I'm Just Sharing

Back at the beginning of October, I wrote a post about my signing up for the $100 Million Dollar Challenge. I thought I would write a follow up to that post here.

One of those gripes most of us have when it comes to purchasing things online is that the pitch sounds pretty good sometimes, very good at other times, and yet we’re still left with this feeling of “just what am I getting myself into”. Sometimes we don’t care, and we jump in anyway. That’s how it was with this. It flashed across screens really quickly, I checked it out and it was “free” (big buzzword with all of us, unfortunately), and I figured why not. Heck, I’d love to win my share of that kind of money, and anyone who says they wouldn’t isn’t being truthful.

There was educational material on the site, to be sure; I didn’t get to see most of it, however, There are four stages that one has to complete before they can move onto the next step. Two of them are more promotion for the challenge than anything that has to do with you. One of those things I just couldn’t do, which was record a video and upload it to their site. I don’t have the equipment, and any time someone tells you how inexpensive something is and to just go buy it, without knowing what your financial situation is, or whether you want that product or not, is a red flag. I mean, there’s a difference between my saying “If you want to get a website, it only costs $8.95 to purchase a domain name” and “If you want to participate in my contest, go out and buy a $100 camera, videotape yourself, and post it here on my site. And, oh by the way, make sure you have a before and after picture of your wealth that we can show to the world, although most of you will still be seeing the same “after” picture in a couple of weeks, because you’re not going to complete this course and your picture and video will be here forever”. That’s not sour grapes, by the way, but they were conditions that one had to complete before being allowed to see anything else on the site.

You are pitched when you first get there to purchase one of his books, the proceeds of which will go to charity, and you get to select the price, so I paid my $1 to buy a book; it doesn’t look bad, but I won’t say anything more until I have time to read it. And, supposedly, if anyone else signs up for it you’re supposed to get paid a dollar for every person, and it’s supposed to immediately go to your Paypal account. I know two people who signed up under me, and I didn’t get the money; glad it was only two bucks.

Next, the weekly videos. Russell Brunson did indeed put out weekly videos, but I have to say that I wasn’t impressed with the first two I saw, so I stopped watching any others. He’s an engaging guy, I must say, but he didn’t tell me anything that I could use in learning how to market on the internet. Maybe I’m dense, but I don’t think so. I’m not all that much of a “fluff” kind of guy; I tend to get to the meat of something when I’m in education mode. However, I notice that with most of the gurus, there’s a lot of buildup of interest, even during the tutoring phase, and then when they finally get to the point, there’s often a sense of letdown. This could be my fault, though; after all, the first time I saw E.T. I absolutely hated it, after the big buildup I’d heard from so many people saying how great a movie it was, but when I saw it again five years later I loved it, and continue to love it now.

Finally, the time. This isn’t a sit down and learn kind of thing. It goes on over the long course of time. You don’t know that up front, although Russell does say that it’s a course, which, in retrospect, I should have understood meant one couldn’t consume everything in a night or two. There are projects one has to complete, and, well, it all comes down to time to do them. Out of the three people I know who signed up, only one went past the first session, and even she admitted that she hasn’t been able to keep up with anything except the weekly videos, which one learns about through email; I’m still on the mailing list myself. Actually, it’s probably fair to be allowed to space things out if, indeed, the kind of money being touted in the contest is really up for grabs. The winners make the rules, after all.

So, there you are, my follow up to this event. I can’t recommend it, but I also can’t condemn it because I’m sure someone’s going to learn a lot from it. I will say this, though. I made it further into this program than I did with another program I talked about, Startup Rebel, something else that takes a lot of time to do that I just don’t have. I don’t even have enough knowledge to follow up on it, so I’m hoping that anyone who clicked on it and signed up for it will come back and tell us about it, or write about it and let us know how it went for them.

The problem with things like this is that, going in, you just don’t know what kind of thing it’s going to be. If it’s free or very low cost, it doesn’t hurt to check it out. If both sites had information that could be downloaded or listened to and that was all, I might have a different take on it, since I consume tons of information every day. But when one has to go through hoops, which means time, well, I won’t be sticking around long. As I said, it doesn’t mean it’s bad, or won’t work for someone else, but it won’t work for me. Your thoughts?

Mahogany Chocolate Box