It feels like there’s a course or a challenge for everything right now. I go to social media for a scroll fest, and my feed is littered with courses and templates for sale that claim they’ll revolutionise my business.
And some of them are mega valuable.
But!
You know that phrase ‘jack of all trades, master of none?’ Well, here’s the thing with taking courses to nail every area of your business. Your focus gets diluted, and overwhelm hits you like a brick in the face.
Let’s break it down for a second and think about all the different things you could be considering mastering to transform the marketing of your pet business.
- Branding
- Design
- Website
- Web Copy
- Social Media engagement and growth
- Social Media Copy
- Email marketing
- Lead Generation
- Blogging
- SEO
- Webinars
- Courses
- Podcasts
- Press
- Facebook and Instagram Ads
- Google Ads
And that’s without any industry-specific courses you may be considering to upskill in your actual work and area of expertise.
Right now, I’m in just a copywriting membership… and I can barely find time to make the lives or watch any of the trainings. Previously, I was also in a dog training membership, and a PR membership – and finding time to do them all was more than a struggle!
Add on that every day, I also get a sprinkling of emails tempting me with a ton of useful webinars, masterclasses and other useful stuff that I could partake in.
There are a ton of webinars on my wishlist to watch and challenges I’d love to do.
Can you see how this could end up both overwhelming and diluting my focus?!
Specialists are specialists for a reason
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of outsourcing. When we’re trying to wear all the hats, it can mean spending an age on things that we don’t really enjoy or that we’re not very good at!
People are specialists in their given area for a reason.
They’ve invested a ton of time, energy, and practice in learning and honing their craft. And they’re continuing to stay up to date with new trends, processes, and data.
Of course, some specialists aren’t actually specialists at all, but they masquerade as such and often put on quite a good front. This is often the thing that puts people off outsourcing and getting in specialist help.
Courses are valuable, but not for the reason you may think
And here’s where I think courses add real value. By learning about a topic at a high level, you can spot the masqueraders amongst the true experts.
If you’re employing staff, then in order to find the best people for the job you need to understand the job they are going to be carrying out.
Otherwise, how will you choose the best fit? And crucially, how will you know if they’re doing a good job?
Just like most of us, I’ve been burned with outsourcing. And it happened because I didn’t really understand what the expert should have been doing or what it should have cost.
Trust is an important factor, but you need to have at least some understanding of the tasks at hand and how you will measure their results.
Why would you take a course, if you’re not going to do the work?
Imagine you take a course, and you discover the areas of marketing that will work best for your business. You learn how to do them and you find out which bits you can comfortably do yourself, and where you might need some help.
You might feel able to do all of it, but time is ebbing away and you’re not able to do all the things on your wishlist.
You might feel like you’re achieving nothing, and your to-do list is growing exponentially as you discover all these wonderful things that you absolutely SHOULD be doing!
Take a breath. First of all, you don’t need to do everything all at once.
What if these courses were tools for you to expand your understanding and an opportunity to discover what your next area of focus will be to grow your business?
Maybe they’re just food for thought rather than things that need IMMEDIATE action.
You can use your new knowledge to identify what is your best next step and what can go on the backburner for now.
Because now you understand the options, how they work, and what will be the best fit for you at this point.
And if you decide you want help to implement what you’ve learned to boost your business, well, you’ll be able to identify the absolute best people to outsource to who will nail it.
When outsourcing goes wrong
Choosing trusted experts to hand your little business baby over to is hard. You don’t want to spend a bomb on an SEO expert who delivers you no results. Or to choose a social media guru who doesn’t know their ass from their elbow. How about a copywriter who writes you a sales page that lands with a great big dull thud?
By upscaling your knowledge on the key areas you want to focus on in your business, you can spot the industry experts that will set you on the path to glory. So that every pound you spend on them was worth its weight in gold.
The ultimate marketing course for dog bods
If you want to learn the complete nuts and bolts of the essential marketing activities for your dog business, I have just the thing!
It’s called Underdogs Unleashed and it’s designed for dog trainers and dog business owners who want to feel confident about marketing (and learn how to do it).
Inside, we cover 12 marketing fundamentals, that build upon each other to give you the tools and skills to create a complete marketing funnel.
We cover:
- Mastering your messaging: So you can connect with the people who need you
- The SEO basics: So people can actually find you on Google (and you know what they’re searching for)
- What to put on each page of your website (and how to swerve the common mistakes that send people bouncing away)
- Which lead magnet is right for your business – and what to do with it once you’ve made it.
- What email sequences you need working on autopilot (and how to structure them)
- How (and when) to use Facebook ads to drive action
- How to use blogs & vlogs to get yourself off the content creation hamster wheel
- Why social media is your go-to place to test, refine and stay front of mind
- Repurposing your content far and wide, so you get big bang for your time bucks
- How to use emails to nudge people into action
- The essential sales page components to ensure you don’t lose your hard earned leads
- How to tie every element of this course together to build your own sales funnel from scratch
You’ll finish this course, raring to get going with your marketing. Each lesson and accompanying task will have ignited your marketing mojo – ready to unleash your fire on the world.
Crucially, you’ll reveal which marketing avenues are the best fit for YOUR business and YOUR goals… then you can decide which bits you want to do yourself. And what you might like to outsource, completely clued up on what an expert should be doing.
Fancy a taster?
Tap into lesson 1 of Underdogs Unleashed and learn how to master your messaging. This is the core piece of all your marketing, and you can take the lesson for nought pence! 🙌
You’re good enough – don’t let anyone make you feel any different
And as a final FYI, if a course or challenge makes you feel not good enough, or like EVERYTHING you are doing is all wrong… ditch it.
Your mental health is of premium importance, and no professional should be making you feel crap about yourself.
What’s next on your outsource list?
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