OFF-TOPIC Get motivated Seminar: Steve Forbes, Colin Powell

[LightHouse]

So I got a call and was offered a ticket (dime a dozen im sure) I am expecting an upsell seminar but I will take in what is worth it. Has anyone attended previously?, anything in particular to look out for besides meeting some of the speakers? (which may not be feasible)


http://www.getmotivated.com/city.aspx?a=4894

 

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[yveskleinsky]

I attended this seminar in El Paso last year. ...The majority of speakers that were suppossed to be there weren't. Zig Ziegler was there and it was great to hear him speak. The seminar does try and upsell a couple of products- like that stock market software and tax liens. The other speakers spoke about gratitude and most of them cried and talked a lot about God. ...Whenever people bring their faith in God into a speech that ties (no matter how loosely) into sales, it REALLY turns me off. However, my co-workers that it was great that they were so "sincere". Overall, if it's free and you get to hear one good speaker it's worth it.

 

[LightHouse]

Just got back from the live infomercial, Report on it tomorrow.

 

[andviv]

Lighthouse, I'm waiting for your report... don't think I've forgotten this!!!

 

[LightHouse]

Ok here is my report; I'm not much for typing out long posts. Kick back and get some ice tea or a Cigar out. Long however, it’s the short version. Unedited!

Got down there a bit early skipped on past the unnecessary lines and got a seat. Funny how long a line for Dunkin Donuts inside Verizon center can wrap the whole stadium!! Anyway the first speaker out the gate besides the organizers wife was Steve Forbes. If any of you are familiar with him besides the magazine he is CEO of, he basically pitched a bit about his company being started by his grandfather and moved on to a short life story. no fulfilling content, He i think tried or is still trying to run for president so the last 15 minutes of his speech was explaining his flat rate tax that he talks about everywhere he goes. Yes its logical, was it fit for this seminar.... no? WTF Steve Forbes!?

Next up was Dr. Shuller I think his name was.... now the funny part about all of this is that I read yveskleinsky's post and wondered how accurate it would be. Well, not only was he so old that I thought he was going to pass out but it was a preach to god the whole time basically, not to mention I couldn't delineate what he was speaking about.

Next up was a speaker that speaks regularly on this circuit, forgive me the name I do not remember, He was AMAZING. He talked of the true quality of getting motivated and making money was to keep your heart in mind, he talked a lot about his son, his worldly accomplishments his speech actually had meaning. The only reason I don’t know his name is because it was not on the list and they only said it once whilst fireworks were sounding off on stage.

 

[LightHouse]

I believe his follower was Phil Town, Phil towns topic was the stock market, he started off with good info on covered calls and group rotation, however, as soon as he sparked up the PowerPoint I was turned off immediately. Why? Because it looked like a infomercial sales pitch... and guess what I was right... the whole time touting "success" magazine and its stock software. All these accreditations and none sense info that you can find for free.
The best part of this was the FREE OFFER!!! If you go and put down all your info you get not only the magazine… not only the website access but you get the email support for FREE… and we all like FREE don’t we. But wait there’s more. When you sign up today we are going to give you a red bag and inside it contents worth 1000 bucks. And the 2 day seminars notes… on yeah the seminar is $995 but even though you put your credit card info on this form WE WONT CHARGE IT RIGHT AWAY/…. Isn’t that great?!!?!?

By this time I want to blow my brains out…. However, about 90% of the people sucked into it… Red bag marks the suckers, as I so aptly coined while I was attending. After continuing on and on with that BS, finally he was off.

Next up Peter Lowe, the event organizer…… for an hour and a half……of hell. I don’t know if you have ever witnessed those Sunday prayer session shows on TV where someone gets healed and they fall to the floor…. Same concept only on your negative energy… in fact it was so bad that during the middle of his self esteem speech about 30% of the audience was in egress towards the food stands, I almost felt bad… but I gathered a headache instead. After almost 2 hours he was off…. That god for that favor!

 

[LightHouse]

Lunch time presumed and more suckers signed up for bullshit. Typical, I told my girlfriend I wish I had a piece of foam board and a sharpie I could make a million on the spot there…. How? Write on it how to make a million dollars seminar $39.99 today only. I would have probably got 75% of the 14,500 people there to pay me cash and then I would have gave them a copy of the joke posted on this forum yesterday about seminars. Paying royalties to the owner of course!

During lunch Phil Town did a Q&A only for us because of the overwhelming response to his seminar……. *crickets* please……

After lunch a white rapper and his hype DJ set up and rapped out some motivational rhymes…. Then asked if everyone wanted to win a vacation to Disney world… of coarse everyone was screaming… get a life people! They door prized 2 laptops, 3 ipods, and 3 investment seminars. Then they did a humiliating dance contest for the vacation trip…. 115, 000 beach balls were now bouncing around the stadium... I have to say that was very, very amusing.

Next up was Zig Ziglar, Zig is now so old and after a recent fall has equilibrium problems so his daughter came out and did a q&a with him. He is no longer motivating people the Q&A was all about his life and his relationship with his wife, they cut to videos of prior seminars for certain sections. After a short while Zig was off.

 

[LightHouse]

Next up Paul Tracey…. THANK GOD. They got someone in here who knows what they are talking about. Paul discussed different aspects of selling and closing deals. He also explained that sometimes you just have to ask for the sale, you will be no less than you started out. He discussed certain selling techniques that I have heard variations of in the past. Some of which I used to mold my personal techniques with. He was on for 30-45 mins and I was actually pleased with his performance.

