Don’t Cut Down the Tree

Like most Midwesterners who have suffered through a long, cold winter, I am looking forward to spring. In my new home I have an indoor greenhouse (aka empty bedroom) where I am attempting to grow the seeds I keep buying online and in stores.

Turns out, seed buying and seed growing are two very different hobbies.

As I tend to my little seeds, watering them, adjusting the lights, making sure the room is warm enough to encourage germination and impatiently waiting for that first little sign of life, I’m reminded of what a coach said to me years ago.

The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.

And while it’s absolutely true about my garden project, it’s also true in business. We sow seeds all the time, we write blog posts, send emails, connect to new people, create resources, do interviews, pitch media… all of these activities can be considered marketing “seeds.” And it’s important not to presume that those seeds have failed when they fail to produce fruit right away.

But there’s a second story that also sticks in my mind. I was reading about the worst customers in retail where someone shared that they worked in a popular nursery. One day a customer has returned a tree sapling which they’d bought, took home, then cut down and returned 6 months later. The reason? It hadn’t grown.

When it comes to the goals we set, the projects started and dreams envisioned it’s easy to get discouraged by an apparent lack of growth and cut down the tree.

Don’t cut down the tree.

I see this when clients have a great free offer that they’ve mapped out, written, proofed, edited, designed and published… only to get 3 downloads in the first week. Frustrated, they cut down the tree.

Some clients take it further, creating a program they know will serve clients but get tired of putting resources into and stop promoting. They chop down the tree and start working on another, different program.

Sometimes cutting down the tree is really simple to recognize: you take something which has potential to grow and you yank it out and throw it away. Other times it’s more subtle like refusing the resources it needs to keep growing. You might not take an ax to that tree but if you neglect to water it for 3 years you’re killing it all the same.

The whole idea of cutting down your tree is impatience. We look around at everyone else and see the trees in their yards, the fruits they are harvesting and we want the same. We don’t see their patient pruning or careful watering. We don’t see what they invested in mulch and fertilizer and how they treated this tree to protect it from pests. We only see the result and want the same in our own lives now, dammit. 

A few things to remember:

1. You’re not going to plant just one tree, ever, and have to nurture it even if it’s clearly dead or not working out. Think of your business as planting all kinds of trees at different times. Not all of them will survive (just like not every lead magnet or offer is a good one) but the goal is to give them a chance to mature and not cut them down prematurely.
2. Planting and tending a tree doesn’t require that you stick by it forever, just like if you plant an orchard in your house’s backyard you can still move!
3. It’s just an analogy, so it won’t make sense in every instance.

When I think about creating something that will grow and mature perhaps beyond my lifetime, I always think of Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana. I was blessed to visit back in 2016 and surprised to learn that the row of towering Live Oak trees were planted 300 years earlier, over a hundred years before the house was constructed.

The person who planted these rows of tiny seeds that would grow into a lush canopy framing the house from its front door to the Mississippi River is unknown but their work lives on in one of the most famous plantations in the South.

(P.S. if you’re near New Orleans after the pandemic has passed, I highly recommend visiting for the Plantation Tour to learn the history of these estates and inhabitants. They do not gloss over the ugly history of slavery and educate visitors year round.)

My own garden is slowly growing in my greenhouse, one tiny seed, one little cell at a time. It feels intentional and requires patience and still will produce much faster than a full grown tree. But the same amount of faith is required, that when you plant the seed and wait for it to grow as when you market your business, sharpen your skills, grow your network and share your work. In the meantime, don’t cut down the tree.