Author: Karol

The No B.S. Truth About Popups

There is nothing wrong with making money. There are many things wrong with popups …

“Silence means death.” – Max Cavalera

If we’re being honest then honestly I don’t want to publish this article. It’s likely either going to spread and become a catalyst for positive change or blow up in my face and make people I like hate me. By a quick mental count there are exactly 13 things I’d rather do more than publish this article.

But I’m seeing far too many of my friends/acquaintances, good people who mean well, fall into the black hole of internet marketing. What I mean by that is, once you start putting money over your customers it turns into a slippery slope aimed directly into the darkest pits of marketing and business. I know because I’ve been there.

You won’t even see it happen. You’ll deny. You’ll lie to yourself. You’ll scream from the rooftops that you are an honest, ethical, business person. Like a junkie having “just one bump” you’ll hit rock bottom and wonder how you got there.

Back in the days I used to use popups, popunders, popovers, and every single other method available to get more leads into my funnel and squeeze every percentage point of cash out of those leads.

See what happened there? Leads. Funnel. Percentage. Cash. I’ve dehumanized the whole process of creating a business that actually helps people. Now you’re just a lead in my funnel pouring bills into my pocket. A blip on my macbook. Faceless. Soul-less. With a credit card and a paypal account, hopefully both at the ready. You are John Doe. You are Jane Doe. You are nobody. You’re more nobody if you don’t buy from me.

Before I go on, let me state in simple terms: I’m no saint. I’m a recovering “money-grubbing sleazy marketer.” (Which is the category of business owner popup use puts you in.) I wrote about the depression that resulted from those times in the Luxury of Less.

Money Is OK

There is nothing wrong with building a business.

There is nothing wrong with making a lot of money.

There is even nothing inherently wrong with caring more about money than your customers.

And contrary to what I’ve stated in the past I don’t think everybody who uses popups cares more about money than their customers.

What I think has happened is that most people who use popovers (the “sexy new popup”) don’t realize what they’re conveying to their audiences because they’ve simply followed the herd (their popup-using mentors). Ignorance is bliss, right?

Which is why I needed to publish this article. Once you’ve read it you can no longer claim ignorance. If I can save one person from the black hole of internet marketing my work here is done. Everything else is gravy. (Vegan gravy, of course.)

I’ve heard all the excuses about why popups are supposedly OK and they’re all very telling about the business owner.

“If you don’t like them don’t read my site.”

Very true and very condescending. You’ve consciously put yourself in the realm of sleazy, money-grubbing, marketer. (That may very well be what you want, of course.) There are absolutely no two-ways about it. A sleazy, money-grubbing, marketer doesn’t care what their customers think, because the bottom line trumps all: “Does it make money? Yes? Do it.” It’s unfortunate, but true.

This is also a very short-sighted approach. Sure, you will probably generate more leads and more sales in the short term, but at what cost? A loss of trust. Over the long term that loss of trust will result in a business that isn’t sustainable. Business today is dependent on trust more than ever. That trend will only continue.

“Trust is the scarcest resource we’ve got left.” – Seth Godin in All Marketers Are Liars

“If people didn’t like them they wouldn’t work.”

Delusional. It’s OK, I was delusional once as well. I told myself the very same thing.

“I’m getting more subscribers. And people e-mail me thanking me for my content! I’m doing good work.” The truth is I was not. I didn’t care. It was cool that I was helping people and all, but I didn’t care. I wanted more money, more subscribers, more leads … get in my funnel!

I used to spam Google search results with pages upon pages of fake (aka “spun”) content. (Do some searches on “content spinner” or “article spinner” and you’ll see the “quality” content these things create.) Did anybody (particularly Google or the end-user) like my websites? Not one bit. I didn’t even like them.

“They work like gangbusters, so everybody must like them,” I lied to myself.

Popups are on the same sleazy realm as spam.

“Look, if you have something fundamentally shitty, you can’t do much with it, can you?” – A man named Geoffrey, from the book The Geography of Bliss.

“It’s free. I’m being altruistic.”

A dude offered me a hit of cocaine once. Even drug dealers have free lead generators. He wanted me in his funnel and was willing to give me something that had actual cash value for free. Does that mean he cared about me?

First, as we know, free isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.

Second, this is another delusion. You may very well be giving something good away for free. And you may very well care about your customers. But the mere fact you’re giving something away for free doesn’t mean you care about your customers. There’s far more to it than that.

Unwillingly forcing your customers into an action they weren’t expecting insinuates something entirely different than a sense of altruism.

“They only show up once.”

No, they don’t, and you very well know that. Quit lying to yourself.

They only show up once if the person reading your site never clears their cookies. Guess what? People clear their cookies. According to one study, 63% of people clear their cookies at least once per month. With increasing use of anti-spyware, anti-malware, and anti-virus software this number will rise. People aren’t technological idiots anymore.

In case that wasn’t clear, if this is your argument then you think your customers are idiots.

“They only show up if the reader gets to the end of the article.”

I really want to use another drug analogy here, but that’s been done. So let me change tactics.

Is it good business strategy to annoy people who actually like your content? If somebody is reading to the end of your article they probably like you. You reward them by smacking them in the face with an ad? (Figuratively speaking of course.) Is that what someone who cares does to their audience?

Listen, if I’m buying an apple at the farmer’s market and before I leave the farmer grabs me by the arm, pulls me back, and tries to sell me another apple I ain’t gonna shop with that farmer anymore. It would make him an asshole. Who wants to do business with an asshole?

Authority Figures Perpetuating Popups

The problem that’s happening these days is that a lot of authority figures are using popups. When a newbie sees an authority use a popup they will likely think they should – maybe even have to – use a popup to build a successful business.

This turns into a never-ending cycle.

Newbie becomes authority while using popups –> Other newbies see newly crowned authority become successful while using popups –> More newbies use popups –> Newbie becomes authority while using popups

Positive User Experience

Do you agree it’s a good idea to model the truly successful?

Look at almost any successful business. Your favorite businesses, for example. More precisely, look at businesses that aren’t blog-based. Do they use popups on their websites? Probably not. Why? Because it screams sleaze and diminishes user experience.

A few of my favorite businesses are Amazon.com, Adagio.com, and Zappos.com. No popups, no sleazy marketing tactics, just a great user experience. Truly successful companies focus on profits, yes, but they focus on a positive user experience to achieve those profits.

Popups do not promote positive user experience no matter what anybody deludes themselves into believing.

