Here’s something you discover as the parent of young children… The majority of your childless friends fall away after you have kids.

And where does this leave you in the social order? All of your acquaintances are now “parent friends.”

These folks are the parents of your kid’s friends, who you wind up hanging out with all the time by default as you ferry your children back-and-forth to school and to their endless retinue of “activities.”

Now, if you’re lucky, at least a few of these people turn out to be solid human beings. And in my case, I scored BIG TIME! How so? I’m blessed with a best parent friend, a fellow we’ll call Dan.

Dan is irrepressibly charming, thanks mainly to his endless font of amusing quirks. Not least of which is his strident hypochondria.

There’s ALWAYS something wrong with Dan. His most recent ailment? An apparent torn meniscus that requires surgery.

Unfortunately, the procedure was delayed. A turn of events that left Dan behind to recover while his wife and son (one of my son’s oldest friends) went ahead on a long-planned trip to Israel to stay with family for the entire summer.

Upon her departure, Dan’s wife implored me to “Please visit Dan and bring lunch! He’ll be stuck in the house all alone for a few weeks recovering before he joins us.”

Of course, Dan being my best parent friend, I was psyched to hang out! What could be better than spending a whole day with my best parent friend?

But when I texted Dan about what he wanted for lunch, his reply was…

“Burgers, pizza, sandwiches, Ethiopian, Mediterranean, you pick!”

I have to pick… Really!?

I had absolutely no idea what to get…

Burgers? But I don’t eat red meat. And Dan’s wife and son are strict vegans (so he sort of is too by default, which made burgers seem like a bad idea).

Pizza… With what toppings? What style? And from where?

Sandwiches, like deli sandwiches? And what does he want on his sandwich? The options boggle the mind.

Pre-pandemic, we went out for Ethiopian all the time. But does take-out Ethiopian really travel well, with all those goopy veggie dishes sloping around?

And Mediterranean… What kind of Mediterranean? The menu options are infinite.

Suddenly, what I’d initially thought would be a fun afternoon was on the verge of sending me into a complete panic spiral.

The Same Thing Happens to a Lot of Small Business Owners When it Comes to Marketing…

There’s always soooooo much to do in managing your marketing. And this comes on top of all the other business-related tasks heaped on your to-do list.

To make matters worse, every task feels like you should have done it yesterday.

And there’s no obvious starting point.

With this kind of baggage weighing down the process, it’s no wonder so many small business owners struggle so mightily with marketing.

The angst often results in complete avoidance. A misguided move that ultimately hinders your business.

So, What’s The Solution?

Break down your marketing into bite-sized chunks. You create smaller, more manageable portions by slicing up the monolith of too many tasks to manage.

How?

Make a List of All Your Marketing Tasks

Now, be careful here. Listing everything out in one long array can also induce a panic attack.

Just keep in mind, this is merely an inventory. You don’t have to tackle it all now. In fact, there is no specific timeline.

We’re just looking to get a handle on what you need to address.

Prioritize Your List

This portion of the process is actually twofold.

First, arrange your list into three categories:

• Urgent
• Important, but not urgent
• Needs to get done, but not important or urgent

And once you have your tasks outlined in your three categories, organized each category by difficulty level, going from easiest to hardest.

Start With Your Easiest Tasks

Do you know what fuels procrastination more than anything? Staring down a difficult to manage, tough to accomplish task.

It’s like standing at the base of Mount Everest and asking yourself: “How am I ever going to climb this monster!?”

And all too often, that inner voice you just addressed with this rhetorical question responds: “You’ll NEVER do it. Just give up now.”

Advice that you unfortunately heed, which leaves your marketing further neglected.

To avoid this, start with the easy stuff. The logic here is to get in a few quick wins. Because when you knock out a few easy tasks, it starts to feel like you’re o a roll. And your confidence grows.

Then all of a sudden, that Mount Everest task you were dreading doesn’t look so insurmountable.

Celebrate Your Progress

Check the items off your list, both easy and challenging, and acknowledge your progress.

This shows you’re making headway, and your list is shrinking, which feels good.

Celebrate that with yourself, your team, your spouse, your friends, whoever. Acknowledging accomplishments propels you forward, activating the hunger to achieve even more.

The Key to Making This Strategy Work…

In a word, it’s Consistency.

If you create and prioritize your task list, start with the easy stuff, and celebrate your progress, you’ll feel a sense of momentum. Hold on to that feeling and capitalize on it.

Think about riding a bike down a hill. Once you start, if you stay the course, you just keep on rollin’. But if you turn to the left or right or hit the brakes, you lose your momentum.

So once you start rollin’ downhill with your marketing efforts, don’t lose your momentum.

And Also, Ask For Help When Warranted

You may not be able to manage some of the marketing tasks on your list.

When it comes to urgent tasks that absolutely need to get done ASAP, you may not have time to do it yourself.

And many “need to get done, but not important or urgent” tasks may not be worth your time. Better to pass them off to someone else while you focus on more critical, higher-value work.

In any of these situations, you’d be wise to hire a freelancer to help. Someone like me!

So, if your marketing to-do list is overflowing and you’re worried you’ll never reach the end — We should chat!

Get in touch here: 310.466.7893 | ryan@ryananys.com