MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth: Recent Episodes
Colin Sprake
Welcome to MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth.
This podcast is devoted to getting business owners and entrepreneurs to be massively successful in all areas of their life.
I want you to get ahead, no matter what your circumstances are, and this podcast is going to assist you with understanding exactly how to do that. Learn to build a very successful business, a successful family, and a successful you, all at the same time.
Each week has a different focus:
Week #1: The first week of each month is going to be devoted to business mindset. Really getting your mind in the game because your mindset is the most important part to being massively successful in your business.
Week #2: The second week of each month, I'm going to bring onto the podcast my personal mentors. People who have mentored me in all areas of my life, because to be successful in business doesn't mean just being successful in understanding marketing or sales, etc. It's also being successful in your relationships, your health, your whole life.
Week #3: The third week of each month is going to be devoted to business tools. Real solid business tools in sales, marketing, operations, and profitability, to really get your business to the next level. When you are finished with the third week of each month, you'll have set tools that you can use in your business immediately.
Week #4: The fourth week of each month is super exciting with entrepreneur stories. I'm going to bring on successful entrepreneurs and business owners that have faced the challenges of growing a business and gotten themselves to the next level. You're going to learn from them what it took to get where they are.
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why this episode serves as the series finale for the MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth podcast
- Why Colin has been finding new ways to streamline his business, Make Your Mark, and implement more systems rather than adding more people
- How much it costs to operate and produce the podcast, and what returns Colin has seen from the investment
- Why it is important to do a profit analysis, review your expenses and revenue, and determine how to improve those numbers
- Why time is a more valuable asset than money, and why it is important to carve time out of your schedule for things that don't involve making money
- Why all one hundred episodes of MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth will remain valuable tools to help grow your business
Additional resources:
- Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
As a Co-Founder and President of Enlightened Alliances, Janet Atwood oversaw the marketing and PR that enabled her book, "The Passion Test, the Effortless Path to Discovering Your Life Purpose" to become a NY Times Bestseller.
The Passion Test has had made a huge contribution to turning the passion statistics upside down, enabling thousands of people to choose in favor or their passions thereby positively influencing how people live and work. There are now over 300 Certified Passion Test Facilitators around the world. By next year that number will have doubled.
Janet Attwood is also a presenter of The Passion Test and has presented my programs as a featured speaker to thousands of people at events like T. Harv Eker's Wealth and Wisdom conference, The Kaballah Center, Jack Canfield’s Success Programs, and more.
Janet is also a founding member of Jack Canfield’s, "Transformational Leadership Council", whose members consist mainly of top authors and speakers from around the world. She is President of “The World United”, an organization in India that connects all individuals who are committed to Personal and Planetary Evolution and a founding member for S.A.N.G., a group of world class internet marketers and speakers.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- What the Passion Test is, how it works, and how its exercises can help people crystallize their goals for all aspects of their lives and then achieve them
- Why the focus of the Passion Test is to help people achieve clarity and fulfillment and to find the happiness they seek
- Why being passionate about what you do in your business can help guide you to prosperity and joy
- Why following your passion doesn't mean you won't have to do hard work but means that you will be more focused and prepared to do the work
- Where the idea for the Passion Test came from when Janet was struggling in a job she hated and realized she needed to make a critical change in her life
- Why successful people don't focus on past failures and spend time on self-criticism, but rather focus on their past successes as proof that they can achieve
- Why high-achieving people don't listen to their limiting beliefs and their inner critic, and why it is important to develop a "self-love mantra"
- Why, whenever you are faced with a choice or decision, you should always choose in favor of the things you are passionate about
- How to learn more about Janet Attwood and the Passion Test, as well as how to receive a free gift from Janet
Additional resources:
- Website: www.thepassiontest.com
- Passion Plan Freebie: https://thepassiontest.simplero.com/purchase/82623-Your-Passion-Plan/freebie/5135929ce2c22fd1
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
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- Why we all have things we procrastinate over, whether we realize it or not, and why it is important to stop procrastinating and take action
- Which dynamic and incredible guests appeared at Colin's Explosive Growth Mastermind event
- Why paying to attend an event is worthwhile, as it will surround you with others who are truly of a different caliber
- Why often the things we don't want to do in our business are the things that will make us a fortune
- Why we often have two "voices", an angel voice and an evil voice, competing for our attention
- How the evil voice tries to convince us not to do the things we need to do and tells us to be lazy and procrastinate instead
- Why you have five seconds to make a decision to listen to your angel voice and cancel your evil voice
- Why monotony is a necessary part of success, and why many people keep monotonous bad habits but don't want to deal with good monotonous work
- Why it is important to be fully committed to your business and outcome, and why your angel voice is always working to help you succeed
- Why getting stuck overthinking things can cause inaction, and why it is important to take action rather than just thinking about it
Additional resources:
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- Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
- Purchase tickets to Colin's Business Excellence three-day event: Phone 1-844-560-5609
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why knowledge is not power but implementation is the source of profit AND power
- Why the most successful business owners never stop learning and growing
- Why there is a significant difference between a business coach and a business cheerleader
- Why you should be open to being mentored by someone who has successfully done what it is that you want to do
- How to find the right mentor and how to ask for their advice
- Why you should figure out how much you can give to your mentor instead of how much you can get from them
- How your phone is not only your biggest distraction — but — can also send a signal to the people you’re meeting that they are less of a priority
- Why successful people watch your actions and don’t care about your words
Additional resources:
- Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
Thomas Bähler has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the entertainment industry. He composed music for Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, directors Steven Spielberg and Barry Levinson, magicians Siegfried and Roy, Superbowl Halftime Shows and a number of other high profile stage productions. As a songwriter, he has written many hits including "She's Out of My Life", "Living In A House Divided", and "Julie Do You Love Me." Thomas created vocal arrangements for the landmark charity event "We Are the World," as well as for Barbara Streisand, Billy Joel, and the motion picture version of “The Wiz." He served as Music Director for a number of events sponsored by the White House, including “America’s Millennium”, “Points of Light” and President Clinton’s Inaugural Concert. Mr. Bähler has also served as Music Director and arranger for “The Kennedy Center Honors."
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Tom's relationship with his father guided and shaped his life and his philosophies, and how it started with an Aesop fable
- Why Tom looks at every major disaster that happened through his life as a great turning point that led to even better things
- How Tom has worked with incredible and legendary music professionals like Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, and Cher, as well as serving in the Ford Motor Company promotional band "The Going Thing"
- How, in 1968, Tom met Henry Ford Jr. at a Ford Motor Company event and exchanged ties with each other, and other anecdotes from the remarkable evening and its strange events
- Tom shares a family tradition of how to deal with unpleasant surprises, by asking "what do I want?" and then "how are you going to do that?"
- Why you must be a good host to the ideas you have, then declare that you are taking action now, not in the future
- How to reach out to Thomas Bahler, either through email or by connecting with him through Facebook
Additional resources:
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thomas.bahler
- Email: bahler@me.com
- Twitter: @tbahler
Warren is a Smart City professional with 30+ years of experience in providing excellence in the fields of Power, Automation, Advanced Pedestrian, and Intelligent Smart City Technology Solutions. He is committed to helping the citizens of our country arrive quickly and safely to their loved ones, and to provide governments with efficiency to deliver the best service to their communities.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- The catalyst that got Warren to switch from industrial to government sales
- Tips for running a business where you sell a long lasting product
- Challenges of selling to the government, including the bidding process
- Advice for dealing with the government and sales, and what increases your chance of success
- Secrets to success when Warren was just starting out, and how he navigated the financial risk
- The difference between sales and running a business, and why it’s essential to ask for and accept help
- Why you need to know and really understand your numbers
- Things Warren has done to make himself stand out in the crowd
- The top secret for getting to the next level that everyone follows, from the top business owners to the top athletes
- The sheer importance of understanding your numbers even if you don’t love them
- Why you should rely on other people to help you, but always understand what they are doing
Additional resources:
- Website: www.smartcityits.com
- Phone number: 604-366-0819
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why people are too drawn to their electronic screens like computers, televisions, and phones, and why this is distracting them from human connections
- Why morning and night are critical times for your brain, and why you should set positive routines for these important times of the day
- Why a few minutes of meditation each morning is a great way to wake up your brain and set the tone for your day
- Why spending time reflecting on the things you are grateful for will help you clear your mind and focus on positivity
- How Colin begins each day through meditation, gratitude, calming his mind, and practicing key daily habits
- Why journaling is a useful tool to clear your mind and find the things that happened in your day that you should be grateful for
- Why your subconscious mind is a powerful driver for your success or failure, and why keeping yourself in a positive frame of mind in the evening is the key to success the next day
- Why consistency in your routine is the key to forming positive habits, and why you must stay dedicated
Additional resources:
- Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
Have you ever thought about how much your emotions influence your health? Our guest today, Dr. Bradley Nelson is the author of the bestselling book, “The Emotion Code.” It explains how to identify and release trapped emotions that block mental and physical healing. A new edition of “The Emotion Code” is coming May 7, 2019, from St. Martin’s Press. For more information and a free Emotion Code Starter Kit, visit www.emotioncodegift.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Dr. Bradley shares a personal miracle he experienced as a child, and he explains why it started him on his current path
- How Dr. Bradley’s belief in a higher power helped guide him to a career as a physician and ultimately led to his book, The Emotion Code
- Why the emotional baggage we carry with us can weigh us down and cause many of the problems we experience in our lives
- Why people often struggle to align their conscious and subconscious mind, and why their subconscious mind often sabotages their efforts
- Why your subconscious mind is functionally a binary computer that can answer yes-or-no questions and can be turned to help you achieve your goals
- How you can test your subconscious mind and ask it questions, using certain muscular changes in your body to determine its answers
- What a “heart wall” is, how it is created due to past trauma, and how it often prevents you from finding the happiness you are searching for
- How Dr. Bradley connected with legendary speaker, author, and life coach Tony Robbins, and how that has expanded his opportunities
- How Dr. Bradley and his wife’s lives were changed dramatically when they first discovered Tony Robbins
Additional resources:
- Website: www.discoverhealing.com
- Website: www.emotioncodegift.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Make Your Mark will be celebrating its fifteenth birthday this June, and how tenacity has been the key to Make Your Mark’s success
- Colin discusses a MYM client who wanted to win a Starbucks graphic design contract, phoning every single month for over two years to finally win the contract
- How Colin’s Business Mastery events are designed to wake business leaders up to their own potential
- Why it is important for business leaders to hold themselves to a higher standard and maintain accountability
- Why you should find specialists to help you with your business, and how Colin defines a “relationship trust transfer”
- Why any great mentor has great mentors of their own, and how Weekends With Colin are structured to help business owners strategize
- Why you should think about your “client journey”, the different stages your clients go through
- Why you must present yourself and your business with confidence and not be uncertain about the results you can deliver to your clients
- Why Colin’s Business Mastery event is an essential tool for unleashing your true potential and finding the results you want
Additional resources:
- Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
- Website: www.weekendwithcolin.com
- Email: colinea@mymsuccess.com
- Telephone: 1-844-560-5609
Trevor Hall has been in the green industry all of his life. Trevor’s first source of income was cutting the neighbor’s lawn. Later in life, he began a summer job at the University of Calgary grounds and maintenance department, which became a full-time position and was his first real introduction to the creativity around landscape design. This summer job exposed Trevor to all of the aspects of landscape and irrigation design and construction. His interest and curiosity led him to pursue an education in Horticulture through Olds College. Trevor’s thirst for knowledge took him back to the University where he completed his Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Calgary. It was a natural step to take since his love for the outdoors, the development of outdoor spaces, and combine it with a business degree to do what he loved every day. Artemis Landscapes & Design Ltd was born and when she later needed a sister, Trevor purchased Calgary Sprinkler Systems adding underground irrigation and maintenance to their repertoire. A fantastic synergy between the two companies was born.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Trevor started his company, Artemis Landscapes, by combining his horticulture and management degrees into business ownership
- Why Trevor purchased his second company Calgary Sprinkler Systems, and how both of Trevor’s businesses are rapidly growing
- How a major car accident a decade ago caused Trevor to lose his short-term memory and had a powerful impact on his business
- How Trevor discovered the importance of having systems in place for his business to help him get through the period after his accident
- Trevor shares how his wife and three daughters were the driving force that kept him going and kept him focused on his business
- What important lessons Trevor learned over the course of his career that he wishes he had learned earlier
- Why Trevor struggled early on to let go and delegate responsibility, and why trying to do everything himself was hurting his business
- How Trevor supports his team by allowing them to make their own mistakes and encourages them when things go wrong
- What key areas Trevor plans to work on in the next five years to take his business to where it wants it to be
Additional resources:
- Website: www.artemislandscapes.com
- Website: www.calgarysprinklersystems.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why our school system teaches us to become better at the things we aren’t good at, rather than teaching us to excel at the things we’re already good at
- How to determine whether you’re doing things that aren’t in line with the value of your time
- Why it is important to recognize your own strengths and weaknesses so that you can lean into your strengths
- How Colin hires new people at Make Your Mark, and how he uses the DISC profile and Sacred Gifts to determine their strengths
- Colin shares an example from his own team of moving people into their strengths rather than forcing them to do things they don’t want to do
- Why doing things that play to your strengths allows you to feel energized and excel in your role as a leader
- Why it is helpful to partner with someone who has different but complimentary gifts than you
- Why personality profile tools and assessments are useful for helping you discover your strengths
- Why doing a job that is less valuable than your hourly worth is actually costing your business money
Additional resources:
- Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
Celebrity Nutrition Expert and Fitness Hall of Famer JJ Virgin teaches clients how to break through food and carb intolerances, so they can finally lose the weight to transform their health and their lives.
JJ is a prominent TV and media personality, whose previous features include co-host of TLC’s Freaky Eaters, 2 years as the on-camera nutritionist for Weight Loss Challenges on Dr. Phil, and appearances on PBS, Dr. Oz, Rachael Ray, Access Hollywood, and the TODAY Show. She also speaks regularly and has shared the stage with notables including TD Jakes, Tony Robbins, and Brendon Burchard. JJ is the author of four NY Times bestsellers: The Virgin Diet, The Virgin Diet Cookbook, JJ Virgin’s Sugar Impact Diet, and JJ Virgin’s Sugar Impact Diet Cookbook.
Her latest book, Warrior Mom: 7 Secrets to Bold, Brave Resilience, shows mothers everywhere how to be strong, positive leaders for their families, while exploring the inspirational lessons JJ learned as she fought for her own son’s life. JJ hosts the popular JJ Virgin Lifestyle Show podcast, with over 4.5 million downloads and counting. She also regularly writes for Rodale Wellness, Mind Body Green, and other major blogs and magazines.
