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I Missed a Thursday: Why Diversified Lead Gen Lets You Step Away · Sell Well: Helping Agencies Close More Deals and Grow Revenue

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Last Thursday was the first Thursday since March 23rd that I didn't put out an episode.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've put out at least one episode every single week for the last six months.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the first time that I have missed a week.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Today I want to talk about why I missed what you can learn from me and some things that I've got rolling behind the scenes.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been really consistent with posting my own organic content until now.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so missing this episode was actually a pretty big deal for me.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I set out on this journey of putting out a podcast episode every week.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when I told some of my friends from Lost in House, they were like, sure you will.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because every time I told them I'm going to get really consistent about making video content for Lost in House, something would come up, a client fire, or I would get pulled into a big project, or honestly, I would just get distracted and I wouldn't do it.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't great at giving them content to work with.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a whole team ready to do that for me.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So when I set out to do this podcast journey, um, I was really excited about it and tried to make this a priority.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So why did I miss last week?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I missed last week because we decided to move to Florida for a month.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: We actually do this every year.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: My parents and my husband, and now my baby and I all try to go to the beach and stay in a house for a month.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Change of scenery, we found that there's actually ways to do it that are just as affordable as going away to 30A for a week, and we have just found some amazing places.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Specifically, we love Amelia Island in Florida.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so last week I got to the beach and I just unplugged and exhaled and it was amazing.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: There have been years where I have worked while we've been here, but this year specifically, I decided to treat it like a sabbatical and I took a lot of time off.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I took most of my meetings off my calendar and I just said, I'm gonna unplug, recharge, spend a lot of time thinking about this next season of business and wrapping up a few things that I'm currently launching.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: It has been a really busy season for me.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I have been working on a personal brand and funnel.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've never done that before.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there's been a lot of moving pieces.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I have put together a private podcast that I'll be announcing next week.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot wait to share that with you guys.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited about it.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I have put together a cold email campaign that I launched with Mint Leads.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I have started to put together an ad campaign.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: I actually have filmed a lot of videos that are going to go live on an organic Instagram account.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I am so excited about all of these things, but it has been a ton of work behind the scenes.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I just started to feel a little burned out.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was working on all kinds of things.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was still meeting with people and just felt like I need to have a break scheduled coming up where I can take a step back and really start to focus on what I want this next season to look like for me.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I had this on my calendar for months and I prepped so, so well.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I got all my clients ready.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I put together plans for them.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: I gave everybody lots of notice.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was all ready to go.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I even had my timeline adjusted for my launch because I didn't want to have to be online every single day trying to wrap things up.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, we'll launch this basically when I'm back and give myself a lot of time to kind of get things done.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I put together a much slower timeline.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you've worked with me on any project, you know that I'm like, oh my gosh, a 32-part course, we can get all of that done tomorrow, no problem.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: This time I was a lot more realistic.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was slow to move on things, and I really wanted it to be intentional and also just a much more fun process for me.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, with all of this intentionality and all of this prep, how did I not batch podcast episodes before I left for the beach?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: My answer is that life happened.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a mom, I have a lot of things going on, I had to get my dog ready to go, and there was some stuff that came up, and I could tell you my whole scheduling sob story before we left for the beach and the things that got busy, and then all of the stuff that I wanted to get done work-wise.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And what didn't make the list was batching a lot of podcast content.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So when last Thursday rolled around, I just didn't share anything.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, so far, this has probably been my most boring podcast episode of all time.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I just told you a story about how I went to the beach and it was awesome and I wrapped up everything except batching my own content.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So boring.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what I want you to take away from today.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't freak out and my business didn't suffer.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I had other plans in place to bring leads in.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't panic.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to be really clear here.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: My downloads dropped and I watched the stats moved and I noticed all of it.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: I just wasn't worried because my lead gen is so diversified.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've got cold email running.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm about to launch ads.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: I have an amazing referral network.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I have a ton of partners that I trust and haven't even really tapped into yet.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I come back and I need more clients, I know that I can run a sales blitz and start bringing people in.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I probably won't even have to because my lead flow is running in the background without me while I'm sitting on the beach.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to hear today.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you step away for a short amount of time and it feels like everything is going to fall apart, if you feel like you constantly have to be posting and living online, like people need to know that you're always ready to take their call, then you are not running a sustainable sales engine.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: You need a mix of organic inbound and outbound so that when life happens, your business keeps going.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And life does happen.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've had seasons that were a lot less fun than this one, where I needed to step away for medical reasons.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've had weeks where I had the best of intentions and a giant client fire took up every bit of my focus.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because I had both inbound and outbound working, I never felt that pressure to keep all the plates spinning all the time.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I hear this from clients consistently.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: All of my businesses' referrals, they'll say.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I get a lot of leads from Instagram.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got to share more stories.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to live online.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to make sure everything keeps going.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to make sure that my weekly newsletter keeps going with my bi-weekly podcast and my YouTube video and all the content that goes into this.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it is a ton of work.