How To Get On Dave Navarro's Radar
21 May
Dave Navarro is my mentor. My friendship and working relationship with him has been the most profitable in terms of income and lessons learned.
This post takes you behind the scenes to show you how we connected and supported each other professionally over the past year. It's part interview, part podcast, part case study and 100% awesome. I'll be regularly featuring bloggers' in a similar format. If you have any suggestions of people I should feature, or stories I should expand on, let me know in the comments.
He had time to do this interview thanks to the launch of his Create Products That Sell workshop. If you're interested, you can read my review or ask questions about it in the comments.
This is my first podcast. We talked at midnight my time so I have little recollection of the conversation. My minion however, who designed the funky download buttons, said that "He's got that motivational speaker thing going on ... he makes you wanna do stuff." He did go on to say that Dave is a nerd, but I think he's just cranky 'coz Dave said his twitter handle sounded like a cat.
We spoke for half an hour about his career before he became the blogging superstar he is today. He was just like us. He struggled to find an audience and sell his products early on. He turned those lessons around and showed what you can do when you hustle and focus on learning.
It was my honor to do this interview. Even if I don't remember doing it.
The Interview
How did you network with people when you first started out?
I targeted influential people and tried to do things to help them to get on their radar. Sometimes this worked, but often I basically got taken advantage of because I was a "nobody" and they were, well, old school internet marketers. This was before blogs, so there wasn't as much promoting of other people as you have now. People were basically hammering their lists and didn't want to promote others unless they could make a killing, and I was too small a fish for that.
It all changed a few years ago as blogging became mainstream - as I helped people, they talked about me on their blogs, and that started the ball rolling.
If you could start all over again, what would you do differently?
Instead of targeting the big influencers, I'd have target smaller people who had a growing audience but still needed other people's help to get by. People who are 12 months or so away from a business that keeps working without the hustle are more able to appreciate and reward help.
I'd look for bloggers who had audiences of 500-1000 people and get tight with them, and then as they grow in power, you're taken along for the ride. (I actually cover all this in the free workbook 7 Steps To Networking Your Way To A-Listers Fast).
What are you main networking methods now?
Now that I have a larger audience I promote others on my blog via interviews. Sometimes it's with affiliate links, sometimes it's just that I like the person and I'm tying to get the word out about how great they are. It gets them good exposure (which makes networking easier) and helps establish my blog as a place to learn how other people are doing things.
If you can do this with your blog, just use it to showcase other people, that's good networking because you're asking people "can I help get the word out about you?" instead of "can you do me a favor and give me attention?"
What is one tip to make it easier for people to network with you?
Use my free workbooks and tell me about your results. I like to connect with action takers and results-getters, even if the results are small, beginner stuff. You don't have to impress me by being awesome, just show follow through and that's pretty damned impressive to me. 
What is your favourite tip for getting on someones radar.
Promote their stuff indirectly by talking about your results with their content. Basically see yourself as a case study for them because then it's exciting for them to get to know you.
We first connected over my review of How To Launch on Problogger. How did that specifically help you?
Tons, Jade, tons. It was actually my psychological "we made it" moment when I got a call from Naomi Dunford saying "We're going to be on Problogger!" That actually helped me break past a few limiting beliefs I had (I was waiting to "get bigger" later, but it finally occurred to me I was waiting for no reason).
That review continues to bring in sales, but more importantly it put you on my radar as someone to watch and get help from. You are definitely an example of the "influencers" that I talk about in the free workbook.
We worked together for the launch of More Buyers Mastermind. I was allowed to distribute review copies to selected influencers. How did that help?
That was really helpful in terms of getting affiliates on board who I didn't have time to connect with. It's going to be even more critical for the 2010 re-launch, so I'll be calling on you again.
What was helpful there too was "shortcutting" the getting-to-know-you process - instead of having to find an "in" with those people, I was able to just have you make an introduction and run with it.
I've also helped out by filtering information about who to watch and connect with. How does this technique help you?
This is great because I'm so busy creating content and running my business that I don't have time to look around and find all those "rising stars" to connect with. For anyone who's reading, you need to find someone like Jade who can help be that liaison to help connect you with affiliates.
My previous questions have focused on how specific actions have helped you. Why is it so important to give first?
Once you start getting attention, everyone wants a piece of you and everyone has demands. They want you to promote, to re-tweet, to do stuff for them, and if you don't know them or have a connection, that's just not going to happen.
When you give to people first, you show them you're not a taker. You're out to contribute to their success, and that breeds a desire to help out in turn, even if it's just with a nod in a blog entry or tweet. Every little bit helps.
