You don’t need more tools, you need the right tools. If you want to know which writing program will help you write more, faster, and better, then listen to today’s episode.

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* – Affiliate link

1. TextEdit/Notepad
2. Evernote*
3. Google Docs
4. Grammarly*
5. ByWord
6. OmmWriter
7. Scrivener

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Show Notes:

1. Why They Don’t Fail Anymore
   1. They are better at choosing opportunities b/c they’ve failed a lot already
   2. They get better opportunities
      1. They get pitched all the time
      2. They run with people that are doing great stuff
   3. They make better opportunities
      1. Test group inside Facebook – Hyatt changed the name of the course, the flow of the course, the artwork.
      2. They know what their audience wants based on the content they put out and the feedback they get. Free guides, download numbers, the number of comments.
   4. They refine
      1. They make it better
      2. They offer different levels
      3. Re-releasing my Evernote course but it will be more specifically built for content creators
   5. They’ve learned what their audience wants – GUIDE – http://www.takepermission.com/freeguides
2. Why They Do Still Fail
   1. Guillebeau – You didn’t see my failures, that’s why they were failures. They faded away.
   2. They don’t go all in so they don’t lose it all – Tim Ferriss as an investor, TV show, created but didn’t get distribution.
   3. They’re failure is inside their organization. They don’t hit their targets. Even their “failures” would be good enough for most of us.
   4. They fail then tweak for the next launch
      1. Seth Godin’s big book – lost money
      2. Re-releasing a new one, but won’t lose money this time
   5. They tweak during their failure
      1. If they’re not succeeding, they make adjustments
      2. They have enough strength to turn the wheel midstream
      3. They have a longer play than you and I do

• Did a survey a few months ago asking for what people wanted me to teach on
• Took those top answers and added some headline magic to make them appealing – Shout out to Ray Edwards and CopyWriting Academy.
• Sent out a survey – 4200
  • Almost 600 clicks
  • Around 300 responses

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1. You’ll turn some people off because they don’t want that much content.
2. You’ll attract a larger audience because you’ll have more of your ideas out in the world.
3. You’ll express more of who you are.
4. Your posts will be shorter.
5. You’ll have less regret about not publishing enough.
6. You’ll write about a greater variety of topics.
7. You’ll offer more encouragement for others
8. You’ll equip more people to take action.
9. More ideas will come to mind.
10. You’ll have more clarity.
11. You’ll build a stronger bond with those who follow your daily writing.
12. You’ll get more traffic to your site.
13. You’ll get in more conflict with people that disagree with your perspective.
14. People will say you’re trying to be like Seth Godin.
15. You will have more content to share with people who ask for help.
16. You will build more authority in your field of interest.
17. You’ll grow your audience.
18. You’ll gain more discipline.
19. You’ll have more launch points to develop ideas from.
20. You’ll fight the fear of running out of ideas.
21. You’ll find out if that fear is real or imagined.

I’m gonna go for it. You?

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Today’s podcast is going to directly focus on one pillar of this show…building a business you’re proud of. It’s a warning to consumers and a call to other entrepreneurs to step up and stop doing a deceptive practice that’s grown in popularity. Here we go.

I’ve put a lot of work into preparing for this episode. I’ve looked through hundreds of comments on this topic, spoke to several friends in the industry I’m going to discuss, and pull content from the very services people use to run this scummy practice. So this episode will be a bit longer than most but I’m pretty sure it’ll be the most entertaining episode you’ve ever heard on this show.
 

If you’ve listened to the show before you know that I’ve created several free guides for you to download the correspond to different topics I talk about on show. The guide that best relates to today’s topic is the “Is it legit?” online course guide” You can get that at TakePermission.com/FreeGuides or by finding your way to this episode to TakePermission.com/Show007.

Customer: I need help learning how to use my new computer.
 

Three questions:

1. – Is the expert going to be there?
2. – Does the customer expect the expert to be there?
3. – Does it matter?

• Marketers know that they can pretend or imply being there and people will believe them because it makes them more money than saying it’s a recording.
• You sign up for a free webinar featuring (insert name of the person you trust here). The description implies that person is holding the webinar at a specific time. Except sometimes even when they start is a lie. This clip pisses me off the most.
• The wording of the webinar implies the person leading it is present (that’s deceptive by inclusion) or makes no mention of the person being present live. This is deception by omission.
• The presentation starts on time with the person you came to hear welcoming you and asking you to state where you’re listening from. Everything implies this is a live presentation. There is no implication or mention that you’re watching a recording. This is deceptive.
• Comments pop up in the chat area of during the presentation from what you think are other attendees.
• These chat comments are from past webinars and are strategically placed into the chat area to position trust in the presenter and the product. The questions asked are legitimate, but the timing and origin of the questions are not legitimate. These people are not present. These questions are cut and pasted to manipulate your emotions. This is deceptive.
• They encourage you to type in questions but explain that not all questions can be answered. Your comments and the comments of others attending live go unanswered because no one is there to answer them. This is deceptive.
• Specific offers are made to you as an attendee that expire in a specific period of time. Those offers do expire because they are tied to your email address. You could sign up with a different email address and get the same offer the next day, though. Deceptive? No. False scarcity? Yes.

This is deception because the provider knows that the attendee thinks one thing is happening, that the presenter is present, and the comments are from fellow live attendees. Something else is happening. The presenter is not present. The comments are harvested and placed strategically.

Why They Do It

Is There A Better Way?

Here’s how recorded webinars could be done in an honest way.

1. Tell attendees there’s a presentation available to view at a specific time.
That’s true. It’s not a live webinar, though. A live webinar is about the presenter being present, not a webinar recording playing. This is not a gray area. There’s live television, and there’s recorded television. There are live webinars and webinar recordings. The technology being used allows for the presentation to play at a specific time. That can continue.
 
Lindsey Hartz – I’d say recorded live instead of live just to be above the board if I am not going to be present at beginning and end to answer live questions.
 
2. Stop planting comments.
There’s no place for planting comments that imply the person is present. Planting comments is emotionally manipulative. It is deceptive. Testimonials aren’t deceptive but inserting them and implying they’re coming from an another live attendee is deceptive.
 
3. Stop putting the responsibility on the consumer to figure out if you’re there or not.
Tell them this is a recorded presentation at the beginning. Pay a staff member to attend the meeting and answer any questions attendees have (more on that in #4). Not saying whether you’re there or not is deception by omission. Creators know that attendees think they’re there. I understand entrepreneurs want freedom, which means they don’t want to be presenting the same webinar 28 times a week. Implying or simply omitting whether or not you’re present is deception, pure and simple.
 
4. Have a staff member present to answer questions live.
Pay a knowledgable employee to be present during the webinar to answer any questions that attendees have. This might cost $20-$50 per webinar. That’s a small price to pay for conducting an honest transaction instead of a deceptive one.
 
Webinars work because the presenter builds trust with the attendees. That can happen with a recorded webinar with real comments. I believe those webinars will be less profitable. If profit is the only goal, then the same people running deceptive webinars will keep doing the same deceptive practices.
 

There’s a better way to do business

What’s Legit?