Here’s an article I wrote a few years ago - I think the lessons here about freedom and independence are still incredibly timely so I’m reprinting it.

And in other exciting news - it’s Zoe 1st Birthday on Sunday so we’re getting ready around here for a crazy horde of hopped-up-on-too-much-sugar-kids to swarm our house! Wish me luck! (BTW - I’m thinking we’re going to do a sale on her actual birthday for a day or two - so keep your eyes peeled if I decide to.)

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July 4th for Americans is a chance to celebrate our independence. Trust me, I’m not going to get on a soapbox and start waving the flag - but I do think it’s important no matter what country you live in to really think about that word “independence” and its meaning for you.

My father reminded me that July 3, 1976 was his “Independence day” since that’s the date my family came over to the United States from Russia. (Pretty cool since it was right before the bi-centennial celebration.)

For me, my independence day was on July 1, 1999.

That’s the date I left my father’s business to work on my own. It was by far one of the hardest decisions of my life. You see, I had worked for my dad since I was 12 and he thought I was going to take over the company. I had that same thought as well until I got the “bug”. In fact, my wife, Missy, and I were talking about this recently. She was talking about how when she met me 11 years ago, I had only one thought: “how to grow my father’s business”. I would stay late working on new ads and marketing pieces. I was in early calling my accounts trying to make sales, etc. etc.

Now I had been studying direct marketing, and results were really paying off for my dad’s business. (Actually they still use a lot of the ads I wrote in 1998 because they still work today.) But with every ad I wrote I was getting more and more aggravated. Not because the ads weren’t producing sales - they were - but because of the grief and politics I had to deal with. Everybody seemed to be an advertising expert even though they’ve never studied or read anything on the subject. People mistakenly believe that if they wouldn’t “read all that copy” then nobody will. Or if the ad is “ugly” and has no pictures or pretty graphics it won’t work.

Complete and total crap.

For every ad I wrote I had to fight to get it out there. I got sick of it and decided I would create my own product so I could write ads for myself. My first product was to help dermatologists who wanted new cosmetic patients. It was a big kit (manual, tapes, reports, diskette, etc) based around some marketing consulting I was doing on the side for some of my customers.

I ran my first ad in April 1998 in Dermatologic Surgery magazine. I got 10 responses so I sent them the 20-page sales letter I’d written selling this $900 kit. Not one order.

I waited…

Sent out a 2nd notice to those 10 respondents.

Nothing…

Then I sent a 3rd notice telling them the expiration date to get all the free bonuses was only 10 days away. Finally on the very last day of the expiration date I got one order over the fax machine.

Yipeee!!

I still remember that doctor’s name in Flushing, NY. What an incredible feeling. That was the start of my independence. I realized I now had the power to chart my course as I wanted. That first sale. That’s one of the greatest feelings in the world - when something you’ve created is sold. It took me a little over a year after that first order to realize I wanted my freedom and I finally quit on July 1, 1999. Maybe it’s the new confidence you get when you realize you’ve created something that people want and are willing to exchange money for. That first sale is usually the hardest (but also the most rewarding).

It’s wonderful when I help turn on that light in people. I’ve seen it first-hand working my Apprentices and seeing them launch their products. How amazed they are by the
money pouring from around the globe. I love it!

So when will your independence day be?

If you’ve already achieved it - I bet you can remember it perfectly. Sometimes the bleakest times that we believe are terrible actually turn into a perfect opportunity.

Take my good friend, Jim Edwards, for example. His independence day came because he got fired. To him that wasn’t a blessing at first but as he looks back on it - it’s the best thing that ever happened.

I remember the conversation we had right after it happened. I was drinking a Maker’s Mark & Ginger and Jim was having a beer. We were talking about different projects he could try and pursue and do now. We were throwing around some ideas and we came up with “33 Days to Online Profits“. It was right there during that call that we outlined each of the days and moved forward from there. And “33 Days” has been a tremendous six-figure income earner for both of us and it hasn’t stopped yet.

So what can you do to achieve your independence?

I’ll give you a couple things to take to heart. I can’t remember the author who said this but he said, “If you show me what a man does in his spare time I’ll show you the type
of man he’ll become.” What are doing with your spare time?

- Watching TV or reading?

- Napping or practicing your copywriting?

- Yakking to your friends or studying direct marketing?

It all comes down to the choices we make every single day.

In fact, you shouldn’t let one day go by without making sure you are taking at least one proactive step towards your own independence. Just because the thought of you doing what you want when you want may seem so far away - don’t let that stop you from taking those baby steps each and every day. That’s one of my rules and I hope you’ll
adopt it.

What else?

Learn to be different. The truth is you need to become extraordinary to achieve extraordinary results. You can’t be like everyone else (and why would you want to). That means doing the things other don’t (or won’t) do. That also means NOT listening to their advice (unless they are doing what you want to do). Frankly, if you simply did the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing you’d turn out okay.

Why? If only 5% of people are truly successful and the 95% are the mediocre majority - doesn’t that mean the majority is wrong? Don’t engage in their thinking. Don’t follow their lead. Don’t adhere to the same values and standards the “95-percenters” do.

Two people who really helped me clarify my thinking on this was Earl Nightingale and also Dan Kennedy.

Please don’t get me wrong - in no way am I trying to be elitist. I’m not. But it is tremendously important to go through your day with your eyes wide open. The truth is most of your friends (right now) probably don’t want you to change and succeed. That would imply that they are losers. That would mean they are failures. Nobody is going to propel you to succeed except yourself.

So get on it and proclaim your own Independence Day starting, as Neil Diamond sings, “T-O-D-A-Y!”

*

Quick side note: My buddy, John Reese, just released some very cool videos for his upcoming Traffic Secrets 2.0 release. Check it out - he’s giving up some good info to expand your thinking about generating traffic to your sites. It’s yours without jumping through hoops or giving up your email.

Have a great 4th of July!

Two days ago Missy woke up with her stomach in knots because she had to call our maid, M., to fire her. M. had been cleaning our house for the last few years but she’s been getting progressively worse. She went on vacation for 2 weeks and we started using Missy’s sister’s maid and they’ve been way more thorough. So now it was time to let M. go but Missy had been procrastinating about it.

She’s been putting this off for nearly 2 weeks now and it got me thinking about our ‘tough’ decisions. Like most everyone else I too have struggled with making the kind of decisions that leave us feeling uncomfortable.

It’s easier to keep putting them off but that doesn’t do any good.

I know any time I’ve had a decision weighing on me it’s something that keeps nagging at me and leaves me feeling uneasy. But when I finally make the hard call or have the difficult it’s never really as bad as I had worked it up to be. In fact, I’ve found the longer you ruminate on it the worse it gets.

Thinking back here are a few vivid examples that spring to mind…

Buying Our First Place…
When Missy and I were engaged we lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Bethesda, MD. It’s a great place because you can walk everywhere and there are towns of restaurants and quaint shops. (In fact, I tell visitors that Bethesda has the most restaurants per square foot of any city. I’m not 100% sure that’s an accurate fact but I think it’s true and it sounds good.)

