THE Mark Anthony Bates: “One Degree Of Separation”

How do you make business problems disappear? Wrap em in bacon for business owners, marketing execs and anyone trying to grow your business. Pump your profits and make more while doing less. Welcome to Bacon Wrapped Business with Brad Costanzo. Sizzling hot business advice guaranteed to make you fat profits. Every week our chefs will serve you proven recipes for ramping up your revenue. Now here's your host, Brad Costanzo. Hey there. Welcome back to the show. This is Brad Costanzo. You're listening to Bacon Wrap Business. You obviously know that because you just heard the jingle. Hopefully you like. The little sizzling sound of bacon that I put at the beginning. Reminds me of an episode or a little clip from Jim Gaffigan, the comedian. He has a, he has a great little skit where he talks about bacon. The sound of bacon frying sounds like an applause. I'll see if I can find it for you here sometime soon, maybe at the end of this episode. But today I have got a friend of mine who is very hard to introduce to folks because very much like me, he gets the question, what the hell do you do for a living? Anyway, that being said, I want to waste no time, jump on into this and introduce you to the. A very important part of the introduction is the Marc Anthony Bates. Mark, are you with me, buddy?

I'm here, buddy. How are you doing?

I'm doing great. Thanks a lot for joining me on the call. I appreciate you taking the time. I think that this is going to be a lot of fun because every time you and I get together and start BSing about business and marketing, we're always coming up with fun, exciting topics. So I really appreciate your time.

Yeah, well, I appreciate you asking me to be on the show, buddy. I mean, you know, we're both pretty bad ass when we get together and it's kind of right off the bat, I would say that is the first thing that most people should recognize that they can get so much more accomplished and be so much more creative when they're with high energy giving people. And so like when we get together, that's why we formulate a lot of new ideas and concepts. And that's kind of the concept with Mastermind. So whenever I see you, brother, first off, it's always awesome to see you. I love your energy, I love your smile. And second, I love sitting down with you and just kind of going back and forth and throwing ideas out there and then seeing which one stick. So thank you for having me on.

Absolutely. Now, I, I couldn't agree more. One of the questions I just Brought this up in the very beginning introduction. And I get this a lot and I know you do, but people go, okay, Mark Anthony, what do you do? Because you are so folks who don't know the Marc Anthony Bates, like if you know of you, you just know that this is the guy who seems to know everybody, seems to be very well connected, can solve a lot of problems, is in every sometimes everywhere at once. And nobody can quite pinpoint what who you serve. What would you sell something? Are you just a consultant? Are you just the most popular man on the face of the planet? So tell me a little bit. If I don't know who you are and you're introducing me or yourself to me, what do you do?

Well, that's a great way of putting it. There are, as you know, there's been the term around for a long time of people that are jack of all trades and a master of none. And while I would say I'm a jack of many trades, I've been able to acquire mastery in a number of them. And I didn't do them by myself. Again, going back to being around and hanging around people who that you can build on and that you can grow from and exchange ideas and come up with something that's new and different. That's why I hang around a lot of people and it's probably why I have a fairly vast network. I had to learn something a long time ago that I wasn't very good at and that was to listen more than I talk. And for somebody like me, that is a challenge because I like to communicate out. But when I began to listen, I began to learn more than I could ever do before.

Dude, that's fantastic. That brings up two quick points. So one of them is in the A minute ago I just said, you're the guy who people are like, well, what do you do? I always think of you as more like, what do you not do? That's, I think, why you're harder to pin down. Because it's not that people don't know what you do. It's you do so many things so well. People just have a hard time pigeonholing you, which is great. I get the same thing on myself. I kind of wear it like a badge of honor. But you just said something really poignant in a previous episode of the show. These are like bite sized portions. I call them bacon bits because that shit is just cute and memorable. I talked about the law of attraction versus the law of attention. And I said attraction is what you get when you pay or when you give attention and people think that they can sit there and just, you know, attract things into their life by thinking about them. But I've always found that the more I pay attention to, to things, to things I read, to things I hear to people, especially what they say when they talk about their needs or their competencies and their skill sets, it allows me to make connections, whether it's for myself or connecting to people. That creates a ton of value and I get a lot of value in return. So I attract that into my life by paying attention. I can think of nobody more indicative of that law of attention than yourself for those exact same reasons. I mean, you're known for connecting. I feel as though I'm one degree or two degrees of separation from anybody on the planet simply because I know the Marc Anthony Bates and I love that.

Well, I appreciate that, Brad. And it's kind of interesting because there are some significantly well known people in their industries that will introduce me to others as saying, Mark Anthony is the most connected person I know. And I had a real big challenge for that for a long time accepting it. I just said, how can that be? Because there are other people who make that. They make that their careers of being, as some people call themselves, the connectors. And they have a very strategic way of going out there to connect with people, get their information, seeing how things can happen. And I think that the difference, I know the difference in me is it's not intentional. And I let that part of the relationship occur organically, naturally. And I think that the reason that has worked out so well for me throughout the years is because people can feel right off the bat I'm not looking to get something from them. I truly would rather be a supporter and contribute first and then if there's an opportunity for us to do something in the future, that's awesome. Most of the time what I do is when I do things for people, I don't do it intentionally. And that's, I think that's where the difference is a lot of the times. So people can feel, at least that's how they've shared it with me, that I don't have an agenda to try to get something from them. I'm not doing, I'm not intentionally going out to gather their data, their contact info just so that I can go ahead and pick their brain or use them. I'm doing it just because I'm genuinely interested in the people that I meet and then sharing if there is something that I can do to contribute to them and then down the road, if there's something that they can. That I can able to get back from them, that's great. I don't look for that as the outcome. Most of the time, what I'll do is I end up where I get a lot of credit with these people and credit. What I mean by, like, in the gambling world of markers. So you've got this credit to be able to bet instead of me saying, hey, well, I need this. What I may say instead is, hey, Brad, do me a favor. I appreciate you offering to help me out with this. I'm okay for this right now, but in the meantime, I got this friend of mine, Joanne, and she really could use your help on this and your expertise. Would you mind doing that for me, for her? And then that way I just kind of move the markers around and eventually, I mean, it doesn't mean that I don't ever go back to people. There'll be a day, Brad.

The Godfather, Right? Exactly.

