144 – Drinking & Smoking Cigars earned $600K for Charity: Tom interviews Ed Rigsbee

Episode 144 – Ed Rigsbee
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody it's Tom here with episode 144 of screw the commute podcast I got Ed Rigsbee here knowing this guy I don't know two three hundred years something like that and I'll tell you besides his main expertise this guy has done a really really great thing in the money that he has raised for charity it's enormous amounts of money because of him and what he's put together and runs so we'll talk about that a little bit later. All right the episode 143 lets see that would have been Wednesday is Tomaz Mencinger I've known him in the tennis world and he's our first guest ever from Slovenia. And of course I teased him that probably the last one. That's of course the home of our first lady. But for twenty five years he's made a full time living doing what he loves teaching tennis and he's got online courses and all kinds of stuff. So don't miss that. Now I've got a big freebie to thank you for listening this podcast. It's my twenty seven dollar e-book how to automate your business. Just just one of the tips in this e-book has saved me over seven and a half million keystrokes. We figured it out couple years ago that's how to automate your business and there's another special white paper over there you won't want to miss. So check it out at screwthecommute.com/automatefree and while you're at it and don't do this now because you don't want to miss Ed. Check out our podcast app. It's in the iTunes store. You can also check it out at screwthecommute.com/app where we have complete instructions on how to use all the fancy features so you can take us with you on the road on your cell phone and tablet. Now if you want someone to hold your hand through online marketing and all the things you need to know to be successful in an online business or to improve the one you have. Check out my mentor program it's the longest running most successful and most unique one ever on this topic of Internet marketing has been running since around the year. I always say the turn of the century so long time and doing this I've been selling on the commercial Internet since it started in 1994. So we'd love to help you out. And it also includes a scholarship to my licensed internet marketing school it's the only one of its kind in the country and you can either use it yourself or gift it to someone else. So check everything out at greatinternetmarketingtraining.com and we also have that and all the great stuff Ed has in the show notes for episode 144.

[00:03:22] Let's bring on the main event Ed Rigsbee is one of a select and very few people on the planet to hold both a CSP will define these for you as we get going and a CAE. He has been a professional member of the National Speakers Association since 1988 and was awarded the certified speaking professional. There we go. That's CSP designation in 2000 which I am not smart enough to or organized enough to keep track of. So I don't have one of those. Ed is the ROI guy he's obsessed with helping organizations to give and receive more return on investment in everything that they do. He's the president of Rigsbee enterprises from 1981 that got started. He's recognized internationally on the topics of strategic alliance development and membership growth. He's got a bunch of books out. The art of partnering developing strategic alliances partners shift how to profit from the partnering trend. The ROI of membership. Today's missing link for explosive growth. And then I don't know if you ever hear that thing on the think with Sesame Street. Something doesn't fit kids parents and software. Which one of those doesn't quite fit. We'll have to get him to tell us about that. But back with the I mentioned his charity work. He's also the president and executive director of the Cigar PEG. It's an IRS recognized 501c3 non-profit public charity. He was kind enough to invite me to help him out in that on an occasion or two and he's just raised enormous amounts for charity so let's bring him on. Ed are you ready to screw. The commute.

[00:05:12] So so and so great. Great to catch up with you man. So tell everybody about what you do you do some international speaking and the help a lot of corporations and the companies out. So tell me all about.

[00:05:39] Sure. I got basically three legs to my stool. One leg is I speak internationally on the topic of strategic alliance development and implementation. Got three books on that. Got you know several thousand articles written on that. And in addition to that I teach trade associations and professional societies basically non-profit business leagues how to grow their membership retain their membership and become member ROI centric organizations. And then because I think it's nice to have my feet firmly planted on both sides of the fence. I also teach professional speakers and consultants how to sell to trade associations from national societies through a selling to associations intensive that I do a couple of times a year in Las Vegas. And that's my three legged stool and then the fourth thing the cigar PEG which you mentioned. Now Tom you know I'm a little ashamed of you. You didn't even mention that you're a life member of the cigar. Peg you're in the High Roller Hall of Fame because of all the money you helped us make. So I know you're a little humble but you know hey don't you know I don't know that.

[00:06:56] I'm not humble at all but I didn't really know that. I'm happy about it though now that I do so. So yeah. So tell me about the. Let's let's take a sidebar here. Tell him about the cigar peg. What's a peg. Why is it called that. And how it developed and you've been running it for a long time as far as I can remember.

[00:07:19] Yeah. This is the 20th anniversary this year. Yeah it's a bolt on to the it's a bolt on event to the National Speakers Association convention which they now call influence. Now you know what happened back in the late 90s nineteen ninety nine to be exact. Well actually the year before the NSA convention 98 they just stopped having a Monday night activity. I know they claimed it was to create a situation where people could network but the reality was they were just trying to save money. So you know all of a sudden there's a big hole in the conference.

