Chapter 6 - The Let's Rock 14 Minute Audio Cassette (1998)

Here is the 14 minute Let's Rock Tape pretty much verbatim. I hope to get a live audio file soon.

LET'S ROCK!!!

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Hello I'm Don Lapre, I'm so excited, I wanna tell you, thank you so much... for giving me just a few minutes to be able to explain my story of how I got started in the 900 business. I think after you hear it you're gonna be so excited, but I wanna tell you it would be absolutely insane if you were to go to another service bureau tomorrow, and get set up with your own 900 line if they told you that you had to pay a monthly fee, no matter what your volume was, you were committed or you were stuck to paying that service bureau a monthly fee uh, to keep your line activated.

It would absolutely be in in insane , let me explain why. When I first got started in the 1 900 business, I didn't even want to get started, here I was in my apartment just a few months prior to that I stumbled onto placing ads in the newspaper. So I went from making hardly anything, to making thousands of dollars a week, in placing tiny classified ads in the newspaper. So I'm sitting in my one bedroom apartment, I'm thinking I'm the richest guy in the world, there is nothing in the world that I want to do that's gonna to distract me, from doing uh my placing ads. So. My friend Bob Salerno calls me up and he says, Don, you gotta get a 900 line. Well I said, Bob, you're crazy. I'm making a a fortune placing my tiny classified ads, I don't know anything about the 900 business, I don't know anything about computers, I don't wanna have computer equipment, I don't wanna have to answer 900 calls, leave me alone, let me place my ads, let me make my fortune in peace, just leave me alone. So he hangs up the phone, he calls me up a few weeks later, and he says, Don, you gotta get a 900 line. Well he kept bugging me and bugging me and bugging me. Finally I said, OK, I will bring up one line, to see what would happen, but before I brought that line up I said, I said to him, I said Bob, how does a 900 line work. Well he said Don, that's the greatest part. He tells me, he says Don, the only thing you have to do is pay to get a line brought up, there are service bureaus all over the country. This is what he's telling me. He says Don, there are service bureaus all over the country. They'll set your line up, they have the computer equipment, they'll answer the calls for you. They already have programs like date lines and sports lines, and whatever you want, it's completely set up. So I said to him, I said to him, well wait a minute. If they are already set up, what'll I do? He said well they make their money by charging you per minute. They'll charge you like ten cents a minute, to take all your calls. I said ok, so what do I do?

He said the only thing you do is advertise to get people to call your 1 900 line. And then you call up every day to check and see how many calls you got. Then I said so that's all I have to do? He said yes. I said OK, if you bring up a 900 line, I'll place an ad, we'll see how it does, and if it does good, I'll give you ten cents a minute, as like a royalty. And we can both make money. He said you got it. Well, I ended up having to pay the guy over $250,000 cuz he made me rich in the 900 business.
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But here's how it started. I got started with a 1 900 date line. I placed some ads out there, they worked so good, I ended up calling the service bureau 4 times in a row to make sure, that the numbers that they told me, were indeed correct. And indeed they were. I I I just flipped out! I was so excited! I placed my ads everywhere. I generated just an incredible amount of money. But here's the difference. When I got setup with my own line, I was already making a fortune, so to me, I didn't care about committing to $500 a month. They told me Don, we'll set your line up, but you got to generate enough calls to to charge enough ten cent fees - or we're gonna charge you $500 a month, no matter what. And I said, that's no problem, because if it works, I'm gonna crank it out - and indeed it did! Then I generated $80,000 a week in 900 calls, but that's totally different from somebody like you who may have a current job, and you say well, wait a minute, I wanna get a 900 line.

But I only wanna spend like 20 to 30 bucks a week. Playing around, testing some ads, until I know what I'm doing. Well, that's exactly what I think you should do. But to go to any other service bureau in the world, that's gonna charge you 5 to 600 dollars a month, no matter what - that would be insane, when you have no idea what your advertising budget is even gonna turn into, and it would be stupid. Well what did we do, when I put the show together, when I put the making money show... I was committed to showing people how I made money.

