Dean Patino: John, I’m ready to take this into the next stratosphere with you –

John Lee Dumas: Yes.

Dean Patino: – and Fire Nation. Let’s do it.

John Lee Dumas: Dean is a founder of Baseball Classics, the only baseball board game ever where MLB fans can get any teams or seasons from 1901 to present. Yet, the best part of his story is when he shares how Baseball Classics started hitting it out of the park with four figure days – not weeks, not months, but days after applying online business techniques inspired and used by JLD and Kate at EOFire. So Dean take a minute. Fill in some gaps from that intro, and give us a little glimpse of your personal life.

Dean Patino: Sure John. Well, again, thanks for having me on the show.

John Lee Dumas: Yes.

Dean Patino: It’s great to be here with Fire Nation Elite. Well, Baseball Classics is a business I started in 1987, and I created it out of an apartment in Simi Valley. I never sold anything before. I thought well, okay. I’ll create this baseball board game. I advertised it, and then before you know it, sales started coming in. It was amazing. I mean, right away. First ad, boom! Sales came in.

And I’ll explain why a little bit later as we talk some more. But anyway, since then, my day job career started to take off. So, I put it on hiatus for a number of years. In 2001 brought it back and put it online on the web, all that good stuff. But I never really thought much of it in terms of if it was gonna start to generate much revenue until I stated connecting with you, John Lee Dumas –

John Lee Dumas: Yes.

Dean Patino: – and Kate and a bunch of other great entrepreneurs in Fire Nation Elite. That’s where things really all started to turn around. And eventually, after I started applying these techniques, I got to the point where I was able to generate four figure days. And since then, I’ve been generating revenue nearly almost every day now, 365 days a year with this baseball board game.

So, what I’ve told many other entrepreneurs is if I can do this with a baseball board game, you can do it with your businesses as well, right? Okay.
John Lee Dumas: Fire Nation, Dean is a personal friend. He is literally one of the Fire Nation OG. I mean, this guy was listening from day one. He hasn’t stopped for over 677 episodes. Now, guess what? He is the featured guest for episode 1678. I’ve got meet up with Dean multiple times in person. In fact in San Diego, I had him over to my house where we actually played Baseball Classics on my balcony. And Dean I remember I was the Red Sox. What was your team, and what was the result?

Dean Patino: Southside guy of Chicago was the White Sox, and John defeated me –

John Lee Dumas: Yes.

Dean Patino: – in a game of Baseball Classics, yeah. So, yeah, I think we need a recount.

John Lee Dumas: Well, I just want to say No. 1.) It was really fun. And if you’re listening Fire Nation and you’re a baseball fan, I mean, there’s so much online in videos and all this jazz. But yeah, take it back to the basics. Get this board game. Play it with your son, with your daughter, or whoever, your friend. It’s just something that you can just crack an ice cold beverage, have some fun, roll some die, have some memories.

I was remembering players on the Red Sox I hadn’t even thought about in 20 years because I think I chose a team from the 1980s where they were just classic because of my good old RBI baseball days from Nintendo. And just bring it back to the core. Bring it back to that. And Dean you have a lot of awesomeness you’re gonna be sharing with us today. But if you could just break down what you believe today your area of expertise is, what is it?

Dean Patino: Well, really, John, I feel very fortunate because my expertise, I would have to say there’s three parts to it, and they’re all equally important. One is sales because I’ve been in sales for a long time, for nearly 30 years. And then also, I have a software background, so I have a very strong technical aptitude and technical background.

And then well, since joining Fire Nation Elite, when we had that running, boy, did I learn a lot about marketing and in particular online marketing. So I’ve learned so much. I purchased so many courses. I’ve learned a ton from you, John, and just watching you. Again, Fire Nation Elite just mirror John Lee Dumas and Kate, and you won’t go wrong anyway. So, sales, software, and marketing, John, those really fall into the three areas of expertise I have.

John Lee Dumas: So, choose one of those areas, and give us a tip, tool, or tactic. Just something that we probably don’t know as entrepreneurs but that we probably should.

