full
PS 156: The problem you keep trying to solve
If the same problem keeps coming back in your business, it may not be the real issue. Challenges such as inconsistent enquiries or ineffective marketing are often symptoms of something deeper, like unclear positioning, an offer that doesn't meet your audience's needs or a flawed business model. Instead of working harder on the visible problem, take time to identify and address the underlying cause. That's where lasting progress begins.
____________________
👋🏽 Hello! I'm Sumantha McMahon, and I've supported over 100 tutors and education business owners.
As a teacher 'dropout' turned professional tutor, combined with my 20+ years as a business owner, I'm in it with you! Yes, I'm qualified too :-)
My training leans on tried-and-tested methods that are completely tailored to our niche.
Work with me to breathe life into YOUR definition of success:
High-touch 6-month programme for tutors who want to make their business more lucrative, in a sustainable way for the future, while protecting the impact they make.
The leading membership for tutors that combines tailored training (live and recorded), a community of like-minded business owners and exclusive discounts.
This podcast is recorded using Riverside. Sign up for your account here (free plan available)
____________________
Sometimes, I share links to resources and apps that I recommend. They are all based on my experience - if I don't love them, I don't recommend them. In some cases, I earn a small commission for my recommendation, at no cost to you.
© 2024 Sumantha McMahon
Transcript
Let's spend a little moment talking about the problem that you keep trying to solve, the one that never quite goes away, no matter how many times you have a go at it. Most of us have one. There's some issue in the business that you return to again and again. For a lot of us, it's marketing. I can't get enough inquiries, I'm not visible enough, my social media isn't working. So you stray yourself at it, you try a new platform, you post more often, you read about reach and engagement and algorithms.
Sumantha (:You do all the things that you're told to do, and it helps a little for a while, and then you're kind of back where you started wrestling with the same thing. After a few rounds of this, it's very tempting to conclude that you're just bad at marketing, for instance, that everyone else has cracked something, you just can't. I want to offer you a different possibility. The problem that you keep trying to solve is very often not the real problem at all. It's often a symptom. It's the thing that you can see sitting on top of something underneath that you can't see.
Sumantha (:When a tutor tells me they have a marketing problem, I rarely think about marketing. I think about what's underneath it because if the inquiries are not coming in, the cause is often somewhere else entirely. Maybe the offer isn't quite right. So even when people do find you, the thing you're offering doesn't match what they actually want. Maybe the positioning is vague, so people can't tell what you do or who you are. Maybe the business model itself is asking marketing to do a job that no amount of marketing could ever do.
Sumantha (:You can pour endless energy into the visible problem and get nowhere because you're treating the symptom and leaving the cause completely untouched. It's like taking a painkiller after painkiller for a headache that's actually being caused by not wearing the right glasses. And this is why doing more of the same so rarely works. You don't need to mark harder. You need to look further down. You need to ask what's really going on beneath the thing that keeps frustrating you and have the
Sumantha (:Courage, I suppose, to consider that the answer might be somewhere that you haven't thought to look. It's actually a really strange relief, this idea, once it settles, because the if the problem isn't really your marketing, I'm just using that as an example, then you're not actually bad at marketing. You've just been aiming your effort at the wrong target. And the moment you start looking in the right place, the thing that felt permanently stuck can finally begin to move.
Sumantha (:So the next time you find yourself wrestling with the same old problem for the hundredth time, I would gently ask you to stop and wonder whether it's the real one. Because quite often the thing worth solving is actually sitting underneath the thing you're you keep trying to fix.