Anyway, the two of us really loved it there but wanted some place bigger. Plus, this was the time when my online business first started taking off. So we went searching for a place in Bethesda – but everything was pretty over-priced (or we thought it was anyway). But we found a nice 2-bedroom apartment in our building but it faced the opposite side from where we lived at the time. It overlooked NIH (National Institute of Health) and the view was nothing special. What’s more, the sun hit that side in the morning instead of the afternoon like our other place we were currently renting.

Regardless, we wanted to buy our own place and decided within a few days to buy the place. Then it started…

We both should have been really excited but we weren’t. Come to think of it we were sort of depressed the next day. What had we done?

Missy ended up calling up one of her sorority friends, Gina, who was an attorney to see what we could do to get out of the contract. I can’t remember the exact specifics on number of days but it was something like 3 days you could rescind the contract with a written notification. We had a letter drafted and delivered it our real estate agent (who also lived in our building) at the 11th hour. But it was done and we didn’t have to go through with buying the apartment. Ahhhh…..Joy & relief took hold again.

The big lesson for me here was we didn’t listen to our gut feeling about it not feeling right. I know that sounds wishy-washy and woo-woo – but I don’t think enough people (especially men) pay attention to their gut. 2 interesting follow-ups on this:

1) My best friend, John, did buy an apartment in our building too. His faced the side of the street we liked and he ended up making a tidy profit when he sold a few years later.

2) When we bought our first house – the gut feeling was right and Missy instantly knew she was in the right spot. (Same with our current place.)

Breaking Away from My Dad’s Business…
Definitely one of the biggest decisions gnawing at me for awhile was whether or not to leave my Father’s medical equipment sales & service business. Originally when I started working with him (since I was 14 selling latex gloves) and thought that I would work in it to really grow it. But I started getting the ‘itch’ to go on my own in 1998.

That’s when I started experimenting with the information marketing business selling to doctors resources and tools on how to get more cosmetic patients. I remember the very first ad I ran - it was a little classified ad in Dermatologic Surgery Journal. I ended up getting exactly 10 leads. Now I didn’t have my course ready but I had a 30-page sales letter to mail out. I sent it to all 10 leads and waited…and waited…and waited.

Nothing.

Every time the fax machine rang at my Dad’s office I’d go up there to see if it was an order. (I was using his fax # on my order page to save money.) It was like some sort of Pavlovian conditioning where I’d hear the dial tones and start running – but to no avail.

I sent out a 2nd notice and still nothing. Finally, I mailed out a 3rd notice highlighting the approaching deadline for all the bonuses (I had yet to create). On the final day of the deadline – I went up to the fax machine to watch it slooooooooowly print out my very first order for $900! It was awesome! I can still remember that feeling. After I peeled myself off the ceiling – I realized I had to create the product and bonuses that were only an outline. I wrote a letter back to my first customer telling him the material was going to be republished and would be available in 30 days – and that we would not charge his card until then.

And that was the start of my little info marketing empire.

My Dad was pretty flexible and let me continue using his office as my home base. I would seriously answer my cell phone under my desk when it rang with customers to talk to them or take orders. It got to the point where I was literally counting the minutes until 5pm so I could work on my own stuff. And then my Dad let me start taking Fridays off so I could work on my own projects.

The idea that I was somehow ‘betraying’ him and the family business was eating me up. I knew my heart wasn’t into his business anymore and I finally decided I had to break away. My Dad wanted me to grow his business and work with him side-by-side. I decided I couldn’t continue living my life under the expectations of someone else. I had to do what was right for me. And it was actually nearly 9 years ago to the day that I left the company – July 1, 1999.

It was bittersweet as they had a small going away party for me but I knew it was the right decision. Looking back, it’s was by far the best decision I ever made for my financial future. My Dad was worried that I might fail – but that’s okay too. Part of independence is getting your nose bloodied a little in the real-world.

Attending My First Seminar…
While studying and applying the direct marketing methods I began learning – I got sent an invitation to attend a high-priced copywriting seminar put on by Dan Kennedy. This was back in October 1998 I almost passed up an opportunity that I would later realize was the turning point in my business (and bank account).

My fledging information marketing business to doctors might have been pulling in maybe $2,000 or $3000/mo – so no great shakes. I was really hesitant and unsure about spending several thousand dollars and missing several days of work (both of which I couldn’t really afford) to head out to Phoenix to attend this seminar.

I asked my Dad about it and he was making fun of me and telling me I shouldn’t go. He would chide me (in his thick Russian accent) “Mr. Yanik, why do you want to throw away your money. If you have so much of it I can help you get rid of it. Don’t you already have enough of these books and tapes?”

But I bit the bullet and decided to go.

Frankly, if I had listened to him I know I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today. I can directly attribute that single event to the moment when several things all ‘clicked’ for me and I “got it”. I discovered the power of how to use words and turn them into cash windfalls. Of course nobody ever looks back on an opportunity they DIDN’T take and remembers that as the turning point in their lives. [Side note: Speaking of seminars and missing out on opportunities – there is a limited window to pick-up the Underground® 4 DVD & CD recordings. They go back into the vault on July 1, 2008.]

Personally, I’ve found that people regret the things you don’t do much more than you things they do. And that’s exactly how I want to live my life – not thinking of ‘shoulda’, ‘coulda’ or ‘woulda’s.

In fact, I believe most of what we consider tough decisions are really illusions that we’ve built up in our own heads. (btw – if you haven’t read the book Illusions by Richard Bach – get it!) Most of the really tough decisions are a whole lot easier once we reach that decision – it’s simply the wavering, the gestating, the thinking, the unease that comes from being in limbo that really hurts. But once the decision is done – there this wave of calm and tranquility that sweeps over me.

With that in mind – here are 5 things you can try when you are faced with a tough decision:

1) Think about what’s the worst case scenario – What is the worst possible thing that can happen if I make the wrong decision? With going off on my own – I had those wild thoughts of my Father disowning me. He might have been disappointed but he didn’t flip out.

2) Listen to your gut – this is huge! Don’t try to rationalize your way out of decision making – you’ve got incredible wisdom stored inside you that is willing to help if you allow it.

3) Create a deadline for a decision – if you give yourself an indefinite amount of time to decide on a course of action you’ll drive yourself crazy. Think of yourself as a high powered CEO of your own life who MUST make decisions quickly. Even if they are wrong 49% of the time – you’ll be ok more often than not.

4) Visualize your ideal outcome – anytime I have a real nagging dilemma or something I’m worried about I use my friend, John Harricharan’s, “Power Pause” exercise. You take 3 minutes (1 minute for each part) to think about #1 - What you want to happen. #2 – How you feel when this happens. #3 – What you are grateful for in your life.

