So here's the situation: Niche is pre-launch ECOM founders. 1) I sent the First IOI email (T1) to a warm email list of $7 masterclass buyers. 2) List size is 20K. 3) Subject line of the email was a straightforward symptom call-out: "read this if you still haven't launched your brand" 4) 5K people opened that email (GOLD IOIs) - that's 25% open rate. All rock n roll until here... But here's where things get a little rough... 5) Out of the 5K that opened...only 25 replied, and almost none from the 25 kept the conversation going after the first reply. :( 6) Surprisingly when I shifted the medium from Email --> WhatsApp almost everyone kept the conversation going. There are two problems over here: ONE: Very low open ---> reply rate TWO: very low reply ---> conversation rate Has anyone had this challenge before & fixed it? Would love to hear about it. :)))))

Found a community. 10,000+ Hormozi groupies. The owner wants 10 grand for it. Checkbook out. Ready to cut a check. Then I had a chat with Travis. Told him I was more attached to this than I should be. Ding ding. That's the problem, he said. The second you're attached to getting a deal... You're already in a weaker position. So I stopped trying to be their first choice. I became their backup offer instead. Turns out the 10 grand wasn't even what he really wanted. Now I can own this thing... Without a penny upfront. DON'T GET ATTACHED.

A few months ago, Flame @Simon Campbell mentioned auctions to me but I didn't get it. Two weeks ago, Flame @Honey Syed hit me up cold in the DMs and gave me a smooth pitch about getting tons of engagement on a post, and offered a Loom. Between that and a short call afterward, he really opened my mind to what was possible. Thanks, Honey! I considered hiring him to help, but I've been around the block enough to know the bulk of the learning experience is best done by just jumping in, failing fast, learning, and going again. So I'm sharing a breakdown of my first auction, in hopes the good, bad, and ugly of what I tried (and why) is instructive for others in the community. I coach intermediate-level screenwriters to hit the pro level ASAP. I can generally increase screenplay development speed by 10x and had a client get nominated for an Oscar this year. I've sold 35+ coaching packages from $10K-$20K, 20+ masterminds at $1,500, and I'm running a low-ticket Skool community with about 75 members: Screenwriter Marketing I have 68K followers on X (it was 75K until Musk came along) 11K on LinkedIn 20K on IG for my community. I have almost 2K on my email list with an average of 250 opens. But they've been milked too much recently, so trust is a bit down. I first ran a test campaign with the list ("Crazy idea. Would you bid or watch an auction for my $10K coaching package, with bids starting at $1K?") and only 3 said they'd watch, one of whom said he MIGHT bid. With that tepid response, I first thought I'd call it off. BUT... then figured it was probably worth a shot - if I also reached out to about 30 warmer leads I'd spoken to earlier in the summer, and I lean in to my socials, and most importantly - if I could land at least one promotion partner. And... who knows? One partner signed on. I gave him the option of sending 1, 2, or 3 emails to his list for the 24-hour auction. I wrote the emails for him. He has maybe 1K good fit screenwriters on his list and holds a pretty engaged monthly meetup online for them. That community already knows me, and I've previously had a premium client come from it.

I have more quality free time than any man I know... When I started online in 2004... I UNDERSTOOD something DEEPLY... No matter... What I "sell"... A prahduckt... A service... A hybrid in between... They were all HAMBURGERS... And WITHOUT a STARVING CROWD... I would FOREVER be chasing a customer or client... (Gary Halbert helped me see this.) So... I made a life-changing decision. 👉TO OWN... Not rent... Not buy access to... 👉BUT OWN... 👉👉DIGITAL REAL ESTATE (D.R.E.)where HUNGRY CROWDS gather. After 20+ years of owning DRE (Pronounced DRAY like Dr. Dre) This is the ONE single best decision I've made in business. Next to a homeless dude(tte)...who has time, but I wouldn't call it quality time... I have more QUALITY FREE TIME than any man I know... OWNING the DRE with hungry crowds saves me from chasing. Most biz owners chase their LIVES away. They may have a BREAKTHROUGH AI tool... ...or they may be the "best" in their class in a service biz... ...or they may even be the "cheapest" to try and attract customers/clients and then they're worn out! BUT they are busier than bird dogs CHASING customers and clients... AND/OR they're broke all the time. This world... And online world too... Is made up of two groups of biz peeps... 👉OWNERS of DRE 👉NON-Owners I'm no Amazon, Airbnb, Meta or eBay even... But I model my money machines after theirs... 💥I OWN the DRE with HUNGRY CROWDS and get PAID for EVERY TRANSACTION that happens on them. Airbnb doesn't own the physical property; they don't clean the homes, they don't mow the lawns, etc. Amazon doesn't stock most of the products or books they sell, but Amazon and Airbnb OWN the customer and get a piece of EVERY TRANSACTION. Because... I don't care about running a multi-billion dollar biz... And I don't get an ego boost by bragging about the number of employees I have... I am a free man. If I want... I can come up with a new offer in the morning and sell it out by dinner. ...if I don't want to sell an offer...

NOTE: @Tan Hopper is the GRAND WINNER! Bid, baby...BID 👇 The Auction Winner's Grand Awards: ✅I build a new 500-member (to start) community for the winner from MY existing email lists and communities. It would need to be in sales, marketing, or a related niche. MOST POPULAR SO FAR: I'd LOVE to see a Leads On Demand Community. Getting leads is an evergreen niche + I've already got proven courses and content to license to you that WORK. There's MORE... ✅Building and handling all the tech and payments for the community. Including naming and positioning - so far it looks like the EVERGREEN Leads On Demand Community is gelling. ✅Turn-key Members: 500+ Members by seeding their new assetS (community + email list) from my email and communities. (Many buyers) ✅The right to sell ANY of my programs that are relevant to the community. The winner will start out with an instant CLASSROOM. Because we are PARTNERS, I'm open to licensing the winner just about anything they want. I've got proven SALES MAKERS already. 👇👇👇 💥💥💥LIFETIME (of the community) mentoring because we will be 50/50 PARTNERS. TOGETHER we'll GROW members, get massive engagement, monetize in FUN ways, get OTHER people to provide content and sales, get affiliates to promote the community 24/7/365, tap into my connections and rolodex, get 💥IMMEDIATE SPONSORSHIP INCOME💥, share revenue and ownership + MORE...for the LIFETIME OF THE COMMUNITY. 👍👍👍With my mentoring and the winner SEEING what we DO and a wee bit of practice...they will BECOME: a DM CLOSER with the SKILLS to generate ready-to-buy-now leads EVERY DAY...Close $2k to $20k sales in the DMs? How life-changing is that? A $1k-$2k sale a day isn't too awful:-) The skillz to do it? PRICELESS! NOW... If the winner DOES NOT want to generate leads and close sales... I've got relationships with dozens of DM & Email Closers I've personally trained over the years... Who will come in and generate leads and DM close FOR us...