And ask you a favor. Right? Yeah. And so in that, though, I think what it allows me to do is to actually enjoy the experience of meeting people rather than losing the experience by going in there with, going, what can I get from them? Or how am I going to get their content info?

Yeah, you know, it's been a. It's always kind of been a pet peeve of mine because it never feels authentic. There's people out there who love to network, and they're just really outgoing extroverts, and that's fine. But then they try to build this brand around themselves as the connector, as the people person, as the guy. And it's. It's always this. To me, it's just. It doesn't sit right when you're out there claiming it as your thing. You never do that. Everybody else talks about you as being connected. That's just what they do. Mark knows everybody, knows a little bit about everything, knows everybody. But that's not a brand that you're trying to build for yourself. It's a result of your just normal, typical actions that you take. And I think that is such a. So much more authentic than trying to bill yourself as such. But that being said before, we confuse people to think that you're just a guy who knows everybody. Let's talk about. First, I'll tell you the things that I know you when I think of you, what I think of besides, you know, the, hey, Mark knows a lot of people. And then you fill in some blanks where your core competencies lie. I know you as a person who trains speakers to be more influential on stage to close sales if they're marketers and they're closing sales from the stage, you've got a tremendous command of not just speaking but events and understanding the dynamics of a room, the psychology of the buying experience when people are sitting in a room listening to a speaker down to the minute detail. I've heard you talk about the room setup, et cetera. So it's not just the things that are coming out of a speaker's mouth, but the entire event experience. I know that you are a master of the English language when it comes to persuasion and neuro linguistic programming and understanding how to use hypnotic language to persuade. I also know you for some of the and we'll get into these in a moment. Some of the really creative out of the box deal making skills and problem solving skills with other types of businesses. I know you've been featured in I believe it was one of Jay Abraham's books and some stuff that just really creative problem solving and dot connecting in a variety of businesses. Those are the things that I think of you most that come to the top of my mind. But what else you can elaborate on those obviously. Oh the other thing is you have a specialty of introducing people when it comes to the whether it's a speaker on stage that somebody's coming up and pre framing that with just a really powerful introduction. So feel free to elaborate on any of those and fill in the gaps of what else do I not know about the Marc Anthony Bates well, you've.

Done a pretty good job on that. I will share that. It's always real interesting when people ask me what I do because as you said I do a lot of different things which mainly is just because I'm so freaking add that I get really bored with doing the same thing and working within the same industry. What I've been best known for in the last almost 12 years is just what you were saying of coaching people on the delivery of their presentation, whether it be on stage, a webinar video sales letter and giving them language that feels right the guy or the woman that is presenting. So rather than where you might hear somebody that sounds really smooth, really polished speaker and people are going wow, that guy sounds really smooth, really polished but something doesn't feel right and it's generally at least my experience has been is because they have either they just don't have the passion for what they're talking about anymore and or they have a script and they follow that script and they're using language that isn't necessarily resonating with who they are. Hence, when they do that, they don't come across as authentic and genuine as they probably could because they're not using their own language. So when I sit down with a client, we're sitting down, I'm going, okay, so what's the desired outcome? And it's usually conversions. But conversions in our world, Brad, as you know, most people would say, that means sales. Well, conversions means, to me, also, is it converting sales? Is it converting a mindset? Is it converting people to be more open? Is it converting them to see what the possibilities are? What's the call to action? That doesn't always mean that it is actually a sales transaction. It means that there is a place that before they came in that room and during the time that they're in that room or listening to the webinar or the sales video, sales letter, that something shifts inside their mind to going from the way they were thinking before they heard the person to the way they were thinking while they're hearing the person, and to what is the action that you want them to take while that conversation or that presentation is being made? And so the question I ask my people each time is right here. What did you want them to think, feel, or do at this moment? And if you narrow it down to those three questions, always, there's always something you either want your audience to think at that time, to either feel at that time, or to do at that time. And when you do and you have that clarity, that focus now, you're allowed to start bringing in language and a way that you can communicate with them from that point and where to move them to the next step. Make sense.

Makes perfect sense. And I love that the way you think about it's kind of the. The word fractal comes to mind for the reason that something that is fractal in nature is the same on a small scale and as a big scale. And you were talking about earlier how you pay very close attention to what people say when it's like interpersonal reaction. Well, it sounds like you're doing the exact same thing. Even if it's a big room or a sale, it's paying attention to the little pieces, paying attention to what people are thinking, saying, feeling, doing, and then responding to that in a way that helps that experience out. So it's very much congruent with, I kind of think, the way you live your entire life. And I love that. You've always amazed me when we're sitting down, whether you're helping One of our friends with an event and planning it out. Just the things that you see that most people would never ever pick up on. And those little things can make the biggest deal in the world right now. Where does a majority of your time or energy go towards? Or I guess I could say time and energy, but also income. Like what is the primary business that. Or is it just deals? Is it just constantly being involved in a lot of different deals?

You know what? It's both world. Most of my income comes in from is when I am coaching somebody. I mean, I have a fairly. I'm not a cheap coach.

No.

And in doing that, though, that is not the model that I would recommend, nor I don't think you would recommend because in essence, no matter how much I charge, I'm still trading dollars for hours.

Yeah.

And you can only cap how many people you see. Now, the model that my business flowed into, that really was a great model, all by happenstance, is that when I started acting as an agent for my speakers. So when I would coach them to have higher conversions and I would have people like, you know, the Rich dad organization or T Harv Eckard's company or this other company used to be around Dynatech Big. When they were big in the industry, all these different promoters that would put on these big events, they would come to me and say, hey, who do you have that can close? Well, that's going to teach why they're closed. You know, up sharing and that. That you like working with. And so when I started placing those speakers into events, I take 10% of their half, which when you look at like what Rich dad used to do now the industry's changed tremendously. So that's not a great model anymore. It still works for me when you've got. When I had. When there were 12 outside speakers at a Rich dad super conference twice a year. And out of that 12, anywhere from three to five of them are mine. And my average speaker was selling 300 to $350,000 from the stage. Those were good weekends for me.

Oh, yeah.

And that's really where that comes about when I start taking a percentage of that. And the same thing of when I go into a business with some of my clients, I'll start coaching them, find out where I can contribute to the marketing and product development of their business. And then I get, you know, an equity position in that. So those are the ways and you know, what that turns out to be. Brad, in essence, if you were to nail down and to distill it to its bottom essence. It's still relationships, period.

