Page 138 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

If You Build It, They Might Come …

It might happen by magic, but you’ll probably have to tell them about it. Even
with Elizabeth MacCrellish’s low-key Amish selling model, she still began her
summer workshops by recruiting friends and supporters. This is where hustling
comes in. If half the work is building the house and the other half is selling it,
here’s how a few other people sold it:

We spent no money on advertising for the first five months we were open.
Instead, we decided to allocate more than half of our opening costs to have
a thirty-by-fifty-foot mural of a bright and colorful tree painted on the side
of the stand-alone brick building we’re in. That speaks way louder than any
ad we could ever place. —Karen Starr, Hazel Tree Interiors

When I launched my membership program, I decided to start with some
beta testers. I invited a hundred of my top prospects to try it out for the first
two months before I opened membership … but I didn’t send them an email
invite. Instead, I sent a hostage letter in a brown paper bag—folded and
taped. People really got a kick out of it, and it worked! The letter led to a
sales page with a personal video invite from me. —Alyson Stanfield, Art
Biz Coach

We initially imagined a community of thousands for our triathlon and
Ironman distance training programs. In reality, fewer members meant
deeper roots and a much more powerful experience for everyone. Unlike
most programs, which try to keep pushing the price higher, we reward our
members by decreasing the price the longer they remain in the program.
This is because we recognize that the more experience they have, the more
they can help other members … and the more active they are in recruiting
new members to join as well. —Patrick McCrann, Endurance Nation

First Things First: What Do You Have to Say?
I was sitting in a large conference room with my friend Jonathan Fields (also
mentioned in Chapter 7). Jonathan is an ex-lawyer turned serial entrepreneur and
author. Several presenters were having a group discussion on building a tribe of
followers, and someone in the room asked a question about writing a book: