Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

I’m the best, deal with it

I am the best.

I act like it.  

I charge like it.

I own it.

Sound a little full of myself, eh?  Well, I’m the best at what I do.  You’re the best at what you do.  Let me explain. 

When I did my Scumdog [Wanna-be] Millionaire post https://adamstreetblog.com/scumdog-wanna-be-millionaires/ , it was about a guy who was looking for an artist.  He found ME.  

On THAT day, for THAT project, for THAT Scumdog, I was the BEST artist for that job.

If you wanted to get a kids animated movie made and you had an unlimited budget.  Wouldn’t it make sense to go to Pixar and commission them to do it?  They’re arguably the best in the world at feature animation.

There’s a problem though.  

You can’t get Pixar.

You can’t get DreamWork either.

Industrial Light and Magic?  Keep looking Bubba…

You may end up hiring a small animation studio in Florida.  And on that day, for your project, they will be best studio for that job.

Life can seem cruddy when our engines aren’t firing on all cylinders.  Our confidence can whittle down like an old set of tires.   

But no matter the people or the products are out there.  You and your products are the BEST.

Own it.

Act like it.

Charge like it.

https://adamstreet.net

Adam 

How to get Die-Hard fans

One of the legs of my Blockbuster Marketing framework is to put more of YOU in your marketing.  

A lot of people deny this.  They treat talking about themselves like niching down.  They fear showing more of who they are will narrow their audience too much.

If I talk about ME and my story, isn’t that narcissistic? 

Won’t people get tired of me?

Am I even that interesting?  

Yes.  You.  Are.

Keep in mind you can explain yourself in a very BORING way, but that’s not my point today.  My point is you’re taking the most unique thing about your marketing message and… 

You’re throwing it away. 

Megan Macedo said, “a lot of how things are talked about in the world of business ignores the fact that we’re human beings. There’s this switch that people flip where it’s like, “This is my personal life and this is my professional life.” It doesn’t work like that. Your brain is not divided in two.”

Everyone has different degrees of transparency and there’s things that you do and do not want to share with your audience.  And that’s fine. 

You’ll never see Seth Godin talk his family for example. Yet Wayne Dyer talked about his kids in his work all the time.  It’s totally up to you.

Just know the more transparent you become you will lose some people.  But on the other hand, you’re separating the wheat from the chaff.  

The more you peel away your “brand” like an onion the more die-hard fans you’ll have.

Cheryl Strayed said, “ One of the most important lessons I learned though the success of Wild is that if you take that risk, if you take chance, if you tell the truest, hardest, deepest story that you have within you, you’re not going to step into the light and find that you’re there alone.  You’re going to be surrounded by people who are there with you.”

If you want more die-hard fans… 

https://adamstreet.net

Adam

Thinking like Jobs and Bezos

Authors are like musicians sometimes.  

Their first book is amazing and every book afterwards  never lives up to the first one.  

This isn’t true in Simon Sinek’s case.  I read his book The Infinite Game and enjoyed it as much as his first book Start With Why.  

The Infinite Game is about leaders who use a finite mindset can easily blow it with limited thinking.  The leaders who embrace an infinite mindset, build stronger and more innovative organizations. 

This is true if you run a clothing store with one location.

It’s true if you run a million dollar online business.

It’s true if sell baseball cards out of your mother’s attic.

Sinek put it like this: 

“To ask, “What’s best for me” is finite thinking. To ask, “What’s best for us” is infinite thinking.” 

This is why the music industry got hit so hard in the Internet age.  All they could see is THEIR profits and THEIR problems.  And when they started suing power user of Napster for copyright infringement, they looked like bullies.  

Hell, worse than bullies.

They were like Colonel Quaritch from the movie Avatar or Burke from the Aliens movie.

Apple cleaned their clock because Steve Jobs approached music with infinite thinking.   

So did Bezos at Amazon with the publishing.

Sinek’s book was a great reminder for me to approach my short term decisions with long term thinking.  

That’s why doing work that matters is so important.  We effect ourselves AND the people around us.  

It’s not only your job but that’s your legacy too.

Wanna keep upping your infinite mindset?

https://adamstreet.net

Adam

Fuel for your marketing

I was watching Modern Family the other day.

Jay (Ed O’Neill) scored a stay for him (and the whole family) at a posh hotel.  In his mind everything was perfect because he had an Excelsior level room.  This was the “top floor” and the best experience that the hotel offered.

So he thought…

He tried taking an elevator to the “top floor” and security shut him down.  He learned his Excelsior privileges were second best.  Excelsior+ was the top floor and the best plan available.

He was pissed.

He even went outside to count the floors of the hotel. 

It was funny.  It seemed stupid even.  But guess what?  Most of us do it everyday.  

I had a college professor that bought nothing but leather bound books.  He paid about $100 for each book when he could’ve purchased the paperback for around 20 bucks.

And even if you don’t do it, your audience does.

Why buy a Gucci mini bag for $1600 when you can get a purse at Walmart for less than $20.  

A Ford Explorer will get you to work just as easily as a Range Rover.  You’ll save about 50k too.  So why do people do it?

Status baby!

Status is a great source of pride for most people.  It makes us who we are.

It works in reverse too.  

I know a guy who buys all his clothes at Walmart and would never consider shopping at Macy’s or Saks Fifth Avenue.

The bottom line is KNOW who you are talking to when you write emails and copy.

Seth Godin said, “It’s possible to use the status hierarchy as a sort of fuel”.

That’s right.

Use status as fuel to make what you say bigger, better, and last longer.

For free daily email tips like this, go to https://adamstreet.net .

Adam

I’d rather deliver pizza than sell like this

I did an experiment last week.

I saw a product that boasted having the perfect framework to write a kick-ass sales letter.  

It was new.

Cutting-edge. 

All the stuff you’d expect from ‘hypey’ sales copy.  I assumed it was just the AIDA formula.

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.  It’s what nearly everyone on the planet should be using if you’re selling a product or service.

The AIDA model is old school.  It’s been around a long time and it works harder than a border collie!

Ok, back to my experiment…

I paid nearly $100 to sign up.  Only to learn I was right.   The magic formula they were selling was just the AIDA formula rebranded as their “proprietary” thing. 

What’s the lesson here?  

Brilliant copy or a great sales letter will get you the sale.  But you won’t keep most your customers (I know I’m never buying from these guys again).  Instead of nurturing an audience you’ll have to get more and more and more new customers.

If that floats your boat, great.  I’d honestly rather deliver pizza for a living.  

Be true to your vision and yourself.  And more importantly be true to those you wish to serve.

To get more emails like this everyday, go here:  https://adamstreet.net

Adam “ain’t delivering pizza anytime soon” Street