Now, you know, and that is one of your. I kind of harken back to this, but it is one of your strengths. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten just a quick little text from you. Hey, was thinking of you. Hope you're doing well. Let me know if I can ever help you out. And it's very, very authentic, something, you know, of that nature. Hey, Brad, just wanted to let you know I appreciate you. I notice you do that and it's very. I think it's very heartfelt, but it's, it sticks out because so few people do and so few people do it authentically. And I think it really helps you to improve those relationships and stand out amongst a lot of people who are just. What's in it for me? What's in it for me? So if there's one thing that people can take from that, it is be authentic, be interested, build those relationships. Because those relationships are really what drive tons of opportunities. Do you get, do you get blown away by. I guess you and I probably don't hang around with the average person as much anymore because we're always hanging around our circle of influence and our friends are very entrepreneurial, very opportunistic, and are flooded with ideas and opportunities. Does it blow you away when you hear people complain about lack of opportunity, lack of ideas, lack of things to do?

You know, the answer to that question was, actually, I wish it did blow me away. And the sad part of that answer is it doesn't blow me away. And it doesn't blow me away because it happens frequently. Not within our circles or even the ring outside of that circle. It happens when I'm in the gp, in the general population, so to speak. And since I'm at a lot of events with my speakers and I. What I do is I still train my listening skills to what is the audience talking about, what's the chatter? But almost like doing when you're doing search engine optimization and you're looking for keyword searches. Well, in a live event, there's a similar pattern. And that pattern becomes sitting, getting into those circles, listening more than you're talking at the beginning and hearing what are people saying? And you know, are they saying, I think I can do this or this is a bunch of crap, or I don't see how I can do this, or I could never get like that. And I just spoke in an event in Singapore and the audience came up to me afterwards and said, you know, wow, this is so great. You know, you guys are so awesome. And I could never be like that. That could never happen for me. And I heard that consistently. And I went. And so I went back in the front of the room and I said, I want to address something here. I want you to understand that every single person sitting in this room, that every single person, every guru, expert, thought leader, every person that you admire and follow and think that they're better than you, sat in a room like this at one point, we all started from someplace from neutral. We started from the ground up. We didn't. Most of us weren't born into this. Now, some people were. Some people, that's their family. Their family. They came into that sort of thing, or they kind of got, you know, dragged in. But for many of us, Brad, I'm sure you're the same. We started sitting where we were, the student first period. And so everybody has the opportunity to have a better life and to impact others. Yeah.

And I think that's the key, is when you go after it, trying to impact others, trying to realize that you can, and not giving up because you're not getting what you want right away. That's. I think, the biggest area of failure is that people don't get what they want soon enough, and then they just completely give up. As opposed to. As opposed to focusing on what? God, this sounds so cliche. And hate cliches, but it's so true. They're not focusing on what they can give. They're only focused on what they can get. And as cliche as it is, it's really real. I know when I was starting off, one of the other things that I focused on to create marketing success, to create my own business, is I was never focused on the outcome. I was never focused on making money, although I was. But it wasn't my primary concern. I was focused on learning the process. Like, all right, every little thing that I did that was even a minor success, hey, I set up my first little WordPress blog that I celebrated that that was a success because I knew that if I got better at those processes and I paid attention and I tried to help other people, that the success would come. And I never really got frustrated that it didn't come overnight. It really didn't. And I don't think it does for most people. What are you most proud of in your. This is probably really hard because you've done so much, but is there anything that you can really point to in your career that you're the most proud of? That you've been able to accomplish.

I don't know if I would consider it. Pride. I will tell you what I get most. What I get most inspired by and maybe proud could be appropriate. Word is, when I work with younger people who are just starting out, they actually take the suggestions that I give them and other people give them and they implement them and they start getting results. And all of a sudden they went from a place of, how could I ever do this? To, oh, my gosh, this is real. This is happening. It seems surreal.

Isn't that the best?

I hear other people talking. I've been going through this right now with this young lady that I'm working with out of Houston. And now I hear everybody talking about her going, oh, my God. She's just like. She just left her company back in February, and all of a sudden she's got this in place, and she's got meetings with these people and these people, and she's just blowing it up. And she just got approved for a $250,000 SBA guaranteed loan, and she didn't even have the business in place. And what was really interesting about this, Brad, and I'm going to digress this for a moment, that's are the things that I get proud of most, not of my own accomplishments. It's more when I'm able to contribute to others and I see them apply what I have been able to share with them. And much of it is not my original stuff. It's other things that I've learned from my mentors, people like you. And seeing it happen, I've just been able to communicate it maybe differently to them to a core level. But when I watch that stuff blow up, that's amazing. But one thing that was really interesting about this, because you bring and this talking about opportunities and people not recognizing them. She has a girlfriend of hers who's just sat there and just keeps telling her, you know what? You're just like. You're just. You know, you just have better luck than everybody else. You are so lucky. You know, I could never have this. Nobody else would have this kind of luck. And so I came up with a title of a book for her the other day. And it's. It's not luck. It's that she's taking action and she's having things happen. And so she's. My title for her is the Luckiest Girl that Wasn't.

I love it. I love it. You know, my cousin Michael, Love it. He's a great kid, 20 years old, and, you know, he sees what I've been able to do from, you know, building my company, selling it, moving out to beautiful sunny San Diego where we both live and basically paradise out here. Just, yeah, I live a good life. We're both blessed. But at the same time, I almost don't always like that word blessed, or at least when it comes to luck. So Michael has several times said to me, he goes, man, you're so lucky. And I've had to correct his language because language is so important. And I said, look, first of all, luck has nothing to do with it. This is by design. This is engineered by the choices I made, by the choices I make every single day, and by the things that I'm working towards. Luck does not play a role. Luck is like the cherry on the top of the sundae that comes around and helps. But realize that, yeah, work goes into this. Creative thought goes into this. I think it's important that everybody realize that it ain't about luck.

Well, you know, you're absolutely right and the I think were some of the challenges. And I'll admit I have tons of challenges in my life and those challenges actually help me. But one of the things that you're much better at than I am and so many other people are better at is execution. I am super creative. I am great with the relationship, great at languaging. And sometimes though, if you could see the board that where I put in all my thoughts of ideas and new concepts that I will text and email to myself. It's actually very few that I go out execute now. If I'm excited about something in the moment and there's something I can do right at that moment, that's the time when I execute. But the bottom line is there are people that are much better implementation and execution like Katie that I was just telling you about than I am. And so I also surround myself with executors, implementers, because I know where my weaknesses are and I don't want to focus on my weakness and getting better. I want to focus on my strengths, getting better at those and then around the people that can cover my weaknesses, not enable, but cover them.

