As you know if you read my last post, I made the impromptu journey to Chicago for Empower Network’s latest event. It was interesting, that’s for sure.
One of the things I like about going to events is seeing how people choose to put their events on. This one was unlike any one that I had ever been to, so in that sense, it was quite valuable just for that exposure.
But it was definitely more than that… at least for me.
I did see a 12-year old on stage who had made $12,000 in the last 4 months, working just 1-2 hours a day. His name is Gesse and he’s from Holland. English is not even his first language, clearly, though he speaks it quite fluently. (I made a cool little funnel you can check out which is based on this kid blowing me away with his achievement). But I’ll get to all that…
I wasn’t THAT surprised to see a registration line with about 100 people in it. I was pleasantly surprised when I was through that line in less than 10 minutes.
Next thing I knew, I was in the very back row of an enormous theater. They said there were something like 5,000-6,000 people there. Everybody was laughing because there was a comedian on stage just finishing up. Comedian?? Yes, comedian… and kind of an MC. When he was done with his act, he said, “OK, you guys ready for the show?!” Yes, show. I found that to be comical on another level since the whole thing turned out to be a huge party anyway, complete with the DJ bumpin’ hip-hop, dancing, streamers, fake money falling from the ceiling, etc etc…
After that, it was a parade of successful people giving moving speeches about how they broke through and are now making gobs of money with Empower. One guy’s story was particularly interesting to me – that was Tissa Godavitarne. Tissa told about how he had achieved internet riches years ago… but in the past few years, his business had struggled. The bank was about to auction off his Maryland mansion. No, not Marilyn Manson.
I have two interesting experiences related to Tissa… before I knew anything about marketing and was just trying to scheme my way to some extra cash on the internet, I came across Tissa’s system which had to do something with People Search – hard to explain, really. I never made any money with it but I did think the concept of his self-replicating funnel and system was brilliant. Just a couple of months ago, I received an email from Tissa. I hadn’t heard from him in years, but I remembered who he was. According to his email, he was emailing his list of around 450,000 double opt-in subscribers for the first time in years. Now what is a guy who is having money problems sitting on a list that big for? No clue. But he was promoting EN in an interesting way. He explained the whole deal to them and then offered to have their username rotated into his landing page if they signed up under him. And since it was getting daily traffic from his email blast, going out to a couple hundred a day, it was a pretty attractive proposition. I thought it was a pretty slick plan… (but I didn’t re-sign up because I just don’t see the sense in it…)
Apparently he was able to come current on his mortgage payments just a few days before the bank was set to auction his house off on the courthouse steps. Nice work, Tissa.
After a couple of those inspiring speakers (because anybody who makes $70k+ in a couple of months, from absolutely nowhere, is inspiring – with very few exceptions), David Wood spoke for a couple of hours on all kinds of random topics, including how to actually make money with EN. It was nothing specific because the official story is there is no one way that people have been successful. They all have had their own path. But in the end, the only thing people do is get other people to “see the video”. That seems to be the magic formula for success. I’m not kidding you. (Actually, it makes total sense. Get targeted traffic to the entry point of your funnel… what else is there?) And this went until about midnight. Yes, midnight.
The rest of the weekend was more of the same. But there was also a good amount of check parading. That was certainly interesting. When someone gets presented a QUARTERLY check for over $900,000… yea. What else can I say? Even the hater of haters can’t refute that. Something is working here.
And like I said, a 12-year old making bank… a friggin 12-year old! I think you are dead inside if you do not think that is significant… or just ridiculously awesome.
On the second day of the conference, they also announced a couple of things.
First was their new video hosting platform. They said they wanted to make it a better deal than anything else out there… It starts at only $25/month – not entirely sure that’s cheaper than everything else out there… but it’s pretty good. They also said they wanted to make it “grandma proof”. I am yet to try it out, but when they demonstrated it on stage, it looked pretty easy. I know that the only way to know if it will compete with anything else is to try it out… and I haven’t done that yet, as of this writing. They also haven’t released any compensation for this product yet… not sure how that will work out.
Second was the announcement of their next event. Within 30 minutes of the announcement of July 19-21 in Denver, CO, I’d say 5-10% of the room had already bought one or more tickets. A week later I got an email that they had already sold 2,000 tickets. Doesn’t matter if you love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to respect the marketing and the sheer numbers this organization is pulling down. And there’s no doubt in my mind that the next event will surpass Chicago’s numbers, merely because the vision of the people in this company is so strong… they are intent on seeing that happen. So that’s my prediction.
I was one of the people who bought 2 tickets in the audience right there. I’m intent on being successful with EN and coming along for the ride. It’s a fun company and an exciting vision and the more I go through the products, the more I LEARN. I like that.
Quick tangent… I’m actually at another Marketing event while I write this – Mario Brown’s Online Marketing Mastery. Of course this is a totally different scene and different purpose. I’m equally as impressed with what Mario has done though, especially getting some of the industry’s most successful people to come and speak. So far I’ve seen Chris Farrell, Andy Jenkins, and Mike Filsaime. Tomorrow Frank Kern is up. In the crowd are also some great marketers and a lot of my friends. In the end, I have fun in this industry and I like going to events. It’s really cool to make friends with people you know from Skype and the forum and such.
The last cool thing I’ll tell you about is… someone I met today, while in a fairly engaged conversation of getting-to-know you asked me, “What is the most interesting thing you’ve done that has worked this year?” I thought about it for a second and said, buying and testing different kinds traffic to this funnel and building a substantial list in the bizopp/MMO niche. It was just the truth. I’ve had a lot of fun with it and it’s so cool to see it working and to see people bringing in other people. The power of a system that creates leveraged residual income and can be duplicated easily… well, it has huge potential. And this one has already created multiple millionaires in an extremely short period of time.
And the topic of that funnel actually came up a bunch at the EN conference. I respected the rules of “no prospecting for other companies” but when people asked me how I was making sales, I told them what it was. A lot of people’s ears perked up, let’s just say that. And I even got to meet the man who created it, Mack Zidan. I said to him, “Thanks man. I’m using your funnel and it’s converting great for me.” He said to me, “Oh man, that’s so great to hear. Because for every one of you who tells me that, there’s 10 who call me a fucking scammer.”
(Doesn’t that just illuminate the world and this business so well? People create what they want to create. They can throw their hands up and scream scam at every legitimate opportunity… and here is proof that they often do. Ultimately, YOU are the decider. You make the choice as to whether or not you want to find the good in something and if you want to achieve your dreams. I saw this for what it was, an impressive vehicle. And now I’m driving it and appreciating the fine craftsmanship.)
These are the kind of experiences I like to go to events for. Meet people, influence, and become influenced. Get out from behind the computer and smile at a brother or sister. You will thank me later when your business takes off.
Please comment below if you have something to say – I love the interaction and to hear people’s takes on things. And don’t be afraid to share it if you think other people would find this… entertaining? 
