Until Easter last year… when I decided to become a saint (it ain\u2019t going that great, by the way)… since age 7 the only thing I ever wanted to do with my life was be a musician.<\/p>\n
Primary instrument, guitar… if you care to know.<\/p>\n
That had been the number one passion — and focus — of my life for 50 years.<\/p>\n
And I spent a lot<\/em> of dough on it.<\/p>\n An awful<\/em> lot of dough. (I\u2019ve lost track… but I passed six-figures decades<\/em> ago.)<\/p>\n And don\u2019t even get me started<\/em> on how much instructional material I\u2019ve bought. I\u2019ve got a frickin\u2019 tome<\/em> of those. Numerous tomes, in fact.<\/p>\n However… since December of 2020 I\u2019ve hardly even touched<\/em> the guitar. And all that instructional material sits unused on bookshelves and hard drives.<\/p>\n Yet… I keep buying it.<\/p>\n The other day I got an email from Tim Miller, a guitarist and teacher at Berklee College of Music. It was an offer for membership to his instructional site.<\/p>\n It\u2019s crazy cheap… only $39\/month. And there\u2019s enough material on there to keep you busy learning and practicing the rest of your life. Literally<\/em>. No exaggeration.<\/p>\n I wanted to sign up right away.<\/p>\n Then I thought to myself, \u201cLook, dumbass.\u201d (I\u2019ve always been really hard on myself. You<\/em> don\u2019t treat yourself that way, OK?)<\/p>\n \u201cWhy waste your money? You\u2019ve already got libraries<\/em> of instructional stuff and you\u2019re doing absolutely nut\u2019n with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, the problem isn\u2019t the $39 a month. What held me back is knowing that I\u2019ve already got a ton of stuff that I\u2019m not doing anything with. So it makes no sense whatsoever to buy any more, right?<\/p>\n But we human beings do not<\/em> make sense. In fact, darn near nothing<\/em> we do makes any sense whatsoever.<\/p>\n \u2019Cuz we\u2019re emotional creatures, not logical.<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh sure, we use logic to justify<\/em> the things we do. But all decision we make — especially buying decisions — are driven by emotions, not logic. (If you doubt that then you ain\u2019t much of a marketer. Because this is a fact of human psychology. And you better take a crash course in \u201cstreet cop psychology\u201d to get yourself up to speed if you wanna succeed as a marketer.)<\/p>\n So guess what I did.<\/p>\n Even though it makes no logical sense whatsoever<\/em>… I bought access to Tim Miller\u2019s guitar lessons website.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Because even though it\u2019s doubtful I\u2019ll do anything with it anytime soon, I like knowing that it\u2019s there for me when I am<\/em> ready to dive in.<\/p>\n Which could be today… or ten years from today.<\/p>\n Or even never.<\/p>\n But… it makes me feel good<\/strong><\/em> (key words there) knowing that it\u2019s there for me whenever I\u2019m ready for it, ya dig?<\/p>\n And that should make you<\/em> feel good, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n The answer is simple:<\/p>\n You see, I always felt bad when people would buy my products and never do anything with them.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve even had people pay me very high fees to create marketing assets for them. Mid to high five-figures, in fact. And even some of those<\/em> folks never implemented them.<\/p>\n I used to feel bad about that. Because I felt like I had done something wrong. As if their non-implementation was my fault somehow.<\/p>\n But you see, its just human nature. As they used to say to us in my old Amway days, SWSWSW… some will, some won\u2019t, so what.<\/p>\n Listen, people buy your products for their<\/em> reasons. And in many, many cases the main reason is to make themselves feel good or feel better.<\/p>\n And many times the act of buying itself<\/em> accomplishes that goal.<\/strong><\/p>\n Or… they just want to have it available \u201csomeday.\u201d<\/p>\n So there\u2019s no reason for you to feel bad. You can\u2019t control who uses your products and who doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n My experience shows it will be 80\/20. (Or worse)<\/p>\n In other words, 80% just buy and never do anything. In fact, most people never read any of the books they buy… or never even crack the cellophane on the products they buy.<\/p>\n 20% will do something. Maybe not much… but something.<\/p>\n If we\u2019re talking about any kind of make moolah\/biz improvement products, my experience shows that the numbers work out closer to 95\/5. (Or worse)<\/p>\n In other words, 95% of your buyers will do nut\u2019n honey.<\/em><\/p>\n However… they still feel good. Because the act of buying itself<\/em> accomplishes the goal of feeling good or feeling better.<\/strong> (Yeah, I know I repeat myself. I do that with the most important points.) Exactly like when I signed up for Tim Miller\u2019s guitar instructional site. (It’s a dopamine\/brain chemistry thang. But that’s a lesson for another time.)<\/p>\n So, if like me, you\u2019ve struggled with bad feelings because most of your customers don\u2019t use your products… don\u2019t<\/em> feel bad.<\/p>\n First of all, it\u2019s outside of your control. (Actually, darn near everything<\/em> is outside of our control. It\u2019s just that we entrepreneurs and marketers don\u2019t like to face that truth.)<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n