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Breaking Free from Popular Strategies: Building a Sustainable and Profitable Business
The Exhaustive Nature of Summits and Bundles
Why You Should Reevaluate Participation in Summits and Bundles
Summits and bundle promotions are prevalent in the online business space as collaborative ventures where experts come together to share knowledge and grow their email lists. However, these tactics are not always as fruitful as they might seem. Before joining a summit or bundle, it's crucial to ponder if this is something your ideal client would be attending. The primary beneficiary in these setups often tends to be the host, who collects most of the email addresses. As a speaker, you'll only get contact information if someone signs up for your offer, which is typically a freebie.
Far too often, these are individuals hunting for free content rather than potential clients ready to invest in your services. Hence, it's essential to track your data—monitor how many signups convert into long-term subscribers and customers. An excessive number of quick unsubscribes can damage your sender reputation, affecting your email deliverability adversely. Thus, staying informed and making calculated decisions is vital when considering these opportunities.
The Decline of Live Social Media Engagements
Is Going Live Really Worth It?
A prevalent piece of advice floating around is to go live regularly on social media platforms like Instagram. While this could drive some engagement, it may not necessarily equate to conversions. Examining your data to see how live sessions impact your funnel can be revealing. For some entrepreneurs, going live might resonate with their audience and show engagement, but for many, it does not translate into actual sales.
Understand your audience—who is that one person you're speaking to? When you dilute your message to appeal to everyone, you end up appealing to no one. Tailoring your content to cater to a specific problem for a specific audience can be much more effective. Instead of investing excessive time in live sessions, consider options that work better for your business, such as podcast tours, which can significantly amplify your authority, credibility, and reach.
The Pitfalls of Following Trends
The Irrelevance of Trend Chasing in Sustainable Business Growth
The quest to go viral by following social media trends can often feel like an endless cycle leading to nowhere. While trending content might attract more views, it seldom translates into meaningful engagement or client acquisition for most businesses. Instead of blending into the sea of sameness by jumping on every new trend, focus on producing original content that genuinely resonates with your ideal clients.
Many businesses adopt tactics from influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers, but this approach can be misleading. Influencers and entrepreneurs have different goals—influencers are often about reach and engagement, while business owners need to focus on conversions and client relationships. Use social media to build your list and cultivate meaningful relationships rather than as a primary tool for viral fame.
Leveraging Data Instead of Chasing Strategies
Turn Data into an Asset for Your Business
In the age of digital marketing, data is one of the most valuable assets at your disposal. Too often, businesses spread themselves thin, scattering their time and energy across multiple strategies and platforms without clear focus. You don't need more how-tos or tactics. What you need is to leverage the information you already have—the data showing what's genuinely working for your business and what isn't.
Analyze your social media metrics, website traffic, email engagement, and sales data to pinpoint what drives your business forward. By focusing on these insights and making data-driven decisions, you'll find that your strategies become more effective, your efforts more streamlined, and your results more positively impactful.
Conclusion: Building a Focused and Intentional Business
Creating a Sustainable and Profitable Business Requires Focus and Clarity
Rather than getting caught up in the myriad of popular yet often ineffective strategies, aim to make informed, data-driven decisions that align with your business goals and values. Protect your time and energy, and focus on producing quality content that genuinely serves your ideal clients. Remember, in the long run, a focused, intentional approach will always yield better, more sustainable results, enabling you to create the impact you desire in your business journey.
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Transcript for Episode 367. Popular Strategies Hurting Your Business Growth
Amy [00:00:03]:
We are living in an era of information overload. Everywhere we turn, we're inundated by so much information. Do this and grow your business. Do that, don't do this. It's enough to make your head spin. And for many entrepreneurs, it can cause us to stay stuck in a state of analysis paralysis. Well, in today's episode, we are going to break down some of those popular strategies that are floating around in the online space and really sharing why. Some of these things that we're being told that we're hearing that we need to do to grow our business aren't necessarily the best way to build a sustainable business, a profitable business, a business where you're in control, where you're not glued to your phone 24 and relying solely on social media because it's exhausting.
Amy [00:01:06]:
And when you put yourself into this point of overwork, hustle, hustle, hustle, it eventually leads to burnout. And we don't want you to burn out as a solopreneur because we need you. We need your solution to the problem because the market is not saturated. There are so many incredible entrepreneurs that throw the towel in so early on because they're like, the market's just saturated. There's no demand. Well, it's usually not an issue of demand. It's an issue of your marketing, your positioning, your so many different things. That's a whole nother episode for a whole nother day.
