Give to Receive

On Saturday afternoon I met an Internet multi-millionaire colleague of mine in Ann Arbor, Michigan at Qdoba. He was generous enough to treat me to a lunch of a Naked Burrito and a water.

But more importantly, we had a great conversation about what’s working in sales letters, copy, promotions, front-end sales funnels, and back-end upsells.

We gave each other advice and held nothing back, and as a result we both walked away with fresh insights into how our businesses could grow.

And that’s today’s lesson…Give, and you shall receive.

People often ask me, “How can you build a business when you give away so much for free?”

Well, here’s the truth.

No matter how much information you give away, people will ALWAYS think that you are holding something back.

Take this website and my articles, for instance.

I’ll bet that most Internet Independence readers still think,

“There’s a lot of great information here, BUT there’s still some secret that Craig and Matt Smith are NOT telling us. There has to be one more magical secret to success.”

Likewise, if you’re a a trainer, and I know many of our II readers are, your clients always think that – no matter how much you tell them – that there is still one secret fat loss secret that you aren’t telling them.

That goes for every industry, right?

It’s human nature to believe that the “gurus” are always holding back “The Secret”.

(This was probably even true of the millions of people that watched “The Secret”. Oh, and it was true, because that movie forgot to mention the real secret – WORK. But that’s
another email for another day.)

Back to my online and offline businesses…

Even when we simplify things as much as possible, even when we tell people that diet is more important than exercise and you just have to eat less and move more, the end user STILL thinks that there is a trick to it.

That’s just human behavior.

We always want to believe in the mysticism that there is still another easier secret to success out there.

You know it’s true.

I bet you have some incredible stories in your own life and business where you’ve told people EVERYTHING you know about a subject and they still ask, “So what’s the secret?”

We’re wired for this…for some strange reason.

Heck, I still feel that way about Michael Masterson/Mark Ford’s content, sometimes.

Surely there must be ONE more thing that he isn’t telling us about how he built his multi-million dollar businesses…

surely there must be one more secret that can give me faster results…

surely there must be something more?

We all refuse to believe the simple and we demand something
more complex.

It is an irrational belief that exists in every market, that no matter how much information has been given, that there is still one secret being held back.

And so that is why you can give away plenty of free advice, attracting people into your world with goodwill and good wisdom, and they will still buy.

You build up the Know-Like-Trust (KLT) factor with free content and then you continue to deliver more great wisdom and step- by-step guidelines in your paid content, and people will still buy…because they believe that you are hiding something.

So that’s why you can give away so much free content and build up tremendous amounts of Goodwill with your readers and prospects and they will STILL buy from you.

Start giving more.

In fact, I dare you to try and out-give the universe.

You’ll lose every time.

More will come back to you the more you give.

It always will…

…because your prospects and clients will never give up hope of discovering that one last secret they think you are holding back.

And while there really is no secret sauce, the implications here are big.

Our irrational beliefs as consumers make it easy for you to:

a) Create more products, give more seminars, and do more selling. That’s why you must always be creating and selling…because your happy clients want more.

b) Be everywhere that matters, being someone to the right people, and doing something dramatically. Dan Kennedy calls this the Principle of Extreme Visibility, and it’s a mandatory rule to follow in your quest for a 6-figure and 7-figure income.

“Be someone. Be somewhere. Do something.” – Dan Kennedy

Give away free content to build your business, and know that we silly humans will never be satisfied with what you give away, because we always believe that you have more…that one
secret…that you are holding back.

We’ll never give up our belief.

We’ll always think there is something more.

So keep on delivering,

Craig

“One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”
– Proverbs 11:24-25