0002: Melanie Johnson Charity Auction Expert,TedX Speaker & 10x Best Selling Author

Mario Fachini  [0:01]  

Welcome to today’s episode and I am excited to share with you, Miss Melanie Johnson. Ten-time best selling author, TEDx speaker, and charity auction expert. I’m going to bring her up next. And let me show you who she is. Here she is: Miss Melanie Johnson, but first, let’s hear from our sponsor.

SPONSOR-Charity Music  [0:33]  

Charity Music. Charity Music, bringing instruments to people in need. What Charity Music does is for the underprivileged that don’t have the luxury of being able to afford any instrument that they want, whenever they want. Charity Music gets donations from all around the country, and redistributes them to people who need them. Check out charitymusic.org.

Mario Fachini  [1:09]  

Melanie Johnson, everyone, here she is. How are you doing, Melanie?

Melanie Johnson  [1:14]  

I’m doing fantastic. How are you doing, Mario?

Mario Fachini  [1:16]  

I’m doing great. It’s such an honor and privilege to have you here. And, let’s just jump right into it, shall we?

Melanie Johnson  [1:22]  

Sure, let’s go.

Mario Fachini  [1:24]  

I know a little bit about your story. And I’m excited to bring that with the audience, but tell me how you started off. What’s the inspiration for starting your business? And just going you know, I don’t want to work a job. I want to go into business. I know you’ve had multiples over the years very successful. But what’s the inspiration with what you started with your charity auctions?

Melanie Johnson  [1:47]  

Well, the charity auctions is something different than I would say when I first started my business. So I started in the TV business as an anchor and before that, was a commercial actress. So, when I got into the television field, then I realized I really love being in front of people, and I was a subcontractor at the time, and then we started our own TV station. So, the other businesses I started, really became out of necessity, right. So, the world crashed and came to an end. I got a divorce and that was tumultuous. So, the first business I started as an entrepreneur really all by myself, besides the TV stations, which I had my former husband that we did together was the Houston mansion. So, we had these two really large homes and I was trying to figure out a way to monetize them, and to make a living to support our kids. So, at the time VRBO had just started, the internet was still kind of new, it was 2008. And I came up with renting those houses. Well, those houses generated a six-figure business for us in the meantime, so I can support our family, which was great. And then I got my feet wet in real estate, I had done some real estate before and did some investment. But as it happened, so my houses eventually got foreclosed on in the market, the my husband filed for bankruptcy. So then I lost my job with my houses, right. And then also the real estate market went down and I didn’t have a place to live. So, kind of had to reinvent myself again. So, what happened that I had been trained to do publishing and marketing in the meantime. Now, my background with TV was advertising promotion, I knew how to do all of that. So, I started a book publishing company. So, that has been really successful. We have a bunch of authors that we’ve all made- Jen Foster and I- that we’ve made number one bestsellers. And then in the midst of that, you know, with my TV business, we used to be able to give back a lot. So, you were specifically asking me about the charity thing. So, we always gave back quite a bit, we are involved either we gave airtime; we gave money; we gave different products that we had. So I wanted to keep that theme up in the forefront, especially for my kids. And we have… I had this picture down in the Dominican Republic. And a friend of mine asked if we would donate it. So we did, I did it on a consignment basis. And next thing I knew it started to mushroom and my kids and I’ve been involved in this. And one thing led to another and we have raised over a half a million dollars donating it to charities all over the country, to help different organizations, whether it’s women in Uganda; people in Puerto Rico; we’ve done children’s thing; we’ve done things for juvenile diabetes; Women’s Center; educational for different private schools, we’ve raised money. So it’s really been a joyful thing to do.

