The Power of Paid, Appointment-Based, High-Ticket Launches | Alex Mandossian | 351
Alex Mandossian is the Founder and CEO of Marketing Online. He specializes in developing “done-for-you” online marketing funnels to help businesses, leaders, and professionals achieve next-level growth. His past clients include New York University, Walmart, BNI, the New York Yankees, Wells Fargo Bank, and several more.
Since 1993, Alex has generated almost $400 million in sales and profits for his clients, students, and strategic partners. He has also trained over 700,000 entrepreneurs on five different continents and shared the stage with thought leaders such as Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, Suze Ormand, and the Dalai Lama.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Alex Mandossian talks about the power of paid, appointment-based, high-ticket launches
- The downside of evergreen content — and what you should do instead
- What is appointment-based marketing and why is it so valuable?
- The step-by-step strategy for running a successful paid event launch
- Alex shares a case study of a leader who made over $1 million in 11 months with his mastermind
- How to hook and convert cold leads for your online event
- The differences between a mindset shift versus an identity change for entrepreneurs
- Alex shares valuable takeaways from a past experience with Dan Kuschell
- Alex’s recommended book for better business
In this episode…
For entrepreneurs and business leaders, time is one of the most valuable assets. So, how can you double your income without sacrificing your time, energy, and freedom? According to Alex Mandossian, the solution is simple: appointment-based marketing.
As Alex says, when people are paying for a meeting or event with both their time and their money, they’re more likely to show up. This is the power of paid, appointment-based, and high-ticket launches. From webinars to mastermind strategy sessions, this model is where the magic happens — and Alex is here to share the step-by-step strategy for success.
Alex Mandossian, the Founder and CEO of Marketing Online, sits down with Dan Kuschell on this episode of Growth to Freedom to discuss how to leverage paid, appointment-based, high-ticket launches. Tune in as Alex shares why appointment-based marketing is so powerful, how to launch a wildly successful paid event, and his tips for reaching the next level of growth as a business leader. Plus, he gives his top book recommendation for entrepreneurs.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
- Growth to Freedom with Dan Kuschell
- Alex Mandossian
- Marketing Online
- Alex Mandossian on LinkedIn
- The S.M.A.R.T. Challenge
- Dragon 100
- Dan Lok
- Jeffrey Gitomer
- Jeff Walker
- Armand Morin
- The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale
- Breakthrough3X
- Schedule Your Breakthrough Strategy Call
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Episode Transcript
Dan Kuschell 0:03
Welcome to growthtofreedom.com, the show that brings you inspiration, transformation and leadership. We’re helping you connect the dots, see the blind spots and get unstuck. So you can go out and generate more leads, more sales, more profits. More importantly, so you can go out and have a bigger reach, a bigger impact, and make a bigger contribution. Welcome to today’s segment. Let me ask you, you ever wondered like what would it take to be able to get more high ticket clients more high ticket potential appointments to be able to get more clients? Well, if you’re wondering how to be able to do that how to attract a fluent clients how to make it value rich, how to be able to make a bigger impact make a bigger difference in your business, then you are going to love today’s guest expert. His name is Alex Mandossian. And since 1993, Alex has generated nearly $415 million in business profits for his marketing students, clients and joint venture partners on over six continents. Harvey Mackay, Best Selling Author of multiple books, you can go look them up online, acknowledges that Alex is the Warren Buffett of digital marketing. Why? Because of his ability to help his students maybe like you, joint venture partners, maybe like you, clients make money, right? He’s been able to share the stage with some of the biggest names in the world. Richard Branson, Larry King, Tony Robbins, Marianne Williamson, the Dalai Lama, US presidents and a whole lot more. He’s actually done close to 5000 interviews, I believe, what’s the correct number Alex, it’s 4800, give or take, give or take. And he feels he hasn’t even scratched the surface. He’s got over 22,000 hours of training time. And his lifetime goal with his colleague Jack Canfield is to influence by training over 1 million other trainers may be like you by your 77th birthday, Alex, welcome. How are you?
Alex Mandossian 2:12
I’m doing well, Dan. And every time I hear that introduction, which I wrote for you, so thank you, it was flawless. I have to just admit, my mother still doesn’t know what I do after being 57 years on the planet 57 trips around the sun. So I’m a little shot that keeps shooting.
Dan Kuschell 2:32
Yes, that is for sure. And I know we got a chance to meet back in about 2003. And you’re damaging confession. You know, we’ve known each other for a lot of years. And there’s been good in that relationship. And there’s been bad in that relationship. And I won’t spend much time on the mud in the face story until maybe the very end because it’s kind of fascinating, because it’s not what happens. It’s what you do when something bad happens. Right? And I’ll be able to share that with you as well. I think that’ll be enlightening for you to realize. Because at the end of the day, as you’re watching right now, as you’re building your business as you’re looking to generate high profile, high value clients, high ticket clients. Reputation means everything, doesn’t it? Alex?
Alex Mandossian 3:17
It does. So does recovery from things that could happen. I do have my own insights on what did happen. So I hope you share it because I think you’ll be surprised at my response. And I did ask Harvey Mackay who’s a good friend and I helped him develop a mastermind 75,000 a year we held it for three years. And I did say hey Harvey, can you call me the Warren Buffett? of digital marketing? He said sure anything for you. So that’s where that quote came from. Okay.
Dan Kuschell 3:45
That’s amazing. So, as you’re watching or listening right now, we’re going to talk about the power of paid appointment based high ticket launches. Right. So Alex, you’ve had quite a journey, right? I mean, you’ve made millions in the infomercial world and products services, transition to online marketing when we met. And I mean, I mean, you’re just constantly innovating. Why are you focused on what you’re doing right now with high, high pay high ticket appointment based launches.
