Business Innovators Radio - Darcy Juarez: Lessons from 13 Years with Dan Kennedy

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

In this episode, Nina Hershberger talks with Darcy Juarez, a marketing expert who has been working closely with the legendary Dan Kennedy for the past 13 years. Darcy is known as the behind-the-scenes powerhouse who has helped implement many of Dan’s famous magnetic marketing strategies.Darcy’s journey into the world of direct response marketing started unexpectedly when a friend recruited her to help run an information marketing business. Darcy dove in headfirst, teaching herself the principles of direct response by immersing herself in Dan Kennedy’s books, newsletters, and conferences. Her natural knack for implementation and systems-building quickly made her an invaluable asset, and she’s been a key player in Dan’s world ever since.During the interview, Darcy shares some of her favorite “commandments” from Dan’s playbook of direct response marketing. She emphasizes the importance of follow-up, explaining how simply resending an offer with a “second notice” label can dramatically boost response rates. Darcy also stresses the power of “results rule” – ignoring the opinions of friends and family and instead focusing on what’s actually working to drive sales. Finally, she discusses the evolution of the “irresistible offer,” highlighting how modern consumers demand a more emotional, holistic value proposition.This episode is a must-listen for any business owner or marketer who wants to harness the timeless principles of direct response to grow their revenue. Whether you’re new to Dan Kennedy’s teachings or a seasoned practitioner, Darcy’s insights and real-world examples will inspire you to rethink your marketing approach and achieve breakthrough results.Listeners will also be excited to hear about the recent “resurrection” of the magnetic marketing community with the return of Dan Kennedy’s popular Super Conference. Darcy shares her enthusiasm for reconnecting with longtime members and welcoming new faces into the fold. She even mentions a special offer for listeners to get a copy of the latest edition of the “No B.S. Direct Marketing” book that she co-authored with Dan.To learn more about Darcy Juarez and her work with Dan Kennedy, visit TheDirectMarketingBook.com to take advantage of the special offer. You can also reach out to Darcy directly at [e-mail]. Don’t miss this chance to tap into the wisdom of a true direct-response marketing master!MegaBucks Radio with Nina Hershbergerhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/megabucks-radio-with-nina-hershbergerSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/darcy-juarez-lessons-from-13-years-with-dan-kennedy

Welcome to Megabox Radio. Conversations with successful entrepreneurs, sharing their tips and strategies for success. Real-world ideas that can put Megabox in your bank account. Here's your host, Nina Hirshberger. Welcome to the day's show. I am so excited. My guest today is well-known in the Dan Kennedy world. I have Darcy.

Darcy, is it Juarez? Am I pronouncing that properly? Yeah, yeah. And Dorothy is the behind-the-scenes person who's, I think before we started, Darcy, you told me you've been working with Dan for 13 years. Am I right there? Yep. I've been in his world for 20 years. I've been working directly with him for 13 years now.

So Darcy lives up in the Chicago area, and for those of us who have been in the magnetic marketing world, pre-Bill Glazer, during Bill Glazer, and post-Bill Glazer. Darcy has been one of the behind the scenes making it all happen. Dan trusts her implicitly so you know she's got to be very, very good at what she does. So Darcy, welcome to the day show. Thank you. I'm so glad to be here. This is going to be fun. You know, the one thing that I didn't ask before we got started, how did you, how did you, how did you find Dan?

I was just telling the story actually this morning to some new people. a roundabout way, right? Probably the way everybody else did. I actually started in the corporate world. I worked for Arthur Anderson and Anderson consulting before and Ron, before that all collapsed. And then I went on to manage a physical therapy center, and then a friend of mine was like, I need some help. And turns out he was running an info marketing business, and he said, come along and threw me into the deep end. And I started reading the newsletters, and I started attending the conferences, and I started listening to Dan.

because this was also pre-built. And I started listening and learning and teaching myself all of this stuff and fell in love with entrepreneurship, fell in love with marketing, fell in love with direct response, and the rest, as they say, is probably history, and here I am. So did you mean him through finding one of his books? No, well, a friend of mine had done that, and that's how he did. And so then I started working with him,

and then I started reading all the books and reading the newsletter in doing that. But I really honestly stumbled into it and said, hey, I can help you run that business. I don't know anything about it yet, but I'm sure I can figure it out. And then I had to go figure it out. And so I started reading all the stuff. Well, yeah, you know, I met him because I saw a Success Magazine article. It was from Paul.

