Gurus come and go. This "thing" stays
This whole coronavirus situation triggers me, on so many levels. You cannot travel, go camping, go for drinks, meet with friends. But from a business perspective, not much has changed for me.
And when the lockdowns started happening, I immediately had ideas on how to pivot and tweak my offers to make sense and keep growing my business. But when I talk to my clients and also observe what is happening to other people's businesses, I can see this is not the case for them.
You see, it was August 2014 when I quit my corporate gig and started my own business. I have 6+ years of experience running an online business. Even though I was a corporate business consultant before, "running your show" is an entirely different experience.
During the past 6 years, I've learned a lot about business in general, online business and marketing. I learned so much that a few years after I launched my first business in Europe, I opened a marketing agency in Canada and, shortly after, I started coaching other agency owners on how to run their businesses. Over the past couple of years, I have worked with over 600 entrepreneurs.
I'm not sharing this story to boost my ego. Ok, maaaaaybe a little bit, lol. I'm sharing it to make it clear that, in the past several years, I have seen a lot. And these experiences equipped me with a varied toolset of strategies, tools and tactics to choose from during crisis.
I've seen "gurus" come and go. I've seen tactics and offers come and go, the BS and scams of the online marketing industry, the "magic formulas" and tools that are supposed to fix all your problems "with a click of a button."
If you've read my recent manifesto "The Missing Piece (go to my website/blog to read if you haven't; you'll enjoy it), you know that I'm not a fan of the overhyped, short-term tools and tactics.
For me, the strategy is always a foundation in everything that I do.
Everything.
Without the strategy, you don't know which direction you're going. As a result, you don't know what tools, techniques and vehicles to use to get there.
The reason why you see "gurus" pushing sales of those tactics and methods lacking the strategic foundations is that they are just shiny objects. When appropriately packaged and wrapped by an excellent direct response marketing, they will sell like crazy. Their offers are often complemented by faked Stripe account screenshots and rented Lamborghinis.
Some people even teach how to package something in a way that it sells even though it does not bring any value to those who buy it.
Go figure.
For years I've been just doing my thing and not taking part in the whole "online marketing" rat race. I decided to bet on learning, applying, putting the work in and getting results. I always do my best to apply what I learn immediately. Knowledge without application is useless.
Knowledge + Application = Experience.
We both know that there are a ton of different ways to make money online. And those ways, tools and methods come and go. Messenger bot marketing, website push notifications, one-page funnels, 2-step checkouts, upsells, webinars, VSLs, Facebook ads, Pinterest ads, XYZ…
Some are universal and stay longer, and some are just a quick trend that doesn't stick around for too long. But no matter what the tactic or tool is, the main marketing principles stay the same: letting your prospects know you exist, understanding their needs, providing value, staying in touch, presenting offers that are a perfect response to their needs.
And over the past 6 years, I have tried it all. I test everything that comes my way. I immediately and extensively test new tools and methodologies and draw conclusions, fast. I'm geeky like that, you know.
Perhaps I do that because, since I was a kid, I've always wanted to be like Bruce Lee, who said: "Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is specifically your own."
Below is a picture me, being a Bruce Lee mid-90s 😀
Mike "mysterious" Koziol
"I have no special talents, I am just passionately curious."