Find articles, recipes, helpful online programs, and more at www.jjvirgin.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why JJ became an English major in college after a professor insulted her writing, and why JJ believes in never doing things she doesn’t enjoy
- What important lessons JJ has learned throughout her career that she wishes she had learned earlier
- How JJ co-authored her first book with her then-boyfriend, who had her sign a contract saying he had the rights to everything she did for the rest of her life
- How JJ has learned to respond to people telling her “success was easy for you because…”
- Why JJ is glad that success is difficult to obtain, and why she continues to work hard and grind for her continued success
- Why JJ is always looking for opportunities to move outside her comfort zone, and how her family got through her son’s life-threatening injury
- How JJ managed to handle the intense pressure of desperately needing her book to sell to fund her son’s recovery while serving as the breadwinner for her family
- Why JJ took a life-altering field trip to a level 4 maximum security prison with 70 other entrepreneurs to speak to and mentor the inmates
- How to find out more about JJ’s work, her writings, or to contact JJ Virgin with comments or questions
Additional resources:
- Website: www.jjvirgin.com
- The Virgin Diet by JJ Virgin: https://amzn.to/2Iq7Twu
- JJ Virgin’s Sugar Impact Diet by JJ Virgin: https://amzn.to/2KnkzGZ
- Miracle Mindset by JJ Virgin: https://amzn.to/2P9Yhrj
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Colin reviews some of the recent episodes of MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth and recaps some of the very important issues discussed during those episodes
- How most businesses start out on a shoestring budget and take the first steps to gain clients and clarify their messaging
- Why many businesses begin adding employees in their early stages of profitability as a way to grow their reach
- Why high six-figure and low seven-figure businesses begin looking to expand through office space and a physical presence
- Why a danger of hiring others to lead your million-dollar business is that they are often less diligent in managing expenses than you are
- Why it is important to manage your own expenses and not let your business success go to your head
- Why it is necessary to set a good example for your team because your team operates based on your own actions and behaviors
- Why it takes a different type of personality to grow a business from seven to eight figures than it took to found and grow the business initially
- Why a methodical, deliberate person will make better business decisions than a creative entrepreneur type
- Why the seven-figure mark is such a critical milestone for a business, and why you should be very careful when crossing that threshold
Additional resources:
- Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
Mike Seymour is the owner and principal of MSR Solutions. He has extensive knowledge in innovative sewer and water solutions and land development which he’s grown since his start in engineering in 1985. Mike continues to be involved in the design, implementation, and operation of water and wastewater treatment systems and land development throughout BC and Alberta. He brings a thorough understanding of the integration of the water cycle, including supply, usage, treatment and return to the environment. He understands how the interaction of all systems can offer cost savings through the development of decentralized facilities, to support land development.
His motto is: Retention of both clients and employees is at the top of my priority list. That, and having an absolute blast doing what we do in the engineering world.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Mike got started at MSR Solutions, and how he got started with Colin Sprake as his mentor
- How Mike was able to find and build such a great team at MSR Solutions, and why having a strong team backing him has been key to his success
- How Mike dealt with the death of his wife, and how he temporarily checked out of his business when his wife was ill and after she passed
- Why Mike learned the importance of trusting his team during the difficult period of his loss
- How Mike has transitioned from directly managing his business to allowing his team to take on responsibility
- What pieces of advice Mike would offer to other business professionals wishing to grow and transition
- Why Mike believes it is important to find people who are good at the things you aren’t good at
- What key lessons Mike wishes he had learned earlier, and why he has learned to “round his sharp edges”
- Why Mike loves meeting his clients’ needs, and why he is willing to connect them to others who may have answers when he doesn’t
Additional resources:
- Website: www.msrsolutions.ca
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Colin is planning on spending his birthday, especially by spending time with his wife and children
- How “Weekends with Colin” work as a great way to have dinner, strategize, and take advantage of the mastermind group
- How thoughts and feelings can become attached to activities, objects and people, and how those attachments can become unhealthy cravings
- Why the emotional attachments we make are profound, and why we need to attach the right emotions to our goals
- How the human brain becomes addicted to things as simple as sugar, and why that affects our behavior toward those items
- Why your attachments act like an outside voice, pushing you to do things you know you shouldn’t do
- How to turn your external voice toward benefitting your work and channeling it into your business
- Why forming good habits can create positive changes, just like bad habits can hold you back
- Why you must be consistent in your behavior every single day to form positive habits in your life
- How to get a “birthday gift” from Colin that will help you in your business
Additional resources:
- Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
- Website: www.weekendwithcolin.com
- Email with subject “Birthday Gift” to colins@mymsuccess.com
For over 35 years, Debra Poneman, bestselling author and founder of Yes to Success Seminars, has shared her success system, now used by tens of thousands of people in every corner of the globe, to create lives of not only success and abundance, but deep and profound happiness, self-love and lasting inner fulfillment.
Known as the mentor to the mentors, Debra’s students have used her teachings to become mega-successful entrepreneurs, renowned transformational leaders, NY Times bestselling authors, millionaires, billionaires—even household names. But Debra’s greatest gift is her deep belief in each person’s magnificence and her ability to convey that belief to activate in her audience members and clients profound and lasting transformation.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Debra went from teaching meditation to teaching success, through accidentally learning about the Law of Attraction
- Why Debra studied great thinkers and authors, and how she distilled their knowledge into her own methods and program
- Why it is important to take that first step in doing what you believe in, in spite of your fears and misgivings
- Why you should give other people your full attention and stay open to new opportunities as they come into your life
- Why it is important to follow your passions and take time out of life for the things that matter
- How Debra’s son spent a long time building relationship capital, and why it has led to tremendous success for him
- Why expressing gratitude is the key to lifting yourself up and welcoming good things into your life
- Why you should be thankful even for the challenges in your life, and why it is important to look for the lesson the challenge is there to teach you
- How to get free access to Debra’s ebook “The 5 Secrets to Creating a Life of True and Lasting Success”
Additional resources:
- Website: www.yestosuccess.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why systems are important for structuring and organizing your business, and why they are critical for the scalability of your business
- Why putting the right systems in place often means you don’t need to hire more people for your team
- Why it is important to ask yourself, “is the job I am doing right now scalable in the long term?”
- Why it is costly, time intensive and not always effective to keep hiring more employees for your business
- Why scalability and leveraging your assets correctly are the keys to maximizing your growth potential
- Why you need to think about your scalability needs and have a plan in place to implement systems improvements
- How to attend Colin’s Business Mastery event in Toronto or his 2-hour event in Vancouver
- What other exciting speaking events and other activities Colin has planned for the near future
- Why the system you purchase should match with and adhere to your company’s strategy and needs
- How to create a paper system for your company with a well-documented written plan for your business, and how to convert to a computerized CRM system
Additional resources:
- Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
- Website: www.weekendwithcolin.com
Alex grew up in a poor family where they all lived in a 460 sq ft apartment. Alex began working during summers at the age of 11 for his uncle. At the age of 15, Alex was able to help feed his family, graduated from a University by paying for it all by himself and became the head coach in Arm Wrestling in Azerbaijan. Also, he has traveled the world, married his spouse, moved to Canada, where they started a family and now have two teenage boys. Alex started True North Labour (TNL) in 2015 and sold four homes to get where he is today. His main goal is to add value to the labor industry and change lives for the better through employment.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why Alex’s morning rituals dramatically affect the work he does as CEO of his company True North Labour
- Why Alex takes an ice-cold shower every morning while practicing and repeating his daily mantra
- Why affirmations, prayer and reading each morning set the tone for Alex’s day and prepare him for a mindset of gratitude and success
- Why a daily routine is important, and why repetition and consistency are the keys to getting the most out of your routine
- How meeting Colin Sprake made a profound impact in Alex’s life and taught him the power of intention
- How Alex hit a wall in his business success, and how he overcame the challenge and broke through the wall
- How Alex utilizes “golden hours” and “platinum hours” to maximize his productivity and generate new prospects
- Which valuable lessons Alex wishes he had learned earlier in his career, and why he values learning experiences rather than calling them failures
- Why it is worthwhile to accept your own vulnerabilities and ask for help from the people around you
Additional resources:
- Website: www.truenorthlabour.com
- Email: alex@truenorthlabour.com
- Beyond Positive Thinking by Dr. Robert Anthony: https://amzn.to/2IG9ksC
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why the things that are easy and the things that you like doing aren’t necessarily the RIGHT things to be focused on * Why holidays should be a time for celebration with your loved ones and not commercialization * Why you should be reaching out to your family members and telling them you love them every single day * Why telling your loved ones “I’m too busy” is no different than saying “you’re not a priority to me” * How to set appropriate goals and focus on the activities that will help you achieve those goals * Which questions to ask yourself to evaluate whether or not you are doing the right things for your business * Why timing matters and why it’s critical to focus on your strengths (and hire staff to make up for your weaknesses) * How to further your own knowledge, learn and improve your skills, and differentiate yourself from your competitors * How to register for Colin Sprake’s upcoming two-hour speaking events or his three-day event in Toronto
Additional resources: * Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
David plays for real. A former Consulting Actuary to Fortune 100 companies – such as Sony Music, Procter & Gamble, and Exxon – David left his cushy Park Avenue job 20 years ago to explore both the outer world, and his own inner world.
David says: “When you’re 10,000 feet ABOVE the Himalayas hanging from a piece of cloth, you see life differently.”
From his unique vantage point, David has now coached thousands of hours spanning 20 years and 12 countries around the globe.
At the individual level, he helps high performing entrepreneurs, executives and leaders to Play for Real – in their own growth, in their relationships, and at work. By integrating the principles of Real Truth, Real Daring, and Real Caring, they become the leaders they themselves would follow.
At the corporate level, he helps companies to improve performance and retention.
“Play for Real” is something we all get to define for ourselves. To David, it means living with even more truth, more daring, and more caring than he ever has before. The real question is….what will “Play for Real” mean to you?
Even at your level of success, are you lacking one or more of the following:
1) A clear, compelling vision
2) A clear, practical plan
3) The focus and discipline to swiftly implement the plan
4) A clear understanding of who you truly are, and who you wish to become?
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How David’s career started with corporate work in New York, and why he evolved his work to help business leaders create and strengthen connections
- Why it is important to create deep connections, and why the three components are truth, daring, and caring
- Why it is difficult to let go of your secrets and get to your own truth, and how to overcome that challenge
- Why being daring means having the courage to take risks and ask for what you want, and why it can benefit your self-esteem
- How David began making courageous propositions like pitching Jack Canfield to do a book together
- Why knowing your truth and having the daring to share your truth can help you like yourself better
- Why caring, for yourself and for the people in your life, is a source of strength and not a weakness
- What lessons David wishes he had learned earlier in his life that he feels would have benefited him
- How David defines “caring” versus “people-pleasing”, and why the distinction is important
How to contact David Wood:
- Website: www.playforreal.life
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why the things that are easy and the things that you like doing aren't necessarily the RIGHT things to be focused on * Why holidays should be a time for celebration with your loved ones and not commercialization * Why you should be reaching out to your family members and telling them you love them every single day * Why telling your loved ones "I'm too busy" is no different than saying "you're not a priority to me" * How to set appropriate goals and focus on the activities that will help you achieve those goals * Which questions to ask yourself to evaluate whether or not you are doing the right things for your business * Why timing matters and why it's critical to focus on your strengths (and hire staff to make up for your weaknesses) * How to further your own knowledge, learn and improve your skills, and differentiate yourself from your competitors * How to register for Colin Sprake's upcoming two-hour speaking events or his three-day event in Toronto
Additional resources: * Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
This phrase pretty much sums up Simon.
In search of a new career, at the ripe age of 19, full of ambition, hope and enthusiasm, Simon headed to Calgary, where business was booming. Within a month he was hired by a national insurance company.
Three years later, his self-employed father passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, without a strategy, a plan or insurance for his wife and 12 children. It was extremely tough for his mother. He watched her lose their dream home, and when she was about to move into a mobile home for the rest of her life, Simon stepped in. He moved back to the coast and his mom lived with Simon and his family for many years until she passed away in her 80’s. Simon has seen first-hand the results caused without pre-planning. He has made it his life’s mission to help business owners protect themselves and their families and enhance their overall success. This is where his aspiration comes from.
Simon is a realist with an unshakable positive outlook on life. He’s a sponge for learning valuable information and is compelled to share it. He’s driven to illustrate to clients that by implementing some simple yet extremely effective strategies that can be used the right way, they can protect their family and greatly enhance their wealth.
Simon and his family have adopted a fit-for-life mindset by making healthy lifestyle choices, staying active and is on track to run 1,000 km this year. Simon’s extracurricular activities also include tennis, squash, biking, golfing, swimming, bocce and in the evenings he loves the social aspects of playing cards and board games. When not out and about strolling the beaches of White Rock on summer weekends with his wife Sande and sons, Trevor and Brodie, Simon can be found grilling at the BBQ.
Simon’s in-depth understanding of how business owners can drive wealth by structuring themselves correctly really sets him apart. He sees nothing but a bright future and believes that if we are well informed, we’ll make wiser and healthier choices to enhance all areas of our lives.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Simon's work as a corporate wealth advisor for CanTrust Financial Services is focused on reducing expenses and creating wealth * Why Simon directed his career focus toward wealth-building due to a devastating personal family loss * Why the Canadian "disposition of death" tax needs to be prepared for with insurance and estate planning * How a corporate tax structure can help your family avoid a crushing tax bill after your death * Why Simon believes that insurance is an asset rather than a liability, and why the benefits far outweigh the cost * Why it's important to take care of your insurance needs while you're healthy, before you need to rely on insurance * Why the business profits you keep, after taxes, are far more important than the money you make * Why it's never too early to start your financial and estate planning, and what steps to take to get started * How to reach out to Simon with questions or to get his assistance with your financial planning needs * How to get more information and register for Colin Sprake's upcoming speaking engagements and events
Additional resources: * Website: www.cantrustfinancial.ca * Email: simon@cantrustfinancial.ca * Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How to join Colin for one of his upcoming two-hour events or his Money Mastery event in Toronto * Why it's important to stop thinking about what your clients need and to question whether they want what you have * Why you need to do your daily tasks to support your business, even if they are tasks you don't like doing * Why the "sexy" things like marketing and advertising are generally just wants, and why the "unsexy" things like business plans and accounting are often needs * Why Olympic swimmers do the hard daily work (like spending hours in a pool) to achieve their gold medal wants * Why you must go through the pain of doing things you don't like to see the gain of achieving success—after all, no pain no gain! * Why Colin's definition of happiness is having the ability to do what he wants, when he wants, with who he wants and with no financial or time constraints * How to identify what feeling you are looking for and what steps are necessary to achieve that feeling * The importance of having goals to look forward to, pushing you to keep doing the challenging tasks
Additional resources: * Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
Martin Rutte is a dynamic international speaker and consultant, is president of Livelihood, a management consulting firm, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. The company’s areas of service include: strategic vision, corporate spirit, performance management, facilitated dialogue, and creative leadership.
