Episode 35
Dear Solo: What marketing is most important? I can't do it all.
This is the companion audio for this week's Dear Solo.
I answer one question each week in the letter. If you'd like to receive the letters, you can subscribe at: theeleveatedmind.com/letters
If you read one, hit reply and ask me a question, I keep these anonymous, and will answer your question in a future letter.
If you'd like to try Stay With It, you can do so here, it's free for now: https://staywithitplanner.com/planner
Transcript
This is the audio companion to the Dear Solo Letters.
Speaker:So this week's question that I'm answering
Speaker:is from Tired in Connecticut.
Speaker:And Tired in Connecticut asked me,
Speaker:When it comes to marketing or growing my business,
Speaker:it's just me. So what's most important?
Speaker:Because obviously I can't do it all.
Speaker:It's a wonderful question.
Speaker:And I think it's really smart to ask.
Speaker:You know, years ago, I put together an acronym to help me remember what's most
Speaker:important and in what order. And it's called level.
Speaker:So I'm gonna go through that. And I'm hoping that this will give
Speaker:you something to remember when you get into this place of I can't do it all.
Speaker:I'm very tired. I'm worn out. What should I focus on?
Speaker:What's most important, right? If I only have
Speaker:An ounce of energy today, what's most important?
Speaker:So the first thing that I want you to get a handle on is list growth.
Speaker:I know so many are told to get out there and post on social media to grow your list,
Speaker:but what I want you to ask yourself is,
Speaker:is it actually growing my list?
Speaker:social media
Speaker:has changed a lot. I don't know that there's a person I've come across lately
Speaker:who doesn't acknowledge this,
Speaker:who has not experienced this. You know,
Speaker:I'll often hear like it's just not what it used to be.
Speaker:So back in the day,
Speaker:to use a a a very aging phrase,
Speaker:back in the day that was how you grew your list.
Speaker:You posted on social media.
Speaker:You posted your free offer, your lead magnet,
Speaker:and you got signups, and that was wonderful.
Speaker:Today, not so much. It still happens,
Speaker:absolutely, and it can happen in a big way for some.
Speaker:There's just a lot of factors that go into that.
Speaker:But on average, it is not a place that's going
Speaker:to impact list growth significantly.
Speaker:Again, there are outliers, there are exceptions,
Speaker:but in general.
Speaker:This is what I see.
Speaker:And the thing about your list is,
Speaker:and I'm talking about your email list,
Speaker:this this group of people who have agreed to receive information from
Speaker:you regarding your business and either what you do or the services you provide.
Speaker:Is that you you can't any other marketing that isn't
Speaker:for the point of growing your list really isn't going to do a whole lot
Speaker:of good if you don't have a list to market to,
Speaker:if you don't have a community to market to.
Speaker:Any marketing that is out there
Speaker:for to generate an audience,
Speaker:to generate a list, then that of course is going to direct to
Speaker:Joining your email list. You know,
Speaker:even if you have ~ a bunch of followers on Instagram or on YouTube,
Speaker:whatever that is, they should still be being directed to your list because
Speaker:if that goes away, if that platform goes away,
Speaker:or your account gets shut down,
Speaker:then you lose those leads.
Speaker:You lose that audience. And so it's an it becomes an asset when you build
Speaker:an email list.
Speaker:it becomes an asset in your business.
Speaker:So focusing on list growth first is the most important thing ever.
Speaker:Even when you're not fully clear on what your first offer is,
Speaker:or maybe you're making a big pivot in your business and you don't have
Speaker:all of the pieces figured out yet,
Speaker:don't lose your focus on list growth.
Speaker:Because
Speaker:Your list growth needs to outperform your list decline.
Speaker:Your email list is going to lose subscribers naturally.
Speaker:whether people just stop opening your emails,
Speaker:maybe they move on, they're no longer interested in what they joined your community
Speaker:for. maybe they've unsubscribed,
Speaker:maybe they have not unsubscribed,
Speaker:but they're not opening your emails anymore.
Speaker:There's
Speaker:All kinds of reasons. It's it's going to happen no matter what.
Speaker:You're not gonna keep everybody forever,
Speaker:even though I would love to. But your list is just it's naturally going
Speaker:to lose subscribers. And if you're losing more subscribers than you're
Speaker:gaining on a monthly basis, your list growth is in decline.
Speaker:So your list growth efforts must exceed your list decline.
Speaker:Pretty significantly in order to be in a steady growth state.
