The 2015 Fastlane Meetup Pre-Plan Discussion (formerly B&P)

[Vigilante]

I'll PM my cell phone. Feel free.

Speed+ (because you just traded in the currency that makes this place work...)

 

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[biophase]

@Red will there only be one large conference room? At the Ecomfuel event in Austin they had a few rooms and had breakout sessions of different topics. Attendees were able to choose which one to go to. This may work if you had say an Amazon panel and REI panel at the same time in two different rooms. Then you'd have more focused audiences and smaller audiences and time for more questions.

 

[TheTruth]

@Red Thank you for the personal invite to submit a topic!

Here Are The Topics Of Choice:

1) How Almost Going Bankrupt 3 times Gave Me The Path To Success

• Exposed: Secrets Of The Infamous "Project Scottsdale" (what really happened when I left Canada to live with 3 other Fastlaners)
  • • How sacrifices brought us closer together
    • How differences forced us to mature exponentially
    • What the daily 16 hour grind felt like REALLY (behind the excitement - the ultimate test to see if you are an entrepreneur)
    • The difficulties of weekly meetups and maintaining a high quality mastermind group (especially when some of the members businesses explode while others fail)

• How My First Two Business Failures Made My Third Failure The Best! (The Rise And Fall Of The Highly Talked About "Guppy Tank")
  • • How Lack of control killed my first business (the hard lesson learned from losing all my income 2 days before my birthday)
    • Why non-existent market demand killed my second business (how to fail fast and find out if there is a big enough need to fastlane your business)
    • Why I left a promising business venture (which I had just launched) to join the "Guppy Tank" spearheaded by zen******* on the forum

• Give me 7 Months In The "Guppy Tank" And I'll Show You How Never To Choose Partners! (What it really takes to learn how to buy paid traffic and become excellent at media buying - while having terrible partners)
  • • Why I left a company doing mid-four figures a day in revenue
    • How 9 Captains will never be able to steer 1 ship (partnership messes, contract negotiations, equity arguments, accounting messes, multiple LLC's, the hassle of hiring and firing employees etc.)
    • What to look for as warning signs when getting into any partnership or business venture (having tried 3 different deals with 15+ partners over my life)

A lot of people are always interested in the above topics of interest. To make this shorter, I am going to just list other points of discussion:

• All the shit I ate to even get into the positions I wanted to be in (And How I overcame it all)
  • • Sweet talking my way into the USA, over-staying and then trying again, only to be almost arrested at the border (Paying lawyers lots of $$ and ironically never using them)
    • Funding my ventures after almost going bankrupt the first two times
    • Constantly moving, traveling, investing, making deals, thinking outside the box etc.
• How I went from SEO - Product Launches - Amazon - Paid Traffic and then back to Amazon (and how to apply all those skills that I learned into 1 business)
• Would I do it all over again? and what are the main takeaways from all my failures

2) Are You Prepared To Learn How You Can Launch A Product In 7 Days? (And Get Your First Sale?)

• I will show you how I got a product into the marketplace within 7 days, including
  • • showing you my actual product (I will bring samples)
    • how I got the logo made
    • how and where to get product labels made (and 3d image rendering)
    • where to find a manufacturer that will allow you a small order of inventory (so you don't burn a lot of cash)
    • where to get bar-codes
    • how to get the cheapest fulfillment
    • why I hired and fired 7 codes and 4 designers (over 3 days) - AND how I motivated one of my designers to work for 40 hours straight
    • how to get a kick-a$$ landing page created (For under $150)
    • what it takes to get merchant processing setup and coded for you landing page (and how this custom job was done within 5 days)
    • how to write sales copy for your product (for both your landing page and listing such as amazon)
    • (if on amazon) - how to optimize your page
    • Multiple tactics you can apply to setup a kick-a$$ marketing strategy (be it SEO, News outlets, Paid-Traffic etc)
    • Sneaky promotional tips and closely guarded methods of extremely effective marketing tactics

3) Who Else Wants $25,000 in 12 days? (My exact process to running a successful product launch)

