The One With Maria Andros - I Love Marketing With Joe Polish And Dean Jackson - Episode #36

Hello, this is Joe Polish. I'm here with my dear friend Maria Andros. And yeah, you're the video queen. That's at least the title and what you do in your information marketing business. So I'll talk about me in a moment. But most people that listen, I love marketing, kind of know who I am, but they don't know who you are.

You're kind of a big deal.

I'm sort of a big deal. That's so funny. Actually, I'm not a big deal at all. But right now we want you to think that we're both kind of a big deal. But no, in the marketing world, you have really learned how to take video and monetize it and all that, but you do a lot of stuff. And so first off, what is the, you know, what's your elevator speech for? Who is Maria Andros? If anyone wants to ask and you really wanted to tell them, what would you say? What do you do?

Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me here. I love what you do and I'm very honored to be here with you.

Thank you.

I kind of got started just needing to get out of the life that I was in where I was really just feeling frustrated and working for job. And back in 2006 was when I knew that I had to do something different. And YouTube was kind of taking off at that point. And so I was watching, studying videos on YouTube and I was looking to see that people were actually using it to generate free leads and traffic to their websites. And I had a website where I was an affiliate, not even my own products, and I had two visitors a day. So I knew that I had to do something fast.

A whopping two visitors.

It was a pain point. It was a whopping two visitors. I had no knowledge of Google AdWords, nothing. And so I, I had this intuitive feeling, which is something that I've been using like probably my entire life for everything that I've ever done. It's always been this kind of this intuitive hit. I don't know if you've ever felt that. You just have that, that knowing.

Probably not the way you do. But I definitely have felt that.

Well, yeah, anyone who's successful, you know, Richard Branson goes by intuition. Like he can know.

He's like an intuitive entrepreneur. He just kind of gets certain things.

Yeah, yeah. So I just saw that video was trending. I could see the trend before. It was like really going to hit. And I just thought, ok, I've got to like learn this. I've got to study it. And I didn't know what I was doing, but I literally had to kind of reverse engineer my way backwards and look at, you know, people like you at the time, very successful entrepreneurs, you know, in the marketing industry. And I just had to start somewhere. So that was my starting point. And I use video as my kind of medium to kind of get my name out there. And really, it's not really about even my brand anymore. It's really about the leverage of what video can do for your. For your brand online. Yeah.

Awesome. Well, you know, it's interesting because I tend to think of something I learned from Gary Halbert, where there's three things you need in order to sell something. You need a product or service. You need a sales pitch or a marketing message, and you need a delivery system. And I look at video as a delivery system. There's many ways to deliver. You know, like right now, this video of us is being delivered via video. And everywhere that it goes, we're going to put it on the ilovemarketing.com site. It'll be up on YouTube. It'll be in a variety of places, wherever you decide to put it, It's a delivery system. Now, to back up, you also had to either focus on creating your own product or service or selling the products or services of other people. And within the video, you had to actually speak and talk and present yourself in a certain way. So I kind of want to talk about that because I envision the people that would be watching this are people that are entrepreneurs. They have a product or service to sell. They have some way that they talk about it, and they're wanting to deliver it via video and other ways. But I really want to focus on video because you, I mean, right out of the shoot, I think you had some pretty good success. I mean, what. What did you actually do? You know, I know you probably don't always like talking about money. I would love to hear what you would like. What did you do when you first kind of latched onto this?

Yeah, Well, I just want to say that video can be very overwhelming. It can feel like it's, oh, it's too much work. It's hard, it's intimid. But really, we're sitting here in Joe's office. We've got this awesome ilovemarketing.com which I'm really excited to attend. You know, background. It doesn't have to be, you know, difficult, but what I had to do was learn to find a way to connect with people through that lens and it takes some strategic thinking. But when you can be strategic about video or marketing, you can have bigger results. And no matter what state the economy is in, you can reinvent yourself, you can rebuild. You can be kind of like Madonna, where she's always, like, changing her look and she's pioneering.

Do you think she's gonna look like me anytime soon? Madonna, Just.

