EE070 – Alan Berg

Tony Winyard 0:00
Exceeding expectations Episode 70. In today’s show for the first time we welcome back a guest for the second time elenberg, who was on the show in Episode 15, just over a year ago, comes back to share a lot more great tips and stories. And it’s not only is it the first time we’ve had someone for the second time, it’s also the first time we’ve gone over an hour is the longest episode yet but there is some some great information and stories and advice and so on. If you like today’s episode, please do share it with someone who you think will get some good use or get some benefit from it. And it’s not necessarily anyone in a way wedding industry. So Alan is a marketing specialist in the wedding industry. But as you all hear many of the comments and tips and advice he gives are really relevant to any industry. So anyone who really needs some help with their marketing could probably definitely learn from some of the tips that Allen shares in today’s episode, do leave a review for us on iTunes, and maybe subscribe to the show to hear some of the great episodes that you’re here. Like today’s episode with elenberg. exceed expectations, and I am here today for the second time the first time we’ve had a return visitor, Alan Burke, how are you? I am great, Tony, how are you? I’m very well. Thank you. And you, you were just telling me you’ve actually been in the same place for what four weeks? That must be a record of

Alan Berg 1:34
it. I think it is a record. I don’t think they definitely was not. Last year. I was in one place for that much time. And that place being home which is New Jersey, not old jersey, but New Jersey.

Tony Winyard 1:49
And for the people who may be wondering what we’re referring to because your schedule takes you all over the world and quite a frequent basis.

Alan Berg 1:57
Yes. So last year, I presented Did all I was away I shouldn’t say this too loud, my wife will hear hundred and 78 nights. I was in Australia twice I was in Mexico, Guatemala, Maui, Hawaii, London, Canada, and then all around the states. So I do sales training. I do private mastermind, smaller groups, which you’ve been a part of presenting at conferences consulting. So that just takes me around. I’ve actually presented in 14 countries on five continents and I’m possibly going to be in Kenya this year, which will give me my sixth continent 15 country I’m also going to be finalising for Paris and the Isle of roads. So exciting year.

Tony Winyard 2:49
And so of all of those events that you spoke out last year there any of them stand out for any particular reasons.

Alan Berg 2:57
Well, Maui was nice was actually sales training. That was a A venue that brought me in for two days. And I haven’t been there since my honeymoon. So my wife came with me. Australia was there in June was the first time I was ever there. So that was exciting. And people that saw me wanted me to come back for training. So I was back in September, I’d never been there at all. And then I was there twice, which I know it’s a long way from the UK. It’s a long way here. I have to fly to San Francisco. That’s six hours and then 15 hours down, not including the layover. So it was nice to be down there. London, I brought my wife It was her first time to London. So we were there for bride Luxe. That was always nice. And what stood out with that is it was a Halloween party because we were there for Halloween. And there was a full blown Custom Event. And my wife and I in all the years we’ve been married and dating before that we had never done like full on costume, like real costume. And my wife saw that in the invitation. She’s like, oh, we’re doing this. I was like really? We are because that’s not normally her thing to go out. Like you know out on a limb like that and I was like okay and we did we went full in checking on my social media to that definitely stood out that the fact that she was with me in Maui the fact that she was with me in London that that stood out for me because normally I’m there you know by myself I have friends all over now but it’s nice to be with her

Tony Winyard 4:20
which is let’s give a quick refresher for anyone who didn’t catch the the previous episode so so what is it you do and and a little bit about your background as well.

Alan Berg 4:30
I started in the wedding and event industry selling advertising and wedding magazines. My best friend bought two wedding magazine franchises wanted me to come and sell for him. Did that for five years. Actually, the beginnings of that is a funny story where I was not in the industry. I didn’t know anything about the industry. When I got married. I got married very young. And when I got married, they basically told me where to show up. And you know the guy on top of the cake. That was me, right so my wife was pregnant when I took the job. It was a Mission only sales job, no salary, no drive, no bonus. I had a company car before that I had to give back. My older sons turning three and my wife was pregnant. I’m the only breadwinner so of course it makes sense to go into a new industry and the commission only sales job. But But I had been in sales and I knew that I could sell so I did ad sales for five years and then we bought the magazines and I published two wedding magazines for five years. And the company then wanted me to come and work for them they were franchise organisation, and I did that we sold them back our franchises and a few months later, a company called the not bought it and at the time, people that may or may not be familiar familiar with the not calm. It was the largest that probably still is the largest wedding website in the world. And I ended up as a regional sales director and then eventually Vice President of Sales I was there for 11 years. So I was the main speaker speaking to wedding professionals about the business of weddings and teaching them how to have a better business, as well as doing internal sales training in addition to my duties as vice president Sales and running sales operations and things. I was there for 11 years. And in 2011, I left and started my own business. So what I do is i’m a speaker. I’m a business consultant. I do remote website reviews, which you and I have done. I do private sales training, I do small group training masterminds, which you’ve also done with me over there in the UK. And obviously speaking at conferences big and small, and then I’m an author, I just published my fifth book late last year. So I help wedding and event professionals have a better business, so that you get to do more of what you love. So whether it’s officiating or whether it’s being a DJ or a photographer, or a venue or trash shop, you have to have a good business, not just the technical and craft skills, you know, great photographers, great photographer, but a great photography business is a different set of skills. So my expertise is in that side of it is that I help people have the best business that they can, that they want to have. So they can do the craft and the creative part that they love to do. And it probably drew them into the business in the first place.

Tony Winyard 7:10
What would you say are the other any sort of common issues that all wedding suppliers face? As far as marketing is concerned?

Alan Berg 7:17
that’s a that’s a great question. I’ve presented in 14 countries. And when I started presenting internationally, I was a little concerned if my message was going to translate, not just physically the language of translation, but you know, does it apply and it would applies here. And the interesting thing with the states, you know, the US it’s a pretty big place. And my message when I would go from where I grew up in the New York, New Jersey area, down to Texas, or out to California or to the middle of the country, to Oklahoma or to Chicago or Kansas City, would the message translate there as well because you know, the way we sell in New York, is it does it work over there? And the answer is it does because here’s what I’ve realised There’s four steps to getting more sales, not just in the wedding and event industry, but in almost anything. The first step, you have to have someone’s attention. If you don’t have their attention, nothing’s going to happen if they don’t know you exist, nothing’s going to happen. You build yourself a beautiful office in the middle of a cornfield. Nobody knows it’s there, nothing’s going to happen. So that’s the first step and that’s advertising, marketing, social media, networking, referrals, etc. The second step is getting an inquiry. They after they you have their attention. If they like what they see, then then they inquire about your services. And now we have a chance to step three, have a conversation about those services. And then step four, the opportunity to ask for the sale that has translated to every country that I’ve been in. And I’ve had people say, Gee, I don’t know if that’s going to fly over here in the UK or in Ireland or in Dubai or in India or in Columbia, South America. And it has and it has my books are in English and vanish. And it has translated because the first step getting their attention, well that’s going to be different everywhere. It’s going to be different in the UK. So whereas here in the States wedding wire and the not the two biggest wedding websites over there now then you have, you know, guides for brides and you have hitched and you have places like that. So how you get their attention might be different, but the idea that you have to get their attention is the same and and then you need to get an inquiry that’s the same you need to have a conversation and that’s my fourth book, which called Why don’t they call me because they’re all making digital inquiries. Now. That message is translated beautifully all around the world about keeping the messages short and ending with one low commitment question, etc. And then asking for the sale. That was the interesting one. Because what what I as a growing up in New York City, right as a New Yorker might consider aggressive

