In today’s episode I am going to be sharing a couple of home truths when it comes to marketing. Whilst I love marketing, I feel that often we are sold a story that doesn’t often match up when you find yourself in the industry every single day and because of this, people feel as though they’re failing. Thankfully, that’s not the case and nobody is actually an ‘overnight success’. I want to talk about what it’s really like and how we can release the pressure we put on ourselves, so join me as I share some incredibly honest opinions.
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- When I look back at all the money I have spent, the one thing that has been valuable for me is having a one-to-one coach. Although I have benefited from the other courses I have paid for, having that one-on-one interaction is incredibly important to me.
- Being an overnight success is actually incredibly rare. Instead, you’re coming across people that appear to be popular and what you’re not seeing is the journey they have taken to get there.
- Although you should set goals, you need to focus on the people that are already on your list.
- No one woke up with a massive email list or a massive Instagram following.
- Try not to let the fear of failure stop you from doing what you want to do.
- Although people don’t want to hear it, social media takes time.
- People are selling the idea that you don’t need a list and you don’t need a social media following but I don’t agree. If you want people to stick with you, you need to be known for what you do.
- You need to prove why you’re the person people should be listening to.
- The people that are successful are the ones that are posting when no one is listening and they’re doing lives when no one is listening. Consistency is key.
- Be grateful for everything you have done this year and work hard to smash it next year. It will come, it just might take time.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…
If you have small numbers it’s important to remember the victories you’re achieving. If people are trusting you with their money, you should be so proud of yourself.
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS
- What Started This Important Conversation? – 04:10
- #1 Why Am I Not an Overnight Success? – 09:59
- #2 I Only Have A Small Following, Is That Okay? – 12:40
- #3 I’ve Been on A Platform For 3 Months and It’s Not Working for Me – 18:39
Transcript below
Speaker 1: (00:33)
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast and Merry Christmas. If you're not listening to this, the week it came out, you might be wondering why I'm saying that, but this came out just before Christmas, so I wish you a Merry Christmas. If you're listening to this, I should imagine you're probably doing one of the many crazy activities we find ourselves doing at this time of year, whether it's wrapping what feels like a gazillion presence, decorating stuff, going to the supermarket, some godly hour in the morning so that you can fight for some brussels sprouts, all that sort of good stuff for Christmas. So maybe you aren't doing that or maybe you're not, you're thinking, I know I'm going to listen to Teresa's podcast or maybe you're listening to my podcast while in a supermarket, shopping for Christmas stuff. So either way, thank you for listening. I'm obviously not doing this at Christmas. It's actually end of November and a quick throwback to last week's episode.
Speaker 1: (01:31)
I talked about the episode being a Christmas Eve episode and it isn't Christmas Eve. I obviously got it into my head that the Monday was Christmas Eve and it's not. It's the Tuesday. That's how bad at planning I can be without looking at my calendar. I don't even know what day Christmas is. So yes, the Monday isn't Christmas Eve. It's the Tuesday. So I was wrong last week. Little disclaimer notice there. Okay. This week gets a solo episode because as I did say last week, I don't like putting on someone who's an interview over the Christmas period and the New Year period just because I can see sometimes a bit of a drop in downloads because people are busy, they've got stuff to do and yeah, that pretty much picks back up in the, in the January. But obviously I like to make a big faster than when it's, there I go. So it's going to be just me and I decided to talk about a few home truths on this one.
