Ok, go with me for a minute, folks.
I want to talk about how we buy pizza vs. how we buy digital influence. And I know you all know how to buy pizza.
Let's set the stage:
You're hungry. You're hungry for something delicious and cheesy. Something warm and toasty that's easier than just making dinner for yourself.
So, you call the pizza dude (name that 80's movie reference) and give them your address.
You wait.
The pizza's delivered to your door. Nice and hot.
You pay the abhorrently expensive bill (why is pizza so expensive anyway?)
You eat it. Probably for dinner AND breakfast the next day, if you're anything like my and my family.
And it leaves a mark on you so you know exactly what to do the next time you're hungry.
We all know how to buy pizza. Even before the pandemic, it was one of the only foods you could get delivered right to your door.
But we don't take the simple concepts like that and extrapolate them to the other things we want. Like digital influence for our businesses.
Ordering Digital Dominance
So, let's look at the areas in which "ordering" digital influence overlaps with ordering pizza.
It all starts with...being hungry.
Let's be honest, we've all bought lots of things that we didn't really want. Maybe we thought we SHOULD have it. Or maybe someone else told us we NEEDED it. Either way, we all have that stack of books, or clothes, or knickknacks that we don't really want and definitely don't need.
You don't order pizza because someone else tells you to order pizza. Only YOU can decide if you're going to have pizza. And if you want it, you might order it, and if you don't, you'll opt for something else.
And if someone tells you that you MUST have pizza in order to survive, we all know that's a load of bologna.
We only buy pizza when we WANT it.
When we're hungry for it.
The same goes for digital influence.
If you're not hungry for it, it really doesn't matter what other people say you should do.
Pizza, pizza...who's got the pizza?
Once you're decided you ARE hungry for pizza, there are still two options you have:
- Make it yourself
- Order it in
Making it for yourself involves: driving to the grocery store, buying all the ingredients, preparing the pizza, putting it in the oven, and waiting for it to cook,
There's a monetary cost of buying the ingredients. And there's also a TIME cost.
The ordering in option ALSO has all of the same costs, but someone ELSE is now responsible for handling them. So, there is also a CONVENIENCE cost associated with option 2.
Now personally, I'm a fan of making my own pizza (feels healthier somehow), but when we order pizza in, it's almost always because we want someone ELSE to do the work so we don't have to think about it. We pay them MORE money, because it saves us mental calories.
Building digital influence works the same way.
You can do it yourself without guidance. It still takes time, money and effort.
OR, you can "order it in"...AKA work with an expert in the arena. You'll pay them more for the CONVENIENCE of knowing what to do and what not to do, and they've already secured all of the ingredients for you.
But somehow, when it comes to buying expert services, suddenly we decide to make the pizza ourselves because it's cheaper. We're confidence we can figure it out, but we don't even have a recipe. And, then we forget the cheese, so it really doesn't end up meeting the objective of being something delicious and cheesy ;)
Convinced that you need an expert? But we're not done yet...
Either way, you WAIT
Back to the pizza. We opt to call the pizza dude. And then...
WE WAIT.
Pizza doesn't just show up at your door. You submit an order, then it needs to be prepared (in order of the queue), then it needs to be delivered.
That doesn't just happen in 2 minutes.
Even though you're hungry NOW.
It's the same with digital influence.
Even if you're hungry for it today, and you call the digital dominance peeps (I'd be happy to introduce you to some), it doesn't happen like that.
You have to do the things. You have to build your foundation. You have to have patience.
Only THEN do you get to reap the rewards.
Your Pizza is Delivered
Finally, your pizza is delivered, and you get to enjoy it...
But not before you PAY for it.
You don't get your pizza before you pay for it. And you don't create digital influence until you pay for it either.
Most people think that looks like "paying for digital ads". But a specific volume of digital ads isn't what creates influence in the digital world...
Relationships do.
So when it comes to paying for digital influence, the biggest investment is the one you make with your time in building relationships.
Only then will your pizza actually get delivered.
Because NOT making that investment is like ordering your pizza without giving them your address.
It may get delivered, but not to YOU.
A Critical Difference
The one critical difference we see here is...
YOU have no digital influence unless you show up and create it.
You may be able to just order in a pizza and JUST pay with your money. And there might even be people online who convince you that they can create digital influence for you by you JUST paying your money.
But then who has the influence?
The pizza place. Or the marketing agency.
I'm interested in YOU having the digital influence that YOU want. Not in you building someone else's digital influence. Which means, what you really need is a master pizza chef who will show you how to make you're best pizza, so you're PROUD of your pizza...even if it's different than everyone else's.
That's what using your personal brand to build your digital influence looks like 💖
I'm here for it.
Because YOUR digital influence is what allows your business to be the leader in your chosen digital space.
Get all your team members aligned? That's next level.
unknownx500