Alex Mandossian 4:15
It’s a mouthful. It’s a mouthful, but it’s worthwhile. So if you’re listening, I’m holding up a card. If you’re watching, you can see the card. And the card says the power of paid appointment based high ticket launches. Is that perfect English? No. Does it make money? Yes. What is high ticket me? For me high ticket is anything over $10,000 What’s low ticket? Well, anything over 1000 bucks. So if you have a $100 offer, because that’s what your self esteem or self worth allows you to sell. And you have be a $10,000 offer because that’s what your self esteem self worth allows you to sell. Well, if you had a let’s say, 50 Let’s make it 100 Converse. In a month, and maybe maybe they’re appointment based in other words, they’re live, that’s what appointment based is. This is a podcast, it’s not appointment based, this is time shifted. If there’s a recording in a members area that’s not appointment based, that is time shifted. Time shifted means it’s up to you to listen to it or watch it whenever it is that you want to watch or listen. But when you have an appointment, that’s very powerful, because you’re taking someone else’s greatest value their time, they have 86,400 Little things every day, those are seconds, 14 140 a day, that’s the number of minutes 168 a week, those are hours and then 50 to a year, those are weeks. So it’s the most important thing. Most people want to make money, but I would rather triple my time off and double my income, then double my time off and triple my income. That’s how you know when you’re talking to a player time is the most valuable thing and they’re very miserly with their time. So going back to the card I’m showing right now so that you visually can listen to it the power of paid appointment based high ticket launches means well, let’s say I don’t know if my self esteem or my self worth allows me to sell a $10,000 product but after let’s say after 100 Live conversations over the course of a month or however long, but I had 100 conversations. So I sold two out of 100 That’s 98% rejection, $10,000, offer nevermind what I’m selling. How much should I make 20 Grant? Can I live with the 98%? Rejection? Yes, I can and of the 98 that said no. Because they won, the sale as always made. As Jeffrey Gitomer, my good friend says sale is always made. Sometimes the prospect makes a sale. Sometimes you make the sale of your closing. What can I have something else that $1,000? How many of those could I do? Maybe 10? And then if they said no to the 1000? Can I have $100 deals? How many of those can I do? Maybe 20. So I’m making more than 20k if I do it properly 100 conversations. And because I have appointment based marketing, if you don’t insult them, they’re going to be in you know your your orbit, so they may buy or enroll in something later on now. Compare that to $100. If I have 50% conversion, and if I do that, that’s $5,000.50 times 100 is $5,000 out of a out of a total of 100 conversations that I want to know what you’re doing because I can’t close 50% I just can’t sorry, I’m not that good. After 30 years, I still couldn’t even close friends of mine, girlfriends from the past, former wives I can’t close them. 50%. Sorry. So but if I did, and if you did, I made $5,000. That’s it. Done over. So 50% conversion, 5,002% conversion, 20,000 plus down sell plus down sell, you decide is if high ticket is better than low ticket. Some people like to go low to high. That’s it. That’s a mistake. I like to go high to low flip the funnel, as we call it go high to low that’s called down selling is a lot more natural than upselling. Even though the industry says to, to upsell like go free, and then go to your 10,000. Now that doesn’t work because they’ll be stuck on free. So that begs the question, What’s appointment based marketing? Right, that’s ABM. What is that? Well, it means that you set an appointment now right now you and I are making an appointment and it’s live. No one else is listening or watching but us. So this is the appointment based marketing conversation. But the fact is, however people consume this, it’s going to be audio or video on a podcast, they’re going to consume at their convenience. When you do appointment based selling or marketing. It’s mutually inconvenient. And if they show up, you know how powerful have a have an interaction that is because it’s much more powerful than a lead magnet, where it’s time shifted, you see something, there may be a video that you watch, maybe you got 10 minutes of their time. But with appointment based, maybe you have half an hour, or you have an hour, if your whole database is appointment based prospects, you’re going to be shocked how much more valuable those things are. Does that make sense?
When you have an appointment, that's very powerful, because you're taking someone else's greatest value: their time.- Alex Mandossian Click To TweetDan Kuschell 9:20
Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, as you’ve been on this journey, and you’ve pivoted to, you know, be building this model over the last handful of years, right, what are what are some of the mistakes, maybe that you’ve run into Alex, that you know, or your biggest mistake in learning like through the process to be able to perfect it that you could share and also what you learn from it that others could learn from it too.
