When it comes to online success or online visibility for a personal brand or business, most people understand what the big picture looks like. They look at what their competitors, or those they admire the most and want what they’ve got.

Those building personal brands say things to me like:

‘I want webinars, and online courses, I want brand deals and live events,  I want tens of thousands of visitors to my website each month, and I want a huge audience.’

And those building businesses say:

‘I want million pound revenues, and an ecommerce store and to sell out to a huge conglomerate so I never have to work again.’

All of the above is of course totally doable. But I’ve been having this conversation with quite a few people this week (and I am pretty certain they recognise themselves!).

I’ve found myself saying to them ‘Don’t try and run before you can walk.’

You see, I could upsell nearly everyone I work with to higher functionality websites, and more complicated offers and services. That would make me more money for sure.

But I don’t, because I know they won’t succeed – not yet at least. And I also know they will become overwhelmed by the amount of things, content, tech skills, thought, planning required to make that advanced set up work, earn back its cost and start making money.

I’ve been spending a lot of time this week trying to rein people in! To present them with a solution that will bring benefits whilst remaining manageable for them.

I feel really passionately about this issue because in the past, I’ve pushed myself too far too soon, running Facebook ads for instance with no clear offer, or the wrong type of offer for Facebook at least.

I’ve thought I had arrived because I had a single opt in, without realising that this was just my first step into list building and I’d go through many more opt ins and still do now.

I’ve tried to do things just because I want to, and because that’s what those I admire do, but have tried before I’ve developed a clear personal brand, or got the expert and credibility indicators that I have now.

And you know what, it just doesn’t quite work. 

Before you can run, you have to get the groundwork laid. For online business and digital visibility, this is such things as knowing what is it you want to offer, getting your website up and running, having social channels live, having clear reasons as to why others should work with you.

It’s also creating a few new habits in yourself, such as writing blog posts and social media posts, telling people in the real world what it is you do.

AND, in the case of many, it’s also about upping your tech skills so that you can update your website, create social graphics, use social media, resizing images. As this is the minimum you’re going to need to be able to do to get to your big picture.

And of course it can be outsourced but this will turn into a considerable investment, because it will need to be done and maintained regularly, for the long long term.

The main things that ensures to success are time, patience, persistency, consistency and upskilling.

Everything you want takes time. 

So to all those lovely people who are trying to run before you can walk.

Take a deep breath. As I say to my kids

‘Calm yourself!’

Roll things back. Start with the basics.

Commit to the first level of tech skills and the early habits you’re going to need to make long term habits.

Start simple and manageable for you (whatever that looks like) and be prepared to build out from there.

Remember when you look at those who are where you want to be, they are not on day one of their own adventure.

You’ll get where you want to go, but not this week, not overnight, not tomorrow and probably not next month.

Understand you’re on a journey. This is a process, not a package you can be gifted overnight.

Go step by step, and don’t try and run before you can even walk.