5) Band-aid solution– you know how it sucks to pull off band aids (especially for us hairier people)? Well the secret is just pull it off quickly! Nothing is worse than paralysis by analysis. You’ll never have ALL the information you need. Get what you can – and do the best you can. Then move on.

And bonus decision making tip - flip a coin. That’s how I decided to propose to Missy. Seriously (shhh….don’t tell her)

Actually getting back to Missy. She couldn’t get a hold of M. so she came to clean our house as usual on Tuesday. Missy told her in-person that we weren’t going to use her anymore and M. seemed relieved. It seems that there were some other clients she wanted to work for but couldn’t because she was at our house on Tuesdays. There you go – all that angst and gut-wrenching turmoil could have been avoided.

Do you have a decision making technique you use that helps?
Or how have you made it through tough decisions in your life? If you’re comfortable leaving a comment on that - it’d be great to hear that…

Just a quick note today before I head out to play hockey.

3 big events in the Silver household.

#1 - Probably the biggest one is Zak went poop on the potty today for the first time. Yes, that tops the list by far. He’s been peeing for a few days but he would only go in a diaper before this. We all jumped around like crazy people and applauded. Here’s a quick snapshot of him triumphant in the bathroom with his victory lollipop:

#2 - We had a front page story come out about Maverick Business Adventures on Conde Naste’s Portfolio.com site. Here we are:

This was from our last Las Vegas trip. There were a couple little points in the article that weren’t quite correct (like us being a guy’s club - we’re not) or all Internet entrepreneurs (we got $100M manufacturing companies in there as members). But overall - I think it turned out well. (Check out Brad Fallon in the picture - the angle makes him look a little Neanderthal-like.)

If you were interested in attending a Maverick experience - the next one (with female members coming) is Aug. 13 -17, 2008 in Aspen. We only got 5 spots left! We’re doing Whitewater rafting, rock climbing, mountain biking and a 4×4 excursion.

#3 - We launched the new Underground 4 DVDs & CDs today. They are going back into the vault on July 1st (or sooner once all 500 sets are sold-out). If you missed out attending live this is the next best thing! I had a bunch of attendees make it a point to come up and tell me it was the best Underground event yet. (And that’s definitely saying a lot considering who we’ve brought it before.) I guess it makes sense since added together the grand total our speakers sell each year totals nearly $1B (yes, One Billion!) online. The last one was definitely our biggest and baddest one yet. There were about 328 sets last time I checked earlier.

So all in all a busy little day over here. We got our Spring league playoff hockey game for the Chiefs tonight and I’m in charge of buying beer so I need to scoot.

As promised, I’ll share with you how I got kicked off Necker Island.

But first to get you up to speed on my adventures - we’ll talk about Las Vegas first. That was for our last Maverick Business Adventures™ experience – what we called “Airborne Action” since everything took place in the air. It was a whirlwind of experiences from the quintessential Vegas nightlife to real work getting done to a ton of fun and celebrity guests.

After the first day’s work sessions we hung out for dinner & drinks with Peter Diamandis, founder of the X-Prize foundation and Rick Searfoss, former NASA astronaut. Rick gave us a little glimpse into what we’d be experiencing the next day during our Zero-Gravity flight.

It didn’t quite turn out that way and I’ll tell you about that in a second. But first, the next morning was jumpstarted by a guest presentation by Peter Diamandis on innovation. Peter’s X-Prize Foundation was the $10M prize established for a ship that could go into space successfully 2 times in 2 weeks. Burt Rutan’s SpaceShip One did that in 2004 and then Virgin licensed their technology. No doubt, Peter is truly a visionary and largely responsible as the driving force for the private space industry coming into play today. (As you guys know already, I’m #144 on Virgin Galactic and that’s a direct result of the X Prize.)

The X-Prize has now grown to have prizes in all sorts of competitions from the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics to the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE and beyond.

He even gave us insights into how he’s getting an entire new sport started with his Rocket Racing League. (Look it up – it’s very cool!) Most of the comments Maverick members had were around thinking bigger and Peter gave us permission to do so.

After Peter’s session we all headed out to the Zero-G training facilities to meet Tony Hawk. (Yep, the skateboarding and sports business icon.) Tony shared with us his secrets to success and how he’s built a $500M brand around skateboarding starting from scratch. We also auctioned off 4 autographed decks to support his Tony Hawk Foundation and raised over $10,000.00 in 5 minutes from members, Tim Storm, Mike Filsaime, Jason Abernathy and Buck Rizvi.

After that we all boarded up the bus to head over to our airplane for Zero-G. We literally pulled up to the plane and I heard some of the Zero-G staff cell phones going off. Not good. They pulled me aside to tell me there was a part on the emergency slide that was broken and we weren’t allowed to take off. They weren’t even sure if the part would be here tomorrow or if we could get up in the air the next day. Yikes!

Dejected we got out of our flight suits and made a quick detour to private cabanas at MGM’s newest pool-side party ‘Wet Republic’. (Now as a side note – this is a great marketing example of increasing the transaction value from customers. Vegas was already known for its nightlife and now they are adding consumption during the day with it’s ‘daylife’. It started with “Rehab” at the Hard Rock’s pool on Sunday but now a whole lot of other resorts have got into it from Venetian’s TAO Beach to Mandalay to this newest one, Wet Republic. It’s a total dance club party atmosphere just with a whole lot more sunshine instead of dim lights.

Customers are stepping up for bottle service and private cabanas during the day which translates into new revenues from a previously down time. It’s just like the popular Orange Juice campaign trying to increase consumption by saying Orange Juice wasn’t just for breakfast anymore. Good marketing lesson to consider how you can increase the consumption of your customers.)

Okay back to our plight…

The Zero-G crew worked tirelessly to find us that part and were able to reschedule for the next afternoon. So we headed to dinner that night and then to our private poker party. You can see me at the final table doing my best impression of Phil Laak, poker’s ‘unabomber’.

Trust me, I don’t play poker but I actually did pretty well and got 6th place. Sitting to my left was Kascper Postawski looking amused at my antics. Kacper was the guy who knocked me out with a total bluff and won on the River. I guess I shouldn’t feel that bad since he ended up winning the tourney and later told us he used to play cards semi-professionally.

The next morning we hit Air Combat where each person got to take the controls of their plane and become a jetfighter for a day. Here’s Maverick Member and Elite MasterMind member, Craig Ballantyne on the wing of his plane.

I was up against Mike Geary and he ended up taking me 3-2 because I hit the hard deck and self destructed. Flying was very cool since these planes had such maneuverability and you could pull about 4Gs if you were really pushing it hard. I guess I can feel a little better about being knocked out of the tournament because Kacper ended up hurling inside the plane from the G-forces. Not that I thought that was funny or anything.

Straight from AirCombat we gathered back at Zero-G for Zero Gravity flight. This time we took off without a hitch. Here’s a cool shot of me with my Voodoo PC laptop. (Maybe this will one of my new PR shots.)

