Welcome to Special Ops!
Eric and I and the team are excited to share this journey with you.
You should have received in your SIX+MAPS welcome pack emails:
- your unique personal link for the twice weekly SIX+MAPS Zoom Q&A sessions
- your login instructions and password for the member website
- instructions for getting connected via Slack (https://archmarketing.org/six-slack)
- a link to book your weekly Accountability Coaching sessions
You are joining a very special group.
You will become friends with many of the others members and they will help you more than you can guess at this point. The culture within these teams is one of giving and sharing.
You won't be in competition, so this is a rare environment where you CAN talk selling - fees- fears - wins and losses. All those things you probably feel you can't talk about with other architects who are closer to home. And you will learn SO much by talking openly about them.
What else?
Our Special Ops mission is to help you win 6 LCC's as fast as possible.
Once you become a black belt LCC winner you'll never look back. You'll do this for the rest of your career. This is a true turning point for many of our members.
Despite what you think LCC'ing is easier than you probably think - if you have the right scripts and emails to send to set the scene, good clients prefer this approach.
- "Yes happy to meet you but before we do, I always like to run through how we work. We are a little different from most architects. We only want great results so we developed our own special process that maximizes the chances of a successful design and reduces project risk. Here's how we work with clients 1-2-3-4, does that make sense? Great, if you are ok with our approach then let's meet up."
In this case 1 might be free meeting, 2 would be paid pre-design research, 3 might be design and 4 etc etc.
Basically you get agreement before you invest time.
This was a little mini course 😉
- you learn much more in the LCC training.
Yes, you are going to go through the LCC training first.
Then the SIX+MAPs training.
Why? Because you'll probably already be having opportunities that come your way. These need to be put through an LCC and not a bunch of free work.
I know some of you may already be doing LCC's so this is old hat to you but this process is really important. You might be a white belt at the LCC, we need you to be a black belt.
Benefits of the LCC (off the top of my head):
- you stop doing free work
- you find out who only wants free stuff (and say "no")
- you win a client (note - not a design client but a consulting client, however about 75-90% of these LCC clients become design clients. Your biggest risk is that the project doesn't go ahead for some reason).
We will split the Special Ops cohort into 2 groups (residential / commercial) for our additional Zoom training sessions so the numbers are small enough that you feel you can ask as many questions as you want. More work for me, but i think it will be a little better for you.
You should have access to SIX+MAPs and the LCC Method already, so get into it and start going through the videos.
You can also turn up to the larger SIX group weekly Zoom calls. There are two of these per week, one with me and one with Eric. The times are Tuesday 2 pm US Pacific Time and Thursday 9 am US Pacific.
Additional Zoom Calls for Special Ops Members
As a Special Ops member you will be getting additional Zoom calls.
Our kickoff call (Special Ops members only) was held on February 8th at 12 noon US Pacific time (you'll find the recording on this page). There will also be Special Ops calls scheduled for 30, 60 and 90 days. You'll get reminder emails the week before.
The connection link for these calls is https://archmarketing.org/special-ops-2-zoom
If you have any problem connecting via this link, you may use this "raw" Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84106176798?pwd=bUFIV0pDT3NUTDN6MjNPTEs3L1d4UT09
Passcode: 893574
All calls are optional, but I suggest you attend as many as you can.
BONUS: One on ones with me....
You should book this session AFTER you have completed the LCC method plus modules 1-2 and 3. Modules 1-3 are are the strategy modules, so I want you to think out your WHAT, WHO and Million Dollar Message first so I can review them all.
These are the foundations of your marketing (do you like the construction analogy?). You'll build your marketing system on top of these.
Questions?
The twice weekly SIX+MAPS Q&A sessions are the best place to ask questions about marketing or drop a question in the Special Ops channel in Slack (#special-ops).
The best way to reach Eric or I about any logistical matters is through SLACK. You can direct message us anytime. I check Slack far more than I check emails. So go direct. I usually respond within 24 hours. If it's a technical question, definitely go to Eric (either by Slack or emailing support@archmarketing.org), I only know enough to get us both into trouble.
In the February 8 kickoff call we reviewed everything you need to know to get started. You'll find the recording on this page.
How does Special Ops differ from SIX+MAPs?
Special Ops is built on top of SIX+MAPS; the main difference is that we will be working even more closely with you over the first 90 days.
Why are we doing this? Because we are always looking for new ways to make our product better. I want to see if the extra things and structure we are doing will make it easier and faster for you to get results. And we want to track your results. How fun!!!
In summary:
- You are joining a special group
- You will win at least 6 but probably a lot more than 6 LCCs this coming year
- Get straight into the LCC training now
- Get onto the weekly SIX+MAPs weekly Q&A calls
- One on ones with me - get through to module 3 so we have something meaty to talk about
- Any questions are best asked in a direct message via Slack
- Richard
P.S. Need more help? Can't get onto Slack to ask for help?
Email support@archmarketing.org