• I will go over step-by-step everything I did to generate $25,000 in revenue on my product launch
  • • what are the core steps needed for a successful product launch
    • how I came up with my product
    • the software and marketplaces used to support the launch
    • what I put in as up-sells (and how you can put in up-sell's that aren't your products)
    • how to properly setup up-sells and down-sells (I had and up-sell on my whole sales funnel)
      
    • how to write and create sales-copy for your affiliates & for your customers (in reality you do 2 product launches)
    • how to design your landing pages (for affiliates and for customers)
    • how to get 150+ affiliates on board promoting your product (and how I contacted 100 potential affiliates in one day)
    • why taking a $5000 up-front risk is worth it when you go "all-in"
    • everything needed the day during your launch (support, things that go wrong, things I wish I had done etc)
      
    • how to handle support tickets, refunds and complaints
    • what builds loyal followers and loyal affiliates
    • how to position yourself as an authority in your niche

Alright, there is a lot there and I would be more then happy to present on any of the topics. So let me know which one of the above gets your vote

There is a great amount of value from a lot of people here, can't wait to see you guys in 2015

P.S. I vote for @LightHouse to not be allowed to attend this years event.

 

[Arrabista]

@Arrabista ... The Aussie from Abu Dhabi... or as Jerry Seinfeld would call him... The "close talker"

Lol ...Steve O ..my nickname all the way through Acting School was " the personal SPACE INVADER"!....

 

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[Arrabista]

Easily my favorite presentation from the last meetup.

You sir, are very kind. Thank you for the feedback.

 

[csalvato]

There are not a lot of real estate people on the forums. Should I just bow out now?

I want to hear everything you want to tell me on real estate, frankly

 

[Arrabista]

@Red Thank you for the personal invite to submit a topic!

3) Who Else Wants $25,000 in 12 days? (My exact process to running a successful product launch)

• I will go over step-by-step everything I did to generate $25,000 in revenue on my product launch
  • • what are the core steps needed for a successful product launch
    • how I came up with my product
    • the software and marketplaces used to support the launch
    • what I put in as up-sells (and how you can put in up-sell's that aren't your products)
    • how to properly setup up-sells and down-sells (I had and up-sell on my whole sales funnel)
      
    • how to write and create sales-copy for your affiliates & for your customers (in reality you do 2 product launches)
    • how to design your landing pages (for affiliates and for customers)
    • how to get 150+ affiliates on board promoting your product (and how I contacted 100 potential affiliates in one day)
    • why taking a $5000 up-front risk is worth it when you go "all-in"
    • everything needed the day during your launch (support, things that go wrong, things I wish I had done etc)
      
    • how to handle support tickets, refunds and complaints
    • what builds loyal followers and loyal affiliates
    • how to position yourself as an authority in your niche

Alright, there is a lot there and I would be more then happy to present on any of the topics. So let me know which one of the above gets your vote

There is a great amount of value from a lot of people here, can't wait to see you guys in 2015

P.S. I vote for @LightHouse to not be allowed to attend this years event.

The process methedology of Suggestion number 3 will be very useful to hear . And agreed lets ban LightHouse lol

 

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[Grimaldo]

I WANT TO SPEAK IN THE MEETING TOO!!

HOW I went from social anxiety to with a FOOL & SIMPLE idea become a co-founder of a forex fund of 40M.

I was a super shy guy. With a HUGE shame. Extremely worried about what people could think. I had very little friends and zero women in my life. My life used to suck a TON!!

Deep in my-self I knew this is not what I was made for. I read ALL the self-help books you can imagine about all the topics. I tried all the techniques to change you can know. From affirmation to hypnosis.

Some were good because it forces you to be FULL responsible for your life. But like a self-help book it doesn’t change your character or heal your mind. The only thing I did NOT try was drugs.

I ALWAYS kept looking for more ways to change, and I spent hundreds of dollars, most of them useless and I have also been scammed a LOT. UNTIL finally I found the ONE thing that changed everything!

It is not one thing that you do once in your life and you are healed.
And it is not an easy thing to do. It’s a thing you should do at least once a day for 1-2 months. The more you keep doing it the better for you.

I am talking about approaching women on the street, something called daygame.

The fear of approaching women is a core fear based of thinking what people will think of you. We are not afraid of women. We know they are not going to hurt us physically. The only thing they can do is rejecting us. They just say “NO”. And this why almost everyone get drunk on nightclubs, because we cannot handle a NO.

