Yesterday I talked about how important it is to stick to your guns with your business, and here’s a story that hammered that home for me:
I had Robert Coorey, author of Feed a Starving Crowd, on my podcast back in 2015. Although we aren’t best friends or anything, I’ve chatted with him on Skype and our paths have crossed over the years.
Last year, Robert was hosting a webinar that I was interested in watching. He was very clear when promoting the webinar that there would be no replays available after it aired live, and that people would have to attend live or they wouldn’t get to see what he was teaching.
I registered for it, but got tied up on an appointment and couldn’t make it to the webinar. So the next day, I sent a message to Robert that went something like this:
“Hey Robert! How’s it going? I got tied up on a call yesterday and couldn’t make your webinar, but I’d really like to see it. Any way to get the replay to check it out?”
(Full disclosure: I expected Robert to give me a replay link. Sure, he said that there would be no replay available, but since I had him on my podcast and I know him, he’d surely send it right over!)
His response?
“Sorry Marc, I’d love to help but I promised there would be no replay available and I can’t break my word on that”
Wow.
Although I was disappointed to not see a replay, I respected Robert’s decision. It’s rare that people online actually stick to their word!
We’re used to hearing BS like “The cart is closing at midnight and then this deal is gone forever!”, then getting an email the next day: “Good news! Demand was so crazy for what I was selling that I’ve decided to open up the cart for an extra day – better grab it now!”
Or there’s the old (and stupid) Internet Marketing trick where people claim that there’s only a limited supply of something digital that they’re selling – which makes no sense. You’re selling videos and PDFs, not an item that’s in your warehouse …
If you keep your word, you’ll stand out like a sore thumb from most of the people online.
Robert probably didn’t think twice about denying me that webinar replay, and he probably doesn’t realize the lesson he taught me (and hopefully you) with that one little action.
If you’re the type of person who wants to build a business where people are spreading your name around (in a good way – like me with Robert), you’ll be a great fit for this:
