Matt Bowles: My guest today is Simone Vincenzi. He is a location-independent serial entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, World traveler, and the founder of GTeX, which has helped people to launch more than 500 profitable businesses. He is passionate about building thriving community-led businesses and helping speakers and coaches get known, get paid, and make an impact. He writes for Forbes, and Entrepreneur magazine, and is also the host of the Expert to Authority podcast. Originally from Italy, Simone has now been to over 40 countries.

Simone, welcome to the show.

Simone Vincenzi: It’s great to be here, Matthew.

Matt Bowles: Brother, I am so excited to have you here. You and I have hung out in different countries around the world. I think the last time we spent time together was in Bansko at the Nomad Fest last summer, but I’m super excited. I’ve been wanting to get you on the podcast for a while.

We finally made it happen. And we need to start off by setting the scene and letting folks know that we are also doing this as a wine night. So, let’s also talk about what we are drinking, my friend. I am actually in Asheville, North Carolina today. I’m in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I have just opened a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from California.

So, I’m going to be drinking through that throughout the episode. But where are you, my friend? And what are you drinking?

Simone Vincenzi: I’m in exotic London, but I’m drinking a Rosé from the South of France.

Matt Bowles: So, I want to start off by talking a little bit about your background. Can you share a little bit about your family heritage, where your family is from, and where you grew up?

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah. So, I grew up in a town, a small town called Maranello is very close to Modena and Bologna in the north of Italy. It’s a small town, but it’s very famous because it’s a town where there is a factory of Ferrari. So even though it’s a small Italian town, we were having tourists come in from left, right, and center, and also is a town where you see Ferraris everywhere. And I remember my first apartment, where I lived as a kid, had the balcony overlooking the circuit, where Michael Schumacher was doing his trial rounds, where Ferrari was doing all, testing all the new cars. So that was a big part of my upbringing.

But my parents were from both different sides of Italy. My dad is from the north of that area, but my mom is from the south of Puglia. And then she moved to that region when she was 16. So, in her teens, she moved there. Then they got married after many years. And so, I have this, uh, blend, uh, they call it in Italian, we’ll call it half-blood, where you have the blood from the north and the blood from the south, and they are two very different cultures.

Matt Bowles: Dude, I love the country of Italy. I try to go through as close to every year as I possibly can, and I go and I spend time in different places, and they are so fundamentally different. And when you go to the north, you go to the south, you go to different types of places in Italy. There’s so much cultural diversity there.

I spent a month in Sicily, which was so fundamentally different from spending a month in Florence or something like that, which is also one of my favorite cities. And then in 2021, I spent a month in Alba because I was going to the International White Truffle Festival.

Simone Vincenzi: Oh my god.

Matt Bowles: And I stayed at the base of both the Barolo and the Barbaresco wine regions.

Simone Vincenzi: Yes.

Matt Bowles: And that was just a completely different experience than I had had elsewhere around Italy. So, I keep going back to your country and I keep staying in different places and I keep having the most incredible experiences each time I go that are entirely different from the ones that I had the previous time.

And so, I am just completely mesmerized by it, ma’am. But from your perspective, for folks that haven’t spent as much time in Italy, if folks wanted to go and then wanted to experience the country, spend some time there. What would be some of your top recommendations? I know you were just there actually with some of our mutual friends and some of our Maverick show guests, as a matter of fact, can you share a little bit about that experience and then maybe make some recommendations for folks that want to hang out in Italy?

Simone Vincenzi: A hundred percent. So, we as you mentioned, we, uh, after coming off the last Nomad Cruise, which was, uh, around Italy and a shout out to Johannes and Nomad Cruise. If you’ve never experienced it. Check it out is insane is awesome after coming off the last Nomad Cruise, we decided to have an apartment to get apartment where a few of us with Santiago, Vicky, Mouge, and my wife, and then stayed in Puglia.

Which is the region where, uh, my mom is from in the South and also the same region where me and my wife got married. Something really important to know about Puglia, like anywhere in Italy, of course, food is a big thing. But you have a particular part of Puglia called Salento, which is the south of Puglia, but on the bottom of Puglia is called Salento, and you find water as clear as the Maldives.

In fact, there is some, there are some places called the Maldives of Salento, where you can find wide sandy beaches. And clear crystal water, but also you can find cliffs going down as well on the water, which I love. I love the landscape of cliffs and the sea is one of my favorites. And because it’s not so well known by tourists, you find a lot of locals, only locals that normally stay there.

A few Italians that are there, but it’s one of these regions which is relatively inexpensive, with some of the most beautiful landscapes you could ever see. So, shout out to Puglia.

