Hey friend, welcome back to another episode of The Heather Sager Show. We're here to talk about your voice and making sure that you embrace your voice as your best brand asset.
Now on today's episode, we're going to take a little bit of a different approach. I was going through my old video archives, and I found a Facebook live I did here just a, I don't know, within the last couple months and I felt like it was really relevant for us to talk about this topic today. We're talking about shiny object syndrome. We're going to hit on that for just a moment and then I'm going to flip it over to the recording of that Facebook live because it is that good.
I'm sharing with you when things come across your email, or your news feed , or social feed or whatever else, there is a tendency for us to go like, Ooh, what's that?, and then go down these rabbit holes and get really interested and excited. Honestly, it serves as a form of procrastination of us not doing the things we need to be doing in our businesses. It's shiny object syndrome. We all know it to be true. We all do it.
I find that there are a few specific questions that are like not overly complicated, like seriously easy questions. You're going to laugh at how simple they are at , but just because there's some common sense, doesn't mean it's common practice. Shout out to my favorite quote, Will Rogers. I want to give you some tools to diffuse , like take the sheen off of that shiny object so you can make a good and strategic decision for whether or not you need that sexy sparkly shiny thing right now.
Is it serving you? Are you swept up in what's happening? A little controverse here for a sec, but one of the reasons why I wanted to talk about this today, like in the timing. The time this episode comes out will be September 2nd and one of the largest online marketers in our space is gearing up for their launch. You and I both know it, Amy Porterfield with Digital Course Academy. I'm an affiliate.
I've been talking about it for, I don't know, six weeks, but here's the thing, so are 300 other people. There are so many affiliates for this program and our newsfeeds are going wild with everybody's sharing all the things. As an affiliate for the program, it'd be very easy for me to lay out the strategy and tell you how you need the pro. I'm not going to do that. Here's the thing. I want you to get really clear right now and in the next two weeks of what are you focused on with your business?
If having a digital course, having a sustainable way to grow and scale in your online business, being able to take your expertise and move away from the one on one work or move out of your nine to five and have something that gives you the flexibility. Oh my God, freedom and flexibility is frexibility. That's our new word. It's like our new secret Heather Sager Show word, we'll add that to the list.
But to have frexibility in your life, like if that's something that you've been thinking about for a while , pay attention to the launch. If you want to join, she's got a brand new webinar coming out next week. It is so good like you need to, if you have not experienced Amy Porterfield webinar, you need to. I'll put the link to it in the show notes. If you register through me, you'll also get exclusive access to when I do come out with my bonuses that I'll have for Digital Course Academy.
Spoiler, they're all gonna be about you stepping up onto virtual stages and Facebook lives and all the things in a confident way, getting over your fear, all of that.
But if you want to do that, if you've been thinking about for a while , then this is the time to explore it, so you can check that out in the show notes, I'll have the link right there, just like scroll down in your app.
However, I'm going to tell you, if you already have a digital course that's performing well. If you had no interest whatsoever, but all of a sudden you're feeling swept away. This is where the controverse comes in, because I don't want you to get distracted. If business is working and you're happy with where you're at, you need to put your blinders on and keep marching.
This is me giving you the permission that you know you don't need, but kind of needed the kick in the ass, telling you it's okay if you don't invest in these big launches. You were not getting left behind. Nobody is saying that you're not at the cool kids' table like don't get caught up in the head game that we all run into when it comes to these really big launches. I want you to believe in yourself, believe in the goals. You're on the path that you're on.
If you're not happy with your results and you think that this could be a good option for you then for the love of cheese, explore it, but don't allow yourself to get caught up in the fricking FOMO and shiny object like, that is not going to serve you. I want you like mentally prep here , friend, like get ready for it because if you're in this world, you already have seen it. I know you've seen all the people posting the same images, the same graphics.
It's just, it's the game that we're in and you have to be the CEO of your own business and make smart decisions, which means you need to learn how to diffuse the bomb of shiny objects and get really clear and march forward.
