Yesterday, I played tennis with an 18-year-old kid. For context, I'm nearly double his age.
We started rallying. Then a few serves. Then we started a game. Over time, it became clear that he was the better player.
I tried removing all self-doubt. "Don't dwell on bad shots. Focus on every point."
I just couldn't close the game.
What happened?
I had not done the work. Being a good tennis player is hours and hours of practicing on the court. It's losing tons of matches. It's playing with many people with different styles. When a player wins a game, it has little to do with that day at all, and a lot to do with their preparation.
All success is a lagging indicator.
- If I get promoted at work, it's a lagging indicator of doing great work.
- If I have a successful product launch it's a lagging indicator of having a dedicated team spending night & day to building the product.
- If I have a beer belly, it's a lagging indicator that I've been going to the bar too much.
Despite his young age, the kid has been consistently taking tennis lessons and playing competitively for the last 12 years of his life.
On the flip side, I've taken group lessons for a year and played casually on the weekends for the past 3 years.
Who has better preparation?
What's this have do with marketing?
It's to realize that ALL success is a lagging indicator.
When a marketing campaign is successful, that's a lagging indicator that the marketing team behind it has been building the right skills and design the right marketing strategy.
This Should Keep You Moving
Part of the challenge is that all of us are built to want instant gratification.
We scroll social media because it gives us that instant dopamine hit. Drinking a nice cup of coffee gives us that instant relief. (I'm guilty of this)
We've been trained to look for things that give us instant results.
But in marketing (and business), you'll always want to look at the long-term. You don't post on social media for a week, and give up. MrBeast took 12 years to get to 100 million subscribers.
You have to realize that everything you do now – will determine success in a year or two, or more.
What keeps me moving is knowing that if I want to build an audience, is that I have to keep investing in building relationships with the handful of audience I have today.
The only question is am I doing the hard work now?
Last Chance: Search & Scale Starts this Wednesday
While all marketing success are lagging indicators, one that requires you to have an exceptionally long-term view is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Here's the thing.
Most of your competitors will ignore lagging indicators and turn to marketing strategies that provide instant gratification. It's a crowded space.
Not you. You're going to leverage the space most miss out on.
