I don't have all the answers.
None of us do.
We may have answers for a specific context or domain. But no one has the "secret playbook for X."
It doesn't exist. And trying to find it is a waste of your time.
What sparked this thought was a conversation with a dear friend, who is a financial advisor.
He's struggling to get new clients. And if he doesn't snag a few soon, his ship may sink.
He didn't directly ask for my thoughts-answer on his problem, but I offered them (what a lovely friend I am).
I said: "If I was in your position, I literally don't know what I would do."
I was answerless.
I realized my typical tools, content and marketing, wouldn't solve his problem.
His problem was a prospecting issue. And that's not my expertise at all.
But after a few days since talking, I realized maybe I did have the answer.
Maybe the answer was time.
The guy is only 21. And he is aiming to help other professionals with their money and future.
Maybe he is too early in the process to gain the needed trust through prospecting to get new clients.
Maybe he needs time to continue to grow his expertise while gaining clients through slower organic methods.
That is the approach I'm taking with Solcat.
I could easily go "all in" with consulting and risk all my chips on it. But I know I'm too early in the process.
If my long-term goal is to run a marketing and content company, I need to have the safety of a full-time job that allows me to grow my expertise and competence while gaining new clients organically.
Why is gaining competence and expertise, and even age, important?
Because marketing and sales are second to third principles—They can only sell/promote what is there.
A first principle is:
- Gaining expertise and competence
- Having a solid strategy that keeps you breathing long enough to see your business thrive
- Patience and perseverance paired with intelligence
Without first principles in place, marketing and sales don't work as well. They bring minimal value.
From this rambling, my point is this:
We are often early in the process, and we mistake being early for a failure of our marketing and sales efficacy.
Examples of this are:
- Young people starting their own business and putting it all on the line to then either go back to a 9-5 or starting and failing 20 companies in their lifetime
- Products early in their life that we expect to sell like toilet paper in a pandemic
- Content and marketing we've dedicated a year or so into and quit when results don't show (it takes about six years to see the fruit)
If your end goal is to be fruitful, figure out how to plant the tree today and keep it alive long enough to see that fruit.
At least that's what I'm doing.
🧠 // JO