Just when this 50-something technology-challenged male finally figured out what LMAO means, I started to see YOLO and FOMO all over Facebook.
Talk about feeling like the gramps of the Internet! 🙂
So while my nephew's friends are posting “I didn’t have time to study for the test because I stayed out late partying #YOLO”...
And while emails are pressuring me to “register early to avoid FOMO”...
I’ve come up with my own buzzword: FOFB (or fear-of-falling-behind)
I’m going out on a limb here and assume your business has a web presence. And chances are you currently want to make at least a few tweaks to freshen it up a bit.
Or maybe you’re feeling like the whole thing just needs a total makeover to reflect how your business has changed.
Yep…we went that route and decided to do a complete overhaul of our message, business model, and website.
Now I see why people who build a house from the ground up shake their fists after the grand opening and promise that they will die in that house before they’ll ever move.
So I give to you three lessons learned from our makeover madness.
My new philosophy is to take the expected ETA and double it. That way FOFB isn’t staring you in the face and making you feel like you are somehow to blame. That you aren’t working fast enough or your team isn’t pulling their weight.
Whether you’re creating a new product or service, launching a new course, creating a massive Adwords campaign, or building a whole new sales funnel...more often than not, great things will take a lot longer than you initially plan for.
Instead of beating yourself up, keep your eye on the prize (how this change is going to transform your life, your business, and those you serve) and keep truckin’ down the road.
Put This Into Play: Weekly planning meetings with your team are a MUST. Set milestones of where you’d love for everyone to be by the next meeting and make sure everyone has the tools and information needed to do their job. In addition, daily check-ins with your head people to check on their status is KEY in avoiding misunderstandings that could set the project back.
We had just come off our best year ever so you’d think we’d have left everything well enough alone. Just keep doing what’s working.
The problem was that the current business model was flawed. We couldn’t scale the business. We were trading time for money which in turn didn’t allow us (or our team) to have the quality of life we all craved. And we knew that we could serve our customers far better in a way no one else in the industry was doing.
But the one thing that kept us all going was our common vision: how incredibly excited and motivated we felt as our message and website evolved. But more importantly, how pumped we were to help our audience (YOU!) create meaningful and pivotal changes in their lives!
Put This Into Play: Make sure you and your team are on the same page as to why the heck all this hard work matters. Being crystal clear on your WHY will carry your through the inevitable delays and frustrations.
At one point, we thought we had the home page done. It looked beautiful. The tagline was catchy. It was perfect.
And then we put it through the “caveman” test. We had a few of our best customers look at the test site for about seven seconds. And then in as few words as possible tell us what we offer and how we are unique from our competitors.
It didn’t pass. It was a big, fat fail. So we took what they collectively said, course corrected, and came up with a message that was simple and clear.
I’m not talking about letting perfection get in the way of progress…this was a major issue that we would have been stupid to ignore.
Put This Into Play: Checking off your to-do list MUST NOT trump mission-critical matters even if your launch date gets moved. One of the best things you can do is conduct 15-minute “pick your brain” sessions with your best customers - they are your target audience. Get their feedback on where you’re headed, encourage them to ask you the hard questions, and then listen and act accordingly. Oh, and then send them something great to show your appreciation.
We wanted to share these in-the-trenches lessons with you because we all as business owners live with this constant anxiety that we’re falling behind. That we’re just not going fast enough in our businesses and personal lives.
And if you’re a one-man show (or even have a small team) it can feel overwhelming. Like it all rests on you.
We’ve all been there.
A little more #YOLO and less #FOFB. I know...I need to get out more 🙂
Seize the day!
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