Episode 22 – Are You Killing Your Business with New Ideas
Show Notes
We’re chatting about the one mistake that I see so many coaches make, especially in the early stages of their business. It’s one of the biggest mistakes they can make, and oftentimes not only does it slow down their growth, sometimes it can completely derail their business.
Maybe you’ve heard it called Shiny Object Syndrome; the tendency for someone to chase something new, be it a new idea, trend, or goal, rather than to stay focused on what they’re doing.
We have a lot of ideas. Trust me. I get that. In fact, I have so many ideas running through my head most of the time, that it’s really loud in there.
How do you get out of Shiny Object Syndrome?
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Hey there. Thanks for listening and welcome to the marketing matchmaker podcast. If you're looking to grow your business, increase your revenue and scale your impact all while staying true to who you are and the people you serve. This is the show for you. I'm Jennifer Tamborski, digital marketing strategists, fractional CMO, and founder of Virtual Marketing Experts. My team and I work with six and seven figure coaches, consultants, and online entrepreneurs who are tired of playing the guru game of one size fits all marketing. They're ready to create a business and marketing strategy that actually builds relationships with their ideal clients creates massive shifts in their business and rapidly increases their revenue. As your marketing matchmaker, I'm going to help you find the perfect marketing match for you. This show will teach you how to reach your ideal client, connect with your audience, build that perfect relationship and generate more revenue. All through a process I like to call dating your ideal client. Now let's go have some fun!
Hey there, welcome back to the Marketing Matchmaker. Today we're chatting about the one mistake that I see so many entrepreneurs make, especially in the coaching industry and most, especially in the early stages of their business. Oftentimes, heck I just had a client come on board that I see making this mistake over and over.
We're working on that.
It's one of the biggest mistakes that an entrepreneur can make. Not only does it slow down the growth of your business, sometimes it can completely derail the business itself. Maybe you've heard it called shiny object syndrome. If you don't know what that means, basically it's the tendency for someone to chase something new. Does that sound familiar? Whether it's a new idea or a new trend or new goal, they're always chasing something new and pivoting and changing their directions rather than staying focused on what they're doing right now.
As business owners, especially coaches, we have a ton of ideas and trust me, I get it. In fact, I have so many ideas running through my head on most places it's incredibly noisy up there. We're always wanting to give our clients more, to create more things for our audiences. And we have a ton of ideas that come up, especially when it comes to programs and courses that we want to develop. Maybe it's a new lead magnet or a new funnel or a new micro offer, or the million other things that are going through your head right now. When I talk about a new idea for your business, sometimes I even see entrepreneurs trying to take on multiple businesses.
And here's the reality: When we are trying to do everything, nothing is really getting done effectively. And that my friends is where shiny object syndrome becomes a problem.
You see, oftentimes you or your team, may have a fantastic idea and you want to add it to your list of things your company does. The problem is, is that it may or may not support the main goal of your business, which then will derail what you're doing currently. At the heart of it, the issue with tiny object syndrome is the distraction being constantly drawn to new ideas, new tools, and abandoning the important things, processes and procedures that are in your business.
Have you ever read the book? The one thing by Gary Keller? I've read this book recently and in it, he talks about having few distractions and less on your plate, which allows you to then really focus on your goal and be successful. So when you think about that, it makes perfect sense. And it really true. Over the years, I found this to be a consistent problem with entrepreneurs. We're often so caught up in the things we could do, that it diverts our attention from the one thing that we should be focused on.
Ask yourself this question: if you could be truly excellent at one thing, what would that be?
And then how do you know if you succeeded at it?
Or in other words, what is it? What's that one thing that your company does that is better than anyone else? What promises that you can make because of what it is that you do that's amazing. Make it simple, make it so that anyone can understand what it is that you do. For me, it's pretty simple. It's marketing. And not just paid traffic or funnels, but the overall marketing strategy is where I really excel. Coming up with new ideas, messaging, strategies for my clients, is what I love to do most. So it's what my business focuses on.
Now, we may offer funnels and paid traffic, but those are all things that support that solid marketing strategy behind it. So my company focuses solely on marketing and that's what we do. Well, here's the thing I haven't reached the goals that I want to in my business for marketing, so that's all we're focusing on for our clients. We focus on funnels, paid traffic, and marketing strategy. And someday when I've hit the financial goals in my business and have my business develop the way I want it to be, I can start adding on additional pieces to help support that.
When you're able to focus on the one thing that you did do super well better than anyone else, it makes it easier to market your business. It really should be the cornerstone of your marketing, avoiding shiny object syndrome is essential when it comes to your marketing.
Quite honestly, by being crystal clear on the one thing your company does better than anyone else, the one offer that you provide, it will help you to not only focus on making that one thing amazing because honestly, that's what we want, right, is amazing customer service and an amazing customer journey. It will also help you to learn to clearly communicate what that one thing is in a way that stands out from the rest of your industry.
