Why My Free Community Completely Failed
Won't do that again ...
Last month, I decided to create a free community for my membership program. It was a huge failure, but it taught me a few lessons I think you will find valuable.
Hopefully you can apply these insights to your own business.
LFG. 🔥
Why I Created The Free Community
The plan was simple. I would give away a free course inside The Machine Method, invite people into a community, start conversations, and then use automation to offer upgrades to The Launchpad or Sales Training.
It worked in theory. I got plenty of free signups and started a lot of conversations, but not a single person upgraded to the paid program.
I am not entirely sure why the drop off was so sudden, but I have some thoughts.
People Do Not Value Free
Think about it. How many free courses have you signed up for and never finished? Exactly. When something costs nothing, it usually means nothing.
It is a psychological thing. If something is free, we do not put as much value on it as we would if we paid for it.
The free course I created breaks down the entire process for using The Machine Method to build your business. It is highly valuable. Funny enough, now that I am going to charge for it, people will probably appreciate it more.
Free Communities Attract The Wrong Kind Of Customer
The problem is not that people do not want to succeed. It is that most people are not ready for the risk that success requires.
Living as an entrepreneur is different. You are constantly taking risks and investing in yourself without any guarantee of a return.
The harsh reality is that many of these investments will not pay off. There are more failures than wins in the game of business. But if you want to own a business and have control over your income, that is the leap you need to take.
Most people do not actually want to take that leap. They would rather dream about it, or watch inspirational videos, or scroll on LinkedIn. But actually doing something about it requires living without a safety net. Humans are not wired to do that.
What I found is that the free course attracted people who were more interested in the idea of building a business than building an actual business.
Selling Through Email And Phone Calls Is Much More Effective
And that lesson carried over to my sales process too. Just like people need to take real risks to grow, I needed to have real conversations to sell.
This is the lesson where I am face slapping myself the most, because I know this to be true and I tried to bypass reality. 🤦♂️
If you want to make sales, you need to have personal conversations with people.
Selling through DMs or hoping for easy layups does not work. Real sales people want to have conversations.
I think I was getting too comfortable with the success of The Machine Method, and I got arrogant. I started thinking that people would simply buy the program because of how great I am.
I was humbly reminded that people need assurance and want to get to know me and my team. Business is personal, and I cannot treat people like mindless cogs who will blindly swipe their debit cards.
Hopefully this helps you avoid the same mistake I made. Build something real, charge what it is worth, and have the conversations that move people forward.
Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.
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Absolutely spot on.
This post is so good