Dean Patino: Well, this one I have to credit Ryan Lee, this tip that I have. And this is on the marketing side. Again, all of these are important, but marketing is just so critical to do on a daily basis. And here’s a tip that I have for Fire Nation, and that is that I created of all things a magazine, an online magazine for Baseball Classics. And this tip was given to me to create this magazine, and it looks like a regular magazine –

John Lee Dumas: Yeah, I’ve seen it.

Dean Patino: – you’ll find at Barnes and Noble, any other place like that. That’s how it’s designed, and I use that as my lead magnet. And I market it through Facebook ads every single day to build my list. And then I have an autoresponder funneled to it, and that’s a whole other story we’ll get to. But anyway, create an online magazine no matter what you have.

Again, I can do it with a baseball board game. You can do it for your business if it’s a product or service, and it’s a great way to do it. And think of it this way. Instead of writing say one blogpost a week, these are four articles – so in other words, four blogs – all within a magazine. And I just can leverage the heck out of this thing month after month.

And then I have them stored up, of course, on the website. And people can come in. Now, I do require a password, of course, for them to get in and have access to it. And, of course, I have deals in there, all kinds of courses, great articles that major league baseball fans care about.

So anyway, that’s my tip. Create this online magazine, and mirror the way that I did it. And you can go over to baseballclassics.com. Just click on the magazine choice in the option, and just go through it. You’ll see.

John Lee Dumas: The keyword that I want to focus in on Fire Nation that Dean used was funnel. He obviously has the top of his funnel dialed in. He knows what people in his industry, his avatar, his potential clients need, know, want. What’s topping your funnel? And if you don’t have a quick and awesome answer for that, it’s time to step back and think. Create to that incredible lead magnet at the top of your funnel, and start the process. Now, Dean you’ve had some ups. You’ve had some downs. You’re been around for quite some time doing a lot of good things. But what would you consider your worst entrepreneurial moment is to date? Take us there Dean. Tell us that story.

Dean Patino: Oh John, well, I thought about this one quite a bit because there’s so many to sort through. And again, they’re all great because, again, you learn from them. I mean, there’s always the positive lesson of anything that happens to you that’s bad because you use that as a launching pad to move forward. But we’re gonna have to go back to the beginning. Shortly after I launched the game back in 1987, here I am all proud.

And, right, it takes some pride and some confidence to become an entrepreneur. So, here I am. I create this baseball board game. I advertise it. Boom! All these checks start flooding in to my PO Box. It was crazy. Envelopes, I mean, just piles of them day after day. Well, after a little bit of time, I get a letter from somebody who is representing himself some statistical baseball genius is what I recollect saying that the results of my game are not gonna be accurate.

And see, my game there’s a lot of things to it. But one of the things from Major League baseball fans that play my game, they want accurate results. So when Wade Boggs of the Boston Red Sox bats a certain batting average when he played for them, they want him to perform that same way. So, here I designed all the formulas thinking it was gonna be that way, and this guy wrote me to say no, it’s not gonna be accurate.

And I was devastated. My first reaction was my ego was like what do you know? I’m the one that created this. I know better than you. Then, John, I got another letter from a completely different person saying the same thing. And wow! I mean, it really humbled me, and I knew then I had to take a step back and listen to these folks. And it was a key lesson I’ve applied ever since.

And I went back, and I redid all the formulas based on what their advice was. And it worked out great, by the way, their advice. So, that was really a tough moment for me because I had to redo everything. And I am the only baseball board game in the history of baseball board games – they’ve been around for over 100 years – that offers any Major League baseball team or season from 1901 to the present. John, that means today I have over 58,000 players.

John Lee Dumas: Wow!

Dean Patino: That’s over 2400 teams. That means changing all of those –

John Lee Dumas: Oh.

Dean Patino: – okay, all of those. So, that’s a lot of work to go back and redo the formulas, but it was worth it. But the key lesson was that I’ve learned more from my customers and my audience than I have from all the research I’ve done. They’ve taught me so much more, and then I have applied these principles. So, the lesson is don’t let your ego get in the way. When something comes up like that, you want to really listen and take it to heart. Don’t take it with a grain of salt. Take it to heart.

