Robby Fowler: Hi, I'm Robby Fowler youâre listening to the 4 Wins . Each
week, solopreneurs and entrepreneurs like you discover something to
try, apply, ponder, and relate to.
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called Biblepreneur, where I explore how scripture shapes the life and business
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If you're intrigued by the possibility of blending faith
in business, go check it out.
No obligation, just an invitation for those who are interested.
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note that the new Biblepreneur section is a separate subscription.
Now here's today's issue of the four wins.
The four Wins issue.
261.
Something to try.
You hop in your car in between meetings.
You've got an hour before your next appointment, and you need to go
grab a few items for the office.
46 minutes later, you pull back into the garage.
Plenty of time to get ready for your next meeting, and then it hits you.
You drove right past the restaurant where you've been meaning to get a gift
card for your best friend's birthday.
In fact, you've driven past that restaurant over a dozen times
in the past week and still never stopped to grab that gift card.
Well, no MAs, my amigo.
Check out Pinly, P-I-N-L-Y.
It's a handy iPhone app that remembers what you forget at the right time.
At the right place in Pinly, you drop a pin on your map and set a reminder.
You get notified when you arrive or leave.
And you can even set repeated reminders for those tasks you
always need and always forget.
Nothing ever leaves your phone, so your stuff stays with you.
Pinly is free to use and built by an indie developer.
Never feel like a goober again when you pull in the parking lot and
ask yourself, now, why am I here?
Win number two, something a client recently asked.
We're in part two of our series.
Why doing more marketing makes everything worse and what to do instead.
Here's the challenge.
I know I need to post more, but I've got nothing left.
So many clients share some version of that with me once
they feel safe enough to be real.
This week we're looking at why the advice to just be more consistent is
the worst advice you've been given.
So see if this marketing advice sounds familiar to you, or maybe you've
seen it out there from the experts.
Things like post three times a week, be on video, optimize your funnel, start
your podcast, email your list weekly.
Use short form clips.
Hire an overseas VA for social.
Leverage AI to write your ads.
Follow this template for viral content.
All of that is like a Russian nesting doll of problems.
And here's the first problem.
I call it the starting line problem.
I ask clients where they start as they attempt to act on this marketing advice.
One of them told me, well, I, I kinda just start with a list of ideas.
I have another one admitted.
Well, just kind of whatever it comes to mind.
Some turn to content pillars that they've pulled out of ai.
The point is nobody knows where to start.
And that leads to the second Russian nesting doll problem.
The spaghetti at the wall problem.
So when someone hands you a microphone and you have no idea what to say, you
just start word vomiting, you throw spaghetti at the wall, and soon the stress
of trying everything well that un nests the next Russian nesting doll problem.
The burnout bandit problem.
Why?
Because consistently staring at a blank screen, it's not a strategy.
In fact, it's a burnout machine.
So here's the obvious question.
Why are so many of us trapped into following this advice if it's bad advice?
The advice feels so compelling to business owners because the entire
industry pounds on marketing channels and marketing tactics, and the reason
they harp on it, well, channels and tactics are easy for them to sell.
And unfortunately, this kind of cart before the horse development trap.
It's actually the norm out there.
Most businesses start with an idea, then they go grab a logo,
then they'll build a website.
Then they'll start thinking about marketing, and eventually that
will lead them right to marketing channels and marketing tactics.
And the cost of these nesting doll problems isn't just marketing ROI.
Every tactic you chase without a foundation steals time from the life
you're actually trying to build.
You wanted more from your business so you could have less on your plate, and
instead you got handed more plates.
Now you already know this.
You just forgot.
So I want you to imagine this.
Imagine me asking you to give a 15 minute presentation about your
area of expertise next Tuesday.
What's your first follow up question for me?
Well, it's who, who am I speaking to?
How many will be there?
What can you tell me about them?
What are their challenges?
What are their expectations?
How can I help?
In other words, your first level questions all center around the audience.
Then your second level questions revolve around your strategic
business opportunities.
Is this a seed opportunity where your seeding the opportunity for later,
or is it a harvest opportunity?
Can you pitch on the spot?
What can I pitch?
When could I expect sales downline or immediate?
Are these people I can help?
Are they key decision makers?
Can they afford my services?
In other words, you would never start with channels.
You would never start by saying, I'll make this my U weekly YouTube post.
And you would never start with tactics like immediately pinning your opening
and closing line once I ask you to speak next week, just because a great
speaker coached you to script the opening line and closing line of every talk.
You would never start that way if I ask you to speak.
So if that bad advice isn't the answer, if more activity isn't the answer, what is?
Stay tuned next week and that's what we'll dig into Win number three, something to
think about during a recent discussion with some fellow business owners about ai.
Someone exclaimed, do not sign up for an annual subscription on anything.
Now that's kind of funny and it's also kind of true.
Things are moving rapidly and monthly is the wise choice.
That way you can sign up for the amazing thing, breaking the internet next month.
Win number four, something personal.
Speaking of ai, this week I was on yet another call with a topic
of AI came up and now I happened to be the oldest one in the zoom.
A week before that, the topic of distraction and stillness came up in our
new small group, and I was the oldest one in the physical room for that discussion.
Now, the common denominator in the air of the discussion around both
issues was the anxiety everyone sensed associated with each of those topics.
Regarding ai, it's what's coming, what's coming for my job?
What's someone else doing with it that makes me feel behind?
What are you doing with it?
What should I be doing with it?
Where's it going?
Where's my place in that world?
Anxiety is just humming and buzzing in the room.
And regarding the idea of being still, of turning off and tuning out distractions,
the sentiment was eerily similar.
It kind of seemed like the younger you are, the more anxious you seem
at the idea of silence and solitude.
I heard things like, well, I need music playing in the background, or I
throw on a podcast, or I've got YouTube running, or I have one ear bud in.
And I'll admit it, I feel a foot in the quick sand of both of those responses--
to AI and to silence and solitude.
And as I pondered those two experiences, I had these reflections.
AI will chase silence, like light chasing the dark.
It will fill any stillness with the promise of productivity.
In other words, give it an inch, it will output a mile.
The only seeming limitation is how many tokens you've burned
versus how many you've bought.
Now you give that kind of tool into my hands, hands that at times are incapable
of silence and allergic to stillness.
Well, it's like a black box of infinity with a do not open label on it.
In truth, I have little control over where AI will head next.
I do, however, have agency over how I will be human.
Perhaps more than any other time in my life to date, I need to push
back and press in to being human.
Fight for silence.
Battle for solitude.
Walk without headphones.
Marvel at the Mockingbird as it parodies the bullying blue jay.
Let the wind whistle past my ears, the right and the left.
Take in the white noise of the pine trees fracturing the breeze.
Sun, warm my skin.
Tear, traverse my cheek.
Babe, hold my hand as we walk.
Speaker: Thanks for listening or reading this issue of the four Wins.
Robby Fowler: Keep building a life-giving brand.