EP45: The New Normal

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2, a pandemic.

The announcement followed a rising sense of alarm in the preceding months over a new, potentially lethal virus that was swiftly spreading around the world.

Over a year and nine months later, we can look back on one of the most challenging periods in recent memory.

How has this period of time affected you, your family, your business?

With over 49.8 million COVID cases and over 795,000 deaths in the USA (as of Mid-Dec 2021) we assuredly have been affected one way or another. [Note: as of 12/26/21 over 837,779 deaths]

Where I live, in Florida, there were over 62,000 deaths thus far.

Many people have been displaced, lost their jobs, lost family members, and lost their zeal.

But there have been some good to come from this also. [if we can even say that]

People have been reminded that their health is their responsibility. Like it or not, whether you support vaccinations or not, your life and your families depend on the decisions you make individually.

Many businesses have been forced to increase their wages as millions of people choose to quit their jobs in search of better opportunities.

Employers are learning a long-forgotten lesson. People matter. To have and keep good, hard-working people, their employees must be respected and their hard work acknowledged.

Even many nurses and aides are leaving their positions because they have been overworked and quite frankly they too have been overwhelmed.

Right now, some states are still seeing their hospitals completely overwhelmed as well. Their capacity to help is limited by the amount of available staff, infrastructure, rooms, ventilators, and the like.

Now, more than ever, many are streaming online to make a better, more dependable life for themselves.

Even with jobs available, still at low wages, many are choosing to reject them in favor of higher-paying jobs, and still, others choose to work for themselves.

No matter how you look at it, our world has changed forever.

I do not think there will be a return to “NORMAL” as many hope. [What do you think?]

Instead, there will be a “NEW” normal emerging from the aftermath of this world we all live in.

Will it be better, worse, or similar to the past?

This is yet to be determined.

I hope that these changes we are experiencing will encourage more people to start taking more control of their lives, and their income.

We have seen too many people laid off and left wondering how to buy food and pay rent or mortgages.

Countless numbers of people are at a loss to make a better life for themselves. Many still live day by day.

In my opinion, I believe anyone can choose to do better for themselves and their families. [with adequate training]

Marketing online has continued to be alive and well during the pandemic.

People were forced to purchase things online as soon as the world locked down their citizens.

If you had a brick-and-mortar business, and it wasn’t shut down, you saw a steady decrease in sales.

However online businesses kept seeing increases in sales month after month. Just look at Amazon. When brick-and-mortar businesses were closed, everyone HAD to purchase online. Now that many businesses are re-opened, many of the NEW and existing online purchasers, are sticking with the easier, faster online solution.

I believe there will be a time when there are more sales online than there are offline.

Those that can make a shift to begin a business online will see their income become more steady.

But not ALL online businesses are successful. Just like all other businesses, new businesses fail more than those that succeed.

This is because most business owners fail to learn HOW to run a business, to begin with.

It happens online as well.

And here is why.

Some online marketers (gurus) take advantage of the ignorance of new business owners. They successfully market products, programs, and courses, that fail to provide REAL training to the detriment of the student. However, the guru keeps making money. He or she is deemed successful. [not the type of success I want]

I have seen this take place since the 1990s. It still dominates the online world.

However, not everyone is like this. While there are MANY unscrupulous people online, there are also MANY other people who continue to operate their businesses by helping others instead. [me included]

These good-hearted individuals have integrity and a willingness to serve others. They understand the online environment and how people have been harmed.

Their mission is to HELP not HARM. They choose to GIVE not TAKE. Their business is designed to treat people FAIRLY and be HONEST with them.

I know I have talked about this before. That is because it is important.

To me, and I hope to you as well.

I spent entirely too much time thinking about the programs and products that were being sold online, wondering how they could help me get started when all they did was force me to keep buying more.

I was IGNORANT and didn't know any better. I didn't know what I didn't know.

Eventually, I smartened up and decided to listen to someone, who wasn't me, who had achieved the success I wanted.

One of the things I admire about my mentor is that he does not force a sale on anyone. He explains the product and then he actively discourages those that don't have the available funds for it. He tells them NOT to purchase it. He then gives them a FREE course or solution that will help them along their way.

By doing this, he is acknowledging them, letting them know, IT'S OK, and one day, when they are ready, it will be ready for them.

But until then, he makes available this free training that will STILL help them.

People respond to this kind of treatment. They can draw close to him. They REALLY know that he cares. They know he is there trying to help people, not just to sell to them.

If more marketers would evoke true empathy and understanding in their copy and such, they would have a completely different audience.

Their people would be those that want to be around them. They would want to read whatever they write, whether in an email, a web page, or a sales letter.

This is because they trust this person and know he or she would be fair with them.

This is how marketing online SHOULD BE.

I hope that more marketers will take the time to transform their messages into messages of hope. Where they are creators of change. Where the outcome of their marketing is a positive one.

This will help more everyday and common people get the REAL training they need, to become successful online.

I don't want others to take as long as it took me to finally understand how to market online.

I don’t want my journey to be theirs.

We ALL struggle enough in this life we live.

Learning how to start a business online should not be a struggle.

Sure some things must be learned now, and other things can be learned later, but it should not be a difficult process.

Until more marketers are helping in this process, I will continue imitating my mentor, being fair to everyone that needs help.

It is just the way I roll.

Let me know what you think!

Send me a message, and let me know, what life was like before you started working online. How was your training? Was it hard or easy? If you're still learning, then let me know how you're doing, and if there is anything I can do to help, I will. Promise.

We are a community of like-minded individuals. Gone should be the days of smoke and mirrors.

Real training for real people is what most people want.

Sure there are a lot of people that want nothing but free training because they are low in income, but as you may have already found, free training won't always get you where you want to be.

Free training is usually generalized and does not have ALL the details. Also, free training is never all in one place.

Sadly, paid training isn't always the best either. Especially if you don't know the person that created it.

The best-paid training is the one from someone you know, and trust to give high-quality information that is valuable and will solve a problem.

Also, most paid training is not all-inclusive. Therefore it does not cover everything. You will rarely if ever, find any training that will take you from, waking up with a dream of becoming successful online, and taking you all the way through the process, spitting you out a fully functional, and successful, income-producing entrepreneur.

What it does do, if done correctly, helps you understand a topic, learn enough to accomplish it yourself, and when done, you can be happy you purchased it. Great paid pieces of training have a single purpose in mind, that it delivers on, 100 percent.

Can you say that about the last product you purchased?

I hope you can.

But if not, learn from that.

Make sure any products you create will always provide value to the end-user.

Everything…

Everything we do in marketing should reflect our core values.

If they do, and they are of GOOD value, the people will recognize it.

If this is you, then GOOD FOR YOU!

Again, if you’re just starting.

Find someone you can trust to help you along the way.

Read their copy, emails, web pages.

Do they reflect how you want to be treated?

If they do, keep reading.

If they don't, find someone else.

This is it for this week.

Until next week, be safe, be happy, be strong.

James "Almost Normal" Brown

P.S. - In the event, you DO find that once an episode has been produced and posted, that YOU really would like more information, just let me know. Use the Podcast Questions link, click on the link here. Or you can just leave a voice message here.