Transcript: High-Ticket Sales Funnels [Sonora Guitar Intensive] DS572

Doug: Hey, what’s going on? Welcome to the Doug Show. My name’s Doug Cunnington, and in this episode I’m gonna get back to some marketing ideas.

So I was recently in a sales funnel. Made it all the way to the end, and I’m gonna tell you about that a little bit. I partially, I mean, I was interested in the product, otherwise I wouldn’t like waste my time sitting through a sales call, but also.

It was interesting because I am a marketer and I understand sales funnels. It was interesting to see how they have a sales funnel and what they do, and it was a high, very high-end product, uh, over five figures. Uh, all said and done. Very interesting. So anyway, I, I was imagining, like before I got into the marketing world, like what I, I mean, if I was just on the other side of it, I would have now.

Fallen for it, but like they would’ve sucked me right in and I wouldn’t have my, I wouldn’t have my guard up so much. And I would say like, it’s an interesting thing ’cause I actually found it like intellectually stimulating to go through it. And I’ll, I’ll tell you, I actually told the, all, everyone that I interacted with after some point in time I said.

I am a marketer myself, and it actually allowed them to open up a little bit more and it, I mean, I think they told me a little bit more from it. So it is a company, it’s called, uh, Sonora Guitar Institute, I think. I think that’s the, I, I should double check before I keep going here. So I’ll check. I’m glad I checked.

That was wrong. It’s Sonora guitar Intensive, intensive, so I’ll tell you about that. And if you’re actually interested in. Like that, uh, course or institute or whatever. I can give you a lowdown because, um, once I started, um, in the sales funnel, I was thinking, oh, I wanna look up reviews. I wanna get a little bit more information about this company and what they do.

It’s really difficult to find accurate information, and it’s difficult to understand how much it’s gonna cost, but I’ll tell you what they told me.

So before we get into it, we’ll do a little story time here, but I have the, the sort of new mic set up because I have a preamp over here. So this is, uh, my second episode running through it.

I think I’ve tweaked the settings just a little bit. I think maybe last time there was too much base. I, I’m not a hundred percent sure, but let me know, uh, if you notice any difference in the sound quality this. Is probably only like 10% different than what I was doing before. So really minor. But I’m wearing my, my headset, um, my earphone.

So I like, I can actually hear a little bit of a difference. But to the good folks out there, you may not be able to tell, but. I can hear it in one little tiny thing is like the way I’ve changed the setup just a little bit at my desktop here. When I’m doing an interview with someone remotely or a live stream where I have guests that are out there in the world, I do need to wear my headphones and.

Typically in the past, my headphones, it didn’t have my audio in it, so I couldn’t hear myself. If you’re not into podcasting or broadcasting or YouTube or wearing headphones, it’s weird to hear your own voice. But if I’m talking to other people, it’s good to hear what I have going on in my mix. So if there’s some weird noise, like if I’m tapping the.

Table, which I wouldn’t do. I got over that habit, uh, many years ago. But basically if there’s something weird going on on my end, then I could hear the noise or the issue or the problem. And in the past, you know, someone would say like, Hey, I hear buzzing on your end. Well, if I can’t hear my own feed, then I don’t know that.

So at some point you actually get used to hearing your own voice and it doesn’t sound so irritating. ’cause you know, you hear your voice and you’re like, oh. Do I sound like that? Now? Of course I have the preamp, so I, I actually don’t even sound like this. Uh, this sounds better than what my actual voice really sounds like, but I’m used to it.

The problem in the past is that when I would try to monitor my own feed via software, not the hardware that I’m using here, the software would have. Just ever so slightly, just a little bit of a delay. So that is very difficult to deal with. I think eventually a person could get used to that, whether you hear your own voice in a delay, but usually it is super confusing and you don’t want to have that.

The hardware setup I have currently, uh, does work. I don’t get a delay. I hear my own voice and then. If I’m interviewing someone, their voice will come through my earphones. So every, everything technically, uh, as far as I know, works well. The one thing I removed my, I think it’s, I might be called like a scissor mic stand, and I had that mounted to my desk in the past and back when I got it, it, it was the first one that I got and.

It has springs on the external, um, frame and the ones that I have in my, uh, other studio area behind me, if I have guests or if I’m recording somewhere else, um, I’ll have these other microphone stands. Those have internal springs, so. It people, uh, you could imagine when you have like the boom arm and people move it around and they stretch it towards them and they move it away and all this stuff, that is a nice way to have things set up.

Although the external springs, well those could be a little noisy ’cause you might touch the spring and it’s literally. There’s enough tension on it where it like, makes a lot of noise or if you move it, it’s just, it’s a lot more likely to make a noise versus an internal spring, uh, scissor arm. It doesn’t make that noise typically.

Now, if you tap it or whatever, you’re gonna get some noise, but like the, the springs, you don’t have to worry about that as much. So I have gone, I’m using like a normal. Microphone stand that you can, you know, extend further away. But the thing is, I just, I didn’t spill my coffee completely, but I sort of splashed it.

