The Advice You’ve Heard 100 Times Might Be the Advice That Changes Your Business

What if the thing that changes your business isn’t some groundbreaking strategy you’ve never heard before? What if it’s actually something you’ve heard 100 freaking times, but then one day you hear it again from the right person, at the right moment, explained in a slightly different way, and suddenly it clicks? Sometimes the advice doesn’t need to be new to completely change the trajectory of your business.

I had a consultation call this week that reminded me of exactly that. All of my consultation calls are transcribed using AI, so after this particular call, I took the entire transcript, put it into ChatGPT, and asked it to pull every moment where this potential client responded to my advice with something like, “I love that,” “You’re so right,” or “That just hit me.” When I saw all of those moments together, I realized there was a much bigger entrepreneurship lesson hiding inside this conversation.

This business owner has been in business for 20 years. He isn’t brand new. He knows his industry, he knows his customers, and he has built a legitimate company. But he’s trying to figure out what the next version of his business looks like and how social media and marketing fit into that. That’s something I think a lot of entrepreneurs eventually experience. What got you here isn’t necessarily what’s going to get you there. You can be incredibly good at what you do and still need someone else to look at your business with a fresh set of eyes.

One of his biggest questions was how social media actually turns into leads. Instead of only thinking about the content, I started looking at the entire customer journey. I can create amazing content. I can get someone interested. I can get them to visit your website. But what happens once they get there? If they’re confused, overwhelmed, or don’t know what to do next, all that attention isn’t doing much for your business.

When I looked at his website, I realized that someone who knows nothing about professional lighting might not understand exactly what they need. The website makes sense to someone who has been working in the industry for 20 years, but the customer hasn’t been working in the industry for 20 years. So I suggested creating a simple inquiry form that makes it easy for someone to tell the company what kind of event they’re planning, what they’re looking for, and what their budget is. That also gives the company an opportunity to qualify potential customers before spending time on the phone with them.

Later in the conversation, he came back to that idea and said, “I love what you said about the inquiry and the form.” That stuck with me because sometimes the thing preventing your marketing from working isn’t actually your marketing. Maybe people are seeing your content. Maybe they’re interested. Maybe they’re clicking over to your website. But you’ve made the next step too complicated. Sometimes the difference between thinking social media isn’t producing customers and actually converting those people into leads could be something as simple as changing one part of your website.

Then we started talking about testimonials. A huge amount of his business has been built through referrals, and he wants to create more relationships with high-end event planners. I suggested interviewing the planners instead of making every piece of content about his company. Make the planner the star. Let them tell the story of the event. Show their vision, show the finished result, show the incredible work that went into making everything happen, and position his company as the people working behind the scenes to help bring that vision to life.

His immediate response was, “I love that.” Then he said something even better: “That just hit me really right.” Almost immediately, he started building on the idea himself. He could imagine a camera crew going to an event, interviewing the planner, showing everything that was created, and making the planner the star while his company became the problem solver in the background.

Those are some of my favorite moments in a consultation because the idea stops being my idea and becomes theirs. I don’t have to convince them for another 45 minutes. Something clicks, and suddenly they can see how it fits into their business. There’s also a huge marketing lesson there. Your customer doesn’t always need to hear more about you. Sometimes your best marketing happens when you make your customer the hero of the story.

At another point during the conversation, he thanked me for reflecting these things back to him because he said it was giving him clarity. That might have been my favorite thing he said during the entire call because it perfectly describes why outside perspective can be so valuable in entrepreneurship. You can be incredibly smart. You can know your industry better than almost anyone. You can have 20 years of experience and still become too close to your own business to see what is sitting right in front of you.

You’ve looked at your website thousands of times. You’ve explained your services thousands of times. You know every product, every employee, every customer complaint, every process, every mistake, and every reason you do things the way you do them. Eventually, all of it becomes normal to you. Sometimes you need someone who isn’t emotionally attached to any of it to look at your business and ask, “Why are you doing it that way?” Or, “Do you realize that thing you just said is actually your story?” Sometimes a consultant or coach isn’t giving you an answer you never could have figured out yourself. They’re simply holding up a mirror so you can finally see your own business again.

That happened again when he started explaining why his company costs more than some of the cheaper alternatives. He started talking about the crew, the trucks, the insurance, the equipment, the backup equipment, knowing which clamps are needed, understanding when lighting has to be installed, and knowing how one tiny mistake can create a domino effect across an entire event. As I’m listening to him explain all of this, I’m thinking, “THIS IS THE CONTENT.”

