Why You Shouldn’t Hire an Expert

The end of the year always brings out the rehaul in all of us:

Time to rehaul the website

Time to rehaul the branding

Time to rehaul the copy

I get it because 2020 not only means the beginning of a new year but an entirely new decade.

But before you call on the experts to make 2020 your year, I’m going to stop and tell you not to hire that expert.

That’s right, I’m going to explain to you why you shouldn’t hire an expert for a new website, brand, copy, SEO strategy, or anything else.

OK, Clarissa, I don’t understand this, at all.

The other night my good Internet friend Rachael Kay of RKA Inc posted a video about The Marketing Fail that will save your business and she mentioned something I believe a lot of us aren’t open with: you never stop marketing.

Marketing is much like brushing your teeth, drinking water, changing your underwear–you have to do it every single day.

And if you’re not dedicated to marketing and pushing your brand every day, maybe leave the expert out of your budget because you’re not ready.

Here’s the deal:

The best website designer is not going to bring you six-figures alone.

The most updated logo is not going to bring you your dream clients.

Your social media makeover is not going to attract the brand collaborations you hope for.

Sure those things can help, but at the end of the day, you have to do the work. Part of doing the work is trial

“You mean I have to spend all of this money to fail?”

If you think about it that way, this is why you should postpone hiring any expert.

Making an investment is tricky and scary, but that’s how the world of business operates. There’s a lot of fails we don’t see before the successes

But here’s the thing: Failures aid your successes.

When something doesn’t go as planned, it doesn’t mean it’s over, it means we need to approach things a different way.

Honesty hour: The Brand Base is not bringing in 7 figures for me.

I wish, but that’s not what’s happening right now.

I could give it up, but I don’t want to because that does nothing for me and my potential audience.

When I launched, I really wanted it to be the other leg of my business–a significant part. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. I can throw in the towel with it (and boy have I thought about doing it), or I can look at it and figure out what I did to make it not work and how I can improve it.

Looking at numbers will always help you.

Take polls and collect information about the topics of where you plan on servicing. How does your audience want to consume their info? Are they looking for video or audio? Do they want to DIY or need help along the way?

Every time I rush the process it doesn’t work out. There’s always a setback and I have to replan yet again. Now I’m breaking down chunks, doing some beta testing, and examining the analytics. It’s really challenging on the, “I want it now” portion of my life, but I know this is for the good of the course and even better for my audience.

And you know what? It may work out, it may not. It’ll hurt, but I’ll pick myself and my coaching program up and pivot another way.

So what’s all this saying?

Dear business/brand owner: you’re not ready to hire an expert if you’re not ready to try and fail and try and fail and try and fail again.

No expert gives you instant success (anyone that says they do is lying and scamming). What experts like myself, Rachael, and others do is give our opinion from years of experience, providing you with the right tools to help you launch your best marketing efforts and tests.

But if you’re ready to test and fail and test again, hire the expert and get started.

Until next time,
C