For the hour hath cometh for a public flogging! 👎

Ta ta da da da da-da-daaaaaa......... Hear ye, hear ye! For the hour hath cometh for a public flogging! And who be the transgressor, ye may ask? A noobie by the name of "Akhil"... Let the show commence! ... .. . {switching back to my normal voice} ... .. . {NAME}... I just can't NOT share this with you........ It all started not that long ago, when I checked the "Non-buyer survey" I automatically send out to people who just completed the funnel for my flagship [Breakthrough Conversions Academy system](), but didn't buy. There's a question in there that says: "What prevented you from joining Breakthrough Conversions Academy? Please be specific." ​ And, to my delight, I found a long-form response from a guy called "Akhil". ​ But when I started reading his response, I immediately realized how much Akhil doesn't understand business. (despite some of his arguments kinda making sense) Here's what he wrote me: "The price was insane. A thousand dollars? I could buy a decent motor bike in India with that much money. Maybe you could try understanding Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), and you'd gain a lot of customers from developing nations like India, where $1000 price tag doesn't really make much sense. Your $1000 gets converted to about 80,000 Indian bucks for us to pay, but about 25,000 Indian bucks or $300 would be a more proper sum of money for us to pay according to PPP. Ignoring an entire demographic like India, you're basically ignoring about 1.5 Billion+ people. Your loss." And to my 2nd question... "If you were interested, but didn't join, what will you do about boosting the effectiveness of your marketing messages instead?" He added: "Do a special discount for people from developing nations like India, so they can actually afford the course." A special discount, eh? Are you... are you... are you trying to suggest I give you preferential treatment just because of your nationality? Isn't that racist? I mean... Daniel Throssell got sooooo much hate a while back because he removed a few thousand people from his list from certain third-world countries based on COLD HARD PURE DATA... And then Akhil is basically saying I'm an idiot for not discriminating against Indians? (yes, I know he's expecting "positive" discrimination... but it's still preferential treatment based on just nationality) ​ So I knew I HAD to reply to him ​ === "Hey Akhil, I recently read your response to the BCA feedback form... and I just HAD to send you this email with my response. Don't want to be rude... but you obviously don't understand how businesses work in practice. Why would I give preferential treatment to an audience made up of 1.5 Billion+ people who can't pay (or aren't willing to pay) $997 for my FLAGSHIP online course? From my perspective as a business owner, THAT's insane :) Especially when you consider how Western audiences are willing to pay 10-20-30 times that much for certain products. It's totally fine if this offer isn't the right fit for you... I'm not trying to target everyone with it... (and that's why I give TONS of high-quality content away for free) But don't assume that there aren't LOTS of people out there for whom this offer makes total sense. In fact, I've had multiple people from India buy this at the FULL price, not even this promotional price. Something to think about... Csaba" === Was I a bit rude in my response? Maybe... But I didn't like his snarky, smartass attitude when trying to give me "advice" (especially since he's obviously a newbie) So I told him what I thought. He had a good point about PPP (purchasing power parity)... But he didn't understand that using such a strategy can be deceptively tricky (and comes with a lot of negatives too!) It was clear that Akhil wasn't a bad guy... He just didn't understand certain principles about running an international online business. So I was actually curious to hear back from him... ​ And pretty soon, I did! ​ Here's this response: (abbreviated a bit because it was 777 words long) "Hey Csaba, Thank you for going all the way out to reply to me. It is an honour and I deeply appreciate how you take customer feedback in such high regards. I see, $999 is in itself a deeply discounted price compared to your competitors. You're already selling your courses for a very humble price and the actual value of your course far exceeds the price, but here the salaries are much less and people can't really pay in such a manner. It's just how money and the economy works here. An Indian losing $300 is as painful as a Westerner losing $1000. So, $300 has AS MUCH VALUE as $1000 in India. That's what I meant. Well, Csaba, if I were you, I'd definitely adjust prices and let more people afford the course from much lesser income countries. I will be helping more people by making my course more affordable and I'd also be getting a lot more happy customers who'd probably go as far as donating me back once they start earning. Well, it just felt unfair that my demographic and my income restrict me from affording costly Western courses. I am a Junior Software Developer in India. I earn 240,000 Indian bucks per year after all my expenses which is about $3,000 per year. A Junior Software Developer in the US earns about $80,000 per year on the other hand, with living expenses around $40,000, thus actually earning $40,000 per year. Insane indeed. It'll take me 13 years to catch up to a year of salary of a US resident. It's not that we're not willing to pay. It's just that the concept of VALUE differs heavily here compared to the more developed countries like the West. Your course has a fixed value, so it'd have been nice if you'd have made people from countries like India pay the same VALUE as a Westerner. I've seen multiple Western course providers apply Parity Discounts on their courses, usually 75% for Indian Customers. Money works differently here, Csaba. In that way, the cost doesn't make sense. Though in the amount of sheer useful knowledge you probably provide in the course, it would make a HELLA SENSE and I'm more than sure about it since I've known you for years now, Csaba. Honestly Csaba, if I were born in the West, I'd have hands down paid $2000+ for your course. Thank you for all the beautiful content you keep putting out so generously, Csaba. Lots of love from India, Akhil." Okay... Let's unpack his message. Sure, on the surface, things like the following make total sense: "I will be helping more people by making my course more affordable and I'd also be getting a lot more happy customers who'd probably go as far as donating me back once they start earning." Sounds nice, right? Unfortunately, in real life, things don't work like that :( The price I set for my products isn't just to "line my greedy pockets with fat stacks of cash"... They're also a FILTER MECHANISM for people. Ask anyone in this business, and they'll tell you giving people a deeply discounted price for an info product almost always results in customers getting LESS value out of that product. Why? Simple: Because they have less incentive to actually DO something with it. Spending significantly less lowers the "pain" of the purchase... Which means they won't be so committed to actually USE the product to recoup their investment! I've seen this dynamic play out over and over and over again... not just in my clients and customers... ...but also MYSELF! Even though I consider myself a pretty driven person, I've bought TONS of courses and bundles during huge sales that I haven't even opened yet! While at the same time, when I originally joined Kevin Rogers' "Real Free Life" coaching program a few years back... It cost me like FOUR (4) times the average salary here in Hungary! (and A LOT of money for me at that time) But did I complain about it? Did I EXPECT preferential treatment just because I'm not from a Western country? Did I message Kevin to try to bargain a "special 75% parity discount" just because I live in Eastern Europe? HEEEEELLL NO! Kevin would have politely but firmly kicked me to the curb! And he would have been right! ​ Who am I to EXPECT preferential treatment just because I'm not "fortunate enough" to be from a Western country?! ​ A defeatist attitude like that would never have allowed me to become relatively successful at this. Or take this part: "Your course has a fixed value, so it'd have been nice if you'd have made people from countries like India pay the same VALUE as a Westerner." Or this: "felt unfair that my demographic and my income restrict me from affording costly Western courses." Or this: "Honestly Csaba, if I were born in the West, I'd have hands down paid $2000+ for your course." "Fixed value?" "Unfair?" "I would have paid?" ​ BULL SHYTE !!!!!!! ​ You wanna know what I'm actually hearing? Victim mentality. Defeatism. False beliefs about money. Wishful thinking. A hidden sense of entitlement. And most importantly: NOT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR LIFE So once again, I knew I had to respond to Akhil one last time... But I got distracted by a few things... And -- after 2 days -- he sent me a passive-aggressive reply to ANOTHER email... (the one that talks about my story and shares lots of vulnerable specifics) Adding things like: "It's so hypocritical. You say to see your customers as real people with real pain and you just replied to me that you couldn't adjust prices that would make more sense in an Indian economy." "I left a detailed reply as a response to your e-mail why I said $300 made more sense to Indian readers than $1000. Well, if you read every response. Reply to the email I left to the opinion you gave me, on the feedback I left " "Doesn't matter if you have Indian customers that have bought the course for the full price. They're probably very rich to have afforded the course. Your fixed $1000 price tag for Indian readers would only cause a net loss in the end. Parity Purchasing Power should work against you with the fixed price." And my favorite: "Well, patiently I shall wait." LOOOOOOOOL 😂 ​ More sense of entitlement, victim mentality, covert narcissism, and not taking responsibility. ​ And that's when I realized... I can't "save" Akhil. He's not necessarily a bad guy... but he simply has too many false beliefs and doesn't take responsibility for his actions. But that's ALSO when I realized... At least I can turn this conversation into a long-from story-based email and you'd probably find it valuable. So that's what I did :) But not before sending Akhil one last reply: === Look, Akhil... I know you mean well and you see things differently compared to me... and I'm well aware of purchasing power parity (I have an MBA degree, in addition to a BA in Psychology)... but this is simply not a business model I want to pursue. A couple of reasons: 1 - With this logic, Apple, Tesla, Nvidia, and all the other major brands should all have DEEPLY discounted prices for countries like India. But I just checked, and an iPhone 15 costs $800 in the US and $977 in India... and yet, I'm sure millions of Indians are buying phones :) 2 - I grew up in post-communist Romania where purchasing power parity was waaaaaay lower than in Western countries... and even today I live in Hungary... one of the poorest countries in the EU... and yet I still pay the SAME price for all my software, tools, education, courses, coaching programs, and whatnot like an American. In fact, oftentimes even more because of a 27% VAT 3 - It's not just you who has TONS of limiting beliefs and mindset issues... I also used to struggle with them a lot... and guess how I solved them? By enrolling in US-based coaching programs paying the SAME prices as US-based people, despite earning 5-10x less So yeah... But tell you what: let's do another experiment: I recently offered some of my select subscribers (and best customers) a one-time deal for BCA, during which they could buy it for $500. Despite the deal no longer being available, I'll make you the same offer... which takes into account your logic.... but I'm 95% certain you're not going to take me up on this offer. Still, I wanted to put it out there to be fair. === So do you think Akhil took me up on the "special 67% parity" discount? Of course not, LOL :) People who don't take responsibility for their words also don't take responsibility for their actions. Still... It's a beautiful way to end this email... because it basically proves my point: People like Akhil have always been, and will always be terrible customers. So you don't have to try to please everybody. Stay frosty, -Csaba ​ P.S. -- Congratulations, {NAME}... You just read a FREAKIN' 2293-word-long email! So much for the case against long-form emails, ammirite? 🙂 ​ P.P.S. -- If -- unlike Akhil -- you WANT to take responsibility in taking your persuasive skills to the next level, just [go get my Breakthrough Conversions Academy system.](=) It ain't cheap... But it's surprisingly affordable compared to how much upside it can give you. Seriously. Stop with the objections. Just go get it. It's da bomb! ​ P.P.P.S -- just kidding 😂 enjoy the rest of your day :) Please add csaba@gameofconversions.com to your address book or whitelist us. Want to change how you receive my emails? You can easily [Update your profile]( or [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address is: 113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205