Seminar Aftermath

The Las Vegas Practical Profits Seminar has come and gone… Wow did it go great. Wow was it exhausting!

We had a full house with almost all 100 people who signed up for the seminar actually attending. The live stream went about as flawless as it could given the massive amount of people we had on the stream.

It wasn’t without its hiccups, as anything of these magnitudes go.

Looking at the seminar itself, you might wonder why I and my mastermind were crazy enough to try to pull something like this off. The fee was a ridiculous $97 to get in. There was no pitching… All content.

Clearly, there was no money being made on our part from this event, ESPECIALLY when you consider the time obligations required. So what was the “angle” for such a thing?

Mainly, it was BOTH a customer appreciation event and a long term strategy. I can’t remember the exact numbers, but I think 93% said they would have paid $197 or MORE to attend (based on our survey results).

That’s cool, isn’t it? In marketing, we call that differentiation. Why should someone stay on my list and read my emails in the future? Because I’m one of the few that would go to great lengths to put on such an event. Smart and a lesson for you to consider using in your own business. (Engineer such fantastic deals from time to time so people absolutely look forward to receiving your communications.)

There were other secret “sly” reasons to do such an event. For example, I counted at least 15 attendees at the seminar who do at least 6 figures a year, and at least 5 attendees at the event (NOT SPEAKERS but people who paid) who make more money a year than I do.

I like meeting these people, because clearly I have something to offer them that they come to me for. I want to know how I can serve them better so they come to me more often and invest in my products and services more frequently. The best way I know for doing that is meeting and talking with them at a seminar.

I was telling someone at the seminar that the value in that room – when you added up speakers and presenters – could be translated into many, many millions of dollars based on products everybody at the event had sold.

Easily tens of millions of dollars a year people in that room move in products. That means if you JUST started Internet marketing, you could go to this event and have mingled with millions and millions of dollars of ideas.

Another “secret” reason:  seminars are the greatest customer research you can ever get. I listen. I watch. I observe. I look for problems that seminar attendees talk with me and to each other about.  When I come home I have a whole list of products and services I plan on creating that I know are guaranteed winners.

Now let’s talk about happy accidents. There’s an interesting phenomenon that occurs in business. Here’s how it works: you set out to do X, having high expectations for X. X doesn’t pan out the way you like, but while doing X, you notice that one aspect of it, almost by accident, seems to get the most results or response.

If it worked so well on accident, imagine how it would do as a deliberate strategy… Let’s take it further – any time you’re doing a lot of stuff, something will, by luck or accident, pop out and say – “Hey I’m an easy six figure side business if you treat me right”.

You can’t find these things. You can’t research them. You can’t plan them. You can only do so many different things so that eventually one pops out at you.

I got two such accidents this weekend that I know with little effort and execution on my part will translate into at least $200,000 additional revenue in my pocket. I like that.

Another benefit I often forget about – affirmation that you’re doing it right. I believe over 60 people came up to me and wanted their picture taken with me. That’s awesome. Several people came up to me and told me that I had drastically improved their life… And some I honestly think were happier to meet me for the first time in person than they would their favorite celebrity. Cool.

It’s good to be reminded IN PERSON that there are a lot of people who want you to do more of what you’re already doing, which always gets me fired up when I get back home to take the business up another level.

Sometimes it also awakens you to the difference between success and failure. Let me illustrate it to you with a story.

It’s Friday night at midnight. I speak the next day. I go down to the casino bar looking to network. Guess who is down there? 5 other people.

That’s it. Sigh…

One of the other people was this guy named Colin Theriot who I actually consider to be one of the greatest up and coming email marketing guys in the game. I’m down there picking HIS brain for every tip I can get to help in my business.

I’m there myself to learn. If I can always use more insights to apply to my business model, where was everyone else? Dare I say they were sleeping? GASP! I slept on the plane ride home, when there was no action taking place. NOT when there was the potential for all kinds of action.

So here we are – 6 of us at the bar… Masterminding, discussing ideas and so forth. We stay there till… 5:30 AM in the morning!

For hours I answered any and all questions, from anyone who asked, about how I run my business. I answered questions from those who asked specific things related to their own businesses.

I said the next day that I literally gave away $1000 in consulting time at the bar the night before. It was true. Don’t you wish you would’ve been there?

Let’s back up.  In the niche we’re all a part of (Internet marketing) there are two MAIN kinds of buyers for the most part. There are those who are beginners and need a LOT of education because they’re just starting out. Then there are those who are very successful who still buy almost everything because they practice the principle of the SLIGHT edge.

Here I am, having to speak the next day, also do the Q & A, and more and I’m down until 5:30 in the morning gathering information, getting more insight into my business with the answers I give to questions, and establishing contacts and potential business ventures when I arguably need it least.

That’s the SLIGHT edge.

Now to bring it home. Big picture question:  Can you get rich quick by going to a seminar like the one we just put on? Surprisingly, yes you can. It depends on “quick”. I did it in 6 months after I got focused.

I’m also slightly insane with my desire to succeed. Still. They say work smart, not hard. Pfui… If you want to do big things fast, you work HARD & SMART. Sometimes though, you get that tunnel vision in your business…

That’s when you bop on down to a seminar which helps you know where you’re currently at – and where you need to go to hit your business goals.

Thoughts?