I get pitched constantly from people who want to speak at the
Elite Retreat. In fact, just this week I have gotten over 200 emails from people looking to speak.
So what do we look for in leaders? Well, first of all, we are not looking for speakers. People come to the Elite Retreat because they want to take their business to the next level, so here is the basic criteria I look for:
- They must have made an enormous impact on my businesses.
- They must enjoy sharing with others things that made them successful and actually want to sit down and work with people one on one for 2 days to help them achieve their goals.
We DO NOT EVER solicit for pitches from people to speak. I ONLY invite those who I personally have built a relationship with and I KNOW will actually want to spend 48 hours with the attendees. Its a very rare person to have the knowledge and social skills. So my job is not easy.
All of the speakers' bios below are handwritten by me, so you will probably see some typos =P.
I do not allow anyone to submit some publicist-hyped biography.
I cut to the chase of how each speaker has affected my business and what they bring to the table to work with you, the attendee.
So without further ado, here is this year's expert lineup:
John Carlton - Expert Copy Writer
I first was introduced to John 3 years ago when a close friend purchased his $5000 copyrighting course. At first I could not believe someone would pay $5000 for a course.... But after implementing the techniques in the course and profiting over 10 times the cost of that course in the first month alone, I saw the value.
I met John for the first time in person last winter, and he was more than happy to look at what I was doing and give me some tips that have helped me make well over five hundred thousand dollars.
John rarely speaks at public events and there is nobody better at writing copy that sells. I am truly honored to have him as a part of this year's cast.
Stephan Spencer - SEO/Entrepreneur
Stephan is a Search Engine Optimization, SEO Guides, SEO Marketing">Search Engine Optimization wizard by trade. He not only wrote the best-selling book The Art of SEO, but Stephan also built a multimillion dollar global SEO company, servicing some of the largest companies in the world. Last year, Stephan sold his SEO company to pursue other opportunities. Most SEO's are a flash in the pan. Stephan has broken the mold of what you think of in an SEO.
Having Stephan as a friend has been an enormous asset to me personally, both in Search Engine Optimization, SEO Guides, SEO Marketing">Search Engine Optimization tips but also in general business advice.
Stephan has taken part in the Elite Retreat before and is always rated the highest rated expert in terms of value given.
Stephan tells me he loves the Elite Retreat format because since it's only 30 people who have all signed nondisclosure agreements, he feels comfortable exposing his best tips which really make a difference in getting your site to rank for keywords. These are tips that he would never give out at a huge public event for obvious reasons.
I am very happy to have Stephan participating once again at the Elite Retreat.
Matt Mickiewicz - Entrepreneur, Business Growth Expert
I first met Matt in person after his keynote speech at an industry event a little over a year ago. I was amazed at the empire he had built and wanted to get to know him more.
Matt is a lot like me in that he has not only built a successful business, but continued to leverage his successes to the next thing. In Matt's case, he has virtually cornered the market for website commerce.
Matt originally started a webmaster forum called Sitepoint. He grew the forum by putting out tons of excellent content. Once he had a decent following, Sitepoint started to publish books on about every subject dealing with having your own website. He has almost 100 books published to date in over 20 languages.
After Sitepoint, Matt came up with the concept of servicing people who needed low cost logos by making designers from around the world compete against each other. 99Designs was launched and the site did several million dollars in revenue in the first couple months alone.
After that, Matt noticed there was a lot of buying and selling of websites going on in his forum, so he created a website called Flippa. The site quickly became the go-to spot if you wanted to buy or sell a website and became a cash cow for Matt's empire very quickly.
To this day, Matt continues to grow his amazing empire by leveraging each of his past successes into the next one. It's great to have the Canadian on board for this event.
Matt has been an awesome help to me personally on not only growing my company, but also the daily tasks that come with being a CEO.
A one on one Q&A with Matt about growing your business will leave you with a book full of action items to do when you get back.
Allen Baler - Super Affiliate, Product Fulfillment, Business Adviser
I was originally introduced to Allen by Clickbank. In addition to being in the top 10 of Clickbank's over 11,000 publishers, Allen also provides product fulfillment services and handles the majority of product fulfillment on Clickbank. We use Allen's service for our own ShoeMoney System. He makes the DVDs and workbooks and ships them anywhere in the world for us for an unbelievable price.
But Allen's real value came to us as an adviser with the ShoeMoney System. Allen not only fulfills our products, but he is also a wealth of knowledge on just about every possible subject because he has worked so long in this industry. Everything from merchant services, to customer support best practices, and all the little insider tricks with Clickbank that really made a HUGE impact on our bottom line.
Andy Liu - Startup, Merger & Acquisition, Investor Expert
Just 3 years ago, Andy came to the Elite Retreat as an attendee. He quickly got my attention when our keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki interrupted his own keynote, pointing out Andy in the audience and talking about how Andy was one of the few company founders that Guy had made money from investing in.
I came to find out that Andy is a born serial entrepreneur with several huge accomplishments under his belt. Andy's daily role is CEO of BuddyTV, currently the largest TV-related website on the Internet. Andy also led a group of investors in purchasing icanhascheezburger and growing that site to an enormous multimillion dollar empire.
Andy is the first person I talk to before considering selling or buying, or lately even starting a new company. Andy brings a perspective of a multimillion dollar venture capitalist and the things you need to think about with that. His tips and tricks for buying businesses and websites for next to nothing and flipping them for an enormous profit is always one of the biggest values for attendees.
Troy Meyerson - Legal - General Council
Troy has been our general legal council for ShoeMoney Media Group, INC for the last 5 years. He has dealt with over a hundred issues for us... everything ranging from contractual issues to clauses, and Troy even handled selling a company for us a couple years back for multiple millions of dollars.
Tory is my personal attorney and is very well-rounded, specializing in patent and copyrights.
Pat Cooper - Legal - Chief Litigator
Pat is the guy who argues our cases in front of a jury or judge. Pat's advice to us has made the difference between being awarded millions of dollars in a case or being capped at only a few thousand.
I asked Troy and Pat to come to this year's event because, let's be honest, right now it's a very scary time legally to be in our business. But these 2 guys have years of experience not only representing me, but many other Internet related cases.
I get more legal related questions than anything else, and while I can talk from my experience, I am not qualified (or licensed) to give actual legal advice.
As you are brainstorming with other attendees and leaders, there is no doubt going to be some legal questions that will arise -- anything from how to structure the business to what policies to have in place. Having these two top-notch internet legal masterminds at your disposal on my dime will be a huge value to you as an attendee.
Michael Sprouse - Marketing Mastermind
This year's Keynote speaker will be Epic Direct's Chief Marketing Officer, Michael Sprouse. Previously Michael was Chief Marketing Officer for Playboy INC.
Michael is one of the primary reasons why you have seen Epic Direct (formerly AzoogleAds) grow into the leader in the affiliate space.
Michael is a guy that just "gets it." He has become a close personal friend of mine, and even though he is 2nd in command of one of the most powerful names in Internet marketing, he still has time to brainstorm with me on my latest craziest idea.
I can guarantee you that Sprouse's keynote is going to be one of the most insightful talks you have ever heard.
Jeremy Schoemaker - Hey, that's me! I am pretty well-rounded and can solve virtually any problem or issue you have. My main points of expertise are monetization and growth, but I am happy two work with you on whatever you need. I also am happy to make introductions to any major company anywhere in the world.
In the next couple days, I will send you an email about the official agenda and logistics.
We will open registration next Tuesday September 28th, 2010.
FYI - We have plenty of sponsorship opportunities available and will have a media kit out soon. Email ersponsorship@shoemoney.com
