There’s an old story about a boy who wants a pony really badly for his birthday. When he wakes up to find a huge pile of crap at his house. He jumps around clapping and excited! Someone asks him, “Why are you so happy? You’ve got a mess of manure here?”
And to that the boy responds, “With that much shit – there’s got to be a pony in there somewhere!”
It’s a *very* long story - but the short version is really buggy code to start with and one tech problem grew into another, etc. etc. Of course, after the initial frustration of the moment was gone – I took a step backwards and remained (mostly) calm. (Maybe surprisingly calm to a lot of people more directly involved.) I realized in the grand scheme of things a launch screwing up wasn’t that big a deal. I also used some of the principles my friend, John Harricharan, teaches in his PowerPause to create what I really wanted. (Plus at the same time feel grateful for what I already had in my life.)
Anyway - what I do want to point out is the good news. It’s an interesting notion that there’s good news somewhere in the pile of bad news. I’ve always believed things happen for a reason. And if the site wasn’t so screwed on Thursday I wouldn’t have shut it down and wouldn’t have searched for a new solution. I got a recommendation from Matt Bacak for an amazing guy named Mike Cline. If you ever need some serious tech work – not minor stuff – but serious stuff contact Mike. (Don’t even know if he’s taking new clients or wants more work since he doesn’t know I’m mentioning him here.)
Anyway in 24 hours we (he) rebuilt everything and we went live at 3pm yesterday. It’s hard to describe how impressive this is – I don’t know if I even grasp it. The bottom line is things are 5x better than what I originally intended and it’s a direct result of the first screw-up. If that didn’t happen we wouldn’t have used Mike or re-built the entire system.
Now there’s more good news (and it’s actually for you!)…
Because of the snafus and since we’re opening the doors on the weekend – I’ve decided to extend all the FAST-ACTION bonuses *way* beyond what we originally intended. (Fact is, they would have got snapped up in a few minutes during the intended Thursday release but now we’re going to open the doors wide to make sure you get it!)
You’re getting a special, $15k closed-door presentation entitled “Instant Leverage Points in Your Business That Bring You Surges of Cash”. It’s a presentation I did last January to 26 top-gun entrepreneurs and business leaders, who paid about $15k in membership fees and trip fees to come together in Baja, Mexico.
Plus, I’ve bundled up this DVD, the MindMap I handed out, my newest book called “34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs”, a 2 CD-Audio program and more – the only thing you pay for is s/h.
As you know, I don’t speak that often so this is an unusual week. Monday, I’ll be at the ETR Bootcamp in Florida and then speaking on Thursday in Chevy Chase, MD at a local networking and business group for entrepreneurs called “The Entrepreneurs Group”.
* Forbes Adventurer Interview *
Also, something cool I didn’t post it up yet was an interview I did with Jim Clash from Forbes Adventurer. Jim talks to people who ‘push their lives to the limit’ so was excited to be interviewed. We talked about me being passenger #144 on Virgin Galactic.
Jim’s got a pretty interesting list of adventures to his own credit including driving an Indy car 200mph+ around the oval (it’s a lot harder than a straight line). He has a book called “To the Limits” on adventure and business that’s a little harder to find – but it still on Amazon.
Well today was *supposed* to be unvieling of the ‘Maverick Business Insider‘ newsletter and intro package. I guess someone forgot to clear it with the Internets. I’m not a techie but it had to do with our database and integration with fulfillment and operations. So instead of getting a whole bunch of annoyed customers in and not being able to fulfill in a timely manner – we pulled the site & put it on ‘hold’.
I figured we’d have it up earlier - but we made a decision to wait until tomorrow to open it back up.
I put up a video on the main site explaining it a bit more and giving some good news. Hopefully a silver lining in this for you. (Hint: It has to do with the ‘First-Mover’ Bonuses!)
* Contest Winners *
From our video comments contest - you guys made it really hard to pick the best ones. Some incredible, insightful comments. So I bumped it up to 8 winners instead of 5…
Drum roll…please….
Here’s who will be getting their own copy of the new Maverick Business Insider package with everyone else who grabs it (when we get the doors open). It looks like this -
Here are the lucky 8. Congratulations To:
· Bob Beckman:
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
· Suzanne:
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
· Jini Patel Thompson:
November 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
· Jeremy Reeves:
November 5th, 2008 at 10:19 am
· Matthew Detrick:
November 5th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
· Rob:
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
· Robertas Says:
November 4th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
· Chris Brisson Says:
November 5th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
We’ll have customer support contact you to get your address to send you the entire Maverick Business Insider package.
What started off as a quick 15-minute Saturday project turned into a 1 hr+ of new material on how to make more, have more fun and give more back! I asked you guys a few days ago for questions and some of the answers were quite eye-opening in each of the 3 areas.
With the elections going on in the U.S. tomorrow - the big idea behind the Maverick Manifesto is FREEDOM!
Freedom to write your own ticket regardless of what’s going on with the crazy economy, the next person in the White House or any external factor!
Here are a few things I covered:
How to truly really create a Work/Life balance that actually works!
Figuring out the right questions to ask so you get back the answers you need.
What you really need to know in order to work once and get paid over and over and over again.
Why you’ll never say “I can’t afford this” ever again…write your own rules for paying for what you want.
How to make sure you turn up the ‘FUN quotient’ in your life and not get burnt out! (Plus: Exactly how to shatter the biggest excuse to waiting for more money to have fun!)
Easy ways to bring fun into other people’s lives who you care about – and create real meaningful experiences.
The painless rule to “automatically” giving back now instead of waiting & lots more!
Check it out and I would love to hear your comments.
I’m looking for some thoughtful insights and you don’t even need to agree with me - but I’m interested in the conversation that arises here.
Hope you enjoyed your little ghouls and goblins ransacking your house for sweets. We literally (no exaggeration) had probably 250 kids hit our house. I swear they bus them into our neighborhood. I was really worried we were going to run out of candy at some point and raided the pantry for anything we could give out.
Zak had a great time with his first ‘real’ Halloween. He was Thomas the Tank Engine and loved it! Last year, he went to 3 houses and just walked right in. He didn’t get the concept. This year – he got it in a big way!