He is co-author of The New York Times Business Bestseller, Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work, translated into over 20 languages, with sales over 1.1 million copies. For over 15 years he has been exploring people’s vision for the kind of world they deeply long for – Project Heaven on Earth. He has contributed chapters on Heaven on Earth in: How to Achieve A Heaven on Earth, Seeking the Sacred, and Glimpses of Heaven on Earth. His new book on this subject: Project Heaven on Earth: The 3 simple questions that will help you change the world … easily has just been published. He sees Heaven on Earth as the new story of what it means to be a human and what it means to be Humanity.
Martin has worked with many corporations assisting them to expand their outlook and position themselves for the future. In the US he has worked with: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Southern California Edison, Virgin Records, Apple Computer and Marion Merrell Dow. In Canada, he has worked with Esso Petroleum, London Life Insurance and Labatt Breweries.
He was the first Canadian to address the Corporate Leadership & Ethics Forum of The Harvard Business School returning for four consecutive years as keynote speaker. He has also twice addressed joint meetings of the American and Canadian Chambers of Commerce in Hong Kong.
Martin’s pioneering work on spirituality in the workplace was featured in an address he gave to The World Bank which was shown in part on the ABC-TV special, Creativity: Touching the Divine. He was a keynote speaker at all six international conferences on spirituality in business in Mexico. Martin was also co-founder and Chair of the Board of the Centre for Spirituality and the Workplace, Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada.
He has given talks and workshops globally in: Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, Britain, Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany & the U.S. Articles on his innovative work have appeared in: The New York Times, The Miami Herald, The Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, Personnel Journal, US News and World Report, The Toronto Star and The Boston Globe.
Martin has served as a board member of Money Concepts Canada, Global Family, The Hunger Project Canada, and as a committee member of The Canadian Cancer Society. Martin is also a member of The Transformational Leadership Council and was a recipient of the ‘Excellence in Leadership’ award. He has been happily married to Maida for over 45 years.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Martin is on a purposeful mission to help you find and create your own "heaven on earth" * What three questions you can ask yourself to determine what your heaven on earth looks like and how to access it * How Martin turned those three questions into seven gateways that people can use to access their heaven on earth * How Martin's heaven on earth philosophy came to be, and why he was scared to share it at first * Why it's easy to be scared of being judged, and why you should overcome that fear and step into your greatness * What heaven on earth looks like in the world of business, and how calmness is one of the keys to finding it * Martin shares how businesses of various sizes have worked to create their own heaven on earth * Examples of how businesses and organizations around the world have incorporated Martin's heaven on earth philosophy into their work * Why the key to finding and creating heaven on earth lies in identifying something simple you can do * Why Martin wants to make the concept of "heaven on earth" a normal part of everyday conversations
Additional resources: * Website: www.projectheavenonearth.com * Project Heaven on Earth by Martin Rutte: http://a.co/d/1uDL5BR
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why it's critical that your business messaging be clear, concise and tailored to your audience * Why "multitasking" isn't an asset, and why it's far better to be laser-focused on one thing at a time * How to improve your messaging by offering solutions to problems rather than trying to sell your services * Why asking yourself "what can I do to make my client lazier?" is a great way to clarify your messaging * How to identify the benefits you can offer your clients and integrate them into your messaging * Why you need to "be in love with your numbers" to help you better understand your business and identify opportunities * Why great messaging helps improve your relationships with your clients and improve your profitability * How understanding your clients and their needs can help you hook them with your messaging * Why you need to clearly understand and define the overall benefits of your service in your messaging
Additional resources: * Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
Glenna Cole is a hands-on financial guru whose understanding of solid growth structures is rooted in her Alberta farm upbringing. For the past decade, she served as CFO of a private enterprise where she helped build, optimize and sell multi-million-dollar companies (in Canada and the US) within the Oil and Gas, Construction, Waste & Recycling and Agricultural service sectors.
Glenna’s natural ability to bridge the gap between field operations and management is enhanced by her education and experience in:
Process Optimization
Operational and Managerial Financial Reporting
Oil & Gas Accounting
Public Accounting
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why your business numbers can be "sexy", but only if you're looking at them and understand them * Why bookkeepers often focus solely on numbers with the intent of filing taxes, and why they aren't looking at operations numbers * What Glenna looks at in the monthly balance sheet to help business owners understand their expenses and profit centers * Why you don't have to be an accounting expert to identify problems before they become major issues * What important steps Glenna recommends business owners implement to help track their numbers more effectively * Why consistency and proper timing are the keys to accurate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) * Why you can't record revenue until you actually earn it, which is why accruals and deferrals are crucial tracking tools * Glenna explains the difference between cash flow and profit & loss (P&L), and why they shouldn't be confused with each other * What one piece of advice Glenna would give to business owners who are confused by their financial statements * What upcoming topics will be appearing on MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth with Colin Sprake in early 2019
How to contact Glenna Cole: * Telephone: (587) 582-1010
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you have a huge part to play in creating the people that you don't want in your life * Why 2019 is the time to look internally for your solutions, rather than looking outside for answers * Why you need to remember and live by the words "where you go... there you are" in all your relationships * How your mental and emotional baggage follows you no matter where you go, and why you need to change your mindset to get rid of it * Why you should be asking yourself "what am I doing to shift myself and my attitude in 2019?" * Why stubbornness is the number one reason why most businesses and business owners fail * How to observe what super-successful people are doing and copy their methods to find your own success * How to register for Colin's upcoming events, including his Business Mastery on January 9-11th in Vancouver * What’s coming up for next week's episode of MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth with Colin Sprake
Additional resources: * Vancouver Business Mastery Registration by Telephone: 1-844-560-5609 * Calgary 2-hour Event Registration Website: www.mymmybusiness.com
Jack Canfield is an award-winning speaker and an internationally recognized leader in personal development and peak performance strategies. For over 40 years, he has been teaching entrepreneurs, educators, corporate leaders, and people from all walks of life how to create the life they desire. As the beloved originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, he’s taught millions of individuals his modernized formulas for success, and now certifies trainers to teach his content and methodology all over the world.
Jack is the author and co-author of more than 150 books (66 are bestsellers) with more than 100 million copies in print in 47 languages around the world. His bestselling book, The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be has been hailed as the new self-improvement classic, now containing 67 of the most powerful secrets to success known to mankind. In 2014, SUCCESS magazine named him “One of the Most Influential Leaders in Personal Growth and Achievement.”
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How learning new things have been the cornerstone of Jack's life, and why he loves sharing his learning * Why quality (and quantity!) of sleep is a crucial component of longevity and health * What Jack's top three principles of having a successful and happy life are, and why those particular three are so important * Why E + R = O (events + response = outcomes), and why it's our choice of how we respond to things that matter * Why affirmations and other positive thoughts can attract success, and why negative thoughts can hold you back * How music and movement can help you change your emotional "vibrations" and improve your outlook * What Jack's biggest challenges in life were, and how he overcame them with perseverance * Why time and perspective can help you see your challenging situations for the blessings they really are * Why Jack’s ex-wife taking “everything” ended up saving him an incredible amount of money
Additional resources: * The Success Principles by Jack Canfield: http://a.co/d/3Tdgwvp * Website: www.jackcanfield.com * Website: www.trainwithjack.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The four things investors care about: how much money you need, how the money is protected, what their ROI will be, and what their exit strategy is * Why it's important to clearly explain what you'll use their investment for, and why financing for order fulfillment is the easiest investment to get * Why you should secure their investment through personal guarantees or other strategies so that they feel safe investing in you * Why you should avoid offering equity in the company, and why 8% interest returns is a good first offer * Why providing clarification on how and when investors will get their money back out is an important step * Why you should always ask for more time and money than you actually need, and why you should only use an investment for its stated purpose * Why it's a mistake to use your operating capital as growth capital, and why investors aren't funding your lifestyle * Why you should attend one of Colin's upcoming speaking events and meet Colin in person * What plans Colin has for the next few episodes of MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth * Why confidence and a one-page summary document are the keys to effectively convincing investors to take a chance on you
How to contact Colin Sprake: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * The next live free event: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess * Website: www.mymyourbusiness.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why it's important to focus on your revenues and revenue-producing activities rather than distractions that don't help your bottom line * Why it's significantly harder to find a new client or customer than to do business with a repeat customer * Why you have to focus on meeting the needs of your business and doing what's necessary to achieve those needs * How keeping yourself open to new relationships and opportunities allows you to expand your own potential * Why everything is happening FOR you and not TO you, and why there is an opportunity to be found in everything * How to register for one of Colin's upcoming business and speaking events * Why it's critical to understand your business and its vulnerabilities and what makes your business fragile * Why you can't run a successful and profitable business without knowing and understanding your numbers * Why the gifts of kindness and love are the best gifts you can give your loved ones this holiday season * Why you should focus on your spending habits in the coming year and make sure you're spending your money wisely
Contact Colin Sprake: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * The next live free event: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Colin's plans for his time in Calgary and Toronto during his upcoming events * Why you should be grateful for every single person who has come into your life, regardless of how long they're a part of it * Why it's important to understand that everything in your life has happened FOR you, not TO you * Why you will continue learning until you have finally accepted the lesson you're meant to learn * How to make sure the people in your life feel special, and why gratitude is about more than just saying "thank you" * Why you should be thankful for the people in your life like friends and family, who free you to run your business * How Colin turns the holiday season into an opportunity to express gratitude and spend time with his family * Colin announces an exciting upcoming guest for a future episode of the MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth podcast * Why your expressions of gratitude should be personal and tailored to the interests of their recipients * How to participate in Colin's upcoming end-of-year events
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * The next live free event: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake * Website: www.sherpacourses.com
Linda Clemons from Indianapolis, Indiana is the CEO of Sisterpreneur® Inc. Linda is an award-winning record setting sales producer as well as one of the top sales trainers in the world in the resort/timeshare industry where clients have generated over two billion in sales.
A Body Language Expert trained and certified in Analytic Interviewing and Statement Analysis ™ which is a process used to detect deception.
Her clients and audiences to include Southwest Airlines, Coca-Cola, Spanx, Publicis, Nielsen, National Urban League, Nestle, MGM, Major League Baseball, Wells Fargo. Leo Burnett Worldwide, US Customs, FBI, Marriott, Hilton, Wyndham and Starwood. Her client list includes celebrities, executives, politicians, and entrepreneurs.
Linda has opened for or shared the stage with such notables as Oprah Winfrey, President Obama, Steve Wozniak co-founder of Apple, Dr. Condoleezza Rice and Mary Jo White former SEC Chair.
Awards to include but not limited to:
- Office Depot National Entrepreneur Award
- Women of Wealth Top Mentor Award
- A listing in the United States Congressional Records for community work.
- Sagamore of the Wabash the highest civilian award given by the governor in the State of Indiana.
- Memberships-Rotary International
- National Board member for the National Congress of Black Women
- Recognized by President Obama for community work
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Linda's Sisterpreneur organization came about, and what role it serves in elevating and developing female entrepreneurs * Tips for effectively using non-verbal communication and body language to your advantage when interacting with others * Why your non-verbal communication can be sending the wrong message and countering your verbal communication * The "TAP" mnemonic, and how it can be used to help control your body language and improve your communication * Strategies for speaking in front of an audience and maintaining an open connection with your listeners * Which key lessons Linda wishes she had learned earlier in her career as an entrepreneur * How to find out more about Linda Clemons and her organization, Sisterpreneur Inc.
How to contact Linda Clemons: * Website: www.lindaclemons.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why it's important to reverse-engineer your goals to determine what aspirations are achievable and within your current capabilities * Why the timeframe you set for your goals is the only limiting factor in whether or not those goals can be reached * How to set yourself up for success in 2019 by understanding what actions need to be taken each day to achieve your goals * How breaking down your goals into incremental “micro goals” can assist you in achieving anything at all, from financial success to fitness and weight loss * Why tracking your micro goal achievements daily can be a source of motivation, and can help keep you on target for your more long-term goals * What exciting topics are coming up for MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth in future episodes * How to register for and participate in upcoming live events featuring Colin Sprake
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * The next live free event: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake
Rebecca Brettingham-Filice is the owner and artistic director of Dance Extreme Inc. located in London, Ontario, Canada. Teaching and managing the studio since inception in 1997, Rebecca has taught many students. With over 700 students attending the school annually, she is kept busy with her 30+ faculty team.
She is a certified instructor with Dance Educators of America and Dance Masters of Canada, Chapter #38 where she sits on the board of directors. Rebecca has adjudicated for a number of dance organizations, competitions and has taught at various workshops throughout Canada and the United States. Rebecca’s students have attended and are currently attending professional schools of dance and theatre in Canada and the United States. A number of Rebecca’s students are currently working professionally and are involved in dance instruction. In 2012, Dance Extreme was honoured to perform at the Summer Olympics in London, UK.
Rebecca joined Make Your Mark with the first group of students in April 2016 and part of the first Ontario Kap-it groups. In December 2017, Rebecca joined the Make Your Mark team as a Kap-it Facilitator in Ontario. In September 2018, Rebecca launched Business for Dance Studios to assist and educated dance studio owners on becoming more profitable while gaining more time for themselves.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why Rebecca decided to start a business as a dance teacher, and how her business has grown exponentially * Which mistakes and learning opportunities Rebecca experienced during the rapid growth of her business * Why moving into a larger space caused Rebecca unforeseen difficulties and renovation expenses * Rebecca's advice for businesses looking to grow, expand and renovate their properties * What lessons Rebecca learned growing up in a family of entrepreneurs and entering the world of business * Why Rebecca believes it's important to continue learning and developing your personal growth as a business professional * Why open-mindedness and a willingness to experiment are crucial for helping your business stand out from the competition * Which key things have helped Rebecca find success in her entrepreneurial journey * What plans Rebecca has for the future development of her dance studio business
How to contact Rebecca Brettingham-Filice: * Email: info@danceextreme.com * Website: www.danceextreme.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why it's important to clearly define and understand your short-term and long-term goals as well as what is driving you * Why your "subconscious GPS" will always reroute you toward success as long as you know where you want to go * How positive energy and positive thoughts can help you achieve your goals, but negative energy can become a roadblock to success * Colin’s favorite process used at MYM to refocus your negative "I can't" thoughts into a positive "I can" direction * Why everything we say and think has a vibrational energy that draws "good vibes" or "bad vibes" * How utilizing the Law of Attraction has greatly benefitted Make Your Mark and drawn in success * How to use "contrast statements" and "clarity statements" to effectively change your mindset
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * The next live free event: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake
Additional resources: * Website: www.my1pageplan.com * Website: www.knowledgeactionprofit.com (Enter Code: 101)
Eric Edmeades is an internationally recognized business speaker, film producer, and serial entrepreneur. Eric’s varied business background includes mobile computing, medical simulation, augmented reality gaming, 3D camera engineering, and Hollywood special effects. Eric is also the founder of WildFit and the creator of both Inception Marketing™ and Business Freedom™ -- a business ownership methodology that empowers you to own a business that doesn’t own you.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Eric's career journey from working in Hollywood special effects to becoming an expert in helping others be their personal and professional best * What three things Eric wishes he had known earlier on in his entrepreneurial career * How Eric lost all his money in a failed investment but was able to bounce back and thrive * Why many entrepreneurs have difficulty delegating and trusting their staff to get things done * How to redefine your emotional attitudes to find personal significance in new ways * Why "duplicating" yourself prevents your staff from excelling in their roles * Why being a business owner and being self-employed are very different things with different mindsets * Why you should be be building your business to be able to run independently without you * Why having a positive attitude every day is critical for setting the emotional tone of your company
How to contact Eric: * Website: www.businessfreedom.com * Website: www.getwildfit.com * Website: www.eric.ee
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why understanding your cash flow is one of the most important pieces of financial information you can have * Why you need to examine whether your products and services are truly profitable after costs and expenses * How to better understand your cash flow by evaluating your expenses and predicting your revenue * What equation you should use to determine your profitability and how to make decisions around the results * How to use your revenue history month-over-month to determine future profits and growth * How to get access to download a free example one-page business plan and cash flow predictor tool * Why a cash flow predictor can be a powerful tool to understand whether a project will be profitable before committing to it * Examples of how a cash flow predictor have helped others make smart business decisions * What exciting topic the next episode of MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth has in store for you
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * The next live free event: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake
Additional resources: * Website: www.my1pageplan.com * Website: www.knowledgeactionprofit.com (Enter Code: 101)
Dave has owned a number of businesses and is a serial entrepreneur. He is the owner of Classroom Ready and has just launched a Math product line into Staples and Indigo. Classroom Ready is a publishing company that sells into schools and stores across Canada. Dave also owns real estate in both Canada and the United States.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Dave made the transition from being a teacher to building a successful career as an entrepreneur and owner of multiple businesses * Why Dave decided to leave his successful pressure-washing business to focus solely on his publishing business, Classroom Ready * How Dave leveraged relationships he had built to begin selling products in big box stores across Canada * The importance of diversifying your sales relationships with multiple stores and why it helps minimize your risks * Why it is important to find mentors who will give you solid advice and push you to succeed * How furthering your own knowledge and education is a cornerstone for building success in your business * Why you should focus on your strengths and hire staff that can help compensate for your weaknesses * Why your first step as an entrepreneur should be to cash-flow your business to ensure its long-term stability * Why the simple, committed daily tasks you complete are the key to growing your business at the correct pace
Ways to contact Dave: * Website: www.classroomready.com * Email: info@classroomready.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you really should make sure you attend Money Mastery or Business Mastery * The reason Business Mastery is no longer a free event * Why it’s actually an advantage sometimes when you don’t see the end, and what tends to happen when you’re always looking at the end * Great analogies to help you understand why “running in the dark” is an advantage that can help you succeed and take on obstacles * How always seeing the end of the road can cause analysis paralysis * A story explaining why you need to get used to falling over and making mistakes * The story about the time Colin accidentally went down a double black diamond and what he learned from the experience * Handicaps we tend to give ourselves when we can see the whole road ahead of us * What can happen when you just take the first step off the metaphorical cliff * People Colin keeps pictures of in his office to inspire him to be better * The difference between great entrepreneurs and people who don’t succeed * What you do need to watch out for when you do “run in the dark” * Different areas of your life to take that first step in * How your perspective changes once you’re at the top * The importance of knowing your goal but not letting it overwhelm you * Focusing on what you can do, not what you can’t * How to increase your chances of success in business
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * The next live free event: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake
Teresa de Grosbois is a 4x Bestselling Author and an International Speaker sought by entrepreneurs and large corporations wanting to better understand how local word of mouth can suddenly turn into an epidemic. Specializing in the topics of influence and success, Teresa has a proven track-record in understanding word of mouth epidemics having taken three books to best-seller status in only 8 months. Her book Mass Influence hit #1 international bestseller status in North America and Europe on the same day it launched. Teresa teaches business and marketing courses around the globe. As the Chair of the Evolutionary Business Council, Teresa leads an international, invitation-only council of speakers.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The goal of the Evolutionary Business Council, which Teresa is a part of * Key principles of influence to improve networking in the marketplace * How everyone has influence, and how to start thinking about mass influence * What it means that the main currency of influence is influence itself * Differences between authentic and inauthentic influence * The fascinating thing about influence that makes it priceless * Who the most influential people at a networking event are * A mistake many people make when trying to gain mass influence as opposed to one on one networking * How to gain influence from a highly influential person * The heart of influence and why it might be different than what you think * Reasons you should think twice before giving someone your book to read * Understanding the etiquette of highly influential people as well as learning to accept constructive criticism from them * The path Teresa took to work with influential people and what it was like for Teresa to transition to a completely different field * Benefits of just leaning in and getting started when starting something new – why you need to start taking action on your dreams * Why you need to make a commitment to yourself before anything else * Avoiding the premature ask and when it’s okay to ask for what you really want * Why it’s okay to only focus on where you authentically fit in
Ways to contact Teresa: * Get a free copy of Teresa’s book and other resources: www.massinfluencethebook.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/teresa.degrosbois * Facebook: www.facebook.com/EBCouncil
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why stress is completely self-induced, and what steps we can take to avoid stress * How to analyze your life to understand where you are causing yourself stress * Colin’s strategies for time-management and how they can help reduce stress * How to effectively prioritize your To-Do lists to make sure you’re doing the tasks that really matter * Why most stress is the result of poor planning, and how planning ahead can stop stress before it begins * Why it’s important to reward yourself for your achievements and accomplishments * Why perspective is the key to understanding the situation you’re in and preventing it from becoming a source of stress
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * Upcoming free events: www.mymsuccess.com/freeevents * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake
Corbin was born in northern BC and his family settled in the Fraser Valley when he was very young. He spent his formative years learning business and life skills in a hands on practical way from his step-father as part of the family property development business. It was these lessons and skills that has formed Corbin into being the passionate, driven, and dedicated businessman that he is today.
Corbin joined Mike’s Computer Shop nearly 10 years ago and has worked to help build, structure, and ultimately catapult the organization from a single stand alone retail store in southern British Columbia, to the distribution powerhouse that it is today, with 5 locations across Canada, over 75 employees, and sales to every corner of North America.
Corbin has a passion for business and entrepreneurs, and invests a lot of his time and energy helping businesses achieve success, through both consulting as well as strategic and creative investing.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Corbin’s business, Mike’s Computer Shop got started * The future of business today that has a bigger market than before but also bigger competition * The vision Mike and Corbin shared that allowed them to expand the business * What Corbin has done to stand out against giants like Amazon * How to make your next dollar more profitable than the last * Using advancements in technology to your advantage * Two components to help build momentum in your business * The power of making an investment in people * What Corbin would have done differently in growing his business if he could go back * How trusting your gut can pay off * Learning to let go and delegate tasks * Reasons forming a good leadership team is essential * Having a good culture within your company * When to start instilling core values to improve the culture in your company * Integrating new employees into the company * A big challenge companies face from the inside * Business advice Corbin wishes he learned sooner * Why being right and being successful aren’t always mutually possible * Not sweating the small stuff and focusing on improving instead
Ways to contact Corbin: * Mike’s Computer Shop: www.mikescomputershop.com * YouTube: MCS Tech * Email: corbin@mikescomputershop.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The 12 Beats of Building a Powerful, Successful Business * Why success doesn’t hinge on wanting to make money * How a “freedom plan” supersedes a “business plan” * Why creating a “vivid vision” for your organization is the key to hiring the best talent * How organizational core values help shape your own corporate culture * How honestly answering “What’s working?”, “What’s not working?”, and “What’s missing?” holds the key to getting to the next level of your industry * If you’re going to get ahead, you have to listen to what takes place * The importance of giving out gratitude * What a destiny profile is and why you should have one * Why identifying days of the week for specific focuses can help your entire team be more productive
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * The next live free event: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake
Nick Psaila lives and breathes success as the leader of the worldwide phenomenon: The UPology Movement. Based on his groundbreaking book, UPology: “How to get UP and Stay UP from a Life or Business Beating”, Nick helps entrepreneurs remove the often invisible hurdles in the way of success.
As a public speaker Nick is a “powerhouse” of energy, knowledge, and compassion and his ability to entertain, educate, and inspire has him sought after by leading companies worldwide. He is also regularly media featured – CHANNEL 9 Mornings, CHANNEL 7, Today Tonight, and ABC. He is the founder of one of the top touring companies in Australia and the creator of the Business Reinvention Roadshow where he shows businesses how to use his signature 5 T’s to business and marketing Reinvention. He teaches how to dominate your industry, transform stagnant businesses into profit machines, get the right systems and create more time growing your business and so much more.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of timing with respect to gathering team members * The pitfalls of considering success rates versus actual success * How to determine the capability of a team * The “cross pollination of jobs,” as well as the intricacies of cross-job responsibilities and how they can reduce a platform’s growth * The steps of effective team-building, which covers the on-boarding process, the education process and the culture-building process * How to handle the big competing commitments of business * The scarcity mentality, and how it can be more harmful than helpful * How to avoid being the “hobbyist zombie,” or someone who spreads themselves too thin—lacking the vital excitement needed to promote effective strategies and a healthy work mentality * The future of metrics, and how science is constantly changing the way businesses rely on mathematics to garner success * The importance of education to the foundation of all business
Ways to contact Nick: * Facebook: www.facebook.com/NickPsailaInternational * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nickpsaila * Website: nickpsaila.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of refreshing yourself on a monthly or even quarterly basis and why it’s so important to take that time especially if you’re having difficulty staying focused for eight hours a day * Small daily things you can do to give your mind a break so you can refocus on your business by freeing your mind and freeing up that mental space * Gratitude and the role it plays in success * Colin’s take on building amazing winning teams that help you make your mark and take your business to the next level by building your team * Why it’s important to have a team if you want to move beyond the role of a solo entrepreneur * The things building a team allows you to do like taking vacations or spending time with your family without your business coming to an absolute standstill * How you attract what you’re focused on at the moment and why that matters when you’re building a team for your business * Why Colin believes building great teams is like building great relationships * Knowing your worth in terms of dollars per hour and delegating tasks that are below that price point * Why you don’t have to hire someone full time from the start * The power of leveraging your time which frees you up to be more creative with your business when you’re not bogged down with the details of operating a business * Making your employees feel treasured
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * The next live free event: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake
Dustin Knapp is the General Manager of The Wickertree – Home & Patio – a business his family has owned and has grown in Langley over the past 15 years. Dustin has been involved with the family furniture business for of this time in one capacity or another as he completed his undergraduate studies at Simon Fraser University. While he holds degrees in Criminology & Psychology he found the allure of marketing, sales and working with people on a daily basis to be an exciting challenge worth tackling. He took on leadership roles within the company and has worked closely with his parents, Frank & Laura, as the business continued to grow; particularly over the past several years.
Dustin met Colin Sprake in 2012 and subsequently completed all of the Make Your Mark courses and continues to be involved with Kap-It Success – a board of director’s style group that is facilitated by Colin himself. Dustin and Colin co-authored a Best-Selling book in 2015 called “Entrepreneur Success Stories.” When not working at the business or engaging with the community, Dustin can be found riding Arabian and Saddlebred horses, traveling or reading!
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What Dustin learned about business from his family at a young age – and how that affected his own plans for his future in unique ways * Why retirement doesn’t always mean not working and why sometimes, it just means starting a new job and finding new challenges! * Dustin’s broad education with a focus on security and how this has helped him make the right business management decisions * Why it’s very important to find the right people with the specialties that you don’t have, and get them on your team (or at least establish a service relationship) and why this is often worth paying more for * Working with your family and making high-level business decisions together: why this comes with its own challenges, including generational experience gaps and good old-fashioned family dynamics * Some of the more curious ins and outs of selling business-focused furniture, including what kind of relationships you need with vendors and the interesting things you end up spending money on * Marketing higher-end products, and making choices about how to focus on higher or lower end products at your store, based on the results that you see * Why sometimes, convincing your superiors and peers to spend more money can be very challenging and why it’s important to have plenty of facts on your side! * Recognizing the times where you have to set feelings aside in business * Recognizing that, even in a family business, things can and should change over time and why this is the first step to success.
Ways to contact Dustin: * Website: www.thewickertreelangley.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why, sometimes, a long-term commitment is important, because it helps you learn how to be accountable to your employees, audience, and customers – and build healthy habits! * Using an early morning routine to help clear your mind and give you the necessary vision to make important decisions throughout the day * Starting your day off right so you are ready to keep to your commitments through meditation, exercise, healthy eating, or, of course, a combination of them all * Why it’s important to look back, recognize your own successes, and make time to celebrate your victories and congratulate (and reward) your team * Why without looking back and taking time to celebrate, it’s easy to keep pressing toward goals that are always out of reach, which can be very disheartening * Remembering that you will get tired sometimes – very tired! – but that’s okay, and pressing on remains important (as long you remember to take some time to celebrate) * Why mentorship remains important for business owners and why you must try to make time for a mentor relationship or look for several business leaders you can at least count on to answer your questions honestly. * Why it’s smart to find trustworthy business associates and friends who have specialties that are different from yours so you can share your advice and fill in knowledge gaps that you may have * Never choosing mentors or associates lightly and why you must do your research, consider their location, their future plans, and how your relationship would work * More about Colin’s successful year, upcoming plans, and more about how to be a success in your business without sacrificing your personal life!