Amy [00:01:47]:
But today, let's dive into those popular strategies that still exist that the gurus in the industry are still teaching that could be hurting your sales. Remember, your time and your energy are valuable resources. They're two of your most valuable resources that you have. So it's essential that you protect your time, you conserve your energy so that you can grow your business, make the money you want, and create the impact you desire. Because you create this ripple effect when you're showing up, when you're serving. You are that catalyst. You are that spark that can change someone's life. With your product, with your service, no matter what you're doing, you can start the ripple effect.
Amy [00:02:44]:
So the first strategy that I'm still seeing all of the time is the summit is the bundle. I did a complete episode on this a while back. And I always caution entrepreneurs, before you join a summit or a bundle, really dive into. Is this something my ideal client would be attending? Because, yes, this can be a great opportunity to collaborate with others. However, a lot of times the person hosting the summit, yes, they get all of those email addresses, but you as the speaker, only get email addresses if someone signs up for your thing. And are these people just seeking freebies because they're trying to DIY it, or are these your ideal customers? Clients, Whoever you're serving, are they there? And if you decide that this route is one that you want to go, make sure, again, you're leveraging the data, you're tracking those statistics to see, okay, how many people are actually signing up and moving the whole way through my nurture sequence through my funnel, versus how many people download the freebie, the resource that I share, shared, and immediately hitting unsubscribe. We don't want that, because what that does is it actually hurts your sender reputation in your email inbox. So you get a significant number of subscribes and unsubscribes that can actually hurt your deliverability.
Amy [00:04:23]:
Platforms like Google, Yahoo, all of the major email providers, they're tracking this information. So make sure that you are informed as a business owner if this is a good option for you. The next piece of advice that I'm still seeing all of the time is go live. Go live all the time. Cross pollinate your audience over on Instagram. I get it to a point. I used to do lives. I actually don't do lives anymore because what I did is again, I got curious.
Amy [00:04:59]:
I looked at the data, I looked at the plays, I looked at the replays. I looked to see, okay, is this actually converting and leading clients into my funnel, into a list that I own so that I can nurture and build those relationships and further engage? And the answer was, no, it wasn't converting. For some people, it does. But again, it depends on your audience. Who is that one person that you are talking to? Because remember, when you're trying to be for everyone, you end up being for no one. Because you dilute your message, because your message sounds like everyone else's message. But when you speak to that one person with that one problem with your one solution, gosh, it's powerful. But it feels counterintuitive because we're always chasing more.
Amy [00:05:52]:
We're taught in a society that we need more, we need bigger, we need better. But the reality is we don't need more. We need quality over quantity. And yes, it's a great boost to your ego to see all of those likes, all of the love, all of the shares. But remember, there's a flip side to that as well. More eyeballs can lead to more criticism, more trolls, more people being drawn into your world that you're really not wanting to serve. People that aren't ideal clients, people that again, are seeking those freebies. So that's why Clay is step number one in the CEO method.
Amy [00:06:37]:
And I encourage you, if you have not grabbed your free copy, go to amytra.com freebook and grab a copy today. Because clarity is so key. Not only what you want as a business owner, but diving into who is that one person. And we walk you through step by step. The process, it is phenomenal, and I swear it will change the game for you. So instead of go lives, what if instead you focused on putting that same time into something like a podcast tour? Even if you don't have your own podcast, that's okay. But a podcast tour, what you're doing, you're still cross pollinating audiences. You're exposing yourself to new people and you're really serving.
Amy [00:07:27]:
You're asserting your authority, your credibility much more deeply. Because what you're doing is right now like what I'm doing doing. I'm in your ears. Like, that's so cool. I feel so honored. But I get to share my zone of genius with you and help you then have strategies that you can implement and move the needle forward. This is what it's all about. It's all about building that trust.
Amy [00:07:56]:
And listening to the podcast, you really get a feel for who I am, how I talk, how I speak, what I view in the world. You get to know that person so much more quickly than on, you know, we're already glued to our phones. I don't want to be sitting there watching your replay. I can't tell you the last time I actually watched a replay of an Instagram live because I'm busy. I'm on the go, right? We're all busy. But with a podcast, I can just pop my earbuds in. I can listen while I'm at swim practice. I can listen while I'm waiting in the pickup line at school.
