231. “Organic Growth by Presenting to Close” with Joel Bauer

Dawn talks with Joel Bauer, a 45-year live-event and conversion expert, about why “presenting to close” and organic growth are increasingly important as audiences become desensitized to AI-driven, low-trust marketing and expensive paid ads. Bauer argues businesses must deliver immersive, emotionally compelling experiences, teach real value up front, and lead with authenticity, proof, and guarantees rather than exaggeration. He outlines a practical organic system: clarify the problem you solve (financial, emotional, or physiological), use short video testimonials and a simple 12-page QR-linked “book” to build authority, capture leads via phone/text and direct mail, and run low-cost quarterly events where 25–40% may convert. 

In this episode…

Who is Joel Bauer and whom does he serve? (01:28)

Live Events Authority (01:34)

Low Trust Marketing (03:32)

AI And Human Value (05:14)

Teach Not Tease (06:20)

Ad Spend Pitfalls (10:12)

Three Market Categories (11:30)

Authority Through Books (13:13)

Sensory Communication (15:01)

Authenticity And Image (18:45)

Murse Pitch Demo (22:52)

Follow Up And Events (27:14)

Rinse Repeat Conversions (30:05)

Proof Driven Marketing (30:32)

Offline Beats Noise (31:30)

Trade Show Reinvention (33:24)

Projecting The Solution (34:38)

Crowd Creation Props (38:48)

Self Selection Strategy (43:12)

Fast Event Setup (45:26)

Organic Sales Proof (49:41)

Where To Find Joel (51:19)

Humanity Final Word (53:49)

Joel Bauer’s Information:

Website: https://joelbauer.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelbauer/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/joelbauer

Transcript

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Dawn Kennedy: 0:03

Welcome to Business Mastery with Dawn Kennedy your quick under forty five minute dose of expert insights and strategies to make a positive impact on your business and life. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to this episode of the Business Mastery Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about organic growth, but very specifically presenting to close. And I've got Joel here who's been doing this forever and ever and ever to walk us through it. And we're going to talk about why this is more important than ever for business owners who may have stepped back over the last few years and allowed more kind of social sorts of things to do, some of their converting. So thank you, Joel. I appreciate you being here today.

Joel Bauer: 0:49

Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed we actually spoke before the session and I wanted to understand what your people need most. And so anything you want that I have that I can produce actual results for them because I certainly understand organic. In fact, we just ran an organic event. I spent no money and the revenue was significant. And I'm happy to discuss whatever process is. And most people don't know how to do that. And the problem is there's a lot of noise out Everyone looks like they have something to offer, but then very often they can't deliver. When the people get there and they leave.

Dawn Kennedy: 1:25

Right? Yeah. Right. So before we dive too far in, can you tell everyone who you are and who you serve?

Joel Bauer: 1:30

Yeah, I reside in Southern California here. And for the last forty five years, I've conducted live events and I've been told by producers, marketers, serial entrepreneurs, people in the insurance automotive industry, sales people doing launches, IPOs that was able to convert people where there was no conversion possible. And they asked me to deconstruct my process about thirty four years ago, and I said, no one ever asked me to do that. So they put thirty nine people in a room at the Marriott Warner Center down the street. And these were some of the top people in the industry, highest converting marketers. I didn't know most of them. They were just put there by another producer, and the results were radical for them, meaning I was able to transfer my process, deconstruct it, make it bite size and emotionally compelling. And because it was live and immersive and they were doing things, which is the difference that you have to give people an experience now where they're actually and the word is experience, that you can't just talk at them or through them or around them. There needs to be intimacy. And so they just kept asking me to do it again again. And I didn't even advertise. It was all word of mouth. And we were sold out for fifty master classes. I said I would retire after twenty five and I I lasted about two days and I was like, wait a minute, what am I going to sit here on a lawn chair and stare into the eternal abyss? So I did twenty five more.

Dawn Kennedy: 3:08

Strategy, though. I mean.

Joel Bauer: 3:09

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, but it wasn't a scarcity thing. It was like we made enough money doing it, and we did about a million dollars with fifty to seventy five people in a room. Front end, back end. Right. And I did, I was transparent, vulnerable, pulled back the curtain, which is another thing people to know that putting on a mask is not going to serve you lying. The duplicity and prevarication and exaggeration that's out there is really doing damage for people. They say millions of dollars generated, and they've been doing TikTok for three and a half months, and they just figure no one's going to catch him. Well, what catches up to them is it all sounds the same. And so people begin to believe nothing, even when someone's telling the truth. And so how do you sift, sort, sift and separate through the muck these days and attract an audience, convert them from suspect to prospect, a prospect of someone interested, prospect to customer, customer to raving fan, raving fan to referral mechanism and then rinse and repeat the process with or without AI. AI can be very useful. It can also make you numb and dumb where you're not able to think, mentor, or coach. And that's a problem. And I see that happening, but not with my graduates, and peers that I've trained.