Matt Bowles: I’ve actually had Puglia recommended on this podcast multiple times by people. And I still have not yet been there. So that may very well be the next destination I choose when I go back for yet another Italian experience, but also big shout out to the people that you were spending time with just so folks know, because Maverick show listeners know all of those people, your wife, Lovelda Vincenzi has been on The Maverick Show and you guys were there hanging out with Santiago Sosa and his wife, Victoria Zapata, both of whom have been interviewed on The Maverick Show. And then Mujtaba Saifuddin, who’s also been on The Maverick Show. So, you guys were all together.

I was loving the pictures that were coming out of that and seeing you guys there together as a crew. It was just absolutely fantastic, man. So that’s, it’s amazing to see how all of these nomad communities work and come together and how you can experience things locally. Like, I love the fact that you have family there and you were able to take those folks and show them where your family is from and show them around locally and give them that experience.

When Muj and I were in Columbia last year, Santiago and Vicky are from Columbia, Santiago’s from Medellin, Vicky’s from Cali, Muj and I were in both Medellin and Cali, and Santiago and Vicky were there at the same time in each city visiting their families. And so, we were able to get that same local immersive experience with those folks who are from there. And when you can do that, it’s just so special man.

Simone Vincenzi: It is priceless. I got to say that because I grew up in the north, actually, I didn’t experience much of the south of Italy. For me, Puglia was new as well because I didn’t spend time with my mom. All of my mom’s family moved to the north when my granddad then found a job as a teacher in a media Romanian in a city called Parma.

What was special is first of all, discovering Puglia for myself, because I’m going back and rediscovering my origins. I also took Santiago and Vicky to the same place where my wife and I got married and dad was incredible as an experience because it was the first time since my wife, and I got married that we visited back the same venue in the same location.

So, seeing the woman that the owner of the place that welcome us big hug, remembering that celebration and how special the day was, and being able to share it with them, it was great. And Caveat, we had an epic wedding. We got married in a castle and Lovelda had a white horse and carriage. Literally, it was a fairy tale and it’s something that, uh, with the landscape of the south part of Puglia, of Salento, is, uh, is magical. Absolutely magical.

Matt Bowles: That’s so amazing, man. That’s so fantastic. Well, I want to go all the way back now, Simone, and talk a little bit about your journey. There are a lot of themes that I’m really interested in about your life. And I think the first one that I want to start with is basketball. I know that that has been a very big part of your life, of your identity.

It’s now a big part of the way that you travel. Can you just take us back and talk a little bit about how you connected with basketball and what the sport and the culture of basketball mean to you?

Simone Vincenzi: I fell in love with basketball when I was 13 or 14. And I played every summer. I played in a local team in my hometown, but then at the age of 18, when I started working, I stopped it. I didn’t play anymore because I used to work in restaurants, and the schedule meant I couldn’t play much. And then also when I started my business at 23, and after I started my business, it was just business, business, business. So, I forgot about basketball until the age of 28.

Then on the 28th, my business started hiring people. I had way more free time. And so, I decided to join a basketball team and it was a professional basketball team. For the first two years, I only went there to the training, but then I made it on the team, and I played for three years in the third division in the UK, I’m at the level where I’m like, the worst of the pros and the best of the amateurs.

So, I didn’t get much play in time, even during the official games, but just being there, for me at 28, playing with young kids, they were dunking on my head consistently every single day. And for me, just proving that after stopping for so many years and working out, uh, really putting my head down. And playing, uh, every time I could, then I could make it to a professional league, and I had one of, I had an incredible game, I remember, I scored eight points in two minutes, that was insane.

And then I kept playing, I kept playing, it’s a big part of my life, as you mentioned, it’s a big part of my identity. I play at least three to four times a week. And now I stopped playing on the team, playing mainly pickup games. But it’s also become a way for me to experience cultures and to experience cities.

I have an app that is called Courts of the World. So, it’s courtsoftheworld.com. Anyone can go there. And you can go around and see all the outdoor courts that there are in the world. It’s open source. Someone finds a court, signals on the app and uploads it. And so, I’ve been able to play pick-up everywhere. And, uh, one of the best times was when I played in New York. That was epic.

Matt Bowles: Where did you play in New York?

Simone Vincenzi: At Rucker Park.

Matt Bowles: Oh, you played at Rucker Park? Yeah. Tell me what it was like, man. I mean, well, first, first of all, wait, for our international listeners, or maybe people that are not basketball fans, do you want to give a little context on Rucker Park and then your experience going there?

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah, Rucker Park is the outdoor court of the outdoor courts in the world. If there is an outdoor pickup game, that’s where a lot of NBA players will go. Sometimes during the summer to show up, but that’s where the best basketball players, definitely in the US but also in the world, they go to play outdoor pickup basketball is Rucker Park in New York.

