I've been wrestling with a paradox between what I do and how I sell it (or how I'm supposed to sell it).

I'm haven't fully reconciled the contradictions between my content and my (suggested) marketing.

You see, right now, I'm offering a new membership that's focused on ABUNDANCE...   but I've been instructed to sell it based on the concept of SCARCITY.
 

There's even a counter on the sales page that tells how many minutes are left before it closes.

OK--it's actually this:

But the concept is the same:

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

My co-creator/business partner Stefan and I have talked about this, understanding that this "time is running out" model is tried and true and has been employed successfully for endless marketing strategies.

It's what the 1000 page binder I have on how to create a successful membership recommends.

And yet ...

It's using the concept of scarcity, the fear of missing out, to motivate people to take action.

Even though this action is for something I genuinely believe can have tremendous value for them... is that really the best way to go?

It's all the more true in that what's at the heart of what we're  offering (HERE) is the possibility of using practical tools to turn Abundance-Oriented Vision into reality.

In other words, the exact opposite of scarcity.

 

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

As we're launching this, I have been keenly aware of the limitations of time.

We've put so much thought into this project, and yet we're still obviously in a beta test mode.

As my friend and moderator Joshua put it, during our launch call, in an exciting way it felt like--to use the nonsensical, Silicon Valley idiom-- we were:

Building the plane while flying it...

(Apparently that's a good thing for a start-up.)

And some of that showed up for sure, sometimes in REALLY EMBARRASSING ways.

For example, a couple hundred people signed up for the call last week.

We needed a new platform for this Membership, complete with auto-responders and fill-in-the-blank forms.

Somehow no one on the team (including my eagled-eyed tech wizard) noticed that we hadn't un-selected one of them.

That meant that everyone who signed up for the call got a follow-up email that made no sense at all.

It had our logos and had our links (at least some of them) but it referred to products we weren't selling and things we weren't offering and deadlines that didn't apply.

It was boilerplate that was completely bananas.

Sigh...

On the other hand, besides getting some bizarre emails for us, there are actually some huge advantages to jumping into the journey now.

For one thing, we're starting small.

There are over 23,000 people in my DailyOM course.

And there's only one of me.

The Membership right now is small enough that we actually can chat and interact directly.

My co-founder Stefan is a Wharton grad who runs his own investment advisory / wealth management firm.

He's a sought-after advisor to Senior Execs, Business Owners, Entrepreneurs and Difference Makers.

You actually get to interact with him in ways that would cost you so much more under any other conditions.

Maybe the coolest, most powerful thing is that if you jump on board early in the early stages we've got a lot more flexibility about what we're shaping.

In other words, you really do get to help build the plane.

(actual footage of us on the call)

There's no question that we're offering something of great value...but do we have to keep telling people that "time is running out" in order to sell it?

That's the way the world worked then, you had to show up for the portion of entertainment that was being doled out for you.

That why almost everyone thought that the Netflix model would never work when they began in it 2013.

It's hard to believe that until then, binge-watching as a term / lifestyle hadn't really come into its own.

And now...

Not a day goes by that a friend of mine isn't asking for a recommendation of a new Netflix or Amazon series to get lost in.

The world of "On Demand" is changing how we look at limits.

Even so...

 

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

The universe is a really big place.

Just take the sun, which is probably must bigger than you think.

If you flew around the equator on a 747 (NOT the plane that Stefan and I are building) it would take you about 42 hours, less than 2 days to cross the planet.

If you did the same thing around the sun, it would take you about six months.

That much space is hard to take in, difficult to process.

In the same way, when I used to schedule prospective 1:1 clients, I tried to give broad windows in order to be accommodating for that.

And yet, if I said "I'm pretty unscheduled on Wednesday," or--even worse--"I've got a lot of space next week," it's pretty much a guarantee that we would never connect.

And I mean never.

But if I say, "I can talk to you anytime between 1-3 on Wednesday afternoon or 10-11 on Friday," the odds rise astronomical that we'll actually have a conversation.

Sometimes a little scarcity is the only thing that gets the job done.

In the end, I'm glad we're opening (and closing) the membership right now, snafus and all.

I see how limitation can be helpful (even necessary) when trying to create something.

And while I've double-checked for parachutes on the plane we're building/flying, I'm also deciding to trust in this:

Leap and the net will appear.

(John Burroughs)

 

And I invite you to do the same.

 

Namaste for Now,