I love the White Stripes. In their faint-echoes-of-Zeppelin Icky Thump, is this line:
You can’t be a pimp and a prostitute, too.
It’s true.
You can’t.
You either run the show and people come to you, or you let others run the show and you take their orders. In the first case, other people do what you tell them. In the second, you do what other people tell you.
If you try to have it both ways, you will be miserable. You have to decide which one you are and be that.
I’m deliberately using a provocative analogy to which you are bringing your own baggage. Personally I have no problem with prostitution itself as a livelihood but I do have a problem with how badly they’re often treated. If you want to work for others and fulfill orders, if you’re really good at it and you enjoy it then more power to you. The world needs you. Thousands of potential clients out there need you. Do what you do and do it proudly. Sorry if you don’t like my analogy, but you’re the best kind of prostitute. The world needs truly awesome prostitutes.
Not all prostitutes are driven by desperation or addiction into their line of work. If you’re just doing it for the money, what you’ll soon discover is that you’ll do just about anything for money, and there’s no pride or dignity in that. You need a higher reason.
But if you’ve just realized that you’ve secretly (and unknown even to yourself) been trying to be a pimp and a prostitute both at the same time, you may be suddenly realizing why some things about your online business aren’t working the way you’d hoped:
- You can’t raise your prices
- Your advice is ignored or argued
- The client places the burden of his success on you instead of himself
- Clients become demanding and expect more than they deserve
- Clients are grasping, needy, whining and argumentative
- You have trouble getting paid
If this sounds like you, you’re not a very good prostitute. You either need to be a better whore or you need to become something else.
Are you a prostitute who wishes you were a pimp?
We’ve all heard the stories of the prostitute who later becomes the all-powerful madam. You can do that, too, if you want to. How?
- Sell advice at a premium, not services for pennies
- Sell information products 24 hours a day, not your precious, limited time
- Trade value for money, not your time for dollars–time is in fact not money, because there is no amount of money worth your precious time (how much time would a million dollars buy you on your deathbed?)
- Cut people off who can’t deal with your new change
- Reposition, rebrand, redesign and relaunch
Pimpin’ ain’t easy
Things will go much, much faster and easier for you if you have help along the way. That’s what I’m here for. I have only 3 coaching slots left until I’m maxed. This is high-value monthly retainer coaching that gives you high levels of access to me as we get your online business and its marketing to the next level. If you’re interested, contact me to set up a free consultation call.
Did this conversation start on twitter or am I hallucinating again (Yes, again…don’t be judgin’)
Either way it’s a brilliant analogy. It actually unnerves me how well it fits. I love that you point out the lie that our time is worth some amount of money. It’s a mindset that can rob years of one’s life. And now I’m off in search of a big purple pimp hat…
It did start on Twitter, as a discussion between @techshaman and me.
In your opinion, they are unsavory, you mean. I suppose I could have used a
restaurant owner vs. cook analogy or something else that isn’t even worthy
of a second glance. This is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. Thanks
for your take on productizing services–I very much like that phrasing!
The extended metaphor (allegory) is a bit weak, since we are dealing largely unsavory activities, and the fact that it should not be an either/or choice of engaging in prostitution as an industry. That said, the underlying point of working for others on an hourly basis vs. scaling is one that is very important. Productizing services (and being the productizer, not the service productized) is very important. Thanks for the reminder!
The extended metaphor (allegory) is a bit weak, since we are dealing largely unsavory activities, and the fact that it should not be an either/or choice of engaging in prostitution as an industry. That said, the underlying point of working for others on an hourly basis vs. scaling is one that is very important. Productizing services (and being the productizer, not the service productized) is very important. Thanks for the reminder!
MM-
What about neither. I’m whatever the situation calls for.
You think Heidi Fliess didn’t put out?
You can’t be known for both.
I’m always doing that here.
Ha! That is a great use of the white stripes lyric to intro your post. A fine song. The CD is great too… the Stripes version of Conquest is pretty epic.
Yeah, the only thing the White Stripes did that I didn’t like was break up.
I agree wholeheartedly. Many newcomers to Internet marketing fail to realize the value of their services. If you don’t know what you’re worth, how can the client know it? http://guymanningham.com
Very true.
“The world needs truly awesome prostitutes” Your just hilarious, I really enjoy reading you, keep posting
I try, I try.
[...] I talked about online business people being divided into pimps and prostitutes earlier, that got people thinking (the ones that weren’t pissed off, that is). But now I want [...]
It’s interesting the provocative terms you have used, however I look at it this way what ever it takes to get the job done! So you have to be both!
Another mindset change I have to make. “You either need to be a better whore or you need to become something else.”..haha. Love it. I forget about the distinction between pimp and prostitute. I am definitley more of a pimp so I should probably stop whoring myself by trying to do everyone else’s job. Hmmm…maybe I’ll get more work done in 2012!?