Mario Fachini  [4:32]  

Well, I know you’ve always had a good heart and it’s one of the things I’ve always liked about you since we met at a publishing event years ago. And you know, you have a great family, you have great kids and obviously shines through. So, I love… it’s one of the reasons I wanted to have you here because I know a lot of people in business and all the people I associate with they’re… they’re like us, you know, they have good hearts, they, you know, they’re well to do and all that. But some people just aren’t like that and so I’m excited to share more of your story. So, how would you say for all of the listeners that… you know, I was telling you before that I was working with my local Rotary Club, and we’re in a board meeting and they’re like, we need people for the auction, we need items, we need…we need items for the auction and people that submit them. And, the… people are always coming to me over the years going: what do you think we should do to market the event? What do you think we should do for this that the other thing? So, how would you say if you were to break it down real simply what is… what do you do when you’re partnering with them? And how do you do it differently?

Melanie Johnson  [5:42]  

Well, one of the secrets that I tell our charities to get the most out of it, so I let them auction the trip off multiple times to try and generate as much money as possible. And in this last year, it was not my do… my idea but this charity had an awesome idea. So, what they did was when the trip got auction, they had multiple bidders and then when they hit the highest bidder say it was $10,500 for the trip was the high bidder. So, they said okay, you won, but then they said the second winner… I…guess what? Your bid was 10,000, we’re going to give it to you both for $10,000. So, what does that do, it gets the second person on the hook, right? Because they already said they were committed to the 10,000. The first bidder gets it for $500 less, and the charity makes double the money so everybody wins. So, I thought that was just a really, really great strategy to do that. So, if you have live auction items, try and get permission for the person who’s donating them to do it multiple times. So that’s number one, it really, really can help your bottom line to raise more money for the nonprofit.

Mario Fachini  [6:45]  

And, awareness for the donation too because such as yours, it’s not to say you only have one week a year, you can give it out, you just make sure you don’t double book it. And you could even have three or four if you say hey, grand prize is two weeks. Second prize is one week. That’s a great idea.

Melanie Johnson  [7:01]  

Yeah. So that way we… and some of the charities, they’ve sold it four times. So, just think about that. So they’ve made a lot of money by doing that. And then I tell people, you know, my specific thing is better in a live auction, it tends to generate more money, but it can work in a silent auction. And, what I tell them is to put it at the absolute lowest price you can where you still make money with the consignment fee, because that generates, you know that I want a good deal in my brain thing. And then once you get someone to commit and write on paper that they want it and if you get a couple people to do that, then they’re just committed. It’s kind of like just saw this thing my son showed me where you can get ‘I’ll give you $100 for $1’. And then they were bidding against two people. And before you know it, they’re paying $150 for the hundred dollar bill. So, it’s kind of that same thing you just want to get in the loop and get them committed.

Mario Fachini  [7:53]  

Absolutely. So, I know you have a lot of different success stories. But if you were to take all of them all together, what would you say the specific results are? What’s the timeframe? So, when… when someone reaches out to you, and they want to use your item and their auction? How long does it take to say, ‘hey, let’s get you on board. You’re in the auction’. And what are the specific results of…Have you ever not sold it? Let me ask you that.

Melanie Johnson  [8:20]  

That has happened sometimes, where they just didn’t have the right crowd. People weren’t bidding, especially depending… the Texas economy in 2015 was not doing that well. And then I was more in Texas than I was all across the country. And people… I remember I felt so bad for this charity because I think out of all the the silent auction items that they had maybe four, they probably had 100 items, maybe four… maybe ten sold. There just weren’t bids on anything. It was really sad. So, you know that kind of thing can happen. So, know your market; know the people that you’re inviting. That’s the only thing I would say. When you’re picking your auction items, know your crowd. What kind of things… are they… are they trip takers? Are the people that want to go to the spa? Are they… know what exactly would they want. So… and try and fill it with those types of items. There’s also consignment people that have sports items. They have things from Hollywood, if you’ve ever seen those big shadow box, signed autographed things by different sports celebrities. So, there’s different auctioneers that will provide that stuff for you for your auction.

Mario Fachini  [9:26]  

Excellent. So, obviously know the market. What do you think they could have done better? Do you think they could have had a different crowd? Do you think it was just the economy? Do you think it was how it was promoted? Because I thought a lot of the same things. I remember I’ve done a lot of charity events, and I’ve been there and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool. That’s going to sell’ and sure enough, it’s like crickets. It’s like, are you kidding me? And then there’s like some basket of fruit and everyone’s bidding over? I’m like, why would you not want to get a brand new car or boat or whatever? And so, with what you sell, with… how do you normally do it? Do you normally bid on one week at a time? Two weeks? A couple of days? What are the different price points? You said it sold for ten grand. Was that one week, two weeks?

