Chicken soup for the marketing soul

“So let’s say you decide you want to make chicken soup…”

It was November 30, 2022.

I was teaching the very first Slow & Steady workshop, ironically titled Simplify Your Marketing.

Ironic because what came next was an elaborate, convoluted, ~10 minute analogy that compared planning your marketing strategy to selecting a recipe for chicken soup.

And yes, there were complex, animated slides to match.

The point I was trying to make was that you’re not just going to pick any old recipe, you’re going to pick the one that matched your desired outcome (i.e. that bowl of chicken soup).

Just like how you’re not going to pick any old marketing tactics, right? You’re going to pick the ones that match your desired outcome!

Trust me, it worked in my mind in the moment.

I went on to teach that workshop at least a dozen more times, the soup analogy getting shorter until I, thankfully, cut it entirely.

Then Simplify Your Marketing became Small Biz Marketing Essentials which grew into Just Enough Marketing.

And then this week: Building Bridges.

Not to brag, but it for sure was the best iteration yet.

Between that workshop and the Decelerator’s market research lab, I’ve spent a lot of time this week thinking about iterating.

Building Bridges was leaps and bounds better than Simplify Your Marketing not because I magically woke up with clarity and finesse. (Although with this week’s astrology… I wouldn’t have been surprised.)

It was because I approached every campaign and delivery as an experiment.

Trying it one way, then another. Noticing what resonated and what flopped. What got clicks and what emails stayed unopened, unread.

I asked for feedback after every workshop – even when it really hurt to see a one star review. But most importantly, I used that feedback to guide the next experiment.

And maybe, like the chicken soup, this analogy is a bit of a stretch too. What I’m trying to say is, this is what I mean when I say Slow & Steady.

I want you to slow down your decision making - to teach you how to make decisions based on data and not vibes or feelings alone (although those are important too).

That’s how you stay steady.

Steady in your vision, steady in your nervous system.

Because, like a good chicken soup that's been simmering away on the stove all afternoon, building a business takes time.