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The relationship I want to discuss today is one that I have lived. I have been aware of this but didn’t put an actual name to it until Dr. Sean Pastuch brought it to my attention during my appearance on the Active Life Podcast. And he said it came from Adee Cazayoux.

I am not positive where this idea originated from, but it’s apparently called the “Success Funnel” and my plan today is to discuss my experience with this idea.

So on that podcast with Sean, I had mentioned that I had hired a branding specialist to finally get a logo and legitimize my brand. Up to this point, five years in, I had jimmy-rigged my brand. Literally EVERYTHING you’ve seen up to this point was just me dinking around in Adobe and Canva in attempt to create a recognizable brand. Which was fine.

But that is no longer acceptable to me or, I believe, my audience and where I want to go. THAT, is where Sean mentioned Adee telling him about the Success Funnel.

If you picture a funnel on it’s side, you’ve got one end with a big ol’ opening, and the other end with a defined itty bitty tiny point.

The wide open end is were we start. That can be in literally ANYTHING NEW. Learning a new skill, starting a business, learning a new job.

Obviously in our example, the success funnel is in regards to building a brand or business. In the beginning, in the open end, there is room for much more error and low quality.

That’s where “just start” comes from. There is less to lose, more room for error and lower quality of content production. Now, you can have high quality content when it comes to value, but not necessarily the production OF said content, right?

So don’t get that twisted.

This idea of the success funnel and the relationship between room for error, quality, and success is an important one to grasp, I think.

Like I said, I’ve lived this without realizing I lived it and am living this now.

For me, the fact of the matter is that in order to move forward in my business, it is no longer acceptable to not have a legitimate brand.

There are stages of business – embryonic, adolescence, and adulthood. Sure you could argue there are phases in between and after those, but for now, let’s stick to those three.

I also address pre-conception and conception when I breakdown my years in building a business. The point is, that in each of these phases, there are things that don’t matter in one phase, but have to matter in other phases.

And let it be clear that what I do in my embryonic and adolescent phases is not what you will do. Not completely. Every business is different.

You may start your business with a complete brand and gorgeous logo immediately. I don’t believe it’s needed in order to build a business and make money. But when you reach a point that you have multiple offers in an offer suite, a full blown website, and are on multiple platforms…it becomes an expectation that your brand is recognizable and cohesive. That it feels put together. It elevates your brand to the next level for sure. And is absolutely a part of separating yourself within your market place.

So you can choose to brand at different stages of business, but there comes a point where it is an expectation. It’s somewhat unacceptable to not be branded. This is OF COURSE, subjective.

I know that I have not purchased from coaches based on not fully grasping their brand even though I know they make six figures or have reached some level of success. But I am over here with the thought that it is unacceptable for them to not be professionally branded. And I have gone with other people, who provide the same value, but have a definitive brand.

Does that make sense? I hope it does.

As you get deeper into the success funnel, further away from the large opening, and closer to the point, certain things become less acceptable, and expectations go up.

That’s a part of growing an expert brand. Continuing to improve and raise expectations. You do that for yourself, but know that your audience is doing the same.

That is why myself and other business coaches say that you don’t need a full website, or beautiful website, or logo, or large following to START your business.

LISTEN TO ME NOW…you very well may need those things to GROW AND SCALE your business. Those are different things. Starting and scaling are not in the same stages business, right?

Again, certain things are fine in the embryonic stage of STARTING a biz. Those same things will not get you from embryonic to adolescent stages.

And of course, if you have a shit program, poor client experience or aren’t consistent, you’ll stay in that large opening of the funnel forever. What gets you from point a to point b won’t get your from point b to point c, and so on and so forth.

Now that you grasp the idea of the success funnel, I want to also make clear that error is inevitable. The scale of those errors may look different. And the acceptability of those errors may look different as you move through the funnel. The consequences for error certainly become more serious as you progress as well. With great influence comes great responsibility.

But perfection is not expected at the beginning or peak of this success funnel – not in my funnel anyway.

And I think the idea of perfection, especially in business, is more often than not, a hindrance. It’s rarely in your favor. I mean, perhaps the pursuit of perfection with the understanding that failure or error is a huge part of that process is a different story. But I have not seen that quality in any entrepreneur who is in pre-conception, conception or embryonic stages of business.

The sooner you can accept and welcome failure, the sooner you start making serious gains in your business.

Error and failing is simply learning, so you can move further down the funnel into higher level of success.

Keep in mind also, that success looks like revenue, more efficiency, scaling, going evergreen, whatever you desire your business to do. Reaching those milestones are your version of success. In my brain and understanding, your success funnel could look different than my funnel.

As far as quality goes – it matters. It especially matters as you grow and more clearly define your brand.

You should not look back on your work from three years ago and think that you would not change a thing about it. Whether that’s the actual content, the design, or any other form of quality. 

Review of the week comes from sarahd722 and says,

“I love listening to Annie’s podcasts and the advice she gives. She’s a super smart lady & I love her perspective on things. I am an aspiring exercise/nutrition coach & I definitely will be taking notes on all things business (I’ve never known much about business & am so glad I found her) I binge listen to her podcasts while I’m working on my in-laws chicken farm haha.”

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