I read a marketing post last week from the founder of a well-known Australian brand. It’s a well-told story, slick, emotive. But, little on detail.
It goes back to his first business years ago, products sold on pre-sale. About $10,000 in orders came in before the stock landed. Then the container was held at the border for inspection, and 400 customers waited for weeks while he emailed them one by one.
When the stock finally arrived, he packed 500 boxes by hand with a free candle in each. He drove them to post offices in a ute. Some turned him away.
After that, business took off. $200 on the first day. $10,000 in the second month. About $1 million in profit in the first full year.
The post finishes with an offer. If your brand turns over $30,000 a month or more, you can apply for his paid one-on-one mentoring network.
Now, here’s the evidence I’d want to see before signing up for what he’s selling.
A P&L. The $1 million profit figure is a key hook in the story/ There is no evidence it is true.
The numbers don’t fit. He says profit, not revenue. To make $1 million profit at a decent margin, you’d need several million dollars in sales. Getting there from $10,000 a month in under a year is a big jump, and the story skips over it. I’d like to hear how that happened. Evidence matters.
I’d also want to know the photo with the post shows the actual shipment. There is nothing in the photo to show it is real and about his business.
I’m not saying any of this is made up. New importers do get their goods inspected, and plenty of businesses have a rough start and come good. My point is narrower. When a story is used to sell something, the seller owes you more than the story.
I’ve seen this formula before
Courses, workshops and mentor programs are often sold using a proven narrative: a struggle, an emotional low point, a big number, then the offer.
It works. You finish reading and feel like you know the person. You don’t know their numbers though, and the numbers are what you’d be paying for.
The pitch is made to sound like getting access is hard to get. It’s the psychology of rarity, fomo, they are leveraging.
There’s no price in the post, either. You apply, and they tell you whether you’re a fit. That application is usually the start of a sales conversation. I’d rather know the cost up front.
Scale isn’t always the answer
The pitch is about scaling. I’m sceptical of that too.
I’ve watched retailers chase growth and end up with a bigger wage bill, more stock on the floor and less money in their pocket. Sales went up and profit went backwards. It happens more often than people admit.
The newsagents I see doing well right now mostly went the other way. Some audited their labour and found close to 20% of staff time going on tasks that didn’t need doing. Others put through 1% price rises on price-controlled lines, or reset the counter for impulse purchases. It’s unglamorous work, and you won’t see much of it on social media, but it shows up in the P&L.
Before you pay
The people I see making money from courses and mentoring are the ones selling them.
If you’re considering a course or paying for a mentor, ask for evidence of success. Ask to speak with two or three recent past clients who aren’t on the testimonials page.
Reading the story again, they got through the worst of it on their own, with a ute and a lot of late nights. I think that’s the most useful part of the post, and it’s free.