It is a statement and just being there. It was an incredible experience. And I did, and I did some good stuff. I could hold my ground. So that was even better. But what was interesting was that I cut my end the week before going to New York. I was opening an avocado, I sliced my hand in between my fingers. And I almost couldn’t play because I had stitches in between my fingers. So, no one in their right mind would play basketball with that because the wound was still open and that happened only a few days before. And what I did, I sneaked out of the house, not letting anyone know that I was going to play basketball.

I found some pads that my wife had, you know, to take off the makeup. And with the cellar tape, I type-taped my entire hand. So actually, I could dribble the ball and play basketball just to experience that. That’s how obsessed I am.

Matt Bowles: Wow. And I know you’ve also integrated basketball into some of your charitable work that you do in terms of giving back and all that kind stuff. Can you share a little bit about that?

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah, the, the team, uh, the, the third division team that, uh, I have played with for many years is called the Ellucian Thunders or the London Thunders, and they are a charity. They do incredible work getting young kids out of London, which is one of the poorest areas of London. Kids who will spend their entire afternoon without parental supervision, without being able to do their homework and what they do, they provide a space where they can do their after-school work and also, they can learn leadership skills and learn it through basketball. So, they really provide a great space in the community. I sponsor every time I can for every sale, and we make a percentage of the sale.

Automatically, not just profits, but a percentage of every sale we make goes straight to, um, the London Thunders. And that’s how we’ve been able to support hundreds of kids going, playing basketball, having a place where they can stay and, uh, build memories and build character because that’s what basketball does. It builds character.

Matt Bowles: I want to also ask you a little bit about how your values and your worldview developed because you’re a thoughtful, conscious dude. You are very attentive, and I think very empathetic and very interested in understanding how systems of oppression affect different groups. And I’m curious if you sort of trace that back. Where did that come from? How did you start paying attention to things like racism and anti-blackness and other forms of inequality that are pervasive in this world and then cultivating the values that you have and the way that you walk through this world?

Simone Vincenzi: It comes from my upbringing. My mom has always been someone who really instilled in both me and my brother openness to other cultures. The idea that everyone is equal, the idea of understanding someone that looks in a different way, who talks in a different way. So, it’s always come from a mom, but I could see, in my own experience inside our household, the opposite.

In fact, my dad and all my dad’s family are right-wing. And some of them are far right. They are part of a movement called the Lega Nord in Italy. And Lega Nord is a political party that wants the separation of Italy. The North needs to be separated from the South because the North is the one that is the richest part of Italy and is the one that is supporting the entire part of Italy.

While the people from the South are just lazy and don’t want to do anything. That’s their reasoning. And, uh, growing up. In seeing both the extremes, my mom is very open, very welcoming, and very understanding. And then my dad’s in this family about not rejecting everything that is different. It also mostly made me pick my lane.

And I got to say, Italy with all their beauties is a very racist country. Many people don’t experience it because they just go there on holiday. But let’s look at the history of Italy. Now Italy is very traditional. It rejects change that’s part of the beauty but it’s also a double-edged sword now we have the Vatican in Italy is all about tradition is all about preserving what’s there.

And that’s why Italy, the majority of Italians, the media, and so on, they do a lot of campaigns about foreigners not being able, not that they come to Italy just to destroy things and just to steal and to live off the good people that are working. You know, the narrative is always the same. The narrative is like in the U. you have the same narrative with the Mexicans and the people from South America. The narrative is always the same, no matter where you go, but I found in Italy to be a big part of the frame of the culture that one of the reasons why I moved to London was to find a more, how can I say, a more welcoming society.

And I’m not saying England, I’m saying London. In fact, London was the first place where I went to move when I was 20. And I felt home was the first time I felt home because I could see all the different cultures around me people from different backgrounds living together and of course London has their issues but is that is one of the cities like New York for example like singapore where people from different backgrounds and different cities can live together in a somehow good way in a really positive way.

Matt Bowles: So, I’m curious when you travel through this world because you and I have a very similar perspective on that. And what you’re raising is these contradictions, which are all over the place. You mentioned the United States, right? There are very far-right, neo-fascist political movements in the United States, for sure, and all kinds of very xenophobic things that are going on here, and at the same time, you’ve got New York City, you’ve got Rucker Park, you’ve got all these amazing pieces of the United States, and all of those things are true at the same time.

Same with Italy, right? Of course, you know, you have this history of fascism in Italy right now. You have an extremely far-right-wing party in power. You have a lot of that resurgence of the neo-fascist stuff in Italy and just virulent anti-immigrant sentiment, which is just, you know, very visible to anyone that pays attention.

But at the same very same time. You know, you’ve got people like, you know, you’re describing your mother, you know, and I’ve met all kinds of people across Italy that are so warm and welcoming and wonderful people, you know, and people like yourself, you know, that are conscious of these issues and thoughtful about these issues and so forth.