or is different than what somebody in the UK might consider aggressive. And I remember when I first started speaking over there, I was actually speaking in Ireland. And people were like she I don’t know if I could do that. And it’s like, well, that’s not particularly aggressive. I didn’t think it was aggressive at all. As a matter of fact, I thought it was professionally assertive. Might be a nice way to put it. And then other people started trying it. They’re like, this is working great. I said, Yeah, that’s not aggressive. I said, I can show you aggressive and you want it you want me to put on my New York accent and, and go too aggressive, I can go there. But that doesn’t. I don’t think that works for you. It actually doesn’t even work for me. And I’ve sold rock and roll band and managed to retail store and sold cars and general contracting and burglar alarms and all kinds of things and I’ve been able to do that without being aggressive. I’ve been able to do that with being professional and assertive. And an assertive means. I believe that I can do what you need and provide you the results that you want. And if I believe that That and I want to do business with you. In other words, you’re nice people and I want to help you have fill in the blank, a great wedding, great ceremony, great music, whatever, then I should be asking for the sale, because otherwise I don’t get to do it. So that’s not aggressive, or aggressive is is coming on too strong trying to sell someone before you know it’s a good fit before you know that you’ve made a relationship before you, you feel comfortable that you’re gonna be able to give them the results they want. So it’s been really interesting how the message has translated so well everywhere. And weddings are different. But let’s face it in a weddings in London are different than weddings in the north, right. And the weddings are different in South America than they are in India than they are in Australia than they are in Dubai or in Barbados, and all these places I’ve presented and yet, they’re able to sell the same way, which is make it your own. But go through those same steps and bring people to Long so you can have better conversion better conversations and ask for the sale and asking for the sale is not being aggressive. It’s being helpful. I actually tell people, I don’t want you to sell anything. I want you to help people by the results of what you do. Not what you do. The result of what you do. They don’t want what you do they need what you do. Right when they hire you, as a celebrant, they need celebrate. But why do they need Tony? That’s different, right? And the result of what you’re going to give them are different than the result of the next celebrate. And when they want those results. They have to hire Tony. Oh, and by the way, they have to pay your price.

Tony Winyard 12:36
That’s what I teach. So I would you say I mean, we just touched upon obviously marketing and you’ve been doing marketing since since Adam was around.

Alan Berg 12:45
My oldest son’s name is you’re right. But how

Tony Winyard 12:50
Has marketing changed? I mean, you know, with the so many new platforms now you know, with social media and so on, how would you say marketing has really changed things for People in business.

Alan Berg 13:02
Well, that’s the first step is getting people’s attention. When I started in the industry, wedding shows, wedding fairs was the big thing. So we had wedding fairs, we had newspapers, we had billboards, radio ads, that was the way you got their attention. Well, you think about the radio. All right, when when you and I were were much younger, I’m not going to get into how much younger but when we were much younger, how many choices realistically how many choices of radio station did we have? Yeah. Right. If you wanted classic rock, there was the classic rock station and if you wanted disco, if that was your error, or if you wanted, you know, grunge or whatever it was, there was this station. And you and all of your friends who like that genre will listening to that. Just like TV shows, you know you you turned on the TV and you watch the show and went to school the next day and all of your friends watch the same show. Now I talked to people and they’re like, they’re talking about shows. I’m like, what, when is that on? What channel was that? We only have 800 channels, which one is that on? Right? So we’ve just diluted all of this attention by putting it into all these different places. So what you need to do is, you need to know where your target audience is looking for someone like you. Not where are they spending their time? Because that’s part of it. But where are they looking for people like you. So what I, you know, teach my clients when I do consulting and do speaking, I’m very happy if someone goes to Google and types in that I want a wedding business consultant or wedding business speaker or a sales wedding sales trainer or something like that. But I don’t imagine that that happens very often. And I really don’t want someone looking for someone like me. I would rather they will looking for me. So by putting myself out into places like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, I’m putting myself in front of people where they already are spending time and spending time in these groups, let’s say on Facebook, talking about business topics. And then someone is able to be exposed to me as the subject matter expert on that. Or they see me speak at a conference or they great story is a guy on in Romania who owns a venue and he’s a celebrant found one of my books which is called shut up and sell more weddings and events on Kindle through Amazon. And he read the book and in the book, it says if you you know, want Alan to help you with consulting or whatever, you can reach out so he reaches out to me and he said, I just finished your book. I really enjoyed it. Do you do in a remote consultations with people in Romania? I said Well, I don’t speak Romanian. So if it if we can do that in English, absolutely. I’ve done this with people around the world. So we did we had a two hour consultation again You and I have had a similar consultation. And then after that, about a month or two later, I was going to be speaking in Dublin, Ireland and he flew over to Dublin and came to actually, it’s funny that with two different events two days in a row, and he bought tickets for both, and he brought somebody with him and they did today’s events with us over there, because he found my book on Kindle. So the first thing getting attention, the book says shut up and sell more weddings and events he went looking for maybe I don’t know, a wedding sales book or whatever, he didn’t know me. And he found it That was great. And that turned into business which was wonderful. But the best business for me is when somebody says Alan, I want you to come here and do this. Not I want someone I want you to come here and do this right. Just like I want Tony to be my celebrant. I want you know Alan Marshall to be my DJ, I want to have my wedding at you know, the hotel cafe royal right. That’s, that’s much better than I need someone who does something like what you do.

Tony Winyard 16:52
What would you say? I mean, you touched upon avatar just then. And it seems to me that I think one of the biggest These problems not just Well, your wedding supplies but all businesses have is trying to do trying to determine what their avatar is and what niche market they should be going for. And a lot of people don’t understand why they should be nation.

