Growth vs Sales

We all have the same 24 hours in a day.

So, why do some authors seem to accomplish more than others?

And how do the likes of Elon Musk seem to manage to build billion-dollar empires?

It comes down to priorities.

As the saying goes, "Where attention goes, energy flows."

Using marketing as an example...

If you're focused on improving and scaling your Facebook Ads, you're going to see your results continue to get better and better (and quickly).

If you're more focused on growing your following on X, Instagram, or TikTok, though, that's where you're going to see better results (but generally slower than Paid Ads).

When you're trying to build your author business, sure, having 10,000, 50,000, 100,000+ followers on Instagram may feel good, but you have to ask yourself the question...

Is this helping me grow my business (from a financial perspective)?

Big follower numbers do not equal big monetary numbers.

There are plenty of people out there with huge social media followings, but have little to no income from that audience.

Why?

Because they haven't learned how to best monetize that audience.

I'm not giving social media a bad rap here, honestly.

But if social media is going to be your focus, you must find a way to turn that audience into paying readers.

If you don't, your whole business is built on the foundations of a social media platform that can change the rules on a whim, at any time to suit them.

For me, this all comes down to Growth vs Sales.

Growing an audience is great, and you should be doing it.

But an owned audience (i.e. your email list) is far more secure than a rented audience (i.e. Social Media).

My advice?

Focus on sales, and audience growth will happen as a byproduct of those sales. 

If social media is a focus for you in 2024, that's cool, but figure out the customer journey you're going to take people on to move them over into your owned audience (your email list).

And from there, how are you going to move them towards becoming a paying customer?

Once you understand where your priorities are, your attention focus and results will continue to improve in that area.

There's no right or wrong here by the way.

Your business. Your rules.

Time to run; the kids are at daycare again today, and I've got another module to finish off for the Direct Sales Blueprint For Authors course (join the waitlist here if you haven't already).

To Your Success
– Matt