Ep. 078: Why One Size Fits All Strategy Doesn't Work
I'm a pretty vocal critic about guru-culture in the world of online business, but it's not because I'm petty that some people are more "famous" or wealthy. It's because I can see the often overlooked repercussions of their teachings. When someone implies that everyone should have a course/membership/FB group/etc. it can leave smart entrepreneurs chasing their tails. The reality is there's no one right way to run a business. Part of what's tricky is you have to find what's right for you. Tune into this episode to learn more about how not to fall victim to guru teachings and what to do instead.
LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED TODAY:
Your Next Big Thing Intensive: http://bit.ly/nbt-intensive
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Welcome to the sell it sister podcast. Today. I'm going to talk about something. That really has been irking me for a while. And I've been having private conversations with, uh, other entrepreneurial friends about it.
But this is something that I find happens way too often in the online business space. And that is the cookie cutter. One size fits all, all approach that a lot of gurus use when they are teaching and selling, whatever it is that they offer. Now this isn't to say that everyone that you would think of as a guru is bad or wrong or misleading people or should be canceled.
I don't mean it in any sort of way like that. What I mean is that I think it's really important to shine a light on what is really happening and what is really accurate so that we don't inadvertently fall into these traps where we feel like. One, right? Like there's one right way that every person should be taking in order to you have success.
So I will say as somebody who focuses on sales and marketing, it really does make sense to. Be known for something in particular, right? Like if that is you help people create courses or you help people create memberships or you help people with Facebook groups, anything like that. Right. It's helps choo boosts.
Sure message more loudly, more clearly. When there is a focus, if you are a, you know, like a Jill of all trades with your business, it can really, uh, muddy the message and it can be confusing for a lot of people. There's there are people I follow right now. I'm thinking of who I love to follow them. They're, they're wonderful people, but I, and I know they have a business, but I'm honestly not sure what they, what they do exactly because maybe their messaging isn't very.
Clear in terms of how you can work with them and why you would work with them and what problem they help people solve. So I understand why it makes sense to be known for having a certain solution and getting really good and talking about that one solution. But I think what ends up happening is that it's very easy for people to look at those individuals.
And especially if they respect them and they follow along with them and everything to assume that whatever method that they're teaching is the best way. And I'm here to say that there really is no one best way, because if there was like, wouldn't everyone just be doing that, right? Like if. If Facebook ads were the one best way, then like, wouldn't, we all just figure out a way to do Facebook ads, right?
And that's not a knock against Facebook ads. Like Facebook ads have a place and they can be very helpful and extremely lucrative. But I would say the same thing goes for, you know, a membership or having a free Facebook group or building a course or, you know, a VIP day, any of those things, like we are all individual humans with individual goals and lives and personalities and obligations and obstacles and all of these things.
And it just doesn't make sense when you look at it that way that. They're like a one size fits all thing would work for everyone. Right. And especially not every season. So currently recording this, uh, when school has started for the year and COVID syllabi bounds, and there's a lot of pressures on families to juggle a lot more than they were, you know, six plus months ago.
And so I think it's important to recognize that maybe the offering that you had that used to be amazing and felt really good now feels not great, feels like way too much. And you are just absolutely drowning in the day to day of your life and your business and all of that. Right. And I think in those instances, Especially if Facebook is already.
Like stressing you out big time, having a free Facebook group that you have to nurture and be engaged with and push people to, like, that's not going to be great for you. Right. And it's not that Facebook groups can't work or they don't work. They absolutely do. But if you hate. Being on Facebook and you really don't want to manage a free Facebook group and it does not let you up.
And it does not bring you joy and you feel like your ideal clients aren't even there or whatever, the case that it doesn't matter, that the guru teaching about, you know, Facebook groups, like it doesn't matter what they're talking about because. You could follow their exact blueprint, but if you freaking hate Facebook, you're not going to want to show up.
You're not going to bring a good energy to that space. You're not going to want to encourage people to join, right. You're not going to want to do any event. And so I think it is really important to be able to have a filter for yourself. And the same goes with like, you know, if you're. If you're following a bunch of different people and different people are saying, you know, Oh, you gotta grow your email list or you got to know do Instagram, or you gotta be on LinkedIn, or you got to do summits, you got to do this or that, or, you know, whatever the marketing flavor of the week is, it's important to have your own personal filter that you sift all of that information through.
Right? So even the stuff I teach, right. If there's something that I teach and you're like, Yeah, I just, I don't, that just doesn't feel aligned with, with me. Cool. That's awesome. I would rather somebody be very clear on what is aligned and what isn't and what makes sense for them right now and what doesn't and all of that, because what ends up happening is we get so used to looking outside ourselves for all the answers or what the next, you know, marketing.
Gimmick is or hot new trend that we should be latching onto. Like, we, we kind of get obsessed with that because really what that boils down to is FOMO. Right? We're, we're afraid that if we don't do that, we're going to miss out on the revenue and the opportunities, the growth, all of that stuff that could potentially come with it.
But at the end of the day, like any marketing channel that you use. You know, optimally and consistently you will get results. So it's better to figure out what is going to work for you, both in marketing and offers and your business structure and all of it. And I think that. Where this becomes really hard is that it's easier to sell a one size fits all solution.
