Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do.
Last week, I followed the lead of my 14 year old son who is always apt to “Google it.” In this instance, the air exchange on my heat pump system was sweating like a boy on his first date — rivers of fluid pooling on my basement floor.
Like all helpless Americans I placed a call to a repairman. Then, I saw my son “Googling” something. So I did too. “My air exchange is having a panic attack” gave me nothing, but “my air exchange is condensing heavily” got me a suggestion on what the problem might be.
Now, I wear a tee shirt that reads, “Condensate Pipe Heroine” because I, dear people, cleaned out my own darned condensate pipe, reattached it, turned that puppy on, and (Holy Cow!) it worked!
I thought I was amazing and ran up the stairs chanting “I am the queen of the universe!” I went to have a celebratory bowl of soup (too early for champagne) and… the microwave blew up. My $200 savings just went poof, but I still felt great.
Then, yesterday, a friend shared with me that her sister, who is married to a woman, decided to have a baby. Instead of going through costly artificial insemination, they quite literally did a “DIY artificial insemination” with oversight from a nurse and the use of a cotton swab. My whole DIY aura was shattered, trumped, and overshadowed in comparison to these fearless people whose baby was born just a couple weeks ago.
So, I have arrived at this revelation. Products and services for sale should have value. That value should be built on:
- this will save me time or money
- this will be better than I can do myself
- this is something I can’t legitimately do myself
Instead, the average marketing plan seems more like a plan to convince people of their own ineptness. If we can be made to feel powerless or afraid, we’ll whip out the credit card. As for me, I don’t want to sell stuff based on making people feel powerless or afraid. I’d rather sell something that actually has value.
I wonder, what would happen to our world if we all began to believe that we can do anything?
We can, indeed, do anything, Katrina — as importantly though, if we don;t, who will? Nice job on the home improvement project!