Episode 417: Less Is More – Simplify Your Business for Better Results

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Hey everybody. Welcome to today’s episode. I am thrilled that you’re here. Hey, in this episode I wanna talk about a challenge I have for you. So I am going to challenge you to think about less in your business. Don’t think about more. I want you to think about less. How do you simplify everything in your business? So take a week, take two weeks, however long it takes for you. But I’m gonna challenge you for this week, every single day, start the day by saying, how do I simplify my business? How do I simplify what I’m doing?

Because more likely than not, what you are doing is, what can I do? What can I create? What, who can I talk to? What can I put out there? What kind of content? I need a challenge. I need a webinar. I need this, I need that. I need this other thing. I need to create more videos. I need to, like all of the things that are happening, all of the activities that are happening [00:01:00] where you are thinking about creation, you’re thinking about how do I build more, how do I do this? How do I get this to do this, to if you are that, in that place right now. I see you. Right?

So instead of thinking about more, think about how do you simplify? One of the things that we’ve talked about is what is the, like the one way that you can communicate with potential customers so they come in and start working with you, or they start experiencing what you have to offer, and then when they’re ready, you offer them the next thing. And then when they’re ready, you offer them the next thing. Instead of like, here’s my laundry list of all the things that I do, go pick one, right? That doesn’t lead to a successful customer journey because customers get confused and they don’t know what to do. The same thing applies to you and what you’re creating, right? If you’re like, I need more leads, [00:02:00] then like, great. Create one thing that then you can start using to bring the leads in and move them forward. Not like, I gotta create 42 million reels and 25 million of these and all of these other things, right? One thing that brings them to the next step, that brings them to the next step. So really challenge yourself to think about how do you move from all of the things, all of the ideas, and trying to implement all of the ideas to just implementing one, the one that’s gonna make the biggest impact.

So two things. One is we have a tendency, and I include myself in this, to, when things aren’t working how we want them or we’re trying to do something, we brainstorm all of the [00:03:00] potential ways that we can make something happen, right? We are entrepreneurs, we are business owners, we are scrappy. We have a million ideas for everything that could happen. The challenge becomes when we start chasing all of those ideas, right? So we brainstorm ideas and then we narrow it down to one or two that we wanna test. The trap that most of us fall into is we get super excited about all the ideas, and so then we start trying to implement all the ideas at the same time. Guess how many ideas actually make it to market when we try and chase all of them? Yep. Very few, right? And so, brainstorm and then narrow it down to one. Then have the discipline for yourself to actually just take one of the ideas and run through it to fruition, right? Test it to see if that one idea is the idea that’s going [00:04:00] to move the needle in your business. Not take the one idea, start working on it, start to put it out there and then it doesn’t do anything so then you move to the next one, and then you start, and then the next one, and then the next one, and then the next one. And you can’t ever get traction because you just keep moving from idea to idea to idea, right?

I, if that’s you, I see you like, right? Like I, I have a tendency to do that too, because we get so excited about how we could potentially get all these people in all these different things. And, and if it’s not immediately working, then we throw it out and we start something new, right? Or we watch something and somebody says do it this way, so then we move and do it that way, right? And so my challenge to you is focus on one thing. Get really disciplined on working on that one thing until it starts converting or until you get the data that it’s not the thing [00:05:00] that your ideal avatar wants. Right? Then throw it out. But that takes some time and you need to give it the time for it to grow and nurture.

One of the things I always talk about with my clients is, when you are reaching out to somebody new you’re planting a seed, right? And seeds don’t grow overnight, so you have to, you have to nurture them, you have to water them, you have to give them the right sunlight. You need to give them the right things so it starts to grow. And then it doesn’t grow from like the seed to a giant flower all at the same time, right? It takes some time. And in the sales and marketing process, we forget that, right? We’re like, we want immediate results. If we put out an ad or we put out some content, if it doesn’t immediately produce a customer, we’re out. We gotta, we gotta move on, we gotta do something else. And so we don’t give things long enough, or our focus is so, so fractured because we’re doing 4 million things, we just never get [00:06:00] traction.

And I would say that like the people that I’m working with, this is the thing that they struggle with the most, is just focusing on the one thing for long enough until it starts to do, what it’s intended to do in the first place. And so this week I challenge you just really think about where is it, and you probably know where it is, but where is it that you need to really focus and have the discipline to do the one thing, right?

I have a client right now who is trying to acquire more customers and she is literally running around like a chicken with her head cut off, trying to do a million different lead gen activities all at the same time for different audiences, which is a whole nother conversation, but, she’s just sort of throwing things out there and hoping that one of the things is the thing that’s gonna stick.

