Registration for the public will open next Tuesday, June 14th at 10am CST.  The cost is $7,995 for the 3 day industry leading event.  We will screen all applications to ensure that they will get value out of the conference and also be a great addition to our ongoing mastermind alumni.  We will post the agenda and location later this week.  Last year we ran out of spots in HOURS after we opened registration so please make sure you are on the list to be alerted when spots open and if you have ANY questions please contact us here.

I get pitched constantly from people who want to speak at the Elite Retreat. In fact, just this week I have gotten over 200 emails from people looking to speak.

So what do we look for in leaders? Well, first of all, we are not looking for speakers. People come to the Elite Retreat because they want to take their business to the next level, they want to present problems they are having in their business and get REAL feedback from people with REAL experience:

• They must have made an enormous impact on my businesses.
• They must enjoy sharing with others things that made them successful and actually want to sit down and work with people one on one for 2 days to help them achieve their goals.
• We DO NOT EVER solicit for pitches from people to speak. I ONLY invite those who I personally have built a relationship with and I KNOW will actually want to spend 48 hours working with the attendees. Its a very rare person to have the knowledge and social skills. So my job is not easy.

All of the speakers’ bios below are handwritten by me, so you will probably see some typos =P.

I do not allow anyone to submit some publicist-hyped biography.

I cut to the chase of how each speaker has affected my business and what they bring to the table to work with you, the attendee.

So without further ado, here is this year’s expert lineup:

Andy Jenkins – Emmy Award Winning Internet Marketing BOSS.

I first was introduced to Andy through a friend named John Reese.  I knew of Andy from the legendary multimillion dollar product launches,  but what I found most intriguing was how an Emmy Award Winning video editor (NFL Films, Blair Which Project) could so easily transfer into internet marketing and dominate.

I don’t know that anyone has helped increase my business more than Andy.  While he is known as the “Video Boss”,  He is really amazingly well rounded (sorry not calling you fat bro) in all areas of internet marketing.

Andy is excited about the event and eager to work with attendees.

Maria Sparagis – Marketing, Customer Retention & Merchanting Expert

After spending a decade leading the marketing and merchanting efforts for one of the largest adult website chains in the world (brazziers), Maria Sparagis quickly became one of the foremost experts in the merchanting space.

Maria started her own company 2 years ago and because of her past experience skyrocketed to being one of the most sought after consultants.  She has unmatched relationships, knowledge and experience in the space.

We hired Maria as a consultant after being recommended to her by various affiliate networks.  After one phone call we sent our CFO up to her center training center in Montreal for a week.

When he came back not only were we on the right track for merchanting but also had some incredible insight into some new creative marketing angles for our product that would also help decrease our refund/return/chargeback rate.

Her advice was priceless.  I knew immediately that she would be a awesome addition to the Elite Retreat and she was happy to be apart of this years event.

Guy Kawasaki – Apple Evangelist, Venture Capitalist

We can’t seem to keep Guy away from the Elite Retreat.  And the attendees always love him!

Guy is always a interesting time.  He always has something new to talk about and with his new blockbuster book “Enchantment” out I am sure we will here some enchanting words ;).

Aaron Baker – Executive Vice President and All Around Badass, ATRN‎ - Atrinsic, Inc. (NASDAQ)‎

Aaron Baker – Westpointe Grad, Army Ranger – has been one of most trusted friends in the industry since I first met him in 2006. Aaron started years ago as a top tier, take no prisoners  affiliate before becoming an executive at Pepperjam. Since Pepperjam Aaron has gone on to be an Executive Vice President at Atrinsic,  a Publicly traded company. Aaron has worked with a huge portion of inc 500 companies bringing their products to the internet.   Aaron never ceases to amaze me with the contacts he has.  Just last fall we had a legal issue with one of the biggest record companies in the world and Aaron was able to make that go away with a phone call to the CEO.

I have been trying to get Aaron to speak at the Elite Retreat for many years.  There are very few people with his knowledge and experience in our industry.  I am VERY excited to have him for ER8!

Jon Correll –  Conversion Expert

Last winter we jumped the fence and decided to take a product to the affiliate networks.  Unfortunately for whatever reason I sucked at being able to make it convert for the masses.  Funny huh?  Here I can crush any offer as an affiliate but I can’t build a page for my own that converts to save my life.

Anyway the project was basically dead in the water….. Until I remembered one of our Alumni – Jon Correll and his company Conversion Voodoo.