Google Hates Popups

Google is a public corporation and bottom line is very important to them. It’s so important that they don’t support popups:

We do not allow pop-up ads of any kind to appear on our site. Not only are they annoying, they run counter to our belief that searching on Google.com should be fast, simple and straightforward.

Here is a company that needs to turn huge profits or investors get upset and still they publicly denounce popups. Why? A positive user experience results in more trust, more goodwill, and more profit.

Get New Mentors

My business mentors don’t use popups. That’s on purpose. I don’t want to take advice from people who do stuff I don’t agree with. Of course, just because I don’t agree with them doesn’t mean they’re not smart. They may be smart. They may even be genius. But I know they might also inadvertently lead me astray.

You could argue that I should take the good and discard the bad. And I do. I don’t completely discount someone simply because they use popups or other sleazy tactics. But when it comes to my core business and life principles I feel more comfortable aligning them with people who don’t use any spammy tactics.

In other words, if your mentors are using popups you need new mentors.

Suggested Mentors

Blogging/Life/Philosophy: Leo Babuta

Business/Life/Philosophy: Derek Sivers

Business: Seth Godin

You don’t need any more than those 3 guys. No joke. Read everything they’ve written, use it to create your own core principles, and unsubscribe from everybody else.

What Two Of The Most Successful People Online Have To Say About Popups

As if you need more prompting I asked all 3 of these mentors the question, “What does it convey to you when a business owner uses a popup on their website?”

Leo said:

Popups are a sign that the business cares more about its goals (subscribers, sales, conversions) than the reader’s goals (reading, solving their problems). This is a damage to a business’ reputation that cannot be undone.

Leo went more in-depth on his business practices in The Quiet Theory of Influence.

Derek said:

When a site uses popups, it screams, “I’M DOING WHAT’S BEST FOR ME, NOT WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU.”

  • It’s inconsiderate.
  • It’s trying to force a relationship instead of letting one happen.
  • It makes their site more inconvenient.
  • It builds resentment as someone who was reading now has to move their mouse into the tiny little [x] to make the huge popup go away.
  • It makes the user less apt to want to engage, as it’s clear the site-owner tends to act out of self-interest, not doing what’s best for the user.

More from Derek, including how he built a business with $100 million in revenues without trying to, is available in Anything You Want. It’s one of my favorite business books and I recommend every budding entrepreneur read it.

Seth respectfully declined to comment (aka didn’t respond to my 5 sentence e-mail).

How To Block Popups

Unfortunately, sleazy marketing seems to be a dominant form of online marketing right now. You can change that!

  • Resolve not to use tactics that make your stomach tighten and your skin crawl.
  • Tell your favorite bloggers and business owners how you feel about their popups.
  • Send anybody you respect who uses a popup a link to this article.

In spite of whatever else you do, sometimes it comes to this: You’ve got to install popup blockers so you can browse the internet in peace.

Randy has created free extensions for Firefox and Chrome that will block popover style (formerly unblockable) popups. He’s created these completely on his own time and doesn’t charge for them.

You can download them here: Lightboxes are for assholes

How To Block Popups Part 2 (No Linking Policy)

I’m officially instituting a “no linking to sites with popups” policy. The web works because of links. If you and I stop linking to sites with popups we can change this abhorrent behavior. It won’t happen overnight, and it won’t happen without you, but it will happen.

I don’t just mean links on your website either. I’m instituting a sweeping no linking to sites with popups policy. No twitter links. No facebook likes or links. No Google+ shares. It’s over. I’m done. I can’t – won’t – support this behavior anymore.

If I link out to a site that provides a subpar user experience then I’m responsible for your subpar experience. That diminishes your trust in me and I can’t have that. If you find a link on this site that links to a site with a popup please let me know so I can remove the link. E-mail karol AT ridiculouslyextraordinary.com or tweet me @KarolGajda.

In Closing

You may currently be using popups. If so, I simply ask you to take a look at your core principles to determine if using popups aligns with them. If not, stop using them and spread the word. We’ll forgive you and accept you with open arms back to the clean, ethical side of the marketing world.

This is everything I have to say on this topic, but I’ve heard it’s good to close speeches with a quote. I’m going to use that idea here. It’s a quote and a question. Take it as you will.

“Can you be genuine and a fraud at the same time?” – Eric Weiner

Image sources: Truth – Money – Lies

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This message needs your help to spread. I’ve turned comments off because you need to write about this on your own website instead of on mine.

Grateful

What escaping to the forest taught me about being grateful …

A couple of weeks ago (which seems concurrently like yesterday and years ago) I spent 2 days in the middle of a forest in Georgia with a dozen people I had just met.

We ran around barefoot, read a lot, skinny dipped in a private lake, canoed on said lake, played board games, ate just-cooked organic vegan meals, and slept in the trees. Even if it was extraordinarily hot/humid/sweaty/dirty (I scraped tree sap off my feet for a week!) I had a very relaxing time.

Being awoken by wind gently rustling through the trees and chickens chickening on the ground below was a rare treat. One I’d never experienced before. But everything else felt like an aside in comparison to dinner.

Ceremoniously Grateful

Every night after the dinner bell rang – Yes, there was a dinner bell! – we would gather in the communal geodome and begin a bit of a ceremony.

It might sound very froo froo new agey (puke!) but it didn’t feel like that. It felt … right. We’d gather in a circle, hold hands, introduce ourselves, and state what we were grateful or thankful for.

There was no judgment. Whatever was felt was said. Serious, funny, seriously funny, anything, everything. It was a slow process as nobody rushed it. Some people had a laundry list of things they were grateful for and others had less. It was all good.

Life Changing? Maybe, Maybe Not

That doesn’t matter anyway.

The ceremony did make a big impact. At the time it simply made me smile and appreciate the people around me and the vegan food we were about to eat. This is something I rarely, if ever, did in the course of daily life.

I’ve now made it a practice to stop my routine (or lack thereof) once per day and think about what I’m grateful for.

Right now it’s:

  • my fast fingers which allow me to type whatever’s on my mind at a brisk 90wpm
  • this laptop
  • silly texts
  • metaphorical blank slates
  • a short, inspiring phone call from a good friend
  • a new backpack more conducive to my travel style
  • winning a game of Words With Friends
  • believing I know what’s best for me and having the balls to see it through
  • you

I haven’t created a trigger, so I don’t necessarily do this before a meal. It happens whenever it happens.

We don’t need a once per year national holiday to practice gratefulness. It feels immeasurably better, and surprisingly more natural, on a daily basis.

