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I don’t mind advertising.
I would never pay money to view forum content free of advertising.
I wouldn’t pay money to be a part of a forum.
Each one of these biases piled atop each other and said, “Why bother, MJ?”
Had I allowed these biases to overrule my decision, I’d be poorer today.
Here’s another story, one I found SMH worthy. Some years ago, a young lady
sought the forum’s advice. She was a successful six-figure fitness consultant who
wanted to break free from temporal prostitution. While she earned a pretty
penny, she was overworked doing email consultations that fell outside the scope
of her consultancy. She asked the group for suggestions for automating and
scaling her expertise while simultaneously reforming her clients’ expectations as
a fitness consultant and not as a therapist. Dozens of suggestions poured in,
many good. Unfortunately for this young lady, her biases ruled her world and
she let them dictate her actions, or I should say, inactions.
She flat-out rejected
every suggestion,
preceded by an excuse why it wouldn’t work. Here are some of
the actual comments:
…that doesn’t work with these women, as they will not post about those things…
…women don’t buy supplements as much as you think they do.
…hiring an assistant will not work, as it will take too long to train someone to
respond in a way I trust.
…if I offer a money-back guarantee, all my clients would demand a refund, even
after they made progress.
120
These were just a few biases revealed in the discussion. The thread went on
for pages, where every suggestion was dismissed, countermanded, or excused
away. Once I discovered this gal was unwilling to shelf her biases, I checked out
—she was more interested in being right, than rich.
Look, business is hard enough. Don’t make it any harder by letting your
limited worldview corrupt the real world. Again, your perception is not the
reality.
#10) TO HELL WITH SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION)
A popular mimetic in web circles is this concept of “SEO,” or search engine
optimization. SEO is a coding practice to foster highly ranked webpages in the
search engines, namely Google. If you own a mortgage company in Denver,
showing up on the first page of Google for “Denver mortgage” is immensely
valuable, and profitable. Hordes of free traffic would flow your way. Profit
margins expand and customer-acquisition cost moves to zero. In a sense, it
mimics a productocracy because customer lists grow without charge. So how can
this be so bad to warrant a “to hell with SEO”?
Here’s why:
Free traffic and expanded margins compliments of SEO are
entirely different from free traffic and expanded margins compliments of a
productocracy.
While both produce profits, a productocracy can be managed and
controlled; SEO cannot. Every year, Google changes their algorithm and imposes
penalties for companies gaming the system. And every year it happens: it exposes
those who can’t survive without it.
Let me be clear: If your business can’t survive unless your customer-
acquisition cost is zero compliments of a great Google ranking,
you don’t have a
business.
If you insist on living by the SEO sword, you will die by it. Too often,
entrepreneurs come blazing into my forum talking about this great idea, and
when their primary strategy for customer acquisition is revealed, it’s SEO. Yes,
LOL-worthy.
Sorry champ, but gaming the Google lottery is not a strategy. Yes, SEO
should be a consideration within execution initiatives, but it is NOT an
execution strategy. An olive accents the martini; it does not make it.
Here’s the great irony of SEO, which similarly responds like money. My
forum receives millions of visitors a year and makes fistfuls of cash. A healthy
portion of my site traffic comes from properly optimized pages, which rank well
on the search engines. I know for a fact that my forum shows up number one on
many searches. SEO, right?
Guess how much time and money I’ve spent on SEO?
Zero. Zilch. Nada.
Instead, I’ve focused on creating great content, and Google has rewarded me
with a good search ranking. This SEO relationship oddly parallels money—once
I focused on what attracts money and not money itself, the money flowed.
Likewise, once you focus on what attracts good search-engine results—valuable
content—the good SEO results follow. SEO is a great temptress of easy money
and free traffic, but don’t be fooled. Quit screwing with the olive and mix a better
martini.
#11) AVOID FADS OR TRENDS (UNLESS YOU NEED EXPERIENCE)
Is a leg-warmer business a good business to start today? How about in 1982?
The answer is no—it’s a terrible business—in both cases. Why? Because it’s a fad
—and fads fade. If the fad fades, so does your business.
I bring this up because too many entrepreneurs waste their time in fad
businesses that have questionable longevity. For instance, a popular ongoing fad
(as I write this) is long lumberjack beards. As a result, we now have a glut of
beard-oil businesses. I think there are two guys on my forum who are pursuing
this trend, not to mention the dozens of others saturating the market.
Unfortunately, these business have expiration dates likened to peeled fruit: all
fashion trends die just like leg warmers, popped collars, and man buns. Don’t
waste your time in businesses that have the staying power of a sitting president
with poor approval ratings. You cannot
UNSCRIPT
by bedding in a house of
cards.
Fad businesses might be poor ventures to pursue, but they can provide valuable
business experience, especially for those who are just getting started.
#12) AVOID POLITICS IN YOUR BUSINESS
In November 2016, Kelloggs, the multinational food company announced it
would no longer advertise on
Breitbart.com
, a large conservative website with
over 45,000,000 readers. Kellogg’s cited that the website (and their readers) are
not “aligned with our values as a company.”
As a result, Breitbart campaigned vigorously for a company boycott and their
readers responded in a furor. Subsequently days later, over 400,000 signed on to
the boycott, #DumpKelloggs became a trending Twitter hashtag, and their
Facebook page blew up with angry customers. Months later, they missed their
earnings target.
Unless your business
IS
politics, never infect politics into your business as
you risk alienating half your customers. Politics is the only thing that can
threaten the cancer-corollary. While I realize
UNSCRIPTED
implies some
political issues (I’m a gun-owning capitalist who doesn't want to kill the
environment) it must be said: I didn’t write
UNSCRIPTED
to make a fortune. If
making mortgage payments was my primary motive I would have sanitized this
book to be perfectly apolitical.
#13) NOT EVERYONE LOVES COFFEE
Be warned:
You will be criticized
. Not everyone will like your product. Some
will even waste their time attacking you. The fact is, anytime you put your
creative works out into the marketmind, you are guaranteed to hear from haters,
detractors, and people who don't like what you are doing. This is normal. The
best you can do is assess, adjust, and act (if their criticism is legit) or ignore. If
you fear criticism or "what people might say" about your effort, quit now and
update the resume.
CHAPTER 42
THE 4 UNSCRIPTED DISCIPLINES:
DESIGN, THEN INSURE YOUR FUTURE
Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of
order that sets me free to fly.
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