Oh, yeah, it was Paul's last name. Jeff Paul. I'm sorry, Jeff Paul. Oh, Jeff Paul. No, it was Jeff Paul. ago and I was heading to another conference and I tore that that article out and I said, who is this? And they said, oh, that's Jeff Paul and Dan Kennedy and that was in 1994.

And so, yeah. So I know, Dan, when you talk about the principles of direct response marketing, Darcy, what does that actually mean? Tell me what that means to you and what that means to Dan. You know, that when any business that directly solicits for an order, for a product, for a service, right, what they don't realize is that they are really doing direct marketing, meaning that I'm reaching out directly to somebody and I want a response directly from them. And what I've always loved about direct response, right, is that we're going to hold it responsible. It's going to, we're not going to do something if it does not. produce a result, a tangible result that we can measure and that will put money into our bank

account. And so for me, like, it's been those two things. What am I going to say to somebody directly that is going to solicit a response and then what type of an offer or what time of a response am I going to solicit that is going to directly deposit money into my bank account? And I think that's probably the like top of the pyramid. And then obviously we go into, you know, Dan's Ten Commandments about direct response. And, you know, that's. That's the first things that I learned and the first things then that I was like, hey, if everything that we do follows these Ten Commandments, we're going to be successful. And especially when there's two people in the company or, you know, there's 100 people in the company. Either way, there's got to be some guiding principles and some guiding light to it.

And so those are the ones that have always meant the most to me. And I think when you ask Dan, you know, that's where he will start somebody at as well. So, okay, we don't need to go through all 10 principles, but tell me about three of those. My favorite. So my favorite is rule number six, which is thou shall be, there shall always be follow-up. And I think it's one of the ones that probably I was attracted to at the very beginning. And because I saw it be so successful so quickly, which was like, hey, if you walk into a business and they're doing something that is successful, they're probably only doing it once.

And so in the businesses I've walked into, this is where I've made the biggest impact in the fastest amount of time. And it was like, hey, we just take that and we send it out two or three or four or five more times until it's no longer profitable. And we double the success that we had from that initial mailing.

And now it becomes second nature that I don't build a campaign out if I'm not sending it out in at least three steps to start with, usually six. And so that's always been one of my favorite rules. I have seen it double businesses. I've used it to double businesses by doing that.

And it's one of the fastest ways that I think people can see success. Okay. One of my other favorites. Wait, wait a minute. Well, before we go on, so you said direct mail. You said send it out. I mean, so many businesses these days are wanting to just do everything by email. You know, you sound like you're still the old direct mail kind of a person.

And when you say, send it out three to six times at least until it doesn't work, are you saying send the exact same piece out or do you twist it a little bit? I'll twist it a little bit. But when I'm talking with people that are new to this, sometimes I'll say literally just put the word second notice on it. Like, because they get so caught up and like, I can't do that. I'm not ready. I don't have step number two ready. So I'm not going to send out step number one. And they stop themselves from doing it.

And so my answer then is, look, I'm going to make this as easy as possible for you. We'll start off by putting second notice on it and then you send it because it's, it's the matter of, you know, one of the things Dan has said to be a long time ago was that magnetic marketing is about three things. It's about human psychology. It's about money math and then it's about creating systems. And it's that human psychology part that really drives the reason why we do stuff. And so I've always told people you have, you know, you can either get mad at the way humans behave and you can bank. your head against the brick wall mad that they act a certain way, or you can understand how they act, and then you can align yourself with that to be able to go over the wall, around the

wall, under the wall, through the wall. But like, so one of those is that we procrastinate as humans. The mail comes in, the email comes in, and we get distracted, and even more so today than ever, we get distracted, and we can't remember which screen it's on, which tab it's on, and we forget what we went to go do two seconds ago. And so when we send it out a second time, it's more because of the fact that we're playing into that human psychology and that human behavior that they must have forgotten or didn't see the first one. So I'm simply going to remind them in the second one. And then as it gets more advanced, yes, the message can change a little bit or I can add some things to it or I can play with some of that stuff.