The Problogger Review: A Case Study
I think I got just as much from my Problogger review as Dave and Naomi did. I was able to see the effect that one review could have on a launch and career. This may sound smug but, like Dave said above, this review helped him change his perception. Heck, it helped me change mine.
I've spoken about this review before but this case study will focus on the various ways it helped Dave get more attention. One high profile review was something that could be leveraged multiple times and create more opportunities for people to talk this product.
The banner:
I'm usually featured in the sales testimonials whenever I do a product on a top blog. It's awesome. I get to see social proof of my one piece of content around the web. To the left is an advertising banner. Dave said 'As seen on Problogger' to convey trust.
I feel a little giddy when I see that banner because I'm so proud that I did something awesome enough to be mentioned.
The sales page
It was even better to have a quote featured at the top of his sales page. I was so surprised I had to double check the review to see if he was quoting my words. This made me feel fantastic as this was my first review and I was terrified of doing it.
The Problogger Ad
I saw this graphic just above the comment section on Problogger. It was a real shock. I bookmarked the image and sent it to Dave so he could see.
See, neither of us had anything to do with this. Someone else had taken the initiative. This meant that he thought the product was that good that he wanted to draw extra attention to it.
Its hard to describe, but I love it when I'm able to pull off something like this. Dave and Darren will be working together on future products and I feel so proud that I was able to help them out.
We have both benefited from our working relationship and the opportunities that have followed since this review. I look forward to sharing more about them in the future.
More Awesomeness:
I've reviewed most of his products on my blog and highly recommend them.
- More Buyers Mastermind
- How To Launch The **** Out Of Your Ebook
- Upsell 101
- Create Products That Sell
You can access many of his 2010 workshops as part of the More Buyers Every Month Mentorship program. You can also download quality free workbooks as part of his library.
If you want the kick arse information that I don’t provide elsewhere, sign up for my Blog Networking Tip newsletter. You’ll get the secrets I don’t share on the blog plus exclusive resources and recommendations. It's kinda awesome.
One thing I've noticed about Dave is that his stuff is 100% quality. 100%. I almost bought everything he has until I realised I don't have the pipeline to execute it all at once.
Great interview(s). Very nicely done.
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I totally agree. He has good quality information but, er, I'll often sit on one of his products for months before I go through it all. I'm part of his mentorship and I like it because I can dip into the relevant stuff when I need to.
I'm glad you liked the interviews. After we stopped the call, I had a minor freak out because I struggle on phones.
I genuinely appreciate the comment.
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I've been at this blogging thing almost nine months, and the only things I've spent my money on so far is Dave's More Buyers Mastermind and the Naomi/Dave double act How To Launch The F*** Out Of Your Ebook. Consistently, he takes the Frank Kern/Jeff Walker style of product launch and internet marketing and humanises it in a refreshing, inspiring way. I have such a crazy web-crush on him it's shameful. And Jade, one day I will actually be in town to buy you a drink.
Thanks for this.
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I just bought my first product from Dave. I'm excited to dig in!
Question: when you wrote the review, did you write it AFTER launch or before launch? I want to write a review of Catherine's new product for a big-ish blog if possible, but I don't think I'll get to it before the 28th! Is is appropriate to write reviews after launch?
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I'm blog crushing on him something chronic too. Which is embarassing because we talk a fair bit (its launch time, I have to
) and like, after I finished that podcast I gushed about how much 'How To Launch' changed me.
I really like how he, as you said, humanizes stuff. However I will say that there are other awesome products out there worth buying. Dave's stuff has helped me a lot.
(Having said that, right now I can't think of anything that has had a profound affect on me but I'm kinda half asleep).
Should we be in the same town, I'll accept that drink but it has to be non alcoholic and during the daytime
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I wrote this review during the prelaunch stages. There are lots of ways you can use reviews to network and make money so be prepared for a long post.
I like to write things in the prelaunch stage so that people can quote from it on the sales page where possible, and also link to my review from their site. It helps demonstrate me as an authority and means I'm set up to make as much money from launch as possible.
However I've been sent a lot of products before the launch of a product and I just haven't had the time to review them. Thats cool.
You can write a recommendation which is what a top of top bloggers do (they don't have the time to read everything.) You can work with catherine on what to cover and even create a custom promotion for that audience. You don't have to read every product you recommend but I do because its part of my work.
I would recommend that you do it before the price goes up or while they are offering bonuses if that is part of your launch strategy. I believe this is why I've made a fair few affiliate sales of The Sticky Ebook Formula.
I've written reviews of products several months after they've launched. If you are the first person to cover it on a big blog, they are more grateful. Like, as we spoke about in this post, my Problogger review REALLY helped Dave and, from a networking perspective, gave me a career. Seriously.
If you wait though, you may have more of a chance to properly explore the product, draw comparisons between this and other products and even use yourself as a mini case study.
