Post: #1

I got a month long mentorship with James Maverick a few months ago. I did that because I liked to become location independent. I'm not anywhere close to becoming location independent for reasons that I can explain but learned some stuff from the mentorship.

One of the last things he told me was this:
"When you develop the proper brand, it works for you, without you needing to work."

It makes me wonder what the last part means. Maverick himself talks quite a lot about online businesses and other projects that he's worked on but he never gives a link to any of them. So I wonder...does he himself not really work?? Roosh and Mike Chernovich have developed their brands too but I don't think they work less hard than before.

Post: #2

This sort of platitude isn't anything new.

Branding is obviously important. Build a credible brand, with a perceived value in line with your price point and you're set. If Roosh released a book called Bang China, we know what to expect, the quality of the book, and the fact that the material will be well-researched. The foundational grunt work of building his brand, is finished. While he still works, and markets his products, it's much easier to sell to us than it was say....four years ago.

It's also dependent on your work ethic. I'm sure Roosh could sit back, pump out one book a year, not write articles, create Youtube videos, and the forum would still flow, he'd still get paid from these books. He just chooses to do all this. Coca Cola still markets, Audi still markets, yet their brands are established.

That's part of the reason I don't like these mentorship programs. There are some good ones out there, but if they fill your head full of platitudes you'll never get anywhere. I'm not saying James' is like that, but I hope you received some solid technical knowledge and actionable advice.

Post: #3

Branding is the creation of awareness. If people are aware about your brand, they will talk about it.
If it's interesting enough, they will even market it for free - like all those people linking Harambe jokes to Cerno's Gorilla Mindset.

Rum and Coke is another example. It's not called Rum and Pepsi or Bacardi and Cola. Coke succeeded in creating a self-sustaining piece of publicity, because their drink is the iconic cola.

Basically, he means that publicity can become self-sustaining if it's interesting or memorable enough to stay on people's minds.

Agree w/Casanova on mentorships. Notice that you didn't ask him to explain. I'd imagine you didn't want to interrupt the atmosphere, or think it was the right time to ask. It's much harder to get technical details from people in a social setting. There's a risk that you're paying for good vibes and interesting company rather than the lowdown.

Low return on investment compared to purely social connections with knowledgeable people, who are happy to give advice for free, and pleased that you asked for it.

Post: #4

(09-14-2016 10:07 PM)duedue Wrote:  I got a month long mentorship with James Maverick a few months ago. I did that because I liked to become location independent. I'm not anywhere close to becoming location independent for reasons that I can explain but learned some stuff from the mentorship.

One of the last things he told me was this:
"When you develop the proper brand, it works for you, without you needing to work."

It makes me wonder what the last part means. Maverick himself talks quite a lot about online businesses and other projects that he's worked on but he never gives a link to any of them. So I wonder...does he himself not really work?? Roosh and Mike Chernovich have developed their brands too but I don't think they work less hard than before.

How much did the membership cost? Can you give us more details on what the process entailed?

Post: #5

Brand-building is the art of getting people's existing perception of your business to do the selling for you. Think Coca Cola. They have successfully placed this ideal of what Coca-Cola is and stands for, in the minds of millions of kids around the world. When people walk up to a vending machine, they have this programmed good feeling around Coke, despite the fact it's just syrupy poison.

But brand-building is something you do once you already have a product/service, a business, and customers.

Before that, if you want to sell a product or service online, you have to...

-put together a profitable offer
-find out who your ideal prospects are by repeatedly engaging the market
-tweak and rebuild your offer until it really solves their problem/meets their needs
-sell and market your ass off
-build out your team, processes, operations

etc etc.

Brand building is not where you should be focused until you have a real business, with real customers.

I have honestly no idea who your mentor is, but if someone called 'James Maverick' told me "When you develop the proper brand, it works for you, without you needing to work." - I would roll my eyes and get back to marketing and sales.

What you should focus on from the start though is branding/positioning, which is arguably different. It's "how you choose to come across" and it's baked into all your marketing materials and communications. Very important to position yourself in a way that gets you paid and appeals to your target prospect.

Post: #6

(09-15-2016 03:01 AM)RichieP Wrote:  ....brand-building is something you do once you already have a product/service, a business, and customers.

Brand building is not where you should be focused until you have a real business, with real customers.

I have honestly no idea who your mentor is, but if someone called 'James Maverick' told me "When you develop the proper brand, it works for you, without you needing to work." - I would roll my eyes and get back to marketing and sales.

What you should focus on from the start though is branding/positioning, which is arguably different. It's "how you choose to come across" and it's baked into all your marketing materials and communications. Very important to position yourself in a way that gets you paid and appeals to your target prospect.

This is great advice. Don't put the cart before the horse.

