Turning an Angry Customer into an $1800 Referral (9x12 Postcard Side Hustle Live Call)

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I noticed our ad this time around hasn't been as quick to pick up um steam as the first ad. So, I regret even stopping it because honestly once it has momentum you shouldn't stop it. But right, were you getting um like right now I'm looking at mine like right now it's giving me like 31 points on improvement. So it's it's giving me all these areas that I could improve on. You know, of course, one of them is, of course, increase the budget, and I've got I've got it set to $10 a day, but the other was like connect my CRM to it, which I'm not even using a CRM.

And the other one was to I guess set one of the one of the the ads so it could be, how do you say that? So, they could run as a story, like the sizing of it. I've not done any of the recommendations yet. I just wanted like kind of like you did you you just set it you try to set as little resistance as possible not do anything majorly complicated just pretty simple straightforward right yeah and the things they're talking about there like for example the one you talked about with the reels uh they they give us the same recommendation to for Instagram reels you should have a video vertical video reel um and that should give you an 8% cheaper um cost per impression or whatever But that's not they're not saying they're going to give you an 8% cheaper price to advertise. All they're saying is from all the stats that they have on average the reels do 8% better.

So it's not necessarily going to save you 8% of your money, but it's just a recommendation. Yeah. So I figured I would let it play out week and see how it goes, you know. Yeah. I I would give it a little bit more time to run.

Um, have you gotten Are you Did you basically just copy my video? You have like a form. Yeah. Copy. Got the form and I literally even used the the the button apply now.

Yeah. So, and and what I'm doing I know there's reports I can run, but I've literally had it set like I'm running a a clock. So, about every six hours, I'm for sure doing a screenshot so I can look back at I'd like the reach, the impressions, and when I because I want to be able to gauge when I when I got the first lead. And again, I I'm sure I can run a report after the fact to figure that out. But anyways, I don't as much data as I can for anyone else that's interested, you know.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. But I appreciate everything you've been doing, man. I mean, you're pretty freaking transparent, so that's awesome. My pleasure.

I sleep I sleep well at night, as we all should, right? Yeah. Someone asked Megamind, what was it? They asked Megamind, "What's a creative way to get new clients basically?" And Megamind responded, "Bring a plant into their store or business and then place it somewhere like in their lobby and then show up every day to water it until they ask you about it.

And then once they ask you why you're there, then you introduce yourself and introduce the card." So that's that's a way to stand out. That's just the thing that Megamind can think of that nobody else can, right? It's trained on every second of all these calls we've ever done. Literally every little bit of content that's out there about the 9 by12 method.

It's It knows everything. And I I made sure to train it to be extremely transparent. So, there's that, too. It sleeps well at night. Nice.

Yeah. Yeah, man. I started this um I'm kind of embarrassed to admit because my background is literally sales and marketing business for yourself, but I I started watching I guess Jake's big I'd have to look the exact time frame, but it was like right at the beginning of the year. And so I remember when he interviewed you and then I've kind of watched your video kind of popped up and so I was watching obviously I still I try to pop on his live calls but it's rare usually it's recorded. Everything's recorded and um today I literally had to sit the even I'm I'm like now I'm on my job I'm trying to tune in a little bit but so I started working kind of putting all this together and then started calling on businesses kind of jam but then when I put everything together when I say everything like you know DBA business account business banking account things like that and then actually started calling customers to take money a couple months ago.

So, I'm still working on filling up the first card. That's why I'm It's embarrassing because um it's the pressure is on when you hear people like, "Yeah, they put together their first card in a couple weeks, you know, it's like it's a that good crunch, that good press, you know, you're like, "Holy the good squeeze, like holy cow." But I've not done the the emailing consistently like like you've talked about, you know, I've just I just jump out there literally face to face for a couple hours at a time meet as many people as I can and try to gain as much interest and I mean literally I've had a few pay but their money is just sitting there. So that's not a good Yeah. And honestly the that's way more effective than email anyway.

if you're willing to go out in person, that's definitely on average going to you're going to make more sales that way. Um, and as for their money, as long as like unless they have a specific sale that they're trying to run on a specific date or they have like an event that they're trying to advertise that they paid you for, 99% of the businesses do not care when it goes out. as long as you're transparent with them about like how you're working on it and you give them like a general date range. But once it gets close to that date range, you can be honest with them if if you feel like you're going to have to push it back and use that as a chance to leverage um to leverage them. Say, "Hey, I'm working really hard to get this filled up for the the dates that we're talking about.

It's it's been a little bit slow. Do you know anybody who's who might be interested in this?" And then they they'll give you a bunch of referrals. So then it's like a teamwork thing rather than like sorry I'm I'm I'm I'm get I'm behind I'm really sorry rather than apologizing you make it like let's work together on this. Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Like sorry. Go ahead.

No. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.

All right. Just a quick question to follow up on that. Like say you're having trouble closing. Uh you have two more spots to fill. Do you do like any kind of affiliate like hey like is it ethical?

Is it cool? Do you guys do it like a kickback on the back end for that business owner doing the leg work for you and referring a friend? Typically, I offer a discount for like future months. So, like if if they're going to refer somebody, I'll give them $100 off their next month rather than just paying them $100 back. But it's ethical to, you know, give them a kickback either way, however you want to do it.

But I prefer to entice them to join for another month by giving the discount. Your way is better. I like it. Right on. Thanks.

Yeah, referrals are huge. That helped me a lot on my most recent card. One one lady cuz I was transparent and said, you know, one of these ad one of the advertisers were going to buy an entire side of the card. And it was somebody who I trusted a little more than I should have because I already had a relationship with them. And I did I didn't do what I teach, which is don't save a spot for anybody unless they actually pay.

and they backed out and so I was left very far behind because I was expecting a whole card to be a whole side to be sold out. So, um I reached out to some of the advertisers and one lady sold two double slots for me. So, four slots she sold for me which is pretty great. That's awesome. Yeah.

Yeah. They'll be willing to help and it helps them understand that your job isn't easy either. What's up? Hey, um quick question because um I've been trying to get this rolling last couple months. This is Bob and uh maybe the group could uh interline something here too, but um when I got started, I I saw your video.

I'm like, "Okay, I'm doing this." But a friend had turned me on to your video, right? So she she said, "Hey, you go out and get all the sales, you do the followup, uh get the payment, and I'll do the is it the canvas? The canvas and design the ads." So we split it.

And I'm wondering from you guys, is that really 5050? Because if I use the example of 16 slots at 500, that's 8,000. And if I came to you, Mitch, it you would do the printing and the mailers for about 4,000, right? Is that still correct? Yeah.

With the total total fulfillment. Yeah. Yeah. And I was going to let you do that. And then she goes, "Oh, I'll I'll do that.

I'll take that part." So I'm paying. So, we're kind of splitting the foreground. And I'm thinking, is that 5050, guys? Do you think?

Because I'm getting a lot of nos. I'm getting a lot of not yet things like that. And I'm just trying to think, well, 16 sales for maybe around two grand or less kind of is like, oh boy, you know. So, I if if I was to split it, is that fair? I guess so to speak because I I'm not the techie.

So it's like okay I will get here. I would say it comes down to economies of scale. You'd have to do a lot more cards. That's just my two cents. Yeah.

Well well now I'm thinking uh let's break that partnership. I'll go do it send the other half just to match and let and run with with the design. And yeah I mean our design is our design is cheap. It's not going to cost you four grand. Like, it sounds like you're splitting the card for four grand.

Basically, the design is Yeah, we charge $25 a slot, which is basically just below industry average, and our gu is amazing and unlimited revisions. So, yeah, that's that's something to think about for sure. So, maybe just say, "Hey, listen. I got like 13 more to go and I'm doing it for the two grand." Yeah.

you know, thinking is this really worth it? You know what I mean? Versus doing it for four grand about approximately, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I see what you're saying. But isn't that a lot for her time and effort opinion on that? All right. I'm I'm Harris.

I'm listening. Hey, Bob. This is Eric. Hey, everyone. Um, I would definitely say I had a situation somewhat similar to that.

I definitely like Joel said required this person to do a lot a lot for herself. She was doing social media. Um she was gathering leads. Um I mean because that is a bl because in reality this business is almost built that you could do it by yourself in that sense if you wanted to do wear all the hats but most people don't want to wear all the hats and nor should they because it's really kind of hard to scale with that aspect of it. So, uh, yeah, there was definitely a requirement because I literally supply the person with everything.

