If It Doesn’t Fit, Don’t Force It
I’ve spent the last week in Tulum on vacation. I rented a jungle compound and invited my girlfriend and some friends. The trip has been a good time and relaxing for the most part, and it has also been good to think about life, family, business, and relationships without the daily grind getting in my way. One saying that came to mind often on this trip was, “If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it.” This is true regarding my personal life, family, and business matters. Focusing on business, specifically when I try to force anything, tends not to go well. Once again, I spent some money testing Facebook ads for Newsletter Pro. That was a flop. I know exactly why it didn’t work, the same reason it hasn’t worked previously: Physical newsletters are a product you must be educated about to understand. You could say it’s a more sophisticated form of marketing, LoL. Seriously though, it does require personal experience or education so you understand how well newsletters work. I can educate people, but it’s seen as self-serving, so less effective when I do it. The only way I’ve made Facebook ads work for Newsletter Pro has been by selling information, coaching, consulting, etc., and from there, selling newsletters. I have other marketing channels that are significantly more effective for selling newsletters but aren’t as easy as putting up a Facebook ad. This is the market’s way of showing me that this product, packaged and sold the way I’m selling it, isn’t a good fit for Facebook ads. You could argue that maybe I don’t understand Facebook advertising, and someone more skilled at it would have better results. Yet I’ve hired or gotten help from some of the best and the brightest in the industry, and we’ve all had the same or similar results. It comes down to if it doesn’t fit, don’t force it. Since I know better than to force things, it begs the question of why I am yet again attempting to force this. Getting Facebook ads to work would make parts of lead generation much easier, so I made a silly decision to try again. While other lead generation options are more challenging to set up and run, had I invested the time and treasure
in those areas I already know are winners, I would have everything working and profitable. We all do our version of the same thing in our business. We cancel marketing that works to experiment with “new” marketing. We continue to push a boulder uphill in operations, hoping the market will shift and pushing this boulder will become easy. Or maybe this time, we will get lucky trying a new variation of the same stuff that didn’t work the previous seven attempts. Every time I make this mistake, I think that was foolish of me; I know better. As the New Year approaches, don’t make foolish decisions. Business isn’t hard; money isn’t a scarce resource, and our ego and pride, in many cases, are our own worst enemy. -Shaun
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