I don’t know about you, but my mind likes to play games on me…telling me things like:

• You’re not adding value unless you’re busy.
• If you were good at what you do, clients would be knocking at your door without having to market yourself.
• You are failing.

Do you know what’s true about those statements?

Nothing…

…unless you believe them.

Over the past six months, my client roster has slowly dwindled from many to a few.

2020 has been challenging on so many fronts. 

As a performance marketing consultant, the past six months of decline is what I could call, poor performance. 

Or is it? 

There are benefits to less: 

• More sleep.
• More time with the family.
• More non-work projects.
• More friends.
• Less stress.

These aren’t bad, right? 

Right!

But that doesn’t mean the achiever in you settles down and stops telling us things that aren’t true. 

Sound familiar? 

Social media won’t tell you the anti-hustle story. It doesn’t sell well. 

Good thing I’m not promoting anything.

I’m just one high-achieving human talking to another. 

Tell me, what’s holding you back today?

Leave a comment below.

There’s no reason to walk out this crazy season by yourself. 

The post Let’s do this! (permission NOT to hustle today) appeared first on Kyle Chowning.

Let’s face it…

…the impact of this pandemic has not been good.

In the US alone, over 30 MILLION people have filed for unemployment.

It’s all unprecedented…

People are working from home…

Kids are getting a six-month summer vacation…

Businesses, if still alive, are thriving, getting a two-month life extension due to PPP, or are closing.

I’ve been a marketer for over 23 years, and currently, I own 2 businesses…

One is doing okay…the other has lost 75% of its clients in the past 30 days.

Earlier this week, I was talking to one of my agency partners, and he said exactly this…

“Advertising on Facebook is like 2013 all over again.”

What happened in 2013? Let’s just say back in those days, you could print money when advertising on Facebook. All you had to do is place an ad to an offer, and it would sell. The CPA (cost per acquisition) was so low that you could sell virtually anything at high-profit margins.

Why is this happening?

Because people are doing one thing, they shouldn’t be doing…

…shrinking back!

Facebook is an auction platform. When the demand is high, so are the costs to advertise.

When the demand is low, so are the costs to advertise.

If you, like me, are a business who has suddenly found yourself with a shrinking client base and a whole lot of worry about failure…

…DON’T SHRINK BACK NOW!

It’s time to re-think your strategy, redesign your approach, and go at it again.

Sure…cut unnecessary costs and spend responsibly, but pull out of marketing all-together will be a mistake.

Here’s a simple way of looking at what and where to cut and where to invest.

It’s what I call the…

60/30/10 Principle

In a typical marketing mix, you want the following:

• 60% of your plan to be strategies that have been proven to work (with data)—this is known as your “control.”
• 30% of your plan are tactics that should convert but haven’t beat the control yet.
• 10% of the plan is for experimentation and/or innovation.

In a pandemic economy, you need to shift to an 80/20 approach:

• 80% of your efforts are on the control
• 20% are on tactics that should work.

But please, don’t shrink back entirely.

Yes, spend less…cut costs where you can…but do NOT stop marketing unless your business cannot transact at all.

The post Don’t do this during a pandemic appeared first on Kyle Chowning.

Three years ago, I was broke, discouraged and scared to death that I had made a mistake.

In 2012 I bought a business that I thought was going to provide for not only my wife and children but, for my children’s children too.

It was clear that the success I had hoped for, dreamt of and planned for, was only a dream.

The bills, debt, and pressure to make it all work were piling up and my options seemed to end at the cul de sac of despair.

I didn’t know what to do or where to go. Something had to change. Surely, a breakthrough was coming…but where?

As my wife and I talked about our options, she had an idea.

What if…

Those two words can be frustrating, or the can be liberating. That day, they were liberating.

What if you invested into an opportunity to set yourself apart and learn something new? 

After careful consideration and deliberation, I said yes, and I took the plunge to become an Infusionsoft Certified Partner.

I couldn’t afford to pay for the training and required travel, so I put it all on my credit card.

Of course, I didn’t know how I would pay for it. I just knew that it was the best and perhaps, the only opportunity I had to create a new and different future.

A few weeks later, I completed my training and posted a picture of that moment on Instagram.

Shortly after that, Michael Hyatt, a New York Times Bestselling author and one of Forbes Top 10 Online Marketing Experts to Follow reached out to me and asked…

“What are you going to do with that?”

“Whatever you want,” I replied.

A few short weeks later, and I found myself thrown into a brand new world of opportunity. Growth happened faster than I could have imagined.

Within 12 months, I had brought on my first contractor, and my client list had grown from one to three.

