Arrrgh.
At 9pm, you’re updating your to-do list. Your last job for the day.
You’ve ticked off the action points you’ve completed; and you moved the uncompleted to-do’s to tomorrow.
Sigh.
Your list becomes longer and longer. You already know that some to-do’s will shift from tomorrow to next week, and then to next month.
Is there a way to stop feeling guilty about the stuff you’re not doing? And to quit feeling frustrated about the opportunities you’re missing?
I’ll get to that in a moment, but let’s first tell you a short story …
Once upon a time a young web designer set up his own business
He cold-called local companies. He networked in LinkedIn groups. He asked his university buddies for referrals.
Business was good. He loved it.
But he always felt he wasn’t doing enough.
So he started tweeting more regularly. He attended local networking events. And he learned how to manage Google Adwords.
He made enough money to care for his wife and his new-born son. He calculated he could pay off his mortgage in less than 10 years.
Then he heard from a friend how he gained business on YouTube. His neighbor explained how Pinterest had transformed her business. And his marketing coach suggested he should start a SlideShare account.
Sound vaguely familiar?
One of the hardest challenges we face in this overcrowded, hyperactive, and distracted world, is to shake off this feeling we’re never doing enough.
Do you wonder which opportunities you’re missing, by not having an Instagram account or not being active on Google Plus?
We live in a more society
Do more. Try more. Win more.
We get tempted by new opportunities all the time. Our online success is measured by numbers. Web visitors. Followers. Blog comments. Social media shares.
But instead of wondering what else we should do, shouldn’t we consider how we can do less and still meet our goals?
Which marketing activities can we drop? How can we do fewer short-term activities and spend more time generating future business? How can we contract out tasks so we can spend more time doing the work we’re good at? How can we find better-paying clients rather than juggle more clients?
In his book 80/20 Sales and Marketing, Perry Marshall explains how 80% of your income comes from 20% of your clients. The 80/20 rule also applies to the price people are prepared to pay:
[If] 10 people will pay $1 for a cup of coffee, two of the 10 will pay $4 for a better cup of coffee. (…) At any given price point, 20 per cent of the people will spend four times the money.
If you’re selling an app, how can you offer a premium version for your top customers? If you’re selling a service, how can you specialize to create higher-value?
The 80/20 rule also applies to the hours in your day
Marshall suggests you generate 80% of your value in 20% of your time. That’s why he advocates outsourcing.
Marshall’s approach is pure economics, which shouldn’t – in my opinion – be the sole driver of managing a business. Some work can’t be outsourced because you can’t subcontract out your voice. Talents, passion, interest, and personality all have a role to play.
But it’s true that we’ll do better when we focus on a small number of activities, and when we achieve excellence in the few things we’re already good at.
Rather than build a LinkedIn, SlideShare, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter following, why not focus on one social media channel first?
Today I’d like to celebrate the things we’re not doing. By choosing a smaller number of tasks and doing them well, we don’t neglect opportunities. We maximize our opportunities.
Which activities could you drop? Or stop feeling guilty about?
Here’s my list …
- I don’t have a Facebook profile
- I don’t do PPC
- I’ve not done any LinkedIn advertising
- My website is not optimized for local search
- I don’t go to local networking events
- I don’t advertise in the local newspaper
- I don’t have slick-looking images on my website
- I’m not on YouTube, which is the second biggest search engine
- I’ve only uploaded my e-course program to my SlideShare account and nothing else
- I’m not on Instagram
- I’ve never made a selfie
- I’ve not made an infographic yet
- I’ve not marketed my books on iBooks
- I still don’t have a print version of my books
- I’ve not done any webinars
- I’m not marketing my e-course through affiliates
- I never email people to ask them to promote my blog posts
- I never share my own blog posts in LinkedIn groups
- I’ve not published an article on LinkedIn yet
- …
I could go on forever, but I don’t want to bore you with the full list of 97 don’t-do’s.
What’s on your list?
The simple truth about marketing opportunities
You always miss marketing opportunities. It’s a fact.
Stop feeling guilty about the things you’re not doing.
Remove a few to-do’s from your list. Focus on the stuff that energizes you.
Let’s do less. And do it better.
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Wow. Great advice. In this forever faster moving world it gets harder and harder to focus on what’s actually producing results. Always appreciate your direct and honest words always served with a touch of humor. So relatable. Thanks.
Yes, that’s so true. It’s tough to focus on what produces results.
Thank you for stopping by, Mary.
We control our efforts alone, and not the fruits of our labour.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, but I’d say it depends on the task at hand. Through practice and hard work, you can control quite a lot of what you produce.
