WOW #019: Stretch Zone Marketing for One-Person Businesses

Quote of the Week:
“All growth starts at the end of your Comfort Zone.”
- Tony Robbins

This week I'll start with a simple question:

Is your comfort zone expanding or shrinking? Before answering, consider:

• The tasks and projects you take on for your business

• The places you go to eat, shop, hangout
• The people you speak to and connect with

Well, it is the Holiday Season and familiarity and tradition usually win out, but directly on the other side of it lies the New Year.

Stretch Zone Marketing is not a Resolution, but it might be a departure from your current Marketing efforts and has great potential to improve your business. 

If your current Marketing efforts as a Business Owner are in the Comfort Zone, I recommend you immediately move to the all-important Stretch Zone.

The stretch zone is where you wince and think twice before hitting the publish button:

• Where your pulse quickens slightly before dialing the phone
• Where you fight through hesitancy to invest in new tactics and programs
• Where you ignore imposter syndrome by remembering your accomplishments

None of this is easy. Personally, I find it challenging.

And then I think of something Jim Carrey once said, (yes, the same Jim Carrey).

I’m paraphrasing this, but it was something around “being willing to change things and push boundaries, and if you aren’t willing to do so in order to have the life you know you want, you probably care too much about how others think.”

In a roundabout way, it sort of sums up why many people stay in the Comfort Zone and don’t feel like Stretching.

2 Takeaways:

1. The Comfort Zone Has Its Place. Like a warm weighted blanket, doing what we are familiar with to maintain the status quo certainly has value. In business, I often link comfort and expertise together. Depending on what your business is, customers gravitate toward that part of you where mastery and knowledge is displayed. Nurture the comfort zone that represents the expertise people buy from you. Stretch the comfort zones that might be stunting your business growth in other areas (e.g. marketing, customer service, upselling, negotiating).

2. Growth Has Many Dimensions: Financial, Intellectual, Experiential, and Cultural.
Comfort zones can put the lid on many aspects of our lives and our businesses. Stretch Zone Marketing is about blasting through the Comfort Zone of previous marketing efforts in order to increase the revenue of your business. That said, I know I can recall times when decisions I made were expecting a specific return, weren’t met, yet ended up in a very positive outcome. I believe we’ve all been there. Growth has many facets to it, which is why it’s important to stretch.  

1 Action:

Read more of my thoughts and musings about Stretch Zone Marketing and growing your business here.

If your current Marketing is in the Comfort Zone, what are your plans for 2024?  

See you next week,

Hubert