Newsletter Oct 07 v6n10_2

Perry Marshall’s Renaissance Club

©2007. All rights reserved

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The Perry Marshall Marketing Letter Volume 6, Issue 10

Got this letter in the mail last week:



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A couple months ago on my Monthly Mastermind call (www.perrymarshall.com/mastermind) I read a similarly desperate letter to the group and we all discussed it together. I got more feedback from that discussion than any Mastermind call in a long time – the number one comment being how much everybody related to it.

As a matter of fact I’m not sure there was anybody on the call who didn’t relate to it. To live the life of an entrepreneur is to battle huge obstacles, feelings of failure,

disappointment and inferiority; it’s the opportunity to transcend the limitations of ordinary people; to be an object of scorn and derision as well as a hero; to experience not just the lowest lows but the highest highs.

Today is as good a day as any to call a spade a spade. This game is no bowl of cherries,

especially when you’re getting the thing off the ground. So today’s issue is called

Cons, Scammers, Liars and Flim Flam Men

…And the People who Believe Them Most letters and emails are not as desperate as Mr. Koh’s but hey, at least he’s being honest.

For every one that writes such a letter there are many more whose diary reads the same way. This issue is for that person.

For Every Yin, There’s a Yang

A long time ago, Tom Hoobyar and I were at this hotel and there was an MLM seminar going

on. We peeked in the door of the hotel ballroom and people were standing on their chairs waving cigarette lighters in the air and cheering and the music was pounding and everyone was having a great time.

And Tom says to me, “That’s the polar opposite of what the other side of their business is like.” Oooh Tom, ya nailed it. Oh, don’t I know so well. Three hours driven on ice and snow each

way for a no-show appointment. Hours of grinding it out on the telephone, the promising people you recruit and invest time in and they blow up or burn out or disappear and stop returning your phone calls… yeah, baby.

You paying attention? Take note: If there’s a Mercedes on the brochure there’s almost certainly

a parking lot full of rusty Chevys and parted-out Datsuns in back. If it’s true at the Mercedes factory it’s true everywhere else.

I remember sitting in these rallies and listening to people say “IT’S NOT SATURATED.”



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Why did they say that? Because, by any reasonable marketing definition of saturation, it was saturated. Supply of

products and distributors thereof greatly exceeded demand. People would say, “Anybody can do it.” Why did they say that? Because if you didn’t keep chanting it like a jingle on the radio, it’s not like you would

naturally come to the conclusion that everybody could do it. There were clearly a lot of people standing around who apparently could not make it work at all.

Myself, for example. It was far, far easier for me to recite the slogans than to admit to myself or, say, my wife, that it

wasn’t working. Anyway, before I go on to talk about why people get stuck and how to get un-stuck, I need to

say this:

People may lie. Your own interpretation and memory of your experiences may lie. But experience never lies.

A person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person who has a theory. What happens, really happens. OK – time to roll up our sleeves and talk about how people get stuck.

DELUSION #1: INSIDE/OUTSIDE AND “IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT.” Want a cool copywriting tip? One of the most powerful phrases in the English language is: “It’s not your fault.” You wanna sell something to someone who’s dodging responsibility, that’s what you say. ‘It’s

not your fault you’re a big fat slob even though you eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast, lunch and dinner and you haven’t exercised in 10 years. And it’s those fat cats at those sugar companies who did this to you…’

Yeah, this schtick works even if it’s not true.



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On the other hand, sometimes it’s not your fault. I have a dear friend who, because of a complex and tragic set of circumstances, believes it’s her fault her sister was killed in a car accident.

She needs a reassuring embrace and to hear the words: Sister, it’s not your fault. I mean, really. It’s not your fault. Never was. Those words can release someone from a lie, or sell them a new lie. What’s the difference?

“Not your fault” is merely clever manipulation when: The person is saying to you, “See those bad, bad guys over there? They control you and they’re bad there’s nothing you could do about it. Let me control you instead.”

“Not your fault” is true when: The person is saying to you, “Someone whom you trusted more than yourself took advantage of that and deceived you. Now it’s time to start trusting yourself more than you trust everybody else.”

Whose fault is it that Lawrence Koh is struggling?

It’s not his fault somebody lied to him.

But ultimately, whether he believed them or not was his responsibility and nobody else’s.

Understand This: in every business or business opportunity, there is an outside and an inside. An outside game and an inside game.

