Transcript
Hey, what’s up, everyone? Matt Wolfe here.
Today, I want to do something a little bit different. A little something out of my normal videos. I just go this whiteboard here. I’ve had it for a couple weeks now. I bought it with the sole purpose of making some online videos and doing some teaching with it. And I haven’t used it yet.
So, today’s my first day making a video using this whiteboard. A lot of people know me as “The WordPress” guy. They know me as the go-to guy when they have WordPress problems, if they want to figure out how to do anything with WordPress. Membership size, making classified ads, niche blogging, all that kind of stuff. I’m they guy people typically come to.
Now, because I’m that guy, I’ve managed to create a super successful membership site at The WordPress Classroom. The membership site has a couple thousand members and it’s pretty much my full-time business. That’s how I make my living, is through my membership site at The WordPress Classroom.
What I’m starting to get more and more often these days isn’t as much questions as WordPress. It’s questions about how to build a successful online business, because I’ve managed to do that with The WordPress Classroom.
I’ve built a pretty successful business. I’m happy with it. I’m growing it. It’s getting bigger and bigger every single day. I want to start teaching some of this stuff, some of the tactics, some of the philosophies I use to build this business.
So, I got this whiteboard so I could do some of this kind of teaching. I’m going to do a real basic video today. Today, I want to talk to you about some of the marketers that I follow. Now, it’s a question a lot of people ask me when they’re trying to get online, they’re trying to get into marketing, When I tell friends and family and different people like that what I do, they always ask, “Well, who did you learn from? Who taught you this stuff?”
Well, that’s what I’m going to tell you today. I’m going to tell you some of the people that I really study. Some of the people that I really, really look up to. Basically, with their training, I’ve gotten to where I am today.
So, this video is titled, “Who I Follow”. There’s five main people that come to mind when I think of who I follow. What I’m going to do is, I’ll list the five people and I’ll tell you a little bit why I follow each of them.
Now, the number one for me is a guy named Dan Kennedy. I’m sure if you’ve been around marketing at all or online marketing or whatever, you’ve probably heard his name. He’s partnered with a guy named Bill Glazer so I kind of lump them together. They own a company called The Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle.
I really, really study Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer through the Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle. In fact, they have local chapters throughout the world. There happens to be a San Diego local chapter and I’m super involved with the San Diego local chapter. Those are the first people I study.
Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer are both super highly paid copywriters. They know their stuff when it comes to copy. But Dan also talks about direct mail marketing. He talks about wealth attraction. He talks about time management. He’s all over the place. Anything that has to do with business, Dan Kennedy’s probably wrote a book about it.
In fact, I just got his most recent book a couple weeks ago called, “No B.S. Price Strategy”. I’ve actually got it up on my bookshelf here but I don’t want to knock down my whiteboard to pull it down. He’s got a book called, “No B.S. Price Strategy”. So he pretty much talks about everything. Bill Glazer is mostly on the direct marketing side. He does teach copywriting, as well. He’s copywriting and direct mail marketing and Dan Kennedy’s pretty much everything you could imagine around business.
So number two. Number two, this guy is actually someone I just recently discovered within the last year or something. But I really, really love the stuff that he teaches. It’s become some of my favorite material. Some of my favorite training, basically. His name is Joe Polish.
Joe Polish runs a business called Piranha Marketing. He released a set of CDs, I think by the same name called, “Piranha Marketing” with a guy named Tim Paulson and is probably one of the best audio CDs I’ve ever listened to for just general marketing stuff. Basically, they go into everything. Everything you could imagine about building a business and how to market your business properly to make it successful. Definitely, definitely check them out.
Now, I want to let you know, this is in order of how I study them.
This is the number one guy I would check out.
This is the number two guy I would check out, getting started.
So look into Dan Kennedy, then look into Joe Polish.
Amazing, amazing stuff. His “Nightingale Conant” CDs are great CDs and I listen to them pretty much every time I’m in my car.
Let’s see here. Number three is a guy named Gary Halbert. Now, Gary Halbert actually passed away a few years ago but he was a legendary copywriter. He knows his stuff when it comes to copy. In fact, a lot of the techniques used in the copy you see online today, were probably invented by this guy. The really catchy headline, the testimonials you see on the websites. A lot of that stuff was by this guy.
