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I spent a long weekend in Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina to do one thing: drive exotic super cars.

But I got much more than I bargained for.

I’ll explain that in a minute.

I went to the World Class Driving experience. This is where you get to drive five super expensive and super fast super cars. It’s a great way to find out what kind of car you want to attract. The ones I drove were —

Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
Callaway C16 Coupe
Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
Maserati GranTurismo
Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

The car I wanted to drive the most was the McLaren. But I ended up driving it last. I first “had” to drive the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano.

Nothing shabby about the Ferrari. It’s fast, lean, and made for speed. I quickly felt at home in it. The pedal shifts on the steering wheel seemed odd to me, since I’m used to driving a stick shift, such as the one in Francine. But I quickly adapted.

The car I drove next was the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. I didn’t like it. The brakes are specialized ones that are designed to stop the car DEAD at a touch. Trying to touch them and not put myself through the windshield was a true challenge. I never mastered it. Nerissa still has seat belt burns on her neck.

The Maserati GranTurismo was next. It’s the cheapest of the cars at $120,000. It drives and rides like a luxury car, but it has power hidden under the hood that would make it blur past most other luxury models. Nerissa loved riding in this one best. But I’m sure she still prefers her Toyota Camry hybrid.

Next was the Callaway C16 Coupe. This rare Corvette inspired super car was uncomfortable, mostly because the bucket seats were made for a horse jockey and not an Internet marketer with a larger butt. Nerissa didn’t like it, either.

And, finally, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

This is a bullet ready to be fired into outer space. No wonder it has space-ship like swing-wing doors. It’s a rocket, a 617-horsepower ungodly powerful road monster that no untrained human should be allowed to drive.

The brakes are like the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera’s and need to get used to or else you’ll wear the windshield on your face.

The car has an untamed beast (think The Hulk) under the hood that roars to be set free. But there’s no place to set it free. I went 80 miles an hour in it when it’s capable of over 200. This engineering masterpiece sells for half a million dollars. I want two.

But driving the cars through the beautiful North Carolina hills wasn’t the highlight of the trip.

The real perk was meeting the man behind World Class Driving, Jean-Paul Libert.

Jean-Paul is an inspiring man. He heard that I’m the author of numerous marketing books and had lots of questions about how Americans think. He’s confused that in America employees don’t honor their employers. He’s also confused why a handshake agreement isn’t enough in the USA.

Jean-Paul is from Belgium and came up with the idea for World Class Driving a few years ago. He started with no money at all.

None.

But he knows marketing.

He said he wants to provide people with “automotive entertainment.” He wants them to have an experience. I liked him right then and there. This is what I say all buyers want these days.

His market isn’t worried about gas prices but isn’t ready to spend several hundred thousand dollars on a car. I think he would like my book on P.T. Barnum, There’s A Customer Born Every Minute, and probably Dan Kennedy’s new one, No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent. I’ll send him both books as a gift.

I think there are numerous lessons in this post. Everything from taking time to pursue your passions to keeping in mind what your customers want most: a new experience.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS – While in Asheville, we also visited the largest mansion in the USA: the Biltmore Estate. It’s unimaginably huge. It takes two hours just to stroll through it. More on that in another post.

Note: Left click on any image to enlarge it.

A famous poem once stated, “In dreams begin realities.”

Most of us don’t pay much attention to influencing our dreams. But I’ve learned that the moments before falling asleep, and the ones just as you awaken, are the most fertile ground for creating what you want in your waking reality.

To help people “dream abundance into reality,” my partner Mark Ryan and I have created a series of audios designed to be used over a seven day period.

In seven days you can improve seven different areas of your life by using the untapped power of your dreams.

This program is designed to work with your conscious and unconscious mind at its most impressionable times: when you awaken and as you’re falling to sleep.

Rather than try to explain it here, go see: Dreaming Abundance

See you in your dreams.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — Be sure to Digg this and share this with others.

The movie The Leap will come out later this year or early next, but you can see the first trailer for it right now by going to http://youtube.com/watch?v=PCQZ4xJuTWg or by clicking on the below image. I’m in it, with many other teachers. We all question if reality is an illusion, and invite you to take the leap beyond it. Take a look.

  Dan Kennedy is my favorite living marketer.

He’s a grumpy guy with a negative attitude about many things, but he also has a surprising sense of humor, a hypnotic writing style, and a marketing genius brain.

I studied and still study his books and courses on copywriting, advertising, direct marketing, speaking, writing, management, marketing, and no BS this and no BS that. I soak up everything he writes and says.

When his monthly gold newsletter arrives, I drop everything and read it. In fact, I always look to see if he has anything new for me to buy, and I’m disappointed if there isn’t an ad insert for a new product of his.

That’s how much I respect Dan Kennedy.

So you might imagine my surprise when he asked me to write the foreword to his latest book, No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent.

I was stunned, delighted, and so honored that I spent three days writing and rewriting my foreword for him.

I chiseled the thing into perfection. I felt like Michelangelo must have felt smoothing marble into David.

Dan loved my foreword. It’s called “How to Easily Attract the Affluent.” I’m proud to say it’s mentioned on the cover of his new book — a book you can get at book stores right now, or from Amazon, of course.

More than that, in the back of Dan’s new book he has me listed as a resource. In the section for www.joevitale.com he says,

“Vitale is a true marketing, sales and promotion genius.”

You know I loved that. 🙂

But forget about me and my foreword.

Dan’s latest book is a masterpiece. There are so many tips and insights and practical suggestions on how to make money marketing to the affluent, that I wouldn’t know where to begin.

The book’s under twenty bucks, which I think is a ridiculous steal.

My only complaint about Dan’s new book is that he didn’t autograph it to me.

Go get it.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — If you’re at all interested in marketing, you must be reading books by Dan Kennedy. There’s just no two ways around it. See www.dankennedy.com or just go to www.amazon.com and buy every book by him. NOW.

I wrote one of the first books on Internet marketing long, long ago. It was called CyberWriting. It became a quick bestseller due to one secret – a secret revealed in the following brief video clip. At the recent World Wellness event in Austin, I met a comedy writer who once worked for one of the greatest magicians of all time. Click the below image to see it (or go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ayqloL1YA) and learn about magic, marketing, and more, as my co-author (of Inspired Marketing) Craig Perrine looks on.