704: The Critical Reason Why You Need to Experiment More In Your Biz

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1:15So happy shopping. Experiments simply yield a result in a world where we are so quick to label something as a success or a failure, a win or a loss. They simply give us information that helps us get more confident in our decisions. Hey, my name is Jenna Kutcher and I am obsessed with all things business, marketing numbers, and helping you to navigate both the messy and the magical seasons of this thing called life. I'm a small town mama who took a$300 camera, grew a successful photo biz, and now I work from home and run a seven figure online business. I teach you the tried and true secrets to building a career you adore.

1:53Shy away from the real talk? No way. Money, hardship, growth, loss, and marketing are all topics we discuss here. Think of this as your one-stop shop for happy hour with a gal pal mixed with business school. Pull up a seat, make sure you're cozy and get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn. This is the Gold Digger Podcast. I'm going to kick off this episode with something slightly controversial. I believe that too many entrepreneurs are afraid to experiment in their business. The other day I was inspired to record this conversation because I was inside one of my Facebook communities.

2:26So I teach many different online courses and a lot of those online courses have private Facebook communities for my students where I like to hang out. I love answering questions. I love passing along encouragement. And I caught a post from one of my students and she was talking about how she had learned something new and implemented it and it didn't yield the result that she wanted. And so she was ready to just quit. How many of us do that in life, right? We get excited about something. We try that something and maybe it doesn't yield the result that we thought it would. And so we just decide we're just going to quit.

3:01Surely it's not going to work for us. I quickly responded to my student and hopped up on a soapbox about how important it is to be willing and ready to experiment more in our businesses and to commit to consistency. So today I want to share some of the experiments that I've done in my own business, ones that have worked, ones that didn't quite pan out, and talk about the power of experimentation in entrepreneurship. Are you ready? Let's dive on in. When it comes to running a thriving business, nothing matters more than generating revenue. I mean, money talks, right? But salespeople aren't just closing deals.

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4:17With Sales Hub, closing deals is no big deal. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com slash sales. That's hubspot.com slash sales. This episode is sponsored by Ricola Throat Balm. It coats and protects your throat against minor irritations. With a liquid center with honey and a smooth caramel flavored coating, it is essential for speakers, creators, and podcasters like me. Try it today at amazon.com slash Ricola. Let's dive on into five reasons why I think experimentation is so powerful in entrepreneurship. So number one, you're able to embrace fresh approaches. So think about so many different skills that people have, like a skilled chef, they're experimenting with new ingredients in order to create innovative dishes.

5:05If you think about the best food you ever ate, I'm pretty sure that that chef didn't cook it just like that on the first try. And so entrepreneurs should be open to trying new things, new ingredients per se, and new strategies. A lot of times we figure out one thing that works for us and then we just keep doing that one thing, expecting it to always yield the same results. But let's be honest, that is not the case when it comes to entrepreneurship, especially with the quickly changing landscape of the internet. Experimentation encourages you to step outside of your usual playbook and explore fresh approaches to solving business challenges or marketing your business.

5:42Whether it's testing out a new marketing channel, trying out new content, creating new marketing materials, or revamping your sales pitch, the willingness to experiment sparks creativity and opens doors to unexplored possibilities. So here are two different ways that I've experimented with fresh approaches and what each of these experiments taught me. So experiment number one, there was a time when I bumped up my podcast schedule. So if you've been listening since day one, there was a season of this podcast where I went from one episode to two episodes a week. And then I even tried three episodes a week.

6:18Now I just want to do experiment. I wanted to see what it would do for my listeners. I wanted to see what it would do for my numbers. I wanted to see what it would do for my ratings. And so I was like, let's just give it a try. Here's what the result was. I didn't actually love it. I felt like people were getting overwhelmed with the mass amount of content or that people were cherry picking episodes more than they had before. And it ended up not being worth the extra work, the extra editing, the extra effort. So I decided I'm going to test it out for 30 or 60 or 90 days, and then I'll make the decision.

6:49Here's another experiment that I've done on this podcast. So I have played around with different models of sponsorship. I have had one brand sponsor that got this whole podcast off the ground. Then I moved to no sponsors at all and just use my show to promote my own offers. Then I had an ad agency. Then I joined a network. Each of these different things I tried for an extended period of time. I'm talking like I tried each of these for like a year or more just to see what worked best and what felt best for those specific seasons of business and the specific needs of the podcast. So I love experimenting.

