Rage quitting a free course

Thinking that you're not a moron could just mean that you're not their moron

I was on Twitter again.

Or x dot com as Elon decided to rebrand it. He had the X domain name for years and never found a use for it.

So he wrangled it on top of Twitter and then had to rename tweeting to posting.

Tweeting was a verb. Literally his brand name built into everyday parlance like Hoover was for vacuum.

But Elon’s smarter than that. He’s going to Mars. And on Mars, people using your company’s name as a verb is bad business. Thus, you change it to posting like every other platform.

Smart.

Anyway, I was scrolling.

I saw a course. It was free and about “creative strategy.”

I recruited for ten years and I’m savvy to jobs switching titles. Forever amusing.

And DHH reckons that anytime you put the word strategy after another word you’re on your way to hell. He’s got a point.

Anyway, it turns out this free course was really just a lead magnet to a paid course.

Nothing new.

But when I got in to member’s area I couldn’t find the free one. Only the paid options.

I don’t think this was the guy’s plan. Or, at least I hope not.

Maybe I just couldn’t find it.

However, I did have a moment of shitting-the-bed exasperation. I left… and deleted my account and unsubscribed on the way out.

Time for a reset.

I waltzed around the corner to a cafe for coffee. I hauled my copy of Carlton’s The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Getting Your Shit Together along for the ride.

Sitting in the morning sun, rolling a cig and waiting for my espresso I had a flash of insight.

I didn’t even want the stupid free course.

I just wanted to quickly skim it. See if there was some teeny weeny little bit that might be of interest.

And I sure as hell wasn’t going to buy anything else the guy was slinging.

So…

I was a bad customer.

And from his point of view it’s best that I was out of his funnel!

Anyway, it served up a little laughter for me. Then the coffee landed, I sparked my cig and opened the book.

Next minute, I shit you not, I read:

Generally, you should strive to have around a 7% to 15% return rate. That’s roughly the percentage of butt-head morons in any given market, and you should position your product or service to piss them off

LOL.

Was I the moron?

At least in this case I’m open to it. Na, that’s a lie. I’m convinced I’m not a moron.

But…

Even if I am a moron, I’m not his moron.

And this is important.

Carlton himself was talking about a course he was slinging and how he was handling an unhappy customer.

Ensuite, a few lines later he drops:

You’ll never make the big money playing it safe.

And I think this is the big bucks lesson that I’ve been rattling on about post after post.

Too much marketing has the guardrails up. Too timid and scared to have an opinion on anything. Lacking the balls to draw a line and say this is who we are and what we stand for. You’re either with us or you’re not.

Compare…

That guy with the course pissed me off and I was outta there.

Perfect for him. His bad customer is vamoose. He can focus on better prospects.

The best guys I follow and the brands I admire most ain’t afraid to let a bad lead walk. And maybe some of the guys I don’t like are doing it too.