If you own a home, you know that Springtime is the most expensive time of the year…which is exactly when the solicitors come knocking.

A few years back, it was windows.

At my last house, it was Kirby vacuums. (Never, ever, accept their offer for a rug cleaning—they’ll be at your house for hours.)

This year, it’s pest control services…and making me think I need to move that “No Soliciting” to the front of the house, because it’s a long porch and by the time they make it to the door, they’re probably thinking

“Well I'm already here—why not?"

First it was the kid who gave me a lot of good one-liners about supporting a local, family-owned company and offered to cancel my existing pest service for me—but I had to accept the offer that day OR the price would magically triple 👀

Then another one ran into my husband when he was getting the mail. I informed him he wasn’t the first to show up, to which he replied:“I know, they keep sending out these amateurs” before asking if he could snag a Powerade and a protein bar 🍫 for the road.

Then, finally while my husband was out for a walk, the doorbell rang. I initially thought he had locked himself out, then braced myself for yet another sales pitch…

Only to open the door to my actual pest service guy...who informed me the pest control solicitors are equally obnoxious at his house (and somehow miss the company truck parked in front.)

My point is, people buy things to solve problems, everyone loves getting a deal and no one likes to be sold to…and there’s nothing that boils my blood more than an offer with a countdown clock.

Like yes, I have read Cialdini too, and sure, we can reframe it with a pseudo-academic term like the scarcity principle...

When we should really just call it what it is:
low-level manipulation.

I spent my twenties pursuing public service to avoid this reality, swung to the other side of the pendulum to open my copywriting practice, and now I'm convinced that in order to succeed, you must:

1. Acknowledge that selling things people might want but don't actually need is simply a part of doing business.

OR

2. Be a sociopath.

I am willing to accept neither, which is why there will be no "BUY NOW OR DIE" offer for the Forever in Progress Training Club.

The sales page will live on the Internet indefinitely until JD raises the price or revamps the offer and I genuinely do not know when it will happen.

I think we briefly discussed the idea that he comps my monthly membership for writing this campaign, but the invoice already came in and I barely survived Maycember and therefore, too lazy to bug him about it because my time is worth more than $25/month. (See? I don’t even that good of a deal.)

There are no quotas to meet, no affiliate networks, and the overhead is stupidly low because the programs already exist—either you try them or you don’t.

I have no doubt this will go down in Internet marketing history as the most passive launch campaign of all time, but you know what? Being aligned with my integrity will always trump the promise of a sale.

So yeah. Last-chance-but-not-really-to-join here.

We'll be here doing the work either way, and you're welcome to hop on board anytime.

Cheers,

Sophia :)

P.S. I definitely did not finish 50k words by May 31st, and will share why soon—probably later in the month than usual since my daughter graduates kindergarten next week 😭. Spoiler: It’s weirdly related to pest control services 🐜 which only goes to show that nothing in the universe is random.