7:24I think it's really important that we start to look at how can we have a fresh approach? How can we try something different? How can we kind of see how it works? I often think about like experiments, like trying on clothes, like if it doesn't fit, it's not your fault. It's the clothes. The clothes are made to fit your body. Your body is not made to fit the clothes. Let's try on different things so we can figure out what's working, what feels right, what is yielding results for us. And I love experimenting, especially here on this podcast. The number two reason why I think it is so powerful to experiment is that you are able to iterate different outcomes.

7:59Like you cannot be afraid to iterate. Just as refining your strategy generally requires multiple attempts, successful entrepreneurship demands iterative testing. One-time experiments might provide glimpses, but repetition uncovers the nuances that shape your business trajectory. This is why when my student said, okay, I tried this thing once. It didn't work. I'm ready to quit. That was why I got so fired up. There are so many factors that can impact the results of your experiment, which means it is not great to just test something out once and then think that insight is enough to make a definitive decision going forward.

8:39My friends and I at this stage of the game, we talk a lot about quote, doing the reps in entrepreneurship, meaning staying consistent, putting in the work, doing things over and over and over again. And the same goes for any experiment that you're doing. Repeated trials give you a more comprehensive understanding of what is working and what doesn't leading to insights that will inform your next steps. That's why if you are someone who is prone to like try something and it flops and you're like, peace out, I'm done. You're not understanding that in an experiment, there are so many different variables.

9:16So let's say, for example, my student tried a new strategy on Instagram. They got on Instagram stories and they were trying to get people to sign up for their email list and nobody clicked. It could have been the time of day they were posting. It could have been the way they were posting. It could have been their captions. It could have been their call to action. It could have been their offer. It could have been their link. It could have been a million different reasons why it didn't yield the result they thought it would. And so if we are so quick to quit, then we are missing the opportunity to explore the different iterations that we can attempt in order to get the desired results.

9:50I have always heard this thing of like, if you have a bad experience at a restaurant, don't just write it off. Try one more time. Like try everything twice. Think about a restaurant. The chef could have called in sick for the night. The normal waitress could have been off and a hostess could have been filling in. The manager could have been off on vacation. The food order might not have come in. There are so many different reasons. while you might have a poor experience at a restaurant. And my parents were always like, if you have one bad experience, give it another try. Just give them the benefit of the doubt.

10:18The same goes for your strategy. So a few years ago, I challenged myself in an experiment. So Drew and I were spending time in Hawaii on Maui and I wanted to do an experiment. So at the time I was a wedding photographer. I was basically sharing my wedding work 90 % of the time, myself 10 % of the time. And I wanted to do a 30 day experiment because I wasn't shooting a lot of photography in that month's time. So I challenged myself. I said, I want to show my face as much as I possibly can on my Instagram feed for an entire month. I did this experiment. I didn't announce it to anyone. I didn't tell anyone I was doing it.

10:55I just started trying it. That experiment yielded crazy results. In fact, I did an entire episode about it and it is one of my most popular episodes ever on the show. I'm linking to it in today's show description and show notes. Let me just kind of read the results of what that 30 day experiment led to. So I posted 40 times out of the 40 times, there were eight photos without me in them. So I was showing up in 80 % of my images, which is basically flipped from what I had been doing. So an average engagement rate on Instagram is usually between 1.64 % and 3.5%. That's considered to be good. I was hitting 6 % engagement, 9 % engagement.

11:35I even had one post that got over 21 % engagement. Like that is insane. So what did I learn in my 30 day experiment that changed my Instagram game? Between January and February, before my experiment, I'd gone up in 6 ,000 followers in a month. From February to March, when I was doing my experiment, I went up 13 ,000. My engagement was higher than ever because I was showing up for my audience as a real person, not just a perfectly styled photo. I got more brand deals, more sponsorship offers because my brand had more personality and engagement. So can you start to see how like, if you start to do experiments and you say, okay, I'm going to put in the reps.

12:15I'm going to do this thing for 30 or 60 or 90 days. I'm not even going to announce it. I'm just going to test it out. I'm going to try it out. You have to understand that you cannot do something once and yield right results or understand what impacted the results clearly enough. That is why you have to do reps and have different iterations. I often think about when I think about my students example, if you try something once, your audience might be like, wait, what? Like this was like a switch. You have to guide your audience, especially online to understand how it is that you're going to show up and how you want them to interact with you.