It doesn’t have to be a religious practice either. (As you know, I am not religious.) You can be grateful without thanking a deity or deities.

It’s a simple practice to remind us how good we have it no matter what else is happening in our lives.

All of this begs the question, what are you grateful for? (Answer to yourself or in the comments below.)

What Is Your Greatest Personal Social Challenge?

A fun experiment in social sky diving …

I’m interested in – no, I need – your answers to this question. Pretend it’s my life’s blood and if you don’t offer a response you kill a piece of me.

I don’t wanna die, so please don’t kill me!

Unless it’s with kindness. I think I can handle that. Maybe. I don’t know. I should stop this now lest you think I’m crazy and/or you stop reading. Either one would be utterly heartbreaking.

That’s a lie. Some would say you can’t get blood from my heart of stone. Just kidding. There’s nothing like this coming back to bite me in the ass some day in the future: “Karol, remember what you wrote that one time? Well it’s true, you’re a heartless bastard!” We don’t want that, now do we? I don’t want that anyway.

What just happened here?

Moving on …

What is a social challenge?

It’s something you do in public that pushes you. Maybe it’s embarrassing. Maybe it’s a little bit culturally unacceptable. Maybe it forces you to be outgoing instead of shy. Maybe it’s just plain weird. The main rule is that it has to be done in a social environment.

Examples:

  • Laying down in the middle of a busy walkway for 15 seconds is a social challenge.
  • Saying “hi” to 100 people in a day is a social challenge.
  • Saying “hi” to 100 members of the opposite sex is a social challenge. (Err, or same sex if that’s your ticket. It’s all good!)
  • Enticing a girl/guy to ask you for your number (as opposed to you asking them) is a social challenge.
  • OK fine, asking them can be a social challenge as well. (I don’t want to put any limits on your answers.)
  • Going to a bar/club/event of any sort by yourself (meaning, you don’t know anybody who will be there) is a social challenge.
  • Punching a cop and not getting thrown in a holding cell is a social challenge.
  • Preaching on a soap box with a megaphone at a busy intersection is a social challenge.
  • Going down the street shirtless in a pink tutu and roller skates … is very Reno 911-esque … and it’s a social challenge.
  • Starting a public protest is a social challenge.

You get the idea.

What sort of challenge will stretch a person? Expand their comfort zone until there is no longer a zone to be uncomfortable with?

Here’s a good way to come up with a social challenge: Think about what scares you. Then share it with our community in the comments. (Or tell us about what doesn’t scare you, but maybe scares other people. Or maybe just come up with whatever!)

Keep in mind: The type of social challenge I’m looking for is actionable. “Do this…” “Say this…” Get specific.

If you’ve got more than one, share them all. They can be as simple or as involved as you’d like.

If you have a personal anecdote to go along with a challenge, share that as well.

There is a reason I’m asking for this. I will personally do some of your challenges. Make ’em good!

Experiments in Living On Impulse, Volume 1

For the past 3 weeks I’ve been experimenting with a little something called Living On Impulse …

“I may be knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door, but I’ve never had so much fun before. Come on chill out man don’t believe the hype, no use walking around afraid of life. Let it roll ’cause the world just turns. Yes, you’ve got to let it roll before you crash and burn.” – An old friend, and one of my favorite artists/poets/musicians, Blair (1970 – 2011).

I met Markus Urban back in March and I felt like we clicked almost instantly. If nothing else, I became enthralled with his life philosophy, which he calls Living On Impulse.

Note: My thoughts/observations on living on impulse here are my own. Markus may agree or disagree with a lot of them. This won’t be the last time we discuss this topic. Subscribe to get the updates.

Since meeting in March (and hanging out around Austin, TX for a couple weeks) I’d been watching from the sidelines as Markus continued to live on impulse. I had plans and living on impulse isn’t particularly conducive to specific plans so watching on the sidelines was my only real option. When those plans were unexpectedly cancelled I wasn’t sure what to do. If I can be honest, it was the most down/depressed I’d felt in years. I put a lot of work into the roller coaster tour and to end it was not a decision I made lightly.

The aftermath was me sitting around wallowing for a few weeks. It wasn’t unproductive wallowing as I’m actually in the early stages of creating a new company (which I may not ever talk about here because it’s unrelated to what this site is about), but it was wallowing none-the-less. I went out drinking with friends more than I would normally. I hung out at my Parents’ house and took care of their cat while they went on holiday. And mostly I just got into a big mental rut.

I knew I wanted to leave on some kind of excursion because the road is life’s blood. Maybe I’d move to Nashville (I love country music now) for a couple months? Maybe I’d go on an East Coast road trip and see all the people I had planned on seeing during the coaster tour? Maybe I’d leave the country, never to return? Maybe I’d play travel roulette?

I delayed my “get on the road again” date twice. It was supposed to be “this coming Friday” which turned into “next Wednesday” which turned into “ehh, I’m not sure when I’ll leave.”

Then I was talking to Brook via e-mail and she said (paraphrased) “We’re going on a boat trip Saturday. There will be a cannon. Join us.” This was Thursday, July 21. My response, which I had just decided on at that moment, was “I’ve been delayed a bit on my excursion, but I’ll leave tomorrow.” Brook’s in Portland, ME which is 800 miles from Detroit, MI if you take a short cut through Canada. It’s not exactly like driving down the street. (Although now that I’m essentially a truck driver 800 miles is no sweat.)

At that moment I felt a strong desire to experiment with living on impulse so I went with it.

Over-thinking Kills Creativity

Previous to this I’d been trying to get myself into the living on impulse mindset, but it just wasn’t flowing. I’d get too far into my head and then make very specific plans, which I wouldn’t end up taking action on anyway. “Hmm, I’m really into country music right now, I should go to Nashville for a couple months.” And instead of just heading to Nashville (living on impulse) I’d begin endlessly researching Nashville (not at all living on impulse). This over-thinking is also known as analysis paralysis. It’s a creativity killer.

I had also thought about an east coast road trip because there were a lot of places on the east coast I’d never been to. The state of Maine was one of those places, but again, I kept delaying the excursion. That is until that moment on Thursday July 21 when it just felt right. Maybe I hadn’t been ready  in the months, weeks, days, even minutes leading up to making the decision. Whatever the case may be, my experiment in living on impulse was officially beginning.

In The Beginning

The first day was spent in a car driving. I knew the route based on Google Maps and I immediately failed by deciding where I’d stop to sleep. It hit me that that’s not living on impulse. So I just left Michigan and decided I would figure everything else out later.

