By the Ocean
Clear 75 Degrees
5:24 a.m.
For the past 20-25 years, we’ve been living in what seems to be a make believe reality thanks to the internet.
For the first few decades of internet mania, starting in the early 2000’s, it appeared that the rules of business had changed.
You could accomplish things, quickly, that took forever before the internet came along. You could transform yourself into a “guru” overnight!
During this bizarre time, the value of certain things became extremely high, the value of other things became far less.
The value of information went through the roof. Getting it into people’s hands became very lucrative. During those years, the “old” rules of business didn’t really seem to apply.
But now things are different. Now information is everywhere. And now we’re coming back to the old reality, the old way things used to work, just like if you were living in a village.
The “village” now spans across the entire world, but the dynamics are pretty much the same.
Which is that people know you in the village. And the web of trust that you build, over time, the credibility you earn, the work you do, the demonstration you provide, the proof you supply, the results you generate…it all gets noticed and wrapped into the perception folks have about who you are and how much value you bring to the world.
Jack the shoe cobbler doesn’t have a sales funnel in the village. He would never shove the people he serves down into a funnel because he knows that’s no way to treat humans. According to Jack, funnels are for cooking not for selling. Jack knows he would be treated like an outcast if he did that just to make money.
He’d have to look those people he was trying so hard to “convert” in the face every day at the market!
So how does Jack build his business without a slick sales funnel, upsell sequence and retargeting pixels so he can creepily follow his prey prospects around the village?
Jack has a reputation. He has a track record. He has a way of being. He has a perspective on the work he does that attracts some people and repels others. That’s the “package” he shows up in.
When you’re building a sales system in the village, the only way you make it is to put the people you serve as the FOCAL POINT of everything you do.
Yes, you can win too. But you can’t win before they do. And you certainly can’t win at their expense. Because that type of goal will lead you to make choices in the village that the people will not appreciate.
They will see your behavior and notice your priorities. They will become aware of your methods. They will talk to their friends about what you are really up to.
In the village, news travels fast. And the most treasured asset is the understanding the village has about how much value you provide to them. No one cares about your dreams to buy up a whole section of the village, sell it to outside investors to put in a strip mall and get your 8-figure “exit” that you thought would make your life complete.
NO ONE CARES.
In the village, you have a choice: you can serve yourself, or you can learn to serve others in ways where you are rewarded.
Over the long term, this is how business works.