David Molina uses sushi as a metaphor for breaking down your service into smaller components. Bundle and unbundle them into tiered products at different price points, so more subscribers can buy something instead of just your full-price offer. Most list members aren't client material, but they'll spend on lower-ticket, modular versions of what you sell.
Something that the Japanese can teach us about how to make more money from an email list. I was recently in Japan for my honeymoon and the idea just came to mind. Knowing that most people are not willing to pay you your client fee is quite an empowering belief because instead of chasing the 'Well, you know, this is my fee and people have to join at that fee,' then to me that's personally a rigid way of looking at it. And there are other ways that if you thought like a Japanese might allow you to make more money and get more clients. So let's explore that. Let's take sushi for example. So what does sushi have? Let's say it's got 3 components. It's got the nori, which is a seaweed. It's got the rice and it's got the fish, the sashimi. That's what it's called. So let's say you went to a restaurant and you saw that there is nori-less sushi. So it doesn't have nori. Do they sell it as nori-less sushi? Well, no, that'd be lame. So they sell it as nigiri, right? It's like small and packed and it covers and it's nice, right? So it's a new dish. And then let's say you take out the rice, then do you have riceless nigiri? No, you have sashimi, right? So you have from one offer, if you will, you have 3 different products that you can sell. That's an important distinction. You only have one offer, it's you, but you have multiple products, which is the way in which— the ways in which you can deploy You. Now, the thing is, the Japanese understand that by selling these components bundled and unbundled, that allows them to cater to a greater customer base and allows them to monetize more people. So maybe two people going to the sushi restaurant, one person is on a diet, the other one's not. Well, one person might have the entire sushi and the other one might not order anything. But because there's the option to have sashimi, just the fish right there, then they might, right? And the Japanese understand this and they have these offers so that they can make more money, right? Now imagine if you show up to a restaurant, to a sushi restaurant, and you tell them, what's up folks, so listen, I don't really want the sushi, can I just have the fish? Like, you don't have to cook it, just give me the fish, I just want the sashimi. And then they go, no, sorry, can't do that. You're like, dude, but it's like easier for you to deliver and cook. You're like, no, can't do that, man. I'm sorry. Sumimasen. Then like, that'd be kind of pointless, right? Because you wanted to spend on it. That's what we do with our offers. We have one rigid price, one rigid duration, one rigid promise. And I believe that's quite a limiting way to look at offers. Bundling and unbundling allows you to cater to a greater set of clients, and it'll allow you to make more money. Because again, most people are not client material. Most people are not going to pay you the amount that your client offer, you know, demands. And that's fine, right? While there may not be thousands of people willing to pay you thousands, there very well may be hundreds or thousands of people willing to pay you hundreds. And that's an important distinction. So by opening those segments up, you understand that, man, you're actually unlimited in your capacity to make offers. So, and now you can even just buy the seaweed on its own, right? Like standalone, you could just buy it on the package. And just by unbundling, look at all the different products that you could have. So when you keep sending the same client the offer, then offer blindness does happen, in which— well, deafness, I guess— in which if people can predict you, they stop listening. And for example, you're driving home and you see an ad. You notice it the first time, you notice it the first week, and by the fourth week, it just doesn't register in your mind. And that's what happens to offers. So that's when people go, the list is dead, these people are tire kickers, they're not buying, I don't know what I'm doing wrong, do I need my offer to be tweaked? And is that— it might, like, it very well might be the case, but that is a very expensive mistake to fix and a very time-consuming thing to fix. Reason being that, okay, let's assume they're tire kickers, let's assume the hypothesis is correct. Are you just gonna replace the entire list? Spend like a small fortune on ads, that may be the solution. However, you might just want to unbundle and bundle. Instead of selling just sushi, you might want to open up other dishes to cater to the people already inside who may not buy the whole thing, but they might buy other individual components of it. So if the list feels dead, if you feel like you're not getting you know, as much as you can, then consider unbundling the stuff you already have to cater to different people. Most people are not client material, and that's fine, but that does not mean that you cannot extract something from them. That doesn't mean that they're not willing to pay you. Okay, so yeah, take that, use it, hopefully it serves you, and see you in the next one. Adiós.
