Written by: Corey Jahnke, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
“The Market Giveth And The Market Taketh Away” -Corey Jahnke
The excitement was incredible.
I had invested 40 thousand dollars and 3 years of my life into what my inner circle told me was my masterpiece; a parable story meant to help emerging leaders go from getting killed in the corporate environment to absolutely killing it with my 7 Laws Of 21st Century Leadership.
I had compromised on the title and went from “What A Lousy Story” to “The Successful Thinker” because I believed the publisher knew what he was doing. He did not.
After collecting nearly 10 grand from me for his “deluxe marketing plan” he vanished.
Still, the book was launched on Amazon and multiple other outlets, and I was sure sales and speaking engagements would come rolling in. They did not.
Month after month I waited, in hopes sales would pick up speed and catch fire. They did not.
What did happen was over the course of 6 months, 16 people I did not know left 5-star reviews on Amazon about the book, fueling my hopes that somehow, someway, I had a winner. I did not.
False hope is dangerous for the determined soul because I went searching for a way to FORCE the results that I wanted to achieve for redemption and acknowledgment that I had not wasted my time and put my family in financial jeopardy.
I am by nature an optimist, so I went to seminar after seminar following Guru after Guru who was talking about (and selling) the next shiny marketing object and I even hired an expensive coach that told me he knew EXACTLY what I needed to do to make my book a success. He did not.
At some point, I had turned into a gambler who hoped that the next pull of the one-armed bandit would win back my losses and bring back my spirit. It did not.
All told, I had spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $200k on a book that never went anywhere.
I was ashamed, embarrassed, and scared.
I was sure my marriage would fail because I was a failure.
Fortunately, because my wife is an exceptional human being, it did not.
Finally, I gave up.
I folded.
Has this ever happened to you?
Have you ever wanted something so bad that you were willing to give up everything for a single turn of the wheel?
Have you ever felt humiliated because you simply didn’t know what you needed to know, and the marketplace ate you for lunch?
If you have, please keep reading because I am going to show you the light at the end of the tunnel.
It took 3 years of hard work, and an insane amount of luck, but I stopped spending and got our family back to even.
Once I was no longer deep in debt, I felt my brain ease up and regain the ability to think.
Have you ever been so stressed that you felt that logical thinking was impossible?
I hated that feeling.
At one point, I was desperately and frantically scrambling. I resolved to never do that again.
Once I regained a modicum of control over my thoughts, I began studying my mistakes and reading the principles of time-tested marketing, written by the legends of the advertising industry.
The more I read, the more I felt like a world-class chump.
Don’t you hate it when you feel like that?
I had fallen for every cheap, get rich and famous quick scheme that came my way, and I had not done anything correctly when it came to launching a small business.
Have you ever watched the movie Sing?
Just when I was in my all-time lowest opinion of myself, my wife and I went to the theater and the main character Buster Moon said something I’ll never forget: “The great part about being at the bottom is that there is no place to go but up.”
Has that ever been YOU?
It was most certainly me!
But, if a koala named Buster Moon could come out okay, I determined that I would follow his lead.
I got out my notebooks and analyzed the mistakes I had made, and I compared them against the marketing advice of the giants in that industry.
I had a new mission.
I wanted to pull back the curtain and help people like you crush it by sharing my screaming example of what not to do.
As a small consolation to my pride, my research showed that 95% of all small businesses make one or all of the mistakes I am about to share with you, and I am asking you to pay close attention and not let these mistakes happen to you.
Mistake No.1 Great Marketing Is Based On Time Tested Principles Not Flash In The Pan Tactics
Because we are such an instant gratification society, I was fooled into believing that if I didn’t succeed quickly that was a fail. The results were that I skipped the really valuable work of defining clearly my market, what THEIR problems were, and what they needed as a solution to those problems.
As it turns out any business that is going to be successful takes research, time and real work.
You have to know your audience and your market so well that the solutions you are offering are a match.
As a result of my own ignorance and arrogance, I committed mistake number two which is the mortal sin against great marketing.
Mistake No.2 I Created Something I wanted To Create And Then Tried to Find A Market For It Instead Of Finding A Market To Serve And Then Creating A Solution To Their Problems.
I saw people struggling to lead other people, so I wrote a book telling them what to do, but I never asked their permission to do so.
What I should have done is field research and leveraged a contact list to find out what THEY feel their struggles look like, spoken in the language they use, and solicited THEIR help in creating materials that would resonate with them. Instead, I assumed I knew what they needed and never considered what they actually WANTED.
Mistake No.3 I Had NO MARKETING SYSTEM
As it turns out, no matter what business you are in, you are in THE SALES AND MARKETING BUSINESS and that is a good thing.
Much like you, I worried about coming on too strong.
I worried about persuading people to take something they didn’t really want, and to some degree, I worried about being an imposter.
What I failed to understand is that every time I let my emotions cloud my judgment, I was STEALING from the people I really could have helped, I was STEALING from my family because I wasn’t providing them with the kind of lifestyle they deserved, and I was STEALING form myself because I wasn’t fulfilling the goals and dreams that I was meant to achieve.
Successful marketers have a SUCCESSFUL MARKETING SYSTEM that not only includes market research, but also includes a way to measure the data your marketing generates, a way to make sure that you follow up with your prospects, product and service delivery, AND a system for creating endless and qualified referrals.
I didn’t have any of that. I had put out a product and hoped it sold.
I had trusted my publisher and hoped he knows what he is doing.
I had buried my head in the sand and pray.
Contrary to popular opinion, in the marketplace miracles never happen and longshots don’t come in.
Make sure your business has a marketing system and that you understand it thoroughly.
You can hire someone else to implement it, but you cannot be ignorant of what they are doing or not doing, and you must measure their progress.
Mistake No.4 I Used My Private Resources To Fund My Business And It Almost Cost Me My Marriage
My marriage is everything to me and my foolishness almost ruined it.
Putting 10K dollar seminars or 2k dollar online programs on my personal credit card was a recipe for disaster.
You see, I genuinely believed I would learn something valuable enough to make the money back plus what I originally lost.
Sadly, what would ultimately happen is I would have to work overtime (and lots of it) at my 9-5 and could never get anything I did learn off the ground.
So, there was not only a financial issue for my marriage, but there was also a quality time issue, and a shame issue.
Truth be told, my wife has had to work a bunch of overtime to cover my mistakes as well.
As a man, that is really hard to take.
What SMART business people do is bootstrap their marketing efforts with affordable dynamic response techniques like referral programs, direct mailings to current customers, and direct selling to local prospects and then use their profits to snowball their ability to market on a broader scale.
If you are really ambitious and you want to put large sums into your marketing, DON’T USE YOUR OWN MONEY.
Work with investors or the small business association, but never jeopardize your family’s well-being.
This mistake will haunt me until I die.
Remember, while the saying goes “it takes money to make money”, it doesn’t have to take YOUR money to make money.
Be smart, and ask for help if you're not sure how to properly set things up.
But don’t gamble your family’s future on your hopes and dreams.
It is too high of a price to pay.
Mistake No.5 For Small Businesses, Websites Are Stupid! Sales Funnels Are Brilliant!
Here is the deal.
I have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars and hours trying to either build or get built the perfect website that would drive tons of traffic to my platform. It hasn’t happened.
Why?
Because a website doesn’t DO anything.
Well, maybe it confuses people, but it doesn’t collect information, it doesn’t give you a chance to follow up with potential clients, and most importantly it doesn’t SOLVE A PROBLEM for a customer.
People come to your website looking for solutions.
Websites don’t offer solutions.
People get bored, confused, and frustrated.
In short, they hang up.
Websites are only useful to big companies who have unlimited budgets and want to create “Brand Recognition”.
You and I cannot afford brand recognition.
We need sales. And we need them daily.
Everything else is conversation.
Websites won’t get us anything.
Sales funnels on the other hand WILL change everything (if we have done our research) and set them up correctly.
Sales funnels say to your prospect: “I know you came here to solve a problem and if you give me your email address, I can tell you how to get started AND I WILL BE ABLE TO FOLLOW UP WITH YOU SOON to make sure your problem gets solved ASAP”.
In my area, hundreds of thousands of dollars of business go un-transacted because businesses don’t follow up with prospects and prospects are more likely to give up than to chase your business down.
A properly set up sales funnel solves that issue.
I want you to avoid these mistakes because I know firsthand how devastating the fear, shame, and sleepless nights that go with them can be.
Done correctly, however, Dynamic Response Marketing can make you and your small business profitable, successful, and scalable.
Make a decision today to analyze your marketing system and ensure that you have one so that you can take your business to the places you dreamed about when you started it in the first place.
If you need help, I am only an email away.
Best Of Luck To You My Friend!
Corey J.
P.S. Feel free to reach out to me if you have similar stories, questions, or marketing topics you would like me to address in future articles.
Corey Jahnke, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Over the course of his highly successful healthcare career, Corey Jahnke has gone from getting killed to killing it. If you've ever felt like you were stuck, drowning in the day-to-day firefighting and being micromanaged, Corey can relate to you. After 30 years in healthcare, he finally found his way out of the doldrums experienced by so many; now, Corey helps others get reengaged much faster than he did.
