How to Sell Online with a Brand Story Video

Intro [0:00] Today on the Brandaide Podcast: Alex Mandossian [00:02] What really matters is, what to say, when to say it, how to say it, and whom to say it to, and then people make an offer, without disqualifying the people who won’t buy, you can’t sell a hamburger to a vegetarian.

Intro [00:21] Welcome to Brandaide where we answer the question, what does it take to launch your own brand (R)evolution, create Evolution, and who are the people that help you foster Connection, Community, Contribution, and Currency for a Brand built to last?You will also meet brands changing the world and the lives of those they serve. Here's your host, Cheryl Hodgson.

Cheryl Hodgson [0:43]

Welcome to the Brandaide podcast. I’m your host, Cheryl Hodgson. Today I welcome to the show Alex Mandossian. Alex is a very special guest. Alex has generated nearly 417 million dollars in sales and profits for his marketing students, clients and joint venture partners on six continents. Harvey Mackay, the famed international best-selling author, has described Alex as “the Warren Buffett of marketing online”. He’s best known by international thought leaders for teaching students from evolving nations how to profit from using first world digital marketing strategies. He shared the stage with Richard Branson, Larry King, Tony Robbins, Marianne Williamson, Susie Armand, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama and two US presidents. As a virtual trainer with over 22,000 hours of training time and nearly 4800 interviews. Alex’s lifetime goal is to influence training 1 million other trainers by his 77th birthday. Welcome, Alex.

Alex Mandossian [2:01]

Cheryl, I hope my mother in Pasadena listens to that introduction because she still doesn’t know what I do. I’m happy to be here.

Cheryl Hodgson [2:10]

Well, apparently, I’m your 4,801st interview. Number 4801. If you’ve done 4800?

Alex Mandossian [2:18]

We’re closing in on that 5000.

Cheryl Hodgson [2:21]

That’s fantastic. Well, thank you for joining us today. Hopefully we’ll have a good time and share some great information with our audience. You actually have your own podcast correct?

Alex Mandossian [2:33]

I do. It’s called All Selling Aside. And I’ve had it for up until the time of this interview, there’s 90 episodes. So I’m almost at 100. And you’re starting and I’ve been doing it for well over a year. It’s very exciting. I do one episode per week, and I’m going to go to two per week in 2020

Cheryl Hodgson [2:56]

Oh, that’s a great intention. What exactly is the premise for your All Selling Aside podcast, and who is your ideal listener?

Alex Mandossian [3:04]

Well, the ideal listener is Trainer Tammy or Trainer Tommy. It could easily be Coach Carla or Coach Carl. About 65 to 80% of my listeners are women. And I think part of the reason is because I love to tell stories, and the tagline to the podcast is called “Seeding through Storytelling is the new selling”. So All Selling Aside is for the ideal listener who hates to sell. If you loathe selling. If you anticipate rejection and want selling to be done by someone else. If you hate that silence between asking for the order and getting the Yes or the No, then this podcast was developed especially for you. For people who hate to sell.

Cheryl Hodgson [3:56]

Well that sounds a lot like me.

Alex Mandossian [3:58]

The fact is Cheryl, you’re good at selling, and if you enjoy it, then you can even become better. And you’ve seen me do it at a morning breakfast, generating nearly $900,000, and Genius Network new memberships of 25,000. Or it could be selling a book that is free, but it’s $7.95 cents shipping and handling. That’s for Alexisms over at one of my web pages. So it really doesn’t matter the pricing, what really matters is, what to say, when to say it, how to say it, and whom to say it to, and then people make an offer, without disqualifying the people who won’t buy, you can’t sell a hamburger to a vegetarian. And then once they’ve disqualified the group of people, then they fail to prequalify. And they go and make an offer too soon and they get rejected and they wonder, “Hmm, I hate selling.” So selling can be fun. And some of the best salespeople in the world aren’t even salespeople. They don’t know themselves that way and All Selling Aside was developed for that coach, for that consultant, for that service professional who wants to outsource selling. When they consider it a dirty word. It’s not, it’s one of the greatest concepts of all because nothing happens in any business until something is sold.