12:51And you have to give them time to adjust and feel comfortable. So don't just do something once and then think it's a flop. Put in the reps, especially when it comes to online marketing. When we were young, we dreamed of castles and fairy tales. And as we grow up, those dreams might shift into building something real, like starting a business. You need a website, payment systems, a logo, and a way to reach customers. It can all be overwhelming and confusing, but thankfully that's where today's sponsor Shopify comes in. Shopify powers millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all US e-commerce from big brands to folks just getting started.

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14:12look i've become kind of a systems nerd and anything that gives me more space in my day i'm all in and a reliable connection is a huge part of that because when the internet lags or cuts out everything pauses and suddenly the simplest tasks take forever i learned really early on that dependable internet it's not a luxury it is a must whether you're a content creator like me a restaurant owner or running a busy dry cleaning business you need that steady connection to support your team and your clients. That's why I'm excited to share a solution for my fellow business owners. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all types connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, and mobile services, all with connectivity solutions built for your budget.

14:54And they have a truly incredible offer. Business owners can get free business internet advantage forever when you add four or more mobile lines. It's simple with no contracts and no added fees. Visit spectrum.com forward slash free for life to learn how you can get business internet free forever. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. The number three reason why I love experimentation is that experimenting helps you make more strategic decisions. So think of your experiments as data points in your entrepreneurial journey. Each trial provides information. It's kind of like a piece of a puzzle.

15:31Those puzzle pieces help you form a clear picture of your market, your customers and industry trends. Now these insights are not just random results. They are invaluable tools that guide you in making informed and strategic decisions. Just as a skilled chess player plans several moves ahead, your experiment results help you anticipate moves in your business landscape. So one thing that we've been experimenting with this year and something that I've dove really deep into is measurement and how we can measure our results. So we brought on this contractor to help us with creating scorecards, dashboards, being able to track different launches and metrics.

16:14And one of the biggest things that I've learned from them this year is that you have to ask the right questions. So many entrepreneurs ask these questions or they want to know these numbers or these data points, but they don't actually know how they would implement anything to change those data points. Right. And I'll never forget the first time I got on the phone with our measurement team, the person leading it said to me, they said, okay, Jenna, if you ever ask us a question or you want to know a number, be prepared that we may ask you, how are you going to impact this metric? So for example, if someone was asking recently, I was on a mastermind phone call and one of the girls was asking, how much do you all pay your teams?

16:56And she said, you know, I want to go out and collect all this information from all other business owners. And so that I can start to understand like what my payroll should be and how much should be invested in my team. And I said, okay, so let's say you go out and you get all of this information. What are you going to do about it? How is it going to guide any of your decisions? Is that the best way to ask that question? Maybe it would make more sense to ask one person who's parallel to you at a similar stage of business versus asking 10. And I feel like what's been so interesting is that I have gotten so much more strategic because I'm asking the right questions and really checking myself.

17:32Okay, if I want to know this insight, how am I actually going to impact it? What changes would I make? Would I change a landing page? Would I change certain pieces of copy? Would I change button text? How would these changes change that metric? And so you want to be able to experiment so that you can make more strategic decisions, but you want to make sure that the questions that you're asking during your experimentation phase are questions that will help you tailor the variables to get closer to the results. Again, picture a puzzle, picture all of these different pieces. If you're not asking the right questions, you're not actually able to move the pieces around to put anything together.

18:09And so that has been one of the biggest things I've been learning this year is to figure out, okay, what is worth experimenting on? How are these experiments going to yield data points that are going to guide strategic decisions? If I can't answer those questions, it's not the right experiment or I'm not looking at the right data points. If you love Gold Digger, you will love Business Made Simple hosted by Donald Miller, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. Business Made Simple takes the mystery out of growing your business. This summer, Donald hosted a double your revenue challenge where he gives you one simple thing each day to increase your revenue.

18:46You can start it at any time. And by the end of two weeks, you'll be positioned to dramatically increase your revenue by the end of the year. Listen to business made simple wherever you get your podcasts and start taking action to double your revenue today. As a business owner, speaker, a podcaster, and a mom of two little ones. I am literally talking all day long, which can irritate my throat to no end. That is why I am so excited. Ricola just released their brand new throat balm. It is my daily solution for everyday irritants. I literally keep a bag of Ricola throat balm right on my desk beside my podcasting mic and in my purse when I'm on the go and my throat feels itchy, hoarse, or dry.

