The January Reset: Why Planning Beats Resetting Your Marketing with Jason Wiehler

Jennie Wright [00:00:02]:
Hi. This is the Acquire podcast from the Odd Phonic Podcast Network, and I’m Jenny Wright. This is the podcast that delves deep into the world of list building and online events, and it’s designed to empower entrepreneurs and marketers with the knowledge and strategies to master these essential business growth tactics. This is the 1st episode of 2024, and I’m really excited because we have one of our favorite, my favorite. Returning guest, Jason Wheeler, coming to have a chat, and we’re gonna talk about all things 2024, events, planning all sorts of stuff. I’m glad you’re here.

Jason Wiehler [00:00:37]:
Thanks for having me again so soon. We had

Jennie Wright [00:00:41]:
a good time the last time.

Jason Wiehler [00:00:42]:
Yes. It

Jennie Wright [00:00:43]:
was. So how okay. Brand new year, obviously, and this is the 1st episode, which I took a little bit of time off just to sort of Gather my thoughts and relax a little bit. And this being the beginning of the new year, what do people do at this time that kind of feels, I don’t know. Maybe not the right move.

Jason Wiehler [00:01:07]:
It’s a brand new year.

Jennie Wright [00:01:09]:
What what?

Jason Wiehler [00:01:10]:
It’s 2 weeks into January. Wait. What happened?

Jennie Wright [00:01:13]:
I don’t know. Where’s it gone?

Jason Wiehler [00:01:14]:
I I don’t remember.

Jennie Wright [00:01:16]:
I absolutely don’t remember. I still think Tuesdays or Fridays for all I know.

Jason Wiehler [00:01:20]:
Oh, I I don’t know what happened with the time.

Jennie Wright [00:01:23]:
It’s going by a little fast.

Jason Wiehler [00:01:25]:
Okay. Well, What was the question?

Jennie Wright [00:01:31]:
This is gonna be what it’s like, isn’t it? No. We’re talking I’m I’m trying to I don’t know. Just trying to have the conversation about why people have this massive reset every single year in January when I feel like even though It’s a brand new year and, you know, it’s a calendar brand new year, but it’s not really a brand new year in marketing. Some Some companies, like companies that you and I have both worked for, the new year fiscally started in, like, September. Right? So you’re not even looking at January 1 as the new year. You’re looking at it as a continuation of the goals that you set probably in July of the year before. So I’m always looking at January as this, like, phantom reset that people do. And they think, oh, brand new year, brand new me, brand new everything.

Jennie Wright [00:02:21]:
And it should be a continuation or an amplification and not a reset.

Jason Wiehler [00:02:27]:
It is kind of weird that we have this I don’t know. What would you call it? Sort of like this this energy that comes about you or a bunch of ideas that all of a sudden consume you Because, it’s a new tax year because that’s basically what it is. I mean, do you really think that The your marketing really has to, like, reset in January. I think a lot of people, they wanna let go of whatever went wrong in the previous Dear. Sure. And then they wanna improve what’s gonna happen this year. I think I think Some people that are maybe feeling not so good about the way 2023 went, maybe you’re looking at it a little bit more like, okay. I’m really gonna get my act together in 2024.

Jason Wiehler [00:03:21]:
Now the people that are really, really good at marketing, they’re going to be looking through the numbers of 2023 very analytically, and they probably started looking back in November already. And they’re gonna be tweaking. They already know what works, and they already know what doesn’t, so they’ll be tweaking. And then There’s gonna be that group of individuals that are gonna be like, okay. Let’s scrap everything. I want a whole bunch of new ideas. I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna do that.

Jason Wiehler [00:03:49]:
It’s they’re they’re kind of making promises to to themselves, and they’re making promises to their audience Wright to inspire them to, like, Look at what they’re doing and engage with what they’re doing and create some buzz and excitement.

Jennie Wright [00:04:04]:
Why does that have to be a January thing?

Jason Wiehler [00:04:07]:
I don’t know. I don’t know why.

Jennie Wright [00:04:10]:
Like, I’m already thinking and you know why I’m thinking this because we’ve talked about it. I’m already thinking that if you’re starting the brand new year without having sort of planned out the things that you should or want to be doing, Like, it’s the middle of January right now. You’ve missed The and a half weeks of potential sales or closings or lead generation if you haven’t already kinda planned this out. Right? So I’m looking at January not as a reset or anything. I’m looking at it as an opportunity to Elevate the things that I probably did last year or do better. Sure. I I still see that. But I’ve planned my January already.

Jennie Wright [00:04:50]:
My January’s done.

Jason Wiehler [00:04:51]:
And that’s the way it should be. For any business that’s that’s doing any sort of Really confident planning. You are you have already planned what’s gonna happen now Mhmm. A while ago, and you’re executing it. But then What are you planning in January that’s gonna happen later? Mhmm. Right? That’s another component to it. I used to work out a lot in the gyms, and I actually worked for 1 for a little while. And what I found interesting was is the hype For January, sales started in November, and it gradually built up.