Cheryl Hodgson [5:22]

There’s a lot in what you just said, there’s several things you could unpack there. One that jumps out at me is the issue of “it’s not really selling if you really love what you’re doing or what you’re talking about”. Years ago, I worked part time selling retail when I first relocated and divorced and moved to Los Angeles. But during that time, I became really enamored with fashion. And so to this day, I can go in a store and if I see something, I like I will end up selling it to two other people who are watching me buy it. And it’s not selling. Only if it’s something I really believe in. So I think isn’t there that aspect of the selling?

Alex Mandossian [6:05]

That is that, and we sell all the time. When you recommend a movie that you love, then you’re selling. When you recommend a restaurant that you enjoy, then that’s selling. If you find a teacher, if you have children, who really was someone special for your kids, then you’re selling it, you’re referring to other parents. So referrals are sales. Now when you have something in your business, assuming you’re an entrepreneur or if you work for someone, you’re selling all the time. You’re selling yourself in order to get a pay raise, or you’re selling your product or service to generate a sale. My friend, he’s a colleague and a great sales guy. His name is Jeffrey Gitomer, well known in the sales circles. He says “people hate to be sold.” Which is true. “but they love to buy” so I’ve been calling it “selling”, but if you would just without cringing, think about not calling it “selling” so much, but putting someone in a buying environment. And the only way you can do that is disqualify the people who you know with absolute certainty are not going to buy. And you protect your confidence because you won’t get rejected if those guys are gone, and gals. And then once you’ve disqualified certain people, then it’s time to prequalify. So you don’t make your offer until you know you have someone highly, highly qualified.

Cheryl Hodgson [7:35]

Well, if you unpack that a little bit further, how does one get to the point of knowing that you’re speaking to the highly qualified?

Alex Mandossian [7:44]

Well, let’s take for example, if you have a target audience that makes less than $100,000 a year. Now, if you’re going after the newbie audience, and let’s say you’re selling a How-To course. And your avatar, your ideal client, is someone who makes less than 100,000 a year online. All right. So if someone makes over 100,000 a year, you get rid of them, you disqualify him. “So if you’re a veteran marketer, or if you make over $100,000 a year if you’re a teacher within the online marketing world, then this course isn’t for you. But if you make less than $100K, if you’d like to make over $100K, just working an extra hour a day, if you’ve taken other courses and you’ve been disappointed, then this could be your opportunity of a lifetime. Please apply. And let’s find out if you qualify for a discovery session.” See what I just did? So I disqualify and tell people who it’s not for first, that’s called disqualification, because you’re constantly sifting and sorting. And now, I know I’ll be speaking to the right pool of people, and then I pre-qualify them even further. It’s not just about time and money. It’s a lot more than that. And it’s never about the money because it’s compared to what? If I told you, “I want you to get me $10,000 to get Google shares,” you probably wouldn’t do it if you didn’t have an extra $10,000 lying around. But if I told you, “I want you to get $10,000, you got one hour, and you get to buy Google shares at the IPO price, the initial public offering price in 2004. At $85 each,” you will lie, steal, cheat, maybe you won’t do that, you’ll steal it from a grandparent. You’ll find somewhere to get that 10,000. So it’s never the dollar amount, right? And it’s never the time issue. It’s always a function of priority. And so by disqualifying, you’re prioritizing the people who are your ideal customer, client or patient, depending on the business you’re in. Is that unpacked enough?

Cheryl Hodgson [10:03]

Yes, it’s fabulous. And just to tie that up from a perspective of someone who’s launching a new business or brand or they’re trying to deal with their own feelings of hating to sell, I think one of the biggest problems is that people who have run into someone who is a novice at selling and doesn’t really have any skills or hasn’t developed them yet. So they’re actually overselling, for lack of a better word, and the potential purchaser runs away, because in the enthusiasm of the novice, one tends to want to share it with everyone. And it goes back to the rejection thing. You think everyone’s supposed to love what you’re offering, and then it’s not realistic.