But the initial piece is that human psychology piece that we have human procrastinate. we are so busy and so overwhelmed with stuff that we just didn't see it come through the first time or we forgot about it or it happened when we were on vacation right and the mail piled up or the emails I mean you come back from vacation and you go through your email and you're just like delete everything right and so you missed it because it just didn't come in and then convenient enough time for you but as the marketer we think everybody's waiting for my peace to show up and they're all going to react today because today's the day and that's just not the way humans behave so give me a story Because, you know, before we started, I said, I'm all about the stories.

Tell me a story about some piece like this. A piece like this. Well, you know, I think it's, I have some bad, I have some, well, okay, I've got a good one. So I finally got somebody to do this. We worked up the courage. We've worked up all the courage to be able to send out their first direct mail piece. And they drop it in the mailbox. And they're all, you know, they go home, they're all nervous.

and they're excited and nervous all at the same time. And that night on the news, they're watching their local news station, and they report about a mailbox that had been lit on set on fire. And they call devastated. And, you know, they said, we paid the postage. We did all this. And it was just like, I'm like, you guys, this is one of those natural disasters. Like, nobody could have predicted it.

But at least we know that's why nobody got the first piece of mail. Like, most other people are sitting out there wondering why nobody responded to their first piece of mail. And you at least know that that's what it was. And so we had to work up the courage and we had to do all this kind of stuff. And it's a story that I will tell people when they go to do their marketing that, like, life happens. Things happen, right? Again, we're playing into that human nature and just we've got to roll with it.

We've got to laugh at it sometimes. I did another direct mail piece one time. It was actually in a magazine, right? And I say sometimes that I'm slightly dyslexic because I can mix up my numbers backwards and forwards and not notice that. And I mixed up the phone number on a piece. So we paid, you know, $5,000 to print this ad in a trade magazine. And it went to print. And we didn't catch it. And we get phone calls in from a BMW dealership down in Texas. And they said, he said, I think we're getting your calls. They're mad or whatever. And he's like, I think we're getting your calls. We figured out what it was.

And I said, oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry. I said, here's where they're trying to call. It's in a print. I can't change it. I can't send out an email to say sorry, like wrong number or anything like that. So here's where they're trying to call. If you would like to send them there, that would be awesome. The end of the day, the manager calls, and he's now screaming. He goes, my phone has been ringing off the hook all day. And he's mad at me.

And I was like, so I explained earlier. I said, but also they're dentists. You might want to sell them a BMW. Or you might want to hire us. I apparently know how to make your phone ring. You would think that was a great response. Did he hire you? Did he do it?

No. He's so mad at me. He's mad at me that I'm making their phone ring. Yeah, he did not get it. And everybody else in the background who heard me was laughing. And I was like, well, I didn't know what else to say. But really, like, he's mad. I made their phone ring.

Yeah. You know, isn't that amazing? It's like I'll never forget. I mean, I've heard Dan. talk about it, but it really is, it was W. Clement Stone that says small hinges move big doors. You know, he had a big hinge right there. He could have moved a huge door, but he didn't. He wasn't smart enough to even think, you know, like, wow, if this woman can make the phone ring this much, what could she do in my business? Right. Yeah, and that ad wasn't even for that.

Like, yeah. Or, hey, I actually delivered qualified prospects to you. Like, they're dentists. They can afford to buy a BMW. They might want to buy a BMW. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I bet you you could have even helped create the talk track, the script of how to handle that.

How to convert that, yeah. Yeah. That is funny. Okay. That was, you know, your favorite one. So let's go on the number two. Okay. So let's see.

That would be the next one that I like. You know what? Results rule. Rule number nine. Results rule because I, look, I fall into this trap myself. I did it. I got all excited about something just the other day and sent it off to friends and said, oh my God, you guys, check this out. It's so cool, right? And then I got the, as soon as I hit that, I was like, ooh, because I got the, oh my God, I can't believe you would send that out. Like, who would respond to this? This is way too long. I can't believe you would put this on there. Or I published a book and my mother said, I said, I needed it out there, right? and she goes, you didn't proofread it? I said, I needed it printed. I'd come back to proofreading it. It made me money. These people understood there were a couple spelling errors and they're fine, right?