Speaker 1: (02:20)
A little bit nervous. Maybe that's why I've chose a Christmas Eve episode cause I think many of you won't listen to it and therefore, you know, I won't sign all negative, but it's not going to be negative. It's just going to be really flipping honest, right? Because I work in a world of marketing and a lot of it is really good marketing because it's really clever and really smart and manages to convince you to buy things that maybe you didn't think about buying. And I'm not saying it's all bad, you know, marketing's great. Obviously I love it, I made a career out of it. But sometimes, especially in the entrepreneurial space and in the business space, we are
Speaker 3: (03:00)
sold a story that doesn't necessarily actually match up to what it is like when you're in it every day. And that can have a massive, massive effect on us as business people, us as human beings that we start to feel like we're failing. And do you know what the truth of the matter is? We're totally not failing. We are probably with the 99% of people out there and it's actually only the few percent who appear as if they're overnight successes and therefore they just show up later and we think we should be like that too. So a few weeks back, quite a few weeks back now, I sent an email out to my list as I'm sure you are aware, cause I talked about it last week when I email my list, I emailed them different to what I talk about in the podcast. But having sent my email, it kind of inspired me to elaborate more on it and talk about it on this one.
What Started This Important Conversation?
Speaker 3: (03:52)
So I started off by wanting to address some of the questions at home truths that come out of sort of talking to other entrepreneurs and what entrepreneurs think of their business and where they are. And you know what started it all. As you will know, I have been in a coaching programme with James Wedmore for the past 12 months. I have done lots of courses online. I can name lots of people. Amy Porterfield, Jasmine Star, Kim Garst, Mari Smith, uh, who else have I done stuff with? Like, Oh, Sue B Zimmerman. Honestly, I can't remember off the top of my head no, but I've done loads, Brendon Burchard, and I wouldn't even like to guess how much money I've spent on all of that. And I have to say, I think I've got to a point where I have got absolutely everything I need and I don't need that anymore. And I had lots of people asked me about, you know, should I do the James Wedmore thing, should I pay?
Speaker 3: (04:48)
And I'm happy to be totally honest about what I paid. So I paid $15,000 to be part of his coaching programme. And if people want my honest opinion, depending on who that person is, I might not always say yes. And in fact, lots of entrepreneurial friends have done lots of courses going, done lots of things. And really when I look back at all the money I've spent, the one thing that really moved the needle for me was having a one-to-one coach. And although I'm absolutely happy and glad I did the James Wedmore coaching programme and there are lots of others out there, exactly the same studious tribe, Caitlin Batches Group, Tyler J McCall's doing something like there's loads of them, although I'm happy that I did it actually and I had reasons for doing it. I want to get in front of James and wants to get in a room with those same people.
Speaker 3: (05:40)
I wanted to mix with some entrepreneurs who are at the top of their game and although I did that and I'm really pleased I did that, actually I don't need to do that anymore and I feel fine not to do that. And in all honesty, it's a lot of money. Like it's a stupid amount of money. And the one thing that I've been in and consistently pay for, and I'm more than happy to continue, is The Membership Guys Membership because it's not a huge amount of money. It's, I think it's like $49 a month I think I pay and they are always in the group, which is really helpful because sometimes when you join these bigger kind of mastermind or you buy a course and there's two, 3000 people in that, you're obviously not going to get that one to one time. But what's super interesting is The Membership Guys have well over 3000 members, considerably over 3000 members.
Speaker 3: (06:30)
And yet if I put a question into that forum, Callie or Mike will respond. Other people might respond as well, but they will inevitably go, Oh yeah, so and so what they said it was great. Or they'll have their bit, they are in their membership all the time. So what I'm wanting to focus on, I'm going to go down a bit of a rabbit hole here, so I apologise. I'm coming back to it quick. But what I want to focus on in my membership is me being present, me helping you, me being that, because I know when it's not one to one, when you're in a group, your actual hands on touch of that person that you're paying to group to be in is really, really slim. So if you're doing it to have time with the experts, some of the biggest things, you just won't get it. And that's the experience I've had. And
Speaker 1: (07:18)
I hope I'm not opening a can of worms. I'm just being completely open and honest with you because I know the people who have reached out to me and I know, listen to this podcast, I would be really, I know you would be devastated if you wasted your money as I would be. And also, I know if you said to me, okay, I've got 15 grand to spend, do I do this or do I, you know, do I join this mastermind cause they're all about that amount for that level and, or do I do a, you know, focus on this thing or get a coach or do I do some Facebook ads? You know, and I, and that's what I had to do when I debated about joining anything. I was like, okay, what if I spend that in Facebook ads? What would that do to my business?