Fast forward to 2018, I grew my team to 10 and had a client roster of over 15. What’s even crazier was that my revenue increased nearly 1000%.

It all happened in less than three years.

I am still amazed at what’s happened in such a short amount of time.

But, here’s the thing.

You can do it too. 

Despite the frustrations, I promise that you haven’t exhausted all of your options.

There are opportunities around you somewhere.

For me, it took investing into something that set me apart. The process not only educated me, but it gave me confidence. Furthermore, my current and prospective clients trusted me more.

The risk was all worth it.

Those who take the most risk, get the most reward.

Anonymous

When times are tough, frustrating and you’re at the end of your rope, taking a risk can seem like the dumbest thing to do.

However, I can tell you this, that decision changed everything for me, and I will never regret it.

What about you?

Are you feeling stuck? Are you struggling to know where to go or what to do next?

I get it. And I want to help.

Send me an email (kyle at kyle chowning dot com) and tell me the single greatest frustration you have with your situation right now. 

I’d like to help you if I can.

You are closer to a breakthrough than you think.

I hope to hear from you.

The post One Decision that Could Change Everything appeared first on Kyle Chowning.

Yesterday, I was confronted by an upset customer about the lack of communication at one of my companies. As I listened, the adrenaline began surging through my veins the more he spoke of his frustrations. Naturally, I wanted to defend, and at one point even tried to offer some understanding. To him, it was all excuses, and he wanted to hear nothing of it.

Truthfully, this isn’t the first time that I’ve heard about these frustrations. In a lot of ways, he was right and I applaud him for being bold enough to speak the truth about his experiences. I needed to hear it.

Regardless of whether I agreed with him or not, he was frustrated, and that is what deserved my attention.

In the midst of the confrontation, I started to realize that this customer really wanted to do the right thing. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have gotten upset.

Upon reflection, I realized that our lack of communication was making life harder for him. Furthermore, he mentioned a few unrelated challenges that would complicated anybody’s life and it reminded me that I don’t always know what people are going through. All that mattered in that moment is that we weren’t making life easy for him; we were making it more difficult.

In a world where we are taught to blend in and not get noticed, it takes boldness for customers to speak their mind. Often, their words are fueled by frustrations, and the situation becomes awkward. Nobody wants to be that person.

How many people go to a restaurant, order food and upon arrival, discover it to be wrong? Most people don’t say anything because they don’t want to step out and take the risk. Or, they don’t want to be that person. So, they don’t say anything and never go back. That’s a lose/lose for the customer and the business.

According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, “For every customer who bothers to complain, 26 other customers remain silent.”

The Butterfly Effect talks about how micro movements made on one side of the world can cause epic weather on the other. As a small business, we have to remember that the small decisions we make can and will have an impact on our business and customers.

We are in the people business and details matter. Where there is a lack of clarity and detail, we can expect that customers will get confused. Confused customers turn into detractors and ultimately, leave our business. According to a recent American Express survey, frustrated customers will tell 16 people about their experiences. Ouch.

Putting our customers first requires focus, intentionality and sheer determination to ensure that they feel like their needs are met in a timely and effective manner. Resolve a complaint in the customer’s favor, and they will do business with you again 70% of the time. (Source: Lee Interactive)

To those who take the time to express frustration with the businesses in whom you patronage, thank you. If it weren’t for you, companies like mine would live in the illusion that we’ve got it right.

For those who wonder if you can or should say something when you are frustrated, I implore you to do so. We need to hear from you!

The saying goes that you can’t improve what you don’t measure. For people-based businesses, often our only measurement is customer feedback. It’s critical to our continued successes and improved customer experiences.

We need voices that are bold enough to say something. Please don’t say silent.

As for me and my team, we spent a solid hour in a staff meeting talking about our current state of communication and put together a plan to improve it.

Thank you Mr. Customer for speaking up. It’s already making a difference.

The post Listen to your customers appeared first on Kyle Chowning.

I actually love to write.

However, I’m terrified of getting it wrong.

As a 3 on the Enneagram, I tend to only do things where I know I can achieve, and by achieve, I mean win.

The problem is, since I last updated this blog, my marketing business has grown to include clients of which are some of the most successful bloggers in their own niches. From Michael Hyatt, Gabby Bernstein and Ruth Soukup, to name a few, these titans are killing it on the blogging front.

So, naturally, when I think of achieving at writing, I compare myself to these titans and think, Why even try?

Recently, I was talking to my friend and client, Ruth Soukup. She runs a very successful blog over at LivingWellSpendingLess.com. We got on the topic of writing and I told her about my writing insecurities and how they plagued my desire to actually create meaningful content. She said plain and clear, “Well, that’s a problem.” I agreed. I’ve been agreeing with that problem all my life.

Then she challenged me.

During the month of April, write 500 words every single day. I was intrigued and took to the challenge.

Immediately, I thought of this blog as the outlet, but writing here is a trigger for my perfectionism and would make it really easy for the internal resistance to rare it’s ugly head and ultimately, sabotage the challenge. So I opted against writing here and took to writing in my favorite journal app, Day One.

Over the course of the next 7 days of writing, I was floored at how helpful the writing process had been in my day-to-day. Topics, questions and thoughts that I had yet to flush out were all of a sudden given the space and time to be thought through.

I began to think differently. I began to think well about business, relationships, parenting, love, etc.

I couldn’t believe the clarity I had…and I couldn’t believe how the lack of clarity was impacting the people I worked with every day. Perhaps I’ll expand on this later, but for now, let me just say, I now realize how much time and money I’ve wasted over the years. Because I used the excuse of busyness to not take the time to flush out my thoughts, I wasted a bunch of my time, and other peoples time too.

What a waste.

No more.

I’m still writing, now 11 days in and I’m loving it. I get excited to get up and write because I love the clarity I’m achieving by doing so.

Back to perfectionism.

Perfectionism tells me that I have to keep doing this or I fail.

Perfectionism tells me that, like other bursts of enthusiasm, this too will flail and I’ll stop short of my goals.

I’m starting to realize that perfectionism is a gateway drug to empowering our limiting beliefs.

When I talked about the reasons why I didn’t write and how this stood in the way of me accomplishing my goals, Ruth offered this Chinese proverb:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

The reality is, I will never accomplish my big goals and dreams until I start doing something today.

Perfectionism will feed the resistance and rob you of the clarity, confidence and the grit you need to accomplish big things.

So, what big goals are you ignoring because you don’t think you’re good enough?

What limiting beliefs are you allowing to derail your successes?

My challenge to you is to say no to the perfectionism and do one thing you can do today that moves you closer to your goal.

I’ll go first. Here are the things that I’ve done this week, that I haven’t done in a long time:

• Ran
• Journaled daily
• Write 500+ words
• Started a diet experiment to help me get closer to my physique goals.

This isn’t to brag, but to a chance to celebrate moving forward in areas where I’ve used excuses not to.

What are you going to do today?

The post Just do it… appeared first on Kyle Chowning.

Hey friends. I have a suggestion for your next coffee, meal, mother’s day out, or team meeting at work:

Start the meeting off with everyone sharing a “win” they’ve had in the past week.

• Parents – what was a win that you had this week that your spouse may not know about?
• Date night – Husband, wife, what was a win that he/she may not have known or noticed this week?
• Bosses – Have the team go around and share what their win is for the past week. Don’t forget to share yours too.
• Moms – Share with other moms what your win was for the past week. I promise, you had at least one.
• Cigar night with the boys – Share what your win was for the week. And boys, don’t let humor or being sarcastic be the scapegoat for the awkwardness.

Here’s why sharing your “wins” matters…

Declaring your wins isn’t about bragging. It’s an opportunity to stop, honor and celebrate the good that’s happening in our lives.

kyle chowning

When we celebrate, we are doing two things:

1. We’re shoving the proverbial pursuit of wanting “more” and feeling like we’re “not enough” in the face by acknowledging that we actually were “enough” in that winning moment.But, most importantly…
2. You get a chance to peek in and see what’s really important to the people you’re surrounded by.

Everybody wants to be known. Everybody wants to belong.

When people KNOW that they belong and they are convinced that the people they’re with want to KNOW them, you have the foundation of a solid, life-giving, long-lasting relationship.

Life is hard. No question.

But the real challenge is finding our “win” in the midst of the challenges and taking a moment to celebrate winning at life.

The post Meetings aren’t just for discussing problems appeared first on Kyle Chowning.

Struggling in your job, business or pursuit of “the dream,” is common. In fact, I would tell you, it’s necessary. Oftentimes, we view the struggle negatively, or as if it is a consequence for a decision we made along the way. While that may be true, the fact is, struggles give us an opportunity to make a choice:

Resent it or face it optimistically. 

Struggles are real. I know, because as a 7x business owner and an employee for other people’s entrepreneurial dreams, I’ve experienced each of them too. The good news is that after over 23 years of work experience, I’m finally starting to see each struggle as a challenge, not as an obstacle that can’t be crossed.

