Um? (another long post)
Before I start - again, thank you so much for the positive feedback so many people have given me and my company in here.
Having said that - here goes...
I am not sure how much more than...
"There is nothing in this seminar that you don’t already know or couldn’t learn yourself for very little"
and
"the only reason we do this is to get you as a client"
and
"if you were expecting something else I'm happy to give you a refund"
... that I could say without totally back-selling our company and the reason why people attended in the first place - to learn. To me these type of statements reasonably address the type of concerns that many people (including Bill) raise, most of which, I agree are valid, but some are just over the top.
How could I make it any more reasonable?
I have even written 3 books (2 more to be published) so people could get my strategies without having to fork over lots of money and by the time I am done those books will probably contain more "content" then my seminars.
I am up for genuine suggestions because we have tried really hard to address the concerns of potential clients, regulators and consumer advocates while still maintaining a commercial approach to business.
And remember, regardless of what you think about seminars, financial planning, stock brokers, real estate agents and the rest of what we do, they are all legitimate businesses which we, as investors, often have to deal with.
AND in all of these business areas we have to compete with people who are not held to the same standards that we are due to our Financial Services License, Participating Organisation of the Australian Stock Exchange status, Real Estate Licenses and the Association Memberships we are governed by.
Freeman Fox is here for the long haul and have a commitment to being the best we can with the resources we have. We have hundreds of shareholders, managers and directors who are leaders in their fields and manage and advise on hundreds of millions (over $300 million at last count) of our clients’ money.
While we can't please everyone and some of the suggestions I have received on this topic are extreme and totally uncommercial we want to please as many people as we can.
I genuinely believe that the vast majority of our clients like us, like what we do and believe we deliver value for money. We make mistakes, but I challenge anybody to find anybody who doesn’t. We give refunds and we get the odd complaint (for which, by the way we have a Complaints Register to track any trends, and are paid members of a Dispute Resolution Service just in case people don’t think we have given them a fair hearing in their complaint).
I was trying to think of an analogy (you would know by now that I like stories) so I liken it to flying (a topic dear to my heart being a Platinum Frequent Flyer)...
I fly First Class everywhere. I am happy to pay.
Some people would think that is a total absolute waste of money and that everybody in the pointy end are w#%kers.
Some people just can’t afford it and booked 6 months in advance to get the cheapest fair they could.
Some people are at the back of the bus doing everything they can in their life to get to the front.
And before anybody starts I HAVE flown economy – just yesterday I had to voluntary downgrade to get a seat on the only flight to my destination (Oh, boo hoo I hear you all saying!
). And OK, it wasn’t that bad but it wasn’t good enough that you won’t find me back up the front next time.
And I am not going to feel sorry for anybody down the back and offer to give up my seat to them. And I don’t resent paying $15,000 when other people have paid $800 to be on the same plane as long as the airline delivers on their promise of First Class service.
But here’s the thing… We ALL get to the same place and get to enjoy the wonder of travel.
My point - It doesn't matter how we get to wealth as long as we get there. If I want to do to seminars, or go to a financial planner or sell through auction or even if I want to give it a go, why attack me?
I don't expect the economy passengers to abuse me as I get off the plane.
(And if one more person does the "even if they only charge $200 and get 100 people in the room they have made $20,000" thing I will send the boys around (and I know some boys
). I can't speak for anybody else but it costs us over $100,000 to put on a seminar of the type we usually do. If we only got 100 people at $200 each we would go out of business real fast.)
I'm not sure why this criticism bothers me so much – I have been coming into this forum for a couple of years just to see what people were saying and never commented on this topic before (apart from when GeoffW said I used an old photo ‘cuase I looked thinner –
).
I usually have a pretty thick skin and I have never thought to bother to defend myself on this issue before and certainly NEVER have defended the “wealth seminar industry” before or now – I am specifically referring to me and my company but becuase of everything we have done, I now think this goes beyond a criticism of me. It is an attack (intended or not) on my company, my shareholders, my clients and my team. If I do not defend our position then I feel I would be negligent to them as it erodes our reputation, brand and the efforts we have made to build a strong and trustworthy business.
I just think we here at Freeman Fox have done so much, spent so much, trained so much, employed so many qualified and wonderful people, changed so much, worked so hard, and so on to address these types of issues that I wonder if anybody will ever just say, "hey, good on you. Good to see at least somebody is prepared to have a go at getting it right."
If people want to open a debate on strategy I say bring it on. Isn't that why you are here - to learn from various sources (for free) what works for them and may work for you?
Since I have been here this round it I have witnessed extraordinary knowledge from the “everyday” (whatever that means) successful contributors in here so you don't have to hear from me droning on, even on my own strategies. I have already said my philosophy is “there are many ways to skin a cat”, and many successful ways to wealth I don't do - this (my strategies) just works for me.
But, at least on this topic, and for my company I have to be prepared to stand up and be proud of what we have done, what we have achieved and what we are still going to do to get even better.