Alex Mandossian [10:48]

Well, not only isn’t it realistic, it's not reality. Defining reality is understanding that there’s going to be a small percentage of people who are going to be ideal for whatever it is that you offer. And you don’t have to call it selling, you can call it enrolling. But the way to do it properly and the reason we call it All Selling Aside is because it’s Seeding. You’re planting Seeds through Stories. And I call that the new selling. Seeding through Storytelling is the new selling. So in warfare, and marketing and sales is warfare in the mind, of the prospect and in the mind of the salesperson, or of the thought leader, or of the product or service owner, could be you if you’re listening or the entrepreneur, whatever you consider yourself. In warfare, if you have two groups of people, and they’re fighting each other, if they fight each other head on and they have one of these moments that you probably saw in some of the hobbit films, where you got two armies just hitting each other, face to face, you have a lot of people who die. But if you do what the Americans did to the British, and you flank, and you use guerrilla warfare, no one’s going to die in marketing. People go broke, but no one’s going to die. So it’s not like warfare, but if you flank, flanking means getting them from the side. And the way you flank is you plant Seeds. So, not every Seed you plant is going to germinate and take Root. And so, the Seed is truly the initial cause. Root Cause is not the First Cause. First Cause is the Seed which turns into the Root. So if I plant enough Seeds, then some of those Seeds will germinate. And, by germinating, they take Root and once they take Root, they may sprout out of the soil. You have the Trunk of the Tree, the Branches, the Leaves, and then more fruit. And inside the fruit, if you think of an apple, there are more Seeds for the next thing you sell. So taking that metaphor, which should have been crystal clear in the mental picture. It was a metaphor, not a story, per se. But let’s take the metaphor, the Seeds, and preparing to sell is the Objection. So you probably have seven plus or minus two Objections that commonly come up all the time. That’s five to nine Objections. The Objection is when the sale begins. So people are deathly afraid of an Objection when the Objection itself is the beginning of the sale. And the key is to obliterate an Objection. Don’t just handle them, eviscerate them in advance. And how do you do that? Well, the first thing you do is list them. So the Seeds are the Objections. This is a formula I teach. And it’s in All Selling Aside. And if you go to www.AllSellingAside.com, it’s a public service. That’s my legacy. Not my book or books, but my legacy is 25 years of sales and marketing knowhow to put into 25 minutes a week. That’s my podcast. And each episode is a little slice of life through storytelling. So the metaphor, if you prepare to sell and you prepare to win, is the Seeds are the Objection. So expect them. So take about an hour and think about all the Objections you get, and it’ll take about a week or two till you get the right Objections. It’s what the person is thinking in their mind. Like, for example, one common one I get for one of my courses called Guerrilla Business Online, is “I can’t do this, Alex, because I don’t have a product or service to sell.” Okay, so that’s the Objection. Now that’s a Seed. There are many more. In fact, there’s 16 more, there’s about 17 total that I hear all the time and they’re very specific. But what if I took that Objection, and what if that Seed got germinated and turned into a Root? Now there’s many Roots to that apple Tree. We’ll use an apple tree metaphor, you know, George Washington since we’re talking about Americans, right?

Cheryl Hodgson [15:00]

Yeah. I thought it was a cherry tree.

Alex Mandossian [15:02]