[00:07:58] See how in demand he is there are people from all over the world are saying hey is it you on Tom's podcast.

[00:08:30] So now Tom that the telephone has been unplugged on others at all. Sorry I forgot to do that. So with cigar peg you know NSA stopped doing a free Monday night event of Sunday became a free night and then a buddy and I we were up in Banff drinking and came up with the idea let's let's create something new to kind of stir it up and PEG stands for professional experts group or professional emphasis group whoever you ask. And we just for fun started just a party and you know we like smoking cigars. My friend Grant Doyle I like smoking cigars. So we decided the cigar party and Peg. And yeah we gave although you know we'd make much money and we got a local restaurant to give us some T-shirts from a sponsor Juanita's tequila. And so we were selling the T-shirts at the convention everybody for 15 bucks if they were wearing the T-shirt. They get money off on the dinner and then they get to all the tequila shooters all night or whatever. Yeah. Even the women were buying drinks that night. And then we had this money left over we didn't know it's okay. What do we do with that. And then we thought well let's see if we give it to the speakers Foundation. They'll recognize us. Well you know finally about two three years later they did recognize us and you know fast forward you know not only have we created a event at the National Speakers Association a bolt on the community within the community that creates a heck of a lot of reason for people to come because we have the suite where you know everybody gathers at night. We have adult beverages. We do a couple other activities we do a mastermind on speaking beyond your borders but the big thing you know the crowning glory is the the big scar big party on the Monday night the free night at the convention where we auction famous people like yourself to help newer speakers. The money goes into the charity and you know all told as at the end of last year our total giving is six hundred and sixty six thousand dollars and some of that was to the NSA Foundation. A lot of it was. And the number of good amount of money was to several other medical causes that we care about. So it's we call it philanthropy through Fun and heavy stress is the fun and the philanthropy as the outcropping.

[00:11:06] Yeah. I had a nightclub for six years. Afterwards I never thought anything ever good came out of drinking. But then now I hear that this whole thing came out of kind of a drunken smoke filled stupor.

[00:11:25] Yeah well you know I mean go it go in even deeper I mean if you remember this time. You mean the speaker bureau people because Grant had the Speaker's Bureau so to speak. You know people expected speakers to pay for everything so I'm up in Canada at that time you couldn't get Cuban cigars so I bought Cuban cigars up in Canada which were probably counterfeit you know and I'm buying you know I got the cigars I bought whereby you know I having drinks that I bought and we just yapped and it we we're at Wild Bill's Saloon in Bam. And and you know it it's been a lot of work.

[00:12:05] I see all the notices you put out and all the work that takes to put it together. I mean yeah. I mean you really you have done a great thing.

[00:12:13] We spend a year to make it look like we just kind of pulled this out of our you know what. And a lot of people they go Well they just let this thing yeah. They pulled it out of the you know what. But it every year it takes us in as a year to plan for the next one. It's a fair amount of work.

[00:12:28] Well the really big big applause for that they'll tell me what a CAE is.

[00:12:34] CAE certified association executive because I love this one because I receive a small stipend from the cigar peg as the CEO manager that qualifies me for being an association executive and I didn't know that. Didn't know that until one of the American Society of Association Executives executive told me about it and they go Yeah. You know their conference one year. The ASC conference and one of the guys just on me. Yeah. You know you'd qualify. I go you're kidding. And and so I went and I said yeah go talk to so-and-so who's in charge of it and talk to her. And we went over my my history. She goes Yeah yeah. You can sit for the test and I go Wow. So I got good advice to go take a online course. I mean quite frankly I could sit for it but my knowledge was a little bit. But you know Tom spent six months busting my you know what to study study study study. Took a special trip to Michigan I mean long story short you know after six months you know take the four hour test with two hundred multiple choice questions where two questions are clearly not the answer but two questions clearly could be the answer. And it was a test not on facts but on perception and. Oh when I got through that test just like Oh my God took me all of that four hours save two minutes and lo and behold I passed that's a test I never want to have to take again. And now I am in perfect English grammar. I are one.

[00:14:22] It is because there is kind of funny sometimes as some of our members have like eight different designation behind their name and nobody knows what.

[00:14:33] Oh yeah. Well you look at Alan Weiss he's got like 17 designations but once he got his PhD he just quit using all those. Yeah. So yeah it's kind of in the association market. The CAE really matters.

[00:14:50] Exactly. You. I mean you put the work in the do it. I mean yeah you know it came came out in a weird fashion but I mean if you study it and taking the test is no small feat. So. So hey let me take you back to. You know you said you started Rigsbee enterprises in 81. Take us back. Before that you had a job anywhere.

