Life gave me one of those moments of clarity lately, the proverbial whack on the side of the head.
I’ve been teaching myself the ropes of online advertising off and on for the past 3 years. Truth is I’ve had limited success and could not figure out why for the longest time, but this week I had my breakthrough.
I had been following directions like…
Here is how you create a Facebook ad that will change your life:
Put a headline here.
Insert a picture there.
Choose your daily budget and wait for the money to roll in.
Most of the time I end up spending money with nothing to show for it.
Facebook ads are working for everyone else, right? I usually spend 4-5 days trying to get traction before getting completely frustrated.
Formula vs. Craftsmanship
In the most basic sense there are 2 different types of learning.
The first are what I what I will call formulaic learning.
How to change a starter in your car.
How to thread a sewing machine.
If you screw up installing your new starter, you’ll know right away. You can’t put it in backwards. You can’t even wire it backwards. The car will either work or it won’t.
Same goes for the sewing machine. If you route the thread incorrectly, it will snap or knot into a mess in short order.
Then there is the other type of learning — the type that tends more toward true art than paint-by-numbers. Like making a violin or making your own wine — this is a craft, not a formula.
[Tweet “The fast track to frustration is applying tips-and-techniques solutions to complex problems”]
Availability Bias
My breakthrough this week is realizing I fell for something called Availability Bias. Here’s how it works:
If we have a personal experience with something, or hear about it often, or read about it often, then we are more likely to give these things more weight when we are making a decision.
The same way that most people guess that there are more deaths by auto accident than by emphysema (the opposite is true). Emphysema deaths aren’t in the news often, so they are not top of mind with most people.
When I start looking for a solution to my online marketing woes I go — online — where I find a hundred online programs that:
Promise instant access
Imply anyone-can-do-this success
Since this is all I see, I inadvertently think one of these programs must hold the solution.
We Need Each Other
What I don’t see offered online is the more time-honored path. The path that is not paved with claims of instant anything.
I don’t see any offers for the path of apprenticeship within my community.
Turns out I could have saved myself a lot of time if I had just surrounded myself with people who are on the same journey I am.
I started sharing my roadblocks with several other people who are on the same path, a few are a little ahead of me. The insight they offered was simply…amazing!
[Tweet “We don’t need another online course. What we need is a group of peers to stick with us.”]
And the good news is that we are going to do it again!
Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks about a very unique type of group that I’m forming
where we all have each other’s back
where those of us who are strong in one area can guide those of us who are not
where everyone comes out ahead
[Tweet “I am ready to stop doing it all on my own!”]
[reminder]In what areas of your business have you been banging your head? Where could you use a Guide? Continue the conversation on facebook, twitter, or linkedin.[/reminder]
Something really surprising happened when I ran an event this week. I wasn’t looking to receive such a deep confirmation in my calling.
Just to provide some context — I run a ton of short 2-hour and 4-hour workshops each year. I rarely do full-day events. In fact, I’ve only run two so far this year.
The first was The Sales Workshop back in March, and the second was my first ever AEPC workshop for Authors, Experts, and Product Creators.
I want to contrast these two events for you.
The Sales Workshop is my flagship product. I deliver around 30 of these engagements per year across the southeast, plus I have built out this product with a 6 disc audio series plus an online training program.
The Authors, Experts, & Product Creators (AEPC) event was designed for my affiliate tribe. It is a one day annual planning event where I brought in 4 guest speakers and gave people plenty of workshop time to work on their businesses.
In short, we find ways to work together and cross-promote each other throughout the year.
[Tweet “To Be Vulnerable – To Really Put Yourself Out There…Is to Live Courageously @BreneBrown”]
When I ran the full-day version of The Sales Workshop it was a LOT of work. I set an aggressive target and worked with my team of affiliates to fill the room. We met our goal, but it took a tremendous toll on me.
For the AEPC event I vowed I would not push myself so close to burnout. The class was a prototype and I wanted to start small before pushing it to a larger audience.