’cause I have like the microphone arm sticking out. There’s a wire on the floor, there’s other stuff going on. So it’s just, it’s not quite as convenient. However, I’m in a basement in like the flooring joist for the. You know the floor, that’s the ceiling here, so I actually can probably mount a microphone up high.

And then have it somewhere like farther away and then swing it around here. So I was like looking at what I have set up and I’m like, can I just mail the microphone from the ceiling and then I could just move it outta the way when I don’t need to use it. And then it’s not taking up floor space. I have plenty of XLR cable.

Like I could run the cable over there, maybe. I don’t know. I’m just thinking about it and I’m like, there might be a better solution. Than having, ’cause there’s just like stands, there’s lights all around here. And I’m like, I don’t wanna have so much stuff on the floor. So, uh, that, that could be the next thing.

Just having the mic a little bit outta the way. Maybe I actually have something over there that I could mount it to. It’s still on the desk, which is not ideal, but it’s not the, it’s not a deal breaker. So anyway. Things are going good. I like the setup, I like the sound, and I am, I’m glad that I got it.

Yeah, it’s a great, great device. So the JHS Pedals color box version two, it works really nice. Okay, let’s get to the topic today.

I have been playing guitar more. I try to work it in to every story that I tell now, whether it’s guitar picks or buying a guitar or flipping guitars. It’s just what I’m interested in right now.

I’m watching all these YouTube videos about guitar pedals and guitar reviews, and it’s fun. People are passionate about it, and it’s not, um, it’s not like typical social media, I don’t think. Maybe it’s, they’re not trying to trick me into anything. As far as I could tell, I guess if they’re doing a good job, you don’t even know you’re being tricked.

But the point is, I watched an interview with a guitarist, an artist named Billy Strings. He’s a, he’s a bluegrass flat picker. He does a lot of other stuff. But that, that’s kind of his thing is, um, bluegrass and, I mean, I think he’s doing like stadium or at least like arena sized tours. Um, big shows, very popular.

You probably have heard his music. On the radio, do people listen to the radio streaming somewhere? He has some, you know, a little bit more mainstream, uh, songs coming up. So anyway, I was watching an interview with Billy Strings and I saw a few different videos from this specific channel, which I, I can’t even remember the channel now, but interview about, um, his musical journey, lessons, all that kind of stuff.

So it’s just a good, thorough interview and. The channel and the interviewer. They’re from this Sonora guitar intensive, and they reference it. They do a good job, like not hammering the, like the institute too much, the intensive and the basically online course in community. They don’t hammer it too much, but the, the interviewer asked a few questions about his musical.

Background and Billy would answer, and then they would talk a little bit about practicing and then like overcoming plateaus and just kind of typical stuff if you’re, I mean, Billy Strings is a pro, so he’s it at a very advanced level, but still everyone hits plateaus. They either become bored or stagnant, or they have a desire to do more or do something different and people seek information.

So apparently, like Billy was on Instagram. And saw an ad and like followed through with it and ended up enrolling in Sonora guitar intensive. And basically he, you know, he went through the funnel and he’s a, a pro musician. Like he’s doing what people like dream of doing, playing arenas. He has shows he could show up somewhere and like say, Hey, I would like to play with your, your group.

Yeah. Bring me on for, I mean, I’m sure he doesn’t do this. People inv would invite him on, but. The point is he went through the funnel as well, so I, I watched the video and I was like, you know what, I’ll check it out. I’m thinking about taking some lessons. It’s been a few years, and it’s not that I’m stagnant, but I’m like, I know I’m at a point where I want to learn more and I do not have structure.

So as you know, whatever it is you’re trying to learn, you basically can find it on YouTube. It’s easy enough to search for something, find a handful of videos. Sometimes people don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, but you could sort them out as you watch more stuff. The problem is there’s so much information and it’s disorganized.

So literally, I could look up just about any song, even an obscure B side from a band that most of us have never heard of. Like you could find a lesson on that song most likely, or someone playing it. And you know, with YouTube these days, it’s like you could slow it down, you could speed it up like it’s.

You could watch it over and over again. So there’s just tons of information that you could find, but it’s hard to organize it. So as I’m like, oh, I wanna do more, I wanna play more, I just end up kind of noodling around. Sometimes, perhaps I’ll get obsessed and work on a specific song, but usually it’s just sort of misguided and.

A little confusing because, so I’m working on something, but I never follow through and I don’t know, like the full objective of what I’m trying to learn or why. So, you know, it’s, it’s the same thing in online marketing where like you could learn a bunch of stuff about like print on demand, but. It’s like, does this information go along with other information that I’m learning from another channel or another source?

And it gets very confusing. So anyway, I was like, organization is good. I get it.

So anyway, at the end of the video they’re like, Hey, if you wanna learn more, you could sign up for, um, I. Like information and, you know, pretty standard stuff. It’s like, oh, here’s a video, a free video. It’s a free resource that you could go check out.

So it was like, cool, I’ll, I’ll go for it. So I put in my email address and my phone number and I was like, oh, cool. Uh, I don’t have time to watch the video right now. It’s like a fucking 30 minute video or whatever. I’m like, I’m not gonna watch this video right now. I don’t have my guitar with me. I was just like.

