Build A Business That Attracts Customers in 2024 ft. Neel Dhingra | #TheDept Ep.12

Neil Dingra’s Journey

I did this coaching and this other business as a passion project, you know, it wasn’t even my main thing, and then as it grew, it just kind of like started to blow up. Teaching on the Internet is the best way to help people, and then all of a sudden all this cool stuff starts happening to you because you’re helping other people. I wish I would have started what I’m doing now sooner. I was in the business for 15 years before I started posting video, 15 years of no social presence, no internet presence, and then just decided to start.

Marketing Strategy

What was kind of like your first marketing strategy or content marketing strategy, like at a bare minimum, you’re like, okay, that I can do. So all I did was welcome to the department where we have conversations with people who are killing it in their department. Today’s department is the community department. I have the luxury, I would say the favor to call this person a friend, and I would say one of the biggest voices in my entrepreneurial journey, especially in this last year as I’ve stepped out and offered myself as a coach and consultant to other people.

Introduction of Neil Dingra

People, and I have with me Neil Dingra, who is a content creator, a loan officer who actually educates other people in real estate on how to market themselves and get themselves in front of people. But ultimately, I’ve loved seeing Neil build his community, these raving fans, legit, that I’ve just wanted to essentially give him money. And he’s been able to build a multiple seven-fig business, never really selling hard, never really acting thirsty. And honestly, I just appreciate your friendship, and I’m so excited that you’re on the department. Welcome, Neil Dingra.

Acknowledgment and Podcast Success

Thank you, bro, and it’s dope to be on the podcast that’s blowing up right now. Yeah, this is cool. Like you don’t give yourself enough credit for how you launched this podcast. That was huge, bro. Thanks, dude. I appreciate it, and you’ve always been just the one, uh, one. I’ve always known that like when, when I thought about it’s time to start a podcast, there’s, there was like 10 names, and you were one of those top 10 names.

Building Raving Fans

So this is honestly a conversation I’ve been dying to get recorded, captured because seeing what you’ve done even from when I first met you. I think the first time we met met was May of 2012, yeah, at Girl with Video Live. But before that, I saw that you were doing stuff, you know, speaking at Ryan’s event, and I just want to kind of jump into the journey, not too far back, but kind of like how have you been able to build, I would say, raving fans, you know, people that just know who you are not only in your industry but also in the digital marketing space.

Building Trust and Serving

Yeah, when you talk about people who launch consulting events, courses, masterminds, all these types of products, and you say people are like fans willing to give you money, I think it starts with like building Community first, but then also them being able to trust that you know, this is a good person who’s going to help me like this is going to work for me. So I think like that’s the first part that people, you know, they’ll be like why is this person able to sell so much more than this person? It’s because you come from a place of service.

Passion Project

It wasn’t about the product or sale or the money; it was about like really just helping people. So that’s my first thing is like I did this coaching and this other business as a passion project just side side hustle sort of, you know, it wasn’t even my main thing, and then as it grew, it just kind of like started to blow up. So it was kind of by accident, and I think like a lot of people will get stuck on that, like, they’re trying to grow and get so many sales that it’s like that’s the thing preventing you from getting sales; you know you want it to be more natural and organic, especially like when you start pitching your programs and things; it shouldn’t be like a struggle.

Transition to Content Creation

So I waited a long time before I did that. So just going back kind of like in the recent most, I guess applicable history for the listeners, it would be like okay, I was doing my job, my regular day-to-day job, which is a grind of just trying to help people buy real estate, help them with financing, loan officer, right. And then I started to want it, you know, get, I was just stuck and burnt out in that business trying to figure out like what do I do next? How do I grow my business? I’m at a ceiling; I don’t really like the traditional way of doing business. How can I grow this? So all I did was start putting out videos, like cringe videos on the internet and start posting on social.

Building a Presence on Social Media

the whole way like that’s when you know it’s really bad. So, uh, that’s where I was at for like a year, just doing that. This is 2018. Prior to that, I didn’t even have an account on social. So, like, that was when I first started. And then, in 2019, I saw my business, Forex, from just putting myself out there with mediocre or some bad videos because of how few people take this seriously and not do it consistently.

Clarification on “Forex”

So, when you say your business Forex, you mean like your loans, yeah?

Core Business and Digital Marketing

So, my main core business, which is trying to get more clients every day that want financing for mortgages and buying real estate, that business Forex. And so, that was like, “Oh, maybe I’m on to something,” and just kept doing it and kept doing it more. And so, you know, I think back to like Gary Vee. He said this at some point. He was like, “Man, you should be able to make more money doing the thing than teaching how to do the thing.” So, like, I did that first and foremost, just doing digital marketing to grow my business, content marketing by accident, and then got good at it somehow after a couple of years. As I was doing this, I had another big year, another big year, then the market got really busy, and I was able to capture a ton of business.

Excuses and Marketing Skills

A lot of people will tell you, too, by the way, afterwards, I noticed this. People come up with excuses as to why someone is successful, so that way they don’t have to look at why they’re not successful. So, they’ll tell me like, “Yo, Neil, you did all that business during those years because interest rates were low, the real estate market was on fire. You make millions of dollars a year because of that.” And I’m like, “Well, why don’t you?” Like, if it was just about the conditions of the market, like, why doesn’t everybody make millions of dollars when things are good? It’s because they don’t know how to market themselves, they don’t have the megaphone. You know what I mean?

Leveraging Communication and Marketing Skills

So, um, I was in a position to be lucky. Yes, the market was great. ’21, ’22, I made a ridiculous amount of money, but I was like a good communicator at the time. I was doing events, I was doing content. So, like, um, getting good at these things, like, gives you more business during those times. So, uh, those years I had a lot of great business and continue to do it even in, like, a down year like we’re in right now. We’re still relatively busy because of the marketing.

Teaching and Launching Programs

So, along the way, people would reach out and be like, “Hey, Neil, could you jump on a call? Could you teach us what you’re doing? Could you come speak at our event?” So, just by accident, I started to, like, teach, and then from there, I was able to launch programs and events. I think I

Please note that this transcription continues from the previous section and includes all words and phrases exactly as they are spoken in the video, including filler words, repetitions, and pauses.

Importance of Preparation

I think the principle that you get from that kind of story is the preparation, you know, and you don’t know you’re preparing a lot of the times because the thing comes when it comes. And you said that, like, we’re kind of stepping into a more slower season, but this is the opportunity that presents itself to now start getting those bad videos out of the way. If somebody’s just now getting into it, prepare yourself for when the market turns around. It doesn’t matter what, honestly, what industry you’re in. The temperament of what’s going right now, it’s almost affording the ability to just start messy, start putting out content, and get people knowing. All people need to do is know that you do the thing that you say you do, yeah.

The Journey of Preparation

And we talk about this a lot where you might have even second-guessed yourself. “I wish I would have started what I’m doing now sooner.” But I didn’t realize it, but all those years where, like, I was doing work and not making that much money and kind of struggling, that led me to where I was at with the content stuff and really getting into it, going all in. And then that led me to this and led me to education eventually and speaking. So, like, I think like all those things kind of just are on your journey of like this is how you get there. So, yeah, I wish I would have done content in 2015 instead of 2018, but maybe it wouldn’t have even freaking worked because I wasn’t all in, you know, like I wasn’t in the right spot. So, um, I don’t want people to think like, “Oh, you know what, dude, I’m too old or I waited too long.” Like I was in the business for 15 years before I started posting video, right? 15 years of no social presence, internet presence, and then just decided to start.

