Muffin Conversation Strategy

Jesse Itzler shares how he landed his first private jet customer by controlling all the muffins at a TED conference.

"I flew out to Monterey for this conference called TED. When I got there, it was like Fort Knox - everybody needed credentials to get in and there were no credentials to be found. I'm in this coffee shop plotting how to get in, and every 2 hours waves of people come in buying lattes and muffins during their breaks.

The next morning, I got up at 5 and bought all the muffins from the shop. I controlled all the muffin inventory in Monterey, California. When the first wave of people came in on break, this guy orders a latte and a muffin. They tell him they're out of muffins. The guy starts walking away and I stop him and say 'Sorry, I overheard you, I actually have an extra muffin if you want one.'

I started talking to him, told him what I do, and he said 'You gotta be kidding me, I'm in the market for a private jet card.' His name was Josh Koppelman, he owned a company called Half.com. He became my first sale.

This isn't a story about me being a good sales rep - I'm truly back of the pack. But it's an example of putting myself in a situation where I could attract that kind of luck."