I am sure this is probably the weirdest way for someone to promote a program, but it's like the anti-program promotion, but like people shouldn't sign up for programs who generally don't need the program and don't like , want it right now.
This is a program that you should jump into and take action now. If you're like kind of, 'one day maybe a digital course,' no! Put your energy elsewhere. Focused on your immediate goal for the next six to 12 months. If this is it, jump in. Grab the link down in the show notes. If not, let's equip you with how you're going to navigate shiny object syndrome now, but also ever, like this comes up all the fricking time.
Okay. I think you're going to love this episode, five specific questions that you can use on yourself. Also, you can use to coach your friends when they're going through shiny object syndrome too . I hope these will help you and I am just so excited for the focus you're going to have once you're equipped with them. All right , let's jump right to it.
Welcome back to another week . We are chatting about a super important topic today and that's shiny object syndrome. Now, the reason why I thought this was super important today, because in the last couple of weeks, I've received quite to view voxers from my peers and a few of my students asking me for my input on whether or not they should join a program or say yes to another opportunity.
I realized that, you know, oftentimes when we're we're faced with an exciting new and fresh thing, it's kind of hard to make a decision that we feel good about because sometimes we don't trust that we're making the right decisions because we can get swept up in the sexiness of marketing. We can get caught up in the idea of something, which seems much more attractive than our initial plan that we had in the first place, but that's not to say all new, exciting things coming our way are bad.
Sometimes we have to be really open to new opportunities that come in. The question is, how do you actually determine if you're getting caught up in shiny object syndrome, or if it's actually an incredible opportunity that you should say yes to that is going to help you further along in your business. That's what we're gonna dive in today.
I'm going to share with you five specific questions that I ask myself and that I encourage my friends and peers when they ask me for my advice on whether or not they should say yes to a shiny object, and I'm going to share them with you. If you're new around here, I'm Heather Sager. Welcome to the group or my page if you're watching here.
I'm a speaking coach for online entrepreneurs and I help you get clarity on your message and communicate in a way that inspires your audience to take action and along the way, grow your business.
Every week here, I show up live giving you tips and strategies for you to show up in a more magnetic way for your audience. I hope you join us again next week, or check out the archive for the earlier episodes available in the video section on this page.
Now, when it comes to shiny object syndrome, let's just jump through it today and make this quick and actionable for you.
When it comes to saying yes to opportunities, the thing that I think that we face a lot as online entrepreneurs is getting swept up in marketing funnels of other coaches and course creators that a re really damn good at what they do and help us see that we need their products or programs, or we get swept up i n thinking that, Oh my gosh, if we don't chase down certain opportunities, w e're going to be left out.
What I want you to start thinking about today is if you're an online business, you also have to see yourself as a marketer and you know how marketing works. You connect with your audience. You go to them there and then you help them see a different path and then shape the way of the actions they take.
It's not a sketchy thing. That's not a bad thing. It's how you help people, how you serve people for with your products or programs that you know they already need, but we all know how marketing works. Yet, we still get caught up in it. I don't know, I love being marketed to. I like seeing how other people run their businesses. I also like when products and programs that I need, find me.
I'm thankful for that , but I'd be lying if I said I didn't got caught up in those marketing messages sometimes where they convinced me that I might need something that I truly deep down know I didn't need.
This last week, a little tongue tied today. This last week, this happened to one of my students in Speak Up to Level Up. She was struggling because , a dear friend of mine was running a program. Cart was open. I'm a testimonial on that and she saw me on the sales page and she reached out and she's like, Heather, Oh my gosh, I see you on there. I feel like I needed this program. Gosh, the emails are so good. I need to jump in on it. What's your opinion?
It would have been really easy for me to say, Oh my gosh, you should totally jump in the program was phenomenal, but instead I responded with this one simple question, what's your number one business goal for the next six months? That changed the conversation. This is question number one, that I'm gonna encourage you to ask yourself when you're faced or tempted with what seems like a shiny object.