Speaker 1: (08:00)
So I just think all I'm saying is take it from someone who's done a lot of stuff. And I have had lots of these conversations recently, which is why I feel like I want to say something very gently because I'm not saying any one of these are awful and bad. Don't do them. I'm just saying that and maybe you have to go through it. Maybe you have to have done all those things to then go, actually I don't need the big stuff or I don't need, um, the big massive course because that's the other thing. I've bought courses that have cost thousands and have I done them all? No, I have not. Have I done 90% of it? No. I have done and yeah. Okay. That's my fault. That's completely my fault. But the thing that really helps me is having someone like the membership guys that will answer my question being in their Academy so that if I do have a question about something, they can inevitably go, Hey, go check out that thing. Here it is. And that's what I need. So for me, memberships work really well and I can stop it at any point. Whereas signing up for a big old year programme for over 10,000 is for me, not where I want to be any more. And I would just say think twice. That's all. So like, so I'm not, I'm trying not to be negative. It likes that they've done some amazing things for me and I have paid to play. I've been paid to be put in that room to meet those people and to build a relationship with them. And that's what I paid for. And that's what I got. But if I was thinking about did it move the needle for the business? It did in some places, absolutely. But in others, not so much. So like I said, I'm just, you know, playing devil's advocate on that.
Speaker 1: (09:30)
But that's what kind of started this. And also the other thing here is that when lots of people in our industry go into launch mode, they start talking about these kind of successes and testimonials and case studies. And sometimes they for me, are not a true real example of what's going on. Like, because like I said, what happens is we'll look at them and go, Oh man, we should be there. Or they tell us what their launch was and you think, Oh, we should be there. And actually 99% of people aren't. So I'm just going to go over a few points and just give you my opinion on it. Like I said, I'm not normally this opinionated, which is why I've maybe hid it on a Christmas episode. He watch like everyday I listened to it.
#1 Why Am I Not an Overnight Success?
Okay, so why am I not an overnight success?
This is what people are kind of coming to me. If I had some guy talk to me the other day, go in, you know, this is possible. Why am I not, you know, why am I not making it already? And when you get down into the crux of it and look at it, he's been going for like three months and you're like, okay. So the fact of someone being an overnight success is like really, really rare. Like it doesn't hardly ever happen. And what happens is you spot someone, you see someone and you suddenly discover them and you look at them and they're really popular and they're really, you know, they've got loads of people in their course and loads of people buying their stuff and loads of people going to their events and you think, Oh my goodness, Hey, did they get it? But the truth is you don't ever see the journey.
Speaker 1: (11:00)
You don't see the journey that they've taken to get there. And there's always been a journey and inevitably it's been hard or tough or difficult. So the first thing I want to say is like, don't beat yourself up. I'm five years into my business and although I hate this word for some reason, but I did kind of pivot last year because of the fact that I say last year, it's actually this year, but in the last sort of six months, because the fact I started doing the online stuff, so I had had an agency and had been had, you know, really lucky it had a good agency, lots of clients. And I decided to start taking a step back from promoting that as hard so I could focus on the online stuff and therefore it feels like I started my business again, which is a little bit scary.
Speaker 1: (11:47)
But like I said, you know, these people are normally in it for years and years and years. You just don't notice them until they start getting big. And then they seem to appear everywhere and then you think, how did they do it? So honestly that where I am right now, five years in, I am more than absolutely fine. Don't get me wrong. If I could take a shortcut tomorrow and be the size of Rachel Hollis and have an event the size of she's just put on, which was massive, I would have it in a heartbeat but I'm not angry or disappointed or you know, frustrated. I know it takes time and it's going to take time so I don't want you sat there looking at someone else thinking why aren't I at that point? Because like I said, it doesn't happen overnight. Okay. The next thing I put in the email that wants to talk about was I only have a small following, small email list or a few customers and this is something again that loads of people are striving for.
#2 I Only Have A Small Following, Is That Okay?
