My Top 3 Takeaways from CapCon 2017: Good Help, Better Networking, and the #1 Mistake…

Dave Gonzalez: I have the under hook.

Ezra: I got the over hook. Dude, I got the over hook and wrist control. You see this?

Hey, Ezra here, behind the scenes at the Capitalism Conference, which I have changed the name to the Conscious Capitalism Conference, put on by Ryan Daniel Moran of Freedom Fast Lane and capitalism.com. And these events are interesting, because you get a group of people together who are all spending their time and energy looking at how to generate more wealth which, in my opinion, wealth is surplus. And you can use that surplus, and direct it towards, you know, causes that you think are good in the world. It’s one of the reasons why I wanna generate surplus and wealth, is because I want energy and resource to direct towards causes that I find noble.

So, I’m gonna take you around and introduce you to some people, do some interviews. Most of this group are Amazon business owners who are selling product on that channel. Now, there’s all kinds of folks here as well, but it’s predominantly Amazon business owners, so it will be an interesting conversation. We’ll see what’s going on, I’ll tell you what people are talking about, what we learned. Let’s go take a look.

All right, we’ve got the star of the show here, Ester. Ester, what do you got to say? [crickets chirping] Ester is more into non-verbal communication. [crickets chirping] Yeah. But, high five, good job. Bam, all right. So, Ester says… [crickets chirping] Thanks, Ester.

I’m here with mighty Ryan Moran at your conference. So, how’s it going, man? [crickets chirping] Apparently, Ryan also prefers non-verbal communication. So, what do you think? [crickets chirping] No, nothing. All right. Like father, like daughter, I suppose.

You’ve done a really good job of building a team.

Ryan: Thank you.

Ezra: Yeah, it’s cool. And you can tell, you can always tell when you meet someone’s team, like, how that relationship is going, you know, and yours is going well. So, like, team building, what do you got to say about it?

Ryan: I’m really good looking, I have very high testosterone, and the third thing…

Ezra: The beard’s a little thin over here.

Ryan: Is I am willing to punt the next several years to get to the mission, and I care about the end zone and where we’re going much more than I care about how we get there or the playbook that we’re executing. So, the thing that I do is I deliver the end zone to my team, and I ask them to help us get into the end zone.

Ezra: Do you give them, like, a lot of autonomy? Do you say, “Hey, you know,” like, or are you…? Like, how is the working relationship?

Ryan: Now, I take the rule now, if I’m not…if the person that I’m bringing on is not smarter than me in whatever they’re focusing on…for example, I don’t know how to hold a microphone. So, if I needed somebody to hold microphones, I would do somebody who has done it before, and that would be you.

Ezra: Sure, yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of experience with it.

Ryan: I take three rules. One, they have to done exactly what we want to do in the past, they have to come with a Rolodex of people that can support us on the way, and they have to be super passionate about where we want to go. If they don’t meet those three criteria, they’re not the right fit. If they meet those three criteria, then everything else is secondary. And, if we can find three candidates that meet those criteria…

Ezra: It’s worth, like, nine other people.

Ryan: Exactly, yeah.

Ezra: Yeah. Mighty Ryan Moran, capitalism.com, freedomfastlane.com, the man. Thanks, dude.

Ryan: I am here. Thanks for being here, dude.

Ezra: Yeah, I appreciate it. I’m having fun.

Announcer: I want you to just help me give a warm round of applause for our friend, Ezra Firestone.

Ezra: I’m here with Diggity Dave Gonzalez, who has grown his hair out, and is looking really sharp. Yeah, you’re looking good, man. You know, you know a lot about networking, you know a lot about having people feel comfortable around you, and it really is a super power when it comes to business. So, if you had to say one thing about, like, having folks feel comfortable around you, and willing to share with you, like, how do you do that? Because here you are, you’re backstage, you’re not even, like…you know, I don’t know how you got here, but you’re backstage. You know everyone, you’re super well-liked. Like, what is that about?

Dave Gonzalez: I think what it’s about is really being interested in people. It’s gonna sound really, like, simple. But, at the end of the day, I think some of the basics, people don’t do. And, like, are you interested in someone beyond what they can do for you?

Ezra: Beyond your agenda.

Dave Gonzalez: So, a lot of times, I like to ask people, like, “What do you do for fun,” or, like, you know, I’ll just listen to somebody. Or, if I want to know somebody better I’ll, like, stalk their social media a little bit and find out what they’re into.

Ezra: I stalked my wife’s MySpace back in the day.

Dave Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah, find out what they’re into, like, but not…just, what are they genuinely excited about, and then ask them, do a little bit of research on that and ask them about it. It’s a little bit tactical but, at the end of the day, at an energetic level it has to do with being present and really being interested in the other person. Like, not as a tactic, but just really…

Ezra: Which, oddly, ends up working in your favor.

Dave Gonzalez: Yeah. Like, there’s a saying, “Interested is interesting.” So, Ezra, when I asked you about your jiu-jitsu game, I notice…I have the under hook.

Ezra: I got the over hook. Dude, I got the over hook and wrist control. You see this?

Dave Gonzalez: Yeah, so that’s…you find out what are people passionate about. Like, I know that about him. Last time he was here, we rolled and he tapped me out.

Ezra: Barely. This guy’s a monster.

Ezra: I’m here with wild Dave Woodward…

Dave Woodward: What?

Ezra: …from ClickFunnels. You know Dave, you’ve got a lot of experience with people building sales funnels, you know, more than maybe anyone in the industry. So what’s, kind of, like, the number one mistake, or some mistakes you see people making when building sales funnels?

Dave Woodward: The other thing we find is the best way of identifying whether or not the product is actually gonna sell is put some money behind it, so we find the biggest problem is just people aren’t willing to…

Ezra: Spend.

Dave Woodward: …put some money behind the spend.

Ezra: I feel the same way. Spend that money. Get some data. I mean, really. It’s really true.

Dave Woodward: The truth. You’ve gotta spend the money. If you’re not spending money, you don’t have a business.

Ezra: Invest in amplification. Wild Dave Woodward.

Dave Woodward: Wow.

Ezra: Thanks, man.

Capitalism Conference…that was loud. We are no longer there, which you can probably tell. What a great event. Man, it was so cool to be in the community in that way, and to really just feel the energy of, like, a bunch of people who are super excited about creating things. And I think final, kind of, you know, summary of the…not what I was talking about, kinda not what any one person was discussing at this conference, but final summary is, if you, sort of, boil down many of these really big company owners’ messages from this conference, it was that of team. It was that of getting out of your own way. It was that of delegation and scale, and that to truly build a system that is, you know, some kind of valuable beyond you, you’ve gotta learn how to get people to help you.

And there was a lot of focus on team culture and the idea that, like, you really are not the secret sauce in your business, that, like, the product, and the offer, and the messaging, and the systems, that’s the business. It’s not you. And sometimes it can be hard to, you know, sort of, remember that as a do-it-yourself-entrepreneur. So I think, you know, get good at buying help. Think about getting help, in the form of, like, you’re buying someone’s time to help you in your business. And I do a whole training on that, you can search my blog for “project management.” I’ve got a bunch of content on how we do that effectively, you know, across 70 employees and in our 4 different companies.

So Capitalism Conference, super fun. Thanks for coming behind the scenes with me. I really enjoy doing these behind the scenes videos, and I thank you for watching them. I look forward to seeing you on another version, which is probably gonna be Traffic & Conversion Summit 2017 in March, where I’ll be next. So thanks so much, I’ll see you there.