A friend of mine was telling me this hilarious story:
In primary school he had this friend who wasn’t super popular.
And so to try get people to like him, this guy was a TOTAL people-pleaser:
One of those people who — if he sensed you disagreed with him — would flip on the spot to agree with you.
Well, my friend and this guy ended up going to different high schools, and didn’t see each other for about 10 years.
But recently, they met up.
And my friend said he was shocked …
Because this guy was the SAME person as an adult as he was in primary school.
At one point they got to talking about what music they liked.
And for every single thing my friend said, before he’d even finished speaking, the guy would immediately interject, “Oh yeah, I LOVE them!”
e.g. my friend asked, “Ever heard of the band Chasing Victory?”
Before he’d even finished the word “victory”, this guy cuts in with:
“OH YEAH — I LOVE CHASING VICTORY!”
“Oh, uh … cool,” said my friend. “What’s your favourite song?”
The guy froze like a deer in the headlights.
“Ah, I dunno … what’s your favourite?”
🤮
Nobody likes a people-pleaser.
So, why am I telling you this?
Well, for one, it’s funny.
But secondly, because of something I did in yesterday’s email:
I got a little bit political.
Like, 2% political. Nothing to write home about.
But it still prompted a few people to reply.
Some told me they were tempted to unsubscribe (though none actually did).
Others said they found it hilarious.
My view?
I wasn’t going out of my way to offend anyone.
But if you want to build a brand that some people love, you need to be willing to build a brand that some people hate.
Your best customers will love and appreciate you more for it — and they’re the only ones whose opinions you should care about anyway.
Besides, if you don’t, you’re just a people-pleaser …
And nobody likes those.
Daniel
P.S. I did have one person ask me, “I thought you refused to work on jobs you didn’t like — how come you agreed to work for some foul-mouthed radical feminist?”
It was a good point.
The answer is, it was through another big brand I was working for longer-term, and I would have let my client down if I’d refused the job, since they didn’t have another writer.
But, I’m not really keen to do it again.
So if you want to work with me, it’s better for us both if you have a business I can really get behind.
The rules on what those are about 2/3 of the way down this page.
If your business fits, and you’re interested in working with me, you’d best join my waitlist (you’ll need to get on my email list first).
Wait, you don’t want to get on that?
You don’t like waitlists?
Oh me NEITHER. I totally HATE waitlists too …