Jason Wiehler [00:05:28]:
It was just like you know, because Everybody’s gonna start a new year, and they’re gonna try and get fit, and they’re gonna start coming to the gym in January. Mhmm. So you have to be ready. You have to start selling memberships in, like, late December over Christmas, and then a real, like, A real like, the bulk of memberships probably get signed up in January. For other businesses, January’s a nothing. Yeah. It’s like, okay. We we just killed ourselves to try and make bank before American Thanksgiving.

Jason Wiehler [00:06:01]:
Mhmm. And then they go into this dead zone of not having anything to do or any business at least to execute off between American Thanksgiving and, let’s say, Most of January, and then things start warming up for them again. So everybody’s planning period’s different.

Jennie Wright [00:06:17]:
Totally.

Jason Wiehler [00:06:18]:
So it’s just strange The number of people that wanna do a hard Reset in January.

Jennie Wright [00:06:22]:
Mhmm. Right?

Jason Wiehler [00:06:23]:
But even though it’s the 2nd week in January, there’s still opportunities. And it doesn’t mean You should be planning out your year even though you still could, but you certainly should try and start the year off strong.

Jennie Wright [00:06:37]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:06:37]:
Because if there’s 1 thing I know for sure, you might not be able to, like, win the whole year in January, but you can lose it.

Jennie Wright [00:06:48]:
Well said. Right. That’s actually true. No. I I I agree with you. I like January. I like January as an opportunity to plan. I’ve already got my I’ve already got q one planned.

Jennie Wright [00:07:02]:
That’s already done. That was done in November of last year. I’ve got whatever summits I’m gonna be on, I’m already, you know, I’m already focused on, some of the things that I’ve had to add into the Q1 of 2024, which is Surprisingly travel, which is kinda crazy considering I’m not much of a travel Jason. But but I’m also figuring into that, like, where can I get the new clients? We’ve done a whole bunch of stuff, you know, on the back end of trying to make sure that everything is ready for the beginning of January in that respect. And I like planning that. The rest of the planning that I’m doing in January is literally for the next 3 quarters. Q2, 3, and 4. What are those gonna look like? When am I doing summits? When am I you know, what are the big initiatives that were the big rocks that I’m going to try and complete? Because there’s, like, forward facing stuff that people see, and then there’s backward facing stuff that people see that, you know, has nothing to do With the marketing or anything like that, it has to do with sort of, I guess, just all the back end coordination.

Jennie Wright [00:08:06]:
Right? But in January, you can plan everything out. I like I like the word planathon.

Jason Wiehler [00:08:12]:
Planathon.

Jennie Wright [00:08:15]:
It would be kinda neat. Anyways, this is The this is kind of that time where you’re really trying to create that momentum. That momentum should have already started in my my opinion. But you definitely wanna keep that momentum going, that consistency. Right? You can go into January with a ton of really great ideas, but what if you lose that steam?

Jason Wiehler [00:08:32]:
That’s true. But, you know, there’s always 1 thing that should be happening. You’re either you’re either making sales. Mhmm. Right? And you’re in the full swing of selling Or your planning or your creating should never be slow. And depending on what happens in your business or what time of year is best for you, You should be doing one of those things. So if this isn’t your strongest sales period, this could be your strongest planning period.

Jennie Wright [00:08:58]:
Absolutely. And if you’re if you’re thinking of, You know, hosting a summit or doing a launch in 2024, which people at this level are. Everybody who’s listening probably is. And if you’re not, you’re on your way to it, I hope. In January, you should be actually planning for any sort of, like, launch or summit that you would be doing in March, April, May, even June, or July. If you want some of the bigger marketers, some of the bigger names on your summits or part of your events, You’re planning now because you need to get on their calendar. Because if The anything like the people that I work with that are, you know, super focused on their lead generation and their sales. They’ve already got that plan done.

Jennie Wright [00:09:41]:
You have to now fit into that plan. You’ve gotta fit into that calendar somewhere, and you’re now you’re competing with their own launches and Other people who might have gotten in touch early enough to say, hey. I’m doing a bundle. Like, I just got somebody who invited me to a bundle. That’s happening in June. So my June is done. I already know that what I’m doing. Right? And you’ve gotta think ahead for that.

Jennie Wright [00:10:06]:
So even though you might have, like, kinda, like, light planning To do or you’re not sure when you’re running a summit or a launch or whatever it is that you’re doing or in Jason, starting to get those wheels in motion now is Hyper important. A lot of the clients that I work with at the, you know, higher levels, multi seven figure and so on, We’re putting 6 months of planning into their summits and watches.

