Archive | June, 2021

I have a theory that the #1 thing holding online marketers back from major success is being afraid to make mistakes, look stupid or just plain screw up. That’s why I want to tell you the story of Pinnacle Airlines Flight #3701 – not because it’s something you should emulate, but to illustrate just how safe it is for you to totally and completely screw up in your online business.

October 14, 2004, two pilots are ferrying an otherwise empty CRJ-200 aircraft from Jefferson City, Missouri, to Minneapolis, Minnesota. This should have been a simple, routine flight. But because of multiple errors by the pilots, it was anything but routine.

Just a few of the mistakes made by the 2 pilots included performing several non-standard maneuvers including pitch-ups that induced stall warnings, exceeding the manufacturer’s recommended climb rate, using an excessive angle of attack and over-stressing the engines. They climbed to the highest altitude the plane was rated for (41,000 feet) where they cruised at a rate barely above stall speed.

During all of this the anti-stall devices repeatedly activated but the pilots overrode the automatic nose-down that would increase speed to prevent a stall. In fact, they did this no less than 4 times.

All this time while they were climbing to the outermost reaches of altitude and overriding safety features of the aircraft, they could be heard on the cockpit recorder laughing.

A lot.

So much so, that when they commented they had never been so high, a person might wonder if they were referring to altitude or something else.

After the fourth override, both engines flamed out and shut down. The plane then stalled, the pilots recovered from the stall and tried repeatedly to restart the engines.

Now on the cockpit recorder, instead of laughing you can hear a great deal of swearing as nothing the pilots try is working. Most notable is when the pilot repeatedly tells the copilot to put the plane into a nosedive to attain a speed of 300 knots to restart the engines, and yet the copilot never does it, nor does the captain take over control to make it happen.

It was later discovered that through their antics of climbing to 41,000 feet, the crew had already damaged the engines badly enough that they could not be restarted. It was all laughter and joking until these pilots lost both engines and couldn’t get them back.

The crew glided for several minutes, trying to restart the engines by any means possible. Finally (FINALLY!) they told Air Traffic Control (ATC) that they had a single engine flameout, and ATC offered them 4 possible diversion airports. At this point I’m picturing two scared children in the cockpit, afraid to tell mommy and daddy what they’d done.

For 14 minutes more, they glided while unsuccessfully restarting even one engine. When they still could not start the engines, they finally told Air Traffic Control that they had in fact lost both engines. The final words on the flight recorder are the captain and first officer talking about whether or not they would make it to the assigned diversion airport, with the final words being, “Ahh sh** we’re gonna hit houses, dude.”

Both pilots died. Thankfully no one on the ground was injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board would have been justified if they had said, “These pilots acted like complete idiots,” but of course they were not allowed to be that blunt. What they did say was the pilots’ ‘unprofessional behavior, deviation from standard operating procedures and poor airmanship’ caused the crash.

Now then, I’d like you to take a moment and picture the absolute WORST mistake you can make in your business. In fact, picture the top 5 worst mistakes all happening simultaneously.

Let’s say they are…

•    You somehow lose your entire email list.
•    Someone steals your product from you and sells it as their own.
•    Your website is hacked, stolen or otherwise falls into a black hole and you have no backup.
•    You make no sales on your big launch or every sale you make is refunded.
•    You are blacklisted from every social media site on the internet – for life.

The odds of even one of these things happening is remote, while the odds of all them happening are infinitesimal.

But even on your very worst day, where you have made every stupid mistake you can possibly make, can it be even a thousandth as bad as the last flight of these two pilots?

These ‘professional’ pilots laughed through all of their mistakes and poor decisions right up until they lost both engines, at which time they probably would have traded places with almost anyone else on the planet. Even their own plane tried repeatedly to save them from crashing, and every time it did, they overrode it.

There is simply nothing you can do and no mistake you can make in your business that will result in you being 41,000 feet in the air with two locked engines.

Which is why I say full speed ahead in whatever it is that you’re doing. The worst that can happen is a tiny bump on the road and the best that can happen is a 6, 7 or maybe even 8 figure income.

Get out of your own way, get busy, welcome your mistakes and revel in your successes.

Remember: The greatest mistake you can ever make in your business is being afraid to make one.

I just clicked onto a webinar a few moments ago and I had to almost immediately leave to write you this quick note. As I watched the two people on screen I found myself physically moving away from my device. In fact I could not seem to get far enough away from these two people. Where I had been hunched over my laptop, my back was now pressed into the back of the chair, my head was turned away like I was about to flee, and I realized something was terribly wrong.

So the question is, why am I having this physical reaction to these two webinar presenters? What is it in my primitive brain that is causing me, without conscious thinking, to put more physical space between them and me?

And what does it mean for their odds of making the sale at the end of this webinar?

My best guess is my subconscious brain – which is always on the lookout for threats – thinks they are putting on an act or pretense in order to somehow take advantage of me.

Here’s a paraphrased excerpt of what they were saying: “THIS IS AMAZING! WE’RE GOING TO HAVE AN AMAZING TIME! YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE THIS AMAZING INFORMATION! IT’S GOING TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE IN AMAZING WAYS!”

Their hands are waving in the air, their faces bobbing up and down, they’re just so… I don’t know… ENTHUSIASTICALLY PHONY.

