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What if the methods that high-ticket coaches, trainers, and personal developers use to grow their business PREVENTS their business from growing as fast as it should?
Think about that for a second.
The countless hours trying to keep the business running, highly optimizing each funnel step, and applying all the latest tools and tactics… might PREVENT predictable and profitable growth.
I will share three reasons why this might be the case in a minute, but first, let’s start with what’s really at stake.
Growing a high-ticket coaching or personal development business is more than just increased revenue (although this is very important!).
It’s about making a great living and having a profound impact on people – and the world.
It’s turning better-life seekers into happy, successful customers through your products or services.
It’s about building a durable business you can be proud of – one that stands the test of time.
The problem is that most personal-growth business owners fall into a common trap: they spend hours juggling everything – from customer acquisition to product/service delivery, customer support, and more.
Even if they do not personally do all these jobs, their business REQUIRES their near 24/7 management to ensure the spinning plates don’t come crashing down.
Compelling claims from countless sales pages on tools and techniques bombard them…leaving them trying to figure out what’s real and what’s merely hype.
It’s like constantly playing a not-so-fun shell game, scrambling to switch out the failing tool or tactic for the latest and greatest “secret” formula…on and on.
Fortunately, for many businesses, some of these so-called secret formulas work – but they can fail at any time. The business can grow – at least initially – and have what most people say is ‘good’ to ‘great’ success.
But is it a durable and predictable business?
Will the business remain profitable if a particular tactic suddenly stops working?
Does the business rely too heavily on the owner, a specific salesperson, or a “must-keep” client?
Unfortunately, many high-ticket personal growth businesses do not have good answers to these questions.
This often leaves owners frustrated, nervous, stressed, scared…even panicked.
They don’t know how long they can keep this up, and there’s no way to scale a business built on short-term tactics.
How can they grow more when they’re barely getting enough sleep and cannot take time off?
They feel stuck, missing out on the other essential parts of their life (kids, vacations, partners, hobbies, exercise, etc.).
How long can they keep this up? And if they fail, what else will they do?
Worse, many high-ticket coaching and personal development business owners worry that this will all impact their results.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
You can move your business from this state to a place where you’re confidently growing your business, predictably and profitably.
But first, we need to address what went wrong and why most high-ticket coaching and personal development businesses plateau.
Based on the collective wisdom and learnings of over 126,000 marketing teams and companies of all sizes, we’ve found three common mistakes businesses make that prevent them from growing:
- Built a “business job” instead of a business
- Focused on the parts above the system
- Fixed the wrong funnel steps at the wrong time
I explain how these three mistakes keep you from growing as fast as you should – and, later, what to do about it.
Click the link below if you would like to learn more!
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We believe businesses that help people become their best selves should WIN!
We also believe that your personal development business should grow faster.
To improve more lives.
To magnify human potential.
To impact world evolution.
But many successful high-ticket coaches, trainers, and personal developers find themselves struggling to achieve that next level of growth.
It’s often a source of deep frustration and even sadness; it feels like smashing into a glass ceiling.
The reality is that the most common methods personal development businesses use to try to grow their businesses actually BLOCKS growth.
It’s not their fault, and it’s not even unique to personal development businesses, as you’ll later find out.
Before we dive into solving this growth dilemma, we need to take a good look at what’s causing it.
Leveraging tens of thousands of hours of experience – my own and countless others – we found that companies make these three growth mistakes:
- Built a “business job” instead of a business
- Focused on the parts above the system
- Fixed the wrong funnel steps at the wrong time
Let’s begin with:
How your business became a job and you became an underappreciated employee.
You’ve probably worked at a job where you felt underappreciated, where your unique talents and skills were overlooked or even undermined.
You knew there was more to life than spinning on the hamster wheel of the ordinary.
You knew you had more to offer to the people around you, to the world, to yourself!
So, you ventured out to turn your unique talents, skills, and perspective into a business that helps people become the best versions of themselves.
It wasn’t easy.
It took time to figure it out: the business set-up, finances, marketing, and the product or service.
But your determination and perseverance paid off.
You achieved what most people would consider a great success!
And yet, you wanted more. Not because you were greedy or ungrateful, but because you felt like there was more to offer the world, more people to impact, more lives to touch.
What you didn’t realize – what happens to so many successful businesses – is that you may have built a successful “business job,” not an actual business.
And so I have both good and bad news for you.
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
If you’re not growing as fast as you want, then you’re likely trapped INSIDE your business, leaving you with almost no time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. You have no time to:
- Relax with your loved ones
- explore something new
- step OUTSIDE of your business
The business has become a job, and it’s tough to grow a “business job” – there are just too many constraints, especially time – your time.
Even worse, business jobs often start eliciting some of the same ugly but familiar feelings of past roles you’ve had (struggling, emptiness, stuck)…only this time, you own the job.
But here’s the good news:
There is a way OUT…literally.
