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TRANSCRIPT:

*this transcript was mostly generated by AI, please excuse any mistakes

Amanda: [00:00:00] Oh, we are live. Thank you so much for being here. Dave Woodward, c e o of ClickFunnels. 

Dave: Oh man, it’s my honor. I’m so excited to be here with you. This will be a ton of fun. 

 

Amanda: Yes. And I know we wanna dive deep and get real clear. You have some fun little things to show everybody at some point. So, um, I, I am so curious.

Your journey has been so interesting. Everything from starting in college as a kinesiology exercise science major to go to, right. Financial services, real estate, life insurance, and then ClickFunnels, I mean, [00:01:00] Wow. What, what a journey you’ve been on. Um, it’s been fun. So I’m curious, I mean, I, I already know this stat, that 0.04% of of companies go to a hundred mil, but I think it’s probably a fraction of that, right?

That go there in four years so that you’ve done something magical here. Right. So I, I just wanna better understand that relationship of how you found ClickFunnels and how that kind of woven at the very beginning. Sure, 

Dave: yeah. Yeah. So for me, I, uh, I was pre-med, decided not to go to med school, got a master’s in exercise physiology.

Went to uh, PT school, uh, dropped out of PT school cause I didn’t wanna, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wasn’t as interested in being a physical therapist, so I found myself an employee benefits and we ended up taking employee benefits company from Texas to California. We later sold that. And the part I loved most, out of all that was marketing.

That’s really where I found my passion. And so I then got involved in, I had my own marketing agency. Uh, at that time it was more direct response, [00:02:00] marketing, lumpy mail, thanks to your dad and, and a bunch of other things. So we were doing a lot in the financial services, uh, real estate, mortgages, uh, all sorts of different industries primarily cause there was a bunch of money there and they could afford to pay for my services.

Right. But. With that being said, I got to the point where a lot of my clients were, I’d love to figure out this whole internet thing. How are we gonna do that? And that’s where I ended up running into Russell and it was 2008 and I was attending a seminar. Uh, he and Stu McLaren put on at the time is about affiliate marketing.

And I thought, you know what? I need to. I’ve always been a huge believer. You can either buy your way in or work your way in. And for me, if I can buy my way in, I’m going to, and it just happened to be that, uh, Russell got up at State, gosh, this is 12 years ago now, and he said, you know what? He wouldn’t do this today, but he said, Hey, if you guys would like to get to know us a little bit better, just go to back through him.

You can sign up for, you know, lunch or breakfast, lunch or dinner and take us out and we’ll just spend some time getting to know each other. I’m like, That’s my ticket. And so I ran to the back. I signed up for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner Russell had for about, [00:03:00] uh, three days and became just dear friends.

Uh, we, our families became great friends. Uh, he came down to California where I was living at time for his anniversary. We just, And so it was more of a friendship than it was ever even business. Uh, we then had the opportunity later of, of doing a couple different businesses together, and then when ClickFunnels came around, uh, that’s where he invited me in to, to be a partner and to help grow and build ClickFunnels.

So that was the quick journey. In about two minutes there. Oh my 

Amanda: God. And one. Okay. One quick takeaway from that then. For people that are looking for partnerships and growing out their team, what makes you work so well together? Because I know that there’s special sauce in that relationship. 

Dave: You know, honestly, I think for me, and I just a huge believer in.

It’s all about the friendship first. Um, for me, friendship is much more important than the business. Uh, we’ve had the opportunity to be involved in other businesses. Uh, we had one with, uh, with Dean and Tony. Uh, just a great relationship, but it wasn’t the right direction for ClickFunnels and so we just [00:04:00] basically gave over a eight figure business to, or seven figure business to Dean and Tony and let them run with it.

Because the, the relationship for me, and it kind of goes back to what you’re talking about as far as this whole Dream 100, the relationship. So much more important to me than the revenue. That relationship with Dean and Tony will, will come back again at some later point. It always does, and I think, I think too often people get really shortsighted in the relationship.

And it’s, it’s that quid pro quo type of thing where I’m given right now and I expect something back right now and those never work out. So for, for Russell and I, it was a friendship. Uh, we ended up doing a bunch of just fun things together and on vacations and different things. And uh, when business came it was just more of a natural thing.

