Return on Investment.
As a creative entrepreneur, I feel like this phrase should cross my mind more than it does…
I feel like I should be asking myself – clinically and objectively like a researcher in a lab coat – what exactly my return on investment will be with every teeny task I do.
What I realized recently, however, is that this phrase actually DOES cross my mind on a regular basis – it’s just not in the form of those exact words.
MY form of ‘return on investment’ sounds more like this:
“Why in the WORLD am I spending time on this?”
“Why is this important again?????”
“This is taking a LOT of time. This better be worth it…”
This is what I like to call the ‘ROI Funk’ – when I can’t remember the point of doing whatever it is that I’m doing, and I start sinking into a cloud of frustration.
This is when I feel like I should just throw in the towel, leave the task uncompleted, and move on to the next thing.
The Struggle is Real
This ROI Funk tends to happen for me in particular when I’m blogging and Instagramming (or ‘grammin as Jeff call it).
These are two areas of my business that I have a working love/hate relationship with.
I absolutely LOVE blogging and social media because it’s incredibly effective, but they are by far the most time-consuming tasks that I do.
I feel like the clock actually speeds up when I’m working on my blog or my Instagram feed.
Without fail, I’ll look up from my computer, and my precious morning has somehow slipped into my precious afternoon which has then somehow slipped into my precious evening…
ROI on Marketing?
The interesting thing about the ROI Funk is that it seems to happen almost exclusively when I’m working on tasks that have to do with marketing.
‘Marketing’, my dear friends, is not concrete.
It doesn’t have a clear start point and a solid end point where I can go to my wonderful to-do list, check off a box that says ‘Do Marketing,’ and happily say to myself, ‘done with marketing!’
Instead, ‘marketing’ is made up of an ongoing cycle of tasks – tasks that are very important.
And the more important the task, the more time-consuming it can feel.
When I feel lost in the mire of the ROI Funk and need to remind myself why marketing is so worth it, I turn to the notes in my phone where I’ve saved this phrase:
‘Dear Erin:
You will realize your Return on Investment in your marketing in the type of clients that hire you.’
My dear friends – the tasks that tend to trigger an ROI funk are not supposed to be quick and easy, because the most important tasks in your business require HEART.
The more time I spend investing my heart into my business, the more I will attract clients that love my heart-soaked approach.
[clickToTweet tweet=”The more HEART I invest in my business, the more I will attract clients that love my heart-soaked approach.” quote=”The more of my heart I invest in my business, the more I will attract clients that love my heart-soaked approach.”]
On the flip-side, if I don’t invest in focused marketing strategies or if I don’t put my heart into what I am doing, then I run the risk of attracting clients who don’t care about my heart-soaked approach.
The weddings that I get to blog are of couples that I ADORE because I put in the marketing work to attract them.
They are sweet, heartfelt, authentic, ambitious, and graceful people that bring overwhelming fulfillment to my life.
If the minutes slip into hours while I’m working on a task that will get me more of these ideal couples, then the investment is definitely worth the return.
So what are the tasks in YOUR business that will bring an ROI equaling more of your favorite clients? What can you be doing to attract them, book them, and serve them?
How do you remind yourself that marketing is worth it, and how do you pull yourself out of your own version of the ROI funk?
Hugs,
Erin