Here’s Eben Pagan without his trademark pink shirt - having a good time in Zero-G. (There’s something about this activity that really turns people into little kids again!)

Speaking of little kids - there were 3 of us, Chris Zavadowski, Mike Filsaime and myself, who had already done the Zero-G flight. You’ve probably seen astronauts do the tricks in zero-gravity with water as they float around and gulp it down. Well Zero-G provides you with little water bottles to try that yourself. As you might have guessed it got out of control pretty quickly.

Chris took his entire bottle and simply flung it on me. It was one long stream of water suspended in mid-air until we returned to normal gravity. Of course, I had to get revenge and told our in-air coach, Loretta, I needed several bottles of water. It turned into an all-out water fight with us sitting in huge puddles. Loretta told us she’d never seen the plane this wet except for one other time. And that was for a 7-UP commercial where they planned on getting that wet.

Here’s Chris before he decided to turn into a 6-year old.

And here’s after (a bit drenched):

Then here’s us being scolded by Loretta:

To put on a full Vegas experience, I bought everyone Elvis wigs and sunglasses so here are a few of the members rocking their new look (we had nearly everyone ready with their wigs and glasses until our Zero-G flight got canceled the first day so these are the hard-core flying elvises):

We had a pretty jam-packed schedule since we had to move Zero-G to the afternoon and we headed out to a surprise Scotch tasting dinner with Steve Beal, one of only 7 ‘Masters of Scotch’ in the world.

Mavericks were treated to a full flight of Scotch starting from Johnny Walker Black to one of their rarest, Johnny Walker Blue label. I’ve never had an entire dinner consisting of Scotch so it was a real eye-opening experience. And then to cap off the dinner – every member was given a personally engraved bottle of Johnny Walker Blue in a silk-lined presentation box.

But we weren’t done after dinner since it was Vegas after all…I gathered up a group of about a dozen of us and headed to TAO in the Venetian for our private VIP table. It turned into a real crazy night with me getting home about 6 AM and just in time for 15 minutes of sleep before getting onto the helicopters into the Grand Canyon.

In all the times I’ve been to Vegas – I’ve never made it out into the Grand Canyon so this was very cool. We took Maverick Helicopters (no relation yet) and they are the only helicopter company authorized to fly deeper and further into the Grand Canyon than any other company. And just like in one of the best scenes from “Apocalypse Now” – there was a song track of “The Ride Of The Valkyries playing in the helicopter. (Just no attack formation.)

I took the red-eye home and flew on Virgin America for the first time. They rocked! First Class was pretty cheap – something like $500 and really a lot nicer than our domestic airlines. They just do smart things like actually asking customers what they don’t like about air travel. VA has plugs in the seats so you can plus in your electrical crap like laptops the whole trip. I mean this isn’t rocket science but it makes a big difference. They also will bring out your food whenever you want – not when it’s convenient for them. The whole atmosphere is cool like any Virgin Atlantic, which I’ve flown before. And the reason I bring Virgin up (aside from the marketing lesson of actually listening to customers) is because it leads into my next trip…Necker Island.

Okay now the part about Necker for those of you waiting…

After returning home for about 36 hours I was off to the British Virgin Islands. One of the big things I wanted to try on Necker was kiteboarding. It takes about 3-4 lessons before you can get out of the water. I skipped a few meetings to make sure I could get some good time in to learn.

I can see why people would get hooked on it. Charlie, my instructor, told me he taught Larry Page, from Google had to kiteboard on Necker. And now he’s big time into it. Unfortunately, my big kiteboarding expedition was slightly a bust. By the time I moved into the water for my lesson on getting up – the wind pretty much died down. And then for the next 2 days we didn’t have enough wind to go out. Oh well, now I have a big reason to return.

The place is absolutely gorgeous and I can understand why Branson lives there year-round now. The story of how he bought the place for £180,000 is a great lesson in negotiation and tenacity. It’s in his “Losing My Virginity” book and worth checking out. Plus, once he bought it – he had to develop it within 5 years or else ownership went back to the government. So this become a reason for him to work hard on Virgin Records to make more money. And as the Rolling Stones or Janet Jackson had a hit – he’d build a new piece of the island.

Here are a few pictures showing some of the different looks to the island (click to enlarge):

Here’s some video from the island showing how we got served sushi in the pool. That was awesome! You literally jumped into the pool to have sushi with this huge boat of fish floating around. Very cool!

I was excited that Richard hung out with us for many lunches and dinners. In fact, one day at lunch he told me to get a 4-hand massage at the spa and I wasn’t disappointed. The 4-hand massage is a massage with both the masseuses at the same time.

Getting Kicked Off Necker…

One of the stand-out moments of the trip had to be getting a letter handed to me at dinner my final night by the staff. I asked, “Is this my bill?”

“No,” she replied, “You get those in the morning”. Hmmmm….

Here’s the note I got:

I thought it was a joke. The night before we had found the guest room roster and room list and called Joe Polish, Dean and a bunch of other people at 1 or 2 AM to tell them to come back to the bar and drink. Then we sorta ‘updated’ their food preferences inside the kitchen but otherwise we didn’t do anything *that* crazy.

Joe grabbed the letter and then gave to Branson. Richard said, “Well…the manager is a bit serious sometimes but I’ll see what I can do to sort it out. Don’t you worry. Just enjoy your dinner.”

And just for that moment I gulped and thought it might be true until Richard blurted out it was a joke 30 seconds later. Here’s a photo we took depicted me being kicked off the island.

I don’t think I can quite express how awesome the entire experience was. On my final day we had a chance to brainstorm with the head of Virgin Unite about how to get more entrepreneurs involved in their charitable efforts. I have a call with them this week so I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about this. Plus, I’m looking into how we can get involved with the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in Africa. It’s really exciting stuff but I’m glad to be home for a few weeks to chill out with the family.

As some of you know I was just in Necker Island, Sir Richard Branson’s private island. I came as a guest of my friends, Joe Polish and Dean Graziosi.

They had developed a relationship with Richard and set up for us to hold a brainstorming session with Virgin’s charity foundation – VirginUnite. Branson has always been one of my business heroes from the way he lives his life to the fullest to his business success. I’ve been fortunate to have the chance to meet many of my mentors/heroes and most of them left me feeling uninspired. With Branson – it’s the opposite. I’m even more impressed and inspired.

I met Richard for a few moments at SpaceShip Two’s unveiling but this was exponentially different. Being with him and about a dozen other guests created a cool, intimate environment for real conversation and interaction. Here’s a quick pic of us at the first night’s dinner BBQ on the beach:

And here’s my view every morning on Necker:

I’ll be sharing some more pictures, videos, observations and insights shortly. (A little teaser – I’ll tell you about how I got kicked off Necker Island in the next post.)

