Module 1 Copy

Unit 2 Lesson 7A

Pillar seven talks about resources and assets. When I say assets and resources, I’m talking about the physical or informational elements of the actual offer itself, and how that is presented. I’m also going to be talking about what they physically have right there in front of them that can help them take hold of the offer and get the result that they want. Because the funny thing is, they likely have things right there in front of them that can help them use the offer, they just don’t recognize it because they’ve never bought your offer before. 

So when we’re thinking in terms of resources and assets, I’m thinking in terms of people who have never bought. So we’re not talking necessarily about repeat buyers or people who have bought again and again, we’re talking about people who are seeing a new offer for the first time. This is like the first sale for them into that offer because it’s kind of uncharted territory. 

So speaking of uncharted territory, about a year and a half ago we took our kids on vacation to the Rocky Mountains. We were over by Woodland Park, which is just west of Colorado Springs, and it was so beautiful. We spent about nine days at an Airbnb and we ended up going down to Fort Collins meeting with some friends there. He was a chaplain, army chaplain, and they took us hiking. 

So, we’re not super familiar with the area and we’re really excited to have somebody with us that could help us navigate things. Because Jeremy and I, obviously living in Iowa, we don’t have a whole lot of hiking experience. But our friends, they live in Colorado Springs, they hiked these trails before. 

Our teenagers were super, super excited about it. They were able to do some of the more challenging climbs because our friend was with us, he knew the safe path to take. He knew the handholds and footholds, and if it had been just good-all mom and dad with them, they would not have gotten to see or do all the things that they were able to, because we probably wouldn’t have even known where to go or what to do. 

So I have this picture and let me see if I can bring it up and show you because it’s super adorable. Here we go. So I don’t know if you can see this picture. That is our two kids peering at us from The Eye, they call it The Eye. So Jeremy and I are standing in the bottom of, like, it’s almost like a cave, but it’s above ground kind of open on all sides but the back. And you can hike up and over it to look down through the eye. 

So our friend was able to take our kids hike up and over and we got to take this really, really fun and cool picture, which we wouldn’t have been able to do because my husband and I did not have the skills or the knowledge to get them there. But because our friend had been there, because he knew, they had such a better experience and they were able to achieve something they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. 

We need to be that friend for our client’s target audience. We need to be Matt, Matt was the name of our friend, our hiking experience friend. When it comes to this pillar, pillar number seven on assets and resources, that’s our role. We are the guides who can help prepare them and get them set up to succeed. And we need to make sure that they know that we’ve walked the path before them, and we understand exactly what they need in order to get started. They need the reassurance that someone’s been there, done that and has blazed the trail ahead of them, because there’s this strange concept that happens with people. 

We’ve discussed the internal factors that hold people back, we’ve talked about how to crush false beliefs and show them that they are the right person for this offer and help them release the things they’ve tried that are holding them back. That didn’t work, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still looking for that one last out.

This concept is the concept of looking for the easy out right towards the end. Right as we’re about ready to take that step and make that decision, sometimes we reach for the easy out. So I can totally relate to this. I used to be in great shape. I ran five days a week, I lifted weights and I did kickboxing in the evenings… and then I built a business. That meant a lot of sitting, and all the time I put into my physical health and fitness now was shifted over into survival mode as I built my business, and everything else except family and faith got pushed to the backburner. 

I missed being fit and strong though, like I missed it. After a while I really missed wearing my favorite clothes, right? But the longer I went without working out, the easier it was not to do, the easier it was to make excuses as to why I wasn’t going to. “I don’t have time, too tired. What does it matter? I’m 40.” 

Now, I was looking for the easy out and I took it every single time. I needed help getting out of the cycle, but I couldn’t do it on my own. Then my husband hired a personal trainer. When he joined the program, he asked me if I wanted to join too. I said, “No, no, I’m okay. I don’t need that.”

So for two weeks, I watched as he dove in headfirst with the workouts and the meal plan. And as I watched, I could see that it wasn’t so bad. He didn’t need to buy special food or equipment, or spend hours prepping food. And he could easily do the workouts with the equipment we had in our home gym. 

You see where I’m going with this right? My husband did it first, he showed me it was possible and that all of my excuses were just excuses. I didn’t need to be in the best shape of my life to get started. I didn’t need expensive workout clothes or five figure workout machines. I could do this, I could follow the plan to get back in shape and start feeling better about myself. And suddenly, the easy out didn’t look quite so attractive. 

We need to bring that kind of realization to our client’s target audiences. How do you do that though? We need to bring them the real truth, okay? We got to get real with them. 

So, as people who already know what the end result of a workout plan or an online course or supplement is, it’s easy for us to think that the target market will immediately jump in on an offer when they see what the potential results are for them. We’re so close to it, we know how effective it can be and a lot of times we skip over addressing things that need to be addressed because we assume that the audience is just going to catch on. 

That’s not the case. Because here’s the thing, until you can get the hard stuff out of their way, the results might take a back seat. They don’t have the result yet, they’ve never experienced it. So what they’ll see first are all the things that look hard that are standing in the way. They’ll convince themselves they can’t do it and they’ll take the easy out, but not the one that puts pressure on themselves. 

So let’s look at my example. Over and over, I took the easy out of having work to do, or it’s too cold to go running now and I prioritize things over my health and fitness. My excuses were true. I was busy. It was winter, it’s cold in the winter. And I was right. 

And it allowed me to pass the buck and not put the responsibility for doing or not doing something, when it should be on me. When I heard the real truth, I didn’t want to admit how far I’d let my physical fitness slide. I prioritize other things over my health and fitness. I recognize that about myself. But I’m not likely to share that truth with others, right? And guess what? The target audience is like this too. 

They’ll look for an external reason why they can’t and use that as their easy out. “Oh my gosh, this course looks like I’m going to need some really fancy tech equipment or something, I’m not going to be able to do it because I don’t have that.”

Or, “I can’t do a video challenge. I don’t have a good video camera.” 

See what I mean about the easy out? The easy out works as long as they think their excuses are valid or the excuses are more powerful than the result they want. It’s our job as sales conversion copywriters to convince them that it’s not true. 

We don’t want to leave any room in the description of the offer for them to cop out and think that they can’t do it or that it’s too hard. So what do we do then? Go ahead and click through to the next video and we’re going to break down the objectives for this lesson. I’ll show you exactly what to do.