Alex Mandossian 9:48
It’s embarrassing, Dan, my biggest mistake is forgetting what I already knew. In other words, not new knew. and what a difference it came makes, right? Yes. The reason for that I thought I get slick. I thought I’d take shortcuts. I made mistakes of wanting to just go to recordings and making things evergreen. Evergreen doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. Does it work? Sometimes it does. But it rarely works. Going Live is the thing. Can you go combination of recorded live? And live? Yes, you can. Let’s recorded live. That means it’s pre recorded. But you have people engaging online, through a Facebook group or I prefer outside of Facebook. Facebook has way too much litter around it. I don’t like Facebook groups, even private ones. I like web based apps like Telegram or WhatsApp or things that really have no other distraction where Facebook does, right? Yes, even with YouTube Live, same thing, a lot of distractions. So examples of the of the successes I’ve had is through physical seminars, that’s appointment based marketing, webinars, well, that’s appointment based marketing. I started with teleseminars, going back to 1993, appointment based marketing discovery calls, some people call it strategy sessions, VIP days, that’s when it’s paid, but it’s appointment based. Some people do it for hours, some people do it for a full day, phone appointments of any kind, that is appointment based marketing, and then live events, which are virtual when I lose sight, because I want to save time. What’s happening is other people are not showing up and they’re not as engaged. That’s the biggest mistake I’ve made in the past. And why is ABM appointment based marketing? I’m holding a card that says Why is it so relevant and important? Remember, relevance is key. That’s why Google is a great search engine when it was backrub. Back in 1998, with its two founders out of Stanford, it brought up relevant terms adult book didn’t go to a porn site, it went to adult books, you know, so it was a very smart search engine, it still is a little insidious with the whole political thing these days. But still, it’s a very powerful search engine because of relevance. So why is ABM so relevant and important to you? Because when you’re live, and the other people are live, whether one to one or one to many magic happens, because they’ve given you their most precious asset, their time,
When you're live and the other people are live — whether one-to-one or one-to-many — magic happens. - Alex Mandossian Click To TweetDan Kuschell 12:28
time and attention. And as you’re watching, or listening right now, like what would happen for you, if you put this simple model of high ticket appointment based launches in your business? Or what Alex just shared related to a live or hybrid live seminar webinar discovery call VIP day? And more? How would it shift the game? On top of that? How would it shift the game for you instead of what every well, not every but almost every consultant which basically has to get a $200 certification somewhere now in there an expert is teaching the ascension model, start low and then go up high. And as Alex said, No, flip the game, flip the business, flip your model and go from high to low. How would that shift the game for you? Well, if you’re not sure, test it, you will be pleasantly surprised. Because at the end of the day, many times is it’s as difficult to close $100 sale, as it is a $10,000 sale. Listen to what I just shared. Many times it’s as difficult to close and do the work around closing $100 sale as it is a $10,000 sale. So why not put your energy into something that’s going to yield you more? Now Alex is as you’ve been building this? I mean, we’ve talked about the idea. We’ve talked about examples. We’ve talked about why it’s important. What are a couple of strategies that you know someone watching or listening right now could you know, look this start getting in place right away? Well, I
Alex Mandossian 14:04
have to go back and give props to Jeff Walker and John, his brother, both friends of mine, John and I belong to a couple of masterminds together. And back in 2003, I interviewed this guy named Jeff Walker who no one really knew. He was Mr. Mom at the time. And he has a great story and good dad, good husband from what I know. And he came to this event called The Big Seminar. And I invited a bunch of people and he was one of them. We had a dinner my partner at the time Armand Morin. It was the only seminar really where we would feed people for three days. And Arman would it was his but I was part of it. And I did it for eight sessions, five years and it was very, very profitable. And Jeff was there and I don’t know if that was his first internet marketing seminar or not, but it was one of the first and then eventually he went on to the the product Launch Formula, right, which has done a great job. He called it the side, sideways sales letter. And if you’re familiar with it, you know that he’s done quite good. And he usually, with JV launches, he does great. You know, as a JV launch person, he ran my final launch with John with Teleseminar Secrets, which generated over 14 million bucks in five years. In the final year, he did that post global financial meltdown, which was in 2009. And then he went off to sell the PLF concept, right Product Launch Formula. Now, why do I bring him up? This is not a JV launch concept of any kind. It’s not a Product Launch Formula concept of any kind. This is how to sell into your mastermind, which is your highest ticket. Usually the most profitable, the highest EBITDA. EBITDA is really profit in finance terms. If you have a CFO, you can ask him or her. And no one talks about EBITDA, they talk about revenue, but revenue and EBIT are two different things. Yes. And if you plan for it to pay your taxes, and you base it on revenue, you are you know what? Constantly right, so many people do launches just to pay their taxes. That’s how some of the friends I have in digital marketing. So the steps that this takes you don’t have to be held hostage by joint venture partners, because there aren’t any. This is the only model I’ve ever seen that I’ve been involved with over 86 masterminds since 1993. I’ve helped develop over 30 of them for other people, I’ve gotten paid to do it. High Ticket. So what is it well, how? How does how does a paid launch? Usually, a launch is free. And then they sell a $2,000 product? How does a paid launch work that sells in to a 25 and even $35,000? Offer? How does that work? This is the only type of mastermind prospecting marketing I’ve ever done. I’ve been around for a while, nearly 30 years doing this. Not online, but offline and online, where there’s no poaching involved. This is the way masterminds are usually filled. I belong to three or four masterminds. And then there’s ethical and sometimes unethical poaching when I go to someone else’s mastermind because you know, if they’re in one, they may want to be in another and boom, they come to the mastermind that I run now I don’t do that. I run an event once a year and I say ethical poaching isn’t is encouraged, because you’re going to do it anyway. So I give people permission to do it. But that’s how usually masterminds are run. I’ve spent 25k in four or five different masterminds and I poach into mine. Okay, now, that’s the truth. If you’re if you’re shaking your head saying no, that doesn’t happen, then you’re full of crap because you haven’t been around. Period. Sorry. Yes. Truth. You know, case closed. You know, you used to be part of one right.
Dan Kuschell 17:53
And I’m still part of many.
