Tiktok or Youtube?
Hashtags or not? If so, which ones?
Webinars? Podcast? This sales strategy or that?
How to get ahead of the algorithm?
Help!!!
Okay, I got you.
The internet is bombarding you with a seemingly infinite number of things that are promised to work.
Here’s how to keep your sanity intact, and make good decision.
The thing to remember is that, every business strategy
- works for SOMEONE…
- … for some TIME.
Put another way, any given strategy may not work for EVERYONE, because every brain and nervous system is different…
… and it may not work FOREVER, either because outside circumstances (like changes in algorithms/customer behavior trends/the popularity of platforms going up or down), or because it is unsustainable for YOU.
Consider that every single business strategy being sold to you… is being delivered to you VIA their business strategy.
Meaning, their #1 interest is getting YOU to buy their thing.
While they’re telling you “I’ll help you get popularity/sales,” what they’re really after is their own popularity and sales. (This is not to say they’re evil and their products suck and they don’t care about you! They may be great, have substance and genuinely care about you. But just remember, every business selling business solutions… is driven by their own interest.)
Here’s what will SAVE YOUR BUTT (and $$$), but is rarely said.
At the end of the day, whether your business succeeds or not comes down to two factors:
(1) the quality of your relationships
and
(2) whether what you’re doing feels nourishing + interesting, and therefore sustainable, for you.
(The quality and usefulness of your work is another giant factor, but let’s assume that is already in place.)
Let’s talk about each one.
(1) the quality of your relationships
This is the part that is tragically left out of so many conversations about marketing.
Getting more views, engagement, sales… is NOT the same thing as as cultivating HIGH QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS.
That is, when you have a true bond with people you give a damn about, who give a damn about you.
The work it takes to get ONE mega fan — the person who will drink up your every word like it’s an ice-cold glass of water in a desert, comes to IG to specifically check if you’ve posted anything new, tells all their friends about you, buys from you again and again, and will freak the fuck out if your account disappeared one day…
… is in an entirely different galaxy than the work it takes to get 10 sales from anyone who’s willing to pay, or get 1000 new followers.
And the former is INFINITELY more useful for your bottom line.
Most business advice is geared toward:
1. helping you get as many eyes and ears as possible from “just whoever.”
This is why those with 10’s of thousands of followers struggle to make a single sale.
2. helping you squeeze out as many sales as possible from “just whoever”
This is why so many people find that, the minute they pivot their offers or business identity, all their people drop off and they have to start from scratch
In considering business strategy, ask yourself:
- does this feel like treating people with the utmost honesty, respect, and high regard for who they are as human beings
- is this putting forward a version of me that the greatest number of people will find attractive OR a version of me that will call out powerfully to the RIGHT person, and repel everyone else?
- Is this close to how I would treat people in my real life that I like, respect, and want to have long-lasting relationships with?
(2) whether what you’re doing feels nourishing + interesting, and therefore sustainable, for you.
Truth: business involves failing a LOT. Every single successful move is accompanied by 99 failures that came before.
Resilience is how you turn failure into learning, as opposed to “stuck in defeat and shame”.
And resilience is only possible when what you’re doing inherently feels nourishing and interesting to you.
When what you’re doing inherently feels nourishing and interesting to you, you are:
- less attached to the outcome
- more likely to bounce back from setbacks
- more likely to enjoy the challenges
- much more likely to keep going…
- … which enables you to build a body of work that is worth gathering around.
Because so many people try to whiteknuckle it through activities that are DEPLETING and BORING to them, they quit fast, or just stay in the zone of flipflopping around with no growth.
You’ve heard the thing about workouts, right?
The only way to stick with it is if you find an activity that you actually ENJOY.
Exact same thing here.
A nuance here: this doesn’t mean there is zero discomfort. Let’s take the example of exercise.
If you’ve been a total couch potato and want to get moving, there is probably gonna be a phase where you’re trying different things and everything feels uncomfortable and awkward.
And even once you find something you like, there will be some pain as you learn how to get better at the thing.
And, even if you absolutely adore the thing, there will be “rainy days” when you just don’t feel like it.
So it’s not just eating strawberry shortcakes in a picnic every single day.
Nothing is that.
But identifying something that actually feels good, interesting and inherently rewarding for you to do, and focusing on that…
… is how you get resilient.
It is also how you build volume without quitting on yourself.
So, how do you find something that you actually LIKE to do?
Focus on what comes easily to you. Zoom in on your natural strengths and inclinations.
If you’re a social butterfly, go to real life events, meet people, and tell them what you do.
If you’re an inveterate writer (like me), write.
And ignore all the hype about reels or whatever. It takes discipline to be committed to what is inherently interesting and rewarding for you, and ignore the world’s noise. It’s worth it.
If you’re someone who loves structure and routine, don’t wing it. Plan everything.
If you’re a pisces queen with ADHD who thrives on just following your curiosity and intuition when you feel like it, DO THAT and fuck all the “you gotta plan” people. (Ahem, that is me).
If the idea of figuring out ads sounds deeply interesting to you, like inherently, do that.
If the same thing makes you vomity, ignore all the ad people and do your own thing. (I had made almost a $million before I ever ran my first ad. Ads aren’t magic. You are.)
I truly believe my podcast only became popular because I had zero attachment to how many people were listening. Making it was an inherently interesting challenge for myself.
Same thing with how I kept up my hypnosis, tarot-reading, and life coaching businesses for years and years when… it all barely added up to even a part time income.
Same thing with how I’m going now, as I emerge out of a months-long sabbatical and am deeply reconfiguring the foundations of my business, and there is zero guarantee that I’ll continue to be “successful” in the worldly sense.
Whatever isn’t inherently interesting and rewarding for you to do — that is to say, even if you got zero popularity or money from it, you would still do it for how fulfilled it makes you feel — YOU WILL QUIT ON.
If you don’t quit on it, you will burn out from it.
I promise you.
I speak standing before a ginormous graveyard of businesses that died because of this.
This is all a long winded way of just saying 3 things.
- Focus on creating high quality relationships, not bigger numbers
- treat people the way you’d treat folks in real life whom you like, respect, and hope to keep around for a long time
and
- Do it in a way that works for you, and have the discipline to ignore everyone else.
If you really take this to heart, you will save yourself an enormous amount of heartache, energy drain, and money.
And put yourself on the track to the most sustainable business growth, and the highest flourishing of your creativity.
The world needs it.