How To Think With Dan Henry Why Assumptions are Toxic to your Business and my $1 Million Dollar Mistake
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Have you ever found yourself in a position to say “yes” to an opportunity, but instead chose to say “no” because you just “knew it wouldn’t work” for you?
Or so you thought...
These assumptions, which create limiting beliefs, lead to missed opportunities and mistakes in your business and your personal life.
Remember... “You don't know what you don't know.”
Recently, I had a $1 million dollar day in my business. However, I had been putting off that opportunity for quite some time because I had this thought that because I couldn’t do my masterclass live in front of an audience I would never be able to build up the hype and energy needed to sell my high-ticket mastermind.
But after speaking with my great friend Myron Golden, I realized that it was just a limiting belief… and I was letting it hold me back.
“Objective thinking, thinking with due diligence, not being biased, getting rid of cognitive bias, and making an educated decision is what is going to help you move forward.”
In this episode, I am going to cover:
- How an assumption almost cost me a $1 million dollar opportunity
- Why basing your decision-making on assumptions, rather than due diligence, objective thinking, and logic, can cost you more than you know in business and life
- How to better understand your assumptions and how they can be damaging to your success
- What to do instead of assuming things based on what you hear
- The story of two prospects that almost let assumptions destroy their business
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— TRANSCRIPT —
In today's episode, we're going to talk about how assumptions can cost you massive amounts of money in your business and your life.
Oh, do I have a story for you guys today? So I have an iPhone X and this morning I was doing an Instagram story and you may have seen the Instagram story. We buy steaks and chicken and things like that from this company called Butcher Box, where they send you out locally farmed meat and they send it out to you so it's fresh, but it's in a box that comes with dry ice, this huge block of dry ice to keep it frozen in transit. So I got a shipment in and there was this big block of dry ice and I saw this YouTube video one time where this guy threw a big block of dry ice in his pool and it bubbled up and it gave this sort of smoky, sort of Halloweeny fog over the top of the pool. I thought it was cool and I thought about doing some sort of ad or something for Halloween promotion. So I thought, well, you know what, let me take this brick of dry ice and toss it in my pool to see what it does that way. I'll know if I go to film a Halloween ad, what to expect, and I have it here and let me give it a try.
So I do it, but I'm doing a story as I'm doing it and I throw the dry ice in it, bubbles up and the dry ice is at the bottom of the pool. I have my iPhone X and I had heard that it was waterproof, I had heard that you could put it underwater. Well, I assumed that was true because I heard it. So in the middle of the story, I dunk the phone down in the water and take a look at the dry ice bubbling up underneath the water and it records it and I think everything's fine. I even say in the story, I'm like, "Oh, that's a good thing the phone is waterproof," like an idiot and about five minutes later, my phone just randomly turns off and restarts and turns off and restart. I'm like, what is going on with this thing? So I look it up and I find it literally says online that this happens when you drop your phone in water and that the iPhone is not actually waterproof, it's water-resistant, and that basically the phone's trashed. I'm like, "Ah, God, I'm such an idiot. I just totally ruined my phone". Fortunately, I was already able to order a new one. I get free phones, iPads, computers, IMAX, and MacBook Pros all the time because I have a card that I use for Facebook ads and I get points and those points work at the Apple store. So I just ordered another one, got it for free, whatever. But I just thought it was funny because I'm like I should do a podcast episode on assumptions.
So right there, as you can see, I assumed that the iPhone was waterproof because I had heard it somewhere. Couldn't remember exactly where, but I had heard it. So I assumed it was true and I was wrong and I ruined my iPhone, which is like a $1,500 phone. So that's 1500 bucks down the window. Thankfully I got it on points, but still. So how does this affect your business? Well, this happens a lot because we make assumptions about things so we miss opportunities based on those assumptions. I'll give you a couple of examples here.