And this is of course not unique to the United States or in Italy. I mean, this is all over the place. A lot of these things exist at the same time. And I’m curious for you when you go and you move through the world, you have this lens. How do you process those types of contradictions? And what is the significance of those in terms of how you engage or what you pay attention to as you’re traveling?

Simone Vincenzi: It’s hard. It’s hard to process these contradictions. It’s really hard. Like, it was really hard for me to be in Italy, where people are using the N-word without even thinking about it. And of course, I think it can hit harder at home because my wife is Caribbean. She’s black. All my extended family is black.

Playing basketball, the majority of my friends are black. And so actually I spend more time with black people than with white because of my interest, because of my family, because of what I’m passionate about, because of my sport. And every time I see injustice in this way, it hurts. It really hurts.

I feel it. And I will give you an example. The place where I couldn’t almost talk for a day was when I went to Cape Town. Don’t know, have you ever been to Cape Town?

Matt Bowles: Yeah, I’ve spent about five months in Cape Town. I’ve been there multiple times.

Simone Vincenzi: All right, so you have definitely a better experience than I had in terms of like longer and deeper experience that I had.

Because I stayed there for a week. But just in a week, being able to see clearly that the division between whites and blacks is still there. In one part of the town, aa whites, and a few black faces, but not that many. And then on the other side of town, you don’t see a white face and there is a line, and you can see the line and there is this, uh, I know this feeling in the air.

I cannot give it a word, but you can feel it. And I could feel it. And that was really hard. That was really hard for me, uh, to be there. I’m very sensitive. The things I championed, I will, I always do what I can.

Matt Bowles: Yeah. I mean, I appreciate that about you, brother. Like, you know, part of it, and I think the first step is just making an effort to pay attention and then to ask questions and then to listen and then to be interested and to get out of those tourist bubbles and, you know, play basketball with the locals and ask questions about their experience and then try to understand from that perspective. I mean, that’s one of the things I love about your approach to playing pickup hoops everywhere you go, man, that is such an amazing way to get out of any kind of tourist or Nomad or Expat bubbles of any kind and just get onto local courts with local folks, connect with them through the sport, and then you’re there to have candid conversations with them about their lives, you know, and they can just share things with you and you can get insights into what their lives are like that you’re not going to get on the tour or whatever the mainstream sort of narrative is that they’re selling to try to get people to come and patronize the country because these are local folks. They’re not part of the tourism industry.

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah, exactly. And that’s what I love about sport and in particular basketball, because when you’re on that court and you’re dribbling that ball or you’re shooting or you’re playing pickup.

Doesn’t matter where you’re coming from, your color, the color of your skin, doesn’t matter. If you can bowl, you can bowl. And that’s it. And that’s what they are looking for. We’re looking to have a good time, to be competitive, to trash talk, to shoot in your face. But then at the end of the day, we are all there drinking a beer after the game and having a good time.

And also, the other part is being able to explore cities and to explore places while looking for local courts. I’m using, well, normally I will hire a bicycle or take a bicycle, uh, or public transport if it’s very far and then going, uh, um, to explore a part of the city that very few people go to. Uh, I remember I went to Singapore, for example, and the only outdoor court that I could find was a 20-minute taxi drive outside the city.

I went and took a taxi because I was looking for the best ones. I’m looking for the places where there are, I know there are going to be people and I know there are going to be good, good players there. So, I took a taxi 20 minutes outside the city. I found myself in this, in the middle of this block of apartments, buildings, all facing, looking in the basketball court and these two courts in the middle and stayed there from, uh, Oh, four o’clock in the afternoon until 10 o’clock at night.

And then it was time, my wife was calling me, saying, I got to come home now. We are in Singapore. I’m here, but these things only basketball can get me to experience it in this way.

Matt Bowles: Well, I also want to talk to you a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey, Simone. Can you share a little bit about your path through entrepreneurship? I know you have had a long journey, and can you share a little bit about what that’s been like leading up to the founding of GTeX?

Simone Vincenzi: My background was in the catering industry, and I started working really young at the age of 14 my parents split up. My father, unfortunately, was an alcoholic, and now it’s clear that he made a great recovery, so well done, dad.

But at that time, alcohol got the best of him, and my mom couldn’t deal with it anymore. We couldn’t deal with it anymore. And so, money in the house was scarce. There wasn’t much after he left. And I wanted to be independent. I went to find a job. And I Loved it. I loved working in a restaurant as a waiter.

No, being a waiter is one of these jobs that very few people love. Almost everyone has done it in their lives for one reason or another, working in hospitality because it’s easy access, it’s what you do normally when you’re a kid. In particular, in Italy, you will work in a cafe or a bar or a restaurant, it’s your first summer job.

