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You are not alone

Posted byIan Brodie on October 12th, 2017.

I've never had as many replies to an email as I did to yesterday's one about feeling overwhelmed.

So if you find yourself feeling that there's just so much to learn and do when it comes to marketing and running a business and you're just not sure if you can cope with it all… please know you're not alone.

I get that feeling. And hundreds upon hundreds of other successful people do too.

And it's not just confined to us small businesses either.

Yesterday I grabbed a coffee with Brent Adamson of the CEB (and author of the Challenger Sale, Challenger Customer and a bunch of other very insightful works).

We were running through the keynote Brent is going to present today at the CEB's big Sales & Marketing conference in London. 

One of the things the CEB has found from their recent research is the paradox that the more organisations try to help their front-line staff cope with the increasing complexity of their client base, the worse they actually make things.

Just like happens with us small businesses, in their attempts to improve things they add a fix here, a “hack” there, a new system here, a new process there…and pretty soon their front-line staff are bogged down in the complexity.

Each individual improvement is good in its own right and would be great if it was the only thing they did. But add them all together and all the new systems, processes, approval hoops, people to call to get help, new documents, new guidelines…it adds so much complexity that the sum is much, much less than the parts.

And as I said to Brent yesterday – people like him and me aren't helping things.

We're constantly telling you to try this new thing, look at this great new tool, add more and more to what you're doing to get results.

Multiple that by the dozen or so experts you're listening to and it's no wonder everyone is feeling so overwhelmed.

In all honesty, I don't have a great answer for you on this one yet. This isn't a clever tease of a new product I'm about to launch. It's a problem I'm fighting every day myself too.

But as I said yesterday, simplification helps.

Really understanding your 80:20 and the critical few things you do that make the difference to your success and your clients helps too. 

Having the bravery to stick with your second-best solution because you know that adding on more bells and whistles will actually make things worse…that helps a lot.

Clearing your inbox of emails from people constantly suggesting you buy shiny new objects from them and their “friends” (or rather, people they've just met who have promised to pay them a commission on any referrals) – that definitely helps.

There's beauty in simplicity. 

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Has your business ever made you feel like this?

Posted byIan Brodie on October 11th, 2017.

I got an email recently from a long-time subscriber, a friend really, who shared some of the challenges she was facing with her business.

It's not that she isn't smart, or great at what she does (she's brilliant, in fact).

It's just that over time her business seems to have got more and more complex. She's added little bits here and there, tried some new ways of marketing, tried some more…and eventually all those little extras have added up to “a real pigs ear”.

The end result: she's “fed up with being constantly shattered and not really getting anywhere…”.

Here's the thing that you must understand about this: we all go through it.

It happens to me.

It happens to all those experts who tell you business is easy if you just buy their magic system…

No one is immune. 

It's just that some people are brave enough to admit it.

And it doesn't just happen when you're starting up or struggling. Even if your business looks like it's flying to the outside world; inside you can be running around like crazy wishing you could just escape somehow and enjoy life more.

I don't have all the answers, I get this too.

But what always helps me is simplification.

Whenever I find myself running around and constantly worn out I try to think about what I would do if I was starting again from scratch.

What's the simplest business model I could use?

Frankly, it's not my goal to build an empire and take over the world. Making a decent living, helping people and having fun is what I aim for.

So I don't need some hugely sophisticated business. I suspect you don't either.

For me, a simple model that works is to have something free to give away to get email subscribers, then to send some of my best tips and ideas by email on a regular basis and to offer a product that will help people implement my ideas and get great results from it.

I don't get any massive windfalls through that model. No sexy product launches or big paydays. I doubt it'll ever make me a gazillionaire.

Just a steady stream of satisfied clients and happy subscribers who appreciate what I do.

When I add extras and bells and whistles to that model, I get better results. 

But I also add complexity and work. Over time I get seriously diminishing returns. 

And my time and sanity mean a lot more to me than the extra money. 