Surprise Results
Compared to The Sales Workshop I spent about 1/10th the time promoting the AEPC event and had 3x the fun.
Here’s what I didn’t expect.
They Want to Keep Meeting
The AEPC event was always billed as a once-a-year thing. Just me adding as much value as I can to my affiliates.
Toward the end one of the attendees said, “What now? I feel like we need to meet again. Otherwise I won’t know how his story turned out with the new business, and I won’t know how they are doing with their membership site.”
Several others agreed.
She was right. I had made no allowance for keeping the tribe connected to one another after the event.
Spoken Affirmation of My Calling
One of the attendees said, “This — working with these types of people, authors and experts — this is your calling.
I was blown away.
Never in all my time running presentations and events have I had someone say these words to me.
Word of Mouth
Another great piece of news came when I reconnected with yet another AEPC attendee.
She said, “Hey, I mentioned you on my podcast yesterday. I hope you don’t mind.”
Do I mind? Are you kidding?
I’ve never had someone mention me on their podcast after one of my events.
How to Create Your Own Surprises
What started out as a way to help my affiliates build their businesses has taken a surprisingly good turn.
I made no attempt to engineer these results. I don’t think I could have if I tried.
[Tweet “What started out as a way to help my affiliates has taken a surprisingly good turn.”]
Truth is I aimed for a goal, and reached it.
But I landed on something far greater than my initial goal.
I landed on a need within my community — a need that I can meet. Something that I can do to truly help people.
If you are looking for the “How To” from this post, here it is:
Put yourself out there.
Test things.
Try.
Repeat.
You have genius inside you.
Go find it!
[Tweet “You have genius inside you. Go find it!”]
[reminder]What surprising results have you found so far on your journey toward self-employment? Continue the conversation on facebook, twitter, or linkedin.[/reminder]
About a year ago I had grown so frustrated with trying to grow my business through blogging — that I quit blogging entirely. It was the best move I could have made.
I believed the “grow your blog, grow your business” hype. After all there are so many examples of where it worked for people. The internet seems to be littered with stories of people who narrowed their blogging focus, found their tribe, and cashed in.
I wanted a piece of the action, but it just didn’t seem to be in the cards for me.
I had plenty of great things to say, but I just couldn’t find an audience.
Writing took a lot of time, I wasn’t seeing any tangible results, and I was simply losing patience with it.
Game over.
What I Did Instead
Instead I stopped trying to get organic traffic and just picked up my phone.
I started pitching my speaking engagements — If readers won’t come to me, I’ll have to go to them.
It worked!
[Tweet “The #1 most overlooked way to generate more revenue fast? Your phone! Start dialing today!”]
In all I booked 40 speaking engagements in 12 months and the craziest thing happened — people started coming up to me after my talks saying things like:
“If I give you my email can I get a copy of your slide deck?”
“More people need to be talking about that ‘effectuation’ topic you shared.”
“Your session was the best one I heard all day.”
I couldn’t believe it. All the validation that I was craving through blogging just didn’t happen, but I found it in public speaking.
Who knew?
Why Did I Start Blogging Again?
Of course the big question is: Why are you blogging again, Jason?
Simple. I know the long-term benefits of sharing my message in written form.
I now know — thanks to some guidance from Mitch Aunger at Planet5D.com — that it could take years before I have enough critical mass to start seeing tangible results.
But the effort is so worth it.
I get to hone my craft of writing, and I get to refine my message (both of which are topics that I speak about in depth on my membership site, myBusinessGuild.com).
[reminder]What is ONE thing that you should stop doing, which, if you stopped, would make room for something else much larger in your life? Continue the conversation on facebook, twitter, or linkedin.[/reminder]
I picked up this Cannon Vixia HF R400 about 2 years ago on a Black Friday deal. It is the perfect entry-level camera and has more than enough features for me.
It records in full HD, has a 53X zoom, and has a memory card slot for easy file transfer.
I realize this is a small thing, but here’s one feature that I like the most about the camera: it has a standard microphone jack. So many of the other cameras I considered had special jacks that required an adapter from the manufacturer. Because it was going to be an additional hassle, I just skipped those models.