I watched the interview, and I’m not gonna do this right now. So I signed up and then I was expecting to have an email in my inbox that said, oh, if you didn’t get a chance to watch the video, here it is, you could check it out. And that’s what I was gonna do. I didn’t get any email, which was, I think that’s a big fail.

Big fail on their part, send a fucking email. I don’t know what the deal is with that, but what they did instead. And normally this would not work with me, but because of the product and what I’m trying to do, I was like, cool. So they actually called on the fucking phone. So they called, they didn’t send a text, they sent or, or they called, they, they actually called my phone, which I don’t even, like, my phone is silenced for numbers that I don’t know.

So that’s pretty standard I think. Like people are getting so much spam and bullshit, like pretty standard to just like cut all that out. So, um, I, I did not answer the phone. Not a number I recognized, not an area code I recognized like I, I didn’t even know, uh, but I did get a text and it said, Hey, this is, I can’t remember.

I’m just making it up. This is Nate from Sonora. Just wanted to follow up. You were trying to get information and. I was like, oh, wow, that’s interesting. But I’m, I’m so interested in learning more that I was like, you know what, I’ll talk to this guy. So I texted him back and I mean, he said, Hey, let me know if there’s a good time to call or whatever.

So we chatted for a few minutes and he asked a handful of questions like, um. Why’d you get information? What kind of music are you into? Just the pretty general stuff, I think. Just to make sure I’m not, um, just totally not interested. And the final question, the big one was like, do you have a budget to invest in your passion for guitar?

And I was like, yeah, I have a budget too. To do this. Yeah. Obviously I’m like trying to get information and I probably had some amount in in mind, but not exactly, ’cause I don’t have like a line item in our budget where I’m like, oh yeah, I’m putting this much into guitar each month. I have, you know, we call it a fun fund.

We have a certain amount each month that it’s like we could blow it on whatever we want or not. You know, we, but we have an amount where it could be sort of indiscriminate spending, so. I, before I left, I was like, Hey, obviously. You have not mentioned a price Nate. Um, so I expect it’s probably a little expensive.

I said I’m in marketing, like I do digital marketing and I’ve had co online courses and stuff. I know this is a little bit different than an online course, but it’s pretty darn close. It looks and smells like an online course, but it’s a little bit different with the community and all that kind of stuff.

Right. But I was like, are you gonna be able to tell me the cost? And he is like, well, actually the next step is, um. Basically a, what do they call it? Was a video call, but it’s a, it’s an assessment, like a, a skills assessment or, I can’t remember what they said, but it’s like a video assessment. And he was like, we’ll set you up with one of our mentors.

And that’s what they call ’em. They don’t call ’em like instructors or teacher. It’s like, uh, this, this is your mentor and you’ll be able to get in touch with him anytime. And he described like a little bit of what you get. So it’s like you get a mentor. There’s group classes your mentor is on, you know, you can contact them every single day.

Like they’re, they’re there for you. If you wanna text them and you’re like, Hey, I’m working on this part, you can record a little video and send it to ’em, and they’ll give you feedback. So it’s like someone that you can get in touch with and this will all come into play later. So anyway, I was like, Nate, bro, like what?

What does this cost? What are we talking about? Like, or do I have to wait? ’cause like it sounds like the assessment, I’m like, this is the pitch, right? Like the pitch comes later. You’re just kind of filtering me through. A lot of people call this like a discovery call or discovery information where they, they’re just making sure that you fit through that, that top part of the funnel.

So I, I started at the video. I gave information actually. Texted the dude back, talked to him on the phone for 10 minutes and then went from there and I was like, yeah, we could do the assessment. I’m interested in learning more. I do have a budget. Yes, I am curious how much it’s gonna cost ’cause I have no idea you’ve given, you’ve given me nothing.

And I scheduled it for the next day. I think he was like, Hey, you could do it like tomorrow morning. But I was like, let’s do it the afternoon and we got it set up. So. He actually texted me back and he was like, he asked me some question and like he’s trying to build a connection further. And it was like legit and, and it was like a legit question, but I’m like, we’re not, no offense Nate.

I’m like, we’re not friends. Like I’m not gonna like start a relationship with you via text ’cause you were like my first sales contact or whatever. Um. I’m older now. You know, there’s only so much time we have and it’s a pretty loose tie. I’m probably not gonna be this guy’s friend. He lives in like Australia, right?

So anyway, I got on with Gabe as the next dude. So Gabe was pretty cool. And this like, he did an awesome job because. I had my guard up. I was interested, but I had my guard up because between. Nate and Gabe, that wasn’t his name. I can’t remember what it was. But anyway, between Nate and Gabe for the purposes of this story, I tried to find more information.

I was like, reviews cost. ’cause I was like, how much is this gonna cost? ’cause like this is a. Sophisticated sales funnel, and they’re talking to me on the phone, that cost a lot more money than an email follow up sequence. Obviously, someone actually has to call me and like, follow up, and then they were trying to be my friend and shoot the shit, but I, I didn’t bite.

So what I found was interesting, and I will tell you this now because this is how it unfolded for me.

So there is some information on Reddit under. Subreddit guitar lessons. So people, um, were like, Hey, this is Sonora guitar intensive. Like, what do you know about it? And I’ll be, I’m not a redditer. If you are a redditer and you give a shit, this is not directed.