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * The next live free event: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events * Facebook: www.facebook.com/MYMsuccess * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake
Honored with the Distinguished Mentor Award from the Business Expert Forum at the Harvard Faculty Club, recipient of the coveted eWomenNetwork Foundation Champion award for her generous fundraising, and ranked on the prestigious Inc. 500/5000 list of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies for 2 years in a row, Lisa Sasevich “The Queen of Sales Conversion” teaches experts who are making a difference how to get their message out and enjoy massive results, without being “salesy.”
After 25 years of winning Top Sales Awards and training senior executives at companies like Pfizer and Hewlett-Packard, she left corporate America and put her skills to the test as an entrepreneur delivering high-impact sales-closing strategies for turbo-charging entrepreneurs and small business owners to great profits. In just a few short years, Lisa created a multi-million dollar home-based business with two toddlers in tow. Lisa really is the undisputed expert on how to make BIG money doing what you love!
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Lisa transitioned from corporate to entrepreneurial life — which wasn’t exactly a leap from one to the other * How to identify what it is you are meant to do by asking yourself, “What do people like to pick my brain about?” * The gifts that we need to unwrap that contain our personal keys to success * Two nuggets of information you can do immediately after the show to start moving your sales job into a successful direction * Getting clear on the offer but figuring out exactly what your offering to others is and why that offer is irresistible * Deliver what you offer by figuring out exactly how to grab the client’s attention and transforming them via the experience * One of the biggest mistakes people make in sales: leaving out or forgetting about the “limiter” * Clear examples of what limiters are and how they work to help build your success at sales * The three key things Lisa Sasevich wish she knew first so that she could have built a $100,000,000 business sooner
Ways to contact Lisa: * Website: www.lisasasevich.com * Twitter: @LisaSasevich * Facebook: www.facebook.com/LisaSasevich * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lisasasevich
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What branding is all about and what it means for small businesses and small business owners (hint: it’s not about graphic design) * Why branding comes before marketing * Why marketing must be measured, and if you’re not doing this, then it’s not marketing * Why branding is about your differences and marketing is about getting people to notice and find those differences appealing * “Me Too” and “Me Only”: what these types of brands are and which one you want your brand to be * Three questions to ask to nurture a “Me Only” business in your market space and clear steps on how to consider these questions and act on the answers you find * Understanding what’s working in your market space and what’s missing
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * Twitter: @ColinSprake * Facebook: www.facebook.com/ColinSprake * LinkedIn: ca.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/today/author/colinsprake * YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ABfVCygdG0evgnu2f6JZw * Instagram: @colinsprake
Natalie Uroda was born in Toronto, Canada into a family that immigrated from Croatia only two years prior to her birth. Today, within her own practice, she works with people to understand that the knowing of what one wants – your dreams and desires – and of who one is, and not who you are supposed to be, is the most valuable thing that you will ever have. Without this knowing, life is draining, opportunities are missed, and things feel downright hard.
Life Coaching was an all-heart choice for Natalie. Becoming certified as a Core Energy Leadership Coach allows her to help people live in their highest joy and value – their beautiful, unique, joy-blasting value that only radiates to everyone and everything around them. She is blessed to witness transformative choices being made by her clients every day and to watch their happiness soar. She is ever-grateful.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Deciding for yourself what your own destination is and not allowing others to dictate it for you * Personal stories of suffering, financial fears, and how a change in attitude and mindset helped make all the difference to climb out of that suffering and financial worry * Allowing yourself to surrender to the idea that everything is going to be ok and to allow that to work itself out * How your business or your career should be an opportunity for you to be able to enjoy life rather than it being a source to let life pass you by * How not to fall into the trap like many entrepreneurs do thinking that there is just one way to do something, because that way may not be the most effective or efficient way to do it * How having a community can help you bounce ideas off of each other to come up with better, more creative ways to do something * The importance of being surrounded by other leaders who have experiences and advice that can help you grow * The importance of energy and how it brings perspective and possibilities that lend you opportunities to more energy: you can’t get over the mountain without energy * How the combination of energy and intention are the keys to success * How learning, learning, learning can provide endless energy, opportunity, and personal growth that creates an environment for success
Ways to contact Natalie: * Website: www.toruscoaching.com * Website: www.lifeelicious.com/natalieuroda.html * Twitter: @TORUSCoaching * Facebook: www.facebook.com/TORUSCoaching * Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCJzZxJI3z21LJXYKIOMW6kQ
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to well over 50,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How the power of perception can determine one’s ability to succeed in life and how by looking at things differently, a person can revise, recreate and reimagine their potential * Why responsibility can be limiting and why it’s important to not take yourself out of “the game,” limiting yourself because of the burden of success * How perception is a reality not only for business owners but for customers * Why it’s important to redefine the perceived amount of energy needed to complete a task * How to redefine our challenges, creating achievable goals * How using different words can change your hard-wiring, eliminating tough-to-see challenges in order to change your results (and how this practice is especially useful in interpersonal relationships) * The importance of understanding how challenges make us stronger * The different aspects of positive energy, how it affects our everyday life, the power of endorphins, body language, and the surprising power of excitement * Why it’s important to ask the question, “Where is my energy?” with every situation * Colin’s personal methodology for using positive energy to grow a business
Ways to contact Colin: * Twitter: @colinsprake * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake * Website: www.mymsuccess.com
For over four decades, John Kehoe has earned worldwide recognition for his pioneering work in the field of Mind Power and Consciousness. He is a warm and energetic teacher, author, socially conscious individual, and proponent of the amazing human potential to transform the world and our lives with the power of our thoughts.
In 1975, John Kehoe withdrew to the wooded seclusion of the British Columbia wilderness to spend three years in intensive study and contemplation of the inner workings of the human mind. During this time, Kehoe forged the first straightforward and successful program for developing Mind Power. In 1978, he began traveling and teaching people the principals he had formulated, and the phenomenal success of his speaking tours soon grew to literally encompass the world.
John has lectured on every continent and his seminal book, Mind Power has achieved bestseller lists around the world. His teachings relate directly to the powers held within every person to conclusively shape his or her destiny. John’s talks are enthusiastically received worldwide. His passion for his subject and his keen intellect combined with his sense of humor provide an entertaining style that leaves his audience inspired to be their best.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How your mindset and your thoughts are real forces that can either truly make you successful or maintain mediocrity * How to get your mind working for you so that you believe in yourself and your product, and therefore are able to go out and make a name for yourself using that confidence * Why people whose primary motivation is to make a lot of money usually do not make the money they anticipated * What passion and having a purpose can do for you, your capability to attain success, and your ability to live life to the fullest * Why knowing what your end goal is and how to break that big picture down into micro goals that can get you putting one foot in front of the other towards that end goal * How to acknowledge yourself every step of the way so that you continue the successful vibration and do not get distracted * How to change the negative tone using “just my luck” for bad experiences and transform it to a phrase used for good experiences, and in doing so, how that small change can impact your mindset profoundly: from unlucky to lucky * Why a balance between life and work is not just something that is said but should be something that is done as part of your regular life and routine to grow and prevent burn-out * How to get your mind working for you, and that means eliminating negative thoughts while also finding a way to build successful vibrations * Tips on how to start thinking differently about success, money, and life so that you can reach your full potential and truly realize all the dreams you have
Ways to contact John: * Website: www.learnmindpower.com * Twitter: @LearnMindPower * Facebook: www.facebook.com/LearnMindPower
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why numbers are the most important part of your business * Margins, mock-ups, and discounts and why you need to understand them for your business * Keeping your cash flow running in your business * Three things you can do to maximize cash flow in your business * The mistake some people make that leads them to wonder why they’re not making money * Formulas that make up your gross profit and net profit as well as an example to illustrate these formulas * Why it’s extremely important to know what your gross profit is * The difference between gross margin and gross profit * How to determine your break even point * The reason you need to understand your break even point and an example that helps to illustrate this * One of the biggest myths in all business * Markup vs margin and how understanding this can make you more money * Why discounts often hurt companies and an example showing how you’re often giving away more than you realize when you create discounts * An example that explains why your gross profit is not the same as your revenue * The importance of developing a really powerful cash flow projector for your business
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com
Sara Clarke is a wife and a mom of four boys and has over 20 years experience in the accounting field. She carries degrees in Business Management and Bookkeeping and is now working towards an Accounting Degree. She founded Martin Clarke & Associates in 2001 and has since processed over 33,000 hours of bookkeeping. She works alongside Roger, her husband of 15 years, where their firm works with multiple accountants and agencies across Canada.
Sara has been a guest speaker and workshop presenter at the London Small Business Centre, Western University, and The Ivey School of Business, and she also speaks throughout North America teaching business owners about bookkeeping, taxes, business development, money mindset and her favourite topic, mompreneurs. Sara is the recipient of the 2014 ‘20 under 40 Business Award’ with Business London Magazine, and 2014’s ‘Who’s Who Among Women in Ecommerce’ with WE Magazine.
Sara is excited to feature Mompreneurs® in her hometown of London and its surrounding areas, as well as being the Community Manager for the Sarnia-Lambton and Windsor-Essex regional chapters of Mompreneurs®. Sara has a passion to help women in business succeed so that they can continue to be their own boss, set their own hours, and be there for their families.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Sara’s personality trait that made her realize she was unemployable and how that led her to be an entrepreneur * The “mompreneurs” group that helps female entrepreneurs grow their business and raise their families at the same time * A trait that allows people to really connect with you * How Colin helped Sara realize what was holding her back from growing * Vulnerability and how embracing it can really help you move ahead in life and business * Examples of how vulnerability has changed different aspects of Sara’s life * Why you need to focus on making one thing successful before you jump into a bigger pot * How to have a deeper connection with your clients * Sara’s story of being vulnerable with her weight and how it helped her become healthier and feel better * Being vulnerable and how it usually leads to more support * How honesty and vulnerability can improve your mental health * Why you shouldn’t try to hide things and do everything on your own * A tip Sara gives about adjusting your mindset * The importance of thinking about how you invest your time in the 24 hours you get each day
Ways to contact Sara: * Facebook: www.facebook.com/clarkesaralouise * Email: sara@themompreneur.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/saralclarke
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How a culture of negativity surrounds us, so much so that by the time most children turn five years of age, they have heard eight negative expressions for every positive one they encounter * Why sweating the small stuff is counterproductive and unhealthy on multiple levels, especially if we allow it to occur for a prolonged period of time or to manifest itself in our daily lives * How there is opportunity and possible positive outcome in everything that happens in our lives right now, even while stuck in a traffic jam, even during illness or other terrible situations * How we handle things better when we believe that everything happens for the right reason and spend little or no time sweating the small stuff * The reality that you have surrendered control when you allow the actions of another person to change your emotional state negatively or you dwell on their actions without regard to your health and well-being * Reasons that it is unhealthy to look at situations continually with a negative perspective * Why we should replace negative energy with positive energy throughout our lives * The importance of having lots of gratitude in your life and accepting that things happen for a reason * How sweating the small stuff creates situations that allow minor inconveniences or events to transition into difficult and challenging situations that may bring you down, make you ill, and increase your stress
Ways to contact Colin: * Events: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events
Bobbi DePorter is president of Quantum Learning Network producing SuperCamp summer enrichment programs now with 75,000 graduates and programs in 19 countries; and Quantum Learning Education, with programs for teachers, administrators, students, and parents. QL has trained over 100,000 teachers and through these programs and the 8 Keys of Excellence movement, has impacted more than twenty million students over the last 30+ years.
It all began when Bobbi studied with the renowned Bulgarian researcher Dr. Georgi Lozanov and implemented his methods into a humanistic business program which she co-founded called the Burklyn Business School. Students experienced learning as joyful and meaningful–not as they had experienced learning previously–and they wanted a similar experience for their children. This led to SuperCamp, teaching unique learning and life skills to teenagers in a fun, dynamic way.
Along with Stedman Graham, Bobbi is the co-founder of CAYS Community Alliance for Youth Success. She is the author of over a dozen books including recently released Excellence in Teaching and Learning: The Quantum Learning System. Bobbi is the recipient of the San Diego Women of Influence Lifetime Legacy award, the Global Presence Humanitarian Award from Parenting 2.0; and was on Fast Company Magazines Fast 50 list of leading creative thinkers.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How ordinary men and women can become extraordinary business owners * How to teach children and young adults how to learn * The importance of providing children with a good education when it comes to personal finances. * How to encourage children to find their own voice in the world and feel confident and good about themselves * How to engage students, connect with them, and provide them with a safe and nurturing environment that encourages them to participate * The importance of reminding students to practice the skills they have learned and apply it to all aspects of their life * How students will feel safe to participate in the world once they know who they are, where they stand, their principles and values, and what’s truly important to them. Students need to develop a strong core and allow this core to guide them * How to find true fulfillment and passion comes from serving others with one’s work * The importance of focusing on people and the dollars to make money
Ways to contact Bobbi: * Website: www.SuperCamp.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why planning ahead is essential for knowing whether to plan on promoting a specific range of your goods and services to a target audience or showcase all of your goods and services * How different vendors at trade shows design their displays, handle transactions, decide on the appropriateness of demonstrations, and determine their free draws * Ways to research trade shows to ensure that you attend shows that most closely match your intended demographics and expected audience * Why the credibility of the show and presence of big ticket draws or industry-based celebrities are strategic considerations when selecting trade shows * Importance of determining your break even and return on investment before confirming your booth space and traveling to a particular trade show * Why you should have any additional commitments or expectations, such as a corner or preferred booth space location or a special presentation or demonstration you offer to do, carefully spelled out in your agreement with the trade show organizers prior to confirming your involvement * How to budget accordingly for everything from rental space and electrical hookups to possible union worker requirements (such as for move-in and move-out from facilities) and other unexpected expenses * Why you should understand cancellation policies and possible penalties you may incur for not attending * Why items placed in goody bags are less effective than a well-planned free draw * How to save yourself frustration later by carefully reviewing contract documents from top to bottom * Reasons you should move your tables back and encourage traffic within your space * How to develop a free draw with impact and ways to use the contact information provided to perform immediate follow-ups (within 48 hours) that have a positive impact * Why you should engage attendees with open-ended questions as a way of attracting their interest as they approach your booth
Ways to contact Colin: * Events: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events
Lisa Dendwick is a wife & mother to 3 wonderful boys. Lisa enjoys creating her business in the eyewear industry.
Lisa — who has been in the business of helping people see for over 26 years — was at work one day when a woman came in distraught. The lady’s uncle had broken his hip and had ruined his glasses in the fall. Because this man had a very high prescription it was necessary to take measurements from him with his new frames. The company at which she worked was not set up to help the family. With broken hips it is possible that this man was not able to see his family clearly for the last weeks of his life, and that is where the idea for Everywhere Eyecare came from.
