3 min read

How to Stay Consistent While Handling Change and the Unexpected in 2024

Picture of Liz Moorehead Liz Moorehead Jan 2, 2024 1:50:38 PM

Inbound Strategy Attract Engage Podcast Delight

 

I'm willing to wager that a meaningful number of us are looking ahead to 2024 as a big year. Maybe it's a make or break year. Maybe it's a dream big year. Maybe it's a stay the course, because we're slayin' the game already year. Or maybe it's a I'm-about-life-lessoned-out-Universe-can-you-chill kind of year.

🎙️ Listen: Your Ultimate 2024 Inbound + HubSpot Stop, Start, Keep Showdown

Whatever the case may be, this is your episode. We're not talking tools, we're not talking optimization strategies, we're not talking content tips this week. Why?

Well to answer that, I'm going to read off a list of different situations:

  • Your predictions for results of a HubSpot inbound campaign you launched fell short, because not enough of the humans you serve took the actions you wanted them to take ... for whatever reason. OR, maybe the responses were overwhelming and bigger and better than you expected!

  • A client you absolutely love (and who loves you) has to discontinue their contract with you because they've hit hard times.

  • You hit hard times.

  • The market takes a hit.

  • HubSpot introduces new tools, features, or heck, MAYBE AN ENTIRELY NEW HUB that makes you rethink how you do inbound!

  • Your company introduces a new product or service.

  • Other publishers and content creators follow the lead of The New York Times, which recently sued OpenAI and Microsoft for using copyrighted material to generate responses in its ChatGPT platform — a suit which could research in OpenAI having to destroy any and all datasets leveraging that copyrighted material.

  • Your SaaS platform vendors raise their prices, impacting your budget.

  • A social media platform you rely on to attract, engage, and delight prospects and customers changes their algorithm, which kills the little organic traffic you had.

  • Google does another core update that impacts your search rankings and, as a result, the organic traffic you're seeing to your site.

What do these all have in common? What to each of these scenarios all represent?

  • Well, first, if you're an inbound marketer or business leader of any kind, you've likely experienced some (if not all!) of these disruptive circumstances. I know I have.

  • Second, there's a good chance at least one of these things will happen to you this year – either positively or negatively.

And that cuts to the heart of what we're talking about today.

In theory, we're all galavanting into 2024 with plans and strategies of some kind. Maybe they're documented, maybe they're in our heads, or some combination of the two. But one thing is for certain. We will encounter disruptive circumstances this year that will turn what we're working on, to some degree, on its head.

Even positive disruptions are still disruptive, in that we need to pivot, adjust, and adapt our plans, if not throw them out entirely! So, that's what we're talking about today. What it takes to navigate the disruptions all of us will undoubtedly face in this upcoming year, no matter their flavor - positive or negative, big or small, internal or external.

What We Talked About

  • When was a time over the past year when you encountered an out-of-left-field change — positive or negative — that forced you to pivot? How'd you handle it? Do you wish you had done or thought about things differently?

  • Why is change, even the positive types of change, so disruptive? What makes us humans so squirrely when things go sideways?

  • What are the key mindsets inbound practitioners must proactively embrace going into 2024 — before changes strike — in terms of how they think about and approach the unexpected?

  • Admittedly, none of us can predict the future. But how can we program ourselves to anticipate change in a heathy way, without lapsing into catastrophic or fatalistic thinking?

  • Speaking to HubSpot and inbound specifically, so much changes on a daily basis now with the platform and the methodology, it can feel overwhelming to keep up - what advice do you have?

  • Looking specifically to the third party platforms many of us find ourselves reliant upon – rented land spaces, if you will, like Facebook or Instagram, as well as tools like ChatGPT ... how do you walk that fine line of still looking to them as core parts of your strategy without being too wedded to them?

  • As we look ahead to this year, if you could give our listeners one piece of advice about navigating the unexpected, what would it be and why?

And so much more ... 

Additional Resources