Just out of curiosity, she might be modeling. I think we saw one of her cards. She might be, you know, kind of studying that trend right now of Jo Polish. Yeah, she might, you know, take over. We're being silly. We're just. We're totally playing. But really, it's about having fun, right? Like, we're really, like. When you can be authentic like this and really show people who you are and just not be afraid to just, you know, just show different sides of yourself, I think people will appreciate that. But to make a long story short, I started actually filming with my camera. I would hold up the camera like this and walk up and down the street or on the beach. And I didn't realize that was called a pattern interrupt at the time. People started following because it was very much like a reality show, even though they're like, what is this girl doing? But it's been, you know, a million views plus views now, over a million dollars in sales generated without advertising. So it's. It does work if you can actually follow a system and showcase your value and what you have to offer your market, your community, and actually really position yourself as a market leader. I think that's what really the power of video is, becoming a market leader in your market, and that's what's really possible.

Well, what I admire about you is that I guess in a lot of ways, like myself, I had no formal education. I failed owning and operating a small business at a community college. I even show my report card so people can see, really see you really feel, oh, yeah, I got an F.

I'm a beauty school dropout.

We both failed in my high school. I didn't even walk during the night.

You know, I didn't go to my thing either.

We didn't even know that about each other. See, we discover things every day. How bizarre is that? Yeah. So I never got a degree. I never had any formal education. On the. The night of my high school graduation, I was getting high. I mean, I was kind of a drug addict back then. So that's. When I'm not saying that jokingly. I mean, I wasn't actually a bad place, you know, so the, you know, the upbringing and the education never would, you would think would lead to somebody running a successful business and, and all that sort of stuff. However, I believe, you know, like people ask, you know, how'd you learn what you do? And I, there's this funny line, you know, just like Abe Lincoln, I'm self taught, you know, totally.

It's. I say self taught school. And I was actually just featured recently in a book called the Education of Millionaires. And you know, for me I wouldn't have had the privilege or invitation to be invited to be, you know, featured amongst entrepreneurs like Russell Simmons, who's like a huge mogul, the guitarist from Pink Floyd, some, some billionaires in this book. But it's really interesting because it is all about, you know, just using that, that personality side of things in your own self taught, kind of street smart mode.

Absolutely.

To be innovative. I think people just are afraid to take action. And like using video and something like this, we can actually create those products.

And see, I guess in a lot of ways without it sounding like, you know, we're like dumbasses or anything, because we're not. I mean, we think about what we do. The point is, is like, you know, we just started doing something in the beginning that we really didn't know what the hell we were doing. But we, we had a vision though. Exactly.

And a goal to help certain people actually reach some kind of impact or fulfillment or happiness or freedom in their life. Like that was my thing. I'm sure for you, you've empowered so many people.

Oh yeah, totally. And you know, and at first I did it because I needed to. I mean, for selfish reasons. I needed to survive, I needed to eat. And I learned marketing because I was in a dead broke carpet cleaning business. I was a dead broke carpet cleaner trying to figure out how to make this small business work. I read Think and Grow Rich. I read books on positive motivation. But I still didn't have any marketing knowledge. And it wasn't until I actually learned how to communicate a compelling message to people that my income started to change. And so basically what I want to do for the people watching this is to inspire them to, you know, the best way to get started is to get started and to put a focus and emphasis on communicating and educating people. And that's what, you know, that's what both me and you did. We actually just, we just started doing something.

What you just. What I really liked about what you just shared, Joe, is that you were actually sharing. If you just noticed Joe was sharing his story and he went from like, being this kind of broke, you know, Carp, you're struggling, and so your story has progressed and changed over time, but your story is your story. No one can duplicate you. No one can. Like, they can try to copy you. But, you know, it's like, what's that saying? Like, often imitated, never duplicated.

Yes. Yes.

So it's the story that I think a lot of people are not paying enough attention to when it comes to marketing or marketing with video. Like, you have so much magic and gold in your story, it's ridiculous. And you could literally rewrite your story, like, today. Like, you could literally take it out and change your entire business and brand if you make a decision. And I'm. I'm a big believer in that.

Well, you know, I was in New York recently, and I met a young lady named Bonnie, and she was really super excited. There was a few people in the world of marketing that were women that she looked up to, and, you know, and you were one of them. And so I had. I said, you know, if you want to talk to Maria, I can actually make that phone call. And I did. I actually called her. And you guys ended up talking. I called you when I was with her. And, you know what's kind of cool is you never realize how many people out there are impacted. And I always think it's funny because when people come up to me and, like, they ask me for an autograph or something or want to take a picture, and sometimes they'll think I'm like, this, you know, very special person. And I use a lot of deprecating humor. I'm like, if you knew how many personal problems I had, you wouldn't find anything special about asking me for. For a photo. And I say it jokingly, but that's.