Was it a cherry tree? Well, we’ll make it an apple tree for now. And we won’t chop it down. So the Seed is the Objection. Now, what’s the Root? Well, if you turn that Objection into a question, now we’re preparing to win. So here’s the question, “Alex, can I do this and not get left behind, even if I don’t have a product or service to sell?” You see how elegant that is? That’s the Root. And there are many Roots and many Seeds. Now, what does a question demand? You’ve heard of FAQs? So you could have this on a webinar. You can have it on your website. You can have it live just saying it like I’m doing right now. So you can have it on a pamphlet, you can have it on a postcard. So, if you have a question, now you need an answer. So now this is where you’re doing the selling and you’re doing the selling by flanking them, you’re not even selling them directly. You’re letting them watch a movie in their mind as they’re reading this frequently asked question, because you’ve just turned the Objection into a question, the Seed into the Root. And here’s the answer. “Yes, in fact, 83% of all of Alex’s students from Guerrilla Business Online, on six different continents, have never had a product or service to sell. Alex says they have a huge advantage, because no product, no bad habits. And if you do have a product, your ego may be attached to it because you’ve spent hundreds, maybe tens of thousands of dollars, and you’re married to that and you’re attached to it. And sometimes it causes a lot of pushback. So Alex prefers no product or service so that you learn how to do it the right way. Let’s do this!”

Cheryl Hodgson [16:45]

Wow, that’s fabulous. Because actually, that is true. Starting out with someone who is attached to something that’s not working, one of the most difficult things is if you have a project that, learning when to say no or disengage from something can be one of the most important decisions you can make. As opposed to “Okay, I’ve got to make this work.” Sometimes there is a reason that things don’t work out. But then I also hear what you’re saying about turning it into a question, which I think is fabulous. Because I’ve also heard it said, and it’s a different way of framing it, that if someone has no Objections whatsoever, that’s lack of interest, but when someone voices Objections, that’s an indication that they’re interested and they’re asking for you to help them get past what’s concerning them.

Alex Mandossian [17:37]

The Objection is when the sale begins. Everything else is just a matter of features and benefits. So what if you could write down a list of Objections in advance and anticipated them? Look forward to them? What if you converted them into Frequently Asked Questions, and then put the answers? Wouldn’t that give you an advantage? And you still haven’t broken ground, you’re still underneath the soil. Now, to advance the metaphor. Let’s go to the Trunk of the Tree. And the Trunk of the Tree is the Origin Story of the person who is enrolling the other person. So if you’re the entrepreneur doing the sales, or if you’re in this marketing environment where you’ll have to win the favor of someone, or many people if you’re on stage or on a webinar, well, then you need an Origin Story, then the Origin Story is when and where it happened and started, who else was there? What happened? How did it resolve and then why is it relevant and important to the viewer or the listener or the reader? And you end with Why. You don’t begin with Why. Simon Sinek has a great TEDx talk called Start with Why. You don’t do that with an Origin Story at least in my formula. It’s always When and Where. It was October 26, the year 2000. Where? There I was on the fifth floor of Mount Sinai Hospital in the recovery room. Who else was there? And I was looking at my newborn son, Gabriel Alex Mandossian, who was one day old. He was born on the 25th and my then-wife Amy, who lay in bed exhausted after 17 hours of labor. It was exhausting for me to watch. What happened? Alright, well then, I talk about well, I have a teleseminar that evening. Gabriel came into the world three weeks early. I took the phone into the only private room in the recovery room, which was the bathroom and I did the teleseminar on the toilet. How did it resolve? I made $13,000. Why is it relevant? Well, if I can make $13K after the birth of my son in the year 2000, without Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all those other social media, from the toilet of Mount Sinai Hospital, can’t you get 10% of it from the comfort of your home or office? Keep watching, because Teleseminar Secrets may be your opportunity of a lifetime. That’s an Origin Story. And that’s the Trunk of the Tree.

Cheryl Hodgson [20:06]

That is fabulous. Because as you were telling the story, I was seeing the movie in my mind.

Alex Mandossian [20:11]

That’s the point. I’m Seeding through Storytelling. I’m just offering you the Seeds. I’m not, I'm not even shoving it down anyone’s throat. I remember when I used to curse, my mother used to put pepper down my throat and I hated it. But I stopped cursing in front of her after that.

Cheryl Hodgson [20:27]

Only when she wasn’t around.