So every now and then I do the exercise of thinking “what would I do if I had to start from scratch?” 

Every time I come up with a slightly different answer (after all, I've learnt new things and grown since I last did the exercise). But every time the answer is much simpler than the muddle I've ended up with.

I think that's healthy. I don't think we should be afraid to admit when we're getting overwhelmed. Most of us aren't gurus peddling an image of an easy life on a beach working just a few hours a day.

In the real world, we all get stressed and overwhelmed.

And going back to basics helps us all.

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Why your marketing shouldn’t take so long

Posted byIan Brodie on September 24th, 2017.

One of the things that often annoys me when I'm reading marketing tips from other “experts” is the repeated insistence that as a business owner you should focus most of your time on marketing. 

Of course, marketing is vital. Without new customers, your business soon struggles.

But taking all your time? That's just not viable for solo professionals and small firms. Your number one priority is actually working with clients.

These experts seem so self-unaware that they don't realise their obsessive focus on marketing is a personal preference. They love marketing, so they want to maximise their time doing it.

For the rest of us who want to spend as much time as we can on client work, marketing is a vital necessity. Something we need to be good at.

But it's something we need to be efficient with. Something we need to get great results with, but in an 80:20 way. 

We need to focus on a small number of strategies that get great results for us, but that don't take up every waking hour.

I've stopped listening to gurus who just aren't like me. Their advice is well-meaning, but it doesn't work for me.

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Do this and get better results across the board

Posted byIan Brodie on September 17th, 2017.

Confession time: I am ridiculously easily distracted.

Because I run my business by email and I have a few Facebook groups for paying clients, I find it rather too easy to flick over to check them out whenever my mind wanders.

That and checking the Newcastle United news and other trivia.

(I've just been tempted to check out the Newcastle news right now as I type this – but I came to my senses and resisted).

Important work requires concentration.

Writing. Thinking. Creating.

These are the things that earn experts their reputation and their clients.

And you can't do them at all well if you constantly flip over to check email (or Facebook or Linkedin or Twitter or whatever) whenever you're struggling for inspiration or have a moment's boredom.

That interruption will take you 15 minutes+ to recover from and get back in flow.

I don't think there's an easy answer or trick to improve your concentration other than to work at it.

Just like I did a few seconds ago: recognise when you're distracting yourself and you're tempted to get a “fix” from social media, google or email. Pause for a second. Get back to work.

And give yourself a little pat on the back for resisting the distraction.

The more you're able to do that, the stronger your concentration will get.

And the stronger your concentration is, the better your results will be across the board in everything you do.

PS For me, the best book for ideas on overcoming distraction and really focusing on doing quality work is “Deep Work” by Cal Newport. If you haven't read it I recommend you do.

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This is the hardest – but vital – thing to do

Posted byIan Brodie on September 10th, 2017.

Consistency!

Argh!

So important, yet so difficult.

Maybe you've found that yourself .

I think we all know that doing marketing consistently is vital to avoid feast-or-famine cycles. Yet it's much easier said than done.

One of the keys, I've found, is to turn some of the simple but important marketing tasks you have into a habit.

By that, I mean that you only have limited brainpower and energy to put into your marketing. 

If you have to expend that energy rethinking the basics every time, you'll have none left for the big things that really do need your best thinking.

An example would be regular emails like the one you're reading now. Every week on a Saturday evening I sit down and write an email just like this one ready to add to my autoresponder sequence that sends out emails every Sunday morning. I've done it so often I get twitchy now if I haven't done it by late evening.

I don't have to think about when I'm going to send the email. I don't have to think about who to send it to or what sequence to add it to. 

I do have to think about the topic, of course. But by making everything else a habit, I've preserved my limited brainpower for the thing that's important. 

You can do the same with many other areas of your marketing. 

Instead of writing articles for your website or doing podcasts or videos when the muse takes you, do it on a schedule. If you meet someone at an event who could be a good prospect for you, you make sure you have a pre-defined set of steps you can go through to follow-up rather than having to think them through from scratch each time. 

