Friday, March 31, 2023
The Hard Asset I Invest In Most! (It’s not real estate)
March 7, 2023 Newsletter.
I talked to a friend recently that was struggling. Life hit him hard recently including a couple of large financial losses and a primary income stream drying up suddenly. For him, a very successful, smart and driven entrepreneur, he is considering whether getting a W2 job in the short term may be the best move for him. In this week’s newsletter, I’ll make the case for investment in a hard asset that may provide more financial security than any other.
SIX BULLET SUMMARY (TLDR VERSION)
- The hard asset more valuable than all others is simple - your audience! Building and nurturing an audience is essential!
- To leverage an audience, first understand your unique ability by cataloging the questions you get asked repeatedly
- Then, determine how you can serve your audience in answering that question for them and providing value
- Only 5-7% of your audience will buy from you, so size matters when building an attention platform
- To get there, you have to build a funnel - I detail each step of that below
- See the 4 key takeaways at the bottom for more
YOUR UNIQUE ABILITY
Each of us is great at something. We get asked ‘how do you do that?’ often. If you’re like me, despite being asked repeatedly, you ignore the flashing lights that say this is your ‘thing’ and instead brush it off as people just being kind. You don’t believe that you have a special gift or ability because it’s just easy for you. For instance, being told I’m a great connector would be dismissed. How hard is it to introduce person A to person B. Internally I’d be saying ‘thanks, but how do you earn money connecting people?’. Interesting that most of my earnings today are based on connecting people.
In the case of my friend, he knows how to scale businesses. He’s an expert at doing so and exiting. He’s done it more than once! Within that, I’m sure there are higher level unique abilities in play - like natural integrator skills or perhaps being hyper-analytical. Whatever it is, he is a proven businessman who knows how to build a business and sell it to private equity - something many business owners would love to do!
BEING IN SERVICE
I believe that entrepreneurship is service. I write this newsletter every week because I think and hope it adds value to you. When I’m in scarcity mode in my mind, wondering if I’ll ever earn another dime, or asking myself why no one seems to want to buy my programs, I remind myself to be in service and default to this newsletter. I love sharing the lessons I’ve learned!
My friend has incredible experience and wisdom he can easily share to help others. It’s highly valuable to the right avatar.
THE MOST VALUABLE HARD ASSET - REVEALED!
When you combine your unique ability with a service based mindset, you create value for others. But you need others to serve in order to realize your value. A HUGE revelation for me in these past couple of years is that my most valuable hard asset is … YOU!
Building and nurturing an audience is essential as an entrepreneur.
In the case of my friend, an audience would allow him to package his learnings and offer consulting services. In my case, an audience has allowed me to put together a community of like-minded people that over 700 people have joined called Emerge. It’s also allowed me to host a value-driven and profitable mastermind in the Dominican Republic.
But the key is this - build an audience to SERVE, not to MONETIZE!
Our monkey minds want to get a ‘return’ as soon as possible on the time and effort we put out there. But the intent to serve is a long game and will pay off if you’re authentically in that place.
THE CASE FOR BUILDING AN AUDIENCE
Email is still the best way to build your audience and serve it. Assuming you’re nurturing your audience with valuable content, we’ll jump to the monetization.
Consider this:
- 20-40% of your emails will be opened (we average about 35%)
- 1-2% will click your embedded links
- 5-7% of your email list will be ‘buyers’ of your product or service
If you have a $1000 product and 1000 people on your email list, you can expect 50-70 people to buy your product, or $50,000-$70,000 in revenue.
An investor friend has about 1000 investors in the deals he does which is significant. His list, however, is around 40,000 people. That’s closer to 3%, but these are also $100,000 investments, not $1000 sales.
The point is - this is a numbers game! The bigger the list and the better served it is the more profitable it becomes long term.
As an aside, the other 93% that aren’t buyers do buy something. It just may not be your product. This is where affiliate marketing fits in.
Let’s say you’ve been following me and you keep hear me talk about Emerge and how it’s a community of incredible like-minded people driving toward a bigger life. You really like me, but you’re thinking about a coach instead. You crave 1-on-1 instead of a community. Then one day I drop an email that outlines how Jason Drees has been my coach, and the impact he’s made with an offer to buy a coaching package at a discount and include his premier course if you ‘click here’.
You’re going to buy coaching from someone, somewhere. Why wouldn’t I capture that since I work so hard to build trust with you?
This is just one example of the power of building and nurturing an audience!
HOW TO BUILD AN AUDIENCE
When I started Multifamily and More, we built it to 16,000 members across 21 chapters .. and all of those members were in a Facebook group. I didn’t have a system or process for ownership of that audience.
I talk to podcasters and meetup group leaders who offer incredible value to those they serve, but don’t have a way to pull those listeners or members off platform.
You have to build a funnel. Here’s an outline (with pricing guides):
1. Top of funnel Free
2. Email capture(s) Free
3. Order bump(s) $1-$100
4. Mid-tier offering(s) $500-$2000
5. Profit Multiplier(s) $5000+
For me, it looks like this:
- Top of funnel = social media and Tribe of Millionaires podcast
- Email capture = newsletter, goal sheet
- Order bump = book (coming), 5 minute podcast course (coming)
- Mid-Tier Offering = Emerge course
- Profit Multiplier = Emerge Supercharged annual membership, MLE Mastermind in Punta Cana
This audience also joins what you recommend if you have served them. Gobundance is an example. People join when they’re in my funnel and I get an affiliate commission as a result. Then, some end up investing in my offerings as well!
