Sometimes I feel like SUCH a Debbie Downer. ALL of the conversations — even interviews — I have about CURRENT B.S. being sold to REALLY SUPER SMART entrepreneurs starts to weigh on me.
MBAs and doctors and attorneys and entrepreneurs investing SO MUCH MONEY and TIME “scaling” their business or — worse — “building to scale” when…. ahem… there’s nothing (yet, at least) to scale.
No rabid fan base.
Not even a steady TRICKLE of purchases.
No brand.
WHAT — exactly — are we scaling?
An idea?
No, it’s way worse than that.
What they’re hoping to scale is this VERY SELLABLE promise that they are “one _______________ away” from a hands-off, multi-million dollar business.
One funnel away. One event away. One advertising hack away. One webinar away. One strategy away. One magic pill away.
Speaking of pills, when the office of the promoter of the HERBAL viagra pill was raided… the pill that promised not ONLY erections on demand but FAR BIGGER erections on demand, their top customer base was revealed: medical doctors. lol…
it turns out that no matter HOW smart you are,
no matter HOW educated,
the lure of easy, fast, effortless
when applied to something you WANT
is a damnably easy sell.
So, when I see otherwise SUPER savvy entrepreneurs…
abandoning the GUARANTEE
of DAILY effort
producing IMMEDIATE
and SUSTAINABLE
RESULTS
that COMPOUND over time…
In favor of
the MAGIC SAUCE
of a “perfect” (evergreen, of course… because showing up is SOOOOO 2012) webinar manned by paid employees
selling a program
that will be delivered by automation and employees…
or the MAGIC BEANS
of a funnel that
will take NON-EXISTENT demand
and then somehow CONJURE
that funnel into millions
without doing the WORK
of GENERATING demand for your voice, your perspective, your program…
well, I have learned to show grace.
But I DO wonder…
if THEY ever wonder,
what would have happened…
if they never “took down their site,”
never STOPPED messaging and showing up
so they could dedicate MONTHS
to building that funnel, that app, that “perfect webinar,” that “back end experience”
I wonder if they ever look backwards to see the trail of GUARANTEED results they abandoned in favor of magic… if they ever wish they had those months back?
Part of me hopes they don’t.
I wouldn’t want that level of regret …
Investing my time and money and heart
into something
that never
ever
ever
“takes off.”
The bottom line is this:
💵 There is NO substitute for work.
💵 There is NOTHING BETTER (applied towards ANY goal, business or otherwise) than DAILY effort, over time.
💵 Scaling DEMANDS you have something to scale. You simply can’t scale / multiply zero.
💵 Magic happens when you show up daily… not when you’re scheming to build something to AVOID showing up daily.
And also…
About the people selling this magic dust to you: LOOK at how they show up. EVEN with their million-dollar-per-week ad budget, even WITH their roster of high profile podcasts they appear on, even with their fancy publishing contract or rolodex of famous friends.
LOOK at HOW they sell and WHAT they sell.
It is rarely EVER what they are selling YOU. (WHY — for example — are they showing up LIVE on THIS webinar while selling you that evergreen one?????)
rolling my eyes.
shaking my head.
but still speaking the truth.
Next up: More unpopular facts: WHY your marketing efforts may not be working as well as you’d hoped.
