Butthurt Design

A couple of months ago, someone anger-typed a very wordy, butthurt response to one of my (many) emails about Human Design being bullshite. 

The email was far too emotional even for me, but, to paraphrase, he basically said that, while I say I’m great at getting clients and “convincing them to buy,” me having a membership site indicated otherwise.

This reminded me of an experience while managing my mother’s luxury resale shop in Manhattan in my early twenties: 

A customer was interested in a Louis Vuitton bag we had on display. While taking it out of the window for her, I explained that Vuitton was one of the most sought-after brands we carried and, as such, hard to keep in stock.

She scoffed and snorted out, “Then why is this still here?”

I was only 22 at the time, so I put the bag back and politely suggested other boutiques she could visit (in hell). 

Now, 10 years later, I not only understand why someone would respond that way, but I actually like it. 

Thing is, there are certain personality types who not only miss the forest for the trees, but they’re busy counting the leaves on each ugly branch they hit on the way down. 

What that customer thought was a smart-ass or witty remark was missing the point: had she asked, I would have further explained that it was the last of the eighteen LV bags we sold that month.  

And, had that HD apologist asked what prompted me to create Biz Typology, I would have explained that I teach personality type-based marketing *because* it has helped me and my clients get more (and better) sales, clients, and customers. 

(Which, yes, can mean more monie when applied to your sales, copywriting, and marketing skills. But it also means easier and more efficient ways to run your business and daily life, improving your working and personal relationships, and also greater peace of mind.)

But the reason why I appreciate comments like this is that, once you recognize these types, their laser focus can be harnessed and used for good—and, yes, profit. 

I talk about this in not one but TWO videos in the new season of The HR Czar, available now in my membership site, Biz Typology.

This is especially helpful if you identify as an E or INTP/J—in one video, “Dial ‘N’ for Biz Murder,” I go over how the high-powered litigator I worked for did this with aplomb to scale his multi-million dollar firm stocked with only ride-or-die employees.

To know what I mean, here:

http://biztypology.com

The three-dollar ho of lead gen

Yesterday, a phone case company contacted me with a pitch to give them a shoutout on my Instagram page in exchange for a free iPhone case.

Now, I’m not an Instagram influencer by any stretch of the imagination: I have a little less than 1,200 followers, most of whom who know me personally or from elsewhere on social media. But even if that weren’t the case, it is still my brand and business—which they were essentially trying to buy with a free iPhone case likely made in China for pennies on the dollar. 

I know for some, this would raise a(n appropriately) red flag. But for others, this wouldn’t bother them one bit. In fact, some would jump at the chance—“ooh, free merchandise!”—without giving it a second thought. 

Which, to me, seems like they’re treating business more like it’s Chuck E. Cheese: 

Spending money/time/energy for worthless Internet tickets, redeemable only for some bullshite dollar-store prizes.

That’s worse than being a three-dollar ho—because, in sx work, at least you get paid.  

Which is why, when it comes to MY list, I am very careful with what I sell. 

In other words, for every “influencer” are soliciting over at the parking lot of the Bunny Hop, I’m very expensive—too expensive for even the five-star hotel bar:

I sell my own products 99.5% of the time, with the leftover .5% reserved ONLY for products and methodology I have personally used, from people I personally know, vetted, and trust. And, yes, who would pay me in return—in actual dollars and cents, not stuff. 

(Tl;dr: This means Ben Settle, who is literally working the book on it, is the only one I’ll do any kind of affiliate marketing for, for a long while.) 

So on to the good stuff (that’s tested, trusted, and, more importantly, mine):

In only a few days, Season One of my newest series, The HR Czar, will be released in my private membership site, Biz Typology. In these short-bite, less-than-15-minute videos, you will learn: 

– Why your prospects are NOT chomping at the bit to work with you when they obviously need you (spoiler alert: it has nothing to do with your offer OR your pricing—the one simple trick to fix it is in Episode 3, which will also help you get any miscreant assistant or freelancer back in line) 
– How a freelancer or assistant (or even a client) WANTS you to fire them—and no, it’s not about letting them down gently, no matter what the mushcookie life coaches tell you. (Episode 4) 
–  Why “open-door policies” with any freelancers, virtual assistants, or even coaches you hire to help you can actually kill your business (Episode 1) 
– Why money  can NOT attracted to speed (and what to do when you find yourself hemorrhaging both money and time trying to keep up—more in Episode 2) 
– And even more, in episodes 5 (“Communication F-ups”) and 6 (“How to Put Your VA’s P-ness Away”) 

To find out more, no ho’ing needed, go here: 

http://biztypology.com

My disgusting addiction that horrifies men

I have a terrible confession to make:

I am madly in love… with the trashy TV show, 90 Day Fiancé.

The show is about couples who are applying for a K-1 visa (the fiancé visa) so their foreign spouse can move to the United States and apply for a green card. Thing is, per US law, once they get the visa, they have to marry in 90 days. 

Often the couples have never met each other in-person before and, other than the occasional Skype call or messenger chat, don’t really know each other. So, as you can imagine, you have the usual suspects: 

– The creepy divorcee traveling to Latin America/Southeast Asia to meet the younger woman he fell in love with online (or by mail-order) 

– The foreign “model” in search of a (rich, older, potentially green-card-giving) man

– The older single parent so desperate for love, they’re a catfish’s easy pickings

– The younger, hotter cad looking for a lazy leg up and into the US

(There are also normal people who do this, those who met during study-abroad or  while backpacking through Europe—but, let’s face it, they’re boring.)

But, besides the obvious rubbernecking entertainment, this is also a very useful exercise of Typing-in-Action. Like, when a poor schlub falls so cringingly hard for the clearly gold-digging catfish…Or when the younger, hotter foreigner uses their feminine (and sometimes masculine) wiles to seduce them in the first place…

It’s easy to see how much they are embodying their personality type—and how easily manipulated (and manipulative) the types of others can be. 

Specifically, how someone can be so forward-thinking and cold as to use whatever foils they have (looks, youth, status, etc.) to seduce, bewilder, and entice… or, to be so short-sighted, emotional, and impulsive they willingly fling themselves (and countless time and monie) at them. 

Of course, I wouldn’t condone manipulating anyone.  

(Well, out-loud anyway.)

But, knowing what hot buttons to push can be enormously helpful, especially if you’re selling or servicing or otherwise marketing to a particular (likely hot, thirsty, desperate) audience. 

It can also be helpful to know what vulnerabilities to protect in yourself, so you don’t end up in the marketing tropics, looking falling for your own Client Catfish. 

And you don’t have to embarrass yourself on TV to do it. 

If you want to learn how to identify and how to ethically these buttons to get your market to buy from you and even sell for you… and how to detect (and protect) your vulnerabilities faster than a TSA scan, then look no further than Biz Typology, where I teach how to use personality typing to your (hopefully benevolent) advantage. 

To join for 1/10000th of a plane ticket (no travel vaccinations or visas needed), go here: 

http://biztypology.com

Men’s Most Wanted

For the past 17 years and counting, my INTJ mom has owned and run a designer consignment boutique in Manhattan—it’s where I first cut my teeth in business as a surly teenager and, that many years later, has been one of my biggest influences.

(That and a certain Email Player, of course.) 

Even though English isn’t her first language, she has some of the deepest knowledge of polarization, infotainment, and repulsion marketing I’ve ever seen. 

Here’s how:

In her expansion to add menswear, she posted the following flyer on her window:

MENS WANTED

Now taking high-end luxury menswear—inquire within.

When I first saw the headline, I started laughing. But, for the aging ladies-who-lunch and their equally annoying daughters-who-brunch in the tony, uptight neighborhood, it’s not so funny. 

“Margoth, that’s HIGHLY inappropriate.”

“Is that… a personal ad?”

“Why did you make that? You’re giving the wrong impression!”

She even witnessed (and subsequently cast out) two old biddies discussing how “desperate” my mom must be, especially being a divorcee and all, well within earshot in the store.

And that’s not counting the men who’ve come in hoping to be my new stepdad (but obviously failing the reading comprehension portion of the entrance exam).

But, despite all that, she’s gotten more eyes on her store (and foot traffic into it) than ever before—even in these notoriously slow summer months. And, a good chuckle out of those who end up consigning the high-value merchandise and, more importantly, those buying them. 

And she did it by outright smashing the hottest of buttons—dating and other indoor sports—in a way that would get women clutching their pearls and men coming in to sell AND buy. 

Now, I’ll freely admit (with some awe) that this kind of marketing comes naturally to her. 

But, even if it doesn’t, it’s not exactly hard.

It comes from understanding your market—what they want, what pay attention to, and what makes them tick (or ticks them off).

One of the ways to grab an audience’s wrist and feel for their pulse is through personality typing. Specifically, in understanding how an emotional market’s thought (or feelings) process works, both good and bad.

Something I teach in the bonus Biz Typology Masterclass, Season 1 is Biz Typology, The Series, as well as in the upcoming season called Typeholes, where I go over the “shadow side” of each personality type—or, what most typing test results don’t tell you. 