Dawn Kennedy: 4:32

Amazing. So before we dive too far into the processes and the strategies, let's talk about, I'm going to call it pendulum swing. I don't know if it's really a pendulum swing or it's just there's been so much noise. People are craving that human to human interaction, that conversation. They're not just getting on a discovery call anymore and fifteen minutes later, making a decision. Can we talk about sort of what's changed in the marketplace and why people are looking more towards these live events or events where they're not just talking to a person?

Joel Bauer: 5:11

Well, the AI is really serving people like myself and CTOs and CFOs and CMOs and founders and people that are running a big game, or people that want to launch and scale, and even the newbies. It's really doing a service for all of us because very quickly, we're seeing that the marketplace is becoming desensitized, that very quickly, even people that don't know what's happening, they sense it's a clone, they sense it's ripped off copy, they sense. So if you can't deliver when the people arrive and you can't give them an immersive, emotionally compelling, really interactive experience, like we're shooting a perennial and evergreen webinar this afternoon at one o'clock. When I'm done with you here, and all I concentrate on is, how do I treat them? As if I was going to die tomorrow at four p m Pacific Standard Time. And this was my last day. What could I give them that would leverage and protect their family and launch their concepts and nurture them with the revenue that they require? And when you think that way and you really try and create value. See, people are telling people now that don't teach, just tease. And I, the brilliant Dan Kennedy, one of the finest marketers on the planet. Brilliant, brilliant. I love Dan's thinking, but he was always about the tease and the agitate. He wouldn't actually teach them anything until they paid. It was a structure or a metaphor, and it was brilliantly delivered. But that's not working so well anymore. They really do need to get value, and you need to give them your best out of the gate. And then they're still going to want to be with because they realize and recognize that without a mentor, someone coaching them, who's already done what it they want to do. And that's the distinction and it's doing it currently. I really want everyone to make a note of that, that the only people that people tune into and will buy from are people in a position of true authority that have already done, achieve the result, broken it down and can transfer it and have a track record for transferring it to others. So this whole idea that you can be out of the gate, go to AI, have it deliver your landing page and all your copy and take care of your meta and automatically align all the stars and the that's not working very well right now. In fact, they blow their wad, whatever they had saved up, they blow on a media campaign or Instagram or they happen to put it, Google ads. Next thing they're out of money. They've got this thing that looks beautiful. They couldn't deliver, which is why the people left when they got there. So you must have something of value. And the only thing people really have is a life experience. Whether it was a belief system or a hobby or a workflow. They need to take the thing. They really have expertise in their mastery, the thing that they're consciously and unconsciously competent with, and that's the only thing they should be putting out there, packaging it, creating their hooks, and able deliver from a position of true competence where no question within the boundaries they've identified. No question will derail them otherwise. And so essentially they become a ChatGPT in human form. It's human intelligence AI, and that's should be. Not I'm not talking to you. You're brilliant. And actually we've we're actually investing in you because we thought you were a brilliant, brilliant attorney. And I didn't when I first heard of I didn't think about that. But you're wonderful because you're honest and you cut to the chase and you tell people like it is. And so people really need to have that candor and that precision. And they're not going to, for example, let's just take AI, for example. Everyone's jumping on the AI bandwagon, but they actually don't understand how it's built, how it's constructed, where it fails, where it's going. They don't understand quantum or where. And so they have two or three tools they figured out how to use, and they sell someone a bill of goods and then it doesn't work. It doesn't monetize, it doesn't scale, it doesn't have any longevity. And people are seeing through this very You've got to be able to support the you make. And the other thing is this whole TikTok mentality of short attention span that you're not going to change someone's life in 60s that there is training necessary. It doesn't mean they can't have radical results in about three months. Radical when you've trained them and held their hand and nurtured them and get them to the point where they're there consciously and again, as I said, consciously and unconsciously competent, where they can execute and they're residing in their mastery and everyone has it. We've never had a failure. Anyone who's made the moves that I teach and transfer my life's work. It's a formula. And then I'm happy to reveal as much or as little as you would like.

Dawn Kennedy: 10:08

Yeah, I'd like to get into the formulas and the styles, but I do have a note here. When we did our pre chat, can we talk a little about that cost to acquire? That was one of the big things that hit me when you were telling me, not only do we need to go more because people are craving that human intelligence, that human judgment, that ability to transfer products and services. But you made an incredible statement about what marketing Roas cost to acquire is actually doing to businesses right now, as we're starting to get AI replacing and Google.