It you, it’s everyone else on Reddit. Okay. But generally people on Reddit. They’re, they are not assholes. Okay. I’ll be clear on that. But they act like asshole assholes, alright? They’re, they’re kind of mean. They’re a little more judgy. They hold again, not you, it’s other people. And those people are not assholes.

They, they just act like assholes. Alright? So just want to be as, uh, diplomatic as I can be while still being truthful. But when I read stuff on Reddit. Depending on the subreddit, I discount the opinions, even if it’s like not a BS like sales thing that they’re trying to sell something directly. But people are a little more judgy and I’m, I’m pretty sure, like they judge other people harder than they would judge themselves.

And I mean, we really shouldn’t even try to apply our. Standards on someone else. I mean, we all like, we all have to have opinions and even if we’re trying to not have an opinion, you will have an opinion. The point is on Reddit, I take it with a grain of salt. ’cause people are like always trying to prove you wrong and they’re just kind of dicks out there.

Alright. You know what I’m talking about. You know exactly what I’m talking about. Sometimes you can get good unfiltered information and sometimes people are fucking idiots. Alright, so. I did find some information and some people were like, ah, they have it set up like this and it’ll cost you a thousand dollars a month.

It’s this $1,200 per month, and it doesn’t make sense because you only meet with your, I. Mentor X number of times. And if you get lessons in person that me, I mean, I got lessons, um, via Zoom from someone and it ended up being like 50 bucks an hour, which I thought that was a great deal. And it was with like an artist that I wanted that was like someone I followed, someone that I wanted to, um, work with.

And basically I got a phone call here, let me pause this. Alright. Yeah, sorry about that phone call. And you, I don’t get many phone calls but that was my insurance agent for something. Right. You, you know, it’s good to redo your insurance every now and then ’cause they always raise the rates and if you shop around it’s a pain in the butt.

But, um, I don’t know why they’re calling me and times have changed. Right. Thanks for the tangent here, but times have changed, right? Like you get a phone call and you’re like, oh, wow, who is it? If my phone rings and we haven’t, um, if it’s a friend that’s different, right? I’ll potentially pick it up, but it’s rare.

Usually it’s like, Hey, are you free? Like, uh, I’ll give you a call, I don’t know why this insurance company didn’t send me an email. And number one, I don’t think we need to talk on the fucking phone. We can handle this via email. Couple forms I don’t need, we’re not gonna have a relationship, you know, uh, I’m not gonna, we’re not gonna go and get coffee or whatever times have changed.

Just send me the email if we need to talk on the phone, schedule it, ’cause I like, I’m not answering random calls and then I’m an idiot. Right? I should have put it on silent, but I get so few calls that it doesn’t matter too much. Right. It’s mostly spam calls these days or. It’s someone I know that’s gonna call.

Alright. Where, where was I? And I still didn’t silence my phone. I should do that now. Let’s go ahead and turn this off. I’m busy. No one tried to call me. Alright. I think it was talking about the, um, reviews out there. So there’s some information. It sounded very expensive, and then people gave their opinions on the subreddit.

The other interesting thing that happens is maybe someone does have information and they explain. The information, and then other people give their opinion on the information, which may or may not be accurate. And then other people give their opinion on the other opinion. So you end up just in some echo chamber of people going back and forth, most of which don’t know any of the actual information.

However, usually there’s a, there’s a tiny bit of truth in many of the, uh, opinions, uh, at least with. Someone actually went through the sales call. So there is that information there. The other thing is I saw a bunch of reviews on, uh, I don’t know, it was like trust advisor or one of those, uh, like just review sites and like many reviews out there for reasonable products.

And I’m not saying Sonora is a reasonable product or not, but it was one of those deals where it was maybe. 90%, four or five star reviews, and then maybe 10%, one or two stars. So the interesting ones, they go to the top and those are usually the one star reviews. And basically people went on the sales calls.

Then they were into it, and then they heard how much it was gonna cost, which I will eventually break down what information I have, which is slightly confusing. But eventually I understood why they couldn’t really just publish pricing out there number, I mean, I’ll get into that in a second. But people would go on the sales call and then they were like, holy fuck, it costs that much.

And then they would bail out and say, ah, I can’t really afford it. Or like. That’s more than my fucking mortgage or whatever. And there was one or two that I found alarming because it said something like, I said, I really couldn’t afford it. And then the sales consultant slash mentor, they said, Hey, why don’t you apply for a credit card and then try to get them to apply for a credit card?

And I was like, that seems. Very irresponsible and crazy. And then someone else may be the same reviewer who didn’t get the product by the way, but they said that. They asked about his credit score and stuff like that, which I found way out of bounds not cool. And I was like, I may, I may cancel this call, but as I read a few of the other reviews, the positive ones like, like many things that people, if they’re like, this is a good fit for me, and they invest the money and they invest the time, usually if it’s a reasonable product.

People will get value from it, even if it’s not like a unique product. Again, I’m not saying Sonora is unique or not unique, but even if they do not have a unique product, if a person invests time and money into something with reasonable effort, they will most likely. Learn something, they’ll get something out of it.

