Business

10 August 2017 by James Makoni Leave a Comment

You can’t manifest your products into their hands

Good news.

I’m back.

Thing is, two weeks ago my computer started acting up and would crash each time I connected to the internet. So I had to write my posts on my computer then send them to you on my phone.

The extra steps kinda made the whole process too tedius.

Meh, It’s all fixed now.

Moving on, last night I came across the grand daddy of retarded marketing articles on Ye Olde Facebook. And no it wasn’t talking about the merits of Communism ( THAT is a different level of schoopid )

Instead the article was shared in a dedicated group of authors on the social network.

And the topic of the article?

It was telling authors to stop self promoting because “it didn’t work”. And that real authors didn’t self promote.

Wow.

Talk about career suicide.

First thing I did when I found this bullshit was to send the link to my good friend Jeff. He’s older than me and usually functions as my voice of reason… for the most part.

And he agreed with me these guys where fooling themselves.

The problem with these authors is that they want to spend so much time working on their books. And NO time at all selling them.

Yet they somehow hope to be as rich as that lady who wrote Harry Potter. Or as rich as that cruel fat guy who writes Game of Thrones.

This swarm of authors is essentially sitting on it’s collective ass… and squinting their eyes and trying to “hope” their books into their customer’s hands.

What a sad sight.

The honest truth is… and this was told to me by Jeff… is that writing a novel 10% writing. 90% selling.

And I couldn’t agree more.

In fact, the Grand Pubah of email marketing Matt Furey once said:

“Writers write, authors sell”.

To give a distinction between those who write for fun… and those who treat writing like a business.

And so it is with your products.

Doesn’t matter how much time, blood sweat and tears you put into making your products… you can’t just sit there and “manifest” that shit into your customer’s hands.

Not gonna work.

“Build it and they’ll come” is the worst piece of advice of all time. And following it will sink your shit faster than hitting an iceberg.

However, if you want to make sure your prospects know about your products and services.

If you want to keep reminding them you’re there.

And if you want to make sure YOU are the first thing that comes to mind when they FINALLY decide to buy… then you MUST be sending them emails. As often as possible. Daily prefferably.

And if you want my help doing just that, then follow the link below to go book a mini consultation call with me.

https://jaymakoni.com/work-with-me

And I’ll get back to you.

…Till the next wave of madness… Vae victis

Jay Makoni

“On with the show”

09 August 2017 by James Makoni Leave a Comment

Fitting round strategies into square markets

Back in 2008 Zimbabwe went through it’s infamous economic meltdown.

Let me describe it for you, in vivid terms.

Running water became a luxury.

We had 4 hour blackouts everyday… if we were lucky. The average was 6.

The price of a loaf of bread was always double what it was the previous day thanks to hyperinflation.

And all the rumors of us carrying a brick of bank notes to buy basic commodities are not only true. They’re understatements.

So, back then when electricity was being a real pain… mom and dad bought a generator.

I’ll be the first to say that when a 15 year old knows how to connect and turn a generator on all by himself… It’s a sign of how much he’s adapted to having no power. Lucky for me though…

That job was reserved for mom.

She knew how to separate the “government” electricity from the “generator” electricity, so we didn’t end up burning our appliances in a puff of smoke by overloading them.

Over time I picked up how the mom wired all the shit up and I could do it myself.

But that was in my hometown of Chegutu.

When I moved back to Harare to stay with my big brothers, the way they wired up their generator was different.

In fact, every household I went to had a different way of powering their stuff with their generators. I had to learn this the hard way because I nearly turned off the wrong circuit breaker and burnt all the electrical stuff in the house.

My uncle stopped me right before disaster struck and then he showed me how we did it in Harare.

This was an interesting lesson for me.

What I came to figure out, is that even though some things work the same on the surface, the details are usually different enough to warrant treating them as completely different entities.

Just like how a sales message is presented.

Just like how a funnel will work in one market yet it will totally bomb in another, which is something I learned from Everte Farnell on Ye Olde Facebook this mroing.

The basic buyer psychology will NEVER change.

At the end of the day we are all hairless apes. And if that statement offends you then send an email to [email protected] dot com and attach a high resolution image detailing exactly where on your feels I offended you.

So I’ll know to meant it next time.

I don’t have room for people without a sense of humor.

Moving on though, buyer psychology does NOT change… but the minor details are different for each market.

