I’m sharing a cautionary tale in this episode of The Art of Online Business. For many online businesses, 2020 and 2021 were some of the best years of their business, however, those two years were an anomaly.
These times were unprecedented. People were working from home, kids were going to school from home, and everything was online. All of this created a gold rush of sorts for many online businesses.
The events going on in the world today are different than they were then and the things people are interested in online have evolved. There are a lot of online businesses that haven’t adapted to the world landscape and as a result, businesses are facing challenges.
You’ve got to be willing to adapt, innovate, and be different than other people. It’s more important than ever that you take the time to connect with your customers and see what they want so that you can decide what steps to take moving forward.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why 2020 and 2021 were out of the ordinary
- Why your strategies from those years won’t work today
- How world events impact business
- The importance of adapting your business tactics
- Simple things you can do to adapt
Links & Resources:
- The Art of Online Business website
- DM me on Instagram
- Visit my YouTube channel
- The Art of Online Business clips on YouTube
- Full episodes of The Art of Online Business Podcast on YouTube
- The Art of Online Business Podcast website
- Check out my Accelerator coaching program
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I use and love and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.
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Hey. Hey. What’s up, my friends? Rick I’m already here. Episode number 639 here on the podcast. And for today’s quick tip, I want to sort of share kind of a cautionary tale, if you will. And I’m not trying to scare you in any way, but the reason I wanted to share this with you is because I’m seeing this more and more and a I don’t want this to be you. And B, if you are doing what I’m about to share with you, that you can that this episode can bring a lot of awareness to to it and give you some pointers on making some changes. And so essentially for so many online businesses. 2020 and 2021 were some of the best years of their business. Right. Those two years is just an anomaly. Basically, those those two years are an anomaly of of a lifetime. People are stuck at home so much of the time. They had way more time on their hands. They were adapting to schools, going online, online, virtual teaching. And so all these changes made for kind of a gold rush for so many online businesses and. What I’m seeing right now is that a lot of online businesses are using the exact same tactics, exact same messaging as they did in 2020 and 2021 today. And if that’s you, you’ve got a disconnect going on, right? It might even be that you have the exact same offers that you did during 2020 and 2021.
And you very likely have a disconnect if if that’s you. Right. So just check this out. Like I pulled a bunch of news headlines from the past couple of years. Right? So 20, 20, election year, there were happenings and news all year, all year long around the election. Right. We all know what happened in March, the 2020 COVID hit World Health Organization declared declared a global pandemic. Lockdowns went into effect all across the world. The pandemic triggered a global recession. You know, this is all first half of 2020 schools went into online learning. There were the the terrible deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd. You know, they all tragically died. And then there were protests over racial inequality and injustice. They became all began all over the country. Right. And later in the year, US elections were held. The new president was elected obviously in. So that was 2020. Right. And that’s just like a smattering of I love that I just got smattering into a, to a podcast episode that was just a smattering of of news headlines. Right. In 2021 January, there were riots at the US Capitol. In March that ship got stuck and block the Suez Canal, which had a massive global impact on commerce and supply chains. Right in May there was a cyber attack on like the main pipeline of gas and diesel to the east coast of the US. And that went on for like a week. July of 2021, the delta variant came about in November of last year.
Us borders started to reopen to a lot of countries. And then here we are in in 2022, right? We’re three fourths of the way through the year. Russia invaded the Ukraine in February. We’ve got inflation at huge, huge highs and higher in some other parts of the world that we do here in the US and it’s very high in the US. There’s talks about a recession. There’s still supply chain issues because of the pandemic. Roe versus Wade was overturned by US Supreme Court. I don’t share all these things to bring doom and gloom or or bring us all down. But I share these things to let you know that what’s going on in the world today is very different than what was happening in 2020, in 2021. And also, in addition, the how people operate, if you will, and what they’re willing to put up with in the online space is so different and has evolved really quickly over the past almost three years now. Right. And so there’s a lot of online businesses right now that are not adapting to the current landscape. Again, both the world landscape and the online landscape and their businesses are experiencing challenges because of it. And, you know, in the online space, you know, the tactics and that sort of thing that have been prevalent for so long. And, you know, a lot of things that are just not they’re kind of like.