I had done live events where I had sold things at the end of the event. I think my best day I made like a hundred grand in a day selling an offer at a live event. I had all these plans to do this big, huge live event where I was going to sell a $30,000 offer and I was going to try to sell at least 34 of them and try to make a million dollars in a day. I had all these plans to do that and I was picking out live event equipment and backdrop and just all this stuff. Right? Well then the pandemic hits and it becomes clearly obvious that we're not going to have any live events for some time. So I go, "All right, I'm not going to do it" and the reason I said to myself, I was not gonna do it was because I assumed that I wouldn't be able to sell a $30,000 offer over a virtual event. I assumed that nobody's gonna buy it. Nobody's gonna spend 30 grand on a zoom call. You gotta be in person and you gotta feel the vibe and you're going to have a little bit of the tricks and clap your hands and hug each other jump up and down etc. to get people in the mood and to get them excited enough to invest $30,000 in whatever that offer is, so I assumed that.
Well I talked to my friend Myron Golden and I was talking to him about it, and he goes, "Well, why do you think you can't do it at a virtual event?"
And I go, "I don't know. I just figured people wouldn't..."
As I'm saying it, I'm like, "Oh crap, this is a limiting belief. I know it, I know it's a limiting belief" and I can see it in his eyes. In the middle of me saying it I'm like, "I know that's a limiting belief, isn't it?"
And he's like, "Yep."
And I'm like, "Yep."
He goes on and he tells me about how he had a client that did a virtual event made like 300 grand a day on zoom.
And I was like, "Okay, all right. All right, got it. I'll do it." Well, I ended up doing it and I'm making a million bucks in a day, I sold 34. So I remember thinking to myself like I assumed that this wouldn't work because people weren't in person. Based on that assumption, I put it off for a long time. I'm glad I finally did it. So that assumption could have cost me a million bucks. That's the thing is we assume things, I'll give you another example.
I remember I was talking to my sales team and we had two people that day, I guess somebody had put out a review of my program and they had accidentally or maybe intentionally, I don't know, they had put a price on my program. They said it was this price and it wasn't that price wasn't even anywhere near that price. It was like five times more than that price and it had never been that price. I don't know where they got this price from, but it was incorrect. Well, a bunch of people read that blog post or whatever it was, and we had two people get on a call that day and say that they had seen that post. When it came time for us to tell the price, they loved the program they wanted in, but they got taken aback because it was a lot more expensive than what they had read and thus assumed. Well, one person said, "You know what? I assumed it was this amount and now you're telling me it's this amount, so I'm not gonna join". Which is kind of weird 'cause it was like you assumed it was this amount now. It's like, what does that matter? I mean, the price is the price. Do you want the result or not? Is it worth it, the price, regardless of what you thought you read somewhere or heard? To me in my brain, I'm like, who cares? Somebody gave you the wrong information, so what? The point is, is it worth this much to you to get the result, end of story. Yes or no? Well, I guess for that person, it wasn't because they said, no.
Now another person, same day and by the way, both of these people were coaches and they were looking to sell more of their coaching and they were coming to us to learn how to tighten up their coaching program, increase their prices and sell it high-ticket.
So, you know, both coaches, it was a very, very equal comparison. So the first person says, No, they were too hung up on the fact that they had assumed that it was much less than it was because they read that post. Well, the other person also was taken aback that it was more than they expected. They also assumed it was one price when it was another price because they had read it somewhere and at first they didn't want to join. But, after talking to my sales team and them allowing this person to understand that at the end of the day if they make just a couple of sales, it's going to pay it back. So who cares how much it is. You know what I'm saying? That's what the guy said. He's like, "You know, you're right. You know, who does care? I mean, if I'm going to make it back" and he got over that limiting assumption, that limiting belief due to that assumption, and he joined.
Now, here's the thing, fast forward 30 days. Right? I got a message from my team that said, "Hey, remember that guy that almost didn't join because he saw it was one price and it really was another and all that."
And I said, "Yeah, I remember."
He says, "Well, they just quadrupled their investment in the first 30 days, they made 10 sales or something and quadrupled their investment." And I'm like, "Really? Wow. Okay, do you remember who the person that said no was?"