[00:15:15] Yeah. You I get the quick one. Yeah I. I was gonna go into your time my life wasn't you know not too sure which direction I wanted to go. I ended up in Yosemite National Park working up there as the summer Assistant Manager mountaineering shop and then I got promoted to be manager. Early 20s 21 22. Twenty one probably. And at the end of the ski season you know. I guess they didn't need me anymore they decided to fire me for being obnoxious. Tom I've been fired from some of the greatest places. So at a one of my vendors had been trying to get me to come to work for him all winter and right before I left you somebody who got a hold of me and said hey you know want to come to work for me I said Yeah man I don't want to go live in San Francisco I'm to go back down to Orange County you know go back to school and figure it out because now we don't want you in San Francisco we want you down in Orange County I go oh really awesome. He says Will you at least go down there in the interview with guys and it was right on the you know his dad's co-owner and I said Yeah sure. So the interview was hey here's why you should come work for us. And I said OK I'll come work for you. Handed me a Chevron credit card gave me the keys to a 1972 Ford LTD two door four hundred cubic inch engine. I thought I was in pig heaven. Oh my God. And I took to selling, ready for this Tom. Sunglasses like a duck to water. I did that for 17 years selling sunglasses. Yeah sunglasses here in Southern California to drugstores department stores ski shops all kinds of places.

[00:16:56] Were they cheap sunglasses or fancy ones.

[00:16:58] I had both I had both you know crap and good.

[00:17:00] Because you know they have a song called cheap sunglasses.

[00:17:05] Oh yeah I heard that.

[00:17:06] Yeah yeah. You know because I came from the ski business I love the ski business so I would. I was selling more of the upper end sunglasses to ski shops in Southern California. Anybody else in the company. Because that's what I liked. And and that was kind of part of my evolution to where I am now because I started I start watching the ski Reps. They've come in new product clinics and teach people about skis. And I thought well crap why can't I do this with sunglasses and teach all the salespeople about the optics and sunglasses and you know talking about the less expensive doctor and the higher expensive my higher my higher end stuff was no name. We used to call them phoneys because they were phony Varney. Yeah a big competitor was Varney. We got to the point where I I'd walk or carry around a spectrometer that would show you know the UV the IR transmission. That really got into doing it. And you know it was pretty good at it. And you know people ask me about you know helping with sales training and then I started teaching the other sales reps how to do these product clinics. And you know this was all going on you know because the fact that the two owners went to war with each other they broke up the sunglass company the owner from the north convinced me to leave the South. You got my customers with them. They gave me a manufacturer's representative agreement. So you know they launched me in my own business and in 81 that's what I incorporated. So my Rigsbee enterprises started out as manufacturers representative firm. And over the years it morphed into a speaking consulting training firm. And then when the late late 90s in the fall of 1990 I I gone to the National Speakers Association convention and didn't let anybody from the sunglass company know it. So they they pulled my contract and let me back up. I mean why did I get into the speaking.

[00:19:08] Why did they pull your contract for just going to an event.

[00:19:16] Oh well what happened was I went back up a little bit. So in eighty four one of our sales meetings I met Patricia Fripp. She spoke at our conference and you know her. And she really impressed me and it's like man you know selling sunglasses doesn't float my boat. It just makes me money. And you know I'd really like to do that and learn what she's doing. And there was an evolution or start working more and more and more towards you know into the speaking business. Well in 1988 the the son of the owner in the north he was trying to shift the company and get it ready to be sold. So he came in and said hey either we're going to fire you or or you give up your contracts at the manufacturer's representative and come the company structure. I did came into the company structure as V.P. two years later I find myself fired to get you know. Okay well you know you went to the speaker convention. Well we had this long discussion about me morphing into that well you need to leave the company. Well you just really want to get the company organized to sell. So you know here I am nineteen ninety having to make a decision either stay in the sunglass business and go pick up a line from another company which there had several competitors out there that had already offered me jobs so that was no big deal or I could start my own company. You know I could do that too but that's not what I wanted. And I talked to my wife and said Man I really want to take a risk here. I wanna take a chance. I want to try to. Speaking business you know and I'd be really you know upset if years down the road happened and I didn't take a risk and I coulda shoulda woulda. And you know she says Well okay. Scares the crap out of me but you know that's good. So in January nineteen ninety one I launched full time my speaking business.

[00:21:05] That's about the same time I joined.

[00:21:08] Yeah right about the time we're in recession.

[00:21:11] I join National Speakers Association as a profession member in nineteen eighty eight. And so you know Tom there was this I was woefully unprepared. I was an unconscious incompetent. I had no clue what I didn't know about the speaking business and back then you remember all these people get up and pontificate all you got to do is make three calls or whatever it is all.

[00:21:42] You did you prepare like that you have money in the bank when you're doing this now.