Fear of rejection is stopping us in a subtle or direct way from our goals.

And the true is that rejection is your friend. Rejection is going to make you stronger.

The more rejected you are the BETTER! Every single rejection makes you stronger, we have an identity that is based on external opinions and validations of other people. Every time you get rejected it slowly separates you from the outside validations of who you are and you put your value as a man from within yourself.

Fears are the boundaries of who we are. If you want to become a bigger person a more successful person you need to push those boundaries out. And the only way to get rid of the fear of rejection is to be rejected, to take action in front your fears.

Daygame is an intensive and life-changing rejection course!

When you overcome the fear of women you are free! You have SOCIAL FREEDOM. You can talk to anyone everywhere. Your networking skills are going to explode!!! You are never going to have again a problem picking up the phone. And pushing to find investors, clients and suppliers is just a fun thing!! You achieve a point where you don’t give a DAMN about anything, where you start truly liberating yourself and it's an amazing experience that you have to experience to understand.

I was looking for forex trading systems on internet until I found one and two other great stock market products that give high returns. Then I just went to talk with a TON of investors and funds (looking like a 20 years old boy wanting to invest in stock market is not an easy thing) until I found the right ones.

Stupid and simple, just needed courage to take action (which I didn’t need it because I was not afraid. Courage is acting in front of the fear and daygame made me lose this fear).

You need a system to do daygame. You are going to learn how to feel the fear and take action anyway! You are not going to take rejection personally anymore. Those are a few things I can talk about.

I think EVERY MAN on earth should go through this process because you get rid of FEAR, SHAME & GUILT. I taught this to other guys and they had the same results as me! 1+1=2 If you do it you will have the results, there is not anything magical here!

I know maybe some people who are going to attend the meeting don’t have that problems that I can talk about and most of the guys have relationship so maybe they cannot take action in what I can talk.

So in case my topics was not approved I’d like to say that one of my dreams is to become a professional motivational speaker -my teacher says I’m the best alumni he has and almost everyone who went to my speeches loved them - I’d like the change to speak in public to grow and improve even if it is for 10-15 minutes. Sounds good @AllenCrawley @MJ DeMarco?

I prefer to post it here before to submit to see any opinions and and make it easier to decide if it’s a good topic.

 

[Guest12120]

@TheTruth If I had to vote I'd go with #3 but I'm also super curious about #1.

@Arrabista Great presentation last year and I can't wait to listen to (and participate in) the next one.

 

[GravyBoat]

How to dominate with recurring membership sites

Dear God yes.

 

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[GravyBoat]

@Mike39 @The-J @hotshot @IceCreamKid @nitroheadz28 @needchaser @Carny AND ANYONE ELSE I FORGOT

Who's down for Sardine Room round 2? At the C&B meet up, we packed 8 guys into a single 2 Queen hotel room. Cheapest hotel fees you'll ever get. All are welcome, the more the merrier! Last one consisted of mostly younger dudes with lots of energy, but I don't think we kept @Carny up past his bed time : ) Post here or PM, we'll start a Skype group and work out fees/details.

Pumped!

GravyBoat

EDIT: I will add that this was probably amongst the most fun times I've ever had. The conversations/friendships created can't be done any other way.

 

[Red]

will there only be one large conference room? At the Ecomfuel event in Austin they had a few rooms and had breakout sessions of different topics.

While I appreciate the ideas, doing something like this could double to triple the room costs (which is already quite a big chunk of the budget). While this isn't in the plans for this year, it's a distinct possibility if we grow this conference in the years ahead.

Just for everyone's reference, this event has never been a for-profit endeavor. This has always been a group of entrepreneurs getting together for the information exchange, support & camaraderie (even before I started coming in 2010). I know that when I found this group, I found my tribe & I want others to experience this as well. We have the tickets priced at the lowest possible price to be able to provide for a nice venue with a professional setup & still be able to provide group activities & food for everyone like in years past. We also took into account that this hotel is a bit pricier for the stay, but provides SO much in the way of activities & entertainment for the group, even after hours (4 lounges, 1 nightclub, 5 restaurants, multiple pools, full-service spa, all the gambling you could ever want in the casino, Top Golf, butterflies (lol) & more).