The solution is to spend more time OUTSIDE of your business.
No – not to play and ignore your business (although when done periodically, this can help) but to see from a perspective of “active owner” rather than employee (more on this later).
To understand this better, let’s talk about the difference between working IN your business and ON your business.
Working IN your business entails the day-to-day tactics and chores that require completion to keep the wheels turning and the lights on.
For example, as an owner, you must spend a lot of time developing a great sense of what and what doesn’t work.
It’s where you determine your business needs and what job roles help fill that need.
[do the unscalable to scale]
This is only one phase, but working primarily IN the business becomes a habit for many people.
And since they’ve been successful at it, why change things?
Again, this tactic can work in the short term.
But the glass ceiling is inevitable, and predictable growth will soon be stifled.
You need to work both IN and ON your business, but to grow predictably, profitably, and confidently, you, as the owner or leader, need to spend more time working ON the business, not IN it.
You may have heard the story about the elephant and the three blind men. It goes something like this:
(Source: Wikipedia)
Three blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form.
Out of curiosity, they said: “We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are capable.”
So, they sought it out, and when they found it, they groped about it.
The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said, “This being is like a thick snake.”
For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan.
As for another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said, the elephant is a pillar-like tree trunk.
The blind man who placed his hand upon its side said the elephant, “is a wall.” Another who felt its tail described it as a rope.
The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is hard, smooth, and like a spear.
For a business to continue to grow and thrive, it’s essential to be close to each aspect of the company (the three blind men).
But the owner or leader also needs to see the entire picture (the elephant).
From this perspective, you can see the elephant’s location relative to where you want it to be.
You can lead the elephant in the direction of your choosing.
You can position the three men in a way that makes this easier.
This perspective is why spending time working ON your business and seeing the bigger picture is so critical.
If you’re stuck in a growth plateau, you cannot see how to get unstuck from withIN the business.
You must spend more time ON the business.
From the “active owner” perspective, another common mistake that high-ticket coaches, trainers, and personal developers make when growing their business is that they focus on the parts above the system.
Again, this parts-only focus is not surprising, given all the “growth hacking” noise out there.
Some of it is spot on and valuable, but there’s also a lot of clutter.
One terrible piece of advice is the concept of optimizing each funnel step, irrespective of the rest of it.
The theory goes something like this:
If you double your ad’s clickthrough rate, then you’ll double the traffic, your number of opt-ins, and eventually your revenue.
Or, with the same traffic, if you double your opt-in rate, you’ll then double your number of opt-ins and eventually your revenue.
They say that if you focus on optimizing each step in the funnel in isolation, the results will compound, and voilà, you increase your revenue 100-fold.
We all know that this method is ludicrous, but it is sold to us every day!
There’s a downside to optimizing each funnel step separately: when you change one part of a funnel system, you change all parts.
You can optimize your ads to increase traffic, but will this new traffic convert well on your opt-in page?
You can optimize your landing page to increase your opt-in rate, but will your new subscribers open your emails?
You can do everything possible to lower your CPA, but will the new leads convert less?
You end up playing whack-a-mole with your funnel.
You improve A, but it makes B worse.
Then you improve B, but now C and D are worse.
On and on…
We’ll talk about how to solve this problem in a minute.
First, let’s address the last primary reason your high-ticket personal development business is not growing as fast as it should:
You’re likely fixing the wrong funnel steps at the wrong time.
It stems from the same problem as the ‘whack-a-mole’ funnel optimization strategy we just discussed.
A close friend of mine (we’ll call him Jay) just became the director of digital insights at a medium-sized business.
The company was already wildly successful, but they knew there was a lot more opportunity out there.
Slow to adopt a solid digital strategy, the global pandemic forced them to go all-in on digital.
They hired Jay to help bring them into the new importance of digitization.
Smart move, IMHO.
The problem?
In their excitement and drive to complete their digital transformation quickly, they’re trying to do everything all at once.
They’ve gone on a hiring spree to recruit new digital talent.
They’ve purchased all the latest enterprise-level software.
They’ve set themselves on a path for a complete overhaul.
WHOA!
It will change something – maybe even a lot.
But how will they know what made the difference?
How long will it take for the dust to settle for them to see the impact?
In the process of digital transformation, did they break something that was working just fine?
This ‘throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks’ strategy is very common.
And it often takes years to realize it doesn’t work! ☹
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” ~Peter Druker.
Contrast that with the Dave Ramsey approach for getting out of debt, a method I used to get out of tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt.
Dave Ramsey is a famous personal finance author. One of his most well-known and successful debt-reduction techniques is the Debt Snowball Method.
If you’re not familiar, here’s a quick summary:
- Determine what money you have available to pay off debt each month. Let’s say $1,000.
- List all your debts.
- Organize your debt by balance – from smallest to largest.
- Identify the account with the smallest balance. Let’s say it’s $3,000.
- Calculate the total of all the minimum payments for all accounts except for the smallest. For example, $400.
