What Works

Imagine making money in your sleep. When I first started selling ebooks and courses that’s all anyone could talk about, and I’ll admit that the first time I woke up to money having been deposited in my PayPal account over night, I was pretty damn excited. But what I realized soon after was that there was nothing passive about passive income. Whether you’re making money through ads, online courses, ebooks or apps, you had to work. Sure, the revenue might come in over night, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t spend the whole day before at your desk. Now while many still promise an infinitely scalable business built on online education, most people have wised up. It’s not that information marketing doesn’t work in terms of creating a scalable and profitable business, it’s just that there are other ways to make scalable and profitable work for you. Many of the most successful small business owners today run high-touch service-based businesses. Instead of scaling their businesses digitally, they’re building smart teams, honing their procedures, and filling out a niche. They find profit in optimization and being able to deliver impeccable outcomes. They’re signing big clients to long term deals and enjoying steady income. They’re minimizing the costs of software and marketing in favor of investing time in relationships. Now all of that might sound pretty good even if it’s a bit intimidating, but it gets better. All of the business owners that I’ve talked to who have decided to go all in on high-touch services and forgo the often empty promises of information marketing feel a huge sense of relief. Plus, they’re enjoying balancing running a smart business with honing their craft. For many, it’s a win-win. Now running a high-touch service-based business might not be what works for you, but I think this trend still has something to offer you. Use it to challenge your assumptions about what you should be doing to generate revenue, earn trust, and serve customers. Look for opportunities you might have quickly dismissed while being herded into an information marketing model and ask yourself whether they might still have legs. And, if you’re happily and profitably running an information marketing business, wonderful! I still think that there’s something to take away here. Successful high-touch service-based businesses are highly structured and organized. Consider how your information marketing business could optimize for experiences while continuing to systematize and automate. Or, consider where you might need to pull back on automation in favor of more human experiences. When I looked through our archives to share an example of this with you, I had plenty of options. I looked at Jennie Nash whose company Author Accelerator is paring book coaches with aspiring authors using a framework Jenny herself pioneered as a coach. I looked at Autumn Witt Boyd who has built a full service law firm by honing in on her strengths. I considered Arianne Foulks who has been raising the bar on ecommerce web design for years, and Jason Van Orden who exited one of the first online information marketing companies only to start delivering coaching and teaching experiences. Ultimately, I decided on Tara Melvin, the founder of Perfect Planning Events.