John Lee Dumas: It’s so critical. And Fire Nation, the one phrase that we’ve actually kind of had a theme the past few episodes is be humble. Be happy. Just be open to getting advice from others. They’re probably trying to help you. And if you’re not, then you can ignore it. But come at it with an open mind. Be humble. That humbleness is gonna lead to being happy. Equate those two words, and I’ll even share a really quick story along these lines.

When I launched the Freedom Journal, I had 30,000 copies printed. And they out. People were loving them. I was getting great feedback, and all was well in the world. Well, I got this initial one email from someone that said, “Hey John, where do I write out my smart goal?” And I was like, “Well, obviously, you write it out on every single day. In 99 days I will blah, blah, blah. In 98 days I will blah, blah, blah.

It was just to me so obvious that’s where you wrote out your smart goal. But then I got another email and another email, and I was like okay, this is obviously a trend. I’m obviously under the curse of knowledge here. It’s obvious to me, but it’s not obvious to the most important person, the consumer of my product. So, then we went back and did Freedom Journal 2.0 because we had now completely sold out of all Freedom Journal 1.0s.

2.0 has an entire page that walks you through that smart goal format, and it was completely user generated advice. So, you have to be open to that, and make your product better because of that result. Now, Dean, shifting to another story that you’ve experienced in your life, this one being one of your greatest ideas to date. What’s one of those ideas? Take us to that moment you had that idea, and walk us through the process of turning it into a success.

Dean Patino: I’d say my greatest ideas really are I am able to innovate and come up with new products on a consistent basis. So, I would say for me it’s every quarter. Now, it’s gonna vary on your business, but to me you have to be innovating. And you and I have talked about this, of course, many times before, and you’re awesome at this. And the most successful businesses – and you step back and take a look at the big ones, right. Take a look at Apples and everybody else out there.

And you can go across industries. They are Coca-Cola innovating, new products, innovating, innovating. But then you need to execute the marketing strategies that you have behind them. So, that’s so important as well, but without that innovation of new products and improving your products, like you just mentioned there, and I have certainly improved the baseball board game over the years so much so.

But, again, this is really a big key that I would say is so important is sure, you have the one product. But then you have to be thinking of complimentary products for it so you can upsell, cross sell. And, again, have this innovation that’s a consistent part of the model of your business. It’s not rocket science. It’s just a matter of, again, coming up with more than just one product idea.

And we’ve heard this on Shark Tank many times, right? How many times have you heard Mark Cuban or any one of them say well, you’re just a product? You’re not a company, so I’m out, right? And that’s what they say so many times because, again, without that innovation and, again, looking forward to seeing what you can do and then marketing it, again, on a regular basis, applying all these great marketing techniques that are out there today, it’s really tough.

John Lee Dumas: Well, what’s your innovation, Dean? Take us to your story, your innovation, your –

Dean Patino: Sure.

John Lee Dumas: – greatest idea, and walk us through it.

Dean Patino: The greatest idea that I’ve had so far is taking Baseball Classics and putting it in the Cloud and making it an offer that way. So that’s a subscription, by the way. I also have a subscription for Baseball Classics where people can order any teams they want, and I mirrored that. I mirrored that after Dollar Shave Club, so I call it Dollar Baseball Club.

So, I mirror. You look at their website, Dollar Shave Club. And this is what Fire Nation should be doing. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel – and this, by the way, has been going on for a long, long time all this kind of mirroring. And Tony Robbins has talked about it. Zig Ziglar’s talked about it. Many entrepreneurs have talked about it, Jim Marone.

But when you mirror after other successful entities, odds are in your favor you’re gonna do really well. So, my idea was take Baseball Classics, and generate subscription revenue from it. And do it in two different ways. 1.) Well, it was a physical game, and do it in a subscription box because subscription boxes have been so hot. And then also put it in the Cloud because I see in the software industry, the Cloud continues to be so hot.

