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# One step at a time — Kelford Labs Daily
- URL: https://kelfordinc.com/one-step-at-a-time-kelford-labs-daily/
- Published: 2025-01-08T11:24:58.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-18T15:15:18.000Z
- Description: Positive progress, not pain.
- Author: Joel Kelly
- Tags: Daily Labs, motivation, pain point, middle step, patience

> “When we are faced with the possibility of acquiring something good, our brains trigger a chain of biological events that makes us more likely to act fast. This is known as the brain’s ‘Go’ response.

> In contrast, when we are anticipating something bad, our instinct is to withdraw. The brain triggers a ‘No Go’ reaction.”  
>  
> — Neuroscientist Tali Sharot in *The Influential Mind*

The goal of marketing is not to make a sale.

Stay with me.

**It’s to move the customer** [***one step closer***](https://kelfordinc.com/daily-lab-dont-try-to-sell/) **to it.**

What I mean is, if your marketing is all about aggressive pushing, pressure, and pain points, you’ll end up triggering the “No Go” response in some of your prospects.

By trying to push them into a sale right away, you’ll end up pushing them away entirely.

Fear and anxiety are extremely good *de*\-motivators, but they’re imperfect motivators. They can get people to *stop* doing something, but they don’t do much to get people to *do* something. To try something. To change something.

Yes, we want to know and address the fear and anxiety our prospects might have, and we want to understand their pain points and struggles.

**But if our marketing is more about the struggle than the solution, we’re just going to scare them into inaction.**

We’ll end up convincing them that the problem is so bad it’s unsolvable.

Instead, we want to paint a positive picture of the future if they were to buy, and encourage them to take one step closer to it. Like signing up for our newsletter, downloading a resource, or connecting with us on LinkedIn.

Pain itself tells us when we’re in pain, we don’t need anyone else to tell us. But we *do* need someone else to tell us how to make positive progress.

**One step at a time.**

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[***Kelford Inc.***](https://www.kelfordinc.com/) ***shows entrepreneurs the way to always knowing what to say.***