Our origin story.

Let me take you back to 2015..

At the time, I worked for the guy next to me in the image above.

His name is Steli Efti.

He throws the party at Close.io. A YC company.

That’s where my journey began..

I lived a typical Silicon Valley life ..

I shared a garage with 3 other entrepreneurs ..
(4 on weekends ..)

Hustling at day time ..

And coding at night..Oh man, 2015 went by fast..At the end of 2015, I had to make a decision..

Stay in Palo Alto and commit to my job..

Or burn the bridges and jump into cold water..

No easy decision..

I tell you.

I loved Steli and Close.io but I also knew that something was waiting for me out there..

I had to do it..

Packed up.

Booked a flight.

Off I was..

Next stop: Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

I knew where I wanted to be in a couple of years time..

Working on “real-world” problems.

Look..

I’m super passionate about two things ..

1) Our planet (environment)

2) Marketing Technology

So why on earth am I building Relationship Funnels..?

Good question 🙂

I see life like a butterfly..

It has different stages and each stage contributes to & builds the next stage.

I’m right now at stage #1.
(out of three ..)

What is stage #1?

Well..

This is where you come into my life..

But back to Costa Rica..

I worked from this Yoga temple right from the beach.

Yes. Not. Kidding.

This one day I talked to a friend over Skype.

He is a meditation guru & helps people to become more zen over the internet.

Let’s call him Harry, shall we?

Harry needed some input on how to sell his products & services on a daily basis..

He wanted a funnel (engine) that builds up a relationship and then sells his audience a solution to their problem.

That’s it.

Oh! And it should happen every single day..

Of course, Harry..

And guess what..?

I did what all good friends do..

I helped him create his funnel.

And voila..

Wild Audience was born.

I registered the domain while I was in Panama.

And got my first paying customer in Columbia..

.. Without having even started building my product.

Wait a minute, Bastian..

How did you get your first paying customer before you started working on your product..?

Good question, Sherlock 🙂

This is how I did it..

I wrote one blog post.

Just one.

This one.

The blog post is very much related to my paid offerings.

It’s like a very light (light, light) version of it.

Everyone who shows interest for this blog post, qualifies as a lead for my product.

I went on to promote it.

I used a simple & free traffic strategy called Facebook Groups.

It worked like a charm..

(click to zoom-in ..)

47 people signed up..

And a couple of days later, I got my first Stripe email..

“Congratulations! You have just received a payment of $97.”..

Oh snap!

I had a problem..

A customer but no product..

But before I tell you what happened next..

Here’s something to chew on..

After I split apart from my mentor & job in Silicon Valley..

It took 6 months and 3 pivots until I found myself in the situation above.

Starting a project (that eventually finances your life) is damn hard.

Harder than I imagined.

I had no-one to guide me anymore..

I didn’t know what product to offer..

Or how to make money..

The reason I moved down south was not the beaches or salsa dancing..

But to decrease my costs and increase my runway..

No job, no income.

I had to create something fast..

I knew I was good at..

1) Writing stuff

2) Tech Marketing

3) Zagging

I mixed everything together..

Iterated. Made mistakes. Analyzed feedback. Improved..

.. And picked up momentum.

Small successes turned into bigger ones..

Until people started to notice me.

They posted about me on Facebook..
(like Jeannette..)

They recommended my stuff to their friends..

And they sent me emails like this one..

In short..

My stuff seems to work.

People love it and get results with it..

Just like Joe does..

Now..

What is my marketing approach?

I have one single focus at the beginning..

To bond with a new lead.
(establish a relationship..)

Why?

If you have a relationship with your audience..

You’re able to create trust.

Your people will see you as the expert.

Their advisor.

And that’s what you aim for..

You want to become your audience’s trusted advisor.

This approach is called Respect-Based Marketing.

I coined this term.
(even got the domain..)

But it’s nothing new.

Respect-Based Marketing is heavily based on good old never-changing business elements like relationship & trust.

Business = Relationship between people.

Never forget that.

Are you ready to help, advise & guide your people before money has changed hands..?

Think about it..

Are you willing to do that?

Because I am.

The game is simple.

If I work extremely hard to deliver pure value to you. If I show you that I really care..

You will care back 🙂

If you mix Respect-Based Marketing with funnel-wudhu, you end up receiving emails like I did above..

Now let me show you how to do that ..