I realize that some of you are Howie fans so I'll warn you ahead of time that I'm going to have some fun at Howie's expense. However, this isn't really about Howie, it's about you, if you're interested and serious about Offline Marketing.

There's a lot of people who have become overnight experts, gurus and consultants in the Offline Marketing arena. You have Maria with her $7 ebooks to Howie with his $1500 + courses. How do you know if they're legitimate or not? Especially when they claim to have anywhere from five years to fifteen years of experience.

You can mostly tell by their sales letters and the hype. At the end of this posting I'll give you one question to ask them that will quickly separate the the real experts from the "johnny come lately wannabes"


Free Howie's IM Leadership...

...reality check review.


I love Howie and others like him who suddenly show up on the scene and claim to be an expert. They do a lot to drive business to me and others like me who've been in the business and work it on a daily basis.

Lately, thanks to Howie and Marie and others like them, their students find consultants like myself who can take them to where they thought the "gurus" were going to take them and failed.

Let's take a look at Howie's new offer that he spent "9 years tweaking."


1. "Getting PAYING Clients To Beat A Path To Your Door And Throw Money At You..."

Translation: Waste your clients time and money on useless SEO. Sounds good in theory but the reality it's a waste of money for your clients and a waste of time for you. May as well suggest that you waste your client's time and money advertising in the yellow pages.

Howie is going to show you a way to get more "qualified leads ready to give you money..."

Let's discuss these...



2. "Howie Seal Of Approval"/ Certification."

Yes, this is extremely important to every consultant. Without it profitable consultants like myself, Dan Kennedy and Jay Abraham would never have made a dime. We owe it all to Howie's approval and certification system.

Although it is sometimes awkward when we must first take the time to educate our clients on who Howie is and why they should care.

REALITY: If you must depend upon the validation of someone else then consulting is not for you. Consulting depends upon YOU having the confidence to build your client's business. Howie is not going to be making the phone calls for you or going with you to your meeting.



3. "You will be the recognized expert..." Because part of your package includes a custom web page built by my team. And on that page, YOU will be positioned as the expert.

Wow, that's all it takes a really nice web page? I'll take two. No, I'll take five after all I'm going to make a gazzillion dollars because I'm a recognized expert who is certified by Howie.

I think we all know that it takes much more than a web site or in this case a single web page to become an expert. Even if "Because it will show that you have been PERSONALLY TRAINED AND CERTIFIED BY ME as the best in the business."

Russell B. told an interesting story about someone who came to visit him and to study under him. The person was astounded that no one in Russell's hometown knew who Russell B was.

REALITY: Howie may be a big deal among IM junkies and have some good material. However, that does not translate into prospective clients knowing who he is or caring.

You have to think, are you building YOUR business or has Howie simply figured out a way to access your clients and prospects? Have you just become a PR person for Howie and introducing him to business owners who never heard of him?


4. "You're even going to have a CUSTOM TESTIMONIAL FROM ME ENDORSING YOU!

How much better can it possibly get? Imagine having a testimonial direct from Howie, someone that your prospective client has never heard of. Imagine, how impressed your prospective client will be! In fact so impressed that they'll wonder why he doesn't hire Howie instead.

With Howie's "reputation" throughout the "brick and mortar" world I can't see how this could possibly miss. In fact, why don't you call a couple of local business owners and ask them what they think of Howie. Howie who?

But wait....

....there's MORE!


5. Look you can get clients on the first page of Google!
The fact that he believes that is why clients are paying $5000 or more for consulting says he hasn't learned very much in his nine years of tweaking.

That's like saying, you're on the front page of the USA Today. So what? How does this directly translate into profits for your client? I don't want to hear what it's "supposed to do" or "should do" -- let's see the numbers.

Reality: Clients are paying for prospects not for rankings, positioning, or any other nonsense. Show me how your SE0 translated into a client making money directly from your efforts. That's impressive.

Show me this proof of results and profits that are a direct result of the SEO to businesses in the industry that Howie recommends.

It's not going to happen because as long as the client has other forms of advertising and doesn't track specific sales that you're NOT directly responsible for then there is no proof.

EX: Many people refer to the Ford Modeling as social proof that "social marketing" works. However, they can't prove that it was only the youtube videos that contributed to the success. Youtube videos was only a small part of Ford's over all marketing plan.


6. "No BS, Nothing Hidden, Easy Terms... Guarantee"

What is really hidden? In fact more than 90% of those who buy won't do anything AND 9% will fail when they try to implement. How does he know this? Because that's who he's targeting. People who won't do anything. People who need outside validation. Who are just curious.

