Part 2 - You’ve Been Focusing On The Wrong Thing

You've been tricked!

Here’s the basic problem you’re experiencing. You’re not seeing any results with the tactics you’re applying because you don’t have an overarching strategy - and without a strategy, you are most likely choosing the wrong tactics.

Your strategy should be a mix of research on your goals, skills, competencies, and dreams - these are the foundations of your business. You shouldn’t care if someone is doing webinars to sell their digital product if you hate being on the camera, hate running webinars, and don’t want to sell a digital product. A copy-paste approach to business is NOT a strategy. Your strategy has to be right for YOU.

And when that happens, you feel bad. You might think there is something wrong with you - after all, you bought the programs. It must be your fault that you haven’t reached the results the courses promised, right?

And as long as you’re being a squirrel entrepreneur, you will keep buying the magic pills and “business in a box” solutions. Why? Because you’re not thinking strategically about what you want.

You’re looking for a solution to your symptoms and you’re overlooking the cause of the problems. You’ve been preyed on. It’s SO much easier to sell to a Squirrel than to Strategically Focused Entrepreneur because the Strategically Focused Entrepreneur will compare the new “opportunity” to what they need to make their strategy happen (for that reason we build a Goal Pyramid in the Revenue Masters program), but the Squirrel will chase the shiny object, hoping it’s the easy way out of the hole they’re in.

This biz thing is hard - but, don’t jump from shiny object to shiny object. Refine what you have. Refine what’s in front of you. Make it work, then move on. 

That’s exactly what I did in 2018. I had all the moving pieces, all the pieces of the puzzle in front of me. The only thing I needed to do to go from -$20k to $180k+ was to identify the pieces that weren’t making sense, eliminate them from my business, identify solutions that bring results, and improve upon them. I used a few tools to help me identify the “dead weight” and the “things to focus on” and then plugged them into my Goal Pyramid.

Here’s a VERY common example, one I’ve seen often having worked with over 500 online and offline entrepreneurs.

I like to use an example of a bridge to illustrate what happens when you’re not focusing on one thing that will move the needle forward in your business. If you can imagine that between where you are in your business right now and where you want to be, there is a gap. Let’s say you’re at $10k/mo and you want to be at $100k/mo. There is a gap you need to fill. You need a bridge to bridge the gap (I love this wordplay!). 

Let’s assume the bridge you need to build consists of 5 big blocks. You attended a webinar, got excited about the idea that was presented to you and were convinced “this is it”. This is what you need to implement to get you from $10k to $100k months. 

So you start building the first block with excitement. All is going well and the first block is built. Time for the next one. Now the “novelty” wears off a bit, but you still feel the excitement and are committed to making it work. 

The third block is hard! You start to be impatient. You start to hear about this new opportunity out there that someone had mentioned is capable of building a $100k business. But you persist. The third block is built, but your enthusiasm is low. 

Fourth block. Oh, man. That guru that sold you the program never said it was going to be so hard. Nobody told you that you would need to put THAT much work in to get the results you desire. Not to mention that the tactics the guru is giving you aren’t working - maybe because you don’t like doing what they’re telling you to do. You feel like you are building a business you are trapped in, doing stuff you don’t like (ex. Facebook Live every day. Damn, it works for the guru, but man you hate doing it). Four blocks. 

You are tired, your enthusiasm is gone, there is no money in the bank, you scroll your newsfeed or open google and see an ad that promotes a new opportunity. Perhaps it is another “business in a box”, perhaps it is “just” another tactic. 

You fall for it. 

You leave the four blocks of your current bridge and start building another bridge. The first block, second block, third. Oh, look, a new opportunity! Now you have a second bridge with three blocks built.

A third bridge, a fourth bridge...all partially built. All the potential, time, and money WASTED. You are tired and burnt out because, all together, you built zero bridges and spent time and energy on tens of blocks that would have been enough to build one solid bridge in the first place. You consider going back to a 9-5. 

Now, an alternative scenario. 

The same situation - you’re at $10k, looking to get to $100k - but, this time you’re smarter. You start by clearly defining your goals, the one thing you need to focus on, and the path to get there (aka, your strategy).

You map out all the blocks of your new bridge. You identify the must-have elements, all the assets, and resources you’re going to need. You reach out for help from those that can help you reach your goal.

You fully utilize YOUR potential and build a strategy and a business model that is sustainable because YOU are good at what you do (no more Facebook Live broadcasts if you hate them!) and because it utilizes YOUR skills, competencies and YOUR zone of genius. 

Because you analyzed what you’re good at, what you love to do, what you want to do, and built a strategy around that, you maintain that elevated state of excitement in building the bridge, you push through obstacles and implement ideas that support the strategy.

You’re patient and consistent. You evaluate any opportunities and ideas against your goal pyramid to see if it fits or if it should be ignored (for now). 

You build a bridge. You reach your goal. Finally, success.

I built a bridge to $180k in12 months by focusing on the strategy and ignoring all random (and tempting) tactics. I then, and only then, moved to building another bridge. 

You might be thinking, “This is all great, but how do I know what that ONE thing I should focus on actually is? How do I know what will move the needle forward in my business? How do I define and design the strategy that MY business needs? 

Let’s answer those questions...

TAKEAWAYS