Jon Levy, now a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, is the founder of The Influencers Dinner, as well as The Influencers Salon, where Olympians, Nobel winners, serial entrepreneurs, comedians, Grammy award-winners, and others mix and mingle.

I’ve been to a few salons myself, and I’ve always walked away with amazing people.

We cover Jon’s latest book You’re Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence in this conversation and share some of the highlights from Jon’s research.

Admittedly, I’m fortunate enough to receive a lot of books in advance of their publication as a traditionally-published author, and while I’m ashamed to admit I don’t read most of the preview copies I’m sent, I did read You’re Invited cover-to-cover back in March and learned a LOT.

You can get a lot of value from our interview and learn more about Jon, but check out his new book as well if you enjoy this conversation! You should also go get Jon’s first book called The 2 AM Principle: Discover the Science of Adventure.

Alrighty….let’s jump into it 😎.

👇 Click below to watch our interview with Jon Levy 👇

🚀 You can also listen to the audio only at the top of this article. 🚀

Jon Levy is a behavioral scientist best known for his work in influence, human connection, and decision-making. He specializes in applying the latest research to transform the ways companies approach marketing, sales, consumer engagement, and culture. His clients range from Fortune 500 brands to startups.

More than a decade ago, Jon founded The Influencers Dinner, a secret dining experience for industry leaders, from Nobel laureates, Olympians, celebrities, and executives to artists, musicians, and the Grammy-winning voice of the bark from “Who Let the Dogs Out.” Guests cook dinner together but can’t discuss their careers or give their last names. Once seated to eat, they reveal who they are. Over time, these dinners developed into a community. With thousands of members, The Influencers is the largest community of its type worldwide.

In his free time, Jon works on outrageous projects, among them spending a year traveling to all seven continents and attending the world’s greatest events (Grand Prix, Art Basel, Burning Man, Running of the Bulls, etc.), barely surviving to tell the tale. These adventures were chronicled in his first book, The 2 AM Principle: Discover the Science of Adventure.

This interview is part of our new “Super-Connector Secrets” series where we introduce you to diverse entrepreneurs and subject matter experts.

Reach out and connect with these folks, and if you’d like to hear more of these conversations while also learning my top tips on relationship and community-building, order a copy of How To Build A World Class Network In Record Time.

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

He helps small business owners and rockstar corporate “intrapreneurs” through his popular content on Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company, in addition to the coaching and programs offered at MasterTheTalk.com.

Additionally, for high-growth startups, Inc 5000 companies, and 50-500 person businesses alike, Yuri’s firm HR, Talent & Systems provides award-winning HR consulting (they basically act as an outsourced Chief HR Officer and/or Chief People Officer), saving CEOs dozens of hours each week and companies hundreds of thousands of dollars annually while also maximizing employee engagement.

To lead great companies, Yuri has invested considerably in his own personal and professional growth, and has documented his processes, “lessons learned”, and theories for your benefit in his new book Be Your Own Commander In Chief: The Authoritative Guide to Creating A Life of Clarity, Meaning, Impact & Success in Times of Chaos, named a “Top 21 Book to Read in 2021” by Forbes.

In our interview, we discuss Yuri’s background, what you’ll learn from his new book, and “pro-tips” for managing the increasingly complex and ever-changing world of work if you find yourself in a position of leadership.

👇 Click below to watch our interview with Yuri Kruman 👇

🚀 You can also listen to the audio only at the top of this article. 🚀

Yuri Kruman is a corporate CHRO / Chief People Officer, Managing Consultant and expert on HR, Talent and Systems, including around Benefits/Payroll, Talent Management and Employee Experience (EX). He is likewise a board member, startup advisor and official member of the Forbes Coaches Council, as well as contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business.com, Influencive and numerous other top platforms. Yuri's consulting, advising and coaching portfolio includes speaking engagements, workshops and advisory work on HR Transformation / Change Management, personal + professional development, Employee Experience (EX), impacting thousands of Fortune 500 and startup executives.

Yuri previously consulted a blue-chip roster of companies, including Goldman Sachs, Fortress Investment Group, Bank of America, Towers Willis Watson, among others. He is the author of "What Millennials Really Want From Work and Life" (Business Expert Press, March 2019) and "Be Your Own Commander-in-Chief" (2021). Yuri has also spoken at EY, Google, UPenn, Columbia and NYU, among others companies and higher education institutions.

A regular guest on top podcasts including Wharton Business Radio, Leadership and Loyalty Podcast, Entrepreneur on Fire, As Told By Nomads, Conscious Millionaire and The Blind Entrepreneur, he's also been published or featured on Inc., Fast Co., Time, U.S. News, Mashable, PBS, BBC and numerous top blogs, TV and radio. Yuri is happy to collaborate on projects involving HR Strategy, Systems and Operations, as well as Talent Acquisition and Management around the U.S. Learn more at yurikruman.com

This interview is part of our new “Super-Connector Secrets” series where we introduce you to diverse entrepreneurs and subject matter experts.

Reach out and connect with these folks, and if you’d like to hear more of these conversations while also learning my top tips on relationship and community-building, order a copy of How To Build A World Class Network In Record Time.

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

About 40% of all carbon emissions worldwide are generated from building and managing real estate?

When serial entrepreneur Michael Beckerman learned of this, he made it his mission (along with his team at CRETech.com) to rally the commercial real estate industry around reducing their collective carbon footprint while simultaneously seeing opportunity in adopting new technologies.

Recently, they launched CRETech Climate to offer curated content, events, and more to the real estate industry on all things climate tech.

If you have interest in real estate, climate change, and/or community-building (Michael has built CRETech into the largest international community and media platform for the commercial real estate tech industry), then check out this interview.

👇 Click below to watch our interview with Michael Beckerman 👇

🚀 You can also listen to the audio only at the top of this article. 🚀

Michael Beckerman is a leader in the commercial real estate tech sector.

He entered the sector in 2012 after a 25-year career in commercial real estate public relations, in which he started and built Beckerman Public Relations into one of the largest firms in the country before eventually selling the agency.

Michael now serves as CEO of CRETech, the largest event, consulting and content platform in the commercial real estate tech sector.

Michael blogs at www.cretech.com/michael-beckerman and is active on the commercial real estate tech speaking circuit.

Learn more about CRETech Climate at cretechclimate.com.

This interview is part of our new “Super-Connector Secrets” series where we introduce you to diverse entrepreneurs and subject matter experts.

Reach out and connect with these folks, and if you’d like to hear more of these conversations while also learning my top tips on relationship and community-building, order a copy of How To Build A World Class Network In Record Time.

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

One of Alex Molden’s coaches in the NFL gave him this sage advice, which we dive into in this conversation.

Ever since, Alex has carried those principles into business (he’s an in-demand professional speaker and 1-on-1 coach for high achievers) and in life (he’s a father of 8!), as well as in practicing his faith.

If you’re working on a book, do any professional speaker, or run any coaching services, coaching programs, etc…we touch on how Alex has pivoted during the pandemic to stay in the game (and how you can as well while also balancing obligations to your family, health, and other projects that have come across your plate in the last 12 months during quarantine).

👇 Click below to watch our interview with Alex Molden 👇

🚀 You can also listen to the audio only at the top of this article. 🚀

Alex Molden was drafted in the 1st round (11th overall) of the 1996 NFL draft.

He played in the NFL for 8 years under 7 different head coaches for the Saints, Chargers, and Lions 8-years competing against some of the best athletes on Earth.

Because of injuries, he was forced to retire in 2005, and has since developed his platform as a Personal Development Coach and Leadership Speaker, helping his clients navigate change, culture, and the potential pitfall of having your identity intertwined with your platform and abilities.

Alex’s clients include Amazon, Nike, Converse, Microsoft, Bandier, the University of Oregon, the Atlanta Falcons, and others. Learn more at: alexmoldenspeaks.com

This interview is part of our new “Super-Connector Secrets” series where we introduce you to diverse entrepreneurs and subject matter experts.

Reach out and connect with these folks, and if you’d like to hear more of these conversations while also learning my top tips on relationship and community-building, order a copy of How To Build A World Class Network In Record Time.

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

Mike Liguori breaks down under-utilized tools in storytelling, which you can apply to your marketing and business development efforts, as well as the unique ways in which you talk about your work with other people.

Regarding monetization strategies, specifically for podcasts, we discuss various ways to create sustainably, and Mike shares some of his experiences earned working with clients like Super Bowl Winner Steve Weatherford, who pivoted his brand from fitness and motivational-speaking to entrepreneurs to a more faith-based community with Mike’s help (which was both more authentic for Steve and ultimately more profitable).

👇 Click below to watch our interview with Mike Liguori 👇

🚀 You can also listen to the audio only at the top of this article. 🚀

Mike Liguori is the Founder of Live Your Truth Media, a podcast agency that creates immersive storytelling for brands and entrepreneurs.

His team will help you come up with creative solutions to set you apart from your competition and develop a show that fosters deeper relationships with your audience.

His past and present clients include Super Bowl Champion and NFL's Fittest Man Steve Weatherford, serial entrepreneur and investor Kamal Ravikant, and NYT Bestselling author Lindsey Pollak. 

He's also worked with Fortune 500 clients such as Salesforce and T-Mobile. In 2018, Mike's work as a podcast producer and writer was recognized by Apple as Best of 2018. 

This interview is part of our new “Super-Connector Secrets” series where we introduce you to diverse entrepreneurs and subject matter experts.

Reach out and connect with these folks, and if you’d like to hear more of these conversations while also learning my top tips on relationship and community-building, order a copy of How To Build A World Class Network In Record Time.

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

He’s someone I’ve known since moving to New York City as a teenager, and I’ve been blessed to witness his continued development as a thought leader, serial entrepreneur, and now professor, investor, and management consultant among other titles.

This is a thought-provoking conversation for anyone who wants to:

* become a recognized thought leader in their field;

* build a successful small business with Fortune 1000 clients;

* contribute to the dismantling of systematic oppression that is all-to-obvious in America and across the world today;

* learn how to tell better stories, and…

* identify unique aspects of your life’s work to share with others in ways that create positive impact.

In short, tuning in above or watching the video below is an amazing use of 45 minutes and will forever change how you look at the world.

