self fulfilling prophecy [idgaf 031]

Hello there {{first name | friend}},

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away….. I had a job.

I was running sales for this accounting firm, which basically meant people would see our google ads, make an enquiry, and I’d turn them into money clients.

Even though it worked pretty well, my boss (the owner) was always looking for something else. Some other channel he could use to get even more leads, so we could hire more sales people, and he could make even more money clients.

Eventually, he had the bright idea to try running print ads in a magazine.

Not a horrible idea, except…..

“I don’t want to spend a lot of money until we know it will work, so I’m going to buy the cheapest ad spot, for one issue of the magazine, and we’ll create the ad ourselves. If it works out, we’ll spend more next time.”

😑

Yeah I know.

Of course it didn’t work. A crappy looking ad in the crappiest spot of a magazine, for literally one issue? You’ve got a better chance of getting leads by getting drunk and throwing darts at bees (don’t ask).

And then of course, afterwards he hit me with this gem:

“Yeah, I had a feeling it wouldn’t work.”

NO SHIT SHERLOCK.

My former boss isn’t alone in this.

I build websites, and I can’t even remember the amount of people who’ve told me “I don’t need a good website, I never get anything from it anyway.”

Or people who post for a week or two on LinkedIn then say “LinkedIn doesn’t work.”

Or people who pay some dodgy company $300 a month for SEO and then say “SEO doesn’t work.”

Or someone who creates two videos for YouTube then says “video doesn’t work.”

Of course they won’t when you don’t give them enough of an opportunity to work.

I get why people worry.

If you’re trying something new and you don’t know if it’s going to work… it’s a risk to try it.

You’re risking money. You’re risking time. You’re risking potential reputation or “cringe” if it goes bad.

But you’re trying it for a reason. Usually, there’s an upside. Some sort of reward to make the risk worth taking. And if you want to achieve that reward, you need to risk the time/money/shame before you know it’s going to pay off.

That’s where my former boss, and many others, went wrong. Without the certainty (which you can’t get), they’re not willing to invest enough to make it work.

That’s even worse than not trying at all, because they’ve practically guaranteed the loss of whatever they invested.

Self fulfilling prophecy.

This was something we touched on in the weekly idgaf community call. A few of us have started creating video content for le socialz, but initial results are kinda… shitty. Barely any views, fuck all engagement. Super motivating results 🙄

At this point it would be really easy for me to decide “this isn’t working” and scrap the entire idea. But I haven’t even given it a chance to really work yet! Like come on, I’m not gonna create one or two videos and go viral. A handful of videos won’t fill my inbox with hot young singles in my area leads.

This. Shit. Takes. Time.

So if you’re trying something new, whether it’s creating content, or trying a new marketing channel, or posting video to youtube, or trying substack as a method of building your audience, or building a totally awesome community, remember: you need to risk the investment to have a chance of getting the reward.

From my side, my focus is video content and growing the community (there’s 18 of us now, woo!). None of that is quick. None of that is easy. It’s going to take time (lots and lots and lots of time) and it’s going to take money, but that’s what I’m willing to do to build my dream life.

Hit reply and tell me what you’re putting your energy into, I wanna know (please).

Cowabunga,
Nick Gulic