I Did Something a Little Crazy

Have you ever stepped out of your comfort zone and done something a little crazy, or maybe out of your ordinary routine, or stretched your beliefs?

Well, that’s what I did last week.

I bought a course for $6,000.

Ummmm, yeah, a little out there for me cuz I’ve not ever spent that amount of money on a course before.

I’ve spent upwards of $25k on a year-long mastermind, and I’ve also spent $5k for a 3-day weekend training. And, I’ve spent $12k a year to be in Brian Kurtz’s Masterclass, which was like a mastermind, where we met three times a year in person. (Yeah, before the pandemic.)

Plus, I’ve spent up to $2k on online courses before.

So spending $6k for a course was a real stretch. (And it wasn’t just about the money.)

I know, I know, you want more details on why I’d do such a thing, and also what’s so valuable (Or what’s the perceived value?) that I’d put down that chunk of money on?

Then let’s add – why would I do it right before Christmas?

AND, I need to share with you – we’re also in the middle of buying a home and selling our current one. (This could be an email in itself. Let me just share that we were thinking about moving back east. Then that fell through, so we decided to stay in CA for a few more years. And for us to feel comfier here, we wanted another home that we both picked out together.)

Now back to this pricey purchase…

I’ve been a high-level online marketer and launch manager for 15 years.

Whenever I’ve plunked down money, whether it was to join a mastermind or masterclass or spend time at a 3-day live event, I’ve always been able to monetize it

— [https://shannonmcc.com/2021/09/16/go-big-or-go-home/ ]

The funny part about all of this is I never planned to plunk down $6k on this course. I mean, isn’t that how it always happens?!

And the reason is cuz we always buy on emotion. There’s always some feeling we’re chasing, or that we want, or that we know this “thing” we’re buying will deliver. Then after we buy it, we justify it with logic.

Here’s the story…

I’m in Brian Kurtz’s Titan’s Accelerator group. We meet once a week on Zoom, and he usually has speakers, or we do hot seats or breakouts to help each other’s businesses.

A week or so ago, he had an old friend of mine as a speaker – Chris Haddad, an amazing top-notch copywriter, who’s made millions with his copy.

As an aside – He and I met years ago (2008?) in the hotel lobby of a bar at Yanik Silver’s event in D.C., when we both were fairly new as entrepreneurs.

So Chris did this pretty stellar presentation to Brian’s group, sharing all about the challenges he faced in all the years since we met. I mean big stuff, a car accident that almost killed him, a disease, and more… while teaching us some amazing principles about using stories to impact your audience and reach them on a deeper emotional level.

His presentation was the exact kind that I teach and help my clients do. Plus, it was all about being transparent, authentic, and real. And he shared how he was launching his copywriting program for the first time.

These are all the things I teach and work with my clients. That’s part of the core of Soulful Marketing, looking within, accessing who you are, and sharing whatever you’re most comfortable with – to the world.

This is THE way to market now. Be honest, authentic, and transparent. You are building a community of like-minded people. Your business isn’t about you. And it’s about the people you serve and how you can help them in your unique way.

You and I are all about building communities of people who resonate with our message and whom we can help make more significant strides in their life, businesses, and more.

After Chris’s presentation, I joined his FB group for his prelaunch.

I thought, cool, I get to watch him launch and learn some stuff (You know me, the learnaholic!) that I can use to help my people.

Before long, Chris and I were having these fun reconnecting conversations, and then I was engaged and resonating with his messages and community. Then I saw THE opportunity and how he and I are aligned in how we market. He’s a bit out there on the spectrum, yet he’s genuine, authentic, a total giver, and his genius is in writing and teaching copy.

At that point, something clicked inside me, and I knew I had to be one of the 200 people in his new copywriting program.

I do have to be honest – there was one thing I didn’t like about the course – the name – P.I.G. (Punched In the Gut) Method. Yet, I learned a ton from Dan Kennedy and I certainly did not agree with his politics!

Chris is definitely one of the top copy geniuses out there. I’ve bought a lot of copywriting courses, and this one will take my copy to a much deeper, psychographic, and more emotional and authentic level using stories.

Since this is the first time he’s teaching his copywriting techniques and insider secrets to writing money-making copy, he decided to only open it up to 200 people. (Yeah, I did the math in my head too!)

When he shared the limit of 200 people, it caused a huge FOMO effect. And created a frenzy of how everyone wants to get in… And guess what? This stuff works. It’s about paying attention to and using Robert Cialdini’s 6 Emotional Triggers of how to motivate your prospects to buy. It’s from his book – Influence.

So – of course when faced with Scarcity, Trigger # 1, I had to get it.

Plus, my rational mind kept saying to me — “Well, every time you plunked down money (no matter the price), especially on a brand new course, you have always increased your business at least twofold or more.”

So there you have it.

Then on Thanksgiving Day, Chris sent out a note looking for 12 people to get in early to try it during the prelaunch. I was like, nahhhh, I can wait. Next thing I knew – all the prelaunch spots were gone. Then the next day something inside said, just send him a private message and tell him that I’d love to get in if anyone drops out. Then fortuitously – I got a message soon thereafter that I was in the 12!

That’s my tale of how I invested $6k in myself, my business, and in Chris to teach me the deeper levels of emotional copy and storytelling.

I’ve already gone through the first half of the course. The fun part is when he opens the cart today, there will be a live component of the course that will start soon and I can get my copy critiques by him.

Being one of the first 200 people to walk through this course will change things in my business that I can’t even imagine right now.

Not to mention all the people I will meet and how we can impact each other’s lives. It’s already happening. I haven’t been this excited about a course since 2009 when Jeff Walker trained me to be a Product Launch Manager (PLM). That course was $5k and was a 5 day certification training, and there were only 50 of us. And he never did this certification again… This training helped my business take off like a rocket. The photo below is Jeff and I right after working with him at his PLM training in L.A.

This is definitely food for thought here for your own business.

I want to emphasize something essential when deciding to pay for something that you think will help you learn and create success in your business – you can’t view it as an expense, especially when it will help you and your business grow in many ways that will totally surprise you.

I would encourage you to look at it as an investment in you, your business, and the course, service, program, and the person delivering it.

Always look at investing in products, courses, and services that will help you and your business grow and move forward. These types of investments will always help the trajectory of your business – promise.

Happy December – yikes – 23 days to Christmas!