Hmmm…..knock on door, say a few words, people give me candy.
Rinse. Repeat.
Here are a couple quick pic of Zak at the neighbors place:
Poor Zoe, she was too pooped to even make it out. She stayed in her Giraffe costume for about 8 minutes before crawling up to bed.
Across the street from us, our neighbors are totally into Halloween with an entire graveyard scene, a big inflatable pumpkin coach, you name it. (Those are where I took Zak’s pics above.)
Now I love Halloween too and I had to get into the act. I bought this big archway with the words ‘Cemetery’ on top of it. It looked really cool online but when I put together – it took a slight breeze to knock it over. I secured it every which way from Sunday but it still wasn’t enough. Finally, the last time it fell over – I just left it there like an ancient ruin. Don’t know it seemed cool enough. Then I took the cemetery sign and stuck in my shrubs (you can just make it out to the left of the house).
The kids did go crazy for a fog machine I had on porch. (That’s right street cred with the 13-year olds!)
Next year we’ll have to have more fun with the kids and maybe get people in the yard scaring them. Who knows? Or my neighbor across the street, Deb, and I might form an alliance and build a huge archway spanning the street and have a makeshift haunted house in there. Something fun….
And that brings me to another point – where I need your help…
I just mentioned having fun…that’s definitely something I strive to do in a big way from jumping out of airplanes at cruising altitude to little silly ways like being “Count Yanik” for Halloween promos. (Yes, I know he didn’t make an appearance this year. I know you’ve been sobbing for hours about it.)
Having fun is one part of my Maverick philosophy for ‘Making more, having more fun and giving back more’.
Sounds good, right?
To me that’s the quintessentially ‘holy grail’. But not everyone thinks that’s possible - or maybe you’re struggling in one (or more of those areas). I want to help. I’m working on new content including videos and a free webinar for the release of the new Maverick Business Insider newsletter on Nov 6th. I got lots of stuff to share…but I need your help.
What’s your biggest questions or things holding you back in these 3 areas?
Give me your thoughtful answers and you’ll get a chance to win the ‘34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs’ book and 2 CD Audio Set.
After the ‘King Krawl’ to celebrate my 35th the next big outing was the weekend of Sept 27 and 28 up in Chicago. Eben Pagan brought together 100 top marketers for a special closed-door networking event (and party). And at the same time WIRED Next Fest was going on in Chicago. Since WIRED is a media partner of Maverick Business Adventures®, our members had special access to a VIP opening party and a semi-private breakfast with their editor, Chris Anderson, as he introduced concepts from his newest upcoming book “FREE”.
I wanted to get up there for that but I had a family function I couldn’t miss. But I did manage to hop on the last flight on Saturday night at 10pm and got to the Hard Rock in Chicago near midnight.
I hit the tail-end of a party and then a big group of us went out to an after-hours club and kept the party going to 4 AM. Ryan Lee, Underground® II’s “Mr. X”, decided it was his job to keep feeding me ‘blueberry muffin’ shots.
Then on Sunday night, we had a small get together at the Hard Rock to celebrate my 35th birthday with 35 minutes of open bar. Dan Schorr, our head of partnerships from Maverick, thought we should start the celebration off with shots of “small White Russians”. I guess he and everybody else found it amusing.
Here I am with the menu:
You probably can’t make out what it says – so here’s part of what’s on there:
Short White Russian
‘Nuff Said
The “Original Maverick”
Johnny Walker Black, espresso and Amaretto
Black & Blue
Sambucca Black, Stoli Blueberry and a splash of red bull
*
As we wrapped up happy hour, one of the local guys, “Dr. Paul”, suggested a Karaoke place that has a live band backing you up. That sounded like a plan. We went out with 10 people and hit this hole-in-the-wall bar. Dr. Paul was a regular here and he got me on the list since it was my birthday. I wasn’t sure that was such a great idea because a) I wasn’t drunk and b) My wife, Missy, told me in no uncertain terms I should never, ever do Karaoke again. (It all stemmed from a night when she heard me doing ‘Coming to America’ by Neil Diamond. She was the only sober one at the table because she was pregnant. She was more vicious than Simon Cowell that night about my performance.)
I put those pesky memories in the back of mind and decided to go with the Violent Femmes “Blister in the Sun”. Not exactly sure how I did but I did go around shoving the mic into random bar patrons faces to get them to sing with me. I even got a few high-fives from those guys so I think it turned out okay.
Here’s video footage expertly taken by Mike Filsaime. I think the audio is kinda screwed up on here so now there’s no way to know if I really suck or it’s just poor audio.
Now the real crown jewel in the evening (and a very real marketing lesson) is a place called “The Wiener Circle” around Lincoln Park.
This is a hot dog stand that’s normal during the day but at night it becomes chaos. You have these gals behind the counter who are into harassing and cracking jokes at your expense. You can give it them and they’ll give it right back 5x as hard. I couldn’t stop laughing. You got to be ready for it or else you’ll be shocked at the anecdotes and 4-letter words there. (Look them up on Yelp.com or YouTube.com for the scoop here.)
Creating the Conversation…
The BIG marketing lesson is truly creating a unique experience. I heard from several people that we had to check out this place. There are hundreds of hot dog stands in Chicago (I believe the most in any city) but the reason we had to check it out is for the experience. Yes, the hot dogs were good – but they really weren’t that much better than others I’ve had. But the craziness – now that’s worth a trip.
So tied into all these shenanigans are a very real and important marketing lesson. It’s about creating the ‘conversation’. If you look at my previous blog post about the Modern restaurant – the conversation was created by an exceptional experience. Even better is something like Wiener Circle that has a compelling conversation as part of their day-to-day, regular activity.
What are you doing to try and create remarkable conversations that your customers HAVE to talk about you?
For Maverick Business Adventures® we work on this all the time and very consciously think about it. I believe a good deal of the conversation is dictated by extraordinary experience and surprise. Give it some thought.