And since we’re talking about Mr. Koh and his experiences, let’s use them as examples. Nuskin, Amway, Herbalife. When he signs up as a distributor he thinks he’s an insider. He thinks they’ve let him in on the secrets.

He thinks he’s buying at wholesale.

Fact is, he’s not an insider, he’s an outsider who thinks he’s an insider. They have not told him the secrets; he’s the very person they work hardest to keep from knowing the “secrets.” He’s not buying at wholesale, he’s buying at retail. (Or a small percentage off retail.) Actual wholesale is a lot, lot less than what he’s paying.

The #1 thing you need to guard against in your business education is being tricked into thinking you’re an insider when you’re still only an outsider.

You’re an outsider at every store you shop at that’s not your own. Doesn’t keep you from getting a great deal and being entirely happy with your purchase. You’re an outsider at every job you ever had where you didn’t own the company. And you knew it. The bank still cashed your paycheck.



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You’re an outsider to Google. You can still buy clicks and if you’re smart about it, you can make money. And because you’re an member of the Renaissance Club, and I don’t hold anything back about how to play Google’s game.

It’s OK to be an outsider. As long as you know it. The danger is believing you’re getting the inside scoop, because if they’re saying you are and you’re not, there’s a reason.

Making you think you’re an insider when you’re not, is the essence of every great con.

The “Not Our Fault”-“Insider” Slap-In-The-Face

When you’ve been lured in with ‘it’s not your fault’ and now you trust the New Guys to solve your problem…. They’ve now told you you’re an insider but you’re really an outsider, you’re now set up to be told:

“All the reasons why this isn’t working are YOUR fault.”

It goes like this:

(You will be told this, too.) “We perfected this system. The system fails not. You have the entire system. If it’s not working, it’s your fault for not following it. Not our responsibility. Go fix yourself. Preferably by using our system.”

As long as you believe this, you’ll never go looking for the missing pieces, or question the system, or discover why the person who is telling you this has an unfair advantage over you.

The guy who’s feeding you this is your competitor and he doesn’t want you to know it. He makes money whether you do or not.

DELUSION #2: OPPORTUNITIES THAT THRIVE ON NON-IMPLEMENTATION

One of my personal frustrations as a teacher and mentor is that much of what I teach does not get implemented. Ask anyone who does the sort of things I do and they’ll all tell you that. Had a conversation not long ago with an info marketer who delivers great information and his greatest angst is the fact that most of his customers buy the stuff and do nothing with it. To the point where he sometimes wonders if it’s OK to take their money.

Yes dude, it’s OK to accept their tuition payments, as long as you’re doing your job and delivering on your promises. What they do or don’t do with your information is totally up to them.

That said, there are many businesses which cater to non-implementation and even thrive on it. I know business-opportunity mail-order operations who engineer everything they do so as to engender non-implementation and non-action. Every customer is a couch potato who merely dreams of the Royal Road To Riches and that’s good because if they actually did what they’re told to do, they’d discover it’s a big bag of smoke.



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How about those health club memberships? Sure, if every member who could show up did show up, there wouldn’t be enough room in the place. Hey, it’s OK for them to sell more memberships than they have seats in the spa. That’s called “breakage.” The thing to watch out for is if they actively try to discourage people from coming. (The pain of a hard workout is discouragement enough, ain’t it?)

DELUSION #3: “ANYBODY CAN DO IT”

I think the biggest problem that ALL the Lawrence Kohs of the world face is: Anything that’s easy or simple enough for anybody to do is probably useless. Anything that can generate a lot of cash is gonna require a special skill or circumstance. No exceptions.

There’s a huge danger in any color-by-numbers business opportunity. And it plays perfectly to the insider/outsider con.

Let’s say you’re selling $5 cans of Coke at a Chicago Bears game. They only cost 25 cents, right? No special skill required. But it does require a special circumstance: A captive, thirsty audience.

The most fundamental problem with the “Anybody Can Do It” delusion is there is no USP – no Unique Selling Proposition. In fact it’s the polar opposite. It contains no answer to the question, “What is the thing that you do better than anybody? What is your reason for existence? What do you uniquely guarantee? Why should I buy from you instead of anybody and everybody else?”

NOBODY can hand you a USP on a silver platter. If they can, it’s not really a USP. Ultimately, USP is really about YOU. What you know; what your skills are; who you are, your personality, your desires, your connections.

