If you think I’m about to pitch you hard on buying my training, I’m not…
After all, if I’m telling you to invest in something to become a marketing genius…
You’d think I’d point to the BTMSinsiders catalog of training on proven ideas to grow your business…
And I’d remind you that you get instant access to ALL of it for just $37 with a BTMSinsiders All-Access Pass…
And you’d think I’d remind you of what a great investment it is in your ongoing professional development, your skills, your marketing results, and the future of your career and business…
But I’m not going to do that… 😉
I want to underscore a completely different kind of investment in your marketing skill…
One that neither I nor any other teacher or “guru” can convey… No matter what promises we make.
And in fact, I’d go so far as to say there’s no better education in what really works, in the real world, for getting marketing results.
Do I have you on the edge of your seat yet, or should I tease you a little more?
Let me go a little further…
I’ll tell you: this investment is easier, more affordable, and more available to entrepreneurs and marketers all of the world than ever before.
There has literally never been a better time in history to “go to school” with this investment in your marketing skills. Nor has there been a better time to double-down on this once you’ve started, rapidly scaling your success as you gain the skills to do so.
And it applies whether you’re looking to get good at marketing to grow your own business, to get good at marketing to fill some strategic marketing role for your employer or clients, or even if you want to hone your copywriting skills like a freaking Samurai sword.
This is a nearly universal marketing education: both available to and helpful for anyone who would pursue it.
Oh yeah, and you can get started for as little as $5.
A sad (and perhaps shocking) truth…
Unfortunately, I believe that less than 20% of the people who read this essay will take me seriously and pursue this in any way beyond intellectual entertainment.
And only 20% of those — 4% of the total — will really go after it with the vim and vigor that it takes for this marketing education to really transform their lives.
And maybe only 20% of those — 1 in every 125 who are reading this right now — will “get rich” as a result.
However, those who do will be the big successes you’re looking up to in the coming years. They will be the people who you look at and thing, “How did she do that? How did she come so far, so fast?” Or, “Wow, how is it that he’s so much more successful than those who’ve been at it so much longer?”
My question: will you be among the few who really take this to heart?
One more warning: this ain’t an “easy button.”
Heck, if anything, it’s the “hard button.”
It’s a narrow path to walk and there are many perils, but those who take it seriously stand to enjoy great rewards.
So: will this be you?
If so, here’s what you need to do…
Invest in PAID ADVERTISING…
That’s right. Put your own money on the line. Put offers out into the marketplace. See what kind of response you get. Totally fail. Learn from your failure. Try again.
Test a bunch of things you think might work. Realize that the ones you loved most — your babies — are your biggest losers, and the things you thought wouldn’t work somehow do.
Develop a file of your own work, and your own test results.
Rapidly implement. And rapidly iterate.
Get a sense, through direct experience and testing, of what works and what doesn’t.
Live and die by your own work. Put food on the table because you figured out how to spend $1 on advertising such that it came back with friends, and a new customer in tow.
Then just when you think you’ve really got momentum and you’re going somewhere, hit that brick wall that nobody expects. Realize everything you thought you could rely on is still subject to change, and that you need to be ready to pivot at any time.
Learn the lessons you never expected, and that no guru can teach you.
Initially, this will be painful, and it will feel like you’re not making enough progress…
That’s when you stick with it. Others give up at that point, but not you.
You double down and try again. You get knocked down, but you get up again… It’s never gonna keep you down. (For those who get the reference, I’m sorry that song is now stuck in your head.)
You gain confidence with every challenge, every roadblock, every failure you come out of on the other side. Because you know others called it there. They quit. They dropped out.
But you stuck with it. You learned another lesson. You set yourself up even better for future success. And now there are fewer competitors to have to overcome.
This is the entrepreneurial journey…
Gather a crowd of successful business owners in a big room.
Tell anyone who had at least one big failure before they launched their current successful business to raise their hand.
Just about every hand in the room will go up.
Then, tell them to keep their hands up, until they’ve had LESS failures than the number you named.
“Three failures.” Almost no hands will go down.
“Five failures.” Most will still be up.
“10 failures.” Likely still more than half the room will have their hands held high.
“12 failures.” More will start to come down, but many will still be raised.
“15 failures.” The hands will start dropping, but still half the room or more may be holding their hands up.
It’s not until you get to 20 failures or more that many entrepreneurs will lower their hands.
We all suck until we get some experience…
Experience, especially in results-accountable direct marketing, is an incredible teacher. It can take us from hunches that are 100% wrong but easily-justifiable to unexpected insight that works nearly every time.
You don’t learn these things from a book or a training program.
You won’t have the eyes to see. You won’t have the ears to hear.
Until you’re out there, in the market, learning by DOING. Then suddenly the pieces fall into place. You see and hear what was already there, that you were missing before.
But the only way to get to these insights and realizations is to get out there and DO IT.
And when you’re talking marketing and advertising, the best way to make sure you’re doing it and all-in is to actually put your money on the line.
Find SOMETHING to sell. Almost anything is good to start. The better margin, the more scalable, and the easier to fulfill, the more you can focus on the marketing (and the more forgiving it’ll be when you make mistakes).
Then, start selling. Spend $5 a day on Facebook or AdWords ads. Track the results. See what works, and what doesn’t. Start small, and focus on testing and learning.
There’s no better education that you can get.
Oh yeah, and you might make some spare change, too! Call it a bonus. Getting paid to learn.
Oh yeah, and when you’re doing this, it will make other investments like BTMSinsiders pay off in a much bigger way.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