Speaking of ongoing conversations…I can’t believe how a bunch of my friends and Missy’s friends cannot stop talking about my 80’s birthday party from the other weekend. This was the final celebration that Missy planned for me. We booked The Spazmatics band from New York City to come down and play our party. They are a totally cool 80’s cover band that dresses like ‘Revenge of the Nerds’.
Now the Spazmatics did something really smart. They realized they had a great hook and licensed their gig to others in different cities. Not sure how many of them there are – but I’ve now seen the Austin, NYC and LA ones.
The party was like a weird convergence of all worlds. We had my neighbors, some of my Internet buddies like Ryan Deiss and Jeff Johnson, some of my hockey buddies, some of my old college/high school friends and then a bunch of Missy’s friends. My 80’s character was taken from some characters we had at my High School. I had the full-on mullet, John Deere hat, cut-off jean jacket (complete with heavy metal band patches) and acid-washed jeans with holes in them (and SKOAL in the back pocket).
Here are a couple pics –
This is me and my cousin, Sophia.
I’m not really sure what I’m doing to Missy here but it’s enough to make her drop her jaw (and get a good peek at her gum)
Here’s Yanik up with the band performing “Mickey”(while clutching my jack & coke in my cut-off gloves)
Ryan Deiss and my neighbor, Stephen, both Univ of Texas alum doing the ‘hook ‘em horns’ sign. (Too bad you can’t see Ryan’s super colorful socks he borrowed from me.)
You can see more pics of me in my mullet and other really bad 80’s fashion sense on my Facebook profile.
Last Saturday I gathered up a ‘coalition of the silly’ to take part in the first annual ‘King Krawl’ up in Baltimore. We had a few entrepreneurs and Maverick members like Chris Daigle, Andy Miller, Ian Platt, Chad Mac, Rob Olic and Dave Dolak. And we had a few of my brother, Adam’s, former college friends.
There were about 10 of us all dressed up as the King that invaded Baltimore.
We basically had 2 rules.
Rule #1 – Stay in Elvis costume all night.
Rule #2 – See rule #1
We got some serious stares from people starting with the cab ride over to my brother’s house in Canton. At stop lights, people were yelling and taking pictures of us. Then when we got up to my brother’s place we added another 3 Elvi’s to our group to bring us to 10 strong.
Here are a couple photos before the ensuing antics:
And here’s a little video as we ate dinner:
It was a total motley crew of different Elvis outfits and sequined suits. I was the only brave enough (or stupid enough) to wear the fat costume. That was one of my favorite outfits when Frank Kern and I did a road rally a few years back when we barely fit into our lime green Lotus with our fat suits on.
Everywhere we went, we definitely created a scene from people wanted pictures with us to them asking us WHY we were doing this. There were lots of different answers and we never had our story straight. Some of the guys said it was for my birthday, others said they were lobbying to bring the Elvis convention to Baltimore and my favorite explanation someone made up was “The King for E.D.” Then we would sing “Viva Viagra!”
It got a bit crazy – and I have to hand it to the DJs of most to the bars. Within 5-10 minutes of walking in they’d put on some sort of Elvis song. Then we’d do a little hip wiggling and really bad singing for the crowd. People at the bars were pretty polarized – they either thought it was funny and wanted in on the action or thought we were a bunch of idiots and wanted no part of us.
I think both groups were sorta right.
**
Stellar Service in New York? Yup!
Yesterday I headed into New York City for a few meetings with WIRED and an interview with the ‘Forbes Adventurer’, Jim Clash, on my upcoming Virgin Galactic Space flight. Last night, Dan Schorr, our head of sponsorship and partnership at Maverick, headed to The Modern for dinner. He developed a relationship with Danny Meyers, the famed CEO of several top NYC restaurants including the Modern and author of “Setting the Table”.
One of the touchstones of Danny’s book is his philosophy of ‘Enlightened Hospitality’. He hires people who are eager to serve others and do whatever it takes to make their meals memorable.
I wanted to go to one of his restaurants to check out how they do it and keep my antennae up for marketing nuggets. Now the Modern is a pretty upscale restaurant but Danny’s restaurants range from the elegant to a simple ‘Shake Shack’ serving up shakes (obviously) & burgers & hot dogs.
The meal at the Modern is a typically a tasting menu or a 3-course prixe fixe menu. I went for the tasting menu accompanying by a glass of wine for each course. The service was spot on and the food was excellent – but the real story of ‘Enlightened Hospitality’ came about ¾ of the way through our dinner.
Our table backed up to table of a 50-something couple who were obviously not happy with each other. He was yelling at her about why her parents had to come for Thanksgiving to just general obscenities. Seriously. As the night progressed they got louder and louder. Dan was right behind them and it was impacting our dinner conversation. I headed off to the bathroom and while I was gone our wine steward and waiter, Nick, did something pretty interesting. He came to the table and overly exaggerated to spill a small amount of bottled water on our table. Then in a loud voice (to make sure the other couple could hear) he said, “Oops…how clumsy of me. I can’t believe I spilled water all over the table. We can’t have you sitting at a wet table so let me move you over right away.” Then a team of 7 swooped in and moved our table, wine glasses (probably 6 of them) and meals across the dining room.
I walked out of the bathroom and stood awestruck for a second because our table was completely cleared. I looked around and found Dan across the room. The staff had correctly assessed the situation as being irksome and did something really smart (but at the same time not embarrassing to the other couple).
The Story of Stellar Service that “MUST” be Told
Problems like these handled incredibly well create stories of stellar service that people want to share. It’s a pretty powerful marketing concept because Dan and I are practically forced to tell others about this experience. In fact, he already mentioned it to 3 people including the publisher of WIRED magazine. And now I’m sharing it on my blog for even more exposure for them.
A few weeks ago I was in Aspen for the 3rd Maverick Business Adventures® experience. This time we went whitewater rafting, rock climbing, rappelling, mountain biking and on a 4x4 jeep tour.
Before I give you the low down on the trip highlights – I think the day before I left was extremely interesting from a marketing perspective.
Aspen is filled with great boutiques, restaurants and art galleries. I wasn’t really planning on buying anything but enjoyed looking in the art galleries – and that’s where our story starts. (Note: If you have not read ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” this is a good example of the techniques at work.)
