As a young girl, I always objected to my mom’s invitations to drag me to her Mary Kay parties. She sold Mary Kay for a few years and liked to experiment on me in front of guests.
Even as a young girl, I wasn’t comfortable with all the toxic ingredients in the cosmetics. Plus I thought it was stupid to put all that gunk on one’s face, just to take it off later. Except for dark eye shadow and eye liner, I didn’t see the point. I was bored.
I much preferred locking myself up in my bedroom (I had a custom lock that I installed myself — to keep my brothers out), where I could focus on writing stories on my Commodore 64 computer. I’d purchased it used from my 6th grade teacher for $100 bucks, with my own allowance money that I’d saved. For that I was proud.
The computer was a symbol of freedom and self-expression. It was my very first computer. I could write whatever the hell I wanted, and no one would see it. Sometimes I’d print out drafts of my work with my dot matrix printer. Sometimes I’d play a game where you had to drop bombs from an airplane onto buildings. It was all very pixelated.
Two decades later, not much has changed…except now tens of thousands of people read what I write, via my clients’ emails lists. Nobody knows who I am, and yet the words I write impact people’s lives on a profound level. I don’t seek celebrity status, fame, or accolades.
I still don’t wear any makeup other than eye shadow and eye liner. I wear these because I want to, not because I care what anyone thinks of me. I spend $80 bucks on my nails — not because I’m trying to look “good” for others — but because I love sparkles.
Now I have a MacBook Air. Instead of writing fiction stories, I write sales-generating emails and sales funnels.
Speaking of “external beauty” versus “REAL beauty” — this weekend I was listening in on a conversation that went something like this:
Person A: “People judge you based on what you look like. So therefore, you should look really good.”
Person B: “That’s absolutely right. In fact, people who look better get more raises. And they get paid more.”
“Umm…not quite,” I thought with a smile.
While there’s something to be said of BEAUTY, most people have the concept of beauty completely warped.
Beauty isn’t about dressing yourself up so that you can look good for others.
Beauty is “the expression of all that is highest and greatest in the system of the universe” (Thomas Troward).
I find systems to be beautiful. I find order beautiful.
When you have a systematized way of luring people into your business, showing them the value of your products, and inspiring them to buy — THAT’S beautiful.
I’ll take that over a short-lived Mary Kay makeover any day.
Some people are obsessed with surface-level, cosmetic improvements in everything they do…I’m obsessed with deep, systemic changes that last.
It’s the difference between making small money to solve small problems…and making big money to solve big problems.
There’s a quote I recently came across: “Advertising without persuasion is just art.”
Have you ever seen a really beautiful advertisement?…and then instead of buying anything, you just continued about your day without giving the ad a further thought? The ad was nothing more than art. It didn’t persuade anyone of anything. It may have been pretty, but it was not successful at achieving its intended purpose.
You could say the ad was a waste. It might have “looked good,” but at the end of the day it created no value for either business or user, except maybe to serve as a lesson on how NOT to advertise.
You don’t get paid more based on looking good… you get paid more based on delivering value — like creating deep, lasting change in someone’s life.
You can exponentially increase your ability to deliver value by creating sales funnels. Put all the beauty into the SYSTEM of the sales funnel — make it work flawlessly — and that’s how you’ll make more money.
I may not be America’s Next Top Model, but I can turn your sales funnels into a work of art that’s not only beautifully created, but also leads to sales. Isn’t that the point, if you’re in business?
OK…rant over. Time to bust out some emails.:)
MichelleP.S. Some people spend hours a day putting their “face” on, because they’re terrified of what others would think of their real face. I don’t even wear foundation unless it’s a life-threatening emergency…like someone’s putting a gun on my head and forcing me to. That’s the difference between surface-level, cosmetic changes and deep systemic changes that last.
Michelle Lopez Boggs is a copywriter, copywriting mentor, and author of "The Anti-Marketing Manifesto: How to Sell Without Being a Sellout." She's helped her clients sell millions of dollars' worth of products and services online by using the MEI(S) principle — motivate, educate, and inspire, and sell. 