One of the major concepts that I've been focusing on is the customer pillar. I’m now in the process of giving more value to the marketplace by giving away more free services, to gain user base first. We had already given away some products and services, but seeing the numerous ways that you were doing it, online *and* offline, I picked up on one of the offline promotional tactics you did in particular. And that is the free seminars you were giving away.

We provide PPC Analytic software (tracking202.com) for affiliate marketers; we are always looking for more ways to build the brand. So I speedily implemented one of the concepts you were using, and that is, I put together a meetup group for PPC Affiliate Marketeres in the bay area, at meetup202.com, and already we are gaining users. We will be looking to meet some more individuals off-line, and build the customer pillar up, as much as possible now offline too. I thought the concept was great, and I made sure to implement the idea as fast as possible while the idea was hot on my mind.

I’m focusing a lot now on the customer pillar, and we are now moving the team around, and I’m going to be having my parents start to focus on the other pillars so we can really focus on each pillar individually more effectively. Also when writing this I, re-wrote it, and did my best to also implement the tips in the last video, on making every word count.

Thank you for the information, and the opportunity to win a scholarship for the Guru MasterMind Training program.

Speed of Implementation!
Wes Mahler

Aloha,

I am going to list the techniques I have successfully implemented since viewing your first video last October. When I viewed this video I had an idea for a business I wanted to develop. I had an idea and a lot of passion that was all.

1. I started by narrowing my niche. I work in education and decided to narrow to K-12 Virtual Education.

2. I chose a name with alliteration and good meaning for my developing business - 2Think2Learn.com

3. I then spent time creating my customer avatars

4. I kept reminding myself of the counter intuitive. This technique forced me to continually consider all angles.

5. I made a concious effort not to be interrupt driven. As a mother of 3 teaching at home this was a challenge. However sticking to this has enabled me to get further in the development of 2think2Learn.com

6. I outsource things that I am not highly skilled at. ie: graphic design. This results in me having more time to create content and do the things I am good at.

7. I built and launched the 2Think2Learn Virtual Campus.

8. I needed a website to show case our Campus programs so implemented the plan to build another section of the 2Think2Learn Virtual Campus.

9. Over the last few months I have initiated relationships with 3 large E-Learning companies. I approached them in a genuine ethical way and presented my Virtual Campus. this resulted in 2 of the companies committing to a JV partnership.

10. I am aware of the need to build a team and have started building relationships with experts in the field of Virtual Learning. I have 2 potential stars who are passionate and driven in the area of teaching on the virtual platform.

11. I have initiated a "Virtual Bench". Many people I am interested in involving live outside the US. This is an important aspect of the Virtual Campus.

12. I refer to my business plan to avoid growing by accident.

13. I have an outline for a product curriculum. Following this has enabled me to make better decisions about what programs I want to include.

Over the past 3 weeks with the new teachings I have implemented the following:

1. After Jeffs teleseminar I confirmed my JV partnership with both companies.

2. I changed my coaching program to $97 sessions and have had 6 sessions in 3 weeks. In charging for the sessions I made money and my clients felt it was time well spent and implemented my programs exrtemely well. It added a sense of value to my advice.

3. I wrote my product outline. It really forced me to look at all the areas my prospects may need addressed in the order THEY needed. It also set me up well for the e-book templates!

4. Sent out 500 surveys to my niche. The results indicated where I needed to make changes and I am in the process of doing that now. These results helped me see it was necessary to have a website separate from the Virtual Campus - covering the Why, What and Hows!

5. Redesigned my initial product to take the customer from his/her current position not MINE! I had the chance to speak with an expert in Technology in Education who had tried to launch something similar 5 years ago. He was not successful as he had not had the priviledge of participating in your courses. He did not start teaching from the level of the prospect. Simplify! and build!

6. At this point I revisited the customer avatars and even role played with my husband to really understand their emotional needs etc...This is the best way to create conversation with the prospect.

I then started implementing the 7 steps.

1. Start where the customer is at - well it is always great to hear it again as this is essential!

2. I created a freeline content product to meet the emotional needs of my customers/prospects.

3. I am working for a non profit as a virtual ed consultant and am working on providing a permanent campus for the local charter schools Virtual K-8 program.

4. 2Think2Learn will be running Isafe.org programs (free as a community service) for the community at the non profit.

5. I implemented an article writing plan - I have published 4 articles to EzineArticles.com this month. This writing is giving me good practice for e-book writing.

6. Outlined plan for e-book.

7. Created a subscription product.

8. I have a great curriculum and am able to reference it as part of everything I do.

After the tele seminar with Wyatt I am rewording portions of my site to speak to the Why, What and Hows.

In conclusion:

"What if"

Guru Mastermind could be applied to change the face of education. As an educator from New Zealand (ranked 5th in the world in education) I am passionate about finding ways to better learning outcomes especially here in Hawaii!. From a young age I felt there must be another way.

The other way is here. "What if" change could be initiated through implementing your teachings? I know that my community could truly benefit from this possibility.

I thank you for your consideration.

Margit Barreras
2Think2Learn.com

P.S. I am not a hoser! Although I once had a friend from Canada whose nickname was Hoser!

Hi.

I am a colege student from Romania, and i'm studying psychology.

I wrote a book about developing your personality 3 years ago and i sold online about 200 of them in the last 2 years. in 2007 i worked on my new book, and in december it was almost ready. Because it was Christmas the pusblishers decided to print the book in January.

Thats when i put my hands on Get altitude home study course. I watched every day 2 hours of the programs. After 2 days i started implementing the ideas:

-Speed of implementation
-Move the free line

I wrote 2 free pdf files one for each of my books and i put the best information in them. I took the ideea of " telling a friend" from the Get altitude when you told us to recomend a friend the free quiz software.

My list grew every day, and in 15 of january when i launched my second book, i sold 100 in the first day, and onother 200 in the next month. I also tried to implement the ideea of having more products to give to the customers and i sold my both books in a package.

I paid my school with the money that i made so it is a great personal victory for me. I have a lot of new ideeas that i want to implement and im cheking every day the guru mastermind site to see what have you prepared for us.

my site is www.personalitatealfa.com and it is in romanian language :)

In our country psychology was banned from 1979 to 1990 due to the communist regime so it is only now that people here opened their minds and somehow when it comes to information products it s like a virgin teritory :)

I will make a great business using my passion for psychology and your great advice about making a business online.

Thank you.

Hi Eben- It’s been an interesting journey…

IT all began on March 8th when I first found your blog.

The details of what happened after I started implementing your ideas is below the post.

OK, so here’s how it all started...

--------------------------------------
First post 3-8
Eben- I was an internet crazed kind of guy a few years back and things never really got off the ground. I went from new idea, to new cool money making product to new next best thing trying to put it all together. Life sucked.

I've never given up but I'll be honest it's been a hell of a struggle. Not getting the success I expected, I've come this close to giving up many many times. Then I had heard about double your dating and like so many others I was hooked by your e-mails. Tried as I might I still couldn't duplicate your success.

I got married, my wife cut me some slack with my "little hobby" and I puttered along. She was supportive but not terribly enthusiastic.

UNTIL I stumbled across your altitude stuff and for some reason she decided to sit down with me one weekend afternoon and have a look. Not for nuthin' the 2 people that most impressed her... as she put it "down to earth kind of guys" were you and Dean Jackson. Maybe because I look a little like Dean :). Fact is she liked both your styles. SO with a lot more support we are both having at it.

Her passion is horses and she's had some small success with a few sites horsemomssupplements.com and equus-rx.com (both horse nutrition related) and I dusted off an old e-book on buying horses horsesecrets.com AND we went at this together.

In just the last few weeks we have been working on this every spare minute. AND I mean every spare minute. I look back and I'm really surprised at how much we have been able to get done vs all that time I spent running around in circles. I have to tell you the process of having the clearly defined goal coupled with the action steps have been gold. Fact is I also have to give her a lot of the credit. She's disciplined organized and is such a common sense thinker she amazes me.
Well Eben that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Please keep the info coming and rest assured there's at least 2 people out here listening intently and taking action like crazy!
Please give our best to Dean (I think he and my wife are kindred spirits)

I respectfully request that you consider us for one of your scholarships... because one thing I can promise is we will ACT on it and we will make it happen. In fact we are going to make it happen one way or another. But it would sure be neat to follow a proven plan like yours.
Thanks
john
----------------------------

We took your offer seriously and jumped right in. (you can see the details on my other posts)

First thing we did was get BURIED by Google.

Not being a PPC kind of guy our clicks started out at .10 and quickly went up to over 6 bucks. OUCH! I couldn’t figure it out.

But I stumbled across Googles site analysis tool and I had a EUREKA moment.

Now our clicks are .08 and our opt in has increased substantially and we’ve made some sales but only a few. But it was enough incentive to win that round and plow forward.

Our next goal was developing an affiliate program. Reason we made that decision was through ppc we found there were not a lot of searches for people buying horses but there were tons selling horses.