[00:21:48] Not a lot because because I got this guy thing got thrown at me. All of a sudden you know you know the guy that you know that we're on probably a g rated channel here so I won't use the terms but this guy that was the son of the owner of the group that I was with he just became a you know what. And you know and just cut me off the legs and say you know my wife. OK. So we got together in August he flew down met me at the local airport and said Yeah I want you I want you to leave. We're done. And my wife gave birth to our second son two months later and oh yeah this thing was you know and now I wasn't prepared. You know he gave me a little bit of a severance you know so I wouldn't go go to war against him. And the severance helped. But you know Tom I didn't have a clue what I was doing.

[00:22:49] I mean yeah yeah yeah. None of us did really.

[00:22:53] So it I mean it worked. You know it worked and it probably the reason the number one reason it worked is I always remember when Michael Abuff told me in this business he said Ed persistence. It's all about persistence you know. And to make it in the business as a professional speaker I have come to our lives about persistence. I've met so many people that were better speakers than me smarter than me. But they couldn't hack it and they left the business. And 30 some odd years you know last man standing.

[00:23:31] I say the same thing when people ask me I do a lot of parkas towards the guys. What's the key to your success persistence. I just don't quit. I'll never quit. Look I'm got to keep learning and improve it. But if you quit none of that matters.

[00:23:47] Yeah. You know I I had a boss that once said you know if you're not making mistakes I don't need you but if you keep making the same mistakes I don't need you either. We need you to take a risk but we need you to learn from things that don't work and things that do work. And so I mean in the business of being a professional speaker I mean yeah. Over the years I mean try this it works OK. Do more of that. Try this it doesn't work. We're not doing much of that. And and you know I mean tastes change flavors change what's popular as far as topics change you know how meetings are changed. I mean there's a lot of evolution. And you know we have to be resilient to remain relevant. And then I've kind of morphed my career from my first got into this business as mostly speaking to retail people you know who's Rigsbee on sales and marketing. And then I morphed into you know strategic alliances because I put out one of the early books. There was only like one or two books on strategic alliances when I brought out the art of partnering. And you know now in addition to that you know coming up with the whole concept for proving the ROI of membership and actual dollars for associations I use qualitative research you know and just something new something nobody else is doing. And then you over on the side where I'm helping speakers to sell to associations. I mean I've got a complete path I just had a speaker at one of my events the other day said hey I took so-and-so and I won't mention names because we all know this person of course to get go to the business. That was great. And the person. Yeah. Go sell to associations. But he didn't tell me how. Guy comes to my intensive in two days he's got a complete road map. He goes oh now I know exactly what to do. I do a b and c and I go Yep you've got a complete road map.

[00:25:43] Speaking of that that's probably the the thing that would be most of interest. So give a couple tips. Because most of the people listen this would be small business owners. Now they might be people still working in corporations that could bring you in to speak. But for them the people listening to this give me a couple tips on selling through with the intensive courses.

[00:26:04] Yeah. I mean. So here's the interesting thing. There's a lot of reasons why somebody might want to speak at an association meeting. It could be because they want to propel their career in that industry. It might be because they are a speaker and consultant wants to get a fee. And speaking at an association meetings kind of like a paid showcase because you're getting paid a fee to speak and probably there's a lot of people in the room that you can hire or they can hire you. So if you're an entrepreneur and then you should be speaking at associations in your industry and talking about you know what you do generically and then they're just going to love you and they're going to hire you. If you're a professional speaker you know the thing is here's what you should be speaking to associations. But here's the problem. Here's here's the goal right here. So many people called the meeting planner and probably eight out of 10 times the meeting planner is only the logistics person. They're not the decision maker. So I can't tell you Tom how many years I spent. Beat my head up against the wall. Calling the wrong people calling the meeting planners oh send me your packet. Oh great. I'll send you my packet. I sent it. They probably just threw it away and then I call them up and then and they they they went like me went like me because they they made the decision maker. So what what I teach professional speakers to do or consultants anyway I said go through the back door you know don't beat your head against a block wall. So just about everybody has written articles or should be writing articles or has podcasts has some kind of content. Well I tell people call up the association editor. Not too many people are calling the association editor. Make your content available to the association at no charge. That's a relationship bank deposit with the association editor. Well the law of reciprocity basically says that if you do something for somebody there's a good chance they might do something back for you. So you know you're talking to the association editor. You make articles available. Make a relationship bank deposit and then right before you hang up use the doorknob close and request a relationship bank withdrawal say oh by the way before I let's go get a quick question. You know they're usually in a good place because you've just given them a lot of stuff for free. And sure what is it. I go Hey could you tell me who the decision maker is for selecting speakers for your events and every once while you're lucky and the editors say let's me go Oh great. Well let's talk some more. Or yeah. That's wonderful thing when that happens. Or they might say well you know you might want to talk with you know Sam Jones our meeting planner I go well is Sam Jones the logistics person or the decision maker. Well Sam's actually logistics person who's a decision maker. Well you know Susie Levitz she's our executive director. She really is one makes the decision. Oh so she makes the decision to actually go. Hey could you connect me with Susie. You know before we leave and generally. They'll connect. That's the relationship bank withdrawal. That OK. They told you they told you who the real person is that you want to talk to. And if you have an internal transfer you've got a better chance of getting through to the decision maker than an external call. So the game is. Here's the funny thing. When I do these workshops on this speaker you still get it mixed up. They still think the game is oh get my articles published. No no no. The game is use that as you ready for it. Bait. Use it as a conduit for a relationship bank deposit. Give your articles give your content give your podcast give your videos whatever whenever however you do your content it doesn't matter. Give that to the association that they can use at various places. Now you've made the relationship bank with the editor and generally the editor is going to tell you the truth. Now Tom you can find the right person to sell to instead of being frustrated as heck wasting your time you know with a logistics person a gatekeeper. You get to the decision makers so there's your goal.

