Lavish Business Costs that Are Actually Worth It | Ep. #584

In episode #584, Eric and Neil explain why spending lavishly on business expenses is worth it. Tune in to hear what you should be spending your money on!

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

  • [00:27] Today’s Topic:  Lavish Business Costs that Are Actually Worth It
  • [00:38] Masterminds, which can cost $20,000/year, allow you to build great relationships with high caliber people.
  • [01:22] If you have extra money, fly Business or First Class, because you can meet really interesting people who are valuable to network with.
  • [02:35] Attend and speak at conferences.
  • [02:49] “Brain Dates” at conferences allow you to speak to people you normally wouldn’t have the chance to speak with.
  • [03:20] Even though they are expensive, it’s worth the splurge for the networking.
  • [03:34] Spend a lot of money on your team.
  • [03:45] Richard Branson told Neil, “You don’t build a big company without the team; it’s the team that makes the company. Don’t forget to take care of your team members.”
  • [03:58] Gifts, bonuses, and perks like free lunch keep team morale up.
  • [04:32] When you invest in your team, they will stick out the hard times.
  • [05:15] Think about what your core values are and figure out how to help your team better their skills.
  • [05:53] Consider nice clothes and expensive watches, which gives you the appearance of success and changes the way you are perceived.
  • [06:22] Neil spent thousands of dollars on clothing and accessories and his business relationships improved.
  • [07:10] Eric and Neil agree that credit card fees are worth it, because of the benefits and leeway they provide.
  • [07:30] Spend lavishly on dinners! Take care of your guests and don’t cheap out.
  • [08:05] That’s it for today!
  • [08:10] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway!

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The post Lavish Business Costs that Are Actually Worth It | Ep. #584 appeared first on Marketing School Podcast.

Full Transcript of The Episode

Speaker 1: Get ready for your daily dose of marketing strategies and tactics from entrepreneurs with the guile and experience to help you find success in any marketing capacity. You're listening to Marketing School with your instructors Neil Patel and Eric Siu.

Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.

Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.

Eric Siu: And today we are going to talk about lavish business costs that are actually worth it. So I'll kick this one off. We've talked about this one in the past, and if you haven't checked out that episode, Neil and I talk about the benefits of Masterminds and in some cases they cost more than $25,000 a year. So starting with Masterminds, this is just kind of a review, we think those are worth it at the end of the day because you end up paying a lot of money, but what happens is, the people that you end up meet, end up being really high caliber, and you start to build deeper relationships with these people. And I can tell you off a Mastermind I joined recently it was instant ROY, so Masterminds are a good way to think about it. People think, "Oh why would I ever pay 25 grand when I can just learn all the stuff online." That's not the main point of these Masterminds. The point is to build relationships/network with people that are high caliber.

Neil Patel: Another expense that's really worth paying for, if you guys have money spend the extra dough on going in business class or first class when you fly. You'll meet some amazing people. I fly very often, roughly once a week. I've met some cool people. Like I was flying to Los Angeles once and a guy who was sitting next to me, his name was Gabriel. His wife was sitting across from him on the other side, his child was in between them. And Gabriel's a lawyer at a popular law firm, and he was giving me advice on how to modify my terms of service and privacy policy to reduce how many "class action lawsuits and FTC investigations that I can get into." We're not really doing anything to break the law or anything like that, or anything unethical, but I've been dragged in the past into FTC investigations and lawsuits, and funny enough, it's cheaper to settle than it is to fight and beat them in court. Because typically insurance companies will pay for the settlement, that's at least the way in works in America, assuming you have insurance.
But the point I'm trying to make is that was an amazing connection that I made just from an airline ticket, and that alone has saved me hundreds and thousands of dollars per year. And I have countless stories like that all because I'm flying in business or first class.

Eric Siu: The other thing I'll add from my side is conferences. So you can notice that there's a theme that's popping up here. And the theme is it's all relationships. So conferences are great not just to go check out the booths, and not just to go watch the talks, but actually to go meet up with people. And I remember a couple of weeks ago when I was at SaaStr they had this really creative idea. These were called brain dates where you can meet up with people who are high caliber and I got to talk to people that were, they worked for the best pricing and packaging firms in the world. Just people that you normally wouldn't get to talk to. So conferences are good.
There are conferences that cost a lot of money. You think about TED for example, that's at least $10,000 just to attend TED. And you think about Summit, for example, Summit is a couple of thousand dollars too. But at the end of the day, again most people are going to be like, "I would never pay that amount to go to a conference. It doesn't make any sense. It's such a rip off." That's why the pricing kind of keeps those people out, but the people that are willing to pay end up being high caliber, because they don't really worry about the money and they know they're going to meet great people again.