Tripod
Years ago I bought this tripod for something like $90 from BestBuy. Now I see that Amazon is relabeling it under a house name and the price is incredibly low at less than $25.00! Check out the AmazonBasics 60-Inch Lightweight Tripod with Bag.
This is not one of those flimsy, dinky tripods. This thing has some meat to it and stands at 60 inches (5 feet) tall. I have had mine for years and I highly recommend it.
There are 4 light heads in all. Each head contains 5 bulbs. Bulbs are controlled with 3 on/off switches giving you the ability to light 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 lights at a time. You have total control.
Kit comes with bulbs, too!
I bought 4 lights because I wanted to have 2 lights on the background and 2 lights on me.
From the outside we can watch someone land a big sale, come up with a new product that people love, and even create partnerships that seems to take off into the stratosphere.
All the while we watch them with stupor and envy over how they seemed to do it all without straining.
I recently picked up a copy of The Talent Code from my local Barnes & Noble. While I plan on doing a pretty thorough review on The Talent Code at a later time, I wanted today to focus on one concept — a key concept — that can unlock the path to your true talent.
I’m completely enthralled with deep practice.
Daniel Coyle’s superb writing and excellent research skills have landed us a rare glimpse into what it is like to develop our talent to a level of sheer mastery.
Deep practice is one of those keys. Sure, we have to have a good teacher. And we have to be passionate about what we’re doing. Consider these as foundations to your motivation.
Once we are motivated and have found a love for our craft, the manner in which we approach practice is a clear delineator between those whose path continues upward and those whose path grows stagnant.
[Tweet “Deep practice sets you free to be the entrepreneur you were created to be. @JasonROwens”]
What Is Deep Practice?
The author provides us with this definition.
…struggling in certain targeted ways–operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes–makes you smarter. Or to put it a slightly different way, experiences where you are forced to slow down, make errors and correct them–as you would if you were walking up an ice covered hill, slipping and stumbling as you go–end up making you swift and graceful without your realizing it (p.18).
It is painful. It comes in fits and starts. For musicians it means playing a few notes and then starting over. Then playing a few more notes, getting further, and then stopping again to go back and look at the music.
For some athletes deep practice also looks like concentrated high speed practice like playing indoor soccer on something as small as a basketball court. The game moves fast. Players learn to improvise which is every bit as important as knowing basic ball handling skills.
Take a look here a this image of a student in the midst of deep practice. She is given a word problem (bottom of image) and tasked with finding the answer. Looks like 3 failed attempts before she gets on the right track.
The student starts, sets up the problem, and then gives it a try. She can tell she’s on the worng track, so she starts over. She sets up the problem again and realizes she’s on a dead end a second time. A third try ends in another wrong answer.
The fourth try is the one that finally produces the right answer.
You can see the teacher’s praise for the student’s effort.
Why is Deep Practice Important to New Entrepreneurs?
This is the part that I think so many people miss.
You are not going to do well on your first venture just like you are going to do well when you are first learning to play a song on an instrument or learning to play your first sport.
These things take time.
Sure, at some level we all know this, but we all think that this applies to someone else.
The problem is that most of us don’t have time.
We don’t have unlimited resources either.We have to make hay while the sun is shining. We have to start making money.
[Tweet “What do I need to remove from my days so that I have more time for deep practice? @JasonROwens”]
Where Do You Need to Use Deep Practice in Your Life?
You must be really good at your core activity–the thing you do, the widget you produce, or the service you perform.
Without displaying some level of proficiency here, nothing else matters because you won’t have a business.
The second answer is that you need deep practice at promoting your business. This doesn’t mean selling your product by going door-to-door. It means that you should be able to find a mix of 2-3 activities that consistently introduce you to people who could be in the market for your product either in the short term or over the long term.
This mix of 2-3 activities should have a track record of producing consistent revenue for you.