What makes you awesome, because you're like. You're just humble.

And I think people that act like they're. Well, one thing I've learned in marketing is you're never as good as your own pr, you know, so. Not that you don't do great things, but the point is, you're not this larger than life person. People are people. And I always try to remind people that, you know, your job as a marketer is to, you know, obviously be persuasive, have people think you're awesome, and at the same time, don't ever believe that you are somehow more special or something, because then it becomes arrogance.

Yes.

And then you start being a jerk to people. And I think if you operate, you know, with a level head, not only will you go much further. You also. People will tend to like you. And, you know, so the point is, like, when, you know Bonnie, now Bonnie is super excited as a result of having, you know, talk to you.

We got on the phone and. Lovely young lady, and it was a privilege for me to, you know, talk to her. And. Because again, I. I appreciate you saying that because it's. You know, maybe a lot of people do think that because we're maybe a little bit more in the public eye that we are, you know, larger than life. But really, we're just. We're really just people. And if anything, it's like, it's just a lot easier that way. So let's just keep it that way because we're just. Everyone's just doing, like, their own thing, and we're just trying to give. Provide tools and things that have worked for us in hopes to empower our viewers and your viewers to use it in a way that they can create their own juicy kind of spin on marketing and their message.

Well, yeah, and what I tend to, as I nearly fall off my chair here, by the way, we could do all kinds of crazy graphics on this video. We could make it.

We could edit it.

I'm going to, purposely, because that's what people would expect when you. I'm interviewing someone like you, that we're gonna have a story. I'm gonna actually reach down and grab some water. I'll try to cover the label because the. We've not been paid a sponsorship yet. Have you seen the World? The Greatest Movie Ever Sold by Morgan Spurlock, the guy that did Super Size Me?

I haven't.

Yeah, he did a whole movie where he went out and he got sponsors to actually pay for this movie for product placement. And he did a whole movie about product placement, which is quite funny.

Well, it's. It's. That's. That's. That's almost like what YouTube's done now. Like, look, there's. There's. Whether you're a small business owner or you're, you know, a mogul, or you're just getting started, you know, there's people on YouTube who've literally built up their fan base. I think that building up your fan base is actually where the value is, because if you have fans, it's. It's even more valuable than, say, like, your customers are like, your lifeblood. They're your. Your family. You want to take care of them, but it's. The fans are the ones who will follow you with any changes. Like, if you have an event coming up, they'll follow you with that. Or if you're gonna switch gears and do something new. So that's the sponsorship part of YouTube is like you can actually use that leverage of video and then like maybe wear T shirts. I'm just using this, an example.

This is product placement right here.

Right here. But imagine like if you could create an idea today or tomorrow, if you got inspired with an idea and that idea turned into a million dollar idea. You don't know when you're going to have that million dollar idea. And that's what I think is really cool about, you know, just this, this possibility on the Internet that we have and that you have to leverage right now.

Yes. And there's a saying that, I think Dan Sullivan is the first one I heard say this where, you know, you have to have a lot of sense, silly thoughts in order to have the great thoughts. And the way that I tend to think of video is just putting stuff out there and seeing how the marketplace responds. Because if you've got a talent, if you've got a skill, if you've got a story, there are a lot of people that will resonate with it. There are some people that will resonate with it purely for entertainment. And there's others that will say, I will give money to this person. I will follow this person. I will take advice from this person. I will be influenced by the recommendations. I mean, you know, Justin Bieber is a byproduct of doing video and putting his talent out there. Now, you know, people can make fun of Justin Bieber and stuff, but this is an extremely talented kid who works his butt off that. You know, in the last year, 51% of music sold was from Justin Bieber.

You know, because he's created those raving bands.

Exactly.

He knows how to like, that's. And I saw that. You have got that.

I got a life. I think it's super cool. Yeah, Life size.

Justin Bieber.

Justin Bieber for Dean Jackson. Because Dean Jackson, my partner and I love him.

Dean's awesome.