I ended up stopping in Lowell, MA because it was 9:30pm and I was falling asleep from being behind the wheel for over 12 hours. The first hotel I stopped at was completely booked. “Weird,” I thought to myself, “hotels are usually running nowhere near capacity. Why is this booked?” The guy at the counter said to head down to the next highway stop since there are 3 hotels there and they should have something available.

So I stopped in another hotel, which also looked completely full. The parking lot was near capacity and the lobby was brimming with activity. “What is going on here? I’m in Lowell, MA. Why the fuck is Lowell, MA so popular?!” I walked up to the reception counter not expecting much.

Me: “What kind of fabulous deal do you have on rooms tonight?” – Faking a positive attitude is better than exuding negativity.

Hotel: “Let’s see. $X. There are only a couple rooms left.”

Me: “I was just at another hotel and everything was sold out. What is going on here?”

Hotel: “The Lowell Folk Festival, but to be honest, it has been like this for a while. Rooms have been booked solid lately.”

Me: “Weird. What kind of discount can you give me on that room?”

Hotel: “Do you have AAA?”

Me: “Yes?”

Hotel: “10% off.”

Me: “Sold!”

And so it was. My first day of living on impulse was mostly uneventful until I was nearly falling asleep and needed a place to lay my head.

Days 2 & 3: Shooting a cannon, seeing my first bald eagle, swimming in the harbor, drinking Cristal, puking Cristal, Mississippi Blues in Maine.

I got to Portland, ME around 11:30am and by 2pm we were on a 60 foot motorsail boat along with about 10 other people. I got to shoot a cannon! Although I already mostly knew that would happen. :)

Then everybody began jumping in the water to go swimming. I did not have a swim suit. Just my shorts. “Hey, uhh, would you all be weirded out if I swam in my underwear?” This is not something I would normally do. First off, even though I learned to swim when I was 3 I’m not a big fan of swimming or being immersed in water. It’s simply not enjoyable for me. But in that moment I wanted to join everybody and go for a swim. Of course, the collective response to my question was “No, jump in!” And so it was.

Later we saw a bald eagle land on a tree top and stay there for an hour or so. This has nothing to do with living on impulse, it was just awesome! I’d never seen a bald eagle before. And it was just hanging out. Maybe hunting? Who knows?

The day of boating finished around 8. Brook and her friend Young invited me to their friend’s birthday party. It took me about 5 seconds to say “yes, I’m in!” I happened to have some decent looking clothes so I wouldn’t look like my usual “bum” self. :) This party was at the VIP area of a local club. The drinks were flowing and I over-indulged more than I had in a good 10 years. At one point there was Cristal and seemingly endless supply of vodka.

On the way out of the club I ended up heading to the bathroom and puking. That was new. I was never the type to drink so much I’d get sick. Lately I hadn’t even been drinking much at all. But there’s a saying: “When someone hands you a glass of champagne that costs more than the clothes on your back, you drink.” That’s actually not a saying, but maybe it should be?

The next day I woke up and wasn’t sure what I’d do. I somehow decided I’d leave Portland and head either north or south. I’m not sure why exactly. Portland is a very nice city and I probably could have spent a few days exploring. But I felt the impulse to go. I had read about a Mississippi Blues Trail marker in Rockland, ME, about 90 minutes north east of Portland during another previous attempt at living on impulse.

That attempt was “I should visit all the Mississippi Blues Trail markers. I wonder how many there are. I wonder where they are. WTF, there’s one in Maine?”

I obviously researched more than I took action on that impulse as well.

But I also wanted to head south to Boston. I’d never been there, I heard it’s nice, and I hadn’t seen my old friend Jeanne (my former roommate in the ‘hood … just kidding, but it was Detroit) in probably 8 or 9 years.

I chose north. I felt like a day of peace and calm was in order after the previous day’s events.

I wondered how I’d find the blues trail marker. I knew there was probably a detailed map on the website, but that didn’t appeal to me. As I got into Rockland I stopped at a Rite Aid for a water. Then I sat in my car in the Rite Aid parking lot and began researching hotels in Rockland and further north on my phone. I wasn’t sure where I’d stay that night so I was looking at my options. “Dammit!” I thought to myself. “That’s not living on impulse.” I put my phone away, drove about 100 meters past the Rite Aid, and there it was … the Mississippi to Maine Blues Trail Marker! Right in the parking lot of a hotel. I stopped to read it and take a photo. By now it was only 4pm, but I wanted to go to sleep. The previous night was catching up with me. “I’m not leaving Rockland. I need a nap. I’m staying at this hotel.”

North or South, East or West? The Only Question That Matters?

That night I asked myself the same question as before. “Do I head north or south tomorrow?” This time I didn’t feel particularly compelled to head further north. South to Boston it was!

After Boston I headed to NYC to hang with Nick for a handful of days. Then it was off to DC to hang with my friends Dan and Kasey. And I’m currently writing from Florida hanging out with my good friend Kenny. I eventually want to go to the Forest Hostel in Georgia and I’ll also head to Asheville to plan the next Only72.com sale with Baker. So I have a few general ideas of where I’ll go, but the gaps aren’t filled in.

I’m not going to continue with the minutiae of my living on impulse. I wanted to give you an idea of the early days so you could see how it looked. It might seem very normal to you, but virtually everything is an adventure. Where I stop to eat, where I stop to sleep, what I decide to do.

Sometimes I make plans a bit ahead of time (this is especially necessary when meeting up with somebody) and sometimes I don’t make plans at all. Plans in and of themselves are not the death of living on impulse. It’s being open to unexpected plans and not planning every moment that matters to me.

Being Impulsive vs Living On Impulse

Living on impulse is not the same as being impulsive. It’s actually a not-so-subtle difference. To me being impulsive can be misconstrued as being wasteful, consumerist, or weak-willed/weak-minded. On the contrary living on impulse is letting life lead you wherever it leads you without giving it direction (or little direction) but still doing it somewhat consciously. Getting into the flow and allowing it to make your decisions for you, but knowing that’s what’s happening. Maybe that means saying yes to an opportunity you wouldn’t normally say yes to. Maybe that means saying no in a situation you’d usually say yes. Maybe that means putting everything you own in a garbage bag, throwing it away, opening the door to your home, and never looking back.

You know in the moment (this moment) where the impulse will lead you. It might lead you astray. It might lead you to pleasant surprises. Either way, it’s leading you exactly where it should be leading you.

