How to Find a Guru

My heart pounded. A great opportunity was staring me in the face.

I’d been introduced to a publisher who had made big money by marketing information products. At least, it was big money to me. I can’t tell you the precise amount, because I was sworn to secrecy. But I can tell you that we’re talking millions of dollars.

I knew that if I came up with the right product, I could make a killing by licensing it to this guy.

I had been successful with licensing deals before. For example, I wrote a program about small-business entrepreneurship and licensed it to a major marketer who turned it into a bestseller. After that, the royalties kept pouring in.

Writing that program wasn’t hard for me. A small-business entrepreneur is what I’ve been my whole life. All I did was share the secrets I’d used myself and had coached other people to use.

But this publisher was looking for a program that could help “average Joe” investors get rich. And while I’d made a few modestly profitable investments, I just wasn’t qualified to create the product he wanted.

I didn’t want to let this opportunity pass me by.

“Surely, there is someone out there with the expertise, talent, and time to do this,” I thought. So I set out to find that “someone” — a “guru,” if you will, with experience in writing about investing. My plan was to offer my guru a significant percentage of the profits, essentially making him my partner.

I started my search for a writer.

I sifted through financial publications. I surfed the Internet. And, yes, I did find some people — published authors — with impressive credentials.

But… none of those people had the slightest interest in my deal. They told me to come back when I was prepared to write a sizable advance check.

Frankly, this was stumbling block. It’s not the way I operate. I never invest a lot of money to start a business. The only business ventures I get into are those that require little or no upfront capital.

It occurred to me that I’d been approaching the wrong people. I should have been looking for someone with an entrepreneurial mindset — someone who would be willing to accept some risk in return for a greater reward down the line. So I revised my approach.

Here are the steps I took to find my guru:

1. Identify Likely Candidates

I realized that I needed an active investor, not necessarily a “writer.” And I suspected that someone who was highly successful in investing, but had never shared his system, might be interested.

I began networking and asking for recommendations. It took a little effort, but I came up with a few good leads.

2. Make a Preliminary Case

To “sell” my prospects on my deal, I met with each one.

I had never licensed a financial program, but I had been successful with other types of instructional programs. So I was able to give my prospects “related proof” that I could make this deal worthwhile for them.

First, I showed them how much I had made in the past by licensing instructional programs. Then, I showed them that the publisher who was interested in this new investing program had made huge profits by marketing financial information products. Finally, I was able to demonstrate that I was in contact with him and had a reasonable shot at a licensing agreement.

My prospects connected the dots. They could see the potential.

3. Close the Deal

I scheduled a follow-up meeting with the one who had the most to offer buyers of the program. (He also happened to be the one I thought would be the easiest to work with.)

To give him an idea of what he needed to do, I showed him the program I had written on entrepreneurship. I also made an effort to present myself as a trustworthy and “au fait” partner. And I appealed to his ego by pointing out how great I would make him feel to have his name on a top-notch instructional program.

Needless to say, the allure of the financial and emotional rewards were too much for him to resist. By the end of that meeting, I had signed my “guru.”

The rest is history. He created an excellent program that I had no trouble licensing to the publisher. And I ended up netting about $50,000 on a project I worked on for about 100 hours. In other words, I made about $500 an hour.

There are many advantages to using a guru to help you develop information products.

For one thing, you’re not limited to subjects you personally know about. You can branch out where he has expertise. And if he is taking care of the creative end of the business, that frees up your time for marketing. Plus, if you use your guru as I suggest — making him your partner — you can launch your own information publishing business with little to no capital.

If you’ve been considering starting an Internet business, you should give serious thought to this one.

[Ed. Note: You don’t need to be an expert in anything in order to produce products that you can license. All you need to do is find the right “guru.” How to find that guru is one of the important secrets that Paul Lawrence reveals in his audio program, “Rights Acquisition System.” For more information on this program, click here.]