
They’re afraid of what will happen if they don’t.
That’s the main driver and motivator in our society today – fear. If we don’t do something, we’re afraid of what will happen to us.
Now, when we say “get up in the morning” we mean start the day, but it’s a lot more than that. Mostly, it’s about going to work.
Sure, if you don’t get up one day, call in sick or whatever, it’s not going to make much difference.
But we’re getting at the mentality here. What if you don’t get up today, and what if that stretches into a few days, a week – then what?
When you stop getting up in the morning it’s a clear sign that you’re no longer interested in whatever it is that’s keeping you alive.
That’s not quite right, however. Mostly, people get up in the morning so they can go to work…so they can pay bills.
Ah, another layer. So far we have:
- Get up in the morning;
- Go to work;
- Pay the bills.
That’s the main recipe that motivates people to join the real world each day – paying bills.
My, they have a lot of bills to pay, don’t they? There’s:
- The rent
- The power
- The phone
- The cable TV
- The newspaper
- The magazines
- The student loans
- The health insurance
- The car insurance
- The home insurance
- Hell, maybe even the mortgage.
On top of this we have things like retirement, the kids’ college account, and that holiday fund.
Gosh, if didn’t get up in the morning for just one day, all of that great stuff might just vanish. And my God, we couldn’t have that.
When you’re trying to sell someone with your copy, you have to get past all of that bullshit that’s getting them up in the morning.
It’s hard.
People need that bullshit, they need it bad. That’s what our society is built upon, the world over – bullshit.
It’s this life we’ve created for ourselves, one with so many strings attached that you’re hopping and skipping and jumping at the slightest change in your reality. And those changes are immense.
Constantly, each and everyday, you’re bombarded by advertisements, products, and people trying to get whatever measly bit of change you have left over after that list of bullshit you have to throw your money at first.
So when you write content and engage in content marketing, that’s who you’re competing with – all the bullshit in your potential customer’s life.
After that you can start to have competition with the major companies of the world that want that customer’s money. These are things like Coke, Apple, Home Depot, and tons of other national and international chain stores with corporate-backing.
Once you get past the layer of bullshit and the companies of the world you can start to compete for that customer’s attention with those other businesses in your niche or industry.
By this point 75% of that customer’s resources – financial and otherwise – have been eaten up.
You and your entire niche/industry are competing for the last quarter of what that guy’s got, and the overwhelming desire he has to go home and hang it up after the incredibly long and frustrating day of bullshit he’s had to put up with.
My God, it’s amazing we sell anything at all to these people!
Conclusion
They can’t – they’re slaves to their bullshit.
Whether it’s that pile of bills they think they have to pay, that crappy job that they think they have to keep dragging themselves into, or the societal and generational expectations that they continue to shoulder, people will for the most part do as they’re told.
It’s why they get up in the morning – they’re afraid of what will happen if they don’t.
Every single one of your potential customers is driven by fear at a very base level. They’ll never admit it of course, but it’s the main thing that drives them.
People are afraid of their little world crumbling around them. That would surely happen if they looked at all the bullshit and threw up their hands and said ‘fuck it.’
But society and the corporations that run it would frown on that, now wouldn’t they? So we get the situation we have, the rat-race-like world that most people hate and do their best just to get by in.
That’s who you’re selling to.
Figure out what motivates that person.
We’ve already talked about the bullshit that motivates them, but you need to get at that 25% they have left.
This is the area that’s free of bullshit, though it could be filled with yours.
Shouldn’t it be filled with yours?