Path to Simple

Path to Simple

By Justin WiseBusiness
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Path to Simple episodes

  • #31: 3 Liberating Content Marketing Truths

    Content marketing. Seth Godin said, “it’s the only type of marketing left.” But, what if he’s wrong? Seems like everyone knows we’re supposed to do it...right? But why does it seem like such a pain in the @$$?

    Well, because if you ignore these 3 truths, it usually is:

    1. Have a “second step”
    2. Sound like yourself
    3. Choose your lane

      4. When you try and sound like everyone else, you lose.

      When you try to cover every single platform, you lose.

      When you take content marketing for granted, you lose.

      So let’s not have you lose. Let’s get you winning when it comes to content marketing. Because content marketing isn’t actually the point.

      The point is to make your business more profitable, more sustainable, and more….fun.

      When done right, and in accordance with the 3 truths I talk about on today’s show, content marketing can be all those things...and more.

      29 min
    4. #30: Ask WHO not HOW

      If you’re a true entrepreneur, you’re not made to do the work. You’re the visionary. And it’s impossible to be both the visionary and the tactician—they work against each other when one person is trying to fill both roles.

      In fact, if you’re doing 50% or more of the fulfillment work in your business, you’re in a dangerous place...

      ...and if you don’t course correct, one of three things will happen (I’ve seen this a million times):

      1. You fall for the “just one more month” myth. 

        2. You tell yourself to keep pushing, keep grinding, keep pounding for just a little bit longer...and nothing ever changes. 

        No amount of time management hacks are gonna fix this issue. Unless you simplify your offer and rebuild it for scale, you’ll always be stuck.

        1. You fall into “desperate delegation” mode. 

          2. You reach the point of burnout and throw together a team, in desperation, so that you can GET OUT of fulfillment mode. 

          The only problem? 

          You haven’t built the foundation. You don’t have fulfillment processes, onboarding automation, support SOPs, troubleshooting sequences, culture guidelines, or communication pipelines set up. 

          So, your default team culture is chaos, and your clients take the hit. Big time.

          1. You fall into a reactivity pattern.

            2. You’re so DONE with fulfillment work and technician tasks that you start to make rash decisions. You kill offers, fire clients, and launch random new products.

            You say things like: “I’m never taking on another done-for-you client again.” “I want to quit.” “I hate my business.” “This isn’t worth it anymore.”

            The entrepreneurs that reach this stage almost always end up burning their business to the ground. They’re just too exhausted to keep going, and they no longer have the bandwidth for profit-focused rebuilding, intentional restructuring, or team development.  

            If any of this sounds familiar, I’ll give you the steps to avoid all 3 of these fates on this week’s show. 

            Go get ‘em,

            Justin

            29 min
          2. #29: 10 Pracitcal Ways to Buy Back Your Time

             If your ship is sinking, would you rather plug the hole or get a bigger bucket? Of COURSE you’d plug to hole first! So why, when it comes to our calendars and hectic work schedules, do we try and get a bigger bucket?

            It makes no sense!

            The only way to really save time is by doing less.

            But that’s easier said than done, especially when we have so many peoples, places, and things competing for our time.

            On this week’s podcast, I get super practical in how I’m able to run most of my businesses in 20 hours per week. Sometimes more, most often less. 

            Spoiler alert: it’s rarely about buying a new app or journal or subscribing to the latest productivity trend. Those things help, but they’re the appetizer to the main dish. And that entree? It’s digging into your purpose. What you do better than anyone else on the planet.

            When we don’t know the answer to that question, we’ll spin our wheels endlessly.

            Accomplishing much, but feeling satisfied with none of it.

            So let’s get you re-oriented around time, so you’re in control of it rather than responding randomly to the demands placed on you by others.

            I want you to give your time to the people and projects you hold near and dear. Nothing less.

            Word?

            Word.

            29 min
          3. #28: How To Do What You Love ALL THE TIME

            Ever have someone tell you, “You can’t always do the stuff you love, ya know!” Well I call BS. I’m here to tell you that not only is it possible to love what you do, it’s your responsibility to not rest until you do.

            People who love what they do live longer, impact more people, and last longer in business. It’s a proven fact. No magic “woo-woo” thinking...it’s just science.

            See, there was a time not too long ago where our business was growing like gangbusters…

            I was hiring people left and right…

            Signing new clients every week…

            AND TOTALLY MISERABLE.

            I got sidetracked by the allure of undisciplined growth and paid the price for it: anxiety, frustration, and a nagging sense of dread...all because I wasn’t loving what I was doing.

            I knew I had a choice. Just like you do: 1.) Keep going and make money doing what I didn’t enjoy, 2.) take a step back, analyze the situation, and change directions as-needed.

            I chose door #2.

            And at the core of that decision as a simple little process I walked myself through at the prompting of a friend. This process not only helped me identify why I was so miserable, but it set my sights on what I wanted my business to actually look like.

            I unpack that process on today’s show. If you’ve ever felt like you want a change but aren’t sure why, this episode was made just for you.

            23 min
          5. #26: Stop Listening to the "Hustle Worshippers" (and what to do instead)

            Most days, my life feels pretty normal. I wake up at 7am—without an alarm. I eat the same thing for breakfast every day. I drive to my Think Digital office in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. Nothing exciting about that.

            Since I’m so used to my own routine, I FORGET that my life is actually pretty weird, at least within the internet marketing space.

            And whenever I hang out with other agency owners and service providers…

            ...their jaws DROP when I tell them what my daily schedule looks like.

