If you have read any of my articles, emails, or social media posts before, you’ll know that I have a problem with those experts and field leaders (and politicians… especially politicians!!) who throw simplified and vague quotes and catchphrases about without considering what is actually involved.
You know the kind of meaningless shite I’m talking about…
“Get Brexit done”
“So easy your grandmother can do it”
“Levelling up”
“Strong and stable”
“Stop the boats”
“You don’t make an omelette without breaking eggs”
“Nobody ever won by playing it safe”
Yadadada
Here’s my most hated catchphrase I hear people saying:
“We All Have The Same 24 Hours In A Day.”
I mean, from a scientific point of view regarding time, that is true, but from a biological ability and personal circumstance point of view… IT’S BULLSHIT!
That’s like telling someone with celiac’s disease that they will be OK eating bread containing gluten because it doesn’t affect you or other people.
Or telling someone with a severe nut allergy to eat a handful of nuts because they are ‘nutritious’ and the risk is ‘all in their head’.
Or someone without hayfever telling me that an allergy to pollen doesn’t exist because they have never experienced it. (I have hayfever and it is shite when the pollen is high.)
Or a young single person living at their parents home with no bills to pay telling someone with a family, a mortgage, and big bills, that they need to spend the money they don’t have as a way to make more money!
Risking the roof over your family’s head is very rarely a good move unless you have an abundance of energy, confidence, and bollocks the size of small planets…
…and the unfaltering support of a partner who will do EVERYTHING else in the house allowing you to obsessively focus on making money.
Is That A Position Of Privilege You Are Sprouting Bollocks From?
Catchphrase gurus are so full of themselves and speak from a privileged position that they offer advice or opinions to people without the awareness that their situation is completely different to the other person’s and that they are actually the one completely missing the point.
What does a person do when their partner has a health condition and actually requires their help throughout the day?
What then?
What do you do when your time is being pulled in many directions and you cannot focus fully on one thing obsessively?
We are all different and many people have biological and life challenges which others don’t have to deal with, and those challenges affect the amount of time and/or effort they have available each day.
A young single athlete with an abundance of energy and good health will always outperform someone suffering from severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome who has a young family to attend to each day.
It doesn’t matter if you tell the person with CFS to “just keep putting one foot in front of the other and think of England.”
The body will only allow you to do what it can do.
Catchphrases and quotes are great, but they are not the truth for all people all of the time.
“That’s Kind Of You To Say, But Please Do Shut Up”
Sometimes… just sometimes… peoples situations and circumstances are different to yours and very often your opinion is irrelevant.
(I use yours and your in a general sense, I am not talking about you the reader, your opinion is important to me.😉)
Sometimes, the only thing you can do when the catchphrase gurus offer unsolicited advice and opinion is laugh and then ignore them.
Just this week I observed someone say “the answer to money challenges is to make more money” and that “you cannot save yourself out of debt” to a person who had shown interest in his coaching program.
Basically, he was saying that if you have a lack of money and you desperately need more money, then you need to make more money.
I mean, HELLLLOOOOOOO, who the fuck doesn’t know that?
Yes, there may be some people who try to save their money to become wealthy…but it is a flawed plan that is hard to stick to and can be quite miserable.
“You Cannot Save Yourself Wealthy!”
I remember reading about a guy who ate nothing but beans on toast and would sit in the dark to save on electricity so that he had plenty of money in his ‘rainy day’ fund.
Sitting in the dark eating beans on toast every day for years surely is going to be far worse than what any ‘rainy day’ can throw at you!
But in this case, the person was not trying to save themselves out of debt, they simply did not have the money to spend on the help he was being offered.
There is a HUGE difference there.
He knew what his monthly outgoings were and how much money he currently had in his bank and how much was coming in that month.
He came to the conclusion that he simply could not afford to join the program at that time without risking a big wobble to his finances.
He simply did not want to risk not being able to pay his rent/mortgage or several big bills.
This was not a single chap living in a small home alone, his wife had a health condition and he would often find himself helping out in the home and caring for her.
He just knew that it was too risky for him at that time to be spending $1,000 per month for several months on a program.
It simply was not doable for him… at that time!
