Crocodile Tears and the 3 Biggest Mistakes You're Making in Business
Episode 384: Show Notes
Ya’ll know we’re on a mission to turn you into a full-time creative entrepreneur who earns a sustainable income from your passion. Because we’ve been on this journey ourselves for the past four years and have helped thousands of people through it, we have seen and heard most, if not all, of the mistakes in the book. While we’ve spoken a great deal about getting your perfectionist or overachieving mindset right, that alone won’t help you to succeed. On a practical level, you need to stop making crucial mistakes, including focusing too heavily on the appearance of your brand, thinking that your audience is a bunch of strangers and convincing yourself that gadgets and systems will get you to where you want to be. Today we unpack each of these common mistakes, so get your notebook and listen up!
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Mistake #1: Valley Girl Syndrome
In this scenario, what’s happening is that you’re putting too much effort into how you look and how you are perceived before you even make a dollar. Like a typical Valley girl, your website and social media channels might look really polished, pretty and be on-trend, but once you dig a little deeper, you realize there isn’t much to it. What you need to do is shift your focus away from the cosmetic aspects of your business and more toward selling your offer. You might not even need a website! Everybody goes through this mistake, but some people just get over it faster than others. This is the perfectionist stage we’ve talked about, the constant preoccupation with the bells and whistles, and guess what, while you might enjoy working on these elements, your business is suffering big time. We tell ourselves all sorts of things: that we’re not ready or don’t have enough experience. This is simply not true.
Mistake #2: The Avocado Effect
The avocado is quite an ugly fruit, right? So, there it is, thinking it’s unloved and unlovable, and yet – it’s got a ton of friends! It can make you some mean guacamole, it can be on toast, in a smoothie and even on your face! And this is basically you. You are pretty cool. And you already have friends. But you don’t even see the people right in front of you. The problem comes down to this: you spend more time talking to people you don’t know instead of nurturing those who are already close to you. We’ve said this before, but the number one thing we recommend you start with is offering a service that you already know how to do. Start with the people who are there rather than thinking you should immediately attract the attention of thousands of strangers. Very few businesses get started this way. Once you are established and growing your audience, then you can pay attention to the social media platforms. A one-to-one model is best to start out with and you don’t need all the fancy things to get going. It’s better to serve a handful of known clients really well than trying to offer bits and pieces to hundreds of new people. Keep it simple.
Mistake #3: Going Into Inspector Gadget Mode
When you are making this mistake, you have all the gadgets and tools and the high-end website. The mistake here is assuming all the software and apps are saving you time and money while they might not, in fact, be contributing to your bottom line. If you’re a tech-savvy geek who likes gadgety things, then this will be a tempting mistake for you. Because keeping yourself busy with these kinds of things is really fun. What might end up happening is you taking something that worked simply and turning it into a complicated thing, and you are the one having to manage all these systems. So, constantly having to update apps, fix bugs and sort out tech problems becomes a massive hassle that detracts from what matters most – your bottom line offering. This relates to the overachieving mindset that causes you to spread yourself too thin, and you end up doing nothing fully. Also, you can easily reduce your potential profit by getting all these unnecessary systems on board. In the Dream Job webinar, we go over certain questions that you have to answer, and if you can’t, you’re probably stuck in this mistake.
So, what now?
We often turn to Instagram and those obvious, easy tactics when really we should be picking up the phone and calling friends and family, or we might need to email some people or engage in face-to-face conversations. These are the scary and hard things to do, but they are by far the most effective. The good news is that you can get on the other side of these mistakes quickly. You just have to start implementing this advice and you’ll start gaining greater traction. Think about those things you can do right now without needing any extra training, programs, or any other resources.
Quote This
We’ve seen time and time again when you focus on the offering you can put out right now, and you start to see results, that’s the thing to move you forward more than anything else.
Highlights
Mistake #1: Valley Girl Syndrome. [0:03:21.1]
Mistake #2: The Avocado Effect. [0:08:03.1]
Mistake #3: Going Into Inspector Gadget Mode. [0:14:40.1]
So, what now? [0:24:02.1]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Clients, Audience, Social Media, Simplicity, Software, Gadgets, Profit, Webinar, Strategy Academy
