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Michael: If you were so confident and you absolutely knew that you had a thousand websites to your credit and you were paid thousands of dollars, you have the confidence to know. You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone. That’s the attitude you have to have.

[Music]

Michael: What’s on your mind?

Scott: Basically, I do web design. I do some copy writing, kind of doing some makeovers for people. Did a barter with a lady. You say Dr, Tracy dot com. And she really likes what I do. Like I said, all the stuff that I do is pretty clean. It’s not real fancy.

Michael: You did her whole site?

Scott: I did her whole site, yes.

Michael: Yes, it is nice and clean.

Scott: I set up everything for her. And from where she was at to what she has now, it’s night and day. Everybody signs up for the free mini-course and they really like her. So, she’s real happy with it. My thinking is to partner up with someone that does marketing makeovers; that can look at a site and that has some credibility and say this is what needs to be done to this site …almost on a consulting basis. And have me do some of the backend, to the tweaking, the actual work. Creating the images, creating the site if it needs an image overhaul as far as the site is concerned and how the site looks. To say, if you just change the headline, that would probably convert a lot more of your traffic. There’s a real need for it. And also I think you’re adding a lot of value to people’s lives.

Michael: I agree.

Scott: And also it can be very profitable if you get hooked up with the right person. I’m thinking about putting together a joint venture where I have the site up, I have everything ready to go and just do a joint venture with someone that would maybe pay them double what their hourly rate is for consulting.

Michael: You want to do a joint venture with someone and you want to pay them—you want them to do the selling?

Scott: Well, both of us just kind of put our heads together and take a look at the site for a client and say here’s what we suggest that you do to really turn your site into something that is going to be a lot more profitable.

Michael: Why do you want a partner?

Scott: Because I feel like as of now I don’t have the established credibility in the market place.

Michael: You don’t need it. If you’ve got $10,000 worth of Jay Abraham stuff—have you studied that stuff?

Scott: Yes.

Michael: You’re 99% better than anyone out there already just because you know who the guy is. You did this whole site, right? This clean look is a diamond in the rough. You see, that alone, just with your white backgrounds, a black headline … you know the importance of a headline. You’re there. There’s so much bad stuff out there already. You already understand how to ask and get someone on a mailing list for your sign-up. You have the talent for instant audio. You’re there. You don’t need any more credibility than this.

Scott: Okay.

Michael: I’m telling you. There’s so much poor work out there that you could be busy for 20 life times.

Scott: That was my original thought, but then I was thinking I could piggyback right on someone else’s coattails.

Michael: You can without a partner. You want to keep the control. You don’t want to have to discuss everything with a partner. It takes too long. You want to be able to make decisions fast and hopefully on your own. I’m telling you, partners can be a pain in the ass. You’ll never remain partners with someone for a real long time. You either end up fighting or … you’re better off going it on your own.

Scott: Well, with the sites I did—Dr. Tracey dot com—I have a joint venture with her that whatever she brings in, whatever she creates, I get half of it.

Michael: You get half of the sales.

Scott: Right.

Michael: That’s fine. It took you a long time, didn’t it?

Scott: It took me a while.

Michael: That’s fine. That’s a good idea. But let me ask you this. You’re giving her half up. You’re the one with all the marketing talent and the marketing is the most important thing. I think you need to increase your confidence and understand that you can create your own product, put the same amount of time and effort in for your product that you make all the money on instead of sharing it. Do you know what I’m saying?

Scott: Yes, absolutely.

Michael: Your time is the most valuable thing. You’ve already got the material and education. You’ve got the skills to create a one-page site. You could add to the site and make it a two-page or three-page. You’ve got that skill, right?

Scott: Absolutely.

Michael: You aught to get your own product.

Scott: I guess my problem is narrowing down my ideas and focusing on one thing. I’m sure you run into it quite a bit.

Michael: Absolutely.

Scott: One of the things I thought of—I know there’s a lot of kind of “How To” stuff out there. I know it sells. A lot of people don’t want to pay, can’t afford to pay, someone to do something. They want to learn how to do it themselves. So, I was thinking about creating a course and not selling it but giving it away to build a list. Maybe how to build the header graphic—how to create one in PhotoShop or how to work with Front Page and Dreamweaver and Mac and get some of those things up and running for the person that really doesn’t want to spend the money that has the software.

