What's the analogy of doing 100 push-ups in relation to marketing?

The ‘100 push-ups’ analogy represents building your marketing muscles to the point where you’re ready for paid advertising. If your goal is to do 100 push-ups in one sitting, you wouldn’t start there—you’d begin with what you can do (maybe 10), practice consistently (perhaps 10 push-ups five times a day), and gradually build up over weeks and months until you can do 50, then eventually 100. Your marketing muscles work the same way. The ‘100 push-ups’ represents having a complete marketing system in place: consistent social media posting, active email marketing, regular audience engagement, proven sales mechanisms, and at least $5,000-$10,000 in annual online sales. You build this gradually through consistent practice and effort. Only once you can ‘do 100 push-ups’—once your marketing machine is fully operational—are you ready to add paid advertising to amplify what’s already working.

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Asked by artists learning about marketing fundamentals · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-08-13