Alex Mandossian 17:54
mean, you part of one that, that I’m part of one, right. Yes. So bottom line is and you’re actually you indoctrinated me, you’re the one who indoctrinated me when I was in my acupuncture office on my belly too much information, but I remember that, that half hour indoctrination. So how does ABM work on a step by step basis with a paid launch? Well, the first thing is step one, I’m holding a card, it says set the team time in the day. So when does it start? When does it end? If you have a paid launch, ours is five days. And there’s a bonus day for those who say yes, I will say that, again. It’s five days, it’s a challenge. Many people have done challenges. I’ve been doing them since 2006. Some people are better than others, I can think of a few guys who are really good at it, and gals, but set a time and a date. When it starts and when it’s over. That’s step one. Step two, identify the topic. Identify the topic. Ours is a five letter acronym, called smart. And I’ll give you a resource. So you can check it out, even join if you want. It’s not evergreen, but it happens twice a year. Step three is engage with the pre event, have a pre event so people engage with us telegram in an app. So you’re you’re warming them up before the event begins. That way, they don’t come in cold. And by the way, if they paid for it, are they more likely to engage? Yes, why to get their money’s worth. And then step four, and that’s the key step. Step three is the most important part. It’s the pre framing, as the neurolinguistic folks say it’s the seeding is the trial closing everything before we begin, right? And then step four is the follow up. And that’s the post event. Okay, those are the four steps. I’ll go through them again, they’re very simple. Step one, set the date and time step two, identify topic. Step three is engage the pre events like before the event begins pre engage them at a physical event. It’s kind of like the meet and greet the night before we call it Day Zero. Very important. And then follow up is step four, after the event. 20% of our Follow Up is fruitful 80% comes in during the five day event. Can you have seven days? Yes. Can you have 21 days? Yes, we have all kinds of challenges. But ours is paid. It’s $497. You can say decide on what the price is when it was $97. We weren’t paying out our Facebook ads or Google ads. The moment we took it to a 497, we had, we had a much higher group of people coming in higher echelon of people, plus we were paying out. So what happens is, it’s not costing us anything, free leads. When does that ever happen? I don’t know anyone who does that? Who ever? Many people will pay 150,000 a year to belong to four to six masterminds so they can get new mastermind members, they’re already in the hole? Not really, because they belong to other masterminds. But that’s a lot of time. Yeah, I see here three times a year, it’s a lot of their time. So the question is, what if, what if I’m holding a card that says, appointment, this appointment based marketing is part of your marketing mix? Well, you’ll get leads at no cost, because you’ll offset the cost with the tuition. Next, you have a very engaged group because they paid for it. If they don’t pay for it, if they get it for free, forget it. They’re not going to show up. If even if they pay 500 bucks, we get 90%. Show up, can you imagine? And we’re giving 100% refund policy, they can attend the first day. And if they want to refund we give them a refund, period. It’s five days, and then those who ultimately say yes, and I’ll show you what Yes is the call to action. And there’s a day six, which is called an onboarding day. That’s a very important piece. That’s, that’s afterwards. And then we have a sales team that follows up I know, Dan, you’ve created sales teams, you know, the, the boon and Bane of sales team. So we have an in house sales team, I don’t recommend something outsourced, in house. And with four or five people, it’s amazing what can happen. Here’s the key point, this is not time shift. So appointment best marketing is not recorded. It’s not time shifted. Now, parts of our five day challenge. Again, I’ll show you where to go. So you can check it out, even join. Part of it is recorded, but we have people who are inside of our virtual presentation format, right there inside the chat. We don’t use Zoom. Okay. I can talk about that at another time. But they’re inside the chat. They’re engaging. And then they go back into Telegram. And they do the awesome breakthroughs there. Because we have a captive audience there. And then we retire that telegram group. For those who didn’t say yes, so they’re banished. Very, very important. So the anatomy, just to give you a case study, and if you have other questions prior to this, I’ll do it because we’ll open a loop. But the anatomy of a wildly successful fee based high ticket launch, I’m going to show you what we’ve done in the last year. It’s a new concept. I haven’t seen anyone else do it this way. And in five days, I’ve never seen getting over 50 mastermind ORS within 11 months, average $30,000 Without going to another mastermind or without any JV partners. I’ve never seen it ever done. And we’ve done it. And so my, I would say my former student now my boss, I’m his acting cmo for a year and I’m enjoying it. His name is Dan Locke. As a result, he has an Asian theme, and the mastermind is called dragons. And the challenge is called the Smart challenge and 1.3 5,000,011 months is pretty dang good. And I can’t even tell you what the EBIT or the net profit is on that that’s massive. Okay, and that doesn’t count. That’s only the mastermind tuition. That doesn’t even count the the admissions, you know, 497 That doesn’t even count that. So I’m happy to go over the key points of how it works, why it works, but we have two levels. We have red dragon, and black dragon and then we have dragon x which is much higher. So red dragon is six figure business, and they’re all over the world. All over. It’s International, not just us. Very unusual. And the reason is because of Facebook and and Google, you know, and plus he’s not going to any masterminds. He has mentors but he doesn’t go to masterminds and poach, and then the black dragon is a million dollars or more. We have people from South Africa. We have people from Europe we have people from Australia, they’re all over and then dragon X is eight figures in more. At the time of this recording, no one is in black in Dragon X yet But that’s our ascension. Right? So I don’t want anyone to confuse down selling upselling and Ascension. Ascension is after they’re done. What do you do next? Well, an ascension is a renewal. So a red dragon who wants to renew, they’re still making six figures in their business they renew, if they go from six to seven figures, now it’s merit based, it’s a meritocracy. It’s not like, Hey, if you can pay come on in, it’s merit based. So you’re a black dragon. If we go to Red Dragon, the black dragon that’s ascension as well. And then we use daily to engage, we don’t have any physical events. Daily, we use Slack for red and black dragon. And they’re both together, and they’re separate inside of that slack channel. And I’ve never seen a more engaged and active group of people, we have accountability Partnership, which I helped lead. And it’s the most unusual mastermind I’ve ever seen. I’m starting to present it in other masterminds, and I think it’s gonna look like ethical poaching. Because everyone’s gonna want to join it to see how the hell are they doing this thing. But it’s the most fascinating thing. It’s all because of appointment based marketing, through a paid launch, Dan.