All people who succeed in business have a USP, even if they’re in a color-by-numbers business. Can you make a million dollars a year owning a chain of Diary Queen stores? I’m sure you can – but you’re gonna bring something unique to the mix. Above average locations and/or above average management and/or above average staff and/or above average marketing.

So it’s really about what you add to the opportunity that makes it extra special.

With each passing year I am more fully convinced that a huge, huge secret to being successful in any business or any enterprise is knowing thyself.

Success as an Escape from… (Who?)

Now… this is going to sound kind of strange, but I think one of the reasons people pursue various businesses and careers is that they are trying to run away from themselves. They don’t like who they are, they don’t accept who they are, they don’t appreciate their talents; in fact they have contempt for their own uniqueness (from accepting a lot of garbage and rejection from other people) and they desperately just want to be someone, anyone, besides who they are.



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They read success books and listen to success stories and look at the websites and brochures and videos and think “Man, if I could just have that, I wouldn’t be this stinking miserable failure of a person that I am anymore.”

They imagine that “successful” people don’t have the same kind of problems they have. They

imagine that “success” transforms people into happy, well adjusted, radiant beings who don’t have dysfunctional families and don’t argue with their spouses and kids and they eat peeled grapes as they stroll through lush, verdant gardens and recline on glorious, billowing clouds of ease.

I would recommend that you not buy into that notion.

Know this: You will become successful by becoming MORE of who you already are, not less. By ACCEPTING who you are (Already! Right now! As you are!) not rejecting it. And then leaning into it.

If God loves you (“For God so loved the world…”), therefore you can love yourself. You don’t have to be someone else. You can be you. Others will teach you. Others will influence you. Others will color your perceptions and give you tools and sometimes gurus and heroes will even become your alter-ego. You’ll literally hear their voice inside your own head and their input will guide you.

But you will not be them. Rarely do people succeed by merely imitating someone else.

I hate Kenny G. (‘Twas the subject a whole newsletter issue a few years ago.) But I gotta tell you, Kenny G’s sax is definitely distinctive and recognizable. In the music world, he has a USP and an unmistakable identity.

I like John Coltrane much better, but I’m still glad Kenny G didn’t just go out and try to sound

like Coltrane. There are busloads of guys who’ve already tried to be John Coltrane all over again and nobody’s ever heard of any of ‘em.

The you that you are is the same you that’s going to be successful. It’s going to be a you with stronger accents and more flair. A you with ALL the same experiences (and especially failures) that you’ve already had, plus probably a few more failures of one kind or another. And yes, some more successes too. But still you. DELUSION #4: “THE PERFECT BUSINESS”

When I worked as a manufacturer’s rep I thought “Man, my boss Wally has the near-perfect business. Reps get paid 10% of what they produce in their territory, with no inventory and low overhead and unlimited income potential…”

All that is sort-of true… but in time I began to see some less obvious realities. Especially the fact that Wally had to sell both directions each day. He had to sell the manufacturers on keeping him around just as much as he had to sell to the customers. Actually the manufacturers can be higher-maintenance than the customers. Good thing Wally was a talented schmoozer.



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Sometimes they just decide they don’t want to pay the $300,000 a year in commissions and they hire a regional sales guy for $100K to replace the rep and stick him in instead. It doesn’t particularly bother them that Wally spent 2 ½ years putting that deal together and they pulled the rug out from under him right after the checks started coming through.

The biggest advantage of the rep business – that you don’t really have to own anything – turns out to be the biggest disadvantage, too. You don’t own anything.

Rather than hunting for the perfect business, I suggest thinking in terms of what you can own or would like to own; and what you can’t own or don’t want to own.

Is the Information Business the Perfect Business?

What could be better than selling e-books or DVD’s from the comfort of your home? Or your Mac on the beach?

I’m not knocking it – I like it very well myself, thank you very much. But do understand that even though the margins are high and the possibilities are endless, there are other margins that are narrower. When you’re selling ideas – or anything that’s not concrete and readily understood – there’s a narrower range of what works to actually sell it. It takes much better ad copy to sell a $2500 seminar than to sell a set of radial tires.

DELUSION #5: WALKAWAY, RESIDUAL, AND PASSIVE INCOME

Man, talk about terms that get abused – there’s three that take a regular beating.

