Why I don’t do Black Friday (or any other) sales on the 20 Unit course anymore…

Okay, guys, please stop asking about sales…

Last time I ran a sale on the course (Memorial Day) it was massively successful. Wow, what a weekend! Unbelievable! What them marketing people say works, aye?! I took a few days off if you want to know.

Then I started getting emails around the 4th of July. Won’t you do a sale, Ari? And around Labor Day – now would surely be a great time for a sale, Ari? And of course now Black Friday/Cyber Monday…

Those emails got me thinking.

I realize that $379.00 all at once or $79.95 a month for five installments is a lot of money. Believe me, I understand that!

Then, I also know what this course is.

• How extensive and yet practical it is.
• I could tell you about the results people are getting – I get emails and feedback almost daily from our participants. (I share a fraction of it on our reviews page.)
• We even have people going through the course a second or third time!
• I could tell you all about the research and testing that went into the material, from refining it with students over years of teaching – one-on-one and in groups.
• Then there is the learning psychology material I continue to study and add into the course experience, including best practice habits and help with accountability in the online learning format.
• And the totally awesome suggestions we are getting from our participants which we are incorporating (or work to incorporate) constantly.
• The testing and tweaking has lead to many revisions, additions and changes since the course went online over a year ago. (To say we are obsessed would be an understatement).
• We even have students who contribute material – such as Alan’s practice log resource. And we hear from students who create their own material and send it to us – wow – such great learning to do that! (We will also add places where we can incorporate these contributions).
• Then we hear how much traction and motivation the new Ask Ari Live sessions provide, which also include my very own teacher, bassist and composer Wolf Wein, whenever we can get him.
• On the new platform, we have added coaching components, theory quizzes, interactive segments, motivational videos and the live Q and As.

We are near obsessed with people being successful with this course.

• Over 20 hours of new video materials, all broken down into small bite-sized portions.
• Over 130 sets of PDFs with examples to inspire you (it is really about you creating your own bass lines, though, and I show you how)
• Over 130 awesome and unique background tracks to practice with, custom composed by Wolf.

Our Course Participants Talk to us a lot. Not because they enjoy sales, but because of the results they are getting!

We have enthused hobbyists who are thrilled to see consistent growth, leaving plateaus behind, excelling and improving. They don’t play in bands and some don’t aspire to, but they love the challenge and are intrigued with meeting the bass musician who emerges as they follow through the units.

We have church band players, weekend warriors, regular giggers, wedding band bassists, bassists playing original material in their own bands… I know because they email me telling me about that rehearsal when their bandmate commented on a cool fill (thanks to the systematic “Groove and Fill exercises”) or the drummer notices their solid groove (thanks to the “finger kung fu”!) or they tell me about that moment when they learned a new tune and it was so easy because they understood the chord progression. Or they played their first solo and it was awesome.

We have 20-somethings who are gung-ho and dedicated and practicing way more than the recommended 45 minutes 5 times a week and we have busy professionals in other fields who want to improve with the little spare time they have and follow the 45minutes 5 times a week prescription with great consistent success.  And we have people in their 60’s and beyond who tell me that for the first time in their lives they feel hope, a sense of confidence growing, and are beginning to leave the old “could have, should have” behind in favor of actually enjoying making music.

We have aspiring pros who have set their minds to becoming bassists and say they have never seen material presented in such a concise and results-oriented way.

We have some busy bass pros and studio musicians who take the course to improve their technique or who have some holes in their theory knowledge they want to plug once and for all.

I know the only way I can get similar results with students are one-on-one private lessons – and it is a way better deal to sign up for the course than to pay for individual lessons. Some students still prefer in-person or online lessons and I have quite a few who do lessons once a month or every other week in addition to the course.

All this to demonstrate  that I know that the value of this course is way higher than $249.00. This price is an amazing deal for what you are getting.

So if your main interest is to save $25.00 or $50.00, if sales is what would push you over the edge to buy this course, I’d venture to say, you are maybe not the right candidate for it. Yes, saving money in sales is nice, but this course – you gotta want it because you only get the results when you put in the work! You are not alone, but you need to show up.

I tell you a story

I got an email a long time ago from a woman scolding me for the $379.00 price tag. She knew nothing about the course or what the benefits are. She did not want to try the free trial. She just didn’t like the number because she felt entitled to get it all for much less.

She went on to tell me that she owned five very high-end basses. That is, of course, fine, but it showed me that her focus lies elsewhere – more value placed on the gear rather than the learning. She would not have made a good candidate for the course. If this is you, please do not buy this course.

I want people to sign up because they really want to learn and improve and see the value in it.

Just like you cannot buy great playing by just buying a great bass – you will be asked to do the work in the course. 5 times a week for 45 minutes is what gets you consistent results.

A good question to ask yourself is: are you willing to invest in yourself? In your ability? If you think of it that way, the $379.00 all of a sudden becomes an investment in yourself. It becomes an incentive to make the best of it!

As tempting as it would be to have a quick sale this weekend, throw it out there once more with a cute coupon and take a few days off as a result of it – I will not.
I want all the participants to be there for the right reasons. I want people to succeed, not log in twice and never come back.
I want people to feel great because their playing is soaring, not because they saved 50$!