- Calculate the difference between what you can pay each month for debt repayment ($1,000) and the total of all the minimum payments except the smallest account ($400). In this case, the number is $600 ($1000 available funds – $400 minimum payment).
- Apply ALL of the difference ($600) to the account with the smallest balance ($3000) until you pay it off. You will pay this account much faster and tackle the next debt account on the list.
- Repeat these steps until you’re debt-free.
In my opinion, this method works well because it’s simple, systematic, and measurable.
Later, we will explain in much further detail how we can apply this to growing and scaling your business.
But let’s first start with these points:
Having a simple, systematic, and measurable approach works for anything we want to improve.
This method gives us the strategic intelligence to pick the right next step at any given moment.
And finally, learning to optimize one step at a time allows you to see how each optimization impacts the system.
So, how do you move past the three most common and significant mistakes keeping you from growing as fast as you should?
Here’s a summary. You’ve:
- Built a “business job” instead of a business
- Focused on the parts above the system
- Fixed the wrong funnel steps at the wrong time
Did you notice that I’ve implied the solution throughout this article?
To make it crystal clear, to predictably grow your high-ticket coaching or personal development business, you must do these three things instead:
- Build your business as an owner, not an employee
- Execute everything with the system in mind
- Optimize the right funnel steps at the right time
I’ve put together a short four-part email, a mini-course to dive into each of these points, plus a HUGE insight that changed everything (email 4).
I’ll also show you how you can do all three in as little as 60-90 minutes.
It won’t be for everyone, but it may be for you…
Relationship-building email series
Email #1
Welcome!
If you’re here, I assume that you’re committed to predictably and profitably growing your high-ticket coaching or personal development business…
…and you’re also committed to making a more significant difference in people’s lives – and the world.
You are our kind of person 🙂
If you recall, we started with:
The common methods that high-ticket coaching or personal development businesses use to grow actually KEEP them from growing.
From there, we talked about the three common reasons personal development businesses struggle to grow as fast as they should.
They:
• Built a “business job” instead of a business
• Focused on the parts above the system
• Fixed the wrong funnel steps at the wrong time
We then shared that you must do three things instead to grow your high-ticket coaching or personal development business.
Today, we’ll focus on getting out of your ‘business job’ by building and growing your business as an owner, not an employee.
Toward the end, I will share a powerful but quick task that you can do TODAY to begin breaking out of a ‘business job.’
But first, let’s start with a story that better illustrates how you can unlock even more impact and growth from your personal development business.
It’s an embarrassing journey that started more than ten years ago and led me to what I call ‘a-ha’ lessons.…
I felt like the blood was draining from my body. Anger was the only thing keeping it circulating.
They had finally done what they had been trying to do since I got there, only my high scores from the end client prevented them from doing it earlier.
Taught to strive for excellence, the market I managed exceeded the client’s expectations.
Our market also received the highest customer satisfaction score in the nation by committing to regular communication and the client’s goals.
But, this collective achievement did not prepare me for what would happen next.
Through some insane internal politics, the newly installed project leads gave the project to another team member, who secretly campaigned for my role.
My naïve worldview shattered as I made my way to the elevator.
As the thick, steel elevator doors closed, I felt the safety of shutting out the world.
I needed to hide from the embarrassment that just took place moments ago.
At home, I cranked my meditation to 100, sitting for one to two hours or more a day to avoid succumbing to the emotional turmoil.
Soon, a few rays of clarity poked through the walls of grief and anger.
Until one day, pulled by what felt like an invisible force, I found myself in the ‘business’ section of a nearby Barnes & Noble.
An entrepreneur at heart, this was a frequent spot for me.
Suddenly, a book stuck out as though it wanted to fly into my hand: Multiple Streams of Internet Income.
The storm of emotions I’d once experienced gave way to excitement and adventure.
I frantically began implementing the strategies in the book.
And on a hot fall day, it happened…
Something I had never experienced before and something that changed the course of my life: an unexpected check!
I had been so busy focusing on just doing that I forgot to see if anything I did was actually working. I’ll speak further about the consequences of this later.
My excitement grew into an almost obsession.
As an avid learner, this was heaven.
I just kept following the advice…and random checks would show up.
I was addicted!
This newfound ‘career’ had surpassed my engineering income and was WAY more fun!
I managed everything.
Finally, I was my own boss.
Things were great for a few years, and income increased, but then…it happened.
Suddenly and quickly…a more than 80% drop in income!
OUCH!
I will pick this back up in tomorrow’s email, but for now, let me share my first set of lessons from all this.
I hope that you also learn from my mistakes 🙂
1. I never broke out of the ’employee mindset’ habit of doing vs. being a business owner.
2. I let tactics lead my business vs. solid strategies driving it
3. I didn’t spend enough time looking at the business as a system
In short, I had built a ‘job,’ and I was its employee.
