Episode 073: The Impromptu I Love Marketing Meetup Group [Part 2]

Dean: I’m Dean Jackson, he’s Joe Polish, and this is the I Love Marketing podcast. Still Dean Jackson.

Joe: I am still Joe Polish.

Dean: There you go, and we’re still in Tempe.

Joe: Now, this is a continuation. So if you’re listening on I Love Marketing, then you are hearing part 2 of an I Love Marketing Meetup group, where the first one, what did we do? A Q&A?

Dean: We did Q&A.

Joe: Was it good?

Dean: It was pretty good, wasn’t it?

Joe: How many of you thought it was really dull? How many thought is was pretty awesome? Alright, good. See, we need vocal stuff, because people can’t see hands.

Dean: We need the little whistles and the clappers.

Joe: Alright. So good. We’ve only got have a handful of people here in the room. So what we’re going to do now is what, Dean?

Dean: We let’s this time, let’s go a little deeper with somebody’s business, and let’s kind of go and look at where there might be some breakthrough opportunities for a couple of people here, other than just do a bunch of questions.

Joe: Who has something where you need to address an opportunity that you want to reach, that you’d like some guidance on, a problem, a challenge? Yes. Say who you are, what you do, and get to the point.

Member: My name is Sandro Marino, and I am working with an adventure travel experience. And what I’m working on right now is changing the way I had originally put it up, to really have it for a business travel adventure, versus just the travel adventure itself.

Joe: So you’re trying to tie this into business travel adventure?

Member: Right. Exactly.

Joe: Versus vacation.

Member: Both.

Dean: That’s number 4. Anybody else have another business?

Joe: It’s not modern life, though. Let’s not even disconnect; let’s just keep them tied in, and give them the illusion they’re going to have a vacation when, in reality, you’re just going to work in a different place.

Member: Well, for example, Yanik Silver, you’re friends with Yanik Silver. We’ll, I just learned of him within this last year. But I put up my site, and my travel excursions 4 years ago, but I left them open-ended, and my network is entrepreneurs and businesspeople. So, those are the people that who are coming down and having these awesome trips that I’ve put together for them, in Brazil and Argentina. But being that I was living down there…

Joe: Ayahuasca brainstorming.

Member: Ayahuasca?

Joe: Yeah. I’m just kidding. It’s sort of a like it’s, some people consider it medicine, other people consider it a drug. But yeah, no. There are literally groups that do spas like Ayahuasca.

Member: Oh, you mean like in Ecuador, and stuff like that?

Joe: Yeah.

Member: Yeah. I’ve heard about that.

Joe: I was just trying to make a joke.

Member: Somebody told me about Yanik Silver, so I looked at his site, and I saw, more or less, how he’s packaged his experiences.

Joe: I’ve gone on a couple.

Member: Yeah. So it’s like you have to prove you have a million bucks, there’s a $25,000 membership, and then the trip fees. Right?

Joe: Yeah, so what he does, his niche is guys that kind of like him, that want to…

Member: They’re upper-echelon. They’ve already got it all together, and they’re networking.

Joe: Or at least they appear that they do. No, a lot of them do. There are a lot of real success guys, and Yanik likes mixing business and goofing around and playing. He’s a smart guy. His whole thing is he ties it into really cool trips, brainstorming and contribution. So, he always tries to tie it into helping kids. So, they’ll do trips or they’ll go and speak to young entrepreneurs in different countries, and stuff like that. So, he’ll typically have Maverick Business Adventures. And what it does, is it gives people an excuse to go shoot guns or go to Iceland, or go jumping off bungee cords, or zero-g flights, because they’re not just doing the thing, they’re also brainstorming, and they’re also feeling like they’re doing something cool because there’s the contribution. So, those are the 3 ways that he packages it.

Member: Right. So my thought is I’m not sure how he’s marketing it, exactly. I know he has a lot of relationships. And through those relationships, I’m sure that’s how he’s done it.

Joe: So, I guess what your hot seat, though? Is it promote and package your trips?

Member: Right. What I’m thinking is maybe my trips should be focused not on the market that Yanik is tapped into, but maybe the entrepreneur who’s maybe at 6 figures and above, that is at a point where they’ve made some money, but they still have a lot of things to get past to grow, just similar to what Yanik’s doing in networking.

Joe: Well, can you do joint ventures with someone like Yanik?

Member: I would love to talk to Yanik about this.

Joe: And you organize really cool trips.

Member: Right. And I do trips different… Yanik doesn’t do trips in the places that I would do them, like South America, as far as I know.

Joe: Well, you want to call him right now?

Member: It’s probably too late for him. It’s 11:30.

Joe: Yeah, I’m Joe Polish. Sometimes I forget who I am. Also, I am like a part-owner, now, of Taste of Blue, which is a division of Bluefish, which is the highest-level concierge service in the world. So, I can hook you up with Steve Sims, who owns it. They’re starting a reality show. And basically, his main target is HENYR’s, is what they’re called. They’re High-Earners Not Yet Rich. So your target would be HENYR’s, high-earners, but they’re not yet rich.

Member: That’s what I’m trying to get.

Joe: So, they want to experience a sort of, live like a millionaire but they’re not going to do it daily. They can’t. They can’t afford it. But they are very aspirational sort of characters. And it’s kind of like you can reach a lot of these people, like guys that read Playboy, if they read it. But guys that subscribe to Playboy typically don’t date a Playboy model. It’s an aspirational sort of thing. People that read Robb Report typically are not rich. Some people are, but they’re aspirational. If you want to look at status, aspirational sort of selling, and stuff like that, and as far as Yanik’s thing goes, Yanik is very marketing niched. So, he goes after marketers. He talks about marketing. He loves direct response. He’s a marketing guy. So, he’s barely tapping into… As long as you’re not knocking him off, you could support each other. Let’s call Yanik here.

Dean: But you run cool trips.

Member: Awesome trips. And everybody who’s been on my trips said it’s like the best trip they’ve ever been on.

Joe: Okay, what are we going to say to him, once he answers?

Dean: Are you asleep?

Member: I’m sorry for waking you up.

Joe: Let’s see, we should put it by the microphone, so people on I Love Marketing can listen.

Joe: Is it picking up here? Come on, you punk, pick up. So, for people at I Love Marketing, listening, Yanik Silver thinks he’s much smarter and cooler than he is. Machine: Hey, this is Yanik. I’m not around, so leave me a message.

Dean: Do you want me to call him and see if he answers? Joe Polish calls at 11:30; this can’t be good.

Joe: Okay, Yanik, go to NewLifestyleSecrets.com. There’s a guy that is here with us, Sandro, that we want you to potentially talk with about doing a JV. Literally, you are at a live I Love Marketing Meetup group, and this is also being recorded for ILoveMarketing.com. So, Dean, what do you want to say to this punk, since he didn’t answer the phone?

Dean: I told him you wouldn’t answer the phone at 11:30 at night. We’ll catch up with you. But dude, go check out this site.

Joe: Yeah, and anyway, if anyone is listening to I Love Marketing, here, you can listen to our interview with Yanik, because it’s on ILoveMarketing.com. Dean doesn’t like you, Yanik. I just wanted to really tell you that.

Dean: We’re going to go through the 8 profit activators with you. If you’re looking at your before unit, your during unit, or your after unit, which one do you think that you could use the most help with, right now?

Member: Well, right now, profit activator #1 is redefining my target market, is what I’m realizing, because before I just left it wide open and I shared it with everybody I knew, and I was getting referrals. But it was like attorneys, real estate investors, and just random. I wasn’t targeting any particular market.

Dean: Would it be okay to travel or to target adventure travelers? Does it matter to you? I’m trying to understand is there an element of the trip? Let’s jump up to profit activator #5, and deliver a dream-come-true experience.

Member: Well, I’m thinking maybe like an industry-specific. So, let’s say there’s a group of real estate investors, or they’re going so they have a chance to meet other real estate investors, where they can mastermind, and create relationships.

Dean: Is that the kind of trips you do now, or are you talking perhaps something that you might do? Do you do niche-specific trips like that, right now?

Member: No, I haven’t. But I would still do the same adventures, but target to make it a group-specific, like-minded people in the same type of business, so they can network, mastermind, and create relationships.

Joe: Like dentists, chiropractors, and stuff like that.

Member: Exactly. And create relationships. Because one thing I’ve discovered, through all the years of traveling that I’ve done, is that once you travel with someone, you get to know them really, really well. And either you fall in love with them as in friend or a partner, or you just know that you’re not going to do business with them, or whatever. But I love everybody, so I always make friends.

Joe: You should try doing the liver/gallbladder flush with somebody. I’ve done that before once, with someone in the room. It’s a very bonding experience.

Member: Wow. That sounds personal.

Member: It’s crazy.

Member: Him and Dean were never go back there.

Joe: It wasn’t Dean. That would be a nightmare.

Member: So, I had an experience with one of my clients who was a former mentor of mine, and who also became a very good friend of mine. I was out of the country already, for a couple of years, and we were in touch every few months, and he was curious to see where I was and what I was doing. He got me on Skype one day, and he said that he had just lost a case over his business, which was a multiple 6-figure residual income, and he lost it all. For a while, I don’t remember, maybe a year or so after that, he was looking at different business opportunities, how to recover, to make it again, and he got really depressed. And I said, “Hey Larry, why don’t you just come down, I’ll put a killer trip together for you, man. You’ve got to come down here and check this out. I’m telling you, you’re just driving yourself crazy up there in the same environment. You need to get away for a while. So go on a mini-sabbatical.”

So, I talked him into coming down. I tried to get him to go away for a couple months, at least, but he said, “No, I can only do 3 weeks.” “Okay, perfect.” So, I designed a perfect trip for him: a week in Florianopolis, before Carnival, took him to Rio for Carnival week in Rio, an amazing time. And then, we rented a car, and went to some other beach towns, and then drove down the coast between Rio and São Paulo). During that experience, I said, “One thing. I have one request: that we do not talk about business for the first week that you’re down here. You need to just get it out of your mind. I’m just going to show you an amazing time, and we’re not talking business.” And he said, “Okay.” So, the second week was Carnival, so we didn’t talk too much about it. But in the last week, when we had the road trip down the coastline, we started talking about a lot of things that he was looking at. And during his experience, he saw some things in Brazil. He has a business mind. He’s always thinking of business opportunities, and what have you. Through that last week, we had some great conversations.

After 3 weeks, he returned, and he started looking into business opportunities that we talked about while we were on that trip. Well, he bought into a franchise, based on an idea and a conversation that we had. Now, he has 2 locations, making $250,000 a piece a year, and he’s looking to get 2 more in place. And that all came about starting with the conversations that we had on our trip. Now, he’s back to where he was.