Hey Henneke,
I love this. It’s good to stay on top of the latest trends because every once in a while you’ll come across something that makes sense for your business. But people shouldn’t feel obligated to try to tackle them all. It’s easy to get into a pattern where you start to feel like Pavlov’s dog; someone comes out with a new marketing tactic, and you start salivating.
The more time you spend working within your greatest ability, I think the more profitable (and less stressful) your business will be. If you’re a copywriter, you should spend the vast majority of your time…writing! If you’re a web designer, do that more instead of piddling around on Pinterest. Outsource or get rid of as much of the other stuff as you can.
And thanks for the link to the Perry Marshall video; he’s great.
Corey
Yep, well said. And spending more time working within your greatest ability is also more satisfying and energizing!
Thank you for stopping by again.
Henneke, I think you’re totaly wrong on this. You should always have a very long to do list. That’s filled with things that give you lots of energy 😉
Great advice!
I love the idea of having a list of activities that energize you. I might make one. 🙂
I love Twitter. It’s my main social medium. But I do think one is too small a base, so I do throw in a bit of G+ and Linkedin and.. there you go 😉
Yes, one is perhaps a small base, but better to start with one (and add others later) than trying to do three platforms half-baked?
Another supporter here of your fantastic idea to focus on what works & what makes us energized! Sometimes we just need permission–a little sad, maybe, but nice to hear that others are having the same juggling problems. 🙂
Feeling guilty about not doing things is draining your energy. So go ahead – give yourself permission not to do everything 🙂
Thank you for stopping by, Tabitha.
Can’t agree more with you. My next to do things included Pinterest, Google+, YouTube (video marketing – need to learn how to record great videos), product photography, copywriting, Facebook marketing courses, reading downloaded pdf’s, watching missed webinars and purchased online courses, creating posts for FB, website design brainstorming and more. ARRRRRRGH I was so overwhelmed and frustrated. Yes, I need to drop all these things and focus on a couple main activities that bring the most value to my business. One at a time.
I’m really enjoying your articles. My husband introduced your blog to me.
Yes, it can be totally overwhelming. You really have to be strong, ignore a lot of opportunities, and focus on a couple of main activities that bring value to your business – just like you say.
But make sure you also focus on some things that you enjoy. For instance – learning how to draw doesn’t bring a lot of value to my business (compared to the effort it takes), but it’s something I’m really enjoying. So rather than spend time on Facebook (which might be more profitable), I’m spending time on drawing. It’s a careful balance between enjoying yourself and bringing value to your business.
Are you setting up a new business?
Thank you for stopping by!
Yes. It’s a product based business. Thanks for your input.
I’m also reading your new kindle eBook. You mentioned about imitating and learning writing techniques from other bloggers that I like. You are my role model in this area. I want to write like you. (I have a long way to go)
Do you also teach how to write blogs for product based businesses? If so, I want to introduce you to my B-school (Marie Forleo) community (huge community) that I’m involved with. The main idea of blogging for service based & product based businesses might be the same but it might require different approaches. Just curious.
Feel free to imitate as much as you like 🙂
My blog coaching program (have you seen it? http://enchantingcourses.com/enchanting-business-blogging-course/) is also suitable for product-based businesses. The basic principles for blogging for service or product-based businesses is the same. I used to blog about cookers and kitchen ventilation. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about this!
Ah, this is the reason why…well one of the reasons why…I am constantly trying to connect with like-minded people. We can’t do everything by ourselves. But we can do much more with joy if we cooperate.
It can be a surprisingly hard sell, however. A heavy lift to get folks on board. A long warm up before they realize that it benefits them as much as it does everyone else.
And more importantly, building an online platform is much more fun when it’s approached like an old-fashioned barn raising or quilting bee. Work? Fun? The lines get blurred as strong bonds are formed.
Looking forward to the start of your class, Henneke. So glad you are leveraging the power of the posse.
Yes, you’re absolutely right. Working with other people can take the pressure off, too.
I think quite a few people building their business online are doing so because they love independence and they like working on their own. That’s why you may find it sometimes hard to get people to work together; and often people have already overstretched themselves.
Hi again,
if I didn’t know better, I would have thought that you are sitting right behind me, reading my mind.
I start working on my blog and reading emails, at aprox 12pm until aprox 5am. When I switch off my computer when I realize that I must get a bit of sleep (and I can’t do much with my eyes crossing in different directions over the screen), I think to myself, but I didn’t post anything on facebook or I didn’t do this or that (most of them falling under the 19 points in your post) and my time is up……. felt very guilty and as if I’m wasting my time blogging, because I’m not doing these things.
So, seriously, thank you for easing my mind, otherwise I might have been writing from an asylum within the next few months.
Ha yes, I’m a mind-reader and I can even read minds from a huge distance 😉
We don’t want you to end up in an asylum. So take it easy, won’t you?
Hi Henneke
Look forward to each one of your weekly posts and learn something or two or three each time.
