See that guy in between Nick and myself?
That's a picture of us with Dan S. Kennedy about 12 years ago or so.
See the papers on the board behind us?
They go much higher and much wider than what you see there.
Dan Kennedy is one of the very best direct response marketers in the world. His teachings are the base of many "modern day" marketers who are almost all students of his.
Dan has worked on some of the most successful commercials and advertising campaigns of all time. He's put together marketing campaigns that have run for decades.
He's spoken on stages with past U.S. presidents and some of the biggest names in personal development.
So when we had the chance to show Dan our "Rock Star marketing funnel" to get his critique it was the opportunity of a lifetime.
And what he told us changed our lives forever.
We'll share what he said, but first how we got to that moment...
Nick and I both went to school, got the good jobs and opened up RRSPs to begin "saving".
We quickly realized that path was not going to give us the freedom and autonomy that we craved.
I had figured out that by moving from the "tech" side of software and into the "sales" side I could greatly increase my income.
But I hadn't gone all the way to straight, commission-based sales...I moved into a "sales consultant" role where I would help sales people explain technology during their sales calls.
It was a mini, "safe" step into sales.
Then as I was walking into work at Oracle one day, a manager up from California, Ed, was listening to me explain how happy I was to have moved into sales and what he said next, startled me...
"Tom, you're not in sales. You're only in sales if you carry a bag."
That was his way of explaining that I wasn't carrying a "sales quota" that I had to deal with each quarter.
After pondering that statement for a few months I declared to my manager that I wanted to go into straight sales and that I would leave my "techie" role.
He was shocked. Sales consultants were the "cushy jobs" at Oracle.
But I was determined.
Three days later, an Oracle Sales Manager by the name of Ruben, tapped me on my shoulder and said, "Hey, want to join my sales team? I got a spot open if you want it."
I will never forget that moment. That tap on the shoulder changed the course of my life forever.
I went on to do 200+ percent of my quota in 5 months and my income tripled.
I'm forever grateful to Ed and Ruben.
Several years later I had moved from Oracle to NetSuite, and about six months before they went public on the NYSE for $1 Billion I decided that I wanted out of the corporate world forever.
I was reading sales, business building, and marketing books looking for an escape.
By some miracle I was reading a newsletter by Dan Kennedy and a guy by the name of Rob Minton was in the newsletter explaining how he created a brokerage to help investors buy rental properties and how he was using direct response marketing to generate new business.
I'll never forget that moment.
I was sitting on the floor in the family room of my house, leaning against a couch, at about 5:30am.
I jumped up and literally ran to the computer in the kitchen and googled Rob Minton.
By the next week, I was getting information from him about what he had done, and about 6-8 weeks later Nick and I got in my car and drove to Ohio to meet Rob.
That meeting changed our lives. When we saw what he was doing I knew it was possible for us to do it too.
I quit my job. Rock Star was born.
We started with zero clients. Zero leads. Zero revenue, actually we just lost money for about the first 3 years.
But Rob gave us something priceless. He had given us the confidence we needed to know we could succeed.
Rob even organized quarterly meetings with other real estate entrepreneurs and we would get together and share and support each other.
It was priceless stuff. It changed our context forever.
We met people from Nashville, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Dallas, Jacksonville...who were all succeeding and it motivated us and further changed our context of what was possible.
Remember, we're products of two immigrant parents who didn't have much when they came to Canada and didn't have a big network of local Canadian professionals to share with us...but they loved and supported us, of course.
So meeting these people was game changing for us.
And that brings us to Dan...
Dan was running marketing conferences that we began attending and at one point he shared that he ran a small "mastermind group" for $25K USD where you would spend 4 days a year with him and 12 other entrepreneurs.
That was an incredible amount of money for us at the time.
But we jumped in.
And we were part of masterminds with him and his business partner, Bill Glazer, for 4 years or so.
And at the meeting where we took that picture above Dan said this,
"Guys, you're now pretty damn good at what you're doing. Just go out there and do it more and do it bigger...you're capable of more."
Simple, right? That simple statement set us free.
It was almost like we needed someone to give us the approval to "go for it".
And we did. We ramped up our marketing, started our own brokerage (after being at others' for several years), started hosting larger events...the mental shackles were off.
We went from six figures in revenue to seven figures, then to multiple seven figures and then to eight figures.
Our lives changed forever.
Today, we get to enjoy quite a bit of vacation time. We don't do things we don't want to do any more. We work with great people and have great clients.
We are living life on our own terms.
And sometimes I wonder...
If Ed, Ruben, Rob, and Dan weren't around would we be where we are today?
I assume so but I'm not 100% sure either.
We're forever grateful.
And I guess here's my question to you...
Who are you hanging around?
Who is helping you crush mental limitations you put on yourself?
Who is showing you the opportunities right in front of you that you're not seeing?
Who are your 4 people?
It's why Rock Star is so important to us. We know some Rock Star members have made breakthroughs beyond real estate by being a member, they tell us.
It's why the VIP program at Rock Star is also a proud thing for us.
And it's why we run our Rock Star Platinum Group for 12 entrepreneurs each year.
If you want to check out what we're doing at Platinum and have your own business then the details for the 2025 program are here:
RockStarInnerCircle.com/Platinum
We're taking applications until Monday January 27 and we have a special promotion running until Thursday, January 23.
If you think hanging around other action takers can help you take the next step maybe check it out.
Only you know. But we're here if you think it's time.
Ed, Ruben, Rob, and Dan changed our lives...maybe your Ed, Ruben, Rob and Dan are waiting for you to show up. Who knows.
We can tell you this.
Platinum or not...get yourself around people who are doing things that you want to be doing.
It rubs off on you somehow...like osmosis.
Life is a wild ride...we're loving it and grateful to experience it.
Talk next week!
Tom & Nick