The first step in the sale…
The first part of any sales process is typically ‘Attention’ – my attention was caught by a piece in the window that was very cool. It was cartoonish but yet sophisticated. So I popped into the gallery. It was by an artist named Todd White and I found out the work was called “My Heaven and Hell”.
It immediately caught my eye so I investigated a little more. The gallery had a bunch of his prints and as I browsed through them I was paying attention to the sales process. I started getting the ‘story’ of Todd White from Johnny. It was about how he worked on Ren & Stimpy and helped created Sponge Bob Square Pants. I’m a big fan of animation so this intrigued me more.
[Story is one of the most underused ways of making deeper connections and setting up the sale. The story is also important because I get to tell it again to people who comment on the piece at my house, etc.]
That was followed a laundry list of celebs who collect his work. [Social Proof]
As I perused the different pieces, Johnny, would throw in a few comments about the work (i.e. like the “My Heaven & Hell” piece explaining it was 6 of White’s ex-girlfriend and 3 were good and 3 were devilish.)
Johnny showed me a brochure with other works mentioned how most were sold out because he did prints in very limited quantities (like 150). [Scarcity]
After showing interest in a few of them he asked me if I wanted to gave him move them into a better light in the backroom. I declined several times because I knew where this was heading - but finally let him move 2 works in there. The role of this backroom is for the prospect to imagine it in their homes.
[Commitment & Consistency now takes over since I’m making small commitments towards buying. The first commitment is even picking which paintings I like the best.]
As I was picking from a few works that I liked best I was offered a beer, champagne or water. [Reciprocation]
I’d been through this same process before so it was interesting watching it unfold with my psychology hat on. But something they did that I haven’t seen was actually having a DVD playing that highlighting Todd White’s career, his press coverage, his works, his bio and people who were his collectors. [Authority and Social Proof]
As I was considering my favorite piece, Johnny, asked me if I’d take it today for a crazy price? I knew this was another commitment technique so I kept it vague. Then he asked if I’d take 2 of them. After saying I only wanted to discuss the price on one he went back to the owner to discuss. [Reciprocation after a Concession]
When the owner Michael came back he made sure to discuss the frame itself, the multiple layers of the frame and how ornate it was to build up the value. Then mentioning the hand embellished print so it wasn’t simply a print. [Value build] He gave me a reason about the discount as this being the shoulder season and the rent was due. [Reason Why] and we negotiated down to about 50% of the ‘retail’ price. We shook hands and now a few weeks later a huge crate arrived at my house with my “All Lit Up Again” work by Todd White:
It’s a great example of using psychology and influence in the real world. In fact, I loved the process so much I recommended the Cialdini book to Michael and Johnny. Then a funny little side note – Aspen is pretty small – and we bumped into them at one of the hot bars that night.
Highlights from the Maverick Business Adventures® ‘Rocky Mountain High’ Experience:
Now for those of you who want the recap on the Maverick trip – watch the 3 minute highlight reel created by members below and read on…
The first night in Aspen I brought in my friend and true Maverick, Frank McKinney. The Wall Street Journal called “the Real Estate Rock Czar” because he builds spec homes (homes built without a buyer) valued in the tens of millions of dollars, including the creation of the world’s first $100+ million spec home. In addition to his real estate artistry, Mr. McKinney is a two-time international best-selling author, speaker, adventure racer, demolition derby driver!Plus, he’s a true philanthropist with his Caring House Foundation that builds housing for the desperately poor in Haiti. I think people originally saw a flamboyant guy with long blond hair and easily dismissed him until after his presentation. Frank was pretty incredible sharing his 49 secrets for Extreme Success. But even more inspiring was the philanthropy roundtable he was on with founding Maverick members, Jim Spano and Brian McElroy. Both of whom are very heavily involved in charity foundations.
There was a tremendous amount of interest from the members about starting their own foundation and the in’s and out’s of this fascinating and enlightening topic. Right before the charity roundtable discussion Carl Banks showed up. Carl was our other Maverick icon guest – he’s a 2-time Super Bowl champion with the NY Giants and a multi-time entrepreneur. He helped build G-III apparel into a $500,000,000 behemoth and his latest venture is “Famous 58” BBQ line.
Carl and Frank both joined us for dinner at the prestigious Little Nell. Now most of us turned in early because wake-up was at 5:30 AM (ouch!). We boarded a luxury motor coach to head 3 hours out to the Royal Gorge area for our adventures. For the last half hour of the trip I thought it might be a funny idea to play ‘Deliverance’ on the DVD player. In hindsight probably a bad idea. After the banjo scene is got a little graphic with the most famous (and disturbing) clip from the whole movie. If you don’t know which one I’m talking about – it’s better that way.
As soon as we set foot on the ground we’re off to get changed into wetsuits and gear up to hit the rapids. I guess the water level had really gone down because the first part of the day was pretty slow. Though we did get to see Maverick and Elite MasterMind member, Gerald Romine, get spilled out in, what I’d classify as, class 0 rapids.
Yes, that earned him the coveted ‘Up the Creek Without a Paddle’ award later that night.
We took a break for lunch and held our Maverick business session right on the bank of the Arkansas River. Definitely out of classroom. Then after regrouping we hit the water again for some class IV rapids. It was definitely a bit wilder in the bottom section when we hit the Royal Gorge. Our guide, Kendall, had our boat preparing and drilling like we were a Whitewater SWAT team. Not only did we have to practice and know the basic forward and backward strokes but he had us drill on moving everyone from one side to another so we could sneak through some seemingly impossible spots on the river.
If you watched that little highlight footage there is a spot at 2:32 in the video that makes me laugh over and over again. We were getting bored splashing our fellow Maverick boats so our raft decided to up the ante. Watch and you’ll see a yellow and red raft float by from a random group. After a disarming ‘hi’ we open up to splash their raft. Their guide was totally shocked and lobbed his own water spray right back in an instant. I thought it was hilarious. (Oh yeah – we did again at the 3:00 mark to a different raft.)
