“Anything that is easy to do is even easier NOT to do!”
~ Tom Beal
Is ‘Easy’ Your TRUE Goal?
If finding the ‘easy way’ because you don’t want to expend time, effort and energy mastering the work you need to do, then you probably don’t need to read any further.
A few years ago, someone came to talk to me about her marketing. She started out with her list of ‘wants’:
- Speaking gigs at high-profile events;
- Coaching and therapy clients who would come for her alone and consider anyone else second best;
- Engaging personal content for social media, marketing etc.
- High-end automation because she was going to need it;
She sounded motivated, committed and passionate about the people she was going to help.
THEN… We talked about what she had already done to get the ball rolling and the red flags started waving:
- An online 5-step easy marketing course for coaches – too complex so she hadn’t done the homework and she didn’t get any results;
- Hired someone on Fiverr (pre-upwork) to execute according to the course guide – a very competent implementor, but not a strategist;
- Hired a marketing agency – she didn’t have time to talk to them and they didn’t capture her personality.
‘Easy marketing’ really was her true goal. She wasn’t willing to do any of the things required to run a personality brand – not even videos. Today, she is still seeing $50 per hour clients – anyone who finds her and working just a few hours each week.
Fortunately, there are plenty of people who realise that ‘easy’ might not be the best path to follow if they genuinely want results.
Stop Chasing Easy and Start Chasing Effective
I was listening to a coaching call led by Tom Beal over the weekend and he made the statement I’ve quoted at the head of this blog… which bears repeating!
“Anything that is easy to do is even easier NOT to do!”
Just think about that for a moment! It applies to your…
- Exercise and eating choices;
- Recreation and entertainment;
- Decision (and follow-through) to call or spend time with friends, partner, or children;
- Writing or recording marketing material daily – and then publishing or sending it;
- Course or book creation (you know, that course or book that you’ve been ‘going to’ create for months, years, or even decades!
- Client onboarding upgrade;
- Systems creation…
I know that ALL of these things (and a gazillion others) are ‘easy’ to do – people have made millions of dollars selling ‘easy’ (or as our American friends might put it ‘EZ’). You’ve probably bought some of them – I know I have.
BUT… Did you use them to get results?
The problem is…
It doesn’t matter how easy something is to do. It will always be easier NOT to do ANYthing!
So… my suggestion is that rather than chasing ‘easy’ you make your primary goal “Fast and Effective” because when you are seeking the fastest and most effective path to a goal you care about your motivation shifts and you are willing to do what it takes, rather than ‘see what happens’.
Action Begets Results!
When it comes to your marketing, most people’s problem isn’t that the action they have to take is ‘too hard’ – the problem is usually that it’s easier (in the short term) to do nothing – and then panic when ‘doing nothing’ leaves you without a pipeline and with low-value clients.
Most of the time, the reason you haven’t sent an email, launched a course, created a video, published your lead magnet or book isn’t because you don’t know what to do.
It’s because… For a number of not-very-convincing reasons… You simply haven’t done it.
That’s why my suggestion is that you stop looking for the ‘easy way’ and start investing in whatever level of supervision, expertise, and accountability you need to get it done.
One of my clients (whom I’ll call Jim) had written an ebook, but waited over a year to post it on his website. Within 48 hours of uploading it he had 15 downloads and 6 enquiries as a result. A couple of people mentioned they’d had problems with the delivery and download process, but he still made sales (on a product worth a couple of hundred thousand).
He was kicking himself for not getting it out there sooner.
Not All Actions are Equal
Just a quick word of warning…
There are strategic actions and there are wasteful tactics that don’t create traction. You can often spot the latter hiding behind an ‘Easy Button’ or a ’New Method’. If it sounds too good to be true… It probably is… And when it comes to tactical methodology, it’s important to understand the principles on which your methods are based or you can spend a lot of money in little drips without getting the results you want.
Don’t check your brains at the door of your marketing agency or strategist – you’ll have to trust their expertise on how things are done, but it’s important to ask the why and what questions so that you understand what will happen next.