Right. You know, it's funny, I must be a master of illusion because the fact that I appear to be such an implementer, and I guess I am, we never really look at ourselves the way other people do. But that is one of the things that I feel personally, so I guess self conscious about. I feel as though I don't execute enough now. Maybe that's because, like yourself, I get a lot of ideas, I get a lot of these creative insights or I feel like I've just caught lightning in a bottle. Like, this is amazing. And they never get done. And maybe I'm just looking at the sheer number of ideas that I have that haven't been implemented that make me feel bad for that. But it's one of those things from the outside looking in, people may think that you or me are master implementers and executors, but inside we're both kind of going, I don't do that enough.

Well, I would imagine that there are some people who implement 90% of what they do. And if they're really strong drivers there and, you know, high D director styles are within the disc format, if you look at that, they probably at times go, you know what? I could have implemented more. Oh, yeah. So it's all relative. Right. And you know, what does it take when you look at that? What does it take to make a dent in the universe? As Steve Jobs would say, it only takes one idea or concept that you move forward on or you bring the right people to. It only takes one. It doesn't take 100 or a thousand. That one idea or concept that you go ahead and you act on and begin to push it, to give it a little momentum, is the one thing that can make that dent. And that's the challenge, I think, for a lot of people, is they don't see that big, and they don't see the ripple effect. They don't see that this one small thing that they're doing could impact a child in South Africa someday.

Yeah.

And that is my desire. One of the things, I don't know how you feel about this, and if I offend some of the people on the call, I'm sorry, that's too bad. This is my opinion. And by the way, I looked up opinion one day, and opinion means judgment or belief. And I believe judgment and beliefs come from experiences. So there's no wrong experience. There are just different experiences. And so my opinion is that when they. When people go out and they don't realize that they really can make an impact on others by making small incremental changes, but just doing something that they really. That they're not selling themselves short, just themselves short, but they're also going to shortchange possibly the world. And I hear these people. Here are the big quotes I hear from a lot of the expert gurus, people who are trying to brand themselves as being authentic and genuine and they want to leave a legacy. And if I hear that one More time, I'm going to throw up. I know, because it becomes the buzzwords. And number one, when I hear a speaker say, you know what? This is the world of authenticity and being genuine. And I am a very authentic, genuine person. And I don't know about you, Brad, but I kind of feel that if you're authentic and genuine, you don't to state it.

I know.

And. And when you say, I just doing this because I want to leave a legacy. Bullshit. Now, not everybody, but the way I look at this is one of my mentors told me many years ago, because he goes, don't. He goes, go out and do good things for people and don't get caught. Yeah. And I love that. And so in doing that, my desire is I want to know that there will be people that will be impacted by something I have done or said that I will. That will never know me, will never know anything about me, but there will be a part of their life that will be better than it was if I hadn't been on this planet. That makes me feel awesome. I don't need to leave a legacy, the legacy of Marc Anthony. I just want to know that something changed and was better because I was here.

You know, the idea of being driven by leaving a legacy, I get it. We all strive for that feeling of immortality, but at the end of the day, it's kind of a selfish. Not kind of selfish. It is a pretty selfish goal. If your goal is to leave a legacy, that's. That's what's in it for you versus I want you know, there's a way to rephrase that. Which is exactly like you did, which is selfless, but at the same time, just as self inspiring. Like, you get as much satisfaction, if not way more out of that. You don't even need the credit as long as you know that you're. What you're putting out there weaves into the tapestry of human life and existence without getting too esoteric. I love that though, because I've always had the same pet peeve when I've heard the I'm leaving a legacy. It's almost like when somebody says to you, let me be honest with you, Mark. That is, you know, were we having that conversation the other day with Kent where it was like, look, I'm gonna be honest. And that just basically presumes that you weren't being honest before. You don't have to tell me, hey, trust me, you know, you don't have. You don't have to phrase it like that. Just be Authentic, don't have to claim it. One of the times I want to kind of, I want to take a rabbit trail here and I want to get into some of the juicier, juicier parts of your experience and things that you've done. We've talked about some high level and some concepts here, but some of the most fun that I have talking with you are when you share some of.

The.

Things you've done, the campaigns, deals you've put together in. Specifically, I want to come up with the hotel key cards thing because I thought that was just genius and it's just gives people an insight into the way you think and some of the stuff that you've worked on. And to me, this is the epitome of wrapping a business problem or challenge in bacon. So I don't remember how we got started talking to it. Maybe it was one of my clients who was an exotic car rental company and we were talking about putting together package deals and working with hotels. But repeat this story partly for my edification of when you were working with a hotel in Vegas and just take me back there. I think this is the one that Jay Abraham caught onto, am I correct?

Yeah, that's the one he referred to.

Cool. So repeat this because I love this kind of stuff. And then I may ask you to share a couple more bacon wrap strategies and ideas that you've kind of had and executed. That to me it's like business porn, for lack of a better word. I really, really dig people who think like you do. And you know, without any further ado, tell me the story on that.