And it might not be because of the specific product, but rather the commitment that they made in a any reasonable product would be fine. So I understand that’s a thing, like people are motivated if they invest money into it and they’re motivated to actually follow through and do the thing. So I had, uh, a very weird concept of like, what.

Might happen on the call. I told my wife about it and I’m like, I don’t really, I don’t know this. I may, it’s gonna be interesting, but I also, not too long ago, went to a timeshare presentation. So we got a very discounted stay in Breckenridge, Colorado, and I was like, you know, I’ve never done a timeshare thing.

I’m curious about how this will turn out. So in the same way I had this morbid curiosity of how the sales call was gonna go.

So. Fast forward, go to the sales call.

They ask a few questions about like, my goals, which my goals were a little bit fuzzy, which I knew. And that’s part of the issue of like not knowing what I wanna practice.

So I’ll practice something, whatever catches my eye that day. But it’s very unstructured and I really don’t know what to do. So, asked about the goals a little bit. Kind of got a feel for me. Um, just. Musically, they did ask a few questions about my knowledge in certain areas, musical theory primarily. And he was like, yeah, we’ll, we’ll ask a handful of questions.

It may have been like 15 to 20 or so, not a ton. And he was like, you don’t have to, it doesn’t have to be exact, just kind of ballpark and answer one through five, where like one is low. Um, familiarity. And then five is like, you know, you, you really know this stuff well, and if I asked you do X or Y, you’d be able to do it pretty much instantly without thinking about it too much.

So he was like, don’t, don’t get hung up on it just to answer and like, we will understand. So. And I, I kind of thought, I was like, ah, I’m probably like, you know, intermediate level. Like I have an idea about a lot of things, but I’m not proficient in certain areas and I. Blah, blah, blah. So as we went through the process, um, it was very apparent, like where I was at, and I, he was like, ah, you’re kind of more at the early side of like, intermediate.

Like you’re not, you’re not like really advanced. And I was like, that totally makes sense to me. So went through that and then went into some of the like exactly like what the, what the intensive is like, and then. He asked if I was interested. We had a little bit of a, we were misaligned a little bit and that’s when I mentioned, uh, my marketing background and I asked a few more questions eventually, like.

How much does this cost? Because that’s a really important component. So I’m gonna go in a little bit more detail here.

So, as I mentioned, we started at the YouTube funnel, informative, entertaining with Billy Strings. It was just an interview I gave my information to, um, the company they called with a discovery call.

They signed me up for an assessment, which was an hour long meeting the next day, and they were like, you know, have your guitar ready. We’re gonna ask you a few questions and then we will let you know like what we have going on here. So some of the details around Sonora, they basically. Want it to be like a online version of like an actual, like music school or a conservatory, is that what they call ’em?

Conservancy, I don’t know. Should have looked that up. People use a word like that. Pretty sure.

That said, so they compare it to Berkeley and Julliard, which are, you know, some of the premier, you know, music schools out there. So. They’re talking about the way, like the classes and the information are set up and they’re like, basically they wanna mimic that, but strip away, like the fact that you have to be, like, at the respective campuses, the fact that you’re taking, I, I mean you’re taking other classes, other electives and all that stuff, and they, you know, it, it sonora, they distilled it down into just the music and guitar shit that.

You would need to know, they do have like elective areas, like in air quotes, where if you’re like, I wanna be a studio musician and I wanna learn more about recording, and I wanna know like more on that industry side versus if you’re like, Hey, I’m a singer songwriter and I wanna learn, you know, how to do X or Y, maybe like live performances or something.

Like they pair you up and give you courses around that specific thing. So. The interesting thing is like that’s way more intensive than like what I would be interested in. So when they’re talking about these other like huge world renowned schools, I have no reference point and.

They’re telling me, eh, it costs like hundreds of thousands of dollars, or, you know, a hundred to 200, I can’t quite remember, but it’s a lot of money.

You gotta go live in Boston or wherever Julliard is. And, um, basically it cost a lot of money. And I’m like, not that interested in doing all that kind of stuff. So for me, like it, it kind of, it fell off. But if you’re, if you’re like, Hey, I wanna be a musician and. You don’t want to go to Berkeley or Julliard, um, for whatever reason, then maybe this is a good solution.

But I don’t have like the professional, um, drive to do anything like that. Not my interest.

So I. One good thing that came out of it early on, ’cause it’s, you know, like if you’re working on anything, if you work with like a financial advisor or whatever, it’s like what are your goals? What are you trying to do?

Do you have a timeline? That sort of thing. So the big thing is like, what are my goals? I’m not really sure. And he gave me a couple exercises at the end because he, I guess he knew and I said, I really don’t know what my goals are. A few years ago I was working on finger style and slide. But currently I’m jamming with some friends, so I kind of want to be able to play music with them and improvise more confidently and that sort of thing.

And basically he, he was like, okay. The good thing is like, because Gabe had talked to a lot of other students, he knew like the things that I was saying, usually lined up to this. Kind of goal. So that kind of goal was probably be able to play some of the music that I like to listen to. And I think I’d mentioned, um, you know, the hard rock bands of the eighties and nineties, and I was like, oh, I just, I just got the slash autobiography and blah, blah, blah.

