TT#052 - Stop spinning your wheels...

Ever gotten your car stuck in the sand on the beach?  

Uh, yeah, me neither. 

But let’s just say you did. 

If you know what you’re doing, you’ll clear the sand, deflate the tires, rock the car a bit, throw something under the tires for traction, and off you go. 

If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll probably step on the gas - repeatedly. And every time you do you’ll be digging yourself into a deeper hole. Literally. 

I’ve seen it play out countless times. 

And I see the same type of thing happen in the business world almost every day. 

Here’s what it sounds like in business: 

“What I’m doing now isn’t getting results. But I’m going to keep doing it until it does. Then I’ll invest time or money into figuring out a better way to do things”

In other words, “I’m stuck, and I’m going to keep my foot on the gas until I’m unstuck. Then I’ll get some help.”  

Early on, I made this same mistake. 

❌  I didn't know how to package, price, or productize my services, but I wanted to generate enough revenue from the less profitable, less systematized work I had before investing in figuring it out. 

❌  I wasn’t sure how to leverage lead magnets, but I wanted the ones I had to get me enough clients to pay for learning how to optimize them. 

❌  I wasn’t sure why my website never generated leads, but I wanted it to generate enough sales to invest in someone who could help me fix it. 

But this is the slowest and most frustrating way to build a business. 

And the cost is enormous. Every month I settled at $10k/mo. in revenue when I could’ve been at $20k/mo. cost me $10k. 

Eventually my frustration got high enough to bite the bullet and make some investments. 

✅  I learned pretty quickly how to start productizing my services - which eventually led to 10x’ing my rates. 

✅  I learned how to create lead magnets that people would opt-in to - and increased my email list from <100 to nearly 5,000 subscribers. 

✅  I learned how to create a sales page that converted eyeball into opportunities - and started building a pipeline of qualified prospects. 

Sure, it was nerve wracking to invest when money was tight. But that’s when investment is needed most. If I was swimming in cash, finding solutions wouldn’t have been nearly as urgent. 

Insisting on waiting for the wrong things to work before investing in figuring out how to do the right things was a mistake. 

But everything is 20/20 in hindsight. 

The lesson for me was clear: 

When something isn’t working, I now immediately look around and ask myself, “Who’s solved this problem before or can help me fast track solving it right now?” 

That’s the best shortcut I’ve found. And the best way to keep from spinning my wheels.