Michael: Again, here we go; we’re coming back to time. You want to create a product, give it away to build the list. It’s kind of what I do with my CD Rom. But let me tell you, I ask for a lot of information. Remember filling out that form?

Scott: Sure, absolutely.

Michael: It’s worth it to me. I sometimes ask myself why am I doing this because I can go rent a list of people who’ve already spent money on a marketing product and rent it for $0.20 a name. And then mail my offer to them who have already been proven buyers, which is much more credible than a name of someone who has asked for something for free.

Scott: Right.

Michael: That’s a more qualified name. So, why should I spend the time in building a list or why should you spend the time in creating a product, building a list to give something away for free, when you can just go find a list already with people who have paid and raised their hand with their wallet saying that they’re interested in this type of product. Does that make sense?

Scott: It does make sense.

Michael: Back to the time issue and back to the leverage and back to anything you should do should be to free up your time. The whole idea in business is freeing up your time so you can have a life and not have to work all the time.

Scott: Sure.

Michael: Are you familiar with the FODS?

Scott: Yes.

Michael: You’ve heard about that. The lists are out there. That is just one way or you find a company that already has a list. And most companies are doing very poor marketing. They have a huge list with a great following with people that trust them and you can approach them and do a joint venture to their list—them endorsing you for website design. You’d be so busy, you wouldn’t have time to do anything.

Scott: Right.

Michael: If you found a company that has a list of customers and whatever you want to do with it; sell a product or design a website or increase the effectiveness of a website and have them endorse your services.

Scott: Well, that’s one of the things I was thinking was creating a few videos, putting them up for free or sending them on a CD, whatever it is. In the beginning, I prefer to put them up on my site so people can just download them and give those away for free and then following up on the backend with my services. And then joint venturing with someone, like you said, that had a list and giving them part of the profit.

Michael: You want to create a video and put it up there for someone to download for free because you want to build some credibility, right?

Scott: Right.

Michael: Well, you can bypass that. If you can just sell yourself to one person who has a customer list and let them believe that you’re credible … I believe you’re credible because I’m looking at your work right here. I know how to identify good clean work.

Scott: Sure.

Michael: All you have to do is convince me if I mailed out to my customer list of all the people who I’ve done business with and said I highly recommend you as a guy to create and improve a very clean website, you’d have plenty of business. And then you didn’t have to screw around with making the product. We all get involved in or excited about creating products because it’s a lot of fun. But making products doesn’t make you money.

Scott: It’s time consuming.

Michael: It’s time consuming and sometimes it’s a way to avoid the real issues of what you need to be doing like selling. If you were so confident and you absolutely knew … let’s say you had a thousand website to your credit and that you were paid thousands of dollars, you would have the confidence to know that you don’t need to prove yourself to anyone.

Scott: Sure.

Michael: That’s the attitude you have to have.

Scott: I guess that’s true. I just need to find one person that would be willing to endorse me.

Michael: That’s doable. But now let me ask you this. You have to be aware. What do you want to do? Let’s say you’re successful in the marketing of whatever you want to do. Do you want to be tied down in front of the computer designing and doing these websites?

Scott: I saw that it was going to turn into something because I did spend quite a bit of time and that’s when you’re time becomes very valuable and where you would be earning a premium for what it is you’re doing.

Michael: That’s right.

Scott: Anybody can design a website. You can pay anybody to design something that looks visually appealing for $300 or whatever. But not everybody’s going to know how to market that site. Not everybody has the skill to both design it and to write effective copy and to help them with marketing and follow-up and backend sales and that kind of stuff.

Michael: I would design your own site but create and get resell rights to your own products.

Scott: Okay.

Michael: Whatever you’re interested in, I think that is the way to go because all your time and effort should be put into your own site that sells information products just like my site does.

Scott: Right.

Michael: And believe me, I’m constantly improving the site from ideas I get. It takes so much time but it’s so worth it when someone comes to your site and spends $700 on some tapes.

Scott: Sure.

Michael: Or $300 on a book that costs me $10-$15.

Scott: Absolutely.

Michael: That’s where it is. And then the site is doing all the selling. Someone will be sold usually by the time they call me. And when they call me they want to make sure I’m real and then just take care of the details or they ask me some questions. That’s how I’m able to leverage myself. You’ll never be able to leverage yourself designing these websites because you and I both know there are not enough hours in the day. But if you put your effort into creating a sales letter for a product that you control, that maybe a unique product, if you did create it, that’s fine, that you can sell over and over again. That’s where you leverage yourself and you’re able to really make some good money doing that. So, I’d be real careful about … I don’t know what your situation is, but you probably have to make a living. You have to pay your rent, mortgage or whatever. And at this point you maybe in a situation where you’ve got to make enough to do that. You have to make your bread and butter.

