Not long ago, superheroes reigned supreme at the box office. But lately, superhero movies have been stalling… 

With a giant wave of superhero flicks hitting us left and right, the thrill has started to fade, and the stories? We’ve heard them all before.

Losing Touch With their Audience

For years, superhero movies focused on WHAT their audience wanted — using fresh, unique stories to build a massive, highly passionate fanbase. 

But now, studios and creators have started to ignore the very same people who brought them such massive success. 

The stories they’re telling have become increasingly formulaic… and the novelty and excitement have faded — so much so that even their most rabid fans and biggest supporters are voicing their dissatisfaction online.  

The Pandemic IS NOT to Blame

For a while, it seemed the Pandemic was largely to blame because no one was going to theaters.

But this year has proven that theory wrong — as the box office bounced back in a major way — led by the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day. 

‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ Everett; Universal

Why? Originality!

The truth is, there’s superhero fatigue — “a been there done that” factor that’s keeping people away from theaters. 

Audiences are tired of the same old, same old predictability of what’s been coming out.

The truth is that superhero movies have been drastically declining in quality and popularity.

This has left the door wide open for movies that have new characters and original stories, and audiences are letting studios and creators know that THIS is exactly what they want — by showing up in droves.

The fall of the superhero and the rise of original stories — hold powerful lessons for us entrepreneurs…

Because if you’re ignoring what your audience wants and needs… someone will come along and take your place. 

So, let’s dive into where superhero movies have gone wrong — and the powerful lessons you can apply to your own business… 

Don’t Sacrifice Quantity for Quality 

Let’s flashback to 2008 when both The Dark Knight and Iron Man were released. Both movies massive success led to a major shift at the box office, and superheroes dominated for the next 15 years!

So, what went wrong? 

Well, creators and studio heads started to feel invincible — like they literally could NOT lose — and tried to capitalize on every single comic superhero — no matter how uninteresting or obscure. 

It became a churn and burn industry. 

Just put out as many movies, TV shows and comics as possible, as quickly as possible, and make sure that each property had sequel after sequel in the can.

But what happens when you create and create without a proven strategy — or a real why behind what you’re doing?

You end up sacrificing quality for quantity. 

When you achieve success in your business with a certain product or service — or maybe you already have — avoid trying to just “cash in” on that success… 

Make sure your product or service has the impact you want and delivers the results you promised. You may discover that you need to upgrade that blockbuster product or service to meet the needs of your market.

I did this with my signature program — the Experience Product Masterclass (EPM).

Back in 2021, I refilmed the entire thing — it ended up taking more than 60 hours of filming!

I had a strong why and knew I could create a better experience for my students, so I was willing to put in the work. 

You always want to keep quality and customer experience top of mind. 

Pivot Before It’s Too Late

When you notice your audience is worried about something, or maybe they’re fixated on the wrong things, or — in the case of superhero movies — they’ve become disengaged with what you’re currently offering… you might discover that you have another product or service in you that specifically speaks to your target market, where they’re at and what’s missing in the online space. 

For example, we recently pivoted EPM because we knew we needed to speak to the times — particularly AI and how we could help our students differentiate themselves from AI-generated courses. 

We noticed it was a huge concern and — while everyone online was talking about AI — most in our industry were talking about it in the same, generic way… and selling the same generic things — Prompts. 

But we knew we could go beyond prompts and create a custom tool that would allow our students to harness the brainstorming power of AI to make their courses better without losing the human power of experiences — which made their courses sticky and engaging.

We called this tool Ainslee.ai, and it’s been a huge hit — allowing our students to create their courses faster and easier than before without becoming yet another dime-a-dozen AI-generated course!

It was a lot of work, but it was worth it!

If you want to stay relevant, it’s important to always have your business radar tuned in to what’s happening in the world and what your audience is talking about… then pivot as needed! 

Because if you don’t — someone else will take your place. 

You Have to Fight Rampant Mistrust Online

Another thing to understand is that mistrust is rampant in the online world, and for good reason. 

Just like movie fans have been burned by the recent slate of superhero movies, so has your audience. 

In recent years, the market has become overcrowded, overloaded, and overflowing with low-quality products. People have become increasingly frustrated and burned out.

Your audience can’t tell the difference between entrepreneurs who are offering real, deep value and those who don’t have a clue what they’re doing or are just phoning it in so they’re not clicking that “buy” button like they used to.

Focus on Delivering Real Results

I see this all the time.

In EPM, we collect honest and unedited success stories from our students, and one of the most significant issues we see is people who are reluctant to join because they’ve already spent a ton of money on other programs with little to no results…

For example, my student Rod wrote: “I joined a high-ticket program and paid more than $15,000 before realizing it wasn’t working for two reasons: 

1. Their approach didn’t suit me or the business I wanted to build. 

2. The program wasn’t structured step-by-step to reach a defined finish line. 

I learned some things that helped me, but after 3 months, I wasn’t even close to starting my dream business.” 

So, after this experience, Rod was understandably reluctant to join us in EPM. But after being on our email list for several years, he finally said yes. 

After joining EPM, Rod was immediately struck by the amount of thought that had gone into the program. 

He goes on to say that “all he had to do was watch the training, complete the worksheets step-by-step, get feedback from my coach and show up on the group coaching calls and I knew I could not fail.” 

We get stories like Rod’s every day — just by delivering on the promise of our programs… go figure 🙂

Take Tristan, who says: “I was already enrolled in a very expensive coaching and facilitation program and had promised myself I wouldn’t enroll in any further courses until I started earning some money, as I had retired from my first career 10 months prior to focus fully on launching this one. 

After having taken 4 different courses on defining my niche/audience, etc, I still didn’t have those basics in place and had no idea how to write messaging.”

He goes on to say: “Thank goodness I joined EPM! I now have clarity on my niche, my audience, their problems, and how to craft and deliver messaging. The level of gratitude I have for Marisa and the team in helping to actualize my life mission is beyond words!”

Andy also experienced disappointment in the past. “So many so-called experts want to sell you coaching or classes on how to do it, but none of them had any real credibility until I watched Marisa and decided to hitch my wagon to her star-making abilities!” 

Andy ended up making $10,000 on his VERY FIRST chatterbox call… BOOM!  

The simple fact is that so many programs overpromise and under-deliver means you have to fight harder and harder to convince your audience that your program is different…

So, let’s turn this tide together by creating programs that deliver real results for our students, clients and customers!

But before you go…

If you’re ready to take your business to the next stratosphere this year… you can’t miss the 12th annual Live Your Message LIVE!

Live Your Message LIVE is our 3-day virtual business-building event where you’ll Zoom In Overwhelmed and Zoom Out with an Exact Roadmap for What to Say, Do and Sell Next to Grow Your Business FAST(and it’ll all fit on just one sheet of paper!). 

So, grab your ticket and I’ll see you over on Zoom March 1-3, 2024!