And that’s where all the big companies and people are now becoming familiar with what the Cloud is and what it means. It’s becoming more of a household name. So, creating the subscription revenue and, again, putting new products out there in both formats that enables me to generate revenue nearly every single day outside of the transactions that I receive.

John Lee Dumas: Dollar Shave Club, subscription revenue, subscription boxes. I mean, what was Dean doing? He was keeping his finger on the pulse about what was working in the market. He was getting out there and consuming the right content via Shark Tank, via blogs, via podcasts. And he was seeing what was working right now and saying how can I apply that to my business. So, make sure you’re doing the same thing, Fire Nation.

Now, Dean, it’s 2017. We’re chatting. We’ve known each other now for coming up on five years, which is just outstanding. So, I know that you’ve been fired up about a lot of things over the years. But today, what are you most fired up about right now?

Dean Patino: Well, I’d say I’m most fired up about the latest new product that I have out there today. What I did is I mirrored after another successful product, a baseball game product that I used to play in the ‘70s, John. And I’ve designed it so it looks a lot like that one, and I’ve brought it out in the same format. And it’s selling. And I priced it also.

I took advice from a really great mentor of mine years ago. He said, “Dean, people go to Starbucks because they believe they’re wroth spending $4.50 on themselves for a cup of coffee. So, price your games. You don’t want to be the premium or the lowest price. And being the lowest price is –

John Lee Dumas: It’s a race to the bottom.

Dean Patino: Yeah. You want to be the premium product. So, I’ve turned it into the premium product. So, now, John, I’m selling consistently a $95.00 game, and a $99.00 game. Now, my competitors who have been around since 1950s, 1960s, still today very active, their games are about half that price or less. So, I’ve created this game so I could have a price point that I could stand behind. And, again, I’m getting these sales just day after day after day.

So, $95.00, $99.00, and then with the subscription revenue and other products that I have as well, it all adds up. But I would say that product – and it’s based on the All Time Greats Team – but I have it in the format based on that game from the ‘70s. But what my customers were asking for above and beyond –and by the way, I did a prelaunch on that just like you’ve done many times.

John Lee Dumas: Oh yeah.

Dean Patino: Many others have done a prelaunch, and it sold nearly $2,000.00 before I even launched it, before I even had it ready. The game wasn’t even completely built. And I already had sold almost $2,000.00 worth off it. So, that’s in this – I call it a player chart version. It’s on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. It’s two-sided, full color, color coded, so on and so forth. But what my customers have been asking for is Dean, where’s the player card version of it?

John Lee Dumas: Hum.

Dean Patino: So, they wanted it in a card format. So, I’m coming out with that, but I’m saving that for Black Friday. So, it’s gonna roll out then, and that I’m gonna presale, launch. I’ll do all the same stuff we know as entrepreneurs work really great. And I know that’s gonna sell even more. And that’s gonna be even a higher priced game. That’ll be certainly over $100.00 for that game.

John Lee Dumas: Fire Nation, it’s binary. There’s just no other way to put it. If you’re the second cheapest, you lose. The cheapest will win in the race to the bottom. So, if you’re the second, third, fourth, fifth cheapest, you lose. So, if you want to play that game, go ahead. Play that game. I’m not gonna recommend it, but just make sure you win that game if you’re gonna play it.

Otherwise, go premium. Go premium because that’s where you’re going to win. That’s where your profit margin’s gonna be. That’s where people are going to perceive the value to be. And Dean, real quick, just a real quick call to action. If we want to find out more about where to get this game and about this launch that’s coming up, where do we go?

Dean Patino: Baseballclassics.com, which is a whole other story, John. It took me since 2001 to just this year I just was able to finally get the domain baseballclassics.com.

John Lee Dumas: It’s a great domain. Will you share the dollar amount, or is that private?

Dean Patino: No, no, I’ll be happy to share it. So, John, when I first went to get it in 2001 when I brought the game back and put it on the web, I went to go –

John Lee Dumas: Yeah.

Dean Patino: – find that name, and it was taken. So, I saw it was for sale thought because they weren’t really using that site. It was just one of those things. –

John Lee Dumas: Sure.

