Behind the Scenes at Super Fast Business Live

Ezra: Good day to you, mates. Ezra Firestone here behind the scenes at Super Fast Business Live 2016. A conference that’s put on by James Schramko, the Australian Jelly Bean himself, hard on the outside, soft on the inside. I’ve been working on my Australian accent. I learned that you say, “Maaate.” You don’t just say, “Mate.” You extend it, “Maaate.” And I’ve learned a bunch of other things at this event.

It’s a really phenomenal event. I’m going to take you behind the scenes. I’m going to introduce you to some of the speakers. I’m going to give you some insight in to what’s being talked about here at this event, which in my opinion is one of the best events in the industry, hands down. It happens every year. This is the 11th one. It’s been going strong for nearly a decade now. So come with me. Let’s check it out, and let’s find out what’s going on.

Interview with Andrew Lock
Ezra: Mr. Alaska, Andrew Lock.

Andrew: Alaska?

Ezra: I don’t know where that came from. So here’s the thing, that presentation you just gave, I took more notes than any presentation that’s happened this whole weekend. And you were talking about membership sites, but ultimately what I think you were talking about was engagement. So after a customer buys from you, how to have them have a “Wow” experience, and that applies no matter what you’re selling. You could be selling a membership site or you could be selling physical products.

Andrew: Absolutely.

Ezra: And also follow-up with ongoing customer engagement. I’d love for you to just share one or two things that you talked about.

Andrew: Sure, it’s a subject that I’m passionate about. People really want to be led through an experience. So when someone first joins, whether it’s a community, or a subscription, anything, the first thing I recommend is to give a welcome video because video is very engaging. This is an example of it.

Ezra: Sort of like here’s what you can expect.

Andrew: Absolutely. So first of all congratulate them. Reinforce the fact that they made a good decision. People want to feel good about just spending money. So that’s the number one. Secondly, tell them what to expect next. If it’s something physical that they ordered, tell them when it’s going to be shipped. Tell them when to expect it. What to look out for.

Ezra: So what the box is going to look like.

Andrew: Absolutely. Get them excited about this thing that they just purchased.

Ezra: “Pre-arrival emails” are the lingo.

Andrew: Absolutely. And then the next one is guide them through what’s going to happen next after they receive the item or if it’s an online community.

Ezra: Ownership benefits.

Andrew: You want to reinforce that they made a good decision and let them know exactly what’s going to happen, what they can expect as a result of making this purchase. So that applies whether it’s physical or a subscription, membership site, that kind of thing. Whatever it is, tell them what’s going to happen as a result of their purchase.

Ezra: This will lower your refund rates. It will increase the number of reviews you get and it will build intimacy with your customers. Mr. Alaska, with a koala here.

Andrew: We’re in the right place for this. Look at these. They’re so cute, aren’t they?

Ezra: Adorable. Yeah, so thank you so much.

Andrew: You’re welcome.

Interview with John Hogar
Ezra: Hey, I’m here with 007, James Bond. John Hogar, how are you doing, man?

John: How are you doing? Good to see you as well.

Ezra: You gave a presentation that was about essentially cold selling, which is something that not a lot of people do. So if you were to give people one core concept or frame from your presentation, what would you say?

John: Probably the biggest thing is to just be very clear about who you’re dealing with as your customers. You want to understand your market succinctly. Being clear about what you’re offering is probably the number one thing, and the reason why I talked about the cold selling concept was purely because when you’re talking about doing big deals, you have to build a relationship. You have to connect. So the big part of that is to be consistent, and be very clear about the message that you’re delivering.

And also understand your market. I have this big thing at the moment where if you do it, you’ll become it. And that builds your confidence.

Ezra: Fake it ’til you make it, kind of a deal?

John: Yeah, fake it ’til you make it. But I think if you’re doing, you’re actually actioning and you’re actually learning through the experience, you’re actually going through and learning experiences as you go along. You’ll actually accelerate your process.

