Editor: Hello, and
welcome. Joining us for this session is a man whose been called one of the
world's most celebrated marketing strategists by his peers. Bill Glazer excels
in so many areas. He's a bestselling author of the Outrageous series of
marketing books. He's also co-written the Peak Performance series, he's a
keynote speaker, and an award-winning business growth strategist.
Editor: In this
session, we're going to cover how Bill got started in online marketing, and how
a chance meeting changed his life. Bill also tells us who impresses him the
most these days, and why you're never too old to stop learning.
Editor: So, Bill Glazer,
welcome.
Bill
Glazer: Well,
it's good to be with you.
Editor: Well, let me
start by asking, I suppose, the question you might get asked the most, Bill,
which is how you got started in marketing?
Bill
Glazer: Oh,
well listen, that's kind of an interesting question, but I get that question a
lot.
Bill
Glazer: When
I first got out of college, I went to work for my father, who ran a menswear
business. Actually, I worked there for ... I hate to tell you this, about 20
years, with my father. Then, at that time, somebody asked me ... A good friend
of mine who had a menswear business, he said to me ... I was in Baltimore, and
my friend was in Philadelphia. He said to me, "We should come over and see
this huge event that they're having there. You would probably enjoy being
there." It was a place called Peter and Lloyd's event.
Bill
Glazer: I
got on the phone, and went over there. I sat there, and I was listening. It was
a whole day, and it was all these presenters. At the very end, at the very end,
they said, "By the way, it's five o'clock, and if you want to go to your
car, that's fine, but we have another presenter, but you probably never heard
of him before. If you go now to try to get your car, you'll have to wait a long
time before you can get your car."
Bill
Glazer: So he
told everybody, "If you want to stay, we have this other presenter, he's a
marketer, and you should listen to him." Of course, at that point,
probably they start at 10,000 people there, and about 7000 of them went out to
get their car. But I stayed, because I was in the menswear business, and I
wanted to learn how to do marketing.
Bill
Glazer: There
was this guy, Dan Kennedy was this presenter. I sat there, and at the end, Dan
Kennedy was nice enough to offer me a product. The product was actually Magnetic
Marketing, and I bought it. Which is also interesting, when I was with my
friend who also had the menswear business in Philadelphia, he said to me,
"Let's just buy one of them, and we'll save it together." I said to
my friend, "Listen, I'm going to buy it myself, and as I'm going back, I'm
going to go through everything that's in there," which is what I did.
That's how I got started with Dan Kennedy.
Bill
Glazer: At
that point, it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me,
because from there, in the next two years after that, the same event came to
speak in Baltimore. At that point, I actually called him, and I said,
"Listen, you don't know me, my name is Bill Glazer. Two years ago, I
bought your product, and now your back at Baltimore. I'd love to actually buy
you dinner, because you've been so helpful to my business." He called me
back, and he said to me, "Bill," he said to me, "listen, first
of all, I can't do dinner with you because right after the event's over, I'm
going to go back to where he's at. But, if you want to have lunch, we can have
lunch." At that point, I had lunch with him.
The
other thing that was funny about it was, I said to Dan Kennedy, "When I go
there for lunch, I'm not going to bring over all the stuff that I'm doing now,
because I don't want to bother you, but I'm using all your stuff that I learned
from you." He said to me, and I'll never forget this, he said to me,
"Bill, if you don't bring all your stuff with you, you're just stupid.
Bring it with you."
We
came there, we had lunch that day. He started looking at all of my stuff, which
basically I was doing everything I'd learned from him. He said to me,
"Bill, can I keep some of this?" This is from Dan Kennedy. He said,
"Can I keep some of it, so I can show it in the newsletter?" I said,
"I'll be happy to do that. As a matter of fact, when I brought the
product, you sent that letter to me, about your newsletter, and I started to
buy that." Then he said to me at the end, "Listen, I have an idea of
you." I said, "What's that?"
Bill Glazer: He
says, "Well, now that you're in the menswear business, and you're so good
at it, you should create a business to teach other menswear businesses how to
actually grow their business." I said to him, "I've never heard of
this thing before." He said to me, "I have a lot of clients like
that, that do it in different categories, that actually do that." He says,
"I'll help you put it together." Also, he says to me, "At the
end of it, once you put it together, in order to keep it stronger you should
join my ..." At that time, it was called the Platinum Mastermind Group, which
I said to him, right away, "How much does that cost?"
Bill Glazer: He
was telling me how much that was, it was a lot of money for me, at that time. I
said to him, "Let me just think about it." Then, before we left for
lunch, I said to him, "You know what? I'm going to do it." So, I
started to do that, and after a while ... I was with his Mastermind group for
about four years. I called up Dan again, I said, "Dan, listen, I know you
like a lot of things with different kinds of products, and things like that.
There's one that happening in Baltimore, and I'd love it if you actually come
to Baltimore, and we'll spend some time together." And he did.
He
flew over to Baltimore. At that point, at the end of it, he said to me,
"Bill, you're doing so good, especially in my Mastermind group. I'm
looking to sell my product, my own business. Would you be willing to buy my
business?" I said to him, "My God! I didn't know, coming here, I was
going to buy your business." He said to me, "Why don't you buy it,
because you'll do really, really good at it." At the end of that call, I'd
already bought his product, and we developed that product into a company called
Glazer Kennedy Insider's Circle.
We
owned that company, pretty much together for eight years. At the end of eight
years, I sold that to a private equity company. Dan still stayed involved with
that company. After it was called Glazer Kennedy, it became called GKIC. That
business has done pretty well, for many years. Although, the private equity
pretty much hurt the business a lot, but that's another story for a different
day.
Editor: It's
amazing story, Bill. It just goes to show that, when you got started and you
stayed for that final presentation, that actually was the life changing moment.
That was the thing that defined your course, from that moment onwards.
Editor: When
was this? When did this all happen?
Bill Glazer: Well,
when I actually was in Philadelphia, it was in 1994. Then, he came back to
Baltimore in 1996. I think the important thing about this, which would really
help a lot of people understand the story I just told people is this:
Bill Glazer: Number
one, I started out in the menswear business, but because of the fact that I
could go to a special event to hear about Dan Kennedy, that's the point that I
learned, myself, that this is no longer about being in the menswear business,
this is about me learning how to do marketing. That was really a big thing, for
my business. I would say that to anybody else, that's listening to this right
now.
Bill Glazer: You
don't have to be in a regular business, or any business at all, as long as you
learn marketing, and use marketing in your own business, you can really grow a
very, very large business for yourself. Actually, as I owned my business, which
was called Glazer Kennedy, I had my own Mastermind groups. Many of the members
in my Mastermind group built huge businesses.
I Hope You Enjoyed This Great Article ?
To Your Success Online
Steven Morton
Founder-Marketing Mastermind Tips
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