The Panic Creating Trap: Why That New Offer Might Be Sabotaging Your Success

Dec 3

What's this episode of the lionhearted ceo podcast about?

Confession time: I nearly threw away months of strategic planning for a quick win... and I'm betting you've felt that temptation too. If you're itching to create something new for your business right now, this episode might just save your sanity (and your Christmas break)...

Ever found yourself at your desk, surrounded by half-drunk cups of tea, frantically plotting out a new lead magnet or offer because you're convinced that's what your business needs right now? Trust me, I've been there – in fact, I almost derailed my own strategic plans just last month with a last-minute Black Friday panic!

Here's what I'm sharing in this week's cuppa and chat:

The real reason I binned my Black Friday plans (and why it turned out to be my smartest business move)

Why creating "just a quick lead magnet" is like saying you'll only eat one biscuit from the tin (we all know how that ends!)

My tried-and-tested tricks for making your existing content work as hard as a tea bag in a builder's brew

The simple tweaks that'll transform your customer journey from 'meh' to 'magnificent' (without having to start from scratch)

Plus, I'm lifting the lid on something exciting brewing for 2025 – a brand new year-long container for marketers who want to add ads to their offer suite! (join the waitlist here: LEAP)

Whether you're tempted to create a last-minute December offer or feeling the pressure to launch something new, this episode will help you step away from the panic-creating precipice and make strategic decisions that'll have you gliding into the new year feeling sorted.

Ready to stop the endless cycle of creating new things and start making what you've already got work harder?

Hi! I’m your host Sophie Griffiths, a Meta ads expert and business growth strategist.

The LionHearted CEO podcast is designed for impatiently ambitious women who are ready to scale and often juggling motherhood alongside their thriving online businesses in coaching, course creation, or service-based business.

If you enjoy the podcast, here are some ways you can continue the conversation:

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Read the transcript:

NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors.

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Ep 87 - Panic creating
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[00:00:00] Hello and a big welcome to Lionhearted CEO, the podcast for unapologetically, impatiently ambitious women who know they want to stop being the bottleneck in their business and become the Lionhearted CEO they know they are meant to be. I'm Sophie Griffiths, a tea enthusiast, marketing and Metis ad specialist and firm believer.

The chocolate should never be kept in the fridge. Join me every Tuesday for bold, imperfect, fun approach to marketing and scaling your business without burning out every few months. We'll dive into practical strategies and have inspirational conversations that will support you to create a thriving, sustainable business that brings you joy as well as financial freedom.

Okay, let's jump in. 

Hello. And welcome to this week's episode. This is actually the last episode in 2024. I will be back in January, 2025.

Now in this last episode, I wanted to talk about a little bit of a theme I've seen over the last few weeks, which you might really relate to. [00:01:00] And I guess I gave a little bit of tough love to some of my clients. But I also had to give it to myself as well. 

And I want to be kind of really open and honest about that because this is something I think can creep into all of us, no matter what stage of business you're at, no matter where your revenue's at, no matter. How strategic you are being. Sometimes it is really easy to fall into the trap of feeling like you need to panic, create something. 

Now whether that's a lead magnet and an offer, a master class, something that you need to get out that's new. Now what happened last week was I spoke to three clients in one day are all of them had, really clear plans up until the end of November. So actually we'd done a lot of work on. You know, September and the launching, and then creating smaller offers during October, prepping for black Friday in November. And then last week you sort of get to that point where you're like, okay, December. What am I going to do in December? , you know, we've done the black Friday offer, what am I going to, if I need to do something [00:02:00] new, maybe I should do a new lead magnet for December to entice people onto my list, or, you know, I want to have some time off and I need to do something for my revenue. 

Maybe I'll pre-sell something. Now this is a strategy that I've used. I use it last year. I pre-sold my audience builder course. In November and December, and then I delivered it in January. So, you know, I'm going to create something that I can pre-sell so that I don't have to do the work in December and then I can deliver in January. 

Now, sometimes that works really, really well. Sometimes when it's strategic, it can have a huge impact. And it's a great strategy that a lot of my clients and I have used really successfully. However, I think what you have to be really careful of and what I've noticed with clients and myself. 

I'm going to tell you a bit about what the trap I fell into is that we can end up either putting a lot on our plates at a time when actually we're trying to wind down and this is how we'd come end up going into burn out because we suddenly think, oh yeah, just whip up a quick lead magnet I can run ads to it over Christmas. And you know, then when I come back, I'll have this audience and it will be great. Or we can end up robbing Peter to Paul. [00:03:00] 

I mean by that is we haven't got time now to create anything. Like, you kind of know you haven't so you think, okay, it's fine. What I'll do, I'll be able to deliver that I'll have more time in January. 