Fate vs Living On Impulse

I don’t believe in fate and I’m not superstitious. Things do not “happen for a reason” as so many people falsely, and unfortunately to their detriment, believe. We’ve been conditioned into this line of thinking to make ourselves feel better when things go wrong. Well guess what? Things go wrong! To everybody. It’s not bad or good. It just is. By embracing this feeling, the flow of living on impulse, we can harness this power of the good and the bad. We become more in tune with ourselves and our surroundings.

At the same time, we become more detached from results. If something good happens, great! If something bad happens, oh well! If neither this nor that happens, that’s cool too. The result doesn’t matter as much as embracing our existence and loving the process (and progress) of life; of moments.

Is It Possible To Plan and Live On Impulse?

Yes. Planning is generally counter-intuitive to the living on impulse philosophy, but not always. Maybe somebody asks you to visit them, or to hang out, or to go to dinner, or whatever else, and that’s a plan. I’ve been doing my best not to make my own plans, but sometimes that is the impulse. “Hey I should go to [insert city] [on this date].” I’ve also caught myself talking to somebody and saying something like “Hey, I think I’ll be in X city at some time in the future. We should hang.” That’s OK too.

The Recipe For Living On Impulse

When you first start learning to cook you need to follow the recipe to a T. Otherwise you’ll probably make mistakes that make your food inedible. While it’s OK to make mistakes it’s also smart to learn how to do something correctly. You’ve got to know the rules before you can break them. Once you’ve made a recipe well once you’ll be much more comfortable changing it up and playing around with the ingredients. This holds true for almost anything in life.

The recipe for living on impulse is a little different in that you already know the recipe so you can begin changing it from Day 1. That’s because there is no recipe. You’ll know when you’re not living on impulse. You’ll know when you’re falling into your old ways. I still mess up a lot with it myself. There is no guilt.

The Box? There Is No Box. Except There Is.

Life is supposed to be fun and forcing yourself into a box is anything but. That’s the biggest lesson I’m learning with this experiment.

Sometimes I see the box. Sometimes I’m in the box. Sometimes I’m out of the box. Sometimes the box isn’t a box at all. It’s all OK.

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Questions about living on impulse? Ask them below and I’ll coerce Markus into providing his own input in a future article. Subscribe to get the updates

How & Why To Kill A Successful Business (Part 2)

In which I explain why I shut down the business side of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com and why setting fire to your life may be necessary …

On July 31, 2011 at 6:15pm EST I deleted all the “buy now” buttons from my product pages for How To Live Anywhere and Mind Control Method, which were the two products I had for sale here. The only other product I have for sale right now is Luxury of Less, available exclusively on the Kindle. (This is called foreshadowing aka an open loop aka threading & weaving. Although I won’t close the loop today so you’ll need to subscribe for resolution.)

If you ask most people about shutting down a profitable business out of nowhere they’ll say “that’s stupid!” or something of that sort. And they might be right. (Just kidding, they’re not. Nobody knows what’s best for you but you.)

I’m not against selling products. In fact, I love business.

I was speaking with Markus and Nick separately about this recently. In the hours leading up to the removal of my buy buttons I was actually working with Nick on one of his businesses and we were having a grande old time. It’s fun to break down processes, build e-mail sequence story arcs (like a TV series, only real!), and get down & dirty with marketing strategy.

I love business so much that I know when it’s time to shut something down, refocus, and build something more congruent with my life. This isn’t the first time I’ve shut down something successful and it may not be the last.

How To Live Anywhere was created out of necessity. If you’ve been around a while you might know that story. If not, a brief recap: when I started RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com I had no desire to turn it into my main business, but I kept getting a deluge of questions about how to do what I was doing. It finally came to a head and I decided, “Alright, let’s do this!”

I launched the first version of How To Live Anywhere on March 5, 2010. It was a fun promotion. The first sale was 10 cents and it went up 10 cents after each sale. The first day brought in 132 sales which was almost $1,000 after expenses. I promptly sent all that money to Kiva.org entrepreneurs. I also sent everybody who bought HTLA that first day a postcard from India. I’m not sure the normal way to build a profitable business is to give away all the money and then spend 6 hours and more money to send postcards from a far off land, but you can ask somebody else about being normal. ;)

Mind Control Method was based on the article Mind Control For Fun And Profit! (or How To Brainwash Yourself). I got a lot of questions about it so I created a more in-depth course.

I hope you caught the lessons so far. If people are asking you to help you with specific problems you have the seeds of a business. Don’t ignore that opportunity.

You can even dig deep with your audience by conducting a free survey.

What’s next?

I’ve been experimenting with life lately. I’m essentially living my own version of Markus Urban’s Living On Impulse. I’ve written a few thousand words on this topic, which I’ll cover another time. (Subscribe here to get the updates.)

My impulse about a week ago was that I needed to shut down all the RidiculouslyExtraordinary products to focus on something else I’ve been working on. This something else has been consuming virtually every fiber of the business side of my brain. Well, almost every fiber. Although I know our brains can hold an endless amount of information there is also a lot of clutter in that gray matter. The best way I’ve found to clear the clutter is to – forgive me for being obvious – clear the clutter. The other products I had for sale were cluttering my thoughts so I got rid of them.

Other examples of business clutter:

A few years ago I owned over 2,000 domain names. Today I own 23. As fun as it was making a ton of money from those thousands of domains it was a chore as well.

A few years ago I poured over keywords and Google Adwords bidding strategies and was constantly on edge because I had campaigns that sometimes hit $10k/day in adspend. One small mistake in a situation like that could result in massive repercussions. Today I don’t touch any of that.

A few years ago all I cared about was the almighty dollar. Today money is secondary, tertiary even. Living my life costs money (of course), but when the focus of my life is money it’s a depressing time. That said, I’m not anti-money like I may sometimes come across. In fact, the less I focus on it the more opportunities come to me. It’s much more fun to have my pick of opportunities instead of chasing them. As much as that may sound hokey or new-agey (puke!), there is actually a solid reason for it.

When you’re focused on helping people and creating things that are a win/win/win/win there is no doubt you will be well paid.

When you focus on the money first and people second you end up in a vicious “I need more money!” cycle. There will never be enough. I call it “Not-enough-alitis” and I wrote about that in the Freedom Fighters course. $100k won’t be enough. $250k won’t be enough. $1 million won’t be enough. No number will ever be enough.

When you never have enough you’re never happy. What’s the point in living that kind of life?

Instead of going crazy doing something that doesn’t fit, sometimes starting anew is necessary. In business, in relationships, in life.

Even nature starts from scratch every once in a while. Forest fires have their place.

