Today is all about permission. I’m going to give you three permissions that I want you to use, and run with, and go with, and just feel better about your time marketing online, because what I’m seeing a lot is people thinking they need to execute certain things, and really, you know, getting stuck in, and I’m air-quoting here, “The shoulds.” I’ve heard this a million times from a million people, and I don’t know where to originally credit it to, so I’m just going to say it, and we’ll all pretend that I am so clever that I came up with it, but this idea of not shoulding on yourself, because you will should yourself into paralysis, just into not doing anything.
So today, three permissions that maybe go against the grain and give you a little bit of like, “Oh, okay. I got this.” All right? So, episode 410, all about social media permission. And as a reminder before we jump in with our first thing, every Thursday, we’re live, Hit the Mic TV over on the Facebook page. Check it out. We’ve got some really, really cool stuff coming up in the next few weeks, so I’m really … I’m looking forward to hanging out.
Also in the next few weeks, we’ve got more great trainings coming to Backstage, because we’re right about mid-month now, so we’re finalizing our August training, which is all about planning and reviewing your Q4. So if you’re looking to have a promo or a sale, as part of black Friday, and cyber Monday, and the holiday season, back to school stuff in August, September, any of that stuff, now is the time to be planning that, so we’re actually going to talk about that in our August social media, or our August training, inside Hit the Mic Backstage. So if you’re not in a member, be sure to join us ahead of that. We’ll have, of course, a live call. We also have the VIP community, where you can ask questions any time.
And of course, we just wrapped up our … At the very beginning of this month, we just wrapped up a live round of The Rockstar Guide to Instagram, including some IGTV stuff, so all of that’s brand new and ready for you. So lots of good stuff back there. I’d love to see you join us, and of course, every Thursday at Hit the Mic TV Live, over on Facebook.
So, permission slip number one, fail fast.
Do not get stuck in this idea of, “Once I figure out X, Y, Z, then I’ll execute.” No. Fail fast. That means trying stuff. That means feeling stuff out. That means seeing what works. You know, and the reason specifically that this one came to mind is IGTV. When IGTV first launched, several weeks ago now, I saw a lot of people going, “I’m going to wait and see. I’m going to wait and figure out how to do this,” or, “Until I can perfect it with this lighting setup, or with this camera setup,” or, “When I get my branding …” No. No.
Get started, because here’s the reality of your digital marketing. You will make better decisions after you’ve executed, because you will have real data. When you haven’t started yet, you are in a place of best guesses and estimations from ideal client information and best practices information, and sort of finding where they overlap. When you’ve been executing, you have your data with your audience, with your content. You have real information to inform your decisions.
So, fail fast. Start trying things, and then, like we talk about so freaking much on this show, review. Look at your numbers, and go, “This went really well. This didn’t go very well. Let’s try something new.” Figure it out as you’re moving forward. You will see a massive difference when you come from this place of executing with the idea that you are going to fail fast, because when you fail fast, you tend to fail forward. And I’ll be honest, that’s the basis of my career. That’s the basis of my business. All of the cool things that I’ve done, that I love now were built on the back of, like, “Okay, let’s try this. Let’s see how this goes.”
Next month, we’re going to be celebrating the third birthday of Hit the Mic Backstage, which was literally put together from idea to launch in a matter of weeks, and we will have members who joined us renewing for the third time at that original, like, they bought it before it technically existed rate, because I didn’t let, “Oh, I’ll figure it out and then I’ll do it. I will perfect this and then I’ll show it to people,” stop me from creating something that’s been a massive resource for hundreds of entrepreneurs. So, fail fast and fail forward. That is your permission slip. Do not wait until everything is perfect and everything is done. No. No waiting. Fail fast. Get in. Try it. Review it. Execute again. Fail fast.
Permission slip number two, worry less about doing it the way someone else is doing it.
That was a very fragmented sentence. I want you to spend more time looking at your own paper. We have a tendency to want … And I say we because I’m absolutely just as guilty of this as anybody else on the planet, to look at people we admire, to look at people who are executing the kind of things we want to execute, who are living the kind of lifestyle we want to live, who are running the kind of business we want to run, parenting the way we want to parent, who are driving the kind of car we want to drive, who own the shoes we want to own. We tend to look at them and go, “Okay, well they have that, so I just need to go down that same road and I will get there too,” and that is not necessarily true. In fact, I think it often keeps us from achieving things beyond our wildest dreams.