So I'm just going to rob my time in January so I can generate revenue in December. However, I think the key here really is. Yes, that's great. If that's a strategic move, you know, you all going to have capacity and it's what you want to be doing in January. However, if it's just a case of, oh, I'm just going to old say that I'll run a. I don't know, three-day workshop in January. 

I'll charge this amount and I'll sell in December. Or I'll do a challenge. I'll do something in January, however, what you actually want to be selling in January is your longer term program. That's going to give you future revenue. And I think that's really key is looking at. What am I selling? 

Why am I selling it? And I might actually doing this for the right reasons, or am I just doing it to create short-term revenue right now? And then you get to January and you're trying to deliver the thing that you've committed to in December, but you're also trying to launch the thing that's actually strategic and going to bring you the most money. [00:04:00] And it's going to bring you that longtime revenue and security. So, where do we get to? 

Because actually you still need to generate revenue in December.

So how do you do it? 

Before we jump into the advice I gave my clients and the way that we worked through how they're going to still generate revenue in December. Without robbing Peter to pay paul or putting a massive amount of stress on their time in December. I want to tell you a little story. 

Now over the last year, I have spent a lot of time working on my offers strategically so that I have future revenue coming in. So I created the mastermind and the mini mind. That's forward facing revenues I know is coming in for at least six months. But that will be kind of rolling, going forward. 

I also have consultancy clients, so they obviously pay me monthly. So that also kind of contributes to that forward facing revenue. 

Now I still want to be able to do fun offers, tactical offers. I was still want to be able to do one-off workshops and in-person days and that sort of thing. 

However, at the moment, my diary is really stacked. Like when I launched the mastermind of the mini mind I added in a lot of one-to-one calls for those clients [00:05:00] which means my diary at the moment is frankly too full for my liking. 

And that is a lesson that I have to learn over and over again. That I don't have a magical Mary Poppins diary where I can just commit to everything and my diary will just stretch to accommodate it. It's a learning I think is part of my ADHD timeline blindness is something I really, really working on putting systems and support in place so that I can really see like how much time I actually have and how much time I want to be on zoom.

Anyway, we got to about a week before black Friday, and I'd been really dithering about what shall I be offering for black Friday? 

I talk about black Friday a lot. I work with my clients on black Friday. I did black Friday last year, really successfully. I felt like I really should be doing black Friday. Not because everyone else says that you should just because I felt like within my business, it would be a great opportunity. I might be missing out on revenue. I kind of wanted to do it, but I just couldn't work out the right offer. 

I thought about my office at the moment, you know, the mastermind, the mini mind consultancy, none of those were right. I then thought about like the audience builder [00:06:00] course. 

However, I already did an offer for that on my birthday in July. And I decided that actually it's priced at a really accessible price point and I didn't want to keep kind of de-valuing that. So I decided I didn't want to do the audience builder course, so it's like, I know what I'll do. I'll create something new. What I'll do is I'll help people implement the audience builder course, I will do like three days. Online of implementation. So the different first three different campaigns in the audience builder calls, I will do implementation days online so that people actually use the content and then implement it sounds great. 

Right? I know, and I probably will offer it at some point. They got to like three days before black Friday and I still hadn't worked out. Okay. Well, what is this actual offer? How much am I going to be charging for this? How does this actually work? I need to create a sales page. I need to create emails. 

I need to promote it. And then I looked in my diary for January. Now I run a two day retreat and an in-person day for my mastermind and mini mind every quarter. So those were already in the diary for January. I also have a couple of other things in the [00:07:00] diary. And I also know from previous years that in January, I actually really like to hibernate. 

I feel it really strongly in my body. I don't like being visible in January and , rather than working against that this year, I'm really going to try and honor up. However, what it means is actually when I looked at delivering what I had thought. I was like, oh, Yeah, this is actually going to be quite hard to fit in. 

And actually it's going to put a real squeeze on my diary because I don't have that many days to give. So then I thought, oh, I could scale it back to a workshop. Maybe. Maybe I could do it before Christmas. And then I had a call with my coach and I was like, oh, I just can't nail this black Friday offer. And she sort of, I mean, she's really great, but she sort of brought me back to like, what is your core goal right now? Do you need to have a cash injection? 

Like, do you need to bring the revenue in or actually would your time and energy and focus be better off looking at your forward facing revenue? Like you've worked really hard all year to create strategic forward facing revenue. Would it not be better to spend your [00:08:00] time thinking of what that offer is going to be? Because all of this time and effort energy was going to be selling a one-off thing, like a three-day event. 

That was it. There was no long-term revenue. There was no recurring revenue. And it's not that I don't want to offer those things, but in terms of the. Pressure and time and energy, and actually where I want to be building my business. That isn't where I want to be going right now. And really want to be putting my time and energy into the things that are long term investments. 