I was intrigued, as always with your headline of “97+…….”. I wondered how you could come up with that many.
But you stopped at 20. And I didn’t feel cheated because, by then, you had got the message across – focusing your activities is the key to being effective especially when there’s only one of you. It’s a lesson I struggle with each day – it’s so much easier to do the 80% or even stuff that can’t really be classified as being in the 80% category.
Subtle too was “Focus on the stuff that energizes you.” – the 20% is not necessarily easy to do but the feeling of completing that type of activity is so much more of a high than the 80%.
Love your work
Cheers
Trevor
I’m glad you bring this up as I was slightly concerned whether people would feel cheated by my headline. But this is exactly the point isn’t it? We always want to find out about all these myriads of opportunities we might be missing out on.
On balance I thought the headline was okay – so I’m glad you agree 🙂
Thank you for stopping by again, Trevor.
Yep, I’m with you. An anxious spasm masquarding as work is exhausting.
But, Henneke I think you broke the code on that one a long time ago. The way I see it what happened is you never lost yourself under the shroud of the professional or the hyper image of the entrepreneur. What I’m saying is, Henneke is first, last and always a person. Professional, yes. Entrepreneur of course. But, you are always you.
And, that’s why I read you and why I listen to you. You broke the code. Something tells me you broke it even before you knew there was one to break . Now you have no choice but to be you. Count it all joy! Authority from integrity is a rare thing these days.
I hope your’s has been a good day
Yep, the code is so secret I didn’t even know I had to crack it 🙂
Glad to see you’re still around, Curtis!
Great article as always Henneke, I also have a very long list of things I think I *should* be doing. I will stop stressing about it now after seeing your list. 🙂
I’m sure your list is not as long as mine! 🙂
Read today’s post, only too true, too much of anything is just that and cannot be a good thing.
L&B
Annamarie
Yes, absolutely true. But why do we get so easily lured into doing more?
Thank you! This is just what I needed! I am only on one social media channel and almost everyday I am tempted to start doing more. I have limited time just like everybody else so I am trying to figure out the least I can do and still be effective. Thank you for this and instead of telling us what to do, letting us know it is okay to not be doing everything.
More than enough people are telling us to do more of this and more of that, so let’s give ourselves a break 🙂
Sticking to one social media channel seems absolutely fine to me. I sometimes wish I’d stuck to just Twitter.
Well said! There’s Pinterest, Slideshare, Tumblr and the rest. When my plate is overflowing, I tend to just do nothing at all. Which is not good. It’s impossible to keep up with all the social stuff, plus write blog posts and create your own graphics (which takes me forever by the way). I’m graphically challenged, so that is the one thing I would outsource for sure.
Thanks again for the wonderful insight, Henneke. Always a pleasure to read your posts. I want to write like you when I grow up. LOL
Yep, I know the feeling. Somehow shorter to-do lists can make us more productive. Is it because we feel better because we feel we’re achieving something?
Thank you for stopping by again, Mellie. 🙂
this is FABULOUS! With so many folks telling us about the next big thing I love that you not only don’t suggest that but you share the things you are not doing. Thank you!
You’re most welcome 🙂
By the way, I’m not suggesting that everyone should have the same items on their don’t-do list. My don’t-do list acts as an example. We can all create our own.
Thank you for stopping by, Daphne!
Great advice Henneke! I’ve consciously struck many of the marketing “should dos” from my list recently — and I’m still here. I think that social media in general makes us feel that we’re not doing enough marketing. It makes us feel that we’re missing out if we aren’t involved in every possible promotional venue.
Yep, I agree. Not being super-active on social media makes me often feel like I’m not turning up at the best parties – but seldom do I actually miss something 🙂
As fresh as ever. As a teenager, I do too many things in my life which is probably affecting some of their quality. From now onwards, you helped me to decide my three only life agendas- My religion, my studies, singing and yeah, a bit of writing 🙂
Believe or not, your writing is…. Yeah, it’s the best so far.
Thank you, Ibrahim 🙂
Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh
Uhm…? Have you ripped up your to-do list?
Yip, I’ve given myself permission to ignore Facebook and turn my back on Google+ – I’m sticking with the ones I like. I would always have struggled really hard to achieve crushingly average results. Henneke I come to your blogs for inspiration when I’m a little bit stuck and you never fail to illuminate :0)
Yay! I like that you’re sticking to the social media channels you like.
Thank you for stopping by, Jane 🙂
Rrrrrrip! Rrrrrip! Ooh that feels better.
Now about those Azaleas – what colour are they?
PS. Learning to draw in 3D. Do you need special glasses for that? Can’t wait to see the first drawing 😀
One red and one purple. I can’t wait to see the flowers!
