Hey Reader,
Confession time: I can't think in straight lines. I really can't. I don't know what it is but I always see options, connections and loops. My friends already know that "I want options" for anything.
That's also how I work with clients: I look across their business, their tech, their content and their audience and see options, pieces missing, things that could connect.
Why someone else's exact plan rarely works
A lot of marketing is taught as a plan to follow. Do this, then this, then this, and it will work, because it worked for me.
Except it often doesn't. That plan was built at a different time, and marketing has changed since. It was built for a different business, with different offers, a different audience and different resources. And it was built by a different person. If your brain works differently, you'll do the steps a little differently, and a little differently already gives you a different result.
So when the plan doesn't work, people don't think "this plan wasn't made for me". They think "I'm bad at marketing".
It's your business. Stop following someone else's exact path. Frameworks work. Exact roadmaps don't.
So if you've ever sat down with a marketing plan and felt like you were failing at it by week three, Reader, it's probably not you. The plan was built for a different business, at a different time, by a different brain.
Start with the loose thread
Your business doesn't work in a straight line either. Your offers shape who you attract, who you attract shapes which channels work, and what you can do depends on the time and money you have. Pull one thread and the others move.
So you don't need to start at step one. Start with whatever is bugging you most, the thread that doesn't quite fit, and follow it. It's usually connected to more than you expected.
If you want to see how this plays out in marketing, this post explains why funnels don't match how people buy, and what I use instead.
Hit reply and tell me: are you a straight-line person or a loose-thread person? I'm curious how many of you are secretly like me.
Whichever you are, pick the plan that fits you.