Don’t get me wrong… real enthusiasm for your niche, for what you teach and for your products is commendable and a trait you should cultivate. But come on, it’s got to be REAL and not contrived.

People who put on webinars are almost never professional actors and they shouldn’t try to be actors. They’ve got to be themselves. Real. Authentic. Someone the viewer can relate to.

Right now I’m about as inclined to stay on the webinar and buy their product (whatever it might be, I don’t have a clue) as I am to deliberately run my car into a brick wall.

Which begs the question… how do you display enthusiasm on a webinar without alienating people? The same way you sell to people. You start where they are and you walk with them to where you want them to go.

Picture yourself looking at a used car on a warm summer day when two salespeople approach you. The first salesperson says, “THIS IS THE GREATEST CAR EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE AND IT IS AN ABSOLUTE BARGAIN AND YOU WILL LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS AMAZING CAR!”

Gulp.

The second salesperson says, “This car is 3 years old, it’s got 45,000 miles on it and a small ding in the back bumper. It’s also rated as being one of the most reliable cars on the road, the interior looks almost brand new, it drives like a dream and the air conditioner blows the coldest air I’ve felt all summer.”

Which salesperson do you trust?

It’s a no brainer. The second salesperson started out where you are, looking at the reality of the situation. It’s a used car. It’s got some miles. It has a small ding you’ve already noticed. This person is standing right there beside you like a friend, telling you exactly how it is. You trust them because they are telling you what you already know.

That’s why when they start telling you all the good points of the car, you believe them. They are taking you along step-by-step from where you’re starting out (skeptical prospective buyer who doesn’t want to get ripped off) to where they want you to be (confident buyer who knows you’re getting a fair deal.)

The first salesperson is standing apart from you, shouting at you to come across this gulf between the two of you. This causes natural resistance on your part and a desire to flee the scene and never come back.

Now that I’ve written all of this, that webinar is 20 minutes in and I don’t plan on going back to it. I only want to work with authentic people who understand that I’m not going to fall for hyped up fake enthusiasm.

Just tell me like it is. Give me the truth. Point out all the good reasons why things can be much better if I’ll just follow along with you, and I guarantee I’ll stay right there and listen to your every word, and I’ll probably buy, too.

It really is that simple.

Your prospect opens your email… Reads the first few sentences… And then DELETES your email IN FRUSTRATION.

Why?

Because your first few sentences didn’t match the subject line and it confused and frustrated them.

The email felt like a waste of time…

Like maybe the subject line was clickbait.

It’s like opening the door to a chocolate shop and finding lawn mowers.

YOU WERE PROMISED CHOCOLATE!

“Where’s the chocolate??!”

“This can’t be the right place… let’s get out of here!”

I just opened an email that promised… “How to get budget approval for copywriting school.” Yes, this was written not just by a copywriter, but by someone who TEACHES COPYWRITING.

And yet the first 33 lines of that email don’t say a word about getting budget approval for copywriting school (I kid you not!)

Halfway through the email the writer finally (FINALLY!) states:

So what’s getting in the way of you joining 9 gazillion (my number) copywriters and marketers in my fantastic copywriting school?

Most likely:

Budget approval.

Chop off the entire first half of the email, start with these three lines and then go from there, and it could be an effective email.

But what did I do when I first received this email? After reading several lines that appeared unrelated to the subject line, I closed it.

Then I reopened it and scrolled down because I was thinking this could make a good lesson for all of us. As I was scrolling I found a totally unrelated large gif of a woman closing her eyes and shaking her head. Guess what? That only confused me more.

We shouldn’t have to rewrite emails written by someone who teaches copy. And yet, here we are.

Received within the same hour from an online marketer I KNOW is pulling down a minimum of 7 figures was this subject line and first two lines of this email:

Subject Line: System to add 30K to 100K per month

First line of email: Want to work together to add [30K to 100K+] per month to your monthly bottom line?

Second line: My system produces this type of revenue for winners who add in “big-fee” or “high-priced” programs to what they do… or to those who need a more compelling and irresistible offer.

Notice the first line expands on the subject line. No confusion here, and we get more clarification, too. The second line explains how this is possible, building credibility that he knows what he’s talking about.

I’m two lines into this email and instead of confusion I have a VERY good idea of what’s going on, how it works and why I would benefit by reading the rest of the email.

Notice it’s not even written all that well. Adding 30K per month to your monthly bottom line? No English teacher would let that go, and yet the reader knows exactly what he’s saying.

I’d lose the “for winners” and instead say something like, “for smart marketers”. But that’s just me nit-picking.

The fact is, you’ve only got seconds to make your subscriber GLAD she opened the email. Don’t confuse her. Don’t make her slog through 30 lines to get to the point. Respect her time and get to the heart of the matter FAST.

This doesn’t mean you can’t tell stories, either. After that second line above, you might launch into a story of how you helped poor miserable Marketing Mavis do this exact thing. The point is, your reader now knows what the devil you’re talking about and she’s now willing to go along on the journey with you because you TOLD HER exactly what this email is all about.

Whew.

Sorry, I know sometimes I go off on a rant when I see shoddy marketing like this, but I just get so frustrated at how people get in their own way.

Keep it simple. Make your first line expand on your subject line. Lay out the foundation immediately so that readers know they are in the RIGHT PLACE. Then and only then should you launch into your fancy stuff, stories, details and so forth.

Try it and see if your click-through rate doesn’t improve dramatically.