🎯 Work Smart Wednesday - May 21, 2025
I broke my own rule (and I’d do it again), How to know if your audience is specific enough, and a quote on birds.
Work Smart Wednesday
👋 Hey there!
Here is your fortnightly dose of Work Smart Wednesday.
In these emails I will share with you 3 things to help you work smarter.
I’ve been ill for the past few days so this issue is coming later than normal!
1. 🪓 I broke my own rule (and I’d do it again)
I strongly believe it is better to create rules than to simply complete tasks. I have multiple rules I try and live and do business by. However, today I broke one of my rules. And for good reason.
One rule I try to live by states that I don’t miss twice; If I miss on a habit I do by darndest to make sure it doesn’t happen twice in a row. Another rule is that I should always respond to current clients first.
This is the second time in a row that I’m late sending WSW out. I missed twice in a row. But, I was right to miss it twice in a row in the circumstances.
As I mentioned last edition, I’ve been ill. I’ve also shifted my positioning. I’ve gone from “work less” to “build a calm business”, and it has really paid off. I’ve had a big influx of leads over the last week or so, and I’ve closed multiple deals.
I’ve been unexpectedly busier - more than I anticipated - at a time where I had reduced capacity. The onboarding period is always the busiest, lots of new clients mean lots of boundary setting and moving mindsets. While I stuck to my core principle that my health is my first foundation - I prioritise recovery over business - demand has driven my work time to be ruthlessly focused.
Even-over statements have helped me a lot with focusing on the work that matters.
In the example of this email, and the rule I broke that I’d break again, I chose to miss twice in order to properly service my currently clients and ready-to-buy leads.
This newsletter is designed for five things:
To improve retention of current clients.
To provide a soft entry point into my “ecosystem”.
To sharpen my mind and make me a better coach by writing to teach.
To give back. I write about things I wish people had told me when I first started many years ago, I strive to be the help I wish I'd had.
To convert mid-funnel leads into buyers.
I am sending this late as I chose to prioritise serving current customers/buyers even over contacting a larger amount of potential buyers. As the old saying goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
So yes, I’m late. But no, I don’t regret it.
Which rules do you live by?
Are you losing deals by always chasing potential rather than closing current opportunities? What are you going to do about it?
2. 🎯 How to know if your audience is specific enough
This week I've been helping a lot of people to hone in on their target audiences.
A question everybody asks is “how do you know when your audience is specific enough?”.
I have an easy answer: you know your audience is specific enough when you can find 10 highly-qualified leads within 2 minutes.
If that sounds unrealistic to you, I'd suggest you start with the following method:
Go to ChatGPT
Type in “Create a Google Xray search for (enter what you know about your target audience) on LinkedIn.”
Copy the techy-looking script ChatGPT gives you and paste it into a Google search. It will list loads of people who fit your target audience.
If you have already completed your Warm Outreach and want to go a step further, you can then install Apollo (the free version) and Apollo will give you their email addresses and numbers from LinkedIn. You can push that to a Google Sheet and work your way through the list using your strategy of choice.
Your audience isn’t on LinkedIn? You should still be able to do this exercise. If your audience is specific enough you will know what other online groups or physical locations they hang out in. You should still be able to find 10 people in 2 minutes.
Can’t find 10 people in 2 minutes that you're very confident would buy from you? Either your offer needs work or your target audience isn’t specific enough yet. Likely the latter.
You can brute force finding an audience through trial and error, or you can reply to this email and I will let you know if your audience is specific enough and how to fix it.
Give the Xray search I mentioned above a shot, then let me know how you feel about your target audience.
Mini Bonus
I saw this ad today and thought it was great. Excellent use of AI. I wanted to fit it into this email somewhere, but rather than shoehorning it in with a full point I decided to just paste it here for you to see. Enjoy!
Link if preferred: https://www.facebook.com/ContentCreatorCommunity/videos/685256300890025/
Video below (90 seconds):
3. 💡 Quote I'm pondering
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” - Proverb
It is simpler and more profitable to capitalise on your existing opportunities than it is to create or chase new ones.
This is something I see entrepreneurs get wrong ALL THE TIME.
They chase new clients, when retaining their current clients would be far easier and more profitable.
They put off improvements to wait until their plans are perfect. Plans are never perfect, get it done now.
They ignore their email list to focus on building a bigger audience. Most influencers are broke. You want customers, not followers.
They obsess over launching a new product or offer while neglecting the one that already works. Double down on what works.
They delay follow-ups with leads who’ve shown interest while spending hours creating new content to “attract” more leads.
I’m only human and I also sometimes catch myself looking enviously at a shiny new thing. I know better, I remind myself about the birds.
👋 Want to work together?
When you're ready, here's the best way to get my help:
🔍 Clarity Call - We will discuss your business and create a step-by-step action plan together so you know exactly what you need to do next for maximum impact.
🆕 What I did instead
I’ve been ill the last two weeks which wiped out a few days. However, I was keen to make the most of my healthy days after having been stuck frustrated resting in bed.
Here are some photos of things I have done in the past two weeks with my free time, the things I chose to do instead of working more.
What did you do with your free time?
What did you think about how I spent my free time?
What would you like to do more of if you had more time?
Let me know in the comments below or by replying to this email.
That's it! I can't wait to hear what you think. What did you find most useful? What do you want more or less of? Reply to this email now and let me know.
Also, if you have anything interesting to share, I want to know about it😊
Have a great week,
John
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