Listen: If you have to fuss with it at all, it’s not walkaway, residual or passive.

I’ve never seen anything that was described as a “walkaway income” that actually was. Ever.

A website is not a walkaway income. Nor is any direct marketing business that I know of.

But having established that fact, let’s understand that a website is automated – can be highly automated – and once set up produces a systematic and often very predictable income.

There’s no need to sprinkle extra glitter on that. A systematic, predictable, automated income that requires a certain amount of maintenance and fine tuning, that’s nothing to sneeze at. It’s waaaaay better than a job. Let there be no mistake about that.

Something else I need to say about that – a lot of people wait for everything to be right about their website, like all the scripts and programs and tracking and everything to be perfectly and smoothly functioning. A lot of times that’s a big mistake.

Listen, if you have to copy | paste this one email into some spreadsheet and do data entry and go through a bunch of gyrations for awhile, that’s OK. Better to have your site up and running and



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even do some of that stuff with manual labor than to sit around waiting for the webmaster to get it right.

Better to lick stamps and address envelopes this year than to wait for some mail house to do it for you next year. An imperfect plan implemented is better than the perfect one that never gets done. Oh, and you know what? Addressing and stuffing those envelopes has a funny way of forcing you to think about what you’re sending out in the mail, in ways that you otherwise wouldn’t consider. A little bit of that manual labor is good. There’ll always be a chance to automate it later.

Automating and Delegating

And speaking of automation, yes there are almost certainly things you do manually that you should automated. There are almost certainly things you’re doing yourself that you should delegate.

I think of it like this:

There are $10 per hour jobs in your business: Data entry, emptying the trash, routine

customer service tasks, answering most emails, picking up office supplies, licking stamps, mindless webmaster work.

There are $50 per hour jobs in your business: Selling to customers, maintaining relationships with important vendors, educating yourself, developing products, answering important emails, developing your network, web work that requires your brain

There are $250 per hour jobs in your business: Writing copy and communication that go out to your customers, implementing systems that automatically do various jobs for you, negotiating important deals, testing and tracking of your website visitors, executing your product strategy.

The object of the game is to focus as much as possible on the $250+ per hour tasks and

delegate or automate the rest whenever humanly possible. Realistically I think you should expect to be able to spend less than 20% of your time doing the

$10 an hour jobs; 60% doing the $50 per hour jobs, and 20% doing the $250 per hour jobs. Now it’s gonna take discipline to push aside the trivial stuff and do the $250 per hour tasks. But those are the things that really propel you.

Often those tasks to not come with an instantaneous feeling of accomplishment the way the $10

per hour tasks do. You empty the trash, the trash is empty, and you feel as though you did something. Yes, you did, it just wasn’t strategic.

OK, back to Lawrence and his Struggles…

I don’t know this guy and haven’t talked to him. Only seen what you’ve seen yourself. Been through a dozen biz-ops and affiliate programs and the Paypal account is empty. He mentioned affiliate marketing. Signed on to Clickbank or something and tried some of that too. Google Cash or some kind of click arbitrage arrangement.



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OK. That’s stuff you can cut your teeth on. You learn the ropes. You figure out how online marketing works.

But nobody makes any serious money as an affiliate marketer without bringing a unique twist

to that either. Wanna make significant money with affiliate programs? You need some or all of the following:

o Exceptional skills at buying traffic, if you’re brokering clicks. Talented arbitragers often

use extra mojo with the Content Network, using Site Targeting extensively for example. o Careful tracking of conversion. Most affiliate networks don’t do this as well as they

could so it takes extra care to set this up. o Building of trust with a customer list and email. This is my preferred differentiator. It

relies on your personality, which is inherently unique. o Create companion products and/or bonuses to go with the products you’re promoting.

Or perhaps help, support, consulting, hands-on assistance. o Offer something to the affiliate manager that other affiliates don’t provide, in exchange

for a higher commission rate. o Devote every brain cell you can spare to understanding what you can add to the sale that

represents a Unique Selling Proposition. Until you have a USP, you don’t have a business. You only have a promotion.

At the October Gladiator Club meeting, one of my Roundtable members wanted to discuss

affiliate marketing in his hot seat. His existing online business is doing extraordinarily well and he’s justifiably paranoid about having too many eggs in one basket. Especially because the industry he’s in is in turmoil. He wanted to diversify by becoming an affiliate.

