I’m really excited about this…

For the first time ever I’m introducing a scholarship opportunity for young entrepreneurs to attend Underground Online Seminar® 5.

You see, one of my real passions is helping young people and “turning” on the lights for them to see a different direction in their life.

A few years ago this “kid”, Nathan Morris, from North Carolina emails my office about his situation. He told me he’d read one of our introductory programs and was starting to make about $1000/month online from his college dorm room. He wanted to know if I would meet him for coffee.

Typically I don’t do that without charging a very significant consulting fee but this time I made an exception. Nathan drove up 12 hours for that cup of coffee but he walked away with a game plan to earn 6-figures from his tiny list of 2000-some people. Wait until you hear the niche he sells to — it’s so crazy and it could only work online. Nathan sells to enthusiasts who want to take the engine out a Honda Accord and move it to their Honda Civic to make it go faster! The best part about Nathan’s story is his Mom accusing him of dealing drugs because he started making so much money selling information products after our meeting.

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Here’s part of what he told me later on:

“I met up with Yanik in Bethesda at a Starbucks after driving 12 hours to meet up with him to turn right back around and drive 12 hours back.  Anyhow, during that hour or two that I spent with Yanik at the coffee shop… he opened my eyes to so many new product ideas and marketing strategies that I honestly—almost two years later STILL haven’t been able to fully take advantage of! I am now making a full time income…and I literally have dumbfounded all of my college buddies since I only work for about 1 hour a day at night before bed. Even more incredible… in my main business, I have taken my income and successfully doubled it each year—and I’m on track to 10x it this year… putting me at over $100,000 a year from a VERY small niche, with a list of only just over 2000 people.” (Note: this was several years ago and Nathan is on to bigger and better things online.)

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Anyway this was several years ago and unfortunately I really didn’t do very much hands-on help or teaching for young entrepreneurs since then. I’ve always been interested in it but I just didn’t make it priority…until now.

Part of the unique aspect of my new Maverick Business Adventures® group is ‘giving forward’ via education to teach young and aspiring entrepreneurs in communities we take part in adventures. (Actually next week in Baja we’ll be working with a group of Business students from a local University in Ensenada, Baja Mexico.)

So I got to thinking…why not do this with the Underground® too?

The kind of turbo boost a young entrepreneur could get here would be incredible since it has quickly become THE networking and learning event in the online community. (That’s not what I say but tons of others high-profile attendees who never miss it.) I’m hopeful this kind of exposure would help one of our young entrepreneur winners become the next Google, Facebook or Twitter. Who knows? You never know what can happen and this is the best time in history to do it. It’s truly the golden age for creating online businesses from a bedroom, dorm room or living room and I hope this is the spark they look back on as a pivotal point.

These 10 super star young entrepreneurs selected will win the ultimate VIP experience at Underground® 5. Here’s what they get:

•    Free admission to the Underground Online Seminar® 5 to be held at a top-secret location in Washington, DC on February 20-22, 2009. ($2,995 value)

•    Face-to-face networking opportunities at the event with 300+ leading entrepreneurs and top Internet business owners including Ryan Allis, who has built multiple million dollar companies from scratch (one while in his teens), Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy.com; and Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, the #1 online footwear retailer that broke $1 billion dollars in sales in 2008 & many more!

•    Private VIP Lunch with myself, multiple speakers from the Underground® and members of the exclusive Maverick Business Adventures® group. (Maverick Business Adventures® is a distinct group of 7-figure business owners committed to ‘giving forward’ to young entrepreneurs.)

•    Closed-door learning session during lunch.

•    Exclusive Maverick Young Entrepreneurs Swag Prize Bag (Special resources and goodies from top online experts -  $1000s in value.)

More details here –
http://www.UndergroundOnlineSeminar.com/challenge

If you are aged 13-21 and have the entrepreneurial spirit – I welcome your submission. Or if you know someone who should apply, please forward them this link. Thanks very much! – Y.S.

Some big announcements to share on our upcoming Underground® 5 seminar next month…

Announcement #1: Your Early-Bird deadline is being extended!

Yep, I typically NEVER extend deadlines but I’ll explain in #2 why it’s happening. So the good news is that it means you’ve now got until midnight, January 20, 2009 to save a full $1000.00 before the price increase. But more importantly the biggest bonus of all will vanish if you miss this deadline…when you sign up before the early-bird deadline you’ll receive a special red VIP ticket and confidential password. You must have both in order to gain admittance into a private, closed-door dinner and Casino Royale night.

And when you sign-up before January 20, 2009 you’ll also get a seat to the just-added MEGA bonus…Social Media Pre-day
(don’t worry if you’ve already signed up – you’re automatically in.) Keep reading for details on this bonus…

Announcement #2: MEGA Bonus Social Media Pre-Day

The day before the main Underground® event (February 19th) you’ll have a seat for the absolute latest intel and information on using Social marketing to grow your business. The amazing thing about using social marketing is you can literally be a “nobody” one day and with zero outlay grow an incredibly rabid base of followers and friends who are glued to whatever you put out there. All it costs is a little bit
of your time and to understand HOW it works!

Quite frankly the writing is on the wall and if you want to be ahead of the curve you must make sure you attend this special pre-day. And instead of paying $995.00 like other pre-days we’ve offered you’ll get the entire day FREE if you register for the Underground® 5 before Jan 20th, 2009.

You’ll discover the absolute, up-to-the-minute real deal about using Twitter, Facebook, Social bookmarking (like DIGG, Stumble On, etc), Viral videos, Blogging and more! Social marketing is the hottest topic right now and you’ll get the straight scoop from real world people using it each
and every day to grow their business.

Announcement #3: $1B Keynote Speaker #2 – Tony Hsieh CEO of Zappos.com

We just added Tony Hsieh, CEO of the $1 Billion (Yes B with a ‘B’) e-commerce company, Zappos.com. Tony was a huge hit last year and it worked out that his schedule has a last-minute hole we took advantage of.

You’ll be able to get up close and personal with the CEO of one of the leading eCommerce sites in the world. Last year. Tony was incredible accessible and totally approachable. (In fact, being ‘humble’ is one of Zappos core values and he totally lives it!)

And that’s just one of the reasons why there are NO seminars like the Underground® event. The Underground® has quickly become THE most exclusive learning, networking and ‘deal making’ event put on each year. Previous high-profile attendees were Dan Kennedy, Jonathan Mizel, Jim Edwards, Marlon Sanders, “The Rich Jerk”, Jeff Johnson, Jeff Walker, Stephen Pierce, Bill Glazer, Perry Marshall, Rosalind Gardner, Joel Comm, Willie Crawford, Mike Filsaime, Russell Brunson, Michel Fortin, Michael Holland, Phil Wiley, Kevin Wilke, Andrew Fox, and many others who came to learn and not to B.S. in the hallways.

No doubt about it, the real players show up here…and there’s good reason for it…

It’s because the Underground’s premise is absolutely unique of bringing in real-world Internet successes who are definitely NOT the same “Usual Suspects” you see speaking anywhere else…just real-world “DO-ERS”!

You’ve got a few extra days now to register (through Jan. 20th) but I wouldn’t wait because there are just 89 seats
remaining and going fast!  Hopefully – I’ll see you there!

Register now to get the best discounts, VIP access and now the FREE Social Media Pre-day

It’s the final day of the Elite MasterMind group meeting down here at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL. I’m up at 7:33 AM writing this post partially because of the reason I stated in the post. Let me explain and back up a little bit…

I’ve had both the Millionaire MasterMind group and then the Elite MasterMind group down here for their final meetings.  And sandwiched in between was a day of Power Boating. We took these 1400hp offshore rockets out on the water and got to drive. Pretty cool. Here are a few quick videos that pretty much sum it up (including Perry Belcher on water safety)

(Note: there may be a few spots remaining for the MasterMind group and more details are here)

Okay back to the point at hand…

We are t-minus 37 minutes away from an 8 AM must-hit deadline yesterday’s Elite MasterMind group threw done at 3 members, Justin Tupper, Paul Evans and Chuck Batson.

What started out as bit of a joke has become a pretty powerful catalyst to create action. I was listening to Justin Tupper present on his new golf info product created by a top PGA instructor along with his son his one of the best professional golfers in the world (taught by his Dad). Justin was showing everyone his 98% completed site and I blurted out a very subtle, “Get this son-of-a-bitch out!”

He nodded his head but I didn’t stop there.

I told him he had an 8 AM deadline to change the headline to what we decided on, change the pricing and get it out there to Beta test. (Side note: If you’re a golfer this looks like an amazing golf instructional program to help your game and give you bragging rights over your buddies.) Justin came back with an excuse about the programming on this shopping cart not quite done and little bit of backpedaling.

