Selling Secrets

 

You are the secret

Within nearly every niche of entrepreneurial enterprise is a sub-niche of "coaches" willing to sell their secret to success. The click bait is everywhere, inundating social media feeds, preying on insecurities and desperation. "Build a 10k/month Etsy Shop",  "Transform your fitness studio into a 7 figure empire",  "Turn your passion for photography into a full time business." There is usually a free webinar followed by a sales pitch for something with at least 3 zeros on the end and a special introductory offer of only $99. It's a heck of a bargain for the keys to the kingdom.

Or is it?

The secret is that there is no secret. These predators in coaching uniforms are building their own empires by convincing others to pay them for a magic pill. That's it. Nothing more.

There's strategies that are effective, algorithms to understand, customer service to deliver and a never ending to-do list. 

There is no secret, it's just work.

Quitting Time?

 

     Quitting, when used as an intelligent strategy, can mean the difference between achieving great things and wasting untold hours on pointless endeavors. In fact, knowing when to quit is just as important as knowing when to soldier on. If the means no longer justify the ends, it may be time to reconsider.

     It's ok to quit if you're going the wrong way.

Getting There

 

If you're going to work hard either way, wouldn't it be wise to define the objective before you begin?

Dangerous Assumptions

1. What happened?
2. What does it mean?
3. How will you respond?

Before deciding what something means remember this: Other people's reactions tell us about them and our reactions tell us about ourselves.

When a friend of mine sent out a marketing email explaining that he was working with twelve music teachers on a collaborative project and received a salty reply from someone demanding to know the names of the twelve teachers, we each interpreted the meaning of this response in completely different ways. His immediate reaction was to think that he had somehow done something wrong or violated some law and that this woman demanding to know the names of the teachers was going to take those names and go straight to some higher authority. I didn't think that at all, I assumed that she wanted to know the names of the teachers because she didn't believe that there were twelve teachers and she thought he was making the whole thing up.

Now the fact of the matter is that, upon further questioning, this woman was unable or unwilling to articulate why she wanted to know this information (which is freely available on the company website anyway) or what her actual concern was. As such, we were left to speculate as to the meaning of her response and we each did what humans do, we interpreted it through the filter of our own insecurities. In other words, we each failed to consider that her reactions tell us about her and our reactions tell us about ourselves.

How potentially dangerous would it be for me to assign my insecurities as someone else's motive when, in reality, I have no idea what her motive is. Further more, there's another rule of thumb that says "consider the source". Do not allow yourself to assume a defensive posture in a situation where the aggressor is unwilling to explain why they want to know something and especially when the information they want is readily available on your company homepage. The fact that they are unwilling to explain why they want to know now means that the burden of explanation is on them.

Not everything requires a response.

Making Good

     

Karma is a simple enough concept, at least on the surface. Actions and intentions permeate the creative medium thus triggering sequences of events to play out. Beneath the surface, the universe operates with a subtly and nuance that we could never orchestrate and shouldn't even try to micromanage. The best we can do is to scan the horizon for possibilities and the ride the wave when it appears.
     That being said, if you've summoned a higher power for assistance and that help arrives, best make good on it. Pay the bill, take the class (and pass it!), accept the job or do whatever it is you said you would do if only you had the means to do it. On the flip side, when the opportunity presents, reach out and help someone else.
     Making good on help and helping others energizes the cycle and widens the pathway for more assistance. On the other hand, nothing stops the wheel in the sky in faster than squandering an opportunity, abusing generosity, or ignoring someone currently in the situation you used to be in.