(And no, I’m not hyperbolizing. Tayo is THAT interesting and his frameworks are truly thought-provoking.)

That’s why he’s world-renowned at his craft…

👇 Click below to watch our interview with Tayo Rockson 👇.

🚀 You can also listen to the audio only at the top of this article. 🚀

Tayo Rockson is a writer, speaker, consultant, podcaster, professor, and co-founder of UYD Management - a strategic consulting firm that empowers organizations to incorporate sustainable diversity and inclusion practices.

As the son of a diplomat, Tayo grew up understanding the nuances of multicultural diversity while living on four continents. He leveraged his experiences to establish himself as an authority in communicating effectively across cultures and personal branding. He graced various stages to share his knowledge including TEDx, the prestigious Chautauqua Institution, and the United Nations.

Tayo is the host of As Told by Nomads, a podcast ranked in the top 5 tier of the Top 25 Business Podcasts for Entrepreneurs on Entrepreneur.com. He’s the author of Use Your Difference To Make A Difference, and in 2020, he launched the national anti-racism campaign called #LetsTalkBias.

In 2021, Tayo was named in Remote Weekly’s list of The 100 Most Influential Remote Experts and starred in the award winning movie, IMPACT which is about three people who embark on a personal journey to transform the way they communicate on their quest to impact the world.

He also runs the UYD Collective, which you’ll hear about in the interview above, as a membership-based community for those interested in dismantling systems of oppression around us.

This interview is part of our new “Super-Connector Secrets” series where we introduce you to diverse entrepreneurs and subject matter experts.

Reach out and connect with these folks, and if you’d like to hear more of these conversations while also learning my top tips on relationship and community-building, order a copy of How To Build A World Class Network In Record Time.

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

From her personalized GIF-filled website to her approach for creating stunning media productions for clients through her firm Triangleflash, G is someone you' want to know.

In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss:

* her shift from being a senior consultant at Deloitte to starting her own company Triangleflash Studios;

* why she wants to buy land and start a retreat for creatives in New Mexico;

* how to know when to “pivot” in your career and/or business, and when you may NOT find success in chasing new ideas;

* how to authentically tell your story (as she does through badass bios like this)

* why you should stop 1) shaming, 2) blaming, and 3) complaining publicly…

…and more!

Do yourself a favor and set aside 30 minutes to watch or listen to our convo.

👇 Click below to watch our interview with Genevieve Kim. 👇

🚀 You can also listen to the audio only at the top of this article. 🚀

Genevieve Kim is a NY-based artist, entrepreneur, and storyteller known for using photography and her unique visual perspective to provide a loud physical manifestation to human courage, vulnerability and dignity through her lens.

She is a world-hungry savant and human advocate whose life experience has enriched her creative process with a high octane sensitivity towards her subjects’ essential vital force.

With a background in opera, writing, start-ups, design, and media, Genevieve has a deep fascination of the creative process and those endeavoring in it. She has been documenting and interviewing creative minds around the world since 2015 and works with badass brands through Triangleflash Studios.

She’s also working on a new book as well as a real estate venture in New Mexico.

You can learn more about Genevieve and her backstory at: www.genevievekim.com.

This interview is part of our new “Super-Connector Secrets” series where we introduce you to diverse entrepreneurs and subject matter experts.

Reach out and connect with these folks, and if you’d like to hear more of these conversations while also learning my top tips on relationship and community-building, order a copy of How To Build A World Class Network In Record Time.

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

With Monica’s experience fighting for underserved minority communities in Oakland, creating viral media campaigns that positively influenced celebrities like Beyonce to rethink their onstage representation and performances, and continued work to build inclusive online communities, I can’t think of a better person to hear from right now.

Entrepreneurs, tune in to learn about Monica’s take on “digital strategy”, newsjacking, pro-tips for using social media to grow your business, and more.

Please take 39 minutes to listen to today’s interview above (or watch below), and reply back to let us know what you’d care to add to this important conversation.

Then, check out Monica’s program Digital Allyship, which I’ve pre-ordered and hope you do the same (it’s only $39).

Thank you and stay safe.

-Jared

👉 You can also listen to the audio only at the top of this article. 👈

Monica Cadena is an Afro-Latinx artist, writer, yogi, educator and digital media strategist for wellness brands like Off the Mat Into the World® and Yoga Journal.

Monica is most known for creating viral digital campaigns featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, Self Magazine, and People magazine among others, that are rooted in intersectionality, social justice activism, and body positivity.

The former co-founder of Wear Your Voice Magazine, an intersectional feminist magazine centering the voices of Black and Brown queer women, femmes, trans and non-binary people, Monica’s work is heavily influenced by the the resilience of the diasporic community.

She is also the co-founder of Black Healers Connect, a digital and in-person hub for Black Healers to build the tools they need to thrive while providing the necessary tools for Black healing and collective liberation.

Monica has worked for internationally recognized healing and wellness organizations centered around wellness and social justice, and travels around the globe bringing communities together through collective healing.

You can join her new program Digital Allyship by clicking here, and you can find Monica on Instagram @sacred.alchemist.

This interview is part of our new “Super-Connector Secrets” series where we introduce you to diverse entrepreneurs and subject matter experts.

Reach out and connect with these folks, and if you’d like to hear more of these conversations while also learning my top tips on relationship and community-building, order a copy of How To Build A World Class Network In Record Time.

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

Oh, one more thing…

We’re looking to highlight more voices of color this year through our weekly newsletter interview series in our continued efforts to create a diverse and inclusive Meeting of the Minds community. Which BIPOC entrepreneurs and thought leaders from your network can you introduce us to that you’d love to hear from yourself and spotlight for the rest of our following? Please email me or comment below. 🙏

Plus, if you’re looking to write a book of your own, start a coaching or consulting business, and/or simply want to optimize your day-to-day work, we discuss that as well.

Click below to watch our interview with John Saunders, founder of Forward Advisory Solutions and author of The Optimizer.

👉 You can also listen to the audio only at the top of this article. 👈

John Saunders spent more than two decades as a Wall Street Senior Vice President, sales team leader, and award-winning sales executive.

He followed his passion for helping others grow and founded a coaching and consulting company, Forward Advisory Solutions.

Saunders is a member of Georgetown McDonough’s MBA AlumniAdvisory Council, an active angel investor and a formal Executive MBA mentor.

He's also the author of The Optimizer: Building and Leading A Team of Serial Innovators.

This interview is part of our new “Super-Connector Secrets” series where we introduce you to diverse entrepreneurs and subject matter experts.

Reach out and connect with these folks, and if you’d like to hear more of these conversations while also learning my top tips on relationship and community-building, order a copy of How To Build A World Class Network In Record Time.

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

…instead of investing your hard-earned money and being burned by scammy “we’ll help you launch an online course using our step-by-step framework” companies who don’t deliver the goods…

Then this is a MUST LISTEN interview.

After decades working in Corporate America, getting (and beating) cancer shocked Thomas Mele into a new career path, running his own consulting business to help business owners strategize and execute the growth of their companies.

Like many of us, Thomas has made a living on a stream of high-paying, 1-on-1 clients.

After reaching a plateau in his own revenue and falling behind on his dream of helping 1,000 business owners to create $1M+/year businesses, Thomas decided to create an online coaching program to walk more clients through his Business Growth Execution System and has enjoyed more impact while maintaining steady income for his own practice even during this global pandemic.

I found this conversation to be very practical and actionable, so I hope you watch below and/or click the podcasting link above to listen in!

Plus, we’re thinking of publishing new interviews like this every Wednesday in 2021, so let us know what types of experts and entrepreneurs you’d like to hear from, and what topics would be most valuable and interesting to you.

Cheers!

-Jared

Click below to watch our interview with Thomas Mele, Founder/CEO of Mele Group.

Thomas Mele is the Founder and CEO of Mele Group, LLC.

He started his firm in 2014 with the sole purpose of helping business owners reach their full potential and achieve remarkable business results.

He spent 25 years as an executive leader at two Fortune 500 companies after receiving his PhD in Electrical Engineering and those life experiences developed in him a systematic approach to business with a keen focus to detail.

His proprietary Business Growth Execution System is a step by step, fully integrated planning and execution system that gets business owners on track to realize the business they’ve always envisioned.  The net result for them is clarity on what they need to do next to get on track to achieve their lifestyle goals and even more importantly, HOW to do it. 

The system has been used successfully in over 25 different industries, from start-ups to $100M+ businesses, with teams from 2 to 100+ people.

To learn the 7 Critical Steps you can take today to get your business on track, get Thomas’ free DIY guide.  Click on Get Mele Group Guide.

To learn more about Thomas’ system, click on Business Growth Execution System.

This interview is part of our “Super-Connector Secrets” series, where we introduce you to diverse entrepreneurs and subject matter experts from our network.

Reach out and connect with these folks, and if you’d like to hear more of these conversations while also learning my top tips on relationship and community-building, order a copy of my new book “How To Build A World-Class Network In Record Time”.

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

I want to tell you about an untapped reservoir for new business, new referrals, and new insights into your Ideal Client.

Your community.

Your business has a community behind it regardless of whether or not you’re actively investing in its growth and success.

Sadly, most entrepreneurs are so involved in the “day-to-day” operations of their companies that they neglect to reconnect with their past clients, ask for feedback, and create affinity with the brand by holding space for their fans in-person or online.

And so, inspired by a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a fellow business owner (who provides writing, editing, and publishing strategy services to authors), let’s talk about how you can leverage community to generate more revenue and increase profitability.

Below, I’m going to share a step-by-step process with you for uniting your Ideal Client community and generating more business, referrals, and feedback for your company.

If you want even more, consider signing up for our premium newsletter so you can also read:

* How to Create an Ideal Client Profile (which includes a 40 minute training video)

* 19 Ways To HOST Better Zoom Meetings, Conferences, and Webinars

* The Ultimate Guide to Starting A High Margin Launchpad Business - Without Any Upfront Capital or Pre-Existing Clients

* How To Generate More Predictable Revenue and Increase Profitability 

* …plus new premium-subscriber only emails every Friday!

Click below to upgrade your membership and continue reading below…

Giving Back To Your Ideal Clients

When I spoke with the founder of the writing, editing, and publishing strategy firm mentioned above, she told me that one of her Q4 2020 or Q1 2021 goals was to do SOMETHING for her current and former clients to thank them for 11 years in business.