Melanie Johnson  [10:13]  

One week. So I give away one week for that thing. So, it’s a one week stay, seven nights, you get a six bedroom villa, or and or two three bedrooms and it’s just based on availability. When you get down there, they just assign it so you don’t know ahead of time. It’ll either be six bedrooms, or two three bedrooms. But each one has its own private pool, its own private veranda. And, if you end up with two bills, guess what? You get two chefs that will cook you breakfast every morning. That is…

Mario Fachini  [10:40]  

Let’s tell everyone about that. Because you were telling me about that before. Speak more on this breakfast thing because you got my interest on here. You’re saying there’s a private chef who cooks for you every morning. 

Melanie Johnson  [10:50]  

Mhm…It is…. it’s my family and my kids favorite thing. Mecca we were going to go somewhere else and my son said ‘well, do they have a chef every morning?’ I said no. I’m not going there. That’s like who are you? How did that happen to ruin you at such a young age already? So, yes. So, what… it’s an all inclusive. The price that we have on it is $65 a day. You pay that separately at the resort. But, for the $65 you get all the food you can eat- breakfast, lunch, and dinner- includes unlimited alcohol, you get bottle service to the your Villa for that. And, all the snacks…unlimited snacks, unlimited ice cream net, this fabulous ice cream shop that I just love. So, that is really great and then the chef comes every morning and cooks you breakfast. So you pick the time that you want them to be there. And I just love it like you can kind of hear him banging around a little bit in the morning and then the smell starts to permeate the villa. So literally, I mean, you tell them what you want. And last time we were down there, there was five of us. And everybody had eggs different ways. And he cooked eggs. He did omelets. He did scrambled eggs; he did eggs over easy. So everyone’s like oh yeah, I want mine over easy. I want omelette and he was making it any way that you wanted. We had pancakes, French toast. We… now this is all at one meal, right? This isn’t like oh one day we had french toast. No, you get your eggs, your french toast, your pancakes, your fresh fruit. Oh, and he makes smoothies too. You get a smoothie in the blender that you’re pouring every morning and fresh juice. It’s amazing. And what I love about it is you’re eating outside at your terrace right by the pool and then the kids are like, yeah, I’m just going to jump in the pool now. And I’m coming down in my pajamas. I’m like ‘I’m not changing’, I’m gonna wear my pajamas for breakfast. And, it’s just so laid back and and then the maid comes and cleans it all up, like right after you’re done. And as a single mom, let me tell you to have someone clean up your breakfast afterwards and eat at home. It’s such a luxury. And half the time moms know that your kids don’t like to go to the restaurant and sit if they don’t have to. So this is a great way to start the day that everyone’s together and hanging out with that breakfast. I just love it.

Mario Fachini  [12:52]  

It sounds wonderful. And, I should… I should have put a disclaimer warning because I know we got bottles of water over we’re here to drink but I’m like ‘I need a bowl of ice cream here too’ this is kind of… getting hungry. So, thank you for sharing that. So, you’ve worked with these different auction… you’ve done different auctions, you have a great charity item that people can reach out to you and contact you for. So, what is your biggest success story? What is your favorite success story? Who’s the biggest success you’ve had donating your Villa? And it just provided great results… Tran… you know, transformational, for the people who auctioned it off and just gave them the biggest boost and value add?

