How To Solve Problems and Grow Your Skool

Nick Maier

Oct 6 in Other

How To Solve Problems and Grow Your Skool - FAST

problems are an inevitable part of life ... especially business

the rate of our growth depends on our ability to solve problems

the faster we identify and solve the problem - the faster we grow

but the essential step isn't actually SOLVING the problem

the essential step is this 👇

IDENTIFYING the actual problem

solve the wrong problem and the CORE problem still remains

this means there's still a limit to the rate of growth we can experience

what we're really looking for inside our businesses is the CONSTRAINT

what's slowing, or stopping, the growth?

solve that, and the flow naturally picks back up

I was introduced to the "theory of constraints" by a past mentor

they described to me how business can be viewed like a production line

one person puts the show on the conveyor belt
one person puts the sole on the shoe
one person puts the shoelaces on
one person puts the logo on
one person does a final check

if at any point, someone is slower than needed - the system is constrained

remove that constraint, and flow occurs again

oftentimes in business - the problem you think is the problem isn’t actually the problem

there are A LOT of things to do

there are A LOT of different things to consider

there are A LOT of different variables at play

… what avatar

… what channels

… what offer

… how will I help them

… why should they listen to me

all GREAT questions!

— and all of them need solving

I get that

… but which one needs solving first?

it’s those that moment that your judgement is the best tool you have

and your judgement is most potent when it’s dealing with objective reality

not when it's being subjective and trying to THINK through the process

“the mind” is what slows us down

all its thoughts, opinions, assumptions and beliefs

“the mind” is a terrible place for thinking

it often gets us into trouble - BIG trouble

and to get out of it we have to have better judgement …

which means, better data

one of my past clients was a property investment coach

they’d grown to $50k/mo and had been stuck their for a few months

everything they’d tried to break through hadn’t worked

they were running ads to a free training, getting applications, booking in calls, and selling $10k coaching packages

it was working well

great flow of leads
great costs
great closing %’s

many would look at this and think increasing the traffic volume was the solution

and that’s what they kept trying to do

they’d push more budget to the ads and costs would skyrocket

they’d try testing new ads and nothing would stick

they’d try to optimise the funnel and conversion rate would drop

when I came in, I looked at everything and was shocked

the answer was obvious

… to me at least

but it was hidden in plain sight to them

they were too close to everything

they were inside the bottle ... and that meant they couldn't see what was on the label

and it made sense

the feedback from the advertising team was 👇

the lead volume is great
the lead cost is great
the lead quality looks great

and the feedback from the sales team was 👇

the lead quality is great
the sales conversion is great
WE NEED MORE SALES CALLS

the one place they forgot to look?

show up rate …

… I know, right?

their show up rate was 20%

they didn’t need more leads like they thought they did

they just needed more of them to show up to their call

a simple email + SMS sequence later, and within the week 75% of people showed up

this evened out to ~50% over the rest of their month

the result?

they did $125,000+ the first full month after the new show up sequence was put in place

no additional ad spend
no extra sales team needed
no massive changes to the funnel

now, when we did manage to increase lead flow by finding ads that converted better - they experienced non-linear growth

within 4 months they’d stabilised at $60k/wk

we'd solved the core constraint of their business at that moment in time

no the constraint was different

… they needed a new sales team member to handle additional calls

this is why I’m such a big fan of data and simple, logical progressions

it levels the playing field by removing all assumptions, opinions, and beliefs …

… and makes us deal with reality

instead of stressing over your VSL, get some damn traffic to your site first
instead of worrying about what to put in your classroom, get people in and create proof of concept
instead of analysing the best channels to market on, spend an hour researching where your ideal client actually spends time online

the playbook is actually really simple

there’s a sequential way to do things to grow your skool community

a way to line the domino’s up before you knock them down

a way to collapse time on your path from A to B