[00:30:26] Yeah that is gold. I mean you just you just heard if you implemented that easily a million dollars over your career. Not even with it with a blink of an eye. Gee that's that's really really great. So how do people buy your books and all that stuff and how do you have. I know you got. Well I reached it through cigar peg website.

[00:30:54] Yeah. I've got Rigsbee.com but that's really more for the meetings industry and corporations. If you know it couple things I'll get I'll give you a couple things. Number one somebody can go to Rigsbee.com and in the top right corner in the navigation you'll you'll see article bank and you can access o probably get two hundred articles of mine. So there's a lot of content to the how tos but for people that really want help in selling to trade associations I have a Web site which you know I've only started a couple of years ago it's called sellingtoassociations.com and through that Web site I publicize my selling to associations intensive and there's a number of services that are for sale where I teach people how to position themselves so somebody can come to my my two day event in Las Vegas. Somebody can buy a private intensive they come to my house for a day somebody can buy pieces of it for a couple hours at a slot and then there's also I've got some digital products that people can can buy. So you know Tom you know. Yeah and I think what we'll do is you know I'm going to give you a code that you can give to your audience that they can get a discount off of the intensive in Las Vegas. So I'll give you that. I've been doing it twice a year. I've been having a number of people asking me if I do it more often. But you know I keep my intensive totally 10 people. So it's and it's not hugely expensive. It's you know the one coming up in the fall. It's only fifteen hundred bucks.

[00:32:59] Unless you're a gambling addict then it gets expensive really fast.

[00:33:04] Hey Las Vegas was my sales territory from about 1975 to 1990. I found out in early in the mid 70s that I'm a lousy gambler and I was spending more money gambling I was making commissions. So somewhere in the mid to late 70s I just made the decision I'm not gonna gamble. And since then not that I have any issue with it morally or anything like that I'm just crappy at it and I went you know. So I you know to this day I'm in Las Vegas all time. I just walked by them.

[00:33:40] Yeah. I never put a nickel in everything. I don't buy lottery tickets. So that's awesome. So but to be clear they don't have to be a speaker.

[00:33:52] No I mean the people that come to this that that want to use speaking at associations to propel their their legal business to propel their accountancy business to propel their you know a host of a million different kinds of businesses.

[00:34:10] So that same technique be used for somebody selling widgets.

[00:34:18] It depends on the widget. So you know like if somebody is selling financial services I'm just gonna pull that there. They may want to get into speaking and association meetings and do programs on on the power of a strong financial plan or something like that out of the air but then people will then seek them out after their talk. So I mean there's a lot of people that use speaking but not as a way to get paid to speak as much as a way to to to get clients in business. Yeah I mean those of us that are baby boomers we're now at the age where we're starting to get the least I am every I mean twice a week I get a letter from some financial planner inviting me to dinner at a steakhouse. Yeah you know listen to talk. So I mean that person is is is using speaking as a way to get clients but yes some people get in with associations a member we've got local associations you've got state associations you got regional associations you got national associations got international associations so depending on what you're selling you know whether it's a widget you know or whether it's something else if it's a widget then you want to be involved with associations that relate to the industry or something. So it you know what are they here's another million dollar tip for you Tom for anybody that's maybe a speaker or consultant. You know when I first got into speaking I mean everybody talked about get the NTPA directory which is national trade professional associations directory and you go on Amazon buy used copy for 50 bucks and people ever. Yeah I get that. It gives you the list of associations 7500 associations well 7500 associations too many. And what I teach people is in that directory you go into the subject index and here's the gold is look at the subject index there's about 400 subjects kinds of associations industries find the one that resonates with what you do find the one that you resonate with. Now let's just pull something out there. Let's say it's distribution for whatever reason you know distribution is is the place you want to play. Great. Well then look in that subject directory under wholesale distribution and you know take a picture of it or photocopy it or do whatever the heck you want but let's just say under that category there's 200 associations well go deep in one silo go deep in that silo of distribution and and don't bounce around you know like a shotgun and what what so many people. Got us back Tom when we got into the National Speakers Association late 80s early 90s it was just go out there and sell to people. No no. Target silo. You know you only do so much with a shotgun. But you know you got a sniper rifle 50 cal you can take care of what you're trying to do. And so I think that that's where a lot of people really fall apart and they don't go after one. They just go. That doesn't mean that you have to stay in that silo forever. It means once you've exhausted you know all your prospecting calls all the associations and all the state associations and all that and that silo. So then you go pick another one. But by that time you're known in that silo and and people are booking you and OK then you can pick another silo to work but people just just.

