Our shower started majorly leaking the other day.
If you could only see how hapless my husband and I are in any sort of extreme house situation, like plumbing. Or electrical. Or finding the chirping smoke detector.
I mean, if you want some help deciding what color to paint your living room or what flowers to plant in your garden, I'm your person. But if you want some help installing new porch lights, you'll probably want someone else on your team.
But it's a leak and in our mind calling a plumber is going to be super expensive. So expensive that we think, we should do this ourselves.
So we do what every right-minded person would do: we start Googling.
And surprisingly, there are quite a few theories about what could cause the shower leak. Is it a pressure valve? A broken o-ring? The showerhead? The water pressure? The handle?
We watch how-to videos, read the posts, ask our handy neighbor for advice, and strategize about what we're going to try next.
Over the past few days, we've tried everything we found that we thought would work. I make two trips to Home Depot, one to Target. He calls Kohler, the company that made the shower hardware. We soak each other accidentally twice, which was actually pretty funny.
And after all that, guess what?
Four days later, that damn shower is still leaking!
Yesterday, we realized that we were in over our heads and the leaking is so bad (a few gallons a day!) we called a plumber who's coming tomorrow. Because we need someone who really knows what they're doing.
After all our own trials and errors and our heroic effort to fix it ourselves, after all that optimism and can-do spirit, after spending a couple hundred bucks on new equipment...
We ended up where we should've started: finding someone who knows what they're doing so we didn't have to take so many left turns on our own, blowing that time and money.
And I couldn't help but think how often the same thing happens with new entrepreneurs and their marketing.
They start out so excited and optimistic and then realize pretty quickly there's so much more to marketing than they ever thought (because there is).
They Google like crazy for marketing tactics and implement things that seem right from people who seem like they know what they're talking about. Take a bunch of online courses. Attend so many webinars. Downloads opt-in they can get their hands on. Buy a lot of products they end up not using.
But their marketing isn't getting any traction. They're spinning their wheels and feeling overwhelmed and wondering what they're doing wrong. They still have this nudge to start their business that is gentle but relentless...they don't want to give up, but they're thinking about giving up.
That's the time they need to call a plumber! But for their marketing. 🪠🪠ðŸª
"But that means I failed if I need help with my marketing," they say. And they continue to plod along, with marketing that kinda works sorta but not really.
Did you think I was weak or stupid or a failure or less-than because I called a plumber? Of course not. And no one will think that about you if you work with a marketing coach or hire a pro for an assist. Plus, all that work you did? Creates great context for you to get really good at marketing.
So if you're on the edge with your marketing, call a plumber (but for your marketing!), so you can focus on getting your good work out to the world.
As always, I'm rooting for you!
xo, Heather
