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How Love Builds Momentum At $833 Per Person
By Mark Silver
One obvious thing you need in a business to build momentum is a list of interested people. Whether you are sending email, postcards, newsletters, CDs or balloon bouquets, having that group of interested people is who you want to be in touch with.
So, the obvious obsession of most business owners who understand this is "How big and how quickly can I grow my list?" When you have 50 subscribers, you want 500. When you have 500 you want 1500. When you have 1500 you want 5000. And when you finally reach 5000, you are drooling at those lists of 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 subscribers.
Stop drooling.
Sure, a large list is nice to have, but it's no magic carpet. I know business owners who have lists with 4000 people, even with 10,000 people who are still struggling to have a profitable business. God love those business people- they are doing many things right, but are missing the answer to the $833 question. Don't feel bad, many people miss this one.
6,000 subscribers = $5,000,000/year
I know someone who has a list of about 6,000 subscribers. And the business does $5,000,000 annually. Divide that by 6,000 and that's $833 per subscriber per year. Sure, the website could use a lot of improvements, the business model could use a tune-up, but the business is still performing, without any additional advertising or marketing.
How does the business do it? It's a four-letter-word: LOVE.
Here's the $833 question: How much do you love each other?
Poets and sages have wrestled with Love throughout the ages, but I'm concerned with just two definitions:
1. Love (noun): Affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests.
2. Love (verb): To thrive in (the rose loves sunlight). (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
It's not Love itself that turns your business around- it's what Love inspires you to do. Do you admire your subscribers? Do feel benevolent and generous towards them? I'm already assuming you have interests in common.
And, the biggest question: do you know what helps your subscribers to thrive? We have a ficus tree in a corner of our house next to a window. Every few months we need to turn the tree around. Why? Because it keeps turning and growing towards the sunlight. We turn it to keep it growing evenly, but no matter which way we turn it, it grows towards the sunlight, because that's what it needs to thrive.
If you aren't providing, through affection, admiration and benevolence, what your subscribers need to thrive, they won't be turning towards you. And you won't be thriving.
The ancient wisdom said it best: Love increases Love. If your subscribers are thriving, you'll be thriving.
Except that's not always true...
What makes the difference between being in a mutually-thriving relationship with your subscribers, versus just giving and giving and giving until you are depleted and broke?
Keys to Answering the $833 Questions
* Thumbs-down on being "professional."
I don't mean that you should show up for work with oatmeal dripping down your shirt, or not showering in four days. What I mean is- be human. I see many people writing newsletters to their subscribers that are very.... careful... You can almost see the thought balloons above their head: "I hope I said it right. I hope I don't upset anyone. I hope they like me."
Wow... that's an exhausting way to write, and an exhausting read. Instead connect to your heart, and connect to the hearts of your subscribers, and act like you would if your best friend asked you for help concerning something you do in your business. If you did you would yuck it up, and just let your generosity flow out of you.
* Send Valentine invites.
When you love your friends, you invite them over to dinner, or to a party. If they are good friends, you invite them often. And I bet your friends always ask, 'What can I bring?' And you usually feel great about saying, 'Bring dessert.'
Invite people to buy from you with this same attitude, and do it regularly. Offer them what they'll love, and will help them thrive. And don't be embarrassed to ask them to pitch in- that it will cost them money to do it. If everyone pitches in, then it becomes a potluck, and everyone thrives.
* Call them in the middle of the night and talk for hours.
Love makes you do crazy things. Keep in touch with them often- when you love someone, you want to hang around them a lot. That doesn't mean 'when you get to it.' That doesn't mean 'once a quarter.' The most successful are in touch with their subscribers at least every two weeks, even better at once a week, or even, in certain instances, more frequently. The business I described above sends out two emails a week, and has for years, with raving responses.
What do you tell'em when you call? Let love inspire you to learn more and more about what you do for your business and share that, generously, with your subscribers. Plus, tell them sweet nothings, like telling them your favorite tapioca recipe, which I did a few weeks back.
Love inspires love. Generosity inspires generosity. Showing up consistently inspires loyalty and connection. Go love the heck out of your subscribers.
My very best to you and your business,
Mark Silver
About the Author
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of people in small business succeed without losing their heart, through integrating 1500 years of spiritual tradition with down-to-earth business practices. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com
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