The other day, I got an email from the nice people who put together the #100dayproject.
“We’re on day 57! More than halfway through!” it said.
Heh. Silly me, thinking I could:
- Move to a new state
- Unpack
- Settle in
- Actually cook stuff again
- Exercise
- Build a business from scratch
- Be a mom
- Also be present in my marriage
and write 100 blog posts in 100 days.
It was a valiant effort, but one I should have known would fail.
Although, I’m not beating myself up over anything, because the project did get me writing again, and more than any other title, I really identify as a writer.
And, hoo boy, have I been writing!
Just not here.
See, I’m in the throes (definitely had to look up that word, because it does not look right!) of building my business. I mentioned a couple months ago that I’m no longer with Stacking Benjamins, which has meant that the few clients I had while I was with SB are now the only clients I have and that’s not-at-all-stressful (yes it is).
But, since the retreat helped confirm that yes, the idea of creating 60-day marketing campaigns is a good one, I’ve been working.
Creating systems.
Building process documents.
Updating my LinkedIn profile (which, wow, I’m learning that platform, and it’s more fulfilling than hanging out on Facebook!).
Doing all that I can to get ready for the time when we gain enough momentum that we’re getting contacted by people who want to work with us. My goal is to get my business to the point where, if four people booked a call, and all of them wanted to work with us, we would know what to do instead of freaking out holy smokes.
I have an excellent team, and I feel really grateful for them. I’m also really psyched that when someone contacts me on LinkedIn and asks if there’s any way she can help set up systems, I can say yes instead of freaking out.
Building my business this way has felt different.
More organized.
More serious.
Than anything I’ve ever done before.
Because, like most bloggers I know, I kind of backed into the whole “blog as a business” idea, and none of my blogs ever made much money (at least not the traditional way). So I was always “just doing this for fun” and if it didn’t work out, then that’s fine, I still had a good time, and got to go on a couple trips for free, which is more than I could say for most other part-time jobs I’d had in the past.
But everything about this new business is more serious.
I’m not playing around.
I’m building a business that exists to help business owners make more money, and I’m confident that I can do that for companies.
(Disclaimer: I make no promises. Your product actually has to be good — there’s not enough marketing lipstick in the world that can cover up a pig of a product.)
I offer two things:
- Lead generation services
- and a Digital Marketing Template Library
That’s it. Only two things.
But they’re the two things that we do really really well, and they’re the things that I see a lot of entrepreneurs struggling with.
Mainly, because the entrepreneurs I know are super duper creatives. They build these amazing courses and digital products that could change peoples lives, and then they send one apologetic email to their list, asking if they would pretty please if they don’t mind checking out this thing I created, and if you think you want to buy it, no pressure, but please just think about it.
They end up worrying so much about how they’re going to offend their mailing list, that they focus on how many people unsubscribed from that email, instead of focusing on how many people clicked through, and even bought their offering, from that email.
I think it’s partly because we’re conditioned to be humble. So, even if you created an amazing product that could transform the lives of your audience, you don’t want to come across as “one of those marketers” and somehow represent yourself inauthentically.
So you don’t tell people what you have to offer. You don’t even have a link to your sales page from your home page!
Sorry, that last line was directed at someone specifically. I didn’t mean to yell at you Kayla. 😉
What happens after someone creates something amazing and lets it sit there, un-marketed? Inevitably, they’ll find someone else talking about a course that we all know know isn’t as good as the one they spent all their time and energy creating that had a five or six-figure launch, and they seethe. Worse, they start thinking that the other person’s course must somehow be better.
That’s simply not true.
The only thing these entrepreneurs need is a roadmap on how to get things done. And, if we’re being honest, they probably need someone to do it for them. Someone who can write a sales page, and marketing emails that sound authentic and don’t scream HEY PLEASE BUY FROM ME THANKS!
That’s what gets me up in the morning.
And that’s what I’ve been up to since my last update here.
Also, I get up and work for a few hours before the baby gets up. Outside, it’s just me, Brent, Stanley, and the doves.