If they paid for it, are they more likely to engage? Yes. Why? To get their money's worth. - Alex Mandossian Click To TweetDan Kuschell 26:10
So what would happen for you, as you’re watching or listening right now, if you applied what Alex just shared with you one, a $1.35 million case study in 11 months. In addition, he’s walked you through the four step plan. And again, you can come back to the show notes to get access to this, as well, and all the things that Alex has shared with you, right? But just think about it. Like what if you shift your business model to essentially initiate people, and a paid launch a paid event, a five day, ultimately six day mini event, and then offer them a mastermind in this example, he laid out their blueprint 25,000 35,000, soon to be their dragon X programme coming as well. And he talked about the conversion numbers, which is amazing, right? What would happen for you, if you put a simple model in place, a version of this has existed in the live event business for a long, long time. And what Alex has done is pivoted to be able to implement in an online situation,
Alex Mandossian 27:20
that’s very fair for you to say, because that that’s an oversight. I don’t want to run away from that fact. It has the coaching zone, you know, at an event, and there’s some people who’ve created that invented that we have the concept called Quantum Leap, which my friend T Harv, Eker. had created a while back and I wanted to make the Quantum Leap available from the beginning, not at the very end at the events and it changed everything at his physical events. But at the physical level, the mastermind concept works in fact, sometimes you get to go at no cost. And then if you like what you see, they close you there through an appointment face to face and you feel the pull to say yes, because now you’ve met people, you’ve eaten food and you broken bread, and they say yes, no one. No one I’m I know, and if there is anyone, I would love to have discussions where I’ll show you mine, you show me yours. But no one I know has done it virtually in five days. And nobody I mean, and by the way, this is his inaugural year we didn’t have it last year. So this is the first year it’s from start up. Zero JV zero, that means that we don’t have to mail for anybody else email or promote for someone else. The key points are is cold paid traffic. It’s zero JV partners. And it’s a five day paid challenge. Now I’m just going to give you the where to find it because you can look at it I’ve I’ve co written the the invitation page and the letter you can join if you want there’s there’s no discount. It’s about 500 bucks. You can ask for a refund if you don’t like after the first day. And then there’s a countdown timer so we do it throughout the year. But thesmartchallenge.com. www. Because we use Click Funnels you got to use the www so thank you Russell Brunson www.thesmartchallenge.com. Check it out. You don’t like the copy blame me. We have four hooks. And those four hooks are ads on both Google we use LinkedIn we use Facebook Of course we don’t use Facebook exclusively. And of course we do retargeting with our own list, which is about a quarter million. But when they’re coming in, whatever that hook is, the top part of the landing page is different. So the top part of the landing page mimics and is integrated with the hook on Facebook. Most people don’t do that. They just go to a landing standard page. They call that control. That’s ridiculous. So we want to make sure the first 500 words are in alignment with the ad on the Facebook site. So once they click, they land, they say, Wow, I’m home. Versus they come they say what the heck is this? You know, which most people do now, here’s another key point. Paid launches offset. Now I have a typo on my card off it off it, I did it. So, you know, mistakes are great. The more I make the smarter I get, but paid launches offset ad costs. And here’s the best part. Let’s say they’re not qualified. Let’s say they don’t make six figures. Let’s say they’re opportunity seeker. No problem. nonqualified can be down sold. What do we down sell them to? We have certification. We have $4,000 certifications. I brought that to Dan Locke education. That was my job originally. We have coaching, certification coaching. We have a high ticket closer training, which is what he since 2018. That’s what he’s known for. I brought the coaching side. And then we have Dan lock shop that generates seven figures at Danyluk shop comm those are like, items from 100 bucks to 5000 bucks. So there’s always something to sell on the down sell like 10,000 1100 The way I started and people say well, what’s the application? What do you do? How do you do? How do you do a mastermind you don’t do it all at once. This is not a Fling is a love affair. Right? Wait, we’re gonna have an ongoing, it’s boring to most but we need to have a love affair not a fling. Right? Yes. So the CTA the call to action for appointment based launch of this way that is an application and make sure that it takes about 10 minutes to complete that application. You need that level of engagement. After the event rather than emailing we don’t email, we don’t even email. What do we do? We bring them in to the telegram group and we talk to them there we train them to engage in the telegram group and the pre channelling your participants attention is doing before going live is the key. That’s what my card said, pre channelling their attention. That means getting them attentive to us. So they’re interested. They have desire, they’re going to take action, Ada formula AI da been around for 100 years, it still works, pre channelling their attention before you go live. And we use the web based app called telegram. And then once they say yes, now they go into Slack, which cost money. Right telegram does not it does, but very little, and we engage in enrol them. And our mastermind. This is very unusual, Dan. We don’t have physical events. Everything is virtual and they’re on all the time. One thing with the mastermind if you decide to go high end, you got to have a lot of what’s the colloquial term? When you have like, items like hats and, and swag. Yeah, swag. Swag. I you know, I’m an older guy. I’m I’m a baby boomer, right. So swag. You gotta have your swag. We have bookmarks. We have bookmarks. We have. We have journals. We have journals. And all of it is in the mastermind. Why do you need to have swag? Well, that’s something that’s called a stick strategy. And you’re familiar with stick strategy secret, Stan? So you need the swag. That’s why I’m I’m all dragon out right now. Right? And so, in fact, my background, that’s a dragon background, you know, I have, I have like a green screen behind me. And so we even have that. If it’s zoom or what we use whatever we have, it’s, we’re even doing that swag to which is digital swag. Right? And so these are some of the things we do. There’s nothing so innovative, but it’s clever. And it’s worth over a million bucks, you know, 1.3 million. That’s about a million dollars profit. That’s how profitable this can be. Not and
Dan Kuschell 34:02
as you’re as you’re watching or listening right now, you know, one of the exciting things about this model is like, okay, well what happens after you do one? Well, why not rinse and repeat into a second, through a third to a fourth in a year if you want to write and it starts to open up the door for all kinds of possibility. I want to encourage you to go check out what Alex is doing. Go check out the programme itself go to www.thesmartchallenge.com, www.thesmartchallenge.com right now. Don’t wait. Don’t hesitate. Don’t risk missing out on what could be a new, innovative seven figure model where you’re going to work with Alex and their entire team where they can walk you step by step by step through the entire blueprint to help you go to www.thesmartchallenge.com. That’s www.thesmartchallenge.com. Right now Now Alex, as we wind this down, what’s something I should have? I mean, you’ve been amazing, thorough it. By the way, if you’re watching or listening, right, I encourage you to come back to this segment, come back to this session, come back to this episode and re listen to it, rewatch it, grab your pen, grab your note notebook, and jot down some notes and most importantly, take action. Take action with what Alex is. And the easiest way to take action to get the full Blueprint, step by step is go to www.thesmartchallenge.com, www.thesmartchallenge.com. Something I should have asked you that I didn’t.
