It was the first time I’d been in a $50,000,000 home...

I was there for a client - he was pitching a super high end mastermind (over $150k) and if there was any a place to pitch it at - it was here.

I’d tell you the famous person who used to own the house but it would give away its exact location. In fact, I only bring up the house to set the stage on the insights I’d like to share with you on what it’s really like on the inside of super ultra successful, wealthy people.

Some things will shock you… specifically because of now “normal” they are.

Other insights are really just a refined approach to a refined approach to a fundamental strategy that would be useful to you no matter what stage you are at in your business.

I have to keep a lot of the specifics secret because the whole event was a secret - it is not marketed to the public, invitation only and frankly - the general public would have no proper to context in which to weigh in on this other than to blast rich people for being rich and use it to further whatever political agenda or narrative the general public wishes to push.

My client is partners with a mega celebrity on this mastermind, too - and with celebrities, branding is everything. Protect the public brand so he stays the golden boy in the limelight. Yet behind the scenes his business works the same as ours - things need sold.

The details I’m obscuring don’t matter anyway, but the strategy of intentional obscurity matters because it’s the first lesson - exclusivity.

If you want to sell anything…

The more scarce you can make it, the more valuable it becomes to your target market.

My favorite example of this is in the baseball card market when a Billy Ripken card became 125x more valuable than a Cal Ripken Jr. card from the same series. They are brothers but the difference is Cal is a legend and a hall of famer and Billy was barely good enough to be in the starting lineup.

What made billy’s card 125x more valuable is it was an error card - because someone had written some naughty words on the bottom of Billy’s bat (rhymes with duck face) and they snapped a pick with Billy holding that bat… put it on a card… and then when they found out, never printed that card again.

The card is now scarce and what would otherwise be worth less than a dime is now worth hundreds of dollars.

No matter what you sell, you can and should make it scarce - at least initially.

My wife bought be a Patek Philippe watch as a wedding gift.

She had to buy it second hand because the last time they made this watch was over a decade ago. It’s in mint condition. A buyer scooped it up, and held onto it for years, and then sold it for more than he bought it for.

High end watch makers are smart like this - they control the supply and demand and people spend fortunes partly (or mostly) due to exclusivity.

The higher you go up the market, the more exclusivity is key.

The home was exclusive - gated community. The invitation was exclusive - you had to know the right somebody. The amount of spots at the mastermind were exclusive.

One of the perks of being in this mastermind was exclusive - you’d get a dining experience at a NY restaurant that has a 5 year wait to get in… the hack here is they were flying the staff out from the restaurant to the location to make the meal for those who joined.

Seriously.

After mingling over drinks and appetizers, we did a house tour and then settled in for a gourmet dinner.

To kick the dinner off, another celebrity hand flown in across the country just to sit down and talk with us.

I have to be very vague on who this person is, as he is so accomplished in his craft that he is a one of one - no one has ever approached what he has been able to do.

So let’s just say he has a unique perspective on accomplishment - which he shared with us.

When you’re in the room with such folks, it’s weird but the air in the room changed. It just feels different. Special. A force of personality.

This guy sold us on what it takes to be successful, and of course that is conditioning us for the mastermind offer - successful people make commitments, rise to the occasion, etc.

Doesn’t matter if you know what’s going on - it still works.

You may not be able to get a big name celebrity right now, but if you can get anyone who is impressive to give a rah-rah talk, it’s amazing what it can do for your sales.

I once did a product with the only American to climb all fourteen 8000 meters mountains without supplemental oxygen (Ed Veisturs). He had climbed Everest multiple times and even had the highest grossing IMAX documentary, where they filmed one of his ascents.

He wasn’t expensive to get and he had a unique story to tell.

There are many people like this you can get to show to zoom for a reasonable hourly fee who will impressive, excite and motivate people to want to do more -

Which is a great mindset to put someone before you sell them your specific “more”.

There were “plants” in the room - people who had already joined the mastermind, who were called upon, seemingly spontaneously, to share their experiences of how great a mastermind is and why they joined this specific one.

It was of course well orchestrated - as it should be - but it appeared natural. Which feels good and easy to take in vs. it being forced.

Success stories are the KEY to selling anything. Proof before product. Even if you have to do it for free (which wasn’t the case here) to get those success stories, once you have them everything is easier.

And a call to action. You should typically sell with pressure, because high ticket things need some force behind them to be sold.

However, when you get to ULTRA high ticket..

Then you actually use almost no pressure -

which is what my client did. Super soft sell. Which works great when you have exclusivity - there aren’t many spots to begin with.

I watched as he sold probably $4 million dollars worth before the night ended. He also asked for referrals, too - smart.

Another smart thing he did that I think most people missed - he debuted his product for free before asking you to join it. In this case, he’s selling a mastermind - so some of what we did that night in the $50MM home was mastermind. And have a mastermind experience, with the beautiful setting, access to a famous celebrity and proximity to other amazing ass kickers in the group.

I walked out with several contacts that could result in some mega money. (I ran into an old friend at this dinner I hadn’t seen in years. I ended up giving them a ride back to their hotel, and on the way they shared me of how they worked one on one with the freaking POPE. Yeah, the actual Pope.)

Whatever you sell, if you can give a preview of what it’s like to buy BEFORE someone buys… as long as the preview is powerful…

This will be the best way you can ever sell.

Now the last lesson - the people at this event where of the ultra successful. They need another million like you need another hole in your head.

They are also some of the healthiest, happiest, most well rounded people you would ever meet. They arguably need what this mastermind offers this least - yet they are the most likely TO invest in such a thing.

Successful people understand the big secret is proximity. You are the 5 people you spend the most time with. If a $100MM business can spend more time with more $250MM businesses, then that more than anything will probably cause their businesses to grow.

It’s why I co-run my own “cheaper” mastermind ($35k/yr) for marketing.

However you do it…

Find a way to associate more with the people who already at where you want to be.

After the event the client asked me how he did - to give insight on his pitch (which is what he pays me for - to help him improve his pitching).

This is a guy who is already world class - yet he always is looking for, and pays for feedback. Because the more successful you get, the more a “one thing” - even if it’s just a 1% increase - can have a big impact.

All the best athletes I know also have the most coaches I know. Pro golfers have coaches just for their wrists. There is always room to grow.

I told the client that he got all the big stuff right so the small stuff wasn’t really worth sweating over. Yeah it went a bit long. Yeah, he “taught” too much (during the dinner he shared some insights in how they put 12 million people through their sales funnel). But now wasn’t the time to get into it.

What he did right made up for it all - the right setting, the right celebrity and most important - the right audience.

I left with a new sense of what was possible. We all did. Hopefully I transferred some of that to you in this article.