3 DANGEROUS BELIEFS that PREVENT business owners from succeeding... The cost of Solution Hopping

What is up? In this video today, what I want to talk about is solution hopping, how this is hurting your business, and how to stop doing this so that your business can grow faster with less headache. This kind of came forefront to mind because I was having a conversation with a business that we were looking at taking on the other day. And this business in particular just installed a sales team. And they were looking at basically how that would increase conversions across the board for their company based on the cost of webinar sales, continued to rise. The traffic that they were getting was more and more expensive, which, you know, that's why they wanted to insert a high-ticket phone sales team. It's actually pretty typical right now just because costs are going up. And so this particular entrepreneur was basically saying that he didn't actually want to continue with the solution. And the reason that he didn't want to is, you know, it's just become much more of a headache than he expected it to be. And, you know, it's not happening as fast, it's too much of his involvement, etc., etc. You know, he didn't realize how much of a pain in the ass having a sales team was. And it is, obviously, if you don't know how to do it and you've never done it before. And so this is something that I noticed actually was a trend because another company that we talked to about a week ago, we set out a strategy for how they were going to monetize a skill that they had. The skill is based in brick-and-mortar business and we basically said, you know, there's 3 ways that we can monetize this. We picked one and they were actually just questioning if that way of monetization was the right one or not and considering going back to a different one that we had presented about a year ago. And what I want to explain is this is incredibly common and we all do this. And the reason that it is something that I see so clearly is because I have trained myself to see it in myself. And I think that this goes back to looking at other— if you could look at a different way or a different area of life that people do this, an example would be weight loss. You see people and they call them diet hoppers, right? And they go from keto to low carb to carb cycling to fasting to intermittent— like they try everything under the sun. And the reason for that is because Oftentimes, more than not, they're not experimenting. That's— a fitness person will experiment, but somebody who doesn't know, they usually just go to a solution, they realize that there is still pain, there's still discomfort, it is still hard, and then they jump to a different one hoping that it will have no pain, no discomfort, it won't be hard. And we do the same thing in business, and it's not because there's anything wrong with us, it's because we're humans and this is how our brains are programmed. And it's a lot of how society has brought us up, right? We just continue one thing for another, seeking comfort, seeking to not have any obstacles that forbid us from having what we want. And so what you have to realize, and what I have realized myself, is that there's never a solution that comes without problems. And so you're not actually deciding on what solution you want, you're deciding what problems you want. In actuality, say the first company I was talking about, the cost of the webinar sales was rising. And so the problem that they had there was that their return on ad spend was going down. The problem that they have now is that, you know, say the return on ad spend is now back to what it was, but now they have this pain in the ass essentially of what they have to deal with, right? It's more management, more oversight, etc. And so it's not which solution would you prefer, it's which problem would you prefer. Would you prefer to make less money? Would you prefer a pain in the ass, right? And so I think that if you can switch your frame to thinking in that, uh, from that point of view, that can help you and that will frame the rest of this video. So what I have realized is that there's 3 beliefs that prevent us from sticking with a solution. And these are the 3 beliefs that if you can break them for yourself, and if you can continually reinforce the 3 that I would replace them with, then you will be able to stop yourself from continuously solution hopping, continue to break your business, and not actually improve anything because you have no continuity if you switch solutions every 3 months. And so The first belief that people tend to hold when they solution hop is, "If the solution is not perfect, then it is not a solution." Okay, that's the first one. So really think about this. When's the last time that you found a perfect solution that wasn't something that would only be a solution in the short term, not the long term? Right? Because I think a lot of people, they'll be like, "Well, I could do, you know, I could drink a bottle of bourbon or I could take this pill or whatever." Yes, short-term solution, not long-term though. When's the last time that you found a solution that was actually perfect and completely solved the problem? Second belief that holds people back is that they believe that this solution alone should solve the problem in its entirety. What people are looking for is an off-the-shelf solution. They're like, I want to pick this solution and it solves this entire complex problem. That's the second piece. The third piece is that this solution needs to be easy, frictionless, and fast. And if it's not, it's not a solution. Those are the 3 beliefs that tend to hold people back and tend to create this very frenetic cycle of going from one solution to another, to another, to another. They're seeking something that is frictionless, it's easy, it's fast, this one solution can solve 7 of your problems, the whole problem in its entirety with all its complexity and all the years that have created the problem, and they believe it should be perfect, which means this problem should never arise again, we should never have setbacks, and it should always work. So when I say it out loud, it sounds ridiculous, right? But we do this in most areas of life and we do it in business all the time and it creates a lot of whiplash for your team. Here are the beliefs that you can replace those with and this will help you make better decisions about what solution you want to pick, slash, what problems you want to pick, and how to stick with something. So the first one is that no solution is perfect. Ever. Underlined ever. There is no perfect solution. Perfect solutions do not exist in life. I think we could all agree upon this. Anything that you pick, you will always have setbacks. Problems will always rise again. There will be new problems that come with that solution. And so it would be logical to say that no solution is ever perfect. The second belief is that this solution may only solve a part of the problem and not the problem in its entirety. I may need multiple solutions to solve one problem. Okay, so say that you don't know why your business isn't growing. And you're like, I think I need more marketing. And so you go and you hire a marketing firm and they get you more leads, but you're not making more sales because actually your sales team doesn't work well either. They don't know how to work leads. Okay, so you're trying to fix the problem of growing your business, but in actuality you realize that it's not just marketing, it's not just sales. Oh, and then there's customer service, which doesn't know how to service many customers. There's like 6 other things you need to fix. And so is it the marketing firm's problem? Is it their fault that this isn't working? Or is it that you haven't really thought through the solution in its entirety? And you haven't realized the scale of how many solutions you need to employ to fix this one problem. That's