Historically, she has worked with over 300 clients, many of whom invested tens of thousands of dollars in her services and are respected individuals in their industries.

As I shared our business model for Meeting of the Minds with her, and explained how we host our in-person summits and virtual “Deep Dives” every month, suddenly the light bulb flickered on in my noggin.

With a client community of this size, if you run a similar type of business as this publishing firm, your own “Meeting of the Minds” could unlock massive opportunity while giving your ideal clients incredible value and fun.

The Importance Of Community In Our Everyday Lives

Humans crave connection, and they find that through community.

There’s the neighborhood or city in which you live.

There’s the friends you make at work, whether it’s colleagues or peers in your industry.

And then, you may find community through hobbies, shared interests, or maybe even your children one day (soccer moms, unite!).

Where we spend money also leads us to experience different types of community, and the companies that rally their clients around a shared set of values, vision for the future, and way of life tend to outperform other companies who exist only to make a quick buck.

Some call this branding (and you can think about the power of Apple, Nike, Starbucks, Tesla, Salesforce, Virgin, and other companies who’ve developed loyal followings).

Much of what makes those brands powerful is the sense of community that is developed by buying products/services made by those companies and subscribing to that way of life.

Because of my experience with Meeting of the Minds, and as a TED speaker hired occasionally to speak at corporate conferences or at industry events, I’d like to focus on tangible communities like Facebook Groups for clients of a certain company and experiences like Dreamforce, which is the annual customer appreciation event held by Salesforce (dedicated to their “community of Trailblazers” as per their website).

The 3 F’s of Client Communities

These communities not only offer clients with a sense of belonging, but they also provide a forum for the 3 F’s…

* feedback (if they are invited to beta test new products/services),

* fandom (if they can access fun parties and #humblebrag about your brand online), and…

* fun (if they can celebrate “wins” with each other, pro-tips on how to make best use of your products/services, and other happenings in their lives).

This allows your Ideal Clients to receive value through unique content, networking opportunities, or Unique Shared Experiences as we’ve spoken about in the past.

Over time, Ideal Clients will develop a vested interest in your success, and this will lead to more referrals, higher Lifetime Value (as your clients come back to work with you again and again), and a better overall business (as you improve your products, services, customer support, marketing, etc with the help of feedback from your truest fans).

Here are some examples of the 3 F’s…

FEEDBACK

Apple holds the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) every year to provide “exciting reveals, inspiration, and new opportunities to continue creating the most innovative apps in the world” through a “State of the Union”, “Engineering Sessions”, “Developer Forums”, and “Conversations” (all quotes are from their 2020 event page).

Ultimately, this forum provides Apple with intimate access to their most ideal clients, which are the companies and creators who are using thee App Store and overall platform to create new games, businesses, and technologies that will generate even more profit for Apple for decades to come.

By organizing this client community, Apple gets free beta testing and feedback from their Ideal Clients and can utilize that input to continue developing products, services, and experiences that Apple fans will not only love, but will line up around the block to pay for year-after-year.

FANDOM

While it’s perhaps more decentralized than other examples, Tesla’s community is one of the greatest examples of free marketing, referrals, and humble-bragging. Whenever a new car or technology is announced, massive events are held in-person and streamed to millions of people online, resulting in billions of dollars in pre-orders for cars like the Cyber Truck that won’t be available for years. YouTubers have entire channels dedicated to Tesla news, and if you know someone who has a Tesla, they likely never shut up about their car or the valor of the company’s mission.

To this day, Tesla has not paid for advertising because their Ideal Clients market the cars for them.

Tesla fans can easily seek one another out through car clubs, online forums, and content (YouTube, podcasts, email newsletters, etc) and those communities offer value to Tesla clients through those client-to-client connections plus a sense of identity.

FUN

Virgin Galactic has accepted registrations for their space tourism venture for years. At the steep price of $250,000, the 1000+ wealthy individuals who’ve already booked their tickets will one day take flight and enter the lower fringes of space.

To stay connected to these individuals until Virgin Galactic takes flight, the company has created the “Virgin Galactic Future Astronaut Community” which holds events around the globe to undoubtedly kite-surf with Richard Branson, check out the space crafts they will be flying in, wine and dine together, and tackle philanthropic efforts too. In fact, Virgin’s Ideal Clients partnered with their nonprofit to create Galactic Unite to “inspire and support youth to pursue an education in STEM”.

If you’re intrigued thus far, here’s how you and your business can benefit from creating your own Ideal Client Community.

* Referrals (as you become top-of-mind again for current and former clients, they will likely recommend that others work with you. Not only that, but if you encourage them to +1 their friends to your online or in-person events, or invite their peers into your online form, then you’ll have a steady stream of new leads).

* Testimonials and Social Proof (if you prompt your clients to share their favorite aspects of your product/service, or ask them to share their fandom publicly, then you’ll generate free press and assets such as written or recorded testimonials, case studies, and interviews you can use to promote your company elsewhere).

* Repeat Business (for clients you haven’t worked with in a while, you can use customer appreciation events and your client community to educate them on new product/service offerings that they might be interested in, turning old clients into new clients!)

* Constructive Criticism (ask your clients what they’d like to see from you and your company in the future. Perhaps they will help you develop a new line of products or services which can unlock all new profit factories for your business. Your top-paying clients may also give you ideas for how to improve your marketing, customer support, or features of your current products/services. Listen to your Ideal Clients!!!).

* Remind Yourself WHY You Are In Business (entrepreneurship is lonely. If you’re always working “in” the business, it’s hard to remember your mission or core values. Spending time with your ideal clients and creating communities for them to experience the fandom and fun you can generate for them will remind you of your purpose.)

How to Organize an Online Client Appreciation Event

“OK Jared…this sounds great, but HOW do I actually host an event for my clients.”

Obviously, we can’t connect people in-person right now.

Here’s some of the ideas I shared in a post for premium subscribers related to how you can host better Zoom conferences, meetings, or webinars.

And, I’ll tailor the following suggestions to hosting client appreciation events specifically…

Last year, we hosted a “Tacos and Tequila” party in Austin, TX for friends, clients, and fellow speakers at a conference I was invited to speak at. Meeting of the Minds alumni Bill Small serenades the crowd with his guitar.

1) Determine the Length And Date(s) Of Your Event.

Much like a long-form podcast from Joe Rogan or Tim Ferriss (which could surpass three hours of talk time in certain cases), or the 29 minute read Medium article titled "Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance" which was so popular that many major television outlets referred to it explain why we needed to #FlattenTheCurve earlier in 2020, longer-form events provide more value and become more memorable than shorter webinars, virtual conferences, etc.

Therefore, when many companies are hosting hour-long webinars or other content-driven experiences, perhaps you may consider a day-long or even weekend-long experience that is more collaborative in nature.

In looking at the calendar, consider upcoming holidays as well as cultural or political events (i.e. don’t host a client appreciation event during the week of the Presidential election, or during the weekend after Thanksgiving).

Also consider if you have any major product announcements coming up, and if you can time your client appreciation events right before those events to drum up excitement.

Don’t be intimated by pulling off a longer event lasting multiple hours or days. You shouldn’t necessarily feel compelled to speak or entertain the entire time. I strongly encourage NOT putting yourself or your company on a pedestal and instead making your Ideal Clients and community the star of the show. Here’s how…

2) Curate GREAT people to join you.

In real estate, we know the three most important things are "location, location, location." In politics, especially during a Presidential election cycle, you've likely heard the phrase, "It's the economy, stupid!"

In the world of events, whether they are in-person or online, the people you curate to attend your meeting, conference, or webinar are easily THE most important ingredients to a successful gathering.

For a successful client appreciation event, focus first on your Ideal Clients.

These are the people that pay you the most and champion your work far-and-wide, even without being prompted by an event or community.

Next, you’ll want to think about your pipeline of potential clients, as well as any partners, preferred vendors (i.e. people who help you provide stellar products/services to your Ideal Clients), and other clients who don’t necessarily pay you lots of money, but provide great social proof and/or love your brand.

Finally, if you want to bring in speakers or entertainers, think about who your Ideal Clients would fawn over and desire to hear from.

For Apple and their WWDC, the designers and developers who attend those events may wish to hear from someone like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, or my friend John who actually turned down a corporate job offer from Apple at 18 years old after developing 40+ apps with millions of downloads during his teenage years as one of Apple’s first 1000 mobile app developers.

3) If You Use Zoom Or A Similar Technology, Make Sure Everyone Turns Their Video Camera On!

Set the expectation with your attendees that they should turn their video ON during your meeting to encourage deep, meaningful connection.

In-person meetings are more effective than calls, and the same is true with virtual interactions.

Invite this behavior by freeing people of judgement on their backgrounds and dress code as well. We like to say, "dress as you'd like to be known."

Personally, I’d prefer less clients to join us for a client appreciation or community event if that means those who DO attend will be fully engaged. If someone doesn’t have their video camera on, they may be doing work on another tab or, worse, folding laundry in the background and barely paying attention.

That leads to a sub-par experience, and then this exercise in community for the benefit of your Ideal Clients becomes much less memorable and valuable.

4) Establish Trust and Intimacy.

Once you actually start your event, I'd suggest starting your day with some thought-provoking, really-get-to-know-ya icebreakers with 2 or 3 person breakout rooms for five minutes per question prompt. 

For our quarterly in-person summits at Meeting of the Minds, we always start the first night with something casual, where work-talk is prohibited, and use the intimate dinners, improv shows, wine tastings, evening cruises, and other shenanigans as a way to ease everyone into our mastermind experience.

To the best of your ability, recreate this via Zoom!

Plus, your clients can start to connect with one another, and if you’re curated great attendees from your network, then this will be one of the highlights of your event for all the reasons we talked about before (i.e. the 3 F’s of Client Communities).

5) Take A Deep Breath.

Incorporate movement, guided meditations, and stretch breaks into your programming.

Get people out of their chairs, engaged with you and their fellow event attendees instead of ambient distractions, and play with state changes.

We want our attendees to laugh before we get serious, take a few moments to reset and refocus before listening to an important presentation, and stretch when they seem to be reaching Zoom fatigue or start getting antsy.

