How do liars and fake supporters help you in business?
We trust people and they betray us.
They give big promises and keep us hanging in daydreaming. We rely on them and they never turn up. They shatter our hopes and dreams. They loudly tell what they believe is true but they are liars. They look like our supporters but they are fake.
In this podcast episode, Mayur talks about
How these liars and fake supporters can surprisingly help us in growing our business? How can we take advantage of them?
This podcast is different than the rest of the episodes. It’s very close to my story and not with my story but in most of our story. It’s probably your story too. It’s something personal and I always wanted to share.
Back in 2010, when I started into training and coaching business, I started meeting a lot of people.
I was new to the business and as a beginner, my hopes were very high, just like everyone who start their own business. I had great things to offer. I was meeting and demonstrating my skill and knowledge. I met all sorts of people. I met people who design the website, people who do the outdoor marketing, people who want to join me, people who say that they will promote my work and all those people who show you big hopes. I was delivering sessions on various skills such as NLP, hypnosis, communication, sales and topics related to personal development. I had some products to sell. Yes, I have been selling products since 2010.
Now, there were many people who promised to give me work but never did.
They told me they will spread my words around and help me to promote because they said they liked what I do. But they disappeared and never bothered. I am sure you must have met many like those.
They treat you like a friend, they make you feel that you are the best person they ever found. But they don’t reply. They are what I call ‘Fake Supporters’.
The first person was the website designer. You know we need to be present online too. I didn’t know how to manage a website but some of my old friends came to me and said “Hey, you need a cool website! I will design a website that will give you an online presence.” I was hoping that it’s going to be really exciting. They charged me a lot and designed an ugly website. The money got wasted. I felt cheated when he refused to do a small correction on the website. I was upset because I have already prepared 10-15 pages to upload on my website but I could not show those pages which have articles, products and free goodies to the visitors to my website. That was one of the first few bad experiences.
Then a good man called ‘Dhairya Cholera’. We met almost accidentally and he helped in designing the website.
He is the founder of the company called ‘Webiots’. He taught me how to present the webpages and taught me how to do small corrections without seeking his help. He has been generous on many occasions and helped me to do small and sometimes bigger changes. Once he developed my website, it was a matter of 2-3 days for me to publish my website with enough content.
I didn’t have to start from scratch.
It’s all easy because the first web designer who gave me false promises made me do all the work upfront. The first web designer lied and gave false hopes. I was angry at him but people like him are part of the business. Bad people come in our business and make us frustrated. I was frustrated too but thanks to Dhairya Cholera for coming along and fulfilled my expectations.
So yes, good people also come.
I was also conducting workshops. I was doing advertisements for those workshops. Many people showed interest in attending but fewer turned up. All the hopes and dreams collapse when they don’t do what they say they are going to do. It’s really annoying when they say they really want to attend but they don’t show up. That keeps us wondering how are we going to plan and to manage
There was a company who wanted me to train their staff to upgrade their skill for marketing and sales.
They wanted me to teach marketing and sales using the NLP and hypnosis. The HR and senior managers called me a few times. I was supposed to train their not only sales and marketing team of 150+ people but also their middle and senior managers, as THEY SAID. I did a lot of analysis and meetings with their team. I spent 2 months just to prepare the training structure and topics that are right for them. They asked me to do a lot of changes and I happily agreed. Then I asked for the dates to begin.
They said, “Oh, we are having an annual audit, so we can’t do now!”
Then after 15 days, they said, “Our team is very busy right now. We will do next month”
After a month, they said, “Our senior management is not ready yet. Wait for another month.”
Then after another month, they ran out of fake promises, and said, “We will call you whenever it’s the right time.”
Then I never heard anything from them. They never answered my call.
My 5 months were wasted. I was upset and very angry. I looked at the entire work I have done for them. And Something clicked in mind. I turned that content into a product, an online course and a workshop called, “Conversational Hypnosis– How to communicate hypnotically?”. It has been one of the best-selling products so far. There are more than 5,000 students who learned from this course alone.
I secretly thank that company who kept me waiting for 5 months and didn’t bother to reply.
Now the question is “Are they bad for the business?” Well, they are not bad and not even good. They are not here to support us in any way. But they give us the initial kickstart to our projects. They give us new ideas and new direction but they don’t take part in our journey. They promise to join us in the direction they suggest but they don’t join. Many of my workshops and products were designed and prepared because someone asked for them but never bought them. They gave me a hint of what I can do more of. They took me to the new world of possibilities.
I could have probably never imagined those possibilities if they didn’t show me.
They are coming in our life to give that boost. They teach us the lesson of persistence. They show us how to value something that you get after so much of struggle. I get so happy when someone buys my course or book called “Conversational Hypnosis” because I created as a result of painstaking efforts. I have organised workshops because some people promised to attend whenever I was organising. Those people didn’t attend but surprisingly, many more attended my workshops and I didn’t even meet most of them before. I could have never met some of the fantastic students at my workshops and online courses if some of those people earlier on didn’t give me fake promises. I got irritated at that time when we hope they will keep their words. Now, I feel thankful to them for showing me the things I could do but never thought of doing them.
So, yes, those fake supporters are needed in our business. They accidentally help you to meet real fans and great customers you enjoy working with. There was a guy called, Kevin, who was one of my consulting clients. He wanted to learn how to write marketing offers effectively. Well, I showed him how to do it over the 3 sessions but he asked for some notes or cheat-sheet so that he can easily apply. And he refused to move ahead with the coaching program if I don’t prepare that short note. I condensed my lessons and after so much of work, I managed to create a small cheat-sheet that can help him to create the compelling promotional offers. I also had to do a lot of changes and updates. It was actually a lot better to teach and a lot easier to implement than before. I was excited to share the new system which is far more efficient than before. And when I asked Kevin to arrange a session to teach him how to use this short note or cheat sheet, he didn’t schedule the meeting.
He never did. I was surprised but Kevin never ever scheduled.
But, that cheat-sheet has helped many of my other clients to develop and analyse their business offers. It has been a game-changer for many clients. Finally, it was eventually turned in to a book called ‘Offer Craft’– How to create the marketing offer your customer can’t refuse to buy? It was released in July’20 and sold more than 400 copies in just a month. If Kevin hasn’t asked me to condense my entire system and structure onto a page, I wouldn’t have created this book at this stage. I probably would have created a cheat-sheet afterwards if I have thought so but the book came into this world earlier because of the fake supporter, Kevin. So yes, he somehow helped me in growing my business
Let’ summarise what we have covered.
There are people who will promise you to do business with you but they won’t. But they somehow push you ahead. They show you options to chose from. Some options are not worth taking but some are really game-changers. The entire journey of 10 years in this business hasn’t been interesting and exciting without those fake supporters.
They act as a devil but they dress as an angel. They tell you what’s possible for you.
You don’t have to ignore them. Think of what they suggest. There are already some people right now in your business who are giving you promises but not doing anything. It doesn’t matter. Decide what you want to do. They are pushing you beyond your boundary and that’s what needed sometimes in our business.
If I hadn’t met those devils or fake supporters, I probably haven’t created the range of products, workshops and courses.