Alan Berg 17:16
Exactly. It’s funny in the speaking world, we have exactly the same thing, then, which is my business parallels the business of wedding professional so much, you know, I’m selling a service, not necessarily a product, although I do have products in my books and things. But I can only be in one place at one time, right? You can only do one ceremony at one time. And DJ can only be in one at one event at one time. So it’s very similar. And in the speaking world, people say when they’re thinking about niching, they often refer them to me they say Allen’s Nisha is an inch wide and a mile deep. And what did choosing this niche do for me because my topic translates outside of the wedding world. I could be teaching plumbers or electricians or dog walkers, how to have a better business. Same four steps, right? Same exact four steps, get their attention, get the inquiry, have a conversation, make a sale. By choosing the industry, I lift my subject matter expertise. And instead of being seen as a generalist, I’m seeing as a specialist. So when people think about, well, I need someone to help me, you know, learn how to sell better. There’s a lot of people that can do that. But how many people can do that as an expert in the business of weddings and events? How many people speak the language and I’ve seen this and you’ve probably seen this as well. Someone is brought in to speak at a wedding professional conference, but they’re from outside the industry, and their languages about whatever that topic is, but they’re not connecting it the same way that I do. When again, you’ve seen me so when I’m connecting to the specifics of what you do, connecting and using your language began, then people like wow, this guy really gets it. The worst thing Example was I was in Dubai and the guy that was speaking before me, was a social media expert. And he’d been in the, in Dubai for about 10 years. And he’s an expert on social media. And he was it was a Brit or an Aussie, but he was a young guy, good looking guy look like a male model and, and I’m, like, great, I got to follow this guy, and he gets on stage. And he says, You know, I really don’t know the wedding industry but and then goes into his topic. I’m like, Oh, my gosh, nobody’s listening now. nobody’s listening to you. They want the expert. And I don’t want someone to take pictures for my wedding. I want a wedding photographer, because a wedding photographer knows where to be looking, knows what’s going to happen can anticipate those things. Whereas a talented photographer knows how to take pictures, and might take some beautiful pictures, but it’s going to miss a lot of things because they don’t know what’s going to happen. They can anticipate what’s going to happen. And you know, you remember your days DJing St. You know, a great DJ great Club DJ doesn’t necessarily make a great wedding DJ. And I don’t care how well you can mix songs together if you can’t coordinate with the caterer and the photographer and the videographer and and all the events are going on and the announcements and and keep the dance floor going with this group from five year olds to 95 year old right that’s a different thing than going into a club where everybody’s in their you know, in their 20s and early 30s. And you know, there for a whole different reason.

Tony Winyard 20:29
Can you think of any examples where someone has really been struggling with maybe not understanding why they should nation you’ve helped them and it’s transformed their their business?

Alan Berg 20:41
Yeah, I tell people it’s really hard to be good at everything and to promote everything. When someone comes in and they look at your website, which is going to be one of the first stops after they found out about you right got their attention. They go to your website and they don’t want to see someone that does a lot of things. They see, you know, they want to see what you can do. So here’s a somewhat extreme example, but a pretty, pretty good example I was in, in the states in Omaha, Nebraska. I’m speaking at an event and a woman came up to me and she said, she does white dove releases at the church, the beautiful thing, right beautiful thing. And she said she does them for weddings, and funerals. And I said, Please tell me you have separate websites from weddings and funerals. And she did. She did. I said, Yeah, because someone coming in for a funeral doesn’t necessarily mind that they would do it for weddings. But if you’re coming in for a wedding, you really want to know that they do this for funerals. Is that what you want to be thinking? I don’t think so. Another person was a cake Baker. And she said, I have a bakery, storefront bakery and we do wedding cakes. Do you think I should have a separate website for wedding cakes? Now that’s not a stretch right there. She’s got a wedding. She’s got Cake, sorry, a bakery website. And she does cakes and breads and cookies and whatever. And she’s got a retail bakery. And I said, I would, if I was you, I would have on my retail bakery site, I would have that we do wedding cakes. But I would have a separate site for cakes. And that’s what I would advertise. That’s what I wrote for wedding cakes. I saw her the next year. And by June of the next year, so not even six months in, she had already done 50% more wedding cake business than the whole prior year. Because somebody coming in was not distracted by bread and cookies and other things. They were there for a wedding cake, they saw wedding cakes, that’s it, reduce the distraction, we have such short attention span, that anything that’s going to distract is going to be a problem. And decision paralysis is when there’s too many choices, and you can’t decide because there’s too many choices. So those are a couple of examples of that in my own business. It’s pairing off Have you read a book called the pumpkin plan? Did you read that one? Tony? Yeah, that’s the guy that did Mike mccalla with the Private First, right? Yeah. So in my own business, I’ve trimmed off services that I’m good at, I just don’t really want to do, maybe I don’t enjoy them as much. Maybe they take up too much time, or they’re not as profitable. But for whatever reason, I’ve trimmed off, which lets me focus on the things I want to do. And last year, we had another record year by offering less services. But being really, really focused on this is who we are, this is what we do. And when someone who thinks about x, I want them to think about me, and not Oh, they do all of those things. So it’s that narrowing that focus that that helps with the niche. And then you can speak that language and do those things. I have to tell you, I pay zero attention to search engine optimization on my own website. In terms of trying to trick SEO. What I do is I write to my audience, about the things that interests them. how I can help and how they can be helped with this content. And that is organic SEO. I’m not trying to fool the search engine. I’m just literally writing and I know you get my articles. I just write an article every month about something that was a conversation I had with someone in the industry about something. And something sparked that thing. And I’m like, Well, you know, this might be interesting to other people. And I write an article. Well, that brings people into my site, which that exposes of the other things that I could do for them.

Tony Winyard 24:29
And so can have that. And one other thing that you mentioned earlier, when you were describing some of the things that you do masterminds. And I know, you’ve been doing this for quite a while, and as you mentioned, I attended one of your masterminds. So just before we sort of go into that, for anyone who’s listening is maybe not so sure what a mastermind group is, you want to explain that?

Alan Berg 24:48
Sure. A mastermind actually started organically where someone in Florida in Miami, Florida, the caterer as about six years ago, maybe maybe seven and she asked me about Coming to do sales training, private sales training. And we spoke about it and she got excited. And I gave her the price. And you could hear the record scratch and how much and she contacted me back and she said, You know, I have a friend who’s a photographer and a friend has got a venue and a friend was a planner and a friend who’s a florist. Could we just, you know, have you come and spend the day with the five of us? and was like, well, that’s a great idea. I never thought of that, you know, I only thought about someone hiring me for training, right? And so I did it. And then I just thought about it and was like, well, other people could benefit from this too. So when someone would contact me about training, I would go back to them and I would say, this is what it is. And if they said, Gee, that’s more than I could afford. I said, Well, what if you invited some friends? And that’s what a mastermind is. So there’s no presentations, no slides? No Alan standing in front of the room, I’m sitting, depending on the size of it, the one that we did was, you know, 10 DJs and me so we sat around a boardroom table. Most of them are a little bit bigger. So we get in Kind of a U shaped projector screen or a big TV at the end of the open end. And I’m sitting at the bottom of the middle of the you just conducting a conversation between everyone there through those four steps. So the idea of get their attention, get the inquiry, have a conversation, make the sale, and then diving into each of those steps. But each one of them is different. And it’s funny because some people are very, maybe left brain and they want to know, so we know what’s the agenda. So what’s the agenda is we’re going to go through those four steps. Well, my website person wants to come we’re going to talk about websites, what time will that be? Like? I don’t know. I just don’t, we’re going to do it. And sometimes we do it in the morning. And sometimes we do with the last thing in the afternoon. I just don’t know what time it’s going to be. But I’ll tell you, we’re going to do it. And so a mastermind is like having me do a private day of training except you get a couple of benefits. One you save on cost because you have other people doing it with you. And the other is the collaborative nature where people start talking to each other Not just in breaks and at lunch, but in the conversation where I’ll say, Okay, so, you know, tell me, you know, what are you doing in social media and somebody to do this, and somebody else will say, hey, well, I’m doing this. And then that conversation goes, and I’m not talking at all. And they’re helping each other. And you experienced that in yours, right? You know, some you’re talking to each other, and sharing and that’s what it is. It’s very collaborative type of thing. So that’s what a mastermind is.

