Well, that’s exactly what I wanted many years back.
See, in 1995 I “accidentally” got myself elected chairman of my local county GOP organization in Las Vegas (nothing more than being at the right place at the right time).
But I quickly realized I really didn’t know doodly-squat about running a political organization. Heck, I didn’t even know what Robert’s Rules of Order were!
So I raised the money needed to enroll in Newt Gingrich’s weeklong Campaign Management College (CMC) in Washington, DC—a program run by Newt’s right-hand man and senior political strategist, Joe Gaylord.
And… wow! What an eye-opener.
By the time the week was over, I couldn’t believe how much I’d learned about how to run winning campaigns—strategies and tactics no one else even knew about in my neck of the woods, let alone talking about and implementing.
It was right then and there that I decided I wanted to return home and teach others what I’d learned at CMC.
In my mind, if I got myself elected there’d be one more conservative in office. BUT, if I could use what I learned to help elect dozens or even hundreds of other conservatives up and down the ballot—THAT would make a REAL difference.
However, I also knew it was one thing to teach strategies and tactics learned from a book or seminar and another thing altogether to put your name and reputation on the line and actually get in the game.
As the saying goes: “Beware of gardeners with clean hands.”
So a couple weeks after returning home I agreed to run for the state Senate against the Democrat Minority Leader in a district with a 3–1 Democrat voter registration advantage.
I knew from day one I had zero chance of winning unless my opponent got indicted or died (neither of which happened). And as I expected, I lost that November.
But here’s the thing: We learn more from our failures than our successes.
And boy, did I learn a lot!
Now armed with some practical experience under my belt, I then set out to spread the word… traveling around Nevada doing campaign training seminars for local candidates and party activists based on what I’d learned at CMC.
I was also invited to travel the country doing training seminars for the Republican National Committee, GOPAC, and the Leadership Institute…
To the point where I’ve now trained thousands of candidates - from U.S. Senate to dog catcher - on campaign fundraising, strategy, communications, and management.
But there are only so many live seminars you can conduct in a limited period of time – and many candidates have neither the time nor money to fly to a distant city and spend a couple days learning the tricks of the trade.
So I needed to find a way to get my training into the hands of large numbers of conservative candidates all across the country without forcing them to attend a live seminar.
Fortunately, Al Gore invented the internet and the Winners Circle was born!
The Winners Circle is an affordable training and mentoring program for candidates and activists who are in the trenches hustling up votes, fundraising, organizing volunteers, and dealing with the media.
This program has ONE mission: to show candidates and organization leaders that campaigns are about marketing, not politics; that you’re in the persuasion and sales business.
In short, I wanted to cut through the “you walk, you win; you don’t, you won’t” mindset most candidates, party leaders, and consultants rely on (and lose as a result of)...
To show what really works to drive a winning campaign.
Which is why every sentence of advice I dish out has been battle-tested on the front lines of races I’ve had the privilege to work on.
Like Dennis Hof, a Nevada legal brothel owner (yes, you read that right) who, defying all the “experts,” won his 2018 election to the Nevada State Legislature in a landslide … even though he died three weeks before Election Day!
