My entrepreneurial lessons building Story Advantage

I’ve got a question for you. Why did you start your business? Was it because of a gap you saw in the market? Or because of a skill that you have? After asking a number of business owners, I’ve discovered that these are the reasons or a combination of both. For me, starting a marketing business was basically because of my skill. I’ve had experience marketing various businesses and decided to open a marketing agency. Everything started to change for me when I asked myself what does my business look like 10+ years down the road. Difficult to answer in the beginning, but after asking myself that question over a few months I came up with the idea to be known as the “$90 Billion Dollar Man”. That I have helped my clients generate $90 billion dollars from working with me. It stuck with me and was my answer to anyone who asked me about what I want to achieve. Now… I’m a big dreamer with massive goals and with this thought stirring in the back of my mind, I continued doing business, without really knowing how I would achieve that $90 billion dollar revenue goal. 

Until I was invited to the show “So you think you can scale your business” by the awesome duo, business coach Steven Levy and business innovator Wolfgang von Geramb. We discussed my goals, drilled into who I really wanted to serve, what my goals are, and what came out of it, opened my mind to the attainable possibilities, and changed the trajectory of my business. 

So what’s the big idea? To help business owners create high converting marketing campaigns, effortlessly. Literally at a push of a button. Now wouldn’t that be cool? Imagine if you answered a few questions and the AI-driven machine builds an entire funnel for you! Most people spend months just building a website. Most people don’t know what to say on their website let alone build an entire funnel but imagine if you didn’t even have to? Imagine if the machine could do it for you in a matter of minutes. I believe the key to coming up with this idea stemmed from understanding my true value and knowing where I want to focus my energy. Pairing this with understanding some of the problems I see my customers face every time they try to build marketing collateral, I soon realised how I could develop a solution not only for now but one that will last well into the future. Since then I’ve gone on to put my energy into mastering the skills that will build on my strengths and make my idea rock solid. 

In conclusion, This is how I believe you could come up with your big idea.

Know who you are

By knowing who you are, you will know what position you need to play. Like soccer players in a team, not everyone tries to score goals. You need to know your strengths and find others who complement you. I’ve found that profiling tools really help with this. The one I have used for years is Wealth Dynamics developed by Roger J. Hamilton. You can use it for free here. It will give you an idea of your energy. Your strengths, weaknesses and help you start to plot a way forward. They do have a more detailed paid version which I suggest you take to fully understand the methodology better.   

Create your BHAG

A BHAG is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. I first came across this idea from a good friend of mine. He introduced me to the idea of having an idea so big that it scares you. The BHAG I set was at least a 10-20 year goal but in this case, my BHAG is (from now) 5 years out. Even if your goal is something you have no idea of how you will achieve, you need to then set out measurable “stretches” to achieving them. It will change but at least you will have a starting point. He also introduced me to the work of Dr John Demartini, one of the leading experts in human psychology and especially values which you can learn more about here. Your BHAG should be something that scares the hell out of you and will most probably be something you have no clue on how to achieve. Set it, tell others (this scares a lot of people but when you believe in your idea, you will need others to tear it apart so you can build it back up again.) and let it manifest. I’ve had my BHAG for 4 years before I even had an inkling of how to achieve it.

Get to work

When you have a goal that drives you, you will do whatever it takes to make it happen. As of writing this article, I believe I’m 10% closer to creating my solution. Much further than 4 years ago but still way off target.

Document learnings & keep tweaking

This has been my biggest learning so far. I’m really bad at taking and keeping my notes, hence why Im starting this blog and video series. It will help you keep your thoughts in check, keep your goal in mind. Help you track how far you’ve come and help you remember what you may be forgetting. As Roger Hamilton said in the book “Wink and grow rich” Think it, ink it, do it, review it.

As I continue on the road to realizing my big idea, I will be sharing some of the biggest problems most companies face growing their business and especially with their marketing. As I share my journey, my goal for this series is to help you understand the components necessary to build and scale your marketing so that you can grow your business.