Jason Wiehler [00:10:31]:
You know, I think when you look at the whole year, you’re you’re basically trying to take You’re existing leads

Jennie Wright [00:10:38]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:10:39]:
And you’re trying to acquire new ones Mhmm. So that they can run through your system. You can call it a funnel if you want. But you wanna add to what you had as an audience previously.

Jennie Wright [00:10:51]:
Yes.

Jason Wiehler [00:10:51]:
And then hopefully, you come out with a larger number at the end of the year, whether it’s you’re selling a product or you’re selling a service. But the one thing that is interesting about January is This is the time when you should start or you should at least be having a very concrete plan that actually Gets a lot of those leads before summertime.

Jennie Wright [00:11:12]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:11:13]:
Because once we go into summer, I think a lot of people even realize even for themselves, they don’t get involved with things. They don’t become, I don’t know, for lack of a better word, a shopper or as much of a consumer in the summer. So you want to get them on your list. You want to

Jennie Wright [00:11:30]:
Well, the consumption changes. It’s not that they end being consumer. The consumption changes.

Jason Wiehler [00:11:34]:
It does. But if you’re talking, like, Business to business, it certainly does because there’s a lot of decision makers that are way on vacation. Things just do not happen. Correct. Right? And there are a lot of entrepreneurs who Wright hire coaches, so they might hire other people for other things that they probably took on entrepreneurship to have that freedom Maybe in the summer. I just think that there’s a a higher concentration of opportunity probably from April, May, and June The there is in July, August, September. Oh, yeah. Probably probably more July, August, but, like, you basically wanna do whatever it is that you wanna do before the summer vacation, You should already start planning and executing right now.

Jennie Wright [00:12:21]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:12:22]:
So if you’re doing a summit, there’s a lot of things that you can be doing. One thing that I find interesting is there are people that wanna host summits before the summer. Mhmm. And there’s also a lot of people that want to be on summits.

Jennie Wright [00:12:36]:
Correct.

Jason Wiehler [00:12:37]:
People come into the The year from the speaking side of it, and they’ve got, I don’t know. They’ve got goals. They wanna be in more events.

Jennie Wright [00:12:46]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:12:46]:
You know? So now is the perfect time.

Jennie Wright [00:12:49]:
Yeah. It is, actually. And it reminds me about, a Product I created for that. Guest Wiehler Advantage.

Jason Wiehler [00:12:57]:
Remember that? That’s right. Yeah. I remember.

Jennie Wright [00:12:58]:
Yep. Guest Speaker Advantage. I actually just gave it a revamp in, at the end of 2023. So it’s actually been revamped and it’s, it’s up on the website. So

Jason Wiehler [00:13:08]:
That would be helpful.

Jennie Wright [00:13:09]:
Actually, it’s going to be up on the website. Oh. We got another little bit before that happens. But, anyways, it’s there. If you’re looking to improve your speaking for 2024, it’s, it’s something to check out. Anyways, Alright. So we’ve talked about planning. We’ve talked about, you know, this phantom reset that people tend to do.

Jennie Wright [00:13:38]:
How do you build momentum going forward for 2024 or any year at all? But, like, how do you continue to build momentum month over month without it feeling, I don’t know. Overwhelming.

Jason Wiehler [00:13:50]:
You know, you it probably comes down to discipline.

Jennie Wright [00:13:56]:
Okay.

Jason Wiehler [00:13:56]:
I mean, you just like any other business you wanted to grow, obviously, numbers are gonna be an indicator of whether that’s actually happening or not. And it can happen a lot of different ways. Are you going to actually are you actually gonna hold on to the leads that you have, And are they engaged? And are you gonna actually be able to add to the amount of leads that you already have?

Jennie Wright [00:14:17]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:14:17]:
Are you going to be able to increase, the amount of, people that will want to do business with you, are you gonna be able to increase sales that come out of those leads? Right? Mhmm. So there’s a lot of things that can that can be momentum building when you see those type of successes happening where you’ve actually got, Like, your email list is growing. Right? And it it effectively makes you money. Then You can easily, like, be inspired to do more and carry on.

Jennie Wright [00:14:50]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:14:50]:
It’s another thing when There are people that have actually grown a list, and I’ll call it, for lack of a better word, a false list, which is I got my 35,000 followers on my email list, but everybody’s silent.

Jennie Wright [00:15:08]:
A false list.

Jason Wiehler [00:15:09]:
A false list. Let’s say it’s like it’s a list. Sure. You can go around telling people I’ve got 3,000 people on my email But you can’t sell a darn thing.

Jennie Wright [00:15:15]:
It’s just clout. That’s not that’s not real.

Jason Wiehler [00:15:18]:
Wiehler, but there are you do you remember what it was like back in 2014, how many people, like, Through their list size in front of every conversation?

Jennie Wright [00:15:28]:
Yeah. I also remember list minimums to appear on events, which I thought was ridiculous then and I still do now.

