Category: Selling Yourself

So the other day I’m Christmas shopping here in Costa Rica, which is automatically hilarious because, first of all, because they spell “Ho Ho Ho!” like “Jo Jo Jo!” which never gets less funny, and second, because Santa was dressed in a royal blue suit. (I still haven’t decided if this is posh or ridiculous, but I give him points for thinking outside the box North Pole.) So naturally, at one point I apparently decided Christmas shopping would be much

“Most good copywriters fall into two categories: Poets and Killers. Poets see an ad as an end. Killers, as a means to an end. If you are both killer & poet? You get rich.” Ogilvy once said that about copywriters, but that’s just because he wasn’t around long enough to see the internet blow up. Nowadays, everyone’s one or the other: Poet or killer. The poets are running around with their heart placed firmly on their sleeve, hoping that if

Q: Should I give away free consults? A: Are you running a business or a charity? EEEEEEEEEEET. Time’s up. The correct answer is [extra title=”Unless you *are* running a charity, in which case, oops?” info=”tooltip” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover”]business. [/extra] Ding, ding, ding. And businesses are for profit. Key words: For profit. Respect your own time and prospects will, too. I guarantee the people you look up to aren’t running around giving away free consults.   Q: Why does everyone price things

A lot of people don’t like selling, because it makes them feel like assholes. Seriously, who wants to be the pitbull with the perfume, attacking women and children as they innocently stroll through the Bon-Ton? Certainly not me. And probably not you, either, unless you happen to have a penchant for rose petals and lollipops (which is what all perfume smells like). But if you think of selling for what it really is—facilitating a mutual exchange of pleasure—then selling becomes

Everybody loves shopping, right? (Except maybe Ben Stein—imagine that guy in Kohl’s, or worse, going down a water slide. Two words: man thong.) You know who else loves shopping? The people who are looking for your services and products. There’s nothing like the high of thinking that you found it—the perfect photographer // vintage purse // writer // statement necklace // country line dance studio. Okay, maybe not country line dance studio, but in any case, when any of us

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been guilty of making a list of “what’s included” that looks like this: Modules! PDFs! Videos! Audios of the Videos! Transcripts of the Audios of the Videos! Commentary on the transcripts of the Audios of the Videos! A revolutionary new—drum roll— Facebook Group! AND THERE’S MORE! Buy now and you’ll even get this Super Duper Industrial-Sized Egg Beater absolutely FREE!* Reel it in, Billy Mays. Nobody ever bought a bottle of Grey Goose because:

“Nobody ever paid top dollar for a cheap imitation. Don’t let somebody else’s business move dictate yours.” I wrote that in our TMF Facebook page yesterday. Here’s why: Keep in mind that the people you’re watching are winging their next move just as much as you. Yet, so many new business owners who are fighting tooth and claw to make a name for themselves online, in particular, are being quietly indoctrinated into a school of sameness by one or two

Selling is scary as hell, isn’t it. You finally got the meeting. You clear your throat and punch in the phone number at 2pm sharp, shaking in your boots bathroom slippers. “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today, Mr. Client.” <—You say in your most ultra professional voice, despite the nagging chest cold that makes you sound like Marge Simpson. And then it happens. Before the ode-to-nerves vodka shot you slugged even has a chance to

I get two questions all of the time: 1. How do I convert more email inquiries into actual customers & clients? (Who ideally have zero credit card limit and maybe even a mullet because wouldn’t that be fun?) 2. How do you manage to stay looking so young? Obviously no one really ever asks me the second question, so let’s focus on question number one: How do you get more of those “just exploring my options” inquirers to pull the

I hate when there’s an elephant in the room. And let’s face it – we’ve got quite a few elephants roaming around our little online community. One of them is the fact that everybody’s trying to pitch everything, yet nobody knows HOW to pitch anything. For example, the other day we got this unsolicited pitch in our inbox: Name: Look at me protecting the innocent. E-Mail: notarealemailaddrress@littlepinkbook.com Subject: website launch press release (it actually was all lowercase like that) Hi