We looked at it in a counter intuitive way thinking maybe people were typing in horses for sale rather then buy a horse when they were actually looking to buy a horse. Especially when I talked to a few of these sites and they were doing well selling horses.

At that point with our limited time and resources, we thought it made more sense to pay attention to affiliates and partnering with these sites.

That was harder then I expected. The challenge was finding an affiliate tool that met our needs and the needs of our customers. Especially since I’m not a programmer. We originally started using click bank but it doesn’t handle hard products so it was important to find something that met our needs better.

Then great luck…

I found a program and was able to actually load it on to the server and make it work.
Here’s a link http://lookmeuponline.com/affiliate_program since it might be helpful to other people too.

I’ve got 4 banners up and 2 pdf reports as affiliate tools and I’m going to launch on Monday. I know it’s not a lot but I can add more as we go, I’m just excited to see if it works and get feedback.

Then your voodoo report hit and I was rocked. I was finally able to connect the dots. And that was a huge accomplishment since I felt I finally got it. Or at least I realized what I should be doing and why. :)

Right now I can proudly say I figured out googles testing tool
(it took a little while but if I can do it anybody can) and we are now testing A – B splits on the headline section of the site using what I learned from the voodoo report. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

Oh and I almost forgot.

I took your advice and called people to discuss the site like you suggested. That was a HUGE eye opener and made me realize stuff that I thought was important wasn’t so important to my prospects. After a few calls I was even able to make a sale. Pretty neat huh?

Now we have a direction.

Any way, whether I’m fortunate to get a scholarship or we miss it, I want to say thanks for the information you shared with us already … it’s been very helpful and we really appreciate it.

Good luck Eben on your decision. We’ll both be patiently watching your blog for the results.

Sincerely
John and Mary

P.S. We’ve accomplished more stuff in the last few weeks together then I have alone in the last few years. Thanks for the targets and your great ability to teach.

Hi Eben,

First, thanks for all the things you taught us here.

As my business is in the startup phase, I have implemented several of them, in various areas.

I worked notably on the six pillars, focusing on my prospect's emotional needs, and a few other aspects... Ah, and also I applied a special effort on the mastermind group!

In fact, I have implemented 1 or 2 things almost every time you've put up a video or done a call. (which means sometimes, as I live in Europe, I stayed awake till 3am to listen to the calls, and applied the results the day after!)

And the results have been... extraordinary. At least, to me, they have.

I will be honest though: as I am still in the startup phase with my project, I haven't been able to make money (yet). But this should come very soon.

And the progresses I've been able to make in terms of Efficiency, Organization, Marketing, and the clear outline of my upcoming actions... All of it by IMPLEMENTING your techniques... This has been VERY impressive.

Now, I've laid everything in a powerpoint that I sent you by email Friday evening.

It's a rather detailed presentation, focused on what I implemented, how I did it and the results I've got. I also tell you why I'm SO motivated to win this contest.

I spent quite a lot of time writing it, because I cannot afford to pay for the scholarship. I simply don�t have the money. Which means: this contest is my only chance to get in.

So I don't wanna do a quick summary here. I wanna give it my best shot to get in. Hence the powerpoint.

Because considering the principles and techniques you taught us here�
And considering how my business has improved already by implementing them� Boy, I wanna get in!

I also did a detailed presentation because I think it can be more valuable as a feedback for you. In order to apply one of your principles, I�ve spent 2 days in the street, under the rain, just to ask people and understand and feel their biggest need� So I somehow understand how precious feedback can be. ;)

And after all the time you spent preparing this teaching, maybe you�ll appreciate reading my humble (but detailed!) version on the implementation aspect of it.

Sorry for not saying more here. I didn't know you'd put on a special webpage for the contest so I prepared myself for it thinking it would be by email. Hence the powerpoint.

The only thing I can say here is that YES, all the things you taught DID bring something very concrete to my business by IMPLEMENTING them.

I sent you the presentation on Friday at 6:39pm Pacific Time.
I think you got it, because your computer sent me a reception message. Please send me an email if you didn't.

Hope you read my presentation, appreciate all the efforts and actions I have taken, and whether you grant me the scholarship or not, I wanna say it again... THANK YOU! ;)

Marc

Hi Eban

Thank you for all the free advice you've been putting out recently. I've been really fired up by it and like your style and ethics.

I'm an artist and eco-warrior, not sure that's the right word but I'll let it go for now. I live in Spain and sell the odd painting, teach the odd drawing class, all hand to mouth stuff.

I'd really like to have a copy of your Altitude Home Study Course so I can learn to sell my art with integrity, at a pace that's sustainable to me. Any chance you have a copy stashed away somewhere?!!

Thanks for all your help so far
L x

Hi Eben,

Your teachings, in particular the first webinar you did were extremely valuable to me. I think you answered every question I had. I thought my questions were a little too specialised to get answered in your training. But you managed it, honestly.

I run a funded proposal style business for Network Marketing. I sell information on how to successfully market online and the low-cost sales fill my pipeline and cover my advertising cost.

I noticed how little my prospects know about online marketing. I had in the past tried to teach them Google Adwords to generate their leads because I was somewhat an "expert" in Google Adwords, generating over 8,000 leads in a single month without affiliates.

In fact at the time of your webinar, I had already completed two books on lead generation. But the step I missed out was doing a proper survey to find out what my prospects wanted.

The results surprised me! I conducted a survey with a couple of thousand responses. Do you know what the most common problems people had were?

"Information Overload", "Time Management", "Focus of effort", "Technical skills", and "Not enough money to market".

Most of these are actually PERCEIVED problems not real ones.

I followed your instructions to the letter and created a sexy product title for my personal mentoring based around a "magic bullet benefit". I created a complete chapter outline for my new funded proposal book.

The most valuable tip you gave me was about the framing of my product. I was already aware of the idea of a frame but the way you described it was priceless! The instruction was to give ALTERNATIVE perspectives.

This led me down a new path of discovery. The information I wanted to say started writing itself with this perspective. Suddenly I have a very unique product angle and philosophy!

And because I'm answering the questions my prospects have, my information is very refreshing.

One of my questions to you was how to get people to want to promote my product. The structure you described of theory->application->example->homework made my writing that much more appealing to take action with. In fact, very few funded proposal products give home-work exercises and this is exactly what people need! This adds fuel to the fire of my new affiliate program which is beginning to take off WITHOUT paying commissions. (I found a way to give value another way)

In your video about the history of information products you sparked a light-bulb in my head. By the way I have read just about every one of the philosophies you described and this helped me construct my frame. It occurred to me, not for the first time, that the most viral ideas became religion or religion-like.

What was it about religion that made it self-replicate and spread?

I studied a little bit about self-replicating memes and applied as many of those concepts as I could to my product. I'm releasing my consultation as a very exclusive product that includes a free pre-release copy of the information product + the marketing system.

I decided that this is the way to go so that I can give the "magic bullet" result. I can get them instant gratification if they combine my marketing system with a few simple ads in Google.

I've found all your training GOLDEN. Thank you so much!

jim

Hey Eben

I don’t have a lot of free time being a full time university student but your videos of so inspired me that I have been working nights putting all of your free line content in to eminent action! In the past my "Speed Of Implementation" had been hampered by uncertainty as to how to structure my products but after watching your videos things have been snapping in to place.

I am pleased to announce that I have created 65 present of my first eBook that with a couple of tweaks I will beadle to sell my first book as two very different products and I am networking with some very intelligent people to create my next information product.

I have also been in contact with the family of a very famous American entrepreneur and am in negotiations for the right to two autobiographical works that I will be able to update and sell as audio books and ebooks. The family is excited and on board 100 present and I have been putting out feelers within the community and am getting a lot of exciting feedback!

Its amassing to see my email box overflowing with likeminded people thirsty for information that I specialize on... and all this was made possible using the tools you provided!

To those of you that say I will get around to implementing Eben’s marketing gold just as soon as I can find some free time… I say if it’s important you make the time… I am. Stop making excuses and Implement this stuff eminently!

Eben

Here is my implementation activities so far. First of thanks for all the great information. This is unbelievable value.

In January this year I decided to create a subscription based product, based on some free stuff that you posted online previously.

In February you started sending out all this great information, the first thing I realized that I had no list or a method to sell my subscription service:

Here is what I have done so far:
1. I had an idea listening to you on one of your calls. I opened a social network site on ning. The site is called ClubNetters.com. I asked 30 associates I knew to join in. The purpose of the site was to share ideas with service professionals to help them grow their business through referrals. I started this as a means to grow a list. These people asked others to join and within a month I have approximately 320 service professionals on the site interacting and talking to each other. This is amazing and I generated this idea from your initial call. I control the site and am an administrator. Essentially I have a mailing list of 320 people.

2. I started writing an e-book. I sat for a week and drafted up this book after your first call. I must admit, that I need to go back to the drawing board and use what I have to put this into a framework format. I am about 70% complete with the e-book and my goal is to have the first draft by Wednesday next week. Awesome call by the way.

