NOTE: Charlie Gilkey, Marissa Bracke (author of the infamous “Launch Fatigue” post) and I actually did a really cool and thorough discussion of launch fatigue in our latest Jam Session, which features music by Journey. No, I’m not kidding about the Journey. It was Charlie’s fault.
What do you mean you’re not signed up for the Jam Sessions? Were you in a plane crash in the desert and have been wandering the dunes for months, forced to subsist on live scorpions and drink moisture squeezed out of your own pants? Is that what has kept you away? Either way, you should join us now that you’re back and your sun blisters have stopped festering. Studies show that Jam Sessions members are smarter, more attractive, and better at Chutes and Ladders than the general population. Truth*.
* Not truth
—–
If you’re in this little blogging space of ours (“part of our dysfunctional family,” as I think of it), then chances are good that you’ve heard some of the discussion over launch fatigue.
If you haven’t heard about it, the whole launch fatigue discussion started here, and you’ll want to read that post prior to reading this post, or else what I’m going to write about won’t make any sense. (Be sure to read all of the comments if you want your eyes to bleed, and if you want to feel really bad about yourself and whatever it is that you’re doing.)
After that post, the blogosphere promptly blew up like Oprah after announcing her weight loss. This post by Dave Navarro is the other post I read about it, but there were many more and a lot of backchannel discussion about it. Dave’s post made me feel a little better, but not much.
It’s a good discussion to think about, but it’s also a no-win discussion. It’s like what the WOPR said about nuclear war: The only winning move is not to play.
Except that if you “don’t play” in business, you almost never make any money. Which has its downsides.
Let’s put it this way: The message I got out of the whole “launch fatigue” discussion, which included comments, Twitter, private conversations, posts on other blogs, etc., was this: No matter what it is you’re doing, how you’re approaching your business, or how ethically and “Third Tribe-like” you think you’re being, you’re a total jerk and a large group of people absolutely think you’re a shitbag.
The title of this post is “What I’m doing about launch fatigue.” And in case you’re short on time and just want me to cut to the chase and tell you what it is I’m going to do in my business in light of the discussion (because I’m that important), here’s my answer:
Nothing.
I’m going to stick my head in the sand. I’m going to ignore further discussion. I’m not going to keep reading comments about it. I’m going to do nothing in light of concerns about launch fatigue. I trust myself and my instincts, and I personally do not think I’m a shitbag or employing generally shitbaggy tactics. So I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing, and if that’s uncool with someone, so be it.
The problem for any creator is that you’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t. If you sell stuff at all, some people are going to think you’re pushing too hard. If you hold yourself back from launching something because there have been a lot of launches recently, you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face and are, frankly, depriving the world of good stuff, assuming you don’t produce crap.
A lot of new people are going to see this discussion, picture a wary, angry customer base who is tired of being promoted to all of the time, and use that picture as an excuse for their own inaction. They haven’t done anything yet, so why bother to do it now? People will only get mad at them.
Well, guess what? You can’t please everyone, and that goes for everything that ever ends up having any degree of success whatsoever. So the best course of action IMO is to just do your best to not be an asshole. Do that, and most of you will be fine.
“Be reasonable.” “Be cool.” “Be respectful.” Those work as well.
In case you haven’t headed over to check out that Jam Session yet, I’ll just mention that Marissa says very clearly that her intention in talking about launch fatigue was not to convey the message “stop creating and selling products and services.” It was “stop ONLY pimping stuff and stopping with original content and connection.”
It wasn’t “don’t launch” or even “don’t launch using the same formulaic steps as everyone else.” It was “don’t be a whore.”
Really: Are you promoting a ton of stuff (your own and that of others) purely for monetary reasons, ignoring the real needs and desires of your customers? Are you promoting things you don’t totally believe will help the people who buy them? Have you stopped creating meaningful free content, stopped using Twitter to be personable, stopped participating in comment threads, forums, email from customers and prospects, and so on? Are you a non-stop pimping machine?
If you are, stop it.
If you aren’t, then file this whole discussion in your mind as background info, but then keep going.
And also, “Non-Stop Pimping Machine” would make a really good name for a RUN-DMC era old-school hip-hop group.
P.S: Here’s some miscellany. I’m tossing it in mainly because I’m at Borders and there’s some incredibly shitty cover version of the Righteous Brothers “Unchained Melody” playing on the speakers here, and continuing to type is the only way I can kind of ignore it.
About using the same old tactics and formulas: So what if you’re following a typical launch prescription? So what if your prices all end in 7? Is the product good? If it is, then I could care less if people notice that a formula is being followed. Just because something is common doesn’t mean it’s underhanded, even though people tend to imply it.
About Smurfs: They were pretty cool. But I’ll bet you couldn’t actually make gold out of them.
God damnit yes. Don’t be an ass. Don’t be a whore.
Here’s the thing — if someone is hitting on you and you don’t like what they got, they are a creeper. But if someone is hitting on your and you like what they got, you find their game to be hot (or at least amusing). It’s not about how you hit on people, when it comes down to it … it’s about whether they like your goods.
And, you are fucking awesome. That is all.
Great articles – both this one and the originator to which you link!
I especially like the point about “Don’t be a whore”.
In one of my favorite books, “My Name is Asher Lev” by Chaim Potak, Asher is a VERY gifted artist who also happens to be a Chasidic Jew. When I say gifted, I’m talking Picasso and Rembrandt gifted. In a talk with his mentor, his mentor says (and I am paraphrasing here except for the first sentence):
“Don’t be a whore Asher. You create art because you are driven to create. Others, the whores, create art that is driven by what they think someone will buy. That attitude changes and perverts their art.”
The art in this case is the conversation. We should be talking about the conversation and, if it turns into a product, great, but it’s the passion about the conversation that should drive us to be talking in the first place.
Thanks for shedding light on this aspect of what we do and why we do it.
-Matt
@Elizabeth – That’s a point I’ve had to consider, yep. Most of us in this arena aren’t “cold sellers”; we’re closer to friends than the typical business. So EVEN if you are being an asshole, it’s more like, “Wow, my buddy is being a bit assholish” than “Who is this random asshole and why is he such an asshole?”
@Matt – I totally get you, and I feel that way about my writing in general, but there is another consideration if you’re here as a business – i.e. not as pure art. You DO want to make money… so the trick is to find out how to do both without perverting either.
I recently had a conversation with a guy that worked for commission. During our conversation he said, “Oh yea, I hate salesmen”. I thought he was just being one of those guys that agrees with everything, but I got to thinking about it and realized he meant what your talking about. I know him better now and he’s a super nice helpful guy. I would never guess that he’s a salesman.
The point: He’s not a whore. He’s not a “salesman” trying to get everyone on his “list” to buy anything that he can make a profit on. He legitimately cares about the people he talks with, and that’s exactly what he does. He talks with them – not trying to always sell them. As a result, he does pretty damn good.
But even he has a systematic formula that he follows to get in the door with folks. Formulas work if the person implementing them works.
When I go to buy a new pair of shoes I know there’s going to be an attempt to up-sell me on the cleaner, insoles, and stupid little order killer ball things, but I don’t not go to the shoe store. It’s just their system that sometimes even works on me if the kid isn’t a total douche. They still have a quality product that I want and fills my need.
Don’t be an ass. Don’t be a whore. Fine. And yes, some people will nonetheless think you are both.
It’s not enough to take a stand for your customers and clients by providing useful goods and services. If you don’t sell them, you aren’t serving. Yes, free content is important. And as someone who’s been giving away free content for 17 years, many of those without selling, free can be a red herring if you don’t invite people to invest and take action.
Yeah, I believe that when you offer a kick-ass product or service, you’ll definitely make splash. If you pour your entire style into it, and provide as much value as possible, you are definitely in for a ruckus. But I wouldn’t go the old fashioned formula way, why not try something new and bit more fresh.
I’m sure people will appreciate it.
Johnny, you’re spot-on here.
When I subscribe to someone’s list and they only hit me up for cash all the time, I get “fatigued” and unsubscribe ‘em (like I would an overbearing brother-in-law).
When I subscribe to someone’s list and they consistently teach and entertain me, I look forward to their offers and am even happy to send ‘em money. (And sometimes, I’m bothered that they don’t try to sell me ENOUGH stuff.)
If folks like you and your shit, “launch fatigue” is a non-issue.
I don’t believe the issue with the supposed “fatigue” is the selling itself. It’s the fairly thin positioning of products combined with a fairly predictable structure of its release. People aren’t tired of being pitched… they’re sick of seeing the same old unremarkable shit being repackaged over and over again.
Question The Rules was a success because it wasn’t just a product, it was an ideology. Same for Third Tribe. Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Builder and Danielle Laporte’s Firestarter Sessions were both original & remarkable – plus they were launched in fairly non-standard ways.
If more content was being produced like this and launched in an original way – I don’t think we’d even have this discussion. Successful people are winning by taking risks & listening to their own creative vision, not by following a cookie-cutter strategy that plays it straight down the middle.
