I found the OFFLINE MAGIC BULLET ... yeah it does exist!!

In our first seminar we got 30 people, the next one 10, the next 4, the next one is fully booked.

Consistency is King and I agree with that. Other than that, I also think that even if you get 4 people attending, you should give them as much attention as 200 people attending.

Our next seminar is completely booked due to referrals from the first "failed" seminars. Quite interesting indeed.

Just be good to the one client you have and the others will fall in place.

Spot on there. If you keep going at something until you succeed, you can not fail. It's funny how many people will chalk something up to being a strategy that doesn't work yet many other people have success with the same tactic.

Consistency is key.

Thanks for the motivation and inspiration!

I recently read a quote that basically said that hard work will always beat talent when talent won't work hard. It is so true. Being consistent has always worked for me...in every aspect of my life.

where do you do your seminars? A restaurant? The library? I think this would be probably the best way to get in front of business owners, just invite them to a free 1-2 hour seminar on a topic. Could be adwords, google places, SEO, mobile, whatever. Just wondering where hold your events, and what methods do you use to get the word out?

I bleive this is what Zig Ziglar refers to as "Priming the Pump"!

True! Consistency is what makes your life good.
If you are not consistent, then no plan will work for you.
Not only this, inconsistency also brings indiscipline, laziness and recklessness.


- Steve

Interacting with people regularly and on a human level will always pay dividends.

Think of it as servant leadership

Great post. I am actually doing some VIP type seminars for clients. These are not meant to be high people count events, but here is what i am doing:

Inviting 5-10 decision makers from companies (owners, Presidents, CEO's of small to mid-size companies)

Telling them I want to bring them in to go over some effective uses of social media in their business that they may not be currently doing.

Grabbing a BY THE HOUR board room from a local virtual office company ($40/hour for a KILLER boardroom)

Showing the business owners a few simple presentations, doing a question/answer session, then closing some business

Thanks to the OP for posting this, these techniques are EXTREMELY effective for offliners!

Mac the Knife

I'm going to add one more "magic bullet" to this thread: Have a plan! Combined with consistency, you have now tipped the scales in your favor. Success is in your grasp!

You can consistently bounce around to the next big thing or the next cool marketing tactic, but you will get no where fast. But if you build a plan and stick to it consistently, you are much better off than making a right angle turn to catch the latest shiny object.

You also do not need to worry about giving your tactics away for free because of those who attend probably only 10% will be able or willing to do it themselves. I generally find that if you explain to someone how to do something, and they understand you know how to do it, then will just ask how much they can pay you to do it. Being seen as an expert is a priceless quality.

Good luck. I found the magic bullet in my 1st wives top dresser drawer... After that I never felt quite adequate again...

Thanks for the reminder.

It reminds me of the quote, "Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration."

It's so true.

This advice goes hand in hand with the expression of treating your offline business like the real business it actually is. Running a real business means showing up everyday and doing what it takes every single day.

I'm even finding myself getting to the point where I'm not even willing to start marketing/lead gen strategies that I can't commit 6 months of time and resources to implement.

It really helps me think and act in a long term beneficial way.

Thanks for the reminder...

Chris Rivers

Chris you said it so well I don't really have anything to add, but I just wanted to give a ::nod:: of agreement. It doesn't matter what the technique is, it's the persistence and the systematization that will get you clients time and time again.

Great advice, thanks for posting!

A hearty "thank you!" to all of your for your inspiration and encouragement for any who are just getting going. "There's never a traffic jam if you go the extra mile"
Take consistent, massive actions and success will find you.

Totally agree bro, I was just invited to present at a paid seminar of 50+ business owners and non profits. Can't buy that kind of advertising Provide unique value and insight to business owners consistently and they will remember you when things come up...

Chris

Quick Question:,

How do you attract business owners to your seminars? What has worked for you in the past. I approached an accountant recently, but he is yet to take up my offer on JV.

Also what days work? Saturdays or week days? Morning or afternoon?

Thanks for your insights and pep talk. We have been talking about doing Facebook seminars on fanpages and all the various means of using it to grow a following and a list. It's encouraging to know that in your experience with doing seminars, local business owners were and are appreciative that you freely share your knowledge with them.

Well said everyone, I so agree with you. Even if there's only one person showing up that one person still deserves to get the same consistency of focus and effort that the 100 people would get.

Here's what I think makes it so hard for so many folks, myself included sometimes, to stay consistent. Impatience and bright shiny object syndrome.

We hear of so many people crushing it using all kinds of weird, exotic, or super simple tactics and then look at ourselves plugging along with our baby steps that we forget that there's a process to everything where all things start small and then grow as time goes on.

Anyhow great discussion. Thanks!

As Tom Cruise might say to your magic bullet..."It's not sexy but it's got teeth"! Great to hear of your success with seminars Chris, I admire your courage doing these, something I have thought about but don't have the confidence to do just yet. I like the 1 to 1's or 2's and get good results this way but I know I have to push my comfort zone to grow faster and catch bigger clients.

One thing I would add is to say that consistency helps build momentum in your business. When I got started offline mid last year I was taking on just 1 or 2 clients at a time. Doing the cold-calling, landing a client, then working on the project 'til I got paid sometimes 2 or 3 weeks later then starting over again. What I quickly found was that due to various delays, whether it be the client/s going on holiday, being out of contact, taking days to respond to email, delayed payment etc a project might take me a week or less to complete but the time-lapse between start and finish, payment to payment, might be 3 times that. This meant for the first 3 or 4 months I was just scraping by month to month, never really gathering steam and feeling a bit frustrated.

Now my system is a bit more refined and looks like this:

1) Run Power Leads Pro and print off 100-150 leads to call.
2) 1-2 hours cold-calling most mornings (I usually keep going until I have at least 5 good leads) + 1 hour 5-6:30pm to catch business owners who are out during the day.
3) I aim to have 5+ projects on the go at any one time to ensure:
(a) fairly steady cash-flow, always receiving a few payments each week, either deposit payments, recurring rev, balance payments, hosting fees.
(b) minimal time twiddling thumbs; always projects to work on at various stages of completion.
4) Always be stuffing the sales pipeline with prospects of all varieties, even the ones who say call back in 3 or 4 months! I landed my biggest client to date this way, keeping in touch for 6 months while their company went through some big changes then Bam!, $7000 web and optimization deal. It is amazing how the time flies and all of a sudden you are calling a handful of people each week who said call back in a few months.

Well, that was a bit of a ramble but suffice to say that consistency and just keepin' on truckin', pays great dividends. It is both encouraging and reaffirming when all the hard work and 'struggles' pay off.