Secret Societies Michael F Schein is our guest today on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast. The last time he was on the show we talked about his book "The Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Secrets From the World's Greatest Propagandists" During the conversation he told us "Your success depends on getting people to think of you first. But with so much competition in the marketplace, it has become increasingly difficult to attract anyone's attention. In a perfect world, ideas would rise and fall on their own merits. But it's not a perfect world. If you want your message to reach a big audience, you need a presence and a platform that shines. It's hard to do, but some people (and companies) always seem to be able to make it happen. They're the ones who are always in demand as speakers, sources for articles, and interview subjects. They're the ones who can always find new business opportunities without effort. Now he is taking it a bit further with his "Secret Society" (Hype Strategy #2) experiment from that book that has had some very interesting results. As he says "I reached out to a highly successful subset of my email list and invited them to become part of a special "Black Book Club." It's a small invite-only circle that meets periodically and also gets regular "elite info and scoops". Most importantly, being a member comes with all the ritual and secrecy that you don't see much anymore and which makes these groups so intriguing. I'm not charging anything for it. For now, at least, I feel that would defeat the purpose. It's kind of like Freemasonry updated for the 21st century. I have actually been surprised by how excited these very busy and very successful people have been to take part. So what is it that has sparked interest in individuals how perhaps have many of these type of offerings coming there way each week? And out of all the points he made in the Hype Handbook, what made him choose this one to dig deeper? Well let's find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots the second time with Mr. Michael F Schein.