Do you believe there’s a difference between consuming information and learning? (I’ll tell you what I believe later)
I signed up for a webinar the other day at 11:30 am. Within 8 hours I had received *13* emails. 7 of them were countdown reminders that were sent within 30 minutes of each other.
In my head I thought – how useful is this information going to be if they have to beat me over the head to show up? Knowing that most network marketers don’t work the “value first, sale later” theory, this is going to be a huge sales push.
I made a decision somewhere around email #8. I never showed up to the webinar.
Instead, I poked around on Instagram. As much as I love this guy, I can only take him in small spurts. (You’ll understand soon)
Anyway, he has this 60 Second Club thing happening that seemed interesting.
Like & comment on his post within 60 seconds. Then he chooses a winner. What I love most about this was it create an air of instant execution.
I don’t claim to have all the answers, and I don’t know what every single person needs.
But based on your survey responses, I do know that you’re struggling. You don’t know where to start or where to go. And I know I can fix that.
How Marketing Really Works
There’s only 2 kinds of business owners. People who get shit done and people who don’t.
When you know what your audience needs, you can give them what they want. That’s target marketing 101. If you’re good at it and you have anything worthwhile to sell, making a sale is pretty damn easy.
Remember the webinar I avoided? The emails weren’t the only reason that I snubbed my nose.
I’m jaded.
Like when you watch a magic show and know all the secrets. It’s not so magical any more.
Last year, I was was gifted a seat to what turned out to be a decent online course. A few weeks into the course I get an email offering me a free phone call with a team member to see how I was making out and to give some personal feedback on the struggles I was having in my business.
I deleted the email for 2 reasons.
What Just Happened?
One of the principles of human behaviour is reciprocity.
- If I do something nice for you, you’ll do something nice for me.
- If you give me value bomb after value bomb in a blog post, I’ll give you my contact information.
- If I give you my email address, you give me a checklist that will make my life easier.
So I deleted the email not only because I didn’t want to feel like I had to reciprocate their help by inking a sales deal but also because I know the secret behind the marketing ploy. Get them on the phone, give value, sell something. Or get them onto the webinar, give value, sell something.
“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal.”-Paulo Coelho
All the programs, courses, formulaic holy grail answers – they’re all basically the same. Same shit, different name. Don’t believe me? Learn some of the fundamentals of selling and then go back to these courses and you’ll see it’s ALL. THE. SAME. They throw a slightly different spin on it. They use different names for everything. They slap their own name on it and bam. Now you have My Secret Formula To Freedom.
I was trying to figure out how to take all this stuff that I had learned over the last decade and put it into something useful to sell. I failed over and over again because I didn’t know how to make it different. Every road left me feeling like I was doing the same thing as everyone else. Call it a different name and now it’s new.
There’s probably 30 products sitting in my proverbial garbage bin. On my livestreams you’ll hear me say this a lot: “GUYS, nothing that I’m saying is new. It’s not something you can’t find on the internet – they’re just saying it a different way. There’s no course out there that’s not based on the exact same stuff”.
It’s not a case of sabotaging my business. It’s just the truth. Because there is no magic bullet.
Consumption Is Killing Your Business
Everyone is signing up for more newsletters, buying more courses, ordering more books because they’re on the hunt for the holy grail. The ONE thing that will finally make the pieces click into place.
Newsflash:
- There’s no perfect hashtag, amount of hashtags or combination of hashtags that will increase your reach.
- There’s no magical posting time, frequency or type of post that will finally beat the algorithm.
- There’s no secret loophole that you need to learn to exploit. No hidden formula that you’ve missed.
The algorithm isn’t your problem. Bootstrapping isn’t your problem. Lack of traffic isn’t your problem. Not pricing your product so it ends in a 7 isn’t your problem.
If you NEED a formula, write this down:
1. Come up with a good idea.
2. Choose some kind of strategy to reach people.
3. Show up every goddamn day and execute whatever plan you made.
Anticlimactic, amiright?
We’re conditioned to find the missing pieces. It’s why clickbait works so well.
(spoiler alert: Kerrigan says, “I really have nothing to say about it. I haven’t seen anything, I haven’t watched anything.”
So we keep digging for that missing piece.
The Proof is in the Pudding
How many newsletters do you subscribe to right now?
How many of those do you actually read within a day or so?
Of those, how many contain anything truly actionable?
Of those, how many DO you put into action?
Remember when I asked you if there was a difference between consuming information and learning?
Do you need to change your answer?
We live in a world where everything is, quite literally, at our fingertips. Uber, Amazon, blog posts, courses, masterminding with someone who lives on the other side of the world.
Accessing and consuming information is NOT your problem. It won’t set you free.
You don’t need another person, book or subscription to motivate and inspire you. Anything that you really allowed to take up your time can’t just provide inspiration, it has to provide execution.
When you learn the basics (and start executing consistently) then you’ll find yourself getting traction.
When you forget about finding loopholes that people sell you (or trade you for your attention) you’re going to stop bitching about algorithms because it won’t fucking matter. Life, business, technology, platforms – they’re always changing. If you know the fundamentals of how to reach people and are always taking action on your strategy you can pivot at any time in any direction.
And if change is always afoot, wouldn’t it be better to make the change on your own terms – whatever that looks like – rather than being forced to scramble and make do?
One Last Point
Pattern Interruption. Heard of it?
It’s just anything that you weren’t expecting that makes you take notice. And marketers love it.
So, why aren’t they applying it to their overall business strategy?
(image credit: Dotcom secrets, Russell Brunson)
The “Big Guys” learned how to do a product launch that was profitable. They turned that into a product and sold it for a couple grand a pop. Entrepreneurs bought it, took the basics and added their own twist and re-sold the concept under their own name and brand. Another newsflash – these aren’t working as well as they used to. BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE TIRED, BORED, OVERSOLD.
Every entrepreneur out there is looking at anyone doing a million plus in their business wanting to get into their program that will teach them how to do what they’ve done. Remember everything you’ve learned here? What do we know about that? It’s all the same stuff.
Leaves me yelling:
I’ll ask again. Do you think there’s a difference between information consumption and learning?
Let’s Wrap It Up
Information consumption = generic advice that’s (usually) based on the fundamental, although anticlimactic formula I gave you earlier.
Ever been ready to buy but you email the support desk and say – here’s my business, do you think this will work for me? That darling, is your gut telling you what your mind won’t dare to say. The steps will work (if you put them into action every day) but your gut knows that what you really need is someone to tell YOU what to do in YOUR situation that’s happening right NOW. Generalities aren’t going to cut it.
People are looking for personalization. You know that when you Google any question you have (even when you find the answer) your first inkling is to wonder if this will work for YOU).
Learning = this analogy: Give a man a fish, you’ll feed him for the day. Teach a man to fish, you’ll feed him for a lifetime.
So now you know:
i) Why I love Gary Vaynerchuk but can’t read everything he posts
ii) Why your business is not thriving
iii) The super boring, but incredibly effective “secret” formula.
Cliffnotes
- yes, there is a huge difference between information consumption and learning
- everyone is selling the (basically) same stuff. And it’s generic on purpose – to check off as many boxes (that’s you) as possible. Because at some point, your audience is too big to help everyone and most people can’t pay the cost of working one-on-one.
- unless it’s basic fundamentals, generalities are not going to help you. Personalized valuable advice does.
- pattern interruptions in marketing work, yet everyone delivers content in the exact same way. We’re sick of it.
- if you only look for secrets, hacks and loopholes (it’s OK, that’s just what humans do), and never learn the fundamentals, you’ll always complain about algorithms because you can’t change until someone else says HEY, THIS WORKS NOW.