Below, you’ll find a list of 10 common struggles that business owners and employees go through. Regardless of who you are, or what role you play, you’ll identify with most, if not all of them.

Reading a list of struggles isn’t meant to commiserate together, but to ask ourselves, “How could we view them differently? How can we face these challenges and the many others, with optimism?”

10 Ways Small Businesses Struggle & How to Fix Them

1. Your target market isn’t clearly defined so we try to sell to everyone. Define your primary and secondary target market (here’s a post on this) first, then go after them relentlessly.
2. You are working hard but on the verge of burnout. Find ways to delegate, like hiring a Virtual Assistant through VirtualStaffFinder.com (I did).
3. You’re spending, and wasting, too much time on repetitive tasks. Use a software like Infusionsoft to automate everything you can. (affiliate link)
4. You are regularly losing track of incoming, high-quality leads. Use a CRM (Customer relationship management) tool to track and follow up with leads. Infusionsoft does this very well.
5. There aren’t clear processes and protocols because it’s all in your head. This is a fast track to creating customer inconsistency, which leads to distrust in your brand. Create the policies, procedures and processes, then ensure that your entire staff is crystal clear on them.
6. There are too many prospect clients and not enough time in the day to follow-up with them all AND do your daily work. Marketing automation is the only solution to this. Again, Infusionsoft.
7. You’re spending money to market, but there’s no clear Return on Investment for the money spent. Essentially, you’re wasting dollars and living on hope. It won’t work—in the long run anyway. Tracking each channel of marketing and doing the calculation of cost vs revenue, is the only way to know that you’re doing the right thing.
8. You act out of a fear of failure, rather than the desire for success. This is one of the main reasons why I started the #MiracleMornings routine. Every day, I read to myself, “I choose to act out of a desire for, rather than the fear of.” It really does make a difference.
9. You stop learning. Carving out time to continue the learning process will ensure that you stay current, but more importantly, you’re able to take advantage of new innovations in your market, which will make your job and business run smoother. Nothing is sacred. Everything is up for reconsideration.
   [Tweet “Nothing is sacred. Everything is up for reconsideration.”]
10. You go at it alone. This is a death trap for business owners. The only solution I have for you is to either find or start a Mastermind group. This is a group of like-minded businessmen or women, who are driven to win—just like you.

Questions for you: 

Are you interested in learning more about marketing automation, Miracle Morning’s or joining a Mastermind?

If yes, Click Here to let me know. I’m thinking about writing on those topics more, but only if you’re interested.

The post 10 Ways Small Businesses Struggle & How to Fix Them appeared first on Kyle Chowning.

My four-year-old son recently asked me: “Dad, why do we have rules?” It’s a good question and one that I have never formulated an answer to before. I thought about it and the best I came up with was this:

Rules help bring order and boundaries.

caleb chowning

While this is true, something about it felt too narrow and defined. As a small business owner and a serious marketer, there’s one thing I know about rules: they’re good, until they’re not.

A couple of months ago, I put together a process called the “Full Cycle Marketing.” In short, it’s a series of steps that, when fully employed, helps you achieve the results you want. While the title focuses on “marketing,” it works for business owners, consultants, marketers, and the list could go on. Here’s a quick look at the original model:

1. Research
2. Goals
3. Execution
4. Optimization
5. Analyzation

Recently, I decided to put the model to the test and use it to help me identify my annual goals. The process was fun and insightful, you can read about it here. However, the model broke down and required some revision. In other words, it needed to be “optimized.”

Introducing: Full Cycle Marketing 2.0:

1. Define the Need
2. Clarify the Goals
3. Build a Plan
4. Execute the Plan
5. Analyze & Optimize

Let’s take a moment and dig into why the steps have changed:

Step 1: Define the Need

In order for  a campaign or strategy to be implemented, all stakeholders need to be clear on the “what” and “why.” This clarity gives insight and vision to the team.

The reason why starting with “research” didn’t work is because you have to know the “what” and “why” before you know what to research.

Step 2: Clarify the Goals

Once the “what” and “why” of the need is defined, you can now assign a proper and clear goal. Remember, a proper goal is something that can be measured. For example: From X to Y by Z. X equals the starting point, Y equals the end point and Z is the deadline date. More on this here.

Step 3: Build the Plan

How this step was missing from the original model is beyond me. Certainly, it was implied, but it should have stated.

The goal of the plan is to define “how” you’re going to meet your goals. Each part of the plan must have a direct line of sight to the goal, otherwise it’s a distraction and it must be discarded. PS. Not all strategies should include social media—here’s why.

