Breaking news…
…Freedompreneur is pivoting into a new direction: Working with holistic physicians to help them build thriving practices that are solidly booked, profitably managed, and sanely operated.
Here’s the skinny in 7 minutes:
If you’re not familiar with Airstory, it’s a research-based writing platform that makes it easy for writers, marketers, students, and teachers – anyone who has a story and message to get out into the world – to turn their ideas into published works, like articles, blog posts, emails, sales pages, you name it.
The fabulous creators of Airstory at Copyhackers.com plan to “sunset” the online version of Airstory and, instead, focus their attention on a browser-based extension. Unfortunately, the browser extension is not as versatile as its online cousin.
What follows is my personal thank you, good-bye, and a plea to #SaveAirstory…
Dear Airstory,
You’re scheduled to sail off into the sunset within the next three of weeks…
So it is with a heavy heart that I’m writing to you to say “thank you.” You’ve been a great companion for me as I’ve honed my skills as a conversion copywriter and marketer while drafting and crafting countless emails, sales pages, web pages, and even a screenplay–frequently while burning the “midnight oil.”
Now I’m hoping this isn’t goodbye forever. But you need to know that your cousins, the Extensions, could never, never, ever, ever take your place in my head and heart. Or keyboard.
When I was practicing as a plastic surgeon, there was one particular hospital where the operating rooms were so well run and the staff was so top-notch, that they made me a better surgeon than I was at any other hospital. There was one scrub nurse who was so sharp and organized that she anticipated my every move, even before surgery started.
While you don’t anticipate what I need to write (until you get the AI version upgrade), YOU MADE ME A BETTER WRITER. You’ve helped me stay in the flow of creativity. You’ve helped me pay attention to what matters WITHOUT the mechanical distractions of stumbling and bumbling for source material that’s hidden in the morass of Google Drive.
On the other hand, in preparation for your untimely departure, I started studying a course on Lynda.com so I could figure out how to use Google Drive to sort out any and all templates that I’m going to need to rescue from your collection. I gave up.
You know, it took me over 30 minutes to export ONE template into a Google Doc, format it properly (which is a massive PIA in Google Docs), and then save it to the right folder in Google Drive.
Like the best OR scrub nurse, you’ve laid out everything I need at my fingertips, from my notes, images, and templates. And you even delivered material when I most desperately needed it, including from Evernote and the World Wide Web. And you’re such a party animal, you’ve made it easy to invite collaborators to join in on the fun.
You probably already know this, but there are countless other writers, marketers, teachers, students, and startup founders around the world who rely on you to write copy that converts, to draft music lyrics that touch the soul, to craft proposals that sell, to craft lessons that teach and inspire. And each of us already mourns our loss. Many would rather poke our eyes out with a hot stick than get into a family feud with the Extensions.
In just a few weeks, a lot of us are going to be left high and dry. We’ll be forced to settle for second-best. We’ll scatter to find tools that force us to adapt our styles and workflows to how the tools were designed by developers who could care less about UX and UI, rather than the tool fitting into our workflows and naturally suiting our styles. (Excuse me while I dab my eyes.)
But selfishly, I want you to stick around, And I know for a fact that countless others want you to stay by their sides as well.
Isn’t it possible for you to stick around AND peacefully co-exist with the Extensions? (Or are you worried about a replay of the epic feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys?)
If there’s anything I do to “make Airstory great again,” count me in.
If your creators are open and willing to put you up for adoption, I have an experienced team ready to go that can provide a GREAT home for you, a home where you’ll be loved and honored.
If you need your inner workings tuned up, we’ll get your code humming in a flash. If you need more people to know about you, we’ll shout and sing your praises from the highest mountaintops. When you need us to nurture your supporters, we’ll give them an exceptional customer experience.
And on behalf of your myriad of Airstory fans across the globe, wherever you end up, THANK YOU!
And always remember that we’re still rooting for you to stick around and always be by our sides!!!