He’s a genius. He’s a little bit out there, a little bit crazy. But when you listen to his stuff, it’s fun to listen to but it just makes sense. It’s really, really, really good stuff and Dan Kennedy and Joe Polish both talk about Gary Halbert as, basically, their mentor. So, Gary Halbert is definitely somebody to check out.
Number four. A guy named John Carlton. Now John Carlton is another legendary copywriter, and the thing I love about John Carlton is that he just really simplifies copywriting. He’s got a system called, “The Simple Writing System” and he basically just simplifies all the concepts in writing copy.
Now, if you haven’t noticed a little bit of a pattern here, I’m really into studying copywriters. Not only do copywriters have some of the best marketing minds, but they know how to use the written word and the spoken word to make people want to buy. They use their knowledge of marketing to shape their words and the way they put things to make things… Just want to buy whatever you’re selling.
That’s why I think copywriting is the number one, most important thing you could study. You want to be able to make people want to buy whatever you’re selling. By understanding copy and the little NLP techniques that copywriters throw in there and the little triggers that get people to buy. That’s what’s going to make you the most successful in this business. That’s why, for the most part, study mostly copywriters.
Then finally, the number five person who I always love to follow is good old Frank Kern. Everybody seems to know his name. He seems to probably be the biggest celebrity in the internet marketing space. There’s probably not many people that would disagree with me on that. He’s definitely a celebrity internet marketer.
The thing I love about Frank Kern and the reason that I study him, is he’s a great example of using personality in your marketing. He is someone that has created this image for himself. He’s created this persona that people just relate to and really enjoy listening to. That’s what I want to model after Frank Kern.
I want to model someone that everybody relates to and everybody thinks is just a fun guy. Everybody wants to hang out with Frank Kern. They see videos of Frank Kern and they’re like, “Man. That guy seems like a cool dude. I want to hang out with him.” That’s what I love about Frank Kern. That’s why I think he should be studied.
I mean, the programs he does. The list control, the mass control, the stuff like that. It’s great stuff. I’ve studied it all, it’s great.
But I love to study more what Frank Kern does and less of the actual content that he teaches. He is a great model of somebody to study. How he puts himself into the world, how… The persona that he’s created for himself is a great little case study.
So, these are my top five marketers that I follow. If you’re just getting into the marketing world, I would look into all five of these. I’d probably start with Dan Kennedy because he has books on pretty much everything. Start out with his “No B.S. Time Management”. Probably my favorite book by him. Second favorite book by him is “No B.S. Wealth Attraction”. I love both of those books. You can start with those and then start digging into some of his books that have more meat on creating online businesses and creating businesses.
I’d also pick up Joe Polish’s CDs. The “Piranha Marketing” CDs. That is great, great, great stuff about how to turn basically any business into a multi-million dollar business. In fact, Joe Polish, himself, was a carpet cleaner and he used some of the marketing strategies that he teaches to turn his carpet cleaning business into just this multi-million dollar, carpet cleaning empire. It’s pretty cool stuff to study.
Then, of course, Gary Halbert is pretty much the father of copywriting. Dan Kennedy, Joe Polish, John Carlton, Frank Kern. All these guys studied Gary Halbert. So if all these guys are studying this guy, he’s probably somebody you want to study.
So, there you go. That’s who I follow. Hopefully, you enjoyed this video. I’ll be doing more like it. In my next video, I’ll actually show you some of the training programs that I’m actually going through. I’ll get into it a little more in detail the next video, but a lot of people ask me what stuff am I studying right now to further grow my business?
So, I thought that’d be a pretty cool video to make. Just kind of show you the stuff that I’m working through at the moment. I’ll see you guys in the next video. Hopefully, you enjoyed this one.
That’s it. I’m done. See ya.
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Thanks for the names. There were a couple of people mentioned that I have missed. They are now on my list.
Hey Matt, Most all the guys are super. I have just began to study a couple of them. I also like Clayton Makepeace and Michael Masterson.