This is how he can offer his guarantee to return their money if only they will get a client who will pay them at least $1000 for a consultation.

He knows in advance this is highly unlikely of those he's targeted. And those who just happen to make a sale and land a client will be too few to worry about. It's a no-lose situation because he'll use the three or four who make money to convince more people into his more expensive package. Kind of like a ponzi scheme.

Not convinced? Ask him a few legitimate questions, "How many sales have you made of your course?" Then ask, "How many people have acquired five or more paying clients?" Then, "How many are still in business after six months and making money?" Then the follow up question is, "How many paying "brick and mortar" clients do YOU have and how long have you had them?"

In this way, you have some idea what your chances are of making your business work based upon his model. If he sold 1000 units of his course and can only point to 12 people who have made more than five paying clients and are still in business after six months. Then that's about a 1% chance of you making a profit with his course. (or any guru's course)

btw: That six month question is very important. Consulting is an "evergreen" business. It can continue forever and gets easier the longer you're in it. If after six months there's no one still in the business then that's a huge red flag for you.


Let's have a bit of reality check, shall we?

If you need someone like Howie or Marie to validate you then you're not cut out to be a consultant.

You will learn more from your mistakes than you will ever learn from your successes.

What you're going to discover, after all the hype is removed and the excitement is gone, is that they don't provide you with the complete picture. They only provide you with the part of the picture that will continue to stuff money into their pockets month after month.

Nothing wrong with that...

...as long as you understand up front that what they're offering has limited value.

Howie's offer sounds a lot like the offer of a seminar I attended which featured a Utah hosting company selling a $5/mo hosting service for $3000/yr. They made it sound like they were offering you real value for your money but in reality they were only offering you a $5/mo hosting plan for one domain.

Probably one of the better products out there and less expensive one since it can be found here is Local Business Money Machine. It's not nearly as complicated and self-indulgent as Howie's program and most beginners will learn the basics they need to be both successful and profitable.

One thing I would mention to all prospective offline marketers aka consultants is that any "guru" or "expert" who is recommending SEO for local small business owners is guiding you down the wrong and very short path. And, if they suggest that you can make money "guaranteeing" an increase in your clients sales then run, don't walk away from them. You're a consultant not a sales trainer. Consultants create and drive qualified traffic. They don't get involved in the sales end of the business. That's the business of the client not the consultant.

I'm just having fun at Howie's expense. I don't think he'll mind because the gullible will be compelled to check out his site after reading this and will buy his course. But the reality is that when you see things like this it should be a red flag telling you that "expert" is searching for the "low hanging fruit" who is gullible enough to believe any of this is important.

If you've read my sales letters you'll note that they're very poorly written, has no hype, not formatted professionally, doesn't offer guarantees or incentives. I don't do any of that because I'm not looking for "low hanging fruit" or the gullible. I'm specifically searching for people who are serious about building a business. My "sales" material is designed to weed out the curious and leave me only with the serious. Unlike others who will be selling something different in a month or two -- I'm seeking people so I can duplicate myself and have residual income. I'm not seeking to re-invent the wheel every 30 days -- that requires too much time and effort.


QUESTION:
I promised that I would provide you with one question that you can ask a wannabe that will help you decide whether they really know what they're talking about or not. Here it is:

"Exactly, which small businesses (or businesses) have you identified as the perfect market niche for the business model you're wanting to teach?"

If you're wannabe is claiming more than a year of experience they should know EXACTLY who their market niche is. After all that is what they are supposed to be teaching you. That's really what you're paying them for how to get clients. If they can't answer that question then guess what -- their course, ebook, video, etc... is not going to work.

Now I suspect that you'll start seeing sales letters which try to address this question. They'll try to elude that they know. But don't be afraid to pin them down to EXACTLY which businesses.

Don't be surprised if you get answers like "It depends..." or "everyone" or other vague answers. They should be able to be very specific. For example, one of the niches I train my consultants in is Holistic Health. I can point them directly at twenty SPECIFIC businesses in their area who will hire them. No guessing to it because that is what the business and marketing model is designed for.


BONUS QUESTION:
Next question to ask them is how do they quickly gain 15 or more paying clients within 45 days? This should be a super easy question for them if they really have the experience they claim to.

Again, if they don't know then chances are their business model is not going to work. It may sound good, have good ideas and theories even some great scripts and forms but in the end it's not designed to make you money. It's designed to take your money.

You'll be like a lot of other consultants out there who are always chasing after their next client. If you really know your market then there's no chasing after them because they chase you.

Keep in mind that I'm not against Howie or Marie or any other guru. They serve their purpose. They're like infomercials who although the quality of their products are suspect, they build interest and drive sales for others in the market. We call them "Judas Goats".