Melanie Johnson  [13:35]  

Yeah, I would say everyone… you know what, I want to continue another thing just so they know what it came with. So it also comes with your airport transfers to and from the airport. Oh, okay. Nine holes of golf, one for each person. And, then they have OceanWorld tickets for everybody, which is kind of like SeaWorld. And it’s right next door to the property. So… 

Mario Fachini  [13:54]  

I was going to ask you about that. I saw that on the info and as like OceanWorld, we need to talk about naming here and…

Melanie Johnson  [14:01]  

And I have to say, we did the swim with the dolphins there and we’ve done that probably four different locations and by far, that one was the best. I really loved it. Like it was just so good. I can’t describe it but they just did different things and it was really, really great. And then they have excursions you can go on. So of course there’s snorkeling and things like that the kids and I love the ATV but my favorite is the waterfall adventure. So we went on this waterfall thing and I’ve been to Hawaii and gone to the waterfall so I’m envisioning that you’re going to go to the waterfalls, the end of the pond like stand under the waterfall have feeling you know, look at it, have it pour down on you…no, no, no you are jumping off waterfalls.

Mario Fachini  [14:40]  

How tall was it?

Melanie Johnson  [14:42]  

So, one is about 90 feet, I would say. 

Mario Fachini  [14:45]  

Oh, that’s it?

Melanie Johnson  [14:45]  

The biggest but it’s pretty big. And so the story I have of that. So that was…. so firstly, like you hike through the rainforest and then you jump off the waterfalls, you do have an option to slide down the rock formation. Okay. So and then you hike down the riverbed to each waterfall jump down and hiked down the riverbed the rest of the way down. So, this one that was 90 feet, I am thinking, there’s no way I’m doing that. My sons are like, ‘come on mom, you can do it?’ Uhuh, I’m going to go for the slide down thing on this one. I’m doing the little slide down. No thanks. So, I’m talking to them and we’re talking about it and we’re climbing up the detox. I’m thinking you slide down up at the top. So, we’re and it’s a little ledge. I’m sorry. It’s like Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s a little ledge. It’s a rock wall here little age and waters right there. And you’re climbing up there. And I’m like three people from the top. And they say, Oh, no the water… the slide downs down there. So, I was stuck. There were people behind me people in front of me and I’m on this little ledge. So, I had to jump off the 90 foot one. I have to tell you, I was scared to death, but it was so exhilarating and so much fun. I loved it. 

Mario Fachini  [15:52]  

Did Nathan get it on video? 

Melanie Johnson  [15:54]  

No, I wish he did. But it was a blast. It was a blast. So, you know those types of things it was is really team building just between my sons and I but I would say like if you went with a group of people, we recommend the trip it can be for families, but it could be for a mastermind. It could be for a corporation to bring their employees together. It really is fabulous in a lot of different ways.

Mario Fachini  [16:15]  

Do more people come to you that want to auction off for like a couple, an individual or like a business like you’re saying with the team building where they could have five or ten people who’s the most that has ever taken it? And I don’t mean like it went to one auction and then four different people got it. Have you had like a company get it for ten or twenty people? Because I know you said there’s eight villas, if I’m not mistaken.

Melanie Johnson  [16:37]  

Yeah, well, there’s 90 on the property. So, I have access to all of them. So I could book you know, up to 10 villas at one time, if there’s availability for those days.

Mario Fachini  [16:45]  

And you can hold how many in the villa,  four… six?

Melanie Johnson  [16:48]  

Well, it depends. There are a variety of bedrooms, so anywhere from three bedroom to six bedroom is what they have there and there’s a variety of those. So they may have a four… there five… four bedrooms, five bedrooms and six bedroom villas.

Mario Fachini  [16:59]  

So essentially, what you’re saying is someone wants to do a mastermind with 40, 50 or 60 people is totally doable.

Melanie Johnson  [17:06]  

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, that’s like…like even at a charity. They could say, all right, I want four weeks, right? I’m going to buy this trip four times, but take it all at the same week. So that’s a possibility. Yeah.

Mario Fachini  [17:19]  

Okay. And, your success story of who, who has been your favorite success story to call you up, contact you put it into the auction, and they did the most with it.

Melanie Johnson  [17:35]  

You know, I think one of my favorite was the women’s house in Uganda, because they were saying, you know, every little bit, you know, $10 could buy them food for a week and things like that. So we raised $10,000 for them, and just impact… to see that happen, and know what a difference that was going to make for them to help build their facility for these women and children. I came home and cried afterwards.