Lisa travels to homes, businesses, and seniors centres and provides glasses and eyewear maintenance to people all over Edmonton and the area. For Lisa, it is important that every person feels that they matter and that they can get the care they need, no matter their circumstances. As such Lisa has provided glasses for a whole range of people and has frame and lens choices that you will not find in stores. If you are local to her she is happy to set up an appointment for you.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How an unfortunate incident another person experiences allows us to assist them while also creating new opportunities for us to share our talents * Ways that those with skills to offer and enthusiasm to share can develop a successful mobile business with advance planning * Why ‘cheaper’ is not always better and why it is better to be known for the quality you offer rather than how cheaply you can do things * Reasons it is important to plan ahead, such as by developing your price list and choosing partners and associates carefully to assure there is synergy * How Lisa lives by this creed: “If it is to be, it’s up to me” * Why it is important to be consistent and always move forward as your goals evolve * Investing in supportive outsourced talent, such as accountants and lawyers who can guide you, is a wise decision * Why self-directed entrepreneurs must take care of their health since their livelihood depends on their wellbeing
Ways to contact Lisa: * Email: lisadendwick@gmail.com * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-dendwick-947b22b4 * Telephone: (780)278-9381 * Website: everywhereeyecare.ca * Twitter: @LisaDend
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The relationship between the habits we have in our lives and our ability to succeed at our goals * Why our choices help cement the habits in our lives, for better or worse * Why reading lots of books and watching videos on a topic is not all that there is to “learning,” especially if a person does not live what they learn * The importance of performing monotonous activities to bring in a flow of the monotonous money you want * Why the majority of people neither achieve their goals nor realize their dreams * Why poor habits have a cumulative effect over time (and why quick solutions do not eradicate them entirely) * Why we should determine which habits elevate us each day and which ones bring us down * How to break the “pandemic of negativity” and start getting the results we want * Why monotonous habits one does seven days a week are better if they bring us success than quick fixes ever will be * The reasons that the last thing you should do in your first few moments after waking up is check your cell phone or email * Ways that meditation, giving gratitude, and journaling your success keep you on the best path * How looking at your habits across all phases of your life — financial, spiritual, fitness-related, relationships — is an important step for those who want to move in a more successful direction * Why you need to go beyond learning great strategies by also having the great habits you need to put these strategies into your action plan
Ways to contact Colin: * Events: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events
Cameron Herold is the mastermind behind hundreds of companies’ exponential growth. Cameron’s built a dynamic consultancy – his current clients include a ‘Big 4’ wireless carrier and a monarchy. He earned his reputation as the business growth guru by guiding his clients to double their profit and double their revenue in just three years or less.
Rich Karlgaard, the current publisher of Forbes magazine, said that Cameron “is the best I’ve ever heard … he hits grand slams.” Cameron is the author of the global best selling business book “Double Double” which is in its 7th printing and has multiple translations around the world. He has three more books coming out this year.
Cameron is a top rated international speaker and has been paid to speak in 26 countries. He is also the top-rated lecturer at EO/MIT’s Entrepreneurial Masters Program and a powerful and effective speaker at Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer leadership events around the world.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How to plan your meetings so that your employees get more out of them * How to properly run meetings, as well as how to attend and participate in meetings run by others * How to gain control over your time and make money while being engaged and actually enjoying what you’re doing * How to grow a successful business * How to create an amazing company culture * The importance of looking into the future and imagining what you want your company to look and be like * The importance of only pursuing opportunities that will help you work towards your vivid vision for your company * The importance of sharing the vivid vision you have for your business with your employees * The role that duplication plays when it comes to founding and running successful businesses * The importance of automating, optimizing, and outsourcing for the success of your company
Ways to contact Cindy: * Book: Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less * Book: Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool For Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future * Twitter: @CameronHerold * Website: www.cameronherold.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How to sell more than you have ever sold before * The importance of confidence in everything you do, especially in business if you want to make sales (but one caveat: do not confuse confidence with arrogance) * Where Colin Sprake’s deep confidence came from so that he has been able to give presentations and speak to people * What it means for a person to buy you first and then buy what you’re selling, whether it’s a product or service * How to nurture a sense of confidence and enthusiasm in you through an odd-numbered step-by-step process and why it works * The difference between saying you are such-and-such person and you can help in some fashion versus you are such-and-such person and you have a seven-step program to get you where you need to be * How to create a system to attract clients: your name, the journey (step process), and the outcome you want for the client * How to think about the journey part of your process and how to use that to build long-term relationship with clients rather than clients that come and go * How to maintain clients using your step system by focusing the last step on how to get that client to return to you (in other words: how to implement a maintenance system as part of the step process) * How to sell your best asset: you
Ways to contact Colin: * Website: www.mymsuccess.com * Twitter: @ColinSprake * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/colinsprake
Cindy Webster started her career with Deloitte and worked in public accounting from 1987 until 2000. As she interviewed for partnership, she realized that she and her husband Scott were having a hard time finding work life balance while raising four young children. Cindy decided to leave Deloitte and join her husband Scott in their business, Scholar’s Choice.
Scott and Cindy had purchased Scholar’s Choice from Scott’s parents in 1998. Scholar’s Choice sells educational toys and teaching aids to parents, teachers, schools and child cares through catalogues, through their website and through 20 retail stores. Cindy joined the company with the focus of sales. She enjoyed working with people and building relationships so she focused on improving their catalogue sales with Schools, School Boards and Child Cares. They already had a controller who had been working with the company for over 25 years so she did not want to eliminate that role.
The transition from Public Accounting and working with peers to working in your own business was significant and not always easy but it did allow Scott and Cindy the flexibility they needed to raise their four children.
After a fraud in 2009, Cindy took over as the Chief Financial Officer. Due to the fraud, Scholar’s Choice had to restructure their business and had to go through the equivalent of Chapter 11 in Canada. The company negotiated a settlement with their creditors and then continued operating. At a high, the company operated 27 retail stores and now have 20 retail stores across Canada, two catalogues, one for schools and one for child cares as well as a website – www.scholarschoice.ca.
There have been many hurdles to overcome including health issues, negotiating financing, the volatile dollar and the general economic climate. Scott and Cindy have stayed the course and are stronger for it.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Dealing with cash flow issues, economic crashes, and business restructuring — what to do when your business goes wrong * Why you should always have business insurance, especially covering the principle members of your business * How to expand a business through integrity and transparency * Why it’s important to speak directly to vendors and clients and get ahead of any rumors * Why you should know your company’s numbers — and why you might not * How to develop a message that speaks directly to customers * How fear and tenacity can be valuable emotions in the pursuit of stability and success
Ways to contact Cindy: * Website: www.scholarschoice.ca
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you need to develop a process in order to get the results that you’re looking for * Affirmations and positivity help a little — but you need to really get into your feelings * Why people become fatigued when their positivity doesn’t lead to results * How to be mindful about your feelings, as they could clue you into important aspects of your business, finances, and employees * Why you should craft progressive statements, rather than mindlessly positive statements: “I am on the path to financial abundance” rather than “I am financially abundant” * How to align yourself better with your goals and the truth that you know in your gut, through the power of progressive statements * When feeling discouraged, visualize the end result of your actions, and focus on where you want to be rather than where you are * Knowledge is only the potential for power: implementation is where the power is at
Ways to Contact Colin: * Events: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events
Gerry Foster, a highly accomplished brand strategist, is the President of Gerry Foster Branding, a Brand Development and Training Company based in Los Angeles, CA. He is the creator of the Big Brand Formula which shows small business owners how to create a big brand, and a strong message that sells, so you can excite, delight, and ignite your market and make it easier to get new customers.
Known affectionately as the Branding Evangelist, Gerry is a dynamic, high energy, charismatic international speaker. His presentations, training, and coaching are not about doing more of the same, maintaining status quo, or playing small. He wants to assist, guide, and support owners who are willing to flip the script, go to the deep end of the pool, and turn the tables in their favor. Gerry believes this can be attained by creating brands so unexpected, so profound, and so striking … success to owners can only multiply over time.
Since starting his company full-time in 1985, Gerry has helped over 100,000 small businesses from over 600 different industries. A former brander with Procter & Gamble (P&G), he shows owners how to brand as the big companies do – combining the best in entrepreneurial branding with the best thinking, methods, and approaches from the world of big branders. The recipient of many business awards, in 2008 Gerry was honored as the Father of Business in Los Angeles County by the City of Los Angeles for his tireless and faithful work with small businesses.
Actively involved in education, Gerry was also an adjunct professor of branding, marketing and advertising for ten straight years at California State University – Fullerton, California State University – Long Beach, Pepperdine University, and the University of California – Irvine (UCI). At UCI Gerry co-founded the Marketing Communications Certificate Program, a distinguished program that has become extremely popular and successful for the university.
Gerry is a graduate of the University of Southern California, renown Marshall School of Business, where he received both his BS and MBA degrees with honors (cum laude) in marketing (with deep study in branding). His company website is www.GerryFosterBranding.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why brands are built strategically and involve more than visual elements, such as a logo * Why success in life is more than how good you are at what you do * The keys to developing a stand-alone brand that is truly different * How to build competitive advantage and persuade customers to believe you have what they want * How to uncover your distinct voice * How to Anchor your brand in its own brand DNA * Do you want to be “me, too”–one of many in a pack–or “me-only”? The answer is obvious, and re-branding takes us in the right direction * Know what differentiates you and your products in your market space. Stand out more and rebrand to increase sales * Understand that all of us can learn by putting aside our pride and letting others coach us * A successful enterprise strategically designs and re-designs its brand to obtain a maximum high-perceived value * How to regularly assess where your brand is strong, weak, and missing opportunities * Branding that gets you known and marketing that gets you found results in selling that gets you paid
Ways to contact Gerry: * www.GerryFosterBranding.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why networking is an important aspect of building a business, from attending seminars to going out and meeting high-quality people * Many people are not great at networking; they can build friendships and relationships, but they fail to monetize their networking successfully * WIN is a strategy for networking designed to help facilitate monetization, leading to more successful relationship building * How to if someone is ready to do business * How to know exactly what your goals are and keeping it in mind when you build relationships * The five-step message-building formula designed to build high-value relationships * The step-by-step method for meeting people for the first time, from step one to step eight
Ways to Contact Colin: * Events: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events
Matt Furlot joined the Back in Motion Team in August 2017 and is the Vice President of Health Services. A registered massage therapist since 1997, Matt has specialty credentials as a certified Sports Massage Therapist (SMT) as well as in Aquatic Therapy and Rehabilitation (ATRI). With a science background, Matt is a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s award for his achievements in Applied Sciences.
Matt has filled many executive and board roles with various professional associations and sports organizations over his career. From 2006-2010 Matt participated with the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) on the medical services team as a Medical Manager and Supervisor for the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics. Matt has also been a staff therapist with over 20 of Canada’s National Teams. He has worked in the NBA, CFL, MLS, and has traveled internationally with sports.
Matt has often been a keynote speaker at international conferences in sports, aquatic therapy, and business. A passion for sharing knowledge, Matt continues to teach each year at UBC in the Masters Physiotherapy Program, and has also developed continuing education courses in several different health professions.
In 2015, Matt shared the stage as a guest “Shark” with original NBC Shark Tank celebrity Kevin Harrington where he had over 50 entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to him. The same year, Matt co-authored the book “Entrepreneur Success Stories,” which became a #1 Amazon Bestseller in all book categories.
Legacies Health Centre (LEGACIES) was founded by Matt in 2006 and is now a subsidiary of Back in Motion. This unique brand of private healthcare brings together an interdisciplinary team of health professionals, with a united focus to help the patient get better, faster. LEGACIES has been the official choice of the CFL’s BC Lions since 2006. Focused on delivering exceptional care to the people in the community, LEGACIES are the only private allied-health clinics in Canada with a lowest cost guarantee.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The importance of systems and why you need to get them down on paper * The four steps for creating a system * Why you need to keep your system simple and how to verify if it works when someone else uses it * Why your business becomes more valuable once you systematize it * Getting employee buy in with systems * How building systems leads to the freedom you get into entrepreneurship for * The impact of using systems to measure things in your business * Why you have to take action to get results in your business
Ways to contact Matt: * Email: mattfurlot@gmail.com * Twitter: @LegaciesMatt * Facebook: www.facebook.com/matt.furlot * Website: www.legacieshealthcentre.ca
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why your subconscious mind is the most powerful computer on the planet * Putting the right stuff on your subconscious hard drive * Why if you tell yourself negative things, you will believe them * Why you should write “I’m awesome at…” on your bathroom mirror and fill it out with 10+ things in your business every day * Why you need to look yourself in the eye when putting what you’re good at on the mirror * Using this strategy for other areas of your life besides business * Brainstorming what’s most important in your life that you need to work on to put on your mirror * Why you need to do this process for 30 days consecutively * Getting different results by putting different things on your hard drive * Being positive about money and what kinds of things you should put on your hard drive about money
Resources: * Events: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events
Peter Bond is a seasoned Chartered Professional Accountant with over 25 years’ experience. As the founder of the firm, his primary role is to provide assurance and consulting services to both corporations and individuals. Peter commits to building long-term relationships that focus on helping his clients achieve their goals. His own experience as a business owner and extensive experience working with diverse organizations and individuals has honed a particular strength in applying practical and innovative solutions to financial and accounting operations and challenges.