It actually was, it was back for the 96 Olympics which were being held in Atlanta. And that wasn't how I got started with this. There was a guy down in an area called Loflo, Nevada, which is about 90 miles south of Las Vegas and about 10% of the room size. But they have some of the bigger hotels that own hotels down there. It's on the Colorado river and it's on the, it's on the border of Bullhead City, Arizona. But this guy had come up with an idea many years ago when the keys were brass, they used to charge a two dollar, I think it was two buck deposit for the keys to make sure they got them back. And you know that back then the keys probably cost them $0.30, $0.40, whatever for the hotels. And I was already doing a lot of work with the hotel casino industry with a high tech company and I had just left that company. So this guy told me his idea and he was an operations manager of the Laughlin Hotel, Don Laughlin, who formed Laughlin City. And so it was interesting, he told me this idea that he had and I said, wow, you know, okay, so let's, let's look at this. And so what they were going to do is they were going to charge the plastic ones. They were going to charge like 2 bucks for the deposit. And you know, people didn't turn them in, you know, that's okay. They make some money. Cards cost them 13 cents. They would turn around and then, you know, if the people didn't turn them in, they'd make a little money on it. And then he came up with an idea for people who didn't want to take them back in. And they would put them into a machine and the machine would spit out their quarters. And I said, well, why don't we take the machines and put them next to the quarter slots on the way out of the hotel so that at least if they're going to get their money back on it, that they'll probably take that money and drop their. Try their luck again one last time and pop it into the machine. So actually they're getting, you know, they're getting money back on that. But then I started thinking, that's way too small. I said, what we need to do is we need to create the cards to where they have some sort of perceived value. And the first thing that I started thinking about, well, they have these different shows and these performers down there. And so when they're down there, let's, let's have them printed up with the performance. And then I said, well, no, we need something bigger than that. And they have a thing in Laughlin called the River Days, which is a biker rally. It's pretty big. And I said, let's do this. Let's create these really cool graphic designs and we'll test it during the rally. And we'll have a couple of hotels in there. We'll figure that if X amount of percentage are held onto that, we'll actually turn this into a profit center. And what I said was, now we need to create some perceived value. So we took the cards and I printed up a bunch of them. We had shows and past events and everything else. And I had them put into a glass case. And they were the Collector series and they were put above the check in area and also in the gift shop. So now when people would see that these things were selling for 10 bucks, they only were paying $2 on a deposit, they could get 5 of them. For the 10 bucks. So now people wanted to hold onto them. And so it was creating that perceived value. And I said, okay, still too small. This is good for the casino industry. And by the way, we tested it. And I think we said, I think it came up. If we had 17% weren't returned, we'd be in the black. We had 38% not returned.

Wow.

It's almost double what we expected first time out. And then I said, well, we got the Olympics coming up. Why limit this just to the casino industry? Let's take this out. And I went and I got all the different people that were sponsoring the Olympics to figure out where they were. So I met with Coca Cola, UPS went out to Atlanta, met with them, met with these other groups, and then I said, let's design. So I had the cards designed with these stock photos of people doing each one of the events in the summer Olympics. And then so down in the bottom, the thing was roll for the gold, run for the gold, shoot for the gold, all these different things. And I would put the sponsor for the Olympics into one corner, very prominent with a big border around it and the Olympic rings logo. And then I would sell the three other corners of the key cards and took that to Holiday Inn. And so we were going to pay for the key cards, and then we would do an audit afterwards for each month that we were doing this. And for the keys cards that were not returned, we would do a split with them on the profit revenue. And so the thing that Jay picked up on when I was at one of his events is when I was talking about when I took that to Southwest Airlines to be able to do that. So we're actually making money from the cards that are being brought to that are not being returned. And we're making money from the advertising space on the cards.

I love that. So what happened to it? I asked that, like, just kind of laughing because I know.

So what happened was, is when we came up with the idea, I had a friend of mine, and we were brainstorming names for the company. And the name we came up with that he came up with actually was key logo. Like Key Largo, but key logo. And so Don Laughlin was a partner in this because we were testing it with his property. So he became my partner. Well, he had really good ip, really good intellectual property attorneys. And so he took out the trademarks, the patents, the copyrights of the name, the process, everything with it. And when I told him I wanted to take this out fully nationally and then internationally to the Other hotels. He said, no, I just want to stick here in my market. This is what I know. And so when I began to move away from that, to take it out on my own, I got really fun letters from his attorneys. Oh, yeah, Don had enough money where he could go ahead and tie me up for a long time. And so this was one of those things where when you pick your battles, and that was a battle that I knew most likely would not win, even if I did win, you know, it wasn't going to pan out for the time and energy put into it. But the fact that was a great idea and a concept and there was so much great feedback, and it's still something I may go out on because right now it's probably gone over. And I think Don Laughlin probably died. So I could probably take it back out there and do that. But that's. That's what happened to it. It died a very unceremonious death.

Yeah. And you know, the reason I asked for that? Because it's one. It's one thing to just leave people with a. Just an amazing, amazing idea and let them think, oh, man, nothing good will ever happen to me. And everybody who's successful just has a string of successes and no failures. Although there was nothing at fault of yours. Hey, sometimes business opportunities don't always pan out the way you want. I guarantee that wasn't the last business opportunity that you were able to capitalize on. I mean, obviously there's been a lot more. The principles of what you did in that example, though, are just so. That is the epitome of bacon wrapped. Right? You found one potential nugget of an idea and you just kept on thinking, well, that's not big enough. That's not big enough. What else can we do? What if we do it like this? What if we do it like that? Listeners of the show will remember in many episodes I've talked about this, but I've got three questions, or I guess three and a half questions I always ask when trying to solve a problem, which is, who else needs what I have and who else has what I need? Those are two questions. And then the next question being what if? And then the what if is the brainstorming part. Well, what if we go bigger? What if we go smaller? What if. What if we niche up, niche down? What if we combine forces, something in a way. And then the final question being, why not? Is there any real reason that we can't. That we shouldn't do this? But a lot of the stuff that you did is exactly that principle in action. Who else would love to be on our key cards? Who else would love to have access to this? Who else can we, who else can we tap into? Well, what if we did it like this? What if we did it like that? Absolutely love that story. That being said, what are some. Can you think off top of your head? I'm putting you on the spot here. Any other kind of cool deals that you've put together that have just been fun, fun deals. I mean, you've worked with everybody in the, I mean, you work with people in the private jet world. You've worked with, I mean, what is it, the president of Brazil or you've got some huge connection down in Brazil, some trillionaire. You're always, you are a wellspring of cool business stories. And can you think of anything else you'd like to share that think people, if they're driving, would.

We don't have time enough to go into all those. But let me give, I'm going to give you a couple of stories and then I'm going to tie them in on to what it is that anybody on this call could do that. There's nothing, absolutely nothing special about what I do other than I'm too dumb to know I can't do something. So don't tell me I can't because I'll just go do it.

Yeah.