Jason Wiehler [00:15:33]:
And that It might be part of the reason why people had them. It’s like, oh, if you don’t have 5,000 people on your list, great. Okay. Let me go buy 5,000 people to put on my list. Now I can tell you I’ve got 5,000 people. And then let me make this offering that has basically nothing to do with your business because people weren’t niched in. I had to say it. And then

Jennie Wright [00:15:53]:
I was waiting.

Jason Wiehler [00:15:54]:
Yeah. And then on top of it, it’s like, the list was garbage. Like, it’s not about The actual size of the list, it’s about

Jennie Wright [00:16:02]:
The quality.

Jason Wiehler [00:16:03]:
The quality of those leads and how much engagement you get, And are you niched in so much that people are actually inspired? You actually have interested people. They are, like, raving fans of yours. Like, I I you know, when you just say email list, it’s just such a a blase term compared to how many raving fans do you have?

Jennie Wright [00:16:24]:
That’s a completely different question.

Jason Wiehler [00:16:26]:
Wright. Okay. Well, I have, you know, 400 raving fans. I’ll take it.

Jennie Wright [00:16:31]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:16:31]:
I got a 1,000. Wow. I’m like, I’d be, like, doing well.

Jennie Wright [00:16:36]:
Mhmm. Right?

Jason Wiehler [00:16:37]:
Well, you’re

Jennie Wright [00:16:37]:
gonna have better sales with the with the raving fan number Of course.

Jason Wiehler [00:16:40]:
They’re they’re hanging off of every word you say a raving fan When you send an email, they’re looking forward to it and anticipating it, and they wanna read it. They they wanna consume.

Jennie Wright [00:16:51]:
What are the data points of raving fans? How would you even What would what would that data look like?

Jason Wiehler [00:16:56]:
Well, obviously, like, a raving fan will will their open rate will be sky high.

Jennie Wright [00:17:02]:
Okay.

Jason Wiehler [00:17:03]:
Right? They’re definitely not gonna be the per type of person that will unsubscribe.

Jennie Wright [00:17:07]:
Of course.

Jason Wiehler [00:17:09]:
Anything that you put out on offer, they are likely to make more touches on anything. So in other words, if you point them in the direction of, let’s say, one of your social media posts, they’ll go The, or an article, they’ll go there, or a new product, They will check it out. If you’re going to be part of an event or hosting 1 yourself, they will probably participate. Now there’s a lot of people that aren’t your Raven fans that are on your list, and they might not even open up your email. There’s a gargantuan difference between the 2.

Jennie Wright [00:17:36]:
There is, but also you know what the you know what the the outlier is on this data? And I just thought about this is your competition. I have people on my list That are my competition or just people who are checking me out, not necessarily competition, but they’re they’re watching. I know this because I know you’re there. And when I do something, they’re opening that email, they’re clicking the link. So I can’t call them a raving fan. They’re they’re not.

Jason Wiehler [00:17:59]:
They’re not.

Jennie Wright [00:18:00]:
How do you differentiate? I mean, if you’re looking just at data points, that’s really hard. So I guess you’re making a bit of an assumption.

Jason Wiehler [00:18:07]:
I think it really doesn’t matter. You know Wright I look at it from? Let’s just say you have 3,000 people on your email list.

Jennie Wright [00:18:17]:
Mhmm. There

Jason Wiehler [00:18:18]:
could be 30 people that are your competition on it. Congratulations. 1% of your audience looks like they’re raving fans. I don’t really think that’s gonna be a big deal, but I think it’s a good way to measure your success because if people if your competition is actually trying to see what you’re doing

Jennie Wright [00:18:35]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:18:36]:
And they’re looking for ideas or they’re inspired by what you do or they lack creativity and they don’t know what to do themselves or whatever it is. I think a compliment. Right? Yeah. A raving fan obviously is gonna help you make sales, but I think if you know you’ve got 30 people in there that are your competition, that’s a huge compliment.

Jennie Wright [00:18:58]:
It is a compliment. I mean, we’ve talked about we’ve talked about that kind of stuff before about, If people are watching you and stuff like The, I don’t I mean, I don’t mind. I know they’re there. I don’t think anybody should mind. I really don’t think you should get your nose out of joy Got it because, I mean, everybody’s kinda keeping an eye on everybody else and knowing what they’re doing. That’s fine.

Jason Wiehler [00:19:20]:
Well, how top secret our stuff need to be?

Jennie Wright [00:19:23]:
It doesn’t. It doesn’t really need to be that top secret. I mean, yeah, prioritize go ahead.

Jason Wiehler [00:19:27]:
I’d be a little bit frustrated

Jennie Wright [00:19:29]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:19:31]:
If, let’s say, there was a competitor of mine that was bigger than me

Jennie Wright [00:19:34]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:19:35]:
That was following everything I did, and when I launched something recently That they actually take that idea and they blow it up big right away, and they echo what you do. I would be I’d be a little bit ticked off about that, but the chance of that happening are so remote.

