Mastering email targeting and creating authentic human connections online isn’t just about collecting addresses; it’s about building real relationships, just like navigating the dating scene. In this episode, we dive deep with AJ Vassar, a true master of lead generation and business problem-solving, as he shares his unique approach to attracting the right clients and crafting compelling email campaigns that resonate. We explore AJ’s journey from Atlanta to Colombia, his insights on mortality motivation, and how he’s built his “Legion ATM” strategy, focusing on earning attention and time before earning money. AJ also breaks down the importance of market research, surveys, and understanding the “problem-solution sequence” to truly connect with your audience, plus, some hilarious dating analogies that’ll make you rethink your email strategy. Join us for a candid conversation packed with actionable advice and a whole lot of personality as we uncover the secrets to building genuine relationships and driving results through thoughtful email marketing.
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Unlocking Profits Through Problems: AJ Vassar On Funnels, Surveys, And Human Connection
Welcome to Promote Profit Publish. I’m your host, Juliet Clark. Our guest is AJ Vassar. We’re going to be discussing something a little bit different, and a lot of people out there are struggling with how to get leads. We’re going to be talking with him about how we get leads with email. I’m actually using his company for this, so full disclosure on that. I know that it does work.
Before we get started, I want to remind you that this coming Friday at 9:00 AM, Mountain Time, Jared Rosen from DreamSculpt will be talking to us about Magic Marketing with video book trailers. For all of you out there, if you’re struggling and you need a book trailer, this is a great way to start getting pre-promotion out there. It’s evergreen. You can use it forever. If you want to get on board and you’re all about this, I encourage you to go over to bamagtraining.com and get yourself registered.
AJ Vassar is an international speaker, transformational hacker, and trainer. AJ speaks from experience when he talks on the stage. He has used mental hacking techniques to go from being homeless and sleeping in his car for three months to giving six cars away to people who were less fortunate over a two-year period. He captivates the audience with simple-to-understand mental hacks to transform nearly any situation in your life.
His studies in neuroscience, quantum physics, and epigenetics, as well as humor, have enabled him to not only connect and deliver powerful speeches but also to improve in terms of your audience. Why is this so important? I love that he uses these mental hacks to write the emails that we’re going to talk about. This is so important that you reach out and grab that emotional connection. Stay tuned for AJ.
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Welcome. How are you doing, AJ?
I’m doing phenomenal. I live in paradise, so I’m always good.
Tell my audience where you live, so they know where you live in paradise, because you do. I can’t wait to go down there and see it. I’ve seen pictures all over the place of people moving down to Colombia.
From Corporate Job To Colombian Paradise
I live in Medellín, Colombia, and I call it paradise because it stays between 60 and 80 degrees all year round. Since I’ve been here, I don’t think it’s been hotter than 81, and I’ve never felt 59. I have been in heaven.
Does it rain a lot? Is it very tropical?
They do have a rainy season, but to me, it rains like Florida. In Florida in the summer, it’ll rain for an hour or two, and then you won’t even know it rained all day. That’s how it is down here. It’ll rain. It was raining this morning. There’s no sign that it rained. It does have a rainy season, but even rain is beautiful because I’m surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains, so I get to see the rain come in over the mountains.
All the fog and stuff like that right out here. I can’t see them, but the mountains are usually there. It’s raining, so there’s a lot of fog, but same thing. Usually, there are mountains. There are peaks. It’s rolling in. It’s beautiful.
It is, and because this is such a huge valley, I have friends that stay on the other side of the valley, and I’ll call them and be like, “You’re all getting hit over there,” because it’ll be totally dry where I am, but I can literally see the thunderstorm, so it’s beautiful.
That is so funny. I moved to the other side of town, and believe it or not, it’s not that far away. It’s 5 to 10 degrees warmer over here. I used to be up against the mountain, and does it do this? I’m so curious. Here, we have this phenomenon. It’ll be 100 degrees out, and it’ll hail, like big hail right up against that mountain.
Nope, we do not get any hail. The only thing I’ve ever seen is thunder and lightning. That’s it.
The day we moved, we heard all this beating. We’re like, “What’s going on?” We opened the windows as we were moving, and there was golf ball-sized hail coming down. We’re like, “Wait, we came from California. What’s going on? How is that even possible?” Tell me, how did you get to Colombia? Where have you been, and how did you get to what you’re doing?
I moved to Colombia several years ago. I left Atlanta, Georgia. I went through a growing season in Atlanta. I went from sleeping in my car for some months, turning my life around, and giving over for a two-year period from 2016 to 2018. I was able to give away six cars, and I did that because when I felt I had nothing, I still had a car. How I ended up in Colombia is because of what I call mortality motivation. I went to Trinidad and Tobago for a speaking engagement, and I always like to go where the locals are because I want to see the authentic living.
