Will You Make the Difficult Decisions When it Counts? WPCP: 087

We’re going to go in a little different direction today.

I thought about doing a ‘Kim Snippet’ version of the podcast for this topic but then realized this would probably end up being a full-length episode. Not really a snippet.

(Clearly, I’m not great at keeping things short & to the point).

I’m going to try with every ounce of my being to share the story of what brought me to this difficult decision without being too ambiguous (because I’m not interested in sharing names or making anyone or anything ‘wrong’).

I mentioned this in my year in review podcast,  The Truth About 2015, Showing up in 2016 and WAY More Fun. Last year was amazing, but it was also really, really tiring.

So I sort of took December off.

When I say sort of I mean I took the month off from the mastermind I was in (note the past tense, which is where this is going). My year was up at the end of November and I was just fried. I wanted to simply do my thing, trust myself and work at a pace that worked for me.

As opposed to what I was committing to in the group or from a public accountability perspective.

I wanted more ‘ease’ in my life and less ‘hustle’ (we all know how I feel about the word hustle, so I won’t go into that again).

During that time I had also made the decision to hire Jason Hornung & his team to help me get my Facebook ads dialed in and running. After a couple of years of just hopping in and testing Facebook Advertising (with some direction), I wanted to do it correctly.

I wanted to run paid advertising based on data (novel idea, huh?).

I had NO idea that my decision to hire Jason & his team would completely turn my world upside down (in a good way). I don’t want this episode to turn into another ‘Jason Hornung FanClub’ episode (you can’t really blame me though… he’s just that good), but you can’t un-push a button.

Once you’ve seen what’s ‘behind the curtain’ you can’t un-see it.

Once you've seen what's behind the curtain you can't 'un-see' it' @kimdoyal Click to Tweet

Not only did I get the support and feedback I was so desperately needed, but I also got the step-by-step system.

Which unfortunately put a spotlight on the areas where I wasn’t getting what I needed.

Hence the difficult decision.

It was time for me to leave my mastermind. 

I felt this in my gut when I took December off, but I was afraid.

This is the EGO not only riding shotgun but driving the car.

FOMO (Fear of missing out for those of you who haven’t heard the term).

What if? 

• What if I can’t do it on my own?
• Will I lose relationships (inevitable when people are involved)?
• Will there be any backlash?
• Regrets (no matter how much I try to stay out of that place, it still shows up)

But then there’s the side that really matters.

How I want to FEEL.

The gut instinct. The truth about how I want to move through the world and how I want to show UP!

I’m not sure when this hit me, but all of a sudden I realized that I was trying to do things one way with my brand, but then another way when I was marketing.

Let me see if I can explain that better.

Last fall I started getting a little obsessed with content marketing. I dove into content marketing with the same fervor I had when I realized I wanted to build a business around WordPress. Something finally ‘clicked’ for me with content marketing and I was having a ball.

Because of this newfound passion for content marketing I started looking at everything I was doing through new eyes.

A different perspective if you will.

None of my mentors were content marketers.

They were all great at what they did, but they didn’t have the experience (or knowledge) to help me drive what I had spent almost 8 years creating.

Which was a brand.

With an audience.

And a message.

They also didn’t see the value in content marketing (which is not an argument I feel any need to go into… to each his own).

Something inside me was screaming “TRUST YOURSELF.”

If only we listened to those voices the first time we heard them, right?

Let me give you an example.

You’ve probably seen or observed a message in the marketplace that refers to ‘high ticket sales’ or ‘high ticket offers’. These can be LIFE changing when you add them to your business.

I know this first hand.

I have no problems with this.

Where I do have a problem is when the ‘high ticket’ becomes more important than the result or people you’re helping. This is where things start to feel ‘icky’.

What hit me like a ton of bricks was that on my site and with the podcast I could fully ‘show up’ as myself.

And THAT is where things worked.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t doing this with my marketing message based on the strategies I was being taught. Which is why they never worked

I was totally out of alignment.

I went back to the mastermind in January and was simply not feeling it. Nothing was ‘wrong’ per se, but it didn’t feel right anymore. We all change and grow and not everyone is going to be with us for the entire journey.

This realization was both freeing and heartbreaking.

These people had become like family to me.

But it was time for me to move on and do my own thing. I was going in a different direction and I knew if I stayed I would end up feeling resentful and frustrated (with myself).

This is going to sound a little dorky, but in a way, I felt like I had ‘grown’ up and it was time to spread my wings.

And then there was the ROI.

I learned SO much from my mastermind that on one hand, it’s hard to quantify things. My mindset around the value of what I did, what I charged and how I looked at money completely changed. I think that was simply of a bi-product of spending time with people who modeled that for me (not negating the value of that). I had some amazing experiences and connected with wonderful people.

Where I didn’t see the ROI was on the strategies I was learning.

Not because they didn’t work, but the way I was doing them wasn’t working for me.

I don’t believe in a “one size fits all” for marketing. Ever.

[Tweet “I don’t believe in a “one size fits all” for marketing. Ever. @kimdoyal”]

There are strategies and systems that work, but you have to tweak and adjust them so they fit who you are and how you do business. The problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, right?

Which is where I felt the disconnect.

At this point in my life, as in right now… my mindset is solid. I don’t need anyone else to inspire me or motivate me.

If I’m feeling I need some guidance I have my therapist /mentor, great peers I can turn to and my own personal selection of books, authors and audio that will help keep me on the right track. There will probably come a time when I want to work with another mentor, but I certainly don’t see that happening in the near future.

Where I DO want to invest my money is on tangible, concrete systems and processes that are directly related to what I’m currently doing and working on.

Like Facebook advertising.

Once that is all in place (it’s already begun) and I’m hitting my KPI’s (key performance indicators), then I’ll look at the next piece of the puzzle that I want to master.

But for now?

I’m good.

I’ve got this.

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy

Falling in Love with CoSchedule & The Best Business Investment I’ve Made in a Long Time

Breaking the Perfectionist Mindset – My Interview with Bob McIntosh

Gratitude & Retiring the Hustle