Growth Hacking Is F*cking With Your Business

The growth hacking scourge keeps true objectives perpetually out of reach.

Fast growth means more business… right? Don’t be so sure.

What’s more likely is you, exhausted, swimming against the current of unintended consequences.

Don’t have time to read this post?

Here’s the point: If you growth hack, stable inbound lead generation will forever evade you.

Wanna know why? How to tell if you’re growth hacking? And what to do instead?

Let’s get into it.

The entrepreneurial graveyard is full of people chasing oversized results.

Amateurs ‘growth hack’ because they don’t know any better.

I too got sucked into growth hacking during my early online marketing days, of course I did. But, I had to learn that fast-growth meant vanity metrics that wouldn’t translate into the things I really wanted.

When you’ve been around a while, you discover a superior goal. Something genuinely useful, simple, and beautiful.

And that is?

Steady progress.

Yes. Boring, steady progress. That’s it.

One new client a week feels fantastic.

And two new clients, that’s cool, too! This kind of steady progress will quickly fill your client roster and your bank.

Bandwidth gets freed up, and new doors open. Your systems strengthen, and you’re ready for more businesses. So you step up a level, and proceed… at boring, steady progress.

But trying to go from 1 to 10 new clients in a month? Terrible idea. You’ll damn near kill yourself trying to achieve it. And if by some spark of luck you do manage it, your systems will collapse, you’ll piss of a bunch of vitally important mouthpieces — your days will be filled with overwhelm, and your nights with decimated sleep.

The phrase “be careful what you wish for” fits nicely here.

#1: If your ability to HANDLE more business increases at the same rate that you ACQUIRE new business, you’ll be able to keep stacking cash without breaking anything.

Ok, so if we’re not aiming to go “as fast as possible”, what then?

Think of growth like riding a wave.

Have you ever surfed before? Well, you’ll know that once you’re standing up on the board, if you find the sweet spot and simply hold your balance, you’ll ride that wave all the way to the shore.

The wave does the work; you just keep your balance and enjoy the ride.

But if you’re too eager and get too far in front, the wave’s natural momentum falls too far behind, you lose speed… and sink.

Trying to go too fast results in failure. Same in business.

#2: If you can control your urge for ‘more’ and can relax into a growth rate of just enough, you’ll avoid ‘sinking your ship’ and will be able to ride that steady growth all the way.

Unfortunately, the noisiest headlines are all about growth hacking.

‘6-Minute abs’ is a sexy idea.
‘Put the fork down and move your body more’ is not.

‘How to go viral’ is a sexy idea.
‘How to build slow and steady under the radar’ is not.

But in both ^^ examples, the latter method is far more likely to generate a superior and predictable result.

Blame the marketers.

I feel for new folks dipping a toe in the entrepreneurial waters, I really do. There are so many loud marketing messages promising all kinds of quick results.

It’s overwhelming.

It’s intoxicating.

It’s damn exhausting.

And deceptively, the difference between a growth hack pushed by marketers seeking clicks and a genuine strategy you want to adopt isn’t always that obvious to discern.

Good news — we can avoid the issue of growth hacking altogether.

It’s all in the attitude we show up with, daily.

For example…

• Do I just want the result, damn the path I have to take?
  Or am I fascinated and engaged?

• Am I actively being a leader through my content?
  Or am I following whatever trend promises to grow the fastest?

• Do I want to become genuinely skilled?
  Or am I more concerned with appearances?

• Do I want to provide genuine value to the marketplace?
  Or am I happy to chase ignorant customers who don’t know the difference?

• Do I want to attract the best humans into my sphere of influence?
  Or am I just squeezing the game for the next lowest hanging dollar?

This isn’t just theory. Plenty of folks will attest. Me too, I’ve lived in a business the other way. It was fragile. Big highs, sure, but at what cost? Profit margins were low, overheads were high, and there was this constant feeling of dread that at any minute, it all could come crumbling down.

#3: When you stop looking for hacks, you’ll embrace an attitude of excellence instead. This makes the journey enjoyable and deeply rewarding, therefore naturally stacking the odds of success in your favor.