Overcoming Fear of Starting

Learning the business now, you could speak the language to the people you’re trying to help, yeah. So like nobody’s like counted out from just not doing it, yeah. No. And I love that, you know, you were saying how you built the trust, you know, like that’s why people want to work with people, and trust comes from showing up consistently. I would wonder, like, what was kind of like your first marketing strategy or content marketing strategy? Like at a bare minimum, you’re like, okay, that I can do.

Starting with Educational Content

So, for the main business, for mortgages, like, I would put out videos that would teach, like, a concept. So what are the problems your clients have? How do you solve them? What are the struggles they face? Like, how do you overcome those? So that was literally the video of like, okay, make a list of those things. Each one is a video. And then it became like, okay, how do I make a better video? How do you start that video with a good hook that gets people in? How do you make it look better, right? How do you show up better? Then now it’s like, how do you make it better for this platform? So then all the technical stuff comes in. But in the beginning, it’s like, is this a topic that people would be interested in? And a lot of people think it’s boring. They think, uh, a lot of people say no for the audience. I noticed they’re like, “Yo, that nobody’s going to be into that.” Some of my stuff that’s done the best has been the stuff that’s, to me, would be boring, yeah, but it was basic. Like, it’s information they need. So I think most people who have been doing anything for a period of time, a long period of time, you take for granted what you do. Like, the other person does that once in many years, or maybe this is their first time ever doing that thing. So if you can educate people on the stuff that you even just do daily, it would help.

Getting People to Raise Their Hand

So I started doing that and then getting a lot more business from it, but just from inbound, you know, people asking questions. And then what I learned along the way is, um, a lot of times, you know, people reach out to you, they’d be like, “Yo, been watching your videos, would love to work with you.” That’s great when it happens. I like screenshot it every time. But there’s a way bigger group of people who will never ever reach out to you. They’ll watch all your videos, they won’t even like them, they just watch them, like, stingy with hitting the heart button. You know how many of us have typed out a comment and erased it because we don’t want to look stupid? So that’s the general public. They just don’t want to put themselves out there, they’re not creators, so they’re watching all your stuff, and they’ll never reach out until you prompt them. What I learned was how do you get people to raise their hand? So I’ve talked a lot about this recently, is like the best marketers in the world are looking for Signal, not sales. You know, like everyone’s looking for, “Hey, let me know when you’re ready to buy a house.” I was just looking for the signal of, like, are you interested? It’s like you, a step right in the middle. So there’s a journey of starting from scratch to buying something. Most times, people are looking.

Adding Value and Leverage

for the customer to make that entire journey on their own and you could just be transactional and get the bag at the end. What about if you added a step in the middle like a webinar just to answer your questions, like an eBook, like DM me, and I’ll be happy to answer or like whatever. So once I figured that part out, it was like, “Okay, I’ve got it now. People are reaching out. I’m getting a lot of leads from online.” That’s really good. I call it silent engagement. Yeah, it’s just because I’m even—I mean, most guys actually don’t engage. Women are very talkative, they leave more comments on posts than guys do generally speaking. But that’s very encouraging for people who feel like they’re getting no engagement. The people that do follow you, they see your stuff, and this is why I think quality is important and that over you showing up consistently delivering valuable content, you know, people—it wins them to watch the next one. Every piece of content you upload, you’re convincing them to watch the next one. And just showing up consistently is big on that.

Leveraging a Stable Income

I do love, like, I feel like we share similar things in the sense that when you started putting yourself out there to build your personal brand, you had something paying the bills, yeah, and that allowed you to not seem desperate. That’s true, yeah, that is huge, you had leverage. I think a lot of people have leverage because you actually have a job that maybe affords you the ability to use the weekends or, you know, when you’re off hours or during your lunch to create the stuff. But if you operate from a place of understanding you have the leverage to do so, you’re being—it almost is like you’re starting out being paid to actually learn, yeah. And so, if you ever feel, this is kind of interesting, but if anybody has ever felt in a rut, burnt out, stuck, like the best way to get out of that is to help somebody else. And so, like, if you serve somebody else, all of a sudden, you now are starting to grow, and you’re starting to get some good going for you. So what I found out accidentally was teaching on the Internet is the best way to help people, and then all of a sudden, all this cool stuff starts happening to you because you’re helping other people. It’s crazy. So it’s like, dude, how many people are just feeling stuck in a job or stuck in their business, and you have so much knowledge to share if you would just put it out there, even if it sucks at first, you would get so much from that. So I think teaching has been the biggest thing in terms of leading to business opportunity, like helping other people understand something, they trust you, they want to work with you. But asking for the business was the key part. Like I went through a long period of time where I never did any calls to action because I read Gary Vee said somewhere, “Don’t ever sell,” and like, you know, how many jabs you have to throw before you can throw a hook? I’m like, on my 97th jab, is it okay if I throw a hook right now? So what I found out was like if you can make it about serving people, even when you do ask for business, you get so many leads. So all these people who you talked about silent engagement, those people when you give them an offer will reach out, especially if it’s free. So like, “Hey, I’m hosting a free webinar on Thursday to answer your questions and to go over some great opportunities I see in the market.” People will show up, like, but they’ve been watching your video, and then they’ll come on there, like, “I love your content.” I’m like, “Why haven’t you hit the heart button? I’ve never seen you in a comment ever, and you say you love my content.” So they’ve been there the whole time. That’s really good. I love that.

Learning from Gary Vee

So you said Gary Vee is one of those voices. Who would you say, like, early on you, like, whose model did you see and you’re like, “Dude, I feel like I can do that”?

Finding a Sweet Spot

So I like Gary Vee’s standpoint of, like, he was saying content, content, content, like, put it out there. I was lucky enough to, like, he was at an event in 2019 speaking, and I got a podcast with him there. So he, like, sat down with me. It was supposed to be 15 minutes, we ended up doing an hour podcast. It’s on my YouTube channel now. And he just kind of went deep on, like, all the things I could be doing, and I asked him, like, “Hey, I’m in this kind of boring industry, what should I do?” And he gave me a ton of ideas for, like, broadening the appeal of my content. So like, how do you take boring topics and give them broad appeal? You know, if you’re in a niche, like, how do you get more people outside of that niche to watch the videos? And so for me, that was Financial Fitness, like, ways to save money, make money, or avoid mistakes and things like that. Everybody’s interested in that. So I just started learning that from him. And then also, guys, when I was coming up, there’s this dude who helped me as a coach later, Billy Jean, but he was all on the other side, all sales. So like, I was like on this side, all marketing, this is all ads and sales. And then I found my sweet spot in the middle. That’s cool.

Building an Education Business

And like you built your education coaching consulting business with no paid ads, yeah. So we’ve done—it’s been, this will be three years as of January. So coming up beginning of 2024 will be my third year of doing it. And I think

Achieving Organic Success

We’ve done 75 million in sales top line without one single ad, dude. So it’s all organic. I can only imagine what’ll happen when we start doing ads, but, um, and I will have to at some point, like, we have to start doing it because you only have so much reach organically. Mass market, yeah. But, uh, it’s been cool to see, like, you don’t have to, like, if you build an audience first, you could launch your product fully organic, no ads. That’s literally what I did, and we made, I think, 110k on the first launch, yeah.