Speaker 1: (12:40)
I was talking to someone on a podcast episode, I was being interviewed and I said that my biggest lead magnet, the most downloads I get on all the lead magnets I have I there is how to build your Facebook following. And isn't it funny that people still want that because they waste that part of us and don't get me wrong. One of my goals on my goal list that I write every morning is I have a hundred thousand Instagram followers. Don't get me wrong. It's not like that's my only goal cause I can promise you followers don't pay the mortgage. But that kind of, that would go hand in hand with all the other stuff I've gotten there about how big I want the business and the income I want and all that sort of thing. And it would be lovely to think when I look at Jasmine Star's sort of Instagram, it'd be lovely to think that I was followed and as a mind as she is.
Speaker 1: (13:26)
So I guess that where that's where that's coming from. But people, not only do they not want their followers and their lists and their customers to be bigger, but the thing is they're not actually looking at the ones they've got. So who said, you know, bigger is better. Having a ginormous email list does not mean you're going to sell to those people. So I am always quality over quantity. You should absolutely make sure that the people who are on your list of people that are following you are your customers. So don't sit there and think I need it bigger and therefore not love the people who are on that list already. The other thing is no one woke up with a massive email list. No one woke up with, well, unless you're Jennifer Aniston who went on, was it Instagram? She opened her Instagram account and got like a million and about three hours or something, you know, but obviously she did a lot of work elsewhere to get famous, but no one starts at that.
Speaker 1: (14:21)
And again, it was funny, I had, we're having a chat in the Academy quite a few weeks ago and I've got one member of the Academy who has a really big Instagram account for their business. And then someone else had just started their Instagram account and they were really like, I don't want to tell you my numbers because they're tiny and it's like everyone starts somewhere. Everyone literally, no matter how big they are, they started somewhere. So don't be sorry about that. Don't be ashamed about it. Don't apologise. Everyone starts at zero. Okay. When people launch or when people sell stuff and they only get a few people buying, so again, I have someone in the Academy, they launched a membership and they got one member, right? And she was so like, not embarrassed, that's not the right word, but she really was like, Oh, I got one member and first off I was like, go you, that is amazing.
Speaker 1: (15:15)
One person that they wanted to buy your thing. So that is awesome. If someone wants to hand you over money, never, never, ever underestimate how strong and powerful that is because that's their money. They trust you, they believe in your, they wouldn't do it. So honestly, every teeny tiny thing I do, and just before this episode, I did a workbook. I don't know if you've got it, and the workbook was about how to plan your year and how to, sorry, I had to review this year. That's just going and plan next year. So it's amazing. And as part of that, I had a really low cost option that they could come into a one off coaching call and workshop that I would do online and we would go through the booklet, I'd help them assist them. And then we have a Facebook group that's open til February.
Speaker 1: (16:04)
Anyway, I sold it for like $19. Literally like I probably buy wine more expensive and that sometimes, um, for an average weeknight in and, and like I said, it's not a lot of money, but I am so grateful. Literally every single one person that signed up for that I was, every time it came in, I'm like, woo, happy dance. Right? My lines isn't that amazing because they handed me over money, so it don't want you to sit in there thinking, this is awful. I've only sold X amount, or I've only got a couple of customers, or I've only got so many people signed in for this. Give yourself a Pat on the back if anybody did anything because you should be so proud. The other thing you should be proud of is that you went out there and did it because there are so many people, and I include myself on this.
Speaker 1: (16:49)
God, I signed a bit ranty. I'm so sorry. I'm just so passionate about these things. I include myself on this, that I sat on my ideas for ages because I was terrified. I was so scared. What if I put something out there and no one bought? I do marketing for living. What if I marketed my own thing and no one bought it? What would that say about me? How would that make me look? I would be a failure. No one would love me. No one want my things, which basically means I'm probably stupid and I should just give up tomorrow. Like those are the stupid stories we're telling ourselves. And like I said, you went out and did it. You went out and you put yourself out there and if one person will buy than someone else or buy it and someone else to buy it and someone else or buy, it's just going to take a bit of time.