Tony Winyard 27:27
And what do I mean guessing this and people who’ve, maybe were unsure whether they wanted to go to one of your mastermind meetings, and we’re just in the employment of why I imagine it probably happens at every one of them. But can you can you think of an example where someone wasn’t really sure, and then they got so much more than expensive.

Alan Berg 27:45
It’s every time because people don’t know what to expect. So I’ll give you a great one was in Kansas City, Missouri, so not to smaller town but a town in the central part of the US and a woman who does have And makeup services. And we talked about the concept of packages. And she goes on I hear you, but everybody gets hair and makeup. That’s it. That’s her services, hair and makeup. She goes, so how do I package it? Everybody’s getting all those services. I said, Well, you’re thinking packages in terms of I’m going to put these products or services together to make a package. A package can be a lot of different things. I said, Why don’t you package the number of people that will do your hair and makeup service instead of the services since they’re all getting them anyway. So go back and look at the weddings that you did and look at how many people they’ve had you do because you need to increase the number of people per wedding since they’re all getting that service anyway hair and makeup. You need to increase the number of the average number of people that are doing it because once your stylist is there, well she can do one more person, she can do two more people. So she thought about it took it to heart and the prior year in January, she had done $4,500 in sales, the that we did this in December, right? So that prior January, she had done 40 $500 in sales. We did this in December, she came up with her ideas. And then that January A month later, she did $14,500 in sales. Wow. So she tripled the number, the amount of business she did January to January by thinking differently and thinking in terms of packaging. So that’s probably you know, the first example that comes to mind about somebody who’s like, whoa, wait, this, okay, I need to think about this differently. And she did. And the key Tony is, it’s not taking notes. The key is doing something and thinking, well, what’s the worst that could happen? what’s the what’s the worst that happens if if this doesn’t work? Well, I can go back to selling the way I was selling or I can you know, just say that we offer it this way down instead. What’s up what’s the worst that’s gonna happen? Is that right there’s there’s no nobody’s watching In parallel, so we need to try new things. New expression I like to live by is try to make your own business obsolete before somebody does it for you.

Tony Winyard 30:12
You’re I mean, you do mastermind meetings for, you know, sometimes I know two people from one profession as it was, you know, when you did it for the group of Dee Jones, or and often it’s for all people from various elements of the wedding industry.

Alan Berg 30:28
Actually, they are most of them are actually a mixed group, the DJ is only or something like that is a little bit the less common. That said, I’m coming in March for the pro mobile conference and I’m doing one for DJs only on 31st March, and then on 25th March, I actually have two venues, we’re looking for a third venue to join us and that would be a venue only one up in Leicester. Just venues, most of the other groups that I do like What I’m doing next week in Pennsylvania here is a mixed group, I’ve started to try to put together a few more of the single category I did for the Canadian professional DJ Association. In November, I did 10, DJs, up in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. And I’m doing a couple of venue only ones here. But those are instead of having eight or 10 businesses, we’re having three or four. So because with venues, they might want to bring a few more people or whatever, we don’t want to make it too large and focus it. So I’m starting to mix those up. And that’s responding to my audience that’s adapting, and that’s part of the making my own business obsolete. Well, the mastermind is this, but why can’t it be that? Well, it can be and the worst that happens is nobody signs up. The best that happens. We sell it out and have to do another one, which I did in South Carolina. They had me coming December 4. And so many people wanted to do it. They said when can you do two days in a row, two different groups. And we had 10 businesses the first and 10 businesses the second different People and I did two in a row. So that’s the the best case scenario but my I have a little sign on my desk is actually kind of looks like a coaster for a drink, but it’s a four inch square sign it says if you don’t ask, the answer is always No. And I hand those out to my, my clients, so they can keep them on their desks.

Tony Winyard 32:22
I would imagine knowing both certainly today Jason is probably the same for for being a photographer’s employee, someone ever. But many, the job would be thinking I don’t want to go to a mastermind group of other day Jason Sherry, and they’re gonna have all my secrets. Right? And what would you What would you say to that?

Alan Berg 32:41
actually had that happen for the Canadian one, it was funny. These people all know each other already. They are all part of the Canadian professional DJ Association. And this one company messaged me when I sent out the prep work and saying here, you should do this to get ready for it and print these things out and bring these things he he mailed me so I don’t know if I feel comfortable sharing, you know, with with the other DJs in the room, I said, well, you don’t have to share if you don’t want to, but just understand that, you know, that’s what this is about is learning from each other, not just learning from me. And what was funny is he came to the event, and you know, kept himself a little guarded in the beginning and then he was sharing just as much as everybody else. Because giving and getting you know, it’s the, the scarcity mentality or the generous mentality. I’m remember the National Speakers Association, and there’s the professional speakers of the UK as well. And the guy that founded National Speakers in the US, man kavett, Robert, he said, We’re not trying to get a bigger piece of the pie. We’re trying to create a bigger pie for everyone. And if you have the mentality of that my giving is going to bring me more as opposed to my keeping this close to the vest is going to make me more. To me, it’s always worked. Whenever somebody approaches me with an idea that’s going to make me a lot of money. I’m not interested if they were Me pro I’m sorry pro tree with an idea that will make you a lot of money and I think it’s a good idea then I’m interested because I will profit from that. But I will not that’s not my motivation. Last year it was my record year high watermark I mean, incredible year and it was all about focusing on how many more people can I help how many more businesses can I help how many more people can I see succeeding and growing and, and expanding and raising the rates and doing other things and the less I focused on my money, the more it came? And that’s just that’s been the way it’s been.

Tony Winyard 34:37
And the thing about a mastermind meeting is now everyone comes to the table with completely different issues they’re having problems with right and and and so john smith starts talking about his issue and it wasn’t something you you would have ever thought to bring up You think I’m having that same issue and and suddenly, not only do you cover your own issue, but you you hear all sorts of things. that affect your business?