Mario Fachini  [18:04]  

That’s really good. And that’s what it’s about is not just saying ‘Look at all this stuff we have… this and that and you know, people have asked me similar questions. And it’s like, when you have an audience, when you have a platform, I truly believe it’s like, it just reveals who you are. It doesn’t define who you are. So, if you can get in front of a million people, like you’re saying $10 is like 100 bucks to us, or maybe even 1000, and you raised 10,000. That’s, that’s huge. And that’s… I mean, there’s people that… there’s companies that they could do that on their own, let alone get around to other influencers and raise even more to it. So, I think that’s why everyone should start a business and be doing, you know, good stuff. So, thank you for sharing that. So, I remember when we first connected, you were actually launching your book. 

Melanie Johnson  [18:53]  

Right. 

Mario Fachini  [18:53]  

The Dominican Republic one, so speak on that for a minute. So, for anyone listening, what would you say your book has done to help you with your business and promote it and get the word out there.

Melanie Johnson  [19:06]  

So, that specific book was really great, because it was a value added. I could display it at the auctions, people could thumb through it. I give them an ebook of it once they win the auction, it comes with it so they can read about it, and I did another book on the restaurants there. So, it was really a great value added and gave a lot of publicity. Now, this is a backend story of this. I took some of the books down to the resort. And of course they’re always selling to timeshares or two, and so I gave a couple to my salesmen. Oh my gosh, she would have thought I gave him gold. I mean, he… and he didn’t want to give the book up. He was carrying it around to everybody like ‘look at…. we have a book look at we’ve been published’ like it was like the resort publish the book on them. So, it really…. he started using it as a sales tool to close deals for the timeshare.

Mario Fachini  [19:54]  

Wow. So you’d say it’s advantageous for any company organization to get a book published that based on their expertise?

Melanie Johnson  [20:01]  

Oh, absolutely. And not even…. I mean from that, but my background is television. So, I came as an anchor, I owned and operated TV stations. We sold TV time, air time but we also bought things to promote our TV stations, we bought billboards, newspaper, magazines, all all different types of ad….advertising, we bought radio ads. So, I have found to be such a great advertising tool, almost better than any of those things. So, we had a client who was spending $2,500 a month in a magazine. Now she was getting results, it was a local magazine. But now 12 months later, what do you have? Right? No one’s going to pick up those magazines again. I have magazines, my local magazine, I thumb through it once and then I go back through it to see what I’m going to throw… what I’m throwing out. So I look at it maybe once, maybe twice. Sometimes, it doesn’t even get the once. So with the book, you have that asset forever, it never goes away, and Amazon now works for you. Guess what? You’ve just hired Amazon now that you have a book and it’s just going to promote you. And all your information from your author page is going to be right up there on the first page of the search engine.

Mario Fachini  [21:09]  

I’m trying to keep this on point and not make sarcastic remarks. But for everyone listening, she is absolutely… Melanie is correct. And yeah, if you don’t have a book, you should get one. So, next question. I’m going to behave here because we’re twins… so good. Video, we’re live on video right now say what’s up, world? What’s up, world! I know you were this perfect segway…I mean, you’re making this super simple you… because you said you worked in broadcast, you owned a TV station. This is…. how would you say video has helped you over the years with your business?

Melanie Johnson  [21:55]  

Oh my gosh, well, video is huge. I’m trying to convince a client right now who has a design company- interior design company. She has all these beautiful pictures and I said you need to make YouTube videos out of all those. ‘I don’t know why you need that.’ So, you know, you’ve got to explain Well, first of all….

Mario Fachini  [22:12]  

You want leads and new customers and prospects? 

Melanie Johnson  [22:16]  

Yeah….’well, I don’t see other designers doing it.’ Even better, they have….

Mario Fachini  [22:20]  

No competition.