It can be scary. It can be difficult. But it can also be freeing, exciting.

There’s a reason the statement “light a fire under your ass” exists.

I’m not afraid to set my life/business on fire. (Metaphorically speaking, of course. I’ve already caught fire once and it hurts!)

Things are changing fast. Subscribe to follow along for the ride.

Signal vs Noise (or Is Technology Destroying Humanity?)

More thoughts on why we do what we do and signal vs noise …

Everything you’ve been force-fed about blogging ruffled a few feathers. That wasn’t the intention and, for the most part, I got a lot of positive e-mails/tweets/comments.

It got me thinking about how I decide to do what I do. Specifically, how I use technology in regards to this site and how technology has given us the ability to act in ways we would never act face-to-face.

For example, why don’t I tweet Instagrams? Because they are (usually) lame and (usually) nothing more than ego strokes. Do you text/call your IRL (in real life) friends every time you take a photo or go to the gym or a restaurant? Think about it. Why do we feel the need to announce to the world where we are or what we’re doing on a regular basis? (This goes for Foursquare, and other check-in apps as much as Instagram and its ilk.) It’s because we want people to know we’re doing stuff. Ego driven. We want people to be a little envious of what we’re up to. Ego driven. Or we want people to know that we don’t just sit at home on the computer all day. Ego driven.

I’m not saying these things don’t have their uses sometimes. They do. If you’re walking across America, for example, it might make sense to check in so anybody who wants to follow along can do that.

What it boils down to is signal versus noise. If what you’re doing is noise to the majority of the people who have opted in to follow you then are you acting in a way that’s aligned with how you want to live your life? You obviously can’t please all the people, but if you’re reaching your right people you should be more signal than noise to them. Isn’t that common sense?

Back to a part of the “everything you’ve been force-fed” article that ruffled feathers: Why don’t I tweet my articles multiple times per day? Because it’s noise. I don’t like when other people do it, so why would I? Yes, I know I’ll get more visitors to my site if I do it. So what? Once, and sometimes twice (if it’s relevant), is enough. If the message is worth spreading it will spread. I’m not going to force it down your throat hoping it’ll change things.

Why don’t I send blanket “good morning” or “good night” or “how can I help you today?” tweets every day? Again, it’s noise. And it’s incredibly insincere. Fun test: Next time you see a “how can I help you?” message flung out to the world make a request of that person and see what happens. Maybe I’m being incredibly cynical and these questions are sincere. As for me? While I do care about you, I’ll ask how you’re doing one-on-one instead of asking you and the thousands of people following me on twitter in a very disingenuous manner.

Moving along …

Consider popups, which many of your favorite bloggers use. Why don’t I have a popup on this site? Because I don’t like popups on other people’s sites. (I have a hard time believing anybody does.) It’s very rare that I’m actually finished reading an article before a popup distracts me. If it pops up after I’m done reading then it bothers me a lot less, but I can’t think of a single person who does this right. Yes, I know I’m throwing away a good 30% of my income by not having a popup. I don’t care. Life is not business. Business is not life.

If You Don’t Like Something …

Don’t do it. It feels very odd writing that because everybody knows this simple rule of life. Why does technology make people forget?

If you love popups then, by all means, put a popup on your site.

If you love seeing people’s instagrams then post, post, post.

If you love seeing the same article tweeted out over and over from its author, then do that with your articles.

If you like noise, create noise.

If you value signal, then broadcast signal.

You are the barometer.

Do what you like. But don’t do something just because “everybody else is doing it.” There’s that odd everybody-already-knows-this-but-not-everybody-practices-it feeling again.

What’s your take?

Selling Shovels To Prospectors?

There’s gold in them thar hills!

Both historically and currently, the most successful businesses were/are involved in selling shovels to prospectors, literally and metaphorically speaking.

Back in the gold rush days of the mid-1800s the hope for gold riches was running rampant among the masses. Prospectors rushed to California in hopes of striking it rich. In order to make an attempt at these riches they needed gear. Shovels, axes, pans, food, a roof over their heads, and so on.

The business owners who really struck it rich during this time were the ones who didn’t get caught up in the hoopla of gold. They got caught up in the hoopla of selling the gold-finding-hopefulls the tools they needed to make their attempts at winning the gold lottery.

This same example can be extrapolated to virtually any business.

  • Who is more successful, the real estate agent or the real estate company that the real estate agent has to pay a percentage to? We can take that up a notch. Who is most successful, the real estate company or the home builder? Let’s not take into account the past 10 years. ;)
  • Is it the sports team owner or the athlete? Is it the sports drink company or the athlete? Is it the super-star athlete or the consumers he cons into buying a sports drink?
  • Is it the record label or the band? Is it the company that distributes music (AmazonMP3, iTunes, et al) or is it the record company?
  • Is it the oil company or the automotive company or the automotive supplier or the dealership owner or the saleperson at the dealership?
  • Is it the cable TV company or the production company that creates the shows?
  • Is it the deli owner or the company the supplies multiple delis with their produce/meats?
  • Is it Aweber or the companies that use Aweber?

I’m not saying you can’t be successful as a “prospector.” In many of the examples above, the businesses lower on the totem poll are quite successful in their own right. You might not want to sell “shovels” and there is nothing wrong with that.

I’ve been on both sides of the coin. Being a prospector involves more nose to the grindstone hustle. You do almost everything yourself and if you don’t work you don’t eat. Selling shovels, on the other hand, is more difficult in the beginning stages, but there is more opportunity for growth. There is also more opportunity for you to step away or sell the business.

It all depends on what you want out of your business. Are you going to sell the shovels or dig the ditches? There is no right or wrong answer. There is only a right or wrong answer for you.

The Economics of Epic Excursions

Sometimes doing awesome stuff costs a lot of money. Sometimes you need to quit your bitchin’ and learn how to earn more.

Photo: I stayed in a lot of hotels on the Roller Coaster Tour. :)

This article will surprise some people and others will think nothing of it. There’s more to it than simply statistics about how much money I’ve spent on my excursions so I hope you’ll read all 1,500+ words.

I got a lot of hate from the peanut gallery when it came to the financial pit Roller Coaster Tour would be. I think a lot of people who commented about that either over-estimated it or live below the poverty line. And, fair enough, if you’re living below the poverty line the tour might as well have cost a million dollars.

