Hi Reader,

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Here's a hard truth to swallow: most of what you do online to promote your business isn't going to work the way you think it will.

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Key phrase being... the way you think it will.

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Marketers fully expect that to be the reality.

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There's a reason, most of the time, when you ask a marketer a question about what to try, the answer is "I don't know, we need to test it!"

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Because 99% of what you do online is a giant test.

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There's some good news, though. It means there are 2 skills marketers have that you can adapt into your own skillset to help you the next time you do something to promote your business online.

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The first skill is: plan but expect to adjust the plan.

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It's the classic "PIVOT!" scene from Friends, except we aren't moving a couch... we are moving around components of an online campaign.

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This means even when you map out an entire funnel, and launch it, you can't walk away and ignore it.

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You should fully expect, each time you put something out into the online world, that there will be data to interpret... decisions to make based on the data... and adjustments to be made.

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Really what this skill is all about is your mindset and your ability to think creatively.

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So, your job when you put on your marketer hat, is to eliminate as much of your emotional bias as possible. And open yourself up to the possibilities that are out there... beyond what you thought would happen.

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This is actually a really good thing! I mean even if your initial results aren't what you hope for, there are always things you can do to improve.

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For example, let's say you start sharing more organic content on Instagram but you just aren't seeing a lot of email sign ups (or sales).

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That's okay. It means you can try a couple things and see what happens:

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• Adjust your content pillars and experiment with different topics.
• Try video versus static images.
• Check your website stats to see which channels are bringing in the most traffic (maybe Instagram isn't worth your time as it turns out).

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That takes us to the second skill.

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The second skill is: know when to fold 'em.

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In other words, understand your thresholds for:

• Risk
• Failure
• Success

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So you know when it's time to pull the plug or if it's worth investigating further.

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This is especially important when you're running paid ads.

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Here's a great example. I'm going to tell you a story of one of my personal failures.

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Before I had the Marketing Strategy Generator for sale, I tried a traditional "tiny offer" funnel that had a core offer and 2 successive upsells.

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(No, I will not link you to it because it embarrasses me now... but if you're in my Kajabi, you can kinda see it.)

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I wasn't fully aligned to this type of funnel (red flag #1) but I tried it because everyone was doing it (red flag #2) and I was hoping to make bank (red flag #3).

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So I launched it in the winter of 2019/2020. Against my better judgment, I even created a heavy "direct response" style sales page (aka... bro marketer language) but tried to tone it down a little to be more my jam.

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Let me just emphasize: we all make choices that go against our gut sometimes, because we think it will pay off since others are doing it. So no shame if you've felt yourself in a similar boat.

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Back to the story.

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I launched the product and it did okay.

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But it never quite sold enough. In fact, over time, it actually lost money.

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I had a really hard time admitting this to myself. I couldn't pull my emotion out of it. I also couldn't separate all the time and effort I'd put into developing not just the product but the tech integrations, funnel, sales page, ads, etc.

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It seemed like a giant waste. And it was really disheartening.

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Ultimately, I had to pull the plug because it was losing so much money month over month that it didn't make sense to keep promoting it.

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After I did that, I realized I'd gone against my own personal advice I give all my clients. And I'd also ignored those 2 very important skills I'd spent over a decade developing (the ones we're talking about in this email).

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You want to know what it ultimately cost me?

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Because I was using Facebook and Instagram ads to promote this product, and because I didn't pull the plug when I should have, and because I refused to optimize and adjust based on the data... I lost $30,000 on this product.

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That's a lot for our family. Even taking the financial risk to promote the product to begin with was a huge risk. We did it because I'm lucky that my husband believes in me (sometimes way more than I believe in myself) but that loss really hurt us for a long time.

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So I had the double disappointment of this product that didn't work and adding debt to our family budget. Huge bummer.

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The reason this went off the rails was I never established a risk threshold for our ads. And, like I said, I wasn't even approaching this from those 2 skills that are super important to have.

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There is a happy ending here.

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Because I changed my mindset about the whole thing and returned to those 2 skills... I was able to develop something much better.

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Also, I realized: no failures are a lost cause. Literally every failure in life and business has lessons you can take away and apply for later seasons.

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Not to mention, I learned exactly what doesn't work for me. I also learned to always trust myself above the bros.

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And that's what I hope you'll take away, too.

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Even though you may not think of yourself as a marketer, you have to develop skills of a marketer while you're using the online space to promote your business. And the 2 most important ones have nothing to do with tech, content or ads. It's all about your mindset, creativity and analytical skills.

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LMK... do you think of yourself as a marketer? Ever had a wild ride like my $30k loss?

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Have a supercalifragilisticexpaladocious weekend,

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Amanda

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PS: Let me know if I misspelled that but fair warning unless you're Mary Poppins I won't take your word for it.

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PPS: I've mentioned a couple times a program I am launching very soon to help you work alongside me and build your funnel. It's got a name now - Funnels Built With Heart - and I have received great feedback on the price point. I'm lowering the cost from $7,800 to $5000 (it's still a 6 month program with payment plan or full payment available) because I heard what you told me about the investment.

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More details to come next week in a dedicated email.