Have you ever wanted to start a business?

I have three types of friends.

1. Don’t want to start a business – and it’s perfectly fine
2. Want to do it – but are scared to jump
3. Have a business

Which one are you? 

Check out this IG dm I got back awhile ago.

Chances are if you’re following me, you’re the second person. Maybe you’ve thought about it and wondering – Damn… Is it possible for me to start a business?

If you feel this way, I’ve been there and know what it’s like to feel stuck in the middle. Sometimes I still go through it. And like most millennials, I go on Reddit to see if people are feeling the same way.

The other day I found this post – what do you think?

After spending time on Reddit – I realized three things.

1. People don’t want to fail
2. People don’t want to spend time, money, and hard work just to fail
3. Don’t start an ice cream store

Starting a business is EXACTLY like a relationship.

No one wants to commit time, hard work, and money into a relationship just to break up. Even though no one goes into a relationship wanting to break up, it still happens.

Failing isn’t fun. And sure if you don’t start, you won’t fail – but you’ll never succeed either.

Keep in mind I’m no business guru, but by the end of this article you’ll…

1. Know three rules for selling premium products and services items that the TOP players are using
2. Feel confident answering – what makes my business different?
3. Stop asking “if” and start asking – how is it possible to start my business?

If you want to learn how to sell a competitive product, like coffee, at 20x price and have people WILLINGLY pay for it, read on.

Literally you’ll know how to sell shit for hundreds of dollars 💩.

What’s the most you’ve EVER paid for coffee?

Let’s take coffee as an example – two questions:

1. Where do you get your coffee? – Is it a local Starbucks, Coffee Bean, or Dunkin Donuts? Or independent coffee shop?
2. What’s the most you’ve ever paid?

In LA’s Koreatown, you’ll pay $2-8 for coffee. I know what you’re thinking… $8 for coffee?

To some it’s ridiculous – but there’s people who WANT to pay for specialty coffee that you can’t get anywhere else.

But imagine paying $100 for a cup of coffee.

Idk about you – but that’s ridiculous IMO. THAT’S OVER 20X THE COST OF A NORMAL CUP. And it exists. It’s called “Kopi Luwak” coffee.

You would think that there would be truffle oil or gold flakes in it. But do you want to know the secret ingredient?

Cat shit 🐱💩. And people are willing and happy to buy it.

How do they do this? Is it through secret Jedi mind tricks? Or do they rent Lambo’s like Tai Lopez? Nope.

It’s their positioning – or how they differentiate themselves from competition.

If you can understand the positioning of civet cat coffee, then you can apply it to your business to sell at 20x the “normal” price.

Because let’s be real. If someone can start a profitable business selling civet cat droppings then ANYTHING is possible.

Rule 1: Sell the story, not the features

Imagine you walk into a coffee shop and see “Kopi Luwak” coffee. You ask the barista – what’s that?

Are they going to say – It’s coffee picked out cat shit.

How would you react if someone told that? I’d pass – not a fan of ATM.

So how do they really sell it?

Let’s look at the website for the world’s most expensive coffee. 

They don’t focus on what the coffee actually is. Instead they focus on the story behind the coffee – or the journey from tree to cup. 

Instead of telling you what the coffee is, they tell you the story behind the coffee. They focus on…

• How civet cats in Indonesia love eating coffee berries
• The process of fermentation inside the civet cat
• How the beans are hand picked and washed throughly (this is the most important part!)
• How to enjoy your coffee.

Check out any episode of Buzzfeed’s Worth it – the high end items always have a deep story behind them.

Want another example? Let’s compare a Mont Blanc and a BIC pen.

• Mont Blanc doesn’t sell the pen – they focus on the process of how each pen is hand assembled and where the steel is sourced.
• BIC sells on what the pen does and how many POS pens you get. Anyone else hate BIC pens?

This is why Mont Blanc can charge $300 per pen while BIC sells a box of 60 for $5.

TLDR: Don’t sell the features. Sell the story.

Rule 2: High ticket items are never on sale

Let’s pretend – you want to buy a watch.

