This episode is sponsored by my new web host, LiquidWeb It's time we had a heart to heart. About Selling. And why you need to Get Comfortable Selling. In the past month or so I've come across this topic via conversations with people or through social media conversations (particularly in Facebook groups). We need to start looking at the real issues with online marketing and why business do or don't succeed... because for some reason this seems to be as mysterious as the Bermuda triangle. When in fact, it's SIMPLE. (notice I didn't say easy). The bottom line is that we (I'm certainly not exempt from this) over-complicate things and get bored doing the things that we can't see immediate results from. Let's start with Getting Bored The easiest way to do this is to give you some examples. I was thinking about all of the different people I've worked with over the years (for websites) and nothing was more frustrating than seeing people get caught up in the peripherals. The things on the outside/edge of their business that really don't matter or make the slightest bit of difference to the bottom line. Do your logo and colors matter? Sure. But not enough to tweak 287 times. The same is true for your products and services. I lost track of how many people spent hours and hours agonizing over the most niggly of crap but never spent the time to hit 'publish' on one single blog post. Yep, you heard me correctly. They'd spend all this time (and money) on a website they never officially 'launched' to the world. They sat waiting for things to happen (their idea of 'work' was paying to have a website created). Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Years ago (this was probably 5 years ago?) I had a client that I was building a website for. She was working with an internet marketing coach who was telling her what she needed in terms of things on her site and tools she needed to buy. This coach told her to invest in Infusionsoft (which she did) and to put together her 'packages' for her programs and what she was going to sell. So far, so good, right? WRONG. First, the coach had zero traffic strategy for getting traffic to her own website. She was still using the 'uncategorized' category in WordPress and had ZERO... I mean ZERO SEO going on in her site. Let me ask you a question. What good is an email list or packages to sell if no-one sees what you're doing?!?! (or knows you exist). Six months after we were finished working together there was still ZERO new content or anything happening on her site. Nothing new had been written. She didn't have a paid traffic strategy so she was getting zero sign-ups. Of course she was still investing in the 'coach' and other high-ticket programs, people, and events. You can buy all the courses you want. Have at it. But unless you start rolling up your sleeves and implementing, nothing is going to happen. Other than a big credit card bill and stress. Stress will rear it's ugly head in all kinds of ways.  You'll doubt yourself, feel resentment that other people seem to be 'making it' and here you are working all these hours but can't get ahead of it (or you do start making more money but your expenses increase right along with your profit). It's time to focus folks. I get it, no one wants to hear that they have to stay focused. That they need to show up and do the work. MAKE something. CREATE something. Then get eyeballs on it. Share it, email about it, ask for feedback. My preaching on this topic comes from my own painful experience of not sharing, promoting and selling sooner. This really isn't rocket science. Over-Complicating Things So apparently it's conference season. Funnel Hacking Live just wrapped up a week or two ago (ClickFunnels annual event) and this week Digital Marketer's annual Traffic and Conversion summit (T&C) wrapped up.