I think the other thing, whenever you’re looking at a partner is to really. Know who they are. Uh, to me it’s, I wanna know who I’m, again, with partnership, you’re, it’s like a marriage. You’re going into this thing for the long haul and you better know exactly what they’re really like in and outside of work.

Amanda: Mm. I love that. Oh my [00:05:00] gosh, I could talk about that for hours. But let’s go into, where did you first hear about the Dream 100? 

Dave: I first heard about it, uh, actually at a Dan Kennedy event. Oh. And, uh, that’s where I was introduced to your dad’s work. And then, um, Russell by far was, uh, the primary focus in, in my life, uh, of people who were actually implementing it.

So I heard it first in the Dan Kennedy event, but I never saw anyone do it as well as Russell did. Yeah, I

Amanda: love it. And so we see this a lot where CEOs will say, I have this idea. It’s really good. And then you bring it to the team and then the team goes, nah. And then they have to fight with the team and try to make it happen.

So what was that relationship like between you, uh, when you were Chief Revenue Officer before you came c e o with Russell, Hey, there’s a Stream 100 thing I wanna do. How was that handoff? How did that work? 

Dave: Uh, for us it was. For me, I, I’d seen Russell work as, no one works harder than Russell does at all. I in, in every, in every facet of [00:06:00] his life.

Um, but when it comes to business, he cares so much about the customer and the entrepreneur that, that his caring heart just exudes and, and just the energy that’s there. You very quickly catch onto that vision. And I think that’s the most important thing when, when the CEO O or the founders can actually cast a large enough vision to where the people who work with them or for them go, I want a part, I wanna be a part of that vision.

That’s where it’s the longer the job and it’s no longer the task. It’s more about the vision that I’m focused on achieving. And now Dream 100 becomes a tool and a vehicle to help us achieve the vision and the goal that we’re going for. And. It to me it wasn’t, I mean, there was never a question of if we’re gonna do it, it just, how are we gonna do it?

What do we want to do? How, what’s the greatest impact we can have in implementing it to get the type of success that we want for our customers? 

Amanda: So I’m really curious how this worked because Russell said that he didn’t plan to have a nine figure business when you guys first started. So then you as being chief Revenue Officer, what were [00:07:00] your KPIs like, like was it the plan saying, okay, this next Dream 100, we’re gonna launch, we want to hit, you know, 50 million, and then you hit 70 million.

Like, what, what, what were, how did that work? 

Dave: So, um, I run a lot by metrics. Uh, so for me, I, I measure a lot of things. Yeah. And because of that, so when we started ClickFunnels, uh, we were SaaS company, software as a solution, software as a service. And I’ve spent a lot of time studying other SaaS companies.

And one of the main things they, if you take a look at the growth of SaaS companies in the first five years, those that get the greatest success, long-term growth is when you can have two years of tripling and three years of doubling. And that was my primary focus. So what I was looking at is how do I triple revenue in the first two years and double revenue in the next three years?

And that was really kind of the growth pattern that I was focused on. I’m sure Russell and Todd could care less about those kind of things for me. From a revenue side, uh, I know that that’s what pays the bills. And so I wanna make sure we had the revenue. That [00:08:00] was kind of where. Where I spent my time diving into those kinda numbers.

Amanda: Wow, that’s really good to have the visionary, right? That has the, that has the mission. And then you were like, but I need numbers Russell there. I love that. That is great. Well that’s really interesting. Uh, and, and. Have you seen a lot of changes amidst the team as you’ve grown along? Because this is something that we also experienced, right?

So people start running their Dream 100 and then they have so much success, they don’t know what to do with it. So then things are breaking. Oh, sure. They dunno how to deliver. So what was that like amidst the team as you grew? Um, how were you able to get over 

those hurdles? 

Dave: I think so to your first point where, uh, whenever you implement the Dream 100, you get a ton of success.

And it’s that feast or famine where all of a sudden you have so much that unfortunately we were, we did the exact same thing, that you get so much business coming in that you kind of forget to actually continue nurturing those [00:09:00] relationships and then all of a sudden it’s like, oh shoot, we better go back to that.

