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Nuggets From The Note Media Summit
What Is Your WHAT?: Discover The One Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do
It’s been a busy week we had. We had quite a few guests on the show. I’m always focused on sticking into my lane. Don’t worry about what other people are doing. I’ve never had that mentality. I’m always like, “You’re not walking in my shoes.” I went to the New Media Summit, it’s an interesting way to learn about an event. Steve Olsher who runs the Beyond Eight Figures podcast, Reinvention Radio and the author of the book, What is your WHAT which I highly recommend you to read, reached out to me when I was in Vegas for Note Boardroom coaching event. He asked me if I would be interested in going to this event in Icons of Influence. I’m like, “What’s an Icons of Influence?” He sent me a link. It took place here in Austin, which is nice. I looked into it and I said, “Yes, sure.” You don’t call it a podcast event although it is a podcast event. I was like, “If it’s in my hometown, I’ll be back in Austin. Why not? Let’s go to it.” I agreed and I was out in Orlando. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off getting stuff done. I settled in a hotel and showed up. I didn’t know what to expect. It was probably 200 people at it.
I knew there were about 40 or 50 other Icons of Influence. I was still trying to figure out what an icon is. Steve said it’s somebody who’s an icon in their niche or their podcast, somebody who’s made a name for themselves. That qualifies me for it a little bit considering the fact that I was uninvited from a large real estate investment club in Orlando, which is funny. They want a guru there. It was a great time. Steve ran this event that’s a little bit different than most events. It’s one of the better events if you’re a podcaster, especially if you’re a brand-new podcaster to go to or looking to get booked on podcasts. That’s one of the things you can guarantee you’ll get booked on a podcast by being there. One of the most unique things he does is he rotates the icons, 40 or 50 of us that were icons there. All have been podcasting for a while. Some have millions of downloads, some have a very smaller niche but they’ve been doing it consistently for a while. The big word there is consistency. Steve had our icons get up on stage eight at a time on the chairs, like an American Idol thing. The people that were there as attendees had to pitch to us either their show or to get their podcast trying booked on shows. It was interesting hearing all these pitches.
The first day, it was unique. I liked the way he did it. I picked up some things that we’re going to do in the next Note Mastermind. That’s one of the things that I have learned and take nuggets away. Over three days between content and some speakers and Steve sharing some stuff and do some coaching, he had all 150 members and attendees get up and pitch. If they wanted to pitch, they did it with a live stream at the event. He opened it up for everybody and people had to pitch in front of the camera from the bright lights. When they finished their pitch, they had two minutes total to re-pitch, pitch and feedback. If you took longer than two minutes, he will pull the hook on you. Some people rattle along. One of the greatest things I took away from that while listening to the pitches is you need to know what you’re talking about. You need to know what your thing is. You need to have your elevator pitch down, which I think a lot of us in the real estate investors, you’ve got to have your pitch down.
Marketing And Knowing Your Pitch
It was great hanging out with so many interesting people and honestly, I was in the minority. I’ve been to a lot of conferences, put on events and three-day things. Steve goes, “I’m sorry. You may not book a lot.” I said, “It’s okay. I can always learn from other podcasters. I was learning nuggets and tips.” One of the most overwhelming things though across the board is people don’t know how to market themselves. I’m not bashing anybody. A lot of people struggle with telling what their what is, they’re telling what exactly they’re focused on. There were some people giving pitches that would rattle this way to that. They have this long story as we like to joke, they were on a NASCAR circle. Their story was taking a lot of left turns. Some people had their pitch down, which is great. They finished up in a minute as they were giving their pitch.
If the icons liked the show idea or what they’re talking about, the icon could turn around in their chair and book. Those icons that were on stage will give feedback, “We like this or we didn’t like this.” Sometimes not any of the icons turned around because it just wasn’t a fit. I remember we’re rotating in the rest of the three days. I turned around a little bit because there are some people that had some real estate stuff or they have some investing things that we can incorporate into our podcast, the Note Closer’s Show or the Note Night in America or into our Note Mastermind group or even Note CAMP.
Content
What’s funny is you probably figured out, I’m a comedian sometimes and joking around stuff like that. Then I got up there in day two as us, icons, are leaving because they were going to turn the tables, we’re going to make the icons pitch. We didn’t have to pitch because we’re already there. Sure enough, I had made a few comments on my panel when I was on stage and said, “Scott, you’re going to go first.” They started laughing. The funny thing is I had been preparing. I saw the people pitch. I was like, “I might have to pitch. I don’t know. I haven’t pitched in a while.” I prepped a little bit with what I would say and I still didn’t have it down. I was stuttering by myself in my room and I wasn’t feeling good. I could feel the cold starting to come on but when we end at 7:00, I went up to my room, order room service and tried to get some vitamin C.
The thing I learned the most about it is it’s great to know your pitch. When I got up and pitched, I got two or three different things I was going to talk about and do my pitch. I had the energy. I rolled right into it and at 49 seconds, my pitch is done. A lot of people liked it. I killed it. I’ve been doing my pitch for so long in a variety of ways, so I summed it up and provided an energy and enjoyed it. That was one of the biggest things that people said they love, my energy throughout the three days. The energy was great at this place. If you’re looking for an event, I would definitely check it out. The next one’s in February in Orlando. The most overwhelming thing is there are so many different people there and there was a lot of life coaches out there. There are some woo-woo at the event. Don’t be woo-woo at the event. More importantly, there were a lot of great people who are going out and doing some great things. I feel like I’ve added a family outside of the note family that we’ve got.
New Media Summit: It is great to know your pitch.
Stay In Your Lane
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Podfest Expo in Orlando. Chris Krimitsos runs that. It’s a great family-style event. Podcast Movement put on by Jared Easley in Philadelphia was a great event as well too. It’s a little bit bigger but not quite as intimate. This event in Austin, the New Media Summit, was definitely very intimate. Everybody’s at round tables, changing tables every three hours. I made a lot of good friends. It was nice seeing a lot of stuff. The biggest thing I can tell you that I saw a lot of people struggle with is their pitch. Steve did a great job beforehand with pre-coaching, with webinars to everybody that was coming before the event started. That’s one of the biggest nuggets I took away as well is the fact that all the coaching that he did beforehand, that’s something I could do a little better off. That was a big nugget. Even though I didn’t get a chance to make a lot of it, I did take and watch the replays and go from there. That’s one thing I took away more so than anything else is you’ve got to stay in your lane.
That was one of the things that I saw from those that struggled at the New Media Summit where people that are trying to do too many things into one segment, “I’m this, this and this. I’m going to try to tell you everything about it and then you can book it from there.” I don’t think that’s effective. You’ve got to know your market. You’ve got to know where you’re going, know who you’re talking to and hone your story or hone your pitch for wherever you’re going at. I always like to tell real estate investors, “If you’re Jack-of-all-trades, you’re a master of none for the most part.” Everybody would agree to that. You have to know what you’re doing and know who you are. Are we doing some great things with the podcast? Yes, great things on it. Am I a podcaster? Yes. Am I an entrepreneur? Yes. Am I a note investor? Yes, note investing is what I am and what I will always be. I’ll always be the note guy with things and stuff like that. That’s what I’ve cut my teeth on. That’s what helped built my image.
You can learn a lot from other people that are doing similar things. One of the biggest things I noticed, as we were at these roundtables with people and other podcasters is a lot of people don’t know how to market. They have an idea or they have something that they’re good at but they don’t have a clue how to market and get their word out. You could have the best lifesaving skill but if you don’t know how to get the word out to your tribe, to your audience, to your clients or your potential customers, you’re going to struggle. There were quite a few people doing that who are entrepreneur-based. Several people had entrepreneur shows and they enjoyed it. Some people are podcast-focused on stuff and there’s a very growing market for podcasters and people to help podcasters get things out. Steve is one of the better people to learn from on that. He’s done some other stuff with podcasting over the last twelve years. I enjoyed some of his insight into where he thinks the market is going and what’s available out there for all of us.
For those that are starting something or at something, if you are going to be self-employed or be a business owner, one thing you’ve got to keep in mind is that you are your own media company. I don’t care what you’re selling, whether you’re buying and selling notes or you’re buying and selling cars or you’re selling services or you’re a life coach or you’re a woo-woo coach, whatever it is. You’re your own HBO, you’re your own Turner networks, you’re your own ABC, NBC, CBS. Unfortunately, most people are treated like they’re PBS. They’re doing it on a shoestring budget. They’re trying the bare minimum to try to get that. That’s where a lot of people struggle with. They’re trying to get the maximum exposure at a bare minimum. I don’t think that’s an effective tool.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand being bootstrapped. I understand marketing with bootstraps. There are a lot of great things you can do with marketing that are very cheap. It just takes time and building those things on a consistent basis to get that. As I’ve traveled, everybody keeps coming up saying, “You are killing it. You are doing a great job. You are all over the place.” What a lot of people don’t realize is we are doing a lot of stuff, but we’re also recycling. We’re re-purposing a lot of the stuff that we do on a daily basis. This podcast gets re-purposed into a blog. We re-purpose videos on YouTube. It’s being re-purposed across 50 different networks. We’re uploading the videos to give across Roku, Apple TV and a whole variety of different channels for us to have world domination.
Meet-up Groups
The thing I want you to realize is that you are all your own media company. You have to keep that in mind as you grow. Starting out, what are some of the great things that you can do to start to get your word out on what you’re doing? Facebook Lives, Facebook posts. Social media is an easy thing to do. As you grow, what’s the next facet? A lot of people want to start talking or speaking a little bit more, so there are different things to do. You either get booked on podcasts or you start your own Meetup group. Then there are some people on here who attend Meetup groups on a regular basis. Attending in a Meetup group is a whole lot different than hosting your own Meetup group. When you’re hosting or running a Meetup group, you have to give it a good six to twelve months before you finalize where you’re at. Meetup groups, if they’re once a month or once a week, there’s a big difference. Once a month, you have to market more. If it’s once a week, it’s easier to market more but it takes more of your time out of the month. I found a local Meetup group here for podcasters going to learn the traits that help us hone our skills and polish what we’re doing here to help us in the long run with growth.
The thing that you’ve got to keep in mind is you still have to market. You’ve got to market those specific events or the specific times, these groups or these calls. You have to get those out there on a regular basis. The biggest thing is you’ve got to set it, schedule it and you’ve got to be committed to that. You’ve got to be committed to getting your stuff out on a consistent basis. By consistent, I mean at least once a month or once a week at least. My question to my clients first is, where is your audience and then go there. If you’re a real estate or note investor, where is your audience? Is it the real estate investment Meetup groups? Is it conferences? I found a very valuable asset of what we have done over the last two years is leveraging the power of LinkedIn to go with there for clients. You go there for investors. I had an investor contact me off of LinkedIn and put some serious money with us on some things. We’re feeling it out and talking back and forth, it raised the point where is your audience, and then go there. Instead of trying to be a jack-of-all-trades in every social media site or every social media platform. Figure out what’s the best use of your time.
New Media Summit: You’ve got to be committed to getting your stuff out on a consistent basis.
I’ll be the first one to say we have an Instagram profile for the podcast and I have my own Instagram profile, but I don’t get a lot out of it for us when it comes to real estate stuff. It’s still a younger demographic thing with the photos. The biggest bang for the buck is the video or webinars, LinkedIn, email blasts and networking events. We’ll go up to Dallas or San Antonio for the Propelio Meetup group or meeting. We’re networking with 900 people at an event or 500 people in an event or I’m the emcee at an event. Consistency is getting the word out to your audience. It’s getting the word out on a regular basis of what you’re doing. Figure out where you’re at and layer it with what you’re best at, what you’re best at getting your pitch up, what you’re best at getting your two minutes, your 30 seconds and a lot of cases, ten to fifteen seconds to make an impact.
Biggest Nuggets
I’ve been doing this a little bit where I go speak, I dress a little bit differently. I’m pretty laid back. I’m not a big suit guy for the most part. I did put a suit on for the wedding as I was the officiant for it and I looked pretty sharp. The thing I want to get the most is I walked in with my bright green vest on, jeans, boots, white dress shirt, cufflinks and my bright green shirt to stand out from the audience because I did want to make an impact. People are not going to miss me as a big guy like that. My blue vest on the second day, my black vest on the third day and then on the fourth day, which is the most valuable to me, was the Mastermind day on a Friday and hanging out with a bunch of other people. There were 40 of us on a Mastermind day where we’ve got to spend some time, get a chance to hang out and network with a little more of the icons more on one on one basis and talking about each other’s business, biggest nuggets from the event. Things that we’re looking for to help with, that was the most valuable thing.
I stand out in the audience and then we’ve got an intimate group. It’s normal Scott talking with everybody and that’s why spending time at events like that and masterminding with other people that speak your language, they may speak a different dialect. All the 40 of us that were at the Mastermind group are all podcasters. We’ve all been doing it for a while. We all got a great following, great niches. We know our pitch, we know our audience but it’s still something great to learn from everybody as our businesses evolve, as their podcasts changes. I know a lot of people go through that. I know a lot of investors and entrepreneurs, we get busy working and burning the candle at both ends sometimes between one thing we’re doing and the other thing we’re doing, we often get worn out. I just hit that wall with this cold I got being so busy with everything going on the note business and also the marketing stuff.
I am excited to take some of the nuggets I learned, some of the tips and the tools from this event to help me make a bigger impact and get the word out. I won’t say add new things, juice up what we’re doing currently here. I thank Steve Olsher for putting on an event and inviting me to the event. I became a big fan of his and what he does. I definitely made some good friends with 40 plus people at the event, which is good to see that everybody’s doing a little bit something different, but able to come together and help each other out. It’s one of the great nuggets of the event. Many podcasters, many people get booked, but a lot of people coming together to coach each other and to help each other out give tips and tidbits on their business and things that are good at or struggling at to help others overcome those issues too.
The biggest thing I can tell you, and I know I’ve had this conversation with a few of you before and it’s going to see some older people here, know what you’re focused on and stick to that focus. If you’re trying to do two things, three things, four things, five things, you’re not going to find success as fast. You’re going to burn out. It’s unfortunate that you will send a mixed message and turn people away. What I mean by that is if you’re a real estate investor, and you’re talking about real estate investing but suddenly you’re a life coach and you’re doing something else on the side, you send a mixed message, especially if it’s going to your whole audience on what you are doing, what you are trying to do and what you are trying to become. You can’t do that. You’ve got to stick to what your focus is. If you’re working, that’s your first time. If you have a job, that’s your first thing. If you’re a business owner, that’s your first thing. The mind, the business, the notes. It’s the first performance in what we do.
New Media Summit: Know what you are focused on.
I’ve had people say, “You’re getting into marketing.” I’m like, “No, I’m not getting into marketing.” Marketing is a part of what we do with the note business and that’s how we help expand our note businesses is that we find investors. It’s how we find deals. That’s a very important aspect of what is. You don’t see me going out and marketing REOs. You don’t see me going out and marketing short sales. I stick to the business that we have. The second thing that we added, which isn’t adding is in the last two years is this podcast, it’s this show. We started off doing nine months, almost straight every day of Facebook Lives to see if we want to do it. We built that consistency on the front end. How many of you would do a daily video anywhere from two minutes to 30 minutes to an hour on Facebook Live? How many of you would do that?