Forever your fans,
XOXOX
#SaveAirstory #MakeAirstoryGreatAgain
Scores of fellow Freedompreneurs have shared with me that they need help finding more ideal clients and turning potential clients into paying clients.
If this sounds like you, you are certainly not alone. Over the years, I’ve noticed that many entrepreneurs, even big businesses that ought to know better, spend the majority of their time and effort on getting more clients, customers, and patients.
By itself, this is not a problem; it’s actually desirable, except for the rare business where they have more business than they can handle.
However, I’d like you to consider why you want and need to get more buyers: It’s to generate more sales and pile more cash into your bank account, right?
That being the case, why not focus on what you ultimately want – more cash in the bank – rather than solely on getting more buyers?
Along those lines, today’s blog post kicks off a mini-series in which we’ll explore strategies that go beyond simply getting more and better buyers. I call these “revenue ratchet” strategies.
For the duration of the series, you’ll find it useful to refer to this Revenue Ratchet Formula Memory Jogger.
Let’s walk through how this works:
If you tell me the number of clients and customers that you have in a given year, how much each customer buys each time they buy (the average size of each sale), and how often customers buy from you in a given year, I can predict your total revenue for the year, almost to the penny.
This is what I call the “Revenue Ratchet Formula”:
Said differently, your revenue equals the number of buyers you have, multiplied by the average size of each purchase, multiplied by the number of times each buyer makes a purchase, for a given period. It’s very straightforward.
In order to increase your revenue, you have to boost one or more of these three variables. This formula applies no matter what kind of business you have. Whether you’re a service business or you are a product-oriented business, a startup or a multimillion-dollar revenue enterprise, you can only influence revenue by changing one or more of these three variables. That’s it!
Considered collectively, the Revenue Ratchet Formula is a powerfully effective yet commonly overlooked approach to “ratcheting up your business’ revenue,” hence its name.
In subsequent blog posts, we’ll explore each of these three “revenue ratchet” variables and associated strategies in greater detail:
In the meantime, start expanding your mindset when it comes to increasing revenue beyond simply getting more buyers. Along with your efforts to get more and better buyers and referrals, also be thinking of ways to make it worthwhile for them to buy more from you each time they buy and for them to buy more frequently.
A couple of days ago, I was walking home from a nearby business meeting. As I stepped onto a sidewalk, I heard a teenaged girl who was walking behind me call out, “Excuse me, Mister?” Instinctively, I turned around and surveyed her facial expression and body language.
She was a petite girl, perhaps a life-hardened 18 or 19 years old. She seemed harmless but was clearly distressed.
She prefaced what she had to say with “I’m only 16 and I didn’t want to ask just anyone, so they didn’t take advantage of me.”
“Can you give me $.50 so I can take the bus home?”
She didn’t seem to be someone who was just putting on an act; instead, she seemed to be a young high school kid who had lived a hard life, not necessarily all of her own doing.
In a downtrodden tone of voice, she lamented, “Yeah, I don’t have enough money take the bus and I’ve got third-degree burns from being out in the sun all day.”
I noticed that her fair-skinned face was red and peeling throughout her cheeks. Unable to restrain myself, I instantly slid into doctor mode and said, “Well, those aren’t really third-degree burns, but they are pretty bad sunburns.”
She chuckled in embarrassed recognition of the obvious.
I pulled out my wallet, but since I didn’t have any change or small bills, I told her I would get change at the restaurant across the way. As she trailed behind me, she told me how grateful she was.
She seemed surprised and relieved when returned; in retrospect, she was probably afraid I was going to keep walking through the restaurant and out the side door!
I gave her the $.50. Then I wondered aloud, “Is that enough for the bus?” “No,” she optimistically replied, “It’s really $2.50, but I’m hoping the bus driver will let me ride anyway.”
So I said, “Here, take the other $.50.”
As I walked away, I heard her telling God to bless me.
I crossed a major street intersection still pondering this encounter. I wondered why she wasn’t in school. Maybe she was looking for work. Maybe she was running away from an abusive situation. I started making up all kinds of stories.