What worked for one market will probably bomb big time for another.

That’s why I’m so anal about research.

Can’t guess this shit.

But, If you want me to do some sleuthing for your market and research what makes them buy… then jump on a quick strategy session with me.

Go fill your details here and we can book a slot for a skype call. I may or may not wear a cowbow hat during the call depending on the day.

https://jaymakoni.com/work-with-me

…Till the next wave of madness…. Vae Victis

Jay

“On with the show”

06 August 2017 by James Makoni Leave a Comment

Are you ready to “take out the trash” on a hot lead?

Today’s email covers an EXTREMELY important topic. But before we dive in…

I’m probably sloshed as I write this.

Bought a bottle of wine last night and if my writing seems like I’m drunk then I probably am. I can’t hold my liquor for shit but considering how uninhibited I always am that won’t make much of a difference. Oh, and there IS a wine tasting and review at the end of this email so stick around. Now:

Yesterday the garbage men finally showed up to pick up our trash.

Due to Zimbabwe’s shitty economy it’s impossible to predict WHEN they’ll show up. In some cases we’ve gone months without the trash being picked up.

And on a few occasions we’ve had contact the politicians in charge of garbage collection and get them to order a truck through our neighborhood.

It’s that bad.

So the usual mindset is “They’re not coming” so the trash in usually kept where the garbage men can’t pick it up… away from the pickup point and the stray dogs which rummage through the trash and make a mess at night.

And when we do know they’re coming over we put the trash next to the road where they’ll scoop it up and toss in their truck.

Unfortunately for yours falsely I hadn’t considered these guys would be showing up on a weekend.

In fact I wasn’t even expecting them to show up at all yesterday.

So imagine my shock when I saw them drive past my gate and my trash was NOT on the pickup point. The best way to describe what followed… was that I picked up the giant bag of trash and RAN like Usain Bolt chasing the damn truck.

Eventually caught up to them but my poor lungs where on fire.

If you consider my idea of physical exertion is a brisk walk then you’ll know what I mean.

I should have been ready.

But I wasn’t.

Moral of this story?

You legit do NOT know when the time will come when you have “take out the trash”. If you a business right now and you don’t have a “base offer” then you’re flying blind.

What are going to say when someone asks you what your services are?

Stand there and try to bundle up some random offers on the fly? That’ll make you like a disorganised moron… excuse my French.

This is a concept I learned from Dan Kennedy.

Always have a grandfather offer.

Even if you’re a startup you at least have something to offer when someone asks you what can do for them. Show them you have your shit in order. Show them you’re prepared to help them.

Show them you ready to step forward when someone needs your service!

Show them you’re ready for an alien invasion.

Because when shit hits the fan and you have to “take out the trash” and give your customer an offer… you don’t want to be in a situation where standing there mumbling like an idiot.

And if you want to talk to me about how you can structure your offers so your “base offer” is the best possible package for your prospects… and if you want emails to SELL that base offer, then hit me up and lets join forces.

Go enter your details here and see how deep the rabbit hole goes ( Matrix refference for the win! )

https://jaymakoni.com/work-with-me

Till the next wave of madness… Vae Victis

Jay

“On with the show”

PS- For the wine fanatics among you here’s a proffesional snob wine tasting on what I’m drinking:

First, I smell the bottle…done. It’s called Green gables.

Then I pour into the glass and swill it…done

And then, I take a sip and start describing the taste of the wine… here goes:

” This is a golden wine. Tastes sweet…. not like that plonk had last week that tasted like Turpentine.

I taste…. 340 grapes. Picked on a… Friday, between 12:30 pm and 13:45pm.

Yes… a Friday.

Sips again *

This wine tastes like it was fermented in oak caskets… for 6 years, twelve days, nine hours and twenty seven minutes…. give or take fifty feet.

There were fifteen men on the day the grapes were picked.

Each grape was picked with the left hand… except for those picked by Antonio… that right handed bastard… who hired HIM into the vineyard?

Meh…

The men were all barefooted. To preserve the flavor…

Wait… where am I going with this?

Who knows.

Once again, if you want to discuss how you can spruce up your offer and how you can avoid the THREE major killers of base offers which not only PREVENT your subscribers from buying… but also stops them from coming back for more then go book your call on the link down below.

https://jaymakoni.com/work-with-me

And as for me, I’m gonna get hammered.

Ciao

🙂