And really, Brad, that becomes where that really is. Why work in so many different vertical markets? I don't know the, I don't have the myopic thinking. I don't have the blinders on that a lot of other people do because they've been in an industry to too long. I just kind of go in there with a. Just like, well, why not? Why not? And then who do I. And then the next question is, who do I know? So it's why not? Who do I know and what can I do right now? And so back when I used to be a flight attendant, I was a flight attendant for Pan Am really many years ago. And I went into them because my background's marketing and I wanted to go into marketing for the international flag carrier. And they said we do not hire from outside the company or we have too many qualified people in the company. So I had to get my foot in the door. And I'll give you the short story. I went and I interviewed and I managed to get through their process. I thought I was going to be too old. And I told them on the phone, I said, but my background is marketing. And they said, so what, what's your point? I guess I don't have one. And I began to think about it and I said, well, who spends more time with the customer than the flight attendants? Who knows the service and what the deliverables are more than really the flight attendants? So if I'm going to market this, why wouldn't I spend time with the people who are with the customer the most? Where I can actually do feedback, where I can do actual group surveys at once, within a whole class, at three different class of passengers at the same time. My point of saying all that is immerse yourself into the industry. Even if you come in as an intern or doing some pro bono consulting so that you can learn more about that industry, if that's an industry you want to pursue. So when I went to work for them, I used to fly these trips. I was based in New York and I applied to London and I'd fly out with a London based crew and back with the New York based crew. Now the relevance is done tonight because I never knew anybody when I was on my layovers. So I'd be there for two and a half days in London. And there only one place in London where I could get a decent burger and a malt. You know, like the malt shops, you know, let the powder the carnations malt they put into shakes. And so I went to the Hard Rock of London and I sat and I ordered a burger and a malt. And they said, we don't have any malt. I said, what do you mean you don't have any? You're the Hard Rock of London, you gotta have malt. And they said, no, our distributor went out of business. And I said, you know what, give me the manager, please. Now when the manager came over and his name was John and he sat there and he was ready for a fight, right? This guy's gonna complain. And I said, so I hear you don't have any malt. He goes, yeah. And I said, so isn't that it's got to be kind of tough on the Hard Rock. And Peter Morton, who was the co owner of It Rock Cafe, how you don't have Mollie. Yeah, it's not been easy. And I go, so you having any luck with the distributor? And they said no. I said, really? I said, man, I bet you Peter's fuming about this. He goes, yeah, he's not happy. And I go, I bet you it's really hard on you too, isn't it? And he's going, yeah, it really Is So, yeah, obviously you know what I'm doing. I'm discovering and turning up the pain. So I just looked at him, I go, look, here's the thing. How about if I fly in here every Thursday and I will bring your malt to you. I will be your malt distributor and I'll do it for the next two to three months until you get a distributed. And he just looked at me and he goes, okay. He goes, I'll pay you cash. You won't have to queue up. And for those of you who don't know, queue. That means stand in line and I'll cover your meals. Now, I left there with a handshake and when I left there, I said, wow, this is really cool. Where the hell do I get malt? How much is it? And how am I going to get it across customs? But you see, I didn't let all that minutiae get in the way of me striking a deal. And that's my point on this thing, you guys, an opportunity. Don't be ignorant's on fire. And go out there and just be all over the place. But just sit there and say yes and figure out the how. Just say yes and figure out the how. And you know what? What would have been the worst case scenario? I would have gone back to him and said, you know what, John, I thought I could get this. Here are some challenges. If I can work through those challenges, I'd still like to be the provider for you. If not, what else can I do to be of support to you and your team? That's where the worst case scenario would have been. As it turned out, I went back to New York, I found some places to buy the case. I brought it back over there, Customs looked at it and said, malt. And I go, yeah, it's for the Hard Rock. And they just went, okay. Brought it over, sold it for three times, four times what I paid for it, Got cash, took the cash, went to the store next door, the Hard Rock store. Bought all the London paraphernalia, all the pins, the jackets, the shirts. And back then there were only five hard rocks or four hard rocks in the States. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. And I lived in La Jolla. So I brought this thing back and I would sell it for three to four times what I paid for this. Now I did that twice before I got smart and I started thinking, I'm buying product and I think I can sell it, but I don't really have it pre sold. And so going into the pre Sold. I created a menu and I limited it down to what my best selling items were. And I made people prepay before I even went back out there each time. And so that turned into a little micro business. So for a very short period of time, I was the malt distributor for the Hard Rock of London.

Oh my God, that's awesome. See, I love that because it is, you're right. Little things like that with the right mindset. That mindset is key. It's nothing about the tactics, it's all about you said, yes, there's an opportunity here. You filled a need first of all, you uncovered a need and you didn't just get mad like everybody else would, oh, you don't have malt Boo, Boom. You're a bad company, you're a bad manager or whatever. That's what most people do because they react. See. Well, okay, if that's a problem for me, it's probably a problem for others. It's a problem for others. There's money.

Yeah. And that's the whole thing. It was like, I'm able to solve an issue and I'm going to make money and I'm going to have fun. And I will tell you, I have a model that I go by that I go through when I'm evaluating a project for people that I want to do business with. And it is called pfm. P stands for people. How is this going to help people out? Not just us, but how are people going to be impacted that it's going to help them out, that are going to be the end user. F stands for fun. Is this going to be a fun project? Are the people going to be fun that I'm working with? And the third thing is M, which stands for monetization or money. How are we going to have clarity of how we're going to monetize this? Now? If it gets past all three of those, it just means I look at it. It doesn't mean anything else. It doesn't mean I'm taking on the deal. But that helps me to shortcut on what projects I want to get involved in.

I love it. So does it plf, does it help people?

No. Pfm.

Pfm. Does it help people Fund money? Is it fun? Can I make money off of it? I love that. Yeah, that's such, that's such a cool acronym. And it's so important because you can't. If you miss two of those, you can have something that is, you know, helps people and it's fun, but you're not making any Money, you're not going to be doing it for very long.

Well, it's true. And now there are certain things that I'll do to work with certain foundations and nonprofits groups. And so the money. But the money thing still comes into play because it's how do we generate money for that organization?

Right. It's not just about how much money can I make personally, because at the end of the day, especially the last interview that I had. Do you know Luke Jaton?

I think so. Okay. Is he a war room guy?

I don't know if he was in.

The war room, but anyway, yeah.

