“Impact Venture Capitalists!”

Hello Team…

Steve Jobs. Elon Musk. These people have always fascinated me. Not because, as people I find them interesting, because as storytellers, they have a unique ability to sell ideas and products before they even exist.

Before Jobs, “A thousand songs in your pocket,” is not a phrase we heard.

Then Apple gave us the iPod.

Then the iPhone, iPad…

And other inventions and platform breakthroughs that impact us daily; iTunes (opening the airwaves to podcasters like me, and indie musicians). Etc. etc. The list goes on, of course, beyond any scope I could describe here.

Elon Musk is quite similar.

From electric cars (Tesla) to building rockets to underground drilling to solve the Los Angeles traffic problem. No matter how big the obstacle. His mind is never intimidated. And like Jobs, Musk finds a way to make the ‘insane and ridiculous,” sound possible. The challenge? And perhaps the magic? How do you get buy-in from people, when the product isn’t even finished?

People want more information. They kind of understand the possibilities. But there’s nothing for them to explore deeper. Take the Tesla Model 3. Musk unveiled it, and without even test-driving or seeing it up close – people spent $1,000 online (as a deposit) to reserve their car, at the price of over $35,000.

To date, $700M+ in customer deposits have been collected.

The car isn’t even ready for mass production yet. And already, it’s sold out until the end of 2018. So how does it happen?

Two ingredients:

1 – Powerful storytelling. Musk and Jobs are masterful at story structure. They don’t just build products or offer services. The world doesn’t need another car. The world needs solutions. Then they craft messaging, around that greater good, where the solution just happens to be a car, a phone, etc… Tesla isn’t a car company. Musk is just using cars to tackle environmental issues. iPhones aren’t just phones. They completely changed the way we interact and communicate.

2 – Track Record. When it comes to people like Jobs and Musk. Or even Warren Buffett. People aren’t buying a car. Or standing in line for a phone. Or investing their money on some guy’s hunch. They are lining up, because of their trust in that person. Or said different, on their reputation to deliver.

Customers know that Jobs would never put his name on Crap.

Musk would never put his name on Crap.

Warren Buffett would never deviate from his value-driven beliefs; which hold a rich history of proven success.

If you have one or the other (of those two ingredients) you’re doing better than most. But if you possess both, that is when the magic happens. We are now seeing it with Impact Club, as we launch in many communities.

We started with one story. (Really just a concept).

Then, over the last 6 months, we’ve developed a Track Record of local Impact.

And now:

May 22nd – Impact Club Frederick (2nd Event)

May 30th – Impact Club Boise

June 1st – Impact Club Eugene

June 12th – Impact Club Fox Cities

June 27th – Impact Club Union City

June 29th – Impact Club Yuma (2nd Event)

Where the combined donations to great local charities (at minimum), from just these events, will total more than $59,000. And that is extremely conservative. But it just goes to show the power of story and track record.

Whether in business or in life, or even in friendship – those two ingredients, when paired together – almost always lead to superior results. Please take them seriously. Apply them to everything.

Thank you!

In response to my 2nd article from last week, “Sticking Together.”

Liz Roth wrote me: (Temecula)

“There will ALWAYS be people who want to put you/us down either out of jealously or weakness. It is a sad commentary of our current society that this amazing endeavor is receiving criticism! It is hurtful and very frustrating. Remember it is never hard to sit around and condemn and judge..the hard part is being the one “criticized” or “judged”….stand tall we are behind IMPACT CLUB!!!”

Thank you.

I also got a note from Andrea Priest: (Yuma)

“Hi Ryan! Great emails every week – thank you for investing time, energy, thoughts, and money into this. We appreciate you. I’ve posted quite a few times about Yuma’s club on Facebook and had a friend from the Phoenix area reach out to me this week. She was wondering if she could get more information about possibly starting a club there. I have NO idea what that even entails, but I told her I’d send you a note. Thank you so much, again, for everything! Keep up the good – not evil 😉 – work!”

Ditto! – it goes both ways.

As I state all the time, if not for every member – there would be no Impact Club!

re: In regards to how to co-found a local club? As I replied to Andrea and Anna, her friend: “More information will be available in the future. Right now though, we have about 100 launch partners in place, and, due to infrastructure and operational constraints can only launch about 3-4 per month.”

Please don’t anyone think, though, that Anna’s interest goes unappreciated. Just the opposite. There will come a time, when we need more poeple like Anna to step-up, to keep Impact Club growing.

As always – Be proud of what we’ve accomplished.

KEEP INSPIRING OTHERS!

By the end of 2017, we will have raised millions to fund local charities.

-Ryan Fletcher

Co-Founder, Impact Club – forever Grateful.

PS: Encourage everyone you know to learn the Language of Story. If they do, life, business, fundraising, relationships, the attraction of opportunity, clients, money, love, etc. will be much easier for them.