Years ago, I received a phone call from a famous real estate info marketing guru who invited me to do my mentalism show followed by a platform sales presentation to sell my course on sales and persuasion.

This was a massive opportunity for me. His audience was large and made up of trained buyers.

The one caveat was I had to have enough product on hand to fill the demand. This is smart because you will make more sales when the product you’re selling is actually in the back of the room.

My cocky self ordered a LOT of product. So much so that it had to be sent on a pallet. “No problem. I am going to clean up,” I thought. And I started counting the money in my head.

Fast forward to the day I am presenting.

I walked into the room, and it is packed with enthusiastic people. Perfect. These people are fired up to buy!

Then I see a poster gives me a sinking feeling in my stomach.

It is for a hypnotist who I know is a killer closer. He had done his show the night before, and he did his pitch before mine. Guess what he sold.? Righto, a course on sales and persuasion.

Now it was time for me to speak. Because I wasn’t very good, the event organizer gave me the worst slot which is right before dinner after a long day.

The organizer went on stage; I presume to introduce me.

Instead, he talked about how there will be a break and told everyone that the dinner is black tie so leave enough time to get dressed.

Huh?

People start to get up to leave so young Dave runs down the center aisle and tries to get the organizers attention. This is NOT the best positioning!

Fortunately, I do get his attention, and he remembers that I’m speaking. He grabs the mic and tells everyone that there is one more speaker, his name is Dave Dee, and he is going to do some “magic tricks and stuff.”

WORSE-POSITIONING-EVER.

Some of the crowd stayed; a lot walked out.

I start my presentation where I try to combine mentalism entertainment with a pitch. I can feel it is not going well and I wasn’t seasoned enough to do anything about it.

I did my close, and there was a trickle of folks who went to the back table to buy.

When the dust cleared, I think I sold 20 units at $997 each. After my 60/40 split in the organizer’s favor, I end up losing money and have to pay to ship a pallet heaped with product back to Atlanta.

I go to my room devastated. Confidence shattered. I wonder, “Should I even be in this game?”

Then I began to analyze everything I did wrong and vow that something like this would never happen again.

Tomorrow, I’ll share with you what I learned so you’ll never have to experience a horror show as I did.

Adios, for now.

Dave “There Is A Happy Ending” Dee