1) Marketing

There’s a large billboard space across the street from my building. This is a prominent location that gets a ton of eyeballs, based on placement and size (100ft wide). Apple has controlled this billboard space for years. I would estimate that they pay at least $25,000 a month for the ad space. I wouldn't be surprised if the price was double that number.

Why would a company like Apple, with as many customers and cash as they have, continue to pay for billboard space, as if no one knows who they are?

Because of a business principle: They are consistently marketing to new AND current customers.

I get physical mail from Google every month, enticing me to run advertisements on their search engine platform.

Nike’s marketing budget for 2023 was $4.06 billion. That’s $11 million per DAY.

You may not have the resources, staff, or ad budget that these big companies have. You don’t need it. Follow the principles they're following.

This one is, “always be marketing!”

Marketing is, simply, the relationship building between yourself and the public. You are looking to build relationships with new customers and clients, and nurture relationships with current customers and clients. Any successful business is always marketing, regardless of the scale of its operation.

Even if you are running your business by yourself, you must consistently market yourself and your stuff. Without marketing, there is no relationship, no customers, and no money.

Thus, no business.

2) Selling

I’ve been a Google customer for many years. We use their Google Workspace platform for document sharing, storage space, and their whole suite of business products.

Yesterday, I logged in and Google tried to sell me access to Gemini, their new artificial intelligence software for $36/month.

I told you that Apple has billboard space across the street from my home. They advertise one thing in that space (although the image changes every six weeks): The iPhone.

I order shipping and office products from a company called Uline. Every three or four days, Uline sends me an email, advertising some product they're selling.
Uline also mails out thick catalogs that include every product they offer. The catalog is about 300 pages.

The point: Successful companies are ALWAYS selling their stuff.

They do not hope nor expect that you know about them, or take for granted that you will come find their products. They come find you, and give you many opportunities to buy.

Some people conflate marketing and sales, as if they are the same thing. They are not, although they do support each other.

Marketing is about building the relationship between you and your audience; selling is the exchange point when your customer gives you money and you give them your product or service.

The better your marketing, the easier your sales.

So, if sales are not where you want them to be, don’t change your sales script just yet. Look at your marketing first.

Maybe you’re talking to the wrong people.

Maybe you’re setting the wrong expectations.

Maybe you’re simply not marketing enough, thus not bringing in enough of your ideal prospects.

3) Multiple Things At Once

Years ago, I was in a coaching program of a guy who knew someone who was a higher-up at Apple.

He told us that his friend at Apple already had detailed plans of what the company would be doing and selling in the year 2030.

Something else I can tell you about Apple.

Right now, Apple probably has 100 different initiatives in the works in the background, things that might come out in the future. Of those 100 initiatives, maybe 10 of them will see the light of day and will be available for us to buy. The rest will not make it, killed off somewhere in the development process.

So, when it seems as if Apple has the magic touch – that every product they put out just sells immediately and overwhelmingly – that’s an illusion. It’s just that Apple tries so many things, when they do find the winners, they know they have a winner.

The losers, you never know about.

That's by design.

How they do this, is the same way you’ll do it. You need to launch multiple initiatives at once.

Not one thing at a time, at a slow, calm pace that makes you feel comfortable and in control. That pace is too slow, and you will not get the success you want with time to enjoy it at that pace. You need to move faster.

As of this writing, I have five new books on deck. The content is all written; some have cover designs done; a few that have been printed and are set to be sold. All that’s left is getting the funnels, upsells and landing pages ready.

I have 10 courses on deck to be created.

Every day, we are reaching out to events for possible speaking engagements, other business owners for new collaborations, and past collaborators, looking for ways to do more business together.

This is an addition to recording my daily show, working with current coaching members, talking to new prospects, and writing these articles.

We don’t have time to do one thing at a time. Neither do you.

4) Killing Dying Dogs

Remember how I told you that Apple already has their plans with 2030 laid out?

Many things in that plan will never come to fruition.

Why? Because the people who made the plan are human, just like you. Which means they are not perfect and will make mistakes. Nobody can perfectly predict the future.

Here’s a difference, though, between Apple and what most entrepreneurs do.

When Apple realizes that something is NOT working, and will not turn become a success, they immediately kill it, and move on to the next thing.

Big companies like Apple, Nike, Amazon, and Google, do not keep bad ideas – dying dogs – on life-support, like most entrepreneurs do.

They do not hold onto things that are clearly not working, trying to convince themselves and the marketplace that the thing will work. They kill it off and they create something better.

Of all four points that I’ve shared in this piece, this is the one most often violated by small business owners. They are too hesitant to take a dying dog out in the backyard and shoot it.

[I know I have many dog owner readers, who may not enjoy this metaphor. But understand the point.]

One of the keys to moving with speed in business and in life is understanding when something is not working, quickly pivoting and moving in another direction. Not wasting time hemming and hawing, hoping that something that’s not working will, all of a sudden, start working.

Dead bodies do not come back to life. That’s only in the movies.

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Which of these four areas do you most need help with?

Good news is, I can help you with all four, and help you implement using them the right way, as quickly and efficiently as possible, when you’re working with me in Work On Your Game University.

Schedule a call to talk to us: http://www.WorkOnYourGameUniversity.com/apply
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