Jason Fladlien: Making Money in Webinars

May 1, 2018

Jason Fladlien is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of Rapid Crush Inc., a digital sales and marketing services firm. Today on the EO Podcast, Jason reveals his past as a hip-hop singing monk and how he realized that he’s always been a salesman. Tune-in to learn how Jason makes millions through webinars, why you don’t have to be “good” at it to make money, and why your process and format matter more than your platform.  

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:48 – Introduction
• 01:50 – Jason was a hip-hop artist, monk, and house painter who lived in Iowa but now lives in California
• 02:45 – He got into marketing, and soon the psychology of marketing become more interesting to him than the music
• 03:20 – He went by “Flad” or “J Flad” and had a song called “Mactacular”
• 04:35 – When he was young, he was always told that he’d be rich and that he was super-intelligent but he had no ambition or drive
• 05:16 – He was depressed, agoraphobic, became a monk and musician, then got wrapped up in business and marketing
• 06:46 – Jason is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of Rapid Crush Inc., a digital marketing firm
• 07:30 – Jason has sold over $120 million in product via webinar
• 08:45 – Jason loves California weather and convenience; his mother lives with him and his father was a teacher who loved self-education
• 09:45 – He was always around books and learning; his father taught himself many things on his spare time and his mother went back to college when he was a kid
• 10:44 – Jason’s affinity to sales
• 11:18 – He’s always been a salesman and loves selling; he believes the stigma around sales is untrue if done correctly
• 12:00 – Sales is the ability to help someone understand that what they are currently doing is blocking them from getting where they want to go; it’s a consciousness shift
• 12:40 – You must successfully sell yourself first before you sell to anyone else
• 13:56 – Is it possible for someone who struggles with words to get better and even good at expressing themselves?
• 14:48 – Jason has put about 20,000 hours into his craft to become world-class
• 15:45 – Most people can improve their sales skills but other skills they possess can get them to the revenue they desire
• 16:04 – The people he works with drastically improve their game
• 17:19 – No matter how good you are naturally, you can’t replace the time it takes to perfect the craft
• 18:40 – Jason’s training: genius-webinars.com
• 21:00 – Can you have an effective B to B webinar, or only B to C?
• 21:22 – Most of the money he’s made has been through selling high-ticket B to B
• 21:31 – Campaign example: Selling a $12,000/year software to successful Amazon sellers; they sold $3.29 million worth of this software in one webinar
• 22:18 – Most of the customers were already previous clients; webinars are perfect for an existing audience base
• 23:03 –Most of Jason’s money is made from the 20% spending 80% of the market segment’s dollars; most marketers go after those spending only 20%
• 24:40 – The value of webinar for clients
• 24:57 – Dave’s process: Identify audience and problem, webinar idea and title, webinar promotion, list building via partners, influencers and ads
• 25:35 – Jason’s webinar advice
• 26:00 – If 100 sign up, in most markets about 25% will show up; the more tightly focused the audience, the higher the show rate
• 26:44 – You must first understand that you are guessing what the webinar should be; you’ll know more once there is interaction with the webinar so just put it out there
• 28:20 – Webinars are a learning machine; you’ll know in real time what is working with your audience and what isn’t
• 28:40 – What’s the minimum, viable, executable opportunity so you can quickly and with a strong value offer see what happens?
• 29:37 – How much content is educational as opposed to the pitch?
• 29:46 – The introduction is 5-15 minutes (higher price point = longer introduction), content is 45-90 minutes long (depending on price point and subject matter)
• 30:07 – The pitch is after 1-1.5 hours of speaking, position yourself as helpful; sell the product and yourself
• 31:40 – Real learning doesn’t occur until your behavior changes so get your audience to feel different about their current situation; use content to create emotional states
• 33:00 – A lot of content can create more confusion; guide the content along with emotion and create a new behavioral identity
• 33:50 – Soon you aren’t selling, you are serving
• 34:05 – Webinars are typically calendared for 60 or 90 minutes, but most will stay longer if they are captivated
• 35:00 – The hyper-motivated will invest the time to address their problem even if they supposedly have no time
• 36:20 – People are willing to go on webinars and listen even though 9/10 webinars are not good
• 38:07 – If you don’t have “the gift of gab” use it to your advantage
• 38:15 – Positioning: “I’m here to help and serve you and I’m willing to get out of my own comfort zone to do so.” The pitch: “I’m asking you to do the same...”
• 40:00 – You are more relatable if you aren’t as “smooth” or salesy; the format and process are what matter most
• 43:22 – FaceTime Live vs other platforms
• 43:28 – Lean into whatever media you are using; FaceTime Live is more informal and can be used for questions after a formal webinar
• 45:15 – Web browser-based solutions aren’t as effective as downloaded solutions; go to webinars in a program so you don’t look similar in your delivery
• 46:12 – A strong webinar will be effective no matter what the platform; you want to create impact that can’t be found elsewhere - that comes with the systematic process
• 48:24 – How do you get 1,000 people to register for an event?
• 48:44 – It’s relative; you have to get good at webinars before building your audience
• 50:29 – His audience is physical product sellers, not entrepreneurs that want to learn webinars; Jason partnered with Joe Polish to immediately reach his audience
• 51:50 – He learned commonalities between the people who signed up to reach more people
• 52:34 – Example with man who taught chiropractors how to run a business
• 53:18 – He did group coaching with Jason’s people; Jason provided the audience and the coach delivered the product and the sales vehicle
• 54:10 – Lead generation vs conversion; team up with someone who is good at the other
• 55:00 – If you wrote a great hypothetical webinar for a hypothetical product, you have an asset
• 56:24 – “You either want to make excuses or you want to make money, but you can’t do both. So let’s make money.”

Key Points:

1. Sales is a consciousness shift; you must sell yourself first before selling to anyone else.
2. You won’t know everything about your webinar before it’s live; just get it out there so you can learn from it in real time.
3. A strong webinar will be effective no matter what the platform; create an impact with the proven systematic process. 

Resources Mentioned:

• Entrepreneur's Organization – The EO Network
• Jason’s business – Rapid Crush
• Jason’s training: genius-webinars.com