Dean Patino: – parking it. So, I emailed the person or the company who had it. They wanted $35,000.00 for –

John Lee Dumas: Woo!

Dean Patino: – the name.

John Lee Dumas: Woo!

Dean Patino: I went whoa! So, I called it playbaseballclassics.com. Anyway, so, every several years, I was going back to see if I could get it, get it, get it. Then it was down to like $20,000.00, $10,000.00. I’m like this is insane. Anyway, well, at the end of December – but I wasn’t able to get it until the beginning of January.

So, just this year I went back, and I thought I’ll try again. And sure enough still not being used. Still for sale, $3,400.00. So, I picked up the phone, and I called them. And I said, “Look. I’m gonna give you a one-time offer right now. This domain has been for sale for, like, 15 plus –

John Lee Dumas: Yeah.

Dean Patino: – years. I’m gonna give you $1750.00 right now in cash. I’ll PayPal it to you right now, but you gotta do the deal today. This goes away. After this, I’m not gonna ask anymore. This is it. One-time deal. Anyway, long story short they came back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Came down to $1800.00

John Lee Dumas: Oh Lord, because they always have to win just a little bit.

Dean Patino: And I sent one more email, and I said, “$1750.00 that’s it.” They sent the link with that price. I bought it, and I finally got that after all these years. So, anyway –

John Lee Dumas: Woo!

Dean Patino: – baseballclassics.com.

John Lee Dumas: Congratulations! That must feel great. It’s a phenomenal domain, baseballclassics.com. And Fire Nation, we have a phenomenal lightening round for you after we thank our sponsors. Dean, are you ready to rock the lightening rounds?

Dean Patino: Let’s do it, John, yes.

John Lee Dumas: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Dean Patino: John, this is probably the 1678 time you’ve heard this but self-doubt. Self-doubt, I mean, I built this baseball board game thinking okay, well, maybe somebody will buy it. Somebody did, so that wasn’t the problem. The problem for me, John, really was thinking that it could grow. Everybody believed this game could generate four figures a day except for one person – me.
John Lee Dumas: Oh.

Dean Patino: But believe me, everybody I talked to no, baseball. That’s incredible. That’s great. That’s gonna be awesome. I mean, I talked to all kinds of people –

John Lee Dumas: Sur.

Dean Patino: – very successful. Anyway, that’s what was holding me back. So, I overcame that, and boom! Here we go.

John Lee Dumas: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Dean Patino: It’s from you. Join Fire Nation Elite, the Mastermind. I mean, no doubt, John, that was a complete – well, of course, first of all, coming across your podcast in September 2012 was the game changer.

John Lee Dumas: Yes.

Dean Patino: But this is what put it on fire, joining Fire Nation Elite.

John Lee Dumas: I love it! Fire Nation, you’re the average of the five people you surround yourself with, and Dean’s a living example of that. What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success, Dean?

Dean Patino: John, I work out about five days a week and I eat right every day. So, I stay healthy. That’s what contributes to my success because then that gives me the fuel to have the energy to do the things that I need to do to be successful.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah, Dean, we’re talking in early April right now. This will go live about a month later. But very recently, I just actually made a public declaration on Facebook that that’s my No. 1 priority is focusing on my health, my fitness, my nutrition because what else is there?

I’m not gonna have the energy. I’m not gonna have the longevity to do what I want to do in 10, 20, 50 years from now. And Fire Nation, take care of yourself. That needs to be a massive priority in your life. What’s an internet resource, Dean, that contributes to your success?

Dean Patino: John, I have to say it’s Elegant Themes Divi Theme. That’s what I run my websites on, and it is so great to use. The folks there at Elegant Themes do an awesome job with it. I highly, highly recommend that as the theme, the Divi Theme.

John Lee Dumas: If you could recommend one book, what would it be, and why?

Dean Patino: It’s a book that I actually found out from you, John. Again, see, Fire Nation. Are you getting the theme here? I’m following and mirroring John Lee Dumas who’s been, of course, incredibly successful and so inspirational inspiring –

John Lee Dumas: Thank you!

