Kay:
Hey there Questers and welcome back! It’s Tuesday ,November 17th and this is episode 227. It’s National Entrepreneurs’ Day today, so, (you betcha!), we have an entrepreneur’s quote coming to you today from Miss Cassie Ho – a fitness and YouTube influencer.
Shi:
All right, she tells us for National Entrepreneurs’ Day, “Do not focus on numbers. Focus on doing what you do best. It’s about building a community who want to visit your site every day because you create value and offer expertise.”
Kay:
Now, from a couple of entrepreneurs who have fallen in the trap of not paying attention to numbers at all and watching that hurt our business we want to just clarify here that Cassie is not saying to throw ALL the numbers out the window – especially the financial ones. She’s saying ‘do not focus on those numbers’ solely.
Shi:
Solely, right? Bring a little dimension to your focus – it certainly seems like most of us fall on either one side or the other when it comes to metrics like numbers. Metrics and measurements we either focus on them and make them the singular dimension in which we will judge and make decisions, or we are terrified of numbers and do not like them and therefore cut ourselves off from even looking at them or engaging with them at all. And both of these are unhealthy. Numbers are the language of business and here on National Entrepreneurs’ Day to speak this language means more success for your entrepreneurial journey. And so, numbers are an important component – they’re just not the only component.
Kay:
Now, of course, if you are an entrepreneur and you’re a business person you better get your finances under control like that is rule number one, right? But Shila and I teach marketing and we teach marketing to a lot of entrepreneurs who are just getting started. And what we find especially in that social media influencer space is that many people get so focused on the amount of likes that they’re getting that it feels discouraging when they don’t get any at all. And sometimes it throws them off track for their business.
Shi:
Well, here’s what we’ve heard from marketing experts from about the mid-80s up until the early 2000s was: you’ve got to have some sort of return on investment for anything that you do in the marketing field. Now, this is absolutely true, when it comes to advertising like direct mail postcards, when it comes to like ads on the radio or TV or a billboard – and SO many entrepreneurs and small business owners were getting blindsided by fast talking ad reps who would say you’re gonna get in front of a hundred thousand people who make sixty thousand dollars a year and this is your target audience. And you’re like great! And so, you pay this huge amount for an ad and then you have no idea whether or not it works. So, this cry for ROI especially in the marketing side came from a good place but here we are in 2020 social media and the online reality is the concurrent second reality happening. And the fact of the matter is there’s other ways to measure investment, and measure engagement, and measure success, that aren’t necessarily ROI in terms of money. And so, I think Cassie’s really bringing this dimension here to understand like if we’re only focused on the numbers of one post then we’re not going to see that long-term value of that post being a drop in the bucket towards building community which is that ultimate goal that we should all be after.
Kay:
What a lot of entrepreneurs do when they go into the space is that they focus on making money first versus doing what it was that they got into being an entrepreneur for in the first place! Many of us do our entrepreneurial ventures because we want to turn our passion and our purpose into some form of monetary venture. Many of us tend to get into that monetary venture and start focusing on all the wrong things and lose sight of the flame and, before we know it, the thing that we loved becomes our biggest burden. And, sometimes, focusing on those numbers especially in the beginning can be really discouraging and detrimental. Because when you are just starting out it’s really important as an entrepreneur that you focus on that fire. That you focus on building that flame as bright as you can possibly get it to be and that will pay bigger dividends in the long run because it keeps the fire warm inside of the house instead of focusing on the snowstorm outside the window!
Shi:
Which is exactly what she tells us here in this quote when she tells us to focus on what we do best. Because keeping our focus there also keeps us in our flame! And then, she’s also really reminiscent here of something that’s also talked about in The Infinite Game, by Simon Sinek, that Kay and I recently read and brought forward. And you’ve probably heard us talk about it quite a bit, but bringing that focus off of the finite game (the win, the loss, the ROI), and really focusing more on the infinite game of what is the legacy that you’re trying to lead, what is the betterment that you’re trying to leave in the world, and that’s what she’s telling us right here, right? Like it’s about building a community that wants to come see your stuff every day because you’re creating value and offering expertise and that’s a shift in perspective that can be hard for a lot of entrepreneurs to make. So, just to remind you of what Cassie Ho tells us, “Do not focus on numbers. Focus on doing what you do best. It’s about building a community who want to visit your site every day because you create value and offer expertise.”
Kay:
Okay, that’s it sisters and misters, that means it’s time for your quest! We’ve got an entrepreneurial quest for you today from a double sister entrepreneur duo 😉 Today we’re going to ask you to do something that is in your flame. Maybe you love singing, or speaking, or building, but do whatever it is that lights that fire within you! Because the entrepreneurial spirit is oft encapsulated by people making money doing the things that light them on fire. So, are you ready to get LIT?
Kay and Shi:
Let’s quest!