Authenticity and Communication

And you gave me so much game just on a 10-minute phone call right before I was about to tee off, yeah, yeah. And, uh, you were just like, “Hey, how’s it going?” I was like, “Dude, it’s going. I guess some people are interested.” And you’re like, “Hey, start using the word ‘founder.’ People want to be a part of something new.” And something I’ve learned over time getting to know you is that you’re very intentional with word choice. And I know we always talk about the art of communication and all these things. Like, I know—I think the question I have is, how have you discovered even just being growing in your communication? Because people, dude, when you get on a stage, people do what you say, yeah. And what’s crazy is, you know, everybody loves that you’re a—you backwards hat, speaking at a professional business event, super chill. You know, everybody knows when you’re excited, but a lot of people wouldn’t know when you’re excited, yeah. It’s kind of weird. Like, uh, I’m just more laid-back, whatever, dry sense of humor. So a lot of things people, like, everybody says to themselves, “I have these kind of defects,” or, you know, “I have like me personally, I’m an introvert, I’m a nerd, I have ADD,” all these things are actually my greatest strength, right? Like, if you think about—you had to flip adversity to advantage.

So everything that you think sucks, like, people would connect with you if you just would be yourself. So something happens, I think when you’re doing videos, you’re trying to appease the audience, you’re trying to be like somebody else, you’re wondering what are they thinking of me, and then something clicks. I don’t know how long it is into it. For me, it was like maybe 8 months in or something, where now I can just be myself, like, you know, I don’t have to, like, try and be somebody else. Like, I’m comfortable, good. And then when you’re that, I think that’s when it really connects with the audience.

Prior to that, I see people go through it. You can kind of see where they’re at on the path. They’re like trying to be this person. I’m like, that’s not you. Eventually, they either quit or they become authentic, one of the two, because the audience sniffs you out eventually. It just doesn’t work. You can only pretend for so long. So, um, once I started being myself, then I was like, got super comfortable just, you know, speaking more and talking and teaching more just as myself. I don’t have to be super energetic, loud, jump around. Like, I could just be me. And then what I found out was, um, with speaking in particular, I used to just get super dry mouth and super nervous, like, and I couldn’t, uh, I couldn’t communicate properly because I was so, like, just the nerves would get to me. And what I found out is nobody’s, like, stuck with that issue. It’s just reps. So it’s like, literally, I hate fitness analogies because everyone does them, but it’s literally just like, you go to the gym in the beginning, you can’t push any weight. You do it more, and now you can do more. Like, you get stronger, right? So this is literally the same thing I found with videos and speaking and communication. More reps, you just get super comfortable with it, and then now it just clicks, yeah.

Hosting Events and Communication

And you texted me last week, you spoke at an event in Detroit, yeah, like 400 people. Prior to that, you spoke at an event, and you’re like, “Man, that event wasn’t that good,” based on, like, the, you know, response. Um, and then you just came into the studio, and you started talking about what was different about that. Can you talk through kind of—

Leveraging Events and Brand Recognition

Yeah, different. When people, uh, when you do a lot more speaking, first of all, like, communication from stage, webinar, whatever, that’s led to the most growth for me. You know, a lot of our customers have come from webinars and events. And I just want—I do want to say, you don’t have to speak on stages. No, you can create your own stages. Correct, i.e., webinars, yes, or in-person workshops, whatever, my own event, because, like, dude, you are trying to be you. If you host events, it just grows your brand so much quicker, because you’re the host of the party. You meet speakers, right? You connect with them, like, you build actual connections with people. You can leverage that. Like, people love it when you put on a great event, because it impacts so many lives. And then also, just even if you just hosted the event and barely spoke at it, but you were just the host, yeah, you would still get a ton of brand recognition for that. So I would encourage people. Dan Fleischman told me.

Micro Events and Value Delivery

Yeah, different. When people, uh, when you do a lot more speaking, first of all, like, communication from stage, webinar, whatever, that’s led to the most growth for me. You know, a lot of our customers have come from webinars and events. And I just want—I do want to say, you don’t have to speak on stages. No, you can create your own stages. Correct, i.e., webinars, yes, or in-person workshops, whatever, my own event, because, like, dude, you are trying to be you. If you host events, it just grows your brand so much quicker, because you’re the host of the party. You meet speakers, right? You connect with them, like, you build actual connections with people. You can leverage that. Like, people love it when you put on a great event, because it impacts so many lives. And then also, just even if you just hosted the event and barely spoke at it, but you were just the host, yeah, you would still get a ton of brand recognition for that. So I would encourage people. Dan Fleischman told me this years ago, he’s like, “Dude, just do micro events.” So I would do like 20, 30 people events, and then it started growing, then 70 people, then 100, and so on and so forth. Now we do a thousand. But in the beginning, it was just like, “How do I get 15 people to show up here, and what are we going to teach them?” And that’s how it got going. But yeah, for speaking, it took me like a couple of years to get comfortable with it. It wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t great. And so, um, as you’re growing, I found out the best way to get past that phase is just to give a ton of value in your talk. Like, tactical things, because a lot of times, people try and become like an inspirational speaker. Very few people can do that effectively. Like, you can’t get up and be Ed Mylett and make people cry and get inspired. Like, if you’re new, it’s going to be difficult. But what you can do is if you give really good tactics, that makes up for all the—you know, because they’re like, “Oh, dude, you’re dropping—I’ve got to write this down. Like, this is going to help me get business.” Cool, so people love that. That’s how I got through it. Then as you get going, now you figure out, “Oh, if I tweak this, more people pay attention, they take action. Like, now they—it’s more impactful for them. They actually feel it.” So here’s what I found out, um, if you can start a talk with a bold beginning, people—it just goes so much better. So if you start weak, you’re kind of screwed. So we’ve all had this time where we were called on to speak in a group, hey, they welcome you up, and you don’t quite know what to say to start. You know what you’re going to be doing, maybe you have some slides, but you don’t know that first line or two. If you don’t, that just screws up your whole thing because now you’re starting off an easy—maybe something weird, that’s what happens to me sometimes. Is I’m not as prepared for that first walkout. So, uh, when I’ve done that great, the talk goes way better. When you do—when you mess that up, you’re—you’re handicapped. Like, you’ve lost half the room sometimes because they just—people are very quick to judge you. It’s like, um, when a reel pops up in your feed, you’re like, “Am I going to watch this or keep scrolling?” I think they do the same thing on some level with speakers, 100%. They just like, they size you up, like, “This dude’s I should pay attention, or I’m just going to start looking at my phone or mentally check out,” yeah. So, uh, that was the first thing I learned. Second thing was start with an “Al.”

