In the past 10+ years of being an entrepreneur, I’ve read all the top books on entrepreneurship, business, marketing, and social media. At an average rate of 2-3 books a week, plus tons of blogs + websites + podcasts + trainings + events. I’ve gathered lots of advice on what you should do to become successful.
Here’s what we’re being told:
- You shouldn’t offer anything for people to buy at all on your website before 6 months, before a year, before you have 10,000 Facebook fans… but if you wait too late, your business will never actually become a business because all you’ll have is a blog and followers who will throw rocks at you for trying to sell something after all this time they’ve been getting it for free.
- Blogging is critical to your success online. YOU. MUST. BLOG. If you refuse to blog, you are violating the golden rule of online marketing. Blogging every day is ideal. Blogging several times a day is even better. Blogging every day will make you a cross-eyed crazy hermit whose hands are permanently deformed from typing. You don’t have to blog unless you are inspired or have something to say. Never go more than a week without blogging because people will forget all about you. Write big EPIC sh*t. Write lots of short “how-to” posts. Blog about just ONE topic so you get known as the EXPERT in that niche. If you have lots of interests and passions, blog about all of them because you are MULTIPASSIONATE.
- People aren’t even reading anymore so make sure you also do lots of video blogs & vlogging if you want to reach non-readers. Create a weekly “web show” that you post to YouTube and your blog and your email list. Interview lots of guest experts. Don’t do interviews because then you are never viewed as an expert yourself and no one will hire you. You can create amazing videos with nothing more than an iPhone and this free app. If you’re running a business, your videos must be PROFESH – which means setting up a mini-studio with lighting, HD cameras, and microphones just for vlogging in the spare room of your house where your stylist and production team sleep. Just talk to the camera from the heart so you are really authentic on video. Make sure you script out every single word. Teleprompters are amazing and all the pros use them. People can tell if you’re scripted, so NEVER use a teleprompter unless you want to look like an inauthentic fraud.
- BE. EVERYWHERE. Have accounts on every single social media site and online content platform so you don’t miss any potential followers and traffic to your website. Instagram, your Tweets, Pin, your Likes, and Poke your friends. Facebook is the most popular social media site, so you only need a business page and you’re golden. Make sure you spend several hours a day on social media engaging your community and building up all your followers, except you’re an entrepreneur and you’re supposed to be actually running a business, so only spend 10 minutes a day on social media.
- Social media is where it’s at. EMAIL IS DEAD. Your business success 100% depends on the size of your email list. If you don’t have 10,000 people on your list, you’re probably living in a van down by the river because your list is wayyy too small to be profitable. Make sure to email your list regularly, but don’t email them too much or else people get pissed and they’ll send you mean emails and unsubscribe. Need to build a list? Make sure you host a huge tele-summit with 50 guest experts that lasts about 3 months. Tele-summits are so 2011 – video interviews series are where it’s at – whoops nope that was yesterday – now we’re on to Hangouts. Host lots of Hangouts. And webinars. And teleseminars. And livestreams. Make sure you do all of them LIVE because you’ll get lots more interaction – but do recordings because who is actually going to tune in live all the time?
- Make sure you have an incredible $10,000 website that truly reflects your brand or else you’ll never be able to charge the big bucks. A profesh website requires a designer, a developer, a coder, a magic genie, a copywriter, a strategist, a creative director, and a photographer so you have lots of gorgeous images of you living an incredible lifestyle wearing an evening gown that looks like the prom dress I wore in 1999 on the beach. Don’t stress about having a super fancy website or prom dress pictures because you can totally DIY for free and still build a six-figure biz.
- SEO is crucial to getting enough traffic to your website. Invest in an SEO expert to do their magic on your website because it’s wayyy too complicated to do on your own. Here’s a DIY training program on how to rank higher in search engines and get more traffic to your site. Make sure you’re spending 10 hours a month on SEO because Google keeps changing the algorithm and all the SEO you did yesterday doesn’t matter.
- Never offer 1×1 services because you’ll never be able to leverage your time and you’ll always be trading dollars for hours. Make sure you have an amazing high-value 1×1 coaching program that’s at least $1K a month. Turn everything you know into an online group coaching program so you never have to work 1×1 again.
- Offer a free session to get new clients. Make sure you promote your free session all over social media and email and any time you have an opportunity to tell people you offer free sessions. Make sure that you follow this exact word-for-word script during that free session so that you can convert people into clients. Don’t deviate from the script or you will never enroll a new client into your program. Free sessions are a complete waste of time when you can sell yourself to lots of people at the same time so make sure you’re doing lots of launches to fill paid programs instead.
- The only way to launch a program is to have an online training series with affiliates sending thousands of people to you over a two-week period. Make sure you have as many people as possible promoting your launch so it makes a ton of noise and can’t be missed. Use lots of urgency and scarcity and red arrows to get people to sign up for your thing.
- Ready to create smart passive income? Make sure you create ebooks. Lots and lots of ebooks. People LOVE ebooks. No one reads anymore so make sure you create a video training series. Spend 18 months developing the training series in your secret lair then have a huge million-dollar launch. Don’t create anything before you know people will buy it. Create your program after you’ve sold it, as you deliver it, while not sleeping for 8 weeks straight because you’ll be doing all of this LIVE people!
- Make sure you attend TONS of conferences. Blogging conferences, social media conferences, world domination conferences. Don’t miss any of them. The best way to get inside connections with other successful entrepreneurs is to attend lots of live events and meetups around the world. While you’re at those events, make sure you sign up for the exclusive mastermind program for $20,000 because the only way you are ever going to really make it as an entrepreneur is if you have an amazing group of peers go with you for regular mastermind retreats where you get 20 minutes of advice from your coach on your business. You will cry together and figure out what’s holding you back and why you’re really resisting the abundance that is ALREADY THERE FOR YOU. Totes worth it.
- Want a business that allows you to have an incredible lifestyle? You know, the lifestyle with lots of traveling around the world and working when you want and having money magically appear even when you’re sleeping? Make sure you do all of the above because even if you are in front of a computer for the next 10 years building a biz – your family might still be around to enjoy it without you.
WTF. No wonder we’re all so confused about how to build a business that really works for US!
Here’s the thing – every single thing in the above rant has worked for someone. Some have worked because it totally fit their personality + style. Some things worked because it fit the business model they were building. Some work better with a specific type of community or niche.
The point is, there are so many variables that make each of our businesses different – from ourselves, our personality, our community, our goals, our desired lifestyle – that there is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for success.
There is NO formula for success in any book, blog, video series, or training program that will work for you out of the box – your business isn’t a piece of IKEA furniture!
No matter how many parts of your business are the same – even if you’re serving the same type of program to the same community for the same price tag – YOU are a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON!
You have so much to bring into your business! You have your own amazing talents, divine gifts, and life experiences. You have your own strengths, style, and desires.
You have a special something the world needs – that ONLY YOU can offer.
Leaving all that amazingness OUT of the equation pretty much guarantees a business that will bring you nothing but frustration, stress, and a second-rate version of someone else’s business.
It’s time for us – as conscious entrepreneurs – to embrace everything that makes us one-of-a-kind. To build YOUR success, you’ve gotta finish sketching YOUR blueprints. It’s time to do the work to discover your own Business Sweet Spot.
Easy enough, right?
Maybe not if you had to figure it all out on your own. But with a little love and guidance, you can design a business that really works for you.
If you’re doubting that what you’ve been trying in your biz is right for you, let me know what’s going on in the comments below. I’m here for you!