Joel Bauer: 10:47

Well, the problem is, let's say most people are going to embrace Meta Andromeda. They're going to embrace the AI infrastructure within Facebook meta. And the problem is, if you happen to nail a creative that works, whether it's static or dynamic video or just a graphic you threw together in Canva or whatever, if it gets immediate traction, they'll push it and it's all automated. There's no human being at the helm unless you say the right thing. And even then, it'll automatically derail you. So the people who are not in the business of politics or religion, and I really want them to hear this, don't talk about it. If you solve a problem that's financial, emotional or physiological. So financial, anything that makes people money quickly or realistically and rationally, that can really help them to protect their family. That's financial. There's only three divisions financial. The second is emotional, cathartic If you can take someone from depression and regression to exaltation, to transcendence to enlightenment, and you really have that process of breakthrough. You can change their mindset, their mission, and give them the move. Fantastic. That's the second category. There's only three categories. So anyone out there right now, as I address that question, they need to realize there's only three options. And the third is physiological transformation cancer. Four to the doctor can't explain what happened to the elimination of inflammation, which is ninety eight percent of all death on the planet. And it's the one thing that can be controlled. And when you tell someone how to eliminate inflammation, they don't listen. So it's very, very difficult. It's either going to be financial, emotional, physiological. So once they understand their message to market match, then they can begin to have this alignment and they can begin to market and differentiate themselves. If they don't get the message to market match correct and they don't understand the solution they're providing and they can't articulate or frame it, they're going to fail. They're not only going to fail emotionally and financially, but even existentially, like they're going to feel like, wait a minute, I absolutely can't do they can't do it because they don't know what they have to offer. And so that framing is absolutely mission critical. Now, I may be digressing here. It may seem that way, but they have to get that right. Now, if they get that right and they put it out there. And when I originally and I don't want anyone buying this, all monies were given to Make-A-Wish Foundation. This was my first book that I put out. I did not write this book. I spoke it and it was transcribed by a writer that I hired. So he just asked me questions and I answered them. And they're in the book. The book put me on sixty one television shows in the first two months. So essentially it sounds like one a day, but it like three or four a day. And some of these shows, like in New York, there were seven million responses like crazy. Something I could never have anticipated. So I'd like everyone to make a note who's listening in that the book, even if you're an idiot. I hate to say this, but I've met a lot of authors who I thought were idiots. Like they actually didn't know what they put in their book because it didn't come from their heart. It was written by AI or someone else. And that's a problem because if you don't know what you're putting out there and you can't articulate it, translate it with mastery, then you're not only not an authority, but now you're a fake and it comes across. So this book took my income at the time, and this is old because my daughter's twelve here. She's thirty four now. So this book took me from two hundred and thirty seven thousand dollars a year to two point two million within eight months. And all it did was increase my authority and perceived value. Then I learned. So I don't want to intimidate people here full circle. After putting out a whole bunch of books. And I realize that most people are listening right now, and I'm not even naming the books, but these books, these hardcover books with major publishers that were a pain in the butt to get out there. Well, now it's down to twelve pages. And so if they will just come up with an instrument that essentially provides value, teaches three things. It's very emotionally compelling. There's only twelve pages on the current book that I hand out or send out or offer online. On our website. People will consume twelve pages with pictures, with QR codes that are video, audio driven, emotionally see it, hear it, feel it, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, not NLP Basic Biology one hundred and one. They need to see it, hear it, and feel it. I want people to make a note that when you communicate, it has to be in sensory. Most people are a talking head. They don't have the visuals. They don't have the heart connection necessarily. Gotta have all three. Or you're only reaching one third of your because they see, they hear, they feel. So if they learn one thing today, it's. They need to communicate in sensory. When you have a book, even twelve pages long people have no attention span anymore. I'm not saying everyone. You do. You have to. As an Esquire.

Dawn Kennedy: 16:06

Yeah.

Joel Bauer: 16:07

Sometimes this converts. You hand them this. You tell them you don't want to read it. The videos, their QR codes on the pages, it becomes an interactive, proactive mechanism, and they understand what you offer and they understand your expertise. You've given them the gift of seduction, ethical moral and induction to your world, and you've done it in twelve pages, short, sweet, to the point. Then they are offered in your instrument a training that is comprehensive, potentially free, high value, where they get to experience you addressing their concerns, doing some coaching and mentoring, solving some problems. And they realize that, wait a minute. And this is the answer to your question. This person has proven in real time that they what ChatGPT, what Gemini, what Claude cannot do. They can give me tons of ideas and generate great graphics, but I need a human being to hold my hand and to sense things with emotional intelligence. And beyond that, right now, the AI may never be able to be a substitute for. So it's not that AI is replacing anyone, it's that we're replacing ourselves by becoming codependent on it and transferring our knowledge to it, not realizing We're the ones programming it, right? And I have our business is probably stronger than ever before. Like I like, I believe that podcast with you is the only valuable social media because whether the audience is five hundred or five million doesn't really matter if the audience is interested. If they believe in you and they're going to believe in the people because you're very careful in vetting you bring on, that they offer real value. You've done your research. And so suddenly an audience of, let's just say it's fifty people, really small, but very, very attentive to the person interviewing. The most valuable thing someone can do is discuss their proven transferable principles, systems, and ideas with an audience that is looking for solutions to monetize and position themselves as the only logical choice, both online and offline.

Dawn Kennedy: 18:33

You said something interesting before about being authentic and transparent. Going back many, many, many many, many, many, many, many years nowadays. I guess again, we're not going to call it a pendulum swing, but people are craving that, I think more than ever. What would you say to the people who are like, okay, that's great. I can make the little book, I can do the shows, I'll do the little videos. What else do I need to do to add value in this low trust marketing space right now, or the low trust environment so that I can get to the place where we're having that conversation, right? There are people who are going to be like, I don't want I mean, I'll be vulnerable, I'll tell the good news stories or I'll tell this or I'll tell that, but it might make people think X, Y, Z if I actually give them the full rundown, the full monty, if you will.