Speaker:So for some people, you may not know what your list growth
Speaker:is or your list decline is. And it might be a good idea to take just
Speaker:a few minutes and go look at that.
Speaker:See whether you're actually exceeding your list decline.
Speaker:Are you in a steady growth state?
Speaker:Even if it's only by, you know,
Speaker:a handful of subscribers every month,
Speaker:if you're in a positive growth state,
Speaker:that's a really good thing.
Speaker:let's just say that your natural list decline is you're losing one percent
Speaker:of your list every month. Your list growth efforts then have to exceed that
Speaker:one percent substantially in order to be in a steady,
Speaker:positive growth state. And if you're not sure,
Speaker:as I said, go take a moment to to look at that.
Speaker:That's always number one, because your business has no one to promote to.
Speaker:If you don't have a list. Now,
Speaker:yes, I know I can hear some of you saying,
Speaker:Well, yeah, I have someone to promote to.
Speaker:I'm promoting on social media or Instagram or ~ YouTube or LinkedIn
Speaker:or whatever whatever platforms you're on.
Speaker:And yes, you can and should promote there,
Speaker:but again, that is not an asset.
Speaker:It can be taken away at any time.
Speaker:So the second one is email marketing.
Speaker:And the reason is you want to keep that list,
Speaker:as much of that list as you can as possible for as long as you can.
Speaker:And we do that by providing value through our emails.
Speaker:We promote our offers consistently.
Speaker:one of the common things that I hear and or that I and when
Speaker:I'm having conversations with clients is that
Speaker:Maybe they might be working on list growth.
Speaker:And when I ask how often they're emailing their list,
Speaker:it's usually every now and then.
Speaker:I even spoke with a consulting firm recently,
Speaker:~ multimillion dollar consulting firm who was dealing with some
Speaker:decline in revenue and they were pivoting a bit,
Speaker:making some changes in the company.
Speaker:And when I asked that same question,
Speaker:I got, well, we used to email once a month,
Speaker:but now we're moving to twice a month because we really aren't seeing
Speaker:any results there. You know, once a month is not enough,
Speaker:much less once every two months.
Speaker:You just kind of slip off the radar of your audience.
Speaker:So it happens across the board.
Speaker:Email marketing is super, super,
Speaker:super important. And you can do that in a way that is respectful.
Speaker:that is something you enjoy and that provides value for your community
Speaker:and keeps that relationship going.
Speaker:Now the third one is visibility.
Speaker:And this can overlap with list growth growth because obviously you're probably doing
Speaker:things that require you to be visible in order to grow your list.
Speaker:However, visible
Speaker:can mean being interviewed on podcasts.
Speaker:It can mean showing up on social media in more than posts,
Speaker:but maybe videos.
Speaker:It could mean something like a podcast.
Speaker:It could mean a YouTube channel.
Speaker:Again, there is an overlap here,
Speaker:but there's a point to visibility getting you in front of people that then
Speaker:can turn into list growth. But I want to make sure that list growth
Speaker:is the number one priority and visibility comes,
Speaker:additional visibility comes in under that.
Speaker:So getting out there, being seen,
Speaker:working on what you want to be known for.
Speaker:Fourth is energy, and I'm talking about your energy.
Speaker:Always taking the time to replenish,
Speaker:step back when you need to, ramp up when you're ready,
Speaker:or simply give yourself space and grace.
Speaker:None of this is super easy.
Speaker:It takes a great amount of effort to build a business and run it,
Speaker:especially when you're just one person.
Speaker:So give yourself space and grace.
Speaker:And when you're feeling exhausted,
Speaker:Take a step back, go have some fun,
Speaker:relax, because you aren't going to do yourself or your business any good
Speaker:by pushing yourself beyond tired.
Speaker:It doesn't do a whole lot of good for your state of mind,
Speaker:and your state of mind directly affects your business and your decisions.
Speaker:Fifth is lead to sales, offers,
Speaker:selling, promoting, launching,
Speaker:all of the above.
Speaker:A little bit more that I want to say on this is
Speaker:You can choose just one or two,
Speaker:well, I'm gonna say two of these.
Speaker:So tired in Connecticut, if you can manage,
Speaker:let's say, just list growth efforts and email marketing right now,
Speaker:wonderful. Perfect. Keep your focus on that because that's what's gonna build more
Speaker:momentum down the road than anything else.
Speaker:If you can add in visibility,
Speaker:even more incredible.