Must-Hit Deadline

I told him if he really and truly set the 8 AM deadline he’d figure it out. We’ve had forms that got sent to us which contained customer info and we processed them manually. There is a way around everything is you got your back against the wall. And that’s just one of the things a must-hit deadlines forces you to do – it shatters your excuses. You get creative and get things done!

Group Pressure
Now the other big aspect of what happened was a public commitment to the group. In this case it was the MasterMind group who he was accountable to.  There’s a big difference on commitment levels ranging from low to high based on how public something is. For instance a deadline inside your head usually won’t work at all (we think it does). A deadline written down for your own eyes only may or may not work. But a public deadline made to either an individuals or group that will have positive pressure on you – that’s almost a sure-lock to get it done!

And there’s one more component I gleefully added…

The embarrassing punishment

I told Justin that if he didn’t have his site ready by 8 AM and taking orders I got to go into the Hard Rock store and pick-up any outfit I wanted to make him wear. I was eyeing some really short hot pants and a skimpy girls tank top for him.  This is where it gets good. There’s something about a truly embarrassing punishment that now takes the deadline, group pressure and really mixes it to a whole new level. The MasterMind group got a big laugh out of imagining Justin down at the Black Jack tables wearing his little girlie outfit!

Everyone enjoyed doling out the deadline and punishment so much so that we gave it to two of the next MasterMind presenters too that had been procrastinating on a few things. Chuck Batson on his Raw Food Diets site and Paul Evans from Nichelogy on his 2009 ‘Raw Results’ training. I’m really proud of Chuck acting on the group’s suggestion for a much better hook for his raw food diet site right away -- the hook he had sitting under his nose was the story of how his Mom lost 36 lbs on the diet. We told him to make that the squeeze page and I’m happy to report it’s up this AM. (If you’re interested in losing weight and feeling more energetic you might want to try it. I’m thinking about it. Don’t worry you don’t have to eat veggies 24/7 -- it can be as simple as one meal to make a difference.)

Based on the feedback and advice we gave both them they also had to get things out there by 8 AM or else face the wrath of the group and the enjoyment of wearing a cute ensemble from the Hard Rock.

Does this stuff work?

It’s 7:57 AM as I wrap up this post and the meeting starts at 9:30 AM so I’ll know my answer soon – but if I had to place a bet – I’d bet they all did it! Last night leaving the tables Justin’s site was not working right – but I got an email from Justin sent me an email at 4:54 AM this morning with the finished link to his site for a “Twitter” release.

Speaking of deadlines the stuff works on me too because I wanted to get this post out before my meeting started. I could have slept a few more hours (would have helped after playing Black Jack until 2 AM last night) but I had my own deadline. (And no, there was no outfit involved for not getting this blog post done)

Actually I’ve got one more deadline-related item and that’s a marketing tip it’s somewhat transparent.

A simple, but very often overlooked, tip t is set a deadline for your offers and you’ll be surprised at the response. Easy formula to remember is no deadline and no offer = no sale. So taking my own advice (and letting in behind the curtain a bit) there is a looming must-hit deadline for you…and that’s January 15, 2009.

That’s the Early-Bird deadline for the Underground® Online Seminar 5 going on next month, Feb 20-22, 2009 in Washington, DC.

This is huge because you’ll save a full $1000.00 before the price increase but more importantly the biggest bonus of all will vanish if you miss this deadline. When you sign up before the early-bird deadline you’ll receive a special red VIP ticket and confidential password. You must have both in order to gain admittance into a private, closed-door dinner and Casino Royal night I’m holding on the first night of the Underground® 5 seminar.

It’s THE ideal time and place to cut JV deals, build relationships, and do high-level networking most people never have access to.

As you might remember this event is not bringing in the same usual “suspects”. I’ve managed to uncover a secretive group of real-people making real money online *NOT* selling “how to make money online” info. And because of the unique concept – it sells out every year!

But you don’t have to believe me it’s so good -- listen to why some of my MasterMind members (who are 6 & 7 figure earners) continue attending each year:

And I also posted some videos from 2 of the featured “Rogue Agent” speakers giving you a little taste of what’s in store for you in DC.

Trust me -- you need to be here at the Underground!

Okay there you have it -- I think there are some real gems in here to get whatever you’ve been procrastinating on DONE! Stop analyzing and just set a deadline, get some positive pressure and maybe, just maybe, buy yourself a skimpy outfit from the Hard Rock!

I’ll leave with one more video -here’s me in the 3rd row of the Billy Joel concert at the Hard Rock Sunday night. My cousin, Sophia, works here and got us down there -- pretty cool: