Pick your fight

Hey there,

Welcome to Profit Ladder. My mission is to help you grow your profits with scalable offers that attract ideal clients and automate your sales funnel.

Let’s identify your scalable offer together.

A friend once gave me advice I wasn’t ready to act on:

I smiled, nodded, and promptly ignored it.

I didn’t want to fight. I’d rather everyone like me. I wanted to play nice, rack up the likes, and avoid making anyone uncomfortable — especially myself.

I wanted to play it safe.

Except, safe in business is exhausting. It’s also wildly ineffective.

By pleasing everyone you stand for nothing. You blend in. You go unnoticed. And the people you’re meant to help, ignore you.

But it wasn’t just one friend that challenged me. Mentors, marketers, and fellow entrepreneurs pushed me:

“You write beautifully, but it feels like you’re holding back,” they said.

“You could stand to be more polarizing, Jay,” they nudged.

I resisted. Bold felt risky. Polarizing felt… rude?

But then I realized what they meant. Picking a fight doesn’t mean being a jerk or courting drama for clicks. It means planting a flag for what matters most to us.

For me, that’s owning my ability to help service-based business owners grow their profits by 1810%. That’s a huge number, but it’s also one I stand by… because I’ve experienced it for myself and the clients I work with.

And so a few weeks ago, I decided to stake that claim on LinkedIn and my newsletter:

Guess what? No mass exodus of social media connections. No drop-off of newsletter subscribers. Instead, both continued to grow at their normal rate.

What DID change is my resolve for my mission. By drawing that line in the sand, I witnessed myself commit further, which boosted my confidence.

But here’s the thing, making bold claims — whether in your social bios, brand positioning, offer benefits, or otherwise — and then sticking your head in the sand is a bad idea.

Instead, you should treat them like a prototypes that you test, measure, and improve.

Using data to test & improve

In addition to continually tracking my social media and newsletter metrics, I created a LinkedIn poll this week to gauge reactions about my 1,810% claim:

I was pleasantly surprised by the percentage of people who voted for excited and curious. A good sign, for sure.

Naturally, most of the excited and curious votes came from people who have been following my work. They’ve engaged with my posts, subscribed to my newsletter, and now trust my claims — bold or otherwise.

This is such an important reminder to treat business like an infinite game, where it’s not about one viral splash, but consistently showing up and earning trust.

These positive votes were rewarding signals that I’m doing the right things. But the real learning always comes from qualitative insights you harvest from customers who object to your claims, ideas, and offers.

So I’ve been individually DM’ing everyone who voted for skeptical and suspicious. Here’s some of what I’ve heard:

“1,810% profit growth is a very specific, high number… it just has a little bit of a gimmicky flavor to it.”

“Whenever I see numbers like that on LinkedIn, my guard goes up a little.”

“1,810% seems like an unrealistically high number, so it’s very interesting… but it seems far too high to be real.”

Look at the last one: very interesting but unrealistic. This reaction is the definition of polarizing. The person is forced to decide: Are you with me or against me?

What they won’t do is disregard me, like they would have if I played it safe. Because there’s nothing worse than being ignorable.

Now look, I’m not advocating to be provocative in everything you do. Or to make false claims and overpromise hyperbolic results. Save that shit for the gurus, politicians, and reality TV stars.

But once you have your mission, double down on it. Prove it. And enroll others in your mission.

I did…

Final thoughts

Taking a bold, courageous stance should feel uncomfortable. As my favorite author puts it:

It pokes at your imposter syndrome. It invites skepticism into your work and mission. It risks making you and others feel uneasy.

It’s also the best way to attract the kind of clients who resonate with your message and mission. They’ll be the kinds of clients looking for real results — not fluff. And the ones you love working with most.

So here’s the final bit of wisdom you and I both need to hear (on repeat): Stop pleasing everyone.

Take a stand. Pick a fight in defense of your mission. And when the wrong people don’t like it… Keep going. You’re on the right path.

P.S. Ready to be bold, my friend? Use my Profit Accelerator to unlock your own 1,810% profit growth

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🪜 Dad is having his most profitable year doing what me, you, and most entrepreneurs today overlook

See ya next Sunday! 🤘🏼

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