(I keep emphasising the point at that time because it was just… at that time. There is nothing to suggest that the guy would not have invested in the program later.)
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with both statements, it’s true ‘you cannot save yourself wealthy’ and if you need more money the best option is to make more…
But the problem for me was that the program creator was throwing these quotes at someone who simply could not afford to purchase their program and help at that time.
They were trying to shame them into purchasing.
They even used urgency and scarcity as a way to push the sale:
“We won't be making this offer at this price again”, “the price will dramatically increase in the future”, “spots are expected to be filled soon, so don’t sleep on this”, etc, etc.
These are standard and acceptable marketing tactics if there genuinely are limited spots and the price is going to go up…
But what bothered me was that instead of alleviating any fears and doubts with proof and guarantees, they simply quoted popular sayings.
The program creator was saying that he could help people make $10,000 or more per month yet he never really explained how or suggested that the ongoing $1,000 per month cost could be paid for by the money earned back as part of the program.
Had he said that there was an 80%+ chance that the ongoing monthly costs would be covered by income generated within the first month of being on the program, then the guy may have risked it, but he didn’t…
…which makes me think that the guy was 100% right to not purchase the program and risk a big wobble to his financial situation…at that time!
The final insult came when the program creator said something along the lines of “If you're not aligned with that view of the world then maybe running a business isn't for you.”
“OUCH! BITCH!”
Throwing in an insult as the last word is not a good look.
This reminded me of those drunken guys on a night out who are desperate to pick up a woman in the nightclub and when they get rejected would toss in an insult grenade as they walked away, such as “I didn’t fancy you anyway, granny, you look like a horse”... or some shite like that.
He was referring to the idea that to escape financial struggle you need to make more money.
Again, this is true…we know this!
No one was saying any different…and that’s the point… no one said anything that opposed that idea.
The guy wanted to make more money and he was in agreement that he needed to make more money…
He just didn’t have the money to spend on a $3,000 - $4,000 program… at that time!
This Is An Unpopular Opinion, But…
You can make money without having to spend several thousand dollars first!
To be honest, when times are really hard financially… it gives you a fighting chance if you don’t spend money you don’t have!
I agree that money loves speed (another one of those much-loved catchphrases!).
If you spend money you can speed up the process of making money.
When you spend money you can buy:
Advice.
Help.
A proven workable plan.
Learn new profitable skills.
Traffic (potential clients & customers).
Products to sell.
Spending money can accelerate how quickly you make money and amplify the amount you earn.
But the opposite can be true, too.
Over my years in this industry I have seen hundreds - possibly thousands - of people spend thousands of dollars on products and services and not make any money back.
When you don’t have the money spare, it is a helluva a gamble to spend it on something you are not 100% sure about.
It’s even worse when people are trying to shame and bully you into making a buying decision that favours them over you.
Here’s another point to consider…
“Is There A Better Way To Spend This Money?”
If the guy was able to muster up $1,000 per month for the program, it would make sense before purchasing to sit down and consider what else he could do with that money instead.
For example; instead of spending $1,000 on learning how to do something specific (we are not sure what exactly that something specific was) he could spend that money - or some of it - on:
Paid advertising of some kind to send people to his website and existing products/offers.
Creating a new/better product or service.
Having someone do a series of small tasks that could bring in potential clients and customers (SEO or reaching out to people via social media/email).
Having someone do household chores allowing him to focus more of his time on his online work.
Sometimes, it is actually better to see how much something costs - I’m talking about a product or service that you are really drawn to and are willing to spend the money on - and then consider all of the other options available to you.
Not only could you save yourself a lot of money, you could potentially make money back faster.
$1,000 per month is a lot of money.
If you were to use just a quarter of that on sending the right people to your website, you could potentially have the money you need to pay for the program and more without having to risk losing the roof from over your head.
Does that make sense?
People pay for clarity, but often the confusion comes from the amount of programs and products that are on sale which promise you to make more money.
Now, should I ever talk to you about any or my products and offers, I will probably use certain catchphrases and sayings, but I will not use them to beat you or shame you into making a decision, and I will… as witnessed in this article… discuss the other side of the argument, too.
Until next time.
Have a great day.
Andi
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