Back in the mid 2000’s, Neil Strauss wrote a book called “The Game” that completely changed the dating world for young guys.
Why?
Cause before The Game came out, most guys (including me) thought you had to be rich, tall and look like Brad Pitt to get women.
There was a belief that being able to get women was one of those things you either had or you didn’t have.
But The Game changed all that…
Cause in The Game, Neil profiled a cast of nerdy, scrawny guys who were going out each weekend and picking up some of the most attractive women around.
These guys weren’t getting women cause of their looks…
Or their cool car…
It was because of their “game” (AKA what they said to women).
And for most guys, realizing that you could simply improve your “game”, and get more women was an eye-opener.
So in many ways, The Game being published was a good thing…
It helped shy guys improve their social skills…
And learn how to talk to women…
However…
There was also a downside to it…
And that downside was that you had a lot of awkward guys, with no friends, and nothing going on in their life who all of a sudden were able to spit out a few memorized routines and pickup women because of it.
This was obviously a big improvement compared to the lack of women they were getting before…
But as a result of ONLY learning what to say to women, a lot of problems reared their head for the pick-up guys.
For example…
When you peeled back the shiny veneer of the smooth guy in a bar who knew exactly what to say to a woman…
There was a whole lot of nothing.
Most of the guys didn’t have many friends…
They weren’t passionate about anything…
Some of them still lived with their parents…
So the guy that seemed really fun and charming on Friday night, turned out to be kind of a loser who didn’t have much going on in his life.
Which I’m sure led to a lot of disappointed women.
And a bunch of guys wondering why those women stopped calling them back.
Now this might seem like a strange thing for me to write about in regards to marketing and copy…
But it actually has a lot of common.
Cause this exact same problem of things “appearing better than they are” happens in a lot of direct response businesses.
You have marketers that are damn good at coming up with a killer offer…
And writing brilliant copy…
However…
When you get to what they’re actually delivering to the customer…
A lot of times it’s shit.
Sometimes the course was whipped together in a day…
Other times it’s nothing more than a $2 supplement filled with sawdust and god knows what else…
And as a result, the buyer feels duped.
They bought into the sizzle, but there was no steak.
And that’s a really valuable lesson…
Cause if you want to play the “long game”…
And you want buyers to stick with you year after year…
Then it can’t just be about the marketing.
You have to have BOTH killer marketing and a killer product.
That’s obviously not easy to to do.
But if you’re in it for the long haul, I’d advise you to try and be good at both.
Cause that’s how you build a real business that has staying power.
You don’t want to be all sizzle and no steak.
You need a good steak as well.
Make sense?
I hope so.
Cause that’s all I got for ya today…
Enjoy your Valentine’s Day…
– Justin
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