Melanie Johnson  [22:22]

You’ll just blow it out of the market. So, I think video really helps you on several ways, like this podcast doing Facebook Live. It connects people, it shows your vulnerability, it shows that you’re real, they can see your personality. You’re not just a figment of their imagination, it helps with your brand and helps with search engine optimization, which we call SEO. So, that means also sudden YouTube is promoting you. So, when they search you, all of a sudden, you’re not just going to have a bunch of lists, you search things and you just see a list of things. But then you’ve searched things and you see three or four videos come up across the page, right? So, that’s what you want, you want to have those videos there to brand you. And, I’ve seen it where people have done a real estate agent, that broker that we’re working with. He’s got videos out there, but it was all done through a brokerage that he’s no longer with, it wasn’t under his name, his YouTube channel. So, we need to create a YouTube channel for him to brand his name. And that will never go away because he’s not going to jump ship from himself so to speak to like he is with other real estate companies. So, it’s very, very important.  Mario and I were both trained on be everywhere, right? Take your content and make it multipurpose. Look how smart Mario is. He’s doing a Facebook Live, which he’s turning into a YouTube video, which he’s turning into a podcast. So, he’s doing something one time and it’s going to be at least three places who knows where else he’s going to put it. So… and then he can edit it and make smaller chunks and make other Facebook posts with it. So, he can transcribe it. So, now that he’s got the video, he can transcribe it, and he can take the context of the translation and make a blog post out of it. And, he can send parts of that as emails. So, do something once, put it everywhere that you can and repurpose it. Oh, and then by the way, if you wanted to, he could take several of his interviews, transcribe them and make a book. He could have a whole ‘nother book.

Mario Fachini  [24:19]

That’s a good idea. If…If someone were to just do that only, you know, haha.

Melanie Johnson  [24:24]  

We did that with our podcast. Yep, yep.

Mario Fachini  [24:27]  

So, we’re gonna take a break and thank our sponsor, and then come back and go to the lightning round, where I’m going to ask you specific actionable content on people that want to reach out to you. We’re going to tease them with the first question, it’s going to be the… Where did that go? So… So, when someone reaches out to you think about the shortest path to the cash, how you can take them from where they are to get the money for the charity. And, here we go with thanking our sponsor.

SPONSOR-Charity Music  [25:00]  

Charity Music. Charity Music is a great organization, you can check them out at charitymusic.org. And, what they do is: have you ever wanted to play an instrument? Have you ever wanted to be in the band? Have you ever wanted to pursue your dreams of music? Well, I can tell you a personal story of when I did, it started back in fourth grade when I started playing piano. And I gotta be honest, I was really more focused on watching Sonic the Hedgehog than taking piano lessons. But, I’m glad my parents gave them to me because I learned how to play piano, we always had one. And then I took lessons for fourth and fifth grade. But then, in middle school, it was time for alto sax. And it was a lot of fun but, you know, I was thankful that we could afford it plain and simple. But there’s people who can’t and I had friends who you know, they couldn’t go on the band trips, and they couldn’t go on this and that. But, from a parent’s standpoint, you know, are you going to invest thousands of dollars for someone to not play it next year, you don’t know if they’re going to, you know, the attention span of someone who’s just coming up isn’t always there. So, what Charity Music does is you can reach out to them and, very simply, you can either rent the instrument or purchase it from them. They get donations from organizations, schools and a lot of different people around the country. They refurbish them, get them up to par and I will personally tell you that the alto sax I have now I got from them. And I enjoy it. And it works just like the one I had in middle school then and concert band and marching in high school. So, music is near and dear to me. I’m very thankful for Charity Music, check them out at charitymusic.org.

Mario Fachini  [26:43]  

Welcome back, Melanie. So, I’m going to have some water too and not let you have… I saw you take your break, so now it’s time for mine. And… shortest path to the cash. What’s what’s one thing that when someone contacts you? What can they what’s the shortest path to the cash? To contact you, they get you into the auction, but what’s the best way they can promote it to have the greatest ROI?