Ezra: Don’t be afraid to just get in there.

John: Not at all.

Ezra: And get your hands dirty. Even if you don’t feel maybe confident.

John: A guy that I spoke to recently reminded me that if I’m not failing at least 20 times a day, I’m not making enough money.

Ezra: 007, James Bond. John Hogar. Thank you so much.

John: Thanks, Ezra. Good to be here.

Ezra: There’s been a lot of recurring themes at this event. One of them has been subscription or membership, or essentially what I consider to be repeat purchases. So having a focus in your business, not just on customer acquisition and funnily enough, my speech was all about customer acquisition because it’s a super important part of business being able to effectively acquire customers, and buy advertising, and put prospects through a series of webpages, or funnel that ends in the result of you getting what you want which may be an opt-in or a sale. And then beyond that is how you engage with that customer, with content and with additional offers.

And a lot of people here have a membership model where they sell a membership. And one of the things that we do is we get all of our customers to join a Facebook group. A totally free Facebook group, which gives us a way to communicate with them after the sale. So what you want to be thinking about is how can you engage with and communicate with your prospects after the sale and make additional relevant offers that they might enjoy? So that could be a subscription product, it could be a membership, it could be a cross sale to an additional product in your line. But one of the things that’s consistent from all the speakers who have high seven-figure businesses and beyond, is you’ve got to have more than one offer.

Interview with Matthew Kimberley
Ezra: Hey, Ezra here behind the scenes with Mighty Matthew Kimberley, one of the speakers from Super Fast Business. Man, I loved your talk. So charismatic. So enthusiastic, and all about selling. If you were to give one key tip from your presentation to folks who weren’t here that they could get what you were talking about, what would you say?

Matthew: I’d say you’ve got to remember that marketing does not get you clients. Marketing doesn’t get you clients. Marketing is what creates awareness. It’s about what creates noise. And anyone can make noise, right? You can throw any amount of money at marketing and advertising, direct response mail. You can throw any amount of money at celebrity endorsement, or billboards, or great graphics, or a beautiful website.

Ezra: Get people to see you.

Matthew: Yeah, you can get people to see you, right? But it’s what you do once you’ve got their attention that counts. And the Book Yourself Solid system that we teach teaches that you’ve got to have a firm foundation to your business. So, Ezra, I’ve caught your attention with my marketing budget.

Ezra: You mean the tie.

Matthew: Yeah, maybe I took the tie off. Or maybe I took my pants off.

Ezra: Let’s not…

Matthew: That’s one, caught your attention. I took my pants off, I said, “Follow me,” you followed me because you liked the look of what you saw, and then you checked out what I had to offer. My foundation. You’re like, “Okay, it feels pretty firm. Actually, it feels like I belong here,” right?

Ezra: Sure.

Matthew: “It feels like Matthew’s got something which I could do with. I think he gets me. I think that I belong here.”

Ezra: And you’re communicating that once you’ve gotten my attention?

Matthew: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve got to make sure that I say to you, Ezra, “Look, Ezra, you belong here.” If it’s true.

Ezra: Right.

Matthew: If you don’t belong here, then I’m going to push you away.

Ezra: Right.

Matthew: I think it was you that said, “Everything begins with a solid offer.”

Ezra: Yes.

Matthew: Everything begins with a solid offer, and it has to come from the right person at the right time which means, and the right time is different for different people.

Ezra: Right.

Matthew: So what’s the right time for you might be a different time for me.

Ezra: Yeah.

Matthew: Right? Even though it’s the same thing we want.

Ezra: Right.

Matthew: We both want a gold-coated bathroom faucet.

Ezra: Yes.

Matthew: Yeah? But you want it today.

Ezra: Right now.

Matthew: Yeah, I don’t want it right now.

Ezra: I’m not going to the bathroom until they paint that thing gold.

Matthew: I’ve got other priorities. I’ve got other spending priorities right now. But you need the faucet now. So now we both need the faucet but whoever is selling us that faucet is going to have to keep in touch with me over a little while because I need it, but I don’t need it now.