The guy took me to one of the poorest places in Trinidad, and it was heartbreaking. I experienced poverty for the first time, real poverty, and it changed my life because although they had next to nothing, they were so happy, and they were so joyful and accommodating. It made me think about where I was coming from in the US. We had so much in Atlanta. People were so miserable and depressed, and it started bothering me. One day, when I was at my desk in my corporate job, and I finally started making six figures that year, I was like, “I thought six figures would feel different than this.”
It wasn’t what I thought it would feel like. I remember sitting there, and it hit me. You know your father passed away at 49 years old, and at the time, I was 36. If you die at his same age, you have fourteen more summers. That was the mortality motivation. I wonder if he was waiting around until he retired to live, and I made a plan that day. Eleven months later, I was in Colombia.
That’s crazy. I remember my dad saying one time that nobody in his family lived past 57, and he was always worried about that. He lived to be 73, but my mom and dad both died at 73, so now I’m the same. Do I have nine years to live?
Exactly, but it’s real. Once your parents leave at that age, it makes you focus on that age. When I was younger, 49 seemed old, but at 36, 49 is young.
Mastering The Lead Generation ATM: Unlocking Business Growth
I wonder about the health, because my dad’s mom lived to be almost 80, so you never know. You have to always have that mortality mentality on it. Now, you’re in Colombia. What are you doing there, because I know you’re going to be helping me with some email targeting? Can you talk a little bit about that? How did you get in there? How did you figure that all out besides all of that Russell Brunson behind you?
Initially, people started wanting to know how I was able to leave the country and be in Colombia and not have to work a job. This was pre-COVID. This was pre-PPP loans and all of that. I started creating digital assets, so I started creating courses and different things like that, that I would sell to people. I thought I was going to be doing that forever, but what I started realizing was that everybody I would work with to help them, it would always go back to the essential thing. I have this creativity, but now I don’t have any leads to sell. I think business is all about solving problems. Once I see that everybody is having the same dilemma, how can I fix that?
I created what I call the lead gen ATM, and I think all of us are trying to get money from our clients, which is good. That’s the M on the ATM, but first we have to earn their attention, then we have to earn their time, and then we earn their money. Money is a byproduct of us earning their attention and time, so I started getting good at figuring out how to get their attention. How could I earn their time? Once I was able to do that for myself, I started doing it for others, and then it became a situation of, “This is working. Let’s keep doing it.”
Money is just a byproduct of us earning their attention. Share on XI love that. Sometimes, the self-taught stuff and figuring it out, did you get frustrated along the way? I always get super frustrated because of the tech and all that.
I get very frustrated. I’m not a tech person at all, so a lot of this stuff was hard for me. I remember watching a YouTube video when I was figuring out how to do funnels. “I’ll create a funnel in fifteen minutes.” I went along and did everything they did. It took me two and a half hours, and I’m like, “How did that fifteen-minute video take me two and a half hours?” It was cool learning it, but that’s the thing. Once you learn it, you’ve learned it. I’m willing to put the time in, and no matter how frustrated I get, I know on the other side, there are going to be wins. For me, once I figure out a solution, I know I can help people.
Going through a funnel, I think a lot of times people don’t understand. People bring them to me occasionally. They’ll say, “This isn’t working. Somebody designed this for me, and it isn’t working,” and they want to throw the baby out with the bath water. Do you do that a lot, where you go through, reverse engineer the funnel, and figure out what the problem is?
Always. One of our problems is calling the funnel. That’s part of the problem. Language matters a lot. When we think about a funnel, we think, “You come in here, we’re going to get you down to where you come out, and I’m going to get some salespeople.” We need to look at it more as our client journey. Instead of a funnel, it’s their journey, and for some people, it’s like any journey. If you were coming to Colombia, you may stay in Colombia for three days, three months, three years, and then you go somewhere else, but you have to know how to guide them at each part of the journey to where they’re getting value.
You’re helping them solve a problem, and then you’re moving them on once the problem is solved. For me, a lot of times when I’m working with clients, and this will be something good for your audience, I always think of things from a problem-solution sequence. For every problem that I solve, I know that I’m creating 3 to 5 other problems by solving that.
Solving one problem often creates three to five more. Share on XI never thought of it that way. You are, aren’t you?
If you understand your business, business becomes a lot easier, and you understand what to give away at each point to solve problems, because it’s not a problem. For me, a lot of times, I’ll give away 100 leads. “Here are 100 leads.” People are like, “Why would you give away 100 leads?” I’m always thinking, if anybody needs leads, more than likely, they also need a CRM. They also need the email strategy behind it. They also need the nurturing campaign. They also probably need to know how to sell. They need to know how to capture attention, and they need to know how to capture their time. From that problem, there are six problems I can solve.
