Note From Jimmy:  I’m out of town this week and my affiliate manager, Nicole Dean is filling in for me.  Say “hello” to Nicole.  Don’t be afraid.  She won’t bite.  :-)  Nicole is a wonderful internet marketer, friend and all around good girl … and she always has something interesting to say, so check in each day.  See you next week. 

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Hey guys. I’m back. Again, I’m Nicole Dean, and I’m Jimmy’s Affiliate Manager at www.InfoProfitShare.com. I’m also his business partner at www.OutsourceWeekly.com.

This week, I’m a guest blogger, too, sharing a series that I’ve put together called “Lessons Learned Working with Jimmy: The Inside Scoop”. I’ll be discussing the lessons that I learned from Jimmy through his words, and also by watching his actions over the years.

Yesterday, I wrote about Being Yourself in Online Business and the path that I’ve walked in learning that lesson. Apparently, it struck home with several of you based upon your comments. I’m very glad to know that there are other entrepreneurs out there who feel as I did who are now embracing their inner “gooberness”.

Today is a shorter, but equally important post.

Lesson #2: The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey.

Do you remember the fable of the Man, the Boy, and the Donkey? If not, here it is from Gutenberg.org:

A Man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a country man passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”

So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”

So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”

Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers−by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey of yours and your hulking son?”

The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore−feet being tied together he was drowned.

“That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them:

“Please all, and you will please none.”

Some others interpret the moral as

“We cannot please everyone. So we must do what we know is the right thing to do.”

Guess what I’m interpreting it as?

“Do your best, but not everyone will love you, even if you’re Jimmy D. Brown.”

Now, granted, this may be assumed by some of you, but it was a shocker to me.

Jimmy actually gets the occasional refund and also the occasional rude customer.

I remember the first refund request that I saw come across my email inbox for one of Jimmy’s products back in 2006. Oh BOY was I ever hopping mad! I had studied the course that we sold and I knew that there wasn’t anything else on the market that was a better course on the topic. My face got hot and my palms got sweaty and I thought “How dare that customer not think it’s the most wonderful course on earth!”

It’s funny in hindsight, but at the time I was just livid. I’m pretty sure that I stormed down the hall and told my husband all about it.

I spoke with Jimmy about it later that day, and he was all cool and I was still steaming mad and sputtering. That’s when I realized that even he can’t please everyone (*especially when we’re talking about selling in such large volume*) and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

All of a sudden the few unsubscribes that I received on my tiny newsletter at the time were a little badge of honor. I realized that the only way that I would keep from getting the occasional refund request myself was if I did nothing and didn’t create products in the first place. And, of course, that wasn’t an option. I wanted to make the big bucks.

I also realized that a small percentage of people will never be happy with your products, so if you’re selling 10/month you might not get any refunds, but once you sell 1000 or more copies/month, you just might get a few. So, it’s just a part of life. And, it’s part of success. The more you sell, the more customers you’ll deal with and, therefore, the more occasional refunds you’ll get.

If fear of letting people down or not being perfect is holding YOU back from creating a newsletter or your first infoproduct, I’ll tell you right now that the only way to avoid refunds is by doing nothing.

Instead, accept that “We cannot please everyone. So we must do what we know is the right thing to do.” and move ahead. By keeping that in mind, you’ll better be able to face the occasional crabbies.

Please keep the comments coming. I love reading them all.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Here’s another article by Jimmy about lessening your refund requests by having your ducks in a row: How to Make More Money with Information Products.