Hello, welcome to episode 441, I’m stoked today because we’re going to talk about results and really the lack of results, for many people. Because I see it coming down quite frequently, to three things and they’re probably not three things you think I’m going to say. So we’re going to dig into this, but what I want to preface all of this with is if at any point you were like, hallelujah people need to hear this? I want you to share it with them because what I’m seeing is this instinct to keep resources, a best-kept secret. I guess it’s in hopes of getting some sort of competitive edge, but for me, I will always tell you my favorite things, because A, I want to support my favorite things so my favorite things stay around. But also because I want us all to get better together.
There’s no destination. There’s no final spot where we’re like, “Okay, now we’re cool, or now we’re enough, or now we’re here.” But there is a constant journey of growth. That’s kind of what this whole show is right? I mean show in like life sense, not in this podcast, although this podcast is representative of that too, I hope so. I want to talk about these three things today and I want you to share them with your clients. I want you to share them with your community. I want you to share them with whoever might need this information because again, we all get better together. Okay? So let’s dig in.
Consumption does not equal change
All right, so I want to jump in first with something that’s going to sound kind of crazy coming from a content creator, which I am and it’s quite frankly, my primary job is to create content, either for here or for Backstage or for clients, I’m constantly creating content, but here is the scary, ugly truth that nobody wants to talk about, consumption does not equal change. Listening to marketing podcasts is not marketing. Following business experts is not a growth strategy. Watching IG stories from your mentors, not a growth plan, not going to pay your bills. And so what I want you to think about is for every piece your consuming, where is the action? Where is the thing you’re going to do, implement, consider, shift, throwaway in every single piece of content.
When you finish listening to an episode of this show, I want you to think about one thing that you’re going to go do with it. In the last couple of weeks we’ve talked about visibility, we’ve talked about the things you needed to know. We’ve talked about all sorts of stuff and we get a lot of downloads of this show. Thousands of people download this show. Very few of you, very few of the people who listen, then do something. Then go and check out that new tool or try that new ad trick or start considering what their visibility means as far as A leads to B leads to C like we talked about in that episode. It’s not just this show, it’s absolutely all shows and we’ve all been guilty of this.
Personally, I quite often in the early years of my business used consumption of content as a way to procrastinate doing the work that would actually grow my business, because it wasn’t like I was sitting around watching Netflix. It wasn’t like I was bingeing New Girl. It was me learning and that’s for sure going to help me grow right, that’s going to change my business. I was just waiting for the blog post, podcast episode, video series, webinar, social media post that was going to change everything, that was going to flip some switch in my brain and suddenly I knew everything. I had it figured out and I was enough to then go do the things I was avoiding doing, and guess what? At the end of those days, I would look at what I did that day and I’d be like, “Awesome nothing happened today.” And the same at the end of this week’s, and same at the end of those months, because consumption does not equal change.
I don’t care how good the content is, I don’t care how well produced the content is. I don’t care how valuable the content is or how fluffy the content, because let’s be honest, like 80% of the time it’s fluffy. All of it is fluff. I could give you my best stuff. I could literally do an episode customized to your business with your strategy ready to go if you just did the thing and eight out of 10 listeners would not do anything with it and that has got to change. Because that is why you’re not singing results because consumption does not equal change. Now, I don’t think you should stop listening to this podcast. I don’t think you should stop listening to any podcasts if that’s what you want to do. I love podcasts. I love reading blog articles. I love reading magazines. I love reading books. I love consuming more knowledge and information, but with each thing I consume, I’m looking at where I’m going to take action and it’s not always big stuff.
In fact, most of the time, like 95% of the time, it’s one incremental shift I can make to make my business easier, my finance easier, outsourcing more effective, communications better, onboarding, whatever the pieces are. I want you to be looking for the action and every piece of content you consume from me, from anybody else because the number one reason today that we’re talking about, these are not actually in any particular order, but I think this is probably one of the big ones, is because consumption doesn’t equal change and we’re spending too much time consuming and not enough time implementing, not enough time doing things. I even see this inside of paid programs. You want to know when courses don’t work because people don’t do the work in the courses.