Bold Beginnings in Speaking

Yeah, different. When people, uh, when you do a lot more speaking, first of all, like, communication from stage, webinar, whatever, that’s led to the most growth for me. You know, a lot of our customers have come from webinars and events. And I just want—I do want to say, you don’t have to speak on stages. No, you can create your own stages. Correct, i.e., webinars, yes, or in-person workshops, whatever, my own event, because, like, dude, you are trying to be you. If you host events, it just grows your brand so much quicker, because you’re the host of the party. You meet speakers, right? You connect with them, like, you build actual connections with people. You can leverage that. Like, people love it when you put on a great event, because it impacts so many lives. And then also, just even if you just hosted the event and barely spoke at it, but you were just the host, yeah, you would still get a ton of brand recognition for that. So I would encourage people. Dan Fleischman told me this years ago, he’s like, “Dude, just do micro events.” So I would do like 20, 30 people events, and then it started growing, then 70 people, then 100, and so on and so forth. Now we do a thousand. But in the beginning, it was just like, “How do I get 15 people to show up here, and what are we going to teach them?” And that’s how it got going. But yeah, for speaking, it took me like a couple of years to get comfortable with it. It wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t great. And so, um, as you’re growing, I found out the best way to get past that phase is just to give a ton of value in your talk. Like, tactical things, because a lot of times, people try and become like an inspirational speaker. Very few people can do that effectively. Like, you can’t get up and be Ed Mylett and make people cry and get inspired. Like, if you’re new, it’s going to be difficult. But what you can do is if you give really good tactics, that makes up for all the—you know, because they’re like, “Oh, dude, you’re dropping—I’ve got to write this down. Like, this is going to help me get business.” Cool, so people love that. That’s how I got through it. Then as you get going, now you figure out, “Oh, if I tweak this, more people pay attention, they take action. Like, now they—it’s more impactful for them. They actually feel it.” So here’s what I found out, um, if you can start a talk with a bold beginning, people—it just goes so much better. So if you start weak, you’re kind of screwed. So we’ve all had this time where we were called on to speak in a group, hey, they welcome you up, and you don’t quite know what to say to start. You know what you’re going to be doing, maybe you have some slides, but you don’t know that first line or two. If you don’t, that just screws up your whole thing because now you’re starting off an easy—maybe something weird, that’s what happens to me sometimes. Is I’m not as prepared for that first walkout. So, uh, when I’ve done that great, the talk goes way better. When you do—when you mess that up, you’re—you’re handicapped. Like, you’ve lost half the room sometimes because they just—people are very quick to judge you. It’s like, um, when a reel pops up in your feed, you’re like, “Am I going to watch this or keep scrolling?” I think they do the same thing on some level with speakers, 100%. They just like, they size you up, like, “This dude’s I should pay attention, or I’m just going to start looking at my phone or mentally check out,” yeah. So, uh, that was the first thing I learned. Second thing was start with an “Al.” So, first thing

Bold Beginning and Roadmap

Speaker: Number two was like, uh, teach people, uh, let them know what’s going to happen before you start teaching. So give them like a road map. So in today’s talk, I’m going to be going over like one, two, and three. I’m going to show you guys this thing, and it’s going to do this for you, and make sure they understand how important it is. I think it’s good that you say what the benefit will be if you listen to this. Yes, the benefit will be this. It kind of gives people another reason to listen. Yeah. So it’s like a bold beginning. A bold beginning could be a one-liner; it could be a story. You know, if you’re good, you can get good at storytelling. That’s amazing. Like I noticed, um, Irwin, who’s really good at this, he was just on your podcast, like he spoke at our event, I’ve seen him speak a few times. He starts with an amazing story every talk, like, you know, that’s the beginning. He doesn’t introduce himself. The first word out of his mouth is like setting up the story. Why? And then it captures you in, and it always comes back around to his talk. So like obviously, you don’t want to tell a story that’s completely unrelated. You want to be able to close that circle. Yeah. So starting with the story or bold beginning, then letting people know what you’re going to be teaching them today and how it benefits them so that they pay attention. Um, I do this a lot. I don’t know if you noticed. I’ll ask for a call back from the audience. Like, would that be interesting to you guys? Are you with me? Is this helping you guys? And just try and get interaction because if you look at the learning pyramid, lecture learning from a lecture is the hardest place to learn. It’s where people, uh, have the most trouble. That’s why we hate school, you know, it’s just sitting, getting a lecture is probably the worst environment to learn. Isn’t that crazy? Because it’s like the environment gets the blame, but it really goes down to the format gets to blame, but it really, if when the teacher is charismatic or when the teacher is good at teaching, that’s your favorite class. It’s still a lecture. So that’s why it really, like, it just really shows the power of communication. 100%. So that’s the deck is stacked against you because the format is tough. It’s not like the demonstration, learning together, learning by doing, those are way higher up on the learning pyramid. But the worst part of the pyramid is like sitting in a lecture. Okay, so deck stacked against you. How do you make it good? So then like you’re grabbing people’s attention, you’re telling them what’s going to happen, and then throughout the talk, if you have a story, personal stories, and you definitely have to do this by the end, I found is you have to have tap into some emotion. So like, what’s the struggle you’re helping people overcome, you know, like maybe you overcame it and you could talk about that, but talk about some sort of struggle so that the audience gets emotional. So one of the things I talk about in my talks is like, hey, before we even get into this, I want to show you my proudest, uh, my biggest achievement in life, and I show a picture of my family, and every time I get a little emotional about it because I’m like, you know, this is why I do what I do. And so I’ve had a period in my career where I wasn’t putting my family first, and I got kind of lost in chasing money and success, and I almost lost my family. And so like I talk about that, people start crying in the audience because they’re in that moment right now, and you save them. And it’s like, hey, so I know this talk is about marketing, but if you haven’t been putting your family first, and you haven’t got this priority down, like fix that first because I could give you all the tactics, we could do all this crushing business, you’re just not going to be able to do anything if your home life is not good. So fix that first.

Emotional Connection and Struggles

Next thing is when I was going through it, I was like, man, there’s been times when I was so burnt out in this business, and I would lose business to somebody else, and it’d be pissed me off because that person was less qualified than me. You know, this person was, you know, this, and I was like, I wasn’t getting the respect I thought I deserved. But I figured out, you know, the it’s not about what you know; it’s about who knows you, like how are you known? And that’s when things changed for me. So that’s.

Emotional Connection and Formulating an Offer

Speaker: another moment for somebody in the audience of like, yeah, you know, like I’m in that moment right now. And so you want to like talk about your journey and maybe tap into that emotion because that’s what you’re speaking to the former you. You’re trying to help the former you if you’ve had a transformation. So I would say like my biggest asset in marketing has been my own personal transformation. Like I’m I but I have made, and I can help you do the same. And then people see that and so into tion was one thing, and then so when you do this, you and everybody’s comfortable in the room, if you start really well, they’re just comfortable to laugh at your jokes, to ask questions.

You’ve asked for interaction throughout the talk. It’s just a way more comfortable room. So they make your talk becomes super memorable. Yeah, people remember you. And then if you are going to offer something at the end of your talk, like a chance to join your program or buy something from your product, um, they’re just way more likely to take action and work with you. So that’s the part, like I had done this talk, went really well. It’s no coincidence that I had a really high closing rate at the end. A lot of people joined my program.

Like because the talk was good, you know, dude, it’s everything about that is just, it’s the principles apply in so many different sectors. And you know, uh, I, I was taught that when you’re the one teaching, it’s your job to essentially teach people what it’s like to learn from you, yeah. So like, you know, when I teach, you know, you do talk back, you know, like some people, it’s one-way communication, and um, it’s, it’s just some insight, but you know, no one, no one’s teaching you how to learn, yeah.

So when you become the person on stage, like number one, the stage provides its level of there’s already a level of perceived prestige, I guess you could say. But when you let people know that when when I talk, you know, you talk back, not not in a mean way, but just like, do you guys want to level up in life, say yes, you know, you’re you’re teaching them how to learn from you, which is building their kind of like trust too, like because it’s like, dang, I like the way this, I like the way I learn when this guy is teaching, yeah.

But just taking being in it, it really comes down to intentionality and again using human nature, um, like telling people to take down the notes, you know, like when you say like, hey, when you write it down, it sticks with you. And and even tell them what to write down and tell them what to respond. This is something you should screenshot, yeah. Raise your hand if you’ve ever done this and you raise your hand and people raise their hand, right? And then um, this is, I would definitely write this one down or screenshot it and then people do it, you know, and then they start to like, you start to get in this kind of like connection with the audience. And so, uh, this is easier live; it’s tougher on Zoom, I noticed, like people.