Matt, what a fantastic list. My list would look very similar.
I would definitely include Dan Kennedy, Joe Polish, Gary Halbert and John Carlton, but instead of Frank, I would put Jason Fladlien.
Jason is a brilliant all rounder who never brags or boasts, he’s a six figure marketer who has produced a ton of brilliant products, all reasonably priced., and he’s a brilliant copywriter..
Sorry Frank… I still love you man, but I think Jason is better lol.
Great Article..
Keith
Jason Fladlien is great. I definitely agree with you. I’ve actually purchased quite a few of his products in the past.
I go through phases of who I’m currently studying. Right now I’m in a copywriting phase and love studying all the great copywriters. J Flad ain’t so bad at copy himself either.
Thanks for commenting!
Matt
Thanks for supplying the list of names, some I agree some I don’t but overall a great job. Keep up the great work, bring it on home.
Well, Gary Halbert makes sense, the others…not so much. Joe Polish and the fourth guy I’ve never heard of and Frank Kern…to put it in Frank Kern’s style…is a piece of shit. Frank Kern has made a name for himself by being a clown and nothing more. As far as Dan Kennedy is concerned, I’m a better copywriter. But Gary Halbert…now there’s a superstar.
By the way, your next investment should be in a light and learn to write bigger. Not a thing you wrote on your whiteboard could be seen clearly.
Who do I pay attention to? Well, for starters there’s Chris Farrell. He’s more of an affiliate marketer and membership guy and I don’t do any affiliate marketing or membership, but I like most of what he has to say anyway. Otherwise I have been looking a lot at Tim Castleman and other offline specialists. I wouldn’t call myself a follower but they do have some interesting things to say.
I think there’s only one thing I agree with you on your entire comment… Gary Halbert was a superstar.
As far as my lighting and writing… When I have an idea for a video, I just make it. It’s not meant to be a polished sales video or anything. It’s meant to be an quick informative video. I’d rather make it real quick than worry about all of the technical stuff and never get it made.
As far as Frank and Dan… I couldn’t disagree more. Mass Control was one of the best products I studied and it was one of the leading factors that helped get me out of my day job. Frank is a master at making people relate to him (even if you don’t). And for Dan… I love his No BS books and his monthly newsletter. So many “Aha” moments from reading those. No BS Wealth attraction and No BS time management are two of my favorite books of all time.
I do agree that Chris Farrell is a great guy. He’s actually one of my good friends. Not sure how much affiliate marketing he actually does… But he does have an awesome membership site.
Matt
Well, that, my boy, is what makes horse races. You have your opinion…I have mine. As for my comments about the lighting: What’s the point of making a video to educate if it is so dark no one can see it? Is your desire to educate or just to make a video? Think about it, don’t take umbrage.
At least we apparently agree about Gary Halbert and Chris Farrell. If you don’t know Tim Castleman, you should get to know him. He just made a very insightful post on his blog.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll check out Tim. I also do have a lighting setup already. I just made a quick video and didn’t think the lighting was too bad when I shot it. From now on, I’ll make sure to light it up better. It’s a good suggestion and I apologize for my original response.
I have a couple recommendations. Check out Dan Kennedy’s books “No BS Wealth Attraction” and “No BS Time Management”. Those two books exemplify why I like Dan Kennedy. I also recommend grabbing Frank Kern’s free “?” book. (It literally just has a question mark on the cover). I think you’ll find that he’s got some pretty dang good information in there.
I agree with Keith. I would definitely put Jason Fladlien on the list. He is not only an amazing marketer, but he is also a good guy. Another person who has helped me personally in my IM career is Dennis Becker. I really appreciate people who are not only good at what they do, but who are also generous in helping others succeed as well.
-Norene
Hi Matt,
Interesting bit of info from you. I follow John Thornhill and his forum for general marketing techniques, blogging etc. I follow Dave Nicholson for more tech ideas improving traffic etc. I follow Kim Roach for ideas on JV’s and alternative marketing ideas from the afore mentioned folks.
The good thing is that you are covering all of these same areas to some degree and put other ideas to accomplish the same end.
