No One Likes to be Told Their Baby Is Ugly
On the third of January this year I became a grandpop for the very first time. I’d have to say, it’s everything that it’s cracked up to be. Just can’t get enough of the little fella. The general consensus is that all babies are ugly at birth, although, most parents and grandparents are blind to this.
After all, could you imagine their horror at being told that their baby is ugly?
The thing about all of this, it’s the same in business. It’s very difficult for me to be the purveyor of harsh reality and inform someone that their “baby” – their business idea, their project, their product, their advertising, their marketing, is bound for failure. Generally speaking, people don’t like my truth.
You’ve probably heard me say before, “The truth will set you free, but it will peeve you off at first”, this definitely applies when it comes to being informed that whatever you’re doing is flawed.
In a sense, I get it, most likely you’ve invested years of effort and thought into your baby. You may have even spent a tidy sum getting “it” to where it is, only to be told it sucks. Almost without exception, most businesses, most of the marketing/advertising I see, that come across my desk are terribly flawed in the first instant and failure, or difficulty, is just a reflection of that
flawed-ness.
Interestingly enough, it doesn’t have to be that way. You see, the folks that hang around me have a big problem most “ordinary” folk don’t. Their problem is too many opportunities. Most people experience the opposite of this.
Look, ours is a nice problem to have and it’s all brought about by having a system for evaluating opportunity. So there’s a bunch of boxes, half a dozen or so, that we must be able to tick. Or we simply won’t consider “it” any further.
We’re not attached like most to discovering that the “baby” is ugly. Here’s a list of the boxes we must be able to tick in no particular order necessarily:
1. The product or service must solve a problem for a group of individuals who have the capacity to exchange money for taking them from pain to pleasure, problem to solution. It’s best if they go to bed at night thinking about it, and wake up in the morning worried about it.
2. We must be able to craft a message that enters the conversation in the mind of that same prospect that is based on their fears, frustrations, wants, desires and needs, offers them a solution and persuades them to do whatever it is we want them to do next (place an order, pick up the phone, request a free report, make an appointment etc). Offer is absolutely key, preferably an “outrageous” offer, to the success of your message. As an aside, I actually create my offer first, and then write my copy. This works best for me.
3. There must be an obvious target market. A group of people who want what we have to offer. Someone to deliver our message to. By the way, people don’t buy what they “need”, they buy what they “want”. And they buy for their reasons, not yours. So don’t think for a moment you know what they want, just because it’s what you want. You are not your customer or prospect. Your opinion doesn’t count. Theirs does, and they vote with their dollars, and let you know very quickly whether you’ve got it right or wrong. It’s nothing personal.
4. We have to have a media to communicate our message to the market, preferably lots of media – radio, TV, print, Google Adwords, search engine optimisation, telemarketing. It’s a common mistake among business owners to have one at best three, medias that deliver their message. There’s a fly in the ointment there. I and my Rebellious Millionaire Members, dominate our category regularly by using multiple multimedia.
5. The riches are in the niches. If you want to experience the wealth explosion that we do, you must identify a niche. The benefit of a niche is you can charge more, add value more easily, precisely enter the conversation in their mind and frankly business is simpler and easier for you. And of course “they” (the prospect or client) value you more as an expert. You want to be a big fish in a small pond. You should identify a niche that’s an inch wide, but a mile deep. For example, cellulite is part of the health niche, which is a mile wide, but a lot of women suffer from it so the niche is and inch wide and a mile deep.
6. Psychology and maths- it’s impossible to get rich with poor mathematics. 4-10 times the cost of goods is common to us. We don’t want this just to be greedy. It’s a mathematical necessity if you are going to be able to impact the market, simply most of your gross profit will be spent on marketing and advertising. Without those dollars, you’ll struggle. And there will be little impact on your bank account. Profit is the only measure of our success, even if you want to save the world, you have to be profitable to do so, or your missionary approach will soon disappear and no-one will benefit. Remember, money doesn’t have a conscience, money doesn’t care if your cause is just or necessary, money doesn’t care if you’re a nice person, or a bank robber. The attraction of money in a business sense is based on all of what I’ve revealed here. If I was wrong, nurses, ambulance drivers and firemen would be rich – but they’re not.
So there you have it. If we can’t tick every one of those boxes regardless of any ego or desire to proceed, we will not. And we won’t spend a minute trying to change what can’t be changed. That said, we may however see if we can adjust our product or service or plan to suit, but it’s a very quick and precise process. We, in fact, love to discover that the “baby” is ugly, and move on quickly to greener pastures.
It’s about high probability of success. As we approach recession-like times in business, it’s never been more important than now to seek this type of wise counsel. A set of fresh eyes. To be honest, few can match me in this regard, and if it’s my wise counsel you seek, you’d best be quick. Retirement is approaching fast, and I’m deadly serious about it.
Here’s just a sample of what my clients say about me:
http://www.malemery.com/testimonials.htm
No amount of money, could have paid them for what they say. I’ve paid none of them a cent. When you help people as I do, become financially free and independent, people are very grateful, and this is one way they express their gratitude.
However, I have a caveat. You must be the right person, at the right time, with the right information. I’ve often dispensed the right advice, only for it to fall on deaf ears because the recipient wasn’t the right person, or it wasn’t the right time and they made me wrong and themselves right, attached their “ugly baby”.
So a warning – if you think you’re smarter than me, please don’t seek my advice. If you’re a whinging, moaning know-it-all drama queen, please also don’t seek me out. I don’t need your money, and no amount of money will interest me in the task. And besides, I can create enough drama on my own, I don’t need your help. If money is an issue, and you think for a minute I will allow your problems to be mine for free, then dream on. I would never, nor should you expect my wise counsel to be free.
However, if you’ve reached a point of disatisfaction, if you’re tough enough to realise recession-like times are around the corner, this is no time to be sissafying and wimpafying your efforts. This is time for right action, and it’s also time for the opportunity to create enormous wealth. Want to know more? Go to:
http://platinum2mastermind.com/levels.html
If you don’t join us, and not wishing to sound smug, it’s just the truth, my life won’t change at all. But yours definitely will if you’re the right person at the right time with the right information. You see, success leads a trail, and mine, when it comes to being successful myself, and helping others do the same, is one of the longest trails you will ever find.
Best Regards,
Mal Emery
Committed to Elevating the Financial Wealth and Wellbeing of Society Through Entrepreneurial Excellence and Guilty of Conspiracy to Create Capitalism