Jennie Wright [00:19:53]:
Right.

Jason Wiehler [00:19:53]:
Right? And and even then, you’ve you probably have some recourse.

Jennie Wright [00:19:58]:
Yeah. Yeah. I’ve seen a couple things like that happen in 2023 with a couple people who, went through something similar. They posted about A product or an offer and then, you know, in a very short period of time, you see somebody else offering the same thing.

Jason Wiehler [00:20:10]:
But as far as momentum goes Mhmm. You Basically, wanna have positive indicators because positive indicators are gonna keep you motivated.

Jennie Wright [00:20:19]:
Yeah. Of course.

Jason Wiehler [00:20:20]:
And if you Don’t understand what those are. Ask somebody. They can point you the right way. But the thing is is you shouldn’t you shouldn’t be relying on vanity numbers. You should be relying on the data that actually proves that your business is gonna make money, right, or is gonna prove that it will make money because there are businesses The that haven’t maxed out on sales, but every indication shows that their subject matter is something of interest, that people really wanna get involved, That they’re really paying attention and that when you when you do go to make an offer, things probably will fall into place.

Jennie Wright [00:20:57]:
Mhmm. There’s also I really like the idea of actually creating momentum. There’s also benchmarks that I would put in there, and the benchmarks I would put in there are taking a look at historical data. Can you tell I’m on a data streak? So I would look at, I would be looking at how many sales let’s say you’re a course creator. I I’ll be looking at how many sales you had of x course. Right? A couple of minutes ago, we were talking about the course I have guest speaker advantage. I’ll use it as an example. How many sales did I have in 2023? And knowing that I had x amount of sales and my closing percentage be you know, maybe those came off Emails or, however, I can figure out all that data, then I I know what my potential closing rate is.

Jennie Wright [00:21:43]:
If I want the number of people who go through guest speaker advantage to increase by 10%, then I can then figure out the math. And you know I can’t do math on the spot, but you know Calculators are my friend. That I can then figure out how many people I need to get it in front of. Right? So I can look at that and then I can adjust my marketing accordingly. Just saying, like, in this momentum building piece, I wanna do you know, I wanna sell, You know, $100,000 worth of this course or I wanna sell, you know, $200,000 of this or whatever. That’s great, but then you gotta back it up with The with historical data of how you’re actually gonna get there. And I just went through this exercise with a client, you know, where they were able to sell 233 units of a particular product throughout the entirety of 2023. And that unit price for them, the value of that unit is Somewhere in the range between $25 and $35,000.

Jennie Wright [00:22:38]:
And if they want to increase that, which they do, then we looked at the historical data of How many leads they had to go through to get those 233? And if they wanna get that increase now, we know they need to have, 99 qualified leads Per month coming into the business to close and stay only at that number.

Jason Wiehler [00:22:58]:
Oh, and I’m sure they also have to even they also have to factor in Being able to facilitate taking care of that business.

Jennie Wright [00:23:06]:
Yeah. Of course. So how many people do they need to support it and so on and so forth. And this is this is really where you’re looking at all the different aspects of the business, which I love. I’m getting a lot more into this as you can tell, and, it’s actually quite fun. And this brings me to something where this is something I’m doing for 2024, which is I’m doing a Stack review. And I’m gonna do a completely different episode about it because I think it’s really interesting to talk about. But this is where you have to make sure that Everything in your business can handle the increase that you’re looking to create.

Jennie Wright [00:23:38]:
So if you’re looking to create more traffic, you have to make sure that you have all of the background stuff to make that happen. And if you’re gonna drive more traffic to a website, is the website functioning the way you want? Is everything working? That’s definitely something to look at. If you have a landing page software, is it gonna handle it? Is your course creation software at the right level? You know, if you suddenly get an influx of students, are you gonna be priced out of that package? And The, like, that just happened to me where I was like, okay. The the, course creation software that I was using, If I wanted to have more students, it would cost me more money, so I actually moved completely out of that system to another one and so on. So you gotta look at these things because if you wanna have that growth, you have to have the the functionality behind it and the people power to make it happen.

Jason Wiehler [00:24:25]:
Yeah. And then on top of it, you may, you gotta start thinking about 2025. I know it sounds early. But if you think about it, the data points that you wanna collect in 2024 Mhmm. Maybe you started collecting them in 2023. You want to make sure that you have data points that you can compare to that are effective in 2025. So what is it that you wanna look at that gives you an indication of how your business works or is doing well in 2024 The you are going to measure against in 2025? The you can plan you can use Esteplan as a guide into 2025 and say, okay. What do I need to do to increase these numbers?

Jennie Wright [00:25:03]:
That’s so smart.

Jason Wiehler [00:25:04]:
Right. I don’t wanna think about 2025 yet, but I had to say it.

