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Marketing always works. The question is: are you willing to stay in the game long enough to see it?

In this episode, I share a concept I’ve been thinking about lately: the difference between the strategies that drive consistent leads and sales and the strategies that build authority, visibility, and impact over time.

I walk through how I’m allocating resources in my own business, what I’m focused on improving every week, and why I’ve changed my mind about the role content should play in a company’s growth.

These are the 2 strategies I’m using to double my business!

Key Takeaways

• How to bring in cash today WHILE building for tomorrow
• What 9-figure brands are doing that you’re probably not
• The distinction that has helped me simplify my marketing strategy
• Why I don’t measure ads and content the same

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

Where people go wrong is they want the content creation to be their biggest business growth driver . I personally think if you’ve sold your offer three times at least, you should be using ads. It’s the fastest way. It’s the most consistent way. It’s the best way for you to be in control of that growth, consistency is the magic. Like the boring work, and most people are not willing to do that I’m telling you, if you are an entrepreneur willing to do that and willing to consistently show up, you will win.

Embodied CEOs don’t chase trends. They pave the way they lead from within. Move by purpose, unshaken by noise. When you are the source, you do not need permission.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you guys are having an amazing week, a great summer so far. I think we just hit, right, it was just summer solstice, so we are halfway through the year. Isn’t that what that means? I think so or halfway through the summer. I should know that. But I hope you guys are having a good summer, mixing it with memories, mixing it with getting stuff done in your business.

I feel like my life right now, I was having this thought the other day, is like I am going, like, 100 miles an hour when I’m in business mode, and then… Or my goal is I’ve gotta move at that pace right now ’cause I just have so much happening in my current company, building a new company, and when I then am with my kids and my family, I wanna be going, like, 10 miles an hour.

So that’s my goal. I wanna be hustling and in build mode. I’m very much in build mode. Like, for the first time ever, I worked late at night the other day ’cause I was just inspired. I just wanted to create. I wanted to build. It feels good. I think sometimes being back in that energy is a good thing, and then you just don’t stay there.

You ebb and flow out of it. But then, when I’m with my kids and it’s summer, I wanna be going 10 miles an hour and not rushing, and creating memories. So every day is a journey to be finding that balance, and finding those two different speeds that I am working on every day, and working towards, and sometimes doing it and sometimes messing up.

And it’s, it’s definitely a dance, right? Because sometimes I feel like the business needs more of me, and I wasn’t able to put more in because that’s all I could do today literally. And then sometimes I’m like, “I didn’t do enough over here with my family and with my kids, and I wasn’t present enough.” I talked about that actually last week on the podcast.

Anyways, today I wanna talk about a concept that I was thinking on. I was thinking, “You know what marketing strategy and marketing tips could I give you guys?” Um, I’ve been giving you business stuff and, and, but I haven’t talked a specific marketing thing. And so this idea came to me today to share, and kinda break down a way to look at your strategy, and a way to have two main goals and initiatives that you’re working on in your business, and define those.

I think everyone should have basically a short-term, it’s making the business money, it’s bringing in consistent leads and sales strategy, and then a slow burn, I’m investing resources, time, energy, and money into this knowing it’s gonna take time to pay off. Because some of the best things in business, some of the most impactful strategies are that slow burn.

They take a little while to start working. And there are many entrepreneurs who are not patient enough to invest in that time and energy. And so just a different way to be looking at your marketing strategy and kind of ask yourself, like, if I was sitting down with you and I was like, “Let’s define your short-term strategy with your long-term slow burn strategy.

And are we allocating resources to both or are we in survival mode as a business going, ‘Where’s my next sale coming from?’ And that’s all I’m focused on and I’m kind of reacting to the fact that I’m not hitting my sales goals or, or whatever.” So let me share with you, um, what mine looks like when you, when you were to say this.

‘Cause I was thinking about, okay, what’s working really well for us in our marketing? How do I relay that in an, in a way that I haven’t necessarily said here before? And then tie it into what would be relevant for you. So that’s what I want to talk about. So if I look at my marketing, one of my goals is always consistency.

