Tools & Tactics

I saved the
last critical key for predictable and profitable growth for last: tools &
tactics

Why?

Because it’s
the one most of us are already doing.

But there’s
a YUGE dark side to focusing on a lot of tools & tactics.

We get into
this deeply a bit later…

…but one
common side effect is that your life coaching business becomes a time-sucking
JOB!

MANY, many,
many would-be entrepreneurs, unfortunately trade a secure, decently paying job
for a ‘business job’ where they’re paying themselves LESS per hour with MORE
stress.

Trade a job where,
although they have to work for ‘da man’, they can generally turn it ‘off’
at the end of the day for a ‘self-employed job’ where they almost never
turn it off- for fear of something dropping through the cracks.

Trade a job where,
generally, they got paid vacation and holidays to an ‘entrepreneur job’
where they work almost seven days a week, including holidays and almost no
vacation.

Does this
sound familiar?

(even if it
doesn’t, keep reading)

I became
aware of this from the ground-breaking book, e-myth…and realized that I was not
alone.

The author,
Michael Gerber, talked about how most people have a ‘entrepreneurial seizure’
and decide that they can take the same job mentally and start a business.

They soon
realize that being a true entrepreneur takes a TOTALLY different mindset than
working for someone else.

In summary:
Unlike working for someone else where you’re working IN a business.

To be a
successful entrepreneur, you must work mostly ON your business- not IN it.

At the time,
my business had become beyond a full-time JOB.

Although I
made a good living and had replaced my old income…I still NEEDED to be IN my
business.

Because I’d
already learned the power of outsourcing and delegation (or so I thought) I
could get away with a few days.

But at some
point (3 or 4 days out), I needed to hit the grind again.

E-myth
taught me the power of systems and documented procedures and processes.

Brilliant!

Now I had
step-by-step procedures that allowed anyone to produce the results that I
wanted!

I even
outsourced the writing of the procedures. 🙂

Woohoo! I
was becoming an e-myth ninja…

…or so I
thought.

The problem…

I had A LOT
of processes, but they were all based on a frankenstein of many tools &
tactics that I had picked up from various goo-rus.

I was
definitely getting results from the tools & tactics but…

…I was still
not moving far enough in my business.

Even worse,
once a tool or tactic became obsolete, I had to scramble to find something
else.

Bottom line…

I did what they told me.

But now, I
just had a more complicated JOB, with more people (freelancers, contractors)
and LOTS of procedures.

Ugh!

I then
discovered that even with all of this, I was still missing the other two
critical keys to predictable, profitable growth in a way that allows me to work
ON my business not just IN it.

Without ALL
three keys, not what I did, it was heading for one of two inevitable paths:

One or
more tactics I was using to be successful will eventually become
ineffective…

…leaving me flopping around like a fish stranded on the shore at low
tide

I would
need to work more and more to keep all the spinning plates from crashing
onto the floor.

Well…somehow,
I chose option ‘3’: both 1 AND 2

After years
of ‘spinning plates’ as an affiliate marketer, the tools & tactics that I
used, SEO and Paid Search, came crashing down.

It wasn’t
pretty.

Even worse,
I resisted the writing on the wall for a few more years.

(Note: this
was why I needed to go back to school and get my masters in marketing…I needed
to get a ‘real job’)

Here’s a
summary of the hard lessons that I learned (so you never have to repeat them-
it was quite painful!):

Tools
& tactics are short-term without the other two critical keys

The latest
shiny tool/tactic from the goo-rus are already almost obsolete by the time
they share it.

They wouldn’t dare share it while it’s working incredibly well

If a
tool/tactics get used by a bunch of short-term
marketers, it gets overused and loses its effectiveness- maybe even gets
banned!

It was only
after working for several multi-billion dollar companies and a couple agencies
that I really started to see the impact of NOT having all three of the keys to
predictable and profitable growth…

And I was
SHOCKED at how often one or more of these keys were missing…even multi-billion
dollar companies!

But the real
effect of focusing too much on tools & tactics can actually CAUSE you to
fail…

Maybe not
today…or next week.

…but
eventually, ‘tools & tactics” only businesses are destined to fail.

I explain
why next…the very dark side of a ‘tools & tactics’ business.

When I
learned this, everything changed…

A true A-HA
moment…

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