Excuses: I’ve Heard Them All

Where have you been?

  1. Your grandfather died.
  2. You were ill the last few days.
  3. Your laptop broke.
  4. The flood/typhoon knocked out your internet.
  5. A family member needed you to help them with something.

And hundreds more excuses than I am able to remember. I’ve heard them all.

These are all important things you should take care of– for which you have a valid reason to miss work.

But what is not okay is abandoning the team and the clients— only telling them AFTER the fact.

Let team members know BEFORE you need to take a day or two off– so they can cover for your part.

An unfortunate pattern we see with people new to digital marketing is using excuses to cover up reliability and performance issues.

Digital marketing is hard– there is so much to learn and so much to do that it can be overwhelming.

Too Much Freedom

Plus, you have all this freedom, which is easy to abuse.

Not that you are lazy or do not want to work– but because friends think you are “available” all the time, they invite you out to do things.

So you want to be nice to friends and hang out, thinking you will get back to your projects later tonight or tomorrow.

Except that never happens, and you fall further behind– since more distractions come up, all from well-meaning people who think you are not doing anything.

A shift worker does not understand a digital marketer since their view of work is like a factory job when you show up at a certain time for your shift.

If you are at home sitting on the couch, why not text all day, play with the dogs and goof off?

They do not realize you have project deadlines— team members counting on you and clients putting their business in your hands.

Once Things Start Catching Up With You

So when you realize you are behind, feeling “all by yourself” in your home, it is easy to go into excuse mode.

“Let’s see… what is the best excuse I can come up with?” is what you are used to doing. We can usually think of something since if you look for something bad, you will find it.

And that excuse might legitimately cover you for a day or two, but not for the months you have continued to struggle.

So then you get caught in a loop of being so far behind, team members and courts chasing you down, and feeling unmotivated.

I would rather watch Netflix and play video games to avoid the situation that is only getting worse.

Allow this to continue and the clients will fire us. The team will believe you are not reliable and do not care.

Communication and Discipline Instead of Excuses

The root of this is you not having learned team communication skills and not having the discipline to work in an environment that does not have physical supervision. Sure, you would be more reliable if you had to drive to an office and be there by 8 am each morning and have a rigid schedule. There is much good about being a wage slave.

But if you can learn the discipline to work in digital marketing, you can have amazing time freedom and be wherever you want.

You have to decide if you are going to focus on excuses after the fact or whether you are accountable and proactive.

Do you want to be the receptionist or factory-type worker that responds only when someone comes to the counter or calls? Or are you a leader who takes charge instead of moving only when someone tells you to?

It’s Not Too Late for You

If you are reading this, you have fallen into the most common trap of new digital marketers.

The good news is that it is an easy trap to escape from, as thousands have learned on their path from beginner to pro.

excuses

Resources

Read “How I Manage 1,000 Emails a Day

Read “What to do when you feel overwhelmed

Read “The Importance of Lightweight Touches

My friend, are you wondering why I asked you to visit this post?

If you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s because we didn’t hear from you for a few days. We tried to reach out to you, but you failed to get back to us.

And when you finally responded, you most likely attempted to justify your absence and lack of communication with a “valid” reason.

That’s why you’re here.

I created this post to show you where I’m coming from. I hope that by now, you understand why I am so critical about good communication.

This blog post is my best attempt to explain this most painful problem. I hope that starting today, you will work on your weaknesses so that we can get back on track.

Why Don’t You Start Now?

Do those five things, and you will see your teammates start applauding you instead of chasing you.

And you will be able to experience the awesome freedom of digital marketing instead of working in a dead-end job in some place you have to drive to each day and back, doing the same boring thing in an endless cycle.

If you want to grow, you are in the right place. And you should expect that learning new skills is a challenge you should be up to.

Now let us get going since the team and our clients are counting on you and rooting for you!

Ardeshir Kohnouri of GoBeRewarded: did you know that fake reviews hurt you, not the client?

Ardeshir Kohnouri of GoBeRewarded: did you know that fake reviews hurt you, not the client?

This PPC manager at GoBeRewarded, lashed out a former client. The client was mad at having spend $12,500 with this agency, getting no sales, and being locked into a 12 month contract.

So he left this review:

But what he doesn’t know is that’s against the Google Terms of Service to leave a fake review. He’s not a customer and had zero involvement with Philippe Coudoux of Balanced Body Massage.

He probably thought, “If I leave a one star review on Google, Facebook, Yelp, and other places, I can hurt this former client.”

But anyone who does a Google search can see that this guy works for the agency that got fired:

Ardeshir is a Google Ads Manager by profession, so he certainly should understand how easy it is for anyone to Google him and see he’s attacked a client that the agency mistreated.

Anyone who was looking to hire a marketing agency in North San Diego will probably think twice after seeing this misplaced behavior of one of their employees.

Ardeshir, you’re hurting your boss, Aaron Gobidas, who is also the sales guy for your agency. Now he has to try to clean this up, in addition to fixing the original problem of too much selling and not enough delivery– which is how Philippe’s livelihood got destroyed in the first place at your hands.

Over the last 25 years, I’ve seen a lot of people succeed and fail.

The #1 thing I notice beginners do, which experts don’t, is they focus on….

+ FANCY instead of the fundamentals. When we troubleshoot campaigns, 99% of the time, a bunch of fundamentals are missing. And it shouldn’t take an expert to notice what can be tracked via a checklist.

+ URGENCY instead of results. A fire drill is exciting and gives the semblance that things are happening. But don’t mistake commotion with progress.

+ APPEARANCES instead of progress. Are you focusing on how you look instead of getting the job done? If your perfect Instagram flex is ruined by getting dirt under your nails, you can still out-pretend the other fakers.

+ THEMSELVES instead of others. If you want to make a million dollars, solve a $100 million problem. When you lift up others and serve others, they can’t help but toot your horn, instead of you awkwardly tooting your own.

LEARNING all the time instead of trying to give advice on something you’ve never done yourself. The most successful people I know read 3+ hours a day and actively seek out other successful people.

Do you know someone who fits the description above of a successful person or a failure?

I’ve seen a lifetime of people fail hard and succeed wildly

What’s the difference?

ATTITUDE.

Because we all have ups and downs– don’t kid yourself about how “tough” you are.

Because you can’t know it all and avoid all problems– you need to be coachable and humble.

Because others will appear to be more successful and do so faster than you– cheer them on instead of harboring self-righteous jealousy.

Then when other people falter and when you falter– and yes, you will– your gratitude and coachability keep you afloat like a buoy in a storm ocean.