Alex Mandossian [20:31]

Oh, yeah. Are you kidding? Come on. That’s why I let my kids curse all the time because they trust their dad. It’s great. Four-year olds cursing is the funniest thing you’ve ever seen. Believe me. Anyway, they can’t do it in front of strangers though, because then they think I’m a derelict dad. But anyway, I’ve got great kids, Gabriel and Bree. Bree came two years after, on New Year 2002. And there’s a story for her too. She was born at Marin General, here in Marin county where I live currently. So then if you have the Seeds, which are the Objections, you have the Roots, which are the Frequently Asked Questions and Answers converted from Objections. If you have an Origin Story, which is the Trunk of the Tree and the thicker the Trunk, the easier it will stay up during any wind or tornado or storm. That’s what you want. The purpose of your Origin Story is to obliterate Objections. So if you know the Seeds and the Objections, you want your Origin Story to obliterate those Objections. That’s the whole point. It’s not just making it emotional. Obliterating Objections is the key, because those are locks on the doors and you need the keys to open them. Then you need Branches. Now the Branches are case studies. Case studies are not testimonials, case studies are not endorsements. The purpose of a business is not to produce profits. The purpose of a business is to create case studies because when you have case studies, those are stories about your clients, customers, patients, members, students, whatever you call them. So what problem did they have before you, what action did they take as a result of you? And what results did they get working with you? And it doesn’t always have to be positive. And the purpose of a case study is to obliterate Objections, you see the recurring theme here. Now, you can talk about the case study, frame it and then play the testimonial afterwards, that’s how framing a testimonial works. So at least they got the story. And then they hear the video or watch the video either on a webinar or on the screen. Or they can look at a static picture and then you can have it written as well, but you have to frame it through a case study because that’s a story. Again, seeding through Storytelling is the new selling, you’re flanking. All right, now you have Branches, right? Those are case studies. And if you have about five to nine case studies, and you’re going, well, you need more than one. And then you need Leaves on the Tree, right? You get an apple tree, you need Leaves. So what are the Leaves? Those are metaphors. So here’s a quick metaphor. You’ve heard a few already, but a metaphor for being decisive. So there was this donkey, and this donkey was starving. And imagine yourself that donkey, you’re starving. And for a moment, you’re looking at an apple and a pear on the ground, the apple’s on the right, the pear’s on the left. So you look at the apple, then the pear. Then the pear and the apple, the apple, the apple, the pear, the pear or the apple, and you collapse as the donkey, starving to death because you were indecisive. Don’t be that donkey. In the Bible they call it an ass. Be decisive. And what I usually say is, “what’s another name for a donkey?” And then someone says, “ass!” I say, “you said it not me!” So again, I’m playing with them. That’s dialogue, it’s fun. And those are the Leaves, those are little metaphors and you notice, the Trunk takes the most time. The Seeds are Objections, the Roots are a little thicker, the Trunk is bigger, then the Branches are the case studies, the Leaves are the metaphors. And then what do you get at the very end? The whole purpose of this is Fruit, what’s the Fruit? That’s the irresistible offer. So whatever your irresistible offer is, my Guerrilla Business Online is an irresistible offer that has five components to it. And so I make that offer and what’s inside of the apple? What’s inside the core of the apple? You have the Fruit, but what’s inside in the very middle more what? More Seeds! So those are the Seeds for the next offer. So if I teach you how to convert more traffic, then you’re going to have Seeds about the Objection for the next offer that comes up. And the next offer is the ascension model of once I know how to convert, I need to get more traffic, because I need more people to convert. And then that Tree has Fruit and then there’s more Seeds inside of that Fruit. And what are the Objections for the next offer, the Seeds inside the Fruit? It’s this ongoing process and cycle. Maybe scaling the business. So first you learn how to convert, then you get the traffic, then you scale the business, then you sell it. So basically, Seeds, Roots, Trunk, Branches, Leaves, Fruits, and then more Seeds. That is the premise of All Selling Aside.

Cheryl Hodgson [25:29]

It sounds to me like it’s the Tree of Life.

Alex Mandossian [25:35]

It’s the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge.

Cheryl Hodgson [25:37]

Yes, absolutely. Well, Alex, I want to thank you, my goodness, the time is just racing by here. And would you come back again, for a follow up, this is so interesting, somewhere down the road?

