[Part 5 of 7] -- Slavery, Back Stabbing, Big Checks, Hong Kong, Rudl (Lots of Pix)
Published: Thu, 08/02/12
Memo To:
Re: [5 of 7] -- I've Got To Tell You This Before It's
Too Late
Hello,
Marlon here.
I'm in the 22nd story of the Sheraton Hotel in Hong Kong.
Overlooking me is Kowloon Bay. I came in at night from the
airport, in a limo, over the longest expansion bridge in
the world.
Stunning.
Breathtaking.
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/hongkong.jpg
That was the view out my window.
The electronic gadgetry really blows my mind. Things they
had there they didn't have in the U.S. I knew nothing
about where I was or where to go.
I jumped in a plane on 4 days notice. I snagged a $4,000
laptop and set reservations go to Thailand, the land of
smiles.
Money isn't a problem. Which is good. Because I get an
urgent message from Lisa. Someone decided to attack us
online.
Believe me, when you're a top 3 or 4 "guru" in the world,
a LOT of stuff goes down.
When I check out, the girl looks at me and says, "your
phone bill is $3,000." Of course, she barely speaks
English and I don't have time to debate it.
I pay and hop on the plane to Thailand. The people there
amazed me. Those stories will be on another day. But it
really and truly is the land of smiles, a magical,
enchanting land filled with mystery, legend, and rituals
from times gone by colliding with pollution, political
unrest and the economic instability of our times.
That was quite a contrast from not all that long ago.
Because back then, I remember buying deodorant with all
pennies. And the man at the Stop 'N Go on Dallas Parkway
and Spring Valley said, "Normally, we don't take this many
pennies but in your case, I'll make an exception."
I'll never forget the day I moved from the 600 square foot
apartment to a town-home on Hidden Bend, a street with no
sign because I publicly published my address and people
would try to hunt me down all the time.
I pre-paid my rent for something like 4 or 6 months
because I was scared the money wouldn't last. I'm sure the
rent lady thought I was really strange.
That happens. I send money to Lisa who is my webmaster and
designer and has been for years. She lives in Canada.
I have a penchant for wearing designer clothes, sometimes
a bit flamboyant. In a city like San Antonio, believe me
you stand out.
I think the girl at the western union place thinks I'm a
drug dealer. I wear fancy clothes. Wire lots of money.
Actually, I had to prove to the U.S. Gov't I was legit.
That happens when you have to wire $4000 to the
Philippines embassy in Syria to get your girlfriend out of
slavery.
More on that in a second.
================N O T E ================== I realize this
issue is packed. There are things I want to tell you
today, in this issue, because tomorrow? It might be too
late.
While seats are available, register right now for
Saturday's event:
http://attractsalesnow.com/gottatellya
=========================================
Before I go on, here are a few pix:
Corey and I:
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/rudl.jpg
Me 'n E. Joseph Cossman (see last issue)
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/cossman.jpg
Me 'n Ted Nicholas
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/nicholas.jpg
Here are a few comments from our Facebook Group:
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/donnaname.jpg
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/morris.jpg
And some of my highly esteemed friends stop by to say hi:
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/cavanaugh.jpg
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/frey.jpg
None other than Willie Crawford and Declan Dunn give
me a shout out:
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/dec.jpg
Moving on....
These meandering stories I tell. The one about the cruise
ship. Other stories. They all have a common thread. A
theme.
The unstoppable power of a repeatable formula.
There are 3 parts to my original repeatable formula:
When they work in unison, it's like a well-oiled machine.
1. Your front end
You need new buyers or prospective buyers pouring into
your business every day.
This has to be a repeatable formula. Every day I got 40 to
50 sales for Amazing Formula like clockwork.
Imagine waking up in the morning and not even giving your
income a second thought because you know you'll have 50
sales that day on the front-end.
2. The "back end"
Here was my original repeatable formula:
a. Amazing Formula at $67
That was the first product that sold widely at that price
point. People price their products today at that but have
no idea where the price came from nor why I chose that
price.