INSIGHT: Every marketing channel should have it’s own set of goals that line up to the overall goal. These will become your “key performance indicators” that you’ll measure against in Step 5: Analyzation and Optimization.

Step 4: Execute the Plan

Get to work!

Step 5: Analyze and Optimize

I merged these two functions because one is the result of another—they are cause and effect.

Analyzing your response data for each marketing strategy and channel is essential to ensuring success. These key performance indicators will help you identify, during the campaign that you’re on track, behind or ahead of expectations. If one of your strategies is lagging, then find ways to improve, i.e.: optimize, and implement those improvements.

The purpose of this post is two-fold:

1. Introduce the 2.0 version of the Full Cycle Marketing method.
2. Provide a real example of optimization.

Like I’ve said many times before: 

The post Introducing Full Cycle Marketing appeared first on Kyle Chowning.

Achieving your new year goals doesn’t have to include finding a new trick or fad to assist. If you failed in the past, chances are your failures weren’t because your goals were unobtainable. Likely, your approach lacked some key ingredients to ensure success. How we set up our goals will determine whether we’re going to achieve them before we even start. 

The post 6 Steps to Smash this Year’s Goals appeared first on Kyle Chowning.

Recently, my friend and photographer, Jeremy Cowart, posted a picture on Instagram and said…

Sometimes you just can’t out-light window light.

I’ve been to Jeremy’s photography studio. He has dozens of lights to choose from to help him achieve the look and effect he wants to capture with his subjects. Each light has a unique purpose, and because he’s a professional, he knows which one to use to help him achieve the goal he has in mind.

In the picture above, he chose to move his subject next to a window and capture the image with the tool of natural light. The rest of his lights sat unused and yet his result was beautiful; goal achieved.

Imagine if Jeremy used every single light he had in his studio on every one of his subjects just because he has them. The results would be terrible and ultimately, the poor quality work would hinder his future successes.

What Jeremy has learned through experience and experimentation has taught him to know which lights to use and when. He doesn’t assume that they are all best for the job. He assesses the desired look and style, then carefully selects the right light or lights to achieve his goal.

As a marketer, our job is no different: we are to fully understand the tools in our toolbox and then carefully select the right tools to help us best achieve our goals. Just because we have access to the tools, doesn’t mean we have to or should use them.

How to decide when and when not to use social media

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., are all tools in the marketers toolbox. While they are free and available, it doesn’t mean that you should use them. That’s right; not every marketing plan or strategy should include social media. Utilizing social media platforms because they’re free and available is like throwing all the lights onto your subject and hoping for a great result; it won’t happen. In fact, it could ultimately damage you or your companies reputation.

I’m not suggesting that you don’t use social media as they can be effective tools. However, you have to start with an understanding of who your target market is, then select the social media platforms (tools) that align with your customer demographics and interests. TIP: If you’re unsure who your target market is, read this post.

Which social media platforms should I use?

Choosing which social media platforms to employ is easy when you fully understand each platforms demographics and their strengths and weaknesses.

The good people at Buffer (my favorite tool to use when scheduling social media updates), put together a Social Media Marketing Resource Kit that I highly recommend.

Here’s what the kit includes:

1. A guide to choosing the right social network for you
2. A guide to coming up with a voice and tone for your social media marketing
3. A checklist of the way to create an awesome bio
4. A checklist and examples for the essential of completing your social media profile
5. Infographics for the best time to post, the best day to post, and the best length for your updates
6. A spreadsheet for tracking and auditing your social media growth
7. A spreadsheet for measuring the impact of your tweets
8. A list of the IFTTT/Zapier recipes we use to help automate helpful tasks
9. Free stock photos to use however you want—background images, social shares, etc.!

The best part about this kit is that it’s absolutely free; they don’t even require an email to download it. Do yourself a favor and download it now. The information and insights included are a must-have for any serious marketer.

What Makes You Stand Apart

What’s important to remember is that a professional marketer never makes assumptive decisions when data is available to educate your theories. The worldwide web is full of data to back up your assumptions, and it’s your job to find and understand it.

The difference between an amateur and professional marketer is experience and education; this is why the optimization and analysis functions of the Full Cycle Marketing system are so important. When we take the time to optimize and analyze our strategies (regardless of their successes and failures) we learn, and when we learn, we set ourselves apart from those who assume.

Our jobs as professional marketers is to assess the goal and know which tools NOT to use.

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#fullcyclemarketing

This post is part of a new series called, Full Cycle Marketing.
To get caught up on all of the posts, click here.

The post How to decide when and when not to use social media appeared first on Kyle Chowning.