Jennie Wright [00:25:09]:
But it’s so smart though if you think about it because the numbers that you’re the data you’re gathering right Now we’ll inform for the next year, and you may not have been gathering the right data.

Jason Wiehler [00:25:18]:
It’s so much easier to gather the data that you want than to try and find it when you you need it

Jennie Wright [00:25:25]:
later. Huge point. Yeah. Huge point. And I you know, this is maybe, like, a different episode, and I just thought of this, is The need for your own marketing dashboard.

Jason Wiehler [00:25:35]:
Oh, yeah.

Jennie Wright [00:25:36]:
Absolutely. Jennie have a marketing dashboard?

Jason Wiehler [00:25:39]:
Well, you know, I don’t think people really do marketing reports for themselves Unless they have a team of people, but, really, it doesn’t matter whether you’re 1 person or 2 or 10. You need to do a marketing report because Mhmm. You will not understand, even as a solopreneur, How you’re spending money on marketing and how effective that money is being for you unless you have 1. Mhmm. And I don’t care how good your memory is.

Jennie Wright [00:26:05]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:26:06]:
It’s just better to have it down on paper and to be able to say, okay. I know much I spent on ads. I know how much I spent on events. I know what I got back in return. I knew, like like and the other thing too is is it’s calendar based, so you know How effective it is during that particular time of year.

Jennie Wright [00:26:23]:
Exactly.

Jason Wiehler [00:26:23]:
Was there some observation that you could make that that would actually change When it’s gonna happen or how it’s gonna happen Mhmm. Or how much you’re gonna spend on doing it?

Jennie Wright [00:26:32]:
Yes. Completely. And 2 things that, people don’t always do and I think they should in their marketing reports, and I know it’s something that you do is you also include notes on what happened. Right?

Jason Wiehler [00:26:44]:
Yeah.

Jennie Wright [00:26:44]:
So it’s not just yeah. It’s just not the data. It’s also like, hey. This happened this month or whatnot. Like, one of the I remember one of the events I tried to run was a summit, and I was doing it in July. I had planned it for months, and then all of a sudden, I was moving right when the summit was happening. So not only am I trying to get into a new place and unpack and all that kind of stuff, I’m running a summit. So, you know, all work had to stop for moving While I was doing certain portions of The summit, it was it was a disaster.

Jennie Wright [00:27:15]:
And so in my marketing report for that, you know, for that month, I would be saying July, I think it was Wright 2018. July 2018, you know, the numbers are affected by the fact that I was moving and it took, like, 2 or 3 weeks to get settled. So.

Jason Wiehler [00:27:28]:
Well, you know, one of the best things that people can do during the entire year, if you’re gonna take on a habit or anything like that, is collect data and take notes Because taking notes is one of the best things you can do. Do not try and commit anything that happened to memory because, okay, You might have some emotional things that are going on inside of you, having to do with that memory of how that event went or how your marketing Jennie, But the truth is is you should be taking notes down. Mhmm. Not only that, you should be writing your ideas down because I know as I get older, I can’t freaking remember a thing.

Jennie Wright [00:28:04]:
You have such a better better memory than me. Can you imagine how it is for me?

Jason Wiehler [00:28:08]:
I I honestly if I don’t take notes down, it is like, I sometimes race to grab my phone because if I don’t, 5 minutes later, it’s gone Yeah. Forever.

Jennie Wright [00:28:17]:
Totally.

Jason Wiehler [00:28:18]:
An idea. Yeah. Like

Jennie Wright [00:28:20]:
And a good one too. Yeah. A good one.

Jason Wiehler [00:28:22]:
And it’s just like, poof, it’s gone. And then you’re like, okay. Let me run through the alphabet, see if I can, like, prompt this thing back. Nope. That’s not it.

Jennie Wright [00:28:29]:
Nope. It’s gone. Officially gone.

Jason Wiehler [00:28:31]:
Exactly.

Jennie Wright [00:28:31]:
Yeah. Until about 2 o’clock

Jason Wiehler [00:28:32]:
in the morning. Collect data. It’ll it it will save you time and make you money.

Jennie Wright [00:28:39]:
Absolutely. One of the things that I’ve I’ve been sort of thinking for 2024, and I and I saw this in 2023 and I wanted to get your perspective, Was the need for online events, because you know that’s my space, that they need to be more niched in and more specific?

Jason Wiehler [00:28:55]:
Oh, yes.

Jennie Wright [00:28:56]:
What do you think is gonna be the change? What’s the biggest driver for that?

Jason Wiehler [00:29:01]:
You know, if you could’ve If you did an event 10 years ago, you could have, like I don’t know. I could say things really, like That would have to be censored. You could do, like, really stupid things. And almost anything, as long as you’ve had a website, a face, and a name, and you could probably get leads because the novelty of actually doing something online was huge, and it was Free. And when people heard free, oh my god. It’s online, and it’s free. And I don’t even have to leave my my house, and I get to see all these superstars doing their interviews. People’s just signed up.

