The story I’m about to tell you happened exactly 10 years ago.

I’d been out-of-Dilbert-Cube for 9 months. I had a fledgling consulting practice. I was paying my bills – and desperately trying to grow an info marketing business. Which was proving to be quite a bit more difficult than I’d ever anticipated.

Dan Kennedy was doing a free mastermind for Members Only in Cleveland Ohio. My friend Phil Alexander from Toronto and I both agreed to meet up there. He drove down from Canada and I made the 6-hour drive from Chicago.

The meeting was at a Denny’s in Macedonia. About 10 people showed up. Dan bought appetizers (fried mushrooms, as I recall), sat down in his cowboy boots and mustache and said, “OK, who’s got a question?”

I’d never been with Dan in person, so this was a new experience. I only knew him from his newsletter and a couple of products I had bought.

Somebody handed him a sales letter. He scanned it (which took about 5 seconds), turned to the next page, which took another 5 seconds, then began explaining to this guy why it wasn’t working.

Dang. He just spent 10 seconds looking at this and he already knows exactly what’s wrong.

And… in 10 seconds I’d just observed something you could never pick up on by reading a newsletter or an email: I’d witnessed the result of multiple “ten thousand hours” of expertise, honed to perfection.

Well that was only the beginning. I listened intently, eyes and ears wide open, as he went around the table for the next 2 hours, solving problems for people. And I realized there’s an entire level of conversation that happens sitting around a table (yes, even at a Denny’s in Cleveland Ohio) that never happens on a computer, book, MP3 or piece of paper.

Then he invited us to go to the racetrack with him. He said, “You can’t pepper me with marketing questions anymore, but if you want to watch the horses race, chitchat and have dinner, you’re welcome to come along.”

So for the rest of the evening I listened to the banter, stories and industry gossip, more stuff you would never ever get from a newsletter in a million years.

It was right then that I decided to go from $12.38 per month Silver newsletter subscriber to $500 per month coaching member. Which is also, coincidentally, when my marketing expertise began to grow exponentially. Upgrading to live mentoring from a real human being. Not virtual.

Up to that point, my skills had been perfectly adequate to make $85K per year doing marketing projects for boring industrial clients, but far short of what they needed to be for what I really wanted to do, the kinds of things I do now.

Fast forward 10 years.

Today (Friday June 22, 2012) I’m coaching Dan’s students. His highest level coaching group, Titanium, which is $27,000 per year, is under my watch. I’m running his summer meeting, solo. I’m about to head over to the hotel this morning.

His smartest guys have flown in from all over the world to be with me in a room, and get from me what you could never get from any email or newsletter.

Yesterday, one hour after lunch, Nigel Botterill, a very well known UK marketing expert who flew in from London, stood up and said, “I just paid for my whole membership and trip from what you just explained in the last 45 minutes. DANG!”

When I’m live and in person, I hold nothing back. If the emails are good, trust me – the live 2-day meeting is even better. Next week in London I’m offering a 3-day Intensive (not the usual 2-day!) and it’s WAAAY less than 27 grand. Only $7500 for full participants and $3000 for observers. It comes with 4 months of follow-up and a Bobsled Run. People who spend the dinero get armed for success, working with me personally.

You can’t buy a better seminar anywhere.

If you’re like I was 10 years ago – where your burners are up full blast but the water isn’t boiling – you need to superheat your marketing skills. Cuz when you hit full boil, amazing things happen.

Join me in London June 26-28 or Chicago August 2-3:

http://www.perrymarshall.com/london/

Or call Matt +1-704-389-0165.

Perry Marshall

About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.