Joel Bauer: 19:25

My process and I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to answer your question by telling you precisely how my and I generated between one point three and one point seven million a year as a base income without spending one penny on advertising because I think that this is really important. It is. It addresses your concern. How do you get yourself out there authentically without pretending to be someone else, without lying or duplicity or some kind of prevarication, which is there's lot of that out there these days. And it seems to be people are applauding it. They're actually telling you exaggerate, no, don't exaggerate. So let's say I put on a suit, right? Like I'm dressed the way I dress right now, when I leave the house, I might take off the tie, open collar. But would you agree that if you go to Costco or you go to a movie theater, or you go out now virtually every day that people aren't dressed up, that they're sloppy and not standing out in the crowd. And my grandfather taught me this. And my grandmothers, they were always really well appointed. It wasn't they don't come from wealth. I'm just saying they put themselves together. So I was taught this by my grandfather. He said, you're being judged. So the first point of contact online, offline, like today, I could have just gotten out of bed and put on a different t shirt. Right. And you've seen that you've interviewed people like that. I bothered it. This is my mom. It's the only thing I wanted from my grandmother when it's beautiful. And she asked me, everyone else wanted money in will. I just said I'd like my mom's statue because I grew up looking at that statue, and that means something to me. So my mother said, and my grandparents, everyone said, put yourself together. You're being judged. Even though people aren't supposed to do that, they do it immediately. So if I go out like this, even open collar in in fact, I'm going to take this off right now.

Dawn Kennedy: 21:23

Go for it.

Joel Bauer: 21:24

Okay. And I want to make this point that right now, without the tie, I'm still put together French cuff men or women. I've been teaching this forever. You'll be amazed at how you're treated. And if someone tests this for three days, just three days, just put yourself together as if you're going to church or synagogue or Malcolm X or whatever. You're into going to a special Academy Awards, but a little even an open collar, you are treated differently. Number two, they're going to ask you, and this is what they did with me. And I'm not I don't have it right here. I have it over there. If you want me to grab it, I will. I can show you what percentage of your people actually watch a video and not just the audio component.

Dawn Kennedy: 22:07

I'm not one hundred percent sure because we're also video on Spotify. So we get from there to so we have YouTube watchers and Spotify watchers.

Joel Bauer: 22:15

So if I promise you that this over million dollar revelation that I still use to this day may have greater value than anything they've heard on any other podcast or video production, would you allow me to take three seconds to grab

Dawn Kennedy: 22:33

Absolutely. That's what we're here for. Business mastery means also sometimes talking about the topics that might be so incredibly important but are incredibly uncomfortable at the same time. Like put yourself out there, put yourself together, get in front of the video. I hear people driving and they're listening and they're like, man.

Joel Bauer: 22:53

So I am now holding a murse a man's purse. And you must admit, it just looks like a notebook. It has JB just beginning Joel Bauer, whatever you want it to mean. It's not very expensive. And inside this, there's a zipper. If I dress this way and I not kid, you and I go to the post office. I go to the dry cleaner, I meet someone, I take them to lunch or whatever. I go out and I just live my life, go to the gym. There is never a time where I'm not asked, what you do? What are you in do? What are you about? Now? Unlike other people who will discuss their unique selling proposition or positioning statement. I know how to do all that. I've been teaching the art of the pitch my whole life. I don't talk to him anymore. I flip this open and so all I did was flip open this little notebook. And then I hit one button. And I scroll up and the video is instantly there. Whether it's on an iPhone or an Android really doesn't matter. In this case, I'm going to put it in their hands. Well, I'm trying to save the fourteen to forty year learning curve. Able to nurture and close.

Speaker 3: 24:07

He knows. He knows the psychology of every step, not online, but online in all areas of sales. Persuasion, two million dollars, three clients, strength and less than twelve months.

Dawn Kennedy: 24:24

So you have your testimonials. So one.

Joel Bauer: 24:26

Of the yeah.

Dawn Kennedy: 24:27

But but not really. It's setting your authority.