But very few people build a passion for it. I absolutely love it. I had great mentors as well and fast forward at the age of 19 I managed my first Michelin-star restaurant. That’s what got me to move to London because I received a job offer to work in a restaurant in Notting Hill from someone that saw me in a Michelin-star restaurant in London.

So that’s how I moved to London at 20. And it was that same person that brought me to their restaurant in London that he actually told me, hey, I think you can do more with your life. And he started sending me to seminars, giving me books, and blogs to read. And that’s how I got open my mind to the world of personal development and personal growth.

So, at the age of 23, I took a diploma in youth coaching and personal performance coaching. And my first business was going to school and delivering coaching programs to young kids. I was an associate from different other organizations and built it to 150 schools a year and where I was going 150 schools a year delivering their programs of these organizations.

And then in the meanwhile, I met my business partner, which now is my business partner band, we’re friends at the time. And we were coaching each other because we were learning how to coach at that time. And we decided to start an event company called GTeX. We ran our first few events on a farm because we found a room for free on a farm for seven nights.

So, we started, we negotiated to go seven events. And the first event, we had like four people, two were the speakers, one was my business partner’s father, and then the other person was the only person who actually came along and attended, which we chained in the chair. We said, no, you’re not going to leave from here.

But that was the start with that company. Then we ran more than, uh, oh, we did it thousand events in a period of five years.

Matt Bowles: Can you talk about what GTeX offers today? What the company is all about and what the main focus is?

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah, GTeX has evolved a lot because we did, this year is our 10th year of GTeX.

That’s this year. And GTeX stands for Growing Together Exponentially. That’s what GTeX stands for. Fundamentally, we are a community. We are a community of people. And that’s, uh, is always the core, that is always the foundation, is about mutual support, mutual help to achieve personal goals in life.

Then throughout the years, from personal goals, it evolved to business goals. Because the more I was passionate about business, the more I learned about business, the more we were growing GTeX. People wanted more business mentoring from us. And so right now, we are really helping our clients increase their monthly recurring revenues in their business.

Because, uh, I think real freedom comes when you don’t worry about where your next money is coming from. And in particular in business, you know, there is a dream of business. It’s like, oh my God, you’re going to be independent. You can do whatever you want. Yes, but until things stick along, and you don’t know where your next client is coming from, you don’t know where you’re going to get paid next at the beginning.

And so having a business model that prepares that future proves your business, that’s a big part that what I believe in, that’s how we have set up GTeX, and that’s also what we’re teaching our clients now.

Matt Bowles: Well, I want to go through some of the different component parts and some of the areas of expertise that you have and that you teach about and to try to sort of draw out some tips for the listeners here. And so, I think the place that I’d like to start is this concept of moving from an Expert to Authority, which is of course the name of the podcast that you host.

And I’ve gone through a bunch of your content on this, and I think it’s really important. It’s really interesting. And I think it’s especially relevant for listeners who might even be at the very early stage. Maybe they’re even still working in a job. They’re very good at what they do. They’ve developed a lot of skills over the years.

They’re very talented, but they’re still working for a company, and they may have a lot of restrictions on them and so forth. And so, I think one of the things that your framework does is I think it provides a path for people that are skilled and talented and experts in certain areas to then develop that into a business.

And I’m wondering if you can talk us through some of this process and talk us through the stages that someone might go through to take the skills that they already have right now that they’re really good at. People are probably already asking them for help with certain things and all that. They’re just not monetizing it.

And how would they transition that into a business? What are the steps in the path for that?

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah, we have created the GTeX method, which breaks it down into, four steps, uh, clarity, conversion, expansion, and influence. And any business in any sector, you need to have all these four things. Uh, it’s like a wheel.

If a part is missing, something is not going to work well. First of all, you need to have clarity. You need to know where you’re going, you know who your clients are. What’s your business model? What is your positioning? How are you going get be known? Because without that clarity, what you’re doing is just saying yes to everything and spinning too many places at once, which means you get everything and nothing done.

There is a lack of sense of direction, and you need that. So, first of all is clarity. That’s the first thing that we work with our clients on. It’s like, are you clear about who you are? What are you providing? What is your business? Who are you serving? Great. Tick. So, if you don’t have that and you’re starting out this is the best place to start and I want to copy it with something because some people they stay in the clarity stage for a bit too long I don’t know maybe you’ve met some of these people that they spend more time thinking about their business and actually running their business and doing stuff with it.

And clarity often comes with action. So, you, at the beginning, when you’re starting out the clarity stage, you might have a vague idea, and that’s going to get you clear enough to take the first step and test it out. And the more you test, the more clarity you get until you get to a point where you really know who you are.

You really know your clients, and it might take you three years to get there. Some people might take two to three months. Some people might take two to three years. Everyone is on a different journey, but that’s what you’re really looking for, for that clarity. Who am I? Who am I serving? What am I, what problems am I solving?