Getting back to it, I was flying on the way home from Necker and I was so inspired with our time there that I started creating my rules for successful entrepreneurial endeavors. I thought it would be top 10 list but I kept writing and writing in my journal and it came to 34 tenets that I’m calling…

34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs

1. It’s got to be a BIG idea that you, your team and your customers can “get” in seconds.
2. Strive to create 10x – 100x in value for any price you charge. Your rewards are always proportionate to the value you provide.
3. You must charge a premium price so you have a large margin to provide an extraordinary value & experience.
4. Provide a ‘Reason Why’ customers should do business with you and pay you a premium.
5. Get paid before you deliver your product or service. And when possible figure out how to create recurring revenue from transactions.
6. You get to make the rules for your business. Don’t let industry norms dictate how you’ll work or who you’ll work with.
7. Create your business around your life instead of settling for your life around your business.
8. Consistently and constantly force yourself to focus on the ‘critically few’ proactive activities that produce exponential results. Don’t get caught up in minutia & bullshit.
9. Seek to minimize start-up risk but have maximum upside potential.
10. Get your idea out there as fast as possible even if it’s not quite ready by setting must-hit deadlines. Let the market tell you if you have a winner or not. If not – move on and fail forward fast! If it’s got potential – then you can make it better.
11. Find partners and team members who are strong where you are weak and appreciate being paid on results.
12. Your reputation always counts. Honor your obligations and agreements.
13. Never, ever get paid based on hours worked.
14. Leverage your marketing activities exponentially by using direct response methods and testing.
15. Measure and track your marketing so you know what’s working and what’s not.
16. Bootstrap. Having too much capital leads to incredible waste and doing things using conventional means.
17. Your partners and employees actions are their true core – not what they tell you.
18. Keep asking the right questions to come up with innovative solutions. “How?”, “What?”, “Where?”, “Who Else?” & “Why?” open up possibilities.
19. You’ll never have a perfect business and you’ll never be totally “done”. Deal with it.
20. Focus most of your time on your core strengths and less time working in areas you suck at.
21. Make it easier for customers to buy by taking away the risk of the transaction by guaranteeing what you do in a meaningful way.
22. Always have something else to sell (via upsell, cross-sell, follow-up offer, etc) whenever a transaction takes place. The hottest buyer in the world is one who just gave you money.
23. Always go back to your existing customers with exceptional offers and reasons they should give you more money. It’s 5x less expensive to sell to happy customers than go find new ones.
24. However the flip side is - fire your most annoying customers. They’ll be replaced with the right ones.
25. The marketplace and competitors are always trying to beat you down to a commodity. Don’t let that happen.
26. Develop and build your business’s personality that stands out. People want to buy from people.
27. Create your own category so you can be first in the consumer’s mind.
28. Go the opposite direction competitors are headed – you’ll stand out.
29. Mastermind and collaborate with other smart entrepreneurs if they have futures that are even bigger than their present.
30. Celebrate your victories. It’s too easy to simply move on to your next goal without acknowledging and appreciating the ‘win’.
31. Make your business AND doing business with you FUN!
32. Do the unexpected before and after anything goes wrong so customers are compelled to ‘share your story’.
33. Get a life! Business and making money are important but your life is the sum total of your experiences. Go out and create experiences & adventures so you can come back renewed and inspired for your next big thing.
34. Give back! Commit to taking a % of your company’s sales and make a difference. It this becomes a habit like brushing your teeth pretty soon the big checks with lots of zeros won’t be scary to write. If you think you can’t donate a percentage of your sales simply raise your price.

Side note on #34: Now after meeting and brainstorming with the team at VirginUnite – I’d strongly recommend them as a candidate because of the way they are creating entrepreneurial solutions to significant problems and a force for good. As entrepreneurs we know we can foster innovative solutions to business problems – this is the same force being tapped for the greater good. I’m really excited about some of their projects and what us, as entrepreneurs, can do together. You’ll be hearing more about this soon.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these.

My last post was about creating your BIG Life List.

Perhaps a little voice inside your head might be whispering (or shouting) about all the reasons you can’t do this kind of fun stuff your life. Fact is, it’s these excuses that will sap the spirit and energy out of your life. It’s too easy for all of us to simply believe we’ll ‘get around to it’ or ‘someday’ we’ll have more fun but one excuse or another comes up. Try these on for size…

• I don’t have time to do this stuff

When I hear people say I don’t have time for something really means that item is not a priority for them. Quite simply, the excuse of “I don’t have time” is commonly accepted but if you stop and think about it we all have the same 24 hours in a day. It’s up to you to decide what is a priority. And if a priority is living a full, rich life with incredible experiences and adventures – then you’ll create the time and schedule items from you BIG Life List.

Think about where you might be spending time now and make the conscious decision if that’s what you want to do or would you rather be doing something from your big list. Or what are you doing now that you could pay someone else to do? I don’t cut my own lawn, clean my house, wash my car, drop-off my dry cleaning, buy stamps or a dozen other simple activities. Why? Because I know I can easily pay someone to do this and it frees me up to either create additional revenue streams or enjoy my life.

• I can’t leave my business long enough to do this

A close cousin to ‘not having enough time’ is believing you can’t get away from your business long enough to knock off any of the fun items on your list. You can get a lot done in just a few days and your company will not fall apart with you. If you cannot leave your office for a few days without things getting off-track you have some serious system issues that need to be worked on. (Leaving will actually expose them to you.) Most times if people are left to fend for themselves without the “big boss” approving everything – most things will still get done correctly. Maybe not quite the way you would do it but the end result would be close enough and you’d have the freedom to enjoy your life.

In fact, I think freedom is the operative keyword for entrepreneurs and unless we exercise that freedom by stepping away from the office it slowly collapses. And we become nothing more than highly-paid servants to our businesses.

You might believe you’re indispensable but nearly everyone (including you) is replaceable. It’s important to step back and see if you are truly operating on activities in your business that are core competencies and unique abilities where you excel.

You’ve probably heard of the Pareto principle or 80/20 rule. It states that approximately 20% of your activities produce 80% of the results. Conversely 80% of your activities create 20% of the results. So if you focus on the critical few activities that produce 80% of the results – this will free up your time to do even more outside of work.

• My <friends/family/dog> will think I’m crazy

So what? Maybe they will – but who cares? My wife and her family think I’m pretty nuts – but I don’t mind. I realized I’m wired differently and that’s ok. Typically, my wife, Missy, won’t come with on my adventures and that’s fine because she has a different idea of vacations than I do. We do things apart and we do things together.

Now on the other hand my step-mother is a huge worrier and doesn’t want to know when I go jump out of airplanes or when I go Baja racing. She’s ok if I tell her after the fact – when I’m home safe and sound. And that’s fine too.

The only thing that’s not fine are the people who attempt to reel you in because they know better or think they’re helping. They might say, “Don’t you care about your family?” or “Aren’t you getting too old for this kind of thing?” or my favorite, “You can’t always get what you want.”

These negative people are simply replaying the tapes spinning in their heads. They can keep their boring and dull existence – I’d rather create the kind of memories that last forever and give me something more interesting to talk about then the local football team or the weather.

