Jason Fladlien: Making Money in Webinars

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:

Sales is a consciousness shift; you must sell yourself first before selling to anyone else. 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. 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