Yeah, he's great. And you know, he understands, he follows the entertainment business and he knows. Yeah, he really knows. And he's the one that really put me on like Never say Never, which I think cost 18 million to make that movie. And I think it brought in, it's brought in, I think close to 100 million at this point. And you know, we're talking about marketing machine. If you've never seen Never say Never, Justin Bieber's movie, watch it because it will give you, you'll learn a ton. Even Guy Kawasaki told me that. He's like, it's one of the best movies you could ever watch about marketing to learn something about marketing. But the point is, is, you know, it started out in video. Now I'm not saying that your child or you may be the next Justin. Justin Bieber, but the point is.

Results may vary.

Exactly. No, but the point is, if it wasn't for this new day and age, that wouldn't exist.

Like being able to use this medium to actually reach people. Like, imagine if you could start reaching people in Australia or other countries that you would never have been able to reach locally in a local business. It's like literally, it's ridiculous, but it's exciting. It really is. We've got to get more excited, I think, because sometimes I think it's easy to forget how much power and leverage you have have by choosing to use these types of tools and, you know, learn from Joe or learn the marketing tips that can propel you forward.

I mean, as a matter of fact, as we're sitting here doing this video, we have a guy sitting behind the camera who I can assure you knows absolutely nothing about how to actually do video. Yeah, he is. He's quite a funny guy. We might call him up later. He's kind of well known, certainly sort of a big deal too. But we don't. Let's not mention his name, but I'm kidding. So let me ask you some questions for people. Okay. So they kind of get that there's this medium out there. You know, there's all this technology where people can distribute and someone wants to go into the business of either educating people and getting paid for it, or building a fan base because their ego requires them to have a bunch of followers. Or, you know, they just simply have a cure for something, a methodology for something, a story to tell A nonprofit, a for profit. What are some tips and suggestions on how to get started in communicating? I mean, how would you.

The message. Okay, so the first thing you'd want to do is kind of set up your hub. Whether that's a video blog, Whether that's your YouTube channel, a simple website, it can just be. We want to actually start capturing your viewers information because you can just create videos generically and it can maybe go viral, but the chances of that aren't extremely high. Unless you're filming like, you know, weird cat videos or something like that. But you want. Your goal is to actually bring bring along your viewers into a series. So it's not just like a One hit wonder with your videos. We want to create a hub, like a home base. And it's a good analogy is with Apple, for example, Apple came out with the ipod like years ago. You remember, that was like this huge thing. It was like no one, like they didn't actually have a market share. It was actually PCs that had this huge market share. But Apple got innovative and they came up with the ipod. And what they did is it was a small entry point product. Like what was it, less than $200 or approximately 300 or $200?

Yeah, I bought one the very first.

You bought it, right?

Yeah, and I love the slogan. It said they had a thousand songs in your pocket.

Right. Okay, I don't even remember that, but I remember I was not. I personally wasn't an Apple customer, but there were so many people who jumped on that bandwagon. But what happened is we actually got to the store and once we were in the store, you saw all the MacBook Pros, right? And all those other products, they helped you with that. So your videos, you're not meant to actually sell on your videos. When you're building up your business with video, your video sales page is meant to sell your product. But everything else is to get people to your website. Your videos are like little employees that are working for you while you eat, play and sleep. And they're driving the customers and the potential customers and the traffic to your website, which is where you're going to offer a place where they can enter their name and email address. And then you're going to give them actual really good information and almost like a taste test, a try before you buy where you're actually giving away something that may be one of your best techniques and giving them a feeling tone of what your service offers. You're going to build extreme brand loyalty quick because a lot of people think, oh, I have to save all the good stuff. And our friend Evan is a genius. Evan Pagan is about moving the free line.

We shouldn't call him a genius. He deserves that.

All right, well, anyhow, no, but Evan is smart. Evan is smart. So take that. But it's really about creating a series of videos. So it's almost like you've seen Friends when a new show comes on, it's a pilot, we have no idea who the characters are, but we got to know Rachel, Monica, Joey, like all those quirky characters through a series of videos. Okay. And like they made us laugh. But really it's about creating how to content works really, really well. Like kind of what we're doing. Right now, we're doing some how to, like, what can, you know, our viewers, you know, your viewers take. And how to. Right now.

Do you think they're watching this video more because they want to look at you or me? What if. If you just. If there was no content to say we were like, we have to do a full.