I also had offered up $50 for anyone in Carl’s boat to make him swim but I guess that wasn’t a big enough reward to try and dump the 6’ 3” All-pro Linebacker into the drink. (About 2:18 in the video)
After drying off we headed back to the lodge for a special BBQ dinner hosted by Carl Banks. It started with Carl sharing his football story and then quickly segued into his business career. Many people might not realize how successful and accomplished he has been in the business world. It started when he was still playing for the Giants and became a licensee for the NFL selling high fashion leather jackets with team logos. And his endeavors have branched out remarkably since then.
Following Carl’s talk – we all piled up our plates with all sorts of BBQ accompanied by Carl’s ‘Famous 58’ sauce. Really, really good stuff and worth picking up online. As a side note – Carl was pretty smart. He essentially created the ‘Instant Sales Letters’ of tailgating BBQ. He sells people a pre-made, pre-cooked kit of everything they need for an awesome tailgate. Smart. That’s one of my ways of coming up with a BIG idea – give people the ‘fish’ – don’t teach them to fish.
After polishing off some ribs and bison – I interviewed Carl one-on-one and then let members get any of their business (and even football) questions answered. Carl stayed late into the night smoking cigars swapping stories with us. Here’s a pic of him having S’mores for the first time with Carrie Wilkerson.
The next day we were at it again this time being split into 2 groups. Half the members tackled rock climbing and rappelling while the other half did some pretty intense mountain biking.
I was in the rock climbing/rappelling group for the morning. I’d never done rappelling but falling off of things appealed more to me than climbing up things so I spent most of my time rappelling.
Our guide neglected to tell me it might be a little more comfortable with gloves. As I dropped 60 feet down the rope completed burned my hands and when I got back to the top of the mountain I asked our outfitter if there were any gloves, he said, “Oh yeah, in the red bag.” Yeah in the red bag how silly of me. My hands were burning the next few times with gloves too so I’m glad I finally found the red bag.
Before breaking for lunch a few of us went to the backside of the mountain to work on some climbing. I’ve never been rock climbing before either and it was pretty hard. I’ve done climbing walls in gyms and those were a piece of cake compared to the real thing. We had a couple members get all the way to the top in under 3 minutes – pretty impressive. My best was ¾ of the way up – about 40 feet.
One of the funniest moments was turned in again by Gerald Romine. He was taught a technique by our climbing guide of shoving your hand into crevices and then using the bone as leverage. Well – he wasn’t so lucky to shove his hand straight into a Wasp’s nest. I think 3 of them stung him. I had to laugh because I was climbing that exact route 2 minutes prior.
After lunch our groups switched and we went mountain biking. The trail was pretty advanced stuff – we told the guide wanted it ‘Maverick’ style and he turned in a good performance. I was certainly lucky that a camera captured prime highlights footage of me hopping down the trail trying to avoid falling over. I did about 8 hops and finally tumbled to the ground in dejection. (For your viewing pleasure - it’s about 1:49 into the video).
I also had another tumble – going completely over my handlebars and really wiping out hard. Unfortunately for you guys – there was no footage – so it’s like it never happened.
After our all-day adventures it was back to Aspen for a much needed shower and quick rest before we dinner. Once again we headed to the Little Nell but this time it was their ‘wine room’ for a fabulous dinner with a Master of Scotch from Johnny Walker. It was pretty interesting because each of the dishes we had were all made with some Scotch.
The next morning was one of my favorite parts of the week – it was the ‘giving back’ to young and aspiring entrepreneurs session. We brought in about 80 kids to Aspen High School (from several different community groups). It’s an optional activity for members but we still had about 17 of our members come to share their real-world experience about being entrepreneurs. It was great seeing the faces light up and get really engaged when we started asking for their ideas and then preceded to give them a blueprint to follow their dreams.
I was really impressed with one 12-year old, Garrett, who was in the audience. He already had an eBay business where he took items on consignment and then paid the owners 40% once it sold. The kid took reams of notes and he’s got a bright future. In fact, he did an interview with Maverick & Elite MasterMind member, Carrie Wilkerson, and he told her that when he grew up he wanted to be a Maverick. So cool!
Then we got this note back from his mom:
“My son was among the young people who attended and I can tell you he hasn’t been the same since. Since your [presentation], he has begun his own website and has even begun to make money with it using some of the advice he received…I believe that the seminar your group so selflessly presented has altered the course of at least one young entrepreneur. I can’t thank you enough.”
One of my big goals with Maverick is educate young and aspiring entrepreneurs so if you have an organization that can benefit from the 2-hours of education we provided – we will make it available to you. Please contact Tim Warren – tim@maverickbusinessadventures.com
After the young entrepreneurs session we headed out on a 4x4 adventure. We went up some pretty hairy roads with no guardrails (and some major drop offs) to get to the top of the one of Aspen’s best peaks. I think we were about 12,500 feet up – not sure – but the view was amazing except for 4 anonymous members who resembled Barney:
To cap off our successful adventure – we arranged dinner at the Aspen Mountain Club. It’s one of the most exclusive clubs in Aspen with a long waitlist to pay the $125k membership fee. You have to reserve the entire Gondola to the top of the mountain just to get there. Just the sunset from there was really unparalleled and worth the trip.
After dinner some of the members headed back while some of us ventured out to enjoy the Aspen nightlife. For a small town, I have to give Aspen credit. They have a good party scene and we closed out “FLY” there. I loved the décor of the place because it’s made to resemble an airplane with video screens for windows and the waitresses are all dressed as flight attendants.
For those of you who don’t want to miss the next Maverick Business Adventures® experiences – we’ve now got the remaining 2008 and full 2009 calendar on the site. Check it out. (There are some really cool trips coming up!)
Plus October 20, 2008 we’re running a “TASTE OF” Maverick with a 1-day driving formula cars track day along with business sessions.
I also have a ‘secret’ project I’ve been working on with the members from Maverick – that’ll be sharing some details with your soon. It’s for the people who don’t qualify (yet) for membership but love the idea behind making more, having more fun and giving back more!