So on Zoom, the way I do it on a webinar is like, let me know in the chat if this is helping you guys, let me know in the chat, yep. Um, and in the beginning, making sure you get people talking in the chat in the Zoom, so like where you guys all from, drop it in the chat, um, you know, and getting people so somebody told me this recently, I had a webinar on, uh, that I did on Zoom, and we had like 800 people there, and one of the guys, he always comes to all my webinars, even though, like some of the stuff is like repeated, he’s always there. I’m like, bro, why do you coming? He’s like, I come for the chat. And he’s in the chat.

There was people like making jokes, talking, and that’s the vibe you want. Like if you ever been on a one where nobody says anything, all the screens are off, the camera’s off, the chat is dead, that webinar is dead, yeah, like nobody’s, I mean, people may be passively listening, but they’re probably doing something else. It’s funny how you say that there’s like a phrase, you know, in the church, it’s called a quiet church is a dead church, yes, and it’s kind of like the same concept. Same thing, bro, like, you know, I was, I got to check out your guys’ church here in Vegas. People are always talking back. The dudes around me are like, they’re saying something, even if it’s not, it’s not rude to say something, right? And they’re cheering and they’re laughing and they’re crying, and like that’s, that’s, that’s when you know, like in the right room, right? So that can be done virtually as well. That’s really good. It’s important on on Zoom, dude, so many gems, like, so you’re putting out content at what point did you feel, did you start doing like one-on-one calls, and you realize that like people are asking the same question, I need to put together a program, like how did you formulate what I was like, I got to come up with my offer, like what is it going to be. And so, uh, I was, I again, you said you reached out to people in your network; that’s what I did. I was like, man, I’m really good at this. I’m not good at this business; I don’t know anything about it. Uh, so I connected with Billy Jean, who is good at that, right? And he was like, let’s come up with a program that you could offer your audience where you could help them with content.

Pricing and Selling on Instagram

Speaker: thing right so, uh, that was great, and then I got to continue doing that over and over. Now, when I say 50,000 doesn’t mean you net 50,000, but still that’s the gross, probably, you know, uh, it could be 40% of that could be profit just depending on how you structure it. Um, and you know, I didn’t care about necessarily like you said, I had my main business, so I didn’t care that this business was going to make a lot of money. I just wanted to get it going, yep.

So I started doing that, then after a while, there were a ton of people who I noticed. The way we would do this is people would reach out, we’d decide if they’re a good fit, like I would do a call with them, and I personally did all the calls, so I talked to way more than 10 people because a lot of people wasn’t a good fit. I talked to each person, and then if it was a good fit both them and for us, we would go forward, and they would pay. I talked to a ton of people who didn’t want to travel out to the studio, so like it was always in the back of my mind, I’m talking to all these people who don’t want to come out. What if there was a program where we taught online?

So I was like, I like courses, but the thing I don’t like about courses is they become old, like the information becomes outdated, and what if you need some advice along the way? So courses are commoditized, once you buy the information, it just drops in value, and there’s so many free courses, there’s so much free information that like, it’s on its own, a course I don’t think is that valuable, um, there are certain ones that are, but for the most part, it’s very tough, yeah. So I was like, what can, what is not commoditized, what is not just another course, coach plus coaching, y, so what if I add in calls, what if there’s a community aspect to it, and you’re part of a community where you can get, uh, meet people and do business together.

So I made a program online, Neil’s Content Accelerator, which is like a course plus coaching plus community calls, and then also as part of that, uh, the course updates, so we provide like new scripts and new content because the, uh, social, as you know, social is always changing, right, like what we’re teaching now is totally different than six months ago, right? So, anyways, like that program ended up blowing up, and we have thousands of students now. So cool. And I’ll put a link to it down in the description or in the show notes, but yeah, you, um, it’s called Forward. It’s the brand that you, like, landed on, yeah, like what made you land on calling it Forward?

So I was literally just sitting, uh, with Trevor at the office one day, and I was like, I’m gonna put on an event, like, so I’ve been doing micro-classes for people in real estate, mortgage, and then I was like, I’m going to do an actual bigger event, where I’m going to hire speakers to come in, and we’re going to do it, like, kind of, uh, get a hundred people, it’s going to be amazing. So what are we going to call it? Like, it can’t just be Neil’s event, like, it’s got to be something. So I started to look at, like, you know, um, what am I trying to do with people, and kind of one of the, one of the ideas was, I really want to move people forward, like, they’re stuck, I want to move them forward, just simple. And turns out, I was looking at domains on GoDaddy, and ForwardEvent.com was available. Fire.com, like, normally it’s not available, like, so I just typed it in and just bought it right then, that domain. So then, um, that was, like, the basis, Forward Event, Forward Mastermind, Forward Content, whatever, like, so that’s just the main brand, yeah, and, uh, ended up getting a trademark for some of it, some of it I’m still in the pending process of getting, but like, yeah, I just accidentally bought the domain, and then that just became the brand. Dude, I love that. I love that you just, how much people are waiting for their logo or waiting for the perfect name, and you just called things as they were.

Now it’s Neil’s content day, bro, just come through, like, it’s Neil’s content accelerator, if you’re trying to get the domain, design the logo, build the site, do all the, you’re just putting off the thing, right? So what I found is, like, uh, new entrepreneurs, and this wasn’t like my first rodeo because I’ve been in business, but new entrepreneurs are focused on all these things, the website, the domain, the design, everything being dialed in, the social content, everything. Seasoned entrepreneurs are focused on one thing, getting customers. Like, that’s all I wanted, it was like, if I can get 10 people to come, this is a real program, yeah, there was no website, bro, like, it was a janky one-page, like, free GoDaddy site. It’s embarrassing, like, I didn’t even have a CRM for this, like, so I think it’s just, what is it, avoidance of the thing, you’re just kicking the can down the road, like, subconsciously, you’re just delaying what you should be doing, yeah, and nobody cares about the website because you don’t have any traffic, you know what I mean, like, it’s the same thing,

Opportunity

They’re waiting for the opportunity to work with you, y they’re just waiting for it. So, uh, that was great, and then I got to continue doing that over and over.

Now when I say 50,000, doesn’t mean you net 50,000, but still that’s the gross, probably, you know, uh, it could be 40% of that could be Profit just depending on how you structure it, um, and you know, I didn’t care about necessarily like you said I had my main business, so I didn’t care that this business was going to make a lot of money. I just wanted to get it going, yep. So I started doing that, then after a while there was a ton of people who I noticed the way we would do this is people would reach out, we’d decide if they’re a good fit, like I would do a call with them, and I personally did all the calls.

So I talked to way more than 10 people because a lot of people wasn’t a good fit. I talked to each person, and then if it was a good fit both them and for us, we would go forward, and they would pay. I talked to a ton of people who didn’t want to travel out to the studio. So like it was always in the back of my mind, I’m talking to all these people who don’t want to come out. What if there was a program where we taught online? So I was like, I like courses, but the thing I don’t like about courses is they become old, like the information becomes outdated, and what if you need some advice along the way? So courses are commoditized. Once you buy the information, it just drops in value. And there’s so much free courses, there’s so much free information that, like, it’s on its own. A course, I don’t think is that valuable, um, there are certain ones that are, but for the most part, it’s very tough, yeah. So I was like, what can, what is not commoditized, what is not just another course, coach course plus coaching, y, so what if I add in calls? What if there’s a community aspect to it, and you’re part of a community where you can get, uh, meet people and do business together? So I made a program online, Neil’s content accelerator, which is like a course plus coaching plus Community calls, and then also as part of that, uh, the course updates.

