In 2019, Strava, a social network for athletes, conducted extensive research into their users and discovered that 80% of people who made New Year’s resolutions had abandoned them by the second week of January. Based on that data, the second Friday of January – this year January 12 – has been named “National Quitters Day” to mark the day of failed dreams and fatness.
This reminds me of a guy who still holds the record for the fastest request for a refund in our company’s history. He was a solo tech generating about $100,000 in sales. Five minutes after enrolling and logging into the member Dashboard he sent this e-mail: “Greetings, I would like to cancel my membership. I was expecting an easy, simple, step-by-step process. The site has too much information! No need to mail out the kit. Please refund.”
He opened the gym door to see people working to get in shape and said, Nope, not for me. I thought I’d get a lounge chair and a margarita while you massaged the fat away. Funnier: during his consultation he asked if sending homemade cookies to a business with a follow-up phone call would be a good way to generate leads, so I supposed he was going back to this plan, hiring the Keebler Elves for his marketing team. It’s South Park’s Underpants Gnomes Profit Plan: Step 1) Make cookies. Step 2) ? Step 3) Profit. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t hesitate a moment to gobble down some homemade food delivered by a total stranger stinking of desperation, so I think he should go for it. When he calls to follow up, he should say the cookies are free, but the antidote to the poison isn’t.
I know, I know, I’m being “harsh” again. Tough. Holidays are over and it’s back to work, ladies. Sadly, I see more and more of this “no work, no think” attitude by the day. So few actually are willing to work at something, whether that’s figuring out how to get a marketing campaign to produce or how to lose 20 pounds.
I recently was listening to an interview with Tim Grover, one of the NBA’s most revered trainers of Hall Of Famers such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, where he said one of the biggest problems with all the information at our fingertips today is that people have lost the willingness to figure things out. They just want to ask Siri or watch a quick 3-minute YouTube video – NOT read and study every book on the topic, NOT go to industry events where they can talk to others more successful than themselves, NOT go through the effort or trial and error until it works.
This is why you have to be in the top 3 SERPs (search engine results pages) in Google for your topic or you’ll get very little traffic. Just 0.63% of people click on the second page of Google results. It’s too much work. I’ll just search again to save myself the finger cramp of scrolling a bit.
Companies are making billions on the lazy-train trend with convenience-based products. Are your carpets so filthy they stink? Don’t get them shampooed by a professional, just spray Febreze on them to cover up the smell. Your booty flabby? Don’t waste hours doing painful, time-consuming workouts with your ThighMaster, just buy a pair of Booty Pop underwear with the inflatable butt cheeks. Or buy a pair of Spanx to squeeze your fat in like a sausage. Hate cleaning? Start Swiffering!
Not all of these are bad, of course, but that’s not the point – they are shortcuts. And if you look at the successful products and services of our time, they all have the easy-button theme running through them, from Amazon to Uber. As a marketer, you should keep that in mind when selling YOUR services and products, but as an entrepreneur with honest ambition, you need to stand guard at the door of your mind for any and all easy-button porn, especially anything that takes away the responsibility of thinking.
Hopefully you HAVE goals set for this year and haven’t already abandoned them like a plate of broccoli at a fat camp. Maybe your resolution this year would be to build the emotional and mental muscle to STICK with something long enough to get the result you want, not because getting the goal is important (although it is) but because of the mental muscle you’ll build for NOT quitting.
Don’t let your resolutions fade away like last year’s trends. Join us for this year’s IT Marketing & Sales Boot Camp and transform your mindset from “National Quitters Day” to “Success All the Way!” Learn from industry experts and real success stories, and gain the mental muscle to stick with your goals. Secure your tickets now at robinsbigseminar.com and make 2024 your year of unstoppable success!