Here is why I left Stompernet
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While writing this article, I had a very serious realization. Working for StomperNet took me away from what I love to do.
I need to be in the trenches, figuring out new ways to attract visitors. I need to be helping people with my software and my knowledge, because nobody “gets” traffic like I do. I need to have the time to focus on my family and my customers. Read the article and I’m sure it will make sense to you:
Your Inner Circle – Creating The Ultimate Group Of Your Best Customers.
By: Ross Goldberg
Before we dig into what this is about, I must issue a warning: This idea is best applied to info marketers and consultants. It will be difficult to apply for those that have physical product businesses, but I’d love to hear about it if you figure out a way to apply it for physical products.
While at a seminar in Vegas, I became a bit irritated with where my bank account was sitting. I had a bunch of payments that I was owed and they hadn’t arrived on time. With the economy in the crapper, late payments had become very common… Instead of chasing money, I decided to take it upon myself to do something about it.
A quick aside: My main fault in building my business has always been list building. My customer and prospect list is hovering right around 6,000 Thankfully, my customers love me and the list is fairly responsive due to my ridiculous nature. Over the 4 years I’ve been teaching, I’ve lost about 40,000 subscribers, but the ones that I’ve kept seem to like me. The bigger your list, the easier this is going to be to pull off.
I made just under $10,000 in 48 hours with no sales letter.
I know that’s not as impressive as some of the “million dollar days” that have happened in “Internet Marketing”, but there were some interesting pieces of what happened that make it pretty cool:
This came from a quick idea during a 5 minute conversation with some new friends.
It took 15 minutes to setup.
I didn’t even use a single web page, blog post, or tweet to make it happen.
I created something that helped me and a small group of my customers at the same time.
If that sounds appealing to you, please, read on. I’m going to give you everything that you need to do exactly what I did.
The idea was to create my “Inner Circle”. I would give my customers an offer that appeared to be totally in their favor, but actually would be of a massive help to me, too.
The process was simple.
1. Send an email describing what I was doing.
2. Request a response in essay/survey format to “apply” to my new program.
3. Send them a response with directions.
Here is the exact email that I sent:
Subject: Urgent – From Ross
Many of you have been asking for this for over a year.
A way for you to get personal help from me without a spending a fortune.
No need to beat around the bush here…
I want to coach you for the next six months.
I want you to get every product I create.
I’m going to help you DESTROY every barrier you’re currently facing.
Plus, it’s going to be for only 5% of my standard coaching fees.
The catch is that you must qualify and move very quickly – I’m only going to be able to take 10 people into this program, as we’ll have a lot of interaction.
If this sounds like something you’d like to find out more about, I need you to submit a support ticket to (my help desk link was here)
Here are the questions that I’d like you to answer:
What markets are you in?
How long have you been doing this?
Are you technically capable?
What kind of online presence do you have? (websites, blogs, social media)
Most importantly: Why you feel we would work well together.
I look forward to working with you!
Ross Goldberg
The responses that I got were amazing I had 16 people apply and had only planned on accepting 10. Two of the responses were ridiculous, so I sent them special custom messages pushing them away from the program. I sent the rest of them this:
First of all, I want to thank you for moving fast. Action is the most important part of this program and you’ve shown me that you’re capable of taking action.
You’ve been selected to join my Immortal Coaching Program!
You’ll be getting from me:
1 15 – 20 min. call per week.
1 group Mastermind call with other members where we all help each other every other week.
Every product I release in the next 6 months (I have a script coming out that will sell for $297 that is going to have a massive impact)
I’m excited to be working with you and will be giving you a call this weekend while I’m in Vegas to welcome you and let you know how this is going to work.
Please send $597 (one time payment, no recurring bills) via paypal to (removed my paypal email so you don’t try to sign up 
and respond with your phone number, so I can call you as soon as possible.
Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks!
Ross
I had prewritten this response and outside of a few special people, I didn’t add anything to it at all. All I had to do was select it from a dropdown window as a response in my help desk.
Out of the 16 that responded, 12 signed up for the program. One of the people that signed up was one of the original two that I tried to steer away. Out of the total people that indicated interest in the program, 75% of them ended up signing up and paying me as fast as they could to be a part of this program.
The original goal in creating this program was to create a “bug testing” group that would be able to go through my new software and info products to find any errors I might have made and improve them before I put them up and sold them to my customers.
However, something crazy happened immediately after I released this program that made it impossible for me to honor my responsibility with this group. I met Brad Fallon…
Within weeks, I was working double time for StomperNet to help with the new version of the company and release to the public.
So… Instead of releasing a new product every month, I released only one new product in the last 6 months I still opened up my toll free number to my group every Friday that I was home and not in Atlanta at Stomper headquarters. The mastermind calls never did come together, but the group could have gotten on the phone without me pretty easily.
Out of the 12 people that joined the program, I never heard from 4 of them via the phone at all. Another 4 of them called 4 times or less throughout the entire length of the program. The other 4 contacted me sometimes just to say “Hi” and let me know that they were taking action and moving forward on things I’d told them to do or work on.
I setup a social network on Ning for them to interact and was impressed that 6 of the members were checking in on an almost daily basis and they all helped each other quite a bit.
So, this program ended just about a week ago.
I decided to test out something on this wonderful group of my customers. Instead of letting them know how insanely proud I am of their accomplishments over the last 6 months, I focused on the one thing that nearly every one of them did wrong.
I gave them free reign to contact me once a week and after about 90 days of me letting them know that I was busy with Stomper stuff, most of them stopped contacting me completely. The only time I heard from them was when it was an emergency and they absolutely had to get my help.
The truth is that I am lucky to have had this amazing group of smart people that were understanding enough to give me a break when I wasn’t able to fulfill each of my promises. Did they get $597 worth of value? DEFINITELY. Did they get everything I promised? Nope…
Their responses to my disappointment was (except for one of them) not angry at all. They all stuck up for me to each other. Talking up their interactions with me as if I was a saint.
The truth is that I dropped the ball more than once and they still said “Thank You”.
What they don’t know is that they’re getting a new offering of mine that’s valued at $997 to make up for me not being able to provide everything that I promised (I guess they’ll know now).
Any of you can literally swipe this entire program from me with the two simple pieces of it. You end up with a group of your best customers that you’ll be able to interact with, learn from, and help more than you can imagine.
If you ever end up in a situation like I did, where you aren’t able to follow through on your promises, it’s your responsibility to go above and beyond to ensure that you make up for it 150%. Your customers will love you for it.
If you’d like to get on the early notification list for my new one (coming out soon) – Become a Traffic Magnet
Can’t wait to see how the next page of your book turns out! Good luck! But, you don’t need it.
Hi Ross,
Will you provide the new version of the Revolution software to existing customers?
Nice to hear that you’re in the driver seat once again!
Thanks Matt!
Morten,
Hundreds of hours of work have gone into the Adobe Air version of the Revolution. Previous customers will get a discount, but with all of the updates we have planned the new version is going to be a low monthly cost.
I will definitely be giving a discount to previous customers.
Ross
Glad you left and are back on your own, Ross. Best move you could make, IMHO.
All the best,
Scott
Congratulations on both a really wise decision AND getting back to the true Ross, bro – you have far too much to offer to have it filtered through anyone else!
REALLY looking forward to ‘Ross 2.0′!
Ross,
Wondered what happened to you but figured you were up to something; I didn’t know your were full time with StomperNet.
Look forward to the Revolution updates.
Welcome back!
David
Ahhh! Glad to have “The Immortal One” back on track!
Looking forward to seeing what you have up your sleeves this chapter and watching you flourish and reach more of your personal goals and dreams.
Congrats man!
Scott and Doug – I agree.
David – You didn’t notice that I was mentioning StomperNet in every email I sent
I’m focused – look out world!
Ross
There’s no better feeling than quitting your job, welcome back!
Getting back to your customers, eh?
I bet it has NOTHING to do with this:
http://www.marketing-ideas.org/Stompernet-Exposed.php
Sounds like you have a great plan.
Nice to hear from you again.
As one of the original beta testers of the Revolution software, I will be looking forward to the update.
Rock on!
Clay
Good to hear you’ve got Stompernet out of your system.. you’re too good a man to be held back.
Actually Markus, it didn’t.
In fact, I contacted you regarding your negative statements concerning me on that very page. Our email exchange was very short and simple.
I went in with a full awareness of all of the different things that have been posted on the web. Many of the people owed money are my friends. My hope was to be able to turn things around, but some decisions (that I would not have made) were already in place when I arrived.