3. I put up a web-site for the subscription product � This was a bad idea as I first need to provide value (move the freeline as you say and then use a launch sequence . I am still trying to figure this out)

4. Finally I had another great idea. In my e-book I am going to discuss the methodology and framework of the service. Then I am going to encourage people to go to a landing page where I am going to use the psychic sales letter tool to help them devise a customized step by set plan to help them achieve their goals. This will address the question of �How to.� I am really excited about this as not only am I going to give value in the e-book but they can derive more free line stuff with additional tools. I started working on this but am only 20% complete. The tool is great.

I am looking forward to be part of the program in order to put all this stuff together in a logical sequence. I have the bits and pieces and know there is a logical way to achieve maximum impact. Now that I have 320 people I am not sure how to approach them without seeming as if I intend to sell them as I invited them on the basis of sharing ideas on this social forum.

I hope the course can clear some of this up for me.

Thanks for at least considering my e-mail. I have learnt a lot so far.

Neil

Hi Eben,

I'm sure it's hard choosing scholarship winners from the thousands of people you've helped.

You've probably read DOZENS of stories about riches and success.

And you're probably concerned about picking the right person, and the right business.

Someone who's MOTIVATED, with a business that's GROWING, who you can help achieve even greater success.

Well, I don't have the biggest business of all your students.

But since discovering your ideas, I've tweaked my business to incorporate your six pillars and follow your seven-step plan.

I've seen AMAZING results. And now I need to take the next steps.

But having followed your advice and invested in people and infrastructure, don't have the funds available for your program.

Can you imagine my situation?

Fortunately, your investment won't just benefit me and my business.

But, thanks to the products and services I provide, and my passion for sharing effective ideas and tools, your investment in me and my business...

...WILL BRING EVEN GREATER BENEFIT TO YOU and your ENTIRE Guru MasterMind student body.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

If you have a minute, let me give you some background. (If you're pressed for time, please go on to another submission, and come back when you have more time to follow the story. Still with me? GREAT!)

So here's the story.

For the past 10 years, I've been involved in communications and marketing.

I studied journalism in undergrad.

(And completed a masters in the history and philosophy of science and technology afterwards. On a personal note, I think we'd enjoy discussing some of THOSE topics as well -- evolution, memetics, complexity...but I digress.)

From here, I got into marketing and LOVED it.

I worked my way up to Associate Creative Director with an interactive marketing agency.

Then, last year, I decided to go out on my own.

I was a bit anxious, of course.

But I KNEW I needed to do it.

I'm an entrepreneur at heart and get frustrated with people following "TRADITION" over what's EFFECTIVE.

(I know you can relate to that drive, that need, to blaze your own trail, and do things SMARTER!)

So I started a company called Commune (find the website here: http://communemedia.com/) to provide communications products and services.

My goal was to help people communicate more effectively, applying PROVEN approaches -- like the principles of influence articulated by Robert Cialdini, and the principles of linguistic programming uncovered by Grinder and Bandler.

As you know, many people in marketing just do what "FEELS RIGHT" or "SOUNDS GOOD."

Virtually nobody studies and applies THE SCIENCE of communication, including the science of influence and persuasion.

Well, as I started building my business, I discovered you and your work.

Immediately, it CLICKED.

So I followed your work with Altitude, and told the world. (See, for example, this post: http://www.onedegree.ca/2007/09/give-it-away-no.html.)

Then, over the past few weeks, I started following your Guru posts.

And that brought EVERYTHING TOGETHER.

See, while your ideas made sense, I didn't have a step-by-step guide to implement them. (And I unfortunately couldn't afford your Altitude program.)

So I could only apply a few pieces here and there.

I have had some success.

But it's been inconsistent.

And I didn't have the ROAD MAP I needed.

Well, thanks to the information you provided over the past few weeks, I could CONNECT THE DOTS.

It all made sense.

I FEVERISHLY crafted a spreadsheet outlining your pillars and process.

I made it into a chart I could use to measure and mark my progress. (I look forward to sharing it with you and Guru students if you accept me into the program.)

And then I turned to IMPLEMENTATION.

I surveyed my customers to discover their EMOTIONAL NEEDS. (See what I learned here: http://communemedia.com/blog/what-s-your-content-pain/.)

I furthered our development of AUTOMATED SYSTEMS, including an end-to-end CRM system through Salesforce.com that gives me a DASHBOARD of my business. (I will gladly share what I've learned with other students to help them build similar systems.)

And I began the development of a great piece of FREE-LINE CONTENT we'll release soon, on THE EIGHT ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE WEBSITE WRITING.

All the while, our business has been growing.

I crafted new search marketing ads based on the emotional needs we discovered and CLICK-THROUGHS SKYROCKETED!

Which brings me to the benefit I can bring to you and Guru students if you invest in me.

Thanks to your Guru posts, I've realized that I have two types of customers.

People that want to CREATE WEBSITE CONTENT THEMSELVES.

And people (mainly large companies) who need me and my team to CREATE IT FOR THEM.

So I've decided to build INFORMATION PRODUCTS for the former group. (Under the name "SAY IT SMARTER" -- an alliterative approach.)

And offer PREMIUM SERVICES for the latter group.

What does this mean for you and your students?

It means that your investment will help me produce information products that your students can use...

...to BUILD BETTER, MORE COMPELLING WEBSITE CONTENT WITH GREATER RETURN ON INVESTMENT.

In this way, your investment in me is also an investment in all of your students' future success -- our free e-book on effective website writing alone could help them dramatically improve their websites.

Eben, I hope you can see how much it would mean for me to learn from you.

I greatly respect your knowledge and work.

And I'm facing many challenges with my business that could use your guidance.

For example, as I grow, I need to more effectively delegate -- and keep my employees happy and engaged.

I would GREATLY appreciate an opportunity to learn more from you, and aim to in turn bring great benefit -- and PASSION -- to you and your students.

With sincere thanks for your consideration,
Simon Smith
Principal
Commune Media

I had posted a smaller post of my progress on another blog last night.

First of all, straight out of the gate when you said “one of the most common mistakes made is trying to push onto people what you think they should want to learn RATHER than asking them what they want and giving it to them” and “stop thinking information and start thinking advice” I had an aha moment. When I first got started, what I do and the way I do it was more “unique” than it is now and I honestly had more business than I could handle just through word of mouth and I honestly got spoiled and took it for granted. I never bothered to study marketing, thinking I didn't need to. Boy was I wrong...because I didn’t understand why my market was responding and wasn’t consciously doing what I was doing, I went from offering people extremely valuable, digestible, and actionable information in a "why, what, how" format (although I didn't know I was) with great success...to offering people too much "what" while at the same time I stopped listening and interacting with my customers which just overwhelmed them with information...I thought I was doing them a favor by just giving them more and more information and didn't understand why they suddenly weren't applying it and less people were coming to me. The more I learned, the more I dumped on them...I pretended I already knew what they wanted and what questions they had and expected them to just listen and apply!

Based on this, I have begun to reformat my seminars and information into smaller chunks accompanied by small action steps rather than trying to give them everything at once through a virtual fire hose. I am focusing on keep it to 10 key points and mixing in “why, what, and how” in each section and throughout (your teleclass on this was GREAT and I am also studying the book “Presenting Magically” which speaks to this framework as well).

I am now working on consolidating my contacts into a system so I can effectively survey my customers and find out what their real needs are and what they actually want (for the first time). I have already begun surveying small groups and have gotten some replies. I am asking the 3 questions:

1. What is one challenge, obstacle, or breakdown (interruption or distraction) that you experience in your health, fitness, and vitality that you would like overcome once and for all?

2. What are 1, 2, or 3 questions you would like to have answered in the area of health, fitness, and vitality?

3. What would you most like to learn in the area of health, fitness, and vitality?

I had co-written a book last year with someone else and it just isn't selling like I thought it would and I realize that it also simply has too much information in it and the information is mostly what I "think" they "should" want. I now have 4 new ideas and outlines for eBooks that are high value and yet not overwhelming and I have begun writing the first (using your templates) to use as content marketing.

After watching Behind the Scenes of 20 Million Dollar Information Product Business and hearing your training on business phases...I realized it would be good to focus on Phase 1 and develop a plan from the ground up:

1. Create an eBook structured the way you suggested: with 10 bullet points, focusing on the top 10 strongest emotionally driven needs Organize them in logical order of learning, ideally putting the highest impact ideas first, and outlining each chapter with 7-10 bullet points, focusing on a specific insight technique, action step.

2. Study and learn how to use Pay Per Click/AdWords (which I has never heard of until your trainings these last couple of weeks)…and marketing methods: I have read "One Small Step...", "Influence", and just started "Cash Copy", and also have “Method Marketing”.

3. Test my product in my market with a landing page before moving to “opt in”.

Your “Hidden History” video was VERY enlightening and I totally got it. I studied with and worked for Tony Robbins years ago as a Microscopist which led me to read “How to Win Friends…”, “Think and Grow Rich”, and other classics and NLP books like “NLP Comprehensive”…and then I spent about 2+ years going through Landmark Education (the “new est”). I realize that back when I was literally “living and working” inside of communities of people at seminars and trainings, I was actually living and working inside of a mastermind of successful people and my business was much more successful and effortless then. At some point along my journey I got “comfortable” with what I “knew” and the income I was making, and I kind of slacked off and settled into the old “peer group” of my family and less successful friends. AHA! Thank you for reminding me of why it is so critical to “love your family and friends, choose your peers” while continuing to grow and contribute so you don’t become stagnant.

