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You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business podcast, where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnell shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. All right, let's dive in. Hi. Welcome to episode 74. Today we are going to talk about the lifetime return on investments that you make in your business. And I don't mean just money and spending investments that you make, but I mean time and energy investments that you make in your business, like what you commit to doing and what you try and do and what you stick to and how all of that eventually pays off and truly what the lifetime return on our money, time and energy is. Because I know sometimes when we are in the trenches, when we are in all the failures, when we are just getting started, or when we feel like we're just in the red, it can be hard to see all the future payoffs or the lifetime return on everything that we are doing now and all the work that we're putting in now. So I want to talk about it today. I think this is going to be a really powerful conversation because I've really been thinking about my clients and I've been talking with you guys on social media and in my free Facebook community. And. And I'm noticing that people are not always willing to do things and try things in their business and invest their time and money because they aren't always willing to lose that time or money if they don't get an instant return or if they don't get an instant payoff. And what happens is people will either think about doing something or trying something in their business and they'll tell themselves, well, that won't work or that won't work fast enough so it won't be worth the time or won't be worth the money, and then they'll never do it at all. Or on the other hand, they do or try something once or twice and they tell themselves, well, it's not working fast enough to be worth the time or money, so they stop doing it. And either way, they never actually give it time to be able to see the that return on investment or that payoff. Now, I think this is really, really common with local business owners not being willing to stick to a marketing strategy or a marketing plan for a certain amount of time. So one of the most common mistakes that I see people make is they jump from thing to thing. And I'm going to explain what I mean. But when my clients join the localpreneur Academy, I help them create a local marketing plan and I have them stick to it for six months for this reason. And it's to stop them from jumping from thing to thing or to try something once and then stop doing it because they said it didn't work like on the first time or the first couple times. But really a local marketing plan is just the core things that they're going to do to market themselves locally week to week or month to month or to meet more people week to week. Month to month. And of course in the program I teach them the strategies and the how of all the things that they're doing so they can really understand what they're doing and master the skill sets behind all of it. You know, whether that's the tech side of things or the creative side of things, or their messaging, their caption writing. But I also teach them how to evaluate everything that they're doing within their marketing plan week to week so they can tweak it along the way so they don't just stop doing it because it didn't work after the first attempt. And this is so important. This is truly everything and such a game changer because so many people come to me and they're like, well, I tried posting a couple reels and that didn't really work for me. Or I tried some local hashtags and engaging with those but that didn't really work either. And then I tried a collaboration one time and that didn't really work. And I did this giveaway last month but nothing really came from that, so that doesn't really work. And I do some local pop up events sometimes I go to networking events, but nothing really comes from those. I so I don't really go very often. And I post in some Facebook groups and those work sometimes but not always. So it's kind of hard to control. It's just kind of all over the place, like trying a few things once or twice, then sticking to something maybe for like a week or a month and then saying things don't work. This is the most common thing I see. So if that's you first off, know that truly it is the most common thing I see. So nothing has gone wrong. I think too it's important to know that when you are in this phase of trying things and trying to figure out how to, how to market yourself locally, it is uncomfortable. So it takes you being willing to be uncomfortable. It requires a certain level of discomfort and things feeling a bit off, but it requires a level of trust too and trusting the process. And this is where so many people stop and jump ship. They aren't willing to be uncomfortable in trying something over and over until they get it right. They feel more comfortable stopping and starting something completely different to see if that works instead. But there is this period of just sticking to something until you figure it out. And honestly, I wouldn't even say it's like this period. I would just, I think it would be better for all of us if we just accept that this is literally what business and marketing is at every level. It's like, here's my idea, here's my theory of what I think will work. I'm going to go try it, I'm going to see if it worked or not, and then I'm going to adapt it and then I'm going to go again, and then you repeat that over and over. Running and growing a business and marketing is a scientific process. That's when my clients create their local marketing plans. I teach them to think like a scientist and to evaluate. But so many people resist this part. They see evaluating everything they're doing as a waste of time and they don't prioritize it. So instead of improving something and tweaking something every time they do it and getting better, they just stop doing it and go do something else and start something new instead. That's why so many people have a list of a hundred different things they've tried to market themselves locally and very few things that have successfully worked. And all that's really happening is they just haven't stuck with something long enough to see the return on that investment. They just jumped ship before it started working. And this is what slows you down the most. So if you feel called out, don't worry about it. Like I said, it is the most common thing I see. And we can totally fix this. Like, this is what we do inside the localpreneur academy. We could totally take care of this, no problem. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, says, If you get 1% better at something every day, then you're 37 times better by the end of the year. So imagine sticking to something long enough in your marketing to to be 37 times better by the end of the year. That's a 37 times return on your investment of your time. Just because you were willing to stick to it, even when you felt like it wasn't working, you made it work. And that takes you putting in the reps. It takes you sticking to something a certain amount of time, following through, evaluating every time you do it. Like what worked, what didn't work, what am I going to do differently next time? And then tweaking something, changing something, trying something different to see if it works better and then going again. It takes you overpowering your brain that is telling you to stop doing it, jump ship, start doing something different because this didn't work. And you telling your brain that no, you've totally got this, you can figure it out and you doing it one rep at a time. Imagine six months or one year of repping it out, of getting 1% better, of sticking to your plan. Imagine that return on investment. Imagine the local growth. Imagine the local clients, the local followers, the local visibility, the local referrals, and not to mention your own personal growth of just being willing to override your brain when it was telling you to stop and you kept going even when it was hard, even when it was uncomfortable and frustrating and confusing and overwhelming and defeating and you just went again. That is the difference of the business owner who becomes the local go to in their city and the one who doesn't. The person who's willing to make that investment with their time and energy. It is so worth it. You can so clearly see the payoff of being willing to just keep doing something, fail after fail until you get the result you want. Okay, so on the same note, a lot of my clients inside the localpreneur Academy participate in local events or they host their own local events, whether that's pop ups, workshops, classes, trainings, webinars, all sorts of things. But I've also noticed the same thought process with events. And of course events can be part of your local marketing plan. But I've also noticed that a lot of business owners are not willing to do events because they look at the time that they spend preparing for events or the fees or money investments to participate in events and they tell themselves that that time or money investment won't be worth it. They don't believe that they're going to make their money back, especially if they're just getting started and especially if the business isn't really making money yet or even if they're using like their personal money or credit to fund the business right now. So one of my clients who just joined the academy is a children's clothing consigner and she recently hosted a pop up shop and two people showed up and she made $67. And of course she felt discouraged and she came and she posted our Facebook group afterwards telling us that had spent over six hours of working and prepping for this event and that she still had to pay back the consigners from that profit. And she said that in her opinion, it's just not worth the amount of work that she's doing right now. And I told her, I said, first off, congrats on doing your first pop up. The first event is always the hardest. And I think the first event is typically the one where we have our highest expectations that don't get met. So I think just know that that's normal. And I didn't tell her this, but I pretty much cried sitting on the floor after my first event when hardly no one showed up and I had spent like a month promoting it. But I told her, I said, now is not the time to let this fail stop you. Like you just didn't get the result that you wanted this time. Like you're going to be doing events your entire career. So the purpose of this first event is to get your feet wet and to learn a ton so you can be better for your next event. And the purpose of your next event is to be better for the next event. Remember, we're talking about long term payoffs and investments here. So I told her what you learn from this event and implement for the next one is what's going to make this event worth it, not the profit of $67. Like, forget about that. I told her that she's going to evaluate this event with our help. She's going to tweak, implement and keep going. And that $67 is going to 10x20x50x100x over future events. So her six hours of work this time will pay off on future events in ways that she can't even imagine imagine right now. So this one event may have been a fail, but it is going to have such a return on investment in the future. And that's how I love thinking about every event. Every social media post, every fail, every action, every attempt. It all has a payoff. It all has a return as long as you keep going. It only stops having a payoff if you stop or if you quit. I just don't believe in bad investments in ourselves with our brains, time, money or energy when we're growing our business because we either win or we learn. Someone else commented in my free Facebook group recently saying that she wanted to do a live workshop, but she didn't have a brick and mortar space and she was nervous to invest the money to rent a space in case the event ended up being a dude. And I told her, I said okay, even if you did pay for the space. And even if the first few events were duds, imagine how much you would learn and the eventual payoff from that experience. Like how much would that investment be worth it at that point? I'm always thinking about the lifetime investment. Someone else had commented asking if local trade shows or fairs had been worth it to get local clients and leads. She said she'd been thinking about participating in some to get in front of her audience, but she didn't know if all the time and cost to prepare and participate would be worth it. And I told her basically the same thing. Like what if the first few events didn't have an immediate return on your investment, but you were out there meeting people, you were learning so much and you were getting better every single time we what would the payoff on that be in a year from now, or even just 10 events from now? To me, that's invaluable. I think the trick is to get yourself out of the instant gratification or needing that instant return. Like take yourself to the future, take yourself six months from now, one year, five years down the road so you can see the long term payoff of the actions of the investments that you're making with your time, your energy and money today. So let's talk about actual money investments for a second. I know some of you invest in building spaces, equipment, products, and I'll talk