Alan Berg 35:01
Oh, absolutely. And that, to me is the best part when that that conversation starts going back and forth, you know, the thought ahead of time is, well, you’re going to tell us all the same thing. So we’re going to end the ball looking like clones. Like No, because you’re all going to apply it your own way. You’re going to word your emails your own way. Every once in a while somebody will message me. I had a guy recently. He’s a DJ, and he’s got a friend of his photographer. And he said, Alan, I’ve seen you speak, and I’ve read your books. And I’m doing everything you said, and I just don’t think it’s working. And I said, Well, you know, send me the email response. Someone goes to your website fills out your contact form. What What do you send them? And he sends me what he’s sending. And I’m like, that’s not what I said. That’s not nothing like what I said. Meanwhile, he’s interpreting what he wanted. Now, he was interpreting it. In my case, in my opinion, poorly, obviously, it wasn’t working for him. But I’ve seen other people doing some things that I saved. Some things that they still want to do, and it’s working for them. And that’s fine. But you’re not going to be clones because you’re not going to word everything. I mean, if you copy what I wrote in my book, or what I said, and you do it exactly that way, word for word, yeah, you’re gonna look like clones. But that’s not what I tell people. I said, you want to take this and then make it your own. Put your own voice on it. But the concept of make it fit on one screen of a smartphone or the concept of ending with a low commitment question, just one low commitment question at the end, or understand that that people scan they don’t read. So no big blocks of text, or not using attachments or not having links, those concepts I want you to use, how you apply, it will be different than the person sitting next to you. You know what they say that we remember 40% of what we hear and 60% of what we read. And so you’re going to hear the things you need to hear. So it’s like with books, you know, we’re talking about books before we got on here. I listen to audiobooks and I sometimes have to listen to a book a second time. Because you don’t remember everything. And the second time you’re like, Well, did I either not hear that? Or did I not need it? When I heard it, and that’s the thing, you know, you’re somebody comes to a mastermind and they have a problem. They’re getting ghosted on their emails or the website isn’t converting or their social media is a waste of their time or whatever. They’re going to hear other stuff, but they’re going to focus on those things, whereas the person next to them has a different need. So they’ll hear in the same room, same speaker, same words, they’ll hear something else because it’s what they needed.

Tony Winyard 37:35
Do you know have when you’ve done all these, you know, mastermind meetings all around the world that you’re doing on a regular basis, do any of those groups that you’ve done a meeting for then form a regular mastermind group?

Alan Berg 37:47
I don’t know about that. Some of the groups actually have a networking group, and then have me come into the mastermind for the networking group. So they’ve already had that. But in terms of a traditional mastermind, None of told me I can’t say it hasn’t happened. But none have told me that they’ve then gone on to do that. I do encourage them that the fact that we did get together and the fact that we are sharing and if they are not doing that, they’re doing more of that it’s just going to help you know, I, I’m on an email group with a bunch of certified speaking professional so the CSP after my name and my that’s my title, certified speaking, professional global speaking fellow. We have an email group, there’s about 800 csps in the world is 36 Global speaking fellows in the world, and someone will put out a question. And then, you know, some of us would just go in there and answer it. And I was answering one the other day about self publishing and how I’ve done it and audio books and things like that. And I said, Listen, I want to get on the call, let’s get on a call. And I don’t look at it as competitive. You know, they might they speak to a different audience there. I don’t have a lot of competitors in terms of professional speakers in the wedding and event industry. There are people who speak and there are professional speakers, but there aren’t many Do this in this niche. Again, we talked about the nation there. So I don’t look at competitors. If you can’t tell the difference between that person and me, then whoever is cheaper is going to win. And I don’t want to hire me because I’m cheaper. No, I want you hiring me. Because you want me and I’m more expensive. actually had somebody say that to me, Alan, you’re your most expensive speaker. And you’re the easiest to do business with. I said, Good. Because if I was the most expensive and the hardest to do business with, we wouldn’t be doing business.

Tony Winyard 39:28
today. You mentioned before you sign about there was a PA venue was only 716 millions a month.

Alan Berg 39:37
Yeah, so I had this venue that’s not too far from me. I live in New Jersey and cross the border is in Pennsylvania. And she has a venue she actually started as a dance studio. And she took this building on for her dance studio. And it wasn’t being used for a lot of the time. She’s not made it into a wedding venue. So that’s a few years ago, and she brought me in and it’s funny because people think because someone’s going to bring me in for a day of training. It’s going to be with a big group on we’re going to have 50 people there and, and this was the owner and what will be two other people maybe for the day, just the three of us sitting around. And we talked about the way she sells and she sells differently than other people. In the States, it’s very common for someone in a venue to sell what’s called plus plus so there’s the price of the venue and then plus tax plus service charge and the service charge being staffing and things like that. Or if you ask different venues you get different answers on what that is. And when she quotes her price, she’s quoting a price all inclusive. So with the service charge with the tax, this is the bottom line, this is what you’re going to pay she made it very easy. She had a very very inclusive package included the DJ included some flowers included a cake included the cord, all kinds of things there were upsells but easy to sell is easy to buy or reverse easy to buy is easy to sell. And we talked about it and screen Line some things and talk about upselling. Well, she wrote me, that was June of last year, June of 2018. In early 2019, she wrote me an email, like we have not been in contact. She just wrote me an email. She said, Alan, I just want to let you know that since you were in we had a goal of selling 16 weddings a month. And we’ve had that every month since you’ve been here. Wow. So now, Could she sell 20 weddings a month, maybe. But she set a goal of 16 which was for her a lofty number, and she’s hitting it every month. So for me, that’s my return on investment. That’s my payoff. If I go somewhere, and I’ve had this happen, not that often, but I’ve had this happen where someone really isn’t looking for new ideas. They’re looking for me to tell them how great they are. And they bring me in and they pay me and I’m like, actually had this on a website review. I want to call with this photographer. And he’s fighting me on like everything I’m suggesting to him. And we’re about 15 minutes. I said, you know, if you’re really not looking for new ideas, then why don’t we just end the call and we’ll refund your money. And we can just save some time here. And he backed off. So I’m I said, No, no, seriously, I said, if you’re not going to be open to what I’m suggesting, because you came to me because things aren’t working the way you want, if you’re not going to be open to what I’m suggesting, then let’s not waste either of our time, and just give you your money back. And that’s it. And he backed off. He fought me a little bit later. And then after I get an email from him apologise, and he said, No, I came to you because I wanted your ideas because I value your opinion. I said, I get it. Change is hard. But you came to me because you thought you need to change. I’m suggesting things that are different. You know, and everybody needs something different. I had a planner. So out in New York, there’s a place called Long Island, many people might have heard of Long Island. The very western edge of New York Long Island is part of New York City, Queens in Brooklyn. I grew up in Queens and then the very Eastern tip is the Hamptons, which is a very fancy and Montauk, it’s where people with a lot of money from New York come out there and spend millions on their houses and they vacation in the summertime at all. And this planner contacted me, she’s been in the business 20 years. And she felt burnt out. She’s like, I don’t know if I should give it up. Or keep going, I don’t know, but I need your help. So we talked through and talk to you know, and she and she still loved that she still loved it, but there’s a new competitor every week. I think everybody can relate to that. And she was just feeling burnt out. So we talked through it found out what it is that she loved. And and and had to, you know, give her a spark. And one of the things that she said to me was, remember, she’s dealing with these very wealthy New Yorkers, and for a planner, who if you go to a planner like her and you say, you know, our wedding, so come up with a budget per person, and that per person budget will cover the venue, the food, the music, the flowers, the whatever, okay, as opposed saying this is how much for the food this image, like this is the cost. And she goes, you know I’m doing weddings they typically 300 people or more. And if they don’t have at least I don’t know 1500 dollars a person or more to spend I don’t know if I can help them $450,000 is like the minimum and maybe I can help them it’s a good thing she couldn’t see my face. She said that it goes like this like that.