And they're like, "Yeah."
And I said, "Well, do you know their name? Give me their name,"
So he gives me the name and I look them up on Facebook and I look at their posts and I kind of see if I can assess how their businesses are doing. I couldn't really assess it based on that. So I took the time to reach out to them. I asked for their email and I emailed them, I have a special email address that I use just for when I want to personally reach out to a prospect or something. Let's say somebody makes a mistake or I feel that it's in my best interest to reach out personally, just deal with it and say, hi, cause maybe we messed something up or whatever, or our phones weren't working, whatever it is, I use that special email.
So I email them from that special email and I say, "Hey, I'm really sorry that you heard that it was one price or another. I see you got a call about 30 days ago. I was just wanting to check in on your business and see how it's going."
Well, that person emails me back and says, "Oh yeah, I haven't really made any progress. I think if I would've got your program, I probably would be doing a bit better, but I just can't get over the fact that it's not that price."
I said, "All right, fine, whatever. Okay."
Now here's the funny thing. Both these people were coaches, both of them made the same assumption. One of them decided to let that assumption rule their thinking and not join. And one of them decided to get over it and join, and guess what happened? The person that didn't join missed that opportunity due to the assumption, they are no further along with their business than they were the day they said no. The person that didn't let that assumption rule their decision-making went ahead and quadrupled their investment. So again, and I'm saying this person at that person, cause I don't want to put their names on blast make it a big thing and all this.
The principle here is that you can make an assumption that can cost you money because you don't take an opportunity or you don't hire someone or you don't purchase a service that would have helped you or whatever it is because you assumed one thing or another. You didn't check. You didn't verify. You didn't take time to think about it. You didn't take time to think of it objectively you just assumed. It's the same thing with pricing, a lot of people assume people won't pay more than X, but in reality, it's actually easier to sell a lot of offers for more because you get more serious clients.
And again, these assumptions, which create limiting beliefs, lead to missed opportunities and mistakes in your business and for that matter, your life. It's sorta like this, I have a friend of mine, he owns a gym, a martial arts gym and he has a really great relationship with his wife. I had a conversation with him once and he said to me, "You know, we almost got divorced."
I said, "Well, why did you almost get divorced?"
He's like, "Well, honestly, it's because I never wanted to go to therapy. I assumed that therapy didn't work. I assumed it was all BS, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. One day she convinced me to do it. We did it and we stopped the divorce and our marriage has never been better. We're happier than we've ever been and I'm so glad I took that step because I just assumed it wouldn't work."
So there you go, boom, that assumption could have cost him his marriage. That's the thing, if assumptions were always something to go on, then we would be perfect beings. We would be clairvoyant. The thing is you don't know what you don't know. If you assume that something is or is not for you, or you assume something won't work, or you assume people won't pay a certain amount, or you assume this or that won't work for you, then you're never going to actually take the time to try it. If you don't take the time to try it, whatever benefit that you would have from it will never materialize.
So the next time you put something off, say no to something skip out on something because of an assumption and believe me, I'm guilty of doing this a lot and I'm trying to get better at it myself. Ask yourself, am I making an assumption based on objective thinking, based on actual due diligence, based on a patient attempt to understand what it is I'm looking at, or am I just assuming it on something I've heard and I'm basing my decision off that. If that is what you're doing that type of thinking is not going to get you very far in life. Objective thinking, thinking with due diligence, not being biased, getting rid of cognitive bias, and making an educated decision is what is going to help you move forward.
So I hope this episode was helpful to you. And you know, if you, if you're looking to grow your business and you don't want to assume that my company cannot help you, then I'll leave a link where you can book a call, you can speak to us and we can take a look at your business. And if we feel that we can work with you to help you grow it, and it's a home run, we'll let you know and let you decide if you want to become a part of what we have to offer or not. So I'll leave that link in the show notes and of course, if you haven't got a copy of my book, Digital Millionaire Secrets yet I'll leave a link in there as well. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you in the next episode.