I think that shirt is very captivating.

I honestly think it's the draw. The draw marketing.

It's actually not pure white. Just so you know, I don't have on film. It might look white, but it's actually this interesting. A crew color that I've never seen before. Almost like an eggshell.

It looks like it's because I wash it with all my color. No, I'm kidding. But you're right. See, because this is white.

This is white.

This is pearly white over here. And this is. Yeah.

So if you wear cool shirts, then.

Let me say something which I think is I'd love to hear your take on this because we live in a world that is fascinated with celebrity.

Yes.

And I think one of the appeal of doing video, you know, much more when it was early on and new than it is now, because now any goofball with a video camera can throw up a video somewhere and make money. And make money if they wanted to.

Of course, if they chose to.

And so you, you know, there's some of the most popular channels on YouTube are young girls on how to apply makeup or how to do their hair or how to dress. And gossip shows. The stat I heard is that two thirds of all American conversations are gossip. So we live in a world of people, US Magazine, Entertainment Tonight, that sort of stuff. So you can bring a lot of that fascination with celebrities to your use of video. And so I know in your video you've done videos of you doing photo shoots, and then you've done videos of you on how to make money and how to build a list and how to put together, you know, an opt in page and all that. What tends to. After you've established a following, what do you, you know, like, for instance, I put like, really incredible interviews on my Facebook page as an example.

Right.

And I recently put up a ridiculous video of me at Burning man wearing freaking, like, basically golden underwear in a ridiculous necklace that Annie and I'm walking on stilts. And I get more comments from that than all of these incredibly valuable how to make money sort of things that just, you know, the whole world of communication never ceases to amaze me what people respond to. So what is your take on what people respond to and why and how do you mix it up?

My take is that people are buying experiences online and if the companies that are actually creating an experience like Virgin, like it's an experience. It's not just the content. You have to have good content. I want to, we want to encourage you to, you know, really do your research and create content that will actually help your viewers and your customers to actually, you know, embedded their lives and get a result. But it is experience reality shows. People want to see behind the scenes. They're captivated by seeing just like authentic, you know, like you're just, we're just being ourselves. It's very. This is impromptu. It's much more interesting. And actually Larry King, there was a video where, you know, Larry's usually very polished and just like Larry's Larry. But there was a video that went viral where it was behind the scenes where he was actually really grumpy one day and it went like it had millions and millions of views because really people don't want perfection. People are buying brands like brands that actually have character or that provide an experience are what are actually staying alive right now in this industry. If you aren't bringing an experience to your business right now, you may go under. I've seen there's. I just wanted an airplane today on Southwest and it said 250, what is it, 2.5 million local businesses people are going under if they're not online right now and using, you know, Facebook video. But it's creating experience. Like you actually showcased a part of, you know, your personality and that just makes you a unique offer. It's a unique. Even though it's not directly an offer to buy your 25k coaching program or your, you know, your cake program, which.

Everyone should buy right now. 25k group calm, by the way.

But do you see how you can actually bring people in at different entry points and help them? Like you're building trust. People buy from people they trust. Why is it that one website can have one offer and they're not converting at all or no one's buying. But then there's another website where maybe there's a story or an experience that feels like, oh, I can relate to this. It's being relatable. I think that's what we're just like. I kind of sometimes go on these tangents, but I get really excited about these conversations. But it's being relatable. People want to relate. We're human. We're this fast paced time like we all sometimes feel disconnected and social media and everything has made us feel more connected, but at the same time we're still looking for that feel good and that value and that experience from something that we will want to provide our, you know, take out our credit card and buy something from or. Because we're going to feel like we got value from that.

Yeah, well, no, I agree, if that makes any sense. No, totally. Because I think if someone is not providing some sort of experience, you're simply commoditized because it's really.

You're generic.

Yeah. I mean in this day and age you can go on Amazon, you can go online and you can figure out how to buy stuff for a much lower price, but it's the experience that's attached to it. So whenever you can, you know, I mean, one of the best examples of taking a non related product would be something like the George Foreman Grill.

Right?