Joe: Well, see, part of your original thing is how do we set it up? It’s like having a good story, a good message, really around results that it’s not just a cool trip. In this guy’s case, would he get on video and be willing to tell how this was transformative to him?

Member: Absolutely.

Joe: Because you could call it “for overwhelmed, successful people that just need to recharge their batteries.” You come up with something, the result this trip is going to do, and you have people that can speak to it that are influential. And maybe he has a sphere of influence and can put together trips for you, and things like that. How long have you been doing this?

Member: I stated traveling in 2004.

Joe: Let me ask you a question. Are you doing this because it’s like something you like, so you’re trying to take your lifestyle and build a business around it?

Member: Yeah, I started it off as more of a hobby. It just put up a website and started promoting it. But now, I think a lot of people can really, business-minded people, I’m a businessperson, that’s my network, I think they can really get a lot out of getting out of their own backyard for a while to leave all the things that pull at them every day, so they can clear out their past a little bit, to open their mind up more for the future, make more room for the future and, at the same time, go with people that are like-minded, so they can build new relationships, have awesome experiences, and create possible joint ventures, and whatever else out of it, coming out of it. So, I’m sure that’s what happens with Yanik Silver’s trips, too.

Joe: I would say actually, because I’m happy to put you in touch with Yanik and see if you can organize something for him, because he’s not like a travel agent. He’s seeking out things to do.

Dean: He finds these kinds of trips.

Joe: If you’re able to assemble some of those together, Tim Ferriss, who’s speaking at my event in August, if you organize a trip with Tim, and he loves it if, I’m not ever going to extend that Tim will do this, because he very much shies away about someone unless he totally digs it, if something could be organized for him. And he really understands. He’s a real good traveler. Oh yeah. He understands deals. But if you could create something for a guy like him, one thing like that would be massive for the growth of your business. I’ll put you in touch with Steve Sims. Check out TheBluefish.com, and watch my interview with him that totally describes Bluefish, with Steve Sims, and listen to our interview with Yanik, because I think we talk about Maverick business. And Yanik, for the last 2 years, I’ve invited him to do the trips to Necker Island that I do.

Member: I saw your interview with him, and Marie.

Joe: Marie?

Member: Yeah. And Branson.

Joe: No, Marie’s a good person, too, for all her rich, happy, and hot groups.

Member: Yeah, she’s awesome. Funny thing is, speaking of Tim Ferriss, the first time I ever heard of Tim Ferriss and The 4-Hour Workweek, guess where I was? Florianopolis – when he talked about it in his book. I got a Skype call when I was in Florianopolis, from a good friend of mine who’s a real estate investor, in 2007, right after it came out. I was in Florianopolis. And my buddy, Joe, he says, “Sandro, I can’t believe this, man. I just picked up this book, and I started reading it. I thought you wrote it, man, because you were just in Buenos Aires.” I’m a dual citizen. I’m Argentine and American.

Joe: Okay.

Dean: Family ties. So, I was just in Buenos Aires for like 6 weeks, and then I went to Florianopolis. I have friends in Florianopolis. “Dude, you were in Buenos Aires, you were in Florianopolis.” And I’m like, “What is this?” I’d never heard of Florianopolis before. “The next thing I know, I’m picking up this book about Buenos Aires and Florianopolis. It’s a weird coincidence. You’ve got to get this book, man.” And that’s how I discovered Tim Ferriss.

Joe: And you know what you can do with things like, because he likes that book, Vagabond.

Member: Vagabonding.

Joe: Yeah. Vagabonding, where you actually take books like that, buy them bulk from the author, and you actually mail them out as like lead generations for promoting your trips. And say, “Hey, if you want to organize trips that are like written about on page 72, call this free, recorded message.” And you literally take the book, as a grabber, and you use that as a theatrical way to pitch people. Remember the guy at the Platinum meeting, Greg, who sends out the DVD player and a frying pan? I just thought that was a clever idea. At the 25K meeting, one of the guys, he actually sells a software, and he actually sends out a…

Dean: At the Platinum.

Joe: Yeah, and the Platinum, what did I say?

Dean: 25K.

Joe: Oh, Platinum meeting. See I just change things. Yeah, so he gets DVD players from Walmart, has a video in it, and he sends them out to decision-makers. He pays $80 for the DVD, and puts it in a frying pan, and a Post-It note that says watch this video. It’s just very theatrical. He sends it FedEx, and people pull out a frying pan with a DVD player in it. How the hell do you not watch that DVD?

Dean: Exactly.

Joe: Anyone else have any suggestions? Anything you wanted to share, say?

Dean: Do you notice how when there’s unclarity, when you’re kind of uncertain about what the target market should be, it’s difficult do go the rest of the way until you get that clarity first. Until you know and commit that, “Yes, I’m going to do adventure travel trips for dentists.

Joe: Right. Then we can be saying, “Okay, here’s how we talk to dentists.”

Dean: Then you can start thinking about we’ve selected that. Once you lock that in, it’s like the first thing in the combination. You’ve got that. Now, you can jump down and say “What would be a dream come true for a dentist?” Is it all dentists? Is it dentists who make a $1-million? Is it dentists who are dental surgeons? You kind of narrow that down. But when you start thinking about it, what would be a dream come true? I fear sometimes…

Joe: Gay dentists going on these trips.

