When I started my independent practice in 1994, since I had no clients, seminars were my only way to get new clients (I’ll tell you why in a moment)…
And I’m here to tell you, I probably made every mistake possible, and more.
Originally, I thought all I needed was an invitation and PowerPoint and I would be successful. Man, was I clueless.
I had no idea what needed to happen before the event to ensure that pre-qualified prospects showed up and non-qualified prospects got filtered out.
I had no idea what had to happen at the event and during the presentation to motivate every qualified prospect to sign up for a one-on-one appointment with me.
And, I had no idea what had to happen after the event to compel every prospect who signed up to show up in my office ready to take action.
Every mistake meant lost clients and lost revenue… and it was a confidence killer, at times. I wanted to quit many times over. However, I knew that if I persevered, I would have something immensely valuable: a client “machine.”
I knew I needed help. So I bought every seminar system I could get my hands on and went to every training offered. Most of it was worthless, same old industry crap.
So, I began to study proven marketing and positioning gurus outside of the financial services industry.
Slowly I began to see patterns…
Then I hired some of the most expensive coaches outside of the financial industry to hone my discovery. Tens of thousands of dollars became hundreds of thousands.
But it was worth it, because I ended up with an integrated seminar system.
I didn’t stop there. My team and I continued to test and transform every facet of the system. Every time we would make a mistake, we created a tool to ensure it didn’t happen again, we inserted it into a process and we assembled the processes into a system.