This track record does not have to be picture perfect. We aren’t looking for perfection. We are looking for something that has worked at least once and gives you some degree of energy for doing it again.
Once you’ve landed on these 2-3 activities, your path is golden. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Learn more and more from each time you reach out, talk about your sevices, and offer your goods.
Give yourself large blocks of time for both the activity, and then do the most important thing. Take a few minutes to make notes on what worked and what didn’t.
Without this, you won’t get any benefit from practicing. All you are doing is just going out and falling off your bike. You have to understand what worked and what didn’t work. If your instrument sounds off-key, go back and look at the sheet music.
And then try again.
[reminder]In what one or two areas should you begin deep practice to ensure that you build a level of genius into your work?[/reminder]
For new business owners nothing is more critical than cash-flow which keeps you on the constant lookout for sales you can make today.
Yet one of the most important things you can do as a new entrepreneur is to make the decision to build a following in your early days.
Sure, there are people who will do business with you right now because they
Came to your booth
Met you at an event
Really need / want what you offer
But there is a much larger group of people that most business owners completely overlook.
People who will eventually do business with you if you stay in touch
Let’s call this pool “Eventual Customers”.
These people are like fruit that will ripen in just a little while, they need just a little more time on the windowsill.
The business owners who win over the long term are the ones who
Recognize the need to nurture these Eventual Customers.
Do the nurturing that needs to be done.
Why Building a Following Can Be So Hard
What can make this so hard is the continual hunt for customers who want to buy today. If you have set up your entire business around the quick hit, the sale where you happen to be in the right place at the right time, then you’ll most likely miss the value in building a following for future sales.
I’m thinking about one entrepreneur I interviewed earlier. She was the perfect picture of an entrepreneur who was after the quick-hit sale. Her business-to-business day consisted of having at least 10 conversations per day with business owners to get them to sign up for her service.
No interest? No problem. “I’ll be back in this area in 6 months.”
It took some time, but she eventually saw the value in longer-term relationships.
She now openly embraces the Eventual Customers mindset, and has seen huge returns on nurturing followers over the long-term.
How to Get Started
One of the simplest things to do is to just start collecting people’s information. It is easy enough to do. All you have to do is ask. See Lisa McShane’s example here.
If you have a booth-based business, then buy a mini clipboard (see this 6″x9″ one from Staples or just Google “mini clipboard”) and place a small sign up sheet. Consider providing a freebie (promotional pen, example of your work, etc.) for signing up.
Make it a habit of exchanging cards. Yes, this means that you will need to get your own cards printed. See Vistaprint for free cards just to get started.
What This Isn’t
Keep in mind here that you are NOT obligating yourself to starting a website, building a blog or starting some huge social media campaign.
Some business owners make the mistake of investing too heavily in ongoing nurturing. Some feel the need to update their followers every day. For some businesses this can reach overkill quickly.
Building a following is different than building a list, but could certainly lead to that in the future.
What To Do Next
Instead just think about reaching out to people once a month with a short email that says
Here is what I did last month
Here are a few of my products / services that are selling well (get yours now)
Here is what I’m looking forward to next month
You are probably looking at a whopping 10 minutes to write your email, and you’ll become the top of people’s mind.
Here’s a hypothetical example from my training world.
Last week I was in Raleigh, NC with a class of entrepreneurs.
We had a blast figuring out new ways to take our products to market.
My Sales Workshop classes are my biggest seller,
and I can't wait to see you in one of my sessions as I travel
around the state. Next month I'll be in Columbia, SC
teaching my newest class The Inner Roadmap to aspiring entrepreneurs.
In the mean time, if you have any questions about getting
your business started, just hit Reply and I'll do
everything I can to help.
Talk to you soon,
Jason
Feel free to tailor that to your business.
From here you can grow this practice in any one of a thousand ways — a monthly newsletter, a featured-product-of-the-week email, you name it.
Have fun building your following. This is one of the most productive long-term investments you can make in your business.
[reminder]Was this Article Helpful? Please leave me a comment below.[/reminder]
In this part of the country that much snow means trouble.