Dean: There you go.

Joe: Much easier to do.

Dean: And guess what? The clearer you get, the clearer it is. The clearer you get on who you’re target audience is, literally, gay dentists is the clearest target market that I’ve even heard suggested here.

Joe: I didn’t even realize that it’s not until you get into marketing, where you actually see, because they’re are publications just for the gay market. And if you ask people that advertise any service – pick one – plumber… I shouldn’t say, plumber. Carpet cleaning. What’s wrong with me? So, dentists. Dentists. Chiropractor. The actual ROI on specific niches in like gay publications is through the roof. And I say it jokingly and stuff, but it’s like pick a niche.

Dean: How many people go on these trips? How many people? Like, what’s the group size?

Member: The largest group I’ve done, so far, has only been 3 people at a time.

Dean: Right.

Member: But it could be, so it’s all been very personalized, and what have you.

Dean: So is that the kind of thing?

Member: It doesn’t have to be that small, because I just haven’t been marketing.

Dean: Would you want to go on a trip like that with 3 people that you don’t know? Or is it more people who get 2 buddies together and go?

Member: Well, they can bring their friends too, if they want. It doesn’t have to be…

Dean: What’s the ideal group size for you?

Member: Well, I would think not larger. The larger the group, the more hassle it is to manage. So, 10 would be a good group size.

Dean: So, when you talk about that, 10 is a group size. And what’s the price range of the trips?

Member: Well, I’m thinking to go so far, I wouldn’t make it for any less than 10 days. That’d would be the minimum timeframe.

Dean: Okay, 10 days. And this is all getting clearer and clearer. We’ve got 10 gay dentists on a 10-day trip. And what happens?

Member: As far as the price point, well the price…

Joe: I can’t to read the comments on I Love Marketing.

Dean: Well, what I’ve been saying is like, you know, it could be…

Member: I hear the gay market is a great market, because they have a lot of money. I just remembered. Actually, I used to bartend at a gay club in Laguna Beach.

Joe: Well, you want to hear something funny? I freaking had a friend that used to bartend, I mean he was totally straight dude, and we would bartend at a gay bar because he would meet more women there than like anywhere else.

Dean: The only straight guy in the place.

Member: Yeah, you’re not straight. Oh, yeah, want to bet?

Dean: So, keep going, 10 days. A 10-day trip.

Member: 10-day trip. And I’m thinking a $10,000 price point would be right on. Because as Joe was saying, and you know what? I looked at your video that you had with the Neiman-Marcus example, and going through the brochure, and I thought that was great. As a matter of fact, I’m a subscriber to Success magazine, but I hadn’t listened to the DVD yet. I popped it in the car on the way over here. So I just started hearing Dan Kennedy talk about what you were saying. Anyhow, at that price point, I can really deliver a high-quality experience. And that’s what I want to sell. Is not the travel to go see a place, and, “Well, I’ve been there, done that, I got a t-shirt.”

Dean: Could it be better for $12,000?

Member: It could be even better for $12,000, yeah. But I’m thinking the minimum would be 10 days at $10,000, and it could go up from there. With that, there’s enough margin to create a very unique experience that they will just never forget. It will be talked about for years.

Dean: And that’s the kind of thing. But you can design that experience ahead of time. You can think that through, creating that dream come true. So now, what you’ve got now, you can adjust this or you can go on and choose other markets. Ultimately, you’re looking for a small group of people. So, out of all the dentists in California, or you can even narrow it down to a specific area, you’re just looking for 10 gay dentists in California, who like adventure travel. And you’re going to create this incredible experience for them, and you can design that experience ahead of time. Now, you can go back, and do the work of seeing how am I going to compel those people to identify themselves as somebody who’s interested. We talked about these Fisher Investments ads that are on I Love Marketing, right now, just simple headlines, and what’s the conversation that’s going on in the mind of a gay dentist who likes adventure travel, that would stop him and compel him to call?

Joe: Dean, don’t you already know the answer? Or do you even need to ask about that?

Dean: When they call, in educate and motivate them to meet you, what kind of package, what kind of experience could you put together that you would mail them, that would highlight the whole thing, that would really make that trip come to life for them, that would motivate them to want to book the calendar, to make it? A lot of times, when you package things up, and you’re not making it open-ended or anything like that, if you pick certain dates that you’ve already got, even though you haven’t booked anything or done anything, but if you pick suggested dates that people are going to choose from, they start looking on the calendar and choosing from the dates. Maybe there’s a specific time of year that’s the best time to do this trip. Maybe it’s a certain amount of lead-in time. What would be the ideal amount of planning time?

Member: Minimum, 3 months.

Dean: Okay. So that’s the thing. So they’re looking maybe 4, or 5, or 6 months out, to pick that this is where the trips going to be. If you make that trip come to life for them…

Member: You’re ready.

Dean: I’m ready, yeah.

Joe: You’re ready for the gay geeks.

Dean: But those are the kinds of things that, when they look at this, that’s how you can apply those profit activators. But it absolutely has to start with selecting that single target market.

Member: Right. And I know that, especially, like what Joe was talking about, picking that microcosm of people, or what have you, and going deep, and then getting momentum in that market space and creating some momentum and success. And then, “Okay, now I’ve got it down, and I just copy-and-paste for this market, just tweak it a little bit.”