Before I pack up for the next Maverick trip to Aspen - I wanted to give you guys something you could put to use immediately…
I’m going to share a bit of the information that I first taught at my $3,495.00/per person copywriting workshop. This subject is something I have not seen anyone tackle in full – so if you are interested in making your sales copywriting (or actually any writing) work harder for you – pay attention!
[Side note: I’m doing a more in-depth section on this in the latest Underground Secret Society issue. Next issue is coming off the press shortly and you can grab a free 1-month trial.]
You see, once most people learn about copywriting they can usually crank some pretty decent letters. I mean they get the gist of it right with a few formulas like “problem-agitate-solution” or “AIDA” or whatever.
But where the rubber really meets the road is something most people don’t want to think yet alone do – and that’s the copy editing part. I have a 9-step sequence I use to really hone, polish and sculpt my sales letters (and you’re going to get 8 of them right here). Fact is, most people’s rough drafts are quite similar but it’s in the editing that you see the difference between a blockbuster and ho-hum copy.
Before we get into the phases of editing – you need to have something worth editing. Many writers fail to let their creative brains loose because it’s always being stymied by the critical part. It’s that little voice in your head that says, “That’s dumb”, “Blah!” or “Nobody is going to care about that” etc.
I suggest you write fast and turn off your internal editor. Get it all out as soon as you can and then edit later. There are 2 different parts of your brain. You really cannot edit and write at the same time.
Now when we get to the editing phases – I focus on one particular part for each pass through and edit. You might want to highlight that because right there is one of the biggest secrets. It’s like when you buy a new car and all of a sudden you start seeing your make and model everywhere. The same number of Mini Coopers were on the road before – but now you have selective perception. Our brains are trained to seek out what we are hunting for and most people will do 1 ‘general’ edit. That’s not good enough.
Phase 1 Edit: Opening
Your opening is one of the most critical parts of your sales copy (after your headline). In readership studies it’s been shown that readership after 500 words will only fall off again at 5,000 words. So the key is getting people into a slippery slope and into those 500 words.
Most writers have a lot of ‘warm up’. Essentially getting ready to say what they want to say – you need to be ruthless and cut out the fluff. Many times when doing critiques I will literally ‘X’ out an entire first page (or 2) or initial paragraphs. This is an easy trick to making your writing more powerful is to see what you can cut from your original opening. Typically your lead-in will be further down the page.
Phase 2 Edit: Moving Pieces and Copy Blocks
The next thing I look at is if the copy blocks fit into a sequential process. Here, I’m looking for a logical and most persuasive order of the parts of my letter. If my audience is especially skeptical then I will move my ‘Authority’ and ‘Proof’ elements near the beginning. If I’m using a copy analogy or a story – is it positioned in the best spot to keep readers engaged?
I will read through the entire with one thought “Does this paragraph/section/copy block make sense where it is?”
Phase 3 Edit: Graphics, Embellishments & Look
The next thing I’m thinking about is the ‘look’ and ‘feel’ of my copy. As online copywriters we have a few items in our toolbox to choose from like
Bolding
yellow highlighter
shaded boxes
bullet points
check boxes
fake handwriting
embellishments
(I also will very sparingly use italics and underline if it’s an online letter.)
When looking for where I am going to put graphics and embellishments in – I am considering a few things. I look at each one as a spice and just like a top chef doesn’t want the spice to overpower the food – we don’t want the graphics and embellishments to overpower the copy. Just a pinch will do it. I use what I call my “Squinty test”.
I will print out each page and then hold it far enough beyond my face that I just squint to see it. I want to see a good amount of white space, different engaging elements (like bullets) and shaded boxes. But also I don’t want to see too much bolding or too much yellow highlighter.
Phase 4 Edit: Double Readership
I first learned this term and concept from Dan Kennedy and it’s especially useful online. As prospects hit your site – many are only going to skim what is there unless they are fully engaged. Essentially there are skimmers and readers. You want someone to be able to simply skim through the headline, subheads, boldings, yellow highlighter, embellishments, etc and be able to make a buying decision.
If they can do that – you’ve done your job.
Let’s look at one of my first million dollar products – Instant Sales Letters®. I’m going to only write out the headline and subheads here. Nothing else.
“In Only 2 ½ Minutes You Can Quickly and Easily Create A Sales Letter Guaranteed To Sell Your Product Or Service…Without Writing!”
Looking To Increase Your Business?
Just Fill In A Few Blanks And PRESTO…
You’ve Just Created A Powerful, Money-Making Sales Letter!
But Creating That Winning Sales Letter
Is The Hard Part…
“Instant Sales Letter Templates”
At Last! Every Sales Letter You Need
Is Already Written For You…
Now, No Matter What Product or Service
You Have To Sell -
You’ll Find A Sales Letter That’s
Already Written For You…
And You Too, Can Use This Secret To Make Yourself a Fortune!
Okay, Now I Hear You Grumbling:
“But I Can’t Write” or “I’m Not Creative”
Which Of These Fill-In-The-Blank, Sales Letter Templates Could You Use To Grow Your Business?
Okay, So What’s The Cost For This Incredible Resource?
4 FREE Bonuses For Ordering By Midnight Tonight
100% Risk-Free Guarantee:
You Really Can’t Afford Not To Invest In
These Instant Sales Letter Templates!
(Order now through our Secure Server, and get instant access!)
Click Here Now
This doesn’t include any bolding or yellow highlighter, etc to draw the eye in. Just from skimming these subheads – somebody could get the main idea and actually buy the product. Look at your copy from a skimmer’s viewpoint and see where you need to add more subheads or graphical embellishments to make the sale.
Phase 5 Edit: Bucket Brigade
This is where you smooth out and “stitch” everything together. Your copy’s readability (next edit) is directly part of the “bucket brigade” copy transitions. They are called bucket brigade because they keep moving the reader forward and through the copy. Use words and phrases like these:
• And that’s just the beginning…
• As you read on, I’ll tell you more about how…
• But before we go into that,…
• But better still…
• But don’t take my word for it…
• But I’m jumping ahead. Let me tell you how this all came about:
• Here’s more…
• Fact is,…
• Here’s the deal:
• Here’s the scary part:
• Listen, there’s more. Lots more.