So he started a company called Basic Greens. He's been a direct response marketer for 30 years or so. And he just released a powdered greens supplement, basicgreens.com by the way. It's amazing. If you like powdered Greens. Really, really good stuff. Anyway, we were just talking and one of the things we were talking about is the money. How much money is enough? And eventually you hit this point. There's been studies actually that show that once you hit $250,000, basically an income, anything up above that is incrementally more satisfying, but not really exponentially. You've got all your basic needs taken care of. You're making 250,000, you're living pretty well. So you start to change. Instead of just doing things for money, you do a lot more things because you enjoy them, because they are fun, because you're making an impact. You derive your satisfaction out of more stuff like that. And I know you're probably very much like me, me. A lot of times when you take on a project, you look at how much satisfaction, how much fun am I going to get from working with this, realizing the money is going to come no matter what, the money is going to be there and that you can make money. But it's the opportunities that engage your creative spark and kind of light you on fire. Those are the ones that I think both you and I like to pursue at this stage in our careers. Am I right?

Yeah, very much so. I mean, many years ago, when I stopped letting money be my guide and decision maker as to what projects or who I was going to work with, my life got so much better in so many other ways. Now, having said that, I kind of went the other direction and I wasn't paying close enough attention to, hey, there is a certain amount of income that I need to generate in order to enjoy my lifestyle and take care of my basic and other needs while I'm doing this. So I Had balance with that when I came through it, but it really did get so much better on it. I would much rather do projects that are fun, creative, gonna be with a lot of fun people and doing that, rather than if somebody you know you and I know somebody. I won't tell you who they were. They made me a really nice offer about two years ago to come on board, and a nice percentage of the company guaranteed all this money. And I just sat there and I went, you know what? I like these guys a lot and the money is great. But if I make that decision based on that, it's not going to turn out well, because I know these guys, I love them. But when it comes to, you know, some of the stuff on the outcomes, it would damage the friendship. I don't want to lose a friend because of money.

No, I agree. I agree. No, it's much too much too important. There's too many opportunities out there.

So go ahead, Brad. I'm sorry.

No, I was just gonna say. So some of the bigger things that you're working on now, especially, I hope that there's somebody out there listening right now who's like, man, this Marc Anthony guy is pretty freaking cool. I like the way he thinks. I like the way he operates. And I wonder, like, how would I use him? How would if I was ever getting contact with him, if I was ever hire him? Whether it's for something specific or general, what is it you're doing right now with other people and what are the type of people you are looking to work with? And I know you're not out there actually, you don't actually put yourself out there looking for a ton of clients. You're very selective with who you work with. But what are you doing now that other people could be a part of if they wanted?

Well, I'll tell you, one of the things that I go through a process with everybody, no matter who it is that I'm either going to do business with or give some coaching to. And I'm amazed at how many people. The answer I get or don't get from people is when I ask them, what is your exit strategy? And people that are. That are fairly well designed in their business for a long time and they really don't have a clear exit strategy. I hear most especially people that are newer entrepreneurs going, well, I just want to build up the business and sell it, you know, make a lot of money and sell it. I'm going, okay, so in that, how are you doing something to create, you know, to increase the valuation of the business, and they're not clear. And I also ask, and this is something that I find many people go through when they want to get into the information marketing industry or real estate investing or stock or whatever it is. And I'll kind of go through the process and go, so what's the brand? Is the product the brand or are you the brand? And most the time I hear, well, I'm the brand. And I go, okay, well, there's a fundamental challenge with that. If you are the brand and your outcome is to sell the company someday and build up the valuation of it, you have to go with it. Yep. And, you know, I give an example of, like, Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins could not sell his company because he's the brand.

No, people pay for Tony Robbins.

Exactly. Now, if you look at, like, even T Harv Eckert, you know, who wrote the Millionaire Mind, who owned a company called Peak Potentials for years, and he and I had a very lively discussion about this a few years ago. I said, harvey did a great job of branding T Harv Eckert. The challenge is you branded T Harv Eckert really well. And more people in your industry know T Harv Eckard name than they know Pete Potential's name. And so that makes it challenging for you to sell the business. And eventually he did sell the business to a company who was already doing business with, that was international, that wanted a foothold into this, this market. But then you look at people like one of my, you know, who I've worked with is Robert Kiyosaki. And Robert, while he, you know, rich dad, poor dad, and Rich dad is the brand. Robert can sell the Rich dad brand. He can license out the Rich dad brand. Because more people have heard of Rich dad than they heard of Robert Kiyosaki. So people should keep that in mind before they're going out there to start their business. And even if they have started their business, it's never too late to make a course correction to include that.

Right. You know, interestingly, and just rabbit trailing with this, the name of my show. Now, first of all, I don't have an exit strategy as we're talking. The show is relatively new. And I'm doing this partially because it's just a lot of fun for me to do. But one of the things I never wanted to do is just brand. I didn't want to call it the Brad Costanzo Show. I like to have a secondary brand bacon wrap business. And that, although it's catchy, and fun. And I have no idea if it's a sellable brand or where it will even go. That was somewhat in my mind as well. Like, if I can create a brand that stands apart from me but still helps to accentuate me and who I am, that was important. I did that with one of my other prior businesses where I was an expert. I was able to sell the product, although the product, they were not just buying. My advice, I positioned it in a way that it had a different whole name to it. And that was, I believe, the only way that I could sell that business was because it was more of a rich dad type model than it was the Brad Costanzo model. So that's really, really poignant thing that you bring up, and I think people would do good to take heed of that.

Well, and Brad, there is something. So, number one, you can still. I want people to understand they can definitely benefit from having their name attached to the brand as well. So, you know, credibility, having trust, agent, being, you know, all those things that you become. And as being an expert or as I would hate, I don't like using the term guru, but there's so many different things you can do to incorporate yourself with that. And I'll give you an example. If you're already in that, if you've already gone down that path and you're really branded at what you do. And Les Brown asked me a couple years ago in a Mastermind, he goes, I'm really stuck. I can't travel as much. I've had health issues. I'm tired. And I said, well, Les, you did a great job of branding Les Brown. And I said, that helps you and that hurts you. And he goes, well, what do I do? And I said, here's what you do, Les, because you're so well branded, you call it the Les. You create something new, and you call it the Les Brown method, which implies that it's something they can replicate. And now, even though your name's attached to it, it doesn't require you to sell it or move it down another.

Path that is wrapped in bacon. Sorry, I can't help it. These cheesy ass memes. But I love it.

I love it.