Jason Wiehler [00:29:38]:
They didn’t even know what they were getting. You know? And that whole novelty has worn off. And gradually, over The, now now you’re like, we’re in 2024. K. Now this is now it’s gotten real. Real. Real. Okay? It was real in 2020.

Jason Wiehler [00:29:52]:
Now it’s gotten really real.

Jennie Wright [00:29:54]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:29:54]:
And the thing is You have to be now very specific on the subject matter. It has to be very, very niched in. People are not gonna waste their time On vagaries. They’re not gonna waste their time on a subject that is so broad that they they have to try and pick their way through the content you’re providing To get the little gold nuggets, you basically have to deliver pure gold basically right then and there. So it has to be Super specific. And then on top of it, and you know this better than anybody else, it has to be organized and executed Better than everything else because it has to have less friction. When people sign up, it has to have less friction. When people wanna get involved, when they wanna view it or participate, it has to be less friction.

Jason Wiehler [00:30:45]:
And not just for the participants, Also for the people involved, if you have panels or interviews or anything, is the smoother it runs, the better to think.

Jennie Wright [00:30:56]:
Absolutely.

Jason Wiehler [00:30:57]:
And it’s weird how we we got excited about technology and events. Right? And before that, we were really, really nitpicky about live events. Mhmm. Oh, you know, getting my tickets was such a hassle. Getting to the thing was such a hassle. Getting into the thing, and it was disorganized Jason, We got nitpicky, and and, obviously, we protect we we perfected it through the seventies, eighties, nineties, and the early 2000, and now people are stops when it comes to events. Are you gonna go to this one or that one? Right? And they go, no. I’m gonna go The this one because I know it’s organized, and I know what I’m gonna get out of it.

Jason Wiehler [00:31:29]:
Right? Well, now we’ve reached that point online. Now people are gonna get me snobby about events. It’s like, okay, I’m not doing that. I’m not even gonna speak for that person. I don’t wanna be involved. Or I’m not gonna go to that event because I don’t know when this is gonna happen. They have so many tech problems or

Jennie Wright [00:31:44]:
They don’t even have a landing page for call for speakers.

Jason Wiehler [00:31:46]:
Exactly. I don’t know what I’m gonna get out of this thing.

Jennie Wright [00:31:49]:
Yep. Oh, yeah.

Jason Wiehler [00:31:51]:
So we’re there now. It’s all equal. Yep. Online and real life. If you don’t like If you don’t have it, like, well done

Jennie Wright [00:31:58]:
Buttoned up.

Jason Wiehler [00:31:59]:
Forget it. It ain’t happening. It has to be prerogative now.

Jennie Wright [00:32:02]:
Yeah.

Jason Wiehler [00:32:03]:
So you’ve mentioned tech Thanks before. Yeah. Well, that’s gonna be part of it. And we talked about planning before. Well, that’s part of it. And here we are, 2024. It’s gonna be tough. Everybody better get their act together.

Jennie Wright [00:32:16]:
I love it. I love it. That’s gonna be your sound Wright for 2024.

Jason Wiehler [00:32:20]:
That’s right.

Jennie Wright [00:32:21]:
Wiehler pop that The out.

Jason Wiehler [00:32:22]:
Oh my

Jennie Wright [00:32:22]:
goodness. Okay. What do you think is gonna play the biggest role, in getting you more business in 2024? For me? Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:32:33]:
You know, I I’ve spent time doing so many different things in the trenches Over time, that I never got my website done. I never I never got it done to full potential. And and having a very, very helpful lead magnet

Jennie Wright [00:32:48]:
Mhmm.

Jason Wiehler [00:32:49]:
And a very good website because I really believe in websites, and I don’t care who doesn’t. I believe in online real estate. I’m sorry.

Jennie Wright [00:32:58]:
I know you do.

Jason Wiehler [00:32:59]:
I really do. I think there’s a lot of I think there’s even assets

Jennie Wright [00:33:02]:
that got lost. You’ve been on my butt for years about

Jason Wiehler [00:33:06]:
my website. Years. But anybody I’ve ever worked with, I’ve also bothered them and said get your website done.

Jennie Wright [00:33:11]:
Yep. It’s not like you’re wrong. It’s not like you’re wrong. I mean, have I managed to have a very successful business without the most optimum website? Possibly could have done better.

Jason Wiehler [00:33:22]:
Your reputation Jason preceded you and there’s a lot of word-of-mouth and you’ve done work very well. That’s great.

Jennie Wright [00:33:27]:
But to get to where I wanna be, a proper, well functioning, etcetera, etcetera website is necessary.