Keep in mind that there is a big difference between offering a "service" and having a "business."

Selling stuff on Ebay or Amazon is usually just a matter of offering a service, because your income is tied to the number of hours you put in and you can only increase efficiency so much.

Having a business requires having a product, not just reselling someone else's product. Private labelling falls mostly into the "service" category

...unless...

you do in fact build a brand to enough of a degree that you have a competitive advantage over anyone else who simply goes to the same factory and has just about an identical product created for the same price you paid.

If you want an enduring business, though, I'd recommend creating products that don't exist anywhere else or configuring combinations of existing products that don't exist elsewhere and ideally can't.

That's your path to creating a brand.

Once you've got that your brand can work for you as you sell products that others can easily produce, because people who trust your brand or have history with your brand experience will buy it from you rather than from an unknown.

That's what I'm working on doing right now.

Post: #7

Quote:One of the last things he told me was this:
"When you develop the proper brand, it works for you, without you needing to work."

I do not agree with his statement.

When you build a brand (whether it is personal, online...you name it), you need to mantain it. In other words, you need to keep working to keep the reputation you have.

Someone mentioned the example of Roosh and Cernovich. If either of them one day says "I am done with this, I am taking a break", their reputation will start to go down, because, gradually, their niche market will be taken over by other people (who might be better than them, more radical than them or the exact opposite, impossible to say), until they eventually fade away (LaidinNyc and Pook, for example).

Game - same thing (I see Game as marketing of your persona to women). If you decide to stop lifting and improving your life in all aspects, your SMV will go down, and, with that, the quality of girls you will be able to attract.

In short, you need to keep working in order to keep you reputation. Not as much when you started, but still... there will be no rest for you.

Post: #8

It was $300 for basically 4 hour long skype sessions and email correspondence in between. I did this because his book Sovereign man was well written. I could've got more out of it if I had a real plan; I was basically flirting with the idea. (The stakes are very high for me starting my own business.)
He told me this after the term was finished, basically trying to get me to get another mentorship but I didn't take the bait. I asked him what it meant but didn't get a straight answer.

Post: #9

(09-17-2016 01:02 PM)duedue Wrote:  It was $300 for basically 4 hour long skype sessions and email correspondence in between. I did this because his book Sovereign man was well written. I could've got more out of it if I had a real plan; I was basically flirting with the idea. (The stakes are very high for me starting my own business.)
He told me this after the term was finished, basically trying to get me to get another mentorship but I didn't take the bait. I asked him what it meant but didn't get a straight answer.

I dislike mentorship offers, because they're very platitudinal. Spend your money advancing yourself with tangible skills that will last you for years to come.

Post: #10

I am sorry for flooding the thread, but this quoted bit is a huge red flag to me.

Quote:It makes me wonder what the last part means. Maverick himself talks quite a lot about online businesses and other projects that he's worked on but he never gives a link to any of them. So I wonder...does he himself not really work?? Roosh and Mike Chernovich have developed their brands too but I don't think they work less hard than before.

If he was a serious "consultant", he would provide links to the projects he helped to build. He did not, and that makes him to me very suspicious.

Not to mention the part in which he says "your brand will work for you". Nokia followed the exact same reasoning when Iphone came out in 2007. And, because they followed that rationale, their market share fell from 70% to under 10% in a relatively short time.

Quote:SOME NOKIA EMPLOYEE (SNE): Hey boss. Some guy called Steve Jobs has invented some thing called Iphone.

NOKIA CEO: Ha ha, what a stupid name. What does that thing do?

SNE: You can take photos, browse internet, and make phone calls. Possibly even more, I do not know.

CEO: Interesting.... .

SNE: Shall we make something comparable?

CEO: Fuck no. We have our own brand. Nobody heard of Apple before. They are harmless.

SNE: Yes sir.

Let me emphasize again. From 70% to less than 10%!!! I would not be suprised if James Maverick consulted them, lol .


I have one year of online sales experience, and the only 3 things I have used are:

1. My own common sense

2. Some more common sense

3. And a little bit more of common sense!

And yes, the Manosphere also gave me confidence to start.


In short, all you need for a business is common sense. All those self proclaimed expert like that guy will charge you, and give advice that is pure common sense!

Post: #11

(09-17-2016 01:02 PM)duedue Wrote:  It was $300 for basically 4 hour long skype sessions and email correspondence in between. I did this because his book Sovereign man was well written. I could've got more out of it if I had a real plan; I was basically flirting with the idea. (The stakes are very high for me starting my own business.)
He told me this after the term was finished, basically trying to get me to get another mentorship but I didn't take the bait. I asked him what it meant but didn't get a straight answer.

