Episode 21: Tips for Small Business: It’s Time To Let Go Of The Perfect Number
If you’re planning to start your own weekly emails or just want to become more active on social media but are having hesitations, then this tip episode is for you! Fiona shares her thoughts on why it doesn’t matter if you only have few followers on Instagram or don’t have many people who have signed up for your weekly newsletters at the moment. It’s time to let go of the perfect number, start becoming more active and celebrate that people want to hear from you!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Letting Go of The Perfect Number
Starting My Weekly Emails
Start Being More Active
People Want To Hear From You
Fiona's Group Coaching
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Transcript:
Welcome back to the podcast in today's tip episode. So it is a tip episode. That means it's a quick tip tool or tactic.
Before we get stuck into that, I just wanted to say that, firstly, I hope wherever you are in the world, that you are safe, you're keeping sane and that if you need help in any kind of capacity, you're actually taking the steps to ask for it. These are very strange and at times very scary situations that we're in. And I hope that you're doing whatever you need to, to get some sort of peace or downtime, or just a moment to breathe. So if you haven't already done it, reach out to a friend, reach out to somebody that you trust and just have a chat. You know, we all need to connect more than ever at the moment. So I really hope that you're doing that. I wanted to say that first and foremost.
Secondly, I want to say a massive, thank you so much for all of the DMs that I've received about last week's episode. I mentioned in that episode, episode 20, that I was launching my group coaching program and I've had a lot of people reach out to me to find out more about that. We actually start around the end of September, 2020. Um, but applications are open now and we're already interviewing a bunch of people for that. So if you would like to be part of a really small, intimate curated group of small business owners. So there's only 10 of us and we meet every two weeks for a year and really stay accountable to the goals that we're setting and just, you know, make lifelong friends to get coaching and accountability with me. Please go and check that out. And you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com/group-coaching. Or you can send me a DM over at Instagram. I am just at, at @mydailybusinesscoach.
Okay. Let's kick on with today's tip episode. So today's topic is literally to let go of the idea of the perfect number. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, hopefully in today's episode, I'll make that really clear. So in this era of social media and accessible analytics on virtually anything and everything numbers, or sometimes the lack of numbers, can get the better of us. So I've met many, many, many small business owners who tell me things like, you know, when I talk about, have you got an email, do you send regular emails or do you do X, Y, Z? And they'll say, I'll start my email once I have this many subscribers or I don't do much on social media, but it's okay because I only have this many followers. And so really what's the point or they don't really care. And can I tell you something, I am going to admit something here. I have a weekly email and I send that out to thousands of small business owners all over the world.
It goes out every Sunday night, Australian time. If you're not on that, you can get over to mydailybusinesscoach.com and you can subscribe. It's full of insights and tools and tips and all good stuff, but that goes out every single Sunday. And I started that email. I had a grand total of I'm going to try and do a drum drum on my desk here - nine subscribers, just nine, nine people. It's not even double digits. And I didn't know any of them because I wanted to truly test which channels worked best to acquire new subscribers for my email. So I didn't want to just rely on a bunch of, you know, well-meaning and lovely friends and clients and families signing up. So I didn't actually tell anyone that I was doing this. These nine people that had signed up had literally come across a URL that I had linked on my Instagram account, which literally at the time my Instagram account probably had 20 followers.
If not, you know, I, again, didn't tell anyone that I was doing that. I was trying to test things. I was trying to see what worked and I didn't have a fancy funnel set up. I simply used a free email collection tool called tiny letter. And of course I will link to that in the show notes, like everything else. Um, but this, this tiny letter URL, it enabled me to customize the signup page for my email without having a website. And then I would transfer those email addresses all nine of them to my email platform at the time, which was a MailChimp. I now use ConvertKit, but at the time when I started, I used MailChimp and I definitely recommend MailChimp if you're starting out or, um, yeah, I mean, it's, it's a really great user friendly tool, but I had nine people. So, you know, it, did I slack off on sending the first email because I didn't have a big enough number?