And I think that’s probably been the best opportunity for us right now is as we’ve continued to grow and to expand, we now have. People who work with us, uh, miles Clifford does an amazing job. Turner, Leslie, uh, now Robbie Summers as well, where they’re actually, their whole focus is on, on those, nurturing those relationships and continuing to build it.

When you’re a startup and you first get going, you’re wearing so many different hats that it’s really, really hard to say. Totally focused on it, to be honest. Um, I, we just were never able to pull that off. It was ups and downs of, oh yeah, shoot, we gotta get back to that Dream 100. But that’s where it was for us.

Amanda: Hmm. That’s very interesting. Yeah, cuz Russell had said he first started off with launches and launches and then it was so overwhelming that then it started to become something staggering instead. So the Dream 100 became like, oh, this person, so you can continue to feed, but there’s a steady growth as opposed to just everything happening at once and then everything falling off.

Dave: And I can [00:10:00] tell you, for us, that’s the part right now that we’re spending the most time on. And that is, it’s more the long tail of the Dream 100. I think if you look at, uh, the beginning of Dream 100, it is kind of a launch thing. You’ve got a promotion, you’ve got something where you’re trying to go in, and again, it goes back to the whole idea of you have to dig your well before you’re thirsty.

And no one has a deeper well than Russell. Uh, he’s been digging this well for 20 years, but because of that, I happened to be the beneficiary of that was I was reaching out to people. And I can tell you that as you take a look at, uh, building and nurturing those types of relationships over time, You’re, whenever there’s an ask, it’s a lot easier.

And I think, um, I was listening to the Facebook Live you did with Russell, and it brought back a flood of memories and, uh, some things we’ve done right, some things we’ve done wrong. But I think the biggest mistake most people make is, is being too shortsighted in a Dream 100 and they’re focused on just, I’ve got this launch right now and I gotta go for it.

If it doesn’t work, then. I’m, [00:11:00] forget it. I’m gonna go do something else. The Dream 100 is a long-term relationship, and if you’re into this thing for the short term, don’t do it. 

Amanda: Quotable quote. Oh, it was good. Yes. I 100% agree. Wow. So, um, you just, you just answered my question that I was just about to ask.

Maybe we should go into some gifting, cuz you said that you had some nice gifts. So I’m curious, were were some of the things you were gonna show me some, some items. 

Dave: I know know, one of the things I was gonna show you was, uh, Russell talked to you about our Dream 100 for the Expert Secrets book Launch.

Yes. And so I actually, I was able to find all four pieces that we sent out so I can show you that. Oh yes. Yeah. Um, in addition to that, uh, just being in a position we’re at and Russell teaches Dream 100, that we get some really weird things in the office. Okay. Yeah. Some that, and I think it’s, so I guess the first thing I would say before we go into show and tell here is whenever you are going out and are trying, again, I look [00:12:00] at this as far as you’re trying to build.

Build a relationship, a long-term relationship. And I think that’s the key. If you’re into this for the short term, please just don’t do it. If you’re in it for the long-term, your business and your life will be blessed because your relationships, even if your business doesn’t go well, your relationships will take you to the next business.

It’ll take you to the next opportunity. And I’ve seen that happen in so many people’s lives as well as in my own personal life. Um, I, so I can tell you that. One of the mistakes I see a lot of people make is in their Dream 100 campaigns, they think of it more as what they wanna send themselves versus what the person who’s receiving would want to receive.

And it’s interesting if you don’t have to go too far into, into anything that Russell has out there to realize Russell doesn’t drink alcohol. I mean, it’s, I mean, that’s a pretty prevalent thing. I can’t tell you how many gifts of wine and, uh, whiskey and bottles that we get again, and I know their heart’s in the right place because for them, that would be the gift [00:13:00] that they would wanna receive, right?

And so they think if I want this, they want it as well. Fortunately for Melanie Russell’s assistant, she gets to be the beneficiary of, of all we get in our office. She’s so wonderful. I think the, the main thing is to realize that when you’re looking at a gift, the gift should be something that that person would want to receive.

