Last week we talked about the scary moment almost every entrepreneur hits.
The one where your 2026 marketing plan looks amazing on paper…
But in real life? It’s wobbling down the tracks like a runaway freight train with a loose wheel and a driver who’s halfway through his fifth bourbon and coke.
That isn’t a motivation issue. That is a “system” issue.
And here’s what typically will happen next:
Most people ditch everything and start over again from scratch. They revert to instinct. Stop planning and basically admit defeat without saying it out loud.
But instead of just throwing your hands up and throwing a bunch of crap against the wall, take a minute and think about what actually worked in the last year.
- Which posts got (some) attention?
- Which videos got (some) traction?
- Which offers made (some) sales?
- Which presentation moved the needle and got people to engage with you?
Even if it doesn’t seem like it was significant, some of the stuff you did performed better than some of the other things. So the place to start is not by reinventing the wheel but by digging where you found success in the past.
Somebody once said, “Success leaves traces.”
That’s a simple way of saying don’t go out and dig new holes in ground you know nothing about… start with what worked and build from there.
There are three indicators (metrics) you need to pay attention to, and they are all in your own data (if you know where to look).
#1 – First, what made people stop scrolling?
Which posts, emails, lives, videos, or rants actually caused humans to pause, comment, reply, or share?
Attention is your first breadcrumb. It tells you what your audience is already voting for with their eyeballs. If something keeps pulling attention, it’s a pattern.
#2 – Then comes the second truth-teller: what grew your list?
Which pieces made strangers raise their hand and say, “Okay, you’re talking about me – send me more.”
Whether it was a lead magnet or an event or an invitation, if it made people raise their hand and give you their email address, physical address, and more, this needs to be repeated!
#3 – And finally, the question that separates hobby marketing from business marketing: what brought real money through the front door?
Which actions consistently led to booked calls, purchases, upgrades, and renewals? You know when they hit… The Stripe or PayPal notifications that made you briefly believe in your own genius again.
Did those payments come in groups or drips and drabs? It doesn’t matter.
Money always flows in a pattern, even if it’s slow. Money is the result of a cause set in motion.
You’ve got to look back at what causes you set in motion to make money show up.
Those are your revenue triggers.
Those actions are what you repeat.
Everything else becomes optional.
Now here’s the part that fixes the wobble and sobers up the driver.
Once you identify what works, you stop starting over every year, month, or week.
Take those same proven ideas, problems, and angles and loop them into a simple repeating rhythm. Different days. Different packaging. Same CORE content that forms the basis for everything you do.
By the way… what is CORE content?
C – Consistent
O – Original
R – Relevant
E – Engaging
You deliver original content that helps people and is fun and entertaining to read on topics they care about.
Do that, and not only will your short-term results improve, but your long-term results will take off because you’re building momentum with results you can measure and improve.
I’ll leave you with this…
We had a saying in real estate, especially when agents started bragging about how many years they’d been in the business. They’d say something like, “I’ve been in business 20 years,” and we’d look at them and say, “No, you’ve been in 
the business one year 20 times!”
If it feels like you’re starting over from scratch every year, it’s because you’re not leveraging your past successes to the degree you could (matter how modest that success might seem).
And I get it! It’s hard to do, especially when it doesn’t feel like the needle’s moving very much.
But no matter how much the needle is or isn’t moving, you must pay attention to your results because the compounding effect takes off when you least expect it.
There’s a fun example people use to demonstrate the compounding effect of doubling a penny every day for 30 days.
You can double a penny for a week, and at the end of a week, you’ll only have 64 cents.
At the end of 2 weeks you’ll have $81 bucks.
But if you keep doubling that penny every day for 30 days, you’ll have millions of dollars.
But most people quit or change tactics or pull a squirrel effect with every bright shiny object and they never make it past day two, let alone make it to day 30 of doubling that penny.
They keep switching out a new penny on Day #1 and repeating the first day over and over again… instead of doubling down and sticking with it… learning from what works, learning from what doesn’t work, and refining their approach.
CopyandContent.AI gives you the tools to quickly see what’s working, what’s being ignored, and what your audience actually values so you can pivot in real time instead of wasting months guessing.
Less guessing. More momentum.
Your marketing shouldn’t be a mystery.
It should be a machine.
Did You Miss The Latest Posts?
- The Secret to Repeating What Works (and Ditching What Doesn’t)
- If Your Marketing Plan Had Gone Off the Rails, Start Here
- The Content Creation Lesson I Learned the Hard Way
- AI Content Creating Changes Upcoming (Search, Video, & More) [Podcast 285]
- Don’t Wait! Take A.C.T.I.O.N. with Jim Edwards Coaching You to Reach Work, Life, Personal Goals [Podcast 284]
Facebook • Instagram • X • LinkedIn • Pinterest • Podcast • TikTok • YouTube • LinkTree
Leave a Reply