Are you following a lot of influencers and that's leaving you doubting yourself? Doubting your decisions? Wondering if you're 'doing it right'? It's time to listen more to your inner knowing and follow your path to success.

The world is on information overload. You can turn on your TV or computer 24 hours a day and find new information on any topic you can imagine.

Therefore, it’s natural that you’re going to find a lot of different opinions about the best business and marketing strategies. For this reason, it’s important that you become more discerning and never let other people dictate your path to success.

Manage Shiny Object Syndrome

We often try to make decisions because someone is telling us that we need to decide. The problem is that we are trying to make a decision from a place of not-knowing. You may have heard me mention before, that an issue I see with many online business owners, is that they buy courses and take advice from people who run a business inside a different business model than what they want for their own business.

Let me elaborate so you have a clear picture of what this means.

Let's meet Sheila.

Sheila signs up for someone's live webinar where she's going to learn how to create a webinar to discovery call to high ticket offer funnel. What does this mean? 

The training is going to teach her that she needs to record a free webinar and place that on her website so people will sign up. After signing up, the new prospect will get access to the free webinar. After watching the webinar the potential customer will receive a series of emails inviting them to join Sheila on a discovery call where she will see if they're a good fit for her program, course or coaching package. If they both agree, the prospect will sign up for her high ticket offer and thus. becomes a paying customer. 

Sounds incredible! Sheila can offer a high-ticket coaching package and make tons of money and rejoice in her accomplishment. Sheila is super excited.

She buys the program. She learns how to create the webinar to discovery call funnel.

Then one day it hits her . . . she now has to have all of these discovery calls with people. 5, 10, 15 calls per week to sell her program. And she realizes that's not how she wants to spend her time.  What she REALLY wants to do is create a series of small courses that she can sell on auto-pilot so she has more time and energy to travel.

Um . . . what do you think happened there?

She became distracted and disconnected from her business vision and her personal needs. And she was probably influenced or dazzled by the idea of bringing in $3000 per client, instead of selling her course for $297. 

She lost focus on her north star and followed someone who is teaching a different business model than the one she wants for her business (and her lifestyle).

There's nothing wrong with the training she bought. And a webinar to discovery call to high ticket offer funnel is an effective way to fill courses, masterminds, and other programs (I've built many for my clients and myself), but it simply was not what she needed for the more "hands-off" automated business she really wants.

Distractions are everywhere 

Every day, a new software is born that promises to make your funnels work automatically. And every day, a new marketing idea is created and sold. Every day, something new comes out that may (or may not) improve your business. 

The only way to really avoid these types of distractions is to give yourself permission to look at new things briefly. Set limits on how long you'll test something new while continuing with the plans you already have in place.

I always tell my clients, "put it on ice." Create a place, a journal or use a project management platform like ClickUp or Trello, to jot down all of your business ideas, tech you want to explore, trainers or marketers you're curious about; put it all on ice. It'll keep till you have time and energy to follow up on the idea. 

This strategy allows you to get it out of your head and you'll be reassured that you won't forget. Most entrepreneurs have a thousand ideas every week and many interests they'd like to pursue, but not all today and not all at once.

Watch Out for Gurus

There is nothing wrong with following a guru (well, unless the guru calls themselves a guru - ick!)! I prefer "mentor," but that's another conversation. I follow many mentors and learn a great deal from others.  

The warning again is, be careful who you let influence your decisions. There are many "gurus" out there who make promises or claim to have the proven system that will help you fill your programs or sell your services, but they really don't have their own business systems set up to give you the time needed to teach you such a complicated strategy.

Be careful of naysayers or people who discredit legitimate business practices. You might find people who claim, “Email marketing doesn't work.” This is not true. Email marketing is still the most effective way to connect with your subscribers and sell your products and services. It beats out ALL other marketing strategies by a huge margin.

I see many, many Facebook ads (and YouTube ads) where the advertiser is more focused on saying something doesn't work and discredits all the wonderful people who have poured their hearts into teaching that method, and you're left with "ick" all over you and ... you're not sure what they're even selling. These types of marketers are selling you fear, scarcity, negative self talk, and the idea that you can't trust your own decisions or intuition in business. 

Don’t Believe All the Hype

There's also a surge of "hype" marketing or "bro" marketing that emphasizes a wealthy lifestyle; driving fancy cars, purchasing a huge house, relaxing on a yacht, but their content falls flat. 

While most business owners try to be honest with their presentations, "hype" and "bro" marketing gets overblown with lots of promises. It’s important that you understand that these types of programs are out there, and you should take their promises with a grain of salt.

Avoid anything that seems like all hype and no substance. 

Know How to Find Trusted Sources

Ask people you trust for referrals or seek out other resources where you can ask questions and get honest answers.

Find independent business groups (on or off social media) where the members are impartial and will offer you real feedback and advice.

Practice Finishing What You Start

When you find something new you want to try, such as content marketing or recording your first video training, be sure to complete it. You don't have to share it or make it public, but you do need to give yourself the time it takes to practice the skills.

If you sit too long in "I'm not sure what content to create" and never try, you'll never know if it's a good strategy for you. Allow yourself the opportunity to grow into the person you want to become. Set up opportunities to practice skills you'd like to master, but do it in a way that feels safe to you. 

And do create a business practice of completing your projects.

"Your learning and expansion happens inside taking action."

Implement Before Learning More

In addition to "practice finishing what you start," practice implementing before you begin learning something else. Implementation is the action needed in business. If you have any type of training you've purchased that you think would work for you now, make plans to login and look around.

Calendar it.  Start working through the lessons and implement as you go.

Not sure where to begin? Check the program to see if they have a "start here" module or simply go to the first lesson and jump in.

Don’t Put All Your Faith in One Tool

Remember that tools are just that - tools. Internet companies, funnel software, email software, and social media platforms all come and go. Don’t depend on just one, and don’t depend on any of them to be here forever.

Wrap-Up

To build a long-lasting business you can be proud of, focus on learning from trusted sources, manage your distractions, implement the strategies you learn, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY listen to yourself and your inner knowing ... fully.

If your inner knowing conflicts with an outside influence . . . follow your inner knowing! 

Strengthen this practice above all others.

Deepen the trust you have in yourself, expand your self-compassion so you feel free to play, learn and experiment, AND believe in your decisions and your greatest, highest vision for yourself, your life, and your contribution to the world!

You can join our community here and then share what you've learned about yourself and your business. Feel free to ask questions and cheer others on. We're all in this together!

Till next time,

Be brilliant.

Be imperfect.

And always, be you.

Melissa