Business owners do this all the time. We assume everyone knows what we know. You think something is boring because you’ve done it 10,000 times, but your customer may have never seen it once. You see a warehouse full of equipment. Your customer sees security. You see your crew loading a truck. Your customer sees professionalism. You see backup supplies. Your customer sees peace of mind. You see 20 years of experience that has become second nature to you. Your customer sees the reason you’re worth more.

You don’t always have to tell people you’re better or explain why you’re more expensive. Show them. Educate them. Tell the story. Let them see everything happening behind the scenes that they never realized they were paying for. When I explained how he could tell those stories without sounding cocky or putting down cheaper competitors, he responded, “You’re so right.” Then he started talking about how even during our meeting he was realizing how he could communicate these stories differently. There was another lightbulb.

We also talked about showing his team because he doesn’t necessarily want to become the celebrity face of the company. I completely understand that. You don’t have to turn your personal life into a reality television show to successfully market your business. I suggested showing the shop, the employees, the crew, and the people who are actually doing the work. Let potential customers see who is going to show up at their event. Imagine one of those employees walking onto an event site and the planner saying, “Oh, I’ve seen you guys online.” There’s already familiarity. There’s already recognition. You’ve started building trust before the job even begins. His response was simple: “I love that.”

Then we took the same idea even further. That content isn’t only for customers. It can also be for future employees. Show your company culture. Show how you treat your people. Show what working for your company actually looks like. Show why talented people would want to join your team. Again, he said, “I love that.” One piece of content can accomplish multiple things at once. It can create brand awareness, build trust, attract customers, recruit employees, communicate company culture, and even help sales. Social media is so much deeper than sitting down every morning and asking, “What should I post today?”

Toward the end of the conversation, he brought up another challenge. They work on higher-end events, which means they can’t necessarily walk into someone’s wedding, pull out a phone, and immediately start posting everything online. There are planners, clients, other vendors, permissions, and privacy to consider. So I suggested changing the way they ask for permission. Instead of saying, “Can we come make content at your event so we can grow our social media?” position it around the value being created for everyone involved. We’d love to capture the event, highlight your work, tag you, collaborate with you, and help tell the story of what all these incredible vendors created together.

That is a completely different conversation. One approach says, “Can I use your event to market my business?” The other says, “How can we create something valuable for everyone involved?” His response was, “Yeah, I love that.” Same event. Same camera. Same content. Same ultimate goal. The only thing that changed was the positioning. That’s the kind of tiny tweak that can completely change the response you get.

This entire consultation reminded me how much pressure entrepreneurs put on themselves to find the BIG thing. We’re constantly looking for the secret strategy, the revolutionary idea, the perfect funnel, the business hack nobody else knows about, or the one thing that is finally going to change everything. But sometimes it’s an inquiry form. Sometimes it’s finally asking for the testimonial. Sometimes it’s changing two sentences in an email. Sometimes it’s showing your employees. Sometimes it’s telling the story you’ve been sitting on for 20 years.

And sometimes it’s hearing the exact same advice you’ve already heard 100 times, except this time you’re finally ready to hear it.

Maybe people have been telling you for three years to raise your prices, and then one person finally explains why in a way that clicks. Maybe you’ve heard “tell your story” 700 times, but then someone asks you one question about how you started your business and suddenly you understand what telling your story actually means. Maybe people keep telling you to hire, delegate, simplify, follow up, post consistently, fix your website, or niche down, and every time you think, “I KNOWWWWW.”

But knowing something and finally seeing how it applies to your business are two completely different things.

So here’s the question I want to leave you with: What business advice keeps following you around? What’s the thing multiple people have told you? What’s the suggestion that makes you immediately think, “Yeah, yeah, I already know that”? Maybe it’s worth looking at one more time.

Because maybe you don’t need another strategy. Maybe you don’t need another course. Maybe you don’t need 47 Google tabs open trying to find the secret to entrepreneurship. Maybe your next breakthrough is already sitting right in front of you. Maybe it needs a 2% tweak. Maybe it needs a different perspective. Maybe you need someone to reflect your own business back to you. Or maybe you simply need to hear something you’ve heard 100 times before from the right person, in the right way, at the exact moment you’re finally ready to do something about it.

The advice doesn’t have to be new to be transformational.

And sometimes one little, “Oh my God. I love that,” is where the next chapter of your business begins.