Dean Patino: – literally million, which is what he set out to do from the very beginning.

John Lee Dumas: That was the goal.

Dean Patino: He set that goal, and boom! Okay, so DotCom Secrets by –

John Lee Dumas: Yes.

Dean Patino: – Russell Brunson. Now, get his latest book though, Expert Secrets, on Amazon. You can preorder it. Of course, preorder. Of course, John, right? But anyway, get his next book Expert Secrets. But get DotCom Secrets and not just read it.

You need to execute what’s in there because it’s the only book I’ve seen that’s so step-by-step in terms of here’s what you do. Here’s what you do. Here’s what you do to build your funnels and get them launched. We have to execute. Take that action that John’s talked about 1678 episodes for it. So, there you go.

John Lee Dumas: I love it! I love Russell, and that book DotCom Secrets was a game changer for me. And Expert Secrets it’s out right now that the interview goes live. And I’m actually partnered with Russell on this, so Fire Nation, eofire.com/experts. And you can get that book for free plus shipping.

But I’m even adding in some bonuses there. I mean, if you go through the eofire.com/expert link, I’m gifting you – no shipping, completely free gift – I will mail a hardcover, your choice, Freedom or Mastery Journal to your door if you’re in the U.S., or if you’re international, I will gift you your choice of the complete digital pack of either one of those journals.

So, definitely hit hat up. And Dean, I want to end today on Fire with you giving us a parting piece of guidance. The best way that we can connect with you, and then we’ll say goodbye.

Dean Patino: Sure, John. Well, again, thanks for having with Fire Nation. It’s just so great to be an entrepreneur on Fire. Okay, the advice I have is, again, it goes back to always be innovating, but do it with – and you know I’m big on this, John, unique business values –

John Lee Dumas: Yes.

Dean Patino: – something I learned early on in my career. And that’s why my business does so well, a baseball board game. So, here’s what I mean by unique business value. That means you’re creating something that’s better, faster, and/or cheaper than your competition. And cheaper doesn’t mean price. Cheaper means – let’s say – it could help them save money, so on and so forth.

Anyway, better, faster, – notice the – and/or cheaper. That’s unique business value. Look at all these other companies that do this, and that’s why they’re so successful. So, anyway, you also, again, need to build marketing momentum ahead of time for your launches. I mean, it’s so important to do that. And then do a pre-offer, and there’s all kinds of great pricing strategies you can use.

But these are the things you need to do. But, again, innovate with unique business value, and you’re gonna have a business that’s thriving and on fire for years to come.

John Lee Dumas: Dean, how can we connect with you brother?

Dean Patino: Well, John, now, I’m happy to say anybody from Fire Nation can reach out to me simply at dean@baseballclassics.com. And sure, I’m running a baseball board game. But, John, like you said, we’ve known each other now it’s coming up on five years. And it’s such a great connection, and we’ve worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs.

So, anybody that wants to reach out to me, I’m happy to talk. We don’t have to talk about baseball. We can if you want to. But let’s talk about your business. So, reach out to me. If you want to spend some time with me, I’ll give you some time. I’ll give you time on Skype, or if you have some questions on email, just email me. I’ll be happy to answer questions and give you some objective points of view to help you out with your business so you can continue to either start it and/or grow it. So, reach out any time. I’ll be happy to help as many folks from Fire Nation Elite that want to reach out to me, dean@baseballclassics.com.

John Lee Dumas: Fire Nation you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You’ve been hanging out with DP and JLD today, so keep up the heat. And Fire Nation, Dean is as kind and as generous with his time. He’s genuine. He’s authentic. Take him up on this offer to email him, dean@baseballclassics.com.

You will find a completely sincere, thorough, thoughtful response to whatever question you want to post, or just say thank you for having him take his time today to share some awesome tidbits and value bombs with you. And, of course, you want to head over to eofire.com.

You can just type Dean in the search bar, and his show and his page will pop up with everything that we’ve been talking about today because these are the best show notes in the biz. Timestamps, links galore. Dean, thank you for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we’ll catch you on the flipside.

Dean Patino: Thanks so much, John.