So he is like, play music. Like the music that you liked when you started playing guitar, when you first got interested, which was when I was, you know. Eight, nine years old. MTV was out. I was into that kind of music plus, you know, the music that came later and the music that came before and blah, blah, blah.

But he was like, be able to play some hard rock and be able to play those solos and then be able to improvise confidently when you’re playing with some friends. And I was like, yep, that sounds about right. I don’t have any bigger goals. Again, some people are like, I want to, maybe if they’re, I don’t know.

I’ve, I’m feeling extremely, uh. Past middle age these days. So maybe if someone was like in their early twenties or something and they’re thinking, oh yeah, I can’t, like I could be in a band and I could be a pro and all that stuff. I’m not trying to fucking do anything like that. I’m just, I wanna have some fun.

It’s good for the mind to learn things. So that’s, that’s part of it. So that was a pretty good goal as far as like the features and, and what you get with the package.

You have a mentor that you could have daily contact with via, I think phone or text or whatever platform they have. But they were like, you could send video and you’ll get an answer, you know, in a day or whatever it is.

I don’t think they said it exactly, but like, you’ll be in contact with your mentor, um, every day if you want. And the. Lessons were only once every two weeks. So that was one of the things where like the one-on-one lessons were only once every two weeks. However, they do have, each mentor has office hours, and some of the office hours are just for the students that they’re teaching directly.

So there would just be a handful of people on those office hour calls. And I suspect it’s a video call, and I suspect it’s, you know, like. Academic office hours, you could ask questions about things that you’re working on. You get to, you know, show them like what you’re doing and get direct feedback. But it’s not just one-on-one.

There’s other people there. And I also suspect, just like normal office hours, not everybody goes to them. So if you show up, then you might just be there with one or two other people. So there’s a, that’s my guess. They didn’t say that, but I assume people are busy and if office hours are at a certain time, not everybody’s gonna go all the time.

Additionally, there are office hours for other instructors that are not just for the students. So for example, if I was interested in studio recording and microphone placement and preamps and all this stuff that I’ve been talking about, then maybe I would go to an office hour session with someone who is pro.

At, well, they’re all pros, but someone who knows studio stuff or if I want to know how to set up, um, my acoustic guitar for a live, um, jam at like an open mic or something, and I’m like, I’m not sure like what I should bring. I could probably go to an office hour session. By a mentor, an instructor that is an expert in that area, and they could say, do this, do that.

Here’s how you could be most versatile and make sure you’re not too loud and not annoy the sound guy and all that kind of stuff. So there was that component. There were also.

Essentially like group classes that go on. And maybe it is exactly that, where um, some they actually like teach a class and those are things that again, everyone can kind of go to.

So there’s some in individual component and then there’s some group classes out there. So when I read some of the reviews on Reddit, people were like only considering the one-on-one. Lessons. So once every two weeks, I assume it’s an hour. I’m not a hundred percent sure. It could have been 45 minutes, but I assume it’s an hour once every two weeks.

And some people are comparing that to the cost of what a one hour lesson would, would be somewhere else. But they don’t account, the redditor did not account for the other classes in group. Um, Q and A that you can participate in. You don’t have to all, I think all the other stuff is optional. So the, the fact is like if you only did the one-on-one lessons from a per hour standpoint.

You’re thinking that’s like $500 an hour or like it’s, it doesn’t quite make sense. But if you put everything together and you actually treat it like a music school where you’re doing this for a few hours a day, you’re kind of obsessed with it, like you’re treating this like a part-time job, then I believe you probably could get a lot of value.

That’s the kind of person I am typically. I’ve taken some online courses. And a lot of times I’ve taken a lot of online courses. A lot of times you have three tiers where you get like basic, um, the basic course, the next one you get a little bit more info and then the, the top end. And I’ve gotten the top end a few times with some high end courses, and you have office hours, you have like a one-on-one session, like you, you can get more out of it.

And a lot of people. Buy the online course, they buy the dream, and then they don’t do any of the stuff. For me, if I spend the money, I’m like, I wanna get the value from it. And the sunk cost fallacy works in my favor because I’m like, not only am I gonna go through the course stuff, I’m gonna go through all of it, and I’m gonna show up to every meeting that I can.

If there’s a. If there’s a Q and a session, I’m going to, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna learn as much as I can. I’m gonna ask questions and I’m gonna be a really good student ’cause I’m paying good money for this and not everyone does that. So I could see why a handful of people would be like, this doesn’t make sense to me.

When, and I asked a lot of questions. So we got to a certain point. Gabe had explained the full package, the four main components. I think I covered, uh, just about everything and to the best of my ability. I described it how I understood it, and I hope that’s the way it actually is. So Gabe said, ah, how does this sound to you?

Does this sound like something you wanna do? And because I had my guard up and I don’t wanna give people too much, again, I, I was thinking this could be a pretty hard sales pitch based on what reviews that I saw out there and all that kind of stuff. So I said, ah, it sounds pretty good, but I’m not really sure.

