I don’t know how many of you have been following my posts on the Warrior Forum, but I found being active there leads a lot of people to my blog. (My mailing list followers will get a special newsletter later today showing my numbers and tactics used). Well I recently challenged a guy on the forum who claimed he would ‘personally one on one coach’ 100 people to success in six months. Not only would he coach but he would pick their niches for them. This post will discuss how the challenge came about, and some of the methods people used to convince me to coach them.
Now, I’m a professional business process consultant and I very quickly try to figure out if something is practical or not. 100 people with personal one on one coaching sounded far too much to me. For me one on one coaching means at least 1 hour per person per month. Even at that low estimate it is 100 hours each months he has to give up. Oh, by the way all the coaching was FREE! I write him a comment stating I wished him the best of luck as I don’t think it would be possible to give them all one on one coaching. A mini argument developed and it ended in me challenging him. I take only 5 student and I would earn more with these 5 people then his 100 combined.
Naturally, we agreed some rules to the challenge and the challenge began! Immediately a number of people who started PMing me and soon I was at almost 200 messages with potential applicant. So how did I weed down these applicants? Simple, I deleted the ones who:
- Simply asked ‘can I have a spot’ without expressing anything about themselves (I took whoever put some effort in too round two)
- Those who asked silly questions about who i am, which they could have easily found out by viewing some of the sites in my signature or reading my previous posts (Do your own research, I’m not offering a FREE service then going to beg you, I have 100′s of applicants). Sensible questions about me were accepted.
- Those who had not upgraded at WF. I need people who are active and ready to help themselves. Since this was started on the WF, I wanted to give some respect back.
Ok, so that is how I got to round two. Round three would have to be even tougher, and I would like to know who really wanted to make it, who was really ready to learn and put the effort in and who was ready with the mindset for success. I did not for one minute claim to have all the answers in my original thread, but what I did guarantee is that a lot of my high flying internet colleagues would be pitching in to give them great advice and guidance along the way. So, I’m going to expose them to my inner circle there had to be something special about them.
Want to know how many people impressed me? ONE!
Want to know about him?
- Lives in community housing as is currently homeless after losing everything in a bad venture
- Is really willing and ready to make this work as he has a real motive – wants to get out of his bad situation
- Is young, dynamic and resourceful. Even though he has nothing, he is using creative ways to make enough money to survive each day. A do or die attitude/
How did he impress me?
- He was the ONLY person who found the blog which was in my signature and used the ‘contact’ form on the blog rather then a PM on the warrior forum (massive points for standing out and proving you did some research)
- He went through every post I had made on WF and quoted me on some of my best one’s. One of which advised people on how to impress their mentor (yep, contact them via their blog, quote something you like about their past posts etc!)
- He didn’t just send one request and forget about it. After a few hours he sent me a PM on the Warrior Forum to make sure I got the message from the contact form. Then every 12 hours or so he sent another PM giving me some more info and telling me why it would mean so much to him
Want to know how many times the others tried to recontact me? ZERO
Now, I originally stated on my thread that I would take five people, but currently if I’m honest I’m only ready to take one. Any guesses who??!
I do however believe in second chances. So this is what I have done:
- Wrote this post on my blog! If they are following me they will know what to do.
- I rewrote a pm to everyone who got to round 2, and asked them to give me their skype details. Those who simply just give the skype details with asking anything about what the call will be about, or don’t do a little research (like reading this post) before the skype call get eliminated.
On Tuesday I will send a message to people on my mailing list with an update on how this story turns out! (I will also be offering a chance of FREE coaching to my subscribers next week also). And just to note, my competitor backed out of the challenge !
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
What a shame that you have only found one worthy of mentoring.
Maybe your criteria for selection isn’t quite perfect! For instance repeat messages. Your offer was generous and you would be expected to get a lot of replies. Perhaps even be overwhelmed. Maybe some of those who contacted you didn’t want to pester you while you were going through those replies and making your decision, and after all you could also have backed out so it may have been thought that you needed time to think about it, that’s called consideration!
Any intelligent person getting a PM for Skype details would have a good idea what the call would be about surely.
Good luck with mentoring the guy you chose I hope that it works out for him, and good luck with your personal challenge.
For what it’s worth I thought that you had more chance of winning the original challenge with 5 than with 100 – blimey that could have got messy.
Aha madam you found the blog! That is massive points for you, you are now only the second of my applicants to impress me.
But just to clarify, I was taught a famous quote at Business School that has stuck with me all this time. To ‘Assume’ makes an ASS out of U and ME…
90% of problems in business happen because people assume the wrong things. Agreed there is a fine line between pestering and being considerate, but reading my pervious posts on WF and taking an interest in my blog is a basic requirement. Heck, you want this guy to mentor you, so you should find out if HE IS EVEN WORTHY OF BEING A MENTOR!
But like I said, well done to you.
Dee, you are just awesome! What more can I say? Your students will be VERY fortunate to have you as their mentor!!
Christine
Why thank you I am honoured to impress you.
I learned the same quote many years ago but to assume is human nature. Some will assume the wrong things but others will think through their assumptions and any alternatives that there may be before coming to conclusions – lateral thinking perhaps.
Playing devils advocate I will ask: Did you assume that nobody checked you out as you describe?
Interesting blog, will pop back again sometime.
Thank you Trish for your comments, people who are intelligent and challenge me are most welcome in my circles.
You are partly right, I have assumed a little that potential applicants did not follow me, however, there are some tell tale signs that a number of applicants did not even bother to read this blog. You took the time to read and took action on what I suggested. If I am to be someone’s mentor it would be rewarding to know they actually value and use my advice.
Since none of the other commented I can safely assume they either don’t want to take action or they have not found or followed my blog.
Trish, I am still going to honour my offer of coaching but it will have some rules. I’m learning that sometimes expecting people to raise to your standards is not smart if you have not prepared them as to what you fully expect. On the flip side, a number of applicants feel this is an easy way to link to some top marketers and do not really appreiate the time I will put in or expect them to input also.
I’m working on a solution, so watch this space
@ Christine – your always too kind. Thank you for your kind words.