I was charging $59 for 20 minute consultations and then $2 per minute (trying to nickel and dime people)...I switched and started applying your suggestion of giving away free 15 minute consultations and up selling 1 hour $99 consultations (I was charging $179 for an hour) and offering sets of 4 and 6...I have already several people by "4" (one per quarter) that would have only paid for 1 before!! This is enabling me to add much more value to them and ensure their long-term success in their health while it puts more money in my pocket up front ($400 instead of $100 per sale).

I also started offering free line content like “recipe books” to people who register for services by a certain time and a single “free 45 minute pH Mentor™ health and lifestyle consultation” to anyone who buys nutritional supplements from me to add free value and ensure their success moving forward.

My results may not be huge compared to your other applicants, but so far I am seeing increases in income, customer success, and satisfaction AND I feel like I am not even scratching the surface and I WANT TO DO MORE...I can't wait to get into the “nuts and bolts” of Gurumastermind...this training is an answer to my prayers. My good friend Sean Stephenson introduced me to your work years ago and we attended one of your events together and it was LIFE ALTERING…as a result of what I learned from David DeAngelo, I attracted the women of my dreams (had a BLAST doing unmentionable things), settled on one, and now have my first baby on the way due in May. This Gurumastermind training is VITAL to me because I am serious about helping people transform their lives by accomplishing what they didn’t know what possible and I have 10 years of EXTREMELY VALUABLE information about health, fitness, and vitality and experience working with some real masters and thousands of people from 70 different countries in a range of age groups, cultures, genders, etc. BUT I have not been able to effectively package and market that information...I know that once I master being able to that, I will see massive growth and make a massive positive impact on the people I serve and most importantly my growing family. I this is what I need to do it! I want to create a business with my wife Nandi that we can work together from anywhere giving us the time and resources be fully engaged in raising our child and leave a legacy of contribution for our child to pay forward.

I understand what it means and the impact of having extraordinary mentors to role model…everything I know and do today is the result of having mentors and applying what I learned…everything I am missing is the result of not having effective mentors in that particular area and trying to reinvent the wheel. I am ready to be COACHABLE and build a $20 Million per year business!

I WILL BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO REGSITER – scholarship of not!! You can COUNT on it!!

THANK YOU!!

Hi Eben,

Thank you for putting together such an innovative program, and I appreciate the chance you have given me to win the scholarship.

My company, KMF Publishing Inc., is just about to launch its first product line (just waiting to do a final proof on the DVDs when they return from Kunaki)... so all of your videos and help could not have come at a better time.

I have found everything you are teaching very refreshing and effective. I love online business without the hype. The posture that you teach us to hold is exactly the culture I want to cultivate in my business.

Here is a quick background on what I have been doing. I would not say I am a total newbie to Advice product marketing, but I am still in elementary school. I have been a holistic healthcare practitioner for over nine years, and for the past year I have been building an online business focused on natural fertility for women.

I have been writing and working with clients online, making little financial profit, but have received major success in terms of the results that my readers and those who have followed my advice have achieved. Up to this point the advice has been free but the results have proven that there is a strong demand and effectiveness in the information I have been sharing.

Ok, on to what you asked for...
I implemented the homework you assigned to me by asking my readers what THEY want out of my program, through a survey. I want to make sure I am giving them EXACTLY what they want and not just what I want to teach them.

Here is the email and blog post I sent out:

-------
Subject: I need your input... please!

I am putting the final touches on my new fertility programs, which will be available some time during March.

So far, everything is looking great, but I want to make sure they are 100% complete.

And that's where you come in...

I want to know what YOU would want to find in the "perfect" fertility program. What are the 5 Most Essential things you would like to know about boosting your fertility and getting pregnant?

I did not just create one program but FOUR different programs that target different fertility issues and take you step-by -step through the methods, supplements, and therapies.

Please share your ultimate "wish list" in the comments section below.

It's your chance to guarantee this new program answers all of your questions to help you get pregnant naturally!

As always, if you have any questions, please contact through the contact link at the top of this page.
-----

And here are some of the responses I received...

-Hello Hethir,

It's wonderful to have someone ask what information we would like to see. I had a tubal reversal 9 years ago and have experienced 13 miscarriages within this time frame. All the miscarriages have occurred on the 5th week. Each miscarriage has taken a toll. I have gone through one round of IVF with no success and the doctor's cannot explain why this happens. Any insight would be most appreciated. Thank you for having such an informative website. Thank you!

-Hi Hethir!

Thanks for asking?.I am 46 and trying to get pregnant. I am looking for exact diet and vitamin information. I am taking a prenatal vitamin, Super B Complex, C, E, Calcium, Magnesium, Flaxseed Oil, Fertile CM and aspirin everyday. I just bought Pre-Seed and some ovulation tests. What else do i need?

Can you take too many vitamins? What herbs and vitamins should you be taking? What foods should you eat? Not eat? I just found out that green peas are a natural contraceptive!! And wild yams too.

Any advice is always appreciated - thanks so much for your help!

-Hi Hethir,
I really enjoy your newsletter as well, and I was also diagnosed as having PCOS so I also would like to know everything there is to know about boosting my fertility. I know you said Maca is great for the fertility but, where I live I can not get it a any stores here. I also want to know if you really have to cut beef out of your fertility diet? Besides what really is a good fertility diet anyway? Thanks for the great work that you do.

You can read more of the responses here:
http://natural-fertility-info.com/i-need-your-input-please.html#comments

I have to say I was super nervous about sending that letter out and posting it on my blog. But you said "Speed of implementation" so I just did it.

You see, Eben, I have been writing on my blog for over a year and hardly ever receive any comments from the readers... so I was extremely excited to receive this many emails in three days, telling me exactly what they want to learn.

I think I should be in the GURUMASTERMIND program because I have already started building my business and am committed to it. I would not flake out, be a hoser, and waste a scholarship. I am also ready to be one of your greatest success stories. I work hard, and am passionate about every aspect of information marketing and online business. Plus, my favorite thing to do in life is learn. Sounds geeky, but it's true.

Since I am ready to launch my products, I would have a platform and business to implement everything you are teaching. The timing that we have met could not have been more auspicious.

Thank you so much for everything you do, and for your consideration in awarding me the Guru MasterMind Training Program scholarship.

Sincerely,
Hethir Rodriguez
www.NaturalFertilityInfo.com

Hi Eben,

I wasn't originally planning on entering this little contest you've got going on, but when I woke up this morning and got your email I realized that I've actually put a *ton* of what you've been teaching into action for my soon-to-launch information business.

The business idea in a nutshell is give business-building guidance to the millions of "Solo-Preneurs" who are grinding away and trying to make a living on your own.

These aren't "big idea entrepreneurs" like the folks you talk to through Altitude and they certainly aren't info marketers. In fact, they're typically what Gerber in his book "The E-Myth Revisited" would call "Technicians" . . . folks who are good at their job and who have decided to break out and the world and see if they can do it on their own.

My Partner in Crime Beth Yockey Jones and I have been sketching out ideas for how best to serve this market for a couple of months now, but the videos you've been sharing have lit a nice little fire under us . . . and made us reconsider the whole way we think about serving our market.

Speed Implementation Factor 1: Focus on the value.
This should be a no-brainer (especially since my "Day Job" is working as one of those high-priced direct response copywriters you always hear about.) But if there's one thing your materials have taught me it's that you need to focus on the value and on what you can *give* to your customers.

Bringing this into my conversations with Beth led us to really reexamine our product outline (our initial paid offering is going to be a 7 week teleseminar series with quite a few cool bonuses) and focus on giving as much "good stuff" as possible.

We've also decided to follow your lead, move the "free line" and give away a bunch of our most powerful information way before we decide to actually charge for anything. The "Money Magnet" (to steal a phrase from Kern) that I'm most excited about is a call we're going to do called "How To Recession Proof Your Solo Business."

Just mentioning the topic to folks in our market makes their eyes light up.

Speed Implementation Factor 2: What's in a name? I love the information you've shared here and through altitude about coming up with a killer name that sticks in people's heads and the power of alliteration (David Deangelo. Double Your Dating. Etc.)

Originally we were planning on using a pretty straightforward name for our system (really, not even having a name at all.) We were just going to use a descriptor like "How To Take Your Solo Business From Struggle To Six Figures In Six Months Or Less"

Which is a heck of a lot of "esses."

Beth and I spent a few hours this week banging around possible name ideas and are narrowing the field as we try to find something that really resonates. Our current favorite is "The Path Of The Six Figure Samurai: A Simple, Proven System That Shows You Exactly What To Do To Make $100,000.00 A Year (Or More) On Your Own, Without Having To Hire Employees And Without Working With People You Hate"

(Much of the subhead benefits came from our next speed of implementation factor which is . . . "

Speed of Implementation 3: Knowing Your Market
One thing that really struck home for me from your videos was the idea of doing one-on-one consulting with folks in our target market. In Seattle, we're lucky enough to have a networking group called "Biznik" that's chock full of people we really want to help.