Yes, I made a five-figure monthly income at one point, and yes, I quit my corporate gig and had more time and freedom.
But, these results hid a monster waiting to rear its ugly head:
I had not built a DURABLE business.
I merely owned a job that I worked IN day-after-day.
Too busy working as a business employee, I had little time to see the big picture or what would eventually come. :-\
And this is the biggest reason you must know the difference between a business owner and a business employee.
Business owners and leaders spent a lot (eventually the vast majority) of their time working ON the business.
Business employees remain trapped in the daily grind of working primarily IN the business.
Business owners see the big picture. They know the map and chart the best route to their destination, allowing them to anticipate and avoid possible dangers ahead.
But business employees think mostly tactically, going from one tool and method to another with diminishing returns.
(Side note: “business owner” and “business employee” act as much as a mindset as a behavior. So, you can think and behave like a business owner, even if you do not own the business. I’ll say more about this tomorrow).
Remember – there’s a difference between working ON your business and working IN it.
So, how do you start getting out of a business job?
Well, you’ve already taken the first step: seeing the difference between operating your business as an owner instead of an employee.
It’s the difference between seeing a maze from this perspective:
Verses this one:
You need both, but which one gives you the best chance for predictable growth?
Before I end this email, as promised, here are three things you can do right now:
1. (Loosely) track your business activities for one typical day – including time spent.
2. Go through your list and put an “O” or “E” next to each activity. “O” for tasks done as a business owner and “E” for tasks done as a business employee.
3. Determine one new, super tiny thing you can do as a business owner and spend just one minute per day doing it (pro tip: doing this new habit immediately after something you already habitually do nearly guarantees it will become a habit).
Note: As a Certified Tiny Habit Coach, I incorporate “tiny habit” principles into all my customer work. But that’s another story for another time. 🙂
Okay…
Now that you know the importance of keeping your eye on the system, tomorrow, we’ll take it a step further.
We’ll show you the importance of executing everything with the system in mind.
Email #2
In the last email, I began telling you the story of how I turned what at the time seemed a devastating situation into something that propelled me into a new (digital) world.
I’ll tell you what happened next, but first, let’s get situated.
You already know how and why most personal development businesses stifle their growth.
We also talked about how to begin getting out of a business job and building a business as an owner, not an employee.
Today, we will tackle the second obstacle to predictable growth: focusing on the parts above the system.
But before getting into how to solve this problem, let me continue with the story we started…
In less than 24 hours, more than 80% of my traffic and income dropped!
Yep, 80%!
The gig was up!
The Google update hit, and all the tools and tactics that once worked…instantly stopped working.
I was clueless, lost, and in deep trouble!
I had built a business job on top of tools and tactics…it wasn’t DURABLE.
And it was too late to learn.
I felt embarrassed, sad, and hopeless.
It had been more than five years since I had left engineering.
Technology had changed.
I was now obsolete.
As depression began to seep in, I restarted my meditation practice (to open up creative solutions and find peace).
I had a choice to make: start at an almost entry-level engineering job doing something I hated or double-down on digital marketing.
After the death of my beloved grandmother, a long conversation with a college friend, and a lot of meditation, I took the plunge.
Retaining the collaboration and problem skills I had honed from electrical engineering, I went back to school to get my MS in marketing, focusing on digital.
In my last semester, I started a job at a multi-billion-dollar company.
Having extensive internet business and agency experience, in my first ‘real’ job in digital marketing, I asked if I could help create more results.
But the boss preferred everyone to stay in the siloed box he’d created.
My entrepreneurial spirit felt CAGED!
I needed to get out!
I quickly landed an interview for an SEO manager position at a high-end retail store.
SEO was how I got started, so I knew I had this in the bag (or so I thought).
…I completely BOMBED the interview.
The hiring manager asked me things about SEO that were foreign… once again, I had become outdated.
I found myself frustrated, angry, and stuck. (Lesson: must keep up with skills!).
But, you know the drill: I upped my meditation and began catching up on my industry, listening to countless digital marketing webinars.
I began upskilling like crazy.
I had not only caught up on SEO, but I also began to shore up all aspects of my digital marketing bona fides.
However, the webinars soon all started to sound the same, like an ultra-low drone that both lulled you to sleep and annoyed you to frustration.
Most webinars I had listened to were merely various tools or tactics…rinse and repeat.
And of course, my experiences had already taught me the dangers of this approach long-term.
But one webinar broke through the sameness of all the others.
It didn’t just give information; it offered a framework (a system) where everything fit.
More and more, a particular group of people broke through the noise with their systems approach to digital marketing.
Soon, I discovered that these folks came from the same company (I will tell you which company in a minute).
It had a massive impact on me.
It was eye-opening, as though the sun had burst through an area of clouds (coincidentally, this is happening as I am writing these words! :))
I felt lifted. I not only upskilled my digital marketing, but I gained a new vision and a system to go with it.
It was when I fully realized why my internet business had ultimately failed:
I had the drive.
