The Client Letter
October 15, 2013
The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 34 Degrees
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I had a prospect not long ago that had a big project he needed a copywriter for.
It was one of those conversations where you can’t help but see some dollar signs (I am human remember?).
Guess how it ended?
He disappeared.
Now we all know this happens. People say things and then don’t actually do things. Who cares why, life is too short to figure it out.
The problem isn’t that prospects lie, it’s what goes on inside of us while it’s happening. The trap you can fall into is believing in something I call “phantom money.”
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
Prospect enters your world. Prospect talks about doing a project together. Prospect talks about money. Prospect makes it sound (or YOU perceive it that way) like this is “a sure thing.”
You take that money (which isn’t yet in your possession) and you already mentally put it in your bank account. In fact, you might even take it right from that bank account and earmark that money for specific goals.
You’ve spent the phantom money already and now you’re left with a vacuum. Inside, you now “need” the business. And as we all know, “needing” the business is about the surest way there is to make sure you never actually get the business.
This is a vicious cycle that you can stop. But the action required to resolve this is something not 1 in 10,000 do effectively on a daily basis.
In fact, just about everything out in the system is designed to keep you from taking this action.
The action, of course, is simply keeping your awareness and your energy flow on the present and no longer living in the future or the past.
It sounds really easy when I type it out, but we all know it’s not so easy.
I know I’ve wasted a TON of energy on this “phantom money” problem. Energy that I should have better used by channeling into whatever was right in front of me at the moment.
Living in the moment isn’t some intangible spiritual concept, it’s one of the most practical and useful habits you could ever develop… especially in business.
The way to stop living in the past or future is to obliterate your habit of needing anything from anyone.