The Millionaire Mind Support Network

Model, Model, Model —Who to Model

In The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, Eker encourages his readers to
“Model Rich and Successful People.”

The Wealth File # 7 Declarations say it all:
“I model rich and successful people.”
“I associate with rich and successful people.”
“If they can do it, I can do it!”
“I have a Millionaire Mind!”

But first, I need to figure out whom to model…

For those of us who want to establish or expand an internet based business, identifying the rich and successful Netrepreneurs to model, while avoiding the posers is an interesting exercise. I approached analyzing the various internet-marketing training sources as I would any other research project. I’ve documented my research process here, as most research projects follow the same basic steps that are applicable to any project you might want to examine for your own business.

1. Define your problem or question

• Identify the source of internet marketing training that best matches my personal style and business model.
• Determine the best way to learn the information I need to be successful.
• Develop an internet-marketing education budget and an internet business startup plan, budget and project timeline.

2. Determine likely sources of information and plan steps to acquire it

• Develop a list of the top ten internet-marketing companies as ranked by Google.
• Conduct an independent Google search, including blog entries for each Internet Guru or company.
• Note client satisfaction, indications of unresolved claims unfulfilled warranties
• Review each site to determine if site includes complete contact information
• Call phone number to see if a real person answers the phone and to test the customer support.
• If phone contact is problematic, delete guru or company from consideration.
• Check eBay and other secondary market places to see the amount and price point of the companies training materials.
• — If large amount of training material being sold for $5 or less, delete guru or company from consideration.
• Set-up separate email address and sign up for every newsletter, webzine and free offer available from each Internet marketing company.
• Set up a separate email folder for each Internet marketing training company, so all correspondence and offers are segregated by vendor.
• Review websites that sell e-books or other training materials in my niche market.
• Analyze the top five site to determine what I like and why
• Order product from the top three sites to judge the quality of the product verses price point.
• Analyze the delivery process, customer service and follow-up.
• Review SBA and other industry literature concerning probable start-up costs and applicable metrics for internet based business.

3. Start reading, printing, analyzing and making notes

• Not only read but, study every single page of all the materials received from of various Internet Marketing vendors
• Note the claims, offers and testimonials — if the testimonials include a name and URL, test the website to see if it is a valid business, then look up the contact information and call, see if testimonial is accurate.
• Read the newsletters carefully, is it how to stuff or just fluff.
• Does the vendor’s sales approach match your business style? (When I was reading some of the marketing literature, I kept hearing our Millionaire Mind Intensive trainer Doug, “Remember how you act in one segment of your life, is the way you will act in all the rest.” Lets just say in some cases, I just wasn’t feeling the integrity-vibe.)
• If they are free or low-cost, sit in on some of the teleconference or the webinares conducted by some of the Internet marketing guru’s.
• Use SBA and other industry sources to find the standard ratios for online marketing businesses. It is all about the numbers. No Numbers — No Business

4. Organize all the data you have, review, record your conclusions and make decision

I’m still gathering and evaluating my data sets. I’ll report findings over the next month.

5. Evaluate research process and product, look for lessons learned and what could be done differently next project

The last, but important step, all researchers are temped to skip it, but please don’t. It will help you refine your ability to acquire analyze and utilize actionable business intelligence in the future.

Why Bother?

This type of research is a time consuming, but critical process. Not only do I want to find someone who is rich and successful to model, I’m about to implement a business structure I would not have even considered before my Millionaire Mind Intensive experience. Basic market research and business planning are essential steps to success.

The laws of commerce apply whether practiced in a brick and mortar edifice or in the bits and packets of the Internet — business is business.

To approach any Internet enterprise without a ‘Bottom Line’ sensibility is folly.

Ask any of the dot.bomb survivors. Even businesses with sound economic models, like Amazon and eBay shuttered in the tech implosion, but with sound business fundamentals, they went on to flourish. Their more brash brethren, chasten by the very rude reality of loosing it all, approached their next sip at the golden cup with more temperance.

Like all of the Millionaire Mind Intensive graduates I aspire to Speed Wealth.

Wealth creation is the fruit of our money trees. Sound business planning, based on solid research, are the roots of our inner game of wealth.

Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

SpeedWealth™Power Principle:
The Law of Income: You will be paid in direct proportion
to the value you deliver according to the marketplace.

In SpeedWealth™ T.Harv often focuses on the relationship between the value we deliver to customers and the level of income we receive.