And ideally, if you can get, give something that they would use on a frequent basis, that way it stays in front of them. Uh, so I can tell you one of the gifts I received, um, from John Ruland, from Giftology, uh, was he sent me a, a, um, A set of knives, and these are Cutco knives, and I’m sure the knife set is probably 3000 bucks.

I mean, it’s a crazy, crazy knife set. I mean, this is a huge, huge, largest one they have. But it wasn’t just sending and it wasn’t the monetary aspect. Please understand that. It’s not that. The part that that touches me so much is that every single time I take out one of those knives he had [00:14:00] engraved on the blade of each knife.

A quote that I had said on a podcast, on a Facebook Live or some, I mean, he had done a ton of research. Wow. And he knows that I refer to my wife as my princess. And so there’s different things about Princess on the Blades. And so when she sees it, she’s like, oh my gosh, this is so nice. So I can’t cut anything without thinking of John Ruland.

I mean, it sits literally, it’s on my desk. It’s, it’s on my, our kitchen counter. And he’d actually gone through enough. To understand that. And I tried down on the Facebook Live, we had just built a new house and our kitchen was all white. 

And again, you can go white knives or you can go black knives, but he went with white knives that tied in.

I mean, so just the amount of time and the effort that he put into that is something that’s always near and dear to me. 

Um, Dan Martel, like uh, is a guy who I’ve known for years. Um, yeah, he’s actually one of my coaches. And so Dan Martel sent me a gift of Nike Airs. And on them are the [00:15:00] ClickFunnels company.

Oh, he’s got his logo, he’s got, uh, ClickFunnels, he’s got Funnel Hack on there. And it’s again, and he also had the fact he knew we were Guinness World Record holders. And so he had that. But, and again, they’re in ClickFunnels colors, so they sit on the back of my desk here and anybody says, Hey, where’d you get those things?

So my kids would love to wear ’em, but I’m like, they’re too nice of a gift, so I’m not gonna wear ’em. They just sit there. 

But my only reason in saying that is if you know who you really want to develop that relationship with, the gift is much more customed to them. 

And so you may mention Amanda earlier that right now we’ve gone from the launches to more of the long-term things.

Yeah. And so for us, we really are, and again, I hats off to Miles cause he spends a bunch of time going through and really coming to know. Who our actual Dream 100 really are. What are the things that they’re talking about? What are the things that are important to them? And you’ll find that if it’s your Dream 100, they’re out there probably publishing somewhere, doing something.[00:16:00] 

For us, social media’s a great thing because we have the opportunity of, of seeing what’s important to them. If it’s their family and that’s where they spend a bunch of time, then send them. I can tell you, uh, my wife has been the recipient of gifts because they know that she’s the most important thing in my life.

She should be. She’s beautiful. Well, thank you. And so, because that she gets gifts from other people as a way of getting to me, and again, it’s just, it’s a, it’s just being smart in, in the way that you’re reaching out. Um, I think the. The irony of the problem that happens for a lot of people is they send the gift and they never follow up, and I think that’s the biggest problem most people make in, in the whole Dream 100.

They think, oh, if I just send the gift out, they’re gonna be so overwhelmed with how much value they receive, that they’re gonna reach out to me. It doesn’t work that way. It just doesn’t, and I think that it’s important that you follow up on a regular basis. We talk about fall on email sequences and everything else.

The most important thing is the follow up like you and I are doing, where you talk to [00:17:00] them, you get on the phone, you get on a meeting, you do an email, you, you’ve gotta do more than just send a gift and just think that the gift in and of itself is going to be. The magic. 

Amanda: It’s so funny to hear that that’s where it’s gone.

Because in my world, right, we teach all about sales strategies. So it’s all about, okay, now how do you get on the phone? What are all the phone skills? You know, here’s tonality, here’s what you say when it opens, you know? So to hear that that’s evolved that way, just like utterly shocked 

me, I wasn’t 

aware 

that that was something that was happening.

Oh, it’s so I, yeah. 

Dave: So I mean, I can say I get so even at, you know, Salesforce. Yeah, large company. So they send out a Salesforce in here and it’s got a, I’m haven’t even opened it yet, but it’s the little Jenga set. Oh, cool. But no one’s said, no one’s ever called me. No one’s followed up. I mean, this is Salesforce.