It turns out the business he’s already in is an affiliate business, he’s selling leads. But we

started to dig in. In his current business, his USP is, he sells the leads in a tiered bidding system. Fresh hot leads get distributed to paying members first, then as they “cool down” they are offered to a larger number of more casual members. He’s greatly increased the cash he gets for these leads and he’s on the top of his game.

So I asked him – why would you want to go from having a USP to diversifying yourself into a

business where you’re a commodity? Affiliates are a commodity, after all, unless they find a way to do what this Roundtable member had done, which is to devise a system where they get more per lead or per sale than most everyone else does.

My advice to him – and John Mendocha’s too – was: Screw affiliate marketing, you’ve got a

USP. Either dig deeper in the industry you’re already in or take your existing system and start using it in a new market. But don’t go from being Unique to being just-another-affiliate.

DELUSION #6 – COLLEGE BOY MENTALITY I tend to be kind of hard on people who think they can just sign up for some program somewhere and plug a few things in and start making money. But why is it that people think it works that way?



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People learn to think that way in school. Go to college, get your degree, and become a Registered Nurse or a Mechanical Engineer or Systems Analyst or Tort Law Attorney or Cardiologist. A title that fits into neat little categories that are easily explained to other people. When you follow that track, you are a commodity. Everybody knows (or can look up and find out) that RN’s make $47,000 to $57,000 per year. They’re relatively interchangeable. You ride the train to work and someone says “What do you do” and you say “I’m an RN” – they know what that means. A sure sign that you’re on the right track is, you struggle to explain to people exactly what it is that you do. I have that problem. “What do you do, Perry?” “I consult on Google’s advertising system.”

Most people do not know that Google has an advertising system – that a third of the links they click on are paid for by sponsors – and they don’t know what a consultant does either. They most certainly don’t know about publishing books and CD’s and whatnot and would never understand the huge maze I build to make all that happen.

So the first reason it’s difficult is, you’re not a commodity so whatever you do somewhat defies

a one-word description. The second reason it’s difficult is, the Internet is such a vast place with so many nooks and crannies, what you do is likely so specialized that a lot of people have never heard of it either. “NuSkin distributor”, “Herbalife distributor”, “Affiliate marketer” – two-word descriptions that are easily understood. Commodities. But how about “I develop cures for female depression.” Or “I run a membership site where home school moms track and record their kids assignments” or “We generate leads for online degree programs” or “I publish books on organizational objectives.” The average guy on the street may not quite grasp what they’re talking about but prospective customers certainly would. All those descriptions, by the way, are from Roundtable members who dominate their markets and have growing operations.

One Roundtable member was an “affiliate marketer” and just brokered traffic. But he did so with thoroughness and careful attention to testing and tracking. Eventually he was hiring copywriters and running Taguchi tests and writing ads so effective they showed up nearly everywhere on the Content Network.

The best advice I can give to Mr. Koh is to specialize in something, just like my Roundtable members. You can even specialize in “being an affiliate marketer” which means: Being more sophisticated than most affiliate marketers; knowing more than they do. You can specialize in any one of a million subjects. But you need to be more proficient at some narrow, tiny subject than almost anyone in the world.



