I test every little thing in my business… from call-to-action buttons, headlines and pricing plans to even my design colors. I can confidently say that over the last five years, I have made a few extra million dollars because of testing.
But there is one big issue!
Over the years, I’ve optimized my business through testing, but I haven’t optimized my personal life. What I discovered, just like business, you can optimize yourself so that you can do things like wake up earlier, have better relationships, work out more effectively and even make more money.
Just like testing in business, before you start fine-tuning yourself, it’s best to learn from other people’s experiences. So my buddy Ramit Sethi interviewed me and 14 other people to come up with some ways you can optimize your personal life.
Here are 15 little life experiments that will change your life:
How to increase your gym attendance by 300%
If you are like my buddy Ramit and I, you probably have problems getting yourself motivated to go to the gym. Every morning, you probably groggily wake up and say, “ugh…I know I should get up…” and then roll over and go back to sleep.
It happens day after day even though you genuinely want to go to the gym.
Ramit finally realized that “motivation” alone has very little to do with successfully changing behaviors. He started testing different techniques: adding gym to his calendar or going to bed half an hour earlier. He would test different approaches for two weeks, noting the outcome in a wiki.
Sadly, he got mediocre results.
But when he sat down to analyze why he wasn’t going to the gym, he realized: his closet was in another room. That meant he had to walk out into the cold, in his boxer shorts, to the other room, shivering while putting on his clothes.
It was easier to just stay in bed.
Once he realized this, he folded his clothes and put them on his shoes by his bed the night before. When he woke up the next morning, he would roll over and see his gym clothes sitting on the floor. In fact, he couldn’t get up without stepping on them!
The result? His gym attendance soared by over 300%.
Key Takeaway: What tactics could you use to increase your gym attendance? Could you find a workout partner? Hire a trainer? Or simply use the “folded-clothes” approach? My suggestion: test them all.
How to text-message important people (and girls)
Don’t you hate it when you text-message important people or even girls and they don’t respond? Well, Nick Kho figured out how to get people to respond to his text messages 90% of the time.
Here’s how:
Immediately after getting a phone number of a beautiful woman or an important person, send them a text message that states:
Amber, it was a pleasure to meet you. Save my phone number in your phone because if you are like me, you don’t answer unrecognized calls.
Cheers,
Nick
Over 90% of the time, you get an almost instant response of something to the effect of, “lol. I’m so like that too. Will do and it was great to meet you.”
This works because the text makes the recipient feel important. It demonstrates that you have the intent to stay in touch with her after your encounter while simultaneously showing that you are someone that has a higher value and an active social life.
Nick has found that this script helps a lot in removing phone flakes because many people, men or women, business or otherwise, really don’t answer unrecognized phone calls.
This is a major problem for a lot of guys who have great interactions with a woman they just met or a very important contact who is busy, especially if it was their first encounter with that person from an initial cold approach.
In addition, when you call the recipient you’ve met after using this script, she is 3x more likely to answer the phone because you are no longer an “unrecognized” caller.
Key Takeaway: Follow-through is just as important, if not more, than approach.
How to double sales (and halve refunds) by eliminating risk
Do you want to double your sales? Well, of course! Who doesn’t, right? Jordan Reasoner ran a test on his business that not only doubled his sales but decreased his refunds by half.
Here’s how he did it:
Jordan helps people with digestive diseases like Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis naturally treat their symptoms with diet. In 2007, he was diagnosed with a life-threatening digestive disease, and this diet was so effective, it saved his life. He took his experiences and techniques and wrote an ebook to help other people with similar problems.
During the first year, however, he had a big problem: his customers didn’t trust him. Why would a sick, skeptical person try a $37 ebook? Why risk throwing away more money on yet another treatment that won’t work? Refunds were high, and people were still afraid to try the diet.
That’s when he decided to eliminate peoples’ risk completely by testing a more confident 365-day guarantee against his original 60-day guarantee.
What happened blew his mind. Refunds dropped by 44% (from 9.25% to 5.14%)…sales doubled (roughly 100% increase)…and customers sent in more success stories than ever!
It happened all because of trust, which came naturally after he gave people an entire year to try the diet and the opportunity to get a refund if it didn’t work… something they’d never get from the medical community.
Key Takeaway: If you want people to trust you and you’re confident, ask yourself, “How can I completely eliminate risk for them and earn their trust?” Then test it. You may be surprised at the results.
Conclusion
Everything can be optimized in life. So, don’t just try to optimize your business.
I want you to read the rest of the 15 Little Life Experiments That Will Change Your Life ebook (don’t worry, it’s FREE).