And there’s so [00:07:00] many hooks in the water for everything right now, including all of the crazy that’s going on in the world that people can’t see all of the different things, right? And so she’s distracted, customers start getting distracted, and then they’re not buying because there’s too many things going on, and so it is literally taking her discipline and traction in one thing and riding that through until it starts to convert. Once it starts to convert, then you just keep doing that thing, right? But that’s the biggest challenge is really focusing.

So when we talk about the power of one, it’s literally focusing on one thing at a time as you’re building your business, which you know is almost impossible for us, but when you have somebody who’s helping you, like, okay let’s commit to this. Let’s run through it. Do this one thing. Don’t build five funnels at the [00:08:00] same time. Just build one and start to see what’s happening with that as you go through the process.

So for you today, I want you to write down the word simplistic, right, and focus, and less. Whatever word resonates with you. Think about that and really start to focus on kind of the one thing that you know will move you in the direction you need to go.

For example, when you think about like selling to an audience, and I try not to talk too much about sales and marketing in here because that’s not our focus, but unfortunately you have to have customers come in to your world in order for you to continue to grow and scale, so sometimes that comes up in the conversation, so I’m gonna keep riffing from this, but you think about it like you have [00:09:00] three different types of audiences that you are pitching to or you are selling to. One is a hot audience. Those are people who are already in your world. They’re already ready to go. They’re like, yep, what do you got for me? I’m in. Those are the easiest people to sell to. And a lot of times, we spend all of our time trying to find new people, and we don’t even focus on the people who are just sitting there waiting for us to come up with something new that they can consume, so don’t forget about those hot buyers.

Then you have warm buyers. Those are people who are on your list already or they’re swimming around you, but they’re not necessarily they’re not a hundred percent ready or they’re not a hundred percent sure and they just need to hear the right messaging from you. Those are your warm buyers, those are also easier to bring in because they’re just waiting for you to speak to them in a way that, that shares, or that matches the way that they, want to, to solve the problem that they have. Two great audiences to really focus on, especially when you’re first [00:10:00] starting is not like you don’t even need to be out to a cold audience. Those are not your people right now. Your people are already in your world who are just waiting for you to discover that you have the fastest path to give them results.

So I always tell people the first six months, even a year, is really just working on how do you build and communicate to your hot and warm buyers that you already have, and then move out to a cold audience strategy. And a cold audience strategy is like people who don’t even know you, they don’t even know you exist. You haven’t even talked to them or communicated with them before. That’s like the third place that you go.

So often I have new people who are starting out and they’ve packaged their expertise, they have their delivery system, they’re testing, and either they’ve gone through their beta experience or they are just starting to go out and acquire customers. And they’re like, we need Facebook ads. We need this, we [00:11:00] need that. And we’re gonna, you know, get all of these new leads in and then convert all of these new people into buyers. And yes, that’s possible. But not probable, right? Like they, they are that little seed that needs time to become a flower and that’s a longer term play.

And so yes, you can be doing that, but that’s not gonna be where you’re getting the most traction from sales, right? And so when you’re first starting, start with those two audiences that are a lot easier. So when you’re looking at brainstorming your list, brainstorm for those audiences. Focus on that audience that you have. Hot buyers ideally, but even warm buyers. Focus there. All of your attention. And then start to bring in more warm buyers. That’s the goal. It’s not to turn all the cold people in the world to become buyers ’cause it takes longer, [00:12:00] especially in the selling environment with the trust recession, to turn them into customers.

So again focus, less, simplistic. Get down to the brass tacks and discipline yourself as a business owner that yes, you have a million ideas and they’re all wonderful. Pick one and work on that one for, I would say like 30 to 90 days. Give it some time. We’re not very good at that as entrepreneurs and business owners, but really, that’s what it takes to start to see the shift happen. And if you wanna scale your business fast, that’s how you do it. It’s not by putting out a million different things, it’s by focusing on one, one thing that’s gonna help move the needle for turning your prospects into buyers.

All right, there you go. Hopefully that helps you today as you start looking at. How do you plan your week? Remember, when you [00:13:00] brainstorm, the whole goal of brainstorming is to narrow it down to one or maybe two different tactics or strategies. It’s not to try and implement all of them at the same time. And I see you, I know, I work with a lot of you, and so while you say, yep that makes sense, in practice, you’re actually out doing a million different activities. So, focus and remember, less is more.

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