Yeah, my ass still hurts from yesterday. I was taken. A pair of cnotes, and half a day. I went in, eyes open and fully aware that when you pay for a professional development conference, you are gonna get a sell. And don’t get me wrong, there was value galore. It was a leadership development thingy, and as a leader of an emergent tribe I am always looking for better ways to connect and inspire our ground troops. I’m not pressing for my money back, I fully expected the dog and pony show of ‘buy my books, internets crm, DVDs, et al ad infinitum’ but chrissakes. It was fully half our time. Trying to walk up a room that had already bought. Shilling the next day, too. Wonder how damn effective THAT was.
#shill
Don’t get me wrong, we ALL gotta sell. And it’s more complicated than just selling, as I finally found out. We gotta buy low, sell high, and turn the money over fast. Or it’s not a business, it’s a damn hobby. But my man yesterday? Felt completely like a shill.
I’ll still be reading, quoting, stealing his ideas, and loving him for what he does. But I doubt imabe paying full retail for his full court press hard sell any time again.
There were nuggets, interspersed with pitches, and a few points I couldn’t agree with. Rather than share what I agree with, lemme lay two things I fully disagree with-
1.
’ Twitter is about retweets. ‘
No. Not even remotely correct. Twitter is about interactions. Conversations. When my #kooziemongercorporateassclowndouchecanoecatalogcarpetbombingtrunkslammerstalkergladhandguys are active on the twitters it’s instructive to see their superficial and patently suck up methodology of retweeting. They get crickets, and can’t really maintain a proper length of interaction. They have no content and worse, no tribe. Twittering in a cave is like pissing in the wind. Engage or go home.
2.
‘Pleasure beats pain. ‘
No. No it doesnt. He took a shot at my man sandler and the pain thing. I get pleasure, love it tremendously. But it’s an amateurs way to sell. A roadside carnivalle barkers method. ‘step right up for the cootchy cootch show!’
No. That’s NOT the way we do it. Not in a real practice. yes, we gots a cootchy cootch show, but it’s bespoke. It’s intimate, like the VIP room show. Not with the yokels.
We focus on what ails ya, not what gets ya off.
Well, it wasn’t a total waste. I met some interesting people, spent some time with 2 of my favorite plankholders, got some affirmation of some things that are working for our tribe. And sorted out a few things I DON’T wanna do.
But at the end of the day, another sandler rule came clear. As I looked around a room pretty well salted with corporateassclowns, I knew that the actual actionable nuggets prolly were NOT gonna stick. And as the sensai says- ‘you can’t learn to ride a bike at a seminar’.
I hope somma them schmucks can work on sucking less. Become thought provokers& interesting marketers. I doubt that is in the cards. But imabe sucking less, I got real face to face time with some prospect of interest with pain, authority, and budget,&she and I are gonna wallow around in pain before we move into the fun stuff. Cause I’m not a shill.
Neither are you, methinks. Or you wouldn’t be reading THIS crapassery.