This is especially true with social media. I see a lot of people going, “Okay, there’s that person I admire. They have 25,000 followers. They have half a million followers. They have a million followers. I just need to post the same kind of content they post, make my branding look like theirs, post with the same frequency, and then I will have that too.” That’s not the case, and so instead of blindly following these people who maybe are doing what you want to be doing, and have a following, and have now sort of gone, “Hey, I’m going to teach you how to do this on Instagram, so just take my course and execute everything the exact way I did, and this is the only path to success.”
That is not true. Here’s your permission slip to go, “They have what I want to have. I see what they’re doing, but it doesn’t feel right for me. I’m going to try it this way.” You now have my permission, not that you needed it, let me just say that here, to do it your way. The only time that this is not true is if it’s going to break rules and/or hurt people. Like, seriously. Other than that, you do you. You have to execute from a place that feels good. And when I say that, I don’t mean you’re never going to be uncomfortable being visible. I don’t know if that’s totally possible. I’m a fairly confident and comfortable person when it comes to putting myself out there, and I still, time and time and time again, struggle with the amount of me that shows up in my marketing, the amount of my face that you guys have to look at. So, there’s always going to be that for most people, I think, I believe.
However, there’s a difference between that discomfort of stretching yourself and getting visible and going, “This isn’t right for me. This isn’t in alignment with my core values, with the way I want to represent myself, with the way I want to connect with my community.” If that’s coming up, then start to look at ways you can make adjustments. Do not follow someone telling you “you should do this”, “you have to do that”, “this is the only way to execute”. You guys have been listening to this show for a while, for those of you who have been listening to this show for a while, for anyone who is in Backstage, or who’s watched Hit the Mic TV live, or seen me speak on stage, or listened to a course I’ve taught or attended a webinar, you’ll always hear me say, “We’re doing what’s right for you and your ideal client.” That may not be the same as me and my ideal client.
On the agency side of our business, very few of my agency clients have the same social media strategy, and none of them have the same social media strategy as me, because we have different goals, we have different ideal clients, and we are different businesses. So do not fall into the trap of saying, “Oh, well this person’s successful, and they told me this is the way to do it, so I have to do it.” This is your permission to say, “Nope. I’m going to do this my way. I’m going to do this in a way that feels good to me.” Okay? This is a big one.
Our third one, I want to give you permission to start selling on social.
Yeah, seriously. I am finding more and more frequently that people are falling firmly into two camps. There’s this tiny sliver of gray area in the middle that is really the magic zone of, like, balance, but for the most part, I see people sort of swinging the pendulum from one side to the other, one side being they sell all the time, insert whatever word you think I was going to say in there. All the time, they are in sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. There is zero value ever.
And on the other side, I see people who are so afraid that they’re going to upset someone in their audience, that they’re going to appear salesy, that they spend hours and hours and hours, and days and days and days, and weeks and weeks and weeks, and months and months and months nurturing and providing value. And that’s fantastic, except to be around as a business and keep providing value, you have to make a sale. You have to make a pitch. You have to make the ask.
You guys know how much I love Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. The jabs are great. That’s your value, but that right hook has to come. You have to show up with the ask, and here’s the deal, guys. If you skip the ask, you’re doing your audience an incredible disservice, because they are not getting all the way from problem to solution. I know you’ve heard me say this before, but no matter what industry you’re in, who your audience is, our whole job is moving people from problem to solution, right? Absolutely.
So, with our free content, and opt-ins, and social posts, we’re moving them a little bit closer so that they know we have the path. We know the way. But at some point, to make it all the way to solution, they’re going to need to make an investment. If you don’t show them how to make that investment, they can’t get all the way to solution. We don’t want that. We want to get them from problem to solution. It’s our whole job, so make sure you’re making the sale, making the ask.
If you follow any of my marketing stuff, you know that I make the ask fairly regularly. I make sure I send a promo, exclusively promo email at least every four to six weeks. There is a promo in almost every weekly email I send out. My social content regularly talks about ways you can work with me. I always, always, always close this episode with a clip that sells Backstage. I talk about Backstage in the context of this episode. Make sure that you are making your community aware that you are available to be worked with, that you can help them get that rest of the way. Here is your permission slip to use social media as a sales tool, because it IS a sales tool, and when you put the effort into building a community, it is a far more effective sales tool. All right?
So, those are your permission slips. I want you to go and I want you to execute now. I want you to take the next step and implement one, two, or all three of these if you feel like you have the span to do that. Do it. Step up. Get out there. Do it your way. Do it in a way that feels good to you. Fail fast. Fail forward. Make the sale. Make the offer. Make the ask. All right? I will see you on Hit the Mic TV live on Thursday, and of course, I hope I see you Backstage.
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