Dean: There’s a great company that does Scotland golf trips, called Perry Golf. I’ve gone on 3 different trips to Scotland with them. But they have the highest-end trips around, and they’ve got these custom coaches that are like private jets inside kind of thing, and got facing club seating, 8 people is the ideal thing. You have a driver, and, literally, you get off the coach, you go to your tee time. You never touch your golf clubs. Getting everything ready, you show up on the tee, and everything’s ready. Your hotel, all your bags are checked into the hotel for you, and all that stuff. It’s like a luxury…

Member: First-class experience.

Dean: It is. But you put together your own 8 guys, and you go on this trip. It could be that same kind of thing. Once you go through all the research of packaging a specific trip, it’s like you can recreate that trip. To me, it seems like you might enjoy the artistry of crafting what the trip is going to be.

Member: Oh, yeah. I love it. Putting so many – I love it – in each one has just worked out great. I know the lay of the land, and I speak the languages.

Dean: Right. And that could be something that you get back. That trip, you get that one packaged up and do it again and again.

Joe: Yeah, you could almost write just a book on either a cool lifestyle book, or something on how to rejuvenate yourself for entrepreneurs, or how to expand your mind, and gain perspective with these sort of trips. So, I would definitely put together a series of videos. And I would start putting stuff out there, and seeing what niche categories start lead generating. Identify a single target market and then see…

Dean: Often, you can get in front of people who are searching on those keywords.

Joe: Pat, you had a comment or question?

Member: I guess one question that I would probably ask if you want to go after these entrepreneurs, people with money. Which ones do you like working with the most? Do you like working with the real estate agents? Do you like working with marketers? And which ones do you like working with most? Maybe those are the ones to start targeting after.

Dean: Gay dentists. That’s what he said.

Joe: I’ve got a great idea for you. A trip with Dean Jackson and 10 other gay dentists, limited. Literally, mastermind with them the entire time, in a hot tub.

Member: Trunks optional.

Joe: This is going to be one of the weirdest I Love Marketing episodes on the planet.

Dean: Select a single target market.

Joe: Okay, sorry.

Member: No, to me, it would be you like to go on these trips, and what people would you like to be on the trips with?

Member: Well, like-minded, people that I can resonate with as well. I’ve been a Realtor, and the last couple years since I’ve been back from South America, I’ve made a point to connect with a lot of marketers, and that’s how we knew each other, by proxy, Renee and I, because we have a lot of familiar connections in San Diego. So, those are the people I’m more so connected to and marketers that are offering different products in different markets. But marketers, the same way. But it doesn’t have to be limited to those 2 markets.

Joe: You know, if I was doing something like this, which is kind of what I already do, I go to lots of places. One of the reasons that I think I’ve been able to build 25K and do some of the things that I do, is because I just tend to get out of the typical world of most marketers. I mean, I go to TEDMED, I go to a lot of different places where I meet people. I don’t know what your cash flow situation is. To the degree that you could put yourself in situations where you’re going to meet movers, people that could really move the dollar for you. Where do you live?

Member: Mesa.

Joe: Mesa. Okay. There’s a company that Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, told me about. He’s one of the investors in it. And it’s JetSuites. If you go to their Facebook page, the Facebook, JetSuites, they are a private plane company, 4 passengers at a time. It’s a specific type of private plane. And they have daily deals where, it’s about $38.50 an hour to rent a private plane, if you’re going to fly somewhere.

Member: Lear jets, you mean?

Joe: I don’t even know what kind of plane it is. It’s a small one, but they’re really cool, really brand new, totally badass. But I know nothing about airplanes. So, if you want me to explain it, I’ll look like more of an idiot than I already look like saying I know nothing about planes. But every day, they do daily deals where they fly out of certain cities to go pick up a passenger, and they give you a 24-hour notice, and you have to fly anyway, it’s $499 for the plane. And they will fly you to wherever they’re going. So, like the other day, it was like…

Member: Because they’ve got to get there in the first place.

Joe: They got to get there anyway. So, if you’re going to go from Scottsdale to Denver, I think there was a trip from Scottsdale to Denver for $499.

Member: Private plane.

Joe: Private plane. And I literally would organize… I would be watching them all the time, and I’d do JV’s with them. And I would literally just hop on places, and go. Even if you’re going to take a Southwest flight back, just so you can meet and get into that world. I would go to things like South by Southwest, and go and meet Tim, or whoever, people like Tim Ferriss, who are going to be in. Go to All Things Digital. Go to these places where there are wealthy people that are workaholics, and just interact with them.

Dean: It would be interesting, too, to maybe even think about building some of the elements of the Amazing Race into something like this.

Member: That’s a good idea. It’s interesting.

Dean: Yeah. Where you could package this thing where people could come as a team.

Member: Right. I thought about that. Some team-building activities, as well. You’re talking about competitions, though.

Dean: Yeah, it could be elements like that, where you’re going through the things. That’s such a popular show.

Member: That’s true. The Amazing Race was like the biggest reality shows in the ratings.

Dean: Yeah, it still is. Does that help?

Member: Yeah, it does.

Joe: So, what are you going to do now, with this? What’s the one solution?

Member: Well, I need to identify my target, I believe. I do have a trip, right now, that I’ve updated, about Florianopolis, about the experience I give someone in Florianopolis. There’s many more I can put up. To identify the market, or the person I want to talk to, and do some lead gen, like you were saying. Would you suggest testing a couple different markets to see?

Joe: Yeah, because if nothing else I would do, just like me and Dean put out a podcast, just put stuff out there just to drive people to an opt-in page. Like I have that video, “Is Selling Evil?” You know the one that’s going all over the Internet, right now? I registered SellingEvil.com, and there’s an opt-in box, because I’ve yet to figure out what the hell we’re going to sell there, what we’re going to do, or if it’s going to do nothing but to change the global conversation. But I’m always saying, “Okay, in order to develop what could become something, you might as well put a net out there to catch fish, and then see, once you decide, yeah, I’m going to go down that road. How would you recommend doing that, Dean?

Member: Yanik doesn’t do lead capture pages for what he does. He does it through relationships that he has.

Joe: Yeah, well see, he started Maverick Business Adventures as a marketer turned Internet marketer, to just like “Well, let me figure out how to sell marketing stuff to people, and simultaneous do the crap I want to do.” He built that around his own personal interest, and turned it into a business, as do many of us.

Member: Like me with this.

Joe: Right, right. I mean, you’re doing what you know and trying to figure out how to monetize it. I think if you look at guys that are doing something similar, and you can work with them, even joining Maverick Business Adventures would probably be a smart move for you, because then Yanik is stuck with you for like 7 days, and you’re just like “Dude, this trip sucks! And if you really want me to…” In all seriousness, I mean it could be a smart idea for you to join things like Maverick Business Adventures, and then do some trips for him. But yeah, narrow your niche and just start putting messaging out there. You don’t need a lot of clients in order to do well. This is more so just getting really clear and being as focused as possible, so you’re not like, “Well, we can do this, we can do that.”

Member: Which is how I have been. Now, from all of what I’ve been observing in the last couple years, and now coming with you guys, just making a strong point on really narrowing your focus, that’s where I’m at.

Joe: Sit down this week, and either record a sales letter for a target market, even if you’re not…

Member: An opt-in and a sales video? Like opt-in and a sales page, creating that part from the website?

Joe: Say you had your first and only opportunity to go on Oprah 2 weeks from now, and you had 20 minutes to go on Oprah and make a case. What the hell would you say? Now, if people put themselves in the situation to where they had to perform, and they had to have their message right, and this was their one opportunity, you know what? People would scramble. They’d block all the time they need. They’d get their shit down. But because life doesn’t typically give you that sort of pressure, most people just don’t get around to it. How many times have we told people, “Write a sales letter”? Sit down and write a sales letter. Sit down and record a video. Sit down and record your pitch.” And everyone’s like “Yeah, yeah. I’ve got to do it. I’ve got to do it.” We’ll go month after month, and some people will never do it. And you’re like, “Well.”

But the moment they get something where they’re forced to do it, they do it, and then they’re like, “Thank God I did it,” and then all of a sudden it just clarifies. It’s the thing that Verne Harnish, the guy that wrote The Rockefeller Habits, when I interviewed him, he said, “You know, entrepreneurs say they work well under pressure.” He’s like, “That’s not true. It’s just under pressure, they just work.” So, you just manufacture a pressure situation, even if it’s not real, to force you to hone it down, and you will. So say, for instance, a week from now, Dean’s going to show up at your house, and if you do not have a narrowly-defined target market along with a sales pitch, along with an opt-in page, along with a stick letter, everything, if you don’t have that done you literally get shot, you would get that shit done this week.

Member: Right.

Joe: So my whole thing, to the best of your ability, just do that. Just do everything. And even if it ends up not being… The things that’s the hardest thing, even if it ends up not being this, the process of going through it will set the stage. Like if you’ve never baked cookies before, but you want to bake cookies, and you hear about people baking cookies, and you just go into the kitchen one day and make a total mess, it’s like anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. And the worst batch you’re ever going to make is the first batch. And the second worst… It’s like the worst sales letter you’re ever going to write is the first one, and the second worst one is the second one. But after a while, you’ll like “Damn, I’ve kind of got it narrowed down. Yeah, people are responding. Yeah, this ad didn’t work here, but this one over here pulled.” And it’s just going out there and just doing it. It’s that level of movement that is so critical to just the startup.

It’s like Steven Pressfield says in The War of Art, “For the writer, it’s not the writing that’s hard, it’s the sitting down to write.” People just don’t sit down and write. There’s a great book – and I know I’m on a tangent, but screw it – there’s a book called One Small Step, and it’s about Kaizen, the Japanese continual improvement thing. We actually have a book downstairs called I Power, a great book on Kaizen. And in One Small Step, it’s like getting people just to do it, when people say, “I need to start exercising.” So, one of the things in the book is if you have a treadmill at home, you literally go to the gym or you have one at home, and you for the first week, you literally go to the treadmill, you put on a one-minute timer, and you just stand on the treadmill. You don’t walk; you just stand on it. And you do that for a week. Don’t even try to, just stand on it.

And what happens, and it usually doesn’t take a week, once someone gets on the damn treadmill, what do they do? They start walking. And it’s one of those things. If you say, “If people are like, “Oh, I’ve got to write a sales letter,” or “I’ve got to record this, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that,” it’s like just block 20 minutes tomorrow, and say, “I’m going to write a headline, and a pre-head in the first sentence. And you know what? Guess what? They’ll start doing it. And that’s what you need.

So, if you say, “I’m going to select a single target market.” Like tomorrow, can you devote 20 minutes, tomorrow, to go to the coffee shop or the library? Just 20 minutes, and go and work on the things we said here, and just do that 3 times this week. Just devote an hour this week, and come back to the I Love Marketing Meetup group, which I won’t be at next week. But just come to it, and report where you’re at, and I bet you the clarity is just going to fall into place. As much as we say stuff like that, and me and Dean say that to people all the time, most people still won’t do it. It’s just bizarre to me. But, hopefully, you will.

Member: On that note, as far as creating the opt-in page and sales letter, which optimized press is a good option? I don’t know what you like as far as…

Joe: You’d be better to ask Dean.

Dean: WordPress.

Member: Just WordPress? Yeah, just any particular template that you like?

Dean: It doesn’t matter. It really is about just going through the mechanics of getting it done. You could find someone that can do that for you for very little money.

Member: Fiver?

Dean: Yeah, whatever. Yeah. ODesk, whatever. It doesn’t matter. Just don’t worry about that. Design it on paper. Do you know how to do that?

Member: Yeah, I manage my website.

Dean: Oh, you do?

Member: I’m familiar with WordPress.

Joe: Check this out. Matt Mullenwig, who owns WordPress, I’ve been trying to get him to come and do a short speech in New York, for my New York event. He’s like, “It might be tricky to make it,” this was 2 days ago, “out east. Did you have a particular topic in mind?” And I wrote, “Matt, maybe I’ll have you talk about TypePad and Blogger, and why they’re superior to WordPress. What do you think of those topics?” And he’s like “We could list all the reasons. It’d be a short talk.” It’s pretty funny.

Dean: He’s the founder of WordPress.

Member: Oh, that went right over my head. That’s funny.

Joe: Just get started. It’s like the Dave Kekich thing: attack life.

Member: Right, right. Well, as far as the trip written out, I have a post already done, but I didn’t attach a price tag to it yet. Another thing that was brought up, as far as people using a credit card to buy such a high-ticket item online, it happens. It happens.

Joe: Remember the story I told about the most expensive mattress?

Member: Yeah.

Joe: People that are doing $26,000 mattresses and 90% of the sales come online?

Member: Right.

Joe: People just call up and say, “Sell me the most expensive one.”

Dean: Are we over time?

Joe: I think we are. Yeah. This will be one hot seat session. There was a book years ago, I think the guy died, and it was real old man, somewhere here in Arizona. I’m trying to think what town it was. He had the One-Book Bookstore, and it was a tourist town. What city was that?

Member: Was it Wickenburg?

Joe: Was it Wickenburg?

Member: I know it was somewhere there.

Member: Of what?

Joe: Well, an older guy. He was on like 20/20 or something. He got national news media. And people would drive by, and they would go in this bookstore, and it was the One-Book Bookstore. And the name of the book was Mama and Me. Right? Or Me and Mama. It was Mama and Me, or Me and Mama. On all the shelves, it was nothing but this one book.

Member: No way.

Joe: The guy was very successful, because people didn’t have to decide. It’s like what we were saying, with this 250 things versus one report. If you have 1,000 options, you don’t have any options. And that’s the challenge. That’s why when you select a single target market, you’re making a choice. And then this guy, it’s so funny, then he ended up writing a second book, like Me and My Brother, or Johnny and Me, something crazy about his brother, and I remember the news guy saying, “Well, what’s he going to call it now, the 2-Book Bookstore?”

Member: That is so funny.

Joe: What’s that?

Member: That’s great.

Joe: Yeah. Honest to God, I think it’s a great idea to knock off. Why not? The One- Book Bookstore. You just take any book, put it anywhere where there’s a high traffic item. Even if you literally got a little area in a mall, just like One-Book Bookstore, just sold any, I just think that would work.

Member: Everybody would go in just to see what the book is.

Joe: No, I mean, I think Barnes & Noble and all the big bookstores are going to be out of business because they have 1,000 books, but you have one book, that’s it. One book.

Member: I’ve just got one trip posted, right now, even though I could do many. I think it’s a trip that can offer so much. That’s why I chose it.

Joe: One trip that can offer so much. I like that. You could work on a headline around that, “One trip that offers so much.” Why go and try to do these things, when you could just go on one trip? I went to a bookstore – where was it – in Phoenix. It’s no longer there anymore. It was a 12-step bookstore, where they sold recovery books. And I just go in there one day, and I’m like, “Do you have any books for people that,” and I said this jokingly, because I’m always talking shit all the time, and I said, “Do you have any books for people that are addicted to books?” And she’s like, “As a matter of fact, we do.”

So, she goes, and she finds this book called Biblioholism. I’ve got it downstairs. It’s says, on the back, that if you have a compulsion and an addiction to buying, consuming, and trying to read large quantities of books, your problem can be solved. All you need is one more book. And I was like “This is nuts!” So, to our lovely audience, what was the takeaway from this? What are your thoughts and insights after having gone through this? What are your thoughts?

Member: Target your niche. Find out what your niche is. Focus on it.

Dean: Did you see how much easier it was when we started narrowing it down?

Member: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Dean: It’s easy to plan a trip for gay dentist adventure travelers.

Member: That’s not his plan, though.

Member: I’m thinking too much. Right now, I’m back to 1,000 different things.

Member: I have 3 referrals for you here.

Joe: That’s awesome.

Member: Yeah, they’re right here. Here you go.

Joe: You know what’s funny? I won’t even say it. So what about you, Kim? What did you get out of this?

Member: It was the same, just targeting it.

Joe: Yeah? What about you, Amber?

Member: I think that was the main point. It’s like once you know what your target market is, then, like Dean said, it’s easier to go from there.

Joe: Cool. What about you?

Member: Are you looking at me?

Joe: Yeah. I’m looking at you, Rebecca.

Member: It’s a wise man that shows up in an environment that have the resources for you to just pull out your phone and dial the person that he needs to connect with. That’s really cool. And that goes along with Joe suggesting put yourself in places that resources can expand even more. It’s who you know.

Joe: Thank you. Alex.

Member: Definitely targeting, number one. And I think action above all, taking the steps and actually doing it, and feeling really uncomfortable about it, but knowing the process, because the second time around is going to be better.

Joe: Yeah. Awesome. And Jamie or Renee, which one of you has the smartest thing to say? Which one of you has the best feedback? What do you think? Look at this – they’re collaborating.

Member: We have the same answer.

Joe: Alright what’s the same answer? Go ahead.

Member: Simplifying things and taking action. It doesn’t need to be a big production. It’s even almost like narrowing your niche with taking action. Like, I’m just going to sit right here at the computer screen, and type out the headline, instead of trying to plan out something more extravagant.

Member: And then, obviously, put it on the calendar. Schedule it. Now, you not only narrow the niche, but you narrow the timeframe when that niche can travel. People can put it on the calendar. So, schedule it. That puts you on the line; it puts your clients on the line. Put it on the calendar.

Member: That’s a good idea, man.

Joe: Yeah, if there was no such thing as a deadline, nothing would ever get done.

Member: There’s no urgency. As soon as you put it on the calendar…

Dean: What’s interesting now is start thinking about your year, next year, of what trips you’d like to do.

Member: And that’s the thing, because I know all these different places that I love in South America that, throughout the year, have different special events going on in different parts of the year. And I’d like to tie that in with the trip.

Member: And Landmark Forum always says, “Your Landmark Forum doesn’t begin when you show up, it begins when you sign up.” Right? And that’s what happens. When we sign up for a trip, that’s when our imagination really starts going. That’s when you’re engaged. So, you can do a whole entire engagement process that just leads them up to that event. If they’ve scheduled a year out, you can just send these reminders. You know “Hey, don’t forget. Can’t wait to have you.” I think I did Gap Adventures, or one of those travels; you get a group travel together. I think we sailed the Greek islands, and they were sending out passports in the mail, like phony passports, “Here’s your boarding pass,” a month or 2 in advance. It was great.

Member: That’s interesting, I was thinking about what you guys were talking about, as far as doing something in advance. Pay it forward. And I thought, “Man, you’re sending them a set of Havaianas, the Brazilian flip-flops, once they signed up, and a Brazilian keychain.

Joe: Man, I would use that even before they sign up.

Member: That’s fantastic.

Member: Luggage tags.

Member: How would you know what size?

Member: Yeah, luggage tags.

Member: Keychain.

Member: Havaianas or flip-flops, it’s a good point; I’d have to find out their size.

Member: Or you can send them, like Joe said the other day, you could send them one. When you sign up for your trip, you get the other. “I just want to get my foot in the door.”

Joe: I like that. I like that.

Member: That could be a really good opt-in thing. Get your free flip-flops. Give me your size and your email, or something like that.

Joe: Exactly. Or you could even do a weekly drawing. Every week, put your shoe size. That’s a great idea.

Member: I know when you put those Havaianas on, you just want to be on a beach in Brazil.

Member: I’ll take a pair.

Member: There you go.

Joe: Awesome. Was this helpful?

Member: Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, guys. It was the synergy I needed, for sure.

Joe: Excellent. Thank you very much. Yeah, that’s it. That’s a wrap. Right, Dean?

Dean: That’s a wrap.

Member: Before we wrap, Len and Annette wanted to give Dean a very special gift.

Joe: Oh, Hello Kitty mints.

Member: Well, it’s a Hello Kitty in a Devil outfit, for your evil lair, your Evil Scheme Hatchery.

Dean: I like it.

Member: Cuddle up in your Hello Kitty blanket that Joe gave you, with your Hello Kitty wallet.

Dean: There we go.

Joe: Tell the story here, on I Love Marketing, because we got this on the video. Do you have your wallet on you?

Dean: I do have my wallet.

Joe: Okay. Let me tell the story. So, Dean, from Pulp Fiction, they have a wallet that says, “Bad MoFu.” So, tell the story. Tell the story.

Dean: Here’s the thing. For years, I had that Pulp Fiction wallet. You guys know the one I’m talking. So, it said that. And for years, I carried that around. And as soon as I saw this Hello Kitty wallet, I had an epiphany, and I thought to myself, “You know what? That wallet says it, but this one demonstrates it.” It says it without saying it. So, I’ve been carrying this one around. I gave one to Ed Dale, to Frank Kern. A bunch of people are having the Hello Kitty wallet. But you pull this out at Starbucks or anywhere, it’s a conversation starter. Meanwhile, people would avert their eyes. They would see it, and they like “Oh.” And they’d avert their eyes. But this one is a conversation-starter.

Member: Yeah, you are bad.

Dean: Yeah. So there you go. Goodnight, everybody.

Joe: Yep. Thank you.

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