Now onto Bill Bartman, the unknown Billionaire, “#25” on Forbes shrewd billionaires list. I expected a bit more from him, he has 7 businesses and toted a 3.7 billion dollar a year company that he started with only 13k on his kitchen counter. Ok so he starts out with his sob life story and it seems interesting, typical rags to riches style, then comes the almighty PowerPoint again…. This one was more obvious… why he had only accreditations and the top bar said Bill Bartman’s Secrets to success, he just went ahead and came out with it, so for 30 mins he sold his seminar. The best part was the price cutting…. You could hear the gasps and admirations from going from 1k all the way down to 49 bucks for a two day seminar…. 10 mins to break and sign up…. 50% OF WHO WAS LEFT AT THE SEMINAR…. No scratch that 70% signed up for that one as well… they didn’t wait to charge for that one.

Next up Sugar ray Leonard…Another THANK GOD. Sugar ray talked about his motivation and determination to win fight after fight and take out some of the biggest and undefeated guys in his league… he was genuine and to the point and had noting to sell. Funny how the good ones only last 15-20 mins.

 

[LightHouse]

Finally the last presenter was Colin Powell… hometown hero to DC. 50k pounds of confetti and streamers fell from the ceiling. I will admit Colin was extremely funny and genuine… he discussed parts of his life and keys to staying motivated, he also explained that the thing he missed the most was his jet… in an elaborate joke… it was very, very amusing. Shortly thereafter I had acquired an acute headache from being amongst such suckers… the MLM type… I wish I knew the formal classification this would be a perfect time to use it…. We left before Colin finished to catch the metro home. And that was the end of that journey.

I did forget to mention in the individual paragraphs that most of the people touted god and religion in there portions. To which is an entirely different post in itself. Sorry for the spelling mistakes and whatnot!

 

[andviv]

Thanks for the report.... very detailed and I get the idea of how bad it was for you out there. Thanks again!!!

 

[kimberland]

Was Paul Tracey really Brian Tracy, Lighthouse?
I'm assuming from our other discussion it was.

Yeah, these seminars are a great time killer if you have time to kill.
Being a writer and a bit of sales/marketing geek,
I get a bit more out of them than the average bear
(great opp to track speech patterns
and sales techniques,
as you mentioned people are buying).

If I'm with someone,
we also play stupid little games
like betting on how many times
presenters will say certain words.
Last time we did that,
we made a bunch of new friends.
Had a whole row playing that game.

 

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[LightHouse]

Brian Tracy was who was there i dont know why i wrote paul?!

 

[Peter2]

Brian Tracy was who was there i dont know why i wrote paul?!

Maybe you watch auto racing. Here is a picture of Paul Tracy.

 

[LightHouse]

Maybe to much work! Need to change my mood icon!

 

[randallg99]

I attended a Trump-wealth-building-seminar and the only one building wealth was Trump and the cronies who jumped around the stage...

Invest-tools had some guy on stage promoting the product for not 7k, not 5k, not 4k, but for a limited time, only $2995!!!! meanwhile, you can sign up online yourself for only 999...

there was a so-called lawyer who touted estate planning but somehow most of the audience was still trying to figure out how to pay the credit card bills for the last few seminars they got suckered into and wont need any estate planning because these morons blew a years wages on idjits on stage who offered 30,000 dollar seminars for only $6995.00... I couldnt believe the people lining up with credit cards in hand.

But, the lawyer was good and had great ideas that probably went over so many of the audiences heads.

Another one of these really smart guys who had a natural ability to legally rob people in broad daylight was named James Smith... apparently this guy is popular talking against mainstream mentality and mentioning religious conotations in the same sentences he was calling some people losers.

While he had some good ideas, I was wondering why he was so emotional with his carrying on and crying but then I looked around and saw people clapping and swaying with him... what a good salesman.

I spoke with attendees... one of them a lady with her friend who attended a seminar some years back that encouraged her to refinance and take cash out every year - which btw, is probably a recipe for bankruptcy... anyway, she said it was great advice and still wonder to this day if she saw my eyes cross at her statement.

Another guy I spoke with doesnt even own his own home but happily bought one of the real estate guru packages for 5k... he told me that he would keep in touch and let me know how he does. We exchanged phone numbers and he called me once saying he was waiting for them to call him back. He is probably still waiting for his first deal.

I would have liked to have seen Brian Tracy... he is genuine and his information is very, very solid and realistic.

regarding the seminar - I had this sudden feeling of being time warped 2 centuries ago into a circus freak show where people paid to see bearded women...

 

[Z5 FILMS]

I went to one of those real estate seminars at a hotel once. I don't remember the guys name. He got everyone all excited, then twords the end he was selling his "how-to" kit for $6,000. The sales table had about 10 registers, and the lines to buy were about 10 people deep.

This guy made some serious cheese that day.

 

[yveskleinsky]

(great opp to track speech patterns
and sales techniques,
as you mentioned people are buying).

If I'm with someone,
we also play stupid little games
like betting on how many times
presenters will say certain words.

lol. I have a general rule of thumb: if a presenter starts referrring to the crowd as "folks" or "friends" I know he trying to sell something, and I either leave, or buckle down for the pitch!