This is a major, and we happen to be a client. So yes, they, but I’m CEO of the company Salesforce. You’re gonna send me [00:18:00] this Salesforce. Why didn’t you call me and say, Hey Dave, we’d love to get more of your business. So it’s not just, I mean, it, it’s across the board, so, wow. I’ll stop talking.

Amanda: Have you, have you seen alice.com?

A a l Y? Yeah. Oh man. That’s a good one too. Yeah, that’s really interesting to me. I have a question, so, oh, are you gonna do more gifts? Are you gonna talk more? I can, I don’t wanna. Okay. Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s do it. 

Dave: I love it. Let’s see, what else. Okay, so, um, Russell was talking about the video cards. I, this work.

Hey David Bear. So this is from David Bayer. Oh my gosh. So he sent one, and I think these are great. I can tell you, having sent hundreds of these things out, there’s nothing worse than a person receiving this. And when it opens, it doesn’t play. So you have to make sure that the batteries are charged when you actually send these things out.

And I, and my only reason saying that is I literally received [00:19:00] probably. Half a dozen of those because we, I think we were one of the very first ones that sent ’em out six years ago when we did Knock Come Secrets book launch. But since then I get four or five or six of those things and I’ve gotten ’em so many times and they just don’t work.

And so I’m not gonna be, I’m not gonna spend my time to charge your battery so I can see your message. So just realize, I mean, that wasn’t David Bear. David Bear did an amazing job. Um, I’ve gotten, oh my God, that’s really funny. So, I mean, I’ve gotten to the point where people have sent. Oculus sets video. I mean, whoa, whoa.

So I mean, some people go way above and beyond. 

Amanda: Um, does it make you 

feel uncomfortable because this, like the way that we originally taught Dream 100 was not to get really fancy gifts because Right. Have you ever sent them back? Have you ever felt uncomfortable? No, 

Dave: I’ve never sent him back. Um, this one actually was kind of a cool gift.

This is, uh, it’s not charged right now, but it’s a, it’s a next book. [00:20:00] And the cool thing inside says, Hey, give this tablet to your kids or donate it when you’re done, which I thought was a cool thing of, to offset what you were saying was, oh, I feel like I’m, so, I wasn’t worried about it because yeah, I watched their message.

Their message was there. But then the cool part was I knew that they knew it was an expensive gift. And to offset what you were saying is they said, Hey listen, go ahead and give it to your kids, or donate it. Which is a cool idea to soften the expense thing cuz no one wants to feel like you’re, you’re being bought out.

Um, I’ve gotten a screaming goat. This is from Dana Dericks, and so of course he would send you a goat. But, uh, Steve Larson, he did a, a recent campaign. Um, his actually involved four different pieces of, see if I can find out what the first one was. Um, I actually, I’ll go to the last one. So this was about the capitalist pig.

Uh, that’s, this is his bank here. Oh, okay. [00:21:00] And so in his, uh, so with his letter, basically it said, Hey Dave, I know you’ve sent, uh, we sent you some random items so far. He sent an eraser, a whoopi cushion, a pumpkin seed, and a launch toy. But then it goes on to talk about it in the letter. And I think the one thing I’d, I’d really, and I’ve got, here’s the, the whoopee cushion, the erasers in this bag.

Wow. 

The most important part though, is if you’re going to send something, the key is to be able to tie your letter to the gift. And I think too often people send a gift and they think, oh, they got the gift. They understand what I’m trying to say. I’m like, no, no, no, no, no. The letter is more important than the gift.

Yes. And if you don’t understand that, then no matter how much you’re gonna spend on sending the gift, your first expense should actually be to the copywriter who’s gonna write the letter that’s gonna generate the success. So don’t send a, I mean, again, this was Dana Derek’s his tied in with the goat [00:22:00] really easily.

Oh man, that’s funny. All of Steve Larson’s tied in to that as well, and I think it’s important that you understand that the letter is more important than the gift, and don’t spend so much time on thinking about the gift that you don’t realize how important the letter is. 

