Key actions that drive results

Behind every “how do I” question is a deeper question. Anytime someone asks “how do I…” and then follows it with something practical, like “find more clients?” or “grow my audience?” or “generate more profit?” there is one deeper question behind all of it. 

They want to know: “what are the key actions that drive results?”

Whenever we try something new, we only get as far as our confidence will take us. When we run out of confidence, we quit. We quit because we’re stumbling aimlessly in the dark, not sure if what we’re doing will work out, and since we haven’t seen any results yet, we lose confidence in the path we’re on. We quit because it might not be the right one. 

When we ask “how do I…” questions, we’re searching for confidence. We want to know which actions we should take, so we can remain confident in them, even before we see results. 

When I started investing more time and money into my Instagram, I had a vague notion of the key actions that would drive results: bring value and post consistently. After about eight months of doing that without seeing proportionate results, I started to wonder if I was on the right path. My confidence was dwindling. I took a break for almost two weeks. Then, I posted a funny little video in which I filled out a budget spreadsheet. I called it “Run the Numbers.” It got about 7,000 views. I posted another one. It got about 10,000 views. I posted a few more. One of them got over 150,000 views. A key action was unearthed. In the 12 months that followed, I posted over 400 videos, many of them “Run the Numbers” videos, and grew my audience to over 60,000 creatives. 

Fun story. I discovered a key action that drove results. But let’s contrast this story with another new thing I tried last year: running Meta ads. I sell a few digital products, and I wanted to test out Meta ads to see if I could increase sales. I set up a campaign and tested a few audiences. I committed to spending $500 to test things out. After spending that money, but only seeing minimal results, I lost confidence. I felt like an idiot for spending that money, and seeing none of it come back. 

There may be someone reading this who has experience running Meta ads. You may be shouting at your screen right now, saying “you should have kept going! You were so close!” Sadly, I can’t hear you. My confidence in the key action disappeared. 

I want to point out two important takeaways from these stories. First, we need to do the hard work of learning key actions. We need to read, take courses, get advice, and hire consultants in order to make strong educated guesses about what our key actions should be. Second, we need to commit to that action and protect our confidence at all costs. This is why mastermind groups and workshop cohorts are so effective. They help people suspend disbelief, and protect their confidence for long enough to see the key action finally drive results. 

The bad news is that key actions mean nothing unless we stick with them long enough. We can climb the mountain of knowledge as high as we want, but unless we have enough confidence in our key action, and enough diligence to stick with it, we won’t see results. 

The good news is that key actions don’t have to be perfect. With enough consistency, even a key action that isn’t totally optimized can drive results. Consistency is the real variable that drives results. Education just helps us build the confidence to stick with it long enough.