$1013.32 Canadian loonies gold coins…
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That is the amount I invested into building and growing The Sorcerers Guild this week.

And I did so in a different way than you might expect.

I didn’t dump a grand into Facebook ads.

I didn’t pay Ryan Holiday for an hour of his time to hone my writing.

I didn’t join a “business incubator.”

And I sure as shit didn’t invest in a “build a social media empire” course.

No, this particular investment is one that has zero short-term financial payoff, and is entirely focused on deepening the relationship with members of The Sorcerers Guild.

When you study the secret arts of Direct Response Marketing, one of the first things you’ll learn is that it’s easier (and more cost-effective) to sell to people who have already bought from you than it is to go out and find new customers.

The kind of business I want to have is one that places relationships over transactions.

Because, ultimately, whenever someone purchases from you, they’re investing their trust, problem, hope, and yes…money, in YOU, because you’ve shown you have the solution they’re looking for.

An easy parallel for comparison is that of someone you’re dating.

And in dating—at least if you want a healthy relationship—you don’t take, take, take, take…without giving back.

Ergo, a fulfilling, meaningful, stress-free, happy, business needs to relationship-centric.

To that, one of the “things” I gift to all new Sorcerers Guild members is a customized, one-of-a-kind, hand-fired pottery cauldron of a mug.

These mugs will never be available to anyone outside of The Sorcerers Guild, and nobody in the world aside from the Guild’s resident Potter has the specs to create these cauldrons of joy.

Custom, hand-fired pottery being the art that it is, these mugs are not cheap, even less so when they need to be sent to distant lands such as Australia, New Zealand, and The United Kingdom (it still boggles my mind that The Sorcerers Guild already has members in 5 major countries).

On average (shipping rates vary drastically from the US to Australia), between firing mugs for new members and paying my Scribe to print and ship your monthly newsletter, my profit margins are slim for the first month of each new member.

With a nod to yesterday’s email about risk, opting to gift subscribers a rare and shiny mug that nobody else will ever have is a calculated risk.

Here’s why:

In today’s evermore crowded markets, you need to find ways to differentiate yourself from everyone else.

I’m not the only person teaching persuasion, marketing, business, or copywriting…but I AM the only person doing so through the decidedly unique lens of sorcery, magic, potions, and elixirs.

Current Guild members will know that I’ve taken the idea of teaching through stories to heart (and then some), in a way that I’ve seen few others do.

In more traditional businesses, the idea of a “loss leader” has been around for decades. Which is you offer something at a ridiculous discount (often losing money on the sale) to attract customers. Again, this is tapping into the idea that it’s easier to sell to people who have already bought than it is to attract new customers. Given time, the accrued sales from repeat customers will handily make up for the initial loss.

While I’m not losing any money in the short-term, I still re-invest a significant chunk of a new members first month tariff to build goodwill, deepen the relationship, differentiate my business further, and give members an experience they’ll want to talk about amongst friends, family, and whomever else asks about the “interesting” mug they’re sipping from.

If you’ve been reading my daily emails for some time now this won’t be news, but if you’re new here…

The last thing I want is a business built on one-off transactions and having to drive huge volumes of traffic to my offers.

I don’t want transactions.

I want relationships.

Because I know how to nurture, deepen, and solidify relationships.

And when you do so with people already trusting you to help with one of (or more) of their problems, I truly believe you cannot lose.

So, spending $1013 (what a happy coincidence) to add more uniqueness to my core product, deepen the relationship I have with my Guild members, and create special talking points around my business…

…well that’s an investment I’m going to make 13 times outta 10.

Here’s the final stir of the cauldron:

This email is a perfect example of the transparency, ethics, and mentality I take to business.

If that’s the kind of world you want to be part of, and influence you want to bring to your own worldbuilding efforts, then here’s the next step on your quest:

http://sorcerersguildnewsletter.com/

When you do, I’ll send an owl to my Potter to get your own Sorcerers Guild mug firing in the kiln.

Yours sorcerously,

Alexander Mullan

Pstscrpt. If you’ve got the eyes of a fledging Apprentice, and half the wit of young druid, there’s a few cauldrons full of valuable business advice buried in this here email.

No, it won’t fill your bank account with gold coins overnight…but applied diligently and honestly over time and you’ll end up with a rock-solid business full of incredible, strong relationships.

When those two things come together…well, I think you can do the math on that one.

To invest in yourself, and in an idea that’s helped four people quit their soul-sucking jobs in the 4 weeks it’s been out in the world, grab your Apprentice robes here:

http://sorcerersguildnewsletter.com/