What’s going to be my position? How am I going to be positioned? Then you move to the conversion and conversion is all about getting clients. So, while you’re working on the clarity now, it’s time to really create great offers and find a great way to onboard clients. Now, for example, one of my favorite strategies in the conversion stage is at Webinars, because webinars are a fantastic tool to really get clients at scale.

You do one presentation; you repeat the same presentation in front of different audiences. And now you can always have a predictable way of onboarding clients. So that conversion, once you have your conversion method sorted, so you know where you’re going, the products you’re going to sell, and how you’re going to sell them through a webinar, then you can move to the next stage, which is expansion.

Expansion is about building your audience you cannot sell to the same people who have already bought at some point people will stop buying so you always need fresh new eyes in front of your content to your offers whatever you’re providing and new people watching your webinars in this case or new people seeing your offers and your products and your content.

That’s where you’re going to focus on expanding your audience. Now, one of the biggest problems I found is that people focus on expanding their audience before they actually have something really great to sell or a refined sales process, which means that they’re building this audience, but they’re not making any money.

And that becomes an issue because I think in our society, when the way that our influencers online and social media are going, there is so much focus on the numbers of audience growth that many people forget that what’s important if you’re running a business, yes, is the audience, but also is the money that you’re bringing at the end of the month.

And so that’s why I like to finalize conversion first and then move to expansion because I know that the more the audience is going to expand, the more I’m going to earn because I know where I’m going, I know what I’m offering, and now I can put fuel on it. And then we have the last part, and the last part, which is the fourth one.

So, we have Clarity, Conversion, and Expansion. The fourth one is Influence. And influence it. Now that you know where you’re going, you have a great way to get your offers. You building your audience now is about expanding your profile and building your credibility through public speaking, getting featured on publications, getting featured on media, and that will amplify even more the work that you’re doing. And these are the four pillars of GTeX method. And that’s how we work with our clients.

Matt Bowles: So, let’s talk a little bit about that conversion stage. I know that you do an entire course just on perfecting the webinar because you have to have the right product, and then you have to have the ability to sell it in a way that’s going to convert consistently, as you said before, you can scale that. Can you share some tips that you teach on how to run an effective webinar?

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah, absolutely. Definitely, number one is to have a great offer. You can have an okay presentation, an okay webinar presentation, but a great offer, people will still buy. So, work on making a great offer, something that people want to buy, something that people say, “Oh my God, I need to have this”.

And in order to create a great offer, the best piece of advice I can give you is to focus on only one problem. Solve one problem in a very specific way. Because I think that a lot of people, when they make an offer, want to put too much in. And it used to work before, but right now, if I have a problem, give me the solution and tell me how you’re going to help me solve it.

That will solve a lot of the questions that people have and make a great offer on its own. So that’s number one for the webinar. So, your offer will determine, will be really important, the conversion you will have. The second thing is that when you’re running a webinar, people often teach too much. And the main focus of a webinar is getting someone to think in a different way.

A webinar is an online presentation. You’re introducing yourself; you’re introducing what you offer, and you’re introducing how people can work with you. And what’s important is that throughout the webinar, what you need to get is to get people to think in a different way. For example, you can give someone a weight loss plan and do a webinar with the entire weight loss plan there.

If I don’t believe in my mind and in my soul that I have to lose weight, you can give me the best plan ever. I’m not going to implement it. But if you focus the entire presentation on really getting me to think about all the reasons why I need to lose weight, the moment you’re presenting me with a plan, now every part of me wants to lose weight.

So, I’m more likely to invest in the plan and also execute it. So that’s another thing to make a great webinar. And then the third part, which a lot of people don’t want to hear that, but it’s about becoming really good at presentation, and that comes with time. It took me 25 webinars to make my first sale.

I wasn’t great at presenting online and selling online. But I knew other people would do it. So, it was about me becoming that version of me that could then sell in a predictable way. And what a lot of people do, they do two or three webinars, or they do the first one, then they see that it doesn’t work and then they give up.

And sometimes it might be a really good presentation. You might not have the right people on the call. You need to have to find more people. So, it becomes a matter of experience and becoming so good that then when you turn on the camera, you know, you can deliver. And you know you can sell in a predictable way. And these are my best pieces of advice to create a great webinar that converts.

Matt Bowles: Well, I also want to ask you about the concept of a sales funnel and what actually should be sold on the webinar versus what should be sold somewhere after the webinar down the road. And I know you also talk about phases of the sales funnel and the difference between starting with a relationship-building offer, and then going into an introductory offer, and then a core offer, and then a retainer offer.

Can you talk about the type of sales funnel that you teach, where the webinar fits into it, and then after the webinar, what the next steps are?

