Most people are freaking lazy…
Including me. We just want an easy button. We don’t want to have to do the work. We want the result, and we want it now. And when it doesn’t happen that way, we’ll invest more energy into whining and complaining about how the world is unfair than we will in actually just doing the work it takes to get the result.
If this stings, you know — somewhere inside — it only hurts to hear it because it’s true.
It’s the natural state of things.
And our modern life actually teaches us that it’s the way the world works.
I’m not even getting into the Google era.
Just take a look at our food supply chain…
When is the last time you actually had the NEED to go out and hunt for food, because if you didn’t kill something and bring it home, you and your family would starve?
Or farming: when is the last time you had the NEED to plant vegetables, tend to your field, protect your crops from scavengers, and then harvest the food to make sure you’d make it through a winter?
I’m freaking grateful, every meal I eat, that I’m not in that situation. That I’m abundantly spoiled by being able to go to a grocery store, even today in the middle of the cold Nebraska winter, and be able to get — for example — a fresh, tropical pineapple! A pineapple — in Nebraska — in January! And fresh, too! It’s astounding.
But it’s also telling, with regards to the reasons why we may be a little spoiled today.
My oldest son has recently started playing the computer game Oregon Trail at school. I know, it’s not Thursday, but that’s a throwback. Just imagine what life was like — even NOT on “The Trail” — when covered wagons and horse or oxen were your primary means of long-distance transport.
Life was hard. Today, life is easy.
In most developed countries, we don’t really want for anything substantial.
Yes, you want the new iPhone X and you’re frustrated when it’s not available right away…
Yes, you paid for Amazon Prime hoping for 2-day delivery so you’re agonizing over the fact that your latest purchase will take 3 whole days to magically appear on your doorstep…
Yes, it’s annoying when Netflix or Hulu or YouTube buffers for a moment while you’re streaming high-definition video through the literal air around you…
We are spoiled, are we not?
And so it makes perfect sense, in this context, that you should be able to…
Make a decision you want clients, and have them come to you automatically…
I pick on copywriters. Because I have a reputation in the industry. Because I am one. Because a lot of them read these daily essays.
What’s the most common way people got into copywriting in the last 10 years?
Probably a letter that conveyed a message along these lines:
“Retire this year… And still make as much money as most doctors…”
And so on. If you can write simple words on paper, you’ll be infinitely in-demand, and be able to work from the beach sipping piña coladas, getting paid six- and seven-figure sums for doing practically nothing.
Like I’ve said before, yes, and no.
But that’s not the point of this essay.
Rather, I want to point out the fundamental promise and acknowledgment of this “big idea.”
The acknowledgment: you’re a freaking lazy bum, you know it, and you like it (as long as you can get away with it).
The promise: we’ll show you how to get away with it, and even be rewarded for it.
And yet… There’s a disconnect.
There’s a constant stream of copywriters coming into the market, expecting this lifestyle, and having trouble getting it.
Finding the pay is less than expected.
Finding it takes more work than was promised.
Finding it’s neither as easy or as automatic as they’d hoped.
And yes, this applies equally to nearly every other opportunity out there as well as it applies to copywriting…
When there’s a fork in the road, take it…
This is the moment of decision.
Pure opportunity seekers who bought into the “money for nothing” promise and only want that end up bailing. They go looking for the next easy button, and the next, and the next. Forever hopping from one too-good-too-be-true opportunity to another, enriching sketchy marketers and continuing to lead a life of quiet desperation.
But a few see an opportunity they want to pursue for reasons other than easy riches. They see something they get fulfillment out of. They see a place where they can create real value in the world. And they dive in.
But, they have a problem.
If it’s not nearly as easy to get clients as you’d hoped…
If the riches don’t simply flood your wallet because you hung out your shingle or put up your website…
If you find that you can’t be lazy and instead need to proactively do the work…
What do you do?
How do you build and grow your service-based business in a way that creates consistent demand for YOU and your time?
Well, the long and hard way that still works is to be really good at what you do, and develop a reputation that consistently gets you word-of-mouth referrals.
And frankly, you should aspire to that.
You should be building your expertise. You should be developing your skills and methods such that you create remarkable results for clients, such that they want to tell their friends about you — such that your work gets noticed.
(Example: My SECOND freelance client? Ken McCarthy, who ran The System Seminar and taught nearly every modern internet marketer the game — and if not them, their teacher. Ken came to me. Because he saw the sales letter I wrote for David Bullock, and reached out. My work spoke for itself.)
But here’s the thing…
Word-of-mouth and referrals are great. But when you need cash NOW, you can’t sit around waiting.
You’re far better off building a system that generates clients on demand, and letting word-of-mouth be a happy byproduct of your bigger client-generation and client-satisfaction efforts.
The good news is: it’s simple…
Remember: I’m lazy, too.
I’ve developed self-imposed discipline, processes, and procedures to help me maximize my results from my efforts.
But mostly that’s so I don’t have to force myself to do this work over and over again.
I like to do what I like to do. And the last thing I want to do is to cold-approach people who don’t know me from Adam, and sell to them.
All that rejection is no fun. Plus, it doesn’t telegraph expertise.
When you do that, you’re basically saying that you’re a commodity service provider who will bend every which way to make a buck, and even if they hire you, you’re not worth much and you can be walked all over.
On the other hand: with a good system to back you up, you become the highly-sought-after expert, who gets high-value clients, earns the high-fees, and gets respect plus results with clients because they trust you to lead them in the right direction.
And, you can generate these high-quality clients on demand… Even in markets where you have little, if any, reputation to speak of.
Announcing: The Client-Getting Blueprint…
I’ve just added the webinar pre-registration to the member’s area of BTMSinsiders.
Next Thursday, January 25th, at 1 PM, I’ll be doing a high-level overview of The Client-Getting Blueprint, a system you can copy/paste to get more clients for your service-based business.
Then in the coming weeks, I’ll let you look over my shoulder as I apply this in a brand new market for me.
I’ll show you what I’m doing. I’ll tell you why I’m doing it. And you’ll be able to use that as you develop your own client-getting system alongside me.
This is for BTMSinsiders members only.
The pre-registration is in the Course Player for The Client-Getting Blueprint.
If you’re not a member yet, you can get for first month for just $37, risk-free and with zero obligation, and attend this webinar live next week. Click here to go to The Client-Getting Blueprint on BTMSinsiders and get started.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