How can we manage our existing client base more effectively?

Brick and mortar or home-based internet business, the old 80/20-Rule — Eighty percent of profitable business comes from twenty percent of the clients, is still in effect. Even when your concerted effort to expand your customer base, first by ten and the hundred-fold is successful, the 80/20-Rule — “The Vital Few and Trivial Many Rule.” will still apply.

What exactly is the 80/20-Rule?

The Pareto Principle was first developed in 1897, by the economist Vilfredo Pareto to describe his observations of wealth and income distribution. Pareto noted a fascinating pattern: 80% of the wealth was held by 20% of the population. As Pareto analyzed a wider spectrum of economic activity, he found the 80/20-Rule was applicable to most business events.

Most experienced business managers are familiar with the 80/20-rule, but few consistently use it as a business tool. Millionaire-minded entrepreneurs, who aspire to create wealth through their businesses, need to learn how and when to apply Pareto’s 80/20-Rule. It can target cost-cutting and performance improvement. The use of the 80/20-Rule can accurately identify where an organization is losing money and which customers; products, facilities and business initiatives are consistently generating 80% of the profits in their company.

Can you immediately identify the 20% of your customer base that add the most to your bottom line? That answer should focus your product and customer-service initiatives. The proactive business owner asks, “What can be done either to improve profitability of these business initiatives, or to scale back under-performing activities?”

Using Pareto tools can build an opportunity mentality, improve near-term profitability, generate more value with the least effort and investment. They can also identify hidden opportunities to accelerate growth by focusing on the 20% high-leverage areas of the business enterprise. One of the best books to explore Pareto tools is, The 80/20-Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch. It is a very insightful examination of the development of the implications of the Pareto Principle.

Why identify and sell more to your most valuable customers?

Being in a position to focus on your most valuable customers might sound like a luxury. After all, many small businesses are grateful for customers of any kind.

Every business finds that some customers are more valuable than others. This can be for a range of reasons, from the size of their purchases to the relative ease of managing their account. Successful businesses are generally those that identify these customers, build relationships with them and work to bring in new customers with a similar profile. Customers need to know that they are valued and their needs met. It is noteworthy that another of Pareto’s theories states that human beings are not, for the most part, motivated by logic and reason but rather by sentiment.

How do you identify which of your customers are the most valuable to you, sell more to them and attract new high-value customers.

You start by analyzing your customer base — who are they, what do they buy, when do they buy, how often, where did you find them, or how did they find you

• Your current customer base – age, sex, income, and neighborhood
• How your customers learn about your product or service – advertising, direct mail, word of mouth, Yellow Pages
• Patterns or habits your customers and potential customers share – where they shop, what they read, watch, and listen to
• Qualities your customers value most about your product or service – selection, convenience, service, reliability, availability, and affordability
• Qualities your customers like least about your product or service – can they be adjusted to serve your customers better? prospective customers whom you aren’t currently reaching
• Previous marketing methods you have used to communicate to your customers
• Methods that have been most effective
• Cost compared to sales
• Cost per customer
• Possible future marketing methods to attract new customers
• Percentage of profits you can allocate to your marketing campaign
• Marketing tools you can implement within your budget – newspaper, magazine, Yellow Pages, radio or television advertising, direct mail, telemarketing, and public relations activities such as community involvement, sponsorship, or press releases
• Methods of testing your marketing ideas
• Methods for measuring results of your marketing campaign
• The marketing tool you can implement immediately

More on other quality systems surveys management and planning tools in future Millionaire Mind Support Network™ Blogs.

Just a reminder — I’m just a retired SBDC counselor, who knows where to look stuff up — both online and IRL. In this case my source is the SBA and The Memory Jogger Plus+ Featuring the Seven Management and Planning Tools, by Michael Brassard.

Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

In SpeedWealth™ One of the Power Principles states:
Copy someone who is rich and successful right Now!

When discussing successful business models, Eker says, “Model a Winner.”
Your goal is to grow your business enterprise as quickly, and safely as possible. Look around for those businesses, similar to yours, those consistently implementing winning strategies. Then figure out how you can apply those strategies and tactics to your economic model.