But all it is is just more zeros, right? What’s the difference between that and $45,000 wedding is just zero. It’s just a different customers is zero and the customers got 4500 to spend just another zero taken off and it’s just a different group of vendors or not. And maybe in that case, that are going to be able to help them. So at the end of the call, you could feel her energy you could feel it had gone up and then she had followed up with me after and she wrote me a wonderful testimonial and she just it was like I you know, I plugged her in and recharged her and that was satisfying for me because was a different type of a call. It was a very often I feel like the psychologist you know, I have You know, talk her off the ledge or something. And in this case, she’s like, should I just give it up? had another one recently. He’s a wedding celebrant in Washington, DC area and the same thing. He’s like, I’m thinking about giving it up. I’m like giving it up. This guy loves it. He loves what he does. I can’t imagine him wanting to give it up. And we started talking about and he had a couple of some difficult clients. And I said, How many weddings did you do last year? He said, 37. I said, how many of those would you do you wish that you just hadn’t done? Like which customers? How many customers? Would you bit like I would have fired them if I would have known. He goes 1211 What do you mean one? out of 37? You’re going to give it up because you had one difficult customer. And what it came down to is, it wasn’t that it was he loves doing the weddings. He hates doing the paperwork. I said, why are you doing it? He said What do you mean? I said why don’t you get like a virtual assistant and somebody that can follow up with your clients and get the paperwork you need and collect all the things you need and do all those things. And, you know, you’ll have the sales meetings and you’ll create the ceremonies and all but you don’t have to do that stuff. He’s like, I never thought of that. I said, right. And then the other thing, we talked about pricing, he hadn’t raised his prices in the seven years that we had been working together. I said, you’re just not charging enough? I mean, I asked him a question. I’ll say the same thing to you and everybody listening. You want to play this game with yourself and say, Well, how many of your customers who said yes, would have said yes to a higher price? So in his case, he was charging $600 and I said, for the last seven years, he had been charging $600. I said, Well, how many of your customers would have paid 650? He said, all of them, said how many would have paid 700 he said, probably all I said 750 because most of them, I said and the one is It would have said no. Are you getting enough inquiries for the same dates that you would have had somebody else who would have said yes to the 750? He said, Yeah, probably. I said, Okay, so you need to pay the virtual assistant. So that’s going to cost you something there. I said, All right. Your rate as of right now is 800. And now you can pay the virtual assistant and you’re making more money and your customers are still saying yes, and everybody’s happy. And he raised his rate. And the next day, he met with two couples he had not spoken to before. And he told them 800 and they both said, Yes.

Tony Winyard 47:35
And with the VA, he’s also now offering a more professional service. He looks like he’s a bigger organisation and you’re a one man band,

Alan Berg 47:42
right? And the advantage really the big advantage is the part that he doesn’t love. He’s offload it to somebody else. And the part that he does love he gets to do but what he’s telling me he’s ready to pack it in. I’m thinking gosh, that he have you know, 20 horrible couples last year, no one but it to the other side. I remember speaker friend telling me that we’re sitting at a speaker conference. We’re all sitting around in the lounge and maybe having a drink or whatever. And he goes, I hate my job. And this guy’s phenomenal at what he does. He’s a former fighter pilot for the US Air Force. Well, it’s like you hate your job. He goes, don’t get me wrong. I love speaking. He goes, I love speaking. I love being onstage. I love it. I hate my job. My job is all the other stuff. Right? It’s like you being there for someone ceremony or a photographer, you know, being there at somebody’s wedding. That’s, that’s not the job. You know, that’s the passion. The job is doing all that other stuff. You know, all that other paperwork stuff and the accounting and the managing team and payroll and all and all these other things. That’s the job.

Tony Winyard 48:47
And yeah, that’s something I talk about in a myth. He goes into great.

Alan Berg 48:52
Yeah, that’s when something Yeah, on a motorbike at you, but emeth revisited was one I did.

Tony Winyard 48:58
Yeah. excellent book. There’s so many different avenues that I want to explore. But there’s something you touched upon a few minutes ago, were you talking about the photographer who was very resistant to change and knowing PR from the workshops that I deliver? And and the talks that I do? I mean, I think that’s probably the biggest fear most people have is they may be great at thinking of ideas, but actually putting them into action and actually making that change is difficult for most people.

Alan Berg 49:27
Yeah, it’s the question is, why do they think they need to change? Was it an internal and external force? It would be akin to telling someone that they should quit smoking, okay. You can tell someone and they can think well, that’s probably a good idea. But if they don’t own it, it’s not going to happen. Telling someone to lose weight. So same thing, it’s not going to happen. The thing and I’ve written about this, my second book, your attitude for success. I wrote about these things. You know, I don’t have the time and all the different excuses and things. And the thing is we have all the time for all the things we prioritise. We just have to change our priorities. So if your priority is doing something different than what you’re doing, the question is, are you going to do it? So the story I tell in the book was my first speakers conference, I joined the National Speakers Association. It was 2007. I go to this conference, and it’s drinking from a firehose, I mean, it’s just it’s so much information, three days and just crazy. And I’m taking notes and taking notes and taking notes and taking that. And at the end of the conference, the very last thing before we left, the president of the association spoke to us and he said, Now people that were there, were not all new, like me. There were people who have been members for years and stuff. So But, so, we’re sitting there and he goes, you’ve taken notes. Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to make a list of all All of the good ideas that you heard. And then I want you to take that list and I want you to put it in the order that you think it’ll have the biggest impact for your business. Just put it in the order top to bottom, I want you to then keep the top three things, and then get rid of the list. physically get rid of the list, because you will be debilitated, looking at 30 things and you’ll dilute your time to 30 things and nothing’s going to get done. And and I equated to when I used to have a dry erase board in my office with all of these ideas all over it was just filled with ideas and no room to put anything else on there. And when you would do something, you’d cross it off, and you take a step back, you want to puff your chest out and pride I finished that. And you look at the rest of that board and go crap, look at all that stuff. And you don’t feel accomplished at all. So by taking that to heart and saying okay, I’m never going to have more than the three big picture things. on my list, which are not three things, because you’re going to break those down into pieces, right? Like, making a new website is not one thing, you have to get the photos, get the text, and you have to go through all the different steps, right? There’s a lot of steps in there. So three big things on my list. And then I’m not going to add anything to the list until I do those three things.