The panels will definitely be a part of the lineup, but the breakout groups will probably have to wait. (or can always be put together for after hours on the fly? -this kinda happens anyways)

Update: keep the presentation submissions coming. If you've only posted them here on this thread, I do respectfully ask that you copy & paste it into an email sent here: FastLaneMeetup2015@gmail.com so I can keep everything in one place & organized. Thank you!

D

 

[Chitown]

Put me on the list for attending

How long are you asking folks to speak, btw ...?

I might propose a discussion about Pre-nups, Post-nups, Cohabitation agreements and divorce related issues that impact entrepreneurs.

Lord knows the legal system does not relate to us ... don't you do NOT want a slowlane judge deciding your fate.

Nothing can ruin your success faster ... and undo everything you accomplished ... faster than divorce court.

Just an idea ...

I know of a very wealthy guy who makes the dating partners of his children sign an agreement once the relationship goes over 30 days in length. The document basically states the dating partners have no claims on any part of the ownership the wealthy guy has passed to his children via the family holding company.

When he told me that, I thought to myself, laughing, "F*cking rich people - don't hate 'em! Join 'em, baby!"

That document idea was brilliant. I would love to hear your presentation!

 

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[LightHouse]

P.S. I vote for @LightHouse to not be allowed to attend this years event.

And agreed lets ban LightHouse lol

You guys are right, I hate fun too.

AKA: In this thread... dudes who need to remove the funniest guy, to move up the funny guy scale...!!!

 

[Chitown]

There are not a lot of real estate people on the forums. Should I just bow out now?

Hell no!

 

[Chitown]

Ok, so topic-wise, my top 3 clusters would probably be:

~ ecommerce/ FBA/ product sourcing and creation

~ marketing/ PR/ paid traffic/ (social)

~ real estate/ asset preservation/ tax planning


Maybe some topic panels and panelists where appropriate, because we benefit from hearing about everything.

#3 gets my vote.

 

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[Chitown]

Proposal submitted via. email.

1. Guerilla marketing and free PR
or

2. The OODA Loop
or

3. The Licensing Game

Yo Vig,

#2 is very intriguing.

 

[jon.a]

Put me on the list for attending

There is no such list. You have to monitor this thread and watch for when the tickets go on sale.

 

[Chitown]

You know ... I was just thinking ... another topic that might be of interest ... would be the Nuclear Option ... Bankruptcy protection.

Most successful entrepreneurs ... at some point ... find themselves (or their businesses) in bankruptcy court ... and not infrequently more than once.

Failure and success go hand in hand ... and we are (by definition) risk takers.

Even if you are lucky enough never find yourself in BK court ... odds are ... you will know plenty of entrepreneurs who one day will.

But ... the fact is ... most people know very little about bankruptcy protection ... when (in fact) they should.

Contingency planning goes a long way.

So I think another good topic would be "bankruptcy protection for entrepreneurs" ... advantages ... disadvantages ... how it works ... how to avoid costly mistakes ... how to more effectively shelter your assets in bankruptcy ... etc.

Hope for the best ... prepare for the worst.

One idea might be to spend some time talking about the domestic relations issues I mentioned earlier ... and the rest of the time talking about the bankruptcy issues. Whatever makes the most sense.

The common theme here being ... advance planning for when the shit hits the fan ... be it at home ... or with your creditors.

Statistically speaking ... half the people in the audience ... will be in divorce court ... bankruptcy court ... or both ... at some point in their lives.

I think bankruptcy for entrepreneurs is (also) a good topic.

What do you think?

Absolutely!

 

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[Chitown]

There is no such list. You have to monitor this thread and watch for when the tickets go on sale.

Already communicated with @Red. Thanks for the heads up, jon.a!

 

[TheTruth]

butterflies (lol) & more)

100% the only reason I'm going.

@TheTruth If I had to vote I'd go with #3 but I'm also super curious about #1.

Duly noted, thanks chap!

The process methedology of Suggestion number 3 will be very useful to hear . And agreed lets ban LightHouse lol

Thanks for the vote, and yes Lighthouse totally killed our bon-fire conversation last time. Guy is more of a buzzkill then @GlobalWealth when he has less then 14 beers.

