – Be fearless to test. Be fearless to fail, but be even more fearless to stop failing. Be agnostic.

New technology is changing faster than ever. We don’t have to keep up with the details of every new platform. Just last week word came out that Jimmy Wales, the brainiac behind Wikipedia is starting a community platform to compete with Facebook. Supposedly it’ll have the privacy and security he thinks people crave. I don’t know if it’ll be an opportunity for you or not. But it doesn’t hurt to know it’s out there or coming. I’m not fearful of it. I’m not anxious about it. I don’t care one way or the other, but if it turns out it may be effective to drive business – then I’ll invest time in learning more.

Why?

Because you don’t know until you try. Advertising (spending money) on social media platforms may be worthwhile. Or not.

Producing videos for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin may not be worth it, but my son was willing to try it. He quickly found it worked. For him. He’s pretty good at figuring out what the content should be. He’s pretty good in front of the camera, too. You might be a major stick in the mud with zero personality. Even so, you could test it and figure out if it produces any results or not (on Wednesday we’ll talk a bit about measuring marketing). Do not be afraid to try something.

This doesn’t mean you invest gobs of money or time. It does mean you give it a fighting chance though. You can figure that out on your own. If it fails, then stop doing it. At least, stop doing it THAT particular way.

Testing means you work to figure it out. My son figured out what people like in his videos. Just like he figured out what really dazzles his clients. He’s not sitting on his hands continuing to do things the same way. He’s constantly iterating, adjusting and improving. You have to do the same thing.

Be agnostic about the strategy, tactic or medium. Nobody cares. Care more about what it takes to get the attention of the prospect. You need greater visibility. Who cares where that is? Who care what you need to do to get it? That’s the part that’s always changing. Commit yourself to change with it so you’re always marketing in the moment.

Be well. Do good. Grow great.

Randy