Why Productivity is a Trap

​I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday only exist so I can get the things done that I didn’t get around to on Monday. 

Do you feel me? 

Did you wake up this morning with a to-do list a mile long already staring back at you? 

Is your inbox already full of things you need to reply to or follow up on? 

Then you get it.  You start at the top of your list and start to work your way down, but you never quite get everything checked off the list.

So it gets moved to tomorrow (or the next day… or the next). 

But what if you didn’t actually have to check everything off the list? 

I mean, your goal isn’t to do all the things in your business, is it?

But rather, isn’t your goal to move the needle?

What if the one thing that you knew would move your business forward today got done… and you didn’t actually have to do anything about it?

Because it happened automatically. 

See, most entrepreneurs I know struggle with doing that “one thing.” 

They get stuck in the daily tasks and never get around to to the big picture, needle-moving, game-changing activities.  You know the ones I’m talking about - they’re usually the revenue generating tasks.

And as a result, they feel like this…

Not just money poor, but time and energy poor, too. 

I’m about to share with you something radical. An idea that might make me unpopular.  

But it’s the truth that so many entrepreneurs just don’t get. 

It’s a surprisingly simple way to approach your business that will allow you to expand your reach, help more people, and get paid while you do it.

And it ain’t increasing your productivity. 

In fact, it’s about DOING LESS. 

And it’s the only way for you to experience real progress in your business. 

So, if you’re currently feeling stuck, stagnant, overwhelmed or stressed-the-f-out, I’m gonna make this super clear.

You don’t need to be more productive.

You just need to PRIORITIZE the right things. 

In my business, productivity is a bad, bad word. 

Like worse-than-the-F-word bad. 

What I don’t like about productivity is that it actually encourages you to do MORE.  In theory it sounds great to do more, right? But in reality, who actually wants to do more?! 

As entrepreneurs, we feel the pressure and the need to do more. But is it really necessary?

The dirty secret about productivity is that being more productive means that you only DO MORE so that you can… well, DO EVEN MORE. 

And what kind of shit is that?

All it does is leave everything on your plate with the expectation that you eventually do it all. 

The more you take on the more productive you have to be. 

Productivity is a freakin trap!

When you’re focused on productivity, you’re working IN your business, not on the work that feeds your soul.  Not the work that could truly make a difference for your business. No, you’re always moving to the next urgent thing. 

You put out the fires and more fires until you’re interrupted by some other urgent thing that pops up.  You work your ass off and feel as though the more progress you make, the more work you have. 

It’s fire after fire. Task after task. 

But it doesn’t make you more money. Or actually move your business forward.

So how do you get off this perpetual cycle and start making more money? 

Well, it’s pretty simple actually. 

It might even sound silly or obvious. Are you ready?

Create your money-making machine.

PRIORITIZE IT. 

AND CREATE IT. 

Because it doesn’t matter how much shit you get done every day.  If you’re not making money (especially on autopilot), then you don’t have a business.  Kinda obvious, right?

So here’s the thing…

You can’t possibly do everything you want to do in your business. Not even if you have a large team or the Dream Team.  

It’s easy to get distracted putting out fires.

But you have to PRIORITIZE your money-making machine so you can generate more revenue and experience more freedom. 

So what is a money-making machine, anyway?

Well, it’s your sales and marketing system. 

Don't yawn yet... I’m guessing it’s your missing piece in the puzzle we call business. 

You can’t just slap an add to cart button on your website or an email, cross your fingers and hope that someone - anyone- will buy your thing. 

We all know how that ends. 

That’s why you have to invest a little time upfront on your marketing. 

It doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated.  In fact, I prefer simple!

Now, I know you might have a preconceived idea about marketing. 

Don’t worry, you won’t hurt my feelings. I’ve heard it all. 

“It’s hard.” 

“It’s confusing.” 

“It’s time consuming.”

“I don’t know what to do or where to start.”

