I just returned from a very enjoyable trip to Charleston, South Carolina -- and it turns out that our trip
was timed very interestingly: the city's outdoor mask mandate was lifted while we were there.
Here's why this matters.
Sometimes I show charts involving mask mandates and health outcomes, and the point is that you would have no idea, based on the data you're seeing, when the mask mandate was implemented. This is at least prima facie evidence that the masks don't really do anything.
But some people come back at me and say: the mandate doesn't matter. Even after the mandate is lifted people keep wearing masks anyway. So you can't draw any conclusions.
Maybe.
That's definitely not what I saw in Charleston.
The day the mandate was lifted, lots of masks came off.
The horse-drawn carriage tours were requiring passengers to wear masks, and tour guides were telling people that mask enforcers could fine them $1100 if their customers weren't wearing them.
The day the mandate was lifted, most carriage riders had no masks.
How about that: when you threaten individuals with $100 fines and businesses with $1100 fines, they do what you ask, and when you stop threatening them, they stop doing it.
Not always, to be sure, and I have no doubt that mask usage has persisted in some places even after a mandate came to an end. But Charleston can't be alone.
Meanwhile, though, I'm hearing about some places that are going in the wrong direction.
I've heard stories out of Oregon and Michigan involving politicians who want to make the emergency mask mandates permanent.
Other people are talking about mask wearing during flu season, etc.
So mask wearing would go on and on and on.
I don't want that. As a human being, I want to see people's faces. It's how we communicate and avoid misunderstandings. And babies and toddlers need facial expressions for their proper development.
What you want to go on and on and on is not masking or social distancing or dystopian life.
What you want to go on and on is precisely what you should be using this dystopian time to create for yourself: smackers in your bank account, month after month.
This is why, when setting up (or expanding) your business, you want if at all possible to build in a subscription model. This way people don't just pay you once and then you sit around hoping they'll come back. Build it so they pay again and again and again.
This can be done in virtually any niche you can think of.
I've done it myself, successfully, for nine years, in one of the most difficult niches to monetize.
There is no reason not to want that.
"Nah, I prefer not to receive recurring payments month after month," said no one, ever.
If you're full of questions about how to get started and what to do, though, I've got answers.
The world's foremost expert -- and I mean that: you won't find anyone who's more qualified -- is Stu McLaren, whose software powers 70,000 membership sites.
Try to find a negative word about Stu anywhere. You can't.
Someone who worked with Stu a decade ago happens to be on this list, I just discovered, and wrote to say that he was happy to see me promoting Stu's work. Stu, he said, "definitely knows his stuff. And Stu's a good dude."
Some people have attended his workshop and right then and there gotten started on successful memberships, with no further training.
The once-a-year workshop is taking place just days from now. There is no reason not to attend it. It costs you nothing.
Monthly payments coming in month after month is great, as I can attest, but it doesn't happen unless you take action.
I don't want just my usual faces there. I already know my super-ambitious people will be there.
This one is also for the fence-sitters, the doubters, the worriers. You know who you are. You should be there.
Reserve your spot right now:
Tom Woods