Not Many People Will Tell You This

I hope you’re ready for this, because today’s episode is one of my rants. It’s a topic that lights a fire in me, because it just isn’t talked about enough. In fact, people will rarely tell you this because it isn’t one of those feel good things, but I will: 

Either do hard work, or get out of business. 

Go all in, or close up shop. 

Marketing isn’t easy. You can’t just sit back and hope things will work for you. You can’t refuse to make changes, pivot, or sacrifice. Honestly, that’s all bullshit. 

Join me as I share about difficult seasons, all the hustle I’ve put in, and how to create success no matter what is thrown your way.

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

That expectation that things should be easy… I’m sorry, but it’s not. And if it was, 97% of the population that are not entrepreneurs would be entrepreneurs.

You are listening to the Not for Lazy Marketers Podcast, episode number 446.

Hello my friends. Welcome back to the podcast. Man, I have been so busy, so on fire and just so pumped up about everything happening. I have been building a software that I’ve talked about on here for over a year, and I can’t wait to be able to share the journey of all the roadblocks, all the freaking roadblocks that I’ve hit, and many times almost just through the towel with it and it is launching if everything goes well this month. So on top of that, we are just having amazing growth and not just growth on my end from the Hersh marketing perspective, but just our clients like crushing it and our process working and our strategies working. And so it’s super exciting. Yeah, so I’ve been very busy and like spending a lot of my time in delivery, but I’ve also rebuilt a lot of things and I’m starting to kind of trust stepping back a little bit again and rebuilding everything.

So, all right, though you guys, are you ready for this episode? It is going to be one of those Emily rants because I have to talk about this. And I was on a team huddle the other day and my team brought something up and asked a question about something and I just got so fired up over my answer that I was like, Okay, podcast is coming cuz clearly this needs to be said. And I’ve talked about a lot of these things similarly before on this podcast. And so for those of you guys who have followed me you know about this and, and I wanna talk about something like this so needs to be talked about. So the conversation that came up in my team’s meeting was overall looking at the clients who were successful versus struggling and themes that we could pull out of that, that we could share with them so that they knew what they could do to be more successful.

And one of the things that came out of it was the clients who are willing to put in hard work when it comes to their business growth. And this sounds crazy, You might be like, well who isn’t willing? But you’ll, you’ll be surprised who is willing to put in work and show up. Like combining paid ads with showing up on social media with rerecording a webinar if we request that of them with re over and overhauling webinar messaging if that’s what needs to happen. Changing the title, adapting the offer and the clients who are like a game for that and are really open to those suggestions and requests and trying different things and, and honestly at the end of the day, like making pivots and making it adjustments are way more successful than the ones who are like, Well this worked a year ago. I don’t wanna change very much and I don’t wanna do very much work.

And you guys, you know, I don’t have a lot of clients like that because we don’t take them on. But this irritates the crap outta me in this industry. Like if you don’t wanna do hard work, do not have a business. Like if you wanna hire contractors and you wanna hire people and you expect that everything is just gonna work without you having to show up and it’s gonna be easy, it does not exist. And if it exists at all for people, it is extremely temporary. And so this idea that the online space has fed people, that marketing is so easy and you can just sit back and things will work for you. And once you find something that’s working, you’re set forever is seriously bullshit. Like it, it doesn’t exist. And you know what makes me so frustrated about this is that I think there are really capable people that if they were just willing to put in that work and to step up when things aren’t working and to accept something isn’t working sooner, they’d create so much more success.

And so I wanna share it from this perspective for a second for you guys. I’ve been in business for seven years and since I started building my team and really getting bigger, I’ve been through many harder seasons, right? Where profitability is maybe lower, where our marketing isn’t working as well as I want it to be or we’re not signing as many clients as I want it to be. And the absolute only thing that has gotten me out of that place every single time and is my natural gift but is also the reason that I’ve been able to go create success from something completely not working is because I hustle my ass off when I’m in that place. I do not sit back and say, Well I’m gonna blame this person or I’m gonna blame this person or I’m not gonna show up cuz I’m too good for that now because I’ve already created a successful business and it should be working cuz it was working.

I try like 15 things and I work really hard and I hustle and I show up and it becomes a season of working harder to get to the other side and to create success. And if you talk to literally any business owner in the last six to 12 months, every one of them that is still finding success, they have had to pivot. And if they didn’t pivot, I want you to look around and look at how many people in the online space have shut down their business in the last six months, have shut down a program, have shut down their business, have closed the doors, have thrown up their hands. And you know what? To be honest with you, that’s fine if someone wants to do that. Like if that’s your choice because you’re burned out because you’re tired, because you don’t wanna show up and do that work, that’s okay.