Because results rule. And so we forget, we ask the wrong people and they aren't going to be our buyers. And then we take their opinions to heart and we go change all this stuff, but they were never going to buy what we're selling anyway. There are friends, our family, our mothers, our, you know, our husbands, spouses or what have you, and we get all those negative reactions. And then on the flip side, you know, I published a book that had spelling year and grammar errors in there because I needed it published, and it went and made me money from people

who were going to pay me money, and then I could come back and clean it up. And, you know, and so you've got those two things. And so if we always keep in our heads that results will rule and the only people who should be getting a vote are those that are voting with their wallet, it really gives us a guiding principle for our business and really helps us wade through all of those opinions that come out of everywhere. So I think that's probably my second. Yeah, that is so wise.

You know, I mean, I always say, I love my husband to death, but he has not qualified to give me an opinion on stuff. You know, and that applies to your mother. That applies to so many people. You know, I say it is the only vote that Matt. matters is the cash register vote. Because you're right. Years ago, I worked at the University of Notre Dame because our daughter could go there

tuition free and I did a marketing piece. It was a two-cent marketing piece to sell something at the university. And the first piece went out and there was an error in that piece. And so guess what? It was the reason to send the next mailing and it brought in $1.3 million. So it matters, doesn't it? So I guess what you're also saying, Darcy, is who you hang out with. You know, I mean, it's okay to ask the opinion of somebody who is, you know,

understands direct response marketing, who's successful, who has background. You could say, hey, what do you think about this? You don't have to be doing something, you know, in a vacuum. But pay attention to whose opinion. you're getting, whose advice you're getting. So, yeah, that's a great one. The results matter. Okay, what about number three?

So then I think I'd go to rule number one. There will always be an offer or offers. And, you know, I think when I was first learning direct response, it was one of the things too. And I teach it so much now, but it's that like an offer, and by offer we don't always mean monetary offer, right? But we always, everything we do should be strategic and there should be a purpose behind it. And so every email that we send out, every, you know, social media post, we're training our buyers to and our prospects to be buyers, but we're training them to do what we

want them to do. And so if we train them to go off and just read and then be done with this, we're not really training them to then be a good buyer from us. And so our offers or offers are both monetary and non-monetary as to what do we want them to do, how do we want them to train them to do that. And then that, you know, the more irresistible we make that offer, and it's gotten almost, there are so many things out there and so much stuff you need. The level of an irresistible offer today is so different than it was 20 years ago because you got to cut through the clutter and you got to get, you got to really think about the offer as to what your prospect wants on a tangible level and what they want on an emotional level.

And we have to be able to fulfill on those things in these offers to make them irresistible so that we move people to us being the only choice. That's what we really want in the end, right, is that we are their only choice and that their only option is to say yes, that they can't say no. And usually that comes from more of an emotional standpoint. Like I just, I want this so much that I have to say yes. I have to move mountains to make it happen. And so I think my third choice there would be, you know, rule number one,

there will always be an offer or offers. Tell me, give me some examples of what you mean by an irresistible offer these days. It's different than it was 20 years ago. I think it's 20, you know, 20 years, and it has been flows, and it has been flows. And it, you know, it's gone from kind of when I started, it was always described as the big, box of stuff, right? They just want a big box of stuff. And the more stuff we put in it, the more that they wanted it. And then it kind of edged and flowed to people just wanting the, from more of an emotional connection of if you've got like the one sheet of paper, the magic

letter, then that's all I need. And I'll pay, you know, $2,000 for that magic letter instead of $2,000 for a box of all this stuff that I just needed the letter out of. And I think that's where it's kind of changed, but to me it's changed more towards this emotional want of having enough stuff in our offer that they value and that they emotionally get excited about, and that fulfills all the different kind of objections and fulfills all the different things that somebody is going to want or would say yes to so that you then have a holistic of everybody is going to say yes to this because there's a piece of this that they want so bad that it is going to be the reason they say yes to my entire offer.