I’ve always been a fan of lists and I know many other successful people share this notion. What better list can you create than a list for your most memorable and exciting life? I call this my “BIG Life List”. This is pretty easy and encompasses everything I want to do, have or become before I die.

Now the hard part is sitting down and just jotting down the list but before you get there let me start with my own list.

Right here on this blog, I have a running list of the experiences I want to achieve (as you can see on the right) but my personal BIG list extends beyond what I’ve posted. Here are a few examples from my list (aside from what you see on the right):

Do:

• Host Saturday Night Live
• Fly my own plane
• Stand up comedy at a club
• Dance the Haka with the All Blacks in New Zealand
• Taste a 100+ year old Bordeaux
• Dance all night in Ibiza
• Leave $10,000,000+ to meaningful charities in my lifetime

Have:

• Own a fully restored MGA
• Name engraved on Stanley Cup as an owner of the Washington Capitals (Ted, I’m in. Ugh what a heartbreaking loss this year in the playoffs)
• Create my own liquor brand
• Create a charitable foundation to educate young entrepreneurs
• My own vineyard and produce award-winning wines

Be:

• A semi-professional beach volleyball player
• Financially independent
• Part of an IPO as an insider
• In the Olympics
• NY-Times Best-selling Author
• Live to be a vibrant and healthy 127-year old

Most of my own BIG List is centered around “DO” but that’s just me personally. Yours is unique to you. Right now my list spans 97 items and it keeps growing. I believe in one afternoon you could get at least 25-50 items on your own list. The first few are easy but then you really have to dig into what would make you happy? What excited you as a kid?

What have you always wanted to do?

What have you always wanted to be?

What have you always wanted to see?

What have you always wanted to have?

Just don’t get bogged down in what other people will think. Don’t put something on your list that doesn’t excite you or put it there because you think you’re supposed to. Hey - if you don’t want to save the whales – screw ‘em. Don’t put it on your list.

Keep thinking without putting conditions & restrictions on your list. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s dumb or couldn’t really happen or think others will laugh at you. So what? Go with your heart and just get it down. There’s no harm in writing it down even if it doesn’t happen - that’s how some of my improbably ones have been accomplished that I’ll tell you about in a moment as we move on to how you start having fun and checking off items…

How do you get your big list completed?

1. Write it down. Yes, writing it down is the first step and I absolutely guarantee you if you did nothing else but write 50-100 items in your BIG List you’d be surprised at how many actually got done after 1 year without you ever looking at them again. I don’t look at my Big list everyday – it’s not that necessary but I do certain things to make sure I can check them off.

Fact is, as I was writing this post I went back over my own list again and was amazed to see that 2 things on my list were in the process of getting accomplished in the next 3 weeks (as of this writing). One was kiteboarding at Necker Island and at the same time lunch with Sir Richard Branson. I’m heading to Necker Island in a few weeks and I’ll definitely try kiteboarding on the island - plus I’ll be there with Richard for several days so lunch is inevitable. Pretty cool!

Just the mere fact of writing it down and releasing it into the Universe gives you an advantage that circumstances might be set into motion to start conspiring to work for you. (Hey, that’s my belief anyway!)

Quick example, I’ve previously written down I wanted to be a semi-pro beach volleyball player. I really didn’t think it would happen but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to write it down. Well, now I’d technically be considered Pro. You can check out the details back on this post.

In that same vein - here’s another one…Do I really think I’ll be in the Olympics? I dunno. Probably not – but there’s a tiny shot. Who knows? My publicist mentioned to me the other day he was friends with the former publicist for the U.S. Bobsled & Skeleton Federation. I don’t know how many people are waiting in line to go 80mph headfirst down an icy track so who knows if I’d get a tryout. Maybe – maybe not. But if I didn’t throw it out there to the Universe and right it down I know I wouldn’t hear the faint knocking on the door of opportunity.

2. Schedule it. This is where a lot of people fall down. It sounds a bit too rigid but for busy entrepreneurs unless you schedule your fun (most of the time) it won’t happen. It sounds a bit counter intuitive doesn’t it? Fun should be spontaneous and free? Well guess what? If you stick to your typical schedule – it’ll never happen because your work will keep expanding to the allotted time you give it. You can always do one more work item and your inbox is never going to be empty.

Think about your vacation for a moment. That’s scheduled and it happens precisely because it is scheduled. The more fun you schedule into your life – the more you’ll get. Or what about when you were a kid - most of us had mandatory fun built into our days with recess, right?

Why isn’t there recess for entrepreneurs?

Now you probably won’t go and play dodge ball this afternoon but you can have your own recess if do something about it yourself. Some of my favorite memories have been things I’ve gone out and not waited for them to fall into my lap.

This might sound a little ‘type A’ (which I’m definitely not) but you have to put fun activities on your calendar or else your fun & entertainment by default becomes vegging in front of the TV or working more. Of course, it’s great to be spontaneous but unless you are completely free of responsibilities you’ll need to make plans. And making plans could be as simple as inviting friends over for a night of games or as wild as running with the bulls in Spain.

Side note: This is one of the many reasons I started Maverick Business Adventures to create that ‘forced’ and scheduled ‘recess’ for entrepreneurs.

3. Recruit Others. It’s tough to get everything on your BIG list done yourself (especially if you’ve really stretched). That’s why it’s important to share with others, who can help you, what’s on your ultimate life list.

But there’s a caveat here. I’d be selective of who I share with. You don’t want a negative, dream-stealing vampire to suck their fangs into your life list. But when you find positive, excited individuals ask them what’s on their “to do” list for life and see if you don’t have a resource or a step in the right direction you can give them. And those same successful people have their own connections and people they know that might get you where you want to be.

Okay so here’s your homework assignment this weekend. Sit down and start your own Ultimate Big Life List and schedule at least 2 items on there. Will you do it?

A previous post I mentioned using ’scarcity’ - this post I’m going to talk about my single, favorite psychological hot button I use in nearly every promotion. (Yes, it’s that powerful!)

I have found the subject of persuasion endlessly fascinated. It never ceases to amaze me that I can write words on paper (or the computer screen) and then have people send me money.

Side Note: In the current Underground Secret Society® issue I cover part I of 11 little-known secrets and triggers I’ve discovered for getting people to say “Yes” and open their wallets. You can grab a free 1-month copy with my compliments here. In order to protect the uniqueness of these ideas and resources the membership is strictly limited to just 925 (or less). And we won’t be releasing any back issues. There will be NO archives set up. So if you decide to come in at a later date (if there are any spots available) you’ll miss out on previous issues and interviews - including this BIG, 32-page issue with part I of the Psychological Hot Buttons.

I know not everyone who reads this blog is right for a subscription so I’m going to share with you an excerpt of the most important psychological hot buttons you can profit from immediately:

Hot Button #2: Reason-Why

If there’s just one thing I could use in my marketing – this would probably be it. I typically try to use ‘reason-why’ in nearly any promotion and you’ll see the inside scoop in just a moment.