The more of the basics you turn into habits or pre-defined procedures, the more consistent you get. And the more you can focus your energy on the genuinely new things you need to do.

That brings you better results in two ways.

Firstly, you don't “drop the ball” with the basic tasks. You market even when you're busy. You avoid feast-or-famine.

And secondly, you get better results from the tasks you put your extra energy into.

But what it takes is that initial focus and discipline to turn the basic tasks into habits

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It’s your job to be simple

Posted byIan Brodie on September 3rd, 2017.

It's your job to be simple .

I don't mean simplistic. Just simple.

Simple as in “easy to understand”.

Simple as in “elegant”.

Simple as in not pretentious or complicated just to give the impression you're really smart.

Simple is something your clients can understand. And that means they can implement it and get results with it.

It takes courage, I believe, to give simple advice. Because simple advice has to stand on its own two feet. Simple has to work. There's no hiding behind fancy words. 

How simple is the advice you give? 

And when you buy training or listen to experts to advise you, how simple is the advice they give? If it's not simple, I recommend looking elsewhere. 

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Don’t make my mistake

Posted byIan Brodie on August 27th, 2017.

I've just spent an hour messing about in my email system trying to figure out where on earth a bunch of visitors to my website are coming from.

I'm getting a regular stream of signups to a little automated webinar I set up a while back that runs once a week. The webinar is a good one, and I make sure I'm available when it's running to answer questions live.

The problem is, I thought I'd shut it down.

It promotes a program I no longer offer. So (I thought) I removed all the emails that promote it from my system.

Yet I'm still getting a signup a day on average. 

Somewhere there's still a signup link in my system. Yet for the life of me, I can't find it.

The root of the problem is that I over-complicated my system.

It's easily done. You think you're being clever. You add something in for every eventuality. You add an advanced version. You add in an extra bit in case people don't go for the first one. 

And before you know it you've got something so complex you can't even find the emails people are clicking to register for your defunct webinar. 

80:20 really does apply to your marketing. All the extras I added took a ton of my time but they really only added marginal revenue. 

They made me feel clever (at least until I couldn't find the offending email earlier today). But they didn't add much to my bottom line. 

You don't need the fancy stuff. Stick to the core.

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To get a steady flow of clients you only need 4 things

Posted byIan Brodie on August 25th, 2017.

Have you ever felt a bit overwhelmed at how much it seems you have to learn, and how much it seems you have to do if you want to get a steady flow of clients?

It's no surprise.  

The world is full of people desperate to sell us their latest new trick, hack or tool that will apparently get us more clients at the drop of a hat. And they need us to think that everything we've done in the past is out of date and we need to get their shiny new thing instead.

And it's true that tools and techniques do need to evolve over time.

But in order to know what will work for you, you need to have a really solid foundation in place. And that's something most people don't have.

So they jump from shiny new object to shiny new object because they don't have a way of knowing what's actually important to their business and what's going to make a real difference.

In my business, I've found there 4 key activities you need to focus on to succeed in getting that steady flow of leads and clients going. And I've found the same activities work for my clients too.

The first activity is something you do yearly or quarterly. It's to get Focus.

Focus is about zeroing in on your ideal clients, building deep understanding of their problems, challenges, goals and aspirations, and creating a compelling USP that helps you stand out in the market.

Getting focused simplifies everything in your business. It means you have a message that hits the spot for your ideal clients and you just “know” instinctively what and how to communicate.

Lead Generation is the first practical step to building a flow of new clients. It's where you make that vital first contact and give “value in advance” to start building your authority with potential clients.

This is where the “shiny new objects” tend to distract us, because this is often the hardest part of marketing for most people. So this is where we have to be the most careful.

It's not like the people telling us about their fantastic new approach are deliberately misleading us (well, not in most cases). It's more that what works for them simply won't work for you because they're in a different market to you with different clients and different skills and resources.