Uhm, yes, you need special glasses for 3D drawings. 😉 I just meant adding some depth or perspective 🙂
What a timely post! This is a reminder that as a small business owner, I can’t do it all. I just returned from a week away visiting my family and have been stressing about all the tasks that I didn’t complete, namely launching my online business on March 31st. The guilt of not having launched is weighing on me, but I’m trying to put everything into perspective because I created the deadline, hence, I can change it. Thanks very much for the post!
By the way, I read both your ebooks on web copywriting and blogging and found much value in them! I put your copywriting worksheets to good use in writing my web content.
Yes, you can give yourself permission to change deadlines. That’s an excellent point!
Great to hear you found my books useful, Tara. Thank you for stopping by 🙂
This is all true. I have about five lists and I’m about a third of the way through all of them… 🙂
Perhaps time to rip up at least one of your lists?
Having completed a to-do list feels satisfying to me. And deciding that I don’t have to do certain action points, feels liberating.
Don’t forget to enjoy yourself, too 🙂
I sure hope you won’t be posting an update tomorrow saying: “April 1st, I was just kidding. Don’t do less. Do more, much much more” 🙂
For me the key piece of advice in your post is this one:
“Focus on the stuff that energizes you.”
Probably THE best criterion to decide between what’s important and what you can do without. Taking into account of course that sometimes what energises us most is what makes us a bit nervous at first.
Yes, I agree with you. That’s why I got a little irritated by Perry Marshall’s book. We’re not economic entities. We’re human beings who can perform better when we enjoy what we’re doing. To be fair, Marshall does talk a little about talent towards the end of his book, but in general he seems to approach working life as a mathematical formula.
And don’t panic – I’m not planning an update tomorrow telling you to do more and get on all social media channels to market yourself 😉
Great post! I agree 100% and your point is true not only in business but also in life-in-general. There are a million things we all want to do, but only so much time in the day to get them done and we must also allow for time to enjoy the fruits of our labors. Recently I’ve finally been able to make a list of the most important things to pursue and let many of the things I “needed” to do just fall off the list. It was very freeing. Thank you for posting!
Yes, that’s a great point. I especially like your reminder to allow time to enjoy the fruits of our labors.
Thank you for taking the time to add your thoughts, Lisa. I appreciate it!
OH wow! Henneke, you hit the spot as usual! I’m going to look at my to do list today and cut 2 “should do’s” and breathe easier.
Yes, that’s important. Don’t forget to keep breathing.
I’ve found that consciously scheduling time off helps, too.
Thank you for stopping by, Kelly.
Hey Henneke – I’ve been feeling the same way lately! So, I’ve been working on prioritizing and focusing on the few things that I need to do right now really really well. Once I get those things going, I’ll assess when its time to start doing another thing.
I’ve found that one of the hardest things about entrepreneurship is focus. Picking a path to take and sticking with it, no matter how shiny and attractive another option may look. You just can’t do it all (especially in the beginning), if you want to do it well and have a life (unless you have a team). So as I learn to focus, I’ve learned to get comfortable with not doing or trying to do everything. It’ll definitely pay off. 🙂
Yes, I’m totally with you.
Having worked in a team for many years, it’s been a big change for me to reduce my to-do list and focus on a limited number of tasks. I continue to struggle with this, but I’m learning and getting better at it. As you say, prioritizing is key; and finishing one big project before moving to the next.
And the good thing about working on my own is that my productivity is skyrocketing because I don’t have to attend any productivity-sapping meetings and I’m not getting distracted by office politics 🙂
I love you Henneke! I’ve been inhaling your blog posts . . . and this is one of my favourites.
It’s so easy to get caught up and paralyzed by shoulds.
It’s so hard to resist all the talk about what we *should* do. That’s one of the reasons why I try to limit the time I spent online.
Thank you for reading and for stopping by, Crystal. I appreciate it.
Henneke,
The overload of possible things to do is definitely a real issue that we face every day. I find that staying focused with my business is a constant challenge, but avoiding distractions and staying focused on the critical aspects of business is essential. In some cases I’ve had projects that I wanted to pursue that took me 3 years to get around to. Thanks for the post.
Yes, that’s so true. I sometimes get frustrated by this. I have so many ideas, but I can only implement a few! But it’s better to do a few projects well than a lot of half-baked projects.
Thank you for stopping by again, Marc.
I have to say Henneke, this was definitely something welcome to see in my in-box this morning. I’ve been feeling this weight of marketing over my head for a while now, that I’m never doing enough, so you hit the nail right on the head. Less is more — always great advice.
Yes, I was feeling exactly the same recently and berating myself for not doing enough. But we can’t do everything, can we?
Thank you for stopping by, Amy. I like your website name 🙂
So true. I think this is my favorite post that I have read of yours.