the second belief. So I think it would be logical to say that a lot of problems that we have in life need to be hit with different angles and there are multiple solutions to help solve one problem. And then the third belief is that this solution will come with its own set of pain in the asses, problems, obstacles, friction, right? And it will fail somewhere on the spectrum in terms of at some point in time it may not work, and that doesn't mean it's not a good solution. Right? That's just the nature of problems in life. And so if you look at this, you would say somebody who's on a diet, right? And they're like, they're doing this diet and it's working really well, and then, you know, say they're doing intermittent fasting and they just get so hungry one day and then they just end up eating a ton in the morning. And then they say, ah, intermittent fasting doesn't work. I need to go try something else. It's not the intermittent fasting. Work. It's that you were really hungry one day and you're a human and you're fallible and you failed to adhere to the plan, right? And so it's not that the solution doesn't work, it's that you had a setback. Setbacks are to be expected and normal with any solution you pick to any problem. And so if you constantly solution hop, then what happens is that your company, your business, and your team are going to constantly incur the cost of change without ever realizing the benefit of the change. Because you don't stick with it long enough to see it through. And so that is why this is so costly and it keeps businesses small because you can't follow through with anything because you have these irrational beliefs that these solutions that you are picking, these strategies that you are deciding on will solve everything, be easy, have no friction, no obstacles, etc. And that's just not how life works. And so if you can change yourself and if you can change your mindset to reframe this and understand that problems always exist and every solution comes with its own set of problems, then it is much easier to pick which solution you want to go with. And so here's how you actually pick a solution to go with. One, you want to rank each solution that is an option in your mind on a scale of 1 to 10 in 3 areas. Those 3 areas are: one, the spectrum it falls of easy to hard, right? So to execute this, how easy is it versus how hard is it? Where do you fall on that spectrum based on the strengths and weaknesses of your team and company? That's the first one. The second one is where does this fall on the spectrum of friction? No friction, tons of friction. Okay, so like say, you know, something where a tool that you want to use, but in order to use this tool, you have to completely integrate a new software into your CRM. Okay, that causes a lot of friction versus there's something that just is an API plugin that you can plug in. That's not much friction at all, right? So where does it fall on the scale of 1 to 10 in terms of friction? And then lastly, speed is how fast or how slow is the solution. And so if you rank all of the options that you have, what you'll probably see is that each one has one outlier, which is one that it is geared towards. Like it might be the fastest solution, but then it's weaker on the other two, or it might be the most frictionless solution, but weaker on the other two. And so then you have to decide which one aligns with your company values. Okay. So looking at where they fall on the spectrum, which aligns with the strengths and the competitive advantage and the values of your company. And that's the filter that you have to filter that through. Now once you've done that and you're like, I think this is number 1, here's number 2, here's number 3, then you want to say, okay, how can I test this solution without fully committing to it? How long will I test it for to know if it works or doesn't work? And then set that predetermined period of time. Say, I will try this solution this solution and this solution, and here's how long I will try each of them for, and then here's how I will determine what success is. So you have to determine what is success. Okay? And so what success might be is that you solve this problem over here even though you created 3 other little problems, but what's the biggest problem that you're trying to solve for and which one solves it to the greatest degree? Because the ability to solve a problem, it's not finite. You don't just solve a problem. It's how, to what extent to what extent does this solution solve this problem? To what extent do you have friction in solving this problem? To what extent is this fast or slow in solving this problem? To what extent is this easy or hard for my team to execute in solving this problem? And so that is how you actually solve problems. Now, where most people fall short and where almost everyone has, does, and will again because we are fallible humans is that they don't stick with the solution that they pick. Right? Eventually, and a lot of times what you're actually doing is that you are solution hopping, and what happens is that you are first doing it very frequently. So you might be doing it every couple weeks, every couple months, then it might be every quarter, and then every 2 quarters, and then every year. And so in taking the learnings from this video, I also want you to understand that success doesn't mean that you never solution hop again. Success means that the time between doing so increases. That's what you actually want to focus on is how less frequently can I change my mind and switch strategies. That's what you actually want to focus on. And that is how I would measure success for myself and how I would ask you to also measure it. So to recap this, okay, there are 3 beliefs that you often hold when you continue to solution hop in your company. The first one is that if the solution is not perfect, it's not a solution. Which we know isn't true. No solution is perfect ever, period. The second is that the solution alone should solve the problem in its entirety. Wrong. We know that most solutions solve part of the problem but not the problem in its entirety, and you often need multiple solutions to solve one complex problem. And then lastly is that this solution needs to be easy, frictionless, and fast. Reality is no solution is all easy, frictionless, and fast. To what extent is it easy, frictionless, or fast is what you have to measure and then determine based on that which solution is best for you and your problem and your company. And so I hope you take those 3 insights and you look at yourself right now and you say, where am I solution hopping? Where is my team solution hopping? And how can I communicate this to them, share this video with them, train them to think differently about how to solve problems so that we have less whiplash, less financial stress, less infrastructure stress all in our company. Because guys, every time you switch and you don't get the benefit, you're incurring that cost of change and you're putting stress on your business. Usually it's financial stress by spending resources and allocating resources where they're not needed. Usually it's team stress by basically giving whiplash to your team because they feel like they're going in every which direction. They feel lack of clarity. They feel stressed. They feel overwhelmed. And then lastly, it's system stress, which is you add in usually lots of different pieces of infrastructure, whether it be people, systems, processes, software. To solve something and then all of a sudden it's essentially irrelevant the next day and then you have all this leftover excess in your company. And so that is why it's so important to be able to make that frameshift and understand how to actually find and implement solutions and properly set your expectations. If you found this video valuable, hopefully you share it with your team. Also, go ahead, hit subscribe, and I will see you on the next one.