The urgent desire for a successful business — and the fear of losing business — drives many a good person to do sleazy things.
I’m not talking about casino owners or pimps or politicians or corporations. I’m talking about good small business owners who become marketers.
by Leo Babauta
Let’s say you have a blog, and you write good stuff, and people like it. Now what? How do you build that into a business?
Tactics and manipulation
Maybe you see people who’ve made millions online: How did they do it? Internet marketing.
They built mailing lists, then manipulated those lists through emotional tactics, social proof, creating false urgency, building funnels, warming up the lists, making the potential customers think they need this or they’ll fail.
You see this success, and all of a sudden you want it. You don’t know how to build a business, but this guy did it and he is successful. So you buy his course, and follow his advice.
All of a sudden, your excellent blog is pushing me to join a mailing list to get a free report. There’s a popup trying to get me to enter my email address.
If I do, I start to get all kinds of emails I don’t want, trying to push me into a funnel. You post a thousand things to social media trying to get me interested in your sale.
You start to create an image you think I want, so I’ll buy what you’re selling. You’re now a marketer, a manipulator, untrustworthy.
I hit Unsubscribe.
Confidence and quality
What if, instead, you had confidence in your business? You created something of value and believed it would help people? You made its value and how much it helps people your metrics.
You’d do none of those things. All you’d do is create great things, and people would spread the word for you. You’d opt for simplicity and trustworthiness.
You build confidence by putting everything you have into what you’re building. By listening to people and seeing whether what you’re doing is helping, resonating. Adjusting if needed. Those who don’t come to you… you let go. What you’re building isn’t for everyone.
The fear of losing business will always be there to some extent, but don’t be driven by it.
This information was first published on April 18, 2014