Melanie Johnson  [27:09]  

Well, you should tease people ahead of time just like any great marketing, when we do a book; when you’ve got a new product coming out. When they have a new video game coming out, what do they do? They tease you, they let you know that it’s coming. So, you want to send it out to your email list for the charity, you want to promote it at the school that we did. They had it on their video screen so every morning when people were walking into drop off their kids, they saw a picture of the villa. So you know, you want to promote it as much as possible. Some charities even let them do rebidding. So, they open it up like ‘hey, we’ve already had bids on this people are bidding’. So, you can even pre-bid before it happens. 

Mario Fachini  [27:47]  

That’s….that reminds me like when we’re launching books for clients. 

Melanie Johnson  [27:51]  

Yeah.

Mario Fachini  [27:52]  

That’s very akin to the presale, isn’t it?

Melanie Johnson  [27:55]  

Exactly, exactly.

Mario Fachini  [27:57]  

I would have never thought to use it that way.

Melanie Johnson  [27:59]  

So, pick your top five auction items that you’re going to get the most money for right that top 20% and promote the heck out of them. But then also make sure that the people have a list of all the other auction items. Because that may make or break them even attending the event. They might not.’Oh, I’m not going to go I don’t think about it. Oh my gosh, look how fabulous this is. I think I want to do that. Let’s go because I want to bid on these things.’ So, it’s just another reason to get people to show up for your event, as well as want them to bid on that. And remember, it’s all subliminal, right? You want to keep feeding that in their brain that they want this. So and the other thing I would say…

Mario Fachini  [28:37]  

So, are you saying advertise the charity auction items prior to the event? 

Melanie Johnson  [28:43]  

Absolutely. 

Mario Fachini  [28:46]  

Oh, I just thought of literally like six seven people I need to send this to because I’m working with them on the charity auction. That’s a really good idea. 

Melanie Johnson  [28:56]  

Yeah. 

Mario Fachini  [28:57]  

Okay. What else do you have for us? I know you were about to say something about something else they should do.

Melanie Johnson  [29:02]  

Charities have issues with consignment items, I really recommend consignment items. You’re thinking, ‘Oh, well, not all the money goes to the charity because I have to have this consignment fee.’ First of all, there’s no risk. So, if nobody buys it, you don’t pay anything. Second of all, you may have an item that touches somebody that they want that they may not bid on anything. Right? They might have been there without that item. Nothing speaks to them. But you have this other thing. Like I said, it might be a Marilyn Monroe autographed sweater that she has or something, right? And some….

Mario Fachini  [29:34]  

She wore a lot of sweaters, Marilyn Monroe?

Melanie Johnson  [29:36]  

Yeah, you never know. I have a Marilyn Monroe, fur throw that I had at one time. Anyways, that’s another story. But, so you may, you know, you may have something that connects with you, whether it’s a sports person, a celebrity, so don’t be afraid to do that. I think it generates extra income that you might not have had. So, definitely do that. That would be my other suggestion. My other suggestion is some people I’ve seen auctioneers where they on the silent auction and the live auction that they set the minimum bid to high. Again, keep that bid, try and keep it lower, don’t be afraid you’re not going to make as much money. But just to start to generate and get to people get people to start to commit to wanting that auction item. That would be my other tip.

Mario Fachini  [30:18]  

Okay, number two, customer lifetime value. Now, what do you think the customer… I’m gonna have to rephrase that a little bit because it’s an auction item but for someone that’s doing an auction, what would you say the benefit of having a really strong auction is?

Melanie Johnson  [30:38]  

Well, first of all, people are going to have more fun, they’re going to be excited, because there’s things there that they like, second of all, you’re going to raise a lot more money, right? And third of all, people are going to want to come back next year.

Mario Fachini  [30:48]  

So, I think that speaks to the customer lifetime value because you’re absolutely right. When you can have 400 people there 40 people there, you can have 10 people there or 10,000. And everyone’s going to remember, or oh my gosh, let me tell you about it. So, you’re in…. in…. Would you agree? In essence, you’re kind of pre marketing next year’s event?

Melanie Johnson  [31:13]  

Mm hmm. Absolutely. Yep. And you know, another thing is, you want to make sure people have fun. So plan your event so it’s fun, you’re active. So think of activities and how you want in the feel and the culture of the event. Because you save is just ‘oh my gosh, this is so boring. auction items might be great, but this is boring.’ So make sure you’ve got that vibe and again, people will want to come back because it’s a it’s about the party. Make sure you throw a great party.

