Since it’s Easter Sunday, here’s a story that I just heard about goose eggs.
A couple of days ago, I was recording the 500th episode of Natural Born Coaches, which is an interview with Jill Stanton (from “Screw The 9 To 5” fame).
Jill told the story of the very first launch that she and her husband, Josh, did. It was in a different niche than they currently serve, and it didn’t go how they planned.
After months of creating their product and preparing for the launch, the big day arrived. Jill was expecting huge numbers as they excitedly opened the online cart and waited for the money to come flying in.
How many sales did they get that day?
100?
1000?
1,000,000?
Nope.
They got zero sales … a big, fat, ugly goose egg!
And it wasn’t just a slow start. The program got zero sales in the following days too, and Jill admitted that she spent a lot of time crying as she went into a big funk over those results.
However, their crappy launch actually led to the success that she and Josh enjoy today with Screw The 9 to 5, where they’ve built a Facebook group of over 40,000 members that are affectionately called “Scroupies”.
Since that program fell flat on its face, they decided to change directions and it led them to who they currently serve. If they had gotten even a handful of sales, Jill admitted that they probably would have kept beating their heads against the wall trying to make the old way work.
A slightly disappointing result probably wouldn’t have given them enough of a jolt to build their current business. They needed a massive shock to make the change.
I’m not suggesting that you quit when you fail, only that there’s no shame in changing direction …
It’s not like Josh and Jill ran off to the woods to live like hermits in an old shack to avoid the embarrassment and shame from their failed launch. They kept plugging away, just in a different way than they thought they would.
Don’t stick with one thing just because you’ve already invested time and money into it. In poker, that’s called being “pot-committed”. It’s when you throw good money after bad just because you’ve already bet chips on a bad hand.
In business, it’s a bad strategy.
Sometimes you just need a goose egg to propel you in the right direction.
If you need a shot in the arm for your business, Facebook groups are a good way to do it. They’ve worked for me and Jill Stanton, and they can do wonders for you too. If you need help building a successful group, check this out:
