In this interview, David Blaise and Total Market Domination client Kurt Hoge exchange Dr. Evil salutes and Kurt explains how implementing some recommendations from the course, in just the first few weeks, brought in more business than he could keep up with:

00:00     David Blaise:       Hi, I'm David Blaise from TopSecrets.com. Today I am talking to one of my very favorite clients, Kurt Hoge from Reno Type in Reno, Nevada. Kurt, welcome. It's great to see you.

00:10     Kurt Hoge:          Hi David. Didn't know I was a favorite. Thanks for having me.

00:12     David Blaise:       You are. I don't have on non-favorites! And by favorite what I mean is that Kurt is the kind of guy who, when you recommend something to him, he actually does it. He actually implements. You're an implementer. That's what makes you one of my favorites, that and the fact that you're just a great guy. But, we had a conversation the other day and you were saying something that piqued my curiosity. You were talking about the fact that you had to sort of throttle back on what you are doing because the actions that you taking as a result of your participation in the Total Market Domination program, were actually creating results that made you have to actually throttle back. So fill me in on that. How does that work?

00:48     Kurt Hoge:          Well, yeah, so the class was 12 weeks long or 12 modules and it probably took me 18 modules to complete because I felt like I wanted to complete one module and at least have a plan for completion before I took the next step. But after about the fourth or fifth week, some of the things that I'd already been doing started bearing fruit and good or bad, picking up the fruit off the ground made it hard for me to continue with the actual program. So that's one of the reasons it was so slow. But now, having completed the program -- still not implemented everything I learned, not because I don't understand how important it is, not because I don't want to, but because I just don't have time because I'm too busy answering the phone, delivering product and frankly selling and making money at good margin. I had people calling me, who I haven't even reached out to them yet. They're in the market that I'm trying to penetrate, because they heard about me. It's incredible.

"I had people calling me, who I haven't even reached out to yet. They're in the market that I'm trying to penetrate [and] they heard about me. It's incredible."

Kurt Hoge

01:53     David Blaise:       And of course, that's the whole purpose of the Total Market Domination course, is to be able to get in front of people, to create that level of top of mind awareness so that they become aware of you. One of the things we talk about in the course is there's so much talk you've heard over so many years, "it's not what you know, it's who you know." And in fact what we've discovered is it's not who, you know, it's who knows you. And if you get enough people knowing who you are, then yeah, you get those calls coming in, you're building up the business and things are going great. So it sounds like you've been able to at least begin to create a level of market awareness, if not yet domination, among people who never knew who you were previously. Is that right?

02:29     Kurt Hoge:          Yes, it is absolutely accurate. I think the thing that really made it work for me, well, your course, David covered so many different ways -- now whether you're talking about social media or direct mail or advertising or, or getting the most out of networking events, whatever it was -- you know, not everyone is going to be good at everything and I really appreciated that about your course. Instead of telling me all of you who are taking the course must do all of these things, we were pretty clear that, you know, find what works for you or what is within your sweet spot and do it. And so I'm not doing everything because some things I'm bad at, but the things that I am doing because I like them and I'm good at them really, really are moving the needle for me.

03:16     Kurt Hoge:          And I just point out one other thing, your approach is different from other sales and marketing coaching that I've done in that way. Like, I have a relationship with a great sales coach, but he hammered on me, "the person who makes the most phone calls, wins." All things being equal, whoever makes the most calls is going to get the most sales and that makes sense at a certain level.

03:40     David Blaise:       Right.

03:40     Kurt Hoge:          But, if you hate making the calls, and you shouldn't hate it, you should get better at it. And I've been working to get better at it. Absolutely. But that bleeds through to the quality of the calls that you're making or the likelihood that you'll actually do it. And every day was a slog. I would sit there and I'd make 50 phone calls and just... I hated my life. And now everything that I do is fun, and I'm getting great feedback.

04:06     David Blaise:       Yeah, and that approach obviously has been taught for decades.

04:14     Kurt Hoge:          Yeah

04:14     David Blaise:       Just make the calls, and it's all a numbers game. And of course our approach is that yes, it is a numbers game, but it's a smart numbers game and if you can get a bunch of people calling you. Instead of having, you have to reach out and introduce yourself to people in that way, which doesn't position you particularly well, then it's a numbers game that isn't working for you.

04:35     Kurt Hoge:              Yeah.

"I'm getting out there, and it's really cool!"

Kurt Hoge

04:35     David Blaise:          I love what you talked about in terms of being able to utilize the aspects of marketing that best suit you, because some people are great at social media and they should be doing that. Some people are great at cold calls and if they like it, I'm not saying don't do it, but all of these different elements are going to be used differently by different people. And so by you being able to focus in on doing the things that you actually enjoy doing, the things that you're great at, it allows you to just reach a lot more people a lot more quickly. Now you've also adapted video and that's something you've been doing for a while. And I think that gives you an advantage as well. Right?

05:07     Kurt Hoge:              Yeah. I learned long ago that when, when just personally on my own personal Facebook page, if I just shot a video of something, people were just more likely to engage in it. And so it made sense when I translated that to a marketing channel, to use video, because it's going to get more engagements natively and naturally. But, the thing that I learned was how to use that video. You know, a video, however cool it is, or funny I think I am, however good looking I am, however much I can hide the shiny bald head, whatever I do, that doesn't do anything for me. I have to do the videos, you know, on purpose. But the way I'm using them now is not the way I used to. I now shoot videos, to sell, or not to sell, to promote a simple piece of valuable content that I've created.

06:02     Kurt Hoge:              Like I created a little document called "Ten Time Tested Tricks for Getting Your Direct Mail Opened." It's a one page pdf with 10 bullet points.

06:10     David Blaise:          Right.

06:10     Kurt Hoge:              None of it's rocket surgery. Like anyone who's read it is like, "oh, I know that, I know that, I know that, I know that," but no one has ever seen it in one super simple, easy place. And so I just filmed a video of me saying, "Hey, you want these 10 Time-Tested Tricks? Here's one of them." I described it, enter your email address below and I'll send it to you. And you helped me figure out how to set up the automatic fulfillment and the followup emails that happen automatically. Now I might have 30 or 40 outbound emails going out. I don't even know what's going out. The result is...

06:47     David Blaise:          Not having to do it...

06:48     Kurt Hoge:          I'm getting out there, and it's really cool.

"You helped me figure out how to set up the automatic fulfillment and the followup emails that happen automatically. Now I might have 30 or 40 outbound emails going out. I don't even know what's going out!"

Kurt Hoge

06:51     David Blaise:       Yeah, so people are finding you, they're seeing the video, they're entering their information.

06:54     Kurt Hoge:          They're sharing it! And the amazing thing, when I put it out on my company Facebook page, of course, I also put it on my personal page, and I have a lot of business associates, and they share it. And so it goes to... it's an exponential increase of where it can be seen. And you never know who's going to see it and who's going to respond to it. And I'm finding out there's some significant potential clients in my market share in the market I'm trying to go after who do respond to it... On their own! I don't call them, they call me.

07:26     David Blaise:       Beautiful. Right?

07:26     Kurt Hoge:          Yeah.

07:27     David Blaise:       The whole idea of Total Market Domination... You know, some people have trouble with the name, because it does sound a little overbearing.

07:33     Kurt Hoge:          Yeah.

07:34     David Blaise:       And you and I have kidded about it in the past, you know, the whole idea of okay, we're trying to dominate markets like you're some sort of super-villain or something like that. But the whole idea obviously is being...

07:43     Kurt Hoge:          (Kurt throws a Dr. Evil pinky salute.)

07:45     David Blaise:       (Laughs.) Yeah, we'll do that at the same time. Well maybe not. But anyway, when you're approaching a market, the idea is that you're letting people know who you are, you're letting them know what you're capable of doing, how you can help them, and then they get to make the choice about whether or not they want to engage. And when you're doing that on a larger scale, and even if it's not on a large scale, it's not that you're dominating the world right up front, but being able to identify: what is the group that I want it to be able to dominate? What's the group with which I want to create awareness and being able to do that relatively quickly seems to be the secret sauce.

08:18     Kurt Hoge:          It really is. I was always trying to market to everyone. Who's my customer? Well, anyone who has a business because they need to tell people about it.

08:27     David Blaise:       Right.

"I'm finding out there's some significant potential clients in the market I'm trying to go after who do respond to it... On their own! I don't call them, they call me."

Kurt Hoge

08:28     Kurt Hoge:          When you try and come up with a message that somehow appeals to everyone in business, it's flat. It doesn't appeal to any individual one. By just picking a market segment, and then a geography, so I really can focus. And at first I thought there may only be 20 prospects in this little field. And it turns out my list now is about 210. But by just focusing on them, I'm able to, all my messaging, even if the messaging is going to other potential venues or might get out to other potential markets, it's still focused towards this one. So if someone else shares it, it'll still resonate with the group I'm trying to get to. My messages resonate because they're targeted. I'm providing content of value to just those people.