There's a reason.
The sales letter followed my standard 12-step formula and
I wrote it in an hour or two and didn't even change the
typos for 3 years.
There's a reason for that too.
b. Big Course at $500, digitally delivered.
That's right. I shocked people when I sold Amazing Formula
100% digitally delivered. No one thought it could be done
without a major refunds problem.
But beyond that, no one to this day realizes I was back
ending it with a $500 digitally delivered course.
Pop a back end every day or every other day and you're
sitting pretty, depending on your overhead.
My second back end is a recurring billing service called
automateyourwebsite.com
c. Affiliate traffic
This was the ENGINE of my machine.
Your engine drives your front-end sales which feeds your
back end, which is where you make your money.
Get all 3 of those right and that engine will run a long
time with minor tweaking. Unless you count reading as
work, I probably didn't work 30 minutes to 2 hours a day
for 12 years.
And in my upcoming training, I'm going to explain some
nuances of these 3 steps and hopefully hammer it home in a
way you'll never forget.
Let me put it to you this way: I remember many times
digging around in a stack of papers for that $5,000 check
I'd left laying around for a few months.
$5,000 bucks. Didn't bother to deposit it ....sometimes
for several months. Those checks show up every month and
are true passive income.
That money allowed me to fly in many times and help out my
dad with my mum when she had Alzheimer's. And I"ll tell
you this.
If you wake up in the morning and you know what your name
is, it's a good day.
Of course, I stopped speaking at major events because I
was afraid I might need to fly in to see my mum. And
events are an intricate part of being a "guru."
Your best customers and affiliates come from speaking at
events. Plus, it gives you that celebrity halo effect.
Which makes people less price sensitive when they buy your
products.
I'll never forget taking 50 pictures at Yanik Silver's
birthday bash with attendees there. My hair hadn't been
cut. I felt exhausted and could barely smile. I vented a
bit too much to Mike Long about the state my mum was in.
But he patiently listened.
Here's a pix of me greeting Yanik to speak at that event:
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/yanik.jpg
Yanik has always been enormously giving and gracious
in this business. He is truly a class person....But
to continue....
See, my dad had colon cancer so he was holed up in the
hospital and they wouldn't let him out. Some local ahole
in the neighborhood got the homeowners association to
serve him a lawsuit in the hospital because he put the
wrong grade of shingles on his home.
And my mum had to go into an Alzheimer's unit because my
dad couldn't care for her.
During this tough time, the money just kept coming in. And
I didn't have to work much. Of course, I had Lisa to keep
things afloat. When you have money, you can hire help,
thankfully.
My friend Art calls me up. He'd been one of the biggest
names in an industry so controversial I can't print the 3
letter acronym here.
There was a girl his Filipina wife had met at a Casino in
Vegas. He said she was visiting from Makati and I should
meet her.
It's a long story. But back in the Philippines she was
promised $250 a day to be a maid in Syria. Of course, she
gets there and they immediately take away her cell phone.
She wasn't allowed to leave the house and had to do dishes
while trying to eat food very foreign to her.
For 6 months day and night I contacted every agency
anywhere you could. They didn't know who they were messing
with. From the President of the Philippines to someone
running for Senator, to agencies in the U.S. you *really*
don't want to be having a conversation with, to lawyers in
Syria, to covert personnel who help liberate captives, to
negotiating with her "boss."
Two things happened in my career that taught you don't
have friends in business. You have allies.
12 million people in the world are in slavery. The biggest
export from the Philippines is labor. And many of those
people imho are put in slavery or close to it.
Try telling that to a friend. It's too much for someone in
the U.S. to grasp or relate to. That's how you make your
phone not ring, when you're using to it ringing 24/7.
But money isn't everything.
Somehow she escaped and made it to the Philippines
embassy. For $4,000 I flew her out. There was a very long
waiting list and it's enormously difficult to get out.
