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“I just don’t have a bleeding neck problem…”
I was helping a client with her messaging a while back and she said something that I think will help you understand how to pull one of the most effective marketing levers known to man.
“I just don’t have a bleeding neck problem with a clear and profound transformation attached.”
Meaning that there was no drama, no big car crash, and no near death experience that reached out grabbed her by the shirt-collar and dragged her kicking and screaming into a better life.
Of course, this was immediately after she poured out something honest and vulnerable that, if I don’t mind saying, when you added it all up it sounded like something I would certainly refuse to tolerate.
And she compared it to smoking cigarettes.
So here’s my own version of that.
As a former smoker, there was a long stretch where I actually enjoyed smoking.
I didn't think it was a problem at all, and so I kept going and never planned to quit. But the more I got into health, wellness, and bringing more vitality to my life, the more this embarrassing habit stood out to me as something I needed to change.
But I’d put it off indefinitely, or give it a half-hearted attempt then run right back to smoking.
This went on for years.
Until it got so bad that I was literally trying-and-failing to quit every single day.
I’d buy a pouch of my favorite organic rolling tobacco. Smoke a few hand rolled cigarettes. Feel terrible. Get frustrated with myself and say, “Today’s the day!” Then I fill the pouch with water, getting the tobacco impossibly wet to smoke and slam dunk it into garbage can outside.
Before long I’d be drying the wet tobacco in a frying pan on the stove and rolling up a toasty, previously-wet cigarette after digging around in the trash.
I honestly did that little dance on and off for a year before I finally said, “Enough is enough.”
I’d been self-medicating after being reliant on stimulant medication as a kid for what they called “ADHD”. So to be honest I blamed the medical system for my early and persistent addiction to stimulants.
But I can only point the finger at myself for solving it.
And while nobody’s calling an ambulance for something like this, I’d say that was a “bleeding neck problem” for me.
I happily paid for experts to help me with a solution to that problem.
Happily, it remains solved until this day.
And one of the best ways to find out what those little “bleeding neck problems” are for your customers and your clients is to use a little process I like to call “Themed Calls to Clients”, which you can a learn a little more about by going here:
See you there,
Kevin Hood