Keap’s Keap’s Partnerkon and IKON are a favorite of mine. It gives me a chance to reconnect with people. It’s a chance to network and meet people in the community I don’t know. It’s great networking.
These Keap run events are VERY special for me. I attended my first one in 2011 and it changed my life.
I mean that.
I first discovered Infusionsoft in 2010. A prospect asked me to give him a hand with and I quickly decided I needed to learn more about it. Keap’s user group was coming up soon and it was the perfect way to learn what I needed. I did NOT anticipate how big an impact it would have on my life.
At the time, I was struggling financially. I used some flyer miles I had to pay the airfare. I stayed at a dive hotel near Phoenix airport and got really creative to get my other expenses paid.
On the first day, I met Micah Mitchell who was a speaker. He talked all about his membership site building tool. He confirmed that my learning WordPress was a good move. More on him in a moment.
Evening #2, I attended an after hours event. It was a presentation on a mastermind group started by:
- Bob Britton, the previous year’s winner of Infusionsoft’s Marketer of the Year
- Micah Mitchell, who I mentioned earlier, and
- Greg Grant, a proven email list builder.
These guys knew Infusionsoft really well and they had the knowledge I needed to quickly learn Infusionsoft so I could help business owners using it. They had what I needed.
I really couldn’t think of a way to pay their $798 monthly payment to join. I drove away frustrating, but I could NOT stop thinking about. It’s something I needed to do.
I called my wife and explained what it was. She heard that I needed it for my business and that it wasn’t some sort of impulse buy. She gave me the thumbs up and I went ahead and joined the program.
The first thing the group helped me address was how to find good team members. I was teaching at a local college and was depending on students that were really sharp, but unreliable. Bob connected me to fellow mastermind member Matt Prada. Matt introduced me to ODesk, now renamed Upworks and that’s where I found Danica Louwe from the Philippines. She started as a graphic designer and she worked with me for six years. She became a super Infusionsoft membership site builder. She’s off building membership sites herself today. I’ve run a virtual team ever since with team members in Spain, to Philippines to Bangladesh.
Micah Mitchell was telling me I could really be successful building membership sites. I didn’t see the opportunity. I didn’t see it. I did it anyway trusting him and moved forward. Am I glad I did? Over 80% of our business is in building membership sites for Infusionsoft users. And the majority of those project Micah’s Memberium membership tool
The group became my community of fellow business owners. We got to know each other well and we were all knew Infusionsoft. We took an interest in each other’s businesses. We served as sounding boards. It often led to us getting some needed and sometimes painful feedback. I remember a painful Sunday hot seat in Las Vegas where the group challenged me to answer, “What is it you want to do?” I was skirting their question over and over again, but they forced me to see that my lack of focus was killing my business. I cried the whole flight home to Miami, but drove me to take really specific steps to change. I wouldn’t have seen that without them.
I am convinced that you cannot run you business in a vacuum. It doesn’t matter how good your and how committed you are. You need help from the outside. Community power like what I got is a MUST.
Hope this helps!