This is simply what I do to keep myself on track when I pinpoint that I want something. If it works for you, wonderful. I hope it does.
The first thing I usually do is figure out if I truly want something. What are the ups of this and the downs of this journey? If I want to write a book, what will I have to muster through and what will be the joys that come along the way. What does success look like and what does failure look like. Is there something else this is masking… like, do I actually want to make a movie but I feel like this is an easier way to tell a story. Questions like that. What do I want. Today I’ll use my latest endeavor: starting a marketing agency.
Now why do I want an agency and why do I even want to persevere to get there?
Well I want an agency because I love solving problems for other people and finding ways to get them where they truly want to be. Marketing is this portal that allows business dreams to come true. And that’s what I want to do, I want to help people rise to their potential and become who they always envisioned they’d become. Seems like the art of career problem-solving has a word, and that word is marketing. So, that’s what I want.
Now is there an easier way to get there? Is there a better way I can help people solve their riddles of becoming the businessman or businesswoman they always wanted to be? Is there a better way for me to help someone become an author, launch a fashion brand, or start a coaching business? Well, I could do it for free and not make it a business. That’s one way…
Will that work? Not really because once the idea of how to get there has arrived, it must be implemented into a marketing system and that takes time and expertise. This isn’t something I could do for free for very many people, so it is better to charge money so that I can hire the right team to help me put it in place.
Is there another way I can help people rise to their potential that is not business-related? For instance, when I broke the Guinness World Record for longest road trip, or when I went to South America and circumnavigated the continent, wasn’t that un-business? Not really. I did those things so that I could build a career as a travel blogger, and it worked. Only thing was the career didn’t pay enough. I wanted more money. But I guess it did boil down to business.
Okay well let’s stay on this then. Let’s say my goal is to create a marketing agency that’ll help solve problems that are holding people back from getting what they truly want. How do I get there?
Well who do I want to help? Anyone. Anyone who needs help. Right? Well think about that. Do you want to help a plastic surgeon figure out how to become the #1 plastic surgeon? Ehhh… I guess that would be fun. A bit vain, but fun. Do I want to help a trucker build their own trucking business? Yes. That sounds fun and worthwhile. Do I want to help an artist or musician make money doing it? No, actually. I don’t. I think it’s too hard to monetize art and don’t see why that should be why the art is made to begin with. Nothing is holding someone back from producing art. They can always do it.
But someone can’t always start a trucking business. They need help to get there.
That makes me think of another thing… Instead of helping people build businesses, maybe they don’t want a business. Maybe they simply want a career change. Is that something I want to spend time doing? Well, I guess. But it doesn’t excite me as much as someone taking the biggest chance of their life on a new business idea they’ve always wanted to pursue.
Okay well then let’s say we’ve found what I want and who I want to help. But does this have to be someone starting out in business for the first time? Seems like that’ll take an immense amount of work. I’m not necessarily qualified to teach how to start a business or know what the fuck to do in order to research whether or not it’s a good idea.
Maybe it’s someone already in business but unable to get to where they want to be. Okay so then it’s people who already have started the business but hit a wall and have no idea how to overcome the obstacle in front of them.
Now is this any business? Are these e-commerce businesses or local businesses? Well, I’d say either. Right? But will it be too hard to help both of those people? Can I even market my agency to both of those? Won’t I have to zero in on who I am talking to? Because what if one person is selling jewelry and the other person is a massage therapist. One needs customers and the other needs clients. One needs sales and the other needs leads. So who do I want to help more? Well, I don’t know. But let’s move on. We’ll come back to that.
Okay so a marketing agency that helps people solve problems to get to where they want their business to be. It’s like business therapy. And the people that I will serve already have started something and are freaking out that they don’t know how to push it over the ledge to something that’s working and sustainable.
What next? Well, I need to create a website. But since I’m not sure what the messaging is because I’m not sure who will eventually end up gravitating towards my message, I’ll create a series of landing pages before building out a website. Okay so I already did that.
I’ll create the basic social media profiles simply to show that the business exists and it’s real. I don’t want to spend too much time on that, I’ll just get it looking good and leave it at that.
There’s a ton of competition out there, so how do I stand out? Well I need to do something nobody else is doing. How about email marketing for local business owners? That’s pretty specific. And if a local business has a large email list, they are setting themselves up for success. No matter what problems people have the solution will likely always be the same: more revenue. And what’s the best way to get more revenue? More customers and more clients. And what is the best way to get more customers and clients? More leads. Whether it’s an ecommerce business or a local business, the best way to get more money is to have a bigger list of leads. So that’s what I’ll focus on.
So an email marketing agency that helps local business owners (let’s say) get to the next level of business. Now it may not surprise you to know that I began this journey about a month ago. And I’m stuck. It’s not easy finding clients who aren’t broke.
First I tried creating a bunch of advertising campaigns with different offers. I needed some way to start a conversation with strangers to let them know what I was doing. I tried everything. So many fucking things. One guy booked a call with me but had no idea what my company even did. He said he just thought it looked cool. Wtf?
So then I came up with another offer…
Nothing.
I rebranded my logo…
Nothing.
I joined this fuckin networking community but I don’t think it’s for me. Now I’ve spent over a thousand dollars with no return. What do I do?
I began reaching out to people on Facebook, on Instagram. I hired a VA to put together a list of all the HVAC companies in the area cause I thought they might be a good target. Nothing. I sent out a mass email and everyone told me to fuck myself. So then I went to Barnes and Noble (my happy place) to read some books and get inspired. I came up with a new strategy.
I began emailing and messaging people on social media with a specific offer to help them build a massive email list of homeowners in their area. Boom, I began to get some responses. I got like five companies interested before everyone dropped off the face of the Earth.
Fuck. Now what? Keep playing the numbers? Well I can do three things: I can keep playing the numbers until someone says yes, I can scout out specific people I want to work with and begin networking with them online by commenting on their posts on LinkedIn and shit like that, or I can create a new offer and run ads to it. But something tells me not to invest too much money into advertising something that isn’t clearly working organically.
So I am going to scout out exactly who I want to work with and why I want to work with them and then I am going to reach out to them on LinkedIn and other places and create content for them so that they see how dedicated I am.
But why am I even doing this if people don’t even want my help? Originally I thought I was going to offer my services to people who needed me, not beg for their attention and chance to do free work for them.
So what the fuck? I need to figure out who has a nagging itch, who REALLY needs to fix something quickly and simply try to help them. Anyone who isn’t desperately looking for a solution isn’t someone I am going to target.
So that is my next idea on how to get to where I want to be, which is to own a marketing agency that does awesome work with inspiring people and gets our clients exactly where they want to be: find a group of people that desperately need help figuring out a marketing problem.
Anyway, this has been inside the head of me persevering into the unknown to get what I truly want right now in life. Owning a business means setting my own schedule and forming a culture that really gets me excited. And so that is exactly where I want to be. I will continue updating this post to keep you informed…