(If you haven't watched my interview with our Health and Wellness “Expert-in-Residence” Shannan Slevin, you can get a taste of the desk stretches, mindfulness exercises, and practices we incorporate in our events by clicking here or watching the video embedded below.)

6) If You DO Bring In Speakers, Ask Them Better Questions or Only Bring In People Who Dazzle.

A couple months ago, I was invited to a webinar with someone who co-founded an $8B, name-brand company and had many smaller successes before that as well.

On paper, this guy seemed fascinating, and yet...I left the Zoom webinar after about 10 minutes because his presentation was SO BORING.

In fairness, it was not entirely his fault.

The host of the webinar didn't ask thought-provoking questions, and this founder isn't likely trained as a professional speaker.

For you, if you're bringing in outside speakers to teach or entertain your Ideal Clients, it's YOUR job to ensure the audience stays engaged and/or you must only bring in speakers who can warm up the most Zoomed-out and brain-fried of crowds.

For our Q3 summit, we brought in celebrity drummer and author Mark Schulman to speak to our group. You can see from his sizzle reel below how entertaining and fun he is as a speaker, and that translates to how our client community will feel about myself and Meeting of the Minds.

7) Maximize the "Breakout Rooms" Feature.

One of the most underrated features is organizing Breakout Rooms via Zoom, which allow you to nudge attendees into icebreakers (see #4 above), have multiple content tracks, facilitate interactive roundtable conversations, etc.

You can allow Zoom to automatically randomize and assign people to rooms, or with a few extra clicks, you can manually dictate where each attendee goes.

Unlike in-person events, you don't need to wrangle sheep to get people back into the main group. You can press a button and everyone gets sucked back into the main Zoom conference room allowing you to stay on-time with your agenda.

This is a GAME CHANGER when it comes to community engagement.

8) Schedule Ample Breaks.

If you take our advice and host longer events (see #1 above), you'll need to include breaks every hour or so for restroom use, coffee and food, stretching (see #5 above), and preservation of your own energy as a host.

Keep time zone differences in mind if you're working with clients from across the United States or between countries as we do.

Need help? Let me know…

9) Take Your (Tech) Game To The Next Level.

For less than $500, you can get a new webcam, ring light, Yeti microphone, and access to tools which will make hosting exceptional online events easy.

Other tools to consider include:

* the pro version of Zoom (which gives you unlimited meeting time, up to 1000 attendees, 1GB of recording storage space, and more) 

* Krisp.ai (which mutes background noise in real-time such as landscapers, kids, dogs, or air conditioning machines), and

* otter.ai (which transcribes meeting notes for valuable transcriptions).

10) Send Reminder Emails Ahead Of Your Event.

We are ALL distracted with other less-than-awesome Zoom gatherings hosted by not as sexy-looking people who aren't subscribed to my private email newsletter (this is SARCASM by the way, if you couldn't tell, lol)...normal work, and potentially childcare, home repair, or something else that's typically not part of their office environment.

Therefore, you should remind people of the agenda, important information, Zoom link, rules of engagement, and more multiple times before your conference, meeting, or webinar begins.

I've also seen others sending "are you still there?" emails if you're working with 100+ people and can't easily track everyone, and if your event lasts multiple days, then recap emails at the end of a full day (or to start the next day) are also a great idea.

11) Follow-Up!

The absolute WORST feeling is hitting it off with someone at a conference or an event, getting offered a valuable intro or resource, and/or thinking you've landed an ongoing dialogue with the perfect prospect...

...only to never hear from them again!

Meeting of the Minds never wants this to happen to our clients, and so we provide "facilitated follow-ups" to not only share contact info with all event attendees, but then actually make intros based on how people have offered to help one another (or where we feel they can help one another).

This is where a Facebook Group or ongoing client community platform comes into play. Consider how you will transition attendees of an in-person or virtual client appreciation event into an ongoing client community.

Not only does this provide more value to your clients, but you’ll develop a forum in which you can consistently announce new products/services, ask for feedback from your fans, request testimonials, share exciting news, and invite your clients to future client appreciation events.

12) Have Fun!

We once had an American Ninja Warrior as our co-host, who is also a stand-up comedian and cracked a few jokes throughout an event to keep things light.

We’ve also had a Broadway actress/singer who owns a vocal training company lead an interactive "Executive Karaoke" session where she performed a few songs and trained our clients on how to access our voices to speak more powerfully and eloquently.

And at the same event, right after one of our amazing keynote speakers wrapped up their Q&A, we beamed in friendly farm animals such as Shelley the Sheep below.

(I'd highly recommend hiring Goat-2-Meeting for your next online event!)

We’ve also utilized Airbnb Online Experiences, invited our clients to group Zoom workouts, and even tried Simon Says style dance parties where one participant would give everyone else a dance move to follow, then the next person would share their move for us to try out, etc.

To wrap things up, I’d like to offer you some time on Zoom or the phone if you’d like to host a client appreciation event for your community, but still don’t know how exactly you’d execute the event - even with the “How-To’s” above.

Email me anytime at jaredkleinert@gmail.com.

A Successful Business…

To me, success is not only generating a healthy profit from my company, but also building life-long friendships with my clients, peers, and preferred vendors.

Life is too short NOT to enjoy the people you work with, and so above-and-beyond all the benefits we talked about above for why you should invest in creating a client community for your business, your personal enjoyment should be at the top of the list.

What have you done to build client communities for your company in the past? What’s worked? What has not worked? Are you going to take this advice and plan a Client Appreciation Event in coming months?

Let me know!

-Jared

P.S. - this is a free weekly edition of our newsletter. Each week, we cover practical insights and resources on marketing, sales, personal branding, community-building, and other building blocks for scaling a profitable bootstrapped business.

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Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20.

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

Enoch and his team, as you’ll hear in the interview above (or by watching the video embedded below), partner with ecosystem builders, integral service providers (i.e. banks, foundations, and large corporations looking to give back) to create and support new startup communities nationwide and even as far-ranging as New Zealand.

Through their Road to Recovery program, CO.STARTERS is humbly supporting companies who are hurting the most due to the pandemic in dozens of often-overlooked startup communities. There’s tons of free resources on their site, plus affordable programming for businesses who can afford to invest in upskilling their staff.

When Enoch isn’t supporting this community of entrepreneurs he’s helped to build over the last 6+ years, he’s building and opening new Treetop Hideaways, which are “rustic and refined” Airbnbs currently right on the Tennessee - Georgia border.

(In fact, I’m staying at the Elements Treehouse next week, which claims to be the first Gigabit treehouse and an ongoing collaboration with Dove Men+Care, which is fitting given Enoch’s penchant for partnerships.)

There’s so much we can learn from Enoch, and so I’d recommend listening to our conversation right away and reaching out to him at enoch@costarters.co if you’d like to learn more about CO.STARTERS, sleeping in a tree, and more.

Enoch Elwell is the CEO of CO.STARTERS. He has been involved with startups since his grade school popsicle stand, with his latest adventure being a luxury treehouse retreat, TreetopHideaways.com.

Driven by a passion to help others, Enoch currently supports hundreds of emerging startup communities through the CO.STARTERS platform, helping local ecosystem builders around the world take the first steps in accelerating the success of thousands of creative starters annually.

Together, these nontraditional small business owners are growing a thriving culture of collaborative entrepreneurial support in their communities.

Enoch is committed to accelerating the convergence of economic development and community development beyond the CO.STARTERS Community. He is globally recognized for his expertise in providing strategic support to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in establishing the field of "Ecosystem Building" through the ESHIP Summit Community, as a founding board member of the Startup Champions Network, as a founder of the Rural Rise national network of leading rural entrepreneurship support organizations, and as co-founder of The Company Lab (CO.LAB) and the GIGTANK, a boutique accelerator and community building organization that played a key role in the entrepreneurial renaissance of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

You can subscribe below for free to get more interviews like these from me every Wednesday, plus insights on marketing, networking, negotiation, personal branding, sales, and more every Monday.

Recently, we also announced our Premium Membership Options. 

For only $2.31/week, or less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you’ll get ALL my best content including valuable templates, resources, webinars, AMAs with special guests from my network, 3+ emails from me every week, audio recordings so you can learn “on-the-go”, and more!

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And as always, thank you!

- Jared

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

* how to create your own confidence before a major presentation, such as a TEDx or TED talk;

* how to think about making a major investment or career move;

* what it’s like to work from home and pivot her business during the pandemic;

* some of the failed product ideas following her very successful book launch (and what she learned in the process of finding her “next move” beyond selling tens of thousands of copies of Confidence Creator as a self-published author;

* and more!!!

Check out our interview by clicking the embedded video below or listening to the audio only at the top of this post!

Heather Monahan is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, entrepreneur and founder of Boss In Heels. Having successfully climbed the corporate ladder for nearly 20 years, Heather Monahan is one of the few women to break the glass ceiling and claim her spot in the C-suite.

As a Chief Revenue Officer in Media, Heather Monahan is a Glass Ceiling Award winner, named one of the most Influential Women in Radio in 2017 and Thrive Global named her a Limit Breaking Female Founder in 2018.  

Heather’s new book Confidence Creator shot to #1 on Amazon’s Business Biographies and Business Motivation lists the first week it debuted on Amazon.

Heather is a confidence expert and is currently working with Fortune 500 companies and professional sports to develop confidence in the workplace and on the court.

She’s also a member of Florida International University’s Advisory Council to further serve as a mentor and leader in the South Florida Community.

Heather’s new show, Creating Confidence, debuted on the Top 200 shows on Apple podcast. Heather’s work has been featured in USA Today, CNN, Forbes, Fast Company and Business News Daily. Most recently adding Guest Professor at Harvard to her list of accomplishments.

You can subscribe below for free to get more interviews like these from me every Wednesday, plus insights on marketing, networking, negotiation, personal branding, sales, and more every Monday.

Recently, we also announced our Premium Membership Options. 

For only $2.31/week, or less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you’ll get ALL my best content including valuable templates, resources, webinars, AMAs with special guests from my network, 3+ emails from me every week, audio recordings so you can learn “on-the-go”, and more!

Click below to learn more.

And as always, thank you!

- Jared

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

* what it’s like to move away from Silicon Valley as a serial tech entrepreneur;

* the future of tech, real estate, and other exciting industries;

* the importance of diversity in your new sources, rapid learning, and best practices for staying ahead of the curve;

* what it was like for her selling two different startups and working for the companies that acquired MySocialCloud and Forge;

* and more!!!