The thing is all of you are capable of doing that, just how many of you do it? It doesn’t have to be in notes. Maybe you’re the best basket weaver out there or maybe the best kitten fan, cat fan, dog fan or bird fan. A motivational message guy or gal or a life coach. The thing that you have to realize more importantly is your expertise and your icon concepts because we all can be icons. We are all icons in our tribe. It’s a matter of whether you’re sharing that information, whether you’re uncovering it all off. That’s why I was telling Stephanie in Vegas when we were out there when Steve reached out to me and I was thinking about where I wanted to take the show, where do I see myself in a year or five years? I still see myself in the note space first and foremost. It’s tweaking a little bit.
I feel a wind of change because I think our market is part of what’s going on. I’m constantly trying to prepare for the changes that I know are going to be taking place here in the next couple of months. It’s being prepared ahead of schedule and also handling that transition to that along with our existing assets or existing deals and existing business model. We’ve put some stuff into play over the last twelve months that are starting to bear a little bit of fruit, not just this podcast. We’ve got some other stuff that we’re going to be launching here relatively shortly hopefully before the end of the year. I was talking to my IT guys on some stuff that we’re excited about. We’re still in our lane though.
One of the great things about the note business is it’s still a small world. I’ve talked to other people or I hear other people talking about this, “This guy’s doing this. This guy is doing that. They’re going to do this.” I just chuckle because that’s great. If they can go out and do that and they can go out and try to add that to themselves, more power to them. I encourage them to go do that. The thing that you have to keep in mind for you is what they’re doing in their lane should not affect what you’re doing in yours. If you’re constantly looking over in the other lane and see what everybody else is doing versus being focused on your own business, that’s the first mistake you’re making. They’ve already won when they’ve got your attention. If you are so worried about what everybody else is doing, you’re going to miss stuff that’s going on in your business. You’re going to not be as focused on what you need to do. I don’t worry about what everyone else does. I’ve been around this long enough.
I might be in a leadership position. I don’t sit still. I’m not sitting still trying to focus on where we’re at and stick where we’re at because if I do that, we’re behind. Technology, social media, marketing, all that stuff, we’re definitely behind. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had a bit of a hiccup with a couple of things. We had some staff changes and getting re-acquainted with our new staff and getting everything rock and rolling. That’s a normal hiccup in the road. It’s going to happen every year with things. What we have to do is don’t get so bogged down when hiccups happen because hiccups happen in all of the businesses there. I know that happens especially for those of you that are working. You may be working overtime this week, so you spend less time in your business this week, that’s a hiccup. You may not get a chance to make as many offers this week because you’re working more. You’ve got to work on a project at work. I see that happen all the time or people who were laid off and were going to be doing notes full-time, but they didn’t focus on it and they had to go back to work, take a job. That’s a big distraction.
A big hiccup in the real estate investing is when they’ve got to go back to work, and they’re behind the eight-ball. The best advice I can give you is just to do what you can do. Do the best that you can do but don’t stay in your comfort zone. Keep pushing the envelope with what you’re focused on. That’s how you grow as an individual. It’s how you grow as an entrepreneur. That’s how you grow as an investor. Keep pushing the envelope and get them beyond. If you’re comfortable in where you’re at, you’re not doing enough. You’re not reaching your full potential. I see so many people that get so scared of the unknown and it reminds me of that Star Trek episode, the undiscovered country where Spock and his brother steal the Enterprise or kidnap the Enterprise and they’re going to the end where they think they’re going to meet God. They go through this wall, this magnetic field, this cloud. Their sensors can’t get through, they’re scared to go through it. They just push their way through it. Once they go into it, there’s nothing behind it. It’s wide open space. It was all this fear in the front end.
New Media Summit: If you are so worried what everybody else is doing, you’re going to miss stuff that’s going on in your business.