Joel Bauer: 24:31

So instead of my telling them how great I am, or asking them a question which sometimes they find irritating. This whole idea of oh, always that okay, that's true. It's very effective. More effective than talking at them. But let's face it, they're not engaged by yet. So you're nicely presented. Maybe you're with one of your children. I have three grown children. I always took them with me, and they would see me do this over and over. And they all graduated different universities, and they're all using the techniques they were exposed to. And so this is direct. So instead of telling people how great you have a thirty to sixty second video. You didn't ask to show them. They asked you and you say, hold this. And then you put them into this immersive series of micro testimonials about people that achieved either financial, emotional or physiological breakthrough or combination thereof. And the next thing they're going, oh. You see, this is the direct translation. What you do is not about what you do, it's about the result generated. What is the result? What problem did you solve in this case? Financial. I then let it fall. So the little video just the phone just kind of flops down. And then inside my little tiny murse, which organizes my whole life. It's a basic organizer. I give them something called a VIP say, would you like to have. Would those people have the same result? Because that's all that I do on the planet. Now I'm with my family, or I'm transferring my life's work to someone else. And I will give you a five thousand dollars masterpass putting you in a VIP position at my next training. Now, it could be online. It could be offline. You just won them over in a matter of seconds. We're talking. I've spent less than two minutes with them, and I speak the way I'm speaking to you. I speak very quietly because that pulls them in. When you push it out there, they pull back the intimacy of just speaking from the heart and speaking in truth, authenticity and proof. You tell the truth because it's easier to remember than your lies. You remain authentic to yourself, so your moral fabric and integrity is always intact. And you show the proof behind every where there's no question and you overcome all their objections. Because if you're always proving without being argumentative, right? If you're always proving that everything works right then and there, then there are no objections and they want to embrace it. So every three to five of these I give out out of every ten, it's three to five that show up. And then all I do is put them in a follow up process of emails, voice broadcasting, text. Obviously anything relating to their phone is going to be infinitely better than email. Now, what's really interesting in a world of email, what now stands out is direct mail. People aren't used to receiving anything that's emotionally compelling in the mail, because people stopped and emails get filed and then thrown away or never looked at So when you can reach them on their phone and they give you permission. And so I hand them my phone, which is secured and set up appropriately for this. And I go, when you dial in your number now, I will not solicit you. I will make sure that you receive training, preparation, leverage and unfair advantage before I train you. And I will allow you to bring up to three family members and up to three cohorts, people that you believe in, that could use some help here. Because if you're not able to monetize online and offline, then the next time the rug is pulled out with a pandemic or Y2K or whatever they come up with, please understand that you're going to be in trouble. I want to put you in a position where you avoid the challenge, where money is not a concern and your emotional world isn't destroyed. People that you care about, the people that you serve. Now I'm telling you to buy to print something like this is about a hundred bucks for five thousand.

Dawn Kennedy: 28:48

Wow.

Joel Bauer: 28:49

I hand him this. This is like direct mail, right? They have something. They take it with them. The next thing I gift them, which is loaded at base architecture of this. I always have three of these loaded as I hand them my book. And I say, now this is twelve pages and this is going to prepare you by teaching you three of the principles that allowed those people to generate the results you just heard about. This is going to prepare you for the event. Now, whether you watch it, listen to it, read it or not, I wanted to give you an unfair advantage because most people will tell you they're going to do something and then it doesn't happen. I'm not going to let you down. I'm going to treat you perhaps better than family. And it's this kind of approach that has massive impact. So we would then conduct four events, minimum per year, one every three months for our events. The morning of to rent the room is like three to five hundred dollars. Not exactly a capital investment and projector screen or big TV set. Not a big deal. They need to see it, hear it, feel it. And then an average of twenty five to forty percent of the people would sign up because they would want me to coach and hold their hand. And if they didn't, they still felt they got great value from the event. This is a rinse and repeat process, and whether you're doing it online or offline, that's the answer to your question because the answer is in the immediate engagement. How do you immediately win them over? It needs to be video driven. They need to be living vicariously the words and actions of others who you've already produced success from. So in completing this whole process, they need to train three people even for free and make sure they succeed. And those become the case studies that become the fulcrum of everything you put out there. And you'll notice that right on the cover of three moves to monetize is pingjun mere rhetoric and the Xerox, and they all produce millions of dollars. I'm not implying or suggesting that others will do that. Others could do more or nothing if they don't apply the moves. So that's been my process. And that's and if I just teach that people are blown away because they're taught all these complicated and all these gyrations, and they need to be able to market position and differentiate themselves as the only logical online. and yes, offline. Because right now, in a world of noise, offline reign supreme. No matter how many times we click from place to place, it'll never replace face to face. So you don't want to eliminate that if we're given the opportunity. Now, during the pandemic, for example, it was taken away from us. But that was beautiful. Then we got to spend time with family. I mean, we were all together and we had a record year because suddenly people during the pandemic, here's something positive that happened. They embraced the internet as a legitimate place to do business, those who normally wouldn't go there. And so now we have this online offline balance that we've never had before. But now, because of AI and all the noise, it's moving back to live. And they don't have to be entertaining or funny, they just need to reside in their truth, be authentic, show the proof, teach things that will make a difference in people's lives than run out of time because there's only so much time, and offer a program where they're going to hold someone's hand with the money back, guarantee that if someone makes all the moves and it doesn't produce X, Y, Z, that they not only get their money back, they're protected. You have to have guarantees in place. They're vital. And we've never had a problem with that because if they make the moves, they succeed. And if they don't, they know whose fault it is.

Dawn Kennedy: 32:50

Let's talk about some other places where this could work. Live for businesses that are maybe not just service led, but as you were seeing this or as you were saying this, I was starting to think of things like trade shows. Yeah. Lunch and learn. Can you give us some, some ideas of again, we're going all the way to Raving fan, even though this is the part of the process that gets them to customer.

Joel Bauer: 33:13

I'm not.

Dawn Kennedy: 33:14

Even. Let's talk about kind of where, where else do we do this? Like let's say it's. Jim, I love that. Where else would.