“It’s not worth it since I don’t have a massive audience or email list.”

On top of that, you just don’t have time. Period.

But if you knew that your business would fail in the next 18 months because you didn’t have a sales and marketing system in place, I bet you’d make time. 

And the ugly truth is that according to Forbes, 8 out of 10 businesses will fail in their first 18 months because of exactly that.  No system for attracting leads and sales on a regular basis.

But not you.  Because you can avoid that exact reason.

You can PRIORITIZE creating a simple money-making machine right now. 

And I’m gonna help you do exactly that. 

While your worries about marketing overwhelm are totally valid, stick with me. 

Because over the next few days I’m gonna show you how to prioritize and plan a simple marketing strategy that will help you to avoid the heartache and stress that keeps most people stuck. No matter your current list size, team size or revenue.

In fact, in September one of my clients completed a 6-figure launch using the exact methods I’m going to teach you…and she generated over $250,000 in sales!

Wanna know how? Later this week, I’ll guide you through my 3 step money-making process that will show you how simple marketing can be. 

Plus, I’ll break down each of these 3 steps with a real life case study using my process so you can see how these 3 steps get executed. 

HOW DID I LEARN THIS STUFF, ANYWAY?

Now, as you may know, I’m the founder of a successful digital marketing agency and I have the distinct privilege of supporting high-level entrepreneurs.  

But it wasn’t always that way. 

Back in 2013, I was running a local business. A tennis club. And I quickly became a self-taught marketer out of a combination of need and desire. Honestly, marketing 100% intrigued me. 

But I was hustling so hard everyday that it felt like I was chasing my tail. It felt exhausting, demoralizing and the overwhelm got the best of me. 

How could I ever get ahead?

I could remember the exact moment everything shifted for me. 

After an especially busy day combatting overwhelm, juggling way too many to-do’s and putting out fires, I sat down at my desk and put on my noise-cancelling headphones. I had to knock off a task that I had been putting off for too long. 

We wanted to increase our membership sales with a special promotion, but we had zero promotional materials.  I needed to sit down and focus on creating some content. 

It was something I had been putting off for way too long and I couldn’t procrastinate any longer. 

I had to PRIORITIZE the money making machine.

It took a few hours for a couple afternoons in a row. It was definitely time I felt like I didn’t have.  

I mean, there were emails waiting for me, staff members with questions and members to call back. 

But I knew this had the potential to generate massive income for us. 

And eventually I emerged armed with a landing page, some facebook ads an a promotional email sequence ready to go live.  

It was a marketing arsenal that would end up generating $37,000 in membership sales, $15,000 in product and service sales with just a $600 ad spend. 

Putting in the time to create this promo saved meme hours, days and even months in the future. 

It was the first toe I dipped into online launching. 

And it turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. 

With a new found passion for marketing, I began to document every step with excruciating detail. Knowing full well this would be the last time I’d ever have to create this again. 

I wasn’t just writing emails and running Facebook ads. 

I was creating a marketing system. A sales generating machine.

If I could generate over $50,000 from a one-day promotional offer, I could surely create a system that would generate leads and sales daily.

And that’s what I set off to do. 

Every year since that very first one-day offer, we implemented our promo plan and made as much or more in just one day at the tennis club. 

Fast forward five years and you’ll find me inside multi 6 and 7 figure businesses pulling the strings inside launches that have generated $6,000, $55,000, $243,000.  And we’re about to launch a campaign expected to generated over $1M!

Still think this is impossible for your business?

Later this week, I’ll show you how to put on your thinking cap on so you can start seeing your business and your marketing in a whole new way. 

As you can imagine, the possibilities are endless when you put in a little time upfront to create your money-making machine. 

The beauty of it is that once I show you the strategy, you can easily learn how to implement it. Even if you have like zero marketing experience. No, really. I’m proof of that.  

If you want to see the big picture strategy and learn next steps you need to PRIORITIZE in your marketing, be on the lookout for my next post.