That’s what I imagine a lot of entrepreneurs face on a regular basis where they’re going to go speak. I saw a lot of that. Some people get up and pitching them, “I’ve never done this before.” That’s great, you’re learning more. You’re becoming more of an entrepreneur every day the more you get out and talk to people. The more you share with what you have going on. Many people aren’t doing anything and I was so proud of everybody that got up and pitched at the event. I wish we saw more of that in the note investment. I see a lot of people that show up to events. They keep showing up, they keep attending but they’re not growing. They’re not growing as entrepreneurs. They’re not doing things. They’re not pitching themselves to people on a daily basis or weekly basis. That’s one of the things that I came back as a commitment to myself to get what we do out to more people, to share what we do. Get what we do, push ourselves here at a little bit more. Push my staff, push myself first and foremost. Lead from the front pushing and doing things little things that make me uncomfortable, getting back to doing a couple things too that I’ve been putting off. It’s being focused on some stuff that is going to not only help us but help a lot of people out there in the long run.
You’ve heard me talk about the Big Rocks Theory. What are the Big Rocks? It’s focused on your big rocks each day and you don’t need more than three or four big rocks. You don’t make a to-do list, all the little paperwork stuff that you need to get signed. That’s something that you get done but focus on your big rocks. As people have come in and said, “You are killing it. You do an amazing thing. You’re all in place.” Our focus, our big rock every day is marketing for our business. Marketing for our classes, marketing for this podcast or marketing for our mastermind, or for assets and raising capital. That’s our biggest nugget, our biggest rock list out there. You should be doing the same thing too with your big rocks. What are your big rocks? Is it closing more deals? Raising more capital? What’re your big rocks? If you’re not a note investor, what are your big rocks? Is it getting booked on other shows? Is it making more offers? Is it building a team? Is it to find a new market? Your big rocks will guide you to success.
New Media Summit: Your big rocks will guide you to success.
If you spend more time on the pebbles versus your big rocks, your pebbles will help you lose that focus. It will get you distracted. They’ll help you drift more. Compare this, you’re driving down the road and you see a big rock. You can avoid that pretty easily. What you can a lot of times do is we’d drive around and hit some caliche or pebbles and you spin out. That’s the best thing you do. A big rock, you can avoid that pretty easily. If you spend more time on your pebble roads, you’re going to end up spinning out and not having success. I don’t know if that analogy makes sense. What I’m trying to get at is the most important thing that I’ve learned from the New Media Summit is be willing to pitch, stay in your lane, know what you’re focused on and don’t be afraid to share that. Get out and share more. Take your business to new levels.
One of the nice things that Steve asked from every one of the podcasters or the Icons of Influence on the last day, he made all of us go around and talk about what we wanted to share for 2019 and where our business wants to go. I’ve set some very big goals for where I want to see our podcasts, where I want to see the influence of the Note Closers Show here, where it’s going. We’ve already made a big thing with us, so many amounts of new distribution rights for the show to get it out across more channels, fifteen new channels. We have some very big goals and we want to help our clients and our note family take the business to the next levels and we plan on leading from the front to help you each and every one of you kick it up a year to make 2019 even a better year than 2018 is.
I’m still recovering from this cold. It has not stopped me from being here. It’s not stopped me from being focused. I’m a bit more driven. I feel I got a fire inside of me and it was definitely rekindled and throwing some gasoline on a fire. On behalf of myself and the rest of my team, I want to thank Steve Olsher for putting on an amazing event New Media Summit. We are who we are because of a couple things. One, I cannot get what I get done without the people in my team. Secondly, our clients, our family, our vendors, our Quest and IRA family and our extended network of great friends out there.
We’ve got some big goals. We want to triple the number of downloads in year two of the Note Closers Show. We want to go from 150,000 downloads to over 500,000 downloads in year two. We’re capable of doing that. I would love to have us have over a million views on all channels, whether it’s Facebook Live, YouTube, Vimeo. Those are two of our biggest goals. Financially wise, I’ll say that a little bit because I’ve got some stuff I don’t want to release that information here. I’m putting the numbers to that. I’m drawing a bigger number for myself this next year than what I had anticipated. I know I can get it done. I believe in myself. Believing in what we do on a daily basis can help not only myself but the way we get to where we want to get with her goals by helping our students and helping everybody else out there achieve some big goals too. Life is an adventure. Life is a highway and the show goes on forever and the party never ends. With that, we’ll see you at the top.