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah, absolutely. As you mentioned, these are the four offers that I believe that every business should have, which means the first is the relationship-building offer.

In that case, is your webinar is there to build a relationship with people, to show people who you are, what you can do for them, and to see if they like your style. So, then they can make a decision. Then. At that point, what I prefer is to make an introductory offer, which is an initial offer, which is very easy to buy something that is easy for someone to take their credit card out and say, let me give it a go.

And the aim of your introductory offer is to wow people, is to give people an experience in a short time. Period of time of what it is like to work with you. So, for example, we have two introductory offers. One is the offer launch accelerator, which is to create a launch and offer in three days. Spend three days with a group of clients.

We get them to launch an offer in three days. Those three days are designed to give our clients an incredible experience. We have run the offer launch accelerator for seven years and one of the most magical pieces of feedback is how people felt throughout the program. So, you want to give them a specific result to achieve in a short period of time and really wow them because then at that point you can make your core offer.

Hey, you have seen how we work together in a short period of time. Imagine what it would be like if we worked together for a year, two years, three years, or whatever is that your offer next. Now they’ve already had an experience, they’re going to be more likely to say yes to your core offer. And then what I would like to have after is then the retainer offers, which is for all the people that now have gone through your core offer, that he kept working with you.

You’ve already done the biggest part of the job. And the biggest part of the job is really to build a relationship with that client. So, what you’re doing at that point is to say, “Hey, do you want to, do you want to keep working together?” And then you have something that they can pay you monthly for. At that point, that’s what builds your recurring revenues, but also you can build your recurring revenues with your core offer.

Because for example, we use a lot of payment plans, and high ticket offer to payment plans, for example. So, people will pay, you know, $10 to $15, 000 or $20, 000 for one of our programs. But their starting payment plans are $200 or $300 a month. And then they paid off over the years. Now, what that does, is it becomes easy for someone to say yes, but also it adds recurring revenues to our business.

When you have, you know, 100, 200 people paying you $200, $300 a month, you’re good. And that’s what I like to help build business models where you have, you showcase first with your relationship-building offer. Then you have your introductory offer to wow people, give them an experience, use your core offer and your retainer offer to build your recurring revenues or to build cashflow, and then you find new audiences where you can do and rinse and repeat the same process.

Matt Bowles: I also want to ask you about the way that you have incorporated public speaking into your business. You’ve obviously spent a lot of time refining and testing your offers, the conversion mechanisms, the funnel structure, and all of that. And once all of that is optimized, I want to ask you about the role of public speaking in your business.

And you at this point have spoken on, I don’t know how many hundreds of stages all over the world. Although I think you have a slightly different approach, or it figures slightly differently into your business model compared to your wife. I interviewed Lovelda on The Maverick Show and she said very emphatically, I don’t get out of bed or ever take the stage for less than four figures under pretty much any circumstances because you know, that’s my value and I stand behind it and I’ve been able to establish that level of value and people know that, and people pay me for that.

And she’s a professional public speaker. who gets paid for her speaking. You have been speaking for I don’t know how many years on stages all over the world. And yet you will at least sometimes speak for less or no money at all. So, explain how public speaking fits into your business model.

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah. You have different models when you’re a speaker. One is that you, you get paid and then you deliver the presentation, or you host an event, that’s what my wife does. Which means that your work is finished when you finish your presentation. When you finish the event, your work is finished. My business model is the opposite. My work starts after the event.

So, most of the time I speak for free, or actually I pay to speak. I don’t have any problems sponsoring an event to be a speaker if the audience is right because then I make my money by selling the offers that we have so how did I get into the webinar space? Was it because my background was in the event space?

With GTX, as I mentioned, we ran more than 1000 events in five years, and they were workshops. We were invited to a lot of them free. We were inviting people in and then we’re delivering a presentation and then making an offer. People that wanted to keep working with us after that free evening. They will go into a three-day course that we were running and then after the three-day course, then they will buy a long-term membership, a lifetime membership that we were offering.

So, I figured out that actually I make way more money by selling an offer than by getting paid to speak. Now, caveat, don’t pay if you don’t know what you’re doing. There are plenty of free speaking opportunities for you to test, but after, if it makes sense, I see it as my marketing expenses. I’ll tell you the most I’ve made in 90 minutes, it was, uh, $75, 000 in 90 minutes. The most I made in one day is $150, 000. Now, these are good numbers, and these are numbers I would never had if I was paid upfront by the organizer.

Matt Bowles: Well, I want to also ask you a little bit more about the other elements that go into this Expert to Authority concept when you are helping people build their personal brand or their company brand, and you are really trying to exponentially increase their authority.

One of the strategies and techniques that I know that you use is the concept of earned media, helping people get all over the place in major media. Can you share a little bit about how people can start going about developing that PR or that earned media strategy to get themselves out there and build their brand?