Gross. People are still doing the same types of things. And, you know, people in the online space are over it, right? Meaning especially with like launches and stuff like that. And people are not innovating and adapting. So so what’s the lesson here that I want to get across to you if you are still marketing your business the same way that you were in 2020 and 2021, your impact, your revenue, your profit margin, they are very likely going to suffer. Right if you are selling the exact same things today that you were in 2020, 2021. Then. You are not adapting. Now, I realize that’s a that’s a big statement, a generalization statement. Maybe you are selling the exact same thing, but you’ve like updated it based on the changes that are happened that have happened in the world over the past couple of years. Okay, cool. But I’m seeing this a lot where people’s messaging is the exact same thing it was a couple of years ago. They’re doing things the exact same way. They’re launching the exact same way, et cetera, etc.. And it’s it’s hurting the business. It’s hurting their business. And so what do you do if you are still operating like this? So number one. Okay, cool. We we can make a change going forward, right? And it’s a good lesson. The first and foremost thing that I want to recommend that you do is talk to your customers, talk to your audience and listen.
What are what are they experiencing right now in their life, in their business, depending on how you help them? Right. And what are their challenges? Like what what’s going on that you can help them with specifically? And very likely your messaging is going to need to change. And I’m not saying this to like make more sales. But then again, we are in business, right? And business needs revenue. And the fact that you are going to take the time to talk to your customers and connect with them and connect with your audience and listen to them. That’s one of the things that not a lot of people are doing that is going to allow you to be seen as somebody who actually cares about your person, about your people that you serve. Right. And based on this listening, you get to or you can choose not to adapt your messaging and maybe adapt your offer or offers to what the people that you want to serve need and how they want to be helped. You have to continue to innovate in your business. You have to be willing to change as things in the world are changing. Things in the online space are changing. And if you’re wondering why maybe you did a launch recently and it didn’t do as well as it did last year at this time, there’s probably, without even knowing anything about your business is probably a good idea. Probably. I can probably say that you are not adapting.
You didn’t. You’re doing the exact same thing. The messaging is still the same. You’re teaching the exact same way, etc.. Right. And for those of you who are constantly comparing results from this year to last year or this year to last year and a 2020, I really want to encourage you to stop comparing your results this year to the past two years. Again, the past two years are once in a lifetime things that were happening in the world. And I think that in the online space, a lot of necessary changes have happened as well. And so if again, if we’re not adapting to those things, then. Things are not things are going to be ah, things are going to be challenging, right? So I really want to encourage you to, to try I know it’s hard for so many of you to stop comparing results this year to last year because it’s a very different place now. And some very simple things that you can do if you’re not already is have conversations with your customers, have conversations with your audience, put time on your calendar to invite people to do a quick zoom call with you, talk to people, give them an opportunity to send you messages, you know, put speak pipe on on a web page on your website or something like that on a specific page and allow people to send you voice messages, whatever it might be.
Give them the opportunity to DM you on Instagram. I’m at Rick Muller. Do you want to send me a message? I read them. Listen to your customers. Listen to your audience. And do things differently and be willing to adapt and innovate. Again 2020, 2021 in terms of online business for so many people were frankly really easy years. It’s now we’re evolving. Now 2022 is not the same. Things are different. And you’ve got to be willing to adapt and to innovate and be different than other people. And be willing to change your change your marketing, change your messaging. So. Well, doom and gloom today, but also kind of a you know, hopefully this is a, you know, motivates you to think about how you are doing things in your business, how your messaging is, your offers, etc., and giving you. You don’t need my permission, but you’ve got my permission to make changes, right? You don’t need my permission, though. Hopefully this is a wake up call for some of you, and I just. I want nothing more than to see you succeed, which is why I share an episode like this with you. And then also, frankly, the 638 other episodes I do here in the podcast and the 639 future episodes that I’m going to be doing here on the podcast as well. Thank you, my friend, as always, for listening to the podcast today. I appreciate you have an amazing rest of your day. Chat with you soon.