Jason Wiehler [00:33:32]:
If you’re gonna start selling courses and products, you need it. Mhmm. But, you know, if you’re gonna have a brick and mortar place, then you have to have, obviously, location, and you have to have to have that space. If you don’t have that and you’re gonna run a business, well, your other opportunity is to have your online HQ, and that’s gonna be your URL Mhmm. Your website. People need to find you. And then on top of it, If you’re really, really good with your content and with your SEO, which is still really, really important, people are gonna be able to find you Over your competition.

Jennie Wright [00:34:07]:
Oh, SEO is gonna be SEO is on my my, like, top list right now. Yeah.

Jason Wiehler [00:34:13]:
So I think it’s it’s gonna be vitally important. So for me, my website, my lead magnet, getting the word out Mhmm. My SEO is gonna be so lethal.

Jennie Wright [00:34:24]:
I can’t wait to see it.

Jason Wiehler [00:34:25]:
I feel sorry for anybody else that’s gonna be in my, like, Area of business because they are going to drop down the list.

Jennie Wright [00:34:34]:
And you’re rarely wrong.

Jason Wiehler [00:34:36]:
Well, I’m gonna make sure it happens.

Jennie Wright [00:34:38]:
That’s good.

Jason Wiehler [00:34:40]:
What about you?

Jennie Wright [00:34:41]:
Oh my gosh.

Jason Wiehler [00:34:43]:
Go ahead.

Jennie Wright [00:34:45]:
Okay. So what’s gonna make a difference for me in 2024? One of them is my website at the time that we’re recording this It’s being revamped. It’ll be done within the next, like, week, week and a bit. I’m excited. I can finally say I have a productively happy, well functioning website. That is one of the biggest things. The other The is putting a lot of work in in amplification into this podcast, Getting it in front of more listeners. And everybody listening can have a part in that just by leaving a review hint The end, but That’s just one of the things.

Jennie Wright [00:35:19]:
The other thing is speaking. So I’m dedicated to doing more speaking that’s with online segments, being a podcast guest, and in person. So in person speaking, although I’m a bit of an introvert and prefer to do things from home, I’m ready And willing to do travel to the appropriate places to do the appropriate conferences. So that’s happening. And the last thing It’s really a bit of a a mindset shift on, where my time should be spent on the most productive activities. So that’s, you know, more time spent potentially on YouTube, on, on creating content, more time on lives, but on the right platform, Less time on platforms that don’t make sense.

Jason Wiehler [00:36:08]:
And this is on top of taking care of your clients

Jennie Wright [00:36:12]:
Absolutely.

Jason Wiehler [00:36:13]:
They come first.

Jennie Wright [00:36:14]:
Absolutely. I’m I’m really blessed to be working with quite a few really good people. Obviously, I’m gonna wanna increase that in 2024. In 2023, it was about increasing the capacity that I could take on. So what did that look like? That was a lot of automation. That was a lot of, revamping systems. And like I said, it was improving the tech stack, so I did that. So I’m ready in 2024 to accept more traffic to those things.

Jennie Wright [00:36:38]:
Like, I can take on more students in my courses. I can take on more 1 on 1 clients for strategy and launches, and and doing some really deep niched in strategic, like, Marketing work, and things like that. So those opportunities are all set up and ready to go. It’s now about making sure those people are Wright care of that we you know, that I already have and being able to add more of the right potential clients.

Jason Wiehler [00:37:03]:
Very good. Sounds like a good plan.

Jennie Wright [00:37:05]:
Thank you. If I put some time and effort into thinking about it. I’m really glad that we were able to have yet another awesome conversation. I’m actually really, really glad to start 2024 Wright a conversation with you.

Jason Wiehler [00:37:17]:
That’s great. I’m glad to do it, but, I guess we’ll see you in a few months.

Jennie Wright [00:37:24]:
Or sooner.

Jason Wiehler [00:37:24]:
Or sooner.

Jennie Wright [00:37:26]:
I love these conversations, and I I have a feeling that these kind of bring up some of the questions that I think a lot of people are thinking about that are kind of just taking up a lot of real estate in their brains. Maybe they haven’t completely thought about or gotten those things out of their brains, and that’s totally fine, but I think these are good conversations to have. So we’ll definitely have another one. And if you like everything that you heard, please do go ahead and Share this with other people. Let me know what you think and potentially leave a review. I’d love to hear from you. And as always, the Acquire podcast is produced and edited by Jason Wheeler.

Jason Wiehler [00:37:59]:
Oh, no.

Jennie Wright [00:38:00]:
Yes. It is. You do such a good job. And if you found today’s episode valuable, please absolutely, let us know. And if you wanna find and I should say The. If you wanna find Jason Wheeler and get in touch with him, you absolutely can. You can find him on social media as Jason Wheeler, And his last name is spelled w I e h l e r, and you can find him at jasonwheeler.com. Thanks so much for being part of my community.

Jennie Wright [00:38:24]:
I really appreciate you being here. And as always, the Acquire podcast is brought to you by the Odd Phonic Podcast network.