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We’re about to put a neat little bow on this week, folks. I’m going to hand you some much-needed motivation (with a twist) for getting the word out about your offers, projects, and business. Motivation’s needed because even world-renown figures are hesitant to promote their work, as we’ll see in a perfect example.

Then, we’ll end on a high note with This Week’s Marketing Wrap-Up.

Appetizer: This is what persistence looks like.

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Getting the Word Out

Over the past week, I’ve listened to nearly ten hours of Steven Pressfield interviews. He wrote The War of Art and The Legend of Bagger Vance. I believe he’s had about 20 books published in total.

In each of those interviews, he was promoting a new book.

Do you know the most unexpected thing I’ve noticed in his interviews?

Mr. Pressfield is not eager to promote himself.

“Is this something your listeners want to hear about? I’m just blabbering here,” he said several times to various podcast hosts. 

This man has over 50 years of writing experience, has sold millions of books, and he’s unsure anyone is interested in what he has to say! 

In one interview, he actually says that quiet part out loud. That he doesn’t like promoting his work. 

He’d prefer to offload that task to a third party. However, that’s not possible in today’s age. 

Imagine his agent or some hype-man going on Soft White Underbelly or Pete Holmes’ show to talk about Steven Pressfield’s deepest thoughts. It simply wouldn’t work. 

We want to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

People who’ve taken the time to read his books want to hear directly from him. We want any little extra tidbits they can get, like:

• What makes him tick?

• Who mentored him?

• Why does he keep writing?

• Why does he hate the Bagger Vance movie?

After the first four interviews, I was hearing a lot of repeated talking points. Didn’t matter. I kept listening, hoping for any nugget he hadn’t talked about before. And by listening to ten hours of him talk, I picked up some extras.

I’ve got a few more of his interviews queued up in case there’s more tidbits to be had too. 

Steven Pressfield not wanting to self-promote is a common problem for business owners. 

He has every reason to be comfortable promoting his books because the market has made it obvious his work is valuable to the masses.

And still he resists doing it. I’d argue the Resistance (capital “R”) to self-promotion is even stronger than the Resistance to starting a project or business. 

This force is hard to fight off.

But there are ways to motivate yourself to promote your brand even if you’re shy about doing it or feel a bit icky about it. One way I thought of is to imagine…

Trying to Destroy a Business that Did Your Mama Wrong

Imagine a roofing company put a new roof on your mom’s house and 9 months later that roof’s leaking. And the roofer won’t call your mom back. You get involved, and they won’t call you back either. 

So, to what lengths would you go to shout to the world how awful this roofing company is?

What would you do to promote their demise?

I bet you’d hop on Google and Yelp to leave a one star review, with vicious details about this sorry company that won’t stand by their work. 

I bet you’d ask your sister, brother-in-law, cousin, next door neighbor, and friends to leave a one-star review too. Then, you’d tell everyone you know this roofing business cannot be trusted.

Heck, you might even run some ads telling people to be wary of shady roofing companies. Putting your phone number in the ad for people to call and ask you which roofing company left your mama hanging with a leaky roof and wet living room ceiling!

You might even try to get booked on local radio shows or podcasts to talk about protecting older folks from untrustworthy service providers. Maybe you’d hire a local influencer to discuss the topic and hint at which specific company should be avoided.

Get the point?

Imagine that scenario and how it would motivate you to promote NOT doing business with a terrible company that wronged your mom. 

Now, use that same level of motivation to promote your business. 

Get the word out by any means necessary. You could even pretend there’s an awful competitor out there who’s ripping people off left and right. Anything to light a fire under your butt to do more self-promotion. 

This tactic may sound crazy. But it takes extreme measures to overcome the Resistance to tooting your own horn. If that Resistance has hindered someone as good as Steven Pressfield, then it can be a roadblock to anyone. Including you and me.

On to the Wrap-Up…

Please share Inbox Hacking with a fellow marketing genius or business owner. I appreciate you reading and sharing. 

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

“You must speak for your work, because your work doesn’t speak for itself.” ~Andrea Wojnicki

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ICYMI: 🤥Preposterous advertising lies