No, I didn't. I sent it. And did I hold off, you know, from sending something worthwhile or thinking, Oh, well I can just send out crap because it's only nine? No, I didn't. I tried my very best to provide value and help to those nine people that I didn't know in that first email. And I've tried to do that in every single email that has come afterwards. And likewise, you know, I mentioned before that, when I started the @mydailybusinesscoach Instagram account, I tried to show up every day with a thought or an insight or a quote or a small business owner profile that I thought would help others feel inspired and enthusiastic about their day. Now I've been able to grow both my email list and the channels to thousands and thousands of people a hundred percent organically. I don't buy followers.
Like some people it's such a weird thing I find do not ever do that, by the way, just side note, if anyone suggests that you buy followers, never ever do that, it's just wrong, wrong, wrong. And it's just going to stuff up your algorithm anyway. But yeah, I've been able to grow both of those organically through showing up and putting in the same effort then, you know, with nine or 20 people on Instagram as I do now, and I've worked in marketing and content for close to two decades. So I completely get analytics and I completely get that numbers are so important, but it's when the numbers prevent us from even taking action in the first place that we need to just ignore them for a while. And yes, I did say that, you know, just ignore them and stop putting this idea in your head, that when I get to this number, I'll start, you know, you're basically pausing, um, the impact that you could have on people with some weird idea that if I hit a thousand people on Instagram, therefore, then I can talk.
I mean, it's kind of like losing weight or something, you know, Oh, when I get to this number, then I'll deserve to do X, Y, Z. So if you're finding yourself stuck in a spiral of the whole, "I'll start when I start doing a regular newsletter, when I get to this point, or I'll start showing up on Instagram stories when I get to this point." Try to focus on what you already have and not what you don't. So for me, thinking of nine small business owners in a room, all asking me to give them some tips, it really helped me write an email that I hope resonated. And for you, it might be new, you know, nine new homeowners who need your tips on decorating a bathroom on budget, or it could be nine new mums who need to hear, you know, that others have been in their shoes and survived, or it could be nine performing artists who need to know especially right now what they should be doing with their business, or it should or could be nine people looking for a fashion brand that's made locally and ethically or nine tech startups who would love to know how they can get international PR or nine business owners who want a membership and they're happy to pay, to hear what you want to say.
Whatever your business is, there are people who want to hear from you. And I think one thing that we forget is that behind every single email subscriber and social media follower, I mean, unless you're paying for them. And again, like I said, stop doing that. Just stopped doing it. But behind everyone, even if there are people that are in my email list on social media, there's a real person behind that account or that email address, you know, a person who has allowed you into their life and has chosen to hear from you. Now, Seth Godin, who is the guru of modern marketing. He calls this whole concept permission marketing. So it's something that we as small business owners often take for granted, but people have literally granted you permission to communicate with them and you're not because of some brand of idea that you'll be able to do it when you get to X or Y number.
So as you go about your work this week, consider the people, the customers, clients, or strangers who have said yes to you and your business, then consider how you could truly engage with them the same way that you would engage with them. If you were to meet them in person. The more that we remember that we are actually all serving humans, not just numbers, the better businesses that we will build. So that is it for today's quick tip episode for my longer coaching episodes and my interviews with small business owners across the globe, please make sure you hit subscribe and you'll get those as soon as you land. If this particular podcast episode resonated with you, I would love it. If you could share it with another small business owner, friend, maybe someone in your life who is doing the whole, "Oh, I don't have anyone following me on Instagram. Therefore I'm not a success." Because they might need to hear it. And like I said, at the start, my group coaching program is open now for applications, you can find everything you need to know over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/group-coaching for the full transcript of today's episode. Plus all the links to the tools and people that I've mentioned, go and hit up mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/21 as this is episode 21. But thanks so much for listening. I hope this gives you food for thought and I'll see you next time. Bye.
You can find everything you need to know over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/group-coaching for the full transcript of today's episode
Plus all the links to the tools and people that I've mentioned, go and hit up mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/21 as this is episode 21.