Alex Mandossian 35:36
Yeah, well, I want to go back to the final thing. But this is second to the final thing. And and the reason I want to go to the final thing and not lose sight of it is I want to honor you. This is not what you’re going to think I’m going to respond possibly. But despite all this, Carol, my mother still doesn’t know what I do. Okay. And I do have students on every continent that this nearly 800,000, about 780,000 students over 28 year period it, you know, it takes time, but I’m there I don’t have millions and billions. I’m not a best selling author, I prefer to train. And so one thing that you could have asked me is what’s the difference between this paid model in philosophy and everything else for the high ticket? Well, the biggest thing is, other models are mindset shifts. When you shift your mindset, I don’t believe it’s permanent. I think it’s powerful, but it’s not permanent. It’s temporary. And you know this because when you have a New Year’s resolution on the 31st of December every year, you have a mindset shift, you get all excited, you’re jacked up, and all of a sudden by February, you’re done with that resolution as most people find out. So a mindset is kind of a transitional shift meaning baby to an adult or puppy to big dog, or kitten to a big cat, right? I believe that this model is an identity change. And identity change is much different. identity change is not a transition, it is a permanent, most case positive change like Caterpillar, to butterfly. That’s the difference. It’s a completely different organism with the caterpillar calls the end of the world the butterfly calls the beginning of life. And the fastest crawling Caterpillar doesn’t hold a candle to the slowest Flying Butterfly. So if you believe in identity change, then you do know that you’re not the same person now watching or listening to both Dan and I, or Dan and me, I should say, Mrs. Williams was my grammar. You know, rest in peace. She wasn’t very nice to me, but still rest in peace in third grade. Hopefully, you’re not the same person that you were about 35 minutes ago. I don’t think you are. Now if that’s true, you’re a completely different identity. And the big mistake people make is they want to have a mindset shift. They say, Well, I want to play the piano in a year. Or they say, I want to be able to throw a football 30 yards, or they say, Hey, I want to make six figures next year. Or seven. Those are mindset shift goals. They’re powerful, but they’re not identity, change goals, identity changes. I am a concert pianist. I am a semi pro football player. Why? Because you’ll live longer. That’s why semi pro there’s nothing wrong with it. No even better. I’m a professional flag football player. Okay, this is fewer concussions folks. Okay. And then what about I’m a multi multimillionaire. I’m a six figure closer. Those are identity changes. So when you focus, identity, everything changes. When you focus on mindset, not much. Now, mindset does precede identity. But mindset is temporary identity is permanent. In my view, the butterfly can never go back to the caterpillar, period. Now here’s the thing. What’s in between the caterpillar and the butterfly, it starts with a C. It’s a cocoon. What does that mean? That means there’s a J curve in your identity change because you’re turning into a new person. So, you know, before you go up, there’s not hockey stick growth. It’s field hockey stick growth. You go down a little bit, then you go up. And why do you go down that’s the cocoon. That’s when you’re in incubation period. That’s not the end of the world. That’s the beginning of a new era. You got to give it some time. So go to YouTube and check out the way a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. It’s beautiful. The Cocoon is absolutely essential for the butterfly to happen. So hopefully, you’ll find your cocoon and it won’t be the end of the world you’ll get excited. Boredom is The beginning of mastery. That’s the cocoon when you’re bored of something. It’s the beginning of mastery, get excited. Because if you’re bored, that means you’re doing it a lot. Practice doesn’t make perfect it makes permanent. I first heard that from Keith Cunningham. He probably heard it from someone else. But I got to give Keith the props on that. And if you don’t know, Keith, you can look him up. He’s a financial wizard. And he’s always hanging out with Tony Robbins events. And he used to hang out with me at T. Harv Ecker events. So I think that’s it. I think that’s the big aha, that that could have been. Let’s go back to what happened back in 2003, if you don’t mind? Absolutely. So.
Boredom is the beginning of mastery. - Alex Mandossian Click To TweetDan Kuschell 40:35
So it’s not what happens. It’s Oh, by the way, and before we do, again, I mean, you can just see, I mean, we could literally spend days talking about this concept. And if you’re smart, if you’re ready to take action, if you’re ready to just even learn more, dip your feet. No, I mean, I don’t even think it’s a big a big test. Go check out what Alex has shared with you right now Register at www.thesmartchallenge.com, that’s www.thesmartchallenge.com, so damaging confession. So Alex and I got a chance to meet back in 2003. I was speaking at an event. Initially, John Childers, who’s a legend in the speaking industry at a speaker’s training made a lot of money in real estate, teaching real estate and a whole lot more. We got introduced. Fast forward, I started hosting events. And one of the events that we hosted. I had asked Alex, Hey, would you like to come speak? We’ll have x number of people in front of the room. And I’ll come back to that in a second. Because this is the mud in your face moment. And, you know, Alex had asked, well, how many people do you expect, right? Because at the level he was at, like, it’s a time commitment, right? You never get time, you can always get money back. But you can never get time back. And I said, Alex, we will have a minimum of 300 people in the room. Minimum. All right, we were doing a lot of advertising, radio, TV, a bunch of other stuff, direct mail. Based on our analysis, I just knew we were gonna have 300 people. Alex was there, Dean Graziosi. Was there one of the first events he ever spoke at? Joel Bauer was there who was a friend of Alex, another gentleman named Mitch, who was also a friend of Alex’s, they all came together and I made a big come I went out on a limb, right? You got to be bit, you know, do look to do big things and be bold. But here’s what happened. I didn’t get 300 people in the room. And no, I’m not going to do what I’ve done in the past and say I got 400 in the room. This was a true, but in your face moment, at most, we probably had 110. And I remember sitting in the back of the room, just embarrassed, humiliated. Upset. Because I know, you only get a couple chances to keep a great reputation. And I felt like my world had ended. Because I had let Alex down. I’d let Dean down. I’d let Joel down. I’d let Mitch down. And I’d let myself down. Because we didn’t make it happen. And when you’re achievement oriented, you may know what I’m talking about. If you’re an overachiever, you may know what I’m talking about that feeling. And I’ll I remember