Joel Bauer: 33:21

You please tell them that even though we met before this, you just mentioned trade shows? I spent twenty six years on trade show floors. I was a dominant conversion expert in the This isn't ego talking to you. This isn't narcissism. I was hired by Apple, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, the largest companies on the planet. And I was there at a critical time. And the only reason I stopped doing trade shows was on nine over eleven. The second tower came down. I'm talking to my wife going, we got a problem Yeah, there's going to be a war. And my grandfather taught me to always look at catastrophe as opportunity. And I said, I'm going to have to reinvent. This is the end of my trade show career.

Dawn Kennedy: 34:09

Yeah.

Joel Bauer: 34:10

Within three months, we were conducting seminars and webinars, and we were absolutely doing corporate private sector, using the skills that I had learned and implementing in the trade show environment. So let's talk about trade shows because it is the most difficult environment. And I used to people used to say, what do you do is on an airplane and let's say it's Ted Koppel with Nightline, and he's asking me that question. I would say, I want you to imagine you walk into a trade show floor, and I want people to take notes on this if they're listening in, because this is called projecting people into the solution. And it is totally different than an initial statement. This is so much more powerful. And I wrote about this in my books. If you want to hide something, you put it in a book. So let me demonstrate it on a level that is thoroughly engaging. So let's say that you ask me, Don, we're sitting next to each other. I'm on the aisle. You're on the window seat. We're in first class and we've had four hours tailwind. We're on our way. New York, de la New York. And you say to me, by the way, what do you do? What are you into? So do that and I'll go through the process.

Dawn Kennedy: 35:21

So what do you do? What are you into?

Joel Bauer: 35:25

Dawn. It is Dawn, correct? Yes. And she says yes. You say yeah. I say, have you ever been in a trade show in your entire life, with all the noise and everyone pulling and pushing and the exhibits? Have you ever been there? Now if they say no. The conversation is over and I just asked them what they do and take an interest in their life and give them some silly answer, like marketing. And then it's over. Teacher, policeman it's over. If they say yes, I know they're qualified. So everyone write this down. Your initial question have you ever been is qualifier. If they haven't been to that environment, chances are you're not going to be the fit if that's your solution. And so this formula and it really is a formula, it works perfectly and it's very natural and very conversational. So your first question is have you ever been. And they go, yeah, Witnessed one man. Now it could be one woman. He she they them. Whatever one man. But I'm talking about myself. So you're projecting yourself now as that one man. If you witnessed one man with eighty to three hundred and fifty people surrounding him, representing a that without that person would have no one in their booth. He's congealed all the arteries. You can't move. You're hanging on every word. You're following the suggestions. You're putting your lead card through the machine. You're going to the demos. You found yourself absolutely hypnotized, whatever that means, mesmerized. And you've forgotten where you are. And in all the noise, the only thing you can of are the three things that man. Discussed with the audience. He only discussed three things. And you're engaged by the product or the process, and you just can't shake it. And you ran your badge through the machine and they're sending you gifts and whatever. Have you ever experienced that before? And they go, no. I go, well, that's what I do. And if I don't do that every single time, I don't get paid, I don't even charge. I'm paid to create a crowd. Convey your message and collect unqualified and qualified leads at the same time. Follow up converts them to sales. Without me, they built it and no one came. And that was my entree for at that time, over a million dollar business per year. Now, I'm not trying to impress anyone. I mean, two million dollars and the bigger we didn't have a staff. I had one little assistant putting out contracts in an office. If you're able to pull down two million dollars you don't even have a team, I'd say you're doing pretty I know a lot of people who have thirty, forty people in their company. They don't take home three hundred grand. Yeah. Because they're spending. So it's really what you keep. And my wife and I were able to invest and leverage, and a lot of those companies offered me stock. And I took it because I was already getting anyway. And so they said, well, can we give you some And I believed in the company. And then we lucked out about eighty percent of the time, and it really changed our entire lives. So this whole formula for trade shows create crowd, convey the message, collect the leads to create the crowd. The technique that I always used was money. So I would wave this I actually have right here. And you did not. I want people to know this is not a setup. So this is the billfold that I had made over five years ago, this little gator wallet. And I knew that it had to be nice. I knew that the porch might have to be larger than the house initially. So the way I dress, the way I appointed myself, the way I carried myself, the the, the the not yelling, but bringing them in calmly. I used a little PA system so I could be heard. Not loud, but louder than the crowd, you know what I mean? And I would hold up the money and I would go, I would love to give this to one of you. And that's going to require your attention, because I have to select one of you. And this is always how I began the event. Now, they would never win the money, never the money represented the value that company was offering. I said instead of one person winning, why don't I make you all a winner? So when you hook them, and I hate to say this, but cash has a universal appeal. And whether you're selling health care or a breakthrough in their communication or financial leverage. This was always the method or the transformation mechanism. The second thing that I used on the trade show floor, which you will find amusing, and they're not going to they're not going to learn this stuff anywhere else. And I certainly didn't plan on discussing this today is I wore a stethoscope.

Dawn Kennedy: 40:31

Oh how funny.