19:26Pop one in my mouth before I hit record and I no longer need to worry about pausing mid sentence to clear my throat. It's a delicious flavor combination with a liquid center that has real honey coated in a smooth caramel flavor. Ricola throat balm brings a deliciousness to wellness. It has been a game changer for long recording days, just like today. Get your Ricola throat balm today at amazon.com slash Ricola. That's amazon.com slash Ricola. Number four, why I love experimentation is that it helps you to overcome challenges with confidence. Entrepreneurship has its share of challenges and uncertainties.

20:07Can I get an amen? We have all experienced them. Experimenting helps you bolster up confidence, which allows you to tackle obstacles. One thing that I love about experiments, and I think that this is a shift that everyone listening to the show has to make with your mindset is that experiments simply yield a result. In a world where we are so quick to label something as a success or a failure, a win or a loss, they simply give us information that helps us get more confident in our decisions. It's so funny because if you've ever been in a room with me and you're telling me about a new project you want to try or a new offer you want to create, I will always tell you, I will always put parameters around your project, which gives you the freedom to make decisions afterwards.

20:52So one of my friends really wanted to start a podcast and she would be a killer podcast host, but I know something about her. I know that when she gets super passionate about something, she goes all in on it, but very quickly because she's multi-passionate, she'll get her next idea and she'll want to let go of that first one. And so as she was telling me about her podcast, I said, here's what I would tell you to do. I think you should do a season of the podcast, set parameters, say it's going to be eight episodes or 10 episodes, announce it as a season. That way, when you get to 10, if you have a new idea or a new project you want to pursue, you're not feeling like a failure and you're not feeling like you dropped the ball.

21:32You're not having that guilt or shame that so many of us carry. And so I told her, I said, start the podcast, announce it as a season. If after those 10 initial episodes, you love it and you're all in on it, start the next season or just drop into that consistent flow where you do the rep week after week. I love putting parameters around new ideas and projects because a lot of times we don't know what the outcome is going to be until we're in it. Right. And how many of us have had this new idea, this new vision, this new project, we get into it and it doesn't quite feel like we thought it would.

22:05And all of a sudden we're trapped, right? It's that sunk cost fallacy where we're like, I have to keep going. I have to keep doing this. If I quit now, everyone's going to think it failed. And what I love about experiments is that they are not successes or failures. They simply yield a result. And those results help guide future decisions. I love experimenting. Let me give you a few experiments that you might not even know happened behind the scenes. So there was one summer as a wedding photographer where I decided I'm also going to do high school senior portrait photography. I thought right away, I said, you can make bank.

22:40You just shoot for an hour. They have to buy prints through you. It is a genius. I did it for one summer and I said, I will never do that again. It just didn't fit with me. I didn't love it. I didn't love working with the parents. It wasn't my vibe. There's also a time where I ran a watercolor print shop. I tell that story in my book about how all of that came to be. I no longer do that. It wasn't a success or a failure. It gave me information to guide future decisions about what type of business I wanted and what is working. There was a year where I hosted a year long mastermind. It was a high ticket mastermind.

23:14I had incredible women in it, but I also realized how much of my energy was required for that level of commitment and investment. And while I still think there were parts of my mastermind that were the best thing I've ever done for my community. It was also an experiment where I learned a lot about myself and my personal bandwidth. There was also a year where I blacked out my entire calendar and said no to virtually everything. And I learned a lot from that. It is all about trying different things and then looking at it as a result, not a success or a failure. Here's a result. And here's how that result is going to guide me forward.

23:50All of these different endeavors, ideas, projects, help me figure out what sort of offers work best for me and my business in this season. And I would personally consider them all a success, not because they were all amazing, not because they all panned out, not because they all yielded great results, but because I walked away with insight that helped guide my decisions forward. So if you are someone who is so quick to label something a win or a loss, a success or a failure, black or white, I encourage you to now transition the way you think about things and look at them as an experiment. All you're getting are results and those results are going to guide you forward.

24:26Number five is I love that you are able to fine tune your strategies. So as you experiment, you might take something that is already working and you might refine it and make it work even better. Like as a small business owner, refining your approach is like perfecting your signature offer. Experimentation lets you fine tune your strategies until they align perfectly with your goals. The more you try things, the more you're going to learn about yourself and how you want to run your business. Think of it from this standpoint of tweaking, let's say, whatever it is, is your signature offer. It could be your product.