For more (mens optional), go here:

http://www.biztypology.com

Business lessons from jailtime

A little over a year ago, I was locked up. 

Well, in a manner of speaking. 

After getting farrr too involved in a certain infamous, now-defunct group, I was banned from posting, commenting, or any kind of Facebook interaction completely. 

I had it easy—I was in Facebook jail for only about 48 hours or so when others (namely, one very well-known marketer with his own group of over 40,000 members) have been jammed up in the Zuckerberg slammer for 30 days or more. 

But, at the time, I was in a panic. 

Most of my business came from Facebook and, as I was in the middle of an end-of-year launch (and living from launch to launch), I was effectively cut off at the knees. 

So, how badly did it affect me?

Hard to say. But I can tell you that I lost a lot of sleep those few days, cobbling together a new marketing plan that involved a whole new hard-to-implement, very complicated platform in my business: 

Email. 

Fast-forward a year later: Facebook just announced that it’s officially changing up its whole algorithm. 

(Yes, those cut-and-paste statuses were apparently right. Go figure.) 

Now, in 2018—how much will this affect me?

Not so much. 

I’ve embraced my new overlord that is email (and Ben Settle).  And, my business has evolved from feast-to-famine-to-feast again to something more, well, buffet-style. 

(Minus the sodium and YouTube-viral fights over crab legs.)

By creating my membership site, Biz Typology, I was not only able to create a product behind my biggest asset (personality typing) but also a (recurring, scalable) one that was in accordance *to* my personality type. 

And, this weekend, I am offering a live training on exactly how I was able to do this—and how you can replicate it in your own business, your way.

Now, I’m not a business coach by any means. However, I can give you insight into what worked for me in creating a continuity product—from soup to nuts, everything that went behind my launch strategy. 

And, because it IS Biz Typology, I can show you how to use your personality type to find the ideal continuity product for you and your unique business. 

But, in order to be a part of this live training (happening later this month), you need to be a member of Biz Typology by Sunday, January 14th. 

(After the 14th, this training will be repackaged and sold as its own product upwards of $297 or so.)

To get access to the live training (plus the 9 trainings already available—and the 8 more coming up in just a matter of days) for less than lunch for two at Subway, go here: 

http://biztypology.com

Marketing lessons from a dominatrix

A couple of years ago, an old friend of mine from college met with me over coffee to talk about our freshly minted businesses. 

Except, our businesses were, uh… *slightly* different: 

I was a budding copywriter just beginning to take my first few clients. She, on the other hand, was striking it out on her own… by striking other people’s backsides as a dominatrix, operating her own dungeon in LA.

Thing is, aside from how we delivered our services (my keyboard versus her whips), they really weren’t that different at all. 

Turns out, you can’t just raid the nearest leather goods store, open up a dungeon, and call yourself Queen Domina of the Night or whatever. Same as you can’t just set up an e-commerce store and declare yourself a persuasive copywriting coach or expert because you say you’re one. It takes training and hands-on experience to know what your clients’ true pain points are—both the literal and figurative ones. And, of course, delivering as appropriate in response. 

Like, my leather-clad friend: 

As she told it, what gets the jollies off of one client were entirely different from another—you can’t treat (or beat, as it were) all clients the same.

Likewise, in order to get the clients and buyers you want, you have to understand their motivations, their thought processes, and their emotional states first. Because, by knowing the exact kind of pleasures they are searching for, you will know how to sell to them, and get them coming back for more (and more).

I took what she shared to heart as I began looking for my first leads—and, later, when I lost clients when I strayed from her advice. 

(Jury’s still out on which is a worse punishment—getting spanked or losing bank.) 

While I can’t teach you how to wield a cat o’ nine tails, I can teach you how to truly understand your client’s needs and wants (and, yes, desires if that’s your bag) by understanding their personality types… and, how to use this knowledge as your “safe word” in sales. 

The way I teach how to use personality typing for business (or pleasure) is not torturous at all—with each video training only about 5 minutes long (usually less), you can start implementing it as early as… well, right now.  

Plus, for a limited time only (read: this weekend), if you join Biz Typology, you’ll have access to a live training later this month where I’ll show you, from soup to nuts, my exact business model and how you can create and launch the ideal continuity offer or product for your personality type.  (Meaning, an offer that is not only scalable but also an actual joy to run—no crops needed.)

But, this training is only available at this rate (about 33 cents a day) until January 14th, 11:59 pm EST. After that, it’ll be repackaged and sold as its own product—for somewhere around $297.