I loosely budgeted $200/day ($6,000/month) for this excursion. Again, to a lot of people that sounds like a ridiculous sum of money. But how much does just living and staying put cost? A lot of people I know have monthly outlays of easily $5k/month. Mine is usually a lot less than that because when you’re living minimally it’s not extraordinarily expensive. Last year life cost me ~$3k/month. If I wanted to I could cut that down considerably, but I take a very loose approach to budgeting. The easiest way to put it is that I do what I want, but what I want is almost never very expensive.

I could have cut down the costs of the coaster tour considerably (especially in lodging and food costs), but my philosophy with the tour was similar to normal life.

I did what was:

a) comfortable

b) less stressful

I knew the tour would take an incredible toll on my body so I didn’t want to focus on saving a few dollars here and there in exchange for stressing myself out even more.

There are too many good books to read, people to meet, and thoughts to think to waste time on $10/hour tasks.

What I’m getting at is clipping coupons and spending hours upon hours of time to save a few bucks is not my idea of living. I have absolutely no issues with spending more money to save time.

Before I get into the details of the coaster tour costs, for reference and comparison let’s quickly go over a couple of past excursions:

Australia Excursion Costs

When I traveled through Australia/New Zealand for 100 days in 2009 it cost me almost exactly $10,000 ($100/day). This included all flights (I upgraded the long haul to Premium Economy) and other expenses (tours/side trips/etc).

This actually isn’t extravagant considering Australia is not cheap and I covered a lot of ground.

Australia looked like this: Sydney > Melbourne > Great Ocean Road > Adelaide > Alice Springs > Cairns > Daintree Rainforest > Brisbane > Sydney. And then I darted through 18 cities around the north and south islands of New Zealand.

Slow travel = cheaper travel. This was very rushed travel, which means it was more expensive.

Build A Guitar In India Excursion Costs

I spent a little over 2 months in India in 2010. 3 weeks of that was at a guitar workshop in Goa learning how to hand build guitars using virtually no power tools.

Building the guitar itself cost 55,000 Rupees. That was about $1,200 at the time. Renting a room at a guesthouse next to the guitar workshop was $13/day and I rented the room for 21 days. There were far cheaper places to stay in India, but I wanted to stay next to the guitar workshop in a nice guesthouse. I spent about $300 on food during those 3 weeks. That’s actually pretty difficult to do in India, but I eat a lot and ate out for almost every meal. My flight to India cost almost nothing ($60.20 in taxes) because I used free frequent flyer miles.

All told, that 3 week excursion cost less than $2,000.

Roller Coaster Tour Costs

I tracked every single penny I spent during the roller coaster tour (a link to my spreadsheet is below), because I knew I wanted to write this article. I did not include the 5 nights in Portland for World Domination Summit (June 2-7), since that was a separate business excursion and unrelated to the coaster tour.

To keep it simple I split up expenses into 5 categories:

  • Parks
  • Hotels
  • Gas
  • Food
  • Miscellaneous

#1: Hotels

Before I went on hiatus, I spent 43 nights on tour. Since I didn’t couch surf and rarely stayed with friends (I don’t know many people out west) my biggest cost was hotels. I spent $1,589.49 staying in hotels for an average lodging cost of $36.96 per night. (This average takes into account the nights I stayed for free with friends.) I only stayed in Motel 6 twice. For the most part I stayed in decent hotels (and sometimes even extraordinary hotels) by using Priceline. I routinely got great hotels for very cheap. In Denver, for example, I stayed for 2 nights at the Courtyard by Marriott in Downtown Denver for $51/night + taxes. The Expedia price for those same dates was $239/night + taxes.

The photo you see at the top of this post is my $1,589.49 bag of toiletries. :) I don’t use regular soap (I use Dr Bronner’s) and I haven’t used shampoo in over 2 years, so I collected the toiletries from my hotels because I thought it would be funny. It’s funny to me anyway!

#2: Gasoline

The next biggest cost was, as is probably expected, gasoline. I drove 9,949 miles for a grand total of $1,491.27 ($34.68/day) in petrol costs.

#3: Food

Coming in at $1,207.14 ($28.07/day) was food. I did my best to eat well, but it’s quite difficult on the road. Especially when you’re in the middle of nowhere and your options are Taco Bell or McDonald’s. If I never eat Taco Bell again it will be too soon. BTW, if you’re gonna go crappy fast food burritos then Taco John’s > Taco Bell. But I’m sick of Taco John’s as well. Whole Foods, veg*n restaurants, and Thai restaurants were my go-to as often as possible. (The black bean quinoa salad at Whole Foods is outstanding even if it does come it at a hefty $8.99 per pound.) My food costs include taking people out for meals. When I stayed with somebody I usually bought them at least one meal and often more.

#4: Miscellaneous

Coming in at #4 was Miscellaneous at $565.08. This included parking (very few parks have free parking), highway tolls, and other expenses like oil changes that don’t fall under any of the other categories. I’m actually kind of surprised I spent this much on miscellaneous stuff, but when parking is $10-$20 per park it adds up pretty quickly.

#5: Coaster Parks

I have a feeling a lot of people who followed my journey thought the roller coaster parks were going to be a significant chunk of change, but the parks came in last at $358.10. I spent $165 on a Platinum Pass from Cedar Fair, which included access to all their parks + free parking. I also bought a $75 Six Flags pass that got me into all their parks, but did not include parking. Truthfully, I probably could have gotten into all of these parks for free. A few of the Cedar Fair parks gave me free tickets because I didn’t realize they were Cedar Fair when I contacted them. Most parks didn’t cost me a dime and some parks I either couldn’t get ahold of, or they simply wouldn’t give me a free ticket. This was rare, but it happened.

Total living expenses from May 21 – July 6? $5,271.03

Check the whole day-by-day break down spreadsheet right here.

Is An Epic Excursion Unfathomable To You?

I know I’m going to get a lot of e-mails about this with a lot of excuses.

  • “You spent $5k on this?! I could never do that.”
  • “Uhm, I can’t afford to do stuff like this.”
  • You can surely imagine all of the lame excuses so I won’t continue.

Listen, if you’re reading this you have so much opportunity around you it’s sick. Opportunity is everywhere. You can choose to get off your ass and embrace it or you can sit on your ass and complain. That choice will always be yours.

A few weeks ago Pearson and I were at Six Flags Fiesta Texas talking about this very thing. If your goal is to make enough money to do some fun stuff and you’re not currently making that happen then you’re probably not even trying. Turn off the TV, put down the greaseball burger, and get to work.

In the illustrious words of Trick Trick: “Let’s work. You don’t work you don’t eat. I don’t wanna hear it’s hard in these streets.”