It’s always, Are we growing the email list every single day? Are we getting, for us, calls booked consistently? Are we making sales every week? That is critical to the health of my business and cash flow and the way things are going. Then it’s what are we investing in that may not pay off tomorrow, next week, or even next month, but we know is going to pay off in the long run?

So for me, the short-term strategy right now that we’ve been running since February is a weekly live webinar, and we’ve been doing this with me, with a handful of clients, um, and it’s really allowing us to combine the consistency That, is required in a business, right? So getting the leads every single day into this funnel, and those leads may not even convert in that very first webinar, but they might convert in two, three, four webinars or in a live launch that I invite them to.

So it checks the box of consistent growth. I get consistent leads, consistent calls, and consistent sales as that being the primary funnel that that is coming in on. So in terms of resources, every week we look at the data. We look at the cost per lead, we look at the show-up rate, we look at the call conversion rate, we look at the sales conversion rate, we look at how many sales, the return on ad spend.

It’s primarily being driven by ads because we’re getting new people in there every week. We don’t wanna tire the list out with it. And so we do that, and then we go, “Okay, what are levers that we can pull that improve those numbers?” And if we have show-up rates start dropping, we implement more text messages, or I just added a really cool live show-up bonus to the webinar.

So we’re taking those immediate actions that impact our immediate results when it comes to the main strategy that is growing the business month over month in terms of new clients. So we’re really clear, and we’re so dialed in, and we’re so focused on the actions and the initiatives that we can take based on that funnel.

Okay? So that’s my consistency. And so for all of you, it’s a matter of what do I have that is going to consistently grow my list and drive those leads to a sale? And you need that daily. Like, that’s the goal. A healthy business is growing their list every single day. Because if you’re not, you are actually not growing, right?

Because naturally on an email list or any, you know, following, social media, whatever, you’re gonna be losing followers. You’re gonna be losing… You know, people are gonna unsubscribe. They’re gonna become unengaged. So if you’re not growing at a net positive, technically you’re shrinking. That can’t happen in a business.

And so when you look at your business and you’re like, “Okay, I’m not making consistent sales,” you gotta backtrack and go, “Well, am I bringing in consistent leads? And if I’m not bringing in consistent leads, then of course I’m not gonna be getting consistent sales.” If you are bringing in consistent leads and they’re not converting, you gotta figure out that.

Because while a huge percentage of your leads are not gonna convert initially upon finding you, some will. Like, I have people every week right now find my weekly webinar as the very first thing that they’ve ever seen of mine, book a call, and buy our offer. It is possible. Now, it’s 1% of the leads. It’s not a huge amount of them, and so what am I doing with the rest of those leads?

So that’s the way I look at my marketing, is like this is the main driver, and every week, every month, every quarter, what is our focus to just make that better? Bring more people into it, convert higher, keep the numbers up, and ultimately scale the ad spend because it’s profitable. It’s actually highly profitable for me right now.

Then on the flip side, I go, “Okay, what is the thing that I’m building this year? And what am I focused on that is more of a slow burn, a consistency game?” And I’m not actually focused on and obsessed over the metrics. Like with my live webinar funnel, I’m obsessed over the metrics. Every single week it’s like, “What was my conversion rate on the webinar?”

It’s a game for me. How many people were on? How many did I convert to a call? Did I beat last week’s? Okay. You know, the traffic quality matters, the, the way that I presented the webinar, my energy that day, all that really matters and plays a part in the conversion. So I’m obsessed over those metrics, and I make real time decisions to optimize that funnel, and I expect the immediate return from that.

That is a realistic expectation that I have from that funnel because that’s its purpose in my business. Then I have the other side, which is the slow burn strategy, and I’m not obsessed over the metrics. The main metric for me there is actually consistency and a commitment to trusting the process and refining and optimizing the process.