I mean, if you didn't have George Foreman Grill and you just had Grill, what would? You know? There was a whole story and there was a whole Persona and there was a whole, you know, for lack of a better word, a brand built around, you know, a George Foreman Grill. And so whenever you can, you know, attach an experience, something from fun, something memorable, something that has significance beyond the product or service, that's how you elevate the perception of it. In my Nightingale Kona program, I do a whole segment on pride of spending where years ago I read a book called the Experience Economy and they talked about the Coffee Bean as a commodity. Starbucks.

Starbucks took it, ran with it and they treated an experience exactly.

And it's like you take Coffee Bean, which is like a 2 cent commodity, and you put it into Folgers Crystals or you put it into Denny's or a convenience, you know, store like a 711 or Circle K or wherever people are in the world where they have, you know, places you can go get coffee, you know, you're talking about 50 cents a dollar, but then you put it into a latte and you charge $3 to $5 for this 2 cent commodity. You've created an experience around that. And even if they sold the coffee for a dollar, they could still make good margins because of such the low price of coffee and the margins in it. But it would ruin their followers because no one would feel psychologically good about spending a dollar on a latte. Right. It just doesn't seem to match. And so part of it is, I learned through that is that when you tie in the personality, when you tie in the experience, not only does that engage people, but they'll actually pay when way more money for that, for the commodity.

They'll pay higher prices for that.

Exactly.

So you're actually leveraging your time and not needing to reach the masses. Like a lot of people think that you have to have millions of video views like you have to. You don't have to have a million video views at all. You can actually reach a very small niche market and be able to offer a product or service that's, you know, high value for higher pricing, if that's what you have and not have to reach the masses. But you don't have to reach the masses. That's the myth.

One of my. The areas where I make the largest sums of money in my business are actually pretty much under the radar. I've got my 25k group which the vast majority of people are not even aware of what the heck that even is. It's a high end coaching mastermind group for people that make a million dollars a year net income or more. I've got my carpet cleaning niche where you never see me average advertising marketing materials for carpet cleaners and airline magazines are on national television because I don't need to. So I don't need tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people seen messaging in order to sell that. It's a very tightly niche thing. So the point here is you don't have to be gigantic. The whole world doesn't have to know who you are. And you can still make a million dollars plus a year simply you know, just targeting a small segment of people relative to, you know, what a lot of people think you need to do.

And what I love about you Jo, is you actually use a lot of video. I've seen throughout the years, like I've watched your progression as well. You actually use video everywhere. I'm pretty much totally.

I carry like my iPhone or I carry a flip video. I still love flip videos.

And yeah, you're using like a, the flip video. It's not like you're using, you know, you don't always use the high end cameras. Like you've done a lot of this with, you know, just technology.

Some of the most well received videos I ever shot were done completely on the fly with no editing whatsoever. And just in the middle of like, I want to capture a slice of life and if there's a slice of life happening and I got a video camera, you bet you bet your butt that I'm trying to, you know, know, be not too profane here. Yeah, that I'm going to capture. But I would encourage everyone to think that way too. I mean, people think you need to be so polished.

You don't. It's polished.

Polished? Yeah. Like gel polish.

No, it's, it's, it's really cool. Like I actually was at the airport, you know, coming down to the office today and I was thinking I made a little video for a friend just to like a, like not a voice memo, but just say, hey, see you next week. But you can literally take your iPhone or your mobile device and actually film a video. And it'll probably connect a lot more because people feel like, wow, she's talking. Or he's talking directly to me. And there is serious power and magic in that.

I want to point something out that I don't think I've talked about this too much. One of the ways that I actually build rapport with people is I always try to get as close to him personally as possible. Even if we're across the country, across people in the uk, Australia, there's videos that I will make for a few people to watch. I will make public videos that I want everyone to watch. I will make private videos that small groups of people watch and I will make one on one videos. So if I'm sitting in front of my Apple Air and I wanted to shoot a video, whenever there's an important email or an important request or someone does something that I think really is worthy for something more than an impersonal email, I will actually record an audio and send it either on my iPhone if I'm out and about, or I will shoot a video and I will send them that personal video. And I cannot tell you how that has accelerated my impact with things that led to sales, that things that led to people wanting to work with me and do things. And so I would encourage people to even to think of video not just as something you have to produce for everyone to watch, but just as a way to can and clone a message and send it out to someone.