Over the last couple of weeks, we've:

1. Taught a live "Value Based Pricing" workshop for Solo Pros. We had about 20 folks in the room, gave them tremendous value, and got some very, very deep insight into what our target folks *really* want. (One of our students took what we taught and managed to basically double her rates for a job the very next day. Amazing feeling hearing that. I can see why you do this.)

2. Done one-on-one in-person and phone consulting with several folks in the area. Biggest lesson for me was how little most solo-pros know about marketing . . . and how they think that selling themselves is almost evil.

3. We just put it on the books, but next week we're doing a "focus group" where we get a cross smattering of solo pros ranging from web designers to writers (corporate copywriters who don't know DM) to lawyers to music producers in a room and gently pick their brains about what's keeping them from getting across that six figure mark.

4. I've also done a lot of "regression" in my own mind, trying to build up my empathy with our customers. It's funny, because just a few years ago I *was* in that market . . . confused, ashamed of my inability to make a good living on my own, not sure who to trust, not even remotely convinced that making 6 figures (or more) on your own was possible. On the upside, having those experiences myself has made creating an "avatar" for the business much, much easier.

It's been a tremendous eye opener finding out what our market *really* worries about (time management, paying the bills, getting the word out without being a dick, envy of people who aren't as good at the work but make more money).

And finally, the results:
We haven't even finished outlining the product yet and we've already got people just about clamoring to give us money.

Anyway, it's been tremendous raising the bar on how I look at doing this info business. I've helped a lot of people make a lot of money through my copywriting biz, but following your videos and starting to do it "on my own" has really brought the way I think about info products and marketing to the next level.

I could probably write quite a bit more, but I'll leave it here and just say thanks.

Hi Eben

Thank you for the fantastic valuable information you've been sharing these past few weeks and for the opportunity to be considered for a scholarship.

I've been a busy little bee since I first started following your Guru Mastermind blog a few weeks ago. The first video "Behind The Scenes..." jump started my action plan.

The video asked us to create a sketch an outline for our business and helped me determine which of the various projects I've started over the years I wanted to focus on. One complete branch was set aside for future development.

The other two (technology coaching and gardening) were sketched out and I identified some key goals, milestones and action steps were created. I decided to focus on the technology coaching for the short-term. I created a system where every time I complete an action, I ask myself what the next step is. Every time I take on a new project or initiative, I ask myself if this will get me closer to my goal. The exercise of sketching out my business helped me see that there were some things I was pursuing which were taking me away from my goals.

The concept of moving the free line from the "Blueprint For A Successful..." was liberating for me. I had been struggling with that concept for a while. About a year ago, I had created a series of tech-training tutorials that I had wanted to share and a business coach that I was working with at the time told me that they shouldn't be freebies but to charge (heavily) for the content. That didn't sit right with me - my gut told me that giving away valuable information was the key to growth, not creating some lame report.

Seeing the value that you are giving prospective customers with your videos and the response to them, has helped me understand that my gut was right. So I've pulled out those dusty, out-dated videos and have been tweaking them. Many have to be re-recorded because the speed of technology is such that interfaces have changed or tools have changed - or I've deepened my own understanding and that needs to be reflected. I've released 7 videos since March 1st and have scheduled to complete one new video weekly based on the previous outline I created.

I have also been surveying my list and speaking to clients one-on-one to understand where they are stuck and what they need - to understand their emotional needs. It has helped me target my efforts on providing simple step-by-step technology tutorials in plain language that even non-techies can understand.

I also took a special report that I had been selling on my website and added some additional information and re-released it as a free report. I listed it on Craig's list as a freebie, posted it in a few forums that I regularly particpate in. Broadcast it in my newsletter and on my blog. I had a special tracking link in the report so that I could gauge the response. I just checked the stats and it has been read by 10 times more people than I ever sold the original report to. I've also noticed an increase in my opt-ins, hits on my servers & subscriptions to my blog feed.

I also created a master blueprint to keep me on track and working towards my goals. I have committed to writing two articles weekly and submitting them to article banks. I have committed to posting three times daily to my blog. I have also set aside an hour a day to work on my information product. I dusted off the curriculum I designed three years ago and am going through it to determine what are the next action steps.

The Psychic Salesletter video kept me up all night :-) I quickly got into action on creating the quiz/salesletter. Had it online and working the next day. It got fantastic response! Noticed an immediate increase in opt-ins. The Voodoo Report though was even more powerful. I finally started to understand the power of the words I was choosing and how they were affecting my conversions. So I pulled down the salesletter in order to tweak my content pillar.

Believe it or not, even the "Tell Me The Specifics of What You Want To Learn..." post got me moving. The questions caused me to take stock of the skills and knowledge I already have and where the biggest holes are. So I've committed two hours a week to further my own education in the areas that I identified as weak (copywriting and stats / tracking).

The Case Studies gone wild set me on fire again. I didn't know anything about symantec indexing so spent time learning about it and also added learning about SEO to my list of education topics for the week. I also finally understood what the big fuss about tag clouds is and have happily added it to my bag of tricks.

I've been working every available moment on getting into action quickly on all of the strategies you've been sharing. I have several projects that are now close to completion and will be online soon. I'm excited to be able to give valuable content to prospective customers and even more excited to have a solid plan in place for being able to help clients solve their problems.

Thanks again Eben! It's been an exciting few weeks.

~ Deborah :-)
http://www.myvirtualpartner.com

I�ve been trying to make money online since 2004, experiencing highs and lows (mostly lows). I had what I called my breakthrough in late 2007 when I began to make real money opposed to nickel-and-dime kind of money.

I went into the New Year with big plans. Oh yeah, still reeling off of the success I had in late 2007, I planned to immediately start earning six-figures a month in 2008! I�m sure some of you can relate to this feeling and mind state. You experienced some success and all of sudden you think you�re going to be rich�.

I wanted to launch an info-product right at the beginning of the year but I put it off. I performed the research (most of it from my own experiences; my successes & failures); I completed the outline for the info-product and was ready to go. But I didn�t �go�, in fact, I stopped!

Needless to say, the money I made the first couple of months of 2008 wasn�t that great.

When I didn�t buy into the speed of implementation, I procrastinated or stopped working altogether and made little money.

When I did buy into the speed of implementation (which I did big-time in October, November and December of 2007), the earnings flowed into my account.

Eben�s Guru Mastermind training over the last couple of weeks gave me the inspiration and the �kick in the gut� that I needed to work on the project that I had been planning for months.

Speed of implementation was important to me with this project because I wanted to complete it and launch it ASAP. So, I stopped thinking about it, I stopped planning�I simply pulled out my outline, added some things and deleted some things, and I began working aggressively during the week of March 9th.

That same week (from March 11th-15th) Eben released training videos on the Information/Advice business that truly enlightened me and put things in perspective. The release of the training was perfect timing; I learned a lot from the videos about creating info-products as I was preparing my own little mini-launch and writing an info-product!

I completed the info-product and offered it (for sale) to a passionate, select group within the info-product�s niche; more of a way to receive in-depth feedback than anything else.

In the 10 days that the product has been offered, I received valuable feedback and sales. I admit that the sales haven�t been nearly as good as I had hoped, but the feedback has helped me learn what I need to change and how to improve upon the product.

I honestly can�t claim mind-boggling earnings from the limited release of the product but the important thing is that I bought into the �speed of implementation� that Eben teaches, I took the idea & plan that I had put off for months and simply decided to bring the idea to life and turn the plan into ACTION�.NOW, not next week or next month, and I was able to complete the �PROJECT� that is now a �PRODUCT�.

And I owe that to Eben�s Guru Mastermind training, especially the training that he released from March 11th- March 15th�and specifically, the training video, �Blueprint for a Successful Information Business�.

*Although, I will say that the training video, �Behind the Scenes of a $20 Million Information Product Business�, released on March 7th, just two days before I began working on my info-product, really was the video that made me stop everything I was doing (which was not much of anything besides being easily distracted) and start working immediately on my info-product.

I want to be apart of the Guru Mastermind membership program because I believe that I need more intensive training in building an information business. Over the last few months I�ve created info-products and had varying degrees of success. But I feel that the Guru Mastermind program will teach me how to have a real business; how to take my ideas and my work ethic (I can get into a �zone� at times, being very productive at creating info-products) and build a sustainable business.

Eben is a different kind of guru. He has truly revolutionized the �move the free line� concept. His training style is so detailed and informative (I actually learn invaluable things about the Internet, marketing, business and self-improvement from this guy that I simply haven�t received with as much honesty and intensity from others) and I believe that if I had the opportunity to participate in the Guru Mastermind program, I would truly be able to take my ambition to the next level, which is�.real, life-changing success.

