Let’s talk about the work that we don’t want to do.
We all have work that we don’t want to do. Whether in life or business, there are certain things that are challenging for us to wrap our heads around. For me, my idea of the work that I don’t want to do is “the work before the work.”
WHY “THE WORK BEFORE THE WORK” ISN’T MY CUP OF TEA
In my last blog post (link here), I mentioned that I wanted to use TegaDoesBusiness.com to document the process of building up the main brand, TegaDiegbe.com.
That decision has set me on a journey of rediscovery.
I realised that there are things that I know I should do and these include things that I suggest to people who ask me for advice. But weirdly, I don’t actually implement these things myself. And it’s become apparent as I tried to figure out exactly what I need to be doing to grow the brand and take things to the level that I want to take them to.
It’s so easy to give advice to other people on the work they need to do before the actual work. But when it comes to my business, I can’t even implement my own advice!
I’ve been thinking about the reason behind this, and it may be because of my personality type. My idea of work has been rolling up my sleeves and doing the main work that needs to be done. That part excites me.
What doesn’t excite me is preparing before the main work can actually be done.
Take for example designing a lead magnet funnel or running Facebook Ads. There is no doubt that I look forward to doing these things.
But before that can be done, there are things that you have to prepare before you can start building your page or running your ads. There is still that process of setting things up and making sure everything is in place. That is the part I am not so keen on.
PRO SPORTS AND BUSINESS SIMILARITIES
To make things easier to understand, think of the work before the work for professional athletes.
For American football, naturally I look up to guys like Tom Brady, Ray Lewis, and Darren Sproles. We outsiders only see the work that they do when they’re on the field on Sunday Night Football.
What we don’t see is the time spent in the gym training. All the hours spent on breaking down film, practising two minute drills, speed offence, dissecting the playbook and going over everything else.
Imagine all the things that these athletes need to do in order to actually show up and put on a show for the people on Sunday night or Monday night. Immense commitment and dedication are necessary ingredients to do the work before the work so that they have a strong foundation.
As I go through this process myself, I am realising that there are similarities and that sometimes business is no different.
Tegadiegbe.com is kind of like my Sunday or Monday Night Football game, whilst tegadoesbusiness.com is my training, rehab, playbook study and 2 minute drill. It has actually made me realise that I need to walk the talk and start doing the things that I have advised other people to do.
IT’S TIME TO WALK THE TALK
This whole “revelation” recently came about after I spent about an hour and a half with my team to map out the customer journey for the brand.
Normally, I wouldn’t sit down for an hour and a half to put together a plan like this.
In fact, I was so tempted to just go out there and start building things, whether it be creating magnets or building checkout pages with ThriveCart. It was hard to not go back to my old habits.
But this time, I wanted to actually focus on the work before the work and properly set things up. I made the decision to show you, my dear reader, the process of what it takes to roll up your sleeves and build a business. And I intend to follow through.
BUILDING OUR CUSTOMER JOURNEY
A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post on How to Start an Online Business. I personally felt that the blog post didn’t go quite as granular as I felt that it should. No doubt, it did send the message home, but I could’ve been more detailed.
I want to do things differently this time, and show you the nitty gritty of what we’re doing for something entirely new.
The team and I were able to come up with the customer journey for the main brand and this is what we created:
There are eight steps of interaction that move your customers on a journey from cold prospect to subscriber to first time buyer to repeat buyer and then to “high ticket buyer.”
These steps are:
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Subscribe
- Convert
- Excite
- Ascend
- Advocate
- Promote
What we did was simply map out what the journey looks like. This customer journey also acts as our guide to help us figure out the things that we have to create at each stage to start building the business.
I personally found the engagement and subscribe steps to be the most interesting. The reason for this is because these are where I have previously fallen short. Because I was always so tempted to just go out and build the lead magnet without a proper process, these steps were overlooked.
Going through the process and fixing everything has made it clear on the things that I want to create and focus on. Now, we have a clearer direction in terms of what we’re building to attract a cold audience, make them customers, then repeat customers, and then “high ticket buyers.”
THE WORK BEFORE THE WORK STARTS NOW
I used to avoid doing the work before the work, thinking it wasn’t vital. But my experience of sitting down and actually going through this has proven to me that it is probably the most important thing that you can do.
I realised this process gives your thoughts and actions direction whenever it comes to your business. This means that you don’t end up “pissing in the wind” because you have a clear plan of where you want to take your business.
There are a few things in the past that haven’t achieved the level of success that I would have wanted them to. And now that I have gone through this process of facing the work that I don’t want to do, I wish I had implemented this earlier.
And that’s my little spiel on the work before the work. I hope that you also learn to love the work before the work and enjoy the journey. It is still a learning process for me, and I will continue to document everything.
See you in the next blog post.