The problem with organic marketing ...

… It lulls us into a false sense of security.

Because we place too much trust in incomplete or inaccurate data.

And when you have bad data, you spend valuable resources in invaluable ways.

Even worse, it blinds you to bigger problems.

The good news is, you can fix it.

I just wish someone had pointed this out to me.

It would have saved me a lot of stress, anxiety, and worry.

For me, it went like this …

I wanted to start a coaching business based on my unique gifts and past experiences.

I did a bunch of free, one-off consulting, until a buddy said, “How much would it cost to hire you?”

I get hired and think, “If one person bought, shouldn’t more?”

I get on social and start making content.

A handful more buy, and I think I’m on to something.

Almost a full year of smooth-ish sailing—good word of mouth, and good retention.

I start forecasting future sales until … nothing. And I mean nothing.

I launch and no one buys. Not even a peep.

I double down on content. Nada.

Now I’m panicked. Everything that worked before isn’t working, and I have no idea how to fix it.

What the heck happened?

Sound familiar? It’s a common story.

And it took me a very expensive coach to help me realize that I made two critical assumptions.

Assumption #1: I could survive on posting and good word of mouth.

Assumption #2: More content = more clients.

Here’s the tricky part… there’s truth in both assumptions.

• Yes, you can survive on posting and good word of mouth… for a bit. But have you ever tried to increase sales at scale? It breaks. There’s not enough audience to sustain it.

• And yes, more content does = more sales… but only with your existing network. What happens when everyone who wants to buy has already bought?

The answer came to me when it was presented like this:

Let’s say you have an audience of 3,000 followers. And it’s earned you $150,000. (If your numbers are different that’s okay. It’s not the numbers. It’s the perspective.)

Instead of focusing on squeezing the same audience for another $150,000 …

Shift the focus on how to replenish your audience.

How do we add a new 3,000 subscribers to earn the next $150,000?

It sounds silly to say out loud, but the biggest mistake I made was:

Assuming that the same audience would net me the same amount of revenue, year over year.

Something to consider.

Cheers,