I read Havi’s post on Re-explaining the Right People concept today, and feel inspired to tell my how-I-found-Havi story here because it is my best (living, organic) self-reminder of the whole idea of Right People. It was my moment of zing! that gave me a visceral (in a good way!) right-people experience that I draw on to this day.

Back when I was a wimp…

About 15 months ago I read an item in Pam Slim’s blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation, recommending Havi and Naomi’s course, Non-Icky Self-Promotion for People Who Hate Self-Promotion (otherwise fondly known as Self-Promotion for Wimps). The course has been over for more than a year, and you can now finally get it as a home-study package, by the way. (Yep, those are totally affiliate links. I’m sure you can find the page another way if you’d rather not use them.)

I had never heard of either Havi or Naomi before. But on Pam’s recommendation, I clicked through to the sales page.

And I was suddenly in a new world. I had never, ever, ever read a sales page like this. In fact, it didn’t feel like a sales page at all. I felt safe. I felt respected and appreciated and invited.

I knew instantly, bone-deep and with total clarity, that I had to be in this course, because I wanted to meet these people who could write such an amazing sales page. I wanted to learn how it was possible to create sales pages like that, because I wanted my future customers to have the same moment of zing! when they read my sales pages.

There was no internal “should I or shouldn’t I?” There was no worrying about “will it be worth it?” I never felt like I was being persuaded or convinced (let alone manipulated). As I read, I became sure that a course this wonderful would be way out of my price range, so when I got to the price, I was amazed that it was so affordable. It was truly a no-brainer to sign up.

Yes, I believed there would be some practical benefit to the course, but honestly my biggest desire was simply to hang out with Havi and Naomi (which was why I knew I had to buy the VIP option). And I’ve been doing it ever since.

In search of The Perfect Sales Page

I’ve thought a lot about marketing tactics and sales pages and my experience interacting with them (both as a consumer and as a marketer) since I took that course.

For a long time I believed that Havi and Naomi had some special and mysterious marketing smarts and writing skills and pricing methodologies that allowed them to create sales pages that were better than anyone else’s. And I wanted to learn that stuff.

Now, not to knock their marketing/copywriting/pricing smarts at all, because I have learned tons about all three of those things from hanging out with them, but it’s only in the last few months that I’ve truly understood that that sales page wasn’t The One and Only Unquestioned Perfect Paragon of All Sales Pages that I should model Forevermore Without Question.

There is no perfect sales page (when “perfect” means perfect for everyone). Like there is no perfect product or website or business. There are only varying degrees of matching up, or resonating if you prefer, of rightness, between buyer and seller.

That sales page resonated with me. It was perfect…for me. I was a right person for that class, because I was (still am) a right person for Havi and Naomi. There were plenty of other right people for that class. And there were some people who would have read that sales page and had no reaction at all.

I’m OK, and I guess you’re not crazy either

This was brought home to me a couple of months ago on a forum where I’m a member. Someone asked for feedback on a sales page, and another member recommended that the asker check out Havi’s sales pages, and the asker replied saying that Havi’s sales pages had always left him kind of flat. He wasn’t dissing her or her products, or in any way being a jerk, just saying that he didn’t have much of a response to the sales pages.

And my initial (in my head) reaction was are you crazy? How can you not have a response to the most perfect sales pages in the universe? Which was like a big hello?!? moment because of course the guy wasn’t crazy. He’s got marketing smarts, copywriting skills, and stuff to say (I like him and read his blog). He’s just not resonating on the same frequency as Havi. His ideal sales page is another style.

So I’m getting increasing clarity around the idea that smart people can disagree about the effectiveness of marketing, websites, sales pages, etc. and it doesn’t mean that some of them have to be wrong.

Does the concept of Right People imply that there are Wrong People?

My answer is no. I’ve been using the term Right People for, oh, several months at least, maybe a year, and although I might have talked about people being “not as right” or “not quite right” or even “not my right people,” I don’t think it’s ever occurred to me to use the label “wrong people.”

When I think about people being “not so right” for me or my business, it’s not with an intention of exclusion…it’s more like a willingness to let go.

I don’t shove them away. They self-select.

And we both win. I firmly believe that.

It’s not a loss to me for the person to not come into my orbit (or for them to wander by and then leave). And it doesn’t hurt or reject them to not come into my orbit.

So it can only benefit me, and my Right People, to work on tuning my own frequency so that my right people can hear it really clearly. And my doing so doesn’t hurt the people who can’t hear it (or who would simply rather not).

So I’ll be here, tapping and tuning and tweaking, and sharing what I learn along the way. Have a listen. See if it sounds good to you. Either way, it’s all good.