I learned about a teenager who just wants to practice with his synthesizer.

Unfortunately for our young artist, these musical moments are when his stepmom wants his attention.

She slams doors, marches around in her loudest heels, drops heavy items, screams– you name it.

This stepmom from hell makes so much noise, her stepson can hear her through his noise cancelling headphones.

Think the stepson respects this woman or is interested in what she has to say? Nope.

Well, guess what? Your prospects are like this teenager.

A lot of founders come to me because they want the right kind of clients. They don’t want to waste time with buyers who don’t have the capital to do the kind of work they are charging for.

These founders want to make sure they are piercing through all the noise competitors are making and getting in front of the best buyers for a call.

If you want to do that, you’ll need to…

-Provide real insight regarding a part of their world that buyers care about…

-Do it an an entertaining way

-While selling….

–But not being obnoxious or aggressive about it

Easier said than done. If you want me to personal help you solve any of these problems, stay tuned. Changes on the way…

There’s no way around it. If you want be a leader in your niche, you need to have principles–even if it pisses some people off

Substack–the subscription newsletter platform– is a good example for you to study.

At Substack, they don’t make moderation decisions based on public pressure–unlike social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc.

Years ago, Google came up with an axiom: “Don’t be evil”

But-let’s be honest–Google is evil.

But it looks like Substack is taking this axiom seriously–at least as I write this. Why?

Because Substack takes freedom of speech seriously. Even for content their leadership disagrees with. They understand principles come at a cost and that’s why they are growing

It’s a rare company that has integrity. Integrity isn’t just commendable—it can make you rich.

Here’s why: Nobody wants to work with– or buy from– a snake.

The fastest way to lose your business or kill your reputation is low integrity.

Nobody wants to work with you if they know you’ll just throw them under the bus or backstab them.

Most founders reading this, unfortunately, can’t help themselves. The pressure to submit to pressure/bad PR will mean they can never be leaders in their niche.

Avoid this trap and your true customers–the loyal buyers who pay who and ignore everyone else–will love you for it.

So tell me: What kind of self-censorship do you feel you need to do?

There’s a guy I read about who’s been been playing farming life simulator games recently

This poor soul quickly realized that his fake farmers will be more rich,popular, successful, and energetic than he ever will be in his entire life.

I don’t blame him for thinking this way.

The world is becoming so complicated that even smart folks are falling behind

You need a stack of different, unrelated skills to even get a shot at winning.

But here’s the thing: It doesn’t have to be that way—if you decide to take action

The gap between rich and poor keeps increasing. The middle class is vanishing faster than a father on diaper duty.

So instead of obsessing about how much money Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos are making….

Focus on how increase your own income.

The fact that you are trying to build a startup is a sign that you’re not lazy.

A good start….

But hard work ain’t enough. You need to attract buyers—and they don’t care how hard you work.

That’s why we here at the Sublime Persuasion Porte got something special cooking for you— something to help you close that gap real soon.

I learned a new word today

“Wiseacre”: A person with an affectation of wisdom or knowledge, regarded with scorn or irritation by others; a know-it-all. 

This is a word that applies to most influencers on social media, to be honest.

There are a lot of people–usually younger folks– who have this obsession with looking rich & successful. These wisacres put on a show to give viewers the impression that they are more successful than they really are.

These kids see all these people on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter throwing around their lifestyles and want to do the same. To add to their status, wiseacres give life and business advice–advice that they are unqualified to give.

Danish Qasim succinctly captures the problem. His post is about influencers in the Muslim community but the phenomenon is the same in the wider business/entrepreneur space:

“An influencer culture has no concept of intellectual ethos. The quickest people to appropriate a trend become leaders. They are content creators, so being active and keeping an audience engaged is the goal. Influencers know they are in a trendy and fast paced world so they ‘bite size’ information. They are in a game of likes and shares. Muslim influencers can gain a following through slap stick humor, lip synching, outlandish or provocative takes on marriage, and then appeal to our sentimentality for sages of the past and we fawn over it–oblivious to the aesthetic incongruence of seeing a hikam [maxims] of Ibn Ata’illah placed between a “Don’t Worry” post and yesterday’s cheeseburger. It’s instant ilm [knowledge] for the button generation.” 