Telling people the reason why you are doing something is one of the most powerful influencers of human behavior. Robert Cialdini, Ph.D. in his book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” talks about an experiment by Harvard social psychologist, Ellen Langer, that concluded people like to have a reason for what they do.

Her experiment consisted of people waiting in line to use a library copy machine and then having experimenters ask to get ahead in line.

The first excuse used was “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?” This request coupled with a reason was successful 94% of the time. However when the experimenter made a request only: “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” this request was only granted 60% of the time. A significant drop.

Okay now for the shocker…

It may seem like the difference between those two requests was the additional information of “because I’m in a rush”, but that’s just not the case.

Because in a third experimenter, the experimenter asks “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?” There’s no reason mentioned or new information presented, just the words “because“.

This time a full 93% of the people said yes simply due to the word ‘BECAUSE’! And it didn’t even matter that there was no reason given. Just the word because triggered a magic response.

Using this psychological ‘trigger’ can massively increase your Marketing success. Maxwell Sackheim, famous for the long-running ad “Do You Make These Mistakes In English” and originator of the book-of-the-month concept, says this: “Whenever you make a claim or special offer in your advertising, come up with an honest reason why, and then state it sincerely. You’ll sell many more products this way.”

And this powerful strategy works just as well today.

Using this secret weapon for my Dad’s medical equipment company, I helped them produce a massive 1,073% return on investment simply using “reason-why” copy. (This was a huge breakthrough because typically you’d have to do one-on-one sales to doctors for items like this.)

The premise was how can we sell a product for the incredibly low price of only $447? (Regularly this product sells for about $695 - $895.) Then the ad went on to explain that the reason why the price was so low was because the manufacturer wanted to gain market share and get nurses and doctors accustomed to using their product. It was a huge winner and a big moneymaker for the client.

Here’s some of the copy if you can’t read the ad:

* * *
“The manufacturer, Huntleigh Healthcare, wants to gain significant market share by introducing their new Flexi Dopplex 3 MHz fetal Doppler and they are offering our company special discount pricing to push their sales.

But instead of buying these units for this special pricing and selling them later at regular prices and keeping the higher profits — we want to pass on the extra savings to you, right now! And we figured the best way to sell Dopplers is simply getting doctors and nurses into the habit of using a particular brand. Then we’re hoping you’ll continue buying more from us. Seems fair, right?

That’s why for a limited time, now through June 30, 1999, you can get the new Flexi Dopplex for only $447. That’s a savings of $ 103.00 off the regular price (and hundreds more off any competitor’s models).

* * *
Here’s another ad I wrote using the ‘reason-why’ concept that’s ultra simple to apply to your business. Simply jotting down “X” number of reasons why a customer should purchase from you is usually more than what most competitors do. It provides a logical crutch to an emotional buying decision.

You can come up with lots of reasons-why to have a promotion. Look at your calendar, if retailers and car dealers can use “made-up” holidays like Columbus day – you can do even better. There are lots of ways to use this idea. Keep brainstorming a reason why you are doing something. Let people in “behind the scenes” at your company…

Whatever the reason.

Here’s one I used a few years back – it was the “Save Yanik’s Marriage Sale”. The whole premise being Missy, my wife, was really annoyed at me for the basement being so overloaded with boxes. Truthfully, she WAS really mad and made a big stink about it – but I embellished the story a little bit. We totally cleared out all our inventory and made a tidy profit (pun intended).

Another sale I’ve had a lot of success with is a milestone type sale. When our first child, Zak, was born – I did a promotion for him. That promotion nearly tripled my expectations for what it would bring in (it made $4.60+ for every visitor who came). And more importantly people connected with me as a real person – you should have seen the dozens and dozens of congratulations notes. It was really cool.

Now in this case I didn’t just do email only. I thought it would be great to send out a “birth announcement” to our customers. I’m a big believer in using multiple types of media to hit customers/prospects. For this I really wanted it to look like a real birth announcement - here’s how it turned out:

When Zoe was born a few years later – I did the same thing and it worked even better so now she’ll have bragging rights forever on Zak.

For some reason everyone wants to be mysterious about their business. If you’re lowering the price nobody thinks you’re doing it just because you’re “such a nice guy (or gal)”. So let people in on the reason why.

I know this probably goes against every grain of business sense, but I promise if you give people a good, believable reason why they’ll respond with open wallets.

Side Note: In the current Underground Secret Society® issue I cover part I of 11 little-known secrets and triggers I’ve discovered for getting people to say “Yes” and open their wallets. You can grab a free 1-month copy with my compliments here.

* * *
Okay quick change of subject - with the Underground® 4 Seminar in LA over it’s been quite a whirlwind.

Each year the Underground® seminar gets bigger and better! It’s going to be pretty hard to top this year’s event since the speakers businesses totaled nearly $1B in annual online sales. Speakers ranged from Eben Pagen (a $20M virtual publishing empire) to Dr. Joe Mercola ($15M online and the most visited natural health site). Or how about Cameron Johnson, an Internet millionaire in his teens and now on Oprah’s primetime “Big Give” TV program? Mr. X#1 and Mr. X#2 (who won Underground Marketer of the Year) with their secrets to accidently building a $4M+ membership site.

Plus, a totally different take on online marketing from one of the leading wine eCommerce sites and insights on future trend of podcasting from Jody Colvard. And we had Dean Hunt & Barry Dunlop giving everyone the secrets they need to take advantage of the power of Social marketing. Or under-the-radar marketers like Jim Lillig and Mike Hill (who hasn’t appeared on stage since 1999).

We even had Tony Hsieh, the CEO from Zappos.com as one of the keynote speakers the first day. The cool thing is Tony was totally low-key and laid back. I don’t know why I continue to be surprised but most of the super successful people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting are incredibly genuine people. I think that’s part of the reason they got to where they are.

This year’s theme was “24” and it was interesting to see who was a fan of the show because they were super excited about the fact we had Carlos Bernard AKA Agent Tony Almeida there. But then a whole lot of the audience didn’t get it. It’s okay – I’m a fan of the show so sometimes I’ll just do fun things for myself. Actually, the real back-story on the theme is something some of you may remember. I originally wanted to have a 24-hour seminar based on the ‘24’ theme. Yep, we’d start at 10pm and end at 10pm the next day. We had like 7 people sign-up and I canceled it. Whoops. Not all ideas are good ideas.

Here’s me and Carlos Bernard AKA Tony Almeida from “24″ (btw - he wasn’t acting - Carlos actually was choking me pretty hard)

Each Underground® we do a fun VIP networking dinner and activity for the Early-Bird sign-ups and all the speakers. This year we did something totally different and sent everyone out onto the streets of LA for a SPY mission. We didn’t know who was in on the game and who was just a regular person on the street. Here are a few pics of my squad. “Team Bullocks” in honor of our overwhelming majority being from the UK including speakers and MasterMind members Dean Hunt and Barry Dunlop. Only myself, Michael Holland and Ryan Lee (Mr. X from Underground® II were the token Americans.)