I had the knowledge.
I even had the results (initially).
What I didn’t have were systems, frameworks, and processes that CREATED predictable growth.
The results?
After 1.5 years of desperately trying to get out of a job I had come to loathe, things suddenly changed…
It was almost an unfair advantage.
Now, all caught up (and staying caught up) in my industry, AND a systems and framework approach to digital marketing, I stuck out in my interviews.
Thanks to the new approach I had learned and adopted, I offered something beyond just a list of skills and experience – I was able to think differently about the problems they faced.
The interviews became a consultation, where I strived to offer value to the potential employer – not just be interviewed.
And it worked!
I went from an interview drought to an ocean of serious interest.
Soon, I had two simultaneous offers that put me in an entrepreneurial position.
I chose a global role to consult and learn from markets worldwide and build international digital programs from scratch.
So, why did this work (and continue to work)?
Because the execution was all done with the system in mind.
Many companies constantly talk about the latest gadgets and tricks, focusing on one particular part of the system over another.
But to build a DURABLE business, one the grows predictably and profitably, the system must always be in mind.
It’s one of the critical differentiators that separates a business built to last from one not built to withstand the next major crisis.
To summarize, you need to:
First, dedicate quality time working ON your business. It allows you to see the business as an owner (not only as an employee).
Then, from that business owner’s viewpoint, you can see your business as a system, where each part affects its entirety.
It helps you avoid the “mountains of unexpected checks to almost nothing” lesson that I had to learn.
But there’s one more thing you need to do to grow your business predictably, profitably, and confidently:
You need to determine which funnel step (part of the system) to optimize at the appropriate time.
Getting this out of order can work, but it can also lead you down a dead-end rabbit hole.
That’s what we’ll discuss in the next email…
Brian
P.S. I almost forgot to tell you – the company that continued to share a systems-level approach was DigitalMarketer.
I’ll share more about this a little later…plus, how I gained access to their most heavily guarded frameworks and processes – the ones that have helped more than 126,000 companies of all shapes and sizes to grow predictably and profitably.
I’ll also share how I’m leveraging the massive intelligence and hard-fought wisdom that comes from an active community that stays updated and shares its “in the trenches” lessons.
Email #3
Today, I’ll share how I gained access to DigitalMarketer.com’s most heavily guarded frameworks and processes – the ones that have helped more than 126,000 companies of all shapes and sizes to grow predictably and profitably.
I’ll also discuss how I’m leveraging the constantly updating, hard-fought wisdom that comes from a community of entrepreneurs.
But first, let’s do a quick recap.
In the last two emails, you learned how to get out of a ‘business job’ and develop system-level execution.
Now that you know the value of spending more time working ON your business and the importance of executing with the system in mind, today, you’ll learn how to solve the last growth mistake personal development businesses make: fixed the wrong funnel steps at the wrong time.
Peter Drucker, a famous Austrian management consultant and author, once said:
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
Having served as a global digital marketing consultant for more than five years, one of the most frustrating things I witness is when a team spends resources on what turns out to be the wrong thing.
Unfortunately, as well as wasted time and money, they have also lost the opportunity of not spending that time on something that would’ve had a substantial impact.
Of course, no one sets out to do this.
They read or heard something, or simply guessed that they should go down a particular path.
One so-called expert says one thing, another says something different, and yet another expert says something different from them.
So, whose advice should you follow?
Unfortunately, it depends. I’ll say more about this in a second.
First, let me share the three growth factors crucial in determining the correct answer for you.
Many businesses have one of the three.
A few have two, but only the businesses that grow predictably and profitably have ALL three.
They had actionable metrics: consistently tracking metrics that matter – not merely vanity metrics (# of subscribers, social media likes, opt-in rates, etc.) that look good but contribute almost nothing to the bottom line.
They had a strategy based on a documented customer journey: documenting your customer’s journey from stranger to raving fan helps you see things from their perspective and better provide products/services that resonate with them.
They properly used tools and tactics: don’t just haphazardly use these, praying that something works.
Instead, use your documented customer journey and actionable metrics to deploy the correct tool/tactic at the right time in the right place.
With these three growth factors as a guide, we use a process called Growth Gap Marketing to pinpoint our focus in our customer’s journey (the funnel) – the one that will give us the most impact based on actionable metrics.
We then apply tools and tactics made for this particular step until it’s working as it should.
We do this over and over, eventually revisiting funnel steps as we enter new levels in the business.
You must optimize the proper funnel steps at the right time.
This is what produces predictable, profitable, and confident growth!
This is why I said “it depends” when it comes to determining which funnel step you need to go after right now.
Without properly implementing ALL three growth factors, it’s almost a guessing game…and this cannot produce predictable growth.
I’ll expand on this in the next email.
Before that, let me wrap up the story we began a few days ago:
Having used what I learned from DigitalMarketer’s program to help me advance in a career I love – assisting markets from the US to Brazil, Germany, and Singapore (and 30+ more) – I realized that I wanted to do more.