• My strong hunch is…
• Needless to say,…
• What this all boils down to is..
• What’s more,…
• What’s the catch?
• Then it hit me…
• Wait, there’s more…
Anytime you can use a copy transition – it will help keep the reader sliding down the slippery slope we’re creating that ultimate ends in the sale. (I have compiled 226 I use that are part of my copywriting workshop material)
Phase 6 Edit: General Flow
I don’t know what it is about reading something aloud versus reading to yourself, but you’ll pick up lots and lots of insight into how good (or bad) your ad really is by reading it aloud. All the bumps and rough spots jump out at you.
Or a variation on this is to have someone else read it you. This is even better. As they’re reading it, you should take out a copy of the ad and make notes on it. One big advantage of this is your reader is completely impartial. He won’t stress certain phrases or words to make the meaning clearer. And if the reader is having trouble you know that’s an area to edit.
Also, at this editing phase I like to see if I can change some of the “I”, “We” or “Me”s to “You’s” and make most of the sentences geared to the readers benefit. i.e.
“We are giving you 6 must-have bonuses” to “You’ll get 6 must-have bonuses”.
Much stronger that way. A simple start of a sentence you cannot over-use is “You get…”
Phase 7 Edit: Sleep On It
First, you should let your ad sit for at least a day. Then the next day you can come back to it with new eyes and a fresher perspective. You can find errors that weren’t apparent before. Also, your chances of writing a good ad are significantly improved with rewriting. (I will rewrite an ad or letter 3, 4 or 5 times before I’m done.)
If you do not have the luxury of an extra day – even a few hours will help to give you a new perspective on the writing.
Phase 8 Edit: Grammar and Spelling Edit
This is my final pass through and I will typically have someone else who is much better at grammar and English look at my work. Not I definitely take this with a grain of salt because a copywriter’s grammar is usually not proper English but I don’t want to look like a total dunce when I confuse ‘their’ and ‘there’.
Now I know most people will not go through all 9 8 copy editing phases – but I promise it will dramatically improve the power of your writing!
***
Note: If you really want to get serious about copywriting – our Ultimate At-Home Internet Copywriting Workshop is a must-have resource. Over 1579 pages of swipe files, formulas, etc. Plus an entire manual with actual examples of copy I’ve critiqued and gone through the 9 phases of copy editing. I strongly suggest this resource! (Yes, I left one out in this blog post because it involves my proprietary 68-point copy checklist.)
Well, if you ask most people – those words above are associated with people in business.
Plus you can throw in a few more choice ones like “greedy”, “rip-off”, “crooks”, etc. Or some well-worn phrases easily slip off the tongue like “Filthy Rich” and “Money is the root of all evil”.
Throughout history, in the media or just day-to-day interaction entrepreneurs and business owners have been negatively portrayed?
In fact, just today in the car with my Father-in-law he mentioned a company with a multi-billion dollar 1st quarter earning and how ’sickening’ it was. Like it should be criminal to earn that kind of profit or something immoral was done to get it.
Why?
Maybe it’s because we haven’t quite had the words or perhaps a big enough reason to defend ourselves?
A few months ago, while at Necker Island, one of guests there, Jon Butcher, showed a video to everyone there during our Virgin Unite brainstorming session. We didn’t know what to expect but we politely obliged.
After it was done, it seemed to have a tremendous impact on everyone there including Sir Richard Branson. You see, Jon had taken a lot of our thoughts on entrepreneurship, value creation and even the morality of capitalism that were swimming around in our heads, and finally expressed it. Yes, in our hearts, as entrepreneurs, we seem to instinctively realize as “producers” we provide incredible value – but have never stopped to put it together in this way.
The original video was pretty rough around the edges and after our reaction at Necker Jon went back to his house to polish it up. I believe it’s only been seen a few dozen people so far and I told Jon it’s time for the message to be heard by tens of thousands of entrepreneurs. I posted it below so you can view it. I must warn you it’s a bit long - 15 minutes and 10 seconds. But the points raised are incredibly important because the stakes (as Jon will explain) are high.
Check it out and leave a comment – would love to hear your thoughts.
Note: Jon is the founder of ‘My Lifebook’. It’s a new innovative life development company to help you create your own dream life. I have not had a chance to go to Chicago yet to experience - but I will be soon.
* Update: Some people are having trouble with the video - I’m asking Jon to upload to YouTube also. *
Additionally, as I was thinking about this topic I also came across the transcript of “Francisco’s Money Speech” from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shurgged” (one of my all-time most influential books). I think it’s especially pertinent.
“…If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose–because it contains all the others–the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to make money.’ No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity–to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words ‘to make money’ hold the essence of human morality. Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters’ continents…”
Last weekend, I embarked on one of my craziest adventures yet. A HALO skydive (High-Altitude Low-Opening). It’s on my BIG Life List and that’s another big checkmark. Plus, we were able to (with your help) raise over $32,000.00 for the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in South Africa. (Side note: I believe you can still donate if you have not yet.)
I’m still waiting on the video but as soon as that’s ready – I’ll post it up here. I figured, I’d give you the recap and a few pics in the meantime.
My buddy and co-author for “Moonlighting on the Internet”, Rob Olic, and Maverick Business Adventures™ founding member, Mike Filsaime, were the only guys brave enough (or stupid enough) to come with me down to Mississippi. I’m now the 40th civilian to have done a tandem HALO skydive (Filsaime is #41 and Rob is #42).
Just a quick background on HALO skydives – they were designed during the 60’s as a military maneuver to insert troops behind enemy lines undetected. That’s because the paratroopers jump from 30,000 feet (the cruising altitude of a commercial jet) so on radar everything looks normal. What’s more, the temperature up at 30,000 feet is about 25 degrees below zero (so damn frickin cold!) and you have to wear a full oxygen mask for two reasons.
1) Because at that altitude you’ll remain conscious about 30 seconds without oxygen
2) You need to pre-breathe pure oxygen for about 40 minutes to purge all the nitrogen out of your system to avoid getting the ‘bends’.
Good stuff, right?
