"What's the key to self-discipline?"
For some reason, folks ask me this question often.
Here's my regular answer:
There is no key or secret or hack.
You either want to achieve your goal bad enough... or you don't. That's it.
You either want it or you don't.
Every day you're faced with decisions about what you're going to do and how you're going to invest your time.
It's your choice.
If you want something bad enough... you'll do what needs to be done. If you don't want it bad enough... you won't.
It's that simple.
Don't overcomplicate it.
And don't buy into the fallacious idea that you're only one time management or productivity hack away.
You're not one anything away. You're right there.
You just need to ask yourself which you want more: your goal... or... to procrastinate.
With that, let's get to this week's goodies...
MY FAVS THIS WEEK
- Reading vs Watching Videos: What Science Says
Today, most people like to learn from videos or audios.
Reading is slowly dying as a primary learning modality.
But, there's a difference between consuming your information via passive (i.e. watching) and active (i.e. reading) activities.
This article gives a good overview of those differences and their impact. - Why “Outcomes Over Outputs” Is Flawed Advice
Found this article thought-provoking.
It's based around how software companies approach new feature creation and delivery.
But has a lot of application to every business which updates their products and/or creates new products. - Writing For Global Audiences
If you do anything with an international audience, you need to be aware of the differences in the way people and cultures absorb and understand information.
It's a mistake to think everything you say and show will automatically be appropriate for everyone, without making any adjustments.
ODDITY FROM MY LIBRARY
Engineering a marketing message... and optimizing a marketing campaign... should be done in two different stages.
You shouldn't attempt to optimize a marketing message or campaign until you've published the campaign, have driven some traffic, and have base-level metrics to make decisions objectively.
Once you're ready to optimize, this book can be a good aid in showing you how to methodically improve the performance of your site, funnel, etc.
It was published in 2013. So there are some things a little out of date. And I don't agree with everything shared.
But, overall, it's a good aid if you need some additional guidance when it comes to your split-testing efforts.
WHAT I'M TELLIN' MY TEAM
This week for our internal marketing training...
I shard a video clip, with the team, from the original Big Marketing Idea Bootcamp.
All about the process for finding, developing, and fleshing-out compelling ideas for our marketing promotions.
At the root, this process begins by looking for connections between ordinary ideas.
Our aim being to find a new connection between two or more ordinary ideas, which we can turn into a singular extraordinary idea.
This is exactly how some of the most effective Big Marketing Ideas have been... and are... developed.
It's not about waiting for a flash of inspiration or brilliance...
It's about digging-in, doing research, finding ordinary ideas, looking for connections, etc.
TEAM TAKEAWAYS IN THREE BULLETS:
- To generate good marketing ideas we need lots of input from lots of varying sources. Diversity of inputs is essential. As is the quantity. We need lots of inputs, to have lots of outputs, to find big marketing ideas.
- All good ideas are really just new connections. We need to get good at looking for connections between two seemingly disconnected ideas, issues, areas, events, etc.
- Idea development is a skill, like any other skill, which can be developed over time. We just need to be proactive and regularly practice looking for connections.
MY ADVICE
This question comes from inside the MFA Nation Facebook Group...
Here's my response:
Page load time/speed is even more critical for direct marketers.
Especially for folks using paid media to drive traffic.
Why?
Because there's irrefutable evidence that shows there's an inverse correlation between page load time and conversions. (I've spent a lot of time looking into this for our own pages.)
The longer it takes for your page to load, the lower your conversion rate will be.
And we're talking about mere seconds.
Meaning: Even an additional 2-3 seconds of load time can cause a significant reduction in conversion rate.
In some cases, when paying for traffic, your ad platform may be showing lots of clicks, while showing a much lower number of page visits.
We're seeing this more and more with marketers.
Why? Because people are clicking on ads and never making it to the actual landing page.
Why? Because the landing page is taking too long to load. So the people who clicked bounce before ever register as a page visit.
Obviously... not good.
Plain and simple: Slow page load speed will negatively impact your conversion rate.
You can check the load time and performance of the pages in your marketing campaign here.
ROCKSTAR RESOURCE
I believe it's the best tool out there right now for doing live streams.
It's what our Director of Marketing, John Mulry, uses to host our weekly Live Show.
And it's also what I use to record all of my on-camera videos.
Only downside with Ecamm, it's only for Mac users.
Extra tip: Get yourself a Black Magic Stream Deck to go with Ecamm...
It sits on your desk, has a dozen or so buttons, and lets you easily control every aspect of your live streams without needing the mouse or keyboard.
PIC OF THE WEEK
We escaped!
The time, a few years ago, when our Leadership Team made it successfully out of one of those escape room challenges.
If you've never done one before, they're a lot of fun.
This was my first time. So, despite my confidence in being able to lead our team out... I completely froze under the pressure. 🙂
Cat, our Executive Admin, took charge and lead us to victory.
WANT MORE HELP GROWING YOUR BUSINESS?
Here are some epic ways we can help you scale your business…
1. Fed up with your marketing being ignored?
Grab your copy of this book and over $1,100+ in bonuses.
2. Your offer not converting or AOV in the tank?
Grab this bundle that’s working insanely well for almost everyone who uses it.
3. Want our personal help in scaling your business from 6-figures to 7-figures and beyond?