I did everything I could to impact the future of StomperNet including writing a sales letter that brought in nearly 2,000 new members, adding 7 faculty members to their roster, and creating a program for new members from scratch. In the end, I found myself applying my time to things that didn’t interest me at all.
It’s also an issue of my personal well being. I need to create time to take care of myself and my family and that didn’t exist when I was working for them and attempting to do my own thing with my business. It gave me a very clear indication that it was time to go.
As far as what everyone thinks, the general public will never know the 100% truth behind many internet marketers. I’ve had to send money to one a few months back that didn’t have enough money for food. Another one is looking to re-emerge and is getting my help. He’s never had to market anything on his own without JV partners and it’s a whole new world to him. I won’t ever reveal who these people are because both situations are nobody’s business (that includes behind-the-scenes stories about StomperNet).
I’m pretty sure that neither of those stories will ever end up being public knowledge and nobody knows the whole truth about all that’s gone on with StomperNet except for Brad and Andy.
I wish StomperNet the best and have moved on without any negative feelings toward the company. It was simply time for me to go back to doing what I love.
Ross
I’ve deleted your second comment Markus as this isn’t the place for it.
Thanks,
Ross
Put it back up or I exposed you, Ross.
Choice is yours.
Welcome back, Ross!
It’s awesome when you can step back and reevaluate your activities based on your life priorities. That’s why I still haven’t been on a plane yet in 2010. Being home for my very young children is important to me — just like I know being with your kids is important to you.
Kudos to getting back to doing what you love. And maybe helping someone who has no business ever learning IM techie stuff?
Your friend,
Felicia Slattery
I’ve happily exposed myself on more than one occasion. There’s nothing left.
That’s the joy of being transparent.
If you’d like to renew your battle with StomperNet Markus, that’s fine. This blog post is about me, not them.
Feel free to post whatever you want on your sites, but this blog belongs to me and I won’t have negative comments about anyone here.
Ross
Very glad to see you’re taking care of your core needs…no matter how it’s presented, working for others always poses limitations one one’s time, skills, energy, etc.
I may be going through a ‘skinny’ phase right now, but having these last few months to work on my own projects has been priceless and the impending payoff far greater than anything I could have/would have done if I still had a 9-5.
Long may you run, my brother!
Glad to see you’ve found your focus for 2010. I hope things work out for you, as I know they will.
Take Care
–Rick
Hi Ross,
Glad you are back, bro! Perhaps you can get back to those wonderful online seminars?
Either way I wish you luck on your new direction, as I too need some as I am planning to actually do something with myself online! Getting focused and getting it done…
To your success,
-Jeff
Hi Ross,
Welcome back! We missed you, but we saw Stomper as a great INTERIM opportunity for you. New ideas, new people, etc. to percolate in your “black box.”
Now ALL will benefit from your experience, as that brilliant mind of yours creatively intertwines new ideas and “wrinkles” into the leading-edge software and techniques you’ll be providing. It’s time to “have you home.”
Great move for you personally to return, and it’s great for your customers. We love you and appreciate you! Say “hi” to Jaime.
Blessings, my friend,
Margaret
Rock on Ross!
I wish you the best of luck. Stay in touch, and let me know if you need anything bro.
–Joey
Welcome back Ross
Anyone customer inside SN knows how damn hard Ross worked supporting his material and tools.
G’luck on the outside Ross, but you are a productivity machine thus luck doesn’t play into it.
To SN bashers like Markus, what matters is the value members receive – if they have the time to take advantage of SN, they receive incredible value.
Very little could convince me to participate on a free forum these days, yet I answer questions in SN on an almost daily basis.
I don’t get paid to do so (though as an affiliate I did qualify for access), but I know the members are serious about their business and a higher percentage will implement changes based on advice given.
I can understand bashing if customers are being ripped off, but that isn’t the case that I am aware of.
You know I got scammed by my car dealer? He didn’t tell me that I had to fill it with gas to get it to go anywhere
Ross,
You are the poster-child for “TRANSPARENCY”
Your customers who love you, really love, because of your straight-forward style and great products.
Keep providing excellent value!
Sherrie
Wrote an article about you “Ross Goldberg The King Of Traffic.” Maybe should have done a trackback but never did one yet-must learn. Good luck on leaving Stompernet and forging ahead to new things.
Welcome back, Ross!
Looking forward to see your next moves.
Best of luck. We love you and your sincerety.
Welcome back Ross
Best of luck.