So we provide like new scripts and new content because the, uh, social as you know, social is always changing, right? Like what we’re teaching now is totally different than six months ago, right? So anyways, like that program ended up blowing up, and we have thousands of students now. So cool, and I’ll put a link to it down in the description or in the show notes, but yeah, you, um, it’s called forward, it’s the brand that you like landed on, yeah, like what made you land on calling it forward?

Naming the Brand

So I was literally just sitting, uh, with Trevor at the office one day, and I was like, I’m gonna put on an event, like, so I’ve been doing micro classes for people in real estate, mortgage, and then I was like, I’m going to do an actual bigger event where I’m going to hire speakers to come in and we’re going to do it, like, kind of, uh, get a 100 people, it’s going to be amazing. So what are we going to call it? Like, it can’t just be Neil’s event, like, it’s got to be something. So I started to look at like, you know, um, what am I trying to do with people? And kind of one of the ideas was I really want to move people forward, like they’re stuck. I want to move them forward, just simple. And turns out I was looking at domains on GoDaddy and forward event ev.com was available. Fire.com like normally it’s not available, like, so I just typed it in and just bought it right then that domain. So then, um, that was like the basis, forward event, forward Mastermind, forward content, whatever, like, so that’s just the main brand, yeah, and, uh, ended up getting a trademark for some of it, some of it I’m still in the pending process of getting, but like, yeah, I just accidentally bought the domain, and then that just became the brand.

Experience Matters

Like my first rodeo because I’d been in business, but new entrepreneurs are focused on all these things: the website, the domain, the design, everything being dialed in, the social content, everything. Seasoned entrepreneurs are focused on one thing: getting customers. That’s all I wanted. It was like if I can get 10 people to come, this is a real program. Yeah, there was no website, bro. Like it was a janky one-page, like a free GoDaddy site. It’s embarrassing. Like I didn’t even have a CRM for this. I think it’s just avoidance of the thing; you’re just kicking the can down the road, like subconsciously you’re just delaying what you should be doing. And nobody cares about the website because you don’t have any traffic, you know what I mean? It’s the same thing with content; you start putting out videos they suck, good news, nobody watches it, so you’re good, bro. You don’t have to worry, like, “Oh, what are they gonna say?” Nobody saw it, so you’re good. Dude, love it.

The Core Offer

And, um, so you’ve been doing this program. It’s kind of like the, I would say, your core offer is now this, you know, NCA, yeah. So we did NCA, which is like content group online. I was doing the content workshops. I started to do less of those because of how much labor’s involved, and the cost can quickly get out of control with the in-person events. So you don’t really make as much, but I love the impact of in-person, so getting those people in the room. But once you pay for feeding everybody and hotels and staff and all that, like, the margin goes down, so it’s not the most profitable business. But I noticed I’ve made lifelong connections with people in person, so I love doing that. Online just scales, like, so that’s where money’s at. Obviously, if you want to scale a business, you gotta do it online. So I have both those offerings. I don’t do the in-person one as much. Then, um, I decided to do the event. We did the first one in 2021. Uh, we had 100 or 75 people. It was like kind of exclusive because during COVID, you couldn’t do big events.

Expanding to Bigger Events

So my buddy Brad Lee, uh, who I met through social, he offered a program one day on social on his Instagram, and I just bought it. So then I became his friend by just paying him 10 grand, basically. Like, a lot of people ask how do you connect with big people, big entrepreneurs, or influencers? Just buy their program, dude. It’s so good. It’s like the easiest thing. They just pay them, right? And it’s not that they only talk to people who pay them; it’s that they’re just busy, and they talk to their customers. If you’re a customer or supporter of their programs, even if it’s a lower ticket, you probably can get them on the phone or get them to talk to you, right? So buy their stuff. Anyways, I bought stuff, he becomes a friend of mine, and then he has this training facility here in Vegas. So I got to host my first event there. Because you couldn’t host events, so we did it kind of illegal underground, whatever. Uh, so we did the event there, and then the next year, I’m like, I’m going to go big. How big? Well, we’re going to get a big venue and try and sell, you know, a thousand tickets or whatever it was, I think 700 tickets to this event. And so we ended up moving it to Resorts World for 2022. And, uh, it was really difficult. That’s crazy that was your second time. Yeah, that was the second me and Heather went. Yeah, and that did not feel like a second-year event. Yeah, so that I just luckily had a network of people who had been doing events, and I just asked them for.

Seeking Help and Marketing Strategy

for the like two-month period I just sent DMs every day. I couldn’t sleep without getting more people to buy tickets, so I just became obsessed with filling that room. I must have sent thousands of personal DMs, not like spamming with some mass ManyChat thing. I actually sent voice memos. “Hey John, hey Susan, would really love you to be there. Your friend so-and-so is going to be there too, and I think you should be there because of this. Let me know if you’re interested, and I can hook you up.” And then I would, they would let me know they’re interested, and then I would close.

So don’t just send them a link and hope that they buy. Ask them to DM you. Connect with them personally and invite them. That’s what I learned. I was like, I gotta fill this room. And so we did. We filled the room. We ended up getting, I think, 700 people to show up.

The Budget Challenge

And again, back to the budget, I was like, “I’m going to spend 200 grand.” It ended up costing me half a million dollars. Okay, after all is said and done, because every bill comes in, more, you know? And if you want to feed people, it’s ridiculous. Just the hotels, you know how it is. So getting the venue, the AV team, you know AV can cost you 50 to 100K if you want to do it correctly. So all these costs just keep rising. I’m on the hook for all this. So I’m like, I’m writing the checks, but I’ve only sold like $70,000 in tickets. Yeah, and those are the first biggest supporters, like your true fans. Like whatever that was for me, they say you have a thousand true fans. Apparently, I didn’t because they weren’t willing to buy the ticket. So I was like, dude, they weren’t buying the tickets. All of a sudden, um, I flipped the script. And, uh, Pan actually taught me this. So again, I reached out to Pan. How did I meet Pan? I bought a coaching call with him. Like, he was offering at the time a couple thousand, you could do a coaching call. He was doing better on YouTube than me and all these things. I was like, let me just meet this dude.

Getting Personal with Potential Attendees

Yeah, and the thing I said, he’s like, “What are you working on right now?” I’m trying to launch an event. He’s like, “How are you closing tickets?” He’s like, “I send them to this page.” He’s like, “Stop doing that. You’re wasting your time. Nobody’s buying. Get them in your DMs. Ask them to DM you, and then now you can follow up.” And so what he told me and what my mentors told me is like people kick the can down the road with buying a ticket to an event. It’s not that they don’t want to go, it’s just that, why should I get the ticket now? The event is three months from now. But for you, you’re in a position because you’re like, I need to sell tickets now to pay, yeah, because I need to make this thing real. I can’t wait till the end. It’s too risky. So what happens is people kick the can down the road, and then they don’t go. It’s not that they don’t want to go.