Speaker:Okay, maybe it's your the the bulk of your energy is spent on list growth
Speaker:and email marketing and you sprinkle in an it some additional visibility here
Speaker:and there. Perfect. Okay.
Speaker:One of the hardest things in growing a business is is lack of clarity.
Speaker:And when you don't have a plan,
Speaker:you don't know what to do next.
Speaker:And you end up spiraling or you go and spend a whole bunch of time creating
Speaker:a totally new offer or a new lead magnet because it feels good,
Speaker:it's fun, it's creative expression and it feels productive in an effort
Speaker:to overcome or compensate, I should say.
Speaker:for a lack of clarity as to what to do next.
Speaker:So stick with level. Like let that be your guide.
Speaker:You know, it's a good foundational tool to use to remind
Speaker:you of what matters most and in what order.
Speaker:And just remember that none of this is perfect.
Speaker:none of us are immune to losing track every now and then.
Speaker:Getting distracted, going down rabbit holes,
Speaker:creating new lead magnets when we didn't need one.
Speaker:One of my one of my pastimes when I would
Speaker:get totally overwhelmed would be to go into Canva and create graphics
Speaker:or create images. And I wasn't conscious of it for quite a while.
Speaker:Like I would find my I finally at some point realized,
Speaker:wait a minute, why am I in here spending hours?
Speaker:Creating images. And I realized,
Speaker:well, because it feels good. It's fun.
Speaker:It's a distraction. And I can tell myself that it's needed,
Speaker:that I needed that new image for a post,
Speaker:never mind the fact that it didn't need to take me three hours.
Speaker:So just know that we all get distracted.
Speaker:We all spend time doing the not so important things rather than
Speaker:the important things.
Speaker:And I've used level and still use level today the way I use it is I do this check
Speaker:in with myself to say, okay, this has been a really,
Speaker:really busy, challenging week.
Speaker:Where am I? Where is list growth?
Speaker:And I can do a quick mental check and say,
Speaker:~ you know, I have that summit that I'm preparing for,
Speaker:And that's it's on my calendar,
Speaker:so I'm good. I'm working on that.
Speaker:Where am I at with email? Emails are scheduled this week,
Speaker:or emails went out this week. All good.
Speaker:You know, one of the ways I'll put a link in the the notes,
Speaker:but I have a it's a just a task planner that I created called Stay With It.
Speaker:And I created it for myself because I I typically for many,
Speaker:many years, and this is even when I was in the big companies.
Speaker:I would just list my to dos in a text file,
Speaker:a notepad on my laptop. I mean,
Speaker:years ago I used to put do it on physical notebooks.
Speaker:Like I I joke about having a closet full of of notebooks.
Speaker:I do have a closet full of notebooks.
Speaker:Then I switched to the quote notebook on my laptop,
Speaker:which is just a mess. That doesn't work very well.
Speaker:But it it held me for many years.
Speaker:And the reason is is I cannot stand complex project management
Speaker:software. I've used them because I've had to for different organizations.
Speaker:I do not enjoy them. I it's I don't need that.
Speaker:I don't need that. So what I did is I created the Stay With It planner.
Speaker:Where I can just simply go and list my tasks.
Speaker:And then I started adding in all these other little features that I really love.
Speaker:And one of them is ring the bell.
Speaker:when I have other people using the task or the the planner.
Speaker:Other people can ring the bell and say,
Speaker:hey, I got this done today. Or hey,
Speaker:I got finally got that video done.
Speaker:And I'll see it. It makes a little chime.
Speaker:You can certainly mute it.
Speaker:There's n there is not a ton of people using it,
Speaker:so there's no risk of hearing the chime all the time.
Speaker:But you can even see it in the little community tab where it just shows
Speaker:you everything that people are accomplishing.
Speaker:Or that's my goal at least. You'll see a lot of my tasks in there that I've
Speaker:accomplished. And that to me is a small way for us to kind of come together
Speaker:and keep ourselves going. Keep ourselves going to stay with it.
Speaker:I'm constantly adding in new
Speaker:functionality just because it's what I want it to do.
Speaker:It's how I want it to support me.
Speaker:But I'll share the link below because it's free for you to go and use.
Speaker:I would love to have people in there just testing it and telling me what they think.
Speaker:There's a place where you can you can provide feedback if you want.
Speaker:So there's that. And hey Tired in Connecticut,
Speaker:you've got this. Much love.