Non-committal. Non-committal. So he said, okay, well, alright, that, that makes sense to me. And. We have maybe another option if like this full package doesn’t sound good to you. And through my research, I think they actually have roughly a $500, um, option where it’s not the full intensive, but it’s, it’s more like a getting started kind of thing.

And I think you get, I, I won’t describe the package. He actually didn’t finish the, this portion of it, but. I stopped him and I was like, Hey, actually, like I am a little bit more interested, but like, I don’t know how much this costs. So that is a huge component and I know I read some reviews out there and I, I said, Hey, I’m in marketing.

Like I understand, like this is very interesting, like going through the sales funnel and I know right now. You’re working on the down sell because I didn’t give you a very positive, um, affirmative. Let’s move forward with this. I was just like non-committal. I was like, the down sell. I’m not sure. I don’t think the down sell’s for me ’cause I had looked at it a little bit before.

I was like, how much is the intensive cost? Like I don’t really understand, like, just tell me how much it costs and I’ll tell you how interested I am. Big component. I mean, I have a reasonable budget. When I talked to my wife, I was like, you know, I’m not sure. This is before the meeting. I was like, Hey, I think maybe I, I would spend up to 350 bucks per month.

I, I would potentially do that and it wouldn’t be forever, but I’m sure if I was putting in that amount of money, it’s a good chunk of money and I would potentially. I would potentially put that much into it for a few months and see like, am I making a lot of progress? Am I getting something out of this?

So anyway, the hard part, Gabe was like, you know, it could be, I can’t remember what he said exactly. He was like, it could be 3000, um, to 12,000 for six months to a year. That’s total, right? So it, it could be $3,000 total for six months. It could be, you know, 12,000 for a year. And he said at your level, he was like, you could probably get to where you want to be.

Um, six months to a year. He was like. You have some technical proficiency, but like your knowledge of the guitar and musical theory, it’s a little bit off, but like just watching you play like you, your, your skills, like your, your technical skills are a little bit, uh, beyond like where your. Your knowledge is, and that’s pretty typical for an intermediate guitar player.

So that all made sense. I, and he was like, you’re probably not gonna be happy with the range that I’m telling you ’cause it’s so big. So we go back and forth, ask more questions, and I’m like, I, I don’t under, like, can you tell me why there’s such a big range? And like, when would I know like what it’s gonna cost?

Like this is crazy. So. Very interesting. And I give Gabe a lot of credit because he worked with me and I, I wasn’t a jerk about it, but I was just like, Hey, like I have this question. So he actually, I was like, how much does it cost? And he gave a really good like five minute answer, but it still didn’t give me any, anything else.

And I was like, that was good. I really like, he did a really good job.

The bottom line here is he said that they basically put together. A custom curriculum for you, and I’m filling in some words that maybe they should put this exactly on there, but based on what I wanna learn and my current level, they would put together, like, here are some of the group classes that you would need to go to.

For example, you’ll have your mentor. Here are the things that you need to study to get where you want to be. And they do. They do the best they can. And one thing I forgot to mention is the software that they have. So apparently they have software that understands, um, what you’re able to do and like where you start messing up and where your knowledge goes, um, down.

And they. Help you. I guess the software helps you do the deliberate practice so that you’re always, not always, but like often on the edge of what you’re able to do. And they push you a little farther and they, that way you’re not waiting for like the class material to catch up necessarily. You’re going through it and then it will push you and that makes sense to me now.

Totally forgot to mention that earlier, but that is one of the main components of. The intensive. So Gabe did a good job and essentially like, like I said, it’s a custom package that they put together. So depending on what other, like what all you need to do in your individual curriculum, which I’m sure they have like a starting point.

They pro, like after they do, you know, hundreds of these, like they have an idea like, okay, a dude like me, I’m in the. Early intermediate stage. I have a lot of, uh, gaps in my musical knowledge. They could probably push me into like the normal path for someone like me and they don’t have to like recreate the wheel.

But the point being, he said, I think eventually he was like, for you, it would probably be about. $12,000 for about a year. So that does work out to about a thousand dollars per month. I think he said if, if I pay upfront, if you pay the lump sum for the tuition, then you get like a 10% or 15% discount. I can’t quite remember, but that’s pretty typical.

Again, in the online world, if you pay upfront. They’re happy. Of course, they get the money up front. I won’t quit in the middle of it. And basically you save a decent chunk of money there, 10 to 15% is usually what I’ve seen. So I was like, yep. I could tell you right now. I was like, I, I’m not in for that level of commitment, although it, it got me thinking.

Again, I’m someone who would take advantage of all that. Um. Other group classes in, in all the office hours and all that stuff. I would definitely do it, but it did get me thinking. ’cause he was like, yeah, someone at your level, like yeah, in six months you can make a huge amount of progress and then sort of fine tune it.

Um, you know, within a year you’d be like, in really good shape. And I was like, I, I thought. Man, that’s cra ’cause I feel so far off. But when I think back, like what I have been able to learn in relatively short amount of time in various different areas, like if you know what to work on and in what order, and obviously you have to put the time and effort in it makes a huge difference.