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Which is not nearly as hard as it sounds. You may have heard “Study something for an hour a day and you’ll be an expert in a year.” It’s true. Devote 10,000 hours to something and you’ll be literally world class. That’s true too. Wanna be a world class marketer? Clock in your ten thousand hours with gusto and the world will lay its treasures at your feet. You’re probably already an expert at something. Assignment: Take inventory of what you know. What careers you’ve held, what magazines you’ve read, what organizations and institutions you’ve belonged to, what fetishes you’ve had, the hobbies that have captivated your attention. Surely, somewhere in that list is a market you can cater to. One of the nice things about being an expert is, you’re automatically an insider. Nobody gets to play the inside/outside con game when you know a topic inside and out, backwards and forwards. DELUSION #7 – “DO WHAT YOU LOVE AND THE MONEY WILL FOLLOW” Most people who are really successful love what they do. Doesn’t mean any passion you have is necessarily a business. You may have a passion you don’t know how to transform into a USP. The margins in that business could be so low, and everyone there works so cheap, you can’t make it fly. There may be no demand for the product. But whatever you do, it needs to somehow capture your imagination. And many times, passions that are unworkable suddenly kick into gear when they’re twisted a bit. The other day I had a conversation with an artist who paints (artists being well-reputed for being broke) and is eying a very specific enthusiast market that has lots of extra money to spend, and spends it. Can’t guarantee it’s going to work, but it’s got a way better chance of flying than putting your paintings on consignment at the local coffee shop. DELUSION #8 – “IT’S RIDICULOUSLY EASY TO…” Discard any business opportunity that is described as “ridiculously easy.” Dismiss anyone who says “You don’t have to do anything.” Means there’s no substance to it. People often ask me the difference between Business-To-Business and Business-To-Consumer marketing. They suspect that B2B people have less tolerance for BS. Well it’s true. Look, when you sell some guy a piece of equipment to put on his production line and the factory is stopped because your gadget malfunctioned, you’re gonna have one angry guy yelling at you through the phone. (I know this, from personal experience.) In business, you’ve gotta deliver the goods. When you’re marketing B2B, conveying the sense that you really are going to deliver the goods, that’s more important than delivering “feel good” and excitement. The most important thing I can tell you about selling to B2B people and especially technical people – like engineers, accountants and attorneys – is: Promise and deliver 100% but don’t promise



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102% unless you can both deliver 102%, and they can believe the 102%. If your offer is unbelievable you’ll never get the business. The key to success is to create an unbelievable offer that is true, then engineer a way to demonstrate, beyond any shadow of doubt, that the unbelievable thing IS true. DELUSION #9 – “JOBS AND BOSSES ARE EVIL” I happen to disagree. What could be better than learning on somebody else’s dime? This was my experience. They didn’t give me a whole lot of rope. I had to convince my bosses that what I wanted to do was going to work, then I had to do it, then I had to work. I got a TON of experience I could have gotten nowhere else and almost every single “phone consulting” day that I have with various members, there’s a conversation that draws from that experience. Whether it’s from being a rep or a sales manager or even engineer. My bosses taught me a great deal about many things. (Even things like what kind of boss I never ever ever want to have again.) Found out what Toxic People walk like, talk like, look like and smell like before, during and after you discover they’re Toxic. But even the most Toxic boss I ever had was still a blessing. You know why? I loved that job until Mr. Toxic started tightening the screws on me. And man did he ever tighten them. The last year of working for Mr. Toxic was sheer misery. His M.O. was to slice my fingers off one joint at a time. Strengthened my resolve to get free and go do my own thing. Had I not been working for him, I might still be working for somebody else right now. In a Dilbert Cube. Under buzzing fluorescent lights. Instead of sitting here in my library with music playing, writing a newsletter for my Renaissance Club members, looking out the window at the autumn leaves. It honestly takes crushing pressure to get most of us human beings to change. We all seek comfort zones and we stay in them unless and until something becomes so uncomfortable that the comfort zone isn’t really comfortable at all. Then we decide to seek wisdom and make changes and re-invent ourselves. Speaking of which…. One of my favorite newsletter back-issues is the one that describes how I helped a desperate friend, Bob, find a job. Bob’s wife was 8 months pregnant when he got fired from his job and he needed to do something fast. He wasted a lot of time submitting resumes at Monster.com before he finally decided to listen to me. I approached it as a marketing problem. Mailing List / Copy / Offer / Call To Action. We used D&B’s database service, defined a profile of a target company, defined what titles of executives at that company would make hiring decisions, and wrote a sizzling cover letter that hit ‘em



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straight between the eyes. Bypassed the Human Resources department entirely, and the letter sailed right past them and straight to the desk of the Decision Maker. Nice. For every $75 Bob spent mailing out those letters, he got a job interview. He got three job offers and took the one he wanted. He still works there three years later. (Oh, and one of the guys who interviewed Bob was so curious about that cover letter, he started asking questions and ended up calling me to understand the strategy he saw was clearly behind it. Kinda flattering.) Listen up, Mr. Koh: When you can get yourself a job interview, at will, for $75 (or even $750 for that matter), you’ll never be stuck at any job. Which, I think, is what people really hate about their jobs – being stuck. I would highly recommend that you study the strategy and the cover letter Bob and I wrote. The whole story is here in complete detail, such that you can replicate our results for yourself if you wish. Go to your computer right now and print this out:

www.perrymarshall.com/marketing/findajob.pdf DELUSION #10 – “I’M ALWAYS GONNA BE STUCK.” Perhaps the greatest enemy of the entrepreneurial spirit is dragging around past failure like a ball and chain. Boy do I know how that feels – like every year of experience and effort is a testament to my incompetence.

