Okay, so in the previous post, “The Secret Society of Traffic Conversion“, I covered fundamental #1 to making friends with the internet marketing giants and getting them on your side.

Now let’s move on to the next four fundamentals you should adhere to in order to make the best of your marketing seminars.

Lesson #2: Establish yourself as someone of expertise by asking interesting and insightful questions (i.e. don’t be stupid).

Ask intelligent questions or even making helpful (note the operative word being “helpful”) suggestions and not being afraid to be in the spotlight. This is one of the best ways for you to set yourself apart from others in the audience and make people think “oohhh, that person has something of value and I should find out what it is” and want to come talk to you.

In a sense think about others who are less knowledgeable than you are in that particular area – by asking an intelligent question not only are you demonstrating an understanding of the topic but you are also doing them a favor by asking the question they were too afraid to ask themselves.

Lesson #3: Gurus are nice (for the most part) and are more than happy to help you if they deem you are worthy and are genuine.

Let me explain.

At the seminar, I did the unthinkable and the unreasonable. Not only did I initiate contact with the gurus and probed for more details, I also created the possibility of getting them to come online and do interviews with us!

While many of us think that gurus are the “untouchables” and that they couldn’t care less about who’s in the audience since they already make $x bazillions dollars – I‘ve found this to be absolutely false. What you have to realize is that each of these gurus are just like you and me. They all had to start SOMEWHERE.

And odds are, where they started isn’t very far off from where you are at now.

And more importantly, odds are that someone in their lives gave them a helping hand to get them where they are now.

As long as you are authentic and sincere (and friendly), they’d more than happy to chat with you and address your questions and provide advice (within reason of course). This leads to #4…

Lesson #4: Offer something of value to the gurus – how can you help THEM??

You can imagine how some people would take advantage of #3 and just hassle the heck out of the gurus for “favors”. What these newbies are forgetting is one of the cardinal rules of marketing/business/life. The “What’s In It For Me” (W.I.I.F.M.) principle.

Those folks who are pestering the heck out of gurus, chomping at the bits, are basically trying to get something for nothing. Never mind that these gurus just gave their best X minutes on a stage presenting the very knowledge being sought after. Never mind that these noobs didn’t even bother doing some research beforehand (not to mention that they didn’t even bother purchasing the guru’s product)…

You see, we all should learn to stop feeling so entitled. Don’t think “oh, the guru’s already making millions of dollars, he/she SHOULD help me now…”

Balooney. The gurus don’t owe you jack.

Want to know how to get their attention? Offer something of value to them. Ask them how you can help THEM for a change. Give them access to your list for example; promote them on your humble site/list; anything… SOMETHING. At the very least acknowledge that it is only out of their kindness that they are helping you.

Take Fernando and myself for example. It is only through adding value back to Mike Dillard and Tim Erway and doing our best to offer whatever help we can did they take note of us. It was only after we studied their system religiously and sucked in all their teachings did we start separating ourselves from the crowd.

So ask yourself this when you are speaking to gurus – what are YOU doing for THEM?

Lesson #5: Take pictures with the gurus and send it to them so they’ll remember you.

Okay… this is almost cheating but it works. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Be bold and be different… ask a guru for a picture after chatting with them for a bit. Tell them you’ll send them the picture when you get home and do it! After all, who doesn’t like seeing a picture of themselves in their inbox?

Not only will they get a lovely picture of their own face in their inbox, they’ll also get a picture of you and this will help them remember you… This makes it easier getting in touch with them for any other endeavors (see #3 and #4).

Lastly, let your list know! “Hey, look at me! I was at *blankity blank* and met *blankity blank*.” This shows you are active in the field and are constantly learning new things from other gurus.

One last note… do give the guru credit by letting people know who he/she is and linking to his/her site.

And there you have it folks. Next time you get a chance to go to a top caliber seminar… DO IT! You never know what sort of information, ideas, and contacts you can get out of it (odds are, you’ll get TONS)!

Special thanks go out again to Brock and Buck – thanks for creating such an awesome environment and inviting me to the event.