They just needed to plug in, learn, they didn't need to learn everything, but some of the other things that required them to do. So, I would definitely revisit that commitment. Um, maybe go with it this time. uh but just you know just lay it out and said there's going to be more requirement then than than just designing the ads because with the templates and you can do that yourself if you don't want to you know give it to Mitch and his team or someone else. So, uh, I I get it.

You kind of want to Some people are not great and nor should they be doing certain things because it just slows up the process, but that's that's that's a lot. That's I'm sure she's a nice person, but Yeah. Okay. He Yeah. And Okay.

So kind of finish maybe one card and then kind of move over to Mitch and have him do the other half because do other stuff. I mean, do you do you do more than just this, Bob, or temp? Do you Okay. In in essence that you could Yeah. Maybe try to spread it out some somewhere, but you know, don't look at getting an employee.

You got to have some value there for yourself and and and her. And yeah, be a lot. I just think it's 5050. If you're if you're doing all the sales and what she's doing is design, in my honest opinion, design is maybe 20% of the physical work. And I'm not I'm sure she's not like imper purposely like trying to, you know, take advantage of you, but um cuz she might not be very fast at design and might not realize that it can be outsourced and things like that.

So, it might just make sense to pass some of the responsibilities to her, like collecting the lead list, which is very time intensive. So, if you're doing that, that could be something that she could potentially take over. So, she would collect the leads. That way, you could spend more time making calls and making more sales. You guys would be more efficient together when if you guys spread out the work a little bit more.

Okay. Thanks. So, I'm getting ripped off. Not necessarily, but well, if you get good gesture, thanks, guys. Yeah, because the sales is the hardest part.

Definitely if you're doing it in person, for sure. So, if you got down packed Yeah. you can shake hands and kiss babies, then everything else is easy. If you can get some money after that. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Amen. Thanks, guys. No problem.

Hello. That must have been an accident. Hey, Mitch. Hey. What's up?

Hey. Hey, bro. You mind if I ask you a question? Because I wasn't quite sure I sent you the message in in the little group. So, I because I was on the call.

with uh with Jake. I don't I don't know if you were just kind of teasing or if you were serious. Are you Were you really Are people Let's be honest, we're all adults here. Is people giving you Really? Is people giving you this crap about doing what it is you're doing or taking a bull by the horns and kind of doing your your your thing your way or I was I was teasing a little bit.

I was teasing. Teasing. Okay. There there are people there's definitely there's trolls and like certain like super fans of his that despise me and they make it very clear. Um not really sure why but it doesn't actually bother me.

That that was kind of the it was kind of a joke. Okay. I don't know I don't know if you took it that way but I I did and I did. I said wait a minute well just let me just say something because this will be my first interaction with Yes. I like what you doing.

I've been with Jake a long a long a long long long long time. So old old school with with that. So it was a little different at first. I was like wait who's this young guy you know but I like the style and and I actually I'll be very transparent. I reached out to him.

I was like look this guy you know I mean people when they're kind of used to something they're like who's this outsider but he was like he's a great great young man. um and he's going to do he's he he he has a good spirit a good heart he's going to do the right thing and he had given you his blessing I was like all right okay go I was like wait because I'm not in the Facebook group because I just I just despise Facebook but that's neither here nor there so if you read in it I didn't you know get any interaction with you but I like what you what what you're doing with everything so it's awesome I I appreciate that a lot break it up It's quite well. I'm nobody, but I really I like what you got going on, brother. Means a lot. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. How long have you been in it? Probably did my first art in 15, 2015, but I kind of broke it broke away because I own my own business outside of that and I was a the uh CMO for my former wife's business. So, I had a lot going on and um I just kind of had broke kind of just broke away from it.

I did probably about 10 cards or so I think at the time, put my own different spend on it and then uh just kind of came back within the last six months. been kind of fiddling around because I own another another business um actually in the own service niche and um and I said I need to get back to this because it's for me it's a free uh distribution for advertising for me. So for sure one spot out of those 16 fit to me for for sure. and um I thought about putting the product together for the community and things like that. I just I would probably be more of a giveaway than to actually try to do business, you know, and make money for it because I just I I I believe in, you know, as much as I am in the community, even though I'm not on like in the lead group in the Facebook, um you know, because it's enough out there for everybody.

So I Eric, if you don't mind me asking, what's your what's your primary? So if you're taking an ad spot, I'm just really just curious. Home service. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh HVAC, electrical, and plumbing. So So here's how I do it. Um if you guys don't mind me elaborating on it. So I don't mind.

I I asked. Yeah. So if I if I So if I uh um HBAC is the bigger ticket. So that that's a that's a given. So if somebody comes in the door, you know, um through the HCAC, so if they want plumbing or electrical, perfectly fine.

But it still allows me to go after just a pure person who just does electrical person just does um um uh plumbing. The requirement for me is is because I've been in the industry so so so long. So I came in the industry not as I'm not an electrician, not a plumber, not a HBAC guy. I came in I used to be uh the vice president of marketing for Verizon uh for about eight years. And so my company came in um well Verizon came in is to offer tablets and smartphones to uh the home service industry kind of as an onslaught of like u tablets and iPhones.

So 2006 78 in that in that in that range. Um so um so I've been in essence ancillary to the industry and I got a chance to learn a lot about the industry. So it it allowed me to become more of just understanding what a lot of those mom and pop business owners don't know is how to run a business on on on the back end. So I was able to buy um me and a partner into a home service company. So that loan to Lumica is this.

So I hold that hold that spot and they could be they could have they could be let's say they're electrician and they could do uh HVAC and plumbing as well, but they can only go on the car for the electrical. So once they get a lead in the door, they can offer them whatever. I don't even care about any any of that. but I will hold a spot for HBC because that that's a that's a bigger ticket item than the other ones. And so I kind of got a plan and formula how that works and upsales and things like that because I wanted to try to because I come from a marketing background.

Probably the majority of a lot of you where you might even been born. I just got new jeans. I just look look young. Maybe like look look young. But um so I I so this is the card is just a foot in the door for other services that I offer.

So if I do if I got a business and I can upsell them on um tracking like a tracking number uh QR code, other marketing services that's that's what I that's what I do. So, just like Jake said and M said, just allows me to just kind of ride along with everything else. But I definitely have other things that I look to be able to upsell them with with that. But Mitch, hope you don't mind me kind of talking about that Joel act, but no, this isn't my act. This is a this is a round table.

So, I'm glad I'm glad other people are talking. I like like when other people Yeah, that's cool. How would you say things have changed since 2015 in this business? Are business owners any different to talk to or anything? Well, just kind of depend.

I'm very picky about the businesses I I, you know, I target. They have to already have been marketing. I know I'm probably saying things that everybody already knows and you know, Jake and Mitch and everything teach. They have to have already been proven to have been spending money in some aspect of it because if you don't, it is definitely uphill battle. And it's nothing against them.

But a lot of business owners, they choke on $500. They're like, "Oh, $500. I can't." And I'm like, "You can't not afford to spend this this money because I'm standing in here and I'm just beingious and just making up some. I'm standing in here.

There's only me and two of the customers in there. It's lunchtime. How how are you getting business? I don't understand how you are in, you know, in business. And um and I get it to a certain degree.

I am kind of biased on there, but um I'm sure if you guys have been around any point in time, I have heard. I mean, you're not in the business of doing what it is you do. You're in the business of marketing what it is you do. I think that's a old Dan Kennedy. I'm almost positive it's old Dan Kennedy thing.

Um shout out to Dan Kennedy. Um and and and it's absolutely true and um just be just because I have the the experience in in in businesses. I've worked with a lot of different businesses and I I tell them if you're buying your plate you your temples and the food, you know, whatever it is and you have no money left over, you're not really in business because you're not getting new customers. doesn't mean like that whatever whatever someone says today, how how do how do you what was the thing today? How do you how do how do people know how people find you?

Something somebody said made a statement about that. But um but I'm also a little I do back in the day I charge less but today I hold strongly to 650. I might do a 350 if I want to be generous, but I I tell somebody, I says, "If I do a 350, because I normally do a 650, you got to find a person to do the 350 to match with you because if you don't, then it kind of messes up the flow of everything. So, um, and I'm not afraid uh to talk to business owners because I'm truly I will hold this in even if you're doing this as part-time, you are a business owner. even if you're only doing DBA, but if you're really a business and doing this as a business, you are a business owner.

So to comfort them and says, "Hey, I I I I get it. I understand. But let me help you as a business owner, you know, achieve what, you know, I'll ask them questions. You know, what is your dream? What what why did you start this business?"