 

[Arrabista]

@TheTruth If I had to vote I'd go with #3 but I'm also super curious about #1.

@Arrabista Great presentation last year and I can't wait to listen to (and participate in) the next one.

Thank PKOM79 ..my pleasure

 

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[Arrabista]

1

Thanks for the vote, and yes Lighthouse totally killed our bon-fire conversation last time. Guy is more of a buzzkill then @GlobalWealth when he has less then 14 beers.

Lol that is hilarious.. how dare those guys interrupt our bonfire bonding!
that trip up wherever you and JasonR took me hiking was also one of the highlights last year..and the memory of having to go and buy your friend some shoes....remember?

 

[GlobalWealth]

My 2c. Apologies for my laziness in not remembering all the posters in the past 9 or so pages.

I love the idea of panels. These typically have a lot of value for attendees as you can get benefit of the collective experience of the panelists. As stated earlier, the moderator just needs to determine the panelists and come up with a few questions to initiate the conversation. Panelists don't prepare presentations as they are using their experience to answer. No need for prep or collaboration with other panelists. I have been on several panels over the years and they are usually very beneficial.

Definitely interested in panels; paid traffic, seo basics, ecomm, mindset. I could be on a panel about tax planning, wealth preservation, asset protection, virtual business.

For my presentation, I would likely stick with the basics of asset protection with the added side benefits of tax savings, estate planning, etc. Basically it would be a presentation about how to keep as much of what you earn as possible and create lasting wealth.

I don't recall all the names, but I would love to see a full presentation from Personal Space Invader (rapport), Eskil (sucky conversions), Celestino (pd traffic), Esquire (bk protection), Eliquid (full pres on paid traffic), Sal (experience with shark tank), Vig (mkt and free pr), SteveO (analyzing a re deal), The Serbian (path to success), Affplaybook (membership sites).

I am very much looking forward to this meetup. I really like the new format. I can see how there can be a lot of value to be received and shared by all.

 

[RealOG]

I didn't see all the responses, but I would propose a panel about Real Estate Investment and Crowd Funding.

I would love to see topics around sourcing products overseas, selling wholesale, and effectively using tradeshows.

 

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[eliquid]

I think something should be done with all these people who have ideas/presentations, but might not get picked.

For example, regardless if we do panels or 15 presenters.. those that dont get picked will likely still have good presentations for others. What can be done for those speakers that don't get picked?

Any way to organize a "and here is what you missed" section? Maybe audios/videos/webinar/AMA to be handed out at the conference or a website for attendees to hit to watch/listen to more?

 

[SteveO]

For example, regardless if we do panels or 15 presenters.. those that dont get picked will likely still have good presentations for others. What can be done for those speakers that don't get picked?

One of the fantastic things about the meetup is all the networking time that we will have together. People's stories and information will circulate. That is where 90% of all the information is exchanged. If people want to talk and listen, there will be opportunities.

The people that have attended these in the past have become very close for the most part. Most of us know what is going on in each other's lives.

 

[csalvato]

One of the fantastic things about the meetup is all the networking time that we will have together. People's stories and information will circulate. That is where 90% of all the information is exchanged. If people want to talk and listen, there will be opportunities.

The people that have attended these in the past have become very close for the most part. Most of us know what is going on in each other's lives.

I'm looking forward to it !!!

 

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[Vigilante]

One of the fantastic things about the meetup is all the networking time that we will have together. People's stories and information will circulate. That is where 90% of all the information is exchanged. If people want to talk and listen, there will be opportunities.

The people that have attended these in the past have become very close for the most part. Most of us know what is going on in each other's lives.

This.

 

[LightHouse]

Also, I saw many people do it last time, but it wouldn't be hard to have a roster of attendees to hand out, that lists everyones expertise. That way if you wanted to connect with people about specific things, you not only have their forum name and real name on a sheet, you have what they know and what you can chat about.

I saw quite a few people writing notes on the preso schedule last time about peoples forum names and whatnot. So it would be great to just do it ahead of time.

Thanks to @VinceT (and someone else) for letting me read and re-read his every time i saw someone talk that I couldn't remember.