53 years old, 53 dollars, zero sales

Last week I turned 53.

To mark it I built an offer, priced it at $53 because I liked the symmetry, and sent it to more than 12,000 people on my list.

Nobody bought it.

Opens were high and the sales page got plenty of clicks. People were interested right up until the button.

I pulled it three days early.

I went on Substack Live today and talked through all of it: what the offer was, why I was sure it would work, and the one reason I now think it didn’t. There’s a study about students and their exam results that explains it better than I can in an email.

Once you’ve seen it you’ll recognise it in every offer you’ve ever hovered over without buying. Including your own.

Now the part I didn’t plan for.

If the birthday offer had sold, I’d still be running it. Instead I left it alone for a few days, went back and worked out what was wrong, and built something far simpler in its place.

A Personal Substack Audit.

I go through your profile, your home page, your headlines and your Notes. I tell you what’s working, what isn’t, and why you’re not growing. Then I rewrite parts of it, so you can see what better looks like instead of just reading about it.

I sent it to around 100 people yesterday. Seven bought within minutes. One of them read his report this morning and wrote back to say it was the most useful thing he’s ever paid for, and he’s spent a lot on coaching over the years.

It’s $99.

Order your Personal Substack Audit

Go and watch the replay. It cost me a launch to learn the lesson.

Derek