Modeling does not mean abandoning innovation. The entrepreneurs in the Millionaire Files Live credited their financial achievements to examining all aspects of their chosen market niche objectively. These Millionaire Minds researched enterprises that added massive value to their service or product, then extrapolated those strategies and applied them to their own businesses. A careful examination of even a very successful business can yield missed market opportunities or failed implementations. These observations can offer a wedge opportunity for the innovative entrepreneur to exploit and gain market share. Improving on every process related to your business is the basis of a winning business venture.

Eker’s “Model a Winner” strategy emphasizes that rapid organizational improvement can be accomplished by observing what is working for others and adapting those processes for you own use. In the business world this type of strategy has been called Best Practices. Such modeling is not a new idea. Wikipedia describes Best Practice as, “the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.”

Most of us are either examining our existing businesses for new monetization opportunities, or we are initiating new ventures designed to achieve multiple passive and residual income streams.

How can we use modeling to help us move forward?

‘The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and the Millionaire Files Live‘ interviews repeatedly stress continuous education, in the form of self-paced study. All of the millionaires T. Harv Eker interviewed said they listened to professional and personal development CDs at every opportunity — drive time being a universal favorite. They found inspiration, specific strategies and millionaire-minded thought processes, when reading or listening to audio book biographies of the very rich and super successful. The stories of Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, J.D. Rockefeller, Ted Turner, Warren Buffet, Steven Jobs, Sir Richard Branson and Jack Welch each have some tool, thought, or insight for everyone who takes the time to learn from these business titans.
There are modules of management strategy and implementation tactics in every chapter of Winning by Jack Welch. The millionaire minded home-based business owner, can measurably improve existing business strategies by reading and applying Jack’s business philosophy. I have read his book and listened to his Winningaudio program repeatedly. This is business information you can apply within your enterprise NOW, regardless of your organization’s current size.

If you feel the need for the pure inspiration of exceptionally executed entrepreneurial exploits — the biography of everyone’s favorite Business Viking, Sir Richard Branson, is guaranteed to thrill as well as educate, Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way , is a must read for everyone who intends wealth, in the richest sense of the word. For the real, capitalist rebels amongst us, Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons In Life by Richard Branson is a fast and very inspiring read. If you want a model for outrageously successful personal branding, Des Dearlove’s Big Shots Series features, Business the Richard Branson Way: ”

Modeling the best practices of folks who “Play the money game to win!” is one way to integrate the lessons from our Millionaire Mind Intensive experience. Modeling, or best practices is a proven SpeedWealth™ process. It is philosophical approach based around continuous learning and continual improvement. Best practice practitioners understand that a growth business is continually evolving and they use process improvement to achieve their preferred result with the fewest problems and unforeseen complications possible.

Another phase for best practices is Kaizen, a Japanese word meaning change for the better or continual improvement.

The Wikipedia definition of “Kaizen” sounds like the perfect system for anyone who wants to Model a Winner!

“Kiazen aims to eliminate waste (defined as “activities that add cost but do not add value”). It is often the case that this means, “to take it apart and put back together in a better way.”

Kaizen is a daily activity whose purpose goes beyond improvement. It humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly hard work (both mental and physical), and teaches people how to perform experiments using the scientific method and how to learn to spot and eliminate waste in business processes.

Kaizen must operate with three principles in place: process and results (not results-only); systemic thinking (i.e. big picture, not solely the narrow view); and non-judgmental, non-blaming (because blaming is wasteful).”

Kaizen sounds like the perfect formula to model business success!

Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

Notes and thoughts concerning T. Harv Eker’s Speed Wealth™

“How to Make a Million In Your Business In 3-years or Less”

Power Principle # 4

Change Brings Opportunity!

Quick Change Brings Quick Opportunity!

The SpeedWealth Principles are designed to take advantage of today’s rapid deployment marketplace. Current product development cycles are more often measured in months, rather than years. Success depends upon accurate trend spotting, an understanding of what your customers want NOW, and developing the right business model to deliver it quickly – at a profit. The “Champ to Chump Cycle” used to be about twenty years. The expectation for the current economic model of constant innovation demands a generous payout is five-years or less.

Entrepreneur Magazine reported some startling figures concerning the effect of continuous change in the market place. “Fully 80 percent of the products and services being consumed today are different from those that were being consumed five years ago. And five years from today, fully 80 percent of the products being used will be new and different from those being used today.”(1)

Rapid change is great news for the Millionaire Minded. It makes for a target-rich business environment that offers an infinite number of opportunities to create wealth by offering needed products and services. Your ability to correctly define a winning product or service is critical to realizing your dream of creating great wealth. Being very clear about WHAT you want is the first step. The most promising business opportunity will flounder, if the business model is not in alignment with your personal belief system. No matter what product or service you choose to offer, you must believe in it completely. When considering a business opportunity ask yourself the following:

Do you use the product or service yourself and are so excited about it you want to share it with your friends and family?

Do you feel a passionate need to bring your product or service the marketplace?

Before you start running feasibility numbers for an economic model, you have to believe in the product or service. At the cusp of change lays opportunity.
Successfully surfing the waves of change always gets back to WHAT DO YOU WANT.

Need help defining WHAT you really want? The Passion Test: The Effortless Path to Discovering Your Destiny by Janet, Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood offers a good tool set to help define your personal “Go-Fast Path.”

If you suffer from my personal “Initiate-Slayer,” analysis-paralysis, get the book that T. Harv mentions in a number of his training sessions, Feel the Fear and Do It Anywayby Susan Jeffers. It is a great motivator to action.

SpeedWealth™ is a fast, easily accessible read.

(1) Entrepreneur.com, Inc., July 18, 2005, Brian Tracy
Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

Notes and thoughts concerning T. Harv Eker’s Speed Wealth™
“How to Make a Million In Your Business In 3-years or Less”

SpeedWealth Principal #1
Develop A SpeedWealth Mindset

During the Millionaire Mind Intensive weekend, time and time again, we were asked to identify and challenge our internal belief systems. We sent a lot of time poking around our tree of life’s “Roots”. We came away knowing that whatever we manifest in our outer world (the fruits) is a direct reflection of exactly what is going on inside. At a soul-level you have to believe that you can achieve your stated goals. If the foundational, internal belief isn’t secure, external activity does not always mean, long-term success. The “make-a-fortune, lose-a-fortune, make-a-fortune” cycle described by billionaire Bill Bartmann in his Millionaire Files interview is an example of internal belief systems.

Developing a SpeedWealth Mindset is a direct result of that internal belief process.
Do you really BELIEVE that it is possible become wealthy quickly?
Do you BELIEVE that YOU can “Get Rich Quick”?

Just the phase “Get Rich Quick” has negative connotations. It brings to mind oily pitchmen on late-night TV or offshore, internet scam artists.

If that is the sleazy image that comes up on your “Get Rich Quick” file card, then it stands to reason that nice person like you would not want to get rich quick.

We all need to update our internal file cards concerning the rapid accumulation of wealth. There is nothing wrong with legitimately, making money quickly. In fact, based on the dynamics of our information-based economy, THE BIG IDEA backed by a strong business model is likely to be rewarded rapidly. Product development cycle times have never been faster and internet-based marketing offers almost immediate feedback on products and services.

Here is your Millionaire Mind homework for today: research entrepreneurs who have accumulated great wealth in under 5-years. Assuming that he’s an over achiever, we’ll use 5-years instead of T. Harv Eker’s 3-year benchmark. There are thousands of scrupulously honest business people who have used inspiration, insight and integrity to get rich quickly. Find out about them, replace you file cards for “get rich quick” and start developing your inner blueprint for SPEEDWEALTH.

SpeedWealth™ is a fast, easily accessible read.

H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik
MyMillionaireMind.org

T.Harv Eker is fond of saying that “Every master was once a disaster.” He wrote SpeedWealth™ to help readers get to the “Master” level with less opportunity to meet delay and disaster. Although Eker and other prominent business mentors note that traditional scholastic achievement is not a reliable marker for entrepreneurial success, all agree that continuing self-directed education is a critical element to long-term business success.

In addition to seeking every professional-development opportunity possible, Harv advocates modeling rich and successful people. By analyzing both the strategies and tactics of successful entrepreneurs, you can identify problems that you can turn into high-potential business opportunities. By studying these business leaders you can learn how to gather resources such as top performers, funding, and manage accelerated growth using ethical, concurrent decision-making skills.

Successful entrepreneurs are life long learners. They read constantly, attend professional development courses and most likely listen to an extensive library of business and motivational CD’s. If you have not yet listened to the great CD package that you received as part of your Millionaire Mind Intensive registration package, get them out now.

When? NOW!

The “Millionaire Files Live” series featuring Keith Cunningham, Greg Habstritt, Bill Bartmann and Alex Mandossian are Millionaire Mind tips and tricks treasures. The “Millionaire Panel CD” is just as inspiring. Each time you listen to one of these CDs you come away with one more insight or approach that is relevant to your business model, or your life.

SpeedWealth™ is a fast, easily accessible read.
Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

Notes and thoughts concerning T. Harv Ecker’s Speed Wealth™
“How to Make a Million In Your Business In 3-years or Less”

Power Principle # 2
You Have To Position Yourself for Wealth
Creating wealth is not about dreaming, it’s about KNOWING you will get there!

Creating real wealth is not about getting a better job. The “20th-century, graduate from a good school / get a secure job / save / invest / equates to a comfortable retirement-model”, is simply not a viable option in today’s mobile-global economy.

In this economy, positioning yourself to create personal wealth is about starting and successfully growing a business. Sustained, successful self-employment is NOT a business enterprise. If billable hours or product sales stop in your absence, you have not established a business…you have developed a well-paid position from which you can’t be fired. However, your customer-base or market conditions can still “down-size your position. Developing a business model that creates massive, passive income is the fastest way to position yourself for wealth.

Millionaire Mind Intensive graduates know that personal and professional integrity is the foundation of any successful enterprise. Positioning yourself for wealth starts with critical self-awareness. Although each of us must be ready to stretch our personal comfort zones to grow as individuals, we have to honestly assess our “current” skill-set and any strong personal prejudices when reviewing a new business opportunities. Or as a teacher once told my business class, “If you don’t like hanging around drunks and don’t want to come home at 3 am smelling like beer, then regardless of the profitability of the enterprise, you should not buy a bar.”

So, what is the difference between dreaming about wealth and KNOWING you will be an outstanding financial success? It is the difference between a cool business idea that was never ACTED upon and taking ACTION to develop a serious business opportunity to the best of your ability.

Speed Wealth™ is a fast, easily accessible read, and like most good books, you find a useful nugget of knowledge each time you pick it up.

Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

Conventional Wisdom Doesn’t Work…

And Never Did!

Most of the Millionaire Mind Intensive graduates walked out of our three-day experience open to a whole new approach to our personal and business enterprises. Since my Millionaire Mind Intensive weekend I have read though Speed Wealth™ several times. It seems like a great place to start a dialog about business start-up, expansion, and turnaround.

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith, used the phase “conventional wisdom” in his 1958 book, The Affluent Society, to describe certain ideas or explanations, which stated repeatedly, become accepted as unquestioned truth — regardless of their accuracy.

In Speed Wealth™ Ecker’s first Power Principle theorizes “Conventional Wisdom” is the primary obstacle to recognizing that outstanding scholastic achievement; a steady job, with “good benefits” or a rewarding career with a “solid retirement package” does not guarantee real security, let alone true financial independence. If “Common Wisdom” concerning financial security is correct, why do only 4.9% of all American households have a net worth of $1 million or more.(1)

As long as your economic fate is dependent on the decision processes of others, you do not control of your economic destiny and you are NOT secure.

T. Harv Ecker is not the first successful business mentor to question the corollary between early, high scholastic achievement and later, exceptional financial success. Author, Thomas J. Stanley, PH.D in his books, The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind, examined the common traits of millionaires. Although the self-made millionaires he interviewed all valued their scholastic experience, the majority reported a less then stellar GPA record. Some of the very affluent belonged to the 900-club, millionaires who scored below 1000 on the SAT.

Another “Common Wisdom” dissident is Robert Kiyosaki, of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame. His books and classes encourage people to think differently about the traditional wage earner path, verses entrepreneurial enterprise as a wealth generation strategy.

The bottom line for Power Principle #1: If you are currently a wage earner, start thinking of ways to augment your existing salary with an entrepreneurial endeavor. Maybe there is something you have always wanted to do, something that seems to fit your purpose. You don’t have quit your “Day Job” — a number of very successful business enterprises have started as part time ventures. The important aspect of Power Principle #1 is to start thinking differently about your path to financial freedom.

There are lessons a plenty in Speed Wealth™ for business owners, sales professionals and wage earners. The book is a fast read, and easily accessible and like most good books, you find a useful nugget of knowledge each time you read it. For those of you who did not pick up the book at the workshop, it is available on Amazon.com.

(1)The Millionaire Mind, Page 4
Copyright 2000, Thomas J. Stanley, PH.D
Andrews McMeel Publishing

H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik
Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!