We’re diving into an important conversation; we’re going to talk about the do’s and don’ts of generating Profit Without Worry.

Let’s be clear from the get-go here — Profit Without Worry is first and foremost about SERVING your audience.

You know why?

I believe when you take the time to serve first, you’re giving your audience the time they need to get to know you and your message. This is a longer-term play for your business. We’re not the push, push, push crowd.

We ARE the people who believe in our businesses enough to give to our audience first.

So, let’s talk about three of the biggest do’s and don’ts to generate Profit Without Worry:

Biggest Show Takeaways:

#1: DON’T Follow the Crowd

• I’ve been guilty of this in the past. Someone — an influencer, a guru, a rising star — starts having a bunch of success in their business and, suddenly, everyone is talking about the hot new marketing tip. It can feel like suddenly EVERYONE is jumping on this hot bandwagon, and it can feel like you’ll miss out if you don’t jump on too, right?
• Maybe a membership site is right for your business. Maybe Instagram is the best place to grow your audience and share your message. Maybe going live on Facebook is PERFECT for you. Maybe you should start a podcast. Or maybe not.
• I know alllllllll about the bandwagon energy. I know the feeling of my heartbeat quickening, my cheeks flushing, and the yucky feeling energy of trying to figure out how to jump on the bandwagon of this hot new tactic. I used to do it ALL the time.
• Building a solid business isn’t about DOING more — it’s about BEING more. It’s about creating systems so that I can BE a leader, a consultant, and a mentor.
• It’s okay for me to be me and for you to be you. That’s what makes us enticing, exciting, and valuable to our audiences.
• When you’re clear on who YOU are and how YOU serve your audience best, it’s a whole lot easier to stand your ground and not get sucked into the random acts of the marketing bandwagon.

#2: Don’t (Just) Build an Email List

• If you’ve been in the online marketing space for more than five minutes, you’ve heard gurus and influencers extoll the importance of building your email list.
• With your email list, the profit is in the details.
• For the first few years of my business, I focused pretty heavily on building my email list almost to the exclusion of anything else. I had this crazy thought that I wasn’t a “real” business until I had an email list of at least 5,000 people. I thought that was the magic number — and I spent a lot of time, money, and effort trying to build up to that number.
• My email list started to grow, grow, grow as I was out doing guest blogging and other activities, but because I didn’t have a big focus on developing a relationship and serving my audience, they forgot who I was.
• My motivation for building the email list was all about me and my goals and nothing about my audience and their goals. My email list was not engaged because they could FEEL how I wasn’t into serving them.
• I ended up deleting the vast majority of that audience because they never opened emails from me and so my list went from a good looking number on paper to a realistic number based on who was actually engaged.
• When I shifted my focus to creating a marketing funnel that first and foremost SERVED my audience and helped them decide if I was right for them, everything changed.
• When you get clear on how you best serve your audience, then create a service-first marketing funnel, you’ll have the same thing — and your audience will LOVE you for that.

#3: Don’t Expect Your Audience to Find YOU

• It’s not our audience’s job to find us; it’s our job to be visible enough to be easy to find AND to have a system that makes it easy to stay connected and get to know what we are all about.
• The best way to connect with your audience is to understand WHERE they hang out already and WHAT questions they’re asking. Meet them where they’re at and help them discover your solution.  
• When you create a Profit Without Worry marketing funnel, you free up your time to get out there and be visible to your audience because you’ve got a system that attracts, engages and, ultimately, invites them in further.

Let’s recap:

• #1: Don’t follow the crowd with your marketing. Instead, DO find out what marketing activities best fit you and your audience. Then do those.
• #2: Don’t (just) build an email list. Instead, DO build a Profit Without Worry marketing funnel that helps your audience.
• #3: Don’t expect your audience to find you. Instead, DO find where your audience is already at and help them discover your solution.

Want to know which marketing funnel is right for you and your business? Take this free and easy quiz, and in less than 5 minutes, you’ll know EXACTLY which funnel is right for you.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• How to Fascinate quiz: www.howtofascinate.com
• Connect on Facebook
• Connect on LinkedIn
• Connect on Instagram
• Marketing Funnel Quiz: https://www.michellelevans.com/marketing-funnel-quiz/