Check out our interview by clicking the embedded video below or listening to the audio only at the top of this post!

Stacey Ferreira is the Director of Digital Workplace Strategy at WorkJam, primarily focused on helping Ops/HR/IT leaders select the right workforce management platform for their employees to succeed in 2020 and beyond.

Previously, Stacey was the co-founder and CEO of Forge, a flexible scheduling and talent sharing platform (acquired by WorkJam, '20) and the co-founder of MySocialCloud (acquired by Reputation.com, '13).

Stacey has received recognition for her entrepreneurial achievements in addition to her other accomplishments at a young age, including being a US State Department Speaker on Entrepreneurship, named Forbes 30 Under 30 and being one of twenty Thiel Fellows selected for the 2015 Thiel Fellowship.

She also co-­authored 2 Billion Under 20: How Millennials Are Breaking Down Age Barriers & Changing the World (with me!!!). Our book was named the #1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015 by the Axiom Business Book Awards.

Ferreira has been featured on and contributed to several news outlets, including being featured on the cover of Seventeen Magazine, and in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Women 2.0, and TechCrunch to name a few.

Stacey has also spoken about the Future of Work and the Future of Education at popular technology conferences, including TEDxNYU, TEDxSan Diego, TEDxCluj-Romania, Singularity University (Italy, Czech Republic, Peru, Mexico, etc.) and TechCrunch Bangalore among others.

You can subscribe below for free to get more interviews like these from me every Wednesday, plus insights on marketing, networking, negotiation, personal branding, sales, and more every Monday.

Recently, we also announced our Premium Membership Options. 

For only $2.31/week, or less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you’ll get ALL my best content including valuable templates, resources, webinars, AMAs with special guests from my network, 3+ emails from me every week, audio recordings so you can learn “on-the-go”, and more!

Click below to learn more.

And as always, thank you!

- Jared

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

My friend Constance Dierickx is the perfect person to learn from on pivoting, high stakes negotiations and facilitations, and so much more!

Constance Dierickx is an author, speaker, and contributor to Harvard Business Review and Forbes who advises boards and senior execs when the stakes are high, crises are looming, and decisions must be made ASAP.

During our interview, we discussed How to Create The Conditions To Optimize Your Success, how she became “Queen of the Pivot” (something we could all learn from right now navigating the pandemic), how to increase self-awareness regarding how you work, and why it’s dangerous to marinate in the sauce (that story starts at 15:54).

Constance advise boards and senior executives when the stakes are high and in crisis.

As an expert in mergers and acquisitions, her clients include small private companies and global public corporations.

She also contribute to Harvard Business Review and Forbes and is the author of High-Stakes Leadership: Leading through crisis with courage, judgment, and fortitude…

…and co-author of The Merger Mindset: How to get it right in the high-stakes world of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.Her M&A clients succeed 400% more often than the average.

In CEO succession, her clients retain over 95% of the internal executive talent who were contenders for the top job, but not selected.

And that’s only the beginning of her long list of personal and professional accomplishments!

Due to the sensitive nature of her work, many of her clients cannot be named.

However, of the companies she’s able to boast about, she’s worked with: AAA, AT&T, Belk, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Chubb, Cox Enterprises, DIRECTV, IBM, Johnson Controls, Joy Global, NextGear Capital, Olive Garden, Schnabel Engineering, Tennessee Valley Authority, and Westinghouse.

Check out our interview above by clicking the embedded video or listening to the audio only at the top of this post!

Thanks

-Jared

You can subscribe below to get more interviews like these from me every Wednesday, plus insights on marketing, networking, negotiation, personal branding, sales, and more every Monday.

Recently, we also announced our Premium Membership Options. 

It would mean the world to me if you’d sign up as a paid subscriber to this newsletter because, for only $2.31/week, or less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you’ll get ALL my best content including valuable templates, resources, webinars, AMAs with special guests from my network, 3+ emails from me every week, audio recordings so you can learn “on-the-go”, and more!

Either way, hit subscribe below and I’ll talk to you again soon! :)

-Jared Kleinert

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing 🙏. It costs less than a cup of Starbucks per week, puts a smile on my face to know you support our work, and gives you massive ROI over the coming weeks, months, and years as you learn to generate more predictable revenue, increase profitability, and scale your business.

Pricing Is A Strategy

Last week, I earned my first paid, virtual keynote speaking gig during quarantine and am being compensated at a rate that equates to $10,000/hr for sharing my insights with our client’s audience.

Mind you, the presentation I’m giving is a result of years of research, publishing two books in an award-winning series, preparing for multiple “free” talks like my TED@IBM keynote in October 2015, etc.

But after this organization realized I could be of service to them and clicked on one of the passive links in my email signature, they asked me what my fees are and I told them (accurately) that I normally present for $15,000 per keynote.

While I didn’t end up with that specific deal, in part because this is a virtual presentation and there’s lots of room to negotiate with keynote speakers, I use pricing as a strategy for maximizing value from speaking opportunities and weeding out companies that aren’t serious about working with me.

Sometimes I earn my full keynote speaking fee, and other times I make $10,000, or $7500, or give a free talk but sell tons of books and/or build good will a potential long-term partner. Other times, I save myself days of travel and stay home because it wouldn’t be worth my time to speak at a lower rate.

In short, pricing not only ensures you’re profitable, but it builds (or limits) social proof and shows how you value your work.

While I’m not an Ivy League professor of Economics, here are some high-level thoughts on pricing for you and your small business…

When To Charge A Premium

When it comes to keynote speaking, I don’t actually WANT to offer this service very often. This is one main reason why I charge such a premium.

In most cases, it doesn’t serve our business goals and/or the needs of my clients to fly around the world (in normal times) and give 30-50 speeches per year (or more!).

To dissuade companies from hiring me, I publicly state that my keynote speaking fee is $15,000. From there, I am willing to negotiate IF a client is serious about working with me and is able to offer additional value (such as purchasing copies of my book, promoting me to potential Ideal Clients for Meeting of the Minds, generating meaningful press opportunities or referrals for us, etc).

Otherwise, I’m happy to stay home and work on growing my main business! :)

If you’re a consultant and want to limit the 1-on-1 work you do, in order to grow a group offer you’ve recently introduced, you might double, triple, or 10x the cost of your “hourly” price to implement this strategy in your business.

Charging a premium for your work signals to the marketplace that what you offer is valuable, “best in class”, and aspirational.

Another reason to charge a premium (and perhaps the best reason to do so) is to attract Ideal Clients.

By definition, Ideal Clients will pay you what you’re worth, won’t give you any unwarranted customer service issues or complaints (and in most cases provide constructive criticism that improves your products, services, and company), and will champion your work to other Ideal Clients.

Lamborghini prices their cars at a premium to attract the type of clientele who won’t negotiate on sticker price and may actually purchase multiple cars during their lifetime while splurging on all the upgrades available. Then, those clients will tell all their friends about the dealership where they purchased the car.

If they decided to offer their cars at 50% off, the prestige behind the brand would disappear and those buyers would seek out Ferraris instead.

Not only that, but the new buyers attracted by the discounts would likely haggle on price (for an already-discounted product), complain about every issue with the car, lack the “know-how” to maximize their enjoyment and lifetime value of owning the supercar, and would tell everyone about the discount they received instead of the car’s horsepower, sex appeal, or the confidence created from driving around in the car.

Charging premium prices is one of the best ways to scale your business, if done correctly. If you’re interested in learning more about this, consider becoming a premium subscriber to this newsletter to unlock valuable webinar recordings, templates, and trainings I’ve created on topics like:

* “How To Generate More Predictable Revenue and Increase Profitability”

* “How To Maximize ROI With Facebook Ads And Other Paid Search, Digital Marketing Campaigns”

* “How To Publish A Book Without Losing Creative Freedoms, Copyrights, or A Majority of the Upside If Your Book Becomes A Bestseller”

* “19 Ways To HOST Better Zoom Meetings, Conferences, and Webinars”

* “How To Build A World-Class Network In Record Time”

When To Charge Less Than You’d Like

The following section is an excerpt from another “premium subscriber only” post we sent out 2 weeks ago: “3 Crafty, Unexpected, and Contrarian "Experiments" I'm Testing Out Right Now To Protect (and Improve) Our Company's Cash Flow in 2020”.

Going into 2020, our plan was to actually introduce a higher tier of service (MOTM X) from our annual memberships at Meeting of the Minds.

With the economic shutdowns in March, an inability to unite our clients in-person as we are accustomed to doing, and the ensuing recession (not to mention continued challenges as a society to curtail the virus), we decided to do a “180” and roll out two lower-priced offers in Q2 and Q3 in order to get more people in-the-door, who we then offer ongoing support to if they’re interested.

If you haven’t already checked it out, I’d suggest reading “The Value Ladder” for a crash course on how I think about strategically pricing and upselling (or downselling) your products and services.

This has actually worked quite well for us, and many of our email newsletter subscribers (investing $12/mo or $120/yr) decide to attend one of our Deep Dives for between $300 to $499.

Deep Dive attendees, in turn, take interest in continued partnership with us and invest in attending one of our quarterly summits ($3,000) and/or becoming an annual member of our mastermind group (for between $15K and $24K).

I’m not typically a fan of “loss leaders”, but in our current business climate, they are actually quite effective because they combat the free BS other providers are offering and earn a client’s financial and emotional investment at a rate they feel comfortable with, giving you permission to offer them massive value and therefore have a shot at upselling an Ideal Client to your core offer(s) now that you’ve established trust.

IMPORTANT: DOs and DO NOTs…

* DO charge more.

* To summarize what I learned from a former boss, the price for your products/service should cause some hesitancy to work with you, but not prevent someone from working with you. It should feel like an investment, for which your Ideal Clients will work to maximize the value they derive from you and your business, thus giving them a positive experience.

* DO offer risk reversal.

* We offer “More Than Money Back” guarantees on many of our services to make it a win-win situation for our clients. Either they will get meaningful ROI from working with us, or they will get our services for free and a check in their name to their favorite charity. While we have never had to honor this risk reversal thankfully, it has helped us convince a small handful of people who were “on the fence” to give us a shot.