Amanda: We do have a, a, a question that I think is a poignant one.

People are asking, what do you recommend as a follow up after they’ve sent the gift? Are there, are there typically a very ca clear call to action with the gift? Uh, or do you wait for that phone call or that direct message? 

Dave: Um, I’ve, we’ve done both. Um, I think the most important part is to understand what is the platform that the person prefers to communicate the most on these days.

Hmm. And I think like for right now, if you wanna get ahold of Russell on the phone, that is never gonna happen. I don’t care. I mean, you’re one in a million to get a phone call from Russell. I don’t get phone calls from Russell unless something’s someone’s dead. I mean, it just, we talked by boxer. I mean, it’s just how, but [00:23:00] realize it’s important for you to understand the, the platform that they’re on.

And so if a person is on Instagram, then DM them and make the, make the follow up easy for them. If they’re on Facebook, then send ’em a personal message. If they go through email, then go through email. Yeah. I can tell you one of the most important things, depending on where the person is in kind of their, their business hierarchy, you have to understand who the gatekeeper is, and you’ve got to make sure that you build that relationship.

That relationship with the gatekeeper is as important as the relationship is with the Dream 100. So for Melanie, who’s Russell’s assistant, that’s a critical, critical relationship. I can tell you that. Uh, everybody in our office, uh, it’s funny, we’ve had. You know, you’d have different people at times who were open at our front door, and anytime someone.

Uh, at first, uh, one of the, our receptionists thought, oh, I’ll go back and I’ll make sure I open all of Russell’s mail for him. That is like taboo. There’s nothing in the world that Russell likes more than being able, able to open his own [00:24:00] packages. So there’s really no gatekeeper for Russell when it comes to packages.

Melanie’s in a huge gatekeeper when it comes to letters or when it comes to phone calls or emails, so I think that the real key is to spend the amount of time that’s necessary. To really understand the relationship of who you’re trying to communicate with. Who’s their gatekeeper? What are the platforms they prefer to, to communicate on?

How, how do you best reach out in a way that’s, that’s not gonna be offensive or that’s not going to take them to a different platform that they’re, I mean, like right now, if you try to communicate with me on Twitter, I’m just not there. I’m on Instagram, I’m on Facebook, I’m on YouTube, I’m, I’m just not on Twitter.

Where others, that’s where they live. And so for me, if we’re doing a Dream 100 and that’s where they’re at, I will go to Twitter and build my relationship there on Twitter with them. 

Amanda: Mm. So when you’re sending the me the mails that you’ve done, um, I’ve been curious about how ClickFunnels plays into that.

Like, are you now saying, Hey, download this free download that I have and [00:25:00] that’s the call to action sometimes instead of just let’s schedule an appointment? 

Dave: Great question. Um, so. How much do we have? A few minutes. Are you okay, Thomas? Yeah. Okay. Let me see if I can, uh, where I got, here we go. All right. Show and tell time.

Okay, so this was the first box for Expert Secrets that was sent out. Okay.

And so in it. Let me see that. Yeah. Welcome to Click Funnel’s. Dream 100. We, we called him out real fast, um, picture of Russells. And then we talked about what this whole Dream 100 strategy was, because we’re actually, and it’s not just Dream 100, because in Expert Secrets we talk about Dream 100. So there was a context, there was a direct thing.

So I wouldn’t say, Hey, you’re on my Dream 100, cuz they’re not gonna know what that is. Um, so what we ended up doing here as far as the, the call to action. [00:26:00] Was, if you had any questions, uh, at this time is, uh, contact Dave Woodward. Here’s his email, here’s his Skype, here’s his cell, or contact our, our affiliate manager.

Here’s his email and there’s Skype. And so that was questions about it. And what they received was the, one of our Avenger toys. Nice. Because there’s context to this in the letter. Okay. Um, because they also received our first comic book that talked about, so that’s where the context was, was, hey, One of the things we love is the Avengers.

We love Marvel. We love a lot of the stuff that’s going on with that. And our affiliate contest was actually a huge custom Batman suit. And then in the book, the book, this is the first one they got, Russell talked about on his, it’s all blank. Right, and so the great thing about this was we had so many of our Dream 100 reach out saying, ma’am, I knew your book was coming.