Now, this isn’t to say influencers bring nothing to the table. The women tend to be quite pretty and the men tend to be rather charismatic .

There’s nothing wrong with these advantages. If you’ve got it–flaunt it.

But looks and charisma will only get you so far.

A lot of these wisacres are learning that they can’t get ahead without learning the fundamentals of marketing and business. If you are one of them , you probably noticed a spiral in your sales.

But don’t despair. Everyone has a learning curve.

We here at the Sublime Persuasion Porte have your back.

I’d like yo hear some funny influencer fails from you. Have you seen anything that fits this pattern?

I recently paid a few  hundred dollars for a used Nintendo Switch, a dock to connect it to a TV, Mario Kart, and  the latest version of SuperSmash Bros.

I’m not a gamer–these were gifts for my little sister.

She didn’t like the gift.

Yet I still insisted that she play it-even if for a little bit.

The secret to my irrational behavior has to do with pricing psychology.

You see, people value what they pay for. The more premium the price, the more perceived value they give the product.

That’s why I refused to leave my sister alone until she played with the Switch at least once.

So this is how consumers engage with pricing.

For business leaders like yourself?

Nothing is more frustrating than underpricing your product or service,

I know a lot of entrepreneurs who are terrified to leave money on the table because they  have undercharged or mischarged. You might be one of them.

It is stressful to get pricing right.  There’s a lot of confusing advice online.

I can’t give you a checklist on pricing that will guarantee you Nintendo-levels of success. I respect you too much to give you BS information.

 But I can give you some important principles for you to come up with a winning pricing strategy.

Here’s the main principle about pricing–you will figure it out over time.

Your first batch of  customers are mostly about  learning about what your customers value. Pricing is part of that learning journey.

With that said, here’s another pricing principle I can share: Don’t let personal esteem issues dictate how much-or little- you charge .

Even successful entrepreneurs often under prices themselves. These businesspeople mistakenly believe that that by being timid about price, they won’t miss out on opportunities.

If you think like this, you will lose money.

Instead, create a good product, give your customers a great experience throughout all your marketing, sales, and customer services processes, and experiment.

P.S. Get the free book that shows you how to come up with the “big idea” that delivers big bucks to your bottom line:  https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

Imagine being so wealthy, popular, and “in-demand” that no one can cancel or de-platform you,

Sounds great to have a business like that, doesn’t?  I’m going to show you how one person did it and how you can make your business similarly hard to kill.

This person is not a politician or a tech billionaire.

In fact, this guy is  a pot smokin’, DMT-puffin’ standup comic who has become a more serious & fair facilitator of public health debates than the clowns on CNN.

I’m talking about comedian Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan offends the talking heads on the news because he’s a regular dude who works hard, is loved by millions, multi-talented and rich. Rogan accomplished all this without selling out on his values or kissing azz. The guy, I should also mention, is a college droput.

In the world of the legacy media, Rogan should not be this successful.

But Joe is successful and he is successful precisely because he doesn’t compromise his values. Fans & buyers are drawn to that.

Yet, his enemies in the media–including Hollywood- still try to destroy him.

Why?  It’s a mixture of envy & fear.

Let me explain…

The people who are rich and famous in Hollywood and the legacy media became so successful because they were told what to say and how to say it  by studio executives.

These celebrities didn’t say anything that would ruffle feathers. They would  spout off canned, feel-good, liberal platitudes during the day and have crazy orgies in their mansions at night.

But now what’s happening is you have  a new cohort of personalities–like Joe Rogan–rising on the internet with views much closer to the American mainstream.

The lesson from all this: As long as you….

-Control your own platform

-Have a message that resonates with your target audience

-And don’t let your enemies make you self-censor….

Your business cannot help but be a niche leader.

P.S. Get the free book that shows you how to come up with the “big idea” that deliver big bucks to your bottom line: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

“Why are female startup founders held to different standards? Why are their male counterparts more able to get away with assertive & aggressive behavior? If a woman founder was aggressive & assertive, she’d be called a bytch.” 