* DO utilize payment plans in some cases.

* It’s easier to convince someone to invest in a program with a low monthly payment of $1000 instead of asking for $12K upfront.

* DON’T discount (if you can avoid it).

* While I don’t always abide by this principle, if you can avoid discounting you’ll retain more profit and attract only your most Ideal Clients.

* DON’T try and become “all things” to “all people”.

* Instead, identify your Zone of Genius and align your business, products, and services to offer the most valuable possible to your Ideal Clients.

* DON’T assume you’ve found the perfect price.

* Continue experimenting with your pricing, testing conversion rates in your sales efforts as well as total revenue generated, customer lifetime value, etc. Perhaps you can tinker with HOW your services are presented as well, so if you have consulting services priced at $2500, perhaps offering four payments of $750 will increase your conversions, increase profitability, and smoothen your month-to-month cash flow…all with one easy change!

IN CLOSING…

If you skimmed the information above, the “Too Long; Didn’t Read” version of my message today is:

* Understand that pricing is a strategy and you can charge more (or less) for your products/services than what it costs for you to produce based on how you’d like your work to be perceived.

* In most cases, I’d recommend charging a premium because you’re likely to attract MORE of your Ideal Clients and signal to the marketplace that what you offer is “best in class” and therefore aspirational.

* You may decide to charge less in order to get more people “in-the-door”, which could be a great strategy if you know how to upsell your Ideal Clients to more valuable offers.

And ALWAYS experiment with your pricing because the market changes, as does your business and clientele! Don’t assume that you’ve found the perfect price because one small tweak in pricing or presentation could unlock massive profits 🚀.

-Jared

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

One of my fellow speakers was a popular blogger and entrepreneur whose work I’d followed for years before meeting him at this event.

At the end of this weekend in New Orleans, the remaining speakers and attendees gathered in a big circle to share their #1 takeaways from the weekend.

From everything this blogger shared, heard, and discussed after being with over one hundred multi-millionaire business owners and a creative genius in Neil himself, the main takeaway for the blogger was one tiny suggestion I made during my 90 minute keynote and Q&A (which was quite humbling).

As we became friends thereafter, I saw this bloggerpreneur utilize the ideas I’m about to share with you now, and I know he’s earned additional income from doing this as I have, allowing him to scale his business while living the good life!

Here’s what you need to do…

Include “social proof” and money-making passive links in your email signature.

That’s it!!!

I’ve included an example above to show you what my current email signature includes.

I start with the obvious - my name, title, and company.

But then, I share three (3) distinct and intrigue-inducing bits of “social proof” (which for you can be press features, awards, short testimonials from famous people, your current standing on a Forbes 30 Under 30 or Inc 5000 list, etc).

I follow this with two “calls-to-action” for my Ideal Clients.

Sign up for my upcoming “Deep Dive” if you’re an entrepreneur with a certain type of business (i.e. a service-based or thought leadership-based company) and have a specific challenge (i.e. wanting more clients)…

…or subscribe to my weekly email newsletter if you want access to the same information I send to valued members of my network.

The combination of social proof and “passive” links (because they are sent to everyone, and digitally stamped at the end of every email I send) allow me to showcase specific ways that our Ideal Clients can invest in working with us and/or learn more about what we offer.

It’s difficult to track how much revenue we’ve generated over the last 4+ years from the “marketing” and rapport-building that takes place in my email signature, but I’d guess that we’ve earned at least an extra $1000 on average per month because of this set-up.

In fact, this week I teed up a virtual speaking engagement worth thousands of dollars because I sent someone an email, they clicked on one of the links in my email signature to view my TED talk, and told their boss to hire me!

I’ve booked $15K keynotes in the past in this same exact fashion, and I’ve also picked up countless email newsletter subscribers and applications to Meeting of the Minds experiences from the calls-to-action I include in my email signature.

Those, in turn, lead to new Ideal Clients and new revenue generated for our company.

Who says you need to hit Inbox Zero! ;)

Now try this out for yourself!

If you want to send me a draft of your updated email signature, reply to this email or comment below if you’re viewing this write-up online.

Otherwise, enjoy making more money every time you hit send.

-Jared

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

THANK YOU for being a subscriber to Meeting of the Minds.

Hopefully these weekly emails have helped you build a stronger network, improve the marketing, business development, and sales engines for your business, and introduce you to dozens of diverse subject matter experts from our community here to comment on everything from the macro-economy to developing a reputable personal brand.

During these uncertain times, I am reminded of the importance of who you know.

And that…

The success of your business (and the quality of your life!) is a direct result of the people you meet and how much you learn from them.

(For a crash course, here’s a 5 min video on networking and relationship-building I recorded with media giant Big Think a couple years back that has over 18,000 views.)

A few nights ago, I reconnected with one of our alumni who is a serial 7-figure business owner in the real estate industry.

He runs a brokerage representing luxury properties in New York and his team consistently breaks sales records. He’s also purchased, invested in, and flipped hotels, developed real estate funds to gather investments from high net-worth individuals and co-invest alongside them, and has even created online educational programs to help other real estate professionals.

In 30 minutes, he shared with me a handful of ideas for a real estate venture we are pursuing that certainly saved me hours of research, and might potentially save me tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars.

More importantly, I felt supported, recognized, and buoyed for the vision I was trying to execute on, and that alone means the world to me.

I believe so strongly in developing deep, meaningful relationships that I’ve dedicated my career to helping others forge these high-quality connections through Meeting of the Minds, and I’d like to invite you on the journey whether you’re interested in subscribing to this newsletter and/or attending one of our upcoming monthly Deep Dives.

Sign up for one of our premium subscriptions in the next 24 hours (by clicking the button below) and I’ll include a complimentary one-hour consulting session which is a $500 value so that you can “rent my brain” on all things marketing, networking, biz dev, books, speaking, writing, and more.

Also, if you’d like to connect not only with me, but dozens of top entrepreneurs from my network (and note, I have been named USA Today’s “Most Connected Millennial”, which I only share to shine a light on the types of people I’m fortunate to connect with on a regular basis, like our clients who’ve collectively started companies worth billions of dollars and influence hundreds of millions of people throughout the world)…

...then you should also join us for one of our upcoming Meeting of the Minds!

Sept 19-20, for example, we will be hosting a Marketing & Biz Dev “Deep Dive” which you can apply for at: motm.co/sept. (Subscribers to our newsletter get discounts to these experiences, which is yet another benefit in addition to great content each week.)

On Oct 24-25, we will be covering business operations and time management, which are some of the most requested topics from our annual members investing tens of thousands of dollars annually to be part of our high-level mastermind group.

And every month, we choose another series of topics to connect over, providing clients with amazing content and knowledge from experts, but also access to one another through thoughtfully curated groups and careful facilitation.

You only need ONE connection to raise money, close that big deal, have a “breakthrough” idea that improves your marketing strategy or saves you time and money in execution, develop win-win partnerships, or make a new life-long friend.

And so, for only $12/mo or $120/yr (which works out to $2.31/week or less than a cup of Starbucks), you can start getting access to exclusive content, networking opportunities, and connections via our premium subscription options at Substack.

Plus, you’ll get discounts to any upcoming Meeting of the Minds deep dives for whenever you want to invest further in your network and explore strategies to generate more predictable revenue, increase the profitability of, and ultimately scale your business. Either option is a total “no-brainer” to me, and I hope you check it out!

Remember, if you’re NOT already a paid subscriber and decide to join us in the next 24 hours, I’ll give you an additional bonus of 1 hour’s worth of consulting on any topic(s) of interest to you (which is a $500 value).

If you’ve already subscribed, I’ll happily connect with you for an hour of pro-bono consulting as well :).

Thanks and happy Friday!

-Jared

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

Most entrepreneurs, myself included, would say YES to this opportunity if we really enjoyed working with our clients and truly believed in our work.

Personally, I’m fortunate enough to work with inspiring entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and creators of globally recognized brands through Meeting of the Minds, and so I’d love to work with my Ideal Clients for as long as possible.

(And it certainly wouldn’t hurt to maximize our profits while we’re providing high-quality counsel either. Goooooooo capitalism!!!)

One of the fundamental practices I’ve incorporated into my businesses is the creation of a value ladder, although I execute this methodology in a different way than many online course creators, marketers, or copywriters would suggest.

The Value Ladder

Most online “thought leaders” would tell you to start by building a “free” offer, then adding four or five upsells from there. Do it all at once, create a funnel, go live, and print money, they’ll tell you…

I say that’s BS.

Especially if you’re running a service-based business (i.e. any type of consulting business, “done-for-you” marketing or design work, etc), I recommend you first build a proven core offer and then develop an upsell and a downsell.

This means your “value ladder” may only have one rung when you start your business, and then might only have two or three steps during the first few years of operations.

Most advice you read online will suggest you create a “free” offer (like an email opt-in for a free PDF or listicle), then upsell to a low-priced product such as a book or widget less than $100, and continue climbing the ladder from there as your Ideal Clients build trust and intimacy with you and your brand.

This strategy leaves a shaky foundation for your value ladder and can lead you to choose the wrong ladder, develop an ineffective base or angle for your ladder, and/or prevent you from adding more “weight” to your value ladder over time.

Build Your Core Offer, Then An Upsell and Downsell In Order to Strategically Maximize Profits

With simplicity, there’s leverage.

With your core offer in mind, or the “best bang for your buck” that you can offer clients while reserving the ability to scale your business as well, you can build the lower and higher rung(s) on your ladder to easily transition someone from one product or service to another.

Here’s a real-world example.

When I started my marketing consulting business, I charged my first-ever client (a former Fortune 500 CMO and #1 NYT bestselling author) via monthly retainer at $5,000/mo with a three-month minimum.

This “package” resulted in five months of client work at a premium price (I was only 18 at the time) and gave me the ability to turn our results into a case study I could shop around to other authors, professional speakers, and small business owners who wanted to benefit from our marketing consulting services.

For the first year or so, I held to this pricing format and built a replicable framework for servicing clients. Over time, I realized that some of our otherwise “Ideal” clients weren’t comfortable making the front-end investment of time and money I required.