As soon as I got the box, I literally talked to my assistant. I had her block out time for me to [00:27:00] read the book. I can’t tell you how mad I was when I opened it up and it was blank. So that’s when we knew we had the right message that it resonated with them because. He’d been ta and again, he’d been talking about his book on social media.

He’d been talking about his book everywhere. Yeah. And so this wasn’t a surprise to people as they got it. Um, the second one, second one was this white box.

And in this, so.

Our letter was much more in line with kind of a call to action. We talked about the funnel, we talked about what was gonna happen. Um, we actually gave them launch dates. Mm. So they saw the launch dates in the letter. Um, we then talked about the income they were gonna make out of it. Uh, we talked about it being a virtual book tour.

Wow. Which was engaging to their audience. So what we basically said on the virtual book tour was, Hey, you know what, Amanda? We’d love [00:28:00] to do a Facebook Live into your group. We actually will pay for all the ads and we will still give you the commission. So it was a win-win for them. And then we talked about the custom, uh, Batman suit that Russell had and, and what they were gonna get.

But we also tied to, in the letter, we tied in the fact that so many of you guys called and were so frustrated because you hadn’t been able to actually read the book. It’s cuz I hadn’t had it finished. What I have now finished though, are the first four chapters nice. And so they got a sneak peek. Of the first four chapters, and this went viral really fast.

Cause people were like, oh my gosh, how do you get the first four chapters? I wanna know. I wanna see it. And so we bound together the first four chapters when we sent that out. And then in the third one, this was tying back again to the, the Batman theme. Um, so we had a Batman nightlight Okay. That they could plug in.

We had, and the letter was the actual. [00:29:00] Armor suit that Russell had and the call to action was to actually was at the very top here. And in fact, I think it’s still open. You can go to expert secrets.com/batman. And so anyone who’s watching this, that that link’s still available. They can see how it worked.

We had the, the dates on the back, um, and again, we basically talked through what the entire funnel was, the costumes they could get, and then we put together their own. Little comic book of how it works. So, and this one was the first time where they actually got a proof. So this is the proof copy. And so we were building up a ton of anticipation, ton of excitement for it.

Uh, just wanna make sure they understood what was coming. And then the last one, and I’m always been a huge fan of sending these types of letters because Yep, they get, they get delivered and. In this one here, basically this is our final bribe, and it was basically $20. And [00:30:00] so we said for every book they gave way, we actually would end up sending them $20 flat fee.

It was a CPA type of an offer. And so, and again, every single one of these letters had either a link where they could go to or it had my contact information or our affiliate manager’s contact information or. Something like that. 

Amanda: Okay. That’s it. Oh, that was so good. Wait, so if it had a click or if it had a schedule with these people, what is a percentage that you were happy with knowing that you’ve converted from, uh, that kind of a mailer?

Dave: You know, I, this is gonna sound terrible. I really didn’t care. I know, um, this was much more about a relationship with these people for the long term. Um, it was more a matter of being able to tell a four piece story. To them of why it was exciting, why it was important? Uh, yeah, we definitely followed up with a ton of people on an ongoing basis trying to get them to promote, trying to get them involved.

But I can tell you we’ve gone again, that’s been now, gosh, [00:31:00] four years ago and since then, wow, we’ve still been able to go back and nurture a lot of those relationships. So people who didn’t promote, I, I’m not as concerned. It sounds really weird. I don’t look at ROI on that one. Mailer. As much as I am, what, how is the relationship I want to be able to be, again, when we can go back to live events.

I’d love to be a live event where a person comes up and says, Amanda, thank you so much for sending that book. I, it didn’t fit into my promotional schedule, but man, I love getting that sequence. How, what’s it? It’s now a topic of conversation and the long-term relationship is so much more important to me than the initial promotion.

Amanda: Hmm. Okay. Because a lot of the time, something that people say is, you know, when do I, when do I give up? How do I know if I’m doing it right? What is my response? So that we combat that question all the time, you know, um, with email rates, you know, you have different numbers that you feel comfortable with that you know you’re doing something right or wrong.