So once they see you on their side and they can kind of let their hat down and not view you as a salesperson, it's a lot it's a lot easier. Um but that but again I'm just being biased because it's me because I'm not afraid to talk to another person because they put their pants on. Um well I guess if a woman a dress but I don't wear dresses as anybody else. So if you come from that aspect and again if they say it's not for them it's not for them you know don't take it personal just you know move on if it's email or in you know in person. Yeah.

Yeah. That tactic you gave about the the half slot is awesome actually. It's pretty sweet. I never thought of that because so the the tactic you gave was if they want a half slot, if they want like a $350 slot rather than 650 because they have a smaller budget, you force them to bring somebody on with them. So you're just encouraging them to bring on a second advertiser, which I got rid of those smaller spots completely on my cards because I noticed they're they do mess up the flow.

They're like almost just as hard to sell. But if somebody's going to offer you $350, you might as well give them what they want as long as they're going to bring somebody else along with them and it increases your profits anyway because now you're making $700 from the full slot for no extra work. So that's how you how you leverage them. That was huge. I like that.

Yeah. and be and be authentic about it and just tell them I'm say hey if I'm you know hey this is you know you know normally we hold the 650 spot but um and be authentic I'd like you and I want to truly help please help you out because you need it um you know most of them they they need it and just say hey you know who do you know so it kind of goes back my mentioned you know 10 minutes ago who do who do you know they know somebody you know And but here's the thing, let's call her now or him now or them now and go and say, "Hey, I'm talking to this, you know, this person, the Eric and the guys this and you know, I think it would be great for you." And then, you know, have a commitment. I mean, if you have to need if you need the money or or you want to do it, then you could just do it for 350. But I definitely try to have them bring somebody else along um you know, with them to to to do that.

They got to give me a referral and not just, oh yeah, I got somebody right now. Let's do it right, you know, right right now. Or I tell you what, when should I come back, you know, speak with you. Oh, give me, you know, give me give me a couple days. Let me, you know, talk to Bob or whatever.

Okay, perfect. My next door neighbor owns a landscaping business, you know. So that that type of thing. Yeah. Yeah.

I worked for a little bit of time that I it's got to be too much to a certain degree because a lot of a lot of uh uh in this community um are you know I mean community of Mitch's community and Jake's community a lot of people they're good at the stuff in the background they're they're not there they're ex introverts who are truly introverts I just happen to be the introvert who pretends to be extrovert actually pretty quiet and pretty pretty laid laidback, but um I I've gotten thick skin over over these years in sales and things. So, I I had offered a service of where I would just if you got the leads, I would call them. If you got um you know, well, if I was in person, I would work in that way. But then it just got to be a little bit much for me. It wasn't balancing out.

I would have definitely took the path with I'll call them, I'll email them, set all your stuff up. I I'll take care of that. But um you know, I guess I work in sales. It's just just a no-brainer for me. I didn't I I cried and boohoo many uh decades ago.

So, I didn't got to think, which by the way, HBC is the hardest to sell. I would absolutely tell you yes. It absolutely is. Absolutely. In my humble opinion.

So yeah, Jacob asked you how much it how long it takes you to sell out a car. Um because I just re restarted. I've been poking along, but it it typically took it take me probably I'd say less than six weeks, four weeks. My my fastest was two two weeks. Um, you know, it's definitely the two weeks, but I had to I had to hit it hard.

I had to have things in place. I had to, it wasn't by happen stance. You got to know who you're talking to. You got to have a plan. You got to know all the things that goes along, you know, with it versus just kind of doing a little bit here.

You got to, cliche as it is, you got to treat it like a business and it'll it'll it'll pay you. Uh, what I like about what you say mentioned is it it is Do you want to? Not that nobody doesn't have a great job. They don't work for a great company. Don't have a 401k.

Might have been there for years. But what's important to me for various reasons. It's the thing that I none of us could get back time. We can't get back time. And it wasn't like the market now, job market isn't um or the career landscape isn't like because I'm an older genetic.

I just look young because of good good jeans. Um people don't stay at companies 20 30 years anymore whether you want to go or they want you to go. So what is going to be your plan? What is going to be your north star for for for that? And this is an easy business to do per se versus a lot of the other businesses that you could start on there.

I don't want to I don't want to be in somebody's hot attic. I don't want to be under somebody's uh uh um uh uh water heater. I don't want to be messing around somebody's uh electrical stuff if I could use those examples. Time is everything for for for me. We can't get those back, guys.

And you know, this is a pretty the average person in America doesn't make four grand a month or on a on a card. you know, and if you start making it fun and you really are really true to helping small business owners, after a while, I just feel personally just kind of it's something you should you should be doing. You you should be doing Yeah, I resonate with all that. I've been talking enough. I mean, garbage.

It feels it feels kind of unfair to like know about this business because like you said, like the average person does not make $4,000 in a month. And we're like the amount of it. It just feels like the balance of difficulty to income with this business is unreal compared to other businesses. Um, so I could see why I do get hate online because it does sound pretty fake when I'm preaching it everywhere, but it it is crazy for the people who have actually experienced it. And it is awesome for like the video I just made for retirees.

Like you can make some make some friends. It's it's it's harder for me because a lot of business owners are much older than me. So I feel like it's hard to make friends with a lot of these people. But for I feel like it's a great business if you're just trying to make connections. As long as you go about it the right way and you're not just trying to sell people, but you actually just make relationships with these people.

You can make connections along the way and then it's it's like it's a lifestyle, not a not not necessarily a sales business. Yeah. And I'm a people person anyway, but not in my entire life. So just it's natural for me to see other people win. I love to see other people win.

Some people don't or they they don't care either way, but I love to see people that actually um uh don't don't tell any of my military buddies, but they probably noticed already. Uh uh it makes my heart feel good. It it definitely makes my heart feel good to see other people at least what part I can play in them realizing their dream of why they started a business and things like that. That's a lot of them. It's part of being a business owner.

Um, definitely if you don't have any support or you've had support and it kind of died down or you have a spouse or a significant other, won't you go get a real job versus, you know, all those things that some of us probably have heard and a lot of these business owners have have heard and they've kind of lost the passion and the and the uh and the um uh passion and in in the uh you know why they why you know why they why they start business and they're kind of on an island by themselves. And I think that's another reason when you're talking to them, it's saying, "Hey, I get it. I I I get you, you know, and sometimes I'll give them my my stories. I mean, I've had failures. Nothing has ever been, you know, perfect.

Although my former wife has a multi-million dollar business because of me, but neither here nor there she did. But she's good at what she did and I'm good at what I did was bringing in customers. But it was um yeah. So yeah um but those people who don't want to come in um just again like somebody don't want to be on the card you know nothing personal and if you think it's a you know you think this is a uh uh some kind of a scam or something you know those will be the most even if they came in they would be the big criers all the time in reality and they don't even want to do the work. So they just they want the easy easy money and there's there's no uh uh easy money pretty much for I guess everywhere.

So yeah. Yeah. And for I've never experimented with this, but this is something somebody could experiment with. for people who might have a price objection like because they don't necessarily believe in it. Experiment with this, but maybe set set up some sort of agreement where you get to decide or you you guys decide together, but you get to approve what their offer is going to be.

And you'll give them a massive discount for cash up front, like charge $200 for a slot, but you get, depending on the industry, you get $50 per lead that comes through that card. But you got you got to make sure it's trackable and make sure you have an agreement in place for something like this. But make sure it's trackable. So it would be a lead uh like some kind of form that you have access to and whatever number of leads go through that form, no matter if they convert them or not, you get 50 bucks. That's your job.

It's their job to convert them. So make that clear to them. But that could be a way for you to make honestly more than the $500 off the slot because you're taking on the risk upfront by offering them it for $200. Um, but yeah, you got to make sure you you actually have a you set up a good offer that will attract a lot of leads. So that that means you need a little bit more marketing savvy.

And I just thought of another video that I could put out, which is I might just make a YouTube video going over all different types of offers for different types of industries that you guys can recommend to your clients. So I'm going to take note of that right now. Yeah, that that's exactly right. Yeah, you could be um I guess position is like affiliate marketing because that's a that's a hard industry to get into for people just do affiliate marketing, but they're thinking about it like online affiliate marketing because there's affiliate marketing in the area that you you live in and you said, "Hey, you know, um I'll help you design the ad. Um obviously, because that's already done, I'll help you craft the right offer."

Uh but yes, like Mitch said, you know, you you you you can't uh measure what you can't track. So, you got to have it to make sure that that you're finding a way to make sure nothing falls, you know, falls through the the the the crack to just make sure. Yeah. Okay. I I I might even give you a free ad.

So, think about this. And I have this on my radar. Hope you don't mind me sharing this. Do you, Mitch? You mind me sharing?

