What Chris Hemsworth has to do with your business!

There is something that’s been bothering me lately. I feel a bit like I’m standing by watching a car accident about to happen. I see the cars headed towards each other and there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop it. 

There is this huge myth in the entrepreneurship world, and it’s being passed around through the coaching and serviced based entrepreneur circles. It’s unfortunate too because it’s causing people to, at best, delay their success. And at worst… well, at worst it’s causing them to throw in the towel on their business and I can not stand to see that happen.

I was motivated to write this to you today because I was just speaking with someone who was sharing with me that she’s having a hard time right now. What she proceeded to tell me was a story I’ve heard so many times from so many people. Maybe you have too? 

You might have even felt this way yourself.

This may be long, but stick with me, because there is a big huge A-HA moment for you at the end!

She shared with me that she spent the last several months working with a coach who had promised her that she could create this passive income funnel that would do it all. It would grow her list, make people see her as an expert, sell her online program on autopilot, and flood her bank account with money 24/7 with little to no effort from her. 

Not only that, this coach promised her it would be EASY, and it could be done QUICKLY. Sound familiar?

So she set to work. She did everything she was told to do, and she did it with determination.

And I bet you know what happened.

She turned on that funnel…

… and the leads didn’t flow. 

The money sure did flow though. The problem was it was flowing OUT and not in.

When she went back to the coach and said: “this isn’t working, what do I do?” Do you know what she heard back? The coach shrugged her shoulders and said “I don’t know why not. It works for everyone else.”

Little did she know that while she was lying in bed at night thinking “what’s wrong with me? I thought I was good at this…” and considering throwing in the towel, dozens of other people who followed that coaches advice were lying awake too.

And they were all thinking the SAME. DAMN. THING. 

They asked for advice, and the expert they trusted to help them steered them in the wrong direction. It wasn’t that they didn’t do enough, and it certainly wasn’t that there was (or is) anything wrong with them… they just fell victim to the myth. 

Allow me to be the Mythbuster (cue the Ghostbusters music). 

Speaking of which… did you see the Ghostbusters reboot movie a while back? There is a moment in there that illustrates this perfectly. 

Chris Hemsworth’s character is an aspiring actor who is working as a sort of receptionist for our new girl power team of Ghostbusters. In this scene, he’s getting ready to audition for the role of a doctor, and he needs to bring in a headshot. 

So he asks them…

You might think this is just an excuse to show you a shirtless photo of Chris Hemsworth (because, HELLO... Chris Hemsworth!) but it’s not. 

He’s presumably taking acting classes and following the advice of an expert who likely sold him on the idea that they could help him make it big. They probably told him that one of his keys to success was shirtless headshots. Shirtless headshots worked for them. They apparently worked for several of their clients.

And shirtless headshots certainly have their place… but they aren’t the holy grail of solutions for all actors, especially if the role you are auditioning for is that of a doctor (even if you look like Chris Hemsworth). 

So here’s my big mythbuster moment… 

Online courses and membership sites are the shirtless saxophone headshots of the marketing world right now.

Yes, they can work in certain, specific situations… but creating an online course or a membership site BEFORE you’ve already hit the point of bringing in leads every single day and turning those leads into paying clients CONSISTENTLY is just plain foolish.  

It’s as foolish as showing up for an audition to play a brain surgeon and handing them a shirtless photo of you holding a saxophone. 

But that myth… the one that says that creating a course or a membership and filling it using traffic from Facebook ads is the key to the kind of consistent income that you are craving… has become so pervasive that it is just accepted as fact now.

I’m tired of seeing smart, talented entrepreneurs throwing good money after bad in a quest to follow a plan that is not right for where they are in their business, and I’ve decided it’s time for me to do something about that. I’ll be back tomorrow to tell you more about that… but for now, let me leave you with this…

Courses and membership sites absolutely have a place in your business, but those strategies are best used by people who have already maxed out their schedules working with one-on-one, or even small groups of clients. 

Doing the one-on-one work lets you get the kind of depth of understanding you need for the challenges your clients face, the fears that hold them back, and the little changes that make a huge impact for them.  It also shines a massive spotlight on the differences that your solution can make in their lives. You’ll have dozens of testimonials or case studies to use for social proof. 

All of these things are absolutely critical for you to crush it with the launch of an online course or membership. 

Trying to launch before you have that depth of understanding and that amount of social proof is going to require a huge amount of trial and error, a pretty hefty budget for testing audiences on Facebook ads, and a willingness to lose money while you get things figured out. 

If you aren’t there yet, that’s OK. It is possible to fill your calendar with ideal one-on-one clients and to build your business to where you have a consistent, high paying income each and every month. 

I’m ready to show you how to do it. Are you ready to learn?