To allow these folks to climb up the ladder towards our core offer, we developed a “downsell” (or a lower rung of the value ladder) which would be quicker to implement and cost less than one month’s fees (but could be credited towards a longer-term engagement if a client chose to continue working with us thereafter).

This initial all-day strategy session became known as the VIP Day, which I still occasionally offer today for Meeting of the Minds members.

The dirty secret is that we developed the VIP Day offer with the understanding that many clients would want us to “execute” on the strategy we set together, leading to more value creation and allowing us to effectively upsell to our core offer of multi-month consulting engagements now that our Ideal Client trusted us and wanted more value from us.

Developing an upsell from your core offer can be done in the same fashion.

Imagine the most valuable “next step” a client could take from your normal, highest-profit core offer and give them the ability to climb that next rung up the ladder if they want your even-more-valuable services.

The Only 3 Ways To Grow Your Business

According to bestselling author and growth marketer Jay Abraham, there are only three (3) ways to grow your business. You can:

* Increase the number of customers you work with.

* Increase the frequency in which people buy from you.

* Or increase the transaction size / average amount a client spends with you.

The Value Ladder helps us increase #2 and #3.

If we only focus on our core offers, and work with 100 clients who spend $1,000 with us annually (for example), then we can earn $100,000 per year.

Now, if we add an “upsell” which costs $10,000 and 20% of our clients decide to continue up the value ladder, then we’ve earned an additional $200,000 per year (20 clients X $10,000), or $300,000 total from the same 100 clients (tripling our revenue!).

If we add a strategic “downsell” that costs only $100, but it brings another 200 clients into our universe, of which 20% decide to test out our core offer, and then 20% of those new clients also utilize our most premium option, we’re now looking at:

* 200 new clients X $100 = $20,000 in new revenue generated

* 40 new clients “upsold” to our core offer ($1,000) = $40,000 in new revenue generated

* 8 new clients “upsold” from our core offer to our premium offer ($10,000) = $80,000 in new revenue generated

This example adds $140,000 in NEW revenue from our strategic lower rung on the value ladder, and now our $100k/yr business is bringing in $440,000 by simply adding one “upsell” and one “downsell” from our core offer.

As you can see, Value Ladders (when implemented correctly) can skyrocket the Lifetime Value of your Ideal Clients and bring more customers into your business.

Takeaway: How can you implement a Value Ladder? What’s your core offer, and what would be the most strategic upsell and downsell to provide to your clients?

Reply and let me know!

-Jared

P.S. - Recently, we announced our Premium Membership Options. It would mean the world to me if you’d sign up as a paid subscriber to this newsletter. For only $2.31/week, or less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you’ll get ALL my best content including valuable templates, resources, webinars, AMAs with special guests from my network, 2+ emails from me every week, audio recordings of these write-ups so you can learn “on-the-go”, and more!

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to share! :)

Have you ever had that excited, yet nervous feeling when you’re about to launch a new product or service that you’ve worked REALLY hard on (and yet you don’t know what the reaction will be like when you go “live”)?

I’m feeling that way right now, because I’ve been working my ass off for the last ~2 years to build something valuable and meaningful for you with this weekly newsletter…

Which is why I’m VERY excited to share with you that we are now offering a premium content experience.

We hope you’ll join us on this exciting new journey.

If you would like to gain access to ALL the valuable resources, opportunities, and interviews we’re creating, become a paid member of Meeting of the Minds today for only $12/mo or $120/year (which comes out to only $2.31 per week, which is less than a cup of Starbucks coffee!).

Announcing: Our Premium Membership Options

If you take no action (i.e. do nothing) after getting today’s email, no worries! You’ll continue receiving 1x weekly emails from me with practical insights on marketing, biz dev, networking, sales, personal branding, thought leadership, and more…

If you join us as we transition to offering premium memberships, you’ll get a lot more. Not only will you continue receiving my Tuesday emails, but you’ll also get:

* 2x+ Weekly Emails - A second email from me later in the week (with audio of me reading the email for you in case you wish to listen on-the-go or at 2x speed) with actionable templates, resources, and insights that you can use to generate more predictable revenue and increase the profitability of your business.

* Full Access to the Meeting of the Minds Content Archive - Knowledge is power, as is who you know, so as we transition to premium posts I’ll be “locking” some of our historic content behind a paywall (and uploading more resources that aren’t yet on Substack) which you will only have access to if you’re a premium member.

* “Early Bird” Rates on Meeting of the Minds Experiences - When you become a premium member of the newsletter, you also receive $199 off any “Deep Dives” we host each month, plus first dibs and special rates on our future offers.

* Access to Live Zoom AMAs and (eventually) Exclusive Dinners & Social Outings In Select Cities - For now, you’ll be invited to a couple of member-only conversations with serial entrepreneurs and diverse subject matter experts from my network. After the pandemic, if I’m traveling to your city, you’ll get access to dinners, cocktail hours, and other fun stuff I organize for friends and clients.

* So Much More!!! Going “premium” is the first step in a hopefully decades-long effort to build our tribe and help you become a titan in your industry. We want to support you and invest in your growth however we can, so when you go premium, let me know how else we can offer you value, and we’ll continue giving you greater benefits in the future.

Your subscription becomes increasingly valuable over time as we grow our content library, listen to your feedback, and give you access to exclusive opportunities.

Investing in yourself is a total no-brainer. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Whatever you are, be a good one.” We’ll help you become better and more connected every week.

If nothing else, consider this an investment in our friendship :).

Your Network Is The Most Important Asset You Own As An Entrepreneur…

Because of this, I’m working hard to introduce you to some of the brightest “Minds” from our community (and the practical insights they have to share) with you…

Our premium newsletter will feature MORE of the conversations, takeaways, and “lessons learned” we’ve been fortunate enough to hear from a range of NYT bestselling authors, former Fortune 500 c-suite execs, serial 7+ figure business owners, Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees, world champion athletes, and others I’ve invited to contribute to this newsletter.

Plus, I’ll continue sharing my own “battle-tested” ideas as a TED speaker, serial entrepreneur, award-winning author, and USA Today’s “Most Connected Millennial” who has been able to start a couple of successful small businesses (from a marketing consulting firm working with top thought leaders and record-setting crowdfunding campaigns to Meeting of the Minds).

For the last 2 years, I’ve shared at least 1 weekly email on everything from how I scored an interview with Larry King to cold email templates you could use to generate more sales or raise money for your company.

And in the past, I’ve also appeared on countless podcasts, contributed to Forbes, TIME, Addicted2Success, and other media outlets, and had both a YouTube show and podcast with celebrity guests, but today…

All of my best content is delivered with care to you and other newsletter subscribers.

If you want to join this journey, consider subscribing to one of our NEW premium membership options below.

And if you wish to continue as a free subscriber (you will only receive our Tuesday emails from here on out), you can still support us by:

* Sharing this newsletter with a friend (click “Share” below).

* Replying and letting me know what content has been most valuable to you.

* Continuing to read and enjoy these emails (truly, thank you for being here!).

What Will You Continue Working On Post Pandemic?

While I’ve been writing to a private, invite-only email newsletter for at least two years, only recently did I bring our content over to Substack and begin growing our audience.

This is one of core areas of our business where I’ve invested a lot of time and love in the last four months. Thanks to the pandemic, this will be an innovation of ours that we will carry into the future and build upon long after we find a vaccine.

What Are You Doing Now That You Will CONTINUE Doing After The Pandemic?

There’s plenty of room for innovation right now, and perhaps you are building habits at home that you want to build upon in the years and decades to come.

For us, building up our newsletter is one big project I’ll be working on longggg after the pandemic to give you as much value as possible. I’m thrilled to offer these premium memberships, and sincerely hope you join us.

Here’s some other things I’ll take away from these uncertain times…

* My fiancee and I have gone for long walks around a nice public park in town, giving us time to reconnect when we’re both crazy busy building our empires. As we start a family and begin traveling again eventually, we definitely want to continue doing at least once per week.

* My personal savings rate has doubled in the last four months!

* I’ve started working with Meeting of the Minds alumni and world-renowned architect Peter Lombardi on a “stealth” project which could very well change the future of home-building and resilient community creation. More to come :).

* Meeting of the Minds has added Zoom-based experiences that we will host monthly even after we’re able to convene our quarterly, in-person summits again.

* After years of one-off philanthropic efforts to support organizations like charity: water, Pencils of Promise, and Make-A-Wish Foundation alongside various local causes in Atlanta, we’ve now started monthly Volunteer With Entrepreneurs campaigns and I intend to grow our following and charitable footprint over the next few years. Last month, we collectively donated $1K+ in gifts and supplies to the Partnership Against Domestic Violence. This month, we’re supporting an organization called The Next 50 :).

At home and work, there’s plenty of positives we can carry with us into the future.

I hope you find something to add to your business and/or personal life that is a true game-changer. You’ll look back on 2020 with sincere gratitude, despite how difficult and absolutely insane this year has been so far…

Once Again, THANK YOU!!!

A quick email reply, or the knowledge that you’ve used some of the emails I’ve shared in the past to generate more revenue for your business, raise money from prominent investors, make a small change in how you work, etc…

That ALWAYS makes my day, and it’s one of the biggest reasons I invest so much time and energy in these write-ups for you.

This is only the beginning of Meeting of the Minds, and of this newsletter, and I hope I’ve earned your trust after months or years of free content (depending on how long you’ve been a subscriber) if you’re considering going premium with us. 🚀🚀🚀

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter!

Yea…me too.

I really don’t like re-introducing myself and seemingly proving my worth every time I’m on a call or Zoom with someone new, and so I’ve developed a workaround.

Before meeting with someone for the first time, I send them an email with the subject line: “In Advance of Our Call…”

This email saves me 5-10 minutes with every initial interaction, and if I average between 3 and 5 calls per day with someone “new” to my network, then I’m saving about 30 minutes by sending these emails in advance of meetings.

Not only that, but it gives the other party the option to do additional research on me and my work. They can decide (well before we speak) how they’d like to work with me, how I might be able to help them, and/or what they find most interesting about my background which could spark more genuine and excited connection.

Here’s a version of the template I’m using right now, as of June 25, 2020…

Subject: in advance of our call...

Hi FIRST NAME

I look forward to connecting with you soon. 😁

In advance of our meeting, I wanted to share some more info on me and my work so we can spend more time talking about YOU! 