Long story short the project went from dead to doing over 1 million dollars in gross sales in the first month that Jon’s company took over optimizing the pages for conversion.   I have never seen anything like the technology and mindset they bring.

Jon is excited to give a lot of value to attendees via case studies and also work one on one with each attendee offering conversion advice from his experiences.

Jennifer Sheahan – Facebook Advertising Expert

Jennifer has participated in a few of our Elite Retreat Mastermind calls (more on that soon) and completely amazed our group.  Jennifer has managed the campaigns for Frank Kern and many other “guru’s” and shares an amazing amount of real case studiens and results.

Its always amazing when you have all kinds of VERY seasoned marketers together and have someone come in and completely show them new strategies that make a huge impact on what they are doing.  Jennifer is one of those people.

Jon Kelly – Startup Expert

Jon spoke at our New York event and blew everyone away with how he started a multimillion dollar nich PPC engine.  Its been 2 years since and Jon has gone on to build one of the fastest rising social media sites at thisorthat.com.

Jon always shares an amazing amount of information at the Elite Retreat and LOVES to work with attendees and help them solve problems or introduce them to someone who can.

Jon is always a huge value to attendees!

Stephan Spencer – SEO/Entrepreneur

Stephan is a Search Engine Optimization wizard by trade. He not only wrote the best-selling book The Art of SEO, but Stephan also built a multimillion dollar global SEO company, servicing some of the largest companies in the world. Last year, Stephan sold his SEO company to pursue other opportunities. Most SEO’s are a flash in the pan. Stephan has broken the mold of what you think of in an SEO.

Having Stephan as a friend has been an enormous asset to me personally, both in Search Engine Optimization tips but also in general business advice.

Stephan has taken part in the Elite Retreat before and is always rated the highest rated expert in terms of value given.

Stephan tells me he loves the Elite Retreat format because since it’s only 30 people who have all signed nondisclosure agreements, he feels comfortable exposing his best tips which really make a difference in getting your site to rank for keywords. These are tips that he would never give out at a huge public event for obvious reasons.

I am very happy to have Stephan participating once again at the Elite Retreat.

Troy Meyerson – Legal – General Council

Troy has been our general legal council for ShoeMoney Media Group, INC for the last 5 years. He has dealt with over a hundred issues for us… everything ranging from contractual issues to clauses, and Troy even handled selling a company for us a couple years back for multiple millions of dollars.

Tory is my personal attorney and is very well-rounded, specializing in patent and copyrights.

Pat Cooper – Legal – Chief Litigator

Pat is the guy who argues our cases in front of a jury or judge. Pat’s advice to us has made the difference between being awarded millions of dollars in a case or being capped at only a few thousand.

I asked Troy and Pat to come to this year’s event because, let’s be honest, right now it’s a very scary time legally to be in our business. But these 2 guys have years of experience not only representing me, but many other Internet related cases.

I get more legal related questions than anything else, and while I can talk from my experience, I am not qualified (or licensed) to give actual legal advice.

As you are brainstorming with other attendees and leaders, there is no doubt going to be some legal questions that will arise — anything from how to structure the business to what policies to have in place. Having these two top-notch internet legal masterminds at your disposal on my dime will be a huge value to you as an attendee.

Allen Baler – Super Affiliate, Product Fulfillment, Business Adviser

I was originally introduced to Allen by Clickbank. In addition to being in the top 10 of Clickbank’s over 11,000 publishers, Allen also provides product fulfillment services and handles the majority of product fulfillment on Clickbank. We use Allen’s service for our own ShoeMoney System. He makes the DVDs and workbooks and ships them anywhere in the world for us for an unbelievable price.

But Allen’s real value came to us as an adviser with the ShoeMoney System. Allen not only fulfills our products, but he is also a wealth of knowledge on just about every possible subject because he has worked so long in this industry. Everything from merchant services, to customer support best practices, and all the little insider tricks with Clickbank that really made a HUGE impact on our bottom line.

Jeremy Schoemaker – Hey, that’s me! I am pretty well-rounded and can solve virtually any problem or issue you have. My main points of expertise are monetization and growth, but I am happy two work with you on whatever you need. I also am happy to make introductions to any major company anywhere in the world.

In the next couple days, I will send you an email about the official agenda and logistics.

FYI – We have plenty of sponsorship opportunities available and will have a media kit out soon. Email ersponsorship@shoemoney.com