So you got to move them to action. So how do you do that? You know, he’s like, “Well, get them to DM you, get them on the phone, and actually close the sales.” And then also, you should be hitting up people and personally inviting them. So I would reach out to you on Instagram, “Hey Omar, would love to have you at this event.” So what I did was for the like two-month period, I just sent DMs every day. I couldn’t sleep without getting more people to get tickets. So I just got obsessed with filling that room. I must have sent thousands of personal DMs, not like spamming with some mass ManyChat thing. I actually sent voice memos. “Hey John, hey Susan, would really love you to be there. Your friend so-and-so is going to be there too, and I think you should be there because of this. Let me know if you’re interested, and I can hook you up.” And then I would, they would let me know they’re interested, and then I would close.

The Importance of Feeling

my whole goal with the event is like to change someone’s life. I’m not doing the event for the heck of it; I’m trying to make an impact. So if I’m going to make an impact, you said earlier, be intentional. How do you want people to feel? Okay, well, you can do things to make them feel better.

Like how do you welcome them? What are we doing? So it’s as simple as, like, I have a small team, but, like, meeting together and letting them know, like, hey, people flew across the country to be with us today. Like, they spent time and money, and their lives could be changed. It sounds cheesy, but it’s true. They tell me afterward every time. And so I can’t do this alone. You guys are part of the journey for them. You don’t understand how every smile counts, every interaction counts because they feel better. You ever have, like, one bad interaction with a staff member? Ruins your whole experience. That’s it. Like, somebody was rude to you at the check-in counter, like, it just sucks. So everybody’s on board with this experience. Like, the client experience is so important. So we started doing that. And then, do brief afterwards, asking, like, where could we get better? What worked? What didn’t work? So then the next one’s better. And just so on and so forth.

Yeah, dude, so cool. And I just, I love how you honestly attract really good people. Like, just the people that work for you, the contractors, you know, help that you have. They’re always just so aligned with kind of the way you operate, I think because you operate with integrity and you do what you say you’re going to do, and you give them the autonomy to, like, crush it in their lane, like, don’t micromanage them. Like, you give them the tools they need, you give them the responsibility, and they rise to the occasion every single time.

Building a Team with Integrity

Yeah, and you’ve got to hire the right people. So, like, everyone on my team is remote. I’m in Vegas. I don’t have, like, an office here. So I don’t even know what my team looks like in person, but they’re good people. And I told them, like, “Hey, the only thing I ask of you guys is be good people. Don’t take advantage of me, don’t take advantage of the situation. Be a good person, and we can keep working together. I’ll take care of you. I’ll make sure you have a good life. Like, I’ll take care of my people.” But, like, I’m not micromanaging them. Like, I’m not calling them every day like, “Hey, where’s this? Where’s that?” Like, you do the job. And I told them when we first got started, like, “I’m not going to be a micromanager, but if you drop the ball, like, you’re gone.” Right? And I’m not, I’m a good guy, I’m a nice guy, but, like, if you drop the ball, like, you’re gone, and we’re going to find somebody else who can do the job. So, like, you’ve got to be on your game, but if you are, like, I’m a good person, like, I’ll take care of you. Like, you’ll have a good life. You don’t have to worry about anything. So it’s all about, like, just don’t be a scumbag, you know what I mean? Like, be a good person, like, we can get along, we can do some good things together. It’s all about, like, not being a dick, you know?

Attracting the Right People

Yeah, and I think, like, I attract good people because I put out good energy. Like, I’m a good person. I don’t try to screw people over. Like, I don’t, like, I don’t know, like, if you’re not a good person, you don’t even, like, vibe with me. Like, you just, you don’t, you don’t fit in my world because I don’t even, like, I don’t even, like, like, acknowledge you. You know what I mean? Like, I don’t even, like, see you. So if you’re a good person, you’re going to fit in with me, and we’re going to get along, and we’re going to do great things together. So, yeah, like, that’s, that’s how I build a team. Like, I just, I hire good people. I’m like, “Are you a good person? Are you competent? Can you do the job? Okay, let’s do it. Like, let’s get to work.”

Finding Fulfillment in Impact

Yeah, and I think you said it perfectly. Like, there’s something about fulfillment that money can’t buy, right? And I’ve experienced that too, like, money is great, but there’s a certain point where it doesn’t bring you that extra level of fulfillment. And what brings that fulfillment is the impact you have on other people’s lives, right? And when you hear those stories of how something you did or something you created changed someone’s life or helped them in a significant way, like, that’s priceless. Like, you can’t put a value on that. And I think that’s what keeps us going, right? Like, that’s what keeps us pushing forward and wanting to do more because it’s not just about the money. It’s about the impact, it’s about the legacy, it’s about leaving something behind that’s meaningful. And yeah, it’s a journey. Like, I’m still on that journey, too, trying to figure out, you know, what is my purpose? What am I meant to do? And I think it evolves over time. Like, it’s not always the same thing, but you kind of have to go with that flow and follow that path and see where it leads you.

Trusting the Process

Yeah, absolutely. And I think one thing that I’ve learned along the way is to trust the process, right? Like, you may not always know where you’re going, but as long as you keep moving forward and you keep following that feeling of fulfillment, you’ll end up where you’re meant to be. And sometimes it takes time, right? It’s not always an overnight thing. It’s not always, you know, you wake up one day and you’re like, “Oh, I know exactly what I’m meant to do.” It’s a journey, it’s a process, and you have to trust that process and keep moving forward.

The Journey of Entrepreneurship

Yeah, dude, absolutely. And I think, like, that’s what entrepreneurship is all about, right? It’s a journey, it’s a process, it’s not always easy, but it’s worth it. And I think, you know, for anyone who’s listening to this and maybe they’re on their own journey, just know that it’s okay to not have all the answers right now. It’s okay to not know exactly where you’re going, but as long as you keep moving forward, as long as you keep taking action, as long as you keep following that feeling of fulfillment and impact, you’ll get there eventually. It’s just a matter of time.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think one thing that I’ve learned along the way is to trust the process, right? Like, you may not always know where you’re going, but as long as you keep moving forward and you keep following that feeling of fulfillment, you’ll end up where you’re meant to be. And sometimes it takes time, right? It’s not always an overnight thing. It’s not always, you know, you wake up one day and you’re like, “Oh, I know exactly what I’m meant to do.” It’s a journey, it’s a process, and you have to trust that process and keep moving forward.

Attracting Quality People

In this part of the conversation, the speaker discusses how being authentic and true to oneself can help attract quality people into one’s life and network.

“Yeah, I think like it’s cool to see when you’re just being yourself, really helping people, people around you notice that, and then that becomes your ability to attract more quality people, 100%. Because they’re telling other people, like, ‘Dude, you should work with this person,’ and then when you need somebody new, you can just ask, and somebody in the network knows somebody, and then they’re talking great things. So it’s like a two-way street there, like, you recruiting and building a team. I’m just early on that still, but I found that like the better things you’re doing, more people want to be a part of it. Like, people don’t just want a job; they want to be a part of something, yep.”

Energy and Passion

The speaker discusses the importance of passion and energy in sustaining long hours of work during events, comparing it to the dedication of gamers and their energy levels.

“And so we have like staff will cry at the event and really buy in. And I was thinking this the other day, I was like, ‘How is it that you can get people to work, like, you know, during these big events that’ll be like 12-hour days, and they’ll do it day after day after day and still be at the night thing excited and laughing and having fun?’ And like if it was a regular job, you’d be burnt out so early on, like you wouldn’t be able to do that. You just can’t put in that work. Why is it that, you know, when you’re in video games, like kids gamers can stay up for two days without food? Like they eat a bag of Doritos, bro, and they’ll be up for two days straight playing games. Like if you were in a lecture or something, you’d fall asleep. Like you can’t do that. So it’s like the energy they’re getting from this whole thing is so important, and the feeling that they have by helping other people. So like tapping more people into that has been the key for me. That’s what I want to lean into, yeah, dude, it’s freaking fire.”