A CASE STUDY - PROOF!
A gentleman we’ll call ‘Jack’ found me on social media and started following me. He then heard of Tribe of Millionaires and became a regular listener and downloaded a free PDF I was offering at the time.
After a while, he decided to join Emerge which, at the time, was a stand alone 12 week course. He participated fully and got a ton out of it! He upgraded to join Ascend and got into a pod and grew his wealth. Within a year, he hit the $1m mark and joined Gobundance.
After some time, he had a capital event and was looking to invest $300,000 as a passive investor in multifamily real estate. He knew OF a lot of operators, but realized he knew me! So he became an LP on a recent deal.
Let’s break it down:
- Top of funnel - social media led him to my podcast - Free
- Email capture - PDF - Free
- Order bump - NA
- Mid-Tier Offering - Emerge - $1500
- Profit Multiplier - Emerge SC Upgrade - $5000
Plus affiliate income when he joined Gobundance ($1000) and he trusted me enough to invest capital knowing I’m of integrity to ensure it is managed appropriately to generate the return we anticipate for him.
RECESSION PROOF?
Now imagine we’re going into a recession 🙂and you’re my friend. With an audience that has been nurtured and served, that you’re in a KLT relationship with (know, like, trust), and with an offer that is valuable to 7% of that audience, there’s a better chance you’ll be able to generate income in that regard than without.
You may be a real estate investor who syndicates - the larger the list that is served the more likely deals come to you from it, capital is raised from it, coaching clients pop up from it, etc.
You may own a services company - the larger the list that is served the more likely you can promote specials, offer referral bonuses and so on.
Nothing is truly recession proof, but attention is the closest thing I can think of being exactly that.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
#1: What is the ‘You FAQ’?
Often we get stuck on what the offer should be - even the free giveaway to capture an email. I would sit down and think about what you’re asked all the time. For me, when I quit my job, I didn’t quit to be known as a ‘quit your job’ guy. That would be crazy! But people started asking - a lot - so I thought it would be valuable for the audience to have a newsletter talking about lessons learned as a ‘mid-life entrepreneur’. This newsletter generates more sales than most other lead sources (outside of member referral). So for you, what are you repeatedly asked about? There’s a funnel and a business in there.
#2: The Longer You Go Without Monetizing, The More Money You’ll Make
Value has a snowball effect. If you started creating content in a niche you have defined from key takeaway 1 above and within a month made an offer for services, the amount you can charge and the demand for your services will be less than if you consistently added value to that audience and grew it and made the same offer in a year. Just like at one year it would be less than if you waited five years. There’s no right answer as to when, but just know that the longer you go serving your audience, the more pent up demand is created. So start with service and give until it almost hurts.
#3: You’re Not Fooling Anyone
I cringe when marketers in this space say ‘throw together a PDF or something’ because your services should be valuable, not ‘thrown together’. There’s an old adage in marketing that says ‘give them your best stuff for free’ and I agree to some extent. I prefer ‘don’t think so much and just give’. If you’re faced with a decision to give or charge, default to give. It creates pressure on you to deliver even more for what you charge for - to level up your game and value.
#4: Building is WAY Easier than Nurturing
Neither is truly ‘easy’ if you’re coming from a place of value, but capturing an audience’s email is the easy part. Creating, say, a 6 page newsletter every week that you believe in and is serving your audience is way harder. There are some hacks though - like leveraging other content to convert to email. If you have an Instagram reel that goes out daily or weekly, or a weekly podcast - giving a valuable summary with a link to either in a short email to your audience is a way to drain every ounce out of your content without fully duplicating efforts.
QUICK HITS
Tribe of Millionaires Podcast Episode
✯ When I sat down with Dirk Van Reenen in Tahoe for a live podcast interview, I didn’t think it was going to create a spark in me relative to my online business. I have a clear vision for Emerge but after hearing him speak, I realized that it ain’t clear enough! Dirk gets deep on his story of losing it all before gaining it back. Great episode!
YouTube Recommendation
✯ I keep getting feedback about this interview with Kute Blackson. The concept he preaches is ‘surrender’ and it’s no wonder Larry King and Tom Bilyeu have both featured him! Cut to minute 22 for a deep discussion on ego if you have limited time. You won’t regret it!
Lessons From Living Abroad
✯ I have a confession to make - when I’m driving in the DR, and I see 2 lanes, I create a third. When I am at a stop light, I view stopping as optional. The horn has become more valuable to me than the brakes. My name is Jamie Gruber … and I am … a Dominican Driver 🤦
Stuff I Find Funny
✯ This video holds the key to life!!!! Just watch
I’d love to work more closely with you in our incredible Emerge Supercharged community! See the pricing offer below…
This community is packed full of content and structure to get you CLARITY, build CONFIDENCE and show you how to leverage COMMUNITY. Our content library, structure, concierge level of service and proximity provided to multi-millionaire entrepreneurs has been valued at over $26,000 .. and we retail the first year of the program at $7,500! But you can join our next launch and get into our 8 week accelerator with full access to the community for just $1,500 (or two payments of $799). That’s more than 90% off to join us and accelerate your life!
See other posts like this one:
Tuesday, May 09, 2023
Avoid the Tragic Mistakes of Houston's Foreclosed Apartment Units - Key Lessons Inside