Mario Fachini  [31:41]  

I like that. I agree with that, 100% Alright, so the last question before we get to do something that I actually enjoy. Rapid Fire 60 seconds. What’s the biggest problem you see people with charity auctions? What’s the biggest problem they’re doing to not make it as successful as it could be?

Melanie Johnson  [32:04]  

A lot of times they’re having a hard time getting the auction items. So, how do you get auction items? One: you can do consignment? Two: you need to ask your your board of directors the people involved. Everyone should be assigned to get so many auction items. So, make sure that you’ve done that. Go out to the community, get the outreach, I want you to be responsible for that. Those are some of the other things that I see most.

Mario Fachini  [32:26]  

Okay, well, I appreciate that. I definitely want to pass this information along. And… so now, I love promoting people. That’s why I got into marketing… started my company. So, where can people find you? What’s the website that can get more information on the charity auctions?

Melanie Johnson  [32:45]  

We know… I have a website, I don’t really use it. It’s called Charity Auction Consignments, but please reach out to me on Facebook. Find me: Melanie Tirello Johnson, and you can private message me. That’s the best way and I will send information on the villa. And then, all I need is your donation form from your charity, and so I can get you on the calendar. So we’re still taking… I’m still taking charities for this fall, and this winter. So, please contact me. Facebook’s probably the best way. Or you can find us at Elite Online Publishing and you can find me there Melanie@eliteonlinepublishing.com for my email.

Mario Fachini  [33:22]  

And perfect segway into your publishing and your book. So, I know we talked prior, and what would someone have to do to get a copy of your book?

Melanie Johnson  [33:33]  

Well, you can go to Amazon and look up Melanie… Melanie Johnson on there, ‘Leaving a Life Legacy. So, I have a bunch of books, that being one of them, and that book was from a TED talk that I did… a TEDx talk that I did, about leaving a legacy and how important that is to leave your information, whether it’s by video, whether it’s by book, whether it’s by telling your children, but pass that information along. And, I have to say Mario just wrote a new book about his dad, and it just has all these fabulous quotes. Gonna make me cry. But it’s just wonderful that he left his legacy.

Mario Fachini  [34:11]  

He did. Thank you. 

Melanie Johnson  [34:16]  

Pretty important to do that to make sure you pass that legacy on, especially as baby boomers are leaving, so don’t.

Mario Fachini  [34:22]  

And continue it. 

Melanie Johnson  [34:23]  

Yeah, even if it’s a living life legacy, you do it every day, as well as you know, pass that knowledge on every day.

Mario Fachini  [34:31]  

So I’m going to throw an audible here because I know you can handle it. And, a lot of people ask how do you how do you get into TED? How do you do a TEDx talk? How do you do this? How do you do that? If you could speak… we got about another minute or two. But, let’s throw in an audible here and give some behind the scenes. Tell us about your TEDx experience as a speaker, not just an attendee.

Melanie Johnson  [34:54]  

Oh my gosh, as a speaker, it was incredible. So, they usually provide a speech coach for you just to go through even though you may be a seasoned speaker, you can either have one or not have one, just to give you tidbits and go through it. And I used it, even though I speak a lot. It was great to have another person’s input and it was just a really great experience. I imagine it might be different in every venue. But, Joshua Evans puts the Sugarland TEDx conference on and tremendous speakers, great experience. And, I’ll tell you just having that, I use it all the time. I mean, it’s at the bottom of my email, and so many people have seen it. And, I just love being able to get that message out there as a speaker about leaving a legacy. It’s so important to me, I really believe in that. So, it was really a great experience.

Mario Fachini  [35:46]  

Well, I appreciate you for coming on the show. And, that’s it. So, thanks again, Melanie, and it was great having you.

Melanie Johnson  [35:55]  

Great always, Mario. Great to see you.

Mario Fachini  [35:58]  

All right. We’ll talk to you soon and thanks again.