Scott: Right.

Michael: And this maybe your idea of doing it and that’s fine. But just keep in mind that down the road to really build your business, a lot of your time should be going into just everything that you control, your own product. Once you get that set up, then you can promote yourself. All your efforts equal all profits just for you. You don’t have to share it with a partner and it’s something you can leverage off of rather than trading your time for dollars.

Scott: What kind of product I’m going to create becomes the issue.

Michael: What do you really like? Do you collect anything? Do you have a hobby?

Scott: It’s designing stuff. I really enjoy doing it. I enjoy doing it for me, but I don’t know how much I’d enjoy doing it for someone else. I really do enjoy designing graphics and that’s one of the things I like. And one of the other things—just so you know about me—is I’m a counselor at a middle school. I serve ages 12 to 15 and kids are a passion for me. I’ve been where I am for eight years. I just love kids to death. I work in a very exclusive boarding school. It’s an emotion growth boarding school. Our program lasts two years. And I’ve just learned really how to effectively work with kids. And I definitely know there is a market for that. I just don’t know what there is out there. I haven’t really seen any information.

Michael: How old are the kids you’re working with?

Scott: Twelve to 15. Our program is for parents that are usually pretty well to do. Our program costs about $5,000 a month for room and board and the two-year program. Over the course of two years, we really help teach the kids to learn how to make better choices for their lives.

Michael: Are these kids with problems that’s why they’re at the boarding school?

Scott: They’re just starting to go down some paths that the parents would rather they not go down. A lot of times the parents will be proactive and not let it get too far. They’re starting to hang out with the wrong kids, maybe they’re experimenting with alcohol or drugs or maybe the girls are becoming sexual active.

Michael: Is it $60,000 a year?

Scott: Yes.

Michael: So, it’s $60,000 a year. And you’ve learned some affective ways in influencing the kids?

Scott: Oh very, yes.

Michael: Well, that’s a product right there. As a matter of fact, I did an interview with a couple … have you listened to any of the CD Rom yet?

Scott: Yes. I heard that one.

Michael: Did you hear that one with the couple?

Scott: Yes, I did.

Michael: I kind of went over with them … they wanted to sell a book, something similar working with teenagers. That’s huge market and that’s a market with money. There are a lot of parents who would like to influence their children but don’t have $60,000 a year to do it.

Scott: Sure, absolutely.

Michael: You could become an expert for specifically children between 12 and 15 with everything you’ve been doing. You’re an expert. You’ve been there eight years. Take everything you’ve learned and you can create 12 audiotapes. And then take those audiotapes and have then transcribed word for word, put that in a notebook and with your eight years of knowledge and skills that you’ve developed, you can sell that course to parents. You can have a product ready within two or three weeks with some effort.

Scott: Wow.

Michael: You don’t underestimate your eight years of training with this school and being there with the kids. You’ve spent more time with these kids than most parents spend with their kids in ten years. Do you see what I’m saying?

Scott: Absolutely.

Michael: If your passionate about that, that would be a great product and something of real value.

Scott: Besides marketing, that’s my other passion. My life is working with kids. I just really enjoy it.

Michael: You can do both. You can work with kids. You can influences thousands and thousands of families with your information product of what you’ve learned. And you probably have colleagues who would like to participate and add their two cents. You can interview them and recording them just like I’m recording you in a digital recording. I could give you a guy who can put them on audiotape masters and you can create a set of master audiotapes—12 tapes you could have with the course cost you probably about $15. And you can look in the back of Writer’s World Magazine and get these writers who will transcribe this stuff for peanuts. And then you put it in a three-ring notebook that you get at Office Depot. And you’ve got 12 tapes, you’ve got transcripts and you can add other things like a consultation certificate. You have a product that you can hustle for $300, $400, $500. Parents who pay $60,000, they can do it on their own for $300, $400, $500. You can get the credibility. You can get testimonials from the last eight years of people you know—maybe parents of children. I’m sure you have affected some children’s lives, right?

Scott: Right.

Michael: I bet you could come up with ten or 15 testimonials from these kids you’ve known over the years, right?