And for me right now, that’s content. So this year, I’ve talked about this on the podcast, this year, one of my big intentions, one of my two big intentions, was number one, really investing in my team, getting a new office, and building an in-person team. And I’ve been doing that, and that’s been a huge focus, and it is paying off massively.

I’m obsessed with the in-person team. Number two, my big focus was content because I went and I experienced a, a big brand, and I saw the impact that media can have. And I heard a, a big player in the content game say, “If I knew the output that, the result that just creating content would create for me and being able to find talent to work for me, just that outcome, I would’ve done this years ago.”

And to me, what that speaks to is the level of brand credibility, authority, and visibility that you can build with content And to be honest with you, my position on content changed a year ago when I experienced this because I used to say, like, “You don’t need any organic content. You don’t have to create it ’cause if you have ads, they’re working for you.

They’re growing your business,” and that is true. I see ads and your funnel as that immediate ROI, that consistency that you can count on because you can control it a lot better. You can control who you target. You can control how much you spend. You can control how much traffic you get in. Once you have things predictable, it’s like, it’s very controllable.

There’s… It, it’s like buttons, right? And, and you, and you really are in the driver’s seat with it. Organic, on the other hand, is a different game. You can’t really control how your post does. It’s very weird. The algorithm, how it favors things and how it shows one post, like, half the amount of people to another.

Sometimes you get a post that takes off, and it’s like not the quality audience that you’d want. Sometimes it is, right? You are in a lot less control when it comes to organic. However, I see content creation as a slow burn. And so, personally, I was just having this conversation with a team member. Like, when I look at my brand, and I look at where I wanna go, let’s say, over the next five years, I want to continue to grow my impact, to grow my voice, to grow my reach, and build a brand that can have a New York Times bestselling book, that can have bigger events, bigger impact, that I could be in a city and say, “Hey, we’re gonna meet up in this spot” and have a significant amount of people show up.

That can only come by a large reach, which the, the number that you measure with that is really followers, but, like, engaged followers. So when you look at these bigger brands, they have millions of people across platforms that consume what? Their content. So I see my content as that slow burn. It’s building the brand It’s not necessarily paying the bills in terms of an immediate ROI.

It’s really hard to track. I don’t know. Because I don’t know if Someone sees my ad, they follow me, they see content, and that helps with them purchasing from a webinar. It’s really hard to know that for sure, but I know it’s part of my ecosystem. I am committed. I’ve got a, an expense that I spend every month on it, and that is f- for my content person.

I’m committed to a frequency, and it’s like, no matter what, that’s the strategy. And then we get better, and we refine what we post based on the feedback from how the content does. And I mean, it’s such a fun, fascinating experience because we’ll put content out there and I’m like, “Oh, this is gonna, this is gonna crush.”

And then that one doesn’t do as well, and then I put another thing out there and that one crushes and I’m like, you know, “What do I know?” So it’s fun to experience that. But what I’m trying to get at is I don’t obsess over how the content does. Yes, I want it to do well. Yes, do we take, especially my content manager, we take the top content and we use that to drive the other content that we create.

But I’m not saying, “Okay, we didn’t get three clients from this exact strategy, so therefore it’s not profitable, so I’m not gonna keep doing it anymore.” It’s a slow burn. I know it’s a slow burn. I know I need to commit to this frequency and duration of creating content to build the bigger brand that I’m building.

So that investment in the resources in my business has a completely different mindset than my weekly webinar. And both are taking financial resources, both are taking time and energy, but they are serving a different purpose. And I really think, like, building your overall brand Building your place in the market and your authority really only can come from time.

And most people are not patient enough for that, and most people don’t understand how big of an impact that is. And when you look at most… When I look at most seven-figure companies, which is a lot of people’s goals, right? They have been around for at least three years. I would say at least three years.

Some a lot longer. And when you look at people that looks like something happened overnight, when you take this example of Jessie Gene, who did the Yap Challenge, I talked about in the last podcast episode, not indirectly breaking it down, but you look at her, she has been in business for a decade. She has pivoted her business and she’s pivoted who she’s helping and how she’s talking about it, but she is not new to business.

She is not new to creating content. She’s not new to her voice. She is not new to those skills, which the only way to develop them is time. The only way for you to get better at creating content, for you to get better at talking to your ideal customer, better at understanding their needs and their wants and the way they speak and the way they communicate what they want and how you can position your offer and all those things.

The only way to get better at it is to put in the reps. And so that’s where I have really seen and changed my perspective on content because like I said, I used to say, “You don’t need it.” And do you have to have it? No. But now what I tell people who come into our programs, where we’re building funnels and we’re gonna launch their ads, and the primary way they’re gonna grow their business is through ads.

It’s through having a lead generation funnel live, bringing leads in from that funnel, and counting on ads for that initial growth. I tell them also, “To complement what we’re doing, I want you to create content. And I want you to look at it through the pure purpose of if you go create a piece of content every day for the next 30 days, there is a 100% chance that you will be better at creating content, at talking to your ideal customer, at articulating your ideas, and articulating your messaging.

100% chance that you would get better at that.” Just like working out, and that’s how I see content, is like I commit to a frequency, I commit to the process, and I trust the process. I trust that if I show up, I will get better. Right? If I work out for 30 days, for the next 30 days, and I move my body, there’s a 100% chance that I will be more fit in 30 days.

Same thing with content creation. Where people go wrong is they want the content creation to be their biggest business growth driver And so they go create the content. They put the time into it. Maybe they’re new at it, so it takes them a really long time. And they’re putting this energy into it, and it’s not growing their business how they want.

It’s not getting the traction how they want, and so they give up on it. It’s perspective because if you look at it and you say, “No, it is doing what I want because by doing that, I’m getting better at doing it.” And the thing is like, I, I forget who I wanna quote on this, but it’s like if your content isn’t doing well, then you’re not creating good enough content.

You know? And that, that’s like something that I say to myself. Like, when I look at a creator and, and I say, “My content isn’t doing as well as theirs,” it’s because I haven’t put in enough reps. I need to get better at it. I need to build the brand bigger. You know, that is a piece of it, too. Like, the bigger your brand, the bigger the credibility, the bigger the community that you’ve built, the better your content’s gonna do.

And how do you get there? It takes time. It takes time. It takes putting in the reps. It takes consistent commitment. You’ve gotta find the level that you’re at. My point in all this being what is the immediate return strategy for you? How are you going to pay the bills? How are you gonna make money for your business?

How are you gonna generate leads and sales every single week? You need that strategy. I personally think if you’ve sold your offer three times at least, you should be using ads. It’s the fastest way. It’s the most consistent way. It’s the best way for you to be in control of that growth. And then on the flip side, what is the slow burn?

Where are you investing intentional energy, intentional resources to grow your business knowing it’s not gonna pay off right away, but if you do this for a year, it will absolutely pay off? And it will pay off probably in ways that you can’t even imagine yet. That’s how I see content, and I’m, you know…

When did we start? April, May. I’m two and a half months in, and I see payoff. My account has grown. My visibility has grown. I’m sure that there’s ROI. It’s hard to track exactly. I don’t care, actually. Like, I just wanna create the best content. I wanna get better at creating content. I wanna improve my process with my content manager.

I wanna get more convicted. I wanna understand what people respond to. I wanna understand the algorithm better. That’s how I look at it. And then I have other strategies and other things that are the immediate return that I need. But I know if my three to five-year plan from right now is to grow to an eight-figure company, let’s say in three years to an eight-figure company, that’s 100% doable, hopefully less than that.

But if my plan is to grow to that level of impact that I’m talking about, I have to put in the reps to do that. It’s not gonna happen overnight. I cannot become the size of the Hermoses or Cody Sanchez or Dan Martell overnight. I have to put in the reps for years, and I think that is such an underrated part of business, part of life.

Like, if I also bring in the analogy of fitness and I look at a CrossFitter who’s very good, they have probably a decade of experience. And there are athletes who work out way less than I do and are way better than me because they have put in years of work, and the only way for me to even come close to catching them is put in the work, time, reps.

Like, it takes the time to build the skills, to build the muscle, to build the conditioning, and I think that’s just so underrated. Like, people don’t understand in some strategies, consistency is the goal. Consistency is the magic. you know, Alex Hermosi does talk about this a lot, like the boring work, and most people are not willing to do that I’m telling you, if you are an entrepreneur willing to do that and willing to consistently show up, you will win.

‘Cause you’re gonna learn through the process, and you are going to figure out what works and what doesn’t through the process. And when you pull out… If you were to pull anybody successful that you follow, any 7-figure business, I’m telling you, like, I bet it’s very rare that you could find a 7-figure business that they built to seven figures in a year and they didn’t have some sort of background.

Like, I’m building a new company. My goal is that it’s at seven figures in a year, and I know we’re gonna hit that, but I have 10 years of business experience, so that’s possible. Could I have done that 10 years ago in my first year of business? Probably not. I didn’t have the reps. I didn’t have the knowledge.

I didn’t have the experience. I didn’t have the brand. I didn’t have the impact. I didn’t have the voice. I didn’t have all those things. Those things take time. And we are sold this lie in the online space that it’s overnight and that you should be able to launch a funnel and in 90 days it is, it is profitable.

And that can happen. You can have a profitable funnel. But having the 7-figure business or even the 6-figure business that you want, it might take time. It’s gonna take time. It’s gonna take longer than others, but if you’re committed to the process, this is where marketing always works. It’s just a matter of when, is truly something I believe.

Because if you are committed to the process and you are relentless with that, you will be successful. Most people give up. Most people hit roadblocks. Most people hit challenges. Most people don’t get the sales that they want. Most people get rejected. Most people feel defeated and they give up, or they completely pivot and they start from square one.

And they blame the economy, the algorithm, the coach, whatever, when really it’s just a matter of like, did you show up enough? It’s that simple. So I want you to think of your marketing this way. What’s the short-term consistent leads in sales you need to be a healthy, profitable business? What is that strategy?

In my opinion, it should be ads. It should be a funnel that you run ads to in every single day because you have control over that. If I fully counted on organic to grow my business, it would not be doing well. Like, it would not be. I wouldn’t have consistency. I could not generate the leads right now organically that I need to grow my business.

And then where are you investing your time for the slow burn to put in the reps to build for the next three years? To understand you only have to know what you have to do in this area tomorrow and this month. Like, I don’t know where my content’s gonna take me. I don’t know where this podcast will evolve.

I don’t know where my social media content will evolve to. I’m allowing the process and the feedback and the process to dictate that. But I do know that I’m gonna be consistent. And I do know that I don’t actually care, not that I don’t pay attention to, but I’m not attached to the numbers and the results around this because my goal is consistency.

I am attached to my webinar funnel’s numbers because I know where those need to be for my business to be healthy. I know I can get to those numbers, so I am very focused on those. Those numbers drive the actions. I pay attention to the numbers in my content. I have goals around podcast downloads. I have goals around social media growth.

If I don’t hit that goal, does that mean I’m gonna stop doing it? No. I’m gonna keep doing it, and I’m gonna trust the process is allowing that to happen. Alright. Hopefully you guys found this helpful. I would sit down, I would ask yourself this question. And of course, let me throw out there, if you don’t have the marketing strategy that is consistent, the lead generation, maybe it’s a weekly live webinar, um, we’ve been building a lot of those for clients and have a system around that where the ads keep running, you update the date on the page.

There’s a lot to… with the replay and the way you set that up. If you go to helpmystrategy.com, you can apply to work with us to get that implemented in your business. We even have our scale program, which is if you’re not ready for full done for you, we implement the lead gen, we implement the live launch, we launch the ads, we create the ads for you, so you have this system, and then you are supporting that system by creating content, and I guide you through that in the program.

All right, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Have a beautiful rest of your week, and I’ll talk to you next week.