I really like the direction you are heading and willing to help out however I can.
Jay
John Thornhill and Dave Nicholson are good guys as well. I’ve studied some of there stuff a little bit. They are great affiliate marketers. I’ve kind of shied away from affiliate marketing lately (too much junk going around).
Kim Roach is awesome! She is one of my favorite marketers at the moment and is actually becoming a pretty good friend as well. She really does good stuff and she really does care about the people she teaches.
Not to mention that Kim is a lot better looking than John or Dave. lol
Hi Matt – I really like the personal “short” videos you send to us. As a newbie of around 14 months now, I’m finding out the “If you build it, they will come” is a punch of Bull. If it wasn’t for you and the WordPress Classroom, I probably would have called it quits.
When I first started out (14 months ago) I got on everyone’s email list. After a while, there just wasn’t enough time in the day to read all the email from these guys. Although I’m on over 100 mailing list of Guru’s, I now only follow or should I say, go out of my way to read around 5 people now. You are one of them and Marcus Campbel l is another. I am in several or Marcus course.
Thanks for making us feel like part of your person family.
The guy that helped me most from the beginning was Dennis Becker, the 5 buck guy. Real solid stuff when starting out. I’m still a member of his site.
I’m into affiliate marketing so my other favs would be Matt Carter, George Brown and Mark Ling.
Jonathon Leger has great methods and products.
Isn’t it funny how peoples opinions differ. I never felt comfortable with Frank Kern. Always felt like he was using smoke and mirrors. Whenever I listen to him speak it reminded me of talking to a used car salesman. Perception is a wonderful thing.
Thanks, Matt for all the time and effort you put into giving us good information. I’m kind of new to internet marketing, so although I’ve heard of most of these people, I haven’t spent much time following them. I have been doing some affiliate marketing, and I have to say I really like Matt Carter. He is like you as far as wanting to help people succeed online. He is a great guy, honest and has a lot of knowledge about and has done well with affiliate marketing, yet isn’t boastful or arrogant.
Matt Ling is another one I follow somewhat. So I guess the 3 people I follow the most right now are the 3 Matts (you being one). Thanks again.
Hello Matt,
Thanks for sharing this video. I have been a follower of Dan kennedy since the early 90′s.
I have his book the ultimate sales letter and a few more including, No B.S. Wealth Attraction.
I remember marketing guru, Jeff Paul saying how he spent his last few thousand dollars to attend a Dan Kennedy seminar, Dan showed Jeff how to tweak a sales letter fro a product he, Jeff, was promoting and the rest is history.
Dan is certainly the Man.
I have heard of Joe Polish and Gary Halbert, but never seen any of their stuff.
I will be checking them out now though.
I recently recieved Frank Kerns big white book with the large ? on it,
Frank does not beat around man, he dove right into it from the first page.
I like how he says to first determine your “ULT”, your ultimate lifestyle target.
He showed how you should fisrt decide what it will cost for the life style you want. Break it down in monthly cost/steps.
I did that.
Prior to reading Franks book I would say I wanted to make X amount of dollars per year, and the large number would seem impossible to acheive.
However, after I began to break it down to the lowest denominator, it somehow seemed achieveable.
$45,000 year is $124 or so per day, and I break it down further from there, into manageable chunks.
Wow man, thanks for sharing how you became successful.
Cheers,
Willie
Hi Matt, Thanks for this. I’ve not been around in this IM world for long so I’d only heard of Frank Kern. Will look into the others. It all seems to be a bit of an affiliate circle with lots of them selling the others stuff. One that I’ve learnt a lot from (without doing his $2k course) is Jeff Walker – Product Launch Formula – I know it’s only a mash of others’ stuff, but it’s worth watching him do a launch to see how it’s done…. I made copious notes before he pulled it down
New on to the scene is Brendan Burchard who seems to be making a lot of sense of the material. Anyhow, I’m also learning a lot from the WP Classroom.
Keep up the good work, and you might like to reconsider your response to Joelin – he’s not wrong about your use of the board. F
You’re right. I will do my best to light up the white board better in the future.
