Where do I start with this one?? 
If you don’t know who these 3 people are… then you may be less enthralled at this very moment to read this than those who do know who those 3 amazing people are. Don’t worry though, you will learn about them through this post…
About a month or 2 ago I decided I would go to the OAP (Office Auto Pilot) user conference. If you don’t know already, OAP is a “software as a service” platform that is an all-in-one email AR, business automation, affiliate platform, etc for $297/month. They boast similar features to Infusionsoft, who is the only one I see as their direct competitor, though the owner (Landon Ray) mentioned some other services I have not heard of at the conference. I’ve been a customer for about 6 months, though for the first 3 or so, I could hardly pay any attention to it due to traveling, distractions, etc. Now I am finally using it, which is nice, especially since it is a decent monthly investment.
The reason I decided to go was mostly the speaker lineup and it didn’t hurt that it was being hosted in Santa Barbara, which is gorgeous, a city I used to live in, and only an hour and half from LA (where I live now).
The 3 people I was interested in seeing talk were Eben Pagan, Marie Forleo, and Mike Hill. More than those 3, I wanted to see Frank Kern, who dropped out, unfortunately. I’ve heard rumors that he doesn’t use OAP anymore. I’ve been wanting to meet him for years because he’s been one of the biggest influences on my business… and he’s like the coolest dude in IM. Also, you may have seen me tagged as Kern on Facebook in this photo…
(From Underground 2012 – dressed as Bond, obviously)
The ensuing thread where Frank actually chimed in a couple of times was pretty damn funny. Ironically, neither of use have hair like this anymore. Anyway, I digress.
So the conference was this Thursday and Friday… and despite running a pretty hefty fever and a gnarly cough, I was committed to showing up and seeing those 3 people speak. I also didn’t mind the idea of mingling with people who are investing $300/month into a piece of automation software. My thought was, there is something to learn from someone, somewhere over there. And there was.
For the 35% of you or so who told me in a poll that you “didn’t know” whether networking events are valuable investments… well, hopefully you will understand from this post (and by the fact that successful people are constantly showing up at them), that they ARE. VERY. VALUABLE. I use poor English for effect.
The first speaker that I really heard value from was a dude named Max Simon. I’m sure if you look him up, you will find him. Why? Well, he’s banking it and he’s awesome. You can usually find those people on the interwebs. The reason I really liked his talk is because he described the BASELINE concept you need to figure out before you go into business…
Guys, we’re not talking about just hustling for a couple extra bucks online here. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But that’s not what these “blog issues” are about. They’re about creating REAL business based on REAL value and getting to a million dollars.
And to do that, you need to understand who “your tribe” is. Who do you really want to serve THE MOST? Who are they and how would you describe them? Because if you don’t know that, it can be very difficult to have a sustaining, meaningful business that actually serves people. This is related to Rich Schefren’s thing… “getting into the minds of your prospects”… well, if you know who your tribe is, then this is only so much easier.
Max’s ideal “tribe” was spiritual entrepreneurs. People in his masterminds kept telling him spiritual people didn’t have any money to spend. He went for it anyway, followed his instincts, found his tribe, and now he’s a multi-millionaire. As a spiritual entrepreneur, I say to those people, I spend plenty of money! In fact, anybody who understand the energetic laws of the Universe knows that money must flow out freely and without obstruction for it to flow in likewise. That’s why negotiating prices, desperately hoarding money and resources, tipping poorly and the like is the stuff of poor people.
After Max’s talk, as expected, I ran into Peter Garety. Peter is a special guy and an excellent marketer and business person. He’s also part of my “community”, as we’ve both sold quite a few WSOs. If you’ve ever heard of Peter or bought any of his products, you know how he is just crushing it right now. He is consistently winning JV contests, selling thousands of units on launches, etc. He’s really only been successfully selling products for like 14-15 months. But finally it clicked for him. And now he has a real business, with 7-8 full-time programmers, a full-time support staff, etc. And English is not his first language – he’s from Latvia. He hired a guy he knew to come over to his house everyday at 7 am for a year to teach him how to write English. Now he writes all his own sales letters. It begs the question, are you doing everything you can to achieve your dreams?