Speaker 1: (17:35)
And the other thing you do, you love them. The people who bought you appreciate them, you thank them, you work with them, you help them, you really, really love them. You don't go, Oh well that's really disappointing. I only got three of you. Hang on a minute, I'm going to go. And I look who else I've got when I opened the Academy for the first time, I shut it within a week so that I could concentrate on the people in there and love them and thank them. And I knew I couldn't do that while trying to sell it. So absolutely, totally, totally loved those people. And then go do it again. Whatever you did to get that one customer, do it again, tweak it, improve it, do it again. Oh, Hey. So the next one, which you think might be the last one and a little runt.
#3 I’ve Been on A Platform For 3 Months and It’s Not Working for Me
Speaker 1: (18:19)
I've been on, insert a social media platform here for three months and got nothing. It doesn't work. Oh boy. If like if I had some money for every time someone told me social media doesn't work or tried something for short amount of time and then gave up, I would probably be pretty wealthy because it takes time. Things take time and I know people don't want to hear it and I know they want to shortcut and I know there are people out there who are selling the dream of you don't need a list. You don't need a following. You don't need this. I'm going to disagree. And I know you might be sat there thinking, well I think you're wrong Theresa. And that's okay, that's cool. But in my experience, I'm not saying you can't do it without these things. What I'm saying is if you want longevity, if you want real people to buy from you and then love you and stay with you, then you've got to be known for the thing you do.
Speaker 1: (19:19)
You've got to be consistent. You've got to stick it out there and you've got to keep doing it and it takes time. I gave a great example in this bit of the email, which I'm going to read out to you, is that obviously people want lots of followers down there, and I talk about Jasmine star as I've already done on this podcast. I like her, she's brilliant, you know so good at what she does and I put in the emails, so you want 328,000 followers on Instagram like Jasmine star. Sure, no problem. All you need to do is do 2,881 posts, which she roughly does want a day, which means she's posting consistently for seven years. That's what I mean. Like if I was Jasmine star and someone was coming to me and going, why haven't I got the followers that you've got? I'd go, can you show me you've done this consistently for seven years?
Speaker 1: (20:10)
Then maybe she could help them out in a way. I was listening to another lady the other week called Helen Pritchard who I have to say I find very fascinating. She might come on the podcast. She said she will, I just haven't booked it in yet. And um, she's, uh, she uses quite strong language and she's very direct. So a little bit different time I do things. However, in essence, her messages are completely in line with what I believe in. And one of the things she said is she has been doing this now she's a LinkedIn expert and she's been teaching people how to use LinkedIn for I think, again, about four or five consistently. And part of that process was she ended up doing over a hundred one-to-one calls where she would give them an hour of her time as they paid her, um, should they pay the $99.
Speaker 1: (21:00)
She had, uh, they have more of her time and she basically taught them how to use LinkedIn. And through doing that, she was obviously getting all this research, all this knowledge, all this kind of practise at it. But she consistently did it. And now she's at a point where she's just an over a million and a business and on a launch and, and basically shit, people are coming to it going, Helen, can you teach me how to do a six figure launch? And she'll go, yeah, that's fine. Go away. Do this consistently for three years. Come back and I'll show you. Hey. And like I have to say, it really made me laugh when I heard it. I was on someone else's podcast I was listening to and it really made me laugh cause I was like, you're right. You know, that's the thing. I think people see this online space or they see this entrepreneurial world of I want the freedom, I want to run my business, I want to do this, I want to do that.
Speaker 1: (21:49)
And then they just maybe pick a topic and you're like, it doesn't quite work like that. You do need to dig and be wrong. You can learn anything and you can do anything. I'm an absolute true believer in that, but you've got to know what you're talking about because there's no longevity if you don't. And also you've got to prove to everybody else, I've got 15 years in marketing, like a long, long time and still I'm fighting hard every day to go look at my stuff, look at what I can do, look at how I work in my Academy, look at the differences I've made for my members in the Academy. So it's hard. It's not an easy thing. And I think sometimes we look online, we look at Instagram and I have this, and I'm totally honest and I'm going to be honest with you, now I obviously do lots of travelling.