With a passion for realizing human potential and for digital marketing, I applied to become a DigitalMarketer Certified Partner (DMCP).
Acceptance into the DMCP program gave me access to an elevated level of:
• Frameworks, processes, and tools
• Expertise and knowledge
• Making a difference
And so, even as I am committed to realizing my own potential, even as I am committed to helping others realize their potential, I saw an opportunity to multiply my small impact by supporting businesses that do the same.
In fact, over the next two years, my first mission is to help 100 coaching and personal development businesses DOUBLE.
Can you imagine the impact this would have?
Brian
P.S. In the next email, I share a revelation that changed everything for me.
Every time I share it with someone new, their eyes widen and their mouths open as they experience an ‘a-ha’ moment that brings everything into more clarity.
A clarity that helps them see the profound reason they’re not growing as fast as they should.
Beyond business, some even had a revelation that gave them more clarity in their personal lives…
Bridge Email
Email #4
(Reminder: this is part four of a four-part series. If you haven’t already, please read the first, second, and third emails).
Let’s begin with orienting ourselves – we’ve covered a lot!
We started with the problem:
Your business isn’t growing as fast as it should!
You then learned the top three things even the most successful businesses have done to cause this problem:
· Built a “business job” instead of a business
· Focused on the parts above the system
· Fixed the wrong funnel steps at the wrong time
The next step taught you how to solve this problem by doing these three things instead:
· Build your business as an owner, not an employee
· Execute everything with the system in mind
· Optimize the right funnel steps at the right time
In email #1, we talked about building your business as an owner. This means that you spend a lot more time working ON your business and less time IN it.
Working ON your business gives you ‘growth perspective’ and allows you to see the marketing gaps that keep you from growing as fast as you want.
You cannot effectively do this from withIN the business.
And as we’ve said before, the truth is often hidden if you’re looking for it on your own.
That’s why we’ve seen that most successful businesses have an ‘objective enough’ outside partner (e.g., a business colleague, friend, growth coach, or even family member).
The job of this outside partner is to objectively see what you can’t and help you to notice it yourself.
This level of objectivity also gives you the time to scale in a way that won’t break your business.
Recall: growing an owner-DEPENDENT business too fast, without the proper frameworks and processes in place, can lead to accelerated decline.
In email #2, we talked about the importance of seeing your business as a system, not just a collection of parts.
Since every part of the system is interrelated, what you do to part of it affects the others.
This is why you cannot simply optimize for volume when you increase traffic to a lead magnet.
Instead, you have to bring in the right kind of traffic.
Optimizing for traffic (one part of the system) without considering the end goal can quickly lead to lots of traffic but no (or bad) customers.
Executing with the system in mind means that you focus on attracting the right people – people who are most likely to be happy customers, not just traffic that downloads a lead magnet.
Finally, in email #3, we spoke about the growth gap marketing framework.
Instead of chasing the latest and greatest shiny tool or tactic peddled by the ‘gurus,’ we used our documented customer journey and actionable metrics to tell us which tool/tactic to deploy at what time and at which stage of the customer journey.
Hopefully, you’ve internalized these three ingredients and have started to integrate them into your business.
But before we move too far, we must address a HUGE elephant in the room.
You may even be doing it right now.
It’s the Huge A-HA that Changed Everything!
(And chances are good that you’ll have an ‘a-ha’ too!)
It’s by far the most significant business killer we’ve seen…
If we only shared a bunch of tools and tactics with you, sure, you’ll start to implement them in your business and have a decent level of success.
And that’s great – believe me.
But I fear that it could wind up being just another half-built bridge in your business, and that’s the last thing in the world that I want you to do.
So, I want to close with this concept called ‘half-built-bridges.’
Here’s how it works:
Let’s pretend that this is you, and you’re over here on this mountain:
Ultimately, where you want to be is over here, on this mountain.
Your pot of gold is on the other side.
There’s this massive gulf between where you are and what you want.
You do what anyone would do – you start building bridges to the other side.
The reason you came here today is that you’re looking for a bridge, right?
Now, I don’t know what the thing is that you want – it could be more business growth, more sales, or perhaps you want to grow your company because you want to put your kids through college. Maybe you want to help more people improve their lives.
I don’t know what your pot of gold is, but I do know that if you’re here today, reading this, then you probably don’t have it.
You came here today looking for a bridge that will take you from where you are to where you want to be.
Make no mistake – what we have already shared with you can help you build a bridge.
But, here’s my concern: I bet this is not the first time you’ve had a novel idea.
I bet there are times when you’ve read a blog post and emails like this, attended a webinar, or heard something about Facebook Advertising.
And you go, “Oh, Facebook Advertising! There’s this new strategy where we can implement shorter videos. I think it’s going to work.”
You start building that bridge, but then you stop and think, “Maybe this isn’t the right bridge.”