Oh yeah, I’ve felt like that. For long stretches. It’s why sometimes you may need to totally switch gears, quit something that’s not working and go do something else. And that’s OK. The “quitters never win and winners never quit” slogan knows nothing about testing ideas and managing risk. The best advice about starting an online business, or any business for that matter is: Make ONE dollar. Buy something for one dollar and sell it for two and prove that, at least in principle, a profit can be made. Then build it from there. A business that makes $100 of real profit a month is a successful business. Teeny tiny, but successful. It just needs to be grown. I’ve watched so many people break out of their shackles and go tearing through the rest of the race, and it never ceases to inspire me. I don’t just get letters from people like Mr. Koh, you know. Let me share some of the other letters I get.



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Michael Mendlowitz was inspired to go into the Merchant Account industry, a highly commoditized world where tons of brokers all do the same thing. He decided to add a “full service” element that is exceedingly rare in that industry. His approach is a case study in creating a USP in a market where everyone believes you have to be a commodity.

Hi Perry. Long time no speak...I hope you are doing great. A little more than 2 years ago on a snowy day in December I bought your platinum system and Google adwords course. It was my 30th birthday and I decided to treat myself with a 2,000 dollar gift. I promise you this was the best gift I ever got in my life! I have successfully transformed a one man merchant account service business into a multi million dollar company, and you deserve so much credit for that. I am sure you get this alot, but I'll bet each thank-you means the world to you. Kind of validates all your hard work. -Michael Mendlowitz, Woodmere, NY

Ken Heikkila is a musician who discovered he could sell instrument training online and has carved out a niche as much from sheer determination as anything. A man absolutely determined to transform the passion of his life into a business. Doing so on a shoestring budget, with discipline and attention to detail becoming his substitute for muscle and capital:

Perry, This last weekend, I had more sales in 3 days than I did in the whole month of July, which was my best month, ever ! At the same time, my bounce rate increased to 70%, my exit % increased on key pages and I was in a panic but my sales were at an all time high. I'm testing everything as prescribed and that has produced remarkable results when I look back at the last 18 months, starting from point Zero. So I hit a different chord, apparently, with my market. You probably know exactly what this is all about. And my testing will continue but in a new light. As you say, in our unique light. Thanks for encouraging the fact that there is no "ONE" way. I love absolutely everything you send. Oh, by the way, my wife practically fainted this weekend when I told her about the sales. Of course, I waited for the maximum effect !! It's all working and I believe it will only grow from this point on.



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It's coming... I can feel it. Your grateful student, Ken Heikkila Pittsford, NY

Here’s a guy in another cut throat commodity biz, real estate rentals, who’s doing so well he refused a million dollar offer to buy his company. Nice position to be in, wouldn’t you say?

Dear Perry, I bought your course earlier this year. We had one phone consultation with you and you made some great suggestions. We are small company, but because of the success we are having with PPC marketing, a group of investors offered to buy our company for just over 1 million dollars. We turned down their offer because the future looks bright. Your advise on landing pages has made an unbelievable difference. Thanks again, Troy Boldt Director of Sales and Marketing www.RentingAuthority.com Cedar Hills, Utah

I want you to notice a couple of things about all three of these guys (including some things that

aren’t necessarily in their letters):

Their success was a zig-zag process of attempted improvements, more failed experiments than successes, and lots of testing.

Each has a clear and distinctive USP, a powerful offer of value, despite two of these three guys being in a highly commoditized marketplace. Of all places in business that deserve a little creativity, the USP, that clever, powerful offer, is the most important of all.

I would describe each of these guys as patient. Most of all, you need to be patient with yourself. Give yourself time to grow.

Don’t spend all your rocket fuel (whether that be capital, emotional energy, your spouse’s

patience and longsuffering, or your credibility with investors and partners) in one brilliant three month blaze of glory, only to burn out or become disillusioned. Make ONE dollar. Then make a dollar-twenty. Then make a dollar forty. Then turn the $1.40 into $14 and the $14 into $1400.

Make the machine hum on however small a scale, prove everything, then spend your rocket fuel. It’s a glorious ride when it kicks in.

Perry Marshall

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