* I've been an entrepreneur since 15, but really got my "start" as one of the first 10 employees for 15Five, leaders in the employee engagement, culture management, and remote workforce empowerment space. I worked under the co-founders for two years and left when I was 18 y/o. Today, they are valued at $100M+ with clients like Hubspot, Amazon, Credit Karma, Citrix, and Capital One. 

* From 2013 until late 2017, I spent a lot of time studying and sharing insights from top-performing Millennials, publishing 2 Billion Under 20 (named the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015" and endorsed by Tony Hsieh, Malala Fund co-founder Shiza Shahid, and others) as well as 3 Billion Under 30 (featuring founders of companies like WordPress and Duolingo, social media influencers, champion athletes, celebrities, etc). 

* As I earned opportunities to appear in major media outlets, inked a book deal in my teens with one of New York's top publishing companies, and booked speaking gigs upwards of $15K per keynote, others took notice, so I began Kleinert Ventures as an "entrepreneurial" marketing consulting firm. Clients included #1 NYT bestselling authors, Fortune 1000 global marketing teams, VC-backed startups, record-setting crowdfunding campaigns, and various 7+ figure small businesses. 

* In late 2017, I started Meeting of the Minds which is my #1 focus today because it's far more valuable to curate the same type of high-integrity entrepreneurs who are world-class at their craft (like my book contributors and former marketing consulting clients) and allow them to connect so they can leverage the collective intelligence of our diverse network to solve pressing problems in their businesses and scale. Hundreds of entrepreneurs have joined us at quarterly in-person, invite-only summits as well as interactive "deep dives" each month via Zoom. 

* I'm engaged-to-be-married (had to postpone the wedding due to the pandemic), run one or two ultramarathons per year, organize group volunteer outings here in Atlanta through a program called "Volunteer with Entrepreneurs" that I hope to soon take nationwide, and have been recently binge-watching Billions and House of Lies, both on Showtime. 

Hopefully that saves us about 5-10 minutes during our call, so I can spend more time learning about what you're working on these days and how I might be helpful. 

Thanks again, and chat soon! 

- Jared 

P.S. - I keep a weekly email newsletter, so feel free to check it out ahead of our call. Typically once or twice per week, I'll share something I find valuable to you from cold email templates to "what NOT to do's" in sales & marketing, tips for scoring great press coverage (like an interview I got with Larry King!), and experiments you can run to generate more predictable revenue, etc.

A few things to consider with your own version of this “in advance of our call” email template, should you choose to leverage this idea for your own daily benefit.

* Tastefully showcase your “social proof” - if I were to say everything in this message above, I might sound like an a*****e. This is part of why I don’t like talking about myself, especially in an initial interaction with someone, so instead I’ve typed out various aspects of my background that establish trust, authority, and experience, from working with 15Five to highlighting the success of my book series or hyping up my awesome clients.

* Share a “sneak peak” into your personal life - while people care about what I bring to the table professionally, they also see me more as a fellow human when I divulge what shows I’m binge-watching, tell them about my philanthropic work, and mention I’m about to be married. Adding a photo into your email also gives someone an opportunity to see that there’s a kind-hearted person behind the keyboard, which is a refreshing sight in a sea of Twitter rants and crazy news headlines on the internet.

* Provide “calls to action” via carefully-placed links - there’s a few links in my email template, and they send someone to either a YouTube video that serves as a “speaker overview” and shows me in action at TED, with the press, etc…or it links them to our Meeting of the Minds website and/or my LinkedIn profile. Finally, there’s a quick mention of this newsletter in the “P.S.”, which helps me passively grow my following here and offer value to my new friend well before we connect.

Go ahead and swipe this template for yourself!

Feel free to message me back with your own “In Advance Of Our Call” email and I’d be happy to provide you with feedback.

(And if you found this valuable, go ahead and forward this write-up to a business-owning buddy of yours!)

Thanks as always,

-Jared

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter!

If you’re nodding your head YES, you might also be thinking…

But what does this look like in every day life? 

Now, I’m going to talk about face masks for a second, but hear me out. 

This is NOT intended to be political or opinionated whatsoever.

In my view, not wearing a mask, attending a party, traveling on planes, or seeing elderly family members right now poses the wrong risk parameters.

These are all activities where the benefits (i.e. a little extra comfort without a mask on your face, seeing friends or meeting new people, giving grandma a hug when you can wait a few more months to travel) aren’t that great compared to the risks (i.e. getting yourself sick, strangers, or loved ones sick being the primary risk, but also social isolation by making others around you uncomfortable, losing days or weeks of productivity if you or someone in your family gets sick, etc). 

I wrote a majority of this on a plane headed to Florida a few days ago (I’m back in Atlanta now), but the only reason I made the trip was to see my brother who is undergoing a major surgery in two weeks. 

Even then, I limited my exposure to risk wherever possible. 

I picked my seat on the plane strategically by a window so there’s only people sitting behind, in front of, and to the left of me (as opposed to 360 degree exposure from an aisle seat).

I boarded the plane last so I wouldn’t have to wait in lines that likely wouldn’t be socially distanced entering the plane. And, I even used the restroom in the Delta lounge instead of the public restrooms as less people enter the private area. 

Let’s talk about some things you can do in your business that DO provide the asymmetrical risk/reward we’re looking for. 

* Building your personal brand

Your “risk” is investing a few hours each week writing newsletters like this, appearing on podcasts, pitching members of the media, responding to social media, or booking yourself for speaking engagements. 

While this time might be better spent in sales, marketing, product/service development, or accounting, the “reward” over time could be an exponentially easier biz dev experience as you become well-known in your industry and people actively seek you (meaning you can spend less time on marketing and sales).

Your personal brand can also benefit you across multiple ventures. In the event your current business doesn’t work, you’ve built an asset you can leverage in the future for your next big idea. 

* Building a world-class network

Same idea here. Invest some time, money, and energy establishing and deepening meaningful relationships with influential people, and your rewards could be exponential. Your network will provide you with unforeseen opportunities, emotional support when times get tough, feedback and leads on information sources that will allow you to more rapidly self-educate, etc. 

If given the choice between an extra hour of work or spending that time networking, I’ll almost always choose the second option because it provides the potential for positive payoff over decades of my career, whereas the emails I’d answer or landing pages I’m typing up in that extra hour of work can most likely wait until the next day.

* Securing capital and lines of credit 

Generally, it’s a good idea to have more “cash in bank” than what’s needed to get through your next payroll cycle or two.

Additionally, opening lines of credit through your bank, credit cards, or online lenders like Kabbage is well worth your time in the event you need to tap into those funds during emergencies like we experienced in March. 

There is a small risk of inviting yourself or others on your team to misuse funds, overcharge credit cards, or spend more than you would if you were practicing complete frugality, but the reward is peace of mind when it comes to your survival during the worst of times.

On a more positive note, if you find a marketing campaign or opportunity that is promising, you’ll now have the ability to invest more aggressively than if you didn’t have extra cash or credit. 

* Talking to your customers 

Your risks are, like the first 3 ideas above, the opportunity cost of spending time conversing with your clients. The bigger risk is building something that’s too feedback-oriented, rather than looking for the underlying pains and problems your clients are dealing with and solving their issues as opposed to only giving them what they say they want.

Henry Ford invented the Model T and changed manufacturing forever, and he said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

But…

The “reward” of talking to your customers on a regular basis include easier sales, better marketing campaigns, more referrals, innovative ideas as you calibrate your products/services to best problem-solve for your end users, and the humility that comes with remembering WHY you started your company in the first place when times get tough.

* Guarantees or other forms of contract flexibility

When you’re about to sign on the dotted line, you should be excited about whatever it is you’re buying. One way to ease anxiety is to seek guarantees and/or find alternate paths to your goal if things go sideways.

For Meeting of the Minds, we offer “More Than Money Back” guarantees which give our clients asymmetrical risk/reward. The risk to attending one of our events is your time, and you’ll actually receive a full refund as well as a meaningful check in your name to your favorite charity if you feel like we don’t provide solid ROI.

(We call this risk reversal in marketing speak…)

The reward of attending one of our events is 10X+ ROI on your investment in the form of new connections, strategies for generating more predictable revenue or increasing profitability, solving pressing problems in your business, and more.

For us, offering this risk reversal helps us close more sales because some of our clients feel more comfortable signing up for an event with this bold guarantee. The risk is screwing up one month’s cash flow if we need to process a refund (something we’ve never had to do thankfully) and the reward is signing up more amazing clients.

IN CLOSING: What are some other areas of your business where you’ve leveraged asymmetrical risk/reward?

Where are you struggling to apply this concept? 

Email me (or comment below) and I’d be happy to help out!

-Jared

P.S. - if you’re already a subscriber to my weekly email newsletter, what do you think of this new layout and format? Yay? Nay? Also, if you liked this post, click share below or forward this email to a friend!

Jared Kleinert is the founder of Meeting of the Minds (motm.co), as well as a TED speaker, 2x award-winning author, and USA Today's "Most Connected Millennial".

Meeting of the Minds curates "super-connectors" and subject matter experts as invite-only attendees to 3 day summits in places like Napa Valley, Bermuda, and elsewhere, as well as “deep dives” such as this Marketing and Biz Dev strategy & implementation workshop. Members of the MOTM network include CEOs of 7, 8, and 9-figure businesses, creators of globally-recognized brands and social movements, New York Times bestselling authors, founders of pre-IPO tech unicorns, c-suite execs from Fortune 500 companies, and others.

Jared's career began at 15 years old when he started his first company, and took off at 16 while working as the first intern, and then one of the first 10 employees, for an enterprise SaaS company called 15Five, which today has raised over $40M and has almost 2000 forward-thinking companies as monthly recurring clients.

Later, Jared would become a delegate to President Obama's 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Malaysia, write multiple books including the "#1 Entrepreneurship Book of 2015", and speak at TED@IBM the day before he turned 20. 

As a highly-sought after keynote speaker and consultant, Jared’s clients range from organizations like Facebook, Samsung, Bacardi, Estee Lauder, IBM, Cornell, Berkeley, AdAge, and the National Speakers Association. His insights on entrepreneurship, networking, marketing, and business development have been featured in Forbes, TIME, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, NPR, Entrepreneur, Mashable, Fox Business and more.

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