Market Research Mastery: Surveys, Avatars, And Avoiding Business Malpractice
That is interesting because the other thing that I find with the funnels a lot is that if your avatar isn’t refined, and that’s one thing that people don’t get down fine, that funnel is probably not going to work as well either. They don’t do their market research. They can’t build their avatar in a way that connects. How do you solve that problem for them? I would imagine you take their input, you take their product, whatever they’re doing. How do you know how to connect it in a way that’s more meaningful than maybe a shoddy avatar given to you?
I asked them about their market research. Most of us in small businesses aren’t doing market research like we should. I try to do market research almost every day with people. I do that based on trends that I see for people who had successful businesses before the internet, so pre-internet. One of the best ones to look at is insurance companies because insurance companies were billion-dollar businesses way before the internet. How did they do it? I started modeling. One of my friends used to work for Northwestern Mutual, and I modeled what they did. They used to do surveys. They did a ton of surveys. Even now, I have my clients.
If you’re working with me one-on-one, we build your survey out because your survey is going to tell me exactly who you should sell, how you should sell them, what they want to buy, how much they want to pay for it, and how soon they expect to see results. You can do all of that and not have to sell them anything. The great part about it is, and these are real stats, I believe I’ve done fifteen surveys, and I’ve gotten 60 referrals without selling them anything.
That is cool. I’m going to add to that. We used to have a quiz platform in 2020. When COVID happened, so many businesses realized that they didn’t have an online presence. One thing I found was the people who had a great grasp on their brand and their avatar, those surveys or those quizzes made a ton of money the way they were designed. If they were just so-so about their brand and their avatar, the results weren’t great. There were more people with not great results than there were with that. You’re right about the market research. When I was in advertising, companies spent millions of dollars on that, but the average small business person doesn’t have to, but they do have to do it.
You have to do it. The information that you get will be vital. I believe that a lot of us are creating what I call business malpractice. If you went into a medical doctor’s office, they walked in and were like, “Here’s some heart medicine,” and you didn’t tell them what was wrong, that’s malpractice. As business owners, a lot of times, we do the same thing. We go out and say, “This is what I have.” They’re like, “You didn’t even ask me what was wrong. You don’t know what I want fixed. You don’t know if it’s something that I deal with. You don’t know what my symptoms are.” The survey is a great way to figure that out. From there, understand the product that you can create and who wants it. It’s been a game changer for me and everybody that I work with that I teach it to, because they’re like, “I know what people want now. I know who I don’t want to work with.”
Especially when you were talking about the sales. I’m training someone right now in enrollment conversations. I’m making him keep that avatar on the wall. “This is the criteria. When you’re doing a sales call, look, do you want to make, listen to a few key things that they’re saying?” I always ask, “Tell me about your past experience because if you hear someone who is blaming, and it’s everybody else’s fault, you don’t want to work with that person.” I’m making him look at that avatar while he’s trying to close now and determine, “Is that person my client, should I make an offer, or should I not?”
That’s critical. One of the things that I look at a lot when I’m doing sales calls, going back to their previous experience, I want to see how they are trying to solve their problem. Are they trying to solve it with time or with money?
That makes a lot of sense. I work 24/7, or I spend too much money.
I want to see how they’re trying to solve it. If they’re already putting money into solving it, what I want to do is divert some of those funds towards me so that I can show them a better system. What I don’t want to do is take somebody who’s using all of their time to solve it because they have nothing to compare me to. No matter what results I get, they’ll always think, “Is this worth it?” because they don’t know. I’m always like, “Once you start doing surveys and you understand how to do them and what to look for, it makes the conversations that you have totally worth it.”
I know exactly who I want. I look at myself as almost a piece in a puzzle. I’m a piece in a business puzzle. Based on the conversations that I have through the surveys and assessments that I do, I can tell if I fit in their puzzle or not. It’s a game changer because now I don’t have to guess. I don’t have to force myself. I can tell, is this a piece that you’re ready to use?
Navigating The Modern Economy And The Need For Human Connection Beyond AI
That makes a lot of sense. We had a discussion beforehand about where the economy is going. Do you find that people are using different things that they haven’t used before to lead gen?
I think people are very interested in using different things they haven’t used before because of what’s going on. Every business will always need leads. That’s the one thing that’s great about business. As long as you’re going to stay in business, you’re going to need leads. People are always trying new things, trying new methods. Especially with the way ChatGPT and all of these AIs are coming along, a lot of new methods are being created. I also think that one of the things that you could do to get ahead in the market is, while everybody is running towards AI, have more of a human connection.
Yes, that is very true. I think I shared with you, I do power partnerships. We have referral systems, trusted partners, and things like that. I find it much better than a networking group because if you’ve ever been to a BNI, it’s like, “AJ, I gave you three leads last week. Where are my three leads?” I always find that when I ask the universe for something, it comes, and sometimes it comes from very unexpected places. It’s not me going, “I gave you something, and it’s time for you to quid pro quo me.”
