Ep 25: What I've learned In 2020

We’re at the end of the year. So you know what that means, time for every podcast out there to do year end recaps and predictions for next year. And I’m no different. So stay tuned for mine.

Hey, everyone. Jim Lastinger, welcome to Marketing In 10. Today’s episode is going to be a recap. These are going to be the four lessons that I’ve learned about digital marketing in 2020. So 2020 has been a very different and very challenging year in lots of different ways. But it’s also you made a lot of things simpler. So I’m going to talk through four lessons that I’ve learned this year.

So lesson number one is I still have no interest in running or trying to grow into a large agency. So this is something that I tend to go back and forth on and I’ve never been able to quite decide which way to go. But 2020 has definitely helped push me in a certain direction here. So, yes, I definitely run a digital marketing agency, but, no, my goal is not to have a huge agency with dozens of employees, hundreds of clients. That just doesn’t fit my personality or my personal goals, and 2020 helped solidify all of this for me.

I’ve been able to spend more time on other projects this year than I have at any time in the last decade, and I’ve really enjoyed that. I didn’t focus as much time or energy in growing the agency and devoted that to making my clients successful and happy. And I’ve also had more time to work on some other projects as well. So that’s all been very, very nice. That’s not to say that I’m not still taking new clients or I’m looking to downsize or anything like that. That’s certainly not the case, but I’m definitely not looking to scale the agency at all costs. That’s never been one of my goals and it certainly isn’t now, and I really, really know that after 2020.

So lesson number two automation and having solid processes are still the future. I’ve always been a big fan of processes. If you have a process for something and you make it a routine habit to implement that process and to follow that process or procedure, then you’ll be successful at just about anything, and 2020 has made that more clear than ever.

So with nearly everybody being forced to work from home and like myself with kids in the house, routines and processes were absolutely vital. Without those, my clients and my agency work would have suffered. So I’ve always made sure that you have your processes down, make sure they’re documented, and follow your processes every single day.

All right, lesson number three, this is all about courses and teaching. So COVID has created a deluge of new course creators, new teachers. People working from home have a little bit more time to do all these things that they’ve thought about for years, but never would’ve gotten the chance to without COVID. So now you can find people that are teaching just about any skill that you can think of. And I think this is fantastic, because it’s going to be a big part of tomorrow’s economy.

But I think it’s ultimately going to hurt smaller digital marketing contractors as more people start taking courses and start doing their own marketing for their new smaller companies. There will always be a need for agencies and extremely talented solo contractors, but it might be harder for new contractors to get started over the next year or so. And personally, I’ve dabbled with creating courses this year and doing a few webinars and things like that, and I’m really excited about expanding that part of the business in 2021.

All right, lesson number four, never forget that clients are people first. So I’m privileged to have absolutely the best roster of clients of anyone in the world and I’m thankful for them every day, but I’m even more thankful to be able to call them many of them friends. I enjoy talking to them as much as I can, and I do it as often as I can.

I like to learn about them individually, learn what drives them, what are their motivations, learn about the business, learn about the business’ challenges, anything and everything that I can learn about my clients, and that’s always going to help. And 2020 has helped me realize that it’s always about people first. And this year, I’ve had clients that have fought COVID. I’ve had a brick and mortar store owners who were worried about looting. It’s been an enlightening year. There’s been a lot of difficulties and trials all different shapes and sizes out there. So never forget that your clients are people first, and that will definitely help you.

This was the year end recap episode, and the next episode will be predictions for 2021. All right, that’s it for this week’s episode. I’ll be back soon with another episode of Marketing In 10. Until then, take care. Have a great day.