These 3 ways, buying, selling, placing my tiny classified ads in newspapers, which by the way, if you're not doing that, I think you're crazy. And then the third way which was getting set up with your own 900 line - well I said to the people at my company, I said, the only way our clients, our making money clients are going to be able to put their foot into the 900 business - and have fun with it - and not be stressed out over a $500 a month fee is... if we could create a service bureau that would allow people to pay a one time setup fee, and then they could have any advertising budget they want. If you had a ten dollar a week advertising budget, you could get set up with a 900 line, and then you could say, ok, I'm gonna commit to ten, fifteen bucks a week placing different types of ads, having fun with it, like it should be until you find an ad that works. And then the secret Isi to capitalize on that ad. And to return it, to replay it, over and over, and then to crank it out in more and more places

and to benefit from finding that great ad - well we created, I created the number one service bureau in the entire world - if you wanted to, today... you could get , listen to this, you could get setup with your very own 1 900 date line program, or you could get set up with your very own 1 900 chat line - this is where people would call in to talk to other people on the other end of the phone... you never have to answer any of the calls... you don't have to have any computer equipment... you don't have monthly fees... it is absolutely incredible!

I also have a 1 900 psychic line... this is where people could call and get a psychic reading by a live psychic, and again... you don't have to worry about hiring anybody... you don't have to worry about doing anything... and then the fourth line is a 1 900 sports/entertainment line... let me explain how it works... if you said ok, I wanna get set up with one of the lines... the way it works is... I would send you a contract with four, with a... it would have a 900 number, and then it would have four exclusive extension numbers - these extension numbers are what you would use in your advertising... and then as you place an ad out here, and you place an ad out there - with each one of your ads - you put a different extension number in, and then everyday you can call our call count machine - 24 hours a day - and you can find out exactly how many calls and how many minutes were generated the day before from your advertising.

It is absolutely one of the funnest things that you could ever do - we'll even help you along with the advertising, as much as we can - we are the largest 900 service bureau in the entire world - let me just tell you this - Saturday night live spoofed me two times - over the 1 900 business, and then the MTV; music awards asked me to do a video - and they put me on the MTV music awards promoting their own 1-900 number - it was absolutely exciting! - here's the secret - once you get set up with a 1 900 line - you get excited - you figure out which lines you want to get setup with - and then you play and you test one tiny ad or one type of advertising after another after another... as soon as you find something that works... the secret is to take that, and then multiply it and to rerun it, and to make it go over and over and over again... to capitalize on finding that one tiny ad that makes you money.

ok, let me explain how the 1 900 date line works - since i... I use this as an example only... it's one of the first lines that I ever brought up.... the 1 900 date line is simply a line where guys or girls can call, punch in their area code, and then can listen to other singles in their area... and then if they want to, they can create their own voice mail box, and have singles call them and leave messages for them... so its a really exciting line for people to call... now if you create an ad and you put it out there, in your ad, let's say you put it, and it says - meet singles in your area... your gonna have a 900 number, and then right next to that, or right below that... you're gonna have your four digit exclusive extension number - and then right below that you're gonna put $2.99 per minute - and then next to that you're gonna put - must be 18 years of age - you don't have to worry about that - we're gonna check everything your ads must have - we're even gonna give you 32 different sample ads that you can use - or - you can create your won advertising - you just gotta submit it to our office for approval first, and before you start advertising, whatever ad you want to put out there - but whenever you place any out there - make sure that you take one of the four digit extension numbers and you put that in the ad - because somebody else may have the same 900 line - but they're gonna be using different extension lines - and we wanna make sure that you get paid for every single call that you generate because of your advertising - so just remember - if you creat an ad -0 just submit it to our office for approval first before you start advertising - and everything will be great!

now let me just tell you... out of the $2.99 a minute that you're gonna charge the caller... for every minute that caller stays on the line - you are gonna pocket $1.40 a minute for every single minute that your caller stays on the line because of your advertising - about 15 cents a minute goes to our office for handling all the calls, and then the rest gets eaten up in the phone company - with the phone company = because they bill for you, and they charge you for that... they collect for you, and they charge you for that... and then there's gonna be a degree of chargebacks, but these chargebacks are already implemented... so the $1.40 a minute that you get, is net to you... you never have to worry about getting a check, and then a statement from our office, and then 4 or 5 days later us calling you back saying, hey bill... tom... Susan... we went... we paid you too much... and then we have these chargebacks... those chargebacks are already implemented into the percentage factor... so you will pocket $1.40 a minute for every single minute that that person stays on the line... it is absolutely incredible! - if you got set up you're gonna get a contract thats good for one year - and then you can automatically renew it for an entire additional year at no charge to you whatsoever... you pay a one time setup fee...
and there are no monthly fees whatsoever... which allows you to start out really slow... have fun with it, unless u wanna go crazy... but it allows you to spend a little bit on advertising each and every week... start out slow, because whenever you spend money on advertising, you are running the risk of that ad not working... or not working as well as you thought... so it is a whole lot more fun when you can start out slow... test one ad over here... test another ad over here... call your call count machine every day - it's a whole lot more fun when you don't have the pressure - of having to create so many calls - to pay for your $500 a month fee... that you would be paying if you went through a normal service bureau... so its absolutely one of the most incredible service bureaus, but I haven't even got to the fun part...

