Cutting Our Newport News and Orlando Meetups

In today’s episode, Erik gives the lowdown on the marketers meetup, Marketers Anonymous, that started in Norfolk in the fall of 2018. Right off the bat, it was a big success; there was standing room only at the very first meetup and people were literally sitting on the floor in the back. Of course, it was expected that it would simmer down over the holidays and pick up again after, which was exactly what happened. It was super exciting so Erik and Kevin decided to expand the meetup to a couple of different markets, the first being Newport News. It launched and...there was pretty poor attendance: about 10-12 people. So they decided to see what would happen in the second and third meetups if they pushed it harder than the first one. They amped up our social media posting, spent some ad dollars to really market it properly, and contacted every marketer they knew in Newport News and invited them. And the second one was...even worse: with only about 7 or 8 attendees. They did that for a couple of months hoping it would get better with the increased efforts but it didn’t. They even had a hard time getting speakers. It was a hard market to penetrate and yet they repeated this same mistake in Orlando, Florida. It was the exact same result there, with a couple of people that came out to each meetup but always 10 or less. They realized they were spending time, energy, and thus dollars to support these two meetups when so few people would show up. They did it for about 6 months and finally cut Newport News first and then Orlando. It was and still is an ego blow to admit have to pull the plug on those meetups because of low attendance but Erik would rather admit defeat and take a little bit of a hit now than to keep going with something that isn’t working and take a massive beating in the end. In entrepreneurial culture, there’s this adage that says DON’T QUIT. And Erik agrees with that to some extent but if it’s obvious something isn’t working and you’ve pivoted and that still isn’t working, it wouldn’t be wise to continue. Focus on the things in your business that are working and cut those that aren’t. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.