Originally from South Africa, Peter has been immersed in Canadian public practice for the past 24 years and has successfully prepared financial statements and tax returns for a wide variety of organizations. His experience in assurance services includes companies in the real estate, high tech, service and manufacturing industries. Peter also performs tax and accounting services for organizations and individuals in diverse industries.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you absolutely must have a mentor and what a good mentor does * If you’re a visionary or integrator, finding the other person to balance out your skills * Making sure your values align with someone before entering into a partnership with them * The right and wrong reasons to enter into a partnership * Why you need strong partnership agreements * Navigating the different needs partners have for a business relationship and why these can change over time * Why you need a great accounting system and a budget to always see where you are * Keeping a regular track of your cash — in and out — and adjusting when the numbers aren’t trending in the right direction * Marketing: why most technical people don’t do enough and why you need to focus on it * Spending your time on your personal time management
Ways to contact Peter: * Email: pbond@facetadvisors.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you can’t say “I don’t like sales” * The OCD process: open, close, and deliver * The five step process for selling: enter into a conversation, ask questions and listen, find out what the problem is, give a solution, and take an order * Why people usually mess up sales by talking too much * Why yes or no questions are bad in sales * The alternate close: giving people two options to pick from that doesn’t give them the opportunity to say “no” * Other closes like the adjournment close, the assumptive close, best time close, the compliment close, the testimonial close, and the bonus close and how to use them * Under promising and over delivering to make your clients happy
Resources: * Phone: 1-844-560-5609 to learn about our event tomorrow
Tom MacDonald is in business to be with and support free enterprise. He has, since his military career, wanted to protect and defend smaller businesses from giants like Telus and Bell. While they earn billions in profits – some to shareholders, most to the bank, ask yourself, where does it come from? Small Businesses. Family Businesses. People that work too hard and fail too often. Why? One reason is that HUGE companies cannot and do not have their interests aligned with both their customers AND their shareholders! Alternatives exist rather than supporting Telecom Companies with your hard earned money. Tom has challenged BC TEL / Telus for over 25 years, Nortel too.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * The fight Tom had against the big phone companies at the beginning of his business where people picketed his business and smashed in his headlights * Why downsizing is happening in technology companies right now * The rate technology is changing right now and why you have to embrace that * You only have one life: how Tom’s life changed after a motorcycle accident that was supposed to leave him unable to walk * Why you need to get a mentor in your life as soon as you possibly can * Why you need to desire to be better and then seek out people who are better than you in the specific areas you want to be better in * Wisdom = knowledge + experience * Health, relationships, and money: why you need mentors in all three of these categories * Get to know yourself: why you need to follow your heart * Seek answers: why you need to be perennially thirsty for knowledge * Why you need to network with people who are better than you are * The power of setting goals * Building your company to sell — no matter if you have plans to sell it soon or not
Ways to contact Tom: * Website: www.tmsi.ca * Facebook: www.facebook.com/TMSI.Telephony1.800.667.2818 * LinkedIn: Who is Tom MacDonald? * YouTube Videos: How Do I? * The Extreme Business Talk Show with Tom MacDonald, Telecom Entrepreneur – CKPM 98.7FM 8:30am PST every Saturday – www.CKPMFM.com (to stream LIVE)
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you’re either one choice away from being massively successful or one choice away from being broke * Are the choices you’re making on a daily basis the ones that will get you to the next level of success? * How the choices you make every morning impact your entire day * Why we draw beliefs from every situation — even if those beliefs aren’t accurate * Verify and clarify: making sure the beliefs you draw from a situation are actually accurate * Why your kids want more time from you (and why you need to make the choices so they actually get that) * Examples of times where not verifying and clarifying leads to negative situations * Making the choice when someone stops doing business with you that will make them want to come back one day — not avoid you forever * When someone misses an important meeting or walks out from your event or any other similar situation, it’s usually not about you at all and you would realize this if you would verify and clarify * Why you need to think about the beliefs you’re drawing around different situations in your life right now and verify and clarify those beliefs
Resources: * Events: www.mymsuccess.com/live-events
Ken Honda was born in Kobe, Japan and currently lives in Tokyo with his wife and daughter.
After graduating from one of Japan’s leading private institutions, he soon became a financial specialist who owns and manages several businesses including an accounting company, a management consulting firm, and a venture capital corporation.
He started writing books about life work, life balance, wealth, and happiness in his early 30s. Currently, over 7 million copies of more than 115 published titles have been sold, and Ken’s readership is estimated to be 1 in 20 Japanese people.
He is also a successful professional speaker who has presented more than 200 seminars in Japan, Korea, China, and America.
In 2018, his books will be translated and published in more than 20 countries, including an original English-language book to be published in America.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Ken’s background that includes being the author of over 50 original books * Finding your gifts and what you love and building a business around those to achieve financial independence * Why appreciating money both when it comes and goes is the key to financial success (and why you need to say “thank you, thank you, thank you” constantly) * How Make Your Mark uses Ken’s “Happy Money” strategy to change the attitude around our office * Why you must remember that the money you have in your wallet was given to you by someone who trusts you * How every time you spend money gives you the opportunity to bless the world * How to achieve financial independence in three years by building a system that multiplies your gifts (and why you need to combine at least three gifts) * Building a fan club that pays even more for your services because they love you * How the global community gives you access to 10 times the number of people than if you just focused locally * Passion: the most important thing in every area of your life and why you can’t make it in business without it * Ken’s English language courses that are coming soon
Ways to contact Ken: * Website: www.kenhonda.tokyo
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What does it cost you to bring one client on board? This is your client acquisition cost * Which costs go into client acquisition costs and which are other costs (like overhead) * New sales from old clients: why costs related to these sales are NOT client acquisition costs * Using client acquisition costs to determine your pricing * Building a referral program to bring in clients at a much lower cost than your client acquisition cost * The importance of keeping track of your hours — even if you’re not paying yourself yet in your business * What to do if your client acquisition costs exceed the price of your product or service * Why every business needs a referral program * The problem with most referral programs: they don’t pay enough for a referral * Why you should never pay out a referral fee until a prospect becomes a paying customer
Matt Hanlon is an entrepreneur at heart. He collected his last paycheck at age 20 in 2004 and has been working on his own projects ever since. He started Kays Contracting in 2006 as a one-person show with the objective of delivering quality service to his customers. Timeliness, accountability, and honesty were keys to their success.
Over the past decade, Kays Contracting’s scope of work has grown and projects have become increasing interestingly and complex. The company has increased its revenue by 20 times over their first year in business. More importantly, they have maintained profitability through the steady growth. His company employs seven full-time staff members and has a large network of customers, subcontractors, and suppliers that they work with closely every day.
As an individual and a business owner, Matt is always open to new possibilities and challenges. Make Your Mark and the KAP-IT program are part of what he does to push the boundaries and keep moving upwards and forward.
Matt has become a family man in the last two years and the adventures with his wife and son have changed his outlook and focus and given him new inspiration.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How to protect your reputation so that you continue to get great business * Verify and clarify: what you need to do when something goes wrong and you have to fix a mistake with a customer * Being comfortable with being uncomfortable: why this is so important for the growth of your company * Bringing people into your company and delegating tasks to them so that your time is spent doing the tasks only you can do * Developing the trust needed to delegate tasks to employees * Why your employees need to buy into your vision and your core values * The importance of communication with both your team and your customers
Ways to contact Matt: * Website: www.kayscontracting.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Assessing your New Year’s resolutions…have you made those your habits and have they stuck? * Why the way to get rid of a bad habit is to replace it with a new habit * The most important time of the day: right after you wake up and right before your go to bed * Why you have to do your habits every single day (not twice a week!) * Colin’s nightly routine that you can use in your own life to set yourself up for success * The importance of saying thank you for the day ahead and the day to come each night * Programming your subconscious mind for a wealth mindset * Why you shouldn’t look at your phone or any other screen right before you go to bed after you wake up * Planning out your week at the beginning of the week and not going into a day without a plan * Why what you do every day has to be in alignment with your goals for the year * Stress: why this comes from bad planning
Dr. Bradley Nelson is a holistic Chiropractic Physician, a Medical Intuitive, and one of the world’s foremost experts in the emerging fields of Bioenergetic Medicine and Energy Psychology. His bestselling book “The Emotion Code” is helping people all over the world to improve their lives easily and quickly.
Users of The Emotion Code have found freedom from emotional problems such as depression and anxiety, as well as physical problems including fatigue, pain, and disease. A key element of The Emotion Code is removing emotional energies that have clustered around the heart, interfering with one’s ability to find love and success.
Dr. Nelson has coined this cluster of emotions the “Heart-Wall™,” and it has been called “the most important discovery in the history of energy medicine.” He has trained thousands of practitioners worldwide to help people overcome unresolved anger, depression, anxiety, loneliness and other negative emotions and the physical symptoms associated with them.
Download a free copy of The Emotion Code in both audio and PDF versions, including step-by-step instructions for working with the body’s healing power at www.EmotionCodeGift.com.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Dr. Nelson’s background that includes 17 years as a holistic physician * Why he believes asking for help from up above led him to be better to heal people who had been told there was no cure for them in Western medicine * Why anything in your life that you’re unhappy with (physical pain, infertility, asthma, depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc.) or you can’t seem to break out and reach the success that you’re capable are all symptoms of the unbalances inside of us that are predominantly emotional imbalances * Dr. Nelson’s book “The Emotion Code” * Why the key to change is inside of us * The problem with thinking there’s an external solution for every problem (whether that is medicine or just success in business) * The untapped power of the subconscious mind * How internal baggage holds us back * The sway test: a way to tap into your subconscious mind that Dr. Nelson takes us through today * How to use The Emotion Code to find your emotional baggage and eliminate it
Resources: * The Emotion Code: www.EmotionCodeGift.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why you can’t afford to ignore your numbers as a business owner * The fallacy that business owners can have problems with their personal finance and expect to do well financially in their business * Revenue: the money that you bring in * Cost of goods: the time and materials it takes to create your product or service * Gross profit = revenue – cost of goods * Net profit = gross profit – overhead * The difference between fixed and variable costs and examples of each inside your business * Why you pay your bills from gross profit (not revenue) and why you can’t expect to pay for a $40,000 employee with $40,000 in revenue * Break even = total overhead (variable and fixed costs) ÷ gross margin (gross profit as a percentage) * Why you need to understand your break even point before making any financial decisions
Steve Prestage is the President / CEO of I.T. Ideas Inc – a full service IT Service provider focused primarily on empowering non-profit and charity based organizations for sustainability and success! Steve has been a business owner for 20 years and has almost 30 years of experience in Information Technology. Much of that time was spent working extensively with non-profit and charitable organizations in BC. Steve is also a successful investor, a sailor, and plays trumpet for many pro-amateur groups around town.
Steve has identified a huge demand for education and awareness about all aspects of IT, especially for non-profit and charitable organizations. More than 80% of these organizations don’t have a written IT plan, and many organizations are completely unaware that they are one technical crisis away from closing their doors forever. Most charities and non-profits are not directly awarded funding for IT and are therefore left to fend for themselves. The result is a massive waste of dollars and a loss of potential for leveraging technology to streamline productivity, implement better programs, and to effectively engage valuable volunteer resources. This means that at the end of the day, money and resources are not flowing to the programs that are required by those in society who depend on them the most. Steve and his team are absolutely passionate about educating and creating awareness as to how to solve these challenges, while supporting and empowering those organizations who are willing to go the distance!
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How I.T. Ideas was born when Steve decided to start his own business * The challenges Steve faced in growing his business that forced his income to drop to 30% * The resources that he found that helped him finally realize what he needed to see I.T. Ideas grow to where it is today * Why you can’t expect to clone yourself and be successful * Self-awareness and self-observation: why you need to figure out what you’re good at and what you’re not so that you can find the help that you need * The importance of consistent education (and why Steve is a big fan of attending live events) * Going above and beyond for your clients and fixing problems when something goes wrong * How supporting your peers will give you abundance in return
Ways to contact Steve: * Website: www.itideas.com * Facebook: www.facebook.com/itideasinc * Twitter: @ITIdeasInc * DattoDrive Offer: itideas.lpages.co/dattodrivesep2017
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why so many people are simply interested in growth (and why you must be COMMITTED instead) * Getting your head and heart into the game * Why the timeline we set for ourselves on our goals are often unrealistic * Limiting foundational beliefs: the things you tell yourself that hold you back * Progressive statements: things you can tell yourself instead of limiting beliefs that your mind understands and how this rewires your brain
Yanik Silver redefines how business is played in the 21st century at the intersection of more profits, more fun, and more impact.
He is the founder of Maverick1000, the Co-Founder of Maverick NEXT and is often referred to as the Catalyst for Catalysts.
Yanik is also a member of the Transformational Leadership Council and serves on the Constellation board for Virgin Unite, the entrepreneurial foundation of the Virgin Group and the Branson family. His lifetime goal is to connect visionary leaders and game changers to catalyze business models and new ideas for solving 100 of the world’s most impactful issues by the year 2100.
In between checking off items on his Ultimate Big Life List, he calls Potomac, Maryland, home with his wife, Missy, and two mini-maverick adventurers in the making, Zack and Zoe.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Reflecting internally and finding out what gives you purpose * How your life changes through the books you read, the materials you study, the people you meet, and the experiences you have * Just in time mentors: the mentors that help you get to the next step that don’t need to mentor you forever * Why you need to have a deep alignment of values with your mentor * How to find mentors and what to do so they’ll want to mentor with you * What makes for a bad mentee and how to avoid this when you find a mentor * The journey it takes to find what truly motivates you — and — once you’ve found it — why you have to put your whole heart and soul into it
Ways to contact Yanik: * Book: “Evolved Enterprise” * Blog: yaniksilver.com
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Freedom Plan = Business Plan + Life Plan * Why freedom isn’t just about making more money * How much is enough? * Why I plan out my vacations and take off 3-4 months off a year * Business Plan = Sales + Marketing + Operations + Profitability * How to use your Business Plan to plan out the next 12 months (and what to write down for each of the four categories) * Life Plan: what kind of short, medium, and long-term goals to write down in your plan
Marlyna Los is a Master Level Feng Shui and Metaphysics Expert and Spiritual Teacher who shares her knowledge and insights for life and living in clear and simple ways. She has 20+ years of experience and training with 11 Feng Shui Masters. She was honored with the title of Master herself in 2006 and is known for her ability to merge ancient metaphysical teachings with spiritual, psychological, Western thinking and practical application. Based in the Vancouver area, she travels internationally to teach and support clients. She specializes in Feng Shui for businesses and entrepreneurs.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * What Feng Shui is and why it really matters for business owners * How the way you have your office laid out dramatically affects the success of your business * Different types of energies that can be at odds with each other and how to manipulate them correctly * Why people typically choose what’s familiar (even if that choice negatively impacts them) * How artwork impacts the subconscious * Understanding the superpowers and weaknesses that you’re born with * Why it takes time to get used to spaces that match your goals * The science behind Feng Shui * Why good business systems are just as important as good Feng Shui
Ways to contact Marlyna: * Website: fengshuiconsulting.info * Email: marlyna@fengshuiconsulting.info
Colin Sprake is a four-time best-selling author and mentor to over 47,000 entrepreneurs!
Colin has built several different million dollar businesses within 6 months. He has over 30 years of business experience having come from the mining industry to building his own multi-million dollar businesses from the ground up.
A dedicated teacher, Colin is the Master Trainer at Make Your Mark Training and Consulting and is devoted to people achieving huge success in their businesses. His purpose is to assist business owners to dramatically improve the number of businesses that succeed. After all, failing businesses affect us all in negative ways.