Neil Patel: You should also spend a lot of money on your team. I was once at a conference in Brazil called Vtech, and I was speaking with Richard Branson before my speech, and he said one little piece of advice that resonated with me really well. You don't build a big company without the team. It's the team that makes the company. Don't forget to take care of your team members, from nice Christmas gifts, to lunches, to maybe even providing lunch to them every single day, to doing things to making that amazing culture, because in your business it's not always going to go up. Every business goes down, it's just a question of when. Look at Apple. Most of you guys don't realize but Microsoft had to bail them out with a 100 million dollars at one point, because they were worried that they were going to have more antitrust lawsuits if Apple didn't exist. And they made a killing on that return.
And you know, your business is also going to go down. I'm not saying you can't go back up. But when you invest in your team they'll be there with you thick and thin. When things are bad, they'll still be there. When things are good, they'll still be with you. So take care of them. And don't forget that you are where you are today because of your team.

Eric Siu: Yeah and before I go into my next point, just to build on what Neil said, I was at a dinner last week and then one of my friend's wives ran this yoga studio for over 10 years, and so she said that her team members actually ended up staying. She had people that stayed for her for up to 10 years, and it was because she paid higher salary, she took care of them well. The things that Neil's mentioning such as the Christmas gifts, the lunches and all that kind of stuff it's really important. So I think Neil and I, I mean we're both different people right, so I think it's important to think about what is important to you as a person first. What are your core values?
So for me, when I'm looking at other people. When I'm thinking about how else I can invest in them, I'm always thinking about how else does this person want to grow? What conferences do they want to go to? What do they want to get better at? What do they want ultimately in life? And then you help them get there, because they're here on this journey with you. They're spending the eight plus hours with you every day. It's in your best interest to take care of them. And like what Neil said earlier, Richard Branson when he's says taking care of people, he's actually thinking about their families, going the extra mile, and spending that money. It's not about yourself at the end of the day, it's about the people around you. So go ahead.

Neil Patel: And the last one from me is consider if you're just starting out, fancy clothes, things like watches, it all helps build a better appearance. You know the saying goes, "Fake it 'til you make it." I'm not saying you should do that, but I did a test a few years ago, and which I was like, "Huh, does wardrobe actually affect what people think about you, and if you're going to get business?" And what I found was when I started dressing nicer ... and I'm not talking nicer like spending a hundred bucks on a t-shirt or a shirt, I'm talking about spending thousands of dollars on briefcases, jackets, suits, things like that ... people not only were more wanting to do business with me, because they're like, "Oh wow, Neil looks really successful. So he must be successful." But I also found that they're willing to pay me more money.
I think it's kind of crazy, and in regions like San Francisco you won't see much of that, but in regions like New York or Los Angeles or other parts of the world, your appearance does make a difference on the type of deals you're going to lock in and how much people are willing to pay you. Because if you don't look that successful and it looks like you haven't made much money, people are usually going to low ball you. While on the other hand, if people are like, "Oh wow, you must be doing really well, you look like it." They're not going to throw you a really low offer.

Eric Siu: Great, and so on my end the final thing I'm going to add is, you know Neil and I have talked about credit cards. And so some people might consider spending a couple of hundred dollars on credit card fees a year is a lavish expense, but we've talked about it and basically those class are net positive for you afterwards just based on the savings that you get from it and also the airline points and all that cool stuff. So credit cards are good, and also I've touched upon dinners in the past too. So yes, spend lavishly on dinners. Take care of people. Don't go cheap on dinners. Because if you're going to invite people to dinners, you're going to put these things together. The moment you start to go cheap, the moment you start to be ... and cheap is different from frugal right, cheap is actually you start to negatively impact people. People are going to know and people are going to talk about it right? You don't them to negatively talk about you. You want to deliver a great experience, and that involves not being cheap ...
So when you put these people together it's like again going to a great conference and all that kind of stuff. It's about delivering a great experience and then building those long term relationships. Neil anything else?

Neil Patel: That's pretty much it. Thank you guys for watching or listening. And if you want our daily marketing giveaway, go to singlegrain.com/giveaway.

Speaker 1: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow right here on Marketing School.

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