Ever had one of those days where the little sequence of events in the morning…
Just make it obvious that today’s not going to be your day?
I had one of those this past week. And it was pretty comical, but there’s a good lesson in attitude here.
So it started off in the morning when my sweet tooth was craving a pumpkin spice iced coffee. And this is why I usually make my own coffee 90% of the time.
But unfortunately, I don’t have the ingredients on hand to make anything pumpkin spice flavored (just ordered the syrup actually).
And before you judge my choice of coffee, just know there’s no “real” coffee shop near me. The closest thing to a coffee shop is the café inside the bookstore (and unfortunately I rank their coffee lower than the chains).
So here are my options:
Gas station convenience store
Starbucks
Dunkin’
For sake of a shorter drive and because it was a rainy morning, I opted for Dunkin’. So I rolled into the drive-thru, ordered my medium iced coffee with 1 cream and pumpkin spice syrup.
And even though the line wasn’t that long, it was moving slower than usual. That was the first sign of things to come.
Once it was time to get my coffee in hand, I got handed a coffee that looked like it was a cup of cream with a dash of coffee.
But Dunkin’ is notorious for pumping too much cream into coffees. That’s why I always get 1 cream there (which ends up looking like it’s 3).
So I’m like, damn. Should’ve got no cream today. But there was a saving grace.
I looked at the receipt on the cup and it’s the wrong order!
Normally I would be annoyed, but my addiction for caffeine trumps that.
And I know I said not to be judgy earlier…
But the equivalent of 18 sugars and 6 creams in a medium coffee is NOT okay. I know light n’ sweet is a thing, but this was not it. I almost threw the coffee away for the sake of that person’s health.
But at the end of the day, we like what we like. I just hope that’s not that person’s daily coffee order.
So I walk inside and trade in the wrong coffee for my actual order with no trouble (good sign). The coffee is a nice caramel color instead of off-white (another good sign!).
Things are looking up, yeah?
So I have a bad habit of leaving drinks on top of my car. There have been times where I forgot and started driving off. Never has ended well.
But I got home safe, no way something bad can happen. Or so I thought.
I place my coffee on the roof of my car as usual while I fumble around with my key fob, trying to lock the doors. Then a strong gust of wind decides to whip through my neighborhood.
And all I can hear behind me is the sound of plastic cracking on the cement. The sound of ice spilling out.
I look down and of course, my coffee is dripping down my driveway. Sigh.
On top of that, there were some client fires I had to put out immediately. Coming in right after my coffee decided to end it all.
And I thought my Saturday was saved by a night full of MMA fights. So I placed a bet for fun. To my surprise, the bet was doing well. I was one fight away from cashing in on several hundred dollars (off a $20 bet by the way).
And of course if you haven’t already seen the pattern of this story…
My last fighter loses and my Vegas high-roller dreams go down the drain with it.
But even though this day was more personal than business, you’re going to have days like this in business.
Sometimes it comes spontaneously.
Sometimes it comes in streaks.
Sometimes it’s seasonal.
But the point is, these “not your” days are inevitable. And sometimes they hurt, making you want to quit.
Understand that these days are temporary. And the only way you can lose is by giving up.
So try to laugh at these days. Turn it into something good.
I turned my haywire day into content for your entertainment. Days like these get stored in my vault of stories for repurposing in the future.
Epictetus says it is our attitudes and reactions that give us troubles. But we have power over our attitude. We can either accept it or resent it.
So accept these days. Feel them. Then understand it’s just a part of the ebb and flow of life.
So P4P updates.
I’m getting a better response on Twitter than emails. With my new strategy, I’m not looking to book a call right away. In fact, I’m making the call seem more valuable and I think it’s turning out to be a great filtering technique for me.
Promise to share more as I refine the strategy.
So far:
I’ve sent 28 Twitter DMs.
5 interested conversations going
0 Meetings booked
By looks of the small numbers, it’s a lot more fruitful than cold email. But the important lesson is to be where your audience is.
Even as much as I don’t like Twitter (starting to grow on me), I can’t deny the fact that my prospect is most active there.
If your audience is on Linkedin, but you don’t like the tacky professional feel of Linkedin…
Suck it up and be there. I don’t have any insightful advice outside of that.
Your competitors are biting the bullet, so should you.
Next week I’ll talk more in-depth about my DM strategy. There may be some major updates.
So because you endured my ranting today, I’ll reveal another component of my cold email strategy.
This part is how I get my prospects to ask me to book a call, instead of the other way around.
I call this the Power Question (ooo, fancy!).
For most initial cold messages, the usual call-to-action is to book a call.
The Power Question is a call-to-action that asks the prospect to think a bit about your solution.
It leads them to sell themselves on your solution. Done correctly, this leads your prospect to inquire for more information and ask you to hop on the call.
When this happens, you become the prize. The Prize Frame is always advantageous for you. Not just in business, but life in general.
So anyway, how is a Power Question done?
This may or may not have happened to you before. But back in college when I was rushing to the student union to get lunch before my next class, I got stopped.
A person from an organization stepped in my path and posed his own Power Question to me.
“Would you like to help kids fight cancer?”
Now how I could answer no to this. And being a pharmacy student at the time, there was even more pressure.
“Sure…” I said in a low and hesitant voice.
An exchange of $2 for some stickers and pins (I never wore) later, I was off.
But the Power Question has this same exact feeling. A no-brainer question that the prospect would feel kinda dumb saying no to.
An example of a Power Question for P4P:
“Are you interested in learning how to monetize your personal brand with email newsletters?”
The structure is: Are you/Would you be interested in [outcome] with [your solution]?
And if you’ve done a good job of presenting your offer beforehand, it becomes a no-brainer answer.
Now you might think this is manipulative and slimy at first. I get it.
But it’s likely that your Power Question isn’t as extreme as my student story. And it’s a genuine question that makes the prospect think about their goals, in relation to your solution.
At the end of the day, there’s a high chance your solution isn’t the ONLY solution to solve that prospect’s problems.
The Power Question creates a frame where the prospect will think about their problems, but the only solution inside that frame is…
Your solution.
So go forth my reader…
Remove that vanilla book-a-call CTA from your cold message and replace it with a Power Question.
Watch what happens and if you want to pay me back, refer this newsletter to a friend.
Talk next week. And as always…
Trust the process, love the process.
Kevin