New webinar link is HERE.
My flash sale (sorta) offering is HERE.
There’s nothing more annoying than a Humble Brag…but that’s not what this is.
I’ve had some major marketing successes, more often than not when almost everyone told me I was wrong.
For example, I knew instantly that the concept of “Yoga in Bed” was fun and cheeky enough to get some major press and sure enough it did.
Before it took off, however, more than a few yoga colleagues just shook their heads when I mentioned it, eyes downcast, sighing quietly.
After it got into People and Oprah’s magazine––and got me on TV with Kelly Ripa––they lost all memory of how discouraging they had been.
Yet, at the same time, I’ve also gotten things really wrong.
My marketing sense is NOT omniscient.
(No one’s is).
And here are my 2.5 favorite stories about that.
Picture It: a simpler time.
College, in fact.
Full of unfounded confidence, I was a vocal naysayer.
I was quite forthright in my honesty that a friend’s mother’s first feature as a producer had a genuinely terrible title.
I even went so far as to say that I couldn’t imagine the audience not thinking it was going to be pornographic.
Keeping that title would be a terrible, terrible marketing mistake I cautioned.
And….I was totally wrong.
That film was Dirty Dancing.
(You may have heard of it.)
The final nail in my coffin was when my idol New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael actually said “what a great title!” at the end of her review.
Even so, I think my mistake was understandable.
If someone told you they were producing something called “Dirty Dancing” honestly what would you think?
And yet, I stand fully corrected.
My second biggest marketing blunder was more than a decade later, in the late Aughts.
I was attending a Soho art event.
Except for the hostess, it was not the least bit glamorous.
The crowd was young and largely unemployed.
It wasn’t in a high end art gallery but some kind of creepy performance space.
Bad lighting.
Long lines for the bathroom.
Some retro TV monitors on pedestals.
There were moments of semi-silence when various gritty shorts played.
I remembered telling the hostess of the event––who had invited me––that I just didn’t get where this was going.
These shorts were just so boring.
They consisted of relatively unattractive millennials complaining about their dull lives and making unfortunate decisions.
“Who would ever want to watch that?” I asked with brutal candor.
Flash forward three years later.
Those shorts basically evolved into the universally acclaimed series GIRLS on HBO.
Wrong again (sigh).
This week I was about to make another marketing mistake.
That is, until a wise friend talked me out of it.
For a new program we’re Beta-Testing, I was going to have it be Press Only.
We do the first iteration.
Get some glowing reviews (fingers crossed).
And armed with those, open it up to the public for Round Two this summer / fall.
But the pandemic has changed a lot of things, including how I look at marketing strategy.
I’ve never been a big fan of the Scarcity Principle––it’s worth more if you can’t have it––even though I see it successfully applied all the time.
Besides, I like connecting with “Real People.”
(Not that members of the press aren’t real people…but you know what I mean).
So since you’re on my mailing list, before I make another “terrible mistake,” if this appeals here’s your chance.
It’s an 8-week intro yoga course for the inflexible and stressed that’s unlike any other I’ve seen.
It adds up to less than 12 minutes a day and it’s based on my 20 years of teaching.
If this sounds appealing, check it out HERE.
And remember, once the reviews come out it’ll be more than 5 times the price.
(That sounds like gross Marketing Speak and I suppose it is––but it’s also true.)
Check it out HERE.
Finally, I do think there’s something more universal that’s relevant here.
2020 flipped so many things around.
Basic assumptions of how we live and work were challenged.
There was a lot of difficulty involved but also perhaps some refinement.
Greater clarity about what’s important was often gained.
Oddly, some things are surprisingly better than they were before.
In fact, there’s a lot of data about ways we actually DON’T want to return to the way things were.
Some of our basic premises were honestly a little screwy.
And sometimes––if your ego can handle it––I’ve discovered it’s actually more fun to be wrong.
Sometimes titles can surprise you.
Sometimes people can, too.
And so does my gender-switching tree every day.
In fact, here’s he / she / they, for the first time in our seven years together, sprouting helicopters alongside leaves.
Ultimately, I guess my message is not so much “Learn from your Mistakes” as it is“Allow Yourself to be Delighted by Them.”
Indeed, I went to the premiere of Dirty Dancing and it was one of the best nights of my life.
In that spirit, that willingness to be surprised, please come hang out with me on my FREE webinar this Wednesday HERE.
(Or consider the “Press Only” 8-week adventure HERE)
And most importantly, rather than being annoyed with life’s perpetual plot twists, allow yourself to face them with eager anticipation.
They may just surprise you.
And you may end up having a lot more fun than you’d ever dreamed.
And I apologize but I can’t resist––perhaps even “The Time of Your Life.”
Namaste for Now,
P.S. The link again for the Best Kept WELLNESS SECRETS Webinar on April 28th is HERE.
My equally free 8 day Radical Abundance Series HERE.
And if you want to enroll in my Executive Yoga Experiment (or know a reporter we should invite), the details are HERE.
