About a year ago, I had a chat with my ex-copywriting apprentice about…

“Positioning”

She had been intensely interested in figuring out ways to position herself in her market as someone who can (1) charge the most amount possible (2) attract nothing but the best, highest quality customers and clients and (3) leverage her time while making the most profit (i.e. servicing a small handful of premium clients/customers vs a horde of low class jackass clients/customers — adhering to the concept I told her about, where it’s better to have 4 quarters than 100 pennies).

Anyway, my (admittedly crude) advice to her?

This:

“Be the bitch at the top of the mountain, not the hoe at the bottom”

In other words…

• Don’t be easily accessible

• Be productive, not “busy”

• Don’t respect anyone who doesn’t respect you

• Guard your time like it’s worth money (because it is)

• Have standards for who you allow to buy from you

• Sell to value shoppers (not price shoppers)

• Put funnels in place — to sift & sort the good from the bad for you, so you only deal with people ready to buy, and with automated back end sales, offers, etc, in play, working hard on your behalf, freeing up your time, and giving you true freedom.

Most of this is self explanatory.

Except, for the funnel part

That’s a mystery to nearly everyone.

Enter my pal:

Todd Brown.

He’s the sales funnel guy that other sales funnel guys go to when they need help with funnels. While practically everyone else (including me) is playing checkers with their funnels… Todd plays Monopoly, and he always builds a hotel on Boardwalk, and he always wins.

(If’n you catch my drift.)

For example:

He’s co-orchestrated multiple six-figure launches within the internet marketing community (not just for people with huge lists and “guru status” — but people who were new and/or struggling before he got a hold of them)… has been a partner at Strategic Profits with Rich Schefren (where I hear tell they did $3 million in just 7 days, using Todd’s launch magic, not too shabby)… Was a faculty member for Jeff Walker’s $10,000.00 per person Product Launch Manager Training… And has presented his ideas and methodologies on the same stage with best-selling authors, Brian Tracy, Michael Gerber, etc/

And you know what else?

He’s a helluva cool cat, too.

But, even more important:

He’s also the newest member of the elite Oceans 4 mastermind March 25th and 26th next month, along with my droogies-in-crime Andre Chaperon (master at building multi-million dollar earning auto-resoonders), Jack Born (who is not only Perry Marshall’s affiliate manager, but he’s like the “Walter White” of cooking up tools for marketers to use — hunched over his desk in his motor home, gas mask on, smoke billowing out the top…)

More:

It’s not just us blokes above attending.

We also have media buying wizard Steve Gray coming.

(He was one of our special trainers in Vegas, and buys something like $10 million per year in media — he will be there as a guest sitting in this time, too. You can ask him any questions you want about media buying, funnel building, and all the other solid gold bars of knowledge he has running a supplement business and also a business in the survival niche, the guy has seen it all and is like an encyclopedia of knowledge, wisdom, and experience.)

Still more:

Our special guest trainer this time is Rich Schefren.

Rich is the guy all the other gurus you hear about go to for advice on their businesses (he’s been called “the guru’s guru”.) And, you can name any TV or cable network or major newspaper, and they’ve probably done a feature on Rich or one of his businesses. He’s been profiled (i.e. he didn’t just run an ad and then say he was “as seen on” like all the wannabes do, he was interviewed and profiled) on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Entertainment Tonight, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, MSNBC, Vogue, GQ, MTV, VH1, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Cosmopolitan, The Daily News, The New York Post and many others…

Finally, there are the other attendees.

Each time we attract the best of the best.

For example, our “roster” of previous clients have included:

• Agora Publishing ($200+ million newsletter empire)

• Bad Ass Ventures (One of the biggest companies on Clickbank)

• The founder of the biggest job portal in Australia’s multi billion dollar mining industry

• A New York Times Bestselling financial author (Ramit Sethi who sent his right-hand-marketing chick to attend)

• One of the world’s top marketers for PGA Tour Players

• Russell Brunson (Quite possibly the savviest online direct marketing genius I’ve ever met — just hanging out with this guy will make you a better marketer by “osmosis”)

• One of the world’s top affiliates in the hyper competitive weight loss niche

• Other leaders in their respective industries (like LinkedIn job training, building brand awareness, etc).

• And the list goes on.

(With all the talent that shows up, nobody — not a single one of us in the room, not even the 9-figure earning business owners who have shown — walks away without at LEAST a dozen or so “ah ha!” moments and ideas to implement, with some clients even reporting all time sales highs just weeks after)

Now, for the details:

1. It costs $5k to get a hot seat

You can bring one guest free, but only one of you gets the hot seat. However, if you’re thinking price vs value you don’t belong in the room, anyway. There are plenty of low cost and more conventional events and so-called “masterminds” to attend instead. They’ll be happy to take your money, give you a cheer-leading session to pump you up, and then give you a swat on the butt and send you on your merry way.
2. We’re capping it at 9 people

We keep things small and intimate.

(i.e. a true interactive mastermind, not a lecture or conference)

But, since these few spots are going lickety split that means time is short. After all, I’m not the only person mailing about this. Andre, Todd, and Jack (all of who have much bigger lists and many more connections than I do) are, too. With our combined lists, those last spots are going to vanish like a fart in the wind before you know it.
3. There probably won’t be a next time

I never say never.

But, I’m kinda surprised we’re doing this since everyone’s schedules conflict and the low price we charge makes it not really profitable for us. We’re also all getting burned out on doing it, too (we like doing it, but it’s, you know, work). I bring this up because we were doing so many of them (3 one year alone) people started thinking they could just “catch the next one.”

But, I wouldn’t count on that happening.

So, that’d be a foolish attitude to have this time.

Anyway, that’s that.

To apply to attend, or if you have questions, reply to this email.

Word up.

Ben Settle