            • I work four days a week.
            • I pick up my kids from school every day.
            • I don’t do daily client fulfillment. (I’ve set up processes and trained Creative Account Managers for that.)
            • I don’t even handle project management. (My Director of Operations handles that.)
            • When I do dive into client work, it’s for high-level strategy and hands-on problem-solving.
            • I spend most of my time writing, strategizing, and hopping on the phone with people who are ready to attend the next Agency Upgrade.
            • And a couple times a year, I block off a handful of days on my calendar for in-person agency consulting.

              • Inside this entrepreneurship subculture, my schedule is downright BIZARRE.

              Most of my business friends work sixty hour weeks, take their laptops on vacation, answer emails from their phones on date nights, stay up late finishing client work, spend every spare minute chasing new clients, worship Gary Vee, and say stuff like “it’s so hard to hire / delegate / systemize / find good people.”

              And I call bullsh*t.

              This week's episode explains why...and what you can do if you're done worshiping at the altar of HUSTLE.

              ---

              Book a call with our team: http://thinkdigital.co/discovery

              29 min
            • #25: 5 Keys to Building a Profitable & Sustainable Digital Business
              If you were to jump into a time capsule and go five years into the future, would you like what you see in your business?
              Are you making money?
              Is the pace sustainable?
              The sexiest words in business aren't always "profitable" and "sustainable," but they're more important to your business than you might realize.
              Digital businesses sprout up quickly, make money, but then die just as fast because they don't have a solid foundation. There's no root structure. So even though they spring up quickly, they’re gone before they can make a lasting impact.
              If you want your business to exist five years down the road, there are steps you need to take today to ensure your success.
              We walk through the five keys to building profit and sustainability into your digital business in this week's episode.
              18 min
            • #24: Stop Optimizing For Growth (and what to optimize for instead)
              Most players in the digital marketing world are proudly anti-establishment.
              We all got into this because we didn’t want to spend our lives sitting in cubicles, punching in at 9 o’clock every morning, and hoarding PTO for winter vacation.
              But in our enthusiasm to “redefine business,” we’ve gone too far.
              → We hate email...so we manage our teams with a strange (and grossly inefficient) blend of Voxer, Slack, and Facebook Messenger.
              → We hate cubicles and clock-in times...so we work from bed at 10pm, with The Office reruns playing in the background.
              → We hate politics...so we hold back from building industry-disrupting empires that would require a full-fledged team.
              → We hate red tape...so we refuse to create basic SOPs, job descriptions, and business plans.
              → We hate management...so we hire pricey consultants and high-overhead agencies instead of hiring and training for a few key roles.
              → We hate corporate speak...so we bash, swear at, and make fun of our clients—and call it “personality marketing.”
              I think it’s time we take back the middle ground.
              I think it’s time we leverage our perspective, and distill lessons from corporate giants, lean startups, and modern digital businesses.
              Look, this isn’t a trendy message.
              It’s not gonna gain traction from any wannabe entrepreneurs, I can promise you that.
              No one’s going viral for yelling “let’s take a more balanced approach to business development.”
              No one.
              But learning from a variety of business models, structures, and philosophies is the fastest path to sustainable growth.
              And sustainability is my not-so-secret obsession. On this week's episode, I'll try and convince you why it should be YOURS as well.
              Wanna chat? Grab a time with me or someone on our team: http://justinwise.net/apply
              30 min
            • #23: The Lose-Lose Paradox of Solopreneurship
              If your business is built on a product / service that you alone can deliver from start to finish, you’re thinking too small.
              And you’re also probably on the fast train to burnout, or bankruptcy, or both.
              See, when you’re the sole solution provider, nothing works when you don’t.
              - Wanna take a sick day?
              - Wanna quit early tomorrow?
              - Wanna spend all afternoon reading/writing at Starbucks?
              - Wanna go up to the cabin for a few days?
              - Wanna book a surprise anniversary trip (and not bring work)?
              - Wanna spend the winter in Costa Rica?
              - Wanna take your kids skiing over Christmas break?
              - Wanna go to the DMV on a Monday morning? (okay, no one WANTS to do that, but it’s nice to have the option)
              Cool, go for it. Go ahead.
              But you’ll come back to unhappy clients and a bleeding bank account.
              It’s a lose-lose situation.
              You either feed the business (at the expense of your freedom) or get a taste of freedom (at the expense of your livelihood).
              Millions of service providers and small business owners are in this exact situation.
              And we’re all getting the same *bad* advice...
              ...and it's time for it to stop.
              Tune in to this week's episode to find out how to turn your lose-lose into a WIN-FREAKING-WIN.
              27 min
            • #22: The Seven Factors That TRAP Smart Business Owners (part deuce)
              Most business owners WANT to escape the "time-for-money" trap, take back control of their business, and finally create that elusive “lifestyle freedom."
              But they’re stuck.
              Because they don’t REALLY know why they’re trapped in the first place.
              The don’t REALLY know why they can’t work less and make more.
              (And the ones who do know are already doing it.)
              Over the last few months, I’ve been obsessed with this.
              So I’ve dissected DOZENS of businesses (agencies, course-based businesses, service providers, coaches, consultants, etc.)...
              ...and I’ve found 7 factors that keep business owners stuck in “job mode.”
              Last week on the podcast we covered the first two, but I ran outta time. So...
              TL;DR: On this week's episode, I unpack the rest of the factors keeping SMART business owners very stuck—and how they can get moving again with a few simple changes.
              33 min

            About Path to Simple

            From the publisher's feed

            Welcome to Path to Simple, I'm your host Justin Wise. It's my mission to help you get paid for what you know, not just what you do so you can design the life and business you WANT. If you want to hear…