There were many poor girls there just waiting and waiting.
Money? What good is it? You can't take it with you. But it
can buy other things.
You know that part about the Internet lifestyle? I
probably started that, as I did many things in this
business the origins of which are long ago forgotten.
I had Milcers Marlon's Internet Lifestyle Club. I later
dumped it because no one could pronounce it!
Remember that 3-part formula? Front end, back end,
traffic. Get that machine humming and you can make more
money drinking a latte at Starbucks than the people
rushing in and out will make all day.
Now, dialing in that formula takes time and
experimentation or both.
Over time, the formula changes and you adjust or die. It's
one thing to be the guru of moment or day or week or month
or year.
It's another to do that over and over for many years, more
than you can remember. When I got started in 1997, I had
all my hair.
You know that if you watched my vintage video at
marlonsanders.com
But it ALL boils down to a repeatable formula. A lot of
people rocket to "guru status" with a short-term
repeatable formula.
But it won't repeat long term. So they are here today,
gone tomorrow.
The more you control where your traffic comes from, the
better the model. The less you control it, the worse the
model.
Oh, I forgot. Friends and allies. Your friends will turn
their backs on you if it's in their financial advantage to
align with someone else.
Never forget that. Ever.
In business, you don't have friends. You only think you
do. You have people who align with you because you're
powerful and they feel it's in their best interest to
align with you.
The ironic thing is, you could crush them. You could
demolish them and whoever else they chose to align with in
the blink of an eye.
Never underestimate a marketer. Of course, a person with
power won't crush a lesser opponent. It'd be like Anderson
Silva getting in a bar brawl. LOL.
Actually, I'd pay to see THAT one.
The head of the neo-nazi party in America attacked us once
when I was top 3.
That's another story. There's a book written about that
dude. If I recall, I think he's in jail now.
I vaguely remember translating one of his emails out of
Chinese into English then using it to take down a server
in China. And somehow getting his cell phone number and
using it to trace the IP block with ATT. And to tracking
down a phone number at the current residence.
I didn't have a formula to do what I wanted to do. I
invented one on the fly. Inventing a formula is a bitch.
It's a lot of wasted motion and effort because you don't
know which lever moves the world.
So you just pull a lot of levers, sometimes frantically.
It's a lot easier to start with a formula.
So what about you? This is my story. The story of the
power of having a repeatable formula.
Do you have a repeatable formula?
The short version is:
profit x velocity = Fat Hip Pocket National Bank
You have a product with a margin. That's your profit. You
sell something bigger ticket or recurring billing on the
back end. That's profit.
And you have velocity: How many do you sell and how fast?
To elongate the formula:
1. How many leads and new prospects and customers do you
get a day?
It all starts here.
Do you have a smoking hot front end? A way to get people
into your marketing funnel?
2. Your back end
What do you sell after the initial purchase? Is it a
well-oiled machine?
A few of my friends skip step 1. When you are ninja, you
can do that. They buy traffic and go direct for the big
ticket.
You can do that if you're really good at giving a verbal
pitch. Or if you practice a lot.
People think I'm a genius. I'm no freaking genius. I've
read more than about anyone. And I came into this business
having had 10 years of failure and extreme motivation.
Try eating microwave corn dogs and burritos for 10 years.
3. Your traffic
Without it, you die.
With it, you live.
It's your engine.
Get that formula right, and you don't work for 10 or 12
years. Or don't have to. It gives you the time and money
to buy and read 3,000 or 4,000 books for the heck of it.
Or to do whatever it is you want to do with your life.
I've shared a lot of my life. Stories of a lifetime. There
are many others. I've chose these to illustrate to you the
power of a repeatable formula.
Now, times are a changin'.
Gurus come and go. This is a celebrity-driven business.
The Guru business is a strange one. I never believed in
gurus because my mentor, Lew Williams, he told me many
years ago: "Marlon, all the real gurus died in WWII."