But with direct mail, I was [00:32:00] curious if you had anything where you’re like, oh, you know, if you’re hitting around 4%, that’s good, but you’re saying it’s just not even about that. 

Dave: No, I can, so I can tell you some of the big, so we look at our Dream 100, we, again, ours is now hundreds of people, and so we’ve broken it down into our ass, BS and Cs.

Mm. And I know our Cs are gonna just because they’re, they’re getting messaging from us, they’re gonna promote pretty well. Um, the BS are there as pretty good. Um, the, A’s are the ones that I’m really trying to, to work with overtime. And I can tell you that, uh, again, Tony Robbins is probably the most. The largest one that we’ve had the opportunity.

And it was a, a tenure relationship that Russell had been working on. And I think the key was he, so for us, the fact that we got that one, one big a player to promote that covered more than the expense of, of our entire campaign. And so I look at it as it’s not, I’m more, if I was, when I’m looking at it from a budget standpoint, um, yeah, [00:33:00] I look at we’re gonna pay out 40% commission.

On, on whatever we sell, uh, as far as that’s what our normal commissions are. And so I’ve told our team, I usually will take an additional 10%. So I’m, I’m willing to give up 50% to sell our product. So 40% in the commission, the other 10% is what I usually allocate towards, uh, dream 100 expenses. Mm. And so if I’m thinking we’re gonna do a million dollars, then I don’t have any problem sending a hundred grand.

To try to generate, generate sales? I would have the same. I would look at that no matter where I’m at. I think it’s a 10% cost of sales. I mean, that’s a pretty, that’s a real cheap cost. Um, I can tell you on, on some of the stuff we’re looking at now, uh, just because it’s a much longer, more long term nurturing type of thing, I, I more than willing to go to 20 or 25% just because I know that the value is gonna be there long term and depending on who the person is.

That budget almost becomes [00:34:00] limitless. I mean, it’s pretty, pretty crazy to see some of the stuff that we’ve spent just to nurture the relationship. 

Amanda: Yeah, I love it. You know, I didn’t even know about the Batman suit. I missed that whole bit. But my father, 

my father had a Batman suit. How many people really have a, and he would put the whole thing on and he would get all dressed up.

When I was a kid, I legitimately thought my father was Batman.

Dave: That’s a great thing to Thank you dad. I, I’m sure you appreciate that’s not, there’s not, I, I can tell you I can’t think of any dad who wouldn’t wanna be bating.

Amanda: He would climb up on the roof. I mean, he went to the nines. I’m telling you. And I know you can appreciate that cuz I’ve seen how you dress up on Christmas, which is awesome.

Well, can I just ask one final just to whatever it all together, 

so of all this time that you’ve been spending doing Dream 100 s, what’s something that you wish you had known back then that would’ve made it easier to where you are now? 

Dave: I think the, the main thing I, [00:35:00] looking back on it, um, I am so grateful for the relationships that I have in business.

If I thought I was gonna be able to have the relationships and hang out with the people that I have the opportunity who are now dear friends mm-hmm. Um, I would’ve started this when I was born. I mean, it’s just, um, for me, honestly, there’s, I, I have to pinch myself at times, uh, just to even think of the people I have the opportunity who are.

I are now friends. I mean, it’s not, and I think that’s the, I look at the Dream 100 is, yeah, I would love to do business with them, but for me the most important thing is the friendship and that relationship because they may never promote, but that friendship and who they might refer or connect me to or anything else far outweighs any expense I would ever spend on it.

And so for me, I think I would’ve just started earlier and I would’ve been much more consistent in the follow up. 

Amanda: [00:36:00] MM. Fortune’s in the follow up. I love it. We’re covering that on Facebook Live on Monday. Fortune in the follow. Thank you so much, Dave. This has been my pleasure, ma. I mean, I can’t even believe you came with all of those gifts too.

Those are definitely making it in the new edition of the Ultimate Sales Machine. For sure. Thank you. I mean, 

they were just priceless. They’re so good. 

Dave: My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.

Make sure to get your copy or copies at the ultimate sales machine. com. There’s a lot of special bonuses that you can’t get going to Amazon. So make sure you check it out at ultimate sales machine.