So it did get me thinking like, oh, I really, I actually do wanna take lessons like where. I know I have certain gaps and he gave me a couple exercises. So he was like, okay, it’s not a good fit. That’s cool. But one thing that would be helpful is if you do these three things. He was like, you know, you could journal for the first two and just kind of figure it out.

So he was like, ask yourself why you went to play. Why do you wanna play the guitar? Do you, and think about like when you first started, and I. Like I said, I was a kid. I was, I was young, and he was like, think about why you first started playing. Why’d you pick it up? Why? Why have you stuck with it? You know, learning an instrument or a language or something new.

It’s always a little tough and I have stuck with it for a long time. I’ve actually doubled down on this hobby, so I do need to think about that. Why? And then he also asked like, like, what do you wanna be able to do? They kind of go hand in hand when I’m thinking like, why, why do you pick up the guitar?

Like, what did you want out of it? Like, what were your goals? And then like, what do you wanna do? What are your goals now? Like, is there, is there some way, like, do you want to perform? Or something like that. Do I wanna like create and publish music? Do I want to just have, be able to play with friends? Just like, what do you wanna be able to do?

And he was like, just those two things will. Really clarify like what you need to work on. And that makes total sense. I’m sure I’ve given like similar advice to people in different areas. It’s just like, why are you doing this? And like, what do you want to be able to do? And then if you have that information, it just clarifies all the noise.

’cause the fact is, like I said, I like watching uh, lot of different guitar related YouTube stuff and I like browsing around and, but it’s like, what do I want to do? What do I wanna do? I have a lot of noise coming at me through the, you know, guitar, YouTube channels and stuff. But what do, what am I actually getting out of it and why?

So the other thing was a little bit more, uh, just like direct to the point, and he was like, ah, you know, you know this one thing. The minor pentatonic scale really well. He was like, yeah, yeah, you got that down, but like it looks like you’re like pretty rusty on your major scale. And he was like, if you know your major scale, like that kind of unlocks everything.

Like everything else is based on the major scale. And I was like, oh duh. Of course it is. ’cause I, I am lightly familiar with music theory. There’s a handful out. A handful out of, there’s a handful of you out there that know music theory as well, and I was like, oh yeah, like I know just a little bit and I’m like, oh yeah, a minor third.

Or you know, the flat fifth or the flat seventh and a couple things. I’m like, oh yeah, I actually could know. I’m right on the edge of knowing a lot more. And yeah, like I hear the major scale. I know what I’m doing. I’m like, oh yeah, this is a major scale, but. I don’t know all the positions. I don’t know. I just know a couple little spots and I realized if I do know the major scale, then it would unlock a lot.

’cause I have just enough knowledge where I’m like, oh yeah, I understand how to create this chord or understand this scale just by flatting or sharpening a certain note. So that was big overall.

I didn’t sign up. I ended up buying a course from a YouTuber that I enjoy and I think he had some sale going on and it happened to be like something that I’ve looked at a little bit and it was like, instead of a $60 course, it was like 15 bucks.

And I was like, I like this guy. I’ll buy his course. And then he actually, it’s res schul people know him out there, big YouTube channel and seems like a nice guy. Overall, um, he did a good job with the marketing ’cause I was like, yeah, you know what, it’s 15 bucks. There’s no reason not to get it. And I’ve liked this guy’s channel for a few years, so as I was going through the checkout, he had a nice, um, like one click upsell for some other course and he was like, ah, if you get the course right now, it’s only $9.

So I was like, oh, alright. So I spent 25 bucks, supported a YouTuber that I enjoy and. I think it’s like essentially the first pieces of content or knowledge that, um, Sonora would probably push my way based on their first, uh, funnel video that I watched so. Overall, it’s unclear how much Sonora actually costs.

’cause everyone will have a different price and I think it can, one thing Gabe mentioned, it can be as cheap as a couple few hundred dollars a month. Not everyone would necessarily be paired up with a mentor. So they literally, like, depending on what you wanna learn. So if I said I just wanna learn handful of solos.

Um, in this genre or something, they would probably say, yeah, you don’t need a mentor. Take some of this stuff. It’ll help you understand the theory. And here’s some other stuff. Maybe I get access to some of the group classes. So I think they literally do put together custom packages and you know, you may see prices out there where it’s like $300 a month, but it’s no one-on-one lessons.

It’s all group stuff, and it’s hard to get the info. So hopefully this. Informed some people, I’ll probably put two titles on this, but it was an interesting overall like funnel design. I think it’s probably a legit company that does a really good job, but you have to be like the right person for it. I do feel a little bad some of the reviews out there, it looks like maybe.

There was a, a rogue sales consultant who was encouraging people to, you know, get credit cards and that sort of thing. Who knows the Internet’s bananas. And I don’t know if that’s true, it’s just what, what was on the internet. But I would say if you’re the right person, you will probably know it. And I think.

The full intensive would probably be very effective if indeed you are the right person for that. essentially, I mean, they price anchor it around a full on music school. So if you’re, if you’re that serious about it, it may be a great route for you to take. So thanks for checking out the show. If you have any questions, let me know.

You can send me a feed, you can send me an email. At feedback at Doug Show, or you could leave a comment over on YouTube. Thanks, and we’ll catch you next week.