Alex did his presentation. And Alex, if you’ve never seen Alex speak in front of the room, if you’ve never seen him enroll, you got a glimpse of that today. But this is just a small glimpse. I’ve seen it firsthand, over and over and over again, he will historically be one of the best enrollment people like you stack against anybody in the world. And he doesn’t do it with hype. He does it with what you just got a chance to see. At the end of the day, I think Alex enrolled on it. I don’t remember exactly. But I would guess it was close to 50% of the people in the room who were there who would make a purchase did because his offer was just so off the charts good. And for Alex, this was not worth his time. It was not worth it. And all I could do is just do the very best I could and I made sure to get them paid, you know as quickly as we could on the sales that were made. I remember I even ate some if I recall correctly based on a couple people backed out last minute. I just wanted to do everything I could. And Alex being Alex was just, you know the classiest guy not only at the event, he didn’t say anything at the event. But I have to imagine man, you were pretty damn upset. And
Alex Mandossian 44:36
so now I get to after so many years, nearly 20 years, I get to tell you exactly what was happening inside of Alex because otherwise you’re projecting. Yep. And so there’s a few things you don’t know. The first thing is I knew Joel Bauer and Mitch Carson was the was being taught by Joel Bauer but Joel really did didn’t know the information marketing business. So at that event when we walked in, and we saw that the numbers weren’t there, there were about 40 people when I was presenting. So the numbers went up and down. It was 100. In the morning, there weren’t as many people there. I’ll tell you how I respond to that in a moment. But I had breakfast with Joel Bauer on day two. And other speakers came to me and you know, Dean, he, he was amazing back then on television, but that was one of his first onstage events and it wasn’t on stage. It was on the floor, because it was a small room. And I thought it you know, I don’t know how upset he was he lived nearby. But he’s improved his presentations a lot since then. So Oh, yeah. That was kind of first time gig. It wasn’t my first it wasn’t Joel’s first. It wasn’t Mitchell’s first. And we all have different personalities they were trying to engage me into, WTF, can you believe this? I wouldn’t engage. I wouldn’t engage. And I’ll tell you why in a moment. Might as well open a loop now. But I had breakfast with Joel. And Joe kind of knew me, but he was shocked. Why after two hours, I’m giving him all this insight on how to set up his package. You know, what to do with his interactive clamshell thing back then we had clamshells, you know, with CDs and stuff like that. The millennials going What the heck is that? You know, DVD CB this picture on? No one did that stuff. Right. So he was shocked because Joseph magician Plus, he’s done a lot of cruise ships and he’s not used to that. He thought I was fully you know what, right? Yeah, he was shocked. And then after he, Joel was the best seller there. Okay. He superior to me. And he has a very different style, very polarizing. And he and he delivers. But he sent people the back of the room. I got the I did it. I did the first one. His offer was very low as $850 Because his self esteem only supported that it was a first time he selling offers. He knew how to train, Mitch, but he didn’t you know, he didn’t have a offer. Mine was more than that. So I went back, I said, I want to pay twice as much to him. He says, Well, no, no, you don’t have to pay anything. Joe, Joe’s an amazing dad, amazing. Father. Husband. Right. But he’s very polarizing on stage. Right. And he’s not afraid to talk about. And so I happen to love him. I just have a different relationship with him. And I’ve been to one of his events, and it just is tremendous. But I paid twice as much I paid $1,700. And he was shocked. And he wouldn’t let me do it. I said, If you don’t let me do it, you’re a shitty receiver. Sorry for the language. And so that was enough. You know, he says, Okay, fine. And then he said, Why are you doing it? I said, Joel, I know you’re going to be big time in this industry. I’m just watching what you just did. You come from a different industry. You come from the in the, in the convention business where you’re trying to gather a crowd at a booth and stuff. That’s what you’re good at with Larry Ellison and Oracle and all this stuff. You’re going to be great. And you’re going to tell everyone that I paid twice as much for your product. Users? I probably am. I said I know. And that doesn’t there’s not a a year that passes a month, a quarter where someone calls in a guy named Peng Joon, who was a student now he’s a multi multi millionaire out of Malaysia and a bunch of his protegees and stuff. They go. They go Alex, Joel is talking about you again. I said, I know. And all it did. It cost me 1700 bucks. So that I have you to thank for that’s number one. The second thing is, you know, kind of like friends who are back talking and kind of backstabbing, everyone has been through what you went through that day. And those three days, everyone, everyone, for me, the 120 degrees outside was more of an issue, because I hadn’t lived in in that part of the world, which I do now. So I was going Damn, I’m glad I’m in this air conditioned, you know, hotel, you know, this is crazy. i How can people live here right now I do. So at the time at the time, now I’m in Vancouver, Canada, but I’ll be back in Scottsdale, Arizona. So Dan and I don’t live far apart. But I didn’t want to engage in any kind of backstabbing like that, because everyone went through what Dan went through. In fact, my heart sank for this man. It sank because I’ve been through it. The shame and the guilt, which are worthless emotions, they suck. And yet, you know, it’s happening, especially with new relationships. So you didn’t lose any face with me. I was hurting with you. Because I knew it really. And I didn’t know you well enough to say, Dude, don’t worry about it, man. Because I didn’t think it would hold water. But I’m telling you now 20 years later, with me. You’re clean and I do it. With my own Higher Power. It’s like I have my own agreement. Like I’m not going to make fun or backstabbing because shit will happen to me again in the future. Right? That’s terrible karma. So if you’re ever in that position, because if it’s going to happen is it’s always going to happen that not if it will happen. And it your your heart sinks, and you know, who to hang out with afterward. That’s it, because every single person who complained to me, I’m not gonna name names, but you know them. They all have been through the same thing they’ve and the reason they complain about it, because finally, they can outlive their own embarrassment for having that stuff happen to them, right. But I didn’t want to do it at your expense dance. So that that is that honest to God. Truth is, I didn’t talk any shit about you at all behind your back. And so if that showed that I’m very grateful, and that’s one area, I think my mom raised me well, so that’s my truth, and I’ll stick with it.