Speaker 1: (22:34)
I do lots of speaking and I have people say to me, Oh my goodness Teresa, like you look like you're doing so well. This is amazing. I saw you were here when you were there and Oh gosh, I knew you. You know you're doing amazingly. And I actually didn't run to them depending on who they are and go now. It is awesome. I've been really lucky. I've got to nice places. I've spoken to some amazing places. I've had cool people on the podcast. I went, but do you want to check my bank balance and like I laugh when I say it, but sometimes they don't add up. Like in all honesty, I don't get paid to speak at a marketing event because it's a marketing event and I'm a marketeer and the marketers in the room, they don't pay not many marketing events or pay you. Obviously when I do the podcast, I didn't get paid for that.
Speaker 1: (23:17)
When I get people to interview them, I don't get paid for that, you know? So this is the thing, I'm not saying I'm sat here, you know, baked a wheat bread and butter for Christmas day. I'm just saying, but it doesn't always, it's easy to make it look really good online. It's easy to make it look like I'm this amazing entrepreneur, I've got this amazing business, I do all these cool things, check me out, not that I am aiming to do that at all by the way, but it's easy for you to see someone else's life and think that's awesome, but you haven't seen and they won't probably show you the struggle they've had to go to get to that point or the days where they are up against it and they're chasing payments or I don't know, all those terrible days that we have as entrepreneurs where we're like, should I just go get a job working in a supermarket?
Speaker 1: (24:05)
No, definitely not ever, ever, ever. I will never get a job because I am probably the most unemployable person in the world may cause I love being in charge of myself anyway. So like I said, I didn't really want to have a moon, so hope it doesn't say Mooney. I just wanted to like be really honest because I am honest and I really, really dislike sometimes seeing some of the stuff that that is and I don't know whether it's just trying to motivate you and maybe that's the only reason and that's absolutely cool cause it's a good reason. But some of the stuff out there, like you don't need a leash. You don't need this, you don't need that. You know, just set up your thing. Just sell your course and people will buy it. That's going to be really hard in a way that is not an easy thing to do.
Speaker 1: (24:49)
So don't feel angry or upset or disappointed if you have done that and it hasn't quite gone the way you wanted. Feel super proud that you've gone out there. You've started this business man that is like amazing that you started a business. I never thought I'd start a business, honestly. Not in a million years did I think I'd start a business. So Pat yourself fully and firmly on the back for that. Take every tiny, teeny win. Love every single customer. Know that it's going to be hard. But it's I think the only true measure of success when I look at the people who have done it and do it really well, they are the most tenacious people ever. They keep going and going and going and going. They do lives when no one's watching. They post when no one comments, they are consistent to a fault and it starts to pay off.
Speaker 1: (25:42)
It just takes time. So I hope that was okay. Let me know what you thought of that. I'd be interested to hear. I just wanted to have an honest conversation because if you're sat there thinking I wanted to do so much this year and you've got to the end of the year and you're like feeling a bit rubbish about it, don't do not feel rubbish. Feel so proud of yourself. Be grateful for everything you've got in your business and everything that you've done and then go out and smash it next year and work hard and be consistent and I promise it will come. It just might take time. All right, my run over. I feel like, I don't know, I feel like I was Jerry Springer or something. Do you remember when you start Jerry Springer and he did that thing at the end of the, you know, the kind of wrap up that you did. I've dust done that. Oh, sorry guys, that was a bit unusual. But anyway, I, maybe it was a therapy. Maybe I just needed to do that, but let me know what you think. It'd be interesting to hear how you feel and whether you agree or disagree. I'm always up for having a discussion about these things, right guys? Well, if you are listening to this before Christmas, have the most wonderful Christmas. Enjoy the time with your family. Put your feet up, ignore the work staff, and I will see you just before the new year. All right guys, take care.