And he's right. If we stand tall, it is because we stand
on the shoulders of the direct response marketing giants
who went before us.
There are many stories I have to tell. Some of which are
better off not spoken.
But there is one. Before I tell you that, let me encourage
you to go register right now for the training event.
I want to share with you secrets of the Guru Business and
how to develop a loyal following that buys on demand.
How to use my 12-step copywriting formula.
How to build your list.
How to assemble your 3-part machine of front end, back end
and traffic.
Register right now here:
http://attractsalesnow.com/gottatellya
One last story:
"Derek, it's Marlon. Is it true?"
"Yeah, he said. It's true."
I think I uttered something I don't care to repeat and
hung up.
The God of Internet marketing was no longer with us.
People don't even know his name now. That pisses me off to
no end.
You remember this name and you never forget it: Corey
Rudl.
He was the greatest Internet marketer of all time and no
one holds a candle. Only those around in those days know
it.
We had times I'll never forget in Amsterdam and London. He
once wrote me a $25,000 check on a handshake over the
phone.
He loved fast cars many times more than marketing. And he
ended it all that way. He knew the risk and what might
happen. Because I asked him about it once.
http://www.marlonsanders.com/images2/2late/rudl.jpg
Kenny Rogers was right when he said the best that you can
hope for is if you die in your sleep.
None of us has a lease on life. By the numbers, once you
have angina pain, you got about a 75% chance of not being
here 5 years later.
Doesn't matter if you get stints or whatever.
Fortunately, one info marketer discovered a repeatable
formula around a somewhat radical diet. More fruits and
dark green leafy vegetables than you really wanna consume.
Most days I follow that diet.
And the research shows it allows you to beat the odds for
20 years. Fortunately, my dad is 89, my aunt is 100.
I have good genes. So I believe you'll have me around for
a long time to come. Which is great because I follow about
half the formula.
I eat subway. Crap. That's not on the list.
I eat salmon. Believe it or not, no animal fat at all.
Dang.
I drink freshly squeeze orange juice: Ain't on da list.
Good God. It's a miracle I'm writing this email!
So you live each day as if it's your last. And if you wake
up in the morning and know what your name is, it's a good
day.
Funny how people do 1/2 a formula then blame the Formula!
lol.
One day, the ezine I write will be my last. The email I
write will be my last. No man has a lease on life. You
walk out the door and you never come back. You pray to God
you helped a few people along the way. That you
contributed to the optimism of the human race and not the
pessimism.
That you inspired hope and not hurt. That you earned the
right to receive more orchids than onions.
One day you look back and all you have is your memories.
And if you're lucky you can remember those.
I have a fantasy. Not of the normal kind. That one day you
pass on to the other side. And when you get there, Gary
Halbert is at the head of the table.
You're first thought is, "Holy crap, how did he make it
here?" Your second thought is, Your second thought is,
"Hey, where the heck is Michael Enlow. Oh good, he's over
there mumbling something about how this really IS the
paperless, staff-less office. And right next to him Cory
is pitching the affiliate program. Ken Giddens is handling
the seo and Ken Kerr is licensing out the whole darned
thing."
And then Gary hands you a stack of envelopes and tells you
to start licking stamps. Because he's sending out a new
promo to sell chunks of the pearly gates.
And you're like, "Good God, I don't know if I want to send
this out or not!"
Then you think, "Oh, what the heck, this is heaven."
In any event, I'm sharing the thing I've got to tell you
before it's too late in a very special and magical
training event that I hope will be life changing for many
people, and quite possibly you.
-----------------------------------------
I'm offering you an irresistible offer:
-----------------------------------------
1. Come to the event and don't pay me until after the
event is over.
2. If it wasn't worth your time or money, just post with
no guilt to getyoursupport.com, and Lisa will cancel your
billing. She'll handle this not me, so you don't have to
worry about offending me.
3. Even if you don't want to pay for the event, you get to
keep the recording anyway. Yes, it will be recorded.