That's why figuring out your focus is so vital: it steers you to the right lead generation approaches that will work for you. I advise sticking to one main approach you can master, and then having one approach you're testing out but not reliant on.

Next is Ongoing Nurture. Since the vast majority of potential clients won't be ready to hire you when you first contact them, you'll need to keep in regular contact to build credibility and trust.

If you work with a small number of clients at any time, this can often be done personally (though I'd advise being systematic about it). For larger numbers of prospects you'll need to automate more and this is where email marketing comes in.

Finally, you need to Win Clients. That means turning those nurtured relationships into paying clients. And to do that you need a method for getting into sales conversations with clients and for handling those conversations.

Four areas: Focus, Lead Generation, Ongoing Nurture, Win Clients. It's no coincidence they spell FLOW.

As long as you have one solid approach in each area, you're good to go. No need for shiny new objects or continually flip-flopping trying to find the next big thing. It'll simply work.

And the truth is that when you have all four areas working together, you don't need to be exceptional at everything. Doing one area really well is enough.

So if you've focused on the perfect ideal client and have a really strong USP, the rest of your marketing can be pretty average and you'll do OK.

Have a fuzzier market definition and “OK but not great” lead generation? If your Ongoing Nurture is brilliant you'll still be fine.

You don't need to be brilliant at marketing to get a steady flow of clients. Just make sure you have a strong FLOW based system with each of the components working well.

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7 Simple ways to improve your website

Posted byIan Brodie on August 20th, 2017.

Thought I'd do some very practical tips for you today – based on what I've seen and learned over the years from my own website and those of my clients…

1. Make the very first thing people see on your home page an irresistible free offer. Getting people to sign up for regular emails allows you to build credibility and trust, and your irresistible offer is what'll get them to sign up.
2. Make your content remarkable. The world is overrun with filler content that just says the same thing everyone else is saying. You don't need a lot of content on your site, but make it valuable, interesting and uniquely yours.
3. Make your site readable for your ideal clients. For most of us, our best clients are a bit older (more senior in business, more money) and that means their eyesight won't be what it used to be. Make sure you use big fonts in a high contrast colour.
4. Be easy to contact. What does it say on your contact page? Most people just have a form, but if you want potential clients to contact you, you need to say what they can get in touch with you about, how long it'll typically take you to respond, and what will actually happen when you do. Otherwise, they just won't bother. Get your phone number and email address on their too if you're open to being contacted that way.
5. Be human. Right from your About page through to the way you write your copy and the stories you tell in your blog posts. People connect with people, not faceless corporations. The fact you're probably a solo or small business is an advantage here, so use it.
6. Make sure your site loads fast. A slow site loses visitors at a rate of knots. There are a lot of technical things you can do to improve site speed, but simply implementing a caching plugin like W3 Total Cache or using a content delivery network like Cloudflare.com can speed things up for very little work.
7. Keep it Simple. Don't overload your site with too many options, menus, icons or things that pop up. Make it easy for your visitors to find what they want and get there easily.

That's it – hope you find them helpful :)

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This is for you argumentative so-and-sos

Posted byIan Brodie on August 17th, 2017.

I've often been called an “argumentative so-and-so”.

Actually, “so-and-so” isn't the word most often used – but you get my drift :)

My natural reaction to almost anything is to immediately think of the contrarian view.

That can be annoying. But it also helps with the topic I touched on yesterday – having something unique and different to say.

One easy way to identify where your ideas and insights are different to your competitors is to focus on the areas where you argue with people (in your field of expertise of course. Arguing about sports or politics is a whole different thing).

If you find yourself getting hot under the collar when you read an article, or unable to hold yourself back from commenting when someone makes a point on social media then that's a sign you might have something fruitful and different to say.

Rather than just arguing or commenting on someone else's content, turn your energy into something productive and write your own article laying out your ideas on the topic.

You'll find your ideas improve as a result of writing. And you'll find your article will “click” with others and you'll start to build your own following.

Pretty soon you'll have gone from argumentative so-and-so to authority :)