Joel Bauer: 40:32

Now the stethoscope tripled my crowd size. I'm an expert on something called transformation mechanisms. When you were. I want you to ask yourself right now, Don, and everyone out there, who do we trust? Do we trust our attorney? Sometimes, matter of fact, your attorney can be your best friend when you're in trouble. That's all you have. But unfortunately, attorneys are sometimes dealt a bad hand because just like policemen and just like mothers and fathers, not everyone is well suited. So there's always a few yucky ones in there. So when I put this on the person I kind of have to trust when I go to a doctor. Kind of have to trust them. I mean, sometimes you're not dressed and they're doing things to your body that are necessary tests and whatnot. So the stethoscope is one of the very few things people would go healer. They're not processing this, but doctor, professional, who do they trust? So my crowd size is tripled. And I never once said that I was a doctor or All I did was put it around my neck. So imagine if someone using this as a hook on camera and they talk about the real value, the real takeaway. Like when I do this webinar this afternoon, I'll probably fan out the bills and go, it's all about the money. If you don't monetize, you're out of You're probably going to work for the rest of your life, compromising your dignity and integrity for someone else's benefit. I need to make sure you monetize in the next forty five minutes. So let's go over the points. Right. So I'm just saying that mechanisms, props the idea of the Merce and the video and pulling them right in. This is my art form. And that's what differentiates what I teach. And the results of my students manifest is the result of not being traditional in their approach. And there's nothing that I've shown here or talked about that someone listening in couldn't do, especially if you asked me more questions. Is this too much of a digression?

Dawn Kennedy: 42:42

No, this is great because first of all, if a couple patterns I've picked up, number one, you're always in threes. And I think that's fantastic because threes are the numbers that I think humans can. I think they did a study like you can't memorize more than six numbers at a time or something. And that's why most of the captions are six or something. But threes are memorable. So can.

Joel Bauer: 43:05

I talk to you about that or is that.

Dawn Kennedy: 43:07

Well, actually what I want to bring this back around is everything you're talking about today this authenticity, this humanity, this attention grabbing, the talking threes, doing all these things. You've also been very, very careful to let people self-select out as well. You ask a question, they're not a good fit and you just let it go. So if you're a business owner and this is the first time where you're really sitting and thinking about, yeah, we need to do more with our in-person events. We need to do the lunch, we need to do the trade shows. We need to do the human to human thing now and present to clothes because of the noise and the AI and the things, that just gives us a little bit of another way to make sure we're reaching our ideal clients. And again, to your point, without a ton of spend, this strategy, if you were to boil it down to somebody having to take the first step to make a decision to do live events, even if they're webinars to do trade shows and things, what would you take them to to make the decision? And then we're obviously going to ask where we find you. But when, what is the time frame that somebody can set something like this up? Because the other thing is, I don't want anybody thinking I'm listening in. This is great. We have a trade show though, in July or, hey, I wanted to put on a thing, but I keep moving it because I never feel like I have enough people. I want to address those kind of toads in the road. That would prevent someone from starting after hearing this today.

Joel Bauer: 44:44

I wasn't going to do this because we're about to sell it. But for you, I'm going to give you a link and set for the next forty three days. What I did was I actually took let me answer the question and then I'll offer you the gift. And they don't have to buy a damn thing. Okay, so there's no, this is not I'm good if we just create value today. Yeah. And we left. I love you, I loved you when I hung out with you last time. And my wife adores you because she said, oh my God, we finally found the right attorney, the right mindset, the right experience. So step number one, and I just did this is what problem do you solve? And so I went on Facebook live into my regular had almost five thousand people that are there over a period. A lot of people have a lot of people who tuned into them. And I said, and this was on Easter Day. I said, what if I was to pull back the curtain and do X? So the first thing is what problem do they solve? And I let people know that was interesting. Then I actually fulfilled, I went on Facebook Step number two cost you nothing. Facebook's free, especially when you don't abuse No religion, no politics. Because that's going to derail you in many cases. And step number two is I I delivered this webinar that taught principles of induction and seduction. And for those that can see me right now, these were the points that I covered. I just happen to have this because it's part of I'm doing later today. And I talked about intention, action, interaction, ownership, benevolence, certainty, and precision. I talked about the principles of seduction, ethical and moral seduction, how it really works and what they have do. And I went in, really taught a lot of value And so the second thing is you've created massive value in your webinar that's now perennial or evergreen. You can set it on autoplay, you can put it up on a page, you can drive people to it. You can put the link in the communication. It could be in messenger. You could say, hey, I've got these ten things that are breakthroughs that I've learned from. And this isn't something I took from ChatGPT. It's got to come from your actual experience, truth, authenticity, truth. The third move I. Then leading up to the event, I, from that webinar I had five. The first five sales were at nine hundred ninety seven five thousand dollars. Covered my room rentals at the Marriott insurance for the event. Everything. I had no expense. Now there were twenty people who signed up. So I was at a fifteen thousand dollars profit. Now I was doing this is small for me. I was just doing it to show my students and obviously I get to telegraph it here. I was showing them that you can take just an idea, something that you've done all along, package it and position it. I set the event a month later so all of you write down, I think they should give themselves two months because I already knew what I was doing. So I put it out there, and then I did a video day for fifteen days, and each video discussed my preparation, my packing, my setup, my rehearsal audio tech, whatever, so that they could run their own event. Because I was teaching people how to become an event, I said, people aren't coming to my event. They're coming to their event. I'm going to capture video for them. They're going to have a demo, a teaser, a promo. They're going to be fearing less and then fearless. They're going to be able to package position. So those are the benefits, right? Your beneficiaries, the benefits and features, these Facebook lives. I then told people, I said, all of these are going to be downloaded off of Facebook for free and put into a system that will sell for two thousand dollars. So I just showed you how to create an event. I just showed you how I got people to come. I showed you how I produced the autoresponder campaign with the micro videos, real simple using free software. And then the people came. So I showed the proof. I even showed setting up the room. So I would love to give that to your people. It's something that we're selling now. It was taken off. We were just we just took it down and I just put it into a page. And I have some other gifts for them as well cost nothing. That would create massive value. So did I answer your question just now? Yes. Yeah. Because that's how you do it.

