My son Chris is 4 going on 44. Whenever he discovers something new and I try to help him figure it out he says, “I can do it, I can do it!” At first the task looks SO easy, but then he looks at me with those big eyes and I say, “Not SO Easy is it?”.
You ever look at a website or listen to someone share their marketing strategy and say to yourself, “I can do that!” and then when you start to do IT, you realize there is more to IT than meets the eye. Not matter how old we are, we all get bitten by the “I can do it by myself” bug. And then sure enough, once we REALLY get STARTED we realize that we don’t quite have all the pieces to the puzzle.
Let me give you a few examples:
You look at Jane Doe’s new marketing plan: a Free Report,a new Newsletter, and a redesigned Blog. You say to yourself, “I can do that”. You put your stuff out there and then you realize no one is downloading your report, subscribing to your newsletter, or reading your blog. What happened? What did you forget?
I know you saw the Free Report, but did you think about the sales copy Jane wrote to promote it. Like Jane, did you create an auto responder to improve your newsletter open rate or outline a strategy to promote your blog?
Let’s say you look at Jane Doe’s social network and say to yourself, “I can do that”. You setup a network in 5 minutes, but after 5 months you still can’t figure out how to get more members and engage the few that you have. What are you missing?
You look at Jane Doe’s Facebook profile with thousands of followers and say, “I can do that”. You finally start writing in your blog and posting comments on Facebook, but it’s not the same. You have just as many social friends, but the engagement isn’t there. Why? What is Jane doing that you aren’t?
With respect to building an online business, don’t be fooled into believing that you can use similar designs or web tools as someone else and get the same results. Like good Bar-B-Que Chicken, the secret is in the sauce … those ingredients that you can’t see and can only obtain either by sitting down with the chef OR by spending a few sleepless nights in your own kitchen trying to recreate the recipe for yourself.
If you are currently queen of the “I Can Do Bad all by Myself”, club I just have one question to ask … “How is that working for you?” If its not, well then … I think it’s time to make a change don’t you? There is no better time to reinvent your business than the coming of a new year! Speaking of which, my 2010 Closeout has begun. Click here to grab everything I created to help you with your business in 2010 and Beyond – Starter Kits, eBooks, videos, eCourses and mp3s starting at $27 Bundles.
Great post. That is exactly right. This is not necessarily directed at your products, but how does one know when the products/information are going to be legit? I know I’ve been severely disappointed in marketing material and information that I’ve paid for, which doesn’t include complete, tangible and doable tips for implementation.
I am not playing next year, going full force. Just purchase the bundle. Thank you so much for everything that you do, all the information you share with us. A great inspiration.