All we can do at this point is weather the storm.
Which means a lot of sitting.
And waiting.
There are plenty of other things I could be doing today. Productive things. Work-related things.
While my only choice is to dial down my angst, part of me secretly loves times like these. Times where my plans get interrupted; times when all I can’t go 90 miles an hour.
When I stop moving for too long, I really start to take stock of my life.
This been such a rescue for me in the past. These sitting and waiting times have saved me from continuing down a road I shouldn’t have been on. A wrong turn that I was trying to solve by going faster.
I imagine you’ve had times like this too. Times when you were…
traveling for work, and get stuck in a massive delay at the airport.
waiting for a tow truck to pull you out of a ditch.
stuck in the waiting room of the quick-change oil change place that has had your car for over an hour.
These are great opportunities for reflection, and sometimes I suspect that God arranges moments like these to slow us down, to get us out of our usual frenzied pace.
Then, and perhaps only then, do we ask ourselves the most dangerous question we will ever ask ourselves:
What am I doing here?
The reason this question is so dangerous is because the answer has the potential to up end our lives. Daring to ask that question could lead us to all sorts of other wild places such as the desires of our heart, and how we could have abandoned them so long ago.
If we ask that dangerous question we could also start to think about our calling, and if there even is such a thing as having a purpose, and if so, how we can find it.
And then we begin to realize that yes, there is such a thing as a calling. We begin to see people living from their purpose, and we begin to want that in our own lives as well. We forgive ourselves for taking the wrong turns, we forgive ourselves for our former misplaced priorities. We begin to see our way out of the fog.
The next time you find that life has hit your pause button, and you are not going to catch the flight, or get your car back, or do anything that was on your list for that day, take a few minutes… no…take an hour to sit with this question: “What am I doing here?”
If you stay with it, I promise you, answering that question will lead you on more adventures that you can possibly imagine.
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When I let my wife proofread this article, she said I needed to follow it up with some practical how-to behind my suggestion. So, here it is…
This exercise is designed to get you thinking about where you are and where you want to be in your life.
Let’s get started right away.
Take a few moments to write down in as much detail as possible where you are in your work life.
What job do you hold?
Who do you work with?
What responsibilities do you have?
How do you feel about your job?
If you were to be layed off tomorrow, how would you feel deep down?
The first set of questions is designed to get us to simply open our eyes. We must first take a hard and objective look at where we are. Where things are good, we have to admit them and celebrate them. Where things are not so good. We have to admit that.
This isn’t to say that we have to fix all the bad things about our situation because some of them just are not fixable.
This is simply taking stock of our situation.
Where Do You Want to Be?
Likewise, let’s do the same exercise on the other end of the spectrum.
Where would you like to be with respect to your work life?
What job would you hold?
Who would you work with?
Who would you like to be serving?
What kind(s) of work would you rather be doing?
Is your work related to a cause (i.e., clean drinking water for the under privileged)? If so, what draws you to this cause?
If you have a clear picture of work you would like to do, what are your next most logical steps?
If you need to get more clarity, what could you do to get a deeper understanding?
The second set of questions is designed to get us thinking in terms of possibilities, to paint our respective worlds anew with a magic brush. Given what we know about ourselves, where would we go from here?
Most of the time there is a huge difference between where we are and where we want to be. This is completely normal. You can begin taking steps toward a better future today. Want to learn more?
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Does God Play a Role?
There is a third set of questions that I will introduce here to get you thinking about what role, if any, that God plays in your work-related pursuits.
Do you feel God’s calling or wanting to speak with you regarding the current path you are on?
Do you have a sense that the place you are in is requiring you to be someone that you weren’t really made to be?
Do you feel there is something else, some other path that God may be calling you to pursue?
Is the concept of hearing from God outside of your norm, or have you embraced this notion before?
How to Get a Plan
When I was first struggling between where I was and where I wanted to be, I had no idea what steps to take next.
It took me a lot of trial and error, but I finally found my way.