Then I’m going to make a new list. And the key was what he told us is, do those things. And then when you’re done, make a new list because numbers for through whatever 3100, whatever was on the list, may not be important anymore. Because you’re not where you were, when you made the list. You made the list and you were someplace as soon as you do something different, right? As soon as you do another wedding. As soon as you make that new website as soon as you write that book as soon as you take that holiday to Morocco, or whatever you’ve changed as a person. And now make a list of what’s important today. And that’s been really eye opening for Me and I’ve been living that since 2007. Because what I thought was important, just isn’t important anymore. So I always have three big things on my list and I call it the difference between the today list and the to do list that today list is answer emails and you know, water supplies and do those things. The To Do list is the big picture of things such as publishing my latest book, which I did, doing that book and audio, which I did getting that book out in Spanish, which that’s actually the part that I’m working on now. So it’s been translated. It’s been edited on the translation, and now we’re formatting that and then when I get that out, a big picture thing that’s going on that on the list is going to be doing one of my audio books in Spanish. That’s like me narrating it in Spanish. That’s a big picture thing. It’s a personal goal. It’s not a money making goal. I am not going to make enough money from selling books in Spanish to audiobooks in Spanish in my voice to justify the time it’s gonna take me to do it. But that’s not the point. Right? We don’t, we don’t do everything that we do for money we do for for growth, we do it for personal satisfaction. And, you know, so those are, that’s my big picture thing. So when that list is done, I already have an idea what’s on the next list. So one of the audiobooks in Spanish. I’m be writing my six books already know what it’s going to be called and know what it’s going to be about. Right? So I already good at thinking, what are the next three things but I’m not going to start on those until I finished the three that were on there. And I’m just about done with that.

Tony Winyard 54:34
And something that comes to mind when you mentioned about those three things. I think something that far too many people are guilty of is they have all these things that they want to do and then they do one and then they go straight on to the next and the next. And don’t really stop and celebrate actually getting that thing done, which was a big thing as you celebrate it and you know, Wow, I’ve done this and then move on to the next one.

Alan Berg 54:57
Right And the thing is, what’s the satisfaction You know, so when I started doing audiobooks, it was because when the 20th person asked me if my book was on audio, I was like, I should probably do this. And I looked into it and it was going to be go to somebody’s studio and spend the week in their studio and I’m never going to sell enough books to make that pay at least that was my mindset at the time. Like who’s gonna who wants my book and audio right that’s what I’m thinking I’m you know, who wants my book and audio. And so I ended up doing it long story short, I ended up doing it here, you know, in a home studio. And that’s a whole nother story about what my studio is and making all the mistakes All right, I recorded it in the wrong format in the wrong bit rate, not leaving enough room at the front in the back and all these things and I’m having it fixed. fifth book out, I can do this very, very seamlessly and get get it done. So I know what I didn’t know back then. Well, I looked the other day and my I have five books out on audio. One of them is just newly out. are five books on audio, shut up and sell more weddings and events, which has been my most popular paperback book. It’s been out two years longer than Why don’t they call me. So I think that one’s going to rival it at some point. But it had a two year Head Start. And I was looking the other day, and we’ve sold over 1000 copies on Audible, have just shut up and sell more weddings and events. And that blew my mind. And I took a step back. Now, let me just say this. Audible keeps a very large percentage, and they set the price based upon how long the book is. And the book is only three and a half hours long. So you know, Tony, you know price of books. My books are cheap when it comes on audio, and then they’re keeping 60 or 70% of whatever so we’re not going on holiday from those thousand of those thousand books. But the point is stepping back and going, Wow. I put something out there and there’s 1000 people who wanted to hear me read them my book. Okay, I can take pride in that. I can take pride in that, again, it’s not about money. It’s about Wow, I, I did this, and it’s resonated. My latest book the same thing. It’s a very different format. My latest book is called wit, wisdom and the business of weddings. And it’s 45 chapters split into three sections of sales, business and inspiration. And each chapter stands on its own. So you don’t have to read the book front to back, you can go to chapter 27, if you like that topic and just read that it’s about 12 or 1400 words, you read it in a few minutes. And that’s it. You don’t have to read the whole book to get that topic. And it wasn’t sure how it was going to be received, because it’s very different than my other books. And the interesting thing to me again, taking private is people have fed back to me, this is my favourite book of yours so far. I love this but the metric the person that did the translation to Spanish came back to me did the translation it goes by the way, I absolutely love this book. The person I had editing the Spanish checking it woman down in Chile, in South America. And she sent me the changes in by the way, I absolutely love this. I was like, wow, okay, I guess I was onto something. So that’s, you know, again, taking the pride in that. And the pride again, it’s not about money. The pride is about, okay, I’m making an impact. And then that’s the thing. See, as a wedding professional, you get to see the impact if you’re there at the wedding. The florist doesn’t get to see the impact because they’re not there. Right. But the planner does the celebrant, does the caterer does the venue does the photographer does the videographer does the band The DJ right? You can see that feedback there. And you know, seeing the dance floor pack and having the couple coming up to you and saying oh my gosh, that was the most beautiful ceremony. Right? Our guests coming up and saying, Well, that was the most beautiful ceremony I’ve ever seen Tony, right. You get that that feedback. So you know, looking at these numbers and looking at and seeing you know, getting the feedback back and looking at the reviews on Amazon or my site or whatever. Yeah, it’s okay to take a step back and go, good. But here’s, here’s my philosophy. My philosophy is that I don’t want to be the best that I can ever be. I want to be the best they’ve ever been, every time. So I don’t want this book to be the best book I can ever write. I don’t want it to be the best I’ve ever written so far, and I want to run a better one. I don’t want to give the best speech I can ever give. I want to give the best speech I’ve ever given. And then I want the next one to be better. Because I want to know that I’m growing I want if I ever give the best speech I can ever give. I’m going to walk off the stage walk out the back door. You’ll never see me on stage again. If I know I can’t be better, dude, there’s no point in trying. Yeah.

Tony Winyard 59:52
Well, not only have I mean is that you’re the first person to come back for a second episode, but we’ve also now gone into territory of the by far, the longest missed an hour, then how many more questions I have, which we’re clearly not going to have time to get through. But so I’m

Alan Berg 1:00:07
gonna be the first one you’ve ever

Tony Winyard 1:00:08
had on three times, then it sounds like it. Yeah, it’s over before we do finish. I mean, you briefly touched upon your latest book you said, which I presume is a notable now?

Alan Berg 1:00:18
Yes, yes, in my voice. So if you want, if you want to read my books, you can get them on paperback and Kindle. And if you want me to read you my book, you can get it on audio. They’re all on Amazon, Amazon, UK.

