As entrepreneurs, we know we must deliver tremendous value to our customers and prospective customers. The more value we create, the more we generate for ourselves.
It is easy to lose sight of this fact in the day to day operational chaos, even if it is controlled chaos. One of my mentors had this advice that has stayed with me till this day – “Carve out a couple hours of quiet, reflective time for yourself as a leader. Think about WHY you are doing what you are doing.”
This dovetailed very nicely into one of the basic tenets that they drill into you at Fullstaq Marketer. Even before diving into the training modules about Digital Marketing, Facebook Ads, Copy Writing, Email Marketing etc etc.. they talk about these 5 Pillars of Success. This is the foundation on which I built the rest of the skill sets I needed to be successful.
Take the time to understand and internalize them. They are easy to understand but require discipline to put in practice day in and day out.
- Listen Daily– Carve out at least 20-30 minutes everyday to listen to a podcast or an audio-book. Pick relevant topics like copy-writing, personal development, how to build a business. If you have a commute to work and back, that could be the time you do this instead of listening to music/radio/news.
- Read Daily – This is similar to the first one, but the act of actually sitting down and reading a book in invaluable. 30 minutes a day of focused reading allows me to cover 30 pages. That is a book a week! Imagine consuming 52 books a year on topics that add to your skillset and mindset.
- Market daily – Advertise to generate leads daily. Once you have learnt the skills needed to place adds on Facebook and have even basic copy-writing skills, DO NOT SIT STILL. Use those skills to place ads. Not just ads for the sake of ads but ones that generate leads (people subscribing to your email list – potential customers). Setting yourself the goal of generating leads daily will make you end up with ads that work. It may be slow in the beginning but will pick up if you keep at it.
- Email your list daily – This may not make total sense right now if you are new to Digital Marketing. Short version is that the BIGGEST business asset you are building is an email list. This list is precious. This is your audience that you need to establish and foster a relationship with. While marketing daily (see previous pillar) helps you to grow your list, emailing them makes sure you nurture them. Don’t make it all about selling to them though. Provide them with value – content that they can consume (here’s where reading and listening to audio daily comes in).
- Mastermind daily – Consume and contribute content to a community of fellow marketers and mentors.