But no, that is a huge, huge takeaway right there. Like, just. Yeah, Instead of the Brad Castle brag, you're not buying Brad Costanzo. You're buying the Brad Castanzo method. There is a fundamental advantage in doing that. I love that I learned something from you right there that I'll probably never forget that that's that's really, really powerful. Little things like that can make a big difference. So wrapping up, we've been chatting for quite a while and I love it. I'm actually love to have you back on the show even more because this is a lot of fun. But where can people find out more about you, if anywhere? I know you're not really putting yourself out there to do this, but if somebody was like, man, I got to know who this Marc Anthony guy is, I need to stalk him and hang outside and buy him drinks and whatever. How does somebody stalk you?

Yeah, you talked about one. They can always go to Facebook. They just try to. Here's the thing. So many people, and I'm. Forgive me, I don't mean this to be bragging. I have a lot of people who friend me on Facebook and number one, some of the people I've met, but I don't remember their last names and their profile picture looks very different than the person I met. So that throws me off. So I don't accept them or they're just random and they just throw me out and accept. Send me a message on Facebook. You'd be better off paying the buck to make sure it goes into my regular Facebook I am messaging account because I found out later on when I didn't know this, that I had hundreds of messages from other people because it goes to a secondary account if they're not friends. So that would be one way. The other way is they can reach me. For your audience at Markmark, Anthony and T H o n y Bates B A T e s@gmail.com. i don't give that out all the time, but for your audience. And if you send me, you know, you want to ask a question or send something, make sure you put in the. In the subject line wrapped in bacon because I may not open it if I don't recognize who it is. And I really do believe in attraction rather than I love.

And by the way, any. Any. Any email you get, it says wrapped up in bacon. You're gonna open like, I don't care if it was from this show or not. That's a good subject line. I'm putting that in my swipe file right there. By the way, you do bring up something else. As I said, I can rabbit trail all day long with you, but on my Facebook page, now that I'm doing the show especially, I'm getting a lot of friend requests and I do have the facebook.com baconrapbusiness and I also have Brad Costanzofficial is a Facebook page. My profile is more for friends and acquaintances that I actually have met and whatnot. Although I do accept people that I don't know real well. That being said, if you go to my Facebook page and you go to about me, a little bit about me, I think I still have it on there. Unless I took it off. I may have taken it off, but it said, if I don't know you and your friend requesting me, please send me an email with a slight reason why you want to be my friend. And nobody ever did that. I put it plain as day. I thought about putting it in the head, the profile picture. I don't mind friending people if there's a reason to friend them on there, but it's a personal place. I've got pictures of family and friends and everything else, so it's a pet peeve. But if you do that. This past week, I did the exact same thing. I reached out to two people. Both are going to be guests on the show. But I. That wasn't the original reason I reached out to them. I'd never met them. One of them was an author. I read his book. I liked it. Went to send him an email on Facebook. That was the only place I could find his contact info. And Facebook said, if you'd like this to go in this guy's inbox, pay a dollar. I paid a dollar. I immediately got a response back. And that he's going to be a guest on the show and maybe a business partner or. You never know. Just a friend. You absolutely never know where it goes. But don't be afraid to do that.

I agree, Brad. And I just want to wrap this on one last thing, just on what you said. I find a lot of people get intimidated that they won't reach out to somebody that they feel like, well, who am I? You know, I'm nobody. Why would this person ever respond? And I. And you know, when it comes to people like yourself, myself, other people within our sphere of influence, we have the. We have that influence. We have those connections. We have a reputation that precedes us for some, so we can get easier access to people. And I did something a while back to get across to get to a guru. And I wanted to prove to everybody that. And this guy didn't know who I was. I wanted to prove to everybody that you can get to so many different people very simply by doing exactly what you said. And make them laugh. Oh, yeah. Make somebody laugh. And you do it in a humorous way. And you kind of. You do things to make fun of yourself a little bit. And that's what I send out. And I use this as an example to other people going, look, this is what I sent to this guy. He didn't know who I was, and I got a response right away. But you see, I made him laugh, and that's why it was different. I wasn't asking him for anything. I was just saying I wanted to explore it and have a chat with him. And doesn't mean that every time you're going to get somebody to respond, but you'll increase the likelihood of that exponentially. And so we all have something to give. But when you make people laugh, if you can make them smile, if you can give them an experience that they'll remember you and want to get to know more about you, you'll have a really, really amazing life in business. And personally, I can't think of a.

Better way to wrap this show up than exactly with that. And it leads me into this. The reason that I created Bacon wrap business and not the Brad Costanzel show, which to me, that sounded boring. I'm not, you know, household name. I don't know if I ever want to be a household name, but I also don't want to be boring. When I came up with the concept for the word for the show, Bacon wrap business, it almost like as if that name gave me the ability or the permission to make listeners laugh, to make me laugh, to make my guests laugh, and to have a little bit of fun with the content that we're doing, because business can be dry if you don't do it right. So I want to be remembered for fun delivered through a plate of bacon. I want you, as a listener, to enjoy the show as much as I enjoy doing it in a lot of ways. You get to eavesdrop on my conversations with friends, and some conversations that I have are not with people that I already know, but they're like Mark, but they're with people that I'm trying to get to know. The podcast gives me a tremendous platform to do that. I recommend anybody do the exact same thing. And these days, you can actually do that if you are enjoying the show. I only ask for two simple things. I give this to you free every single week. The way that you can pay me is to tell other people about it, let other folks know that, man, have you heard this Bacon wrap business? The show, it's fun, it's useful. I get a lot out of it, whether I'm driving or working out or whatever. Share it with other people. That helps me grow and it helps me do it more. The other thing you can do is leave a review on itunes. Sometimes it's easier than others to find out how to do that, but I read every single review. And as a business owner, as a marketer, it is important for me to receive more reviews because that helps me and the show move up in the rankings. And the more people, people that find it organically when they're searching on itunes, the more listeners we get, the more I am encouraged to do this over and over for you, bringing bigger and better guests every single time. Although it will be hard to top today's guest, the Marc Anthony Bates. So please review the show, share it with your friends. If you have any questions whatsoever, whether you want to share a bacon wrap strategy with me or you'd like a second opinion on your business strategy or marketing, send an email to ask bradakenratbusiness.com that's askbradakenrapbusiness.com Please go out, share it, review it, and enjoy putting the strategies into your own business. Till next time, if you have a problem, wrap it in bacon. Thanks a lot, Mark. I appreciate your time, buddy.

Hey man, I really enjoyed it. Thanks, Brad.

You bet.

Sam.