Starting out, I didn’t know any better, and I did what I called the spray and pray method. There was no strategy. I hadn’t even niched down.
How it works is that you spray praise when you slap shit on the internet and have the expectation that it’s like a slot machine in the fact that one day something’s just going to go viral and pop off, and then the money will flow in. That is a spray and pray method. There’s no like strategy or thoughtfulness behind it. I had no idea what I was doing, but I loved creating.
Money, Mission, and Purpose
Your company content must be strategic. Your content should lead down your sales funnel and solve a major problem. What problem did I solve specifically with the finance stuff? People were freaking out about money, and they were looking for marketers to write about money. The point of being in your own business is to make money. So to do that, you need activity. The world is there to listen to you about what you can do to solve their pain point for them.
From Freelancer to CEO
At a point in your entrepreneurship, you realize you can’t be a one-woman shop. You must be able to get solid talent to produce quality work and be a conscientious and constructive team member. Gather people who resonate with your company culture, values, and mission to become an efficient, well-oiled machine and delegate, delegate, and delegate your new team’s responsibilities. It’s the only way to scale.
Get Good and Uncomfortable
There’s good uncomfortable, and there’s not so good uncomfortable. I started thinking differently about expanding and scaling. My mindset shifted to become more about expansion, and my business started shifting. I did not consciously know what I had done, but I had experienced it. So I was beginning to become what Bob Proctor and David Nagel call unconscious competence.
Perfection is a Fallacy
Be okay with falling because you know you’ll get back up. Don’t look for perfection because perfection is a fallacy. It’s a consciousness people have created and construed that is entirely unattainable.
Some come out of corporate or their formal college education and believe they have the perfect blueprint roadmap. In reality, they don’t have the ideal blueprint because perfection simply doesn’t exist. Go and jump into entrepreneurship and learn as you go. While you are on your business journey, tweak and adjust along the way.
Data Driven Business
You know, when you back away from freelancing and look at the numbers, you can start to shift your money and business mindset. The shift occurs when you look at the numbers, and you see the results you’re getting for people. I felt like I had a legit training company, not just having the title of a freelance writer.
At this point, you can dream about having a future empire. You’ve already built the foundation. Now it’s a matter of growing your business to where you want to be.
Scaling and Building a Company
When I started creating intellectual property, I did this knowing we were overdue for a financial crisis. The first thing all of my clients would do was cut their marketing budgets if there was a financial crisis. I realized I needed a “Plan B”.
I realized I needed to bring on people and figure out new company structures if I want to expand. I’d started creating that vision of traveling and having my company run itself without me hand-holding my team. That’s how I want to live.
When I created Persuade to Profit, my business doubled, and we had different problems, and I started considering scaling. I realized this wasn’t about surviving anymore. This is about how I want to live my life.
I mapped out a funnel, and I was just like, ‘This freaking brilliant, my marketing funnel process.’ My funnel can bring my marketing plan and scaling my business together.