*Note: I�m tweaking the info-product, tweaking the sales letter page, gathering more testimonials, and outsourcing professional (but affordable) graphic design for the sales letter page-leading up to the info-product�s �official� launch in April.

Thanks Eben!

Hi Eben,
My name is Richard Bravo.
I am 34 years old and live in a little resort town in north-western Wyoming.
I've been married to my beautiful wife for 13 years and have 2 amazing sons.
I've been a freelance web designer and serial entrepreneur for the last 10 years.
I am sort of new to your style and focus of internet marketing and found your "Get Altitude" material on YouTube about a month ago.
Since then I have been studying your video clips and newsletters.
Most recently I started following your blog posts for the Guru Mastermind program.
Let me say that I am totally impressed with the amount of ridiculously valuable information you have "given away!"

A Little Bit About What I Do...
My primary source of income comes from our travel business; which focuses on a niche market segment.
We currently process about a million dollars annually in gross sales selling one destination.
We have a website and rely heavily on pay per click to drive traffic to that site; which brings in about 90% of all new business.
I have 2 sales agents that are the frontline of our sales team.
My wife and I do the rest; marketing, back office management, accounting, etc.

What I Have Learned from the Guru Mastermind...
It would take several pages to describe everything that I have learned in the last 30 days just from your FREE material.
I would say that one of the most valuable things that I gleaned from your most recent video posts however, is from the segment called
"Behind The Scenes Of A $20 Million Information Product Business."

You see, my wife and I have also built our business working from home; in addition to homeschooling our 2 boys.
Needless to say, to see that you have built such a successful business "from home" was a very inspiring story.
But above and beyond that, you just took that story to an entirely higher atmospheric level by laying out a rock solid strategic blue print on how to layout a company with your "3 Pillars" structure... Man did I gain some Altitude from this lesson!

My business's success to this point has felt as though it was strapped to a rope on the end of a lucky horse shoe that was flung out into the market place and we've just been along for the ride. Not sure if that makes any sense but basically it�s been a pretty random succession of hit or miss actions; some have paid off, other haven't. I realized that we never really laid out any sort of "Master Plan" for our business. We saw someone else doing it and said "Hey, we can do it better than that." We pulled together a little cash, built a website, opened an Ad Sense account, flipped the switch and let'er rip! That was 4 years ago.

Immediately after watching your video (I actually watched it about 7 times, stopping, pausing and rewinding, and coming away with five pages of notes), anyway, immediately after watching the video I brought our team together for a power lunch and we spent several hours going step by step, one by one, through your 3 Pillar Structure and cross referenced our own business to identify where we could implement your strategies. Wow! I realized that we had left so much potential business on the table because we did not have anything in place to identify these various areas of our business, much less implement or track them!

The 26 Million Dollar Lunch...
What we came away with from that lunch Eben is pure gold to us.
We took your 3 Pillar business structure and created an "overlay" for our company.
At first I had trouble seeing how an affiliate program or info product could relate to our business model.
But we dug in our heels and opened our minds to any possibility.
Through the power of our little Master Mind group we cam away with a very exciting strategic business model that will carry us forward for the next 12-24 months. All in all, it was an incredible experience to brainstorm with my team and harness the power of the Mastermind group.

Here's what we came up with...

1. We broke down our business into the 3 Pillar allocations.
2. We created a detailed plan for implementing, managing and tracking each Pillar segment.
3. We delegated responsibilities to the team for each Pillar Segment.
4. We identified the areas which we need to outsource or expand the team.
5. We identified 15 additional market locations that we will expand to.
6. We created a "cookie-cutter" business model that we can now put in a box and expand into any location we choose very quickly.
7. We created an idea for a "sidekick" product that can be delivered through an affiliate program.
8. Last but certainly not least, we looked at how you have been marketing yourself and the strategies that YOU implement and have identified ways to shave upwards of $15,000.00 per month off of our marketing expenses. That's $180,000.00 back in the company's pocket every year!

We now have a blue print with projected annual sales of 26 Million Dollars!

EBAN... I WANT THIS SCHOLARSHIP!!!
Actually Eben, I need this scholarship.
Now we have this plan all laid out and need a coach to help us implement and refine it all.
To stop now would be like getting to the top of the first big drop of a roller coaster and stopping... WE JUST GOT STARTED!
Your coaching is now officially worth a potential 26 million in cold cash to my company.

I am not one to give up, EVER, and we will make this plan work, with or without the scholarship.
But man would it be a hell of a lot more fun doing it with you as part of the scholarship promotion...
Let us be your next internet superstars!

Thanks Eben.
Cheers!

Richard Bravo

Hi Eben.

I attended the January event in Los Angeles and have been following your trainings. We have two businesses we are developing – an online data services business and a content website:

Data services:
http://www.4point0schools.com

Content (health and wellness):
http://www.rebuild-from-depression.com
Or the homepage makeover that’s not yet public (see below):
http://www.rebuild-from-depression.com/home2/index.html

The 4point0schools site is six months old and targets California school administrators. Rebuild from Depression is eighteen months old with a confirmed email list of 6K. The site focuses on the link between nutrient deficiencies and depression. We are beginning to monetize the Rebuild website.

At your January training, I was lucky enough to make the “hot seat.” You had positive comments about my marketing of the 4point0schools site. Since then, we have made great implementation progress in our businesses.

>>> Meeting customer needs; finding customers with money
The data services business is a great concept but the market crashed here in California in the last two months. Schools all over the state face severe budget cuts. We are competing on price, so we should be competitive, but the fact is that schools are buying nothing right now. We can meet their needs but suddenly they do not have the money to buy.

My thought was that the services I offer surely solve somebody else’s problem, somebody who actually does have money. I got on the phone and called a company that also serves public schools but that does not have in-house data support. I offered private label packages. My work with that firm starts next week. I am in discussions with a second firm.

We are attending a trade show next week, one which usually has 600 school administrators. Only 200 are signed up, likely due to the budget crunch. We are out a couple of thousand on the show and will not have the audience we expected, yet we do have a key audience we had not considered: other vendors who need to subcontract their data work. I am working on the packet for them this Easter weekend.

This particular trade show is for administrators from small school districts, a market my up-sale products do not target directly. My loss leader products will do well at the show, but I see the need to develop some additional products for this specific market. This week I have developed a new product (not yet on the website) that will meet the need of both small school administrators and other vendors who may want to private label. Actually, I developed the product about two weeks ago and was concerned that the price point was too low for the work (even though I knew the price point was right for marketing reasons), so I spent the better part of yesterday hammering out a new process. I cut 75% off my production time.

It’s all about developing products to meet specific needs of targeted customers.

Outcomes:
* I will have about 50K in data work from two vendors, in a very tight market.
* I have targeted marketing to other vendors for the upcoming trade show.
* I have a new targeted product for other vendors and small schools.

>>> I am resting up and don’t feel guilty.
The Schwartz segment of the Altitude home study program was gold for me. I began the home study after a four-month work blitz of 12-hour days in front of a computer. I gained about ten pounds but it felt like four hundred.

One morning I mentioned to my five-year-old son how quickly he was growing. He got very upset and said:

“I don’t want to grow up because I don’t want to work as hard as you do, Mama.”

Yowch.

I have implemented what we call the “90-30 Plan” – the Schwartz Plan. I work three or four 90-minute sessions a day depending on deadlines and my own need for rest and recovery. My son sets the timer for 90 minutes and we work on an art project or read a book for the other 30 minutes. In some 30 minute sessions, I actually exercise.:)

I am catching up on my sleep, getting my bones back into alignment, and just maybe I will lose a pound or two. Each day I try to spend focused time with my son.

The crazy thing about my time with my son is that it actually has increased traffic to the depression website. One of the weekends my son and I spent together, I summarized a food politics book to him chapter-by-chapter and he made a painting of four of the chapters. He wanted to paint and I wanted to read, so the food politics paintings were our compromise. As a result, he has a small collection of paintings online and will have a “food politics” painting published in a Bay Area magazine. Don’t get me wrong, I have not intended to use my son to build the depression website, but I feel a bit convicted by the fact that time with my son is actually moving forward some food politics issues that are important to us. Lesson: spend more time with my son.

Outcomes:
Rest, exercise, time with son, web traffic

>>> Immediate implementation means something gets done

We are trying to integrate the value of immediate implementation into our business. Without all of the technical support we could use, it means that sometimes the outcome is not exactly as we would want, but it does mean we are progressing. We did a homepage makeover of one of our sites. This is not an ad landing page but a page that a lot of regulars to the site visit (though I am not sure why they do so currently since the page is terrible). With the makeover, they will be better able to access the key content on the site. It’s not perfect or finished (and it loads at a snail’s pace), but it is an improvement.

Here’s the original page (and still live)
http://www.rebuild-from-depression.com

Here’s the working makeover
http://www.rebuild-from-depression.com/home2/index.html

To help monetize this particular site, we attended a trade show a week ago and have developed a product mix for the site that I think will meet the needs of the visitors well. I am actually engaged in e-mail back-and-forth with the product manufacturers as I write this. I expect to have a good line of products available the first week in April.