Alex Mandossian [25:49]

I will if we get good reviews, see, there’s no reason to come back for rejection. But if we don’t get rejected, and they say, “Hey, I like that,” then I’m happy to come back.

Cheryl Hodgson [25:58]

That’s one of my favorite expressions, “avoid rejection”. Let’s do it right the first time. So we better make sure we get good reviews.

Alex Mandossian [26:05]

We’ll see. It’s up to them, not us.

Cheryl Hodgson [26:07]

We’ll do our best, but before we say goodbye, I probably meant to do earlier in our interview, but I love to share something that people might not know about you. And we were talking before we started recording and you shared something which I thought was very interesting. Something that has nothing to do with your background as a marketer. And what you’re known for by most people, is that you are the 2000 US squash champion.

Alex Mandossian [26:36]26:36

Yes. It was at Groton High School. It’s a high school in Massachusetts, it’s over by Harvard. It’s a high school. They have 12 squash courts, and a lot of future CEOs go to school there. It’s a boarding school. And I think some people do commute. And that’s where the national championships were in the year 2000. What’s fascinating is I was living in New York at the time from 93, the year 2000. My son was born at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and we moved to the Pacific Coast because we didn’t have any professional babysitters, also known as grandparents on the east coast.

Cheryl Hodgson [27:10]

Those are very useful.

Alex Mandossian [27:11]

They are, and they babysit for free. And so we moved after Gabriel was born in December of the year 2000. So Gabriel only lived there for about three months and he doesn’t remember it because he was just a baby. But during that time, I played squash, because I could get a great workout in about 90 minutes. I belong to the New York Squash Club and I picked up a squash racket, I think at 33, and then at 36 I won the national championships in my division. So it’s very unusual because people like hockey or skiing. They have to start squash at a very young age, like when they can pick up a racket like age five, or something.

Cheryl Hodgson [28:02]

Golf is the same way.

Alex Mandossian [28:03]

It’s a tough sport. It looks easy, but it’s tough. And if you see someone running around, they’re not a very good player. But if you see someone just walking and sauntering to hit the ball and anticipating, like an Objection, that’s a good squash player. So I had good eye-hand coordination. And the interesting thing was, I was going to the Nationals the year before, just two years after I picked up the racket. Which was fascinating. I had a coach and stuff but it was just fun. Very competitive. But I hurt my hand. I pulled a ligament in my wrist and I was in a cast, and I was so upset. And what happened was I started playing with my left hand, so I stayed fit. And everyone wanted to play me then because I couldn’t play with my left hand. But after about three months, I got to like a B-plus level. And then when I went back to my right hand, I could see the ball differently. And that really made the difference. I was ambidextrous. And I was an A-plus player with my right and then a B-plus and with my left, and I played tournaments in both, and I think that’s why I was blessed to win those national championships. So that’s not a fact that a lot of people know. Most people don’t even know what squash is.

Cheryl Hodgson [29:12]

Well, hopefully our listeners in the UK will. It’s very popular over there. I had some friends from the UK who were big squash players.

Alex Mandossian [29:20]

Yeah, on the east coast it’s more popular. And here in San Francisco. I played several tournaments when I came back and then I just hung up the squash racket around 2003 because when you play competitively, you’ve got to play every day, twice a day, coaching, and my digital marketing business and travel kind of took me away from that. So I just do CrossFit and weight training now, but that’s a little-known fact I suppose you would never see that online.

Cheryl Hodgson [29:49]

Well, I love learning that. Thank you. And before we say goodbye, I do have two more final questions. One is how do our listeners learn more about what you do and what you stand for?

Alex Mandossian [30:02]

Simply go to www.AllSellingAside.com. And the easiest way for you to find out what I do is just listen to a few episodes, review it, rate it, hopefully we earn five stars from you, you can only do that once of course, and then subscribe to it. And that doesn’t go into my database. It goes on the iTunes or Stitcher or Google Play database, and hopefully we can build a relationship together weekly, with 25 years of sales and marketing knowhow delivered in 25 minutes a week.