if you got setup with a 900 date line, it's a $2.99 a minute line... you will pocket $1.40 a minute... if you got setup with a sports slash entertainment line you would also charge people $2.99 a minute, u would pocket $1.40 a minute as well... these two lines are automated... they're completely automated... the computer takes the call from the beginning to the end... now if u got setup with a 900 chat line, you're gonna charge the caller $3.99 a minute, and out of that you will pocket $1.50 a minute, because it costs us a lot of money to staff up live people... to be there to answer the calls 24 hours a day... so you'll charge the caller $3.99 a minute, out of which you will pocket a dollar fifty a minute... if you were to get setup with a 1 900 psychic line, the same exact thing... you'll charge the call three ninety nine a minute... and you will pocket dollar fifty for every single minute that that person stays on the phone...

getting their psychic reading, it's absolutely incredible, and listen to this... you can call our call count machine 24 hours a day , anytime you want... you can call our call count machine and find out exactly how many calls... and how many minutes... and where they came from... from our call count machine for the day before... so every day... you can keep track of all of your advertising... its just incredible... and then after 30 days... of you generating your very first 1 900 call... you will receive a check along with a statement, each and every week...for all the calls you generated... and the only other fee besides your one time setup fee, the only other fee our company is every gonna charge you, is a three dollar check processing fee, for each week that we have to issue u a check... because you generated 900 calls...
but I do wanna talk about our one restriction... which will probably never ever affect u... but I do want to tell u... that if your weekly checks were 2 generate or to grow to $10,000 a week, at that time... if they exceed $10,000 a week... we have the right to tell you... please slow down your advertising a little bit... because we have to prepay you... we're actually paying you... prior to getting paid from the phone company... so again... that'll probably never happen 2 u... it'll probably never be a problem... but if it was to happen... we have the right to say... hey, slow down your advertising, or, move your lines, or move your 900 business to another service bureau... and work with that just because you'd be capping out our cash flow if you were to do that... again, I don't think that will b a problem... we just wanna say it, so we have the right at that time... if it was to happen... to say hey, thats about as much as we can afford to prepay you... because you're gonna get a check... after 30 days, you're gonna get a check on a weekly basis... from us... and we could be 30 days away from getting paid from the phone company.... so we don't want to extend ourselves too far... the other thing I want to tell you, is you can join the advertising network... it's a division of our company that will help u through all of your advertising... this department is designed to help you... if you have any advertising questions... when u get started advertising your 900 lines... they are there to help you... again, I told u we'd create 32 different ads... u can be rest assured, that if u create another ad, u create your own ad, and we approve them, we will never ever give out information of how many calls your generating... or which extensions u own... out of the 100's and 100's of checks that we send out every week, you can be rest assured that we are totally... we keep all of your information totally private... nobody is allowed any information from another client... and that is out of 100's and 100's of checks, nobody is allowed information about another client... so it allows you to do your advertising, without worrying about somebody finding out what type of advertising you r doing... and where u r doing it at... so, we keep that really private... and unless we have your permission, we will not give that information out to anybody... every our employees are not allowed to get set up withy their own 900 business as long as they work for our company... and I'm gonna connect you bak to the account executive, but I wanna tell u, that you can now thru our company, we will, if u get setup with your own 900 line, not only can u join the advertising network... and they'll help you through any questions that you have with your advertising, you can get your own television commercials customized with your 900 number, and your own exclusive extension number for whatever type of line that you want... or all four...

if you get excited and u said, I want all four different 900 line programs... u can get a different tv commercial for each 1 of your 900 programs... it is absolutely incredible... and then listen to this... the internet world is just exploding... we can create your own page with your own Internet address... promoting your 900 extensions... so u r now on the internet promoting your own 900 business... if u wanna do that... so we made it just about as easy as it could possibly b to get setup with your own 1 900 business... and a couple of days from today, you could be in the 1 900 business... I think that I've talked to you long enough... I'm gonna give u back to the account executive, I wanna say thank you once again so much for giving me the time to let me explain my story to you... I hope it got you excited, I hope u get setup... I'm gonna give u back to the account executive right now...
(did u catch all that? :-)