Scary reality. You got to do the work and we’re really, really quite terrible at holding ourselves accountable to doing the work and so for me, a course is not the best educational supplement for me because I know I need to be in the room with some people. I need to be in a room with a person who is going to be like, Yup, nope, no, you got to do the thing now. You got to make the change. You got to implement a strategy. You got to do the work, right? This is even true in people working in crazy five figure masterminds and I see them jump from mastermind a mastermind year after year after year after year, and their business has never changed. You know why? Because they’re sitting in hot seats and they’re showing up for calls, but then they’re not doing the work. Consumption paid or free does not equal change. You have to take the action. You have to do the work. Right?
Don’t follow someone else’s plan or jumping from trend to trend
I want to shift to number two now because this one drives me crazy. It’s very specific to the marketing space, but I’ve seen it even in the last few years in the business model space, like it’s getting that fundamentally terrible. Too many of us are jumping from trend to trend or following what somebody else is doing in the hopes that it will also work for us without doing the work in our own businesses to figure out what’s going to work. I see this most frequently to avoid ideal client work. Like if we just model what’s so and so did then I’ll get their audience and then I’ll have an audience. Instead of thinking about who your audience is, who do you serve? Who hires you? Who buys your product? Who shows up in your store? Who needs your services?
Okay, now who do you do services for? Someone else’s audience, someone else’s marketing plan is not your business plan, is not your audience, is not your marketing plan. It’s theirs and yours could be very similar. Absolutely. Maybe you do have the exact same audience and maybe you do the exact same thing, but ultimately you are different than they are. Your brand is different than they are, so there’s going to be some kind of change and when we follow someone else’s course, it’s just going to sound like noise. No matter how valuable the content is, no matter how genius you are at doing what you do for a living, if you’re following someone else’s trajectory, if you’re executing someone else’s plan, you’re just contributing to the white noise. And as more and more and more and more and more people occupy every single space in all corners of the internet, that white noise volume desk goes up.
And the way you break through, the way you get your message heard is by doing it your way. This doesn’t mean you don’t have a strategy. This doesn’t mean you don’t work a formula. It’s why I don’t sell a checklist of marketing tasks. It’s why when people ask me on calls, “What’s like the one network everybody needs to be on?” I don’t have an answer for that question. It’s why in Backstage Live I don’t just say, “Okay, do A, B, C, and D, now you have a marketing plan.” We work through questions together so that we can figure out your marketing plan because that is the difference. Maybe it’s not one person you’re following, but maybe it’s a trend. Maybe it’s at the end of 2018 you saw every single article about 2019 is the year of, the year of video, the year of podcasting, the year of IG stories.
Whatever the trend is from the person, quite frankly, is selling how to do the thing, which is why they’re telling you it’s the only way to do it. Anywho, I want you to instead of chasing those things, look at where you’re getting results. Here’s the deal 2019 is the year of the video. I’ve yet to successfully get the kind of business and traffic from video that I get from this podcast. So do I jump ship from something that I’m 441 episodes into and I know works because someone told me that 2019 is the year of the video. I don’t. The answer to that is no. Instead, I’d look at how I can make video work for me, how I can use it to support this podcast, but I don’t change the direction of my boat because someone told me that their boat’s better.
There’s too little time and trust put into our plans
That was a really terrible mixed metaphor of nonsense, but we’re going to go with it. We’re going to power through guys. Okay? I want you to work your plan and that really it rolls right into number three, which is there’s too little time and trust put into our plants, especially when it comes to your online marketing. Double extra especially when it comes to your social media. Four days of Instagram stories is not going to tell you whether Instagram stories work for you. 30 episodes of your podcast is not going to tell you if a podcast is going to work for you. Four videos on YouTube is not going to tell you if videos will work for you. You have to work the system over time, and you have to trust the system and you have to trust yourself.
