Last week I purchased an ebook called, “Click. Send. Earn. The Email ATM Blueprint For Passive Income” by Igor Kheifets for a whopping $3.99.
I imagine you’re thinking…
Steph, why the hell would you buy something with a title that reeks of get-rich-quick-online puffery?
So why did I buy it?
One reason: John Bejakovic.
He’s the one who got me started with daily emails — arguably one of the most valuable things I’ve ever done for my business — and he manages to constantly sell via email without being a douche-nozzle.
John even crowned me the winner of his “Contest of Contests” earlier this year, earning me a sales consultation with him.
So if he says “read this,” I pay attention.
Now here’s where things get interesting…
I clicked “Buy Now” and was immediately plunged into the most relentless gauntlet of upsells, downsells and uber-sells (is that a thing?) I’ve ever seen.
Offer after offer, priced from $19 to $247. Are you sure you don’t want this? Are you really sure? ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE?!?
When my purchase was finally complete, I landed on a confirmation page with a bigwarning message:
Don’t leave this page! and an obvious AI narrator explaining that if I closed the page, I might be charged twice. And then…
Yet another upsell.
By the time I got my $3.99 ebook, I was half-annoyed and half in awe.
I was annoyed because the funnel worked its psychological magic on me with offers engineered to trigger greed, fear and desire, and I don’t like feeling manipulated.
But I was also impressed. The sheer engineering of the funnel!
I wouldn’t sell like that. I won’t. It’s pretty much the antithesis of everything I stand for about selling.
But I love that Igor gets to make up a wildly profitable business machine that works for him.
I even understand the motivation behind using all those psychological tactics, because there was a time when I was brainwashed into believing them, too.
A quote from Igor’s ebook:
“You know it’s your ethical responsibility to pitch in every email, because if you don’t,
you’re depriving your clients of the opportunity to solve their problems.”
That’s the kind of logic that once convinced me it was my moral obligation to do everything in my power to sell my stuff because it was “for their own good.”
(Here’s where Steph tries very hard not to vomit.)
Let me be perfectly clear:
- My clients are sovereign grown-ups.
- They already have everything they need to thrive within, including the wisdom to know who to hire.
- It’s not my job to override that wisdom so they’ll buy from me.
Invite powerfully? Yes.
Speak truth? Always.
Manipulating? No way, Maisy May.
So was it worth $3.99?
Actually, yes. Not because of any new information (though the AI prompts were cool!) but it has reinforced my own inner knowing about two things:
#1 – Daily email is a joyful, aligned way for me to grow my business.
#2 – My next step to grow my audience isn’t to hustle my stuff on social media, but to buy attention intentionally with newsletter ads.
And another gem came in the form of this quote:
“The most precious commodity of the 21st Century…is our attention.”
Amazon and Facebook make billions buying eyeballs because they know how much that attention is worth.
This is a reminder about the power of attention. It creates our experience.
Attention is the Magic Magnifying Glass. Anything you turn your attention to takes on more significance, expands and amplifies.
So I’m choosing to put my attention on appreciation — for Igor’s wild criss-cross selling carnival, for the creative chaos of the internet and for the fact that all of us get to choose how we show up in it.
Judging his actions feels gross. Curiosity and gratitude are delicious.
What would you like to magnify with your attention today?
Yours in love and play,
Steph