Very rarely happens like that, but you have to be open.
Email Marketing As Relationship Building
How do you do that with email, though, because a lot of people find email so impersonal? How do you build that relationship with email?
A lot of times, I think we go into email and we don’t think that the person on the other end is a human. We’re writing an email, and we’re not writing it like they’re human. Me and my friend Ron talk about this all the time. Email marketing is like dating.
Email marketing is just like dating. Share on XAm I going to fail?
I’m telling you, it’s like dating.
Explain that.
I wouldn’t walk up to a woman and say, “How are you doing? My name is AJ. I live in Colombia. I’m doing this. My business is top three in this.” She’d be like, “You’re a creep,” so I would walk up to her and I would say, “How are you doing? My name is AJ. I’m from here. I’m not from here. Are you in a relationship?” That’s all I would say. This is the problem that I’m solving. Do you have that problem? That’s it. We make it way too complicated.
Now, the thing is you have to understand the problem that they have, and you have to be able to talk to that problem so they understand that you know that problem. I may go up to a woman, and I may say, “How are you doing? My name is AJ. I hate that beautiful women like you are disrespected all the time in person and in public, and you don’t get your privacy. Is this a good time to talk to you?”
Look at this, you guys. You’re getting AJ’s lines here. This is an invaluable episode.
You’ll be surprised how often it works to let people know, I understand your situation. I understand the problem that you have. Is that something that you want to solve? That’s the makeup for what I do. It goes from there because they’re either going to say, “Yes, I do have that problem, and I want to solve it now,” “Yes, I have that problem, and I don’t want to solve it now,” or “No, I don’t have that problem.” Cool.
You start building a relationship from there.
Exactly, but too often, we go into it, and especially with emails, it’s like you’re giving your resume. No one cares. They don’t know you. You’re a stranger, stranger danger.
I always liken it to dating, not the email, but marketing in general. You go out on a first date, you’re having a meal, and within five minutes, “AJ, you’re amazing. Let’s get married.” I’m headed off to the bathroom with my MacGyver tools, with the telephone, calling an Uber, trying to use my MacGyver tools to get out the emergency exit because it’s creepy.
That’s the first thing we do. Let’s get married. You want to show them that I’m an asset. That’s why I think the problem solution sequence is so critical because you need to know, “You know what? I can solve this problem for you for nothing. I want to show you that I’m an asset.” It may be something as simple as, if we’re talking about dating, “This is a busy place. You’re trying to get a drink. I’m 6’3″. Let me put my hand up and get a drink.” Get the bartender’s attention.
In business, it’s, “What problems do you solve?” and then, “What’s the first problem that you could solve for them that still is valuable for them, but it doesn’t cost you much of anything?” That’s why I give out leads. I create funnels and lead magnets for people. They’re like, “You created this lead magnet. I would have paid for it.” Of course, you would because I only want to give away things you would have paid for.
That’s great. Wait a minute. At 6’3″, did you play basketball?
I played football.
Building Partnerships And Solving Business Problems
Whenever I hear somebody that tall, I know you did something athletic. AJ, where can we find you if we want to talk to you more? If we want to build a relationship with you, where do we find you, so we don’t meet you in a restaurant and get creeped out?
All of my social media are @AJVassar. You can find me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great spot to find me on. I’m always on there playing around, talking to people. That’s where a lot of professionals are. LinkedIn is probably the best one. It’s AJ Vassar. I’m always around.
I met him on LinkedIn, and he reached out. Most of the time, I’m like, “Boring.” I reached back out. He is good at building relationships and connecting with people. You guys can use that to your advantage with him. AJ, thank you so much. LinkedIn. Do you have an email or anything you want to share? You have a podcast, too. What’s your podcast?
I do have a podcast. It’s called Business Problem Solvers, and we talk through the stuff that entrepreneurs are going through, the problems that they solve for their clients. The common theme you’ll always hear from me is problems, because I think all the profits in the world are hidden behind problems. I’m always trying to solve problems.
That could be very true. Thank you so much for being on.
You’re very welcome. Thank you.
Important Links
- AJ Vassar on LinkedIn
- @AJVassar on Instagram
- @AJVassar on X
- @AJVassar on Tiktok
- Business Problem Solvers on YouTube
- DreamSculpt
- BAMagTraining
About AJ Vassar
International Speaker | Transformational Hacker | Trainer
A.J. Vassar speaks from experience when he talks from the stage. He has used mental hacking techniques to go from being homeless and sleeping in his car for 3 months to giving 6 cars away to people less fortunate over a 2 year period. He captivates audiences with his simple to understand mental hacks to transform nearly any situation in your life. His studies in neuroscience, quantum physics, and epigenetics as well as his humor have enabled him to not only connect with and deliver a powerful speech, but have actual to do improvement items for the audience.
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