The point of this is not to ridicule Howie but to get you to stop "researching" and getting ready for the perfect moment. To realize that you don't need Howie or anyone else. What you need is the courage to Take Action!

BHW has much more valuable information. If you'll take the time to really study the material available on BHW you'll quickly discover that you don't have to follow any Guru to get to where you want to go. It only takes you to research and then create a business and marketing model based upon what you've learn and then have the courage to Take Action!

Think about it,
Talk to you soon....

Citadel Media Solutions

P.S. If you've learned anything important in this posting, please feel free to say THANKS by clicking on the THANKS button!

__________________
Struggling with Offline Consulting? PM about 1on1 Phone Consultation (USA Only).

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Thanks for the share...

One of the most inciteful and revealing posts about offline marketing/conslting ive ever read. Its quite funny to see all when a new "idea" pops into the "gurus" field of view, everyone of them pounces on it like a lion.
Now we have Mike Koenings of traffic geyser pushing his system and using the same kind of hype. And of course its all the rage in the Warrior Forum, every wannabe aspiring "guru" is putting out a piece of shit product almost every day. Quite sad.

Thanks Grafx, this really resonated with me, i think i might have to take you up on your mentorship in the new year. Its time to really take my consulting to the next level and i believe youre the one to help. Thanks for the great post.

Thanks alot. your post really hit some chords.

Thanks, taking action is the most difficult part. Just thinking and downloading ...............

The only thing I've come to learn from these so called "gurus" with X years of experience and $XX,XXX *cough* monthly income... even though it's money from SELLING the product, not money from whatever the product teaches... anyways, that one and only thing is HOW they market themselves. If you have your own digital products, then these people are a goldmine for you... you can find many similar traits in their sales letters and even products themselves... usually it's something like:

a) I'm going to reveal a secret that will make you millions, are you excited?
b) Now that you're excited, imagine what you can do knowing this secret!
c) After you know this secret, I'll even reveal a secret method that will make this secret make you 10x more with 10x less effort!
d) So the secret is actually not a secret, it's very simple in fact, it's (insert a twist to something you kind of knew already here)
e) This is followed by a VERY VAGUE outline of a THEORETICAL model with almost 0 specifics or direct resources
f) But why bother do the hardwork? After all you probably still don't have a clue of how to make money now that you "know the secret".... Check out these tools that will do the work for you here!

The OP is very insightful. I have no thoughts about Howie one way or another.
I never heard of him until 6 months ago. But I am amazed at the sheer number
of "johnny come lately wannabes". I can't understand how someone is successful
at "offline consulting" can pump out a new offline product ( trainings,
memberships, seminars, etc) every week.

I bought a couple of "guru" products from one person who shall remain nameless.
It was very disappointing to say the least. The product contain a flyer
that was to be used to generate business. It was horrible. Really horrible.
Beyond the fact that it was outrageous, there were so grammatical errors.

In a previous life, I had a brick and mortar business. I used to get headaches
when salespeople would speak "buzz words" and not plain English. If someone
tried to leave that flyer at my office...I hope I would be able to control my
laughter until he/she left.

I don't purchase offline products anymore. The upside is that I recognized that
I know more about sales and marketing than the so called gurus.

T

Ha, I'll bet I know the flyer you're talking about If it's who I'm thinking of he's a complete 'tard and the sales video he produced was even worse than the flyer. I've made a good living cleaning up the messes some of these offline "gurus" and their students are making.

whc

well said,

another common red flag is the "guru of everything" the guy who sell a product on"website flipping" "affiliate marketing" "seo" "blogging" "offline marketing" "Amazon" "Ebay" .......="Guru of all Trends" = BIG RED FLAG..;

and howie is one of them for sure

Excellent ...first time i heard of this term

at least the goofy guy is making the dollas while u are hear complaining and making a thread

__________________
R.I.P Madinaz...?

Excellent post from the OP.

I've got one or two issues though.

IMHO, SEO work is not all bad. Sure, there are loads of wannabees that can't hack it but it does not mean that SEO is not important. It remains one of the ingredients in the basket.

I also don't think that you necessarily need to know specifically what niche your product is aimed at. Sure, one person in this world focuses on "Chiropractors" but the truth is, is that 90% of our skills are generic. You just tailor the last 10% for specific niches.

The truth is that most people who even have an inkling about IM, are way, way ahead
of the game when it comes to bricks and mortar businesses. But that does not make them 'business consultants' .

95% of people will never even start.
4% will start and fail although they may have some success in offering
bits and pieces from a menu of IM offerings such as web design, SEO etc.