to so many people who just see these things as expenses, as if they're wasting money. But I want to challenge you to see how these things help you make more money and what's the long term investment of you spending your money and to take all ownership of you spending your money on these things. I feel like I should do a whole podcast on choosing your spending and to think about it in a really powerful way like that. But I also know for a lot of us we choose to spend money on education and training and coaching. I do too. It's literally my favorite way to spend money. Again, I just have the belief that I don't lose money whenever I invest in myself or in my brain. So there's always a return because I'm always going to get what I came for. I'm always going to better myself in some way and I'm going to go out and get a different or better result. So when I'm thinking of joining a program or working with a coach or investing in a training or a workshop, I look at the results and the skills that I'm going to get whenever I join, like what's the missing piece or the gap that I'm going into this program to fill, like what result am I after? And then what will be the lifetime return on those skills and results? How much more am I going to make over the course of my life in my business because I was willing to invest. So let's just use the localpreneur Academy as an example. So it's a $2,000 one time investment, you're in for life. And I know that's an investment and it can be scary, especially when you're thinking shorter term or wanting that instant gratification kind of like in the previous examples. And I know a lot of people come to me and they've never invested that amount before. It is scary. They have fears, they have hesitations, they have doubts. That's normal. It doesn't mean anything about what's still possible for them. Some of my most successful students in my program now, now came to me thinking that they were special unicorns, that the process couldn't work for them. So just know that that's normal. But I like to ask people when we do consults, like when I know they want to join, they do believe in themselves. They know they're capable of growing their business. They can see the possibility, they can see the impact that their work can have on their life and in their city. They believe in themselves to come in and do the work. They want the support, they want the accountability. They see importance of that. They want the community. They know what skills they're missing and they just have some hesitations around the investment. So I just ask them, what do you believe is the lifetime return on this investment? And what's so interesting is a lot of times people can't even fathom it. Like they can't even make themselves do the math that high because they start thinking of their business year after year after year and how much money they want to make and how much they know know they can make. Or even just thinking like, how much do I know I can make over the next year, three years, five years? Like if I had the skills that this program teaches me or if I had the knowledge that I'm missing right now. I also like to think about the individual skills that's in the program and how much I could make if I had that skill. So for inside the local Preneur Academy, I ask people, like, if you just had the skill set of being able to find and reach local people on social media and grow your local following, how much money could that one skill set make you? Or if you could Grow your local email list and send emails that converted into paying clients, how much money could that one skill set make you? Or if you could get more comfortable selling and converting more of your followers into clients, how much could that one skill set make you? Or if you could manage your mind every day and show up for your calendar and do the thing that you said you would do and learn how to follow through no matter what, how much could that one skill set make you? So thinking of the lifetime return on those skill sets, it's invaluable. So that can help you with your decision making process to join my program or any program. But that's such a powerful way to think about making investments in your business. Like what's the lifetime value? How much money can I make investing in just one skill set, that's so powerful. And then just thinking with joining programs, working with coaches, or even with doing or trying anything in your business. Like what's it going to cost me not to do this? Like that's such a powerful question. What's it costing me not to invest and get the skills and knowledge and support I need? What's the cost of me staying the same? What's the cost of me not sticking to my marketing plan? What's the cost of me not staying consistent? What's the cost of me not signing up and hosting these events? What's the cost of me not going out and meeting more people? What's the cost of me not going out and failing? I love that question. Like do you see how powerful it is to think about the lifetime payoff of how you invest your time, your energy and your money in your business? It takes so much pressure off of today. It makes your commitment to today so much easier to just do the work, to put in the time to put in the energy to put in those reps, knowing that it will pay off to take the risk to fail to invest the money, knowing and trusting that it will have a return in ways that you cannot even imagine. So I'm going to end with this. So one of my clients DM'd me over the weekend. She came to me still having a full time job, just starting her business, running it as a hobby back in 2021 I believe. And she had just had a baby at the time. I think her baby was 8 weeks old at the time, which my baby just is four weeks today actually. So I cannot imagine starting a business with an eight week old. I can tell you that right now. But she's now a mom of two and she is running her business today full time and she sent me a screenshot that she just had a $17,000 month and she told me that if I would have told her years ago that she would have that kind of revenue in a single month, that she would have never believed it. And that's what I mean. When you show up today and make these investments in your business, whether that is with your time, energy or money, like you cannot imagine the payoff and return years down the road. So stick with it. Trust the process. Trust yourself. Okay, my friends, have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you next week. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the local Podcast Academy. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local go to in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more information at lesliepressnel. Com and I'll see you inside.