Simone Vincenzi: And what I love about media is that they are an amplifier. So, media, they’re an amplifier and they are a business card. Very few times they will actually bring you clients. This is really important for people to understand. That’s why if you look at the GTeX method, influence was the last part. We had clarity, conversion, expansion, and then influence.

But once you have a good business model, then the media is putting gasoline on the fire because people will trust you more when you are on publications, when you are on TV is subconscious. We are wired as human beings to trust more something that has more social proof, and that’s what media will provide social proof for you.

Now, in terms of getting started, there are different levels. Let’s say you’re starting out, never been featured anywhere before. The best piece of advice is to write a few blogs yourself. On your own for your own website the reason why is that before featuring on any publications, any publication or media outlet they will ask you for examples either of you talking or of your writing so if you are at that point where no one is asking you to talk yet or to write yet write something for yourself that’s how I started.

I did a couple of articles on my own for my website and whenever someone asked me for an example, I had an example that I could give them instead of saying, oh, well, I don’t have it, and burning that opportunity. So, once you have a few, two, or three articles, then there are two platforms that anyone can use, whether you’re starting out or whether you are more advanced.

One is called helpareporter.com, HARO, if you search on Google, H-A-R-O, are you familiar with that? Have you, have you used it?

Matt Bowles: Yes, I am. Yeah. That’s been around for many years, Help A Reporter Out. And then all these journalists who are writing stories and are looking for experts to contribute to their stories. They just say, hey, if you’re an expert on this, contact me.

Simone Vincenzi: Exactly. So that’s a great resource to use in particular because you’re getting every day hundreds of media inquiries from journalists and it becomes a volume thing. So, you’re going to respond to 10, and one is going to get you in one or two, sometimes if you’re lucky, three out of 10, but generally one or two out of 10 you will get.

And there is a similar platform called the SourceBottle. SourceBottle works in the same way as HARO works. So helpareporter.com or SourceBottle every day will send you different lists based on keywords and the topic that you want to write about. And what I like about it is that you’re not pitching call the journalist.

It’s a journalist who is already looking for something interesting. Now the other part to really consider, to bear in mind, is the angle. Because now you see what those journalists are going to receive. Sometimes 10, sometimes hundreds, and depending on the publication, sometimes thousands of media pitches.

So how yours is going to stand out is to have a unique point. Let me give you an example. I did a radio interview for BBC Radio, which is the most important radio station in the UK. And they were looking for people to share ideas about what they do during their lunch break. Where do you go in London during your lunch break? That was the title.

So now someone would look at my business and say, well, but you do business coaching. Well, why do you care about getting featured in something food-related? I care because I’m on radio. So that’s for me is a, is to reach a big audience and to build my profile. I don’t do it to get clients.

And secondly, I had something to say, and my pitch was at the time I was vegan, I’m vegetarian now, but at the time I was vegan, and my pitch was where vegan Italian eats in London during his lunch break. Now, if I’m a journalist, say a vegan Italian. Is there something like a vegan Italian? So, it made it so specific that I used my background and my favor, which is the biggest point I want to get across to everyone.

Use your background as your biggest selling point. Because there might be some, uh, I did another big interview on the time of Black Lives Matter. And my pitch was Italian married to a ‘Caribbean point of view living in the UK’. So, now you can see all these intersections there is an Italian living in UK married to a Caribbean and they are part of my background.

So, think everyone thinks think about your background, what makes you different what makes unique what was a bit weird about your upbringing and then these are the angles that will get you through in major media publications. And now once you get the smaller ones, then you get the bigger ones. And that’s how I got featured on Forbes.

Like I started writing for Forbes. I started writing for entrepreneurs, but it started with the smaller ones. And then after getting a lot of the smaller ones approaching the bigger ones and say, hey, this is what I have achieved. This is what has been written about me. Would you like me to? Contribute to your platform.

Matt Bowles: All right, we’re going to pause here and call that the end of part one. Be sure to tune in to the next episode to hear the conclusion of my interview with Simone, where he talks about the most effective business networking strategies that he has developed. He also opens up and talks about some of the darkest and most challenging moments of his entrepreneurial journey and his personal life and how he got through that.

He gives some specific stress management techniques that you can use. And then we have a pretty candid conversation about a whole range of topics, including the impact of travel on his relationship, shifting priorities around work-life balance in different seasons of life, and the importance of creating stability anchors as we travel around the world to different places and how to do that and much more. So be sure to tune into the next episode to hear the conclusion of my interview with Simone Vincenzi.

And in the meantime, you can go to the show notes for this episode at themaverickshow.com. And there, you’re going to find links to everything. Everything we have discussed as well as all the ways to find, follow, and contact Simone. Good night, everybody.