Right? It's easier to have like a huge group of people, thousands of people that you're talking to, and you're just selling them, you know, here's how to make your course kind of thing. Right? Here's this course it's on how to make them launch a course. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it, it ends up like, There's there's not enough nuance, right?
There's not enough nuance in there to say, Oh, and Hey, but you know what? You might not actually need a course or, Oh, Hey, you might not actually be ready to make a course or, Oh, Hey, what are you doing to build your audience so that there are people there to launch this course, too, right? It misses out on all of those pieces.
So what ends up happening? Is people see these gurus and they're like, well, all of these other people are following them and they seem so nice and they had so much success and they have all these testimonials and I should just, I should just buy into this. I should just follow this, this methodology. And I should just do this too, because if I don't have it, what if I missing out?
And then when they go through it and they. Create the course and they launch it and it's crickets. What usually ends up happening is it's not that the person steps back and goes, Oh, damn well. Okay. Actually, this was a super helpful program. And I, and I actually do really like this course, and I'm really proud of it.
And I'm glad I made it, but you know what? I wasn't taking the time to build my audience. And so it's not that I had a field launch it's that, you know, with a one to 3% conversion, I actually did get it like one to 3% conversion. It's just that I only had a list of a hundred people. I was only marketing to a hundred people.
Right. So it's not that like I failed or the launch failed. It's just that. There's just not enough people there. So what I need to do, like keep nurturing, you know, the, the people who bought into the course and make sure I deliver my promise on that. And then I really need to work on a marketing strategy to build up my audience so that when I launched again, I launch it to more people.
Right. Like we don't usually look at it like that, or we don't usually say like, God, this Facebook group is isn't converting. And I just have a bunch of like freebie seekers and it's so annoying. Like, so. You know, maybe, Hey, maybe the methodology that they taught me was flawed, or maybe there was a part of it that they like neglected to mention.
Like, we, we, aren't saying that we are just turning it around and being like, I suck, what did I do wrong? I'm terrible. See, this is why I'm never going to have like that ultimate success that I want. Like, we, we make it a thing about a flaw about us when it's really that it's like, no, there's just more nuance.
Like it's. It's harder to say like, Oh, Hey, you can grow. But you know, it depends on how you're going to do that. Right? Like, that's not like sexy to be like, Oh, it just, you know, maybe you're going to do a course and maybe you're going to do a membership and maybe you're going to do a, uh, intensive or, you know, VIP day or a group program or something like that.
Like, There's, there's not a lot of pizazz there. And so therefore, even though that is really the true message, it's a truth that it depends, and you can scale your business and you can grow it in a lot of different ways. That's not quite as sexy as like, Oh, you should have this membership. And when you do, you're going to have this, you know, $50,000 launch and, you know, thousands of raving fans and blah, blah, blah.
Right. So my, my lesson, my overall lesson to you, is that okay? There is no one, right? Perfect way. There's only the right way for you and the right way for you. Is probably going to change over the course of time that you have your business. So in one season of your life, doing everything is just like one-on-one done for you.
Work might make the most sense. And in another season, a membership might make the most sense. And in another season it might be a high end mastermind, right? It can change and transform over the course of your business. And it's okay to be inspired by these gurus and by their stories and by their success.
And you can certainly learn from them and, and all of that. But what I would say is that you also have permission to pick and choose. You also have permission to filter their message through. Your own lens of, does this feel true for me? Does this feel right for me? Does this make sense for me? Is this aligned with my values?
Is this aligned with how I want to have an impact? How I want to show up how I want to work with people with my personality, like with the season of my life. Like, don't assume that if you don't do something to the letter, that somebody is like preaching and speaking about. That you are doomed to failure.
And also that if you did follow things to the letter and you still didn't have that big, like flashy success that they advertise, that it doesn't necessarily mean that's a personal failing of yours. It could be a failing of the program. It could be that something really crucial was actually omitted.
Right. And like, doesn't necessarily mean that they're and to deceive you or pull the wool over your eyes or whatever. I mean, in some instances like it could, but I would say for the most part, it doesn't, it just means like you're probably not getting the full fixture. Right. Or there's other things that play that have helped these other people that you just don't have yet, or don't know about, or weren't taking advantage of.
If you have questions, I would love it. If you let me know. Oh, and now you're going to hear my printer going. This is delightful. This is COVID reality. Truth of my child being upstairs and the printer being right next to me in the office. And he's printing off papers for school. Oh, bless it. It's real life people, right?
This is, this is the season that this is the season that we're in. So only this to say, if you've struggled, if you are struggling, if you're like. I want to create a new offer. I don't, I just don't know what I should do. And I, and I don't know, you know, where I should spend my efforts in my time and my investment, all of that reach out.
I love geeking out about intentional offer design. I love geeking out about audience building and marketing strategies. If you're a longtime listener, you know, I hang out mostly on Instagram. So go over there. Find me I'm Erica consulting. Send me a DM. Ask me a question, you know, give me some feedback.
Tell me your ahas. I would love to hear from you really, and truly, I love, love, love hearing from my list. So, uh, be sure to say hi, if you're listening to this on your phone, I would love it. If you screenshot the episode and post it, your stories and tag me, that would be wonderful because if you're getting value from it, I'm sure somebody else in your neck work will too.
And as always happy selling. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the, sell it sister podcast. If you loved it and you want more, be sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode and then head on over to sell it. sisterhood.com to join my free Facebook community group. And as your mama said, sharing is caring.
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