Yeah, no, no, that makes perfect sense. I mean, a lot of people, a lot of business owners will think, you know, call for a free complimentary, whatever, whatever. That is still vanilla. Correct. Yeah. Yeah, the first thing we got to do is name it, right? The first thing we got to do is just make it so it is not the same as it's.

what everybody else is saying. And then we've got to add to it and make sure that it is not the same as what everybody else is saying, because then it takes us to the whole principle of apples to oranges comparison, that if you are, if yours is a free consultation and all of your competitors offer a free consultation, that it's apples to apples, and why am I choosing you? But if yours, if all your competitors is a free consultation and yours is a free, you know, is a seven points inspection and audit and this and this and this and this and this, it can't be compared to the free consultation because it's not the same thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that makes perfect sense. So tell me what's happening today. I mean, we talked before we started the recorder, kind of the resurrection of magnetic marketing, the community. For the last five or six years, we've kind of not had a community, but it is coming back. So tell me what's happening. Yeah.

Yeah. So, well, so three years ago, which I think just about everybody knows, but just in case, right, now, or, yeah, 20-21, so two and a half years ago, almost three years now, Russell Brennan acquired the company. And, you know, we're still coming out of COVID. You know, Dan was still recovering from his illness and stuff like that. And so bringing back of a live event, so we had the super conference just about four weeks ago now, I think, and had a great group of people we had, as we were talking, we had lifers. We had brand new people. We had people coming over from the clip funnels community. We had people who just found us.

We had people from all walks of life. And just like old days, we had people from every place, you know, in the world. We had people flying in, you know, 24, 48 hours to get there, and people just down the street. And so it was really, really so great to be in the room with people, to be live with them, to do expert roundtables again, to have, you know, vendors and sponsors there again, to have the diamond reception, to see Dan walking around and talking with people again, to see Russell now in the same community with everybody, book signings. You know, this was the first time in five years that Dan was signing books again and taking photos.

And so it felt like five years had not passed. And so it was just, it was so fun to see everybody and to talk to people again, live and in person. And so that was the first of hopefully many more events that, you know, that come back and bring the community back to life. And that's what we're hoping. Well, I know during COVID, we all got used to Zoom calls. And, you know, thankfully, COVID, you know, didn't happen 15 years ago because we would have been a real problem.

We were much more technically advanced and able to technically connect than we would have been 15 years ago. But there still is something magical about eyeball to eyeball, you know, belly to belly, being able to hear the stories, hear the people, what are they doing? You just don't get that when it's just going to be a Zoom or whether, you know, it's on a phone call. And so congratulations. I wish I'd been there now. But, well, you know, it's that magical conversation in the hallway that you didn't know you were going to have. It's the bumping into somebody in the bathroom that you didn't know you were going to see. It's the sitting next to somebody randomly that, like, ends up being the person that you didn't know you were, that you needed to meet.

And that's, if you don't, well, you know from doing event marketing, too, how hard it is to explain that to people and then how magical it is when you see it happening. And so it's fun, you know, it was, it was energizing for us. as well, too, to see it. As exhausting as it is, it's energizing to see that all happen. One thing that always is laugh at what Dan says, everybody's walking around with an obelical cord looking to plug it into somebody. And this is a way to plug it into again, you know, that we've missed. Yep.

So you're now, and Darcy, you're the one who does what Bill used to do, the diamond calls again. And so the diamond calls, for somebody who's listening to this, they are the calls that these are real business owners who are using these principles of DANS of magnetic marketing to grow their business. And I think you're interviewing them to say, what are you doing and how are you doing? And what's your results and all of those? Am I correct on that? actually the diamond calls now are open Q&A calls with Dan. Oh, I know. Yeah, I know.

The updated version of them. So, yeah, he gets on and we bring members on and they ask him their questions live each month. So it's fun. And then we still do. The member spotlight inside of the newsletter is a showcase of a member and how they do it. And our members are always so giving and so caring and happy to share. We brought back the marketer of the year competition. The winner this year was like, I owe this to everybody else who did this in front of me.

And so here, let me show you exactly what I did. And here's all the pieces that I did. And you guys can use them all and do that. And so that, I forgot, that was the other part of the super conference that was so great to see. Because I think we've also gotten to the place where people are so, people are so overwhelmed that they really need to see the examples and see multiple examples to say, okay, I see how they did this. I see how the headlines work.