[00:38:14] Reminds me a Tom, you remember Tom.

[00:38:19] I sure do. As a matter of fact buddy of mine just ran into Tom at the Minneapolis NSA chapter meeting the other day. He sent me a note about it.

[00:38:27] But I mean it seems to me he was like a everybody on Earth in the lawn and power equipment or something. Doesn't look like the kind of guy that ever cut his own grass. Funny though. So let's sort of say it is just every place on earth in that industry knew his name.

[00:38:48] Yeah. Yeah. Tom. At 5 foot 6 with manicured finger no. Yeah I guess so. I don't know that even knows how to start a chainsaw. But but but you know he he had he had the knowledge for those people and you know there's a guy that you may or may not know his name is Steve Kasha out of. Outside of Pennsylvania Philadelphia and he's in the HVAC world and all that. And he does customer service and people kind of scoff at his material because it's very low end but all of his people are blue collar. Exactly right. He knows his market. He keeps his content applicable for his market. He doesn't try to get highfalutin half most the time he's wearing a blue denim shirt. He fits in. He knows his market. He owns his market. That's got to be no photos to Steve and people like that. Absolutely.

[00:39:45] All right. So it's sellingtoassociations.com is where you would go to really go deep and maybe pick them intensive NOW. SO WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT WORK OF YOURSELF AND WHAT'S THE WORST PART.

[00:39:57] You KNOW WHAT I REALLY like best about working by myself are for myself is I own my time. I'm responsible for both my successes and my failures. And there's really nobody to blame but me. You know I can't talk about the boss is a jerk. I can't talk about you know the boss's kid. You know this that and the other it's you know I'm I'm totally accountable. If if if I make stuff happen and it happens and I succeed you know that myself on the back if things aren't working then I have a little come to Jesus talk to myself and you know I like the fact that you know Tom little bit later today I'm going to probably go to a shooting range do a little target shooting because it's what they call senior day. I like to call it old geezers day near dead day. But you know I can do that because I choose one you know the this year I've got a lot of skiing and you know my wife decide to get back into skiing after years out of it. And and you know I'm not going to go skiing on the weekend. That's crazy too many people. So you know I took a lot of probably good four trips something like that maybe five midweek ski trips.

[00:41:09] You know what I hate about skiing. Well some little three year old kids stopped and asked me if I'm OK.

[00:41:20] Well you know Tom when when I first learned to ski there was when I worked up in Yosemite and I was the ski shop manager and I got the job because I had a retail background not because I knew anything about skiing and I thought well I should should probably learn how to ski if I'm going to be selling all this stuff. Now at this time my wife who at that time was me I think my fiance she was up there working with me and she learned to ski when she was five because she's from Austria. So you know I I I take some lessons from you know kind of grandmother teacher ski instructor and my first day out trying to ski town. I'm going down the hill and I'm going down the hill I'm going faster and I'm going faster and I couldn't remember what what Lois said about how to turn the skis stop the skies and as I'm going faster. I think a snowmobile snake that's called Mogul snakes grab my ankle and I fell and twist and turn and I'm rolling down the hill back then we had that ski breaks with ski straps. So I'm rolling down the hill. The skis are hitting the back of my head. I get to the bottom of the hill. Snow all over you know I wipe the snow off my goggles so I can see Snow's on my back. I look up the hill. Now I understand I'm on the bunny hill. So I look up there is there's at the time my fiance and now my wife she had fallen down because she was laughing so hard and she ski. She's perfect perfect color scheme she skis down drag down to me and fix the back of her skis at me which you know there is no snow in your face. And and I was so indignant. I mean I could have been a hero and got up and tried it again but I wasn't the hero that I stopped off the mountain. My first job my first experience actually skiing on my own wasn't a great one but you know I mean you know I got and tried it again and tried to be and went back to Lois's class and by the way Lois's class was the kindergarten class. There's me kindergartner kindergarten. That's a little embarrassing too but you know it worked out and now you go and all these years I've been skiing for oh god forty five years or so. And you know I'm I'm pretty ok now.