Dan Kuschell 50:51
And there you have it, as you’re watching or listening, you are gonna have ups and downs, too, right? It’s not all gonna be a ride of growth, a hockey stick growth or even, you know, micro hockey stick growth or anywhere in between, there’s gonna be some embarrassing moments. It’s not what happens. It’s what you do when it happens. Thankfully, Alex and I have been able to stay in connection for I guess, close to 18 1919 years. As a result of it. As we run here, we don’t get to see each other much. Now I coached high school football, which is kind of almost like a full time thing on top of my business stuff. So I can only do virtual things today. And but, like, Alex is one of the best in the world. Thank you. Right. And he’s also one of the classiest people in the world. And if you want to get a deeper glimpse of this, I can’t recommend it enough this model works. It’s proven to work. Working with Alex is proven to work. And if you want to go deeper with Alex, go to www.thesmartchallenge.com, that’s www.thesmartchallenge.com. I’m curious Alex’s you’ve been at this a long time when you were a kid, right? Do you remember a book or programme that was a trigger, book or program that kind of has set you on the path that you are now?
Alex Mandossian 52:21
Well as a kid, and most won’t remember this because it was played on a long playing album by a guy who lived in Chicago, and who smoked five packs of cigarettes a day. And it wasn’t Nat King Cole because he was a smoker too. What a great voice for smoking, right? Yes. But this guy’s name was Earl Nightingale. And his training was called The Strangest Secret. And I would recommend that you get it. If it’s in book form. I recommend you get it because most people don’t know the root cause of things in the strangest secret launch so many other people’s careers just like Dale Carnegie, not Andrew Carnegie. But Dale Carnegie back in the 1920s and 30s launch so many careers and speaking and a Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich took him 20 years to write it. That’s Andrew Carnegie is the sponsor that launch so many careers. So Wallace Wattles people don’t even know who Wallace Wallace Wattles is, but he launched a lot of careers including Napoleon Hills, right? Yeah, so the strangest secret by Earl Nightingale he said something. You are what you think about. And it’s true. And I have other news for you. You are what you complain about. You are what you love about you are what you feel about and you are what you do about you have 60 to 70,000 thoughts a day and about 90% of them are the same. That’s not me saying it. Those are neuroscientists saying it. So how do you change those thoughts, personal development and dead time learning which Earl and his colleague whose name is Nightingale sorry, Nightingale and Conant Conant was his partner, and then I know his son and then his grandson. Well, what happens is it changes your life. It’s called deadtime learning. You’re in traffic, you’re listening to something, right? So you know visual is important written is important, but you got to do that actively. If you’re listening. You don’t have to be auditory to learn. You can background tasks, not multitask, and you’re taking dead time and you’re resurrecting it so I recommend that anytime you drive don’t listen to the radio. Don’t get on the phone. I it takes me about 15 minutes to drive to the gym. Deliberately. I have a gym in my building. I live in a very exclusive luxury building in Scottsdale. I go to the gym and I come back. It’s 15 minutes each way. So I can listen to at least a book every two weeks. That’s how important that time looks. So the strangest secret is the one that comes to mind and most people never talk about.
You are what you complain about. You are what you love about. You are what you feel about, and you are what you do about. - Alex Mandossian Click To TweetDan Kuschell 55:05
He’s Alex my nose in if you’re looking for a way to use the power of paid appointment based high ticket launches in your business, go learn more at www.thesmartchallenge.com, that’s www.thesmartchallenge.com, I don’t know what the opposite of that would be. Don’t go to the dumb challenge, because that wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever. So go to www.thesmartchallenge.com, Alex, it’s a privilege to have you here with us, I encourage you as you’re watching or listening right now, take action with what Alex has shared with you take action, apply what he’s learned, most importantly, go deeper with this strategy. Like, could you do this once a once a year, twice a year, three times a year, four times a year, maybe more.
Alex Mandossian 55:50
Sky’s okay. And plus, if you want to ethically poach and see how it’s done. It’s okay to pay the 497. Go through it, take notes many people do, and then not sign up. But go through that process and say no, you know, now there’s going to waste time, it’ll waste the time with the salesperson, so use your discernment. But you can go through the five days and see the way it’s handled. Because SMART is an acronym and you’ll know what it is even on the on the webpage, you’ll see what it is. So just looking at the webpage is not enough going through it. It’s five days, don’t sign up if you don’t want to. Because if you do, it’s going to be 25 or 35k. Right? Unless you have an eight figure business, then it’s 50k. And that way, you get to see how this thing is done. And nobody else does it. And we’re finding more and more people are doing it, the one thing I know that’s going to happen is we’re going to have a two hour event, it’s going to be only for CEOs who have masterminds. And we’re gonna charge 1000 bucks for it for two hours. And in the 15 minutes that this took, we’re gonna go even further and deeper on that two hours, and they can get their money back if they don’t think it’s worthwhile, right. But who’s ever heard of a two hour webinar for 1000 bucks? I haven’t, what are we going to do, we’re going to put them in the telegram group beforehand. And then we’re going to do some q&a after the event. That way, we don’t have to email them and fill in and litter their inbox. So that’s the next iteration. And we’ll see what happens. We don’t know at the time of this recording. So thank you, Dan, very much. Thank you for thinking of me. And thank you for always, as long as I’ve known you. The only thing that’s is forbidden from this point forward is Don’t ever bring up 2003. Again, mud in our face. It’s over. It’s over it. It’ll reduce you. You don’t have to do it in front of me. It’s done. Move on. Don’t hold on to it. All right. No, sir.
Dan Kuschell 57:48
Yes, sir. So there you have it. Take action with what Alex has shared with you. Go apply it. Seize the day. Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com. Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall and growing your business? Let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. Do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com. That’s breakthroughstrategycall.com. In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free Small Business toolkit. You get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com, that’s activate.breakthrough3x.com. If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.
