I got lunch recently with a good friend who’s a marketing consultant – he helps business owners come up with new profitable info product ideas, then creates full funnels (sales pages & email sequences) for them to sell those products.
He’s very good at what he does – and charges a lot for his services.
(For example, in the past two months he’s engineered one $80k launch from scratch – and also took one entrepreneur’s evergreen info product from $6k/mo to $25k/mo.)
To him, setting up a new solopreneur business/product is easy.
Because of his success, his friends often refer their friends to him for advice.
But these aren’t business friends. They’re just "normal" friends. People who say, "I have an idea for a product/service and want to set up my own business!" …but who typically haven’t even started learning how to do it.
And who typically aren’t actually very receptive to advice yet.
(If you’re on this mailing list and you haven’t set up a business yet… but you want to… you are lightyears ahead of these kinds of people. You’re actively seeking out information. These are the kinds of people who just figure, "It must not be that hard!" and don’t bother seeking out guidance from others – or dismiss it if they get it, because they figure they know better.)
And he was telling me about someone recently that broke his heart a bit.
His exact words:
"She was so sweet – but her business is going to fail miserably, if she even manages to set it up in the first place."
That sounds harsh – but he meant it in the most sincere way possible.
It’s hard when you see someone excited over an idea – but with a flawed mental model for "how business should be done" that’s going to lead them straight to the gutter. You want to help but you can’t – because they’re not ready to accept that help yet.
But when he started listing out the main reasons why her business was going to fail miserably, I couldn’t stop nodding my head.
It turns out she dropped just about every major "I’m doing it wrong" red flag you could in a short 10 minute conversation.
It was like a checklist of everything not to do/say/think when starting a new business.
And I want to cover those red flags with you this week.
If you’re just getting started with your business…
Or if you’ve been doing business for a while yet find yourself struggling…
This week’s emails might be the breakthrough you’ve been looking for.
I know that sounds like hyperbole but the stuff we were talking about during this lunch got me completed hyped up – and I think you’re going to love them.
Tomorrow we start with maybe the single WORST thing you can say/think if you’ve got an idea for a new product – but haven’t built it out yet.
Talk then!
— Derek