Same thing here mate. I got his new course but I didn't like it cause it was full of very general blabla, no examples and poorly done. Asked him for the refund and he asked me for feedback. So far so good. Didn't bother to reply to any of my emails after that and that was a week ago. All over Twitter though. So much for "immediate refund no questions asked" lol.

Such a shame when guys don't deliver on their promises. I really like his stuff actually and I would have been open to other products in the future if I feel I'm getting something out of them.

Funniest thing is that he went down from 67 that I paid to 47. And offers his "special deal" that's only vaild until today (which is every day). Couldn't care less about the few quid but I care about a guy keeping what he promises, especially to another guy and loyal reader.

Post: #12

(01-06-2017 01:11 PM)icrus Wrote:  

(09-17-2016 01:02 PM)duedue Wrote:  It was $300 for basically 4 hour long skype sessions and email correspondence in between. I did this because his book Sovereign man was well written. I could've got more out of it if I had a real plan; I was basically flirting with the idea. (The stakes are very high for me starting my own business.)
He told me this after the term was finished, basically trying to get me to get another mentorship but I didn't take the bait. I asked him what it meant but didn't get a straight answer.

Same thing here mate. I got his new course but I didn't like it cause it was full of very general blabla, no examples and poorly done. Asked him for the refund and he asked me for feedback. So far so good. Didn't bother to reply to any of my emails after that and that was a week ago. All over Twitter though. So much for "immediate refund no questions asked" lol.

Such a shame when guys don't deliver on their promises. I really like his stuff actually and I would have been open to other products in the future if I feel I'm getting something out of them.

Funniest thing is that he went down from 67 that I paid to 47. And offers his "special deal" that's only vaild until today (which is every day). Couldn't care less about the few quid but I care about a guy keeping what he promises, especially to another guy and loyal reader.

Post: #13

Brands should only be associated with products not people. Branding people reminds of hollywood actors who do to many movies of the same role. Limiting itself. Becoming a prison. Worse is your supposed and people expect you to act in a pre-determined fashion. Curbing your freedom. Brands are for products. Coca-cola. Not people. The best possible thing is when the product is completely detached from the person. And runs by itself.

Post: #14

Branding is your identify. A name(very important), an image, a logo, a color scheme, an ethos, a mission, a real identity.

Study naming. Naming is a true art form, I've known masterful namers who have named billion dollar companies. Companies pay tens of thousands of dollars or more, for a simple good name, for their brand. If you read up on the basics of naming, you will get a lot out of it. No negatives, keep it simple. Really think through the name. Coffee Meets Bagel is an example of a poorly thought out name. Tinder is an example of an exceptionally well picked name.

Questions to consider;
Who are you? What is your brand born of? Where did it come from?
What is your brand? What are its goals? How does it compare to the competition?
What does your brand do?
Who is your audience?
What is the core function of your brand?
What colors represent your brand? What colors do you want to use?
What type of logo do you want? Do you even want a logo?

Go find a logo designer. Pay them $200 bucks or so.

There, you have a brand.

I wholeheartedly believe having a strong brand image will attract more business to you. Will it allow you to work less? Maybe, maybe not. But.. you will be ahead of most of your competition since most people do terrible or no branding. And combined with a solid track record(reviews, followers, etc), this will definitely make it easier for you to get more business.

Post: #15

A good place to get a logo is Logotournament.

Post: #16

(09-14-2016 10:07 PM)duedue Wrote:  I got a month long mentorship with James Maverick a few months ago. I did that because I liked to become location independent. I'm not anywhere close to becoming location independent for reasons that I can explain but learned some stuff from the mentorship.

One of the last things he told me was this:
"When you develop the proper brand, it works for you, without you needing to work."

It makes me wonder what the last part means. Maverick himself talks quite a lot about online businesses and other projects that he's worked on but he never gives a link to any of them. So I wonder...does he himself not really work?? Roosh and Mike Chernovich have developed their brands too but I don't think they work less hard than before.

I hate the modern usage of the word "brand". In fact, most of the time is a MISusage.
Everyone and everything from the Church, charities, football clubs to the one man band is called a "brand".
By my definition its bollocks. Cadburys is a brand. Samsung is a brand etc.

But having said all that, after I started in import export, I began working with an older guy. He was one of an "inner circle" of traders in certain markets. Just mention his name around Europe and people would sit up and listen. People would look at the deal with interest because they knew i)he could see the job thro ii)he could make it sustainable iii)he was honest and would detect scams and give all parties a fair deal etc etc.

So in his case, he had a personal brand. Even if he was using shell companies for certain things and certain reasons.

Perhaps we should talk about "reputation", "identity" and the like. Because once these are built up, you can get a lot of business just because of who you are, and who you are perceived to be.