If anyone else is having problems reading the white board in this video, click the little box in the lower right-hand corner to view in full screen. It will make a big difference.
Number one on my list is Chris Farrell and among the many reasons why, I have found that nobody does an over the shoulder video like Chris does. There are other things about Chris that makes me rate him this high, and sincerity is high on the list of his assets. Second for me is Matt Carter. His members love him and he too seems to have his people’s well being in mind. His videos are informative and you can learn from him. Third is Sean Donahoe who I deem as nearly brilliant in his knowledge of the various areas of Internet marketing. My fourth is Kim Roach, if not for anything else, she is brilliant in her research for new methods of getting traffic. Finally there is tie for me as to my favorite fifth marketers between Mark Flavin, Dave Guindon, Matt Wolfe, Chad Kimball and the Marketing Assassins, all brilliant in their own right. Paul
Thanks so much for posting this video. I’m new to blogging and I’ve been trying to come up with topics to write about, and you just gave me an idea. Although I’ve never heard of any of the top marketers you’ve listed, I’m quite sure they’re awesome considering the success you’ve achieved. I’m also trying to promote my primary business, so I can use all the advice I can get. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Hi Matt,
Interesting choice, I would have only guessed one of those -Frank Kern.
If you were writing a list of the five marketers who have had the most impact on you since you started building an online business, who would they be?
Thank
Keith
Hey Keith,
Thanks for commenting. You are correct that these are the five marketers that are currently having the most impact on me.
The five marketers that probably had the most impact on me when I was first starting out are actually quite different.
1. Ramit Sethi – I Will Teach You To Be Rich – The first blog I ever started reading regularly.
2. Jeremy Schoemaker – Shortly after getting in to Ramit’s blog I wanted to learn more about blogging. I discovered Shoemoney….
3. Darren Rowse – I started making money online by blogging… Problogger really helped me get going.
4. Ewen Chia – Ewen was the first person that I started following that discussed list building.
5. Alex Jeffreys – Alex’s program helped me uncover how I could take my skills with blogging and teach those skills to other.
Bonus – Josh Bartlett – Josh was probably my first true “Mentor”. He’s helped me change my mindset so that I see the marketing in every product and the opportunities that exist everywhere.
Great question. Maybe this will be a whole other blog post on its own.
How are you Matt, Thanks for sharing this info, it is true you often wonder, who is the real deal, There certainly has been a lot of names mentioned here and I think it’s just as important to follow someone you feel comfortable with and is relevant to your current involvement. when I started I was on a lot of lists, but apart from the ones that were just pushing product after product down my throat, which I soon dumped, a lot of the others were just simply too advanced for me, as interesting as they may have been.
I soon learnt that my time was too precious to just keep listening to them people like Frank K, Jeff W, Mike F, Eben P, Jeff J, the list could go on, but if you are not where they are at, then it’s just entertainment. When you are trying to get a business up and running your time is short so my advise would be listen and follow who ever is delivering what is relative to your current situation.
Great video Matt….Keep up the good work, Many thanks…Peter
Great share Matt. Only the name Frank Kern was heard of as I haven’t been involved for many years in Internet Marketing, but Jason Fladlien is a talented guy, fun too and seems genuine. Chris Farrell most definitely excellent and easy-to-listen too, with great sincerity, especially with membership for newbies. Also heard the same about Dennis Becker and his helpfulness. Definitely will look at some of the others you mention. Adam Short is a great teacher too. Just learning from Sean Donahue in Extreme Niche Empires, with some great tips. Dave Guindon has a nice teaching style, as with Mark Ling. Will also look at Kym Roach…. simply because she’s a woman lol! In the end it comes down to who cares enough to care enough about their students too, me thinks.
This is a great idea for a blog post – I get to read the influences of every one who posts a reply as well as learn about yours!
My marketer milestones would be
Matt Bacak
Tellman
Mike Filsaime
David Walker
Mark Joyner
and of course, yourself!
Prospero
Thanks for the post and thanks for providing the transcript.
Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge and experience. I’m still starting on my web marketing adelaide; this post is definitely useful to me. Cheers!:-)