That's such a powerful how to action step right now. I'm so glad you brought this up because think about it. Everything, sales, marketing, everything's communication. It's all like is your communication like really landing with the other person? So if you could start practicing by just acknowledging even the people in your life or building those stronger relationships just by like using your little camera, just practicing and you cement either a relationship or a deal or someone introduces you to your next, you know, future business partner or the next whatever that is, that like huge I have no doubt in my mind that the top leaders are most like, if you're doing this, then you want to model. Like, I'm gonna do it even more now, Joe says, because it's, you know, he's a very master at communication. And you have been connected to celebrities like you connected to, you know, Richard Branson. I think that's really powerful that you do that. So that's a huge, like, takeaway. If you could do that one step, I think, within the next, you know, just, let's just say give yourself a goal. One month, three months, a year from now. Where are you going to be if you actually nurture and want to just take action and build those relationships?

Yeah, exactly. And here's the thing. I sucked at doing video when I first started it. Just like I sucked at marketing, just like I sucked at writing copy. But there's this line, anything worth doing well is worth doing poorly in the beginning. Now, if you still try to do something and it is just not within your ability, one of the worst things to do is keep trying to get good at something that you just suck at. Because Dan Sullivan says if you spend your life trying to improve your weaknesses, at the end of your life, you're going to have a lot of really strong weaknesses. There comes a point where you're like, you're either getting it or you don't. I mean, persistence only goes so far. Some people are like, persist, persist, persist. And it goes back to, well, sort of because the best way to get out of a hole is to quit digging it, you know. So, I mean, sometimes persistence is really, you know, it's like some games in life, the only way you win is you don't play. So there's certain games where if it's just not within your skill set and you're not good at video, then do audio. You know, some people have a great radio voice, but they don't, they don't do video. Well, some people are great writers.

You can do screen captures. You can actually create screen captures or little videos you can go to. You can for app. For Apple computers, there's Screenflow or there's Camtasia. You can get a 30 day free trial. You can literally create a PowerPoint with a white background, black text and create your script and just do a voiceover. And I see people who are doing that making like they're doing really well. So you don't even have to be on live camera if you really don't want to.

Well, John Benson, who's in my 25k is like the ninja of ugly video sales letters.

And he's cashing in, right?

Oh, he's making a fortune. I mean literally, he's made people millions of dollars. And at a recent Bill Glaser, Dan Kennedy Glaser Kennedy Super Conference, 1200 people I spoke at. I had the highest close in Glaser Kennedy history for a product called the Triple X Halbert Recordings. It was literally a consultation I did in 1997 with Gary Halpert that I recorded. He's one of the most brilliant marketing minds on the planet. And I sold that product and I used a seven minute video that John Benson helped me put together. And so from stage, I had people watch a 7 1/2 minute video and over 500 people got in line to buy my product. And basically a couple hundred people dropped out of the line because they thought they were going to miss out on the offer. I still sold, you know, six figures like it was. It was huge.

That's awesome.

But basically it was done with a video and it was done with an ugly video that didn't even have my face on it. Simply just talking. And so there's so much power and leverage in video and there's so much more that we could say. But we're on a. We got a fly to New York for our buddy. I'll just date this, but our buddy Evan Pagan's getting married to Annie tomorrow on two days fly to New York. And so I want to do a quick video with you before we needed to get the heck out of here. And you have training, you have, people can find you. So if people want to learn from you, see what it is you're doing. Where do they go? How do they get more Maria?

Sure. The best place that I would direct you to go is I actually have a free video series. It's called Video conversion formulas. The videoconversionformula.com you'll see me in a white karate outfit in a dojo. It's quite interesting. I've had a lot of comments from all over the world and it's a series.

Do you think you could kick my ass if we got in a fight?

You know, I don't know. I'd have to. I would have to try.

I would hope not. I would feel. I would feel so ashamed.

No, I think you'd probably. You do P90X.

So I'm sorry. Totally. Like you're right in the middle of talking about being in a dojo with a video series.

Anyhow. I actually have a series where you can actually go. And there's a formula called the instant video expert formula. I give you an actual script that you can follow, you can model, you can actually get started with fill in the blank and actually start like I really want to, you know, help people with video because I really am kind of like the underdog that made it and I'm all about empowering people to have an awesome life. And I'm taking to the next level now but you can go there or mariandros.com but video conversion point formulas. Good place.