Quit Bitchin’ and Earn More Money

It all comes down to this. If all of these costs sound insane to you you probably have a scarcity mindset. Don’t worry, it happens to all of us. If you want to make epic excursions happen in your life it’s much more prudent to learn how to earn more money (<– study that link) than to save $3/day by clipping coupons.

That said, none of this has to be extraordinarily expensive.

Statistical break downs of epic excursions:

If you’ve done any epic excursions recently or in the past I’d love to see a breakdown of your own costs and I’ll add the link to this list. (Leave the link in the comments below.)

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Free Is Not A Fucking Business Model

If it sounds like I’m a little pissed off that’s because I am …

Hi, my name is Karol. If you’re giving away free content with no plan to build a business, but an expectation to make a lot of money “somewhere down the line,” you’re being an idiot.

Repeat after me:

Free is not a business model.

Last week Nick and I were talking about this at Sarah’s kitchen table. Free can be a lead generator, or as Nick calls it “penetration strategy.” Free can get you in front of a lot of people. Free can build goodwill with your audience. But free is free. No dollar signs. No profits. No business.

Herein lies the problem with most wannabe bloggers-cum-“business owners.” They expect to build an audience and then someday figure out how to make money and quit their day jobs. It doesn’t (usually) work like that. While it can happen, it’s a pie-in-the-sky approach that most likely will not work for you. Sorry to burst your bubble, but somebody needed to tell it to you straight.

In addition to that, far too many bloggers I meet don’t fit the following criteria for building a successful blog:

1) A joy of writing.

If you don’t enjoy writing you’re in for a hellish time trying to build a blog into a business. Your time would be better spent eating Doritos and watching American Idol like the rest of America.

2) Unforgettable writing.

Your writing doesn’t have to be unforgettable to all people, of course. It does, however, have to be unforgettable to a sizable audience.

How Can You Fix This?

Assuming you enjoy writing and can write regular content that is unforgettable, you’re off to a pretty good start.

But you’re still in the “free is not a business model” boat. And that bitch is sinking fast.

The truth is if I wanted to maximize the money I made online I would quit blogging. I do this because I thoroughly enjoy it. If I put all of my writing time into product creation and promotion I would likely quadruple my income in the next 6 months. As you probably know, my life is not about making the maximum amount of money. If I’m reaching my current enough point (I talk about this in the Freedom Fighters course) I’m happy living life and having fun. (Doing that got me on USA Today.)

So what do you do?

Do you quit blogging and instead work on creating something valuable to sell? Or do you continue blogging, continue slaving away writing content that nobody reads, and hope to someday have a large enough audience to sell something to?

It’s honestly your choice, but …

If you truly want to build a business I say fuck blogging.

Do this instead:

1) Create something powerful. I don’t care who you are, you know something or can create something that other people would be willing to pay for. Be that a physical product, a digital product, a piece of software, or some kind of consulting. You have it in you even if you may not know it yet. It’s not my job to find out what that thing is. Just know it’s there. I promise you that.

2) Write a handful of phenomenal guest posts for popular blogs like ZenHabits and CopyBlogger or any big site that’s relevant to your market. It’s intimidating to reach out to huge websites like this, but whatever. Do it. Pick the fucking weight up off the floor or drop it. The choice is yours.

3) Include a link to your product in the author byline to those guest posts. Easy enough. Most guest post authors include links to their blogs. That’s cool. You’re going to link to a website too. But you’re doing it to …

4) Profit. That means you have to sell. Quit whining. Selling is not dirty. Whoever you are, whatever you do, you are selling. Whether that’s trying to get a job, trying to get laid, or trying to build a business, you are selling. Might as well embrace it and learn to do it well.

This, in and of itself, won’t be enough to build a business. It will get the ball rolling for you and lay a foundation.

Once you’ve made some contacts and money it’s time to leverage that to build more contacts and make more money. Eventually you’ll hit a tipping point and you’ll have built a business with real customers, real friends, and a real ability to quit your day job.

You’re welcome.

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When No Doesn’t Mean No

Sometimes you’re just asking the wrong person …

Before I began the roller coaster tour I got a lot of noes from theme parks, sponsors, and press. It was basically 99 noes for every yes, which is disappointing and deflating. But I kept rollin’.

I asked for help where I thought I needed it and got even more noes.

For example, one of the people I contacted runs a very large coaster website. There are quite a few coaster enthusiast websites. (I’m not a coaster enthusiast, btw, I just think they’re fun.) I asked him if he could help me as far as getting free tickets to parks since he already had contacts at most of the parks I’d be going to. His response was essentially “Haha, yeah right, they’re not going to give you free tickets.” Although instead of making it that easy he wrote 3 long paragraphs trying to knock me down. :)

My response to that was simple: “Hey, thanks for your help!” Because as you know crabs will always try to bring you down, but you don’t have to let them.

Then I contacted Louis at CoasterFusion and he was not only incredibly supportive, but incredibly helpful. He gave me the contacts he had and I started e-mailing people. Almost immediately I got positive responses. I still got noes, but now we were onto something.

After a few “yes” responses and a few more “no” responses I took a step back to see why some were giving me a yes and some a no. What I saw was that in every case of “no” I was asking the wrong person.

No Isn’t No If It Comes From The Wrong Person

Knowing who you should talk to is just as important as having a solid pitch. If you pitch someone who has no authority then of course you’ll get a negative response. Since they’re not in a position to give you a positive response the negative response is default.

After figuring this out I took the next step. I picked up the phone and started calling the right people. They’re not necessarily easy to find, but it doesn’t take an extraordinary amount of legwork. This strategy worked like gangbusters. My yes/no ratio went from about 50/50 (email) to 95/5 (phone).

If you speak with someone who has the authority to do what you ask they are usually happy to help.

They may even be thrilled to help.

What To Do When You Get A “No”

No matter how solid your pitch you’re still going to hear “no” on a fairly regular basis.

When that happens ask yourself “Is this really a no?”

In other words, is it “no” from a person who has the authority to grant you a “yes”? If so, cutting your losses and moving on might be your best bet. That said, persistence pays! It depends on what you’re doing and how badly you want or need that yes.

Is there some other reason for the no? Maybe the person was busy? Maybe your pitch was off? In this case, it’s probably worth a shot to try again. It may also be a good idea to contact someone else at the organization who has the authority to grant your yes.

No Isn’t No Until It’s No

I know it’s difficult to persist when things might not be going your way, but if you’re trying to achieve anything of value you really have no choice but to keep at it.

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How do you deal with “no”?