The unknown is scary.
In the perfect world, the path before us would be clear. We would know exactly where to go and where not to go.
The goal we desire, we would always see it clearly and actually see and feel our progress.
But that’s not how life works.
And honestly…
Where’s the fun in that? A little mystery always makes life interesting.
After spending 7 long years in college, I got a glimpse of how my life would play out for the rest of my life.
Work 40 years behind the counter of a retail pharmacy or confined in a cubicle in some big pharma company.
THEN after forcing myself to deal with all of the BS, I could finally live my life as I want.
No thanks.
I had an inkling of what I was getting into when I got into business for myself. But to be honest, I still don’t know what the future holds.
That is both scary and exciting. And I’ve felt both extreme ends of the spectrum.
The chilling effects of uncertainty have frozen me to my bed. Making me want to smash the snooze button a couple more times and question whether what I’m doing is worth it.
I’ve also felt the days when I felt reinvigorated in the morning like a 75 year old dude seeing the effects of Viagra for the first time. In these moments, workouts become easy. Hitting flow state becomes seamless.
But drawing from my learnings in stoic philosophy, specifically from Epictetus…
The way you feel about a certain circumstance is entirely your attitude.
And if you feel stuck, sitting on a ship that’s sinking one leak at a time…
It may just take a simple reframe of the circumstance in your mind to put you at ease. Because there’s really only two sides of the coin when you look at uncertainty.
Anxiety and anticipation.
If you give the anxiety and doubt room to fester in your mind, this will probably lead to inaction.
But if you give yourself the freedom to feel anticipation… the ability to feel yourself getting closer to your goal…
It could feel like the night before Christmas when we were kids.
Unfortunately, I still experience both ends of the spectrum regularly. And sometimes the simple reframe only lasts for a bit.
If anyone invents a pill that enhances anticipation for the day, let me know how much, I’m buying.
So what do I do when I feel the chilling effects of uncertainty creeping up on me?
I dig into my discipline and willpower and I face it. Even when my mind tries to make all the excuses in the world to just chill.
How else are you going to move closer to your goals?
I’ve been up to my nose with client work in other ventures the past 2 weeks. In fact, I’m way behind.
This is work I’d like to eliminate in the future. But I’ve already made commitments and promises.
The workload has even made me question the P4P project at times. But you know what?
I power through and still try to find time to work on P4P even if it’s a couple hours. Because I envision it as a project I see myself really enjoying once it’s rolling.
And that’s a perfect segue for an update, yeah?
So we’ve generated a couple more positive responses. Totaling our count up to 4. But no further meetings set.
I’m actually thinking of revamping my cold email strategy to include a little precursor before the meeting. If it works, I’ll share it in a future Inside My Mind issue.
If it doesn’t, we can be like Dory from Finding Nemo.
Other than that, no other exciting updates. I’m working on building some assets around P4P that will lead prospective clients into my world.
So instead of talking about more cold email strategy this week…
I want to leave you with a concept from the realm of offer creation.
Plus, I can talk about offers all day. Talking about cold email is boring to me.
Anyway, the concept is an acronym called TIMER.
I didn’t invent this myself, I learned it from a mentor of mine. But basically TIMER stands for:
T - time
I - identity
M - money
E - energy
R - reputation
These are the 5 most common categories of objections you’ll usually see from your prospect.
“I don’t have time for this.”
”I don’t think this is for me.”
”I can’t afford this.”
”This is a lot of work.”
”This makes me look bad.”
And the typical sales cycle usually goes something like…
Asking basic questions to build rapport, presenting our solution, answering objections, hoping for the sale.
Well, if you bake in answers to your prospect’s objections within the offer itself… the sale becomes more seamless.
For example, let’s take a look at P4P’s offer.
T - time
We take care of all the writing and newsletter management. You just give us topics.
I - identity
Your social media is like a leased asset. It can be taken from you. But with email, you become an actual digital asset owner.
M - money
We don’t get paid unless you do. We operate on a performance model.
E - energy
Take an hour or so and let us know what you have going on each week and we’ll take care of the rest.
R - reputation
Your fans would love to see inside your life outside of fighting.
These are all different things I’m addressing in the presentation of my offer and how it works before asking them for a decision.
And when done correctly, the decision will be easy. Plus, you’ll usually get a definite response, instead of the usual “let me think about it”, etc.
Really think about your own offer and see if you can incorporate anything that will address an objection in any of these categories. The best things to include are ones that won’t take much of your time to implement, but creates a ton of value for your clients.
An example is like providing a spreadsheet of stats from an ad campaign. You can hire a VA to do the task. This way it doesn’t take much of your time and energy, but frees up your client’s time and energy to do that manually too.
We can go a lot deeper than this. But let’s start off at the shallow end for now.
I remember my first time going in the deep end for a swimming lesson, I didn’t feel ready. I was so petrified and cried the entire time.
So I’m going to spare you the same 8 year old Kevin experience here.
Anyway to recap today in a nutshell…
Stuck or not…
Get off your ass and start moving. Your goals aren’t going to voluntarily walk towards you.
Trust the process, love the process.
Kevin