But only 1 percent will make the transition and get those lovely monthly
retainers.

len2503
Sine Qua Non

I think that befoe you try to do offline marketing for a company you SHOULD successfully market and SELL something yourself....
Unless you do you have ZERO credibility and no right to get paid for doing this...

Quite frankly Howie is a jackass!. The guy rambles and rambles about a whole lot of nothing for 20 minutes to make a point.

The next big thing the "gurus" will be hyping is Mobile Marketing.

Howie has been pushing Mobile Marketing stuff for months now..courses and PDFs

WARNING: You're right on the money...you need to wake up and be aware most of the courses being pushed is designed to keep you in a loop, relying on the next spoon fed "noobie" crap.

You gotta learn by applying yourself using a solid plan with built in risk management strategy, understanding the end result in mind, thinking independently if you want to succeed in this game...

Sadly it's a big lesson not only for IMers but for anyone that has half a brain and willing to use it.

I've been a Howie customer & a Howie fan.
What you have to remember is that Howie doesn't produce all his own products. He has a team to do that for him. They're a loyal team (same people) & in the main, they're great people. Howie is the marketing face behind his brand & he knows the people to help get the products out to market.
His Support sometimes leaves a lot to be desired.
But every one of his courses contains valuable content, Really valuable content.
Don't forget that many of his customers don't subscirbe to this great forum so they won't already be privy to a lot of the secrets of our mystic art.....LOL.
Howie is a damn good marketer.
You're right though when you talk about the ridiculous amount of 'gurus' & experts that have popped up. They're the result of networking & getting each others products out on JV lists. It's not a bad marketing model but doesn't last if the products are poor quality. Most i have recently purchased are VERY poor.
The amount of CB refunds i now request is embarrasingly high but i always give valuable feedback to the product owner. Some sadly never learn.

This is the main problem. So long as people buy into this accepted Guru dogma, then they'll continue to make money selling products which are about 90% bullshit.

Learn to accept almost anything a Guru sells you is toss. Read it as toss and then ask yourself: What have i seen, beyond the fluff and beyond the hypnotic psycho babble - about how I can do it to, that actually warrants me spending an extortionate sum of money to learn from someone who spent a lot of time selling me something, which makes them so much?

They're sales men. They play everyone. And everyone joins in. If you hear anything enough you believe it. Gurus love other gurus and talk about how great they all are. Most of the time it's doing nothing more than helping to perpetuate the lie.

It's only of late when i've really stripped back what i see in these courses, that I can see in the main, they are absolute rubbish. I'd say to anyone, save yourself the $x,xxx and watch the webinar trying to sell it and use that and nothing more.

Marketing's not hard, it's getting started that's hard and that's what most people buy. The hope that they've bought something that will finally set them on the road to success. It won't . More products breed more overload, breed less security and therefore exacerbate procrastination and the reason to stagnate. Stop buying into the bullshit. NOW!

Hmmm, Is the op telling the truth??? Or his he mad about Howie giving away secrets that the op has used to rank his clients? I hate to say this people but there are a lot of haters out here who don't want you to learn shit from this forum or any guru that exist in the IM world. Becareful what you read. Take a real good look at who the post is written by. what would benefit this op more Howie being right or Howie being wrong? Something to really think about...
Philgood
Proud member of the $10,000 a year Howies Ultimate Mastermind Group.
p.s. this membership paid for itself 3 times after the first half hour private consult...

__________________
Finally!!! 24/7 wholesale SEO services with real phone number & real people answering the phones...

A very interesting post. Herein lies the reason why there is a colossal failure rate in the IM industry as most people gravitate to the next glorious pitch, of a product or service that will give them the edge....and which leaves them just short...until the next pitch comes along, and then the next......several purchases later, and severely in debt, they just fade and die.

You can become jack of all trades and master of none.....

My advice would be to seek out a mentor who is, and has been practicing in his/her field for at least 5 years and can come up with a complete game plan for any newbie to follow.

What you'll find with most of the so called Guru's is that they don't have a sustainable model, it's flavor of the week and a bloody pitch fest all the time. Subscribe to any of their lists and see what I mean....today it's this new product , tomorrow, John Doe and co made 183K by using this method, the next it's the new traffic formula...it goes on and on.
ENOUGH PEOPLE!
follow a proven path with someone who has mastered and distinguished themselves in a specific field, and you won't go wrong.
Thank you grafxextreme for telling it like it is.
A word is enough for the wise.....
Onwards and Upwards.....

P.S.

Now we have Stompernet getting in on the offline consultancy action......

Great post... and he's still at it!

interesting post!