You see messaging is critical when it, when it comes to your map marketing. And it's so much easier to be able to voice exactly who you are, what you do, and who you serve when you're focused on just that one thing. By running everything in your marketing, and even your business, through the filter of what am I exceptional at, you're able to really amplify your message and make the one thing your business does heard above the noise.
When we look at your overall marketing strategy through the lens of the one thing, it's so much easier to create the strategy, and then the funnel, or launch, or even the product or service that you provide. You can explain everything to your audience in a way that connects with them. And that is super clear on just that one thing you do better than everyone else.
I said this earlier in the program that I actually have a client currently, who's suffering from that marketing shiny objects syndrome. They came to us because they're ready to scale. There are already at about a half, a million-dollar business, and we want to scale them to a million and beyond.
Here's what I've found in working with them: They have a "let's try this" mentality. And what we're finding is, because before they came to us they didn't focus on not necessarily the one thing they do, because they do focus on the one thing they do better than anyone else, but they weren't focused on the one funnel they wanted to create, or the one process that they wanted people that customer journey to go through.
So they've been developing over the years, multiple streams. And what we're finding out is that these weren't set up correctly. Why? Because they try to do it in a way that was haphazard, rather than focusing on that one thing and then ascending them to the next, in a structured way. That really does make it difficult to scale. Because you don't know if all of your pieces are working together, because you've been doing things in a haphazard way.
How can you beat the shiny object syndrome?
First, sit on the idea before launching them. Seriously, I've done this before. I have a great idea and I dive right into it and it takes a whole lot more work and effort than I thought it was going to when I dove into it, which then makes it difficult to continue and to finish because you're having to balance all of the things that you're doing.
So before you and your team begin to work on that new project, that new idea, that's going to change everything, take a moment.
Pause.
Put it on the back burner and really look at your overall strategy, your overall marketing and business goals, and make sure that this piece is going to fit in a way that will really help your business grow. And understand whether it's the best use of your company resources. Not every idea should be acted on. Giving yourself time to think about it, can really spare you from acting too quickly, making decisions too quickly, and creating a mess that you have to pay someone later to clean up.
The other thing is communicate with your team. So if you have a great idea, talk to your team members about it. Get some outside perspective because oftentimes as business owners, we come up with what we think is a fantastic idea, and maybe it's not feasible with the team and the processes that we currently have in place.
So listen to their perspectives and concerns, and really understand where your business is right now and whether or not this piece will help to facilitate your goals.
Set both long-term and short-term goals for your projects. Here's the thing, that client I was talking to about talking about a few minutes ago, one of the things that they didn't have was short-term and long-term goals for each of their projects. They just had an overall revenue goal, which is awesome, but how you gonna get there?
So when we slowed down and started to really look at what all of the pieces were, we were able to create a 90 day plan and start executing it, which then makes the client able to look at the next 90 days. Doing it in 90 day gaps often allows you that perspective to see what can be done in that timeframe.
The last thing, and this is something that I think a lot of people do too quickly, or I should say, actually just do in general. Abandoning the projects only when necessary. The keywords, there are "only when necessary". Oftentimes I see people abandon a funnel before they've really even had the time to make it work.
Reality is, it can take six months to a year to really crack a funnel to make it successful.
And if that funnel is in your long-term goals, it is much easier to work on that and make it exceptional than it is to start all over again. So avoid abandoning the projects before, you know, they're going to work. Once you have your goals in place, keep pushing forward until you get to that goal, or until you have enough data and enough information to really assess whether or not that funnel or customer journey or goal should be set aside.
When you think about it six months to a year, isn't that long. And I know, believe me, I know because I do this on a regular basis with not only my own business, but my clients. Sometimes it's really easy to get discouraged because you're not getting the results you want immediately. Giving it that time to really try things, test things, tweak things along the way will make it so that it works for you eventually.
And I'm telling you right now from experience that is going to make your life easier in the long run.
So when you're marketing your business, my number one rule is really simple: Be super clear on that one thing that you do.
What is the one product, service, or solution, that you do better than anyone else?
What is that one funnel you're going to use to move people through your customer journey?
Focus on that one thing until it works like a well-oiled machine. And then you can start looking at adding other things. Make sure that your messaging throughout your entire marketing is focused on that one thing, on that one customer journey. Be able to clearly communicate that to your audience and you will see massive success.
And when you hit that million dollars, then you can start adding multiple things to your business or even multiple businesses. But until you really hit that big financial goal that you have, you need to be able to focus on the one thing that you do better than anyone else. And the one marketing strategy that's gonna get them from introduction, through commitment, and beyond.
Thank You for listening to the Marketing Matchmaker podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love to hear your feedback. Please head over to iTunes and leave a review so we can hear from you. And if you are a coach, consultant, or online course creator who are looking to grow your business, increase your income, and scale your impact connect with me at yourmarketingmatchmaker.com. I look forward to hearing from you.