Not saying that that course was a shiny object, but when we get excited about something or something is placed in front of us, we need to slow down and step away from all of the conversations going on and get really present with ourselves and with our current strategy and say, what is my top goal for the next six months?
When we get present to that, we get present to the goals that we've already laid out for ourselves then we can start making non-emotional decisions and strategic decisions for ourselves and in our business. Question number one, what are my specific goals for the next six to 12 months? You pick the time frame.
I like to keep an immediate focus because if I don't, what happens if I push things so far out, I usually say yes to things and make room for them, but really I know I don't have room for them so I like a six month window. That's usually what I ask myself, so that's question number one. Then question number two in follow up is, how does this thing that your thinking about, this project, this opportunity, this course, this program, whatever it is, how does that help or hurt your goal?
The specific goal that you just said, here's the thing that I'm after for this year, how does this product, program, or course whatever it is, how does that help or hurt your goal? Answer that for yourself. Get really clear with that and not like around about fluffy way of like, I know it's going to help down the long term . If you said, for example, if you said your number one goal this year was to build your email list up to 2,500 people.
That is your number one goal, and you are getting really distracted about a course for, I don't know, using Tiktok. I'm sure that's a really great thing, but like ask yourself, is getting distracted by figuring out how to use Tiktok, is that really going to help you build your email list? Now I don't even know Tiktok. I don't know how to log in it . I just don't understand it. How embarrassing, but I don't know. I'm sure there's a strategy to grow your email list.
The question to ask yourself is doing that going to help you achieve your goal? Is that the strategy you're going to use or do you already have access to tools and resources that will help you accomplish your goal, but you're just getting bored of them or you're in that messy middle where you just kind of don't want to do it anymore, but it's in that messy middle that you need to push through because that's when you start seeing real change.
Just know how is this thing going to help or hurt your bigger goal. If you're not clear on that bigger goal, you can't really answer that question. Okay. There's two questions. Question number one, what's my immediate goal for the next six to 12 months. Question two, how does this shiny object help or hurt that goal? Question three, what do I have to give up to make room for the shiny object? What do I have to give up for this? Here's the thing.
When we lay out goals, we lay out projects and we lay out things in our business. There is only so much time in a day, only so many things that can actually earn your attention. When you choose to put your attention on something new, you're also choosing to remove your focus from something else. You have to ask yourself, what are you giving up to say yes to this shiny object? Now that might be a good thing.
You might've already identified that this thing helps your goal, but you also need to be really clear with yourself around what are you giving up? Then the next question is, but what am I going to gain from it? What am I going to gain from this shiny object? Going back from it, I'm going to use this Tiktok analogy. Again, I know nothing about Tiktok and its connection to list building, although I'm sure it's there.
Let's say, okay, what am I going to give up for focusing on this course on Tiktok? I don't know . I'm gonna give up my intentional time on learning how to use Instagram, better for growing my list and getting leads from there. Okay, but what am I going to gain? Oh my goodness, there's all these untapped resources and people are, I don't know, like going viral on Tiktok. That's how, like that's how unfluid I am on Tiktok, people. This is a great example.
You're going to notice like, Oh my gosh, here's the positive things that I'm going to get and then you have the pros and cons that you can evaluate so that you can make a sound decision. You're asking one, what's my six, 12 month goal, Two, how does this help or hurt that goal? Three, what am I going to gain from it and then what am I going to give up? All of this is to come back for you to make your own decision.
That decision is if I'm going to be real honest with myself, if I was being brutally honest with myself, what does my gut tell me? Because here's the thing friend, when it comes to making decisions in our lives and our businesses, we can line up the pros and cons all day long and I think we should. We also have to be really in tune with listening to our gut.
I don't know about you, but my gut has never steered me wrong and whenever I choose to ignore it, bad things happen or I have misses and it just doesn't quite work out right when I go against my gut. I think the same is true for you. The best way for you to determine whether or not something's a shiny object or a smart decision in your business is yes, go through the process.
