How to tell if you’re a master or an amateur
Published: Fri, 08/06/21
After all, interest in self defense was on the rise.
Sifu's answer?
Yes, there was a rise in new interest.
But, he wasn’t taking a bunch of new students on.
And, in fact, he was quick to turn people away.
Reason why is, he was more than content with the students he already has who are demonstrably committed. Fact is, he’s been teaching kung fu long enough to know, just by talking to someone, how committed someone is. And if they aren’t going to commit, have the discipline to practice & stick with it over the long haul, and take it seriously… he didn’t want to waste his time teaching them his 50+ years of kung fu knowledge.
In other words:
He Curates his students.
Like Yours Crotchety is with “Email Players”, he is a 4 quarters vs 100 pennies kinda guy.
He’d much rather have a roll of 4 clean & sparkling quarters in his pocket, than 100 sticky, dirty pennies that only God knows where they’ve been. I dedicated an entire issue just to this a couple years ago — as even though curation is not a “technique”, it does have many applications to business for being able to charge higher fees/prices, make more overall profits, while dealing with less people, less drama, and less horse shyt.
All this got me to thinking about something else, too:
One of the big differences between masters & amateurs in everything is Curation.
Masters in any field — from kung fu & sports… to medicine & law… to real estate & investing… to, yes, copywriting & marketing… all aggressively Curate who they sell to, teach, or give time to.
They are not graciously “inclusive.”
They are aggressively exclusive.
They have to be that way.
Their time & energy is simply way too limited.
That’s why the higher you climb into the upper echelons of any industry or niche, the harder it is, more expensive it is, and more exclusionary it is as far as being able to learn from/talk to/associate with the top boys & ghouls.
And that is how it should be.
Frankly, it is what has always inspired me to curate my own customer base so hard — to the point of it being nearly impossible to so much as get me on the phone (ask any of my friends, they will tell you I don’t even talk to them by phone), much less hire me for coaching, consulting, copywriting, etc.
If anything, I am always curating people out.
Always blocking & blacklisting people who have no commitment or discipline.
Always polarizing & mocking the blue flame specials I don’t want buying from me.
And, yes, always placing obstacles in the way of my time or attention.
I suggest you think about doing likewise if you want to be able to charge more, have your products/services taken more seriously, and deal with nothing but the cream of the crop high quality customers/clients in your World.
All right enough of this.
The successful person will see the value in this and extract it.
The new product junkie who buys everything and uses or applies nothing won’t, and will go back to shooting marbles & drooling on the carpet watching TikTok videos.
Which is why the former will always dominate the latter.
On to the business:
If you haven’t entered elBenbo’s BizHaunt yet, the link is below.
It’s the only social media platform I am on.
And even that is because I own the friggin’ platform (SocialLair) along with “Email Players” subscriber Troy Broussard. And we created it very specifically to appeal to thinkers and not drooling-on-the-carpet-watching-cat-videos’ers.
The BizHaunt is free to join, and can be accessed here:
https://www.EmailPlayers.com/bizhaunt
Ben Settle