top of page
Search

Shrek’s advice for freelancers and biz owners

Writer's picture: John BrandtJohn Brandt

My girl and I watched Shrek last night.


While watching, I picked up on an insightful biz lesson from the 6’7”, gentle, yet terrifying 500-some lb. ogre.


In my biased, but correct, opinion… applying this lesson to your biz—whether you’re a freelancer, run an ecommerce store, deliver an infoproduct, or have a service-based biz—will make you much wealthier than you are as you read this.


Ready?


Let’s boogie…


If you’ve never seen Shrek, he lives a quiet life in his swamp. That is until Lord Farquaad (with a sigul which looks frighteningly similar to Zukk’s Facebook logo) bans all fairy tales from his land and sends them to Shrek’s swamp.


Since Shrek’s an introverted (and repulsive) ogre, he ain’t too happy about it.


So he goes on a quest to Lord Farquaad’s kingdom, so he can have some peace and privacy in his swamp again.


After meeting Lord Farquaad and pulverizing any fairy tales left in his kingdom in a battle, Lord Farquaad makes a deal with our beloved ogre:


If he frees Princess Fiona from her castle, which comes equipped with a fire-breathing, yet beautiful (?) female dragon, and delivers her to Lord Farquaad, then the pint-sized lord (he clocks in at only 4’6” according to Google) will ban the banned fairy tales from Shrek’s swamp.


Anywho:


Shrek and his annoying companion Donkey free the princess. Which is where the biz lesson comes in:


Princess Fiona has been waiting for her prince charming to come and rescue her. In fact, when the sun goes down, she morphs from a beautiful red-headed princess into a hideous, green-colored ogre. And the only thing that will stop this ugly transformation is a kiss from her true love.


So when Shrek shows up in her chambers to rescue her, excitement on her end is an understatement. She’s been waiting for this moment for who knows how long. And thinks Shrek is her knight in shining armor.


Except Shrek doesn’t care about saving her.


He’s only rescuing her, so he can deliver her to the pint-sized Lord Farquaad and have some solitude in his swamp again.


So what does Shrek do?


He doesn’t tell the princess how beautiful she is.


He doesn’t move in for a kiss.


He’s only concerned with escaping her castle lickity-split. (His annoying companion, Donkey, only seduced the beautiful dragon. And she ain’t happy when she catches on to his ruse.)


In other words, he’s not needy at all.


And this reminds me of one of the most powerful business, relationship, and life advice there is:


You can’t be needy.


Nothing repulses a girl more than neediness.


Nothing repulses a client more than neediness.


And, well, nothing repulses a customer more than neediness.


It’s sumtin people can “sniff” from a mile away.


Neediness kills sales. Ain’t no other way bout it.


But you know?


The opposite is true:


When you’re not needy, girls flock to you, clients beg to fork over their hard-earned cashola to you, and customers can’t stop buying everything you offer.


Now, you can’t fake neediness.


Fake neediness is as repulsive—if not, more so—than neediness.


How do you become anti-needy?


There are many ways, but most of them have to do with confidence.


For example:


If you’re tryna get a girl, talk to as many girls as possible. That way, you don’t *need* one girl.


If you’re tryna get a client, talk to as many prospects as possible. And work on your craft as much as possible even if you don’t have clients. That way, even if you financially *need* a client, you don’t *need* one to improve your skills. (This email list is an example of anti-neediness in practice.)


And if you’re tryna get a new customer, talk to as many customers as possible. That way, you can deny customers who aren’t a good fit for your brand. Which is, mayhap, the most anti-needy thang you can do.


There are many other ways you can obliterate your neediness.


But awareness is always the first step.


If you need help repulsing bad clients and customers while attracting good ones like honey does bees, book a call and let’s chat.


But you gotta have a proven offer, or I can’t help much.


5 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

the most irritating myth about copy

The most irritating myth about copywriting (in emails or otherwise) is the unfounded belief that short copy is always superior to long...

4 examples of cursed marketing knowledge

Familiar with cursed knowledge? It’s knowledge so powerful, so eeeeevile!, and so unforgettable that once you hear this knowledge once,...

Why WeWork went right

Searching for WeWork on Google reveals how many NPCs there are out in the world. Almost every article you’ll find from a simple, one-word...

Comments


JOIN MY MAILING LIST

and get a free copy of my book... 
The 6-Figure
Profit First Emails 
Product Launch System 
(sells for $47.97 on Amazon) 

As well as regular email tips on sending more profitable emails and building a stronger bond with your customers. 

©2021 John Brandt. john@johnbrandtcopy.com

bottom of page