I see how postcards work or referral letters or any of the letters or any of the stuff. When they see three or four or five people all doing it, they go, hmm, there's probably something to this. And so, yeah, so that's in the newsletter and then the diamond calls are open Q&A calls with Dan. So, okay, so what you're saying is in the newsletter, that is being produced now because it became corporate for a while.

But it's back to, so the winner of the Super Conference, is he then or she featured in the newsletter so you can actually see those examples if you did not go to the Super Conference? Yep, yep, yeah, he was featured before he became the marketer of the year. But, yeah, and then we're bringing some of the other ones on, and he had already shared a lot of his stuff before that. But, yeah, people, you know, happily tell their story and kind of share.

It's a very similar to the call we're having right now. Like, what were the principles that you loved most and that really grew your business and then can you share and are you willing to? And I've never had anybody say no. Are you willing to share a couple marketing pieces that others that you talked about that somebody else could learn from? And so, because I really think that's the best way that people learn, you know. It's not hearing the principles and seeing the principles.

You know, one thing that I've done for clients for the now, you know, I don't know, 15 years, something like that, is I write lead generation books for clients because one of the things Dan has talked about forever is you need to be an author. Well, looking at a blank screen is never an easy thing for people to do. So I put them on three different interviews to get the content because if I wanted to be their content, their ideas, or whatever, but just not having to look at a blank screen. And that's what you're saying about these ideas, whether it's a direct mail letter, whether it's, you know, whatever, a system or whatever. Just having some start, some idea is so helpful.

But, Dorsey, I am looking at the clock. And unfortunately, we are out of time, but I think I'm going to have you back on again because I think we've got a lot more to talk about. I know that you've just released a brand new book, and I think you've got a special offer for those who are listening to this if they'd like a copy of that book. Yes, I'd love to. Yeah, we just released the fourth edition of the No BS Direct Marketing

for Non-Direct Marketing Businesses that I co-authored with Dan and Kennedy, along with Marty Fort. And so if anybody goes to the directmarketing book.com, there's an offer for, we'll ship you, we bought the books, we'll ship that out to you. All we ask is you cover the shipping and handling. Most people are familiar with this. But it's a great place also to reconnect with us and do that. And as we were talking beforehand, the book has been so successful now already.

Amazon actually took down the buy now button during the launch, the day of the launch. And so they've been replenished, and we are able to get books moving again. So we are very excited about the book. Well, you know, and I suspect, because that's such a general. offers, but I suspect somebody listening to this who has been in the Dan world in the past, hasn't like me, not been in the last five years or something, they might be intrigued to be part of the newsletter or part of the community again. Is there anywhere that they can go to reconnected?

So the membership has been closed. It's another thing that has happened as well. It's only being opened at certain times of the year. So the back door is actually going to be through this book as well. and or, you know, if anyone's listening and you know me, you can reach out to me at Darcy at Magneticmarketing.com and I'll help you out. So I might regret. I just gave out my email, but there you go.

I gave out my email for those. And, you know, just reach out to me because I would love, you know, and Nina, we were talking about like during, while the book's launching, I'm getting voicemails and I'm getting things from people that I hadn't heard from in like 10 years that are, you know, hey, I want to come back. This sounds good. So I'm super excited. It means the world to me. It's what I always thought this was going to be

13 years ago when I came on board. As other people have said, I suffered through a lot to get to this. So I'm really excited about where this is. I think Dan's very happy about where it is. And so I would love to see as many alumni faces as possible.

Yeah. Yeah. So we'll be very careful not to just share that email to very many people. Darcy, thank you so much for being on today's call. I am serious. I'm going to have you on in the future again. Please.

I love to. We have a lot more to talk about. So thank you so much for being on the call. Thanks for having me. So this is Dinah Hirshberger. You've been listening to Megabucks Radio. If you want to learn more about what Darcy just talked about or any other show that we've hat on, go to megabucksradio.com. Until next time.

Thank you for listening to Megabucks Radio with Nina Hirshberger. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or to listen to past episodes, visit megabucksradio.com.