This gets easier when you don’t fall prey to the second thing we talked about, which is following someone else’s plan or jumping from trend to trend. When you build your plan based on what you do and who do you serve and how you show up best, it gets a whole lot easier to trust it. Now, I’m not saying we don’t make changes, we absolutely make changes. I’m making changes literally every day, but I’m making very, very, very small changes because that series of small changes is what gets the big result, not the, now I host the podcast, now I have a blog, now I send emails, now I do IG stories and jumping from thing to thing.
The result you’re getting in your business right now, today, right now, whether you have a business where you’re like, I send out an email and I make money, sweet or I send an email and cross my fingers and nothing happens, or I post an offer to Instagram and nothing happens or post an offer to Instagram and everybody buys it. Those results whatever they may be, are not a result of the marketing you did yesterday or the day before or the day before. The result of the marketing you did three to six months ago. This is why consistency matters. This is why, yes, we build a 90-day plan because on day 90 we’re going to start seeing the results of day one, but that only works if we build a second 90-day plan.
This is why when you come to Backstage Live, you get a workbook in the room and you get a virtual one to print out for Q2, whatever your next quarter is. This is why we build in quarterly reviews for all of our Uncommonly More clients. I sit down once a quarter, we review what happened in the last 90 days and we figure out what’s happening in the next 90-days because this stuff takes time. I don’t care how many coaches or Facebook ads are telling you that you can make six figures in 14 days. I just, I don’t care anymore. I Don’t. What I care about is you making however much money you want to make, getting whatever kind of results that you want to get doing the kind of marketing that works for you.
That happens when you stop consuming and start taking action because you only know what you like doing once you start trying it, that means you’re not following somebody else’s plan, you’re working yours. You’re not jumping from trend to trend, you’re paying attention to what’s happening. You’re bobbing and weaving based on what’s happening because social changes and we have to adjust on the fly, but it’s in line with your overall structure. Then you’re trusting that the plan you put together is going to work. You can make tweaks to it, but you don’t need to rebuild it. Certainly, you don’t need to rebuild it once a week. All right?
These are the things that I’m seeing over and over and over and over again destroy the chance of results for the people who will listen to the show, for the people who’ve DM me on Instagram, for the people who spend time in our communities and Backstage and whatever. These are the conversations that need to be happening because until they start happening, you’re not going to get results. So share this episode with whoever needs it. Share it with your biz besties, share it with your clients, share it with your friends, shared in your communities, but most importantly, choose where in here you need to make an adjustment and take action on that. Maybe it’s you’re going to work your plan. That’s it. You’re just going to work your plan for a while and if that’s it, fantastic. I’m so excited. Maybe it’s that you need to stop worrying about the trends and what everyone is saying is the next big thing.
Maybe it’s that you need to stop following a couple of people on Instagram because you finding that they are polluting your ability to not jump from trend to trend, whatever it is I want you to do it, all right? With all of that, if you don’t have a plan right now, I have the perfect opportunity for you to do that. We have Hit the Mic Backstage Live happening April 18th 100% virtually. You can join us from literally anywhere in the world. We will be going live from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM Pacific Time. We will be building in some break times cause I don’t know about you, but I can not sit at my computer for six hours straight. You will see my standing desk go up and down as I stand and sit throughout the day.
I want to help you build your plan, not somebody else’s, not mine, YOURS. If that’s appealing and it is, you need to join us. thestaceyharris.com/backstagelive there is an option to pay in full or a three-payment option. You can take whichever you’d like. If you pay in full, you will be bonused a 30 minute one on one call with me following our call at the end of April or middle of April, April 18th, it’s technically the middle right? The middle of April so that you and I together can review your plan.
This is the easiest way to get my eyes on your stuff right now. This is the fastest way to get your 90-day strategy built because you’re going to leave the day with it. That’s how these days are structured. If you want to hear what some people who have done Backstage Live with me think head over to the sales page, there are some testimonials. If you have questions about what Backstage Live is like, send me a DM on Instagram. I will answer it, me personally. All right. With that, go take action, consumption does not equal change and I will talk to you next Thursday.
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