You stop because the following week (or month), you read about a new strategy that someone else is doing, and you go, “Forget Facebook! We need to be doing Instagram stories.”
You cut off the last bridge, and you start building a new one.
Then the next week, you say, “No, no, no…we don’t need to be doing this. What we need to be doing is chatbots.”
And so you build the chatbots bridge.
Again and again, over and over…
What you’re left with at the end of the day is a bunch of half-built bridges.
My guess is, if you’re like me or many entrepreneurs, this is not a unique experience.
It happens time and time and time again.
What we have in these half-built bridges is an enormous amount of work, effort, and investment.
But what’s a half-built bridge worth?
Nothing! Because it won’t get us to the other side.
So, if you’re sitting here today and you’re frustrated, saying to yourself things like: “I’m just tired! I’m exhausted, and yet I do not see the results I want!”
I submit to you the reason you’re tired, exhausted, and feeling like you’re flailing around is that you’re currently building up an inventory of – you guessed it – half-built bridges.
So, if it seems complicated and difficult, if it looks like you are working, working, working, and you do not see the results, it’s due to these half-built bridges you see here today.
So how do you break out of this cycle?
How do you build the (right) bridge so that you finally get to the other side and experience your pot of gold (what’s uniquely important to you)? Where you can experience:
- The freedom that comes from building that bridge all the way through.
- The confidence to build the next bridge…and the next bridge.
- The fulfillment of creating the positive impact you’ve always wanted.
We want to show you how to build a bridge all the way through.
If you’re ready to take a step towards this new reality, then we need you to raise your hand and say “yes!”
We honor your time and attention and recognize that what we’re about to share isn’t for everyone.
Click on the link below to raise your hand:
[LINK]
It’s for people who believe that what may have gotten them to their current level is not what will take them to the next…and beyond.
We’ll focus on people who want to take dedicated action towards predictable, profitable, and confident growth.
We promise that engaging in what we offer will help you to start implementing the proven frameworks and processes we’ve touched upon so far.
These frameworks and processes have been tested by over 126,000 marketers on teams of all shapes and sizes.
If you’re just not quite there yet, no worries! 🙂 We will continue to send you tips and resources if we find them worthy of your time.
If you ever come to the place in your journey where you’re ready to begin the next step, come back to this email and click on [this link].
See you soon,
Brian
DigitalMarketer Certified Partner
Promo Email Series
Email #5
In our last email, we introduced the idea of half-built bridges.
Did you discover that you had a half-built bridge or two in your business? Maybe even a warehouse full of them?
Well, please don’t be too hard on yourself – building an inventory of half-built bridges is very common.
With all the available information we can access, it might even be inevitable!
However, we’ve found a common reason that contributes most significantly to creating half-built bridges.
Deep down, you probably already know the answer.
Before I get to it, I’d like to share a quick story.
I recently worked with a customer on paid media. We’ll call her Sarah (not her real name).
A global research and advisory company told her to spend more on paid search for non-branded search terms.
Given the weight and credibility of this industry advisory company, Sarah’s leaders tasked her with implementing this non-branded paid search tactic.
Her agency was glad to help – even if it wasn’t right for her unique business. More on this in a moment.
They had already decided everything before I started working with them.
And so, she began building the non-branded paid search bridge.
The results?
We discovered that she was paying almost $10 for every $1 she got back.
OUCH!
So, industry advisors didn’t get it right. Her leadership team didn’t get it right. And her paid search agency certainly didn’t get it right.
But again, it wasn’t their fault.
And it wasn’t hers.
They had been trying to make paid search work for YEARS.
They were trying one technique after the other.
Never finishing through until the end.
Never getting predictable or profitable results.
So, working with her existing agency, I recommended ways to measure performance using OUR performance reporting tool – not just relying on the agency’s.
We needed to determine actionable metrics – a key component in the framework we’ll discuss later.
Next, we needed to understand HER customer’s unique path to purchase, not some industry best guess.
Again, this is part of the framework we’ll discuss later.
With everything set up, we used our Growth Gap Marketing process…
Lo and behold, we discovered that non-branded paid search just wasn’t right for her business.
Many of the paid media bridges they’d tried to build over the years were the WRONG ones.
No wonder the results were so bad!
Using this same process, and through further discussions with Sarah, we found their most crucial bridge – the one they should have been building – had never been started!
With their most important paid media bridge identified, they got to work building it…all the way through.
The results?
One person on the paid media team said, “The results are unbelievable. I keep waiting for the good results to end…but, so far, they keep coming!”
Was this process magic?
No!
It’s the result of A LOT of trial and error and the wisdom that only comes from decades of working with more than 100,000 businesses and teams of all sizes.
So, why do so many businesses and entrepreneurs build half-bridge after half-bridge, year after year?
On some level, they’re not sure if they’re building the right bridge for their business.
They get excited about a technique they learned about – one that supposedly produces tremendous results.