Guys who are aggressive and assertive will still get negative pushback in a lot of cases. They usually get called a different set of slurs. “A#&hole” & “d&$k” are popular choices.

But I digress…

With that said, the esteemed Dan Kennedy–no friend of feminism— admits that women who are assertive tend to get more pushback in hierarchical environments like corporations .

But he points out that this is not the case in the entrepreneurial world. Kennedy mentions a friend of his–the late comedian Joan Rivers–as an example. Ms. Rivers was tough as nails but quite successful as a businesswoman.

But here’s the lesson in all this: If you want to be an entrepreneur, be yourself. Don’t worry about impressing the people who will never buy from you in the first place.

The only people whose opinion after that are your paying customers. As long as what you are saying resonates with them, it doesn’t matter what social media trolls think, what your peers at your incubator/accelerator think, what your spouse thinks, etc.

I have fun pissing off the haters and non-buyers. I don’t go out of my way to pick fights with these people but I certainly don’t let their opinions affect how I do business.

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

I recently was asked this question by someone trying to launch a SaaS startup:

I’m a software engineer, so marketing and advertising is more work than developing the actual software . The work of of developing ad strategies without a big budget just sucks. At least programming is enjoyable.” 

Here’s what I would say:

The best entrepreneurs, regardless of their industry, are obsessed about marketing.

They are super-focused on marketing until retirement or death.

And these are the people who suffer least from empty pipelines and uninterested buyers.

Successful entrepreneurs understand that your product can have all the technical bells & whistles in the world…

But all these features are meaningless if you fail in your marketing.

Dan Kennedy, one of the great direct marketing experts of our age, went so far as to say that marketing is the core of your business and everything else (e.g. your SaaS product) is a deliverable.

I’ll repeat that: The business that you are in, according to Dan Kennedy, is the marketing business. Your product (whether it’s an app, platform, whatever) is merely the deliverable.

Why? Because nothing happens in a business until a buyer is brought in the door.

So if you’re a SaaS entrepreneur, you don’t get to be a SaaS entrepreneur unless somebody decides to visit your website and try out your web app.

That’s just the cold reality.

But here’s some good news…

You don’t need a big budget to start marketing your business effectively.

But you do need to know what your doing, have a clear but flexible marketing strategy, and be willing to put in the work.

You can either take the time and learn the marketing arts on your own.

Or hire someone competent who can do a lot of the marketing for you.

Either way, you can’t afford to neglect attracting the right customers & filling your pipeline.

Otherwise, you are neglecting your business and are better off being an employee for someone else

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

Sounds great to have a business like that, doesn’t?  I’m going to show you how one person did it and how you can make your business similarly hard to kill.

This person is not a politician or a tech billionaire.

In fact, this guy is  a pot smokin’, DMT-puffin’ standup comic who has become a more serious & fair facilitator of public health debates than the clowns on CNN.

I’m talking about comedian Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan offends the talking heads on the news because he’s a regular dude who works hard, is loved by millions, multi-talented and rich. Rogan accomplished all this without selling out on his values or kissing azz. The guy, I should also mention, is a college droput.

In the world of the legacy media, Rogan should not be this successful.

But Joe is successful and he is successful precisely because he doesn’t compromise his values. Fans & buyers are drawn to that.

Yet, his enemies in the media–including Hollywood- still try to destroy him.

Why?  It’s a mixture of envy & fear.

Let me explain…

The people who are rich and famous in Hollywood and the legacy media became so successful because they were told what to say and how to say it  by studio executives.

These celebrities didn’t say anything that would ruffle feathers. They would  spout off canned, feel-good, liberal platitudes during the day and have crazy orgies in their mansions at night.

But now what’s happening is you have  a new cohort of personalities–like Joe Rogan–rising on the internet with views much closer to the American mainstream.

The lesson from all this: As long as you….

-Control your own platform

-Have a message that resonates with your target audience

-And don’t let your enemies make you self-censor….

Your business cannot help but be a niche leader.

P.S. Get the free book that shows you how to come up with the “big idea” that deliver big bucks to your bottom line: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/