There’s two kinds of products you can sell online.
- Products that (claim to) help you make money.
- Everything else.
You can push the former really hard. The latter, however, requires the opposite approach.
The ultra-soft sell.
Category Archives: Entrepreneurship
Destination you
You can have a:
- Website with a lot of Vitamix recipes.
- Retail store with a lot of fashionable accessories.
- A bar with a lot of beers on tap.
But in order to be the destination, you have to be more than just what you have.
You have to be you.
Bad buy buddy
People buy on emotion.
This thing will:
- Make people love me.
- Help me feel better.
- Change my life.
Logic comes in afterwards for justification.
This thing was:
- An awesome deal.
- Able to do all the things.
- Proven to be a smart decision.
It seems, then, there’s a big opportunity to counsel people who are struggling to logically justify their purchase.
So go empathize.
(And then let them know you can help them get the right one when they’re ready.)
Paid and exclusive
It’s so true.
- Free copies of software.
- Backstage passes.
- Comp’d tickets.
The second that happens, everything changes.
The software is just meh. The show loses its magic. The performance isn’t as good.
It’s so tempting to give your stuff away for free (or provide free special access).
But just know that the excitement, rave reviews, and value derived is immediately all but gone.
Probably better to keep things paid and exclusive.
[Lesson learned from building my course Vitamix 101.]
Stop
Stop.
Stop trying to be the Uber of this. Or the Facebook of that.
Do you. Do your job.
Go!
How to go on vacation
Do these three things:
- Ask: What would my world (work, home, other affairs) look like if there were in a stable and pretty darn good state?
- Work backwards from there to make a plan prior to departure.
- Stick to the plan (adding no other things).
Now, go.
Website, email, flyer building 101
Figure out:
- Who’s looking.
- Why they’re there.
- What you want them to do (one thing).
Anything that’s not 100% aligned with these three things should not make the cut.
Oh, and their job, as the viewer, should be clear immediately (and from 10 feet away).
This approach is much easier than trying to declutter and organize after dumping all the things that “should” be there.
12 things I learned from watching Going Clear
I watched the HBO documentary “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” this weekend.
Wow did I learn some things.
Aside from the obvious (Scientologists are crazies), here’s what I learned:
- Religions are a lucrative business. Similar to TM.
- Money and power can cause destructive paranoia (similar to the inevitable fall of movie-depicted mobsters).
- Taking through your fears can be cathartic.
- “I’ve already paid” is enough for people to proceed despite better judgement.
- Belief is a force to be reckoned with.
- People are lonely.
- People are scared.
- People need hope.
- Paying for the rights to a secret and being asked to keep it is a sign you’re being duped.
- After watching footage of L. Ron Hubbard, I’m really interested in what Jesus, Muhammad and other religion starters were like pre-holiness.
- I’m obsessed with living forever and am pretty sure starting a religion is the best way to do that. But, I’m not going to do that because…
- Forever isn’t a real thing since the universe, too, inevitably dies. (I didn’t learn that from the movie, but #11 combined with this video is a good reminder to live a life of love.)
Eye-opening movie for anyone interested in entrepreneurship, religion, or Tom Cruise or John Travolta.