A few years ago, I had the displeasure of seeing very wealthy people (with $100m+ net worths) get scammed. And it wasn’t like the scammer was some particularly smooth dude with an airtight backstory – he was a loser living in a hotel.

We should have known better, but fortunately the actual damage done was relatively low, and I got to learn 3 profitable lessons about landing bigger clients. These lessons directly impacted how I approached our business in the last year with fascinating results. Here they are, in no particular order.

3 Lessons about Confidence for Client-facing Businesses

If You’re Confident Enough, No One Checks Your Backstory

Once I caught wind this scammer was full of it, I did a quick background check online. (I also went full internet detective.) Turns out he’d scammed in nearly the same way before… and it was all so easy to find. Yet despite this, none of the lawyers, assistants, nor agents handling these high net worth individuals bothered to do a background check.

The lesson: business runs on trust on all levels.

No One Wants to Call You out on Being an Imposter Because They’re Afraid of Looking Stupid

If you try to call someone a scammer without being 100% sure, it’s a bad look. It’s awkward even if you ARE completely sure. Scammers know this and exploit our desire to avoid awkwardness. People will go along with something ridiculous for years if it means avoiding uncomfortable conversations.

The lesson: people aren’t waiting to accuse me of being an imposter like my brain fears.

Everyone – No Matter Their Net-worth – Has the Same Problems

Finding meaning in life. Feeling special or important. Seeing people grow from your words. Finding relative success. Perhaps the most astounding discovery of all was realizing that no matter how much money someone had, they were still susceptible to the same challenges you or I face every day. (They just don’t stress about rent like the rest of us.)

The lesson: speaking to the real, human problems someone faces is the best way to win their business.

So What’s the Biggest Key in Your Success in Business?

It’s YOUR confidence.

The question is, how big are you willing to play?

Most of us want to keep it safe to some degree. We’re risk averse by design. Our hunter-gatherer, tribal nomad ancestors who had the “play it safe” gene. 🐅 And they are the ones who survived to pass that trait along to us, their descendants. So our meat-computer brains quite literally have “avoid risk” as part of our programming.

In today’s world, we’re not going to be killed by a wild animal, or freeze to death if we leave the working world and look for something better. Yet our brains are still using Human OS 1.1 rev.300,000 BC. So we still feel the same level of fear and risk aversion as if there were a tiger outside our door.

Conmen know this and exploit it.

But those of us with actual ethics can use these traits as well.

How I’ve Boosted My Own Confidence

After seeing the importance of confidence, I’ve taken 2 intentional steps to boost my own self-esteem.

The first is teaching. I’ve started teaching digital marketing courses through Old Dominion University and San Diego State. I’ve also been delivering more workshops to those of you with masterminds. Seeing my students “get it”… and seeing how much my experience can benefit them… has been a huge confidence builder. (“I’m not a fraud after all!”)

The second way I’m boosting my confidence is having objective, external sounding boards who get what I’m trying to do. In my head, I’m competing against successful brands who have multi-million dollar budgets. But that’s not reality. My sounding boards ground me in reality and help me see what I’m doing well. This helps me confidently approach gigs and charge the rates I’m worth.

As a result, Common People is significantly raising our rates in 2022. But we’ve also developed a service that helps you get the external support you need to have more confidence in your business.

It’s called Quick Fix, and it’s the fastest, most convenient way to have a conversion-focused copywriter, developer, and designer solve your confidence-wrecking problems.

Afraid to share your site with potential clients because of a messed up button, or weird layout, or out-of-date info? We’ll fix that for you – quick.

Finding yourself apologizing to your email list for broken opt-ins and integrations that don’t integrate. We’ll remove that frustration so you can approach clients with your full confidence & energy.

Have some other annoying little issue that you just haven’t gotten to yet… but lives rent-free in your head? Let’s take care of it – fast.

Quick Fixes are just $500. And due to finishing some client projects early, we have some time this week to get your Quick Fixes done. Check them out to learn more and book your time.