Okay. So, let's say you have a a company that has a higher dollar amount item. So, let's say it's one of those uh depending on where you live at, but where I live at, there's a lot of those um um uh uh ATV vehicles, um you know, for the four wheels or stuff like that. You know, the average cost on that is eight grand or better. They may not even have or even know what affiliate program is.

So, let's say you went to a company that that that does that or local dealer or something and you said, "Hey, I'll design an ad. I'll put the ad. I'll put a number. You can get a tracking number and get everything to make sure you know that the lead came over to them." So, yeah, you can maybe sell it as a lead service additionally.

every lead 50 bucks or you say hey um if it sells um and Bob buys from you Tom um you know I get 10% or 20% or whatever the the number is so no money out of their pocket at all they lose nothing at all um it's they be willing to do that I think it's a I would if I was the business owner I'd much rather do my own ad so I can get all the money. But they may be like, "Okay, if I don't have to pay you anything, um, you know, kind of think of like groupish of it." Yeah. Okay. You do it.

You going to take care of it come out my pocket with any money? Nope. Not at all. But I will be tracking everything. I will make sure, you know, um, if something comes through, I I know that it came through and I go from go from there.

So Mitch, you're muted, Mitch. kind of like a lead genen agency but postcards that's that's new. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Yes. And that's what I did. I I I I did that um to figure out well I didn't figure it out. I got a whole I guess I could have put out a product but I didn't want to. that that's just an additional way to get because respectfully unless it's a unless this is a I just need enough just think of um uh Jeff Bezos just wanted enough to buy a nice big fancy car and a nice big house we wouldn't have Amazon.

So, you know, you can get that's how you get beyond just the few grand uh you know, a month or on a car. You know, figure out other ways to to to to um increase the dollar amount um the money that you're bringing into your business. Definitely. That's cool. Will I want to connect with Will?

Will's the man. Hey, Will has some awesome products that I need to know how to use. I'll be contacting you will like bundle bundle for because I follow you on YouTube. So yeah, I'm I'm gonna be on that. I just want to Yes.

So we we'll talk. Thank you. Let me get off, man. I'm just like my show. Let me get off my No, don't get off.

Stay right there. But I'll answer some questions in the chat. There's a few. Um, Feno O asked how long they should give themselves to sell out their first card. I would I've been recommending 6 weeks because it would typically take around a week for printing.

So, that'll give you around five weeks or a week and a half for printing depending on what service you're using. But, it'll take you about five weeks to sell. But, summertime is a little slower. So, I I'm going to recommend one extra week this time. So, I would give yourself 7 weeks.

As long as you're willing to actually put in the work consistently for those seven weeks, then you should have no problem selling out a card. If you just follow, you know, consistent schedule and you're consistently working, you know, five five days a week, then that shouldn't be a problem at all. And then what else do we have? Oh, 10,000 or 5,000 cards. I love it.

So, in my opinion, which so many people disagree and so many people agree. Um, so either way works, but I I believe in 5,000 cards because in my opinion, from what I've seen, small businesses care more about budget than value in most cases. So, what I mean by that is in order to sell do the 10,000 cards, you're going to have to charge much more money in order to make the same amount of profit. So what does that mean for the small businesses? Now they're looking at a $700 price point rather than $500.

So they might be paying, you know, seven cents per door instead of 10 cents per door for 5,000 cards, but so it might be a better deal for the 10,000 cards for the business, but it's $700. It's way more than $500. So the value might be better, but it's just more money for them to even imagine paying per month. stealth. I don't know if I described that very well, but in order to sell 10,000 cards and make the same amount of profit, you're going to have to be charging a lot more, which small businesses might get more afraid of.

And a lot of people in our group have mentioned that they've had trouble selling those higher price points and have gone down to the 5,000 cards and sold lower price points and make the same amount of profit, but have easier sales. So, that's my opinion on 5,000 cards. But people do 10,000 cards plenty successfully. Hey Mitch, where do you uh have those numbers? I know I've seen them somewhere in terms of like the the breakdown.

Yeah, like for doing 5,000 cards. Where do you have those numbers? We have a uh profit calculator actually, so you can put in how many cards you're doing, what fulfillment service, what the exact prices are of your ads and everything. So I'll drop that link in the chat. Um perfect.

Thank you. I have seen it. I just have I just have been rethinking this. I believe it's is 9 by12method.com/profit calculator-profit calculator.

Yep, that's it. It's in the chat. Let's see what else do we have. Kim says, uh, what's the typical number of contacts in a database consist of? I have about 900 in my database and have reached out in some form to about half of them and have not made a sale yet.

So, you've reached out to about 400 450 contacts and have not made a sale yet. Um, so have you reached out to most of them over email? Uh, yeah, and I've done some cold calling and some I've emailed and called. Some have asked for more information or given me an email address of the person that I need to reach out to. Um, restaurant owners are typically not in.

I'm told to call after a certain time. Um, it's just variable on that. Yeah. So, are you getting responses to your emails? A couple.

I've gotten a couple. A couple. Do you think there's any ch has it slowed down? Do you think there's any chance that you're going to spam now and that's why people aren't really responding? I thought about that and I've tried uh different forms.

I've changed my email up short, some a little bit longer. It's just I don't know not working. You should uh send me your exact email script that you usually send. Send send it to 9x12 method@gmail.com and that way I can tell you if it then message me in school to let me know you sent it and I can tell you if it went to spam or not and I can also see like the exact script you're using.

Okay. And I have used your script that you have in the um in the classroom. Okay. Yeah. I mean, email isn't the most effective way, but 400 definitely.

It's interesting that you haven't had too much traction yet. What What What is your location? Are you Are you in like a huge city or what are you targeting? And are you saying it's going to like 5,000 cards in Boston or are you saying it's going to 5,000 cards in the specific neighborhood? Oh, yeah.

It would be like a Boston thing. Yeah. So, I guess I need to narrow that down. Yeah, that that would definitely help, especially Yeah, if you narrow it down to a specific neighborhood or, you know, zip code, but you can usually they, you know, have smaller names that you can actually name drop. I would I would recommend doing that because it sounds like a lot less of a drop in the bucket and more targeted.

And you could even if if you're targeting higher income homes in that area, that might be beneficial depending on the prospect you're reaching out to. Okay. And when I when I call, I I do, you know, the receptionists are usually very receptive to what I have to say. And I am in I've been in residential sales like you for nearly 30 years. And I can tell you this is a uh it's it's definitely different because when you're calling a homeowner, they don't want to talk to you.

But I'm calling businesses and they do want to hear what you have to say. It's just the interest for some reason is not going anywhere. Yeah, definitely. Another thing I I noticed about I mean so I I've sold in a very small town and I've sold in larger city and a larger city and once I got to the largest end I noticed it was actually harder to sell because and I'm I'm assuming this is just a guess but I think it's because they already have such a large dense population around them they don't necessarily feel like they need to do as much advertising if it's just like a storefront they already get decent foot traffic in front of them. That's just my theory.

If they're if they're like central in the city. So, I don't know if you've So, you haven't made sales yet. So, it's not too late to switch locations and maybe target like a suburb or somewhere more outside of the city. Um that way, yeah, you might find businesses that would be more happy. And then you could say it's going to this neighborhood in the middle of the city.

So, then they can drag people out to them. Okay, just real quick, I wanted to hop on here. Uh, this is my first time on the on the call, but I've been doing this for about a month now. I just got my first card out a few days ago. I just wanted to share share something that uh that helped me out a lot.

Um, with like when you're starting out and people are kind of like, who is this? Are they trying to scam me? Like that kind of stuff. I started going to BNI meetings. Um, if you guys have those in your area, like you can just Google BNI my area and if you go just visit, um, you can look up the chapter and what time they meet.

You go in there, they give you 30 seconds to go to do your pitch on it in front of all the business owners. Um, and that breaks down some walls. Um, because then after you can go on that same BNI website, it has a list of all the business owners in that group and you can get you can reach out to them and be like, "Hey, I saw your business at the BNI. I was a visitor and then they know that you're like a real person that you're in the the um actual area, you know, and you're not trying to to scam them out. Just kind of builds that that trust and that that really kicked off some um some stuff for me.

So, I just wanted to share that um in case anyone else was was struggling with um that kind of stuff. So, that's awesome advice. There's a few people in our group that have had a ton of success with the with that the BNI. I never tried it, but people have been killing it with in there. Sounds like Will Brad Will Bradwell does, too.

