Last year, I spoke at an event and had the privilege of hanging out with this community of successful business owners for a few days.
The day before my presentation, I had lunch with a lady who was about 5 years in to her business, and frustrated that her business wasn't progressing as she had hoped, and that all of the tactics she had tried weren't working for her, or didn't feel right.
We talked at length and I asked her some questions. What came out was that she had been signing up for programs that were meant to teach you exactly how to get on the road to success, and hoping for one of them to be the answer.
The next day, I gave my presentation, and as I was finishing up, she stood up and said to the crowd:
"I've spent the last four years paying for programs and frameworks and approaches that promised to be 'plug-n-play', and wasted all of this money hoping someone else's experience would make me successful. What I realize now is that I should have just hired Stephanie to redesign my business to be aligned with me, not with someone else's business."
Now, first of all... colour me honoured. I nearly cried. This was such an overwhelmingly kind and validating response to the 90 minutes we had spent together just chatting.
But the point here is not to #humblebrag... or is that just bragging?
The point here is that everyone is constantly being sold the answer to their prayers... the ONE approach that will solve everything for them, if they just do it this way.
And that's great marketing. I appreciate it.
In fact, I am constantly teaching my clients how to productize their services so they can gain more leverage in delivery.
I LOVE me a framework.
A framework can be an asset in your business that you sell off later on for lots of money.
A framework makes it so much easier to sell your services.
A framework demonstrates your expertise that you've spent time and resources to learn.
It's very good business.
But here's where my relationship gets complicated...
It doesn't always work. In fact, most of the time, it's doesn't.
Why?
Because people buy frameworks and canned approaches when they aren't sure what the problem actually is.
They get sold on the results and outcomes, but they actually aren't even sure if that's what their business needs.
So they buy something that delivers what they hope the end goal is without actually doing the first step of identifying what they should be building.
Products that teach you a methodology are awesome once you know what problem you're trying to solve. But they do not work if you're in panic mode and grasping at marketing straws wondering if this new thing might be the answer.
This is why business owners pinball from one strategy to the next and just keep getting deeper and deeper into a Frankenbusiness.
Now, if you've done the work to confirm your business strategy is in alignment with who you are as a human being, and you know that your validated business model is going to include building a group program or a course, or whatever, then... yes! Go buy a framework program that will teach you to do that thing.
I love that.
But if you're sitting in frustration and overwhelm, unsure of what your next step is, and you hear a really great sales pitch talking about how great group programs are, that is not the time to enroll.
Step away from the buy button and call me, please.
If you do not think of your business and feel a strong sense of "yes, this is right", you're not going to move forward by enrolling in a silver bullet-type framework.
If you do not build a business that is aligned with you and your unique needs, you will be unhappy and always in friction, which is not conducive to growth.
Please hear me now - marketing tactics do not solve business model problems.
And - you cannot create a cookie cutter business model and succeed. You just can't. So step away from the high ticket mastermind that's going to guarantee you success if you just follow all the steps.
You will waste your money.
Design with intention and alignment. Then you can buy the packaged programs that will accelerate a specific strategy.
My work here is done for the day. climbs off soapbox
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