"Remember man, complexity is the enemy of scale," I said.
It's a lesson I've learned and had to re-learn... the hard way.
I was on a Zoom meeting with one of my TOP ONE Mastermind & Private Client Group™ Members.
We were planning his marketing activities for the next 90 days. We were also discussing some of the changes he was thinking of making to his business model.
"I really think the key for us to hit that $16 million-dollar mark this year is to add in these two new high-ticket programs and a couple more front-end products. Whatcha think," he asked.
My response was simple and quick.
"Absolutely not."
See: The default for most entrepreneurs, when wanting to scale, is to do more, to add more.
Whereas, my default, now, is almost never to do more. At least not initially.
My default is to do less, but do it better.
✅ I'd rather have two home run marketing campaigns than a dozen mediocre ones.
✅ I'd rather have one program or product fully optimized and dialed than a catalogue of average ones.
✅ I'd rather have one honed and nurtured team member than a slew of run-of-the-mill ones.
Why?
Because every additional piece or part or activity you add to your business makes it more complex to manage, optimize, and scale.
And every addition you make to your marketing... or to your model... expands the complexity exponentially.
And the more complex, the more difficult to scale. Period.
To keep things simple, your aim should be to get the absolute most out of the least number of moving parts and activities possible.
Before you add something else, make sure you've dialed-in what you already have and what you're already doing.
Keep things lean and mean.
Favor optimization over addition.
Only after you can say with complete confidence you've dialed-in everything you're already doing should you even begin to consider adding something else.
"Remember, complexity is the enemy of scale."
If you want to grow, keep things simple.
With that, let's get to this week's goodies...
MY FAVS THIS WEEK
- How to Build a Six-Figure Newsletter Without Anyone Knowing
Superb article. Comprehensive.
I'm a bit biased though; I love the idea of simple business models.
Especially when they're based around publishing great content for people highly interested. - All the satellites, visualized
Do you have any idea how many satellites are orbiting the earth right now?
I sure didn't.
This gives you a cool live view (tracked this past week) of what's out there in space.
I was baffled by this. Still am. - VIDEO: 10 Questions That'll Reveal Who You Really Are
A fun, little video which poses ten multiple-choice (visual) questions designed to reveal your personality.
Not sure how accurate it is. But I enjoyed listening to what my answers indicate after each question.
According to the video I'm a big-picture person who is introverted with strong moral values and isn't quick to trust people I just met.
Funny, pretty spot-on. Certainly the introverted part.
ODDITY FROM MY LIBRARY
"Repetition in marketing is good; being repetitious is not."
(Nothing like kicking off a book review by quoting yourself.😆)
It's true though...
Throughout your marketing message you want to keep your Primary Promise in front of your prospect. You want to reinforce it over and over.
The key is... you don't want to be repetitious. You don't want to reuse the same words and phrases. You want to change up how you're talking about the promise and hook.
Meaning: You want to find different ways of expressing and communicating the same underlying idea.
Roget's Descriptive Word Finder is an old, but fantastic resource for this.
It's not quite a traditional thesaurus. Kind of a mix between a dictionary and thesaurus with a focus on descriptive words.
There are probably websites which do the same thing. Likely, even better.
But I'm old-school. So I like to grab the book off my shelf when needed.
WHAT I'M TELLIN' MY TEAM
This week on our internal Team Marketing Training...
I walked the guys through the edits I made to one of our scheduled Facebook Posts.
I did a side-by-side comparison of the before version and my after version. And explained why I tweaked, deleted, and added what I did.
You can see my final version of the post here.
A few of the points I shared, which I see regularly in copy from novice marketers...
❌Using passive voice instead of active voice.
Example: "The post was edited by Todd"... vs... "Todd edited the post."
The first is passive; the second is active.
May seem insignificant; it's not.
Active voice gives your copy movement, momentum, action. Passive voice does not.
❌Using unnecessary adjectives which add no new information.
Example: "The one single thing you should do..."
"One" and "single" mean the same thing.
❌Using vague general statements.
Example: "Get more clients quickly..."
How many clients? How will we get them? How quickly? By when?
Vague generalities aren't persuasive; specifics are.
TEAM TAKEAWAYS IN THREE BULLETS:
- With all of our written communications and marketing messages we want to tighten things up: short choppy sentences, more periods than commas, and shorter, simpler words.
- We need to provide specifics when we want to conjure images in the mind of the prospect. The use of vague general statements and claims should have no place in our communications.
- The original version of the post scored an 8 on the FK Score. Todd's version scored a 5. We want to shoot for 7 or lower to ensure our marketing is clear and simple to understand.
You Missed The Full Internal Team Marketing Training. But, You Don't Have To Miss-Out Anymore...
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MY ADVICE
This question was posted inside the MFA Nation Facebook Group...
Below is my response:
Absolutely.
In fact, its' more important than ever.
Only having one merchant provider to process your sales leaves your business vulnerable.
What happens if your one account gets shut-off or temporarily suspended?
You wouldn't be able to collect any money. Your cashflow would come to a screeching halt.
And this happens to businesses more often than you likely imagine. Online businesses especially.
In fact, just a month ago we had two merchant accounts temporarily shut-off. Both due to the same fraud attack.
🤖Someone unleashed a bot on us which placed multiple fraudulent charges over the span of several minutes.
Without any notice, the two merchant providers flagged our accounts and turned off our processing.
We didn't know it until several dozen legitimate orders in a row were denied.
It took days and several hours of work with the merchant providers to get both accounts back online.
Thankfully, we were able to switch all our order processing to a third merchant account.
Imagine what would have happened if we only had one account.
We would have had days of zero money coming in.
It was only because we have back-ups in place that we averted what would have been a miserable financial week.
That's why I strongly recommend you have more than one merchant account.
***
NOTE: If you're not in the MFA Nation Facebook Group with us yet, you're missing out on the opportunity to have me answer your questions. Not too mention, some killer content and live streams only shared inside the Group.
Go here and join us inside the MFA Nation Group (it's FREE!).
ROCKSTAR RESOURCE
Refind is the free mobile app I use daily to explore recommended articles on topics I enjoy.
I like the app because it gives me personalized content, and only ten recommendations each day.
So it's a great way for me to get exposure to new ideas and insights, without being overwhelmed with tons of stories like you find on traditional news sites.
Plus, Refind lets you click a button as you see articles you like. And it learns from these clicks, displaying more appropriate content over time.
It takes me a few minutes a day to go through my Refind recommended list. And when I see a story which interests me, I send it over to Instapaper for later reading.
PIC OF THE WEEK
Little Sami -- my older daughter -- solo coaching her first boys varsity volleyball match the other day.
Despite her towering 5'0" stature, she grew up playing competitive volleyball. She was a libero -- defensive specialist.
Coaches almost aways overlooked Sami at first glance. Until they saw her play.
She was a beast on the court. Fought for everything.
I think she played that way cause she felt she had something to prove. Maybe she did.
When her old high school coach asked Sami to be the assistant coach for boys varsity, it was a nice moment for Sami. And a proud moment for Kellie and me.
Last week the head coach tested positive for COVID.
So Sami had to coach the boys on her own. And, in their first game of the season.
Needless to say, Sami was nervous and stressed.
But... she pulled it off.
The boys won.
Shows you... there's no obstacles which can't be overcome with determination and grit.
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