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Anyone ever attend one of these Joe Polish 3 day conferences? What did you think of it? Was it worth the cost? This one is in Mesa, AZ.
ww.superconference2007.com
you just want an excuse to go to Arizona in the winter.(don’t blame you)
Dave in Denver had some info on Joe Slickster,…..ehrr Joe Polish.
Good to see you back on the board DaveinPA. Not the same without you.
Dave,
Joe used to host a Boot Camp for carpet cleaners every year. This year he changed the name to his Super Conference and is supposedly catering to other businesses as well as carpet cleaners.I registered and signed up for his 1994 Boot Camp, however, was unable to attend. As I had already paid, they sent me their Boot Camp in a Box, which is simply all of the Boot Camp sessions recorded to DVDs.
I watched most of the DVDs and thought the sessions were pretty good. These sessions were mostly various presentations by Joe’s guests. Although they were informative, they were also structured as a bit of a teaser to entice you to buy some sort of package or service that each speaker had available.
A person could easily spend many thousands if lured to buy all of the special packages and services that Joe had available through his guest speakers. Surely some of the information and services would help you. How much probably depends on your level of enthusiasm and the effort you apply using the ideas and techniques you purchase.
Something that I did not experience with the DVDs was the break time networking that happens at any conference. I’m sure it would help to meet and talk with so many carpet cleaners outside of the formal sessions.
Marketing advice and expertise is certainly a crucial skill for us, but you probably already know quite a bit compared to a brand new operator due to the ads you may have already tried. Joe’s teaser presentations will likely go a bit further than what you’ve already experienced and hopefully (for him) persuade you to buy a more detailed package or service while at his conference.
I can’t say if the extra information packages are fairly priced or not as I didn’t buy them and haven’t seen the content. I will say that I feel the extra services that Joe has available (such as hosted web sites) are overpriced.
Joe is in the business of selling his marketing expertise. He probably makes several hundred thousand dollars or even more from his conference. Ultimately, he is selling a dream of riches if you use the information he presents you. It will be up to you to execute.
As an aside, I was a bit surprised concerning Joe’s speaking ability after watching the DVDs. I guess I expected Joe Polish to be a pretty dynamic speaker. I was quite disappointed. He really isn’t a very skilled speaker at all.
Now to answer your question – Was the Boot Camp worth the money? I believe I got my money’s worth. However, I have since found most of the ideas he presented in other places on various marketing web sites and articles.
I imagine it would be fairly easy to get caught up in the hype while there. I don’t know if I would have resisted purchasing any of the extra packages had I been able to attend.
Good luck if you attend!
Mike
Thanks Dennis…I will be more reserved in posting since getting zapped by someone. I had no idea that we could edit our message after submission. So, someone edited their submission I had responded to and they changed their submission, after I had responded, to make me look like an even greater idiot than I already am. I was fortunate in that I was able to edit my response quickly, to protect the integrity and sense of the session.
Jason was kind enough to adjust the timer down to 10 minutes time or so to edit one’s response after submission…still stymies me that a response can be edited after review and submission. Oh well.
Mike,
Thanks for the info…I won’t attend.
Dave,
I have enjoyed your insights and posts. Please stay active regardless of what one operator did. Thanks.
I agree with Mike Bishop on this one. The conference will hype you up for the biz much like our nat’l one did for most of us. Joe Polish will try and sell you more packages, that is the way his business works. I get their newsletter, and probably receive a call about once a month asking if I’ve seen there “new program xyz” they are introducing that Joe thinks will be revolutionary and if I want to sign up. The neighboring HB owner that I bought out when I started went to a boot camp, and he didn’t have any revolutionary ideas that he passed down to us. Save your money and spend it elsewhere in my opinion. Much like our conference, speaking with other CC’s in between sessions is where I often feel you’ll probably gain the most. If you really want that you can get it here on the board, or if you want non HB chatter, attending an IICRC class (in which case you will be learning something concrete in addition). Just my 2 cents.
After reviewing my previous post earlier in this thread, I wanted to add a bit. Although I more or less felt I got my money’s worth, I wanted to emphasize that I felt that way at that time. Seeing all of the Boot Camp presentations and the materials they provided was like drinking water from a firehose. I got a lot of information very fast and it does get you hyped.
Looking back knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t pay again. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I have seen virtually all of the same kinds of advice from the Boot Camp on other web sites and in magazine articles.
There are several fairly well known marketing gurus with web sites offering a lot of free info. They all have a similar approach in that they get you looking at their web site, they entice you to register for their free emails, and then they hammer you with offers for better and more complete information in the form of various packages. One package might focus on how to write good copy for a direct mail campaign. Another might focus on building a good referral program from your customers.
Joe Polish’s approach is a little different in that he has almost nothing available for free on his web site. You must register for his emails if you want to get anything free from him. If you do register with him and you will be invited for call-in meetings where one of Joe’s clients will hype their latest ad idea and how well it worked. Then on the last part of the call, that client will strongly encourage you to sign up for a Super Conference or to join Joe’s Platinum Club for the mere sum of $1,000 per month. That’s right – $1,000 per month will get you exclusive membership in Joe’s Platinum Club.
Overall, the ideas presented on the calls are pretty good, but you have to keep in mind that people selling marketing ideas will tell you how well this ad or that ad worked. I have no doubt that they are being truthful, but we all know from experience that ads are a hit and miss proposition. For every one of their great success examples, there are likely many others who experienced lesser results.
Overall, I would probably advise a new operator to do their own research and get as much free info as possible. Most of us don’t have a lot of extra money to burn when we start and you could go through a lot in a very short time at one of Joe Polish’s conference.
One last thing about a lot of marketing advice you can get for free or buy – many of the strategies will involve ad campaigns to your existing customer base. Those ideas won’t work very well for you when you are new and have no customer base to speak of.
Dave Devlin is right – Cody and our fellow operators provide us with numerous ideas that don’t cost a lot, such as networking with real estate agents, etc. You can get an enormous amount of info right here on this board and it is all free!
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