Hey there, it's Mark Mason, your host for the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. Today, I want to talk about something that I see happening way too often in the world of online business: quitting too soon. This is the most common failure mode that I see when people try to start an online business. I've been discussing this for years, but I want to approach it from a different angle today. I want to talk about a book called "The Dip" by Seth Godin.
"The Dip" was published back in 2007, but I recently revisited it thanks to my friend Aiden Booth. This book provides valuable insights into why people quit too soon and how to recognize when you're in a dip that's worth pushing through. The dip is the point where things get tough, and it's the moment when most people quit. But if you push through the dip, you'll reach the other side, where the magic happens.
I see so many people get excited about online business opportunities because of some sales pitch that promises riches with just a click of a button. However, once they start doing the work, things don't go exactly as planned, and they start encountering real-life business challenges. This is when people start to get discouraged and quit before they even reach the dip.
In "The Dip," Seth Godin argues that there are two choices when you get into a dip: quit and cut your losses or recognize the dip for what it is and push through. He also talks about strategic quitting, where you should accept the dip and quit to work on something more important. But I think the most crucial point is recognizing when you're in a dip worth pushing through.
I've seen so many people quit right before the magic happens. They quit just because they encounter resistance or things aren't going as smoothly as they expected. But the truth is, building a successful online business takes time and effort. You can't expect success overnight. You need to push through the dip and keep going until you reach the other side.
I encourage you not to be one of those people who quit too soon. Don't jump from one program to another, always looking for the next big thing. Instead, recognize that the dip is part of the process and push through it. If you're committed to building a successful online business, you need to be patient and keep going, even when things get tough.
If you've ever experienced a dip in your online business journey but pushed through it and came out on the other side, I'd love to hear from you. Shoot me an email at feedback@latenightim.com, and maybe we can get you on the show to talk about your success story.
Remember, building a successful online business is a marathon, not a sprint. Don't give up too soon, and keep pushing through the dip until you reach the other side.
This week on the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, we're going to once again, address the most common failure mode that I see when people try to start an online business, but we're going to review it in the context of a book that was written almost 15 years ago. All this and more on the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. Hey, how are you? I am your host, Mark Mason. And this is the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast where we're going to talk today about quitting. Too soon. And the power of pushing through. What Seth Godin calls the dip. Now I've been talking about this for years and years, really about how the most common failure mode that I see when I'm working with people that are working on internet businesses is that they just quit too soon. They quit before the magic happens, and I've never really prescribed a course of action around this, besides keep going. But recently a friend of mine, Aiden booth, who's the host of the podcast over at the growth booth. I highly recommend that you go check out Aiden's podcast. Aiden reminded me of the book by Seth Godin called the dip, and I had kind of. Completely forgotten about this book. I think it was published in 2007, which is actually before I was getting involved with online marketing. And I guess that's why I missed it. I'm certainly familiar and have read most of Seth's other books. So I went back and looked at the dip and I thought, you know, this is not only exactly why people quit too soon, but it also tells you the context in which you should evaluate those feelings that you have when you want to quit and start over or do something else. And so that's what I want to talk about today. I want to encourage you to deal with your dibs in a way that will help you be successful in online business. Now, the danger of quitting too soon, I think this is something. We've clearly discussed on the show before I see this over and over again, people get excited usually because of some sales letter that landed in their email inbox or some link that they clicked on Facebook that tells them riches can be theirs. If they will simply click this link and follow this program. And oftentimes you do click the link and you do follow the program. Like 1, 2, 3 profit is a program that we've been talking about at the first part. This year in 2023. Which is a program where you pay money to some educators in this case, Aiden booth. Who is the guy who reminded me about this book called the dip and this educator and his team will teach you a business model that you can work through and apply online. And these programs typically cost anywhere between$505,000 and you pay that money. And when you pay it, you get this sort of endorphin hit. I mean, you feel like you're doing something serotonin is released in your brain because you've committed to this purchase and you feel great. And you're sort of at the top of the mountain and in fact, The guy who's providing the courses also very excited because you're starting out on this journey together. And at this point, you're still talking about all the things that are possible. The problem is in the world. You can't get something for nothing. And so you've got to start doing the work and the other problem is. Typically things don't go exactly as planned. And I'll be also honest with you in marketing. We don't usually talk about all of the troubles and difficulties and issues that you're going to have to overcome to be successful, whether we're selling a can of paint. Or we're selling an online course program. We don't tell you about all the trouble you're going to have. We tell you about how great the