Amy [00:08:35]:
I can listen on the go. Whereas I. I don't want to be on my phone 24 7. I'm on my phone enough. So I'm taking back that control and leveraging my time strategically in a way that works for me. The next one. Trends. Can we stop with the trends again? Can we just stop trying to go viral? Because social media is beginning to feel like the sea of sameness.
Amy [00:09:02]:
Every time I see somebody doing a trend, I keep scrolling. I don't stop. I don't know about you, but I just don't want to see it. It gets so annoying. There was that one trending audio for the longest time. That Drove me crazy. That, like. Oh, no.
Amy [00:09:22]:
Oh, no, that one. Oh, my gosh, if I heard that song one more time used in a social media, I was gonna lose it. Yes, some of them are funny, but again, they were using it originally to entertain. Whereas business owners, yes, you know, we. We need to leverage social media, but leverage it strategically, leverage it in a way that feels good to us. And the way each business goes about this is a little bit differently. But what's ended up happening in recent years is we're trying to build these accounts using tactics that influencers are using. Now.
Amy [00:10:04]:
Here's the harsh reality. You are an entrepreneur. You are building a business. You are not an influencer. So stop listening to these influencers that have hundreds of thousands of followers trying to teach you how to go viral over on Instagram. Go viral with the latest TikTok trend. What's working for you? What are your ideal clients actually engaging with? How are you using these platforms to connect and cultivate those relationships? How can you use social media as a tool to build your list, to take people off of these platforms and onto your list? Because remember, social media is noisy and email is much more quiet. So again, consider the source.
Amy [00:10:58]:
Who am I learning this information from? Am I taking what an influencer is telling me and how to grow my Instagram account as fact? Because the reality is there's so many ways. There doesn't have to be just one way. All of the ways work. But when you really focus on doing it your way, in a way that feels good to you, that is in integrity to you, that helps you thrive, that makes it sustainable. Because when you're doing something that doesn't feel good, eventually you're going to want to quit. It makes it so much harder to keep up with it when you're like, oh, my gosh, I have to show my face, I have to dance, I have to memorize this thing and sync my mouth up to the words that somebody else is saying. What could you be doing with that time instead? How can we better leverage our strategy, our time? How can we dive into those data, the analytics of these platforms, and see what's actually cultivating that sense of engagement? What is making that ideal client feel seen, heard, like, oh, my gosh, she's in my head. She totally gets what I'm going through.
Amy [00:12:15]:
When you figure out how to do that, when you show that ideal client that, guess what, I see you, I get it. I know what you're going through. I know what challenges you're facing. What that does is that Immediately helps position you as the solution as the go to. Because she gets me, she understands what I am going through. And just an easy piece of advice is when you're scrolling through, go back and audit your own account and ask yourself one simple question. Scrolling through your feed, would you engage with your content? If the answer is no, it's time for a change. I noticed this a while back with the podcast.
Amy [00:13:01]:
I always used to share a static image. It was like my face and the guest face and then the episode title. Nobody engaged. And for a while I was like, oh, gosh, like, nobody's liking my stuff. What's wrong with me? But the thing is, it's like I wouldn't engage with that. I don't engage with those ever. So what I did is I changed up my strategy, but again, it was because I had the data. When we get into action, we get data.
Amy [00:13:30]:
What is data? Data is simply information that's showing us what is working and what is not working in an objective way. We're removing the emotional aspect of it because so often what happens is we want to feel seen, heard, validated, right? So we're basing our worth off of all of these metrics. But the reality is, it's just information. It's not good, it's not bad. It's just information. And when we can make that little mindset shift that, okay, these numbers, good or bad, it doesn't mean anything about me. It doesn't mean anything about my character. This is actually an amazing opportunity to grow.
Amy [00:14:18]:
This is such valuable information that I can use to release what is not working and double down on what is working so that I can make informed decisions for myself and my business. That's what this all comes back to. So instead of worrying about all of these popular strategies, spreading your time, spreading your energy so thin all over the place, what. What if you paused and looked at the data, see what's actually working in your business? You don't need more strategy. You don't need more how to. You need to leverage the information that is at hand. When you start doing this, your sales will grow. Every single time I work with a client with this, we dive into that data and we figure it out.
Amy [00:15:20]:
All the answers that we're searching for are right in front of us. It's just a matter of utilizing it. I am here cheering for you, and until next time, cheers to making the money you want so you can create the impact you desire.
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