We got 23 members on today. Not bad. Some people might be in work. That's I noticed that on the weekends we get a ton of people that are able to talk, but less people show up, but then on the weekdays, a ton of people show up because they can come in and listen, but then less people can actually talk. H I got a good question.

Why haven't you tried the 9 by12 method CRM? There's a free trial now. Actually, I just leaked information. I I just leaked information I wasn't supposed to leak yet. That was supposed to come out in a few days, but um here I'll put the link for you guys.

It's exclusive uh free trial period. See? All right. I just put it in the chat. It's free trial.

You don't even have to give your credit card. So, if you hate hate the tool, just don't even ever come back and you don't you won't we won't have your information. So, it's fine. You won't get automatically charged or anything. And you also will get higher access to Megamind in there.

So, you can ask it more questions. Ask it about what's a cool public event you can hold um to gain clientele. It'll give you a good answer there. Sorry, Mitch. I can't apparent I can't walk and chew bubble gum today because I was talking.

What what did what what were you what did you just send that what what was going on? You say you leaked something and I guess we need we we're the first to know about or something. What was the statement? It's the uh it's the 9 by12 method CRM. So it's a it's a customer relationship management tool where you can actually hold all your contacts.

You can actually manage your cards right there. You can attribute slots as like sold to certain contacts. You can send invoices directly from the CRM. um all all sorts of things, you know, you could set tasks that remind you to like follow up with certain contacts. So, if I'm not Have you ever used a CRM before?

Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I built built my own, but I had it I had it on my particular list and when I seen the uh the Megamind on that, but let me let me go ahead and and and try this actually um and maybe that could be uh something that could help me slim down some some some things. So yeah, I'll be sign up for that today. Absolutely.

I will keep doing that. Yeah, it's right in the chat and it's it's a free trial. So if you don't like it, that's all right. Okay. Okay.

Fe um what's the cost going to be on that? It's 47 a month after the trial, which you don't get automatically charged. It'll you'll get prompted if you wanted to continue. Um, and yeah, so it's it's it's basically everything a 9 by1 12er would need in a CRM without all the fluff because I used to use High Level and I hated recommending High Level to people because it takes weeks just to learn it because there's just so much stuff that you don't need. So I I we built something purely custom for the 9x12 method.

And my favorite part is the card management feature where you can actually attribute slots as sold to your contacts. You could uh import their ads right there. So, you could actually show what the card looks like, screenshot it, and send send like a a mockup to your clients. All kinds of things you can do with it. Right.

Right. I I would even maybe stick with Bob if uh I guess if he has a enough of a no like and trust factor with that person he was talking about, have him learn how to run that for him. And then I I I can't say that necessarily what that I mean that could justify splitting it in half, but I mean you could do it itself, but that could be something says, "Hey, I bought a tool, need to learn how to run it, and then it's a better help." Um or not better help, but this could help kind of justify that that that number versus the design because in reality, he doesn't need her for the design. I mean, if he has the templates and stuff or utilize yourself, but uh yeah, that that that will be what what I'mma do.

Actually, thanks. I think when it comes to the CRM, I I'd want that part. I' I want to do it because I'm going to be doing the followup. So, I think the CRM part I I think I'll get started with that almost as soon as this meeting's over. Thanks.

So, thanks for the option. Jacob has asked uh about calling businesses and confidence and I think can we touch on that a little bit too? Calling businesses in confidence. I feel like I'm asking for money. Any advice for this?

Okay. So, it sounds like you need to sell yourself first. Um, and if you go to our wins tab, somebody talked about a really sweet win that one of their one of their business clients had. I think it was some sort of contractor and they got a ton of business from the card. So, go to the wins tab.

You'll get a lot of inspiration there. Um, not only Yeah, it was Michael. Search up Michael Hagger and he posted about it. But you need to sell yourself on the value that you're providing. So businesses spend thousands of dollars on mail marketing.

There's no question about it. And what you're doing is you're you're bringing the businesses together to split the cost. You're not selling anything. You're just providing the service that they would never have the time to do, which is to get round up 15 other kittens all at once, all put their money together um in order to get this card shipped. So you're you're just collecting money and you're getting a a little bit of a fee at the end of it.

But it you're providing a ton of value by decreasing the cost of marketing that they would otherwise have to spend by because nobody no business owners have the time to, you know, collect 15 other businesses to go in with them. Otherwise, they might as well do the 9 by12 method. It might as well be their business. I think that having a belief in the card, which I believe in the card, I I think it's a great thing. Exactly.

Yeah. You got to believe in it. if I make a statement. Definitely. Mitch.

Yeah. So, uh, someone's mentioned, uh, I think someone said they had just, uh, he might have jumped off about he had just done his first card, but I remember I belong to, was it a BNI, but it was a a networking group and it was only one of, you know, one business owner, one person per category, uh, for this. And um so everybody we would meet every Wednesday and we'd give try to give each other leads and different things like that. And so I had a couple of the business owners come to me and says, "Hey, Eric, um in direct mail, I would definitely say obviously not personally, but professionally I probably am responsible probably about a half three/4 billion direct mail pieces. Um and um so they were like, "Hey, you know, we're trying to get business out so we're there."

They said I So when I did, long story short, I did the 6 by whatever 6 by11 or whatever. So it was three businesses on one side, three businesses on the other. We mailed business to business and um it was part of about to get off a track, but it was part of just saying, "Hey, you know, I believe in this. you this is something that you guys are are are trying to do to get in front of these other businesses. So yeah, selling yourself as if you if they feel that you don't believe it, then they're not going to believe it and not everybody is going to believe it.

But uh you with anything with sales, they they they buy you before they buy the product or service when you're talking about dealing with another a human human being. So, if they can get them to know, like, and trust you. Um, and, um, particularly if you have a business that could be on the card yourself, you should always, if you can, take a spot on your own card. Um, and then that way. So, I had something else, but I'm sorry.

I kind of lost my mind of going 50 miles an hour. So, but yeah, definitely got a belief. And I'd like to add Go ahead. No, you go. Here you go.

I I was just going to say I would like to add something. Um I have been since I started a couple of months ago. I was striking out quite a bit. Um I have been contacting all the people who come in the Val pack and then I live in Buffalo, New York and and coupons are big here. So there's a lot of like coupon mailer kind of places.

And um Alexa, stop. She's telling me my my dog wants a cookie. Anyway, so I've been contacting these people and I've been trying to do this all from home and uh over direct message, text message, phone calls, that sort of thing cuz I need I don't want to go out in the winter. Winters are long here. So, I've not been doing very well with it.

And um uh I've started using this new this well, it's new to me, this NEPQ. And I'm learning it all from YouTube because it's like $5,000 to buy the course and I just don't have the budget for that. And so yesterday um I got on the phone with two only two. I only called two and I closed them both. I was like and there are people who are doing um uh Valpac.

So, if you guys go watch some of those videos, I think you'll really find I think the thing that we're doing is we're just talking too many features and benefits and we're not talking to them about the solution to their problem. We're not even investigating what their problem is. And I think that is going to be a turning point for me. I really do. I mean, it can't just be a coincidence that yesterday is the first day I started using it.

same people that I've been trying to get from the same source and I was able to close both the people who I talked to on an ad for $699. Can you give us an example, Leah? Well, um, when I call them, he teaches you and and I actually there's another person who had given me this advice before, but I didn't really understand it. So he says that when you call, take advantage of the human um need that we all have to help other people. So act a little bit confused.

And so and when you when you introduce yourself, do it in a tone that they are thinking to themselves, am I supposed to know this person? So I would say like um hi Ralph, which is one of the ones I closed yesterday. Hey Ralph, this is Leah. Leah from the Buffalo Spotlight. Like he should know who I am, okay?

And he's thinking, he's not thinking this is a telemarketer. He's thinking, how do I know this person? Who is this? You know, and then I go, um, Ralph, I I I really am not sure if you are the person that I should be talking to. Can you help me out for just a minute?

And because I said, "Can you help me out?" Now, I'm not saying he's going to do whatever I asked him to do, but he's going to be willing to take a listen and see if he can help me out. And that is a huge, huge, huge way to open the call because they spot telemarketers a million miles away. And you do too, don't you? You know, don't we all?

when when somebody calls us, don't we immediately know when it's a telemarketer? Well, I think that's what I sounded like. That's been my experience. I I I really didn't know any better. So, like I said, I've been studying this on YouTube and just watching.

There's there's lots of videos out there on it. NEPQ stands for neuroeotional persuasion questions. So, then you just start asking questions and and finding out about them. Forget about you. Forget about telling them about the postcard.

Forget about any of that. Ask them how their business is doing. Asking I heard something today on the other call. Uh how how do you get on people's radar? I really like that.

That sounds like so friendly and and non pushy, you know. Hey Ralph, how do you get on how do you get on people's radar? You know that I think that's really good. So just start asking them questions and letting them and lead them into of identifying their problem. Whether their problem is getting people in the door, whether their problem is, you know, selling more products online, no matter what their problem is, help them identify the pro the problem.

And then again, using questions, you can lead them into identifying that your solution will change things for them. I mean, you might actually have to ask somebody. So, if you don't So, if you So, this So, if this is what you're saying is going on, what's going to happen if you don't change anything? All right, that really is a good one because they're going to they're going to like their head is just going to pop for a minute like what is going to happen if I don't do anything about this? So, it's worth it's worth spending a weekend studying.

I'm telling you, it's it really is. I feel so much more confident. I don't feel like I'm going in there to push a postcard cuz I do believe in our postcards. And like I said, there's a lot of um coupon papers around here. Some of them if I open it to try to prospect from it, I get ink all over my hands.

You know, there they're just there's nothing that has the quality of these cards that we're doing. There's just nothing else out there like it. people throw that stuff in the trash and that I really believe our postcard is different. So, um anyway, I just wanted to share that. Um just to add to that, I had a lady call me back.

Uh she actually told me, um I don't even know why I called you back because I have no money. She has um like a it's kind of kind of like a tutoring place. I'll just say in that industry. And she had poured $80,000 of her savings into the place. And she said just two days prior she decided to sell it.

But I don't know if there was any way that I could have um gotten a sale out of her. Uh I figured if at the end I needed to fill a spot, I would give it to her for free. Uh, I don't know if anybody has any suggestions on that or not, but um, this this, you know, it's either they have enough business or I'm hearing that they have no money. Well, everybody says they have no money. I mean, this lady might be telling the truth, but that's just a common objection.

There is a NEPQ uh PDF uh available through a person that's very famous for this whose name I don't want to say because I'm not I mean I don't make any money off of what he's doing. Uh well I am indirectly but um he uh has a thing out a PDF that's 50 objections and how to deal with each one of them. And I'm not finished going through it. I just got it yesterday, but it's it looks like it's really good. Okay.

And I I do believe she probably didn't have any money because she was she was in tears. Yeah. A lot of I've heard that story before. A lot of people do get themselves into that situation. They put their own money into something that isn't, you know, that they didn't do the due diligence on.

You feel bad for them. Absolutely. at the end she was just like, "Thank you for listening and I'm sorry I poured my heart out to you, but I completely understand. You know, it's hard sometimes." Has she tried to settle the business?

She's She's looking for a buyer uh right now. Well, maybe she could put it on your card. That's an idea. That's That's a good idea. Even if you gave it to her just at the break even cost.

Yeah. Actually, you could actually use that as a um a cautionary tale as you're talking to other business owners. Um you're not trying to exploit uh her pain um to someone else, but it could be something that you could be speaking to another business owner because she's not one um who's experiencing that. Um I guess that's why those numbers are so high for businesses particularly brick and mortar businesses going out of businesses out of business within less than five years. um is that so majority of time they don't have anyone to talk to but I guess the most loyally is is you could use that story without mentioning her name without mentioning that business um as you're talking to other business owners because again you're talking to from a business owner to another business owner that you you you you get it and and the card is not going to save them.

It might not be their Hail Mary, but you could utilize the card as a way to help kind of uh alleviate some of the trials and tribulations and pain that they're having of getting customer clients and patients. You mean in trying to get them to purchase a spot or Well, as as you're as you're Yeah. As you're talk Well, not Yeah. I mean, eventually you're trying to get them to to get a spot, but you're just giving them a scenario that you could say, "Hey, I you know, I can't mention the business owner's name or the industry that they're in." And I approached them um and talked to them about the card.

Um great business. Um I think they would do very well on the car. And as her as I this person got to speaking found out that you know they had dumped you know their life savings in the business and things weren't working out because other than if they have bad customer service not a great product just failed at running a business majority of businesses don't make it because they don't have enough people coming spending money with them period. So if they're not doing that, I mean, if they got all those other things that at least happily in place or at least have some semblance of that it's working, they're just not getting enough people to either repeat business with them or get new customers to or clients or patients to come in. So that's what the card is trying to help them to to do because it's like and I'm saying this very respectfully to mention somebody else.

I guess you would know on this call. If you're a real estate agent and you're talking to a real estate agent and you're asking them how they get business and they say they get all of their business from referrals, we know that is not absolutely not true. Or they're one of the worst real estate agents that there is because not everyone is looking to buy a house or sell a house or a commercial property, whatever the case may be. And whoever's giving them the referral is not thinking about them all the time. unless a scenario comes up.

So I say that to say this, if a business just has one track of how they're getting business, they are eventually doomed to fail. Particularly if you are somewhere that you're paying a lease and uh you know you got to buy inventory, whatever employee employee employees. So they're again they're not in the business doing what it is that they're doing. they're in the business of marketing what it is that they're doing. Um and then that's another you know effectively in the right target market and ICP and all that type of stuff.

But um you know you can then ask them say so is you know how many how many new what does it say customer they call the people customers? How many new customers would you need to come in on a monthly basis that would take some pressure off you? So, it kind of goes back to uh I think what Leah was saying um because John Jeremy is an awesome guy. I popped in his office a couple times, talked to him and his staff. Great attitude.

I've actually utilized that before I even heard of him in in my industry. But yeah, you're trying to find, you know, talk to them about their pain point and and trying to give them at least some semblance of a solution. You're not the Hail Mary, but you might could say, "Hey, you know, hey man, if I could just get two extra clients a month that or customers, that would really help me depending on the business." And then say, "Hey, let's let's excuse me, let's look at it that way." So, you're coming from a place of helping, not trying to sell them something.

And then, like said, you ask, "Hey, um, what does that what what happens or what does that look like if you don't If that doesn't happen, well, yeah, I'd have mortgaged my house to the hilt, you know, I'd done borrowed money from friends and family, you know, all those things. So, if if they if you're showing that you truly care, which you should, then that could definitely help in eliminate eliminating that you're just trying to come in and sell them, you know, something. I mean, because at the end of the day, we all are. Just like they would try to sell you if you walked in a restaurant or place of business and if you decide not to buy, they're trying to tell you why you should buy, why they're the best place or whatever the case. Same, you know, same difference.

But if they approach you in a way that says, "Hey, this is something that can help you do whatever or alleviate whatever pain point that you're have having or what keeps you up at night. Um, that's probably a little less advantageous um, in the process of getting them to to buy two cent. Yeah, that's good advice, Eric. Yeah. No, I and I probably should have maybe inquired a little bit more about, well, like what you said, how many more customers would you need?

And, you know, just tried to uh do some uh reverse engineering, I guess, and and figure out what it would take. Thank you, Eric. Hey, Kim. Does she have the kind of business that maybe you could help her plan some sort of an event where she could do enough money to raise the money to advertise on the card? I'm sure.

I mean, it's you know, it's tailored for kids and uh you know um I I think that that is attractive to a lot of people with smaller children. For sure. Yeah. Maybe maybe uh you know help her plan. I don't mean to do it but to plan something.

Do you use chat GPT Kim? I do and I have been. Yes. So what I did was uh I went in and I asked Chat GPT to make me a phone script, a voicemail message, a DM message, and an email. It already knows what it knows about me.

and and to do it in the style of Jeremy Miner using NEPQ and then I just tweaked that to so that it fit, you know, me and um that's that's probably going to give you a really good idea about what this is all about if you're interested in that. Okay, I will uh definitely I I have been using it for some of the scripts but like you mentioned a few others like the cold call Yeah. Yeah. If you work with a lady and let her know, hey, you know, the perfect thing about advertising is that it brings in new customers, which will um, you know, brand awareness that she has this service, but also if she's looking at selling it, if it's profitable, you know, it makes it much easier to sell, you know. So, it's a way that she can show that um that the newcomer, you know, can make money off of that.

And then also another thing is I mean maybe maybe you could do it as well we can if there's an area that does homeschooling or especially right now while kids are out of school. Um now would be a great time for her to advertise to keep those skills sharp. were, you know, uh, kind of more like get kids ahead for the next season, you know, or the next year of school. So, there's lots of ways that you can spend it. You want to spend the end result and not focus on the money.

Well, it's $300 to do, you know, the ad. Um, just be more focused on, hey, you know, have you thought about this service for other areas, you know, or kind of trying to be more creative with that? And I did think about that actually. You you mentioned that I I thought about well, you know, she probably would get more money if her business was profitable. Of course, then she probably wouldn't sell, right?