Like sometimes we do get burned out, sometimes we do need a break. Sometimes we do need to walk away from our business for a little while and reset things. But don’t make this choice to stay exactly where you are. Refuse to put in work, refuse to make changes and make pivots and accept the fact that what you’re doing in your business, your offer, your business, your strategy, whatever it is, isn’t working. And you’re gonna have to put in more effort. Right now there are seasons in business, there are seasons where you have to work harder and you might have to sacrifice some things like my workouts. I haven’t done my workouts five times a week in the last three or four months because I’ve been working my ass off. Now I’m gonna be able to get back to those things cause I’ve rebuilt things, I’ve rebuilt systems, I’ve done what my business needed, it needed me to do in order to bring us back to success.

And the only person that can do that is me because I’m the ceo, I’m the visionary, I can’t expect somebody else to do that. So you have a choice to either show up and grind through that hard season or you can, you can actively make the choice to say, I’m gonna take a step back from this and I’m in a press pause. But don’t do nothing. Don’t live in denial where you’re like, Oh, something is wrong here because this used to work and I don’t wanna change a lot of things and I don’t wanna work hard on this. I have had, I have had conversations where I’ve, I’ve said, Hey, if you wanna close more of these leads, you need to go and DM them. I want you to go DM them, I want you to follow up with them. I want you to do X, Y, Z.

And people are like, Well I don’t wanna do that. Like, that’s too much work, okay, you don’t have to do that, but you’re gonna potentially be missing out on sales. So it’s your choice and that’s fine, just actively make that choice. But to have the expectation as an entrepreneur, as a ceo, that things should be easy. And that once you find success, you don’t have to do any more work and you don’t have to make pivots and, and make big adjustments and step up and work harder and go through those seasons. It’s completely off. And so your choice right now is if you, if you are in this place where your business is not working how you want it to be, it’s not creating the success that you want it to be. You have to ask yourself a question, which is, how bad do I want this?

How bad and how much am I willing to put in the work no matter what, Even if it’s hard, even if it’s exhausting, do I have the bandwidth in the capacity to do that or am I totally burned and I actually do need a break which respect that that’s an active choice. How much do I want this? What am I willing to do? And then you gotta take action and you’ve gotta take action tomorrow. And there was a situation that came up where our team was like, this client is not willing to change anything. Like there’s this funnel, it’s clearly not working. We’re getting, you know, hundreds of leads in the funnel. It’s not converting and they don’t wanna rerecord the webinar and they don’t wanna make changes to the funnel. And I said honestly then, then nothing’s gonna work. Like what are the options?

Because if you’re getting all these leads in the funnel and they’re not converting, there’s a foundational root issue. You’re not gonna add in a couple of emails or tweak some things in the existing strategy and the setup to start. All of a sudden a faucet of sales comes in like we’ve got a buckle down. Get back to the basics, look at the messaging, redo the webinar and I said this to try five, 10 things, two or three might work, but you’re not gonna know until you go start trying. And you flip that switch of it really is like going back to the basics in your business. It’s sometimes like a reset. And that is normal. I’ve been through it multiple times myself. I have a lot of friends who have way bigger companies than me and that’s normal. And we need to normalize that. And nobody talks about this.

So then I think people have this expectation that if they have to do that something is wrong with them in their business or the other thing that happens is they blame external parties and it’s really like a denial. It’s like this used to work, I want this to work. So if I, if only I just fill in the blank, which could be hire an agency or hire a coach or join a mastermind, replicate someone else’s strategy, you name it, we get, they get themselves fixed on, if this one thing falls into place, then I’ll be able to create this success. And it’s just not the reality. The reality is it’s actually normal to go through those seasons to have to adjust and to have to reset things in your business and make big pivots. Anybody seeing success today because of how much things have changed in society and the economy in all the different industries?

Anybody who is currently experiencing success in their business, including myself, have made massive, massive pivots. Like you guys see pivots I’ve made on the front end, that’s half of what I’ve done on the back end. You do not see all the things that even go into place and still from the outside. Look, I’ve launched a whole new offer. I’ve shut down an entire program. I’ve tried a bunch of things, some worked, some didn’t. I’ve been back in delivery like I was five years ago. I’ve had to do a lot of things I didn’t wanna do, but there was no other choice. It was that or close my doors because I, the business wasn’t profitable. And for me that’s not an option because I have a family to support, right? And so instead of staying in this place of denial or of this completely off expectation that things should just be easy in business, business is not easy.

And this is not sexy for me to talk about this. Like you, you, everybody would just love it if I got on here and was like, I’m gonna gonna give you this one marketing strategy and if you just do this, then you are going to have a success. Like of course that’s what we all want and it’s where we all screw ourselves in trying to go find something that is easier. That’s the easy button, that template, that swipe file, whatever. And it never works. It literally never works. Like name one time that it’s worked, it hasn’t. And that expectation that things should be easy, I’m sorry, but it’s not. And if it was 97% of the population that is not entrepreneurs would be entrepreneurs. And you know, there’s times where it, I mean, and it’s hard. Like there’s times where in my business it’s been really hard and you feel really alone because the reality is like your team and people around you, nobody cares the way you should be caring about your business.

And at the end of the day, the responsibility of fixing it is on you. Whether that’s finding the right people to help you fix it, whether that’s you actually taking the action and you have to have the mentality of, I will do whatever it takes to go create that success and I’ll do it quickly. Cuz the faster I do it, the faster I’m gonna get there no matter what. And I’m gonna step up and do it. And I don’t mean that it’s not okay to have boundaries about what you are and aren’t willing to do. Like if you, if you aren’t willing to DM people and actually have conversations with them, that’s fine. But if that is something in your strategy that would get you more sales, just know you’re turning that down like you are. And, and so if something isn’t working, if something isn’t profitable and you’re like, well it’s not profitable, I want it to work, but I’m not actually willing to put in the work to get it there or build the process and the support around me and invest in that to get it there, you’re making that choice.

And so that is yours. And, and in a lot of these cases, when I see businesses right now in this place, honestly mark my words, if they do nothing now in six months from now, they will be outta business. And there are a lot of people who have gone outta business this year and it’s also okay to have, you know, to take a step back and to shut your doors. And I mean, I respect those decisions, it’s better than doing nothing. It’s better than living in denial and choosing to do that. And I have good friends who have chosen to do that and are coming back more refreshed. I also think what happens is like there is this mixed message out there, whereas like you’ve got one side of the coin that’s like hustle really hard, Gary V like work really hard, sacrifice things, build your dream, blah, blah, blah.

Then you’ve got the whole other side that’s like anti hustles. You don’t have to sacrifice, you know, time or your health or your family or all these things to build your business. And I honestly think the truth as with many things on opposite sides, it lies in the middle and it lies in the middle in the sense that there’s seasons and you’re lying to yourself if there is not seasons in your business that are gonna require you to sacrifice some time with your family or your priorities with your health or whatever it is, whatever it is that you’re being asked to sacrifice, that’s building a business. So just like when you first start a business, you’re hustling and you basically have to earn the right to not hustle anymore. You have to start bringing in revenue and proving that what you’re doing is working and trying a bunch of things.

Like think about when you start a business, you’re trying a bunch of things. The faster you go the faster you’re gonna make progress. You’re saying yes to a lot of things. You’re in the day to day, you’re doing everything. Like that’s the typical solo entrepreneur, right? And you’re working really hard. Then you earn the right to say, okay, these things are working, this offer is selling now I need support, I need a marketing agency, I need a team, I need a va, I need a salesperson. Whatever it is. Okay, now you get these people, but then time goes by, maybe it’s a year, a certain period of time goes by and there’s not like a set time, but your business requires a pivot and requires a change. And the only person that can lead that is you. And so now you might be in a season where you have to dive back in and work really hard and hustle a little bit more and re-earn that right to, to set your ship straight again.

And the bigger the business, the harder that is to steer a shift ship in a different direction, right? The bigger the ship. So the only person that can do that is you. And the only person that should care as much about your business as you is you. And I’ve learned the hard way, like to have an expectation from somebody that they, you know, from a team member that they should care about my business as much as I do. It will never be meant because they don’t. And if they did, they’d have a multimillion dollar business because why wouldn’t they? So I, I’m, I don’t even know exactly why I’m recording this episode except for I just really two things actually. I know why. One is, if you are in a place where things aren’t working and you feel like other people around you have success and they’re not having to do a lot and something’s wrong with you, that’s bs.

Anybody, anybody who is having success right now has made big pivots, whether you know it or not, whether you see it or not, they’re working really hard in the back end to make those pivots. The second thing is, if you are somebody who is resisting that and you’re living in denial and you’re trying to convince yourself that like, because something used to work, even if that’s literally an offer of yours, if an offer of yours used to work two years ago, three years ago, it might need to change. It might need to be different because the connection to your audience and what they need, that changes. So if you’re sitting there and you haven’t been willing to make those pivots and really buckle down, then you might need to do that and just know everything is temporary. Like it’s not a forever thing. If you have to get back in and hustle a little bit harder in your business and make some changes and do more work, you have to just re-earn the right to remove yourself again, which is exactly what I have done.

And the only reason that I have gone now three times I’ve been through something like this and each time it’s required big pivots in my business three times have I gone from struggling with profitability, struggling with cash flow, struggling with delivery, struggling with signing new clients the way that I would want and and really struggling. Everything felt like I was walking through mud. It was really hard. Gone from that to massive success in about three to four months. That’s how long it usually takes to turn around these seasons. And everything you do today is a reflection in 90 days you’ll see from now. So I’ve done this now three or four times, gone from this struggling to doubling our client roster to a hundred thousand dollars a month more in recurring revenue. And the number one component into why I’ve been able to do that is how hard I’m willing to work, How much it is not an option for me, whether I make it that or not, or whether that’s my reality or not.

I mean, there’s always an option I could go get a job, right? Like I could choose to do that. So it’s not an option because I tell myself it’s not an option. It doesn’t matter how much, Like I’m not looking for motivation. It doesn’t matter how much I need. I don’t wanna, you know, do it tomorrow because it feels hard. You’re doing it, you’re showing up, you’re going through the motions and you’re getting it done and, and you push and you listen to your audience. And then you also have to try a bunch of things because you can’t, like, you don’t know what’s gonna work when something is totally not working and your business feels very hard and it’s not working. You can’t just make one little pivot one decision and be like, well that’s definitely gonna be it because you don’t know until you start to prove it.

So you basically have to re-earn your way into that. And so I have done this several times in my own business and help clients do this. And it’s, it’s a matter of how quickly you take that action, how hard you’re willing to work. And you know, when people say to me like, Oh, like I, you know, that’s too much work. I don’t wanna do that. It’s like, okay, like then that, that’s the, that is the quality and value you place on your business and, and on you showing up in your business and what you’re willing to get out of it. And again, it’s fine. Just be real with yourself. Don’t be in denial that you can go create this, you know, a hundred million dollar business or even $1 million business, honestly, if you’re just starting and not have to do hard work. Because if you didn’t have to do hard work, everybody would do this.

It is not easy. And and I feel like it’s comforting as an entrepreneur to know this so that next time this happens, because I will have another hard season, I will have another frustrating season. I will have another tough cash flow time and all I can do is hope that I have the savings, hope that I’ve prepared enough. But, but the mistake I’ve made in the past has been in a place where I thought it would never happen to me again. Where, where I thought, oh, I’ve made it to this level so I’m good. Now that’s the mistake cuz the second you get too comfortable, the second you think you’re too, too good for things in your business, you’re in trouble. And I’ve seen people do that and it’s like sometimes wherever your business needs it, you’ve gotta get back in the weeds. You’ve gotta get back into pushing hard.

And of course you only know what your limit is, but just don’t be in denial that you should have this massive booming business and success and you’re only willing to put in 10% effort because you think you’re too good for it. So I don’t know, <laugh>, that was harsh, but I have to bring this up because also I will tell you guys, I mean we, we have over 50 businesses working with us right now. I’ve worked with probably 250 plus if you include our program, even more businesses in the seven years that I’ve been here. And every one of them that is successful has founders with that mentality. And I, and I do think, like I’ve worked with some really big influencers that you guys know, that you look up to that are really iconic in the online world. And you may not see on the front end how hard they’re working and how much is happening behind the scenes.

But it is, it is happening. And you know, at certain levels, you, you buy the ability to have very high level six figure salary team members doing things for you, but the work is still happening, the pivoting is still happening, and the seasons of good and bad are still happening and they’re pushing through that to adapt. And, and I know that that’s happening right now in so many, and you don’t always see that because unfortunately not, unfortunately. I mean, I think there needs to be a balance, but over the, the recent years, there’s been a really big push for this. Like anti hustles, like work half days work, three day work weeks, blah, blah, blah. And that’s great, but that’s not reality all the time you’re gonna go through a season where that’s not possible because your business requires you to step back into it. All right, you guys, send me a message on Instagram. If you enjoyed this episode, do me even a better favor and share this episode if you enjoyed it. And I’ll talk to you guys next week.

Thanks for listening to the Not for Lazy Marketers podcast. If you love this episode and want deeper support with your marketing, head over to helpmystrategy.com to see how Hirsh Marketing can help take your marketing to the next level no matter where you’re at today. We help our clients scale faster than ever, find hidden leaks in their funnel, experiment with new creative marketing strategies, and help their business explode and be more profitable than they ever dreamed possible. Head over to helpmystrategy.com and see if you qualify for a free strategy audit with Team Hirsh.