Tony Winyard 1:00:30
Well, last year, and as an example, I was at a DJ meeting, probably about 910 months ago. And the few of the guys there weren’t so experienced as a couple of guys who were quite experienced. And I mentioned I think it was Yeah, at a time it would have been in your element. Yeah. And I mentioned that book and no one was familiar with it. And none of them had an audible account and a We I think there was six guys or seven guys there and every single one of them on because I, I didn’t just recommend that I told them they had to read the book. They were asking me so many questions throughout this meeting about different things. Yeah, I mean, I help people put prices up. And so I said, Look, you really need to read this book. I mean, you really need to read all of them. bought the book from audible. And all of them love the book. Yeah, that’s great.

Alan Berg 1:01:25
Thank you. So

Tony Winyard 1:01:26
and but yeah, so And the reason I started mentioned about books, so if you can just briefly briefly mentioned about, you know, the titles of the books that you have available in case anyone?

Alan Berg 1:01:37
Yeah, and they’re all on Amazon UK. So if you go to elenberg dot biz, so a la NV rG BIZB. I said, you’ll take you right to my offers page on Amazon, all of my books there. So the first book that I wrote is a website book. It’s in its second edition. Now it’s called. If your website was an employee, would you fire it? And it’s because your website is working 24 seven to be your front door to be your receptionist, anybody that’s interested in your services. And it’s not how to make a website, it’s how to think about it more of a strategy type book. Side note, my sixth book will be the follow up to that, which will be called Five signs. It’s time to fire your website so badly that the next one I’m going to work on that’s the to do list but it’s not on the list yet. second book, your attitude for success was not intended to be my second book, but it’s based on a keynote presentation, I give a motivational keynote, talking about how people you can get past the challenge, whether that challenge is personal or business or health with a with a better attitude. And thinking about the I don’t have time, right? We’ve all said this to ourselves. I don’t have time. You mentioned to me that you’re brushing up on your Spanish you know, what, where did you find the time right? You didn’t have any more time you had to take it from somewhere and say it’s a priority. To do that as same as that I did or same as when I was 39 and I decided to do Taekwondo martial arts. I didn’t have time to go. But I ended up going and for enough years a day achieved a second degree black belt. It’s something I didn’t have time to do, or teach myself Spanish. And I’ve presented in five countries in Spanish. Now, I didn’t have time to do it. I chose to prioritise my time that way. So that’s just a little piece of that. The third book most popular so far again, is shut up and sell more weddings and events. And it’s pretty much what it says it’s about asking better questions, really listening to the answers, and then you can help people buy because of that. So that’s that book, the one you just mentioned, why don’t they call me subtitle is eight tips for converting wedding and event inquiries into sales. And that’s because we got all these digital conversations going how to have that better conversation, whether it’s through email or text or WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger or whatever, and in person as well, but how to have those better conversations and when they’re not picking up the phone. ringing you. So that’s that and then the latest book wit, wisdom and the business of weddings, which is a compendium of ideas. It’s, like I said 45 different topics, thoughts broken into sales, business and inspiration. And if you need a little little help with something about maybe you know why you’re getting ghosted on your emails or asking about should you be accepting credit cards or you need a little motivation or so many different topics so what in the first chapter is six steps, the wedding show success. So if you have any wedding shows coming up, you can go right to that one it gives you some tips on on what to do with that. So my books come from my topics my topics come from conversations I have with wedding an event pros around the world about their questions, their problems, their concerns, or when I’m consulting with people. I will make myself notes like my my latest blog, pardon me is already out, which was a five ways to convert more inquiries this engagement season. And I started thinking about my article I want to write for February. And the title is going to be how top down selling is like the game of Jenga. And it’s just something that came out in a presentation I was doing, I was doing a training. And I thought of this metaphor of the game of Jenga, and how that I can, you know, talk about top down selling with that and explain it and people can see the visual and it sticks better. And I said, Okay, I’m gonna write an article about that now. And that’s it. So those are my books. elenberg dot biz has all of them their audio is my voice. So if you like this voice, I can read you my books, if you don’t get the Kindle or paperback

Tony Winyard 1:05:41
and something on which is add to that because we have listeners from many different industries. it’s by no means only only people in the wedding industry. And I mean, I’ve read I think three of those books and all three of them would be definitely relevant to even if you’re not in a wedding industry, there are so many good tips in there that are just a Apply to almost any industry. Yeah,

Alan Berg 1:06:02
yeah, I’ve had people I remember a dentist coming to a conference I was speaking at with his wife, the wedding planner. And he came to me after and he said, Alan, everything you said I could apply to my dental practice. They said, Yeah, yeah, if you can read between the lines when I was talking about wedding things or event things, absolutely, it can apply to that. I don’t look for business outside the industry. And the reason my books have weddings in the title and using wedding examples is because if you search on Amazon, which sells half the books in the world these days, you’re going to find them just like the guy in Romania did. If it didn’t say weddings on the title, he probably wouldn’t have found that book. But because it said shut up and sell more weddings and events, a search that will come up with that keyword. And I did make the conscious decision to do that. Not with my first two books, but with my third, fourth and fifth. And it does help with people looking for something in the industry. And that’s, you know, their niche. But when I say their niche, but yet, you know 1000 on audio well over 1000 on paperback, I’m not even sure what the Kindle numbers are on top of that, and, you know, you think about the 10s of thousands or hundreds of thousands of wedding professionals around the world there’s a lot of people that could still consume the content, even though he totaled tambien and these 20 billion espanol

Tony Winyard 1:07:23
Well, I’m my Spanish is not that good. yet.

Alan Berg 1:07:26
They’re all available in Spanish. That’s what

Tony Winyard 1:07:28
I said next, the next time when we do have our next podcast episode, maybe we can do some of it in Spanish was

Alan Berg 1:07:35
Alan do it like I did, I thought I did a sales training in Spanglish we can do a podcast and Spanglish

Tony Winyard 1:07:40
something about well, it’s well over an hour now. So I think we do need to call this a little bit. It sounds like there will be parts for it sometime. And it’s been a real pleasure once again, speaking of you and just actually just you already gave the link to your site for the books are there any other links that people should know about?

Alan Berg 1:07:59
My website www.AlanBerg.com that’ll talk about all of my services. And I do, again mastermind sales training consulting all around the world. We do have the podcast and the podcast, the mastermind coming up next to pro mobile on 31st. March in Birmingham, UK, we do have a few more seats that’s for DJs. And if there’s a venue that would like me to do training, either the 25th March join us up in Leicester or come into them or maybe put their own group together, or a mastermind of multiple categories. please reach out to me I would love to work with you. And Tony, thank you so much for inviting me again. I am honoured to be your first second time guest I will look forward to the third because you and I could just talk for hours.

Tony Winyard 1:08:46
Absolutely. Well, Alan, great speaking to you again and you know food is speaking to you soon.

Next week, Episode 71 with Purdeep Sangha, known as the “Strategist for men in business” and it’s also about a system he has that really helps people, not just men, but it helps people to get more balance in their life to be successful in what they’re doing, but not forgetting the family and the children and so on. So that’s next week’s episode with Purdeep Sangha. Hope you enjoyed this week’s show. Please do share it with someone who you feel may get some benefit from it. Why not subscribe, leave a review and have a great week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai