121 Dance Card
Two sides to a good 121. Mine is filled in. The blank column is your notepad: write whatever each row sparks, for you, not for me. It saves on this device as you type, and submitting emails the finished card back to you, with every way to reach me. Your notes are not kept on my side.
Get ready for our call
Pick the conversation that fits. You can use the same notes throughout the call.
Bring one thing you are working on and one kind of person you would like to meet. We can trade useful introductions.
A great introduction for me: a leader who sells what they know, does excellent work, and is still invisible outside their client list.
Build your authority
Bring the audience you want to be known by, the problem people already trust you to solve, and an example of your work. We can talk through what would give that audience a reason to choose you.
Speak at events
Bring the audience you serve, a topic you teach from experience, and what someone can do differently after hearing you. If you have a talk or recording, bring it along.
Partner on a conference
Bring the community you reach, a problem they want help solving, and why a live room would serve them. We can discuss the event idea, what each of us could bring, and a next step.
Goals
Help more leaders become the name people think of first in their field. Build live events that give people a reason to meet, learn, and keep talking after the room closes.
Accomplishments
A 250,000 person email list off a radio prank. Campaigns for Carnival, Live Nation, iHeartRadio, Pepsi and Disney. Six properties I run today. Nine years in the Marine Corps. Three good kids.
Interests
Music production, live events, poker, cruises, automation and AI, and watching something I built run without me touching it.
Networks
BNI. Speed Networkers. The South Florida event and venue world. Family law and injury attorneys across many states. The DJ and Latin music community. A deep bench of podcast hosts.
Skills
Positioning, live event production, speaker and partner strategy, and building the follow-up that keeps useful relationships going.
✎ The meeting
If someone comes to mind, jot down their name and why the introduction would help both sides.
05 About you
Want the long version? The full briefing on Carlos lives here.
BEFORE WE MEET
Here's all of me,
so we can talk about you.
You gave me your time, and I would rather not spend the first twenty minutes of it on my background. So it is all here: who I am, what I actually do, who I am looking for, and what I can do for you. Two minutes of reading, a short form at the bottom, and we get straight to the good part.
The sixty second version
I'm Carlos A. Vazquez. US Marine combat veteran, former Marine Corps recruiter, and I have been building marketing and revenue systems since 2003. I got started in radio, where a prank call to Fidel Castro turned into a funnel and an email list of over two hundred and fifty thousand people. That was before anybody used the word funnel.
Since then I have run campaigns for Carnival, Live Nation, iHeartRadio, Pepsi and Disney, and I built the G.E.A.R. Method, which is the framework everything I do runs on.
I make leaders THE authority in their industry. One live event at a time. I bring together the positioning, partnerships, and follow-up that turn a live room into lasting recognition and relationships.
The personal stuff is further down the page. Ask me about any of it.
What I actually do
I work with established coaches, consultants, professionals, and business owners who sell what they know. They have real client results and a point of view worth hearing. I help them give the right people a reason to know their name, trust their judgment, and refer them.
A live event gives people a chance to see that expertise at work. The Authority Engine connects the event with the audience, partners, and follow-up so the relationships keep going.
The human stuff
Business is the easy part to look up. This is the part that actually makes the meeting worth having, so you do not have to pull it out of me one question at a time.
Where I'm from
Born in the Bronx, raised on Miami Beach. Miami Beach Senior High, class of 1999. Never really left, never planning to.
Family
Three boys: Carlos Jr., Charlie and Andrew. My oldest enlisted in the Marines. Diana keeps the rest of my life running.
The animals
Luna and Loki are the dogs. Phoebe is the cat, and she outranks them. All three are on every call I take, whether you hear them or not.
The Corps
Boot camp October 18, 1999, five months out of high school. Camp Lejeune from 2000 to 2003: ammo tech in Iraq and Kuwait for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, plus computer specialist and martial arts instructor. Sergeant at 21, rifle and pistol expert with multiple awards. Reservist after the first tour, then back in as a recruiter, which is where I actually learned to sell. Out in 2008.
Music
Drummer and percussionist since I was a kid. I produce and DJ Latin Afro House. Released a track called Rey de Nada.
How I reset
Cruise ships. Wonder of the Seas, Aruba, Curacao, Santorini. Seven days off the grid fixes most things.
Cards
Ultimate Texas Hold'em. I will sit there until the table closes.
Heat
Before LeBron, during LeBron, after LeBron. I earned the right to complain.
What I read
Profit First, Getting Things Done, Building a Second Brain, Rich Dad Poor Dad. All of it shows up in how I run things.
What I watch
Suits, The Lincoln Lawyer, Billions, Yellowstone, and The Office on a permanent loop.
What I give to
Wounded Warriors, and anything supporting families raising kids with autism.
Birthday
August 28. Forty five this year, which is doing something to me.
Something most people don't know
I grew up without a father and I was an only child until I was twenty two. I met my half siblings at nineteen. That is most of the reason I build communities for a living. A room full of people who know each other is not a business model to me, it is something I needed first.
I was the skinniest kid on the block and everyone told me I would wash out of boot camp. I made sergeant in three years and spent the back half of my enlistment putting other people into the same uniform.
Before any of the marketing I worked the door at Gold Rush on 79th, a strip club, called Eleven now. I have started a softball team, launched a BNI chapter and served as its president. I am not employable. I move fast and I want to get paid what I am worth.
It is not what you know, and it is not who you know. It is who remembers you. My burning desire: own enough engines that my time belongs to me, and hand my boys something that keeps running without me.
The short version of me
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Goals
Help more leaders become the name people think of first in their field. Build live events that give people a reason to meet, learn, and stay in touch.
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Accomplishments
Built a two hundred and fifty thousand person email list off a radio prank before anybody used the word funnel. Campaigns for Carnival, Live Nation, iHeartRadio, Pepsi and Disney. Six properties I own and operate today. Nine years in the Marine Corps. Three good kids.
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Interests
Music production, live events, poker, cruises, automation and AI, and watching something I built run without me touching it.
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Networks
BNI. Speed Networkers, which is my own networking company. The South Florida event and venue world. Family law and injury attorneys across a lot of states. The DJ and Latin music community. A deep bench of podcast hosts.
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Skills
Positioning, live event production, speaker and partner strategy, and building the follow-up that keeps useful relationships going.
What I can do for you
Come with an ask. I would rather leave owing you nothing.
Attorneys
Family law, elder law, personal injury, workers comp, across a lot of states.
Marketing and tech
If you are working out how to reach the right people and keep the conversation going, tell me where you are stuck.
Event people
Venues, speakers, sponsors, and hosts. I run a networking company and produce conferences.
Podcast hosts
I know a lot of them and I am usually happy to make the intro.
South Florida
I have been here my whole life. Realtors, lenders, contractors, restaurants, DJs, printers.
An honest opinion
If you want me to look at your funnel or your numbers and tell you the truth, ask.
How to make this a good meeting
- Bring one specific ask. Not "anyone who needs what I do." A name, a title, a company, an industry. Specific gets referred, general gets forgotten.
- Tell me how somebody actually becomes your customer. Start to finish. That one answer tells me more than a brochure.
- Tell me what is not working. I am not going to pitch you. I am nosy about broken systems.
- Fifteen to thirty minutes is plenty. If we need more we will book more.