And also she pointed out that time is my most valuable resource. I don't have a huge amount of time because of my diary commitments. So when I do offer things that give my time. Specifically. I make sure that a they're really strategic, really intentional and that the price point reflects the fact that it's my time and my kind of expertise directly. So I take a step back. We'd already sort of started to tease the black Friday offer on Instagram. And so part of me felt like, oh, you feel sort of, you sort of started Sophie. 

You're like, you really need to finish [00:09:00] this. What will people think? Like, why they'll wonder why you haven't done an offer. And actually I had to just have a bit of a word with myself and nobody really cares. They feel like. So much go got a black Friday. This is your business. You need to run it. 

You can't just do something because you kind of went down a road. So I decided not to do a black Friday offer. Which wasn't an easy decision, but once I've made it, I felt so much better and so much clearer. On what I actually want to be doing in January and what I want to be focusing my time and energy on. 

And that is it is something new. It's going to be a training and implementation one year container for marketers who want to add ads to their offer suit. That's actually the first time I've told anyone that, 

I'm very excited about it. It's going to be called leap. I will put the wait list. Link in the show notes. If that sounds like something you might be interested in, I'll be talking much more about it in January, but that is what I'm going to be doing. 

And it's a year long container. So [00:10:00] that is where my future focus needs to be not delivering a one-off three-day thing that will generate revenue now, but isn't going to help me in the future. So I had to have a little bit of a word with myself and really it's the same principles that I spoke to my clients about. 

So when I spoke to three different clients on one day, who all were in that Headspace of like panic, creating need to create something, I need to do something different. I need to do something more. 

Now all three of them were actually looking at creating a new lead back there. As someone who helps people create lead magnets and ads and welcome sequences and everything. All the time and I do it for myself as well. Just done a new one as well. I don't think you can ever really anticipate just how long it's going to take. 

I have loads and loads of resources. I know exactly what I'm doing and yet I still find. You know, creating the lead magnet, the landing page, the ad copy the graphic. The emails. There is so much that you need to do. And of course, you're thinking about like messaging and who am I speaking to? [00:11:00] Developing a new lead magnet is almost the same as developing a new offer. 

Like it has to be really strategic and specific and you want to bring people in really, really specifically, and then you want to guide them through a journey really intentionally. What we don't wanna do is just panic. Create a lead magnet. Because we feel like what we've got is maybe boring or it's been around for ages. 

Hasn't everybody seen it. It's nothing new. Actually, it needs to be a really strategic thing and you probably don't need to create nearly as many lead magnets as you think. 

I had a client we've been running the same lead magnet for seven months now. And the ads like the ad cost kept going up and we couldn't quite get it down. 

And we kept tweaking, the copy, tweaking the graphics, like what worked before. And then we started talking about, maybe we need a new lead magnet. And then what I decided to do before we did the whole lead magnet was I went in and did a totally different angle on the ad. So instead of just tweaking what we had, we took a totally new angle. 

That's a bit of a risk because obviously we did know what was working before. And it had worked really, really well for months and months and [00:12:00] months. However, when I went in, I changed and tested it. We halved the lead cost overnight. And what I think that really showed me was there's so often we can think, oh, it's the lead magnet and actually your copy, your graphics and your audience on ads. All three things that you continuously need to test and be brave. Try new things. 

One thing at a time, we don't want to go overboard, 

but actually it's much, much better to work on what we've got.than panic, creating something. So my actions for you are, if you are thinking, oh my God, I need to create something for December. Like I haven't got anything I can use. I want to use ads. 

I want to. Use engagement ads or the Instagram growth ads or the lead ads over Christmas, but I haven't really got anything I can use. First of all, I don't want you to panic, create anything. Okay. I want you to sit down and work out exactly what it is and where you feel like you don't have what it is that you need. 

Now, if you don't have a lead magnet, then of course, and you want to grow your email list, then you probably do need to create a lead magnet. Is now the time of year to be doing it. [00:13:00] I mean, if you're feeling the pressure, if you're busy, if you kind of got a lot of other stuff going on, I would say probably not. 

Maybe you give yourself December to slowly work on it so that it's ready to go in January. The reality is, if you actually just look at each of those different touch points and work out how you can improve them, how you can get better conversions, how you can connect with your ideal client more how you can make sure you're leading people to the offer. 

You want priming them for January. That is going to be a far better use of your time than trying to do something new, putting out there and then doing all that testing. Okay. So let's just briefly go through the customer journey and look at where you could potentially spend some time. Working on what exactly it is that could be improved in December to help you generate revenue, grow your email list. 

Still grow your Instagram so that you're ready for January. So the first thing I would look at is your content. Okay. Now this time of year, it's really easy to go into a lot of warm audience content. It's really easy to just start talking to people, you know? Given the behind the scenes of you, like putting up your Christmas tree and what you're doing [00:14:00] with the kids now, all of that stuff is great. 

However, you need to make sure you've got that cold audience content in there as well. Okay. You really need to make sure you were still talking to your ideal client and make sure that they know what you offer. Okay. 

I've done previous episodes on the type of content you need to be creating for a cold audience. So go back and do that. With your warm audience have a look. Yes. It's lovely to kind of create that connection. I'm not saying you shouldn't be sharing your Christmas tree or having those personal posts about what you're up to over Christmas. 

However, make sure you are still creating that content that is going to convert them to actually buying from you. What can they buy in December? Is there anything, can they sign up to anything that's going to start in January because that's intentional and you've got it starting in January. Can they sign up something in January, but get a little bit of a, a resource in December. Can they sign up to your passive course? 

Can they sign up to whatever it is, making sure that you're still letting your warm audience know exactly what it is you're offering in December and how they can work with you. The next thing we really want to look at is our lead magnet. So is there [00:15:00] anything in our lead magnet that we can update? 

Could we, you know, go in and have a look, have a fresh lead instead of starting something from new, go in and have a look at the messaging, have a look at the content. Is there anything you could update? Is there any links that you could add into additional value content, like sending them over to a podcast or, you know, sending them through to your actual offer? 

How can you make that lead magnet even more impactful? If people do open it. The next thing, really, if you're running ads to grow, your email list is to look at the ads, have a look. Is there anything you can do with a copy? Is there any, is there a new graphic, could you tweak the copy to make it slightly more relevant to this time of year? Especially if your audiences, time, poor or stress, particularly stressed at this point of view, whatever it is, how can you talk to how they're feeling right now? Test that copy and see how it goes. 

The next thing I'd be looking at is your welcome sequence. Now a welcome sequence is something. Really commonly that we quilt, we all create, and I do this as well. You create it. And then you're like, oh, thank God that has done. I am never going to look at that again. Because it can feel like a real [00:16:00] nightmare when you're actually setting up. However. I recently looked back at mine and it was a little bit horrified at how about dated it was, I didn't even do it that long ago, but my office have evolved. The messaging has changed. I had a date in there that was like June or something or something like God. At the time you think, oh yeah, I'll come back to that. And I'll update that. Go back into your welcome sequence, have a look at it, you know, tweak it, see if you can improve. 

Is there any of the emails that are getting low open rates? Or lower click through rates. How could you improve that? How could you tweak the subject line? How could you make it more engaging, more helpful? So yeah, go back into your welcome sequence and really have a look at it and see if there's anything you can do. And then finally your emails. 

So your weekly emails or ideally your twice weekly emails. , what are you saying in those? Are you being strategic? Are you getting people to sign up to wait. lists book, a call. Are you going to get people to sign up to stuff at the 2024? Price rather than 2025 price, which is going to go up in January. For example. 

Really thinking about how can you get people to commit to things in December that you are already running in [00:17:00] January that are strategic, that you know is going to be your focus in January. That is going to be the best use of your time. Okay. 

Improving every single step of the customer journey. Rather than panic, creating something new that is going to, you're going to have to start from scratch and you're going to have to spend a huge amount of time and still not know if it's going to work or not. So I hope if you needed to hear this, that is a helpful thing. 

And I have just saved you quite a lot of time and energy in creating something that you really don't need to create at the moment. Okay. This is something that all of my clients have come back to me and thanked me and said, really appreciate you saying that to me. I needed to hear that I needed someone to tell me to not go off, down this rabbit hole. 

And actually now I've got way more time to work on the stuff that's already in place. So I hope that has been useful as my last podcast of the year. I just want to say a massive thank you to everybody. Who's listened to the podcast. Everybody has supported it and shared it. And. Messaged me about it. I'm really loved getting the messages and I really love. [00:18:00] Hearing how impactful the podcast can be. 

I really want to make sure that this is a resource for you, that you go to both for practical strategies, but also just that inside community on scaling your business.

If you are in the giving mood and you'd love to give me a little Christmas present, I would absolutely love for you to rate subscribe and review the podcast wherever you listen to it. Because it does really, really help spread the word and get more people listening. 

So, thank you so much. Have a wonderful Christmas and new year. It feels really, really early to be saying that. And I will see you in January.

Thank you so much for listening today. Before you go, if this episode struck record with you, I'd be over the moon. If you could take a moment to rate, subscribe, and leave a review, your words not only brighten up my day, but they are also the magic that helps others discover this lion hearted community.