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like a lot of times people online try to make it seem like, oh, it's not a big deal.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: You just record videos.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is tedious and time consuming and vulnerable to put yourself out there like that.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is exhausting.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's why a lot of times when life does happen, it's one of the first things to go.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: When something comes up and takes over your life emotionally or even just logistically, it can be really hard to catch back up.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So what do you do when you feel like you're on the hamster wheel of content?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a few options.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: First, you can outsource some of your content.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I want to give a quick shout out here to Loss in House, Darlin Marketing, and Terra Collective.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I'm partial to Loss in House.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're amazing, and I think the world of them.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I also coach Jasmine from Darlin and Gabrielle from Tara, and they are fabulous.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on what you're looking for, I would recommend all three of them.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're very different.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: They all have different skill sets and very different styles.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I would reach out to any of them if I was looking to outsource my own social.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you are feeling like you need more accountability, somebody to take this over, sometimes investing in that help and getting what you need is one of the best investments you can make in your business.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: It also gives you the accountability you need to just get it done.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I always felt like I could refilm the same video over and over and over again.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And just having somebody else's eyes on it and say, yeah, the second take was great.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go, is really helpful and just moving the ball forward.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Second, you can outsource your leads.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked about Mint and Leads before and they've been on the show, but I've also talked to Oaken and getting a better handle on your LinkedIn outreach.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many amazing professionals who can help you get leads coming in on an automated rhythm.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of these people get a bad rap because sleazy people pop in your LinkedIn inbox, but you just got to trust me.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Start taking some of those calls.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Find a partner you are willing to trust that you're willing to take a gamble on and see what happens.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Once cold email got into a good groove for us, I never had to worry whether we posted enough on Instagram.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Leads were coming in whether we posted in months or not.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: What a freeing moment.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Lastly, I want you to set realistic expectations for yourself and be kind to yourself.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to be posting as much as the girl boss who's posting four times a day or whatever the algorithm is asking of you this month.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let yourself off the hook and do what you can.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't read soundtracks by John A.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Cuff, I think this could really help here.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: The whole book is about how to stop overthinking.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Instagram wants you to overthink, it wants you making more content and always feeling behind.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: For a long time, the soundtrack playing in my mind was that I always need to be posting or I'll never get clients.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem was I wasn't posting.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So my soundtrack actually was your whole business is going to fall apart because you haven't done this today.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I, after working with a lot of business owners, if you're feeling this way, I don't think you're alone.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of people feel like I could always be doing more.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if I just did enough, then I wouldn't be stressed ever again.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a terrible place to live.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: John Acuff talks about replacing these types of soundtracks with a better soundtrack, a more positive one.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you have multiple channels running, if you have placed your bets across multiple things and it's all kind of working to bring the business together, which is what I ultimately hope for you, I would love for you to trade the soundtrack of I could always be doing more for something like it's all coming together.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that if more of us thought like this, if we traded out our bad soundtracks around how we run our business and what's required of us in this scarcity mindset for one of confidence and believing that the best is yet to come in our businesses, we would run better, more profitable businesses.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm done lecturing you for today.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad that you stuck around and let me take a week off.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really grateful for it.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: But next week is going to be one of the best episodes I've ever done.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you love this podcast, you are going to want to be here for it.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be the episode where I announce the private podcast that I've been building out.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is a full business reset set up as a 21-day challenge.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: In week one, we are actually going to get into your numbers, set some goals, and look honestly about what you're spending and what you're actually making.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: In week two, we're going to start fixing some things and make sure that everything is automated so that we are teed up for week three, which is a sales blitz and hopefully will let you walk away with more revenue than when you started.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever my clients run this type of sales blitz, they always come back to me and they're like, oh my gosh, we just had our best month ever.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's my hope for you.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Week one, I want you to make sure that you know where you're going.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Week two, I want you to make sure that you're set up to bring on more clients.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And week three, I want you to go get those clients.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great system.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really good way to kick off Q4.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to dive into all the details about it.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And better than that, I am going to be giving out a discount code.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge is 197, and I'm actually going to give out a code that gives$100 off.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're not messing around here.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not like, you get a free PDF.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: No, you get the whole thing, and I'm going to give you$100 off, which is more than 50% off.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to dive into this and use it.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's going to be awesome.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've been sticking around here for a while, you are going to love it because it is not only an amazing podcast resource and a really cool way to dive into your business without having to watch a bunch of videos, but it also is much higher audio quality.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I actually went to a studio in Nashville to record it.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it's pretty cool.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really excited to share it with you guys.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I will be um talking about that next week, diving into each of the 21 days and talking about why I think they're so important.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So stick around for that next week.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you are somebody who you're feeling like, I am on the hamster wheel posting all the time.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to do.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm feeling really stuck, and I really wish I could talk to somebody about it.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to hear from you.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: You can go to susieconzoli.com, reach out to me, and make sure that you have a better plan going into Q4 than trying to live your life online.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you all so much.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, sell well.