Awesome. So. And what I will say is you're coming up with the famous last words that I'm going to end this video with from you because you know I will talk endlessly is yeah. So it's great having you as part of our.

Thank you for I'm really truly like happy and grateful to be a part of this. This is so cool. And thank you for featuring this interview. It's really an honor.

Absolutely, absolutely. And hopefully we will do more of these and they will see more of me and you in shenanigans because we're going to shoot some funny videos and some funny pictures and stuff very soon and those will pop up. You can find if you search. But yeah, so for. I love marketing. One of the reasons I love marketing so much is that marketing is the ultimate leverage. I mean you truly can take a message, anything you have to share for fun or for profit or for serious things that are saving people's lives and making people aware of cures to social ills or diseases and whatnot. And video is a fantastic way to do it. And with all the advances in technology, this is available to everyone. I mean literally, it's so easy to get stuff out there. However, the part that's not easy is the psychology. And to be a good marketer, psychology is infinitely more important than than technology. So what I want to encourage you to do if you're not having success with your video, if we've kind of prompted you and inspired you to get started, really do a study of human behavior. A famous line in Robert Collier letter book which is a copywriting book written in the 50s. He said as a copywriter, as a marketer, you want to enter a conversation that's existing in your prospect's mind. So whenever you're putting something, something together, whatever sort of messaging you're doing, think about what is going on in the prospects minds. What are their fears, what are their obstacles, what are their concerns, what are the things that make them laugh, what are the things that will engage them. And as you put your videos out there, put them together. Also, think of yourself as doing an R and D experiment. You're literally watching what people are responding to, kind of like you're fishing just to see what the fish are biting on. And once you've identified what people are responding to, just keep recording that. Just keep putting it out there. And those are the ways that you can build a list, follow what Maria's doing, follow the I Love Marketing podcast and listen to it. Because the whole reason we're putting this stuff out there, yes, we love it when people get engaged enough and they want to buy our stuff and they're willing to invest in stuff. And at the same time, both of us put a tremendous amount of free content out there because we want to basically put our, you know, put it out there and say, if you like it, you'll buy something from us. You'll learn something. If you don't, that's okay. That's a smart way to actually understand human psychology, because either one of us would have ever made a penny if we didn't really study what people are actually responding to and leverage that. I just want to make sure that you understand that along the ways of trying this out, if you don't hit it right off the bat, always watch what's working, what's not working. And once you got something, something that's working, keep doing it, keep going deeper with it. Because part of what I've interviewed a lot of people, this thing called Genius Network, and it's really the Wisdom Network. What Genius is, in a lot of ways is simply redundancy. It's people that have kept trying, kept trying, kept trying. They failed many, many times, but they just kept trying. And they actually got to a point where they started working and they kept doing it, and then it started working more. And then all sudden of a. A sudden, they were world class. And if you study any area for six months, a year, three years, I mean, you study something for three to five years, not only will you be an expert, you'll probably be one of the world's leading experts. And the thing is, when it comes to success, some people just give up way too soon. Anyway, that's the rambling I wanted to do. So that was probably more than I needed to say, but that was a tangent. So, Maria, again, thank you. Famous last words. What would you say to any final thing to these listeners as we send them off into their.

I think that all the experiences that you've gone through in your life have made you a fighter. And that everything that you may have, like, been challenged with, and that's, like, tried to put you down and you felt like maybe you've been a failure in. It's like, you are, like, you're a fighter. You're a survivor. You can completely reinvent and reactivate your path right now. And I like to say that everything you want is just outside of your comfort zone. It's just, like, right outside there. So it's so close that if you just choose today to, like, just be like, you know what? Screw it. Screw it. Let's do it like that Richard Branson saying, like, no matter what you did yesterday, no matter what you did three months from now, no matter what your results are, you are, like, you're able to start over now, and you're able to take it to another level of leadership. I think that the world is waiting for leaders. It's waiting for you. You're here for a reason. You're watching this. You've invested your time, your energy. So I just encourage you to really look within, to find that leadership, that tiger that's there, and just go for it and get it done and really encourage you and wish you tons of success. And again, with appreciation and gratitude, I just want to say thank you and good luck.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Give us your comments. Let me know what you thought of the interview with Maria.

And thank you, guys. Really appreciate the comments.

Yeah, you're awesome.

Thank you. I love you. Thank you very much. So thank you.