People need to up their game – or at least start experimenting more. That’s what will get people excited about your stuff, regardless if you’re pitching them over and over again.
Quote:
It wasn’t “don’t launch†or even “don’t launch using the same formulaic steps as everyone else.†It was “don’t be a whore.â€
/Quote
Absolutely. I also think 98% of the commentors on the mentioned posts are fine with that. If the whore change their job, everybody’s happy!
Funny that even with your head in the sand, you heard what I was saying loud ‘n clear. Thanks for the Jam session, thanks for hearing me, and thanks for continuing to be reasonable, cool and respectful. Quite the magic trio.
–M.
Marissa – I can hear only selective things down there in the sand. Fortunately, what you were ACTUALLY saying turned out to be what I wanted to hear.
My next blog post* will be called
“What I’m Doing About Bashing Whores Fatigue”
[in which * is only funny if you know that I only post in comments...]
(Just to remind you, “an executive escort” does get to trade satisfaction for money, works for herself, chooses her hours and clients, and, like most smart, savvy, discerning business owners, delivers a great ROI with happy repeat buyers. And often are great conversationalists, listeners, and instructors. Or maybe that’s just the movie version…)
Your intro makes me sing, I just love your print-voice, still, like 90% of the time.
But I read both Marissa’s and Dave’s posts+ comments (to which I admit I added to to often) and I WAS surprised at the amount of ranty dopes slinging misguided hating –
HOWEVER there were some very smart discussion-starters, or at least exploratory POVs going on, raised by some bright minds ~ a-hem ~ so please don’t (and I know YOU don’t) throw the thoughtful baby out with the murky bathwater.
Since Marissa’s post (Hi Marissa!) was long and addressed several sides of issues, it was interesting to see how commenters approached/railed against/for it — from all directions, triggered by a word or two, or tilting at windmills.
But your cute post happily puts a closing bookend (I hope) on the whole brouhaha, and reminds me how a little plain talking cuts through the cheese like a hot knife — damn, now I’m hungry again.
Thanks, *mwuah*
~GIrlPie
It’s nice to be a part of the dysfunctional family, everyone likes to belong:)
My action steps for dealing with “launch fatigue” was to start unsubscribing to blogs–just slashed right and left. Swore I was going to be like Leo B. and go Zen minimalist, simplify and all….
Strategy was working pretty well–decided I was NEVER going to fall for a blogger’s ploy of offering a free ebook or product as sign-up bait.
Then I ran across Jordan Cooper’s new game show and …damn, I just signed in. (Couldn’t make it tonight. Can’t you schedule it while the Bachelorette is on? so my hubby will be occupied.) But, damn I’m a weak, comedy starved blogger-wannabe, glass-half-full kind of person.
Glass-half-full–make that whiskey. Straight.
Glass-half-full, I’m on a diet.
@Mary I’m glad you fell for nefarious plot so I can get you to cough up your e-mail address! ::evil laugh::
But seriously, all these types of things are really just “bait” so marketers have the opportunity to show how & why they can provide *actual* value to you. Those that take advantage of this relationship obviously will suffer as their audience becomes less responsive to the same-old same-old tactics thrown at them again and again.
That’s why I said in my previous comment that it’s not the selling aspect or even the “formula” aspect that’s the issue. It’s how more and more people are “going back to the well” instead of finding interesting, exciting & inspiring ways to create and launch products.
“Be reasonable.†“Be cool.†“Be respectful.†That is the way to go. And you’re doing a pretty good job at it Johnny.
I also agree with Jordan. I’m personally tired of the usual “launching formula” more than the launches themselves. I particularly hate the “you-have-two-hours-left-to-get-signed-up-otherwise-you’ll-have-to-pay-a-shitload-of-money-to-get-my-special-offer-you-won’t-be-cool-and-your-world-will-collapse” kind of approach. Product launches are a great illustration of people’s creativity and ideas – when they bring value.
Interestingly, I am doing something about launch fatigue, but it’s definitely NOT keeping from launching. I also didn’t quite get to the nihilist point where I felt like no matter what I did I would feel like a jerk and a shitbag.
Of course, going into this, I knew that whatever I did, somebody would be triggered. The real question for me has always been who I’m going to trigger, not whether I could walk the line and be squeaky clean. The world – and especially the world of business – doesn’t work that way.
Rather than write a comment that’s 4 times as long as your post, I’ll share what I am doing on PF as soon as I have an Internet connection that doesn’t induce extreme bouts of impatience on my part.