4. The event will be held Saturday. It'll run as long as I
have the energy to teach, and as long as it takes for me
to hammer home the most important formulas.
I'll be covering 11 formulas but spending the most time on
the ones ranked highest in the survey, which are:
Here are the FOR SURE topics:
1. Sales Letter Formula -- My 12-step formula that has
sold millions of dollars
I will be breaking this down in very good detail for
you. Plus, see the bonuses.
2. The Guru Creation Formula; What's the formula to become
a guru with a dedicated following who buy products on
demand?
I have secrets here I will share you've never heard
before.
3. The List Building Formula -- Use adswaps and solo ads
to explode your business overnight and build your list
4. The Advertising Formula -- Get paid advertising
without paying for it out of pocket.
I need more votes to decide the rest of the topics.
In today's market, it's all about list building, so I'll
definitely cover this one.
The other topics are to be decided.
5. There are some special bonuses...I may withdraw one or
more of these any hour now. So I urge you to sign up
immediately.
///////////////
B O N U S E S
///////////////
1. FULL access to the complete presentation from my
Vintage video in 1997.
2. A written document covering my 12-step sales letter
formula in depth.
If you like to read and have concerns I won't cover it
in enough depth in the webinar (which I will) you have
this to fall back on. This is an extensive document.
3. One year access to my Push Button Format email
editor that is a complete and total life saver when
you're writing emails like this one.
Write the email in any text editor. Paste it in. Click
a button. Boom! Your text is 100% formatted the right
length.
All other tools I see jack up and truncate lines and
you have to manually go in and fix every line. This
includes the built-in tool on Aweber. This software is
so pimp. I formatted this issue flawlessly in 5 seconds.
Note: Infusionsoft doesn't have a built in line length
marker and if you're sending text emails with it not
formatted to 72 characters per line or less, it's a huge
mistake.
This is the ONLY tool I know of that fixes this problem.
========== Assignment ==========
Go here to the Facebook group and ask YOUR question you
want me to answer NEXT issue:
http://attractsalesnow.com/marlonsfbgroup
Vote for the one topic you most want me to cover here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7RVS9V9
Then to attend my event and pay only AFTER the event
and only IF you love it go here to register:
http://attractsalesnow.com/gottatellya
Finally, post your thoughts and feedback on this issue
here in my new Facebook group:
http://attractsalesnow.com/marlonsfbgroup
========= Next Issue =========
"Look at Marlon, he looks kind of bald now"
The lady looks and me and says, "So do you have any
websites?"
I know that you "used to be somebody back in the day."
"What those old school marketers teach doesn't work
anymore. Not now. Not in today's volatile market."
"He's really out of touch."
"He was great.....BACK in the day"
"Actually, it's true. I really AM that much more well
endowed than he is."
Next issue: The nasty side of the Internet marketing guru
business: Pitches, framing and webinars gone out of
control.
Plus, answers to YOUR questions about having a repeatable
formula:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
B R E A K D O W N OF AUGUST 4 E V E N T
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The details are emerging from the survey:
1. Time length: However long it takes me to cover
the topics. Usually I fade after 2 to 2 1/2 hours
2. Will I cover the topics in a cursory fashion
or in depth?
I'll cover them 100% in the depth needed. Several
topics you WILL receive supporting videos or
documentation on as you'll see.
3. Will it be recorded if you can't make it?
Yep.
4. Don't know for sure if you'll get your money's worth?
You don't pay until AFTER the event. You just pop a
note in our support desk and we won't charge you.
Don't want to disappoint me? LISA will be handling these
not me. So no guilt or worries if you don't want charged.
5. What the topics?
They are NOT all decided yet. That depends on YOUR
responses to my survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7RVS9V9
And YOUR comments in my Facebook group:
http://attractsalesnow.com/marlonsfbgroup
=======>>>> To sign up go here:
http://attractsalesnow.com/gottatellya
Best wishes,
Marlon Sanders