So every networking event is different. Some I treat like a big party and I’m hanging out with dozens of dudes I’ve done business with – like the Warrior Event in Orlando just recently. This one, I really only knew 3 people, and only 2 of them were pure IMers – and Paul Clifford didn’t even show up until Friday. But was there value there? Yea of course, Peter and I got to hang out, talk, “mastermind”, share experiences, etc. on a much more intimate level. “Quality time” as some may call it – the forging of a long-term relationship, rather than just superficial conversation in passing, as it so often is.
I told Peter that Marie was one of the reasons I came to the event, whereas Peter solely came for Eben. But at the end of her talk, which was later in the day on Thursday, Peter was very pleased and admitted that she was excellent. That’s because she was and she is.
If you don’t know Marie Forleo… she’s a very impressive woman who teaches REAL business. She has a program called Rich, Happy, and Hot “B-School”. When she’s up there on stage, she’s being herself. She doesn’t care if she drops some fucks and shits here and there. Why? Because she’d rather not deal with people who are offended by that language anyway. I happen to share her point of view. I have and will continue to, freely invite people to unsubscribe when I use “objectionable” language. I want to be myself with no exceptions. My opinion is, if you don’t love me, it’s because you haven’t gotten to know me well enough. Everybody is lovable if they are being true to themselves.
Her presentation was awesome because she asked critical QUESTIONS. She made me think, what do I need to do to really stand out? She constantly warns her people about being caught in a sea of “sameys” – everybody doing the same thing. That’s an easy way to fail. Ironically, I wrote down all of the amazing questions she asked and planned to come home and analyze them… but I accidentally did not hit save on my phone. My plan is to get the slides and write an entire other post based on them. They’re that good.
One of the questions she asked was one I really needed to think hard about… “What really needs to be done differently in your industry?”
This was a really hard one for me because I typically tend to think there is a place for everything. As wrong as some things may seem, I don’t ever actively pursue the elimination of them from the planet. It’s just not my stance on how to be content in life. But in my own personal life and business, elimination is appropriate. What do I need to be doing differently to SERVE my industry as best as possible?
She also asked another question – “Would you be impressed by the contribution you have made to your industry?”
Well… impressed is a strong word. I can give myself credit for helping to shape the WSO world and it’s evolution, coming up with some innovative list-building techniques, supporting other people’s business growth fervently (by promotion of their products), giving people the quality information they needed for them to start succeeding online, and probably most notable to most of the people reading this, played a big part in the explosion of Solo Ads and their increase in legitimacy, safety, and accountability (which I will talk about more in detail later – important stuff). But at the same time, I know I’ve perpetuated a bunch of crap, though that has never been my intention. I’ve unintentionally and ignorantly promoted a scam or two and more than one “buggy” piece of software. I’ve promoted money-getting rather than real business. And I’ve promoted things that detract from value rather than create it (black or “gray” hat backlinking systems, for example). I’m not beating myself up – I’ve always done the best I could – we all are. Hindsight is 20/20 though.
So what needs to change with me? More alignment, more congruence, more value, more real business-wise information. As I continue to “get it”, I need to teach THAT – not the old stuff I thought was correct. You are learning from me because you perceive me as at least one step ahead of you in this category of knowledge, experience, etc. And as far as tactics, software, selling, systems, and traffic… well, I know that stuff pretty well and I will continue to teach it – hell, it’s my whole new membership site. But I need to add more business to my own business and then inject it into my teachings.
There comes a point when you don’t want to just sell because people are buying and you are giving them what they want – that is the mindset of a crack dealer (and I know at least one of my friends will want to castrate me for saying this but that’s what some WSO sellers refer to rabid WSO buyers as – crack addicts – they need their daily fix of WSO to feel good). You want to sell stuff that is truly changing people’s lives. I’m not satisfied with an extremely low percentage of my buyers actually getting results because I get them in the door by teaching them an awesome tactic they probably cannot use effectively yet. I’ll be satisfied when my tribe loves me because I helped them feel more free. Life without freedom is not worth living. Good thing is, it’s always available if you choose it. Yes, choose it.