I hope this helps you and let me know if you want to expand on anything.
And GO YOU for supporting catherine. It was so fun doing that interview for her even if I swore at one point (shh! I don't swear... much )
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Thank you! You're awesome.
Haha, don't worry, I won't tell anyone about the swearing. I actually swear like a sailor offline, lol.
I talked to Catherine and she's not raising the price so I guess I can wait till after launch if I can't manage to get the review done and on a blog before launch. It's launching on the 28th (so soon)!
This will be my first time pitching guest posts! I will submit the review to Problogger and some other blogs for bloggers. Do you know of any other good places? I want to do a really great job with it so it has a better chance of getting accepted and helping Catherine kill it with the launch.
And thanks again, Jade! You're so helpful.
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Ok I'll be honest, I don't think a review will be accepted on Problogger. The audience is generally focused on how to make money online and while this product is helpful, and awesome, its not directly targeted. You can try but I just wanted to save you time.
You may have a similar thing with other MMO blogs as everyone releasing a product targets the same groups of bloggers and they can only highlight so many people. In these cases, its best if someone contacts catherine for an interview or guest post as the personal connection is likely to translate to more sales. If there is anyone you can facilitate that connection, that will be appreciated.
It's really admirable that you want to help Catherine kill it with this launch. I'd focus on just supporting her as much as possible. Provide a testimonial and comment regularly so there is increase social proof.
If you really want to guest post, I'd focus more on case studies and refer to the product at the end of the guest post. See, with Dave I mostly spread review copies and people were then willing to talk about it. I only did the one review and that was because the previous problogger review had made a fair bit of money.
Dudette, you can help her kill this launch but focusing on supporting her over the long term is just as good. Remember, she has other monetization methods in place that need promotion too.
It's awesome what you are trying to do though
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Hmm, I guess you're right. I thought it related to blogging, but yeah, not directly. It's not exactly a "make money online" product. Okay, thanks for knocking some sense into me!
I'm already a regular supporter of Catherine's work, but you're right, I can give her a testimonial for the product page! I didn't think about that. I just wanted to find a bigger blog for the review. I mean, I just started my blog a couple of months ago, so it's teeny tiny. I wanted the review to actually give her some results, you know? But that's okay because as you say, the niche isn't really right for those blogs!
Thanks Jade, as always
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Hmm, I guess you're right. I thought it related to blogging, but yeah, not directly. It's not exactly a "make money online" product. Okay, thanks for knocking some sense into me!
I'm already a regular supporter of Catherine's work, but you're right, I can give her a testimonial for the product page! I didn't think about that. I just wanted to find a bigger blog for the review. I mean, I just started my blog a couple of months ago, so it's teeny tiny. I wanted the review to actually give her some results, you know? But that's okay because as you say, the niche isn't really right for those blogs!
Thanks Jade, as always
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It doesn't matter that you're a small blogger. If you can do a case study of the course over a period of time, similar to what Dave did here: http://www.rockyourday.com/category/tools-i-use/ . He did a prelimary, detailed and follow up review of SEO School. I *think* I nicked this idea from the affiliate success guide available here: http://www.thelaunchcoach.com/affiliates/ . NOt too sure though
However that is great social proof.
You can talk her up to bigger blogs where appropriate. Don't spam this but you can help the bigger guys know how awesome she is. The product may not be 100% relevant to the MMO crowd but her approach is.
And, as always, lemme know if i can help you with other stuff. Ask questions on past or future posts and I'll give a detailed answer until its no longer possible to do so.
- Jade
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Dave's stuff is great. I'm almost too scared to look at his RSS feed these days because I know I'll get distracted on a tangent by all his great ideas. Still think he looks like he's trying to punch me tho ...
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these interviews are very useful
thank you
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Great podcast - I especially loved the extra ninja disclaimer on the download button. Everything - yes, even Jade Craven - is better with extra ninjas
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I'm writing something about Dave right now - about how he's gotten past the Security Guard for my brain and is able to waltz right in and do what he pleases.
Good interview Jade!
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Oh shush. Jordan - from @notaproblog - suggested it be called super awesome ninja fun time or something. I asked Bill to do the graphics and forgot he reads the @replies to me and he snuck that it then said "I couldn't fit the rest in"
That's what I love about my business
Sneak immaturity attacks.
I'll totally do a podcast with you one day but, er, I gotta figure out how.
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Thanks!
He did the same with me. I used to rarely buy but he taught me that you can be a non sleazy buyer, and as his profile has grown many others are following suit. I kinda think he's been part of a movement that changed the industry but then again, I haven't been doing this for that long (only 2-3 years) and didn't really explore much outside my micro niche in the early days.
Thanks for commenting!
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