Needless to say the week leading up to my jump, Missy, was freaking out a bit. Rationally, skydiving isn’t really riskier than the other stuff I’ve done – but emotionally it gets a lot of people worked up. After checking on our life insurance and talking to the jumpmaster I got a green light.
So the 3 of us arrived on Friday night in New Orleans to hang out with a few friends, eat some good food and take in some local music. Our local guides, Chris Daigle and Chad Mac, did not disappoint. Dinner was awesome and I had frog legs and pork belly. And for dessert a little green tomato pie. I know it sounds a bit freaky – but it was awesome. Afterwards we headed to the House of Blues to check out the Radiators. That just wasn’t our scene. The band didn’t seem to have much energy that night. So we went to plan B and checked out a local group called “Soul Rebel”.
This was like a 180-shift – the place was rockin’. What a live performance! You can check out some of their music here - I believe the genre is something called “Brass Funk” – but it’s really eclectic. They’ve got a bunch of brass instruments and then combined with jazz, reggae, hip-hop, etc.
We didn’t have a late night (unfortunately) because we were all trying not to have more than a few drinks for our big jump on Sunday. So we crashed out early (for New Orleans standards anyway) at 2 AM. The next morning we packed up and headed East for Lumberton, MS. (I believe the population is like 400 people – so insert your own joke here.)
That’s where we met up with the team responsible for keeping us alive. Most of them were ex-military and the whole deal certainly had an air of a military operation to me. As we were hanging out on the ‘compound’, I hear a man walk up and start asking, “Mike Filsaime?….Yanik Silver? I thought that was you guys!”
Pretty funny. Michael Worthington lives there and his daughter runs the snack bar at the skydive center. He’s a customer of both of us – makes you realize how wide the Internet Marketing really is now. Michael and his wife, Pauline, were great and took good care of us.
A little side note along the same lines – last May in Vegas for the Zero-G Maverick adventure, we got picked up by our limo driver and his jaw just about dropped when Brad Fallon, Mike Filsaime and I walked out of the hotel. He told us he had a StomperNet CD in his limo right now and was a huge fan and customer of each of us. In fact, he said he had driven people Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, etc and was most excited to have us in his car.
Onward…
We spent the rest of day getting fitted for our equipment consisting of a flight suit, oxygen mask, helmet, goggles, gloves, oxygen bail out canister and communication system. Pretty hard core stuff. Then we got trained on what to expect while up there, hand signals, how to switch from the onboard O2 regulator to our portable bail out canisters, how to jump out of the plane, etc. Phew!
We finished up around 5pm and decided to check out the latest Batman flick “Dark Knight”. Wow! I think it’ll land in my top-10 for movies for sure. I really loved it and without being too morbid, Heath Ledger’s performance, as the Joker, just stole the show. I heard a lot of reviews of the movie and this lived up to the hype and then some. We all hit the sack early because we had to be up by 5:45 AM to head to the airport.
I had no trouble sleeping and I guess Mike didn’t either because we had to bang on Filsaime’s door to wake him up! After a quick muffin – we drove out to the airfield with just a tiny bit of trepidation building in all of us. For me, the day before when I was being fitted for my Oxygen mask – I felt just a slight hint of claustrophobia. About 15 years ago when I went scuba diving for the first time, I felt that same way and slightly panicked. I was concerned I couldn’t just bounce up to the top of the surface without doing some damage to myself – but I put that fear aside and started getting geared up.
We were sitting pretty tight, shoulder-to-shoulder. I couldn’t see Rob but I could see Filsaime who was a bit across from me (he’s the first guy on the left in the pic below) . The only person you can talk to is your tandem instructor because you are hooked into your comm unit with them.
With everyone else, you can only make hand signals and gestures. Mine were off the one-fingered variety at Mike and they taught us in training you are supposed to respond in kind to make sure you brain is working and you aren’t suffering from hypoxia.
I could watch my tandem partner, Ben’s altimeter rising and at about 7,000 feet I started to feel like I couldn’t take another 30 minutes to get to altitude. But I relaxed and just focused on my breathing – which isn’t that reassuring because you sound like Darth Vader – and that’s the only thing you hear in your head.
I kept watching the altimeter….
10,500….14,750….21,800….28,500…then the action started!
We had to switch off from the bigger Oxygen compressor inside the plane and move onto our portable bail out canisters. And then 30 second later – Ben and I started moving towards the door. Mind you, I had a view of the door – the entire way up so I could see just how far up 28,500 feet is (Unfortunately the FAA is not letting them jump above 29,000 ft anymore).
I faced the door and waited for Ben to hook me into the tandem harness – while prayeing that these 4 little clips would hold us together. But I didn’t have too much time to consider that because the door opened and we rocked back and forth twice and hurled ourselves out!
Mike later told me that’s when he started freaking out a little because it was like a James Bond movie. One second I was in the plane with him and the next second I was a half mile away very much out of the plane!
That first feeling is unreal because your body and mind are trying to come to grips with what just happened. But then I settled into a calm freefall. (I guess calm is relative since I believe we were traveling at 200mph – but it felt calm anyway.) Here I am in freefall:
On the way down you are supposed to equalize the pressure in your ears – but I couldn’t find the right spot on my nose piece to hold my nose shut so my ears killed. They got better as we kept falling. It was really interesting to start off in a freezing cold section of the atmosphere above the clouds and then we literally fell through a line that took us from cold to very warm. Here’s a view of us from above where you can see the ground:
Overall, we had 2 minutes and 15 seconds of freefall (more than double the normal skydive) but it felt like 30 seconds to me. I couldn’t believe it when I felt the upward jolt from the parachute opening up. We fell from 28,500 ft and opened up at 5,000 ft. I could relax and take in the scenery as we came down for a landing at the dropzone.
After the 3 of us landed we had a quick exit interview with NBC. (You can see my hair looks all screwy.) Of course, after high-fiving Mike and Rob – I quickly gave Missy a phone call to tell her I was alive and well!
After hanging out for a bit – we headed back to New Orleans for a little Cajun celebration and the beer definitely tasted a little better than ever going down!