Playing the long game means you’re no longer at the mercy of someone else’s platform.

Growth hacks are usually platform-specific. This puts your lead generation at risk.

• What happens when LinkedIn decides to reduce your reach?

• Or if xyz platform blocks you for weird behaviour?

• Or when Instagram changes its algorithm and you’re posting to crickets?

By chasing excellence instead, you discover you have important things to say. You no longer have to think too hard about what you want to share.

Also, channel choice comes down to preference (rather than where the hacks are) because you’ll see all social channels and content outlets as one big megaphone...

SubStack, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, whatever. It no longer matters where you build your audience, because it’s all your audience as long as you get people onto your list.

#4: Abandoning growth hacking makes you less dependant on any particular channel. Instead, quality ‘global’ audience growth becomes the priority, opening the doors to inbound lead flow.

Here’s what separates shitty you from the you you aspire to be...

I used to think that ‘speed of result’ was why people growth hack.

But now, after working with hundreds of people, I see this isn’t true.

It can’t be.

Otherwise, people who have paid me buckets of money would drop the growth hacking attitudes and embrace doing things properly.

See, there’s something dark hiding behind growth hacking, something that must be overcome before it’s possible to move on…

What everyone’s afraid of.

The biggest, baddest, scariest thing a person needs to confront when taking the “no growth-hacking” path is that you genuinely might fail.

And that failing person is the closest we’ll get to the real you.

And if this happens, you’ll be exposed publicly as the fraud you truly are, with nothing to hide behind, with no strategy or technique to blame.

And that…

Well… that’s fucking terrifying.

#5: When you abandon growth-hacking you’re forced to face your fear of failure. Should you choose to press on anyway, you may be rewarded with a catapillar/butterfly metamorphosis, growing out of imposter syndrome and into a leader in your space.

Don’t give up

Your business is growing… But who knows at what speed, right?

Don’t give up. It’s not easy to see what’s bubbling under the surface.

Playing the long game feels like it will take longer to reach your goals, but that’s not true. Because shortcuts always cost you something.

If you’re the kind of person who wants to do things right but is frustrated with the seemingly endless learning curve of growth, rest assured, you’re one of the good ones:

• You’re more self-aware than those around you.

• You care about the results you help people achieve.

• You may have even told someone not to buy from you, because you realised it wasn’t right for them (despite wanting/needing the sale).

• You want profit, yes, but not at the expense of others.

• You value the confidence of a good strategy rather than playing Russian roulette with hacky techniques.

• You understand shortcuts aren’t worth it (otherwise, they would be ‘the way’ and not a shortcut).

• You’ve been told that you’re inspiring (if not yet, you will soon).

• You’re not easily distracted by the latest shiny object.

• You’re someone people call when they are in trouble.

• You’re probably good at keeping a secret.

• You’re not a scammer.

• You’re reliable.

• …You’re what most people refer to as “good people”.

#6: By letting go of growth hacking you move from the ‘Questionable Character’ group over to the ‘Quality & Integrity’ group. Trust is a prerequisite of every financial transaction and you no longer have to try and convince people, because they already know, and they want to do business with you.

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Use The Calculator

The How Many Clients Calculator shows how many clients you could enrol with your current audience without any outreach. It’s free and takes less than a minute.

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Resources

The goal is to help you get clients without doing stupid shit.

• If you’re new, start HERE.

• Educate yourself for free with my foundational YouTube series HERE.

• If your lead magnet isn’t generating clients, watch this HERE.

• I run the Growth Accelerator a few times a year. Every time, people get clients. It’s inexpensive and will light a rocket under your business. Hop on the waitlist HERE for free.

• Finally, if you want private help, learn about inbound lead flow HERE.

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Thanks for reading

We left Luang Prabang yesterday. I don’t know when I’ll be back, but next time I want it to be via motorbike.

In the beautiful ancient Laos town of Luang Prabang, this is the sunset you’ll get almost daily, looking over the mighty Mekong River.

Cheers,
Pat

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