Two months! I can’t believe I’ve kept this Monday round-up going for two months. (Shakes head in wonderment.)
Yes, I know I shouldn’t start out talking about me, but sometimes me’s all I got. Thankfully, that’s not entirely true, or this would be a mighty short Monday Heart Stuff.
First up, a little music.
Ellis
Good friends of ours introduced us to a band called The Bills, and we’ve been looking for our socks every since. So, when they suggested we join them to see someone called “Ellis” we said, “Heck yeah!”
There’s lot of good things to say about Ellis–she’s warm, she’s funny, she’s humble, her music is both profound, simple, fun, and carries you away. But, beyond that, she’s on top of it. Check out her Song of the Month Club. Now, it’s becoming more and more common for indie music people to embrace alternate forms of distribution. There were two things noteworthy to me here, in a business-sense.
The first is that the premium version of the song of the month club includes Ellis recording one of her songs with a personal dedication to you.I think that’s genius, although she doesn’t charge enough for it, it’s barely forty dollars more per year than the simple $5/month option.
The second thing is that she didn’t mention her song-of-the-month club ONCE during the show. It’s true we left before the encore (babysitters waiting at home). But, she so clearly had a room full of raving fans. How many could she have signed up that night? How many shows would she have to do before her livelihood as an artist is covered entirely by song-of-the-month subscribers?
Question for Your Heart: Do you have some amazing offer people want to know about, but you aren’t letting them know? Are you finding venues to let your raving fans know what you have to offer?
Pricing to Save the World
Charlie Gilkey, world-famous philosophy and productivity anti-guru (well, call this a “foreshadowing prediction) wrote a post about selling happiness in the form of a $47 ebook. The discussion was quite robust, including some polite exchanges between myself and Duff McDuffee. Duff is a great guy, with a keen critical insight into the self-improvement industry. His writing was inspirational for the article coming out this Wednesday.
And, he spoke at length about how the digital info-product world is inflated, overpriced, and with little value. That there’s basically a lot of crap out there because people are being taught to get products out quickly and charge a lot for them.
I challenged him on this. Here are Duff’s comments: This one, and then this one, and then there’s my first response, then Duff’s response to me, then my next response. then Duff’s last response to me. And then my final (so far) response.
A polite, thoughtful, ping-pong match. Here’s the gist I’m getting at: we all have challenging experiences in life. Some of them truly suck. All of them have gifts, lessons and other silver linings, but please don’t mention that to me when I’m in the middle of it. When I’m in the middle, it just sucks. I’ll find the silver linings later.
But do you throw the gold out with the river mud? If you’ve had a bad experience, or even multiple miserable experiences, is it game over for anything in business that reminds you of those bad experiences?
Question for Your Heart: Are you avoiding aspects of business because you’re afraid of becoming the “bad guy?” Is there a way to look at those aspects of business with an open heart and a new mind?
Back To It
I love teaching my Heart of Business Momentum course, but it Lordy it takes up a lot of time on Monday and Tuesday prepping. While you’re pondering those questions, you may just think about whether you want to grab the homestudy version while we’re offering the pre-release price on it.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on either or both of these items.
6 Responses
Before I talk about that post, I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your Mastermind call with Dave. I was listening to it this morning and so strongly resonated with what you were saying – you’re a few sweet steps ahead of me, but I feel that we’re on the same path. It’s funny how our different traditions converge on the same principles.
The comments to the post you referenced were a huge blessing, and it’s helped me frame a lot of my thinking. The bit on pricing was far more fruitful than the bit on selling happiness – but there was a lot of ground covered on the latter, too. I really appreciate you showing up and sharing your wisdom, ideas, and humanity with us.
I’ll be writing several posts that still riff on the ideas therein, so I’m hoping we can keep the spirited dialogue going. We need places where good people are talking about these issues, lest Frank Kern and James Arthur Ray become the only lenses through which people see the world.
About the famous anti-guru bit – thank you. I hope you’re also getting comfortable with wearing the world-famous anti-guru robe, too. But, lest we get ahead of ourselves, I wanted to witness and celebrate your eighth week of Monday round-ups. 🙂
.-= Charlie´s last blog ..Would You Buy Happiness? =-.
“we all have challenging experiences in life. Some of them truly suck. All of them have gifts, lessons and other silver linings, but please don
@Charlie- You so rock, brother. Thank you for your appreciation and celebration. And I’m not surprised we converge from different traditions- grabbing the elephant in the dark room, eh?
@Andrew- Isn’t it? Sometimes you just have to go for the cheesy cause it’s just so true. It’s okay by me.
Yes, I’ve been avoiding aspects of my business. It’s hard to say that, but it’s true. I’m still in the process of figuring out what my best sources of revenue will be. Instead of diving in and trying a few out and seeing what’s best. I’ve been simulating outcomes and seeing what works. Now it’s time to dive in and tell the whole world about the great stuff that I have to offer.
Thanks!
.-= Karl Staib – Work Happy Now´s last blog ..How Does Your Confidence Affect Your Work? =-.
I love Ellis’ music. Recently turned on to her work by a dance teacher.
How would it be if everything that you thought you knew
Was turned upside down opposite from your point of view
How would you feel if the ground was really the sky and all of this time you
@Karl- I’m glad you’re going to dive in! SO much empathy for the avoidance, and celebration for when we get into what needs the love.
@Deborah- Thanks for that little snippet, Deb. I had a smile on my face the whole time I was at her show. Except, of course, when we had to leave.