So, waiting would be a punishment in its own right.

To get access to Biz Typology, including the digital continuity product creation training, for less than a coffee and a cronut at Starbucks, go here before the 1/14 deadline: 

http://biztypology.com

Who buys more: lurkers or likers?

Years ago, I heard a then-popular life coach say this about social media engagement: 

It’s the lurkers, not the likers, who buy from you. 

This was meant to reassure people who were concerned that their ignored livestreams/pitches/“vulnerability alert” posts on Facebook weren’t going to amount to sales.

At the time, I took some solace in this—that, somewhere, there were people watching me who, while not immediately engaging with me in comments and likes, were just waiting to click to buy. 

To some extent, this is true. 

But, that isn’t entirely the case. 

(As evidenced by her largely falling off the earth since.)

Looking back at it now, she seemed to be referring to (whether she knew it or not) the differences between introverts and extroverts. 

Meaning, the likers (showing your Facebook live with emojis and liking all the things on your page) are extroverts. 

And the lurkers, well… they’re lurking, as introverts often do. 

For the most part, I do agree with the sentiment—introverts might not blow up your social media feed, but they are watching. And, when so moved, they will buy. And buy they will in spades. 

(At one point, I was solidly booked with only introverted clients through no mechanization of my own.)

But, that is not to say that extroverts don’t buy from you either.

In fact, some of my best clients are those who did blow up every one of my posts—before signing up with me. And, when they did and began reaping results, would then likewise sing their praises on social media. 

So, to retroactively edit her words: 

It’s the lurkers and the likers who buy, but you have to know how to engage with each to get them to. 

In Biz Typology, I show you exactly how to reach out to extroverts and introverts—specifically in my videos called “Over-E’ing Anonymous” and “I-nal Retentives.”

(If you can’t tell, I have a lot of fun making these videos.)

In these short trainings (which areless than 5 minutes each, so you can implement them almost immediately), you’ll learn how to speak to each—and what their true motivations are when deciding whether to (or not to) buy. 

To access these videos (and whole lot more) for less than your Netflix subscription, go here: 

http://biztypology.com

Go Zuck yourself

About a week ago, Facebook took an official stance on “engagement” posts: 

Through its algorithm, Facebook will “read” your posts and assess it for authenticity and genuine engagement. 

If it passes muster, your friends and followers will see it. 

If it doesn’t, your post will be disappeared by the Facebook black van, never to be seen again.

Now, some marketers and “Facebook influencers” are freaking out about this.

Because many of these people have relied on this kind of “engagement engineering”—those incessant “comment with a GIF!” and “say yes in the comments!” posts— to push them up the proverbial food chain by “gaming” the system.

But, now, that’s no more. Zuck & Co.—and, in effect, the robots—are striking back.

And, soon, marketers will be forced to what they’ve been trying to avoid: 

To be interesting.

But, to do that involves knowing your market and what it is that they find interesting—and, dare I say it, entertaining—to begin with.

One of the ways to do that is through personality typing. 

Not only will you know what your true “secret sauce” is (and what it actually is, not what some influenz-er tells you it should be), you’ll also know exactly how your market behaves so you can anticipate what will work—and what will tank—based on their personalities. 

Or, you could rely on just one more “fauxgagement” hack. 
(And Facebook will tell you where to stick it in a GIF.)

To get your (meme-less, but value-full) fill on how to do this using personality typing, go here: 

http://biztypology.com

Messenger rots

A few days ago, my INTJ sent me a screenshot of an adorable ad: a sponsored post about how, according to some ragamuffin messenger platform, email was dead.

Stick a fork in it, messenger bots are here to stay. 

Thing is, the ad led to an opt-in.

Meaning, the ad about dead email…asks for your email address. 

Not exactly the most well-thought-out strategy. 

Now, I’m not the one to talk about email specifically—I leave that to marketing miscreants like Ben Settle. 

But, I can talk about how a good idea in theory (like, a blog post thumb-tacked to a content strategy plan)…may turn out a complete differently (i.e. poorly as piss) in execution. 

Or how your “message” (whether it be your sales script, copy, even your client-onboarding and hiring processes) may be entirely incongruent with what you’re trying to do. 

Or, worse, with your customers and clients. 

There are a few ways to combat this. 

One of them is using Biz Typology—or Personality Type-Based Marketing—in your business, marketing, and sales strategy. And you can, for less than your Netflix subscription. 

To learn more about how to use personality typing to better connect with your clients, customers, team members, and even JV partners—for less than 33 cents a day—go here: 

http://biztypology.com