I’ll let you make your own conclusions with these photos from some of our VIP guests, speakers and MasterMind members part of the infamous KONA boys team. Most definitely the loudest team we had that night.

I think it’s safe to say everyone had a great time and that was still the first day. The 2nd day we had more incredible speakers plus a Rock N’ Roll party for all the attendees with Mini KISS, an all little person KISS tribute band. (The party was sponsored by Icontact.com, Maverick Business Adventures™, Selby Marketing and InfusionCRM.)

Here are a few pics:

Here’s a little video footage:

Whoa!

The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy in preparation for my totally SOLD-OUT Underground Online Seminar® 4 that kicks off tomorrow morning.

This event really breaks all of the rules because we don’t bring in polished platform “salespeople” that you hear over and over again on the Internet speaking circuit. It’s not the same usual suspects – but real people making real money selling real stuff. (Definitely no Internet “get rich” folks allowed here.)

I’ve got a strong hunch this will be the biggest, baddest, most explosive event yet.

I can tell just by the few attendees I have passed in the hotel lobby already that the anticipation for tomorrow is like static electricity in the air.

Everyone is totally pumped up!

And rightfully so, with a speaker lineup that brings in over $906,000,000.0 (nearly a BILLION dollars of combined revenue)…this may be the most profitable weekend of their lives. And that’s why I figured – I’d like to try a little experiment…

I am going to do something I have never done before with any of my Underground® Seminars…I am going to let you get sneak a peek at the LIVE while it is actually going on just as if you were there yourself.

http://www.undergroundonlineseminar.com/live/

You heard right!

Twice a day during the event, I’ll allow my underground moles to tap into the video feed and broadcast their “bootleg” signal live and in real time for 12 minutes at a clip.

Remember, it’s totally LIVE and unrehearsed so just about anything can happen. I’m not going to edit or censor the footage. You’ll see and hear everything that’s going for those two, 12-minute clips just as if you were a covert agent who had infiltrated the event.

Synchronize your watches now because the very first broadcast happens tomorrow, Friday March 28, 2008 at 9am Pacific time (12 noon, ET) for the over-the-top, kick-off opening! And then the second broadcast will take place at 4:02 pm Pacific (7:02 PM, ET) with Agent “Get Smart” Eben Pagan. Plus, other broadcast times will be listed on this page along with all kinds of other uncensored Underground® surveillance videos appearing in real-time transmitted back from actual agents in the field.

That’s it for now – I got to get back to preparing. Let me know what you think once you check it out.

If you have not read Robert Cialdini’s monumental work, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” – grab it now! Inside on of the major psychological triggers he explains is scarcity. Human beings have been hard-wired to want what is going away. Many more people are motivated by the thought of potential loss than potential gain.

Gary Bencivenga, one of the world’s best copywriters, summed this up perfectly at his “Bencivenga 100″ seminar in New York. I’m paraphrasing but he said something along the lines of, “If I called my neighbor at 3 AM and told him about a 2-for-1 sale going on at the local tire store – my neighbor would think I was crazy and probably be pretty annoyed! But if I called him at 3 in the morning and told him his garage was open and 2 kids were rolling 4 of his snow tires down the street. He’d jump out of bed and go chase them!”

That’s the power of scarcity. If you get this principle right you’ll be astonished at the sales results. A lot of people think they understand scarcity but that’s not the case. Simply saying “x” number of units will be sold. Or “limited time opportunity” or “Buy before midnight tonight” does not always translate to better sales. There’s more to it than just a thinly veiled attempt at influencing.

I know scarcity is one of those triggers that works on me. (Side note: It’s good to step back when you make buying decisions and see what caused it. You can rationalize it all you want – but many buying decisions on based on emotional, psychological triggers.)

For instance, my first sports car was a Honda S2000 when it came out in 2000. The car was impossible to get. My local dealer had an allotment of 2 or 3 cars for the year. Only 5000 were made and about 2000 came to the U.S. I was searching all over the country calling every dealership for this rare combination of Silver with a red interior. I found my S2000 about 800 miles away in upstate NY and drove it all the down to our place in Maryland in the pouring rain. Even today, I sold my Mercedes SL55 for something even more exclusive - an Aston Martin.

I like examples from diverse industries aside from info marketing since this is how breakthroughs happen. This is from Porthos.com, a company I buy a fair amount of wine from and I’ve got to know their owner, Hal Oates. They do an excellent job of using scarcity and making it believable. [Side note: Hal will be speaking at my sold-out Underground® 4 Seminar ]

The mention of how many cases (300) telegraphs exclusivity, rarity and scarcity without being over the top. Also, if you trust Hal and his recommendation (I do) he tells you this wine is most likely to hit $100+ cult status. Then notice at the bottom “NO SALES TO RETAILERS”. Yet another trigger to the scarcity here.

I think Porthos.com does an excellent job of using scarcity along with very solid reason-why in the sales copy for wine. He’s not selling to a starry-eyed crowd of biz-oppers, most wine collectors are considered affluent and sophisticated consumers. You can use this psychological trigger in an ethical way that’s not demeaning to your list’s intelligence.

Let me give you a few more examples…

Ferrari Enzo - Ferrari is a perfect example of scarcity and fueling a passionate marketplace. The Enzo is their $600,000+ supercar made in honor of Enzo Ferrari, the founder. They made exactly 399 cars and that’s it. Ferrari collectors know when Ferrari tells them its limited edition – it really is and they will not make any more.

Part of maintaining Ferrari’s prestigious heritage is making sure that not everyone can have one. Only a privileged few can buy a Ferrari hence the truly created scarcity. But just having a big bankroll still won’t let you drive an Enzo - Ferrari has traditionally made potential buyers apply to buy one of their limited-edition cars, placing various restrictions on what may and may not be done with the car. They enforce these restrictions by threatening to withdraw perks like factory tours and the chance to buy future Ferraris. I was talking to an owner of an Enzo at a car show in NY and he told me you had to have been a registered owner of 3 other Ferraris to have the privilege of applying for one of the Enzos.

You’ll see a lot of special editions created for collectible and high-end merchandise like pens, cigars and spirits. This pen site keep all the sold-out editions as proof they really are sold-out and scarce:

Okay guys, here’s your big SAT word of the day – verisimilitude:
verisimilitude \ver-uh-suh-MIL-uh-tood; -tyood\, noun:
1. The appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true.
2. Something that has the appearance of being true or real.

I think this is the key to making scarcity work for your business. eBooks don’t really have it. You can say you’ll only sell 500 copies of an eBook but there’s no “appearance of truth”. It’s just bits and bytes – why would it be truly limited? I’ve seen others use scarcity ploys that really had me wondering if they were true or not. If your customers question it – you’re done for.

The best advice I can give is combine scarcity with ‘reason-why’ for an extra comma in your bank account.