Using decades of business experience, Colin speaks and trains on a wide variety of topics for corporations, organizations & associations. Colin Sprake is all about delivering what is required to achieve the desired result and holding you accountable for your own success.
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * Why every word you say or think is critical to your success or failure * “What you feel is what you reveal”: why positive words make you feel better than negative words do * The danger of negative beliefs like “bad things come in three’s” * Learning from and looking for opportunity in every situation * I → T → F → A = R: the Life Formula * Paying attention to the influences in every area of your life * Trusting your gut and getting your head and heart in alignment * The importance of giving gratitude every single day and being careful of wanting for too many things
Levi Sanford is widely regarded as a global leader in direct response advertising, lead generation, and online conversion strategy. He transforms online advertising campaigns for the world’s most influential entrepreneurs and brands in over 47 industries across 5 continents, spending over $30 million and receiving over 53 billion ad impressions in the past 5 years alone.
Levi believes that we can truly solve the world’s problems through effective campaigning. Levi’s mission is to help people who may be on their last dollar or last day of hope find a way to improve their businesses and improve their lives so they can fulfill their purpose and destiny in life. Levi enjoys using his passion for creativity in everything he does and loves spending time with his wife Emily and their beautiful pet capybara!
What you’ll learn about in this episode: * How Levi’s company ‘We Fill Events’ helps people make an impact on the world by giving their message a greater reach through a system of advertising through landing pages and Facebook ads * The Lead Relationship Development System: a stick sequence that gets people to show up to your event * Start with “why”: this powerful lesson that Levi learned from attending one of Colin’s Mastery events and how it made him heart-based, customer-focused, and mission-centric * Focusing on what matters for your business so you don’t spread yourself too thin * The importance of developing new skills to reach the next level in your business * Why your mission can only be accomplished with a strong team and network and why you have to let go and delegate
Ways to contact Levi: * Website: www.wefillevents.com
Welcome, everyone. It’s Colin Sprake here with MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth with myself, Colin Sprake, and I am talking around business today. Really getting you into thinking a little bit differently has been awesome. Now, we have those sessions just devoted to mindsets and getting you on the right page, doing the right thing. We’ve had some really amazing guests on the show as well.
Today’s episode, and I want you to really think about this, is about probably the most disliked, four-letter word for most business owners, and that’s the word plan. So, today, I’m going to rock and roll you and get you thinking about how to put a really effective plan together. I want you to think about this in absolute detail. I am going to get you to hit it right on the head, get going, and get you growing.
A transcript of this episode is available here: https://mymyourbusiness.com/podcasts/solocast-7/
Glen Grant is the owner and lead consultant for HRfx Consulting, a boutique consulting firm that provides human resource consulting services to small and mid-sized organizations. Over the last 8 years, he and his team have helped lots of small businesses across Canada better manage their most valuable asset, their employees.
With over 25 years of HR leadership and consulting experience and a specialization in organizational effectiveness and strategy, Glen brings a corporate background to helping small business that have employees but not a dedicated HR resource. Glen works with a variety of organizations to improve their management practices and ensure they can attract and retain the people critical to their success. Working closely with his clients, he develops innovative solutions to their unique people issues.
Glen is a certified HR professional in Canada, the US and on a Global basis. He currently serves as the Board Chair for Habitat for Humanity in Vancouver.
A transcript of this episode is available here:https://mymyourbusiness.com/podcasts/glen-grant/
Hi. This is Colin Sprake, and welcome to MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth, with myself, Colin Sprake. This week I am having a bunch of fun, because I’m going to walk you through one of the most powerful topics: getting right inside your head. My goal today is for you to be thinking differently by the time you get done with this podcast, and remember one thing: when we wake up every single day, the most important thing we have is our attitude.
A transcript of this episode is available here: https://mymyourbusiness.com/podcasts/solocast-6/
Mike Koenigs’ passion and obsession as Chief Disruptasaurus of You Everywhere Now is helping entrepreneurs and business owners get attention, get found, seen, heard, watched and read on any device, anytime, anywhere and on demand so that they can start and grow profitable businesses, become bestselling authors, highly-paid coaches, consultants and advisors, in-demand speakers and information marketers.
Mike is a 12-time #1 bestselling author, interactive online TV producer, “Marketer of the Year”, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, filmmaker, international speaker and patented inventor. Mike built and sold his last two businesses to publicly-traded companies, his most recent exit was selling Traffic Geyser and Instant Customer. His first exit, Digital Cafe, was sold to the publicly-traded Interpublic Group in 1999.
Mike Koenigs knows what a pain in the ass really is – he’s a recent stage 3a colorectal cancer survivor! After completing 9 months of chemotherapy and 33 radiation treatments, his doctors say he’s healthy and cancer-free.
It’s not all about the money, an active philanthropist, Mike has raised over $2.4mm for the “Just Like My Child” foundation.
Mike has interviewed, consulted, and advised celebrity clients and bestselling authors including Tony Robbins, Paula Abdul, Richard Dreyfuss, JJ Virgin, John Assaraf, Brian Tracy, Xprize founder Peter Diamandis, Jorge Cruise, Harvey Mackay, Daniel Amen, and former publisher of Success Magazine, Darren Hardy.
Originally from Minnesota, Mike lives in San Diego, CA with his wife Vivian and 15 year old son, Zak. Mike loves electric cars, the ocean, flying drones and playing the “didgeridoo.”
A transcript of this episode is available here: https://mymyourbusiness.com/podcasts/mike-koenigs/
Hi, it’s great to have you back, and thank you for listening. By the way, if you’re really getting a ton of value from these shows and lots of benefit, please make sure you’re giving me really good ratings and really good reviews on iTunes. I sincerely appreciate them. I am here devoted to you so we can MYM your business and get you to the next level. So what I give you, and it’ll always be this way, is the complete, brutal truth from me around how to get ahead. I have been at this so much listening to other trainers and how other people do things.
One thing I’ll always be honest with you is, how to do things, how to get ahead, and how to get yourself to that place where you really, really want your business to be. So, welcome to this show. I cannot wait to walk you through some really cool things here today. Make sure you’ve got a pen and paper ready and make some notes. There’s going to be great information. If you’re traveling or mobile while listening to this, remember, it’s great to listen to this, but I always request, remember, knowledge is not power. It’s potential power. Implementation is where the power is. That’s how you get ahead and get the results you’re looking for.
I am not here for you to listen and say, “That was a great show, Colin.” I want you to say, “Great show, I’m going to implement. I got great results.” That’s when you get ahead, because that’s what I truly want for you as you grow your business, grow your mindset, and get yourself and your family to that next level so you can live the lifestyle that you want, have the time off that you deserve, make the money that you want, and finally get to that awesome destination. Sometimes achieving what you thought impossible will become possible by listening to this amazing podcast.
So let’s get into today. Today, I am talking about sales, one of my favorite, favorite topics. If you don’t like sales, I’m going to ask you to think very differently about sales, today. Let me give you an example of this. Some people said to me, “Colin, I hate sales and sleazy, horrible sales people.” Remember one thing, sales is very simple. I want you to think about this. Sales is all about relationships. At my own events, I’ll often ask the question, “How many of you are in a relationship? Married? Dating, or what have you?”
A full transcript of this episode is available here: https://mymyourbusiness.com/podcasts/solocast-5/
Steve Long is the expert on success in the business world. He is a business coach for high-income/net-worth individuals as well as keynote speaker, world sailor and author of the the book "Sail Free."
He is the no BS guy that lives by his Bucket List and makes sure his clients get what they want from life.
Steve also offers online training as well as exclusive motivational retreats on his catamarans in the Caribbeans. For the past 4 years, he has been training coaches to help him widen his audience.
Hi, it's Colin Sprake here, and I'm super excited because on our show today I've got Steve Long with me. Now let me tell you a little bit about this gentleman. He's grown some amazing businesses, sold businesses, very successful at what he does, and he's going to tell you the brutal truth about what's really helped him grow and get to where he is in life today and some of the key things he's done. Some of these things he's going to tell you today, you might think, "Well, that's not really business-related," but it really is business-related because your personal life really impacts your business life in terms of how you do things, what you want to achieve in your life. It's not always just about achieving or making money in your business. That gives you the cash to do what you want to do.
So I'm going to get going with Steve here today, and one thing I want you to think about, for all you listeners out there, is make sure that you are really open. You might be in your car right now. You might be listening to this while you're running, jogging, whatever it might be. Remember, I'm all about take action. Because if you don't take action, this podcast is absolutely useless for you. Remember, knowledge is only potential power. Implementation is power.
So I'm really excited to have Steve Long with me. Steve's from Montreal. You'll hear he's got a beautiful accent, a good French accent all the way from Quebec. But the key thing I want you to understand, too, is that I met Steve not just from through our associations, what have you, I met him at the National Speakers Association at Influence 2017 down in Orlando, and we connected. I was on stage. I did one of the main presentations on stage, and then I got to connect with Steve afterwards, had a glass of wine with him, we got chatting, and we've formed a friendship since then. For me, this man is extremely good at what he does, so welcome, Steve.
Thank you, Colin. Thanks for having on your podcast. I am very happy to be with you, so good to be with you.
Yeah, it's great. It's great to have you with me. So, Steve, tell me, let's give the listeners a little bit more overview of who you are, what you've done, so people can really understand who this man is that they're going to be able to listen to today who's going to give them some solid gold strategies on getting their lives and businesses to the next level.
Sure, man. Thank you. Basically, I'm 45 now. I've been doing some business since as long as I can remember. I'd say around age 17 I started my first businesses ideas, and that converted, eventually, to my first business around 23 years old where I owned a service provider Internet, right before even the cable companies and the telephone company would be interested in the Internet. I actually sold that company a couple months later, not even a year later, but I sold it for 1.5 million dollars to a cable company that wanted to buy it to sell alarms to these people. Eventually, they closed that Internet company. You would not believe what happened. They closed it because they thought there were no future in the Internet.
Wow, you serious?
Yeah, totally. So I opened the business. Nine months later, I got approached by that company. I had grown 5000 clients within those nine months, and the business, which is exploding. We just were barely able to keep up with the demand. Then this alarm company that owned some cable businesses came to us and then asked to buy us and so forth. So, eventually, we did the transaction, sold the company, and then I moved on to another company. I built a company in the chemical product industry for pools, which I sold roughly a year and seven months later for three million roughly. Then, I kept on going on that track. I was personally introduced to the business world by the insurance companies. I used to work for Prudential of America, and that company showed me a lot. This is where I started to understand the whole picture about business, and then I did very, very well as a salesperson in the first few months of my career in insurance.
Then I was pushed by company towards a class that was a mastermind by all the top agents from Prudential in Canada that would sell in Toronto, and at that point, we were put into contact with a guy that was a master of building goal lists, and that's how he introduced himself. You have to put yourself into context. We were a bunch of young guys, most of us were guys. Maybe out of ten or fifteen participants, maybe one or two ladies, and everyone else were guys. Then we have this guy that shows up with a super suit, tailor-made. He's so confident, and we're all impressed by his presence and how strong he looks in front of us. He looked at us and said, "Out of all that room, there's going to be maybe one or two who are going to go and have a career in that business and go somewhere, and who says it's going to be you?" Then we're all waiting. "What is he going to say?" Then, eventually, he tells us, "By tonight, when midnight clocks arrive, then one of you might have draw his and write down his goal list, and if he does it correctly, there is a slight chance he will get that goal list done."
So that's how I heard about that goal list thing. I had never thought about even having a goal list. So he put it into something that was very structured. You have to write three short-term, three longer-term, and then four very long-term goals, and you have to describe them. So there's no goal-writing like, "I want to buy a car" or "I want a car." You have to write, "I want a black Camaro. It's going to be a 2017. I'm going to pay $57,000 for that car. I'll buy it at that distributor or that car dealership, and I'll go with my girlfriend, and I'll probably take her for a lunch at whatever restaurant afterwards." He really took us in the system of making a story out of each goal.
This goal was super specific.
Oh, yeah.
It wasn't a fluffy goal. So I want our listeners to understand this. What Steve's talking about here is a bucket list of some of the things you wanted to achieve maybe three years, five years, a super long time out, what have you. But, listen, I want you to hear this. What Steve's saying, and you've heard this from me many times, is be specific about your goals. Because you can say, "I want to get a new car," but if you're driving a Pinto today, your new car might be a Honda Civic. If that's not what you want, then be very specific. Is that what you're saying?
Absolutely, and it has to be, deep down in yourself, what you truly see. You have to close your eyes and just think about that goal that you really want to reach and make sure you write it down. No computer typing, it has to be done by hand. And, usually, the real people that I teach today, and that's a program that I promote a lot, and I do a keynote about that: live your life by the bucket list. This is what we call it. And when you're really in deep into this, you get to a point where that bucket list is part of you, and then you carry it always with you every time. If maybe you cannot have it with you, you'll have a picture of it in your phone, but you will still carry it with you.
So you carry it, but then do you look at it regularly every day? Is it a routine that you say, "Yeah, I look it every morning. I look at it every evening before I go to bed." Is there a routine around it as well? What's the process?
My first list filled an eight-and-a-half by four-and-a-half inch page. It was very small paper, and it was totally destroyed. I still have a picture of it, actually, with all the teacup marks on it and all of this. The corners are all bent and everything. It looks super ugly. I still have a picture of it now.
My first goal was fairly easy because, just to take you back to that story of that mastermind, the guy tells us, "You have to sit down and put your goals into writing. Be very specific. I don't want to have any excuses. Either you do it or don't do it or don't do it right." That night I was supposed to go party, actually, with the other boys from the convention, and we decided that I would go and I would stay in my room, and I decided that night, also, I'll do my goals.
So my first goal was fairly easy. It was to buy a Montblanc pen. At that point, I was very early in the business system. Then my second goal was to buy a watch and then buy a motorcycle, pay for my lease, for my car and so forth. My ninth goal was to retire before age 50. My tenth goal was to retire on a sailboat. That was something that I was passionate about when I was young. I went to some summer camp, and I was passionate about sailboats, so I wanted to retire and probably take retirement on a sailboat.
Wait a minute. So I know you well enough, and you're 45 now, but that stuff's already happened.
Oh, yeah.
So, yes, you've got the sailboat, you've traveled around the world, you've done some amazing things with your beautiful wife, Chantal. What accelerated those goals for you? Because I know that you're not 50 yet and you've achieved that goal.
Absolutely.
I know that money wasn't really an issue for you by 30. You had achieved so many goals. So I want you to really dig into that and tell me what got you there quicker. Because I want listeners to realize, Steve's done something. He's not better than anyone else