On Owning a Lamborghini

The speaker briefly discusses their experience with owning a Lamborghini and the internal struggle they had before making the purchase.

“Just to speak on it since we’re here, and you talk about, you know, the money doesn’t fulfill, bro, you got a Lambo, yeah? Is that, uh, is it hype or is it actually… It’s dope, man. It’s pretty. I love it. So I got that in 2020. So I’ve always liked nice cars. I had like a G wagon or a freaking um Model X Tesla and just like always had nice cars. But what I noticed, like, I wanted to get an exotic car, right? But I thought, what are people going to say, you know? Like if you buy a Lambo or Ferrari or something like they’re going to think you’re, who the do you think you are, bro, like you’re driving around in this? So I was like didn’t want to pull the trigger, and my wife was actually telling me, she’s like, ‘Neil, you work really hard. If you want it, just buy it.’ I was like, ‘Shout out to Whitney, yeah.’ There you go, like, all right, fine, like, I got the green light. And so during Co unintended, yeah, that’s right. So that during Co, um, car prices initially dropped a little bit, so, like, the dealmaker in me was like, ‘Dude, I found a Urus, and uh, I didn’t get a loan like…'”

Purchasing the Lamborghini Urus

In this part of the conversation, the speaker talks about their decision to buy a Lamborghini Urus and the financial aspects of the purchase.

“Somebody the other day asked, ‘What’s the payment on a Urus?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know. Here’s the title, like, I just bought it. I don’t know, maybe it’s a couple grand, I don’t know.’ But, uh, I just ended up, um, sending, you know, making a deal. It’s a $200,000 car, what’s cool. What I also learned about this is, you know, Lamborghinis can cost up to $400, $500,000. If you bought a two or $300,000 one, nobody, like, you still get treated as if you bought the $500,000 one, you know what I mean? Like they think it could be 400 grand. Really, it was two. I think they’re 300 now. But so there’s this moment, bro, where I was like, I agreed to buy it, they sent me the paperwork, and then I start to wire the money, $200,000 for a vehicle. But you just paid it for it, yeah, in full. And so I was like, I was sitting there with the instruction of the page, and you just have to enter, and I was like, ‘Dude, should I really send this money to buy a Lambo? It’s so, like, am I going to be that guy, like, it’s so dumb.’ But I really wanted it, and I knew it was a dope car, so I just, like, finally said, ‘Enter, send it, it go now.’ Then the car comes, and, uh, I’ve loved it ever since, like, I’ve had it for three years.”

Benefits of Owning a Lamborghini

The speaker discusses the benefits of owning a Lamborghini, including how it can be a conversation starter and change how people perceive and treat you.

“What’s cool about it is it also has made me a ton of money because what’s happened is it’s just a conversation starter. It’s not fair, but people treat you better. You pull up in a Lambo, people just treat you better. They think you could be worth way more than you are. I don’t know why they think that ’cause I could just be leasing it, right? So I don’t think it’s fair.

But I’ll tell you what, like, so many people give me the time of day because of that, right? So I’ve leveraged it for sure. No, and I think there’s the principle number one that, like, a lot of people think people are blowing their money on this stuff. But like your car has appreciated in value, yeah, like similar to, you know, the watch game, people think that buying up watches is, like, this terrible way of investing your money, but there’s so many, you know, cool benefits from not only getting something that you worked hard for, that part of it, um, getting something that either, you know, maintains its value or grows in its value, but also, yeah, just helps you get treated better. Like, you can have a golf membership, and when you say you have a golf membership, people think something about you, but you could suck at golf, yeah. And it’s not about being fake. Um, I think it’s just, again, human nature, perception is reality. So like the perceived value of a person who drives a Lamborghini, you could be a POS. Like, I’m not, but, like, you could be. But so what happens is it’s up to you to blow that, but if you already get a leg up on other things, so you get the imitation, people treat you better.”

Investment and Pressure

The speaker discusses the idea that making significant purchases, like a Lamborghini, can put pressure on an individual, which can lead to them working harder. They also touch on the concept of using such purchases as a form of investment.

“I remember pulling up to the clubhouse where we live at in my community, a guy I was trying to do business with for the past decade who always blew me off, he came up and just started talking to me. I’m like, ‘Bro, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you, man. You want to talk to me now.’ So it, like, flips the script on everybody, so, uh, that’s an investment. The other part is, like, I, um, I don’t know, like, if somebody was like, ‘Dude, I can’t really afford it, but I’m just going to, like, take a leap of faith and do it,’ I still would tell him, like, go for it, you know? Because also putting some pressure on your shoulders makes you work harder.

So I could be in that position, but for me, I could have bought, you know, multiple in cash, so to me, it wasn’t like a bad financial decision ’cause I could afford it, so I just bought it. It’s made me well more than what, uh, I paid for it, and then also it’s, um, it’s gone up in value by accident. I think like a lot of exotic things have appreciated over time because they’re just rare, right? So it’s to me it’s like a place to park money. Yeah, it’s not really like a waste of money. So good. And I, I mean, it’s kind of like why I’m trying to get on, like, the health tip because it’s it, you don’t have to open up your mouth, you just, if you look like you’re put together and that you take care of your, it’s immediate, this person’s disciplined, um, this person cares about their health. Not then there’s just a small percentage of people.

When you start thinking this way that even what you teach in the video department is like, people treat you better if your videos look better, right? Like, what is the, why do we spend so much time making it look good and sound good? Because you get bigger impact. So it’s important for sure.”

Financial Mistakes and Short-Term Thinking

The speaker reflects on a significant financial mistake they made in the past, which was focusing on short-term gains and getting caught up in quick returns, leading to losses.

“And then as far as like a mistake, have you made a big financial mistake ever in your life? Yeah, like, um, thinking short-term. So one of the things I fell into and, and, uh, maybe people can relate to this is, like, trying to get a quick return, you know, like, long-term investing is where it’s at. Like, it’s almost boring, but that’s where you need to do, like, you should take your risks in business, not with the money you worked so hard for in business, and now you put it into something that could go to zero, you know? So I learned about investing, and I got, I learned about all these, um, trading short-term trading opportunities like stocks and options but not to hold for long-term but just like get a quick profit and go. Quickly turns into gambling essentially, you know, because you’re trying to get that quick return.

And so I ended up losing like hundreds of thousands of dollars on something that was like, you know, just dumb, yeah. So it just taught me like, hey, where do I want to put my time? Like, not in that, you know? I should put my time and risk in business. Then when you make money, take the risk off, like, put it into just something for the long term. I’ll gamble on the event, like, I don’t need to be gambling with the money I made, you know, from freaking working all day, you know what I mean? Like, let’s do something else. So, uh, there’s time for risk and not. So that’s what I learned from that whole thing.”

Closing Remarks

The conversation concludes with a discussion of their respective journeys and gratitude for their friendship and shared entrepreneurial experiences.

“Dude, so good. If you want to check out NCA, Neil’s Content Accelerator, check out the link in the show notes. Do it. Appreciate you. I appreciate your friendship and even all the things you have spoken into my entrepreneurial journey, and I’m just excited for our future. 100%. Thanks for having me, bro.”