Dawn Kennedy: 49:22

Yeah. There's I don't think there's too many people now who are thinking that you have to start by renting a hotel room. I think everybody is very clear now about really how you can get started again with that personal touch.

Joel Bauer: 49:37

By the way, you heard what I said until I had the first five sales. If I didn't have five sales and I didn't cover my expense, I was trying to prove to my students that you don't have to advertise. You paid advertising, you could do You can just use Facebook group management, which really simple and teaching that forever since the pandemic. And the people not only showed up, but then they invested in major coaching and mentoring for the next one year at the event. They didn't have to. I fulfilled every promise and everything that I had said I would deliver. I over delivered and then I sent them the video cuts of them presenting and people that didn't even know they could do it. It's not about public speaking. It's about a public spanking. If you don't learn these techniques because you're going to get hurt. You've got to be able to communicate and frame your ideas. In today's world, one on one, one on many, most people are doing it, but they're not doing it very well because they don't know how to speak to conversion, teach to conversion, close with precision. They were never taught these skills in a education because a traditional education, though very useful from a discipline standpoint. Doctor, lawyer, engineer, architect, I get it. But traditional education doesn't guarantee ever going to generate income to manifest your They don't even teach a doctor, lawyer, or engineer how to set up a practice, or how to market position and differentiate themselves.

Dawn Kennedy: 51:05

No they don't. Yeah, I can attest to that. And not that it's a bad thing, but yeah, without having those skills, you're not going to last very long. So where can people find you and follow you and watch your videos? And also thank you for being so generous.

Joel Bauer: 51:24

Yeah, I'm, I'm, it's really simple. My name Joel Bauer dot com. And when they go to the top of the page, there's nothing to buy. They're going to see a video with a gentleman by the name of Pingjun, who thirteen years ago flew to LA, with me for about twenty grand with expenses at that time and eleven days. Six days after the event, because the total of eleven days from when he started, he had his first table Up to. Then he had sold nothing and he trained with the biggest names in the industry, he reveals in a video interview. Download. It's all there. You can download it, you can read it. It's all there for you. He reveals the ten moves that made him over ten million dollars the first year out of the gate. That's not my best student. It's just one of many success stories, and it happens to be a male. Most of our success stories are female. It's just someone I chose because he was about to give up his dream and live his father's dream. And this was the answer. He found his voice. He found the system. He found the correct language. He found the truth and the authenticity and how to position his proof. And he is now. He's never made under ten million. Last year he did over twenty and he's verifiable. It's pingjun. And he he tips all ten moves. So they're going to get something for free that really is priceless. And then if they scroll down to the bottom, they'll see my twelve page book that they can examine online and model some of that. And if they choose to, they can send an email to. Well, let's just put it this way. If they reach out to us, which would be support at Joel Bauer dot com.

Dawn Kennedy: 53:14

Okay.

Joel Bauer: 53:14

And they request that entire event creation sequence. We'll send it to him. That's good for the next forty three days from now. And if I need to extend it, I'll make it happen you.

Dawn Kennedy: 53:29

Okay. I appreciate that. All right. So we're going to put all that down inside the show notes.

Joel Bauer: 53:33

Sure.

Dawn Kennedy: 53:34

You find us on the day we launch. You'll be able to go straight there. If you find us two, three years later, you'll still be able to find Joel and everything that goes with it. Thank you so much for this really powerful conversation. It is incredibly important for people to lean in and understand how to get above that noise. To your point, that AI and social media and things have just kind of generated in the last few years and to to stand out. So thank you so much for reminding us about the human touch and giving us these tactics and techniques to be able to get in front of our ideal clients.

Joel Bauer: 54:07

And well, thank you for the opportunity. Our humanity is not going to be replaced.

Dawn Kennedy: 54:13

Correct. I agree with.

Joel Bauer: 54:14

You. No substitute.

Dawn Kennedy: 54:16

I agree one hundred percent. Well thanks again. All right. We'll talk to y'all next time on the next episode of the Business Mastery Podcast. Take care. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Business Mastery Podcast. If you want to learn more about me, you can go Don k Kennedy dot com and you can now check us out on YouTube well as, of course, any of your favorite platforms that podcasts. Take care.