Ask the four questions to evaluate the pros and cons so you can make a well-formed decision and then get real quiet and ask yourself. You know deep down what the decision is. You know that deep down, if you should or shouldn't do it. Trust that gut and then follow it. But most importantly, don't second guess it. Shiny objects aren't going anywhere. I love shiny objects. I love a little glitz, a little glamour .
I think things staying fresh in our businesses is really, really important because quite frankly, a lot of times the things that we do, we are on rinse and repeat and do them over and over against. We have to find new and creative ways to keep things fresh for ourselves and for our audience. But running a business also means that you have to be really clear with yourself around staying in the course, staying focused on your strategies. Sure, you need to be nimble.
You need to be flexible and adjust when life happens. Hello, 2020 has been the year where we've all had to adjust, but also we have to recognize the difference between adjusting our focus for the right reasons versus getting distracted by shiny objects, because somebody else is really good at making their thing, look like the priority.
You know your priorities. You know your goals. Stick with them, stay focused and make smart decisions. If you like what I'm talking about here today within Shiny Object syndromes , I know one of the shiny objects that I hear often given my audience is people looking to do speaking. They want to know like, Oh my goodness, what's the next thing I should be focused on. Should I go chasing podcast ? Should I start doing Facebook lives? Should I start doing a YouTube channel?
Should I, should I, should I? It's all these different opportunities once you start chasing them.
I want to caution you also don't get distracted by shiny objects and start chasing all these speaking opportunities just because you can, or because someone like me said there is a wealth of opportunity in speaking. You have to get present and understand why you're speaking in the first place cause it has to connect back to your goals.
If it is something that you're looking to grow your authority, if you're looking to grow your email list, if you're trying to get more people engaged with your content, speaking just might be a thing that can help you. But what I'm going to say is you want to make sure that you have a guarded place to ward off those shiny objects syndrome, the shiny object opportunities and make the right opportunities for your business and your strategy.
If you want help finding that lens of what's right for you to figure out what your strategy might look like, guys, I think you're going to love my free guide. If you haven't gotten it already, it's been around now for a few months, so you just might have it, but it's called the Five Steps for Speaking on Stages. It's my roadmap just for online entrepreneurs also, who has a clipboard at their desk, this gal. I think you should go download it.
It's just five simple steps that you need to get in place so that you have a solid strategy for speaking. I would say having your strategy is going to be the antidote for getting distracted by all these glitz and glamour opportunities that might come.
Just to give you a quick example in the last eight weeks, I've had dozens of opportunities come across my inbox, not to say I'm all super fancy, but I get a lot of requests for people asking me to be on their podcasts or me come guest speak at their events.Quite frankly, a lot of them are not opportunities that align with my business goals that I've laid out for this year.
But if I wouldn't have done the work and have the forethought to say, okay, here's exactly where I'm going and what I'm after this year in terms of building my brand and my business, I would have said yes to all of them.
By saying yes to all those opportunities, I would have been saying no to the things that were important, like creating great content for my audience, like showing up on the podcast, like facilitating Q and A's within my paid programs, things that I've already committed to and things that are in direct alignment with my business strategy for this year, all at risk, if I would have ignored or if I would have said yes to the shiny object, so get in track with it.
Get your shiny object syndrome under control.
Here again are the five questions that I encourage you to ask anytime you're faced with the bling. One, what's your bigger goal? What's your six to 12 month goal? Number two, how does this specific shiny object fit into that? Does it help? Does it hurt? Number three, ask yourself, what do I give up by saying yes and what do I gain by saying yes to this opportunity? Lastly, trust your gut. Your instincts, your gut intuition has served you well this far in your busines so listen to it.
Get really clear, really honest with yourself and say, is this the right decision for me right now? I hope these tips are helpful for you today and I want to know how do you use them? Do you have a shiny object that you've been teased with lately and what was the decision you made? Drop them below and I'll see you guys next week on another episode. Bye friends.