EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO OUR OWN IDEAS
I'm just going to say it. I love my ideas LOL. I think they are careful but brave and I think deeply about bringing forward anything before I propose it.
If I say I want to test a new channel or retest a channel that was turned off because I think we can begin again and make it better, it's because I believe we can take a new approach and get a new outcome. An outcome that helps us to win.
HOWEVER, I have to have the restraint to choose the best idea and the best use of time and resources and capital allocation. Notice I said choose the best idea not choose my idea. This often involves needing to kill your darlings and kill off your own ideas that may no longer serve you. 🙁
Pretend the situation looks like this:
You're eager and ready to retest a channel that in your opinion has legs.
You tell everyone it has legs.
You secure ad credits (lots of them). That's always a good look.
You go in and give it your best shot. Thoughtful creatives. You let the pixel warm up. And you're now a few months in but it hasn't clicked really.
AT LEAST NOT YET.
The key thing to do here isn't to double-down on that channel that hasn't clicked yet. If you did, you'd be in protecting your own idea mode which is a mode we cannot be in.
Instead, you take that lack of epic winning and you devote your time and attention elsewhere and bring about the next big idea to swing alongside this channel that has yet to come to fruition.
That next big idea has LEGS AND LEGS. It works immediately. IT CAN ABSORB SPEND OR HIT YOUR GOALS.
Because you didn't get scared of your next idea failing. Because if you had, you would have A) defended the 1st channel at the risk of capital allocation elsewhere that is actually incremental B) been too shy to go elsewhere or to do something else that could also fail.
2 misses in a row is sooooo much better than 1 miss that you drag on for a year and blow money on over and over. Also 2 misses in a row isn't usually what happens because again we have good ideas and we are thoughtful!
QUESTIONS I CARRY WITH ME / THE KILL SWITCH QUESTIONS:
(worth a forward to your team IMO)
🗡️ : If this channel stays flat for 2 more weeks, what is the carrying cost?
🗡️ : Are we still learning anything new?
🗡️ : Is the channel failing, or is the test failing?
^Is this marketing error on our parts / and is something wrong? (Say you're testing during an OOS SKU situation or your founder is being cancelled or maybe your agency doesn't know what they're doing or maybe you don't?)
🗡️ : Should our goal be to keep this running and to test elsewhere or do we see so few signs of life that we're better shutting it off?
🗡️ : What would we go fund instead if we cut this today?
🗡️ : CAN WE GET MORE AD CREDITS??
^ the answer is almost always yes if you try hard enough.
REPLY TO ME AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW:
What channel are you maybe emotionally attached to that may need a kill switch? I might have an opinion!
