I was talking to a friend the other day about their business model, and they mentioned wanting to make sure it could scale.
They wanted to make sure their process could handle dozens of clients at once.
Because once things got busy, they didn’t want to have to expend a ton of manual effort keeping up with everything, so they wanted to think about automations, collaborations, and technologies that could make things smooth and scalable.
While they were saying this, an image formed in my mind:
When I was a kid riding my bicycle (to deliver newspapers, he says, oldly), I’d obviously start in a low gear. I’d pedal and pedal and pedal until I built some momentum, and then I’d switch into a higher gear (and hope the chain didn’t fall off).
Once in a higher gear, the pedalling gets slower, but more effective. Suddenly, I’m going, not just faster, but easier.
And at those moments I might think: I wish I could just start in high gear.
But what would happen if I did?
I wouldn’t get anywhere, right? I’d be stuck right where I was, because in high gear you can’t build the momentum to get going.
One more time:
You can’t build the momentum to get moving in high gear.
This is why I consider most optimization actually a form of procrastination.
Because what we’re really avoiding is the hard and manual work of building a client base. Of making our mark and creating credibility.
We want to skip all those difficult and confusing steps and get right to the streamlined automation where everything takes care of itself.
But we can’t.
Businesses start in low gear, and marketing starts in low gear.
We’ve got to pedal quickly and consistently for a while before we can turn on the automations and take a step back.
We’ve got to discover, define, and articulate our value clearly and repeatedly before anyone notices.
Before anyone buys.
And before we have a reputation on which we can scale and grow.
That’s what we help our clients do: Build the strategies, systems, and, perhaps most importantly, the messages that will get them into the market making progress.
So they can speed up and scale up based on their momentum and their messaging, not through brute force or ever-more-costly advertising (or 50-page marketing plans that never make it off the shelf).
Communicators, consultants, and advisors don’t need another person or consultant to tell them to do more marketing, or to put themselves out there, or to spend more time making content.
What they need are the words and where to put them.
So they can start making progress and building that momentum.
Because you can’t start in high gear. You can’t skip the steps and start automating or optimizing from the beginning.
First, get some momentum for your marketing.
Then, switch into a higher gear.
Need help doing just that? Reach out and we’ll show you the way to always knowing what to say.
Kelford Inc. is the marketing team that’s never at a loss for words. If you’re struggling with what to say and where to say it to attract ideal clients, we’ll show you the way.