Cheryl Hodgson [30:37]

And Alex, do you have any sort of free gift for our audience today?

Alex Mandossian [30:40]

I do! If you go to www.MarketingOnline.com/book, Marketing Online is where people can buy from me. So that’s why I didn’t give that out. But if you go to www.MarketingOnline.com/book, what you could get for free is a video tutorial of a Magic Funnel. That when you give away a free physical product and people are paying for shipping and handling, like my book, Alexisms. I’ll show you the Funnel that will triple, even quintuple, that’s five times the revenue of what you show on the page because we lose money at $8. But, if you want to make 45 bucks on average, there’s a video tutorial if you opt in and you can get that if you want. So once again, that’s www.MarketingOnline.com/book.

Cheryl Hodgson [31:32]

Well, that is fantastic. And I think I may take advantage of that offer myself

Alex Mandossian [31:37]

I’m sure you will.

Cheryl Hodgson [31:39]

And before we go, I like to finish with some sort of question regarding what do you think has been your greatest accomplishment? And number two, what is on your bucket list for achievement either personally or professionally?

Alex Mandossian [31:55]

My single greatest achievement was saving my daughter’s life when we almost lost her due to a misdiagnosis from a hospital. When she was eight years old, I don’t remember the year but she was born 2002, so that would make it 2010 and it was a gut wrenching 10 days, and I remember my former wife and I, we not only prayed but we got over 10,000 people to pray because I know a lot of people. And it was an amazing event at the Oakland Children’s Hospital near Oakland, California. And then on my bucket list. I happen to love to swim. I’m a Pisces. So I was a swimmer in high school and I played water polo. I love to swim in a body of water, and then look up at a mountain that has snow on it. And I don’t like cold water. So there are a few places in the world where you could be swimming, let’s say the Mediterranean, and then look at a mountain that’s right next to it, and it has snow on top. There are parts of Turkey where you could see it. In parts of Lebanon, Mount Fujiyama, there’s a lake there, in the summer months it’s pretty comfortable to hang out. Mount Ararat in Armenia. And even on the Turkish side, there’s bodies of water where you could be swimming and looking at a mountain with a snow cap. So that’s a bucket list thing for me. I just really enjoy doing that. And I’ve picked at least 10 of those spots, and I’ve been to three of them. So I got seven more to go.

Cheryl Hodgson [33:41]

Oh, that’s fabulous. Which three have you done?

Alex Mandossian [33:43]

I’ve done Turkey, I’ve done Mount Fuji, and I’ve also done, it was cold, but I’ve done Lake Tahoe.

Cheryl Hodgson [33:52]

That’s cold. Great. Well, next time we come back, hopefully you come back. We will hear about the next one that you’ve crossed off your bucket list.

Alex Mandossian [34:02]

I look forward to it. There’s one in New Zealand so I can’t wait to go there.

Cheryl Hodgson [34:08]

That would be fabulous. Well, I’d like to thank you again, Alex. And to our listeners, please go to the Brandaide.com/Podcast page, and you can see all the episodes and the show notes, and you can subscribe to the podcast. Anyway, thank you so much, Alex, and we look forward to speaking to you soon.

Alex Mandossian [34:30]

Oky, Cheryl, thank you for having me. Hopefully, it’ll be worthwhile so we come back.

Cheryl Hodgson [34:34]

Absolutely. I’m sure it will be.

Bio:

Cheryl Hodgson [34:38]

Bestselling author Harvey McKay acknowledges Alex Mandossian as the Warren Buffet of Digital Marketing because of his ability to make money for his students and joint venture partners. Since 1993, Alex Mandossian has generated nearly $417 million in sales and profits for his students, clients, and other partners on six continents. He's best known by international thought leaders for teaching students from evolving nations how to profit from first-world digital marketing strategies.He shared the stage with Richard Branson, Larry King, Tony Robbins, Marianne Williamson, Susie Armand, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama and two US presidents.

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