color is going to look in your home. We don't tell you that you're going to have to wash the walls before you paint. You're going to have to tape everything off. You're going to get paint on the carpet. Gonna make a big mess. Your wife's going to get angry at you. We never talk about that. Right? What we talk about is the emotional, good feeling that you're going to have when you're sitting back relaxing, having a nice sweet ice tea after you've enjoyed the look of this new room that looks like it just came out of a pottery barn. Commercial, same thing is true online. We, we talk about the benefits. So when you start to hit resistance and the normal things that you need to take care of in. Business. You start to get more and more discouraged. And what we see is as the excitement wears off and the challenges of real business Mt. People start to quit. Sometimes they quit before the refund deadline. And I think that's one of the things that you see in internet business, fewer and fewer people are even offering a refund because they know people are going to want to quit. Not because the course doesn't work, not because they're meeting the promises that were made in the course, but because. Actually they're encountering real life business challenges that exist in every business. And they're feeling this dip. Now what Seth says about the dip. Is that there are two choices that you have when you get in a dip. You can quit and cut your losses. And I find that people do this way too much. Or you can recognize the dip for what it is and push through. And a lot of times in reputable, online marketing courses, We know the business model works. In the case of say 1, 2, 3 profit. We know that CPA marketing as a business model works because we have hundreds of thousands of people doing it, making money. There are a myriad of affiliate networks providing offers because people are making money doing this. And there are even conferences. Like affiliate summit on both coasts and around the world where marketers who are doing this and doing it successfully are making money. So we know that this business model is a viable business model. And in those cases, I think what you need to do, if you're really committed to building a business online, whatever business model you've chosen is pushed through that dip. Don't quit just before the magic happens, because we know we hear over. Over and over again from people like pat Flynn, for example, who've considered quitting that it's usually just right after that or not too long after that, that the magic happens and you start going from a down. Vector where, you know, you're feeling bad and the results are bad and you're encountering resistance to a success vector where the success is mounting. One wind causes another win. And before you know, it you've reached some successful point. The problem is. Uh, a lot of people never get out of that trough. So that's what I want to do is make sure that you understand that the challenge you're facing is something that Seth calls the dip. Now, I will say that in this book, the dip, Seth also talks about that. There are times when you should strategically quit, but the context of that is more alike. the one thing where they say you should work on something essential. Basically what Seth argues in the dip is that sometimes. You should accept the dip and quit to work on something more important. That doesn't mean something new. I think it, what it really means to me is if you've got two or three things going on and you hit one of these dips and you know that one of the other things is more promising and more likely to succeed, you should put that energy into the other project so that you can drive out of the dip that the other project is inevitably going to. To experience. And so I think that's really Seth's point. I, I want to encourage you to avoid this thing that I see over and over, which is every six months or every year, you're on to a new program, trying something new, trying to do something new and trying to find a way to be successful. You need to push through the dip. I think that's really important. And that's the idea that I have for you today. If you're experiencing a dip and you like to tell me about it or better yet, if you've got an example of the time that you felt the dip. You wanted to quit, but you didn't. And you got through the other side. I'd love to hear about it. Hit me up at feedback at Late Night, Internet Marketing dot com. Send me an email I'd love to hear from you. And maybe even we can get you on the show and you can talk about the success you had after experiencing a dip. So that's my big message for you today. I also wanted to tell you a happy little side note. You know, I have been a big advocate of the amazing software called de script, and I'm actually using. Descript to record this show right now. And it records video and audio. It has lots of amazing features. It allows my. Amazing virtual assistant to make social media posts and so forth. This. Program descript underwent a major renovation at the end of last year, and now they are fine tuning that they've just recently made some major improvements to the user interface. So if you haven't checked out the script and you're creating content of any kind audio or video, I highly. Highly recommend you check it out at Late Night. I am.com forward slash Descript. D E S C R I P T. All right. That's all I got for you today. I hope you have an absolutely fantastic. We can push through some hard challenges. Use this episode as motivation to go do something. That you really don't want to do, or that you really have been putting off in your business and get it done, recognizing that you're probably in the dip. Ciao. Hey, I enjoyed that very much. I'm going to keep this short because as you probably heard on the episode, I've got an awful kind of sinus related. Chest cold yuck thing. And I've barely got enough voice to get this done. But, uh, that was an important message for me to get to you and I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you also really go check out the script. I think there's still a free package. Going over to Late Night. I am.com forward slash Descript, D E S C R I P T. And check it out. It's really freaking awesome. And I think it's very disruptive. And when they start to build chat GPT into that thing, Good Lord. I have no idea where that's going to go, but it's very exciting. Ciao.