Ezra: Sure.

Matthew: I’m going to need it in a few weeks. A few months. A few years.

Ezra: So maybe a longer form, a way for someone to engage with you now and also a long form sequence of communication that gradually pushes someone towards that.

Matthew: And I’d call that sales secrets.

Ezra: Yes.

Matthew: I wouldn’t call that marketing.

Ezra: Right.

Matthew: Marketing is everything you do to get the first piece of attention.

Ezra: Right, right.

Matthew: First piece of attention is marketing. Once you’ve given me your attention, it’s up to me to sell you enough to stick around. That’s all I’m doing right now. And eventually when you have developed the trust and when your need is sufficient, you’ll start to make investments and those investments will be in proportion to the amount of trust that I’ve earned and how big your need is.

Ezra: Matthew Kimberley, with his pants on. Thank you so much.

Matthew: Thanks, buddy.

Ezra: Another thing that’s been focused on at this conference is storytelling. At the end of the day, marketing is all about communication. Business is all about communication. If you can effectively communicate the value that you have to offer, you will be able to make sales. And the best way to communicate is through stories. It’s how we learn as people. So if you can incorporate personal stories, analogies, stories of any kind into your business, it will have you do better. It will have people be more engaged with you. So you want to take some time to really focus on what are you saying? How are you saying it? Why are you saying it? What’s the story behind it? It’ll really help your business.

Interview with Greg Merrilees
Ezra:I’m here with Greased Lightening, Greg Merrilees.

Greg: You’re a crack up.

Ezra: Designer extraordinaire. Designed many of my websites. You’re phenomenal. I’ve been on your podcast, The Real Magic.

Greg: The Real Magic.

Ezra: You know, you’re an amazing designer.

Greg: Thanks, dude.

Ezra: You design stuff for everyone. All the market leaders. If you were to just give one design tip to folks who weren’t here, what would you say?

Greg: Yeah, sure. So if you’re just starting out in business, you might want to use a template, right? But if you’re an established business, one of your point of differences is your uniqueness. So don’t use a template unless it’s perhaps an offer or testing a new idea, but you really want to invest in a quality custom website design. It’s going to serve you better. You’re going to get a better result in your business.

Ezra: Greased Lightening, Greg Merrilees.

Greg: Thanks, dude.

Ezra: Thanks so much, man. I appreciate it.

Greg: Cool. Cool.

Interview with Seth Ellsworth
Ezra: Hey, I’m here with Sandstorm, Seth Ellsworth. Amazing presentation, man. So emotional. So raw.

Seth: Thank you.

Ezra: I really felt it, and it was geared towards how you view yourself. And so if you were going to give one little tip snippet, snippet?

Seth: Tippet?

Ezra: Tippet, of your presentation for folks who weren’t here, what would you distill it down to?

Seth: Here’s how simple it gets. Entrepreneurs, in order to be successful, they have to allow themselves to be such. Because I believe that we’re awesome. Sometimes through life we’re taught that we’re not.

Ezra: Sure.

Seth: So being scared of yourself is a big problem. So disarming the fear of who you are when you’re stepping into a marketplace is absolutely everything as an entrepreneur. You need to step in with confidence. You need to upgrade how you see yourself because how you see yourself is the single most powerful force in your life. And if you allow yourself to be default, you will not achieve the heights that you can in your business, and therefore you won’t make the biggest difference that you can.

Ezra: Absolutely. Your world view dictates your world. Sandstorm Seth Ellsworth. SuperFast Business Live. Thank you so much.

Seth: No problem.

Ezra: Right-o, mates. Ezra here just saying thanks for watching. That sort of turned British there. I don’t really have the Australian accent down. It’s been a really great event. Thank you so much for taking some time to go behind the scenes with me. Thank you, James Schramko, for putting on such an amazing event. I’ll see you guys.