Situation #1:

Someone comes up to you off the street and wants to sell you a watch. You look at his selection…

And you see Rolex – it’s $1. You reach into your pocket for some quarters and buy it. How confident do you feel buying a legit watch?

I can say with 99% confidence that watch wasn’t made by Rolex, but made in Shenzhen, China.

Situation #2:

You walk into an official Rolex store. Maybe they give you wine. And you look at their selection – a $30,000 Skydweller.

Damn. That’s a lot of money.

You buy the watch and say – fuck it… why not?

Now – how confident do you feel that you bought a legit watch?

There’s two lessons we can learn –

1. Higher prices make you feel confident about the authenticity of the product.
2. No one is EVER trying to knock off the dollar store watches – it’s ALWAYS with the high end items.

And Kopi Luwak coffee applies the SAME concept. Sure – you might see cheaper alternatives, but are you buying the real thing?

.

When you pay for higher priced civet coffee, you’re paying for…

1. Quality – using the ripest coffee beans
2. Ethically raised – farmed vs. wild civet cats
3. Authenticity – is it legit or nah?

Are you buying coffee made from cruel civet farms? Or are you buying ethical wild civets coffee?

The truth is high prices make us feel confident about our purchase. When was the last time you saw a high end item, like a Louis Vuitton bag, go on sale?

How would you feel if you bought a LV bag at full price and the next day it was on sale for a $1? Would you ever want buy another LV bag again? Hell no.

TLDR: High prices make people feel confident their purchase.

Rule #3: People don’t buy products or services

When I was researching this article, I found this video on 2 Chainz trying out this coffee. The real question is what is 2 Chainz really buying? Is it really the coffee?

I’d like to highlight his response:

Host: Can you taste the difference?
2 Chainz: Hell nah.

Let’s be real – if 2 Chainz was ONLY buying coffee, there’s nothing stopping him from $2 McDonald’s coffee. So what is he REALLY buying?

A better version of himself – picture this.

1. 2 Chainz goes into McDonald’s.
   • He waits in line and maybe he picks up a happy meal. Does he feel like a baller? No lie. Anyone can be a dollar menu millionaire.
2. 2 Chainz drinks Kopi Luwak from a $6000 Blossom Brewer… PAID IN CASH
   • How does he feel? You bet he feels BALLLINNNNN out of control. He’s on exclusive boss shit. Most people can’t afford $100 per cup.

So let me ask you – why do people REALLY buy? They buy for one of these 8 reasons (AKA the “Life Force 8” in the book Cashvertising)

1. Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension
2. Enjoyment of food and beverages
3. Freedom from fear, pain, and danger
4. Sexual companionship
5. Comfortable living conditions
6. To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses
7. Care and protection of loved ones
8. Social approval

Next time you buy a luxury item – why are you really buying?

Maybe when you wear Yeezys, you feel like Kanye West. When you buy a Tom Ford suit, you feel like James Bond. If you buy a Mont Blanc JFK pen, you feel like President JFK.

And when you sip on Kopi Luwak – you feel like 2 Chainz.

TLDR: People don’t buy products or services, they buy better versions of themselves. At the end of the day people buy with emotion and justify with logic.

How you can apply this to your business?

Ok – you’re probably not interested in selling cat shit coffee – but what can we learn and use high ticket sales?

How do you go from from cat shit to “bougetity”, or level of degree that the pinky goes out? Use the three rules in your business or marketing.

1. Sell the story, not the features
2. High ticket items are never on sale
3. People don’t buy products, they buy a better version of themselves

With the right positioning, people will be willing to pay 20x more to drink coffee that comes from a cat’s anus.

The truth is no one wants to drink civet cat feces – but people want the 2 Chainz “bougetity” lifestyle.

Real talk. If someone can sell coffee beans picked out of feces and start a business behind that – anything is possible. Even starting your own business.

At the end of the day starting a business isn’t about knowledge – it’s about filling in those gaps in knowledge, getting off your ass, and applying it.

Until next time,

Kevin Yee

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