[00:43:31] So we got to take a brief sponsor break and we come back we're going to ask Ed what's a typical day look like for him and how he stays motivated. So folks back around the year 2000 I kind of turned the Internet marketing world on its head. People like me were charging 50 or 100 thousand dollars upfront to teach what we knew. Clueless business people who pretty much refused to learn on their own. But I'm a small business advocate and I knew many small businesses could never afford that kind of money upfront. So I made all the gurus mad by charging a relatively small entry fee to my program that also got a percentage of profits that was capped. So you're not stuck with me forever. So. So for me to get my big money you have to make way bigger money and plus you know I'm not going to disappear on you because I won't get any of my money. So. So I even took it a step further I bought this big estate home. Got a TV studio in it. Then as part of a yearlong training program you come and actually stay in my house for an immersion weekend. No one's ever done this in this field ever. So if you if you want that kind of handholding and somebody that's actually been there and done that check out greatinternetmarketingtraining.com of course that'll be in the show notes. This is Episode 144.

[00:44:58] All right. Let's get back to our main event. Ed Rigsbee is here. And Ed what's a typical day look like for you. What time you get up do you eat exercise. What's the what's that.

[00:45:08] Well how is it a typical day for me. Now I understand that I've got a little bit of extra motivation here because my wife still works. She works at. And as soon as I say it you're going to say Oh I love that place. She works at Trader Joe's. Oh and everybody loves that place. I'm in. And she's crew member there she goes. She has fun. You know she says it's like they pay her to go have fun. OK. And so she's you know they're in the market so she's up early. So I'm usually up pretty early you know 5:00 ish and sometimes a little sooner sometimes later you know give her a kiss goodbye. And you know generally I'm at my desk by about 7:00 and in working generally it depends. But a lot of times I'm making East Coast calls around 7 8 ish and making calls to other associations of a little bit later.

[00:46:07] I know you immerse yourself because I called you up and said Hey we're supposed to be on in a half hour. What.

[00:46:14] Well yeah yeah. That is a little challenge of mine. I mean the separate cigar peg email. I don't check that as much as I should I. To my chagrin sometimes but. But yeah. No I'm up and. And so like you know a typical day I'm I'm you know.

[00:46:33] Oh yeah. Because you're in the West Coast. Oh well yeah. It's already we're in our day already. Yeah. Well you're getting up. Yeah yeah. It's lunch almost. So you got to get busy.

[00:46:45] You know have a little breakfast and then you know my son when he was going to college you got busted for having a cat. So we have his cat 10 years later still. So I have to brush the cat for a while or the cat's all over me but then I'm at my desk seven ish and it depends. I mean sometimes I'll work till noon. Sometimes I'll work all day. It depends on what the workload is. If I'm working on. a program or budget yesterday as an example I was putting together a digital product for my selling to associations intensive Web site and was a digital product. Which is a list of all the societies of Association Executives in the US and international. And I was really engaged in putting that thing together and it was a fun thing to do. And it gave me a chance to update some of my records. And you know I don't know. Around 4:00. I finally got it uploaded and it's like OK I'm done for the day and you know my wife is home doing whatever she's doing right now. Had a glass of wine with her. That kind of was it. Some days I'll. Do a lot of going out and doing things with Speaker friends. I do now a lot of coaching. I do also a video show Raw and edited for association executives. I've interviewed people on that and you know I love to target shot. All kinds of stuff. Everything from 22 to twenty five to nine millimeter to forty five I gave away my three eighties to my older son because Buddy mind that's a retired LAPD cop he told me interesting thing is that you know his name's Marty. He said you know my dad would never give me any of his guns. He would go buy me one if I wanted but he wouldn't give it to me. He said you know what it meant so much more to me if you would've given it to me when he's alive. And so fascinating. So I've got two sons they're adults and I've been divesting various things. Just giving them to my kids you know while I'm still alive you know. I mean don't get me wrong I'm a pack rat. I've got a garage full of crap that I'm going to let them clean when I croak. But you know that that's that's the price I have to pay. But it's kind of giving them things. So I gave my both my three eighties to my old son and my 357 and gave it to my younger son. And so you know it's fun Tom because I'm at a place now especially where you know I'm comfortable enough with who I am what I do I'm comfortable and comfortable enough with the income flow that you know I still work. I enjoy it. I have a lot of fun doing it. I mean I'm motivated I mean more so than ever before. It's funny. I don't really understand why. Maybe it's because I don't have to do it maybe because I just want to do it. That's what.

[00:49:47] Beautiful beautiful story and I was just thinking you know I'm always looking at the weird side of things. Wouldn't that be the ultimate irony if you gave your sons the guns and that's what they shot you with.

[00:50:02] Yeah. You know Tom that's fascinating you know. Well you know him. Let's face it there's gonna be a time. OK. When when my son's probably tell me Hey Pop it's time to give. Yes or no. I'm sure there's gonna be time in my life when the sun's gonna say Pop. It's time to turn over your guns. You know I just hope that's not going to come next week.