But uh she is a franchise and I I I don't know how franchises work. I've heard they uh take a a big portion of your profits. So, I'm I'm sure that probably does not help her cause at all. Yeah. Franchises, you you have to pay regardless of you.

Franchisee, they they don't care what going going on because I I've worked with uh work for Verizon. I work with a uh a lot of franchises and uh you know that bill is due every every every month and uh some are helpful franchiseor a lot of them can't say a lot of them are not but some are not but yeah you have that at the crack to them every every month um and um it's different in different industries of you know some of them um Which by the way, if you have here's a good nugget. if you have a particular franchisee um that um can do some things on their own because some franchises have to get approval from their franchiseors which side note on that if you can help them with that they may say hey you know I'm a franchisee of this uh um uh you know of this brand branch and um I can connect you with them and you can show them how this could help their franchisee that might lead to other franchises um coming on board and also with like with Verizon I'm not saying it's with every every franchise business but a lot of uh franchiseors will give franchises co-op dollars spend on marketing. So take for instance like uh bars uh with liquor. There's a lot of uh u liquor companies that will give bars and restaurants co-op dollars to market for that specific product or products if they have several products but to get business in.

So that could be that might be a way for just anybody on this call if you run across that um they may not be able to make a decision but if it's a franchise the franchiseor may be able to come in and says okay yeah we'll give you you know this amount of money to advertise because like with Verizon they didn't care what like on digital billboards they didn't care what story it was because they they're at the end of funnel, but they would give the franchisee co-op dollars to market with. That is definitely a golden nugget for sure. I would say if I could use that terminology or for sure um they definitely they definitely not everyone but someone would do and you can inquire uh about that. Some some business owners don't even know. They're like, "Ah, I don't know."

Or maybe they kind of said something like, "Hey, you know, if I could help, you know, with that, um, that that would be a way that you're not coming out of coming out of pocket with any with any money. A franchise franchiseor will pay for it." So, and not work every time. So, thank you for that, Eric. No, no, no.

I'm sorry. You're welcome. Um I you you you also made me think about you know franchises is uh something that I I think that I was a little confused upon and I wonder do some of these franchises know that these things are offered by the franchiseor and is it easy to get through to the franchiseor on their behalf possibly. Well, some some do and some don't. I guess I could say that general with no with everything.

So, I'll give you a perfect example. I I I at one point in time I had the largest Subway franchisee in my state as a client uh for my marketing agency and it was Subway and this franchisee had 67 I think location and they were complaining because we kind of know start I mean it's always kind of been like that for the franchisee but it was kind of doing the $5 foot long. Um, and you know, the average franchisee is only making it was under like 50 cent for every Subway that they salvage that they sold for the foot long, but they still had to buy all the supplies, all the meat, everything from Subway. They couldn't buy it from another vendor. Um, even though it was the same meat or bread, uh, but they they were locked in their contract.

So, what they so how I got was by referral. And what we did is I looked at the contract and seen just where they could do marketing on their own that wouldn't violate their contract. And then that's all that we did for them was just just did whatever we not whatever, but we had a plan that we could based on the contract if they did this and did this on their own, they would not violate that contract. So spin around. If I get back to to to to Verizon, um uh some of our franchises were very savvy.

They read the contract. They stayed in contact. Um if they sold so many devices, we would give them so many thousands of dollars um to their pocket and to, you know, help with uh marketing. So, um, so I can't give you the exact answer, Miss Kim, for everybody, but some of them they just don't even don't even know. U, it might be their first franchise and they bought it because they had a little money from their 401k and whatever.

heard everything, oh, I heard franchising was great and they got into the business, but they really really weren't savvy enough business owners to find out what it is that they can't can't do or and where potentially other additional money to come from. So as you're talking to these uh if you're talking to a particularly a franchisee you're asking those kind of questions because again you're coming from an aspect of getting to wanting to know um of of working with them as a business owner to business owner. So you know the the card is secondary. you're really, you know, just trying to be another peer that they can vent to and talk to if they're willing to if you build some rapport with them and they may give you that type of information and then you might can say, "Hey, you know what? Let's let's, you know, look or or maybe maybe you want to pull out your contact or or call your district manager and kind of, you know, find out uh for those things."

So now you're being a trusted source versus uh potentially Dan Kennedy say unwanted pest in that aspect of it because you are trying to bring value to them and they may not even know and they were like wow I had no idea because some franchise Oh go ahead. I'm sorry. I was just going to say, you know, it's not just franchises. I worked in the construction industry prior to 2008 and I worked specifically for flooring and those stores too, they have um like Mohawk, a lot of the brands give them co-op dollars. Also, my daughter is a nurse and I know that doctor's offices get money from pharmaceutical companies for advertising.

I don't know if they call it co-op. And um also hair salons get co-op dollars from the uh brands that they carry for retail. So if you got somebody who sells I don't know what's popular right now and Paul Mitchell, I don't know. Um Paul Mitchell uh might have uh advertising money for them too. And and a lot of them don't know it.

A lot of them don't know it. And a lot of times the businesses don't even tell them about it unless they ask, you know, because they'd rather not give that money away, but but um but they will, you know, they they do do it. So it never hurts to ask the business that you're talking to whether they have especially if they have products, if they have uh co-op dollars available to them. This is awesome. I I think this is what brings value to us right here.

Sorry. I'm sorry. if they if they don't don't uh if if they are uh having you know on their shelves or if I'm just using a shelf as a proverbial statement but if they have uh you know particular uh brands or companies that supply them with things that you know they're not just buying it from like a wholesale like okay you like Paul Mitchell okay and we we we you're selling Paul Mitchell in our store you have a contract with us yeah they can go and ask them and says, "Hey, hey, do you buy me a chance uh you know, have any marketing, you know, dollars that I could use to I mean, obviously they want they want you to, you know, promote their stuff. Um, you know, Paul Mitchell doesn't want you to promote the salon. They want you to promote that you carry Paul Mitchell.

If we could just use that as a example. Um but a lot of companies um and they don't businesses don't know that like G said that that money is out there because you know some some some companies will say something don't because if they don't say anything that's more money that they get to keep and earn interest off of and you know what I'm saying if you don't scream and holler type dealing. So if they could um find that find that out uh then that would be that that would be awesome. So yeah. Yeah, that that that could be another avenue to someone.

So if you can you wouldn't necessarily again not again but position yourself as consultant because that's kind of what I not kind of that's what I do position myself as consultant to truly kind of help them to find a way to help them help themselves. Then you again then you're bringing that additional value to them because you're not the salesperson that's just popping in trying to sell an ad and if they don't get the ad or you don't buy they're moving on to the next business. you're really trying to be a a a no- like and trust source and value. And even if it doesn't happen right then, they may remember you later on down the line. Or if someone, you know, could call you and says, "Hey, my name is uh my name is John."

"Hey, John, how are you?" Great. Uh hey, um you know, Kim owns this business. I don't know if you remember Kim, but she told me to give you a call because we were having a coffee or brunch or part of a BNI group and you know I kind of have a situation that I'm trying to figure out and that's how you know things could kind of um uh snow snowball from from from that that point because that's actually how I started my company. Uh, as I was working for Verizon, I was trying to figure out how I was gonna escape corporate and I was getting calls from people that said, "Hey, my my name is Kim."

"Hey, Kim, how are you?" "Hey, you know, John, who?" John XYZ. I know John. Hey, this is my business.

I'm starting a business. And I was wondering if I could pick your brain for a minute. I literally would close my door office and talk to him. And then after about the sixth person, I told my wife at the time when I was married, I was like, "Oh, I think this is going to be how I can get out of corporate America." And then that's how I started my my company in 2009.

Yeah. Hey, I just I just asked chat GPT what kinds of businesses get co-op dollars? and and I did it as a temporary chat and I was going to try to share it but I lost it but it said appliance stores go ask that question to chat GBT. It came up with a big list of people who get co-op money. The other thing I wanted to mention is um did you ask her what all services that she provides?

Cuz I mean is it just like tutoring for kids? maybe maybe branch out and have adult tutoring services like you know a lot of adults um have literary needs like that they need to work on um also maybe adults that are changing professions you know she's got you know maybe some things you know like how to create a you know um a resume or how to do interviews you know she and she can modify or add services to what she's already creating, you know, to help create more income coming in and make it a more viable um business, more lucrative because my guess is she's probably trying to sell because she's not making any money and yes, there are the fees. But once she starts seeing that there are other opportunities and she's not just limited to, you know, tutoring kids, that there's a whole field of of things that she could do with this. She's already got the foundation set up. Maybe she might stay in business or, you know, maybe she brings on a partner, you know, a silent partner to help her out.

Um, another thing is is has she already gone and talked to like the schools and gotten set up with schools, you know, for tutoring and and advertised in those areas. Or maybe uh, you know, she can co-op with like bookstore or um, you know, wherever they sell educational materials. Hey, can you put my name out there? You know, type thing and I'll use your your supplies from you. you know, we'll go back and forth.

Like these are all options, you know, creative options. Yes. No, that's those are good ideas. And I have thought about like the schools. I don't know.

I know franchises, they do have strict rules sometimes. So, I don't know if she could do the adult uh but I'm gathering as much info as I can and then I'm going to go back to her. I planned on calling her back anyway because she's on my heart. So, keep thinking about her. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. She may not she may not end up being a client based on the situation that's going on. And like Margaret said, you know, some of them some Kim like I said, some franchisee uh there's only certain things that they can can do. So, she could be stuck in a rock and a place and she might be too far gone down that she has to sell the business.

But, uh it will definitely give you a practice for other scenarios. And again, you could maybe again use her as a cautionary tale without mentioning the industry or the name. But let's say there are things that she could do cuz um even though you might can't help Mary still save her business say you know currently and you may have already asked him how do you currently get business and she you know she can kind of lay out oh we did this or we you know this or whatever it may be then you can kind of understand where you know it might be just they say hey you got the franchisee everything else a franchise everything else is on you you have to determine how to get the business. That's a ouch, but it happens unfort unfortunately. Yeah, it it happens.

But yeah, but if I could help her in any way, you know, even if she knows other business owners, it could also be a good referral as well. So, I'm thinking about it, you know, from the uh aspect of I care uh and um I want to help and will it help me too as well. Not just for will it help me but I don't know how we ended up on this or maybe we jump off just kind of I think I think I read enough that he had to step step away but this is this is great for people in communities to learn that's how you you learn things and you know help you help yourself and help other help other the people in Kansas has been a great great for me Um, I've learned quite a few things and uh we'll be applying a few things. So, thank you. Thank you everybody.

Yeah, thank you Eric. You're welcome. You're welcome. So, I am in the school school group and I know I guess I should be be probably more proactive in in in in the group, but if someone ever has any questions or something, I'm in the school group. feel free to to reach out to me or if you want to talk on the phone or whatever, feel feel free to do that as well.

So, I invite anybody um I'll add you to my follow list. Uh yeah, we'll do that. I'll follow you follow follow you back. AB: Absolutely. Absolutely.

And I and I do truly say I would I want every all of us to to to win. And it is a good, you know, a good business. Um um you know, a lot of people just are, you know, afraid of failure or starting something something new. And I mean there's all kind of things I guess you could be doing um to earn income. Uh but I I call it like don't Yeah, it is scary.

Be biased. Don't Yeah. Don't don't don't make a don't make it a Uber driver hustle. I mean, because this could be totally different or you have to Uber to help pay for some stuff. Do that and then you can flip it in a, you know, running a business.

You don't want to be on the hustle culture for forever. That's just another that's just another job that you might just as well be your own business owner. If you're going to be bringing in revenue, might as well run your own business. It's not for the faint of heart, but it's definitely u um um you know something that you you know that you can do and it's not it's not really labor intensive or not labor intensive. just caring and having a process and you know it's really just about getting the card filled and being able to if you using Mitch or or Jake stuff to help ship stuff out then you're you're good and then everything else that could go along from from there.

Yeah. And I got I already am using the CRM too. So you guys make sure you take that free trial. Yeah. How do you like it, Leah?

How do you like it? Well, I've used other CRM. I had a marketing agency. You'd said you were old. I'm really old.

I'm retired. Okay. I I retired, but I traveled for three years and I spent way a lot of my money that I had saved. So, um I'm I need to put that back. So, that's why I'm not doing marketing services.

I'll build a website maybe, but I can't keep up with the young kids with all the changes that there is now in SEO and social media marketing and I can't keep up with all I don't even want to keep up with that anymore. I feel just I feel burned out just thinking about it. So, I'm only doing uh I came I knew Jake first. I've known Jake for long very long time. Um but I uh I just started doing the 9 by12.

So, I'm doing printing through Jake. I'm doing the 9 by12. I'll build a website. I'll advise people, but I'm not doing that work anymore. I I that's just it's too much anymore.

Back when I started, you know, it was like 2008, the internet was new, but I've been selling online since 1999, like on eBay. So, I've been online for a really long time. Uh, and I started an agency in uh, 2008 when the bottom fell out of my full-time work in the flooring business for new construction. And um, and so I started I went back to school under Obama had a plan. You could go back to school and I learned web design and graphic arts and I started an agency.

I knew SEO from doing eBay. I learned SEO like by accident. So, so I started doing all that and I did that until 2021 and then I bought a a big fancy RV and traveled for three years and lost my butt on the RV and the and the and the traveling and uh now I'm back now I'm 68 and back to working. So, but you know I I you if you're just sitting home and you're retired, this is a great job. It really, really is a great job because it's not physically demanding.

Uh I have my Alexa scheduled to tell me every two hours to get up and stretch because you can sit for too long. That's a that's a downside. But uh but I really I like I like this business model. I really really like this business model and I really do believe in it and I really think we are helping people. Sometimes we just have to help them see that.

And I know that Mitch and and um Jake both teach, you know, it's a numbers game. I I I don't see it that way. I think you're going to retain more people when you're truly trying to help them and not just sell another spot. So, I hope I'm right. I, you know, it helped me in my business.

But, you know, one more thing I want to say. We were talking about going to BNI groups and I said there's a new networking group called Liberty. how I started my agency. I never sold I never one time made a phone call to anybody who I wasn't calling back. I went to um the I lived in Charleston, South Carolina at that time and I went to the Charleston real estate investors meetings and because I knew there were service people who went there because what do real estate investors need?

They need flooring people. They need roofers. They need all all service all home service people. So I knew it was a good source. Well, the the guy that ran the group and again marketing was still pretty new at this time, you know, this was like 2009.

He started asking me to teach segments of the group at at the real estate investors group and the people just flocked to me and then referrals came and I grew a really good business like 150,000 a year. I was clearing 150,000 a year. So some people maybe that's not good money but to me that's good money. And so um that's how I started. So look for those opportunities too where you can get in front of a group because when you get in front of a group and you are seen as the teacher the authority you know that the business just comes.

So you know I I just heard Mitch say I just asked him in the chat when I first hopped on. I said, "What's this new AI thing in the in the CRM?" Because there's a new thing. I thought it was just for asking questions about the 9 by12 like like um howto kind of thing. And uh and then I heard him say, "Ask it about um planning an event."

And I I'm going to check that out. See what he's what he's got going in there. But if you can get in front of a group, it's so much easier than just trying to sell one on-one. So think about that too as a as a you know cool way to real estate people have meetings all the time. Uh you know lots of companies have uh you know like rah rah meetings where you could go in and get get people motivated.

So um think about that. I think that's all I got though for now. I can't believe it's late. Yeah. All right.

But but it helps. Community definitely helps because if you feel like you're on the island, um you know, you tend to to to not do anything if you don't have support. And that's what I like about uh Mitch and uh and Jake is just having the support and other community members. So you're not on an island by your, you know, by yourself because then you can speak to people who get it. Like we're trying to speak to other business owners and says, "Hey, I get it.

I understand even though we're not in the same industry." Um, as a business owner, I totally understand what you're what what you're going through, which is, you know, what those groups. Um, so if you're not afraid to be in front of groups or be a BNI group or liberty group, I have to check and see if there's something like that in that. Um and um yeah, that's a good thing. Yeah, groups are always looking for speakers, so if you're not afraid to get up.

I was scared. I was scared, but after the first one, it wasn't so bad, right? Yeah. I was going to say, pitch them all naked. That's a bad come from, but you know, that's probably not what I don't want to be picture.

No, hold on. But well, with the way the housing prices are, you know, all over the country right now and such a shortage of homes, you could do a all real estate investor card, you know, you I'm just thinking off my the top of my head right now, but you know, all those properties. Uh you could you could do a whole card with just those kinds of properties and send it out to people. Everybody knows who somebody who wants a home but can't afford the prices right now. Yeah.

And a lot of them do direct mail. Um if they that that's typically one of their main sources for reaching guys is direct mail. They do social media and you know YouTube ads things like that if they got any funding but yeah they do direct do direct mail. Um they do they definitely definitely do. Yeah.

All right, I got to run.