09:19     David Blaise:       That's awesome. And, a lot of these things that we hit in the course were related to communication. You know, what's the communication you're doing? We talked about sequencing, putting together a series of communications that are going out to people at predetermined intervals and then automating that process. So that sort of thing happens automatically. And again, one of the reasons you're my favorite is because you actually do this stuff, it works for you, and then you're able to come on here and say, "Hey, yeah, guess what? This works."

09:43     Kurt Hoge:          Yeah.

09:43     David Blaise:       So congratulations for implementing and...

09:46     Kurt Hoge:          Thank you.

09:46     David Blaise:       I'm glad it's working great for you.

09:48     Kurt Hoge:          I can hardly wait until I can really, really implement. I mean, the truth is, instead of the 12 lessons, you know, I don't remember which one was which. I couldn't tell you which numbers, which ones I'm ahead of, which one's on behind it, which ones I haven't really touched yet. But it doesn't matter. I mean, I'm having the results that I need where I am, and if it ever slows down, if I ever catch a breath, or if I ever decide that I want to work a 60 hour work week again, which in all honesty, I did that 10 15 years ago. I hate it. And I'm trying to just keep myself to 40 hours or, you know, maybe 30 if I can get away with it. But if I decide to work a lot, there's so much I can do that can fill that time. And as I gain sales staff, the tools I can give them to really move the needle. I mean, if I want to make a lot of money, I think it's not one of the things that actually motivates me. But I think I now know how to do it. There's so much more to do.

"If I want to make a lot of money... It's not one of the things that actually motivates me. But I think I now know how to do it."

Kurt Hoge

10:47     David Blaise:       It's awesome. Alright Kurt, well it was great talking with you. Thank you so much. Congratulations on your implementation. Glad to hear things are working well for you. It was a pleasure working with you throughout the course and of course it continues. We have the initial 12 weeks but we actually continue to participate for a full year.

11:02     Kurt Hoge:          Yeah.

11:02     David Blaise:       That's something we can go through it again and again and again and as you have questions that come up, we do that. And so I will look forward to continue to working with you on helping you to dominate your market.

11:13     Kurt Hoge:          Two closing thoughts though, that I just want to say. Okay, one closing thought. Your course... what made it... what really made it work was the amazing interaction I had with you. It wasn't just a question of watching a series of videos and then I'm on my own. When I put questions to you in the forum that's part of the program, you replied and you responded. And not in the way that bugs me, with consultants who work the way that, in your industry, as a consultant. Many consultants try and just pull it out of me. "Well what do you think?" You know, they try and make me dig deep into myself and discover the answer for myself. What I love about you is if I ask a question and you know the answer, you just tell me the answer! And in one case, an outbound marketing email I was writing, I put the copy of my email in the forum and you just rewrote it for me. And yours was better. And it worked! And all I can say is thank you. That's a huge value that people aren't expecting when they see a course like yours.

"Many consultants try and just pull it out of me. 'Well what do you think?' What I love about you is if I ask a question and you know the answer, you just tell me the answer!"

Kurt Hoge

12:21     David Blaise:       Well I appreciate that, and I appreciate the fact that you actually put it into the box! You know, because a lot of people don't even get the initial thing composed, and there's nothing for me to tweak or edit or whatever. And so, the way that I look at copy in particular, sales copy in particular, marketing copy, is that there are a lot of opinions on things like that.

12:41     Kurt Hoge:          Yeah.

12:41     David Blaise:       And anytime I make any change to anything, it's usually because there's something very specific that I think that change is going to accomplish. It's not a matter of just, you know, rewording things for the sake of rewording it. There's no pride of ownership in it. It's like, okay, if I think this is going to get you a better response, then this is what I'll tell you. The other thing that I try to do is when I make changes like that, I will very often try to tell you, "okay, here's why I'm doing this," so that when you create your next piece, you can incorporate that going forward.

13:10     Kurt Hoge:          Yep. Right.

13:12     David Blaise:       Awesome. Well thank you so much Kurt. I appreciate your time in doing this. It was great to see you and we'll see you inside the forum.

13:20     Kurt Hoge:          Alright, we'll look forward to it. Thank you very much. (Dr. Evil pinky salute. Laughs.)

13:22     David Blaise:       Thanks. (Laughs. Returns pinky salute.)

13:22     Kurt Hoge:          Bye bye.

13:23     David Blaise:       Bye.