What Got You Here Wont Get You There FALSE Ep 268

In a candid discussion, the host of the podcast reflects on the adage that what brought success in the past won't necessarily lead to future triumphs, a concept he deems not universally applicable. He converses with Ed Turney about the importance of repeating successful actions rather than seeking constant change. The host emphasizes that while tactical business actions should often be amplified, personal evolution and belief adjustments are crucial for scaling new heights. He shares his experiences from running gyms to consulting, underscoring the consistent keys to success: effective marketing, strong sales, and a quality product. The host also critiques his own diversion into content creation, reaffirming that his core business strategies, not content, drove his success. He concludes by urging entrepreneurs to focus on proven tactics and to avoid the allure of novelty.

• The speaker challenges the common belief that new strategies are always required for further growth.
• Emphasizes that the tactics that made a business successful may continue to be effective.
• Cites his own experience with gym launch, where marketing, selling, and product quality drove success.
• Success was amplified by positive results leading to word-of-mouth and referrals.
• The primary marketing message focused on the results achieved.

"It's not universally true is basically my underlying conclusion on this."

This quote summarizes the speaker's main argument that the common advice of changing strategies to grow is not always correct.

"The things that made gym launch successful are we market well, we sell well, and we have an amazing product that yields results, which then goes back to the end, we get more word of mouth, we get higher referrals, we get easier sales, we get more dollars back for our marketing because each client we get refers 0.4 clients to us."

The speaker explains the key factors that contributed to the success of his business: effective marketing, sales, and product quality which led to customer referrals and easier sales.

• Discusses the misinterpretation of the saying "what got you here isn't going to get you there."
• Argues that tactical elements within a business often require more of the same actions for growth.
• Points out the mistake of abandoning successful actions in pursuit of new strategies.
• Reflects on personal experiences where doing more of what was already working led to success.

"And so many times, myself included, and some of the entrepreneurs I look at, they're like, okay, well, I've been doing x to get to here. I'll give you an example. I've been doing outbound to get to my current business growth, but I need to do something different to get to where I want to go, when in reality, most times when it's a tactical thing within business, you usually just need to do more of what you're doing to get where you want to grow, where you want to go."

The speaker shares an example to illustrate that often, businesses should focus on scaling their current successful tactics rather than seeking entirely new strategies.

"Which is why that saying, I think, is really misleading."

This quote emphasizes the speaker's opinion that the saying is often misinterpreted and can lead businesses astray.

• Differentiates between tactical actions and higher-level strategic thinking.
• Suggests that personal growth and evolution are where changes are more necessary.
• Talks about unlearning certain beliefs and character traits for overall improvement.
• Reflects on the desire to change successful actions due to the allure of something new.

"And what I mean by that is it's much more along the lines of how you structure your business, what business opportunity you're going after."

The speaker points out that the saying may be more applicable to the overall structure and strategy of a business rather than the day-to-day tactics.

"And so I think it's much more about being a better person, being a more evolved person, unlearning some beliefs, unlearning character traits."

This quote suggests that personal development and evolution are critical areas where change is necessary to reach new levels of success.

"I just can't tell you the amount of times in my life where what it took for me to get to where I am, to where I wanted to go, was more of what I was already doing."

The speaker reflects on his experience, concluding that often the path to success involved intensifying efforts in current successful practices rather than seeking completely new methods.

• Ed Turney discusses the importance of adapting and changing strategies at critical points in life and business.
• He emphasizes the need to level up and make significant trajectory changes at inflection points.
• Transitioning from running gyms to turning around other people's gyms required a shift in approach from B2C to B2B.
• The switch from hands-on turnaround efforts to a consultative model allowed for broader impact and scalability.

When I went from running my gyms to turning around other people's gyms, that was a big, I'm not going to do what I have been doing to get to where I want to go, so I'm going to do this next thing.

This quote illustrates the necessity of changing strategies to achieve new goals, highlighting the shift from a direct service model to a consulting role in the fitness industry.

• Ed Turney identifies core actions that led to success across different business models: good marketing, sales, and product.
• He achieved growth in his gym turnaround business primarily through word-of-mouth by delivering on promises and filling gyms to capacity.
• The underlying principles of marketing and selling well remained constant despite changes in the business model.

Because the actions of what made me successful in each of those businesses is actually the same thing. We marketed well, we sold well, we had a good product.

This quote underscores that the key to success in various ventures was consistent in the execution of marketing, sales, and product quality.

• The journey from one business phase to another involved not just changing actions but evolving as a person.
• Belief systems had to change, although the fundamental actions of marketing and selling remained the same.
• Ed Turney advocates for the principle of repeating successful actions and learning from what has worked in the past.

And so what we actually did, what I was doing to go from here to get to there was actually the exact same thing. I was just doing it in a different vehicle. And that's where I had to be a different person than I had been.

This quote reflects on the need for personal growth and evolution alongside maintaining successful business actions when transitioning between different stages of business development.

• Ed Turney suggests having a mantra to "repeat successful actions" as a reminder to stick with what works.
• Recognizing that successful strategies are successful for a reason and should be continued or scaled up is a key takeaway.

If something has worked, then it worked for a reason and simply do more of it.

This quote captures the essence of focusing on proven strategies and the importance of recognizing and repeating what has led to success.