>>> Your sales page approach is super-duper.
Without the Altitude Program, I would have never found “Double Your Dating.” Just seeing the site and learning how to determine if a woman is ready to be kissed, was a big “a-ha moment” for me. If you have an “Amanda” unsubscribe from the advice about how to meet a woman, try not to take it personally. I have learned the content I was seeking.

Honestly, I have had great success with AdWords campaigns on the depression site but I see already that I could probably do even better than my 50% opt-in rate (it’s a free product and nickel ads on Google). The ads are cheap enough and successful enough that I haven’t done testing for some months. A new test is in order. In the same vein, we have a product launch this season which I will tailor around your system. I am not sure I can beat “knowing if a woman is ready to be kissed,” but I’ll give it a shot.

I expect your Guru Mastermind program will help me stay focused on developing these sales pages well at the outset.

>>> Scholarships
You really should pick me for a scholarship not only because I have a boatload of capital tied up right now (as does everyone else) but also because I will be a good contributor to the group:

* My data orientation gives me an edge in web analytics and in business data analysis. I can help others think about their own data.

* I have worked in a home-based business for over a decade and know well some of the issues that hold us back.

* I have a solid background in autoresponders, shopping carts, videocasts, etc. We have implemented these on the depression site and they are in development on the data site. The technology itself is not a hurdle for us; we are really working on implementing these technologies more strategically.

* I have already begun to develop unique content to attract targeted visitors to my depression site. It is this content that has built the list to nearly 6,000. Since I have not had products to sell, I have not focused on the list at this point, but I see this initial list as “school.” It cuts my information costs as I move forward.

* I am not a “hoser.”

Thanks for everything, Eben!

Amanda

Eben,

To be completely honest with you, I first THOUGHT about my online business a few months before you released the first video. I got a few books from Dan Kennedy and I was taking action, but I was moving at a painfully slow pace and I was stuck in the 'planning and learning stage' for too long.

One day I was sitting at my desk and telling myself that I REALLY need to pickup the pace or I will never succeed.

*** Making Money By Building Your MasterMind ***

I check my email, and there is your first video. When you talked about Speed of Implementation I said "OK, this guy understands my problem." I have been using "My Why, Now Apply" ever since I saw this video.

*** Behind The Scenes Of A $20 Million Information Product Business ***

I watched your next video and realized I was at level ZERO ? I had nothing done at all. I drew up my simple business structure and put it up right next to my computer monitor.

Now my business was an actual thing that I could touch. And now that I had the whole picture, it was easier to get to work in individual pieces because I understood how they fit together. Also, thinking about what the business will look like in the future phases got me very excited to take action.

My three actions that I wrote down next to the picture of my business were:
1. write e-book
2. write sales letter
3. setup paypal

"My Why Now Apply." I got to work on the e-book immediately. From that day, I made sure to get at least an hour of 'quality' work done everyday and succeeded on most days.

*** The "Hidden History" of Information Product Marketing ***

This video was maybe my favorite in the series. It resulted in a couple of SALES?for Amazon. I learned a lot, but the framework concept was probably the most mind-blowing idea.

*** Blueprint for a Successful Information Business ***

The main thing that I got out of this video is change the mindset from get to GIVE. At the time I was reading the book 'Influence,' the chapter on reciprocity and it really clicked.

I created a free e-book '46 Must-Have Toning Tips ' for who I think is going to be my target market. I gave away my best tips in concise form.

And since I now had the right to ask for their contact info, I setup an opt-in page and an autoresponder. I submitted a bunch of articles to article directories (I learned about this elsewhere) and my Aweber prospect list has 25 sign-ups.

I also started taking notes on the words that my in personal coaching clients (I am a personal trainer) use to describe their frustrations, anxieties, and problems to help me 'build the conversion conversation'.

*** The "Marketing Voodoo" 21-Page Special Report ***

This was another mind-blowing piece of content for me and it got me working on my first ever sales letter. I read a bunch of sales letters that were selling what I wanted to sell and got started on my own.

*** Cover Clinic ***

THANK YOU so much for this. I got started on my e-book before the webinar and I was NOT using styles and it was paint in the you know what?Immediately after the webinar I copy pasted whatever content I had into one of your templates and exhaled with a sigh of relief.

I also printed out the cover page and posted it next to my monitor, near the business structure. The result? The book has been coming together much faster. So much faster that two days later I made a few more copies of the cover and posted them all over my apartment.

Originally the book was going to focus strictly on what to DO to get in shape. But after the webinar I added a chapter on mindsets.

*** Here is what I have to show for my efforts so far *****************************

*A FREE Report: 46 Must-Have Toning Tips

*Opt-in page: www.SlimGirlSecrets.com ? this may look very, very familiar to you :)

*Sales letter draft for my first e-book: www.SlimGirlSecrets.com/salesCopy.html

*E-book draft: www.SlimGirlSecrets.com/SGS.doc

**********************************************************************

You mentioned in your 'Guru Mastermind Revealed' video that you are hoping to see a lot of success stories.

I want to be one of your best success stories. I want to deliver a lot of value to my customers, give YOU the perfect testimonial, and make myself wealthy in the process.

And then I am going to tell everyone I know all about it. I'll do it with written testimonials. I'll take videos of myself from all over the world (I plan to use the money to travel) thanking Eben Pagan for the Guru Mastermind program.

My name is George Grigoryan. I am a personal trainer from New York City. I have helped dozens of people get the body that they always dreamed about through exercise, diet and personal coaching. I have gotten very good at this through physical training and nutrition education, but I have very little business education.

I am 25 and I have come to realize that I do not want to continue training one-on-one for the rest of my life. I also feel that for the kind of value that I provide to people, I should be making a lot more money.

I know EXACTLY what you mean when you talk about keeping the hosers out. I always tell prospective clients that getting the body and health they want will take hard work and they better be willing to do it.

And I know exactly what you mean about being coachable ? some people are just too stubborn.

I really understand the process of doing the basics consistently over time. It's EXACTLY the same in fitness. Everyone wants some fancy exercises, when all they need to do is work consistently at the simple exercises and try to improve little by little from week to week.

Eben, I realize that about the worst possible outcome for you would be to grant me the scholarship and then I drop the ball. People have asked me to be their fitness mentor for FREE and then dropped the ball after I put A LOT thought and energy into helping them. It sucked.

But there were some who did what I told them. And it was the best feeling in the world.

A big reason I want to learn from YOU is because you value ethics and integrity. This is something that's for the most part missing in the weight loss/fitness industry and I guess in the world as a whole.

You can contact me at geodrome(AT)yahoo(DOT)com

Sincerely,
George Grigoryan

I just wanted to add that back in January, I watched your altitude videos and that's how I came up with the name of my product/web site – Slim Girl Secrets. It contains alliterations and I think it communicates the benefit well. And as a bonus it has the word 'secrets/'

I am not going to put my Url out becasue I get one gig of bandwidth month of traffic and it isn't because of anything that any Internet marketing expert ever told me about anything.

The secret is there is no secret. The common sense answer is do not peddle junk and do not think the public is somehow stupid.

Adsense and Adwords and all the rest of it are a big waste of money.

Natural or organic is the only way to get real traffic from people who are interested in what you have to offer. I have over 100 optimised key words on Google and at least 100 keyword links split among the second tier search engines

I did not buy any junk e-books wriiten by people who have no business skills or technical knowledge. It is all designed to separate fools from their money.

What you need to know can all be had for free on the Internet all you have to do is look.

Hey Eben,

There are many things I took away and implemented, but there are a really a handful that I really consider to have done the most for me, and my business.

I'm actually an affiliate marketer, have no product of my own, and was not really making considerable money before coming into contact with your marketing material. (Like 500 to 1000 a month)

* Data-Driven decisions and treating everything as an experiment, not being attached

I really took this to heart. And since I already know a bit of Excel, I created a spreadsheet to monitor my daily 'vital' stats to track 4 metrics. 1. Ad Spend, 2. Gross Revenue, 3. Profit, 4. Gross Margin % As a pay per click marketer, most of my campaigns fail but I've found a few good ones by carefully tracking everything to the T. I also Created a VISUAL graph as you had suggested, and created a moving average. Really cool stuff. I also created more elaborte spreadsheets that digs deeper into what I do, to help me track everything from traffic sources, search engine, spending, opt-in%, sales to visitors, gross margin that I update daily. This has helped me to see where my over-spending was going, so I could decrease costs, increase profits and spot areas of opportunity to focus my time to develop and grow. This is actually crucial, since I pay for 100% of my traffic.

* �I was smart enough to know that I was getting lucky�

That quote was huge for me. Because well I think I got lucky here, and I just milked it as much as I could. I�m not sure if I would have realized that I was getting lucky. The difference here, is that I consciously focused on only 1 or 2 key areas where I thought I was getting lucky and milked, developed and still am trying to get as much as I can from these few growth potential areas.