[00:50:28] Oh that was I'll tell you what. How traumatic that was with my dad. You know I was in his 90s being kept trying to drive all the time and he was like Mr. Magoo. He couldn't see he's like huddled over the steering wheel. And you know what he actually said he said. They're young. Let them see me. So I think we're going to all be living longer nowadays.

[00:50:55] Yeah. Hey Tom do you think that people listening to podcasts know who Mr. Magoo is.

[00:50:59] Probably not. Oh they'll have to go look it up. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's too funny. That's incredible. So thanks so much for coming on that and I didn't know you were a sunglass salesman. Geez.

[00:51:15] Here's a fun one for you. I left the sunglasses business in 1990 but I kept like three million samples and I still are wearing sunglasses from that era.

[00:51:29] Can I ask you about that. Yeah. They're probably worth more now.

[00:51:34] Oh yeah. Well the fun tidbit because I used to also sell Ray Ban. So a lot of pharmacies. Yeah. Some of these little towns. Yeah I'd swap out the old Ray bands and the old American optical for new things. Well I never turned all that stuff down. I just held onto it and sat up like my wife wears vintage American optical sunglasses Ray Ban sunglasses. Did you just can't get any more and back now all the rain man sunglasses we're not gold plated. They were gold filled. And so you know my wife loves the fact you know because probably about 10 years ago I started breaking those out and getting and my sons all through growing up. They always had all these cool sunglasses and and you know it's you know I'm I'm now out on the slopes I'm I'm really awesome because I've got the retro sunglasses new glasses that just were in my box that I've had for 30 years.

[00:52:27] And they're probably actually an asset because I'm sure they're collectibles. You know be collectibles if you wrote them up on ebay.

[00:52:35] Oh yeah. You know but but I could probably sell them from for a lot but they're worth more to me.

[00:52:42] You know you had the 300 pair.

[00:52:46] Well I don't know. I didn't have several hundred pair back in 1990 but today I'm probably down to about 50 pair.

[00:52:54] Well I'll see you in Virginia. We have to pay personal property tax. I wouldn't tell anybody out of here. Everything you owe and you have to just pay a tax just for owning it like that.

[00:53:09] Is that the People's Republic of Virginia.

[00:53:12] But the no fun to see those bills for eight hundred dollars they had to pay Drove my Chevy Suburban just poor again. No. Just yeah I guess eight hundred eight dollars just to own the vehicle.

[00:53:25] So I see why people were moving some of the other.

[00:53:27] Well you know Tom I thought we were getting hosed here in California.

[00:53:30] Oh yeah you are. I wouldn't I wouldn't kill myself.

[00:53:33] Better get out of that but we're not paying we're not paying an excise tax on on on on property.

[00:53:39] Well I wouldn't know I wouldn't be allowed to take my guns to California. You know maybe throwing away all my magazines and get all that.

[00:53:46] Well you know some. Yeah. It's here's the fine law. It's if you moved to California you can bring your guns with you. Stupid law that no new models can be sold in the state until the manufacturers put a micro stamp on the fire and then that would it would stamp the primer of the bullet with the serial number. There's no technology that can do that. But in California they have a law saying that all new models of guns. So. So there's a lot of new guns that we can't get in California that if you had those in you move to California not only could you legally bring them here but you could sell them for probably help a lot more than they're worth in Virginia because you can't get them here in California.

[00:54:34] It seems like they would be asking for people to bring all the guns they don't want to California that they don't really want there the high capacity.

[00:54:45] Now we got a new law. In California that's going to go in effect in a couple of weeks. July 1 that now you're going to have to get a certificate from the depart from the California State Department of Justice just to buy ammunition.

[00:54:58] I saw that I saw that on and you ready for this.

[00:55:01] If you don't have a gun registered to you in that caliber and you want to buy caliber ammunition to caliber different than you have a gun registered to you then you have to get a 19 dollar. Department of Justice permit. We have gone loco.

[00:55:18] Well did you hear. Did you hear the statistics I heard about U-Haul in California.

[00:55:23] No what is it. A gazillion going out.

[00:55:26] Yeah exactly. Yeah it's supposed to be like two 300 bucks to go from Vegas to California but by thousands to get UHaul to come out of California because they're not here not there.

[00:55:39] Oh yeah. I believe. Yeah. Yeah. You know. Well you know this is may be politically incorrect to say but you know in the early eighteen hundreds you know the United States stole or won California from Mexico and in from the mid last century to today Mexico's slowly one person at a time taking it back.

[00:56:06] And they get free health care to do it.

[00:56:09] Yeah. But you don't look at all the nay all the street names are mostly in Spanish. So you know we're ready for Mexico to take California back.

[00:56:17] Well we'll we'll wave goodbye to you or you'll get hurt. So thanks so much for coming on man. Appreciate it. So what action we're going to send people over to sellingtoassociations.com to get ahold of you. All right. Hey everybody we'll see you on the next episode of screw the commute podcast. See ya later.

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