I don't have all the answers, of course. I'm not well known. The only people who know me are the ones who subscribe to my newsletter and more or less regularly open them. For the most part, that has been intentional. Practical. Comfortable. I don't really like being known. Where's the fun in that, right? The charm is in the mystery. But lately I've been thinking about the perks of being known. Not necessarily a huge list or following... but being known by the right people... Or... who knows... maybe having a huge-a** email list and following, too (after all, it feels like when you have that kind of huge audience, the right kind of people start to pay attention). I know the consensus is quality over quantity and for most of my entrepreneurial life, I've believed that, and have peddled this concept myself. But maybe it's more nuanced than that. Consider the fact that two weeks ago, I sold a bunch of newsletter ad slots to strangers on LinkedIn. Not because they were dying to buy newsletter ads... but because they knew people who knew me and who had bought ads from me before. Being known opens up surprising doors. But how do you become known in the first place? Social media is one way. Writing and publishing a book or ten is another way. Publishing anything anywhere (your newsletter and/or blog) is a third way. Podcasts and YouTube videos are fourth and fifth ways. Communities! I've come to know some very amazing people through communities. So that's the sixth way. What else? How else do you get known??? If you have thoughts or ideas or counter opinions, feel free to share so everyone in the House can benefit from them. (Screenshot of a recent Katelyn Bourgoin note on Substack. Trust that I've been thinking about known-ness even before I came across this 🐒)

.... list. LIST. I sent my own 9-word email yesterday: "Do you have an email list of 5,000+ subscribers?" I got about 20 people, many of whom I had never heard anything from before, replying YES. For some reason I had never simply asked people on my list about their list size before, even though it's very relevant to what I do and the kinds of offers I make. In the past, I've danced around the topic, by asking people how many subscribers they get per week... or which software they use... or by not asking at all and by simply writing emails in the hope that the right people will reach out. My point is: You can ask. You can be direct. You can even be what might seem to you to be intrusive. The worst that happens is that people don't reply or (gasp) unsubscribe. (3 unsubscribes so far to my email yesterday.) The best that happens is you start a conversation that can be worth tens of thousands of dollars to you in the short- to mid-term, or that might open doors you cannot even imagine exist.

John mentioned this some time ago... that even when you run a poll for an auction, and the auction doesn't happen, you can still unearth some interested leads. So, I recently tried to run two auctions, but neither had enough interest during the initial polling. While I was kinda sad about that, I remembered what John said, reached out to a few people, and sold a couple of licenses. How cool is that?! In short. Auctions may or may not work. But polls definitely do. Do what you want with it.... ✌️

Let's start to wrap up this exciting challenge up because: - The first step got 18 people participating - The second got 13 people participating We are now on the 3rd step. I figure we can't keep going much longer before we run out of people completely. If you've done the previous two steps, this third step will be easy. It's to look over your answers to Step 1 (your offer) and Step 2 (your one specific person to sell that offer to) and ask yourself: ===> 3. What short question could I ask my ideal person to just open a conversation? A couple easy handraiser questions: 1. If they joined your email list with a lead magnet that ties into your current offer, you can simply ask them if they still want the outcome the lead magnet offers: "Are you still looking for a house in Georgetown?" (assuming they signed up for Georgetown house listings or a Georgetown-area house pricing info) 2. If you wrote up an identifying fact about your idea person in your Step 2, description, you can simply call them out with something specific about them. Take Nick Bandy's recent email as an example, connected to his Step 2 description: "Do you run an agency with at least one employee or contractor?" There are many many other ways to craft your 9-word email. But rather than trying to spell them all out, I'll encourage you to just write up your best short question you can ask your ideal prospect to open a conversation... post it below in the comments... and we can workshop it together. Sounds good? Then get to it. I'll be watching you!

My WordPress site apparently has close to 2k users, none of which I've created, all of which seem to be created to hack into my site. (Screenshot attached. Just found this today.) Has anybody had this problem before? Or do you have any advice for me?