* Managing Energy, Building Rituals

This was such a huge concept that I think it will forever change the way I approach everything I do. I started to implement some rituals for recovery, such as taking a 45 mins nap in the afternoon, doing the breathing exercises at the end of each 'sprint' work session that I do for 2 hours. That's 2 hours of focused work. I've also implemented other things for my health, drinking 3 liters of water a day, eating more veggies and SMALLER meals. I now eat 4 or 5 meals smaller meals a day instead of 3. I've been doing this for something like a month now and have seen tremendous improvements in energy, focus and productivity.

* Speed Of Implementation

At first when I heard this, I started to implement as soon as I heard something good. Now whenever I listen to something good, let's say a audio tape or a book or a DVD, I will find that I often find myself stopping the learning/reading whatever, and jump immediately on the computer to implement whatever it is. I don't really think about it anymore, it's become a habit. And I�ve become a LOT more action-oriented.

* Attention, Connection, Commitment

This concept is huge, and so simple. It made me look at marketing in a completely different way and allowed me to design a marketing process for the visitor that's effective. It's lead me to think less like a marketer and more like a customer. And to remind myself to do this always when I write my a piece of marketing. This is so critical, because now instead of shouting at the prospect and coaxing him to buy, I�m focused on providing value.

* Relationship Building

This is a big concept and try to take a lot of cues from you. On one of your webinars, you talked about content as being MARKETING itself, that was a big insight. I have never looked at content in that way before, as a tool to build relationship and trust. It�s so logical and obvious now that�s what it is.

* Test, Model, Project

This is so huge (another one), it�s completely changed the way I do everything online. Now instead of spending a couple weeks (months) building a website or whatever, and then launch it and see it fail and then give up, or never launch it at all because it�s taking so long to get everything perfect.

Whenever I have an idea about ANYTHING, I try to find a way to test it in the marketplace to get feedback as FAST as possible.

And it turns out, that most of my ideas are duds, but out of the ones that work, I focus on, develop and nurture to try to get as much as possible.

This has probably saved me tens of thousands of hours, I don�t know. It�s so huge it�s incredible.

I also try to buy every book you recommend and read them as I get more money.

There may be more things that I implemented� but this is what I can come up for right now, here�s the exciting part.

THE RESULTS!

As a result of all of this (and more), I�m proud to say that I made $4947.88 in affiliate commissions the first month AFTER I watched your Get Altitude DVDs (wheras the previous month I made like 500 bucks), the next month I made 5,129.96$. And I'm now implementing relationship-building to try to explode this opportunity, and have been building a list of 100 leads a day for the past few days� and I am positive I can do 300-400 a day (to give you some context the best I used to do BEFORE in other markets was 10 a day).

But here�s the best part, I�m actually one of your affiliates for Double Your Dating and this is where I made almost all of the money above. I think I sold 2 or 3 eBooks for you before this these crazy months.

So basically I'm using your E-Books in the dating niches as a lead magnet to help pay the costs for my list which will hopefully add more lifetime customer value.

I mean, seriously. Thanks. REALLY. This is huge for me.

Hey, Eben.

Already had a successful business going, but after watching Altitude, I
decided to start the new year implementing some new changes/techniques. The
videos you've put up helped me refine, not only my plans, but the action I
am taking right now.

The first thing I wanted to do this year is move the free line for each of
the niches I am involved in.

For the last couple of years, I have published books in a specific niche within the self-development genre and have a small list of about 13,000 people. Self-development
isn't my main niche, but this area of it is one I feel passion about.

Recently, I asked my list to send in questions they had relating to the
topic of my most recent book. Hundreds of questions came in. Once they were
organized, I offered a free, 4-part teleseminar to answer these questions.

The questions that were sent in, and also the feedback received from the
teleseminars, lead to other product ideas. Currently, three workbooks are
already in development (speed of implementation, right?). The reason we
have three workbooks, is because they are VERY SPECIFIC to what our
customers made clear what their needs were. Definitely not a "one size fits
all" guide.

Just to note, the name of the book series was developed using "Marketing
Alchemy Technique #2."

One of the repeated requests from people was for more detailed instruction
and coaching. That lead to the idea of designing a curriculum to add to this
book series. This curriculum will be offered to other teachers and coaches
who teach (or are wanting to teach) this subject--thus allowing us to be
able to leverage the time of other tastemakers in the niche and let them
share our materials. The goal is to have these folks (and others) teaching
our material in various live events throughout the US and the world by the
end of the year.

Needing to get in touch with those who are interested in this subject to
make sure they know about the book and my Web site, I had my people go
through Amazon, Meetup, and various blogs and authority sites on the
subject. We sent everybody a free copy of my new book as well as an offer
to send promotional giveaway copies, should they want to do a promotion with
their groups or online visitors. In additional, we're offering syndicated
content (audio and written) for their blogs, granting interview requests,
etc.

By the way-- I tried to send you a copy of the book to the "Howard Hughes"
address in Las Vegas. Came back "Commercial Mail Receiving Agency - No
Authorization for Addressee to Receive Mail." Maybe because I addressed it
to Eben Pagan instead of David D or your company name?

Send me your mailing address and I'll get you a copy for your library!! :)

WHAT HAPPENED:

This has lead to a lot of publicity for the book, radio/blog/podcast
interview and, lots of article syndication. In addition, the first two
months of the year saw $12,648.92 of book sales alone. Don't yet
have the numbers for this month, but they should be similar as the
momentum is only growing and people are just getting around to reviewing
and telling people about the book.

Still working the relationship with these tastemakers and their
customers. Will send them information on the workbooks/curriculum, when both are done.

I've set up things in my business so I make money regardless of hours
worked and I've been so busy with various projects like this over the
last few years that I've neglected a few things in my main niche, which
has allowed some other, less-skilled people, to jump in. After viewing
Altitude, I decided it was time to get back in big and show everybody
else how things are done. :)

About my niche...

I work in music marketing and one of the things I do is a weekly radio show.
We're on broadcast radio, but are working to drive up podcast numbers.
Again, using your concept of moving the free line, we've added a "Post-Show
Show" and various other "extras" that we can't air on broadcast for one
reason or another, which give people a reason to turn on their computers and
download content from us.

Works great for the listeners, but I wanted to work with our sponsors and
try the same concept...

Right now, am setting up a "tour" where we go to the main music cities (LA,
NYC, Nashville, Chicago, Atlanta, Austin) to do live seminar events, which
connect industry professionals with bands/musicians.

The sponsors, which just signed on just for radio sponsorship, are loving
this extra exposure and we've already extended one of them for an
additional 22 episodes (at a higher price than their initial term) as
well as been meeting with other high-dollar sponsors, who are now coming
to us.

Recently, I just finished up a music marketing book, which was done via the
same system as mentioned above and will be promoted in a similar way.

I think the main things I've gotten from all your teaching are speed of
implementation and leverage. In the last month, I've gone through all the
ideas I've had which weren't complete projects and handed them over to
qualified people who can finish them and do it now.

Within this post, I have only mentioned two of my niches. For my other
niches, I also publish books in a "series" and have 3 additional books
currently in production to continue a series I began last year. Also,
another book is currently being written which will be tailored to two
different niches and released under two different titles.

In addition, I've got the writers I'm working with doing articles and
reports, with the plan to "move the free line" in other niches that I am
involved with.

Already, things have been so good this year that it's easy to wake up every
day and keep the momentum up, knowing that it's going to get even better.

I've found your material to be both very inspirational and informative.

Looking forward to more from you!

David

Eben,

I'll be brief because I know you'll have so many entries.

We've implemented!

1) We've changed our E-book title to something more attention grabbing. We learned so much from your Marketing Voodoo Report. And I'm going to use your templates to finish the product. The software alone will be so valuable.

2) We've moved the free line before making an offer to our membership program from one piece of free content to several. We're still going to give them a 77 minute audio, but we'll follow that with a 7 day email course, followed by an ebook and then a teleseminar before making our offer. In fact, we've decided to break our first teleseminar into two parts. First, 30 minutes of valuable content with action steps they can implement now to achieve results and then a 30 minute overview of our membership program with an offer at the end. My partner is a holistic health expert and author of 17 books. She's so excited to take her business on-line.

3) Susan will be writing her content using the past, present, future framework. She loved it and will use this in our first teleseminar on April 2ed.

4) I'm working with Psychic Sales Letter software to deploy another landing page. I don't own a PC, so I had to partition my Mac drive and install windows to run the software, but it was worth it.

5) Susan is 60% done with an ebook we'll sell on ebay to generate leads and we'll give away some content and use your "content as marketing" in the ad to increase our conversion.

Looking at the words, it doesn't seem like much. But, it required a huge shift for us. It feels like we turned a speeding boat around in rough waters, but we're thrilled we had the opportunity. We would love to continue our education with you.

All the best,
Mike

Hi Eben -

Wanted to report about our
implementation...

===================
What we focused on...
===================

We focused on something from your first
webinar by doing the $97 sessions to try
to bring in some money right away so
that we could put it toward the Guru
Mastermind program.

So we took our ASK campaign data and
then offered a $97 coaching session to
our list of over 10k parents and
teachers.

Felt really excited about following your
formula, and then...