• Ed Turney briefly promotes his book, "100 Million Dollar Offers," which is available on Amazon.
• The book is presented as a valuable resource with extensive effort invested in its creation.
• The promotion serves as a strategic way to engage the community and create potential future business partnerships.

I have a book on Amazon. It's called 100 million dollar offers. At over 8005 star reviews, it has almost a perfect score. You can get it for $0.99 on kindle.

This quote is a promotional message for Ed Turney's book, emphasizing its high ratings and the significant effort put into writing it, with the intention of building rapport with the audience and fostering future business opportunities.

• Entrepreneurs often believe they have reached a market cap when in reality, they have capped their customer acquisition in one channel.
• The idea of starting a new business instead of expanding existing channels is a common misconception.
• Success comes from repeating successful actions, not necessarily from new ideas.
• Scaling successful actions, like sales, requires doing more of what works but at a different scale.
• As a business scales, the core actions may remain the same, but the entrepreneur's beliefs and identity must evolve.
• The entrepreneur discussed by Ed Turney had a realization about the importance of not straying from proven paths to success.

"And I was like, you're in weight loss, you're doing $4 million a year. You feel like you've capped this market? Seriously? You know what I mean? Like, of course, you haven't capped this market, but it was because really, they had capped their ability to acquire customers in a single channel."

This quote illustrates the common entrepreneurial error of mistaking a plateau in a single customer acquisition channel for saturating the entire market.

"Don't be cute. Repeat successful actions. And many times what gave you success in the beginning is also what will give you success in the future. You just need to do it at a different scale."

Ed Turney emphasizes the importance of sticking to what has been proven to work, albeit scaling it up to match the growth of the business.

"The actions and the tactics themselves often you need to do more of. But the who you are and the beliefs that you carry with you are the things that need to change at each level."

This quote highlights the need for personal growth and adaptation in beliefs as an entrepreneur scales their business.

• Ed Turney reflects on his own entrepreneurial journey, acknowledging the need for focus and wisdom to maintain the path of success.
• He shares a lesson learned about the importance of adhering to core business practices that have been successful, like running good advertising, instead of getting distracted by new ventures.
• Ed reveals his past mistake of focusing too much on content creation rather than on the fundamental aspects that drove his business's success.

"I have done this over and over again. I'll give you another example real quick. For me in 2021 of the mistakes that I think that I made is that I focus a little bit more on content, which is ironic because this is content, but the things that made me successful were not content."

Ed Turney admits to his mistake of shifting focus away from the key drivers of his success, which serves as a cautionary tale for other entrepreneurs.

"Running really good advertising, have a really well trained sales team and having a really amazing product that got us a viral loop on all the marketing we had."

This quote distills the essential elements that contributed to Ed's business success: effective advertising, a competent sales team, and a product that naturally promoted itself through customer satisfaction.

• Ed Turney expressed satisfaction with his decision to remove Instagram from his phone, citing a sense of relief from the political climate.
• He questioned the value of thoughts influenced by social media platforms and their impact on his well-being.
• Ed Turney noted that his sales were not positively affected by Instagram stories or posts.

"Instagram from my phone. I'm pretty sure it's permanent because I feel great right now not having them for the last however many days, just not being sucked into this whole political climate and whatnot."

Ed Turney feels that removing Instagram has had a positive effect on his life, particularly in helping him avoid the negativity of the political climate.

• Ed Turney discusses two approaches to content creation: establishing legitimacy and using content as a primary marketing strategy.
• To appear legitimate, one must create enough content for consumers to view them as credible.
• If content is the main marketing strategy, it requires a significantly higher volume of content across multiple platforms.
• He emphasizes the need for daily content, including videos, articles, and podcasts, to effectively use content as a marketing tool.

"I think that there's really two ways to do content version one is you have to do enough content that if someone finds you through your advertising, that they think that you are legitimate and they can consume a little bit and be like this guy or this gal is legit, right?"

Ed Turney explains the first content strategy, which revolves around creating sufficient content to establish credibility with potential customers.

"If you're using that as your primary marketing method, you need to do a hell of a lot more content than two days a week on one platform."

Ed Turney highlights the intensity and frequency required in content creation when it is used as the main marketing approach.

• Ed Turney reflects on the key factors that contributed to his success: world-class marketing, sales, and product.
• He emphasizes the importance of concentrating on these areas and avoiding distractions.
• Ed Turney acknowledges that he deviated from his successful strategy by overestimating the impact of content on sales.
• He advises against seeking novelty and instead encourages repeating successful actions.

"The things that got me here have been world class marketing, world class sales, world class product, right? That's it. That's the trifecta. That's what we do, right?"

Ed Turney identifies the three pillars of his success, which are marketing, sales, and product quality.

"And so I was just reminded of, like, just repeat successful actions, dummy. Just do what you've always done. Don't be cute."

Ed Turney reminds himself to stick with the strategies that have proven successful in the past instead of trying new, unproven methods.

• Ed Turney shares that he creates podcasts as a form of self-reminder to maintain focus on effective strategies.
• He expresses hope that his anecdotes are valuable to listeners.
• Ed Turney's message is to stay disciplined, avoid distractions, and continue doing what works.

"But anyways, I hope you found that valuable. I hope that little anecdote made sense to you, and otherwise, have an amazing day, keep being awesome, and I'll catch you on the flip side."

Ed Turney concludes by expressing his desire that the listeners find his insights useful and encourages them to have a great day.