I wondered why she didn’t ask me for the full amount of the bus fare. If she had only asked, I would have given it to her.
This bothered me so much that I turned around and doubled back across the intersection to look for her. However, I could not find her; she had disappeared into the sea of cars in the crowded parking lot.
The lesson for all of us: Ask for what you need. You just might get it.
This girl asked for less than what she really needed. And that’s exactly what she got.
When I initially walked away after giving her a dollar in coins, I looked back and could see that she was scanning the parking lot, probably looking for who else she could ask for money.
For whatever reason, she was afraid to ask the full amount. Who knows, maybe she was afraid of being rejected. Chances are she was extremely embarrassed. Maybe she was afraid of being physically hurt.
You and I have been in this girl’s shoes before…
How many times has each of us been afraid to ask for what we really need?
And how many times have we gotten less than what we needed because that is all we felt we could ask for, because that is all we thought we could expect, or because that is all we believed we deserved?
When was the last time we experienced this? Today? Yesterday? Last week? Last month?
It’s an abundant universe.
Practice asking for what you need. Then be prepared to receive it!
Recently, I tried to write a series of emails for a project that my business partner and I had been working on.
Thinking I was going to be crafty and write a really good series the easy way, I modeled my first email after the format that a highly successful marketer used. You see, I had just finished going through his entire promotional sequence of emails and videos, and I was very impressed.
My business partner wrote back saying, “George, this email just doesn’t work for me. I see what you’re trying to do, but it’s off-putting.”
While he was concerned I’d be offended (I wasn’t), it was a great opportunity for a good laugh, and it reminded me of a couple of incidents where I wasn’t being myself…
Lessons about connecting with your audience by being yourself.
I had just come back from a training program on how to present and lead live workshops (Train the Trainer program); this was around 2003 or 2004.
I was practicing an introductory workshop that I was developing with my wife as an audience of one.
So I started my introduction, and two minutes into it she goes, “George, what are you doing?!?”
I said, “I’m practicing!”
She said, “No, no, no.
“You’re trying to be somebody else. You’re trying to be the guy who trained you at the Train the Trainer program. That guy cannot lead this program.
“You and only you can lead this program.
“You need to be you.”
So I got a little frustrated. I turned my back on her and regained my composure. Just took a few breaths.
I turned back around and then I started out the introduction being George.
And I didn’t expect this, but my wife broke into tears within the first 5 minutes. She got the impact of me introducing the program as me. It was powerful.
Curiously, at that very Train the Trainer program that I mentioned earlier, I was selected from the audience to come up on stage as an example.
I can’t remember exactly what the trainer asked me to speak about. But I started speaking about whatever topic it was, and he stopped me very shortly after I started. He said, “Hold on a minute.”
And he thumped me on my chest with a flat hand. Thump. Thump.
He said, “George, you’re a fit guy. “I want you to command that presence.
“Look out into this audience. (There were probably 250+ people.) “
And connect with everybody in this audience, be powerful, and project your energy to the back of the room.”
So after he pounded me on my chest, I started over, this time with a lot more energy, enthusiasm, conviction, and power.
Then he said, “Great job. That’s what I want!”
Everyone in the audience started clapping. And then I started walking off the stage.
I didn’t know this had happened, but several people in the audience were in tears.
I had them in tears. I had my wife in tears in a separate incident. So by then, you’d think I would have learned to be myself.
It’s so easy to forget this stuff!
Where in your life, particularly in your business interactions, have you attempted to be someone you’re not? And how did it go? Did it backfire?
Unless you’re a spy, mentally disturbed, or an accomplished actor, it’s a heck of a lot easier to influence and connect with others by being yourself—warts, blemishes, and all—than by attempting to cover up what you believe your shortcomings are by masquerading as someone else.
With rare exceptions, people can sense a fraud. Conversely, they can sense authenticity. Business success comes more naturally when you’re being authentic.
The next time it’s important for you to inspire and engage an audience of one or an audience of 1,000, which version of you do you want to show up? The real you? Or the fictitious you?