Scott: Probably.

Michael: There you go. I think that would be a great thing. It would be fun. You’re passionate about it. It would be an information product. You can enjoy the marketing aspect of it and use all the stuff you’ve learned to promote that and really feel good about marketing a product like that. You’ve got the credibility already. Wouldn’t that be a much better than being stuck in front of your computer designing website?

Scott: Yes. To be honest, yes.

Michael: That would be a great way to go. That sounds perfect. The hard thing is your confidence. Just don’t even think about it and just start doing it.

Scott: Put it in action.

Michael: Put it in action. That is the most important thing. Don’t even give it a second thought. Just do it. And there are markets out there with the money. Take what you’ve learned and take it one step further doing better—reaching a bigger market then what your school is doing because simply most people … Every parent has problem children.

Scott: Right.

Michael: And they’d love some direction on how to do it. Do you remember the infomercial with Dr. Gary Smalley on Hidden Keys of Loving Relationships ?

Scott: Yes.

Michael: That was one of the best running and successful infomercials out there.

Scott: Is that right?

Michael: Yes. I don’t know what happened. I think he had a partner. Something happened business-wise, but it just stopped. That was a great, great course. As a matter of fact, if I were you, if you want to create something this …

Scott: Go on Ebay.

Michael: … go on Ebay and find a copy of it. You can use that as an outline as to how that was laid out and then just add your own things to it. And just model it for what you’re doing. And you’ll have kind of like a blueprint to follow.

Scott: Gary Smalley you said?

Michael: Yes, Gary Smalley. It’s called Hidden Keys to Loving Relationships.

Scott: It makes sense. I thought about it. I kind of held off because I figure as far as having letters after my name, I don’t have any.

Michael: Who cares?

Scott: Well, that’s my thinking. But the practical, I think, in the trenches experience is what I think people want because a lot of times I’ve sat in a lot of therapy sessions with a lot of kids and the stuff that I do with these kids is ten times more effective than what these doctors do with these kids.

Michael: Really.

Scott: Because I’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids the last eight years that has allowed me to have some insight into what motivates these kids and what drives the kids. I know, I think, they know and they trust me because they know even if they screw around and maybe have a hard time or don’t treat somebody so nicely, they know that I’m going to be firm with them but I’m always going to come back to them and love them. I think I’m far enough away, I’m not their parent because sometimes the kids think that’s their job to rebel against the parents … 13, 14 because they’re trying to establish their own identify. And they want their own individuality, but the parents want to hold to control and say no this is my house; you’ll do it my way. It just causes so much chaos sometime.

Michael: You probably have a lot of great things to teach a lot of parents. The only way you’re going to be able to teach them is to get the word out. And you can certainly do it with the marketing skills you’ve learned and from your experience. It may seem almost ordinary to you because you’ve been in it so long, but someone hearing it for the first time, it revolutionizes their family. Most of your kids, don’t they have the same feelings and problems and situation?

Scott: Oh, absolutely.

Michael: So, you see, we’re all the same. And so do people with marketing problems. So, now I’ve got something new, with your permission, I can use. I think this will be a real benefit to people who come to the site or on a future CD. This will help someone and I’ve leveraged myself. All we had to do it once.

Scott: That’s very true.

Michael: And it’s something we do ordinarily, but now I’ve captured it forever. And this message that I’ve given you can live on even after I die and can be spread to thousands of people without any effort, without very little effort on my part.

Scott: That’s very true—very, very true.

Michael: Or you can do another great technique and go on to

 and search books related to your relationships with adolescents and stuff like that; what you’re doing. And look for some good ones; some best selling ones. You can actually look at the table of contents. And if you see some that really looks and you say this is a good book. I wish I had done something like this. Use their table of contents and some of their ideas in the way they have laid it out. And just model yours after that. Don’t copy it, but you have a blueprint instead of you just taking a white piece of paper and saying what do I do. Find something that you can model. But that Hidden Keys to Loving Relationships would be a good one because that was a proven, very successful product in the market place. The ideas are all the same, it was just a different messenger.

Scott: Right. Absolutely. It’s no different than what a lot of people have said over the years—just different packaging.

Michael: I want to thank you for listening to www.hardtofindseminars.com . If you want to get in touch with any of the people we interview, please contact Michael at www.hardtofindseminars.com by email. You can emailor you can call (858) 274-7851.