**See – this where “my tribe” comes in, or what Peter calls his “rabid fans” – and he has quite a few. My tribe is not people who are WSO crack addicts. If you are reading and saying, “Hey! I’ve bought a WSO (or many) based on your recommendation…” don’t think that is wrong or our relationship is total bunk or that you are some addict with a problem. That is not what I’m saying – at all. It is more than possible that you are part of My Internet Marketing Tribe – “People who want to sell their greatest gift to the world via the internet, build an email list and relationship with their customers as their main business asset, and wake up feeling free.”
If that describes you, then welcome again. If not, then it’s OK if you move on. No hard feelings.
– And I would like to point out, before I go any further, that I have great appreciation for the Warrior Forum and WSOs – the whole world got me started. There is a tremendous amount of value there in many products. I’ve bought many many WSOs over the years. The problem is, because they are so cheap (in most cases, seriously underpriced based on their value), they seem to become more of a compulsive buying habit than really valuable for people. Then, as you advance in marketing, you realize it is a lot easier to make more money with higher priced products and people tend to get more value out of them because they have a higher absorption rates. –
What I promote to my list has obviously changed quite a bit over the years. I used to promote any topic under the sun. Hell, I’m an internet marketer and my business is far from single-focused. So I thought, even if I sold a product on X topic, then I could assume those people were IMers like me and they wanted to learn about Z topic as well. For the most part, that worked and I made a good amount of money. And I got to support a lot of partners in the process.
Two problems. One, my positioning was wide, rather than focused. So while I’d “hit” for some people, I would miss for most. If you miss enough times, they eventually drown you out. Two, I was often promoting tactics and systems that I didn’t do myself. What did this make me? A link sender.
Can a link sender make a lot of money? Hell yes. Is it satisfying when you realize that your customers and prospects see you as a link sender? No. You are a “samey” to them. And believe me, it is a revolving door and does not last. Sure, there are a lot of tactics you can use to present yourself as an authority on topics you’ve never touched. But then you’re just a lying douche. If you do it in a way where you are presenting value anyway (like writing high-quality content emails), then you are less of a douche.
Anyway, this kind of thing is not fun anyway and writing emails every day can become a chore. That is why I’ve been changing what I send out and the frequency. Maybe you’ve noticed. In 2012, I don’t think I’ve promoted one “offliner” offer, even though I made quite a bit of coin on them in 2011. Why? Because I don’t like dealing with local clients. I’ve done it and it’s not the lifestyle business I imagine. I’ve promoted less and less WSOs… Why? Because many of them are crap and if I don’t have the time to look at them, then I risk my reputation by promoting them… and more importantly, I risk the time and money of the people who are trusting me. Also, I’ve taught so many damn people to promote WSOs that they turned around and are too much competition for me now. I zig when people zag and that has always been my style.
So I’m not 100% decided on what I am going to mail to my people going forward but a lot of the emails will probably include links to blog posts like this and videos I make. I think at this point, I’d rather develop a relationship with the portion of people who want to find someone in this industry who they can really know, like, and trust… and the others can find another link sender on the next corner.
Think about it. The people that are respected in the industry. I mean, the really big dogs who teach awesome stuff, like Frank Kern, Rich Schefren, and Eben Pagan… they don’t mail a WSO everyday… ever, really. So if I want to be at their level, when do I stop? I’m not promising anything but if you don’t see one for a while… then you know why.
Anyway… As you may have been able to tell, I had a framework for this post, but it became a externally pointed stream of consciousness that went deeper than I thought. Truth is, this has taken me a while to write and I need to move on with my day. So I will finish this in part 2 tomorrow where I will discuss…
- How I met Eben Pagan (and his wife) and what we talked about. Also, the most important thing I took away from his keynote talk.
- How Peter, Paul, and I (no, not Mary) talked with Mike Hill and discussed something so important and yet annoying that you will hate me for telling you about it… or love me… either one.
- How Peter, Paul, and I (again…) talked with Brendan from OAP about their email deliverability and how we learned some crazy stuff.
And yea, I plan to talk about OAP a little bit and who knows what the hell will fall out of my brain. See you tomorrow (I’m fairly sure I’ll get it done by tomorrow).