They start moving forward, but a nagging part of them is unsure.
Is this the right bridge for them?
Should they be doing something else?
They think: “This might not be it… It’s not working like the sales letter promised.”
So they go back, and they start over with something else they discovered.
Again, they put in the effort, but they’re still not sure.
Does this sound familiar?
Listen!
You’re not a failure… it’s a systemic failure…the process leads to this.
It’s not you, it’s the way you’ve been trying to do it.
We know this because 126,000 marketing teams experienced this same problem.
They realized that they take three steps forward, but they don’t know if those were the right three steps (or in the right direction).
We identified that you could be building 73 possible bridges.
73!
No wonder we all get shiny-object syndrome, right?
But the problem isn’t simply picking one of the 73 bridges – you need to choose the right bridge.
And there’s only a 1 in 73 chance of getting it right.
These poor odds explain why so many of us have gotten it wrong. The deck is stacked against us.
So many businesses spend so much time creating either half-built bridges or the WRONG bridge.
No wonder few businesses reach the level where they confidently grow predictably and profitably.
It can sometimes feel near-impossible.
So, how do you BREAK this cycle once and for all?
That’s where something we call the “Double Your Sales” diagnostic session comes in.
Essentially, in 60 to 90 minutes, we map out the right plan for how you can double your sales in 90 days.
Like Sarah, you don’t want to build just any bridge.
The key is to pick the right bridge for YOU.
Now, we cannot guarantee that your sales will double in the next 90 days, but we’re going to begin working out a plan so that you can double your sales in 90 days.
Tomorrow, we’ll discuss a process that helps us personalize the ONE bridge (out of 73) you should be doing now…
…so you don’t waste your time (and money) trying to build a bridge that doesn’t give you what you want.
See you soon,
Brian
DigitalMarketer Certified Partner
Email #6
In the last email, I gave you a few reasons why we all collect half-built bridges in our business:
On some level, we’re not sure if we’re building the right bridge, so we stop and make another, never confidently knowing if what we’re doing is what we should be doing or will lead to predictable and profitable growth…or be a complete waste of time and money.
The key is knowing that this uncertainty is both expected and solvable!
You also learned that you could be building 73 bridges in your business.
But only one out of those 73 will give you the most significant impact now.
This means you only have a 1-in-73 chance of picking the right bridge.
That’s worse than guessing the right card in a standard deck – and more costly!
That’s why today, we’ll discuss:
How to personalize YOUR bridge!
…the one that matters most to you and gets you to your pot of gold the fastest.
Your bridge will be different from someone else’s.
To double your sales in 90 days, it’s not enough to just pick any bridge and finish it.
You need to identify and finish the right bridge.
The only way to do this is to diagnose the gaps in your path to predictable, profitable, and confident growth.
Think about it. If you go to the doctor’s office, they won’t give you a prescription based on what has worked on the average with all their patients, right?
I’m not a doctor, but…
…we insist on the DYS DIAGNOSTIC session because we do not want to be part of the problem – where you’re randomly presented with 73 bridges.
You’d be like a kid in the candy store, trying everything because it all looks great.
We realize the danger in that if we just show you how to build all 73 bridges, we’ll be just like the others…not helpful and keeping you stuck in a half-built bridge loop.
We not only become part of the problem, but we’d also just make it 73 times worse!
We need to identify your ONE priority bridge and ignore the other 72 (for now).
The one bridge you should immediately begin working ON in your business.
In 60-90 minutes, we go through the “Double Your Sales” Growth Gap Marketing diagnostic process to find the ONE bridge you should be building right now.
It’s a series of straightforward questions, processes, and frameworks.
And on the other side, we will have identified your most crucial bridge right now – the one out of 73 bridges that sets you up to double your sales in the next 90 days.
The GGM identifies the most crucial gap to your growth – the one that, once unblocked, will give you the quickest return on your time and effort.
From there, you’re ready to build the right bridge – using the right tools and tactics – to double your sales.
Here’s a sneak peek at part of the Growth Gap Marketing diagnostic process:
Oh! One last thing…
Did you catch that in this one session, we do ALL three of the solutions we talked about in our earlier emails?
1. Build your business as an owner, not an employee: by dedicating 60-90 minutes to working ON your business, you’re the business owner – not the employee.
2. Execute everything with the system in mind: the Growth Gap Marketing diagnostic process uses a systems-level approach to ensure that you:
3. Optimize the right funnel steps at the right time: by identifying YOUR most crucial path to predictable, profitable, and confident growth.
So, if you’re ready to spend just 60-90 minutes on knowing with precision and clarity the bridge you need to build first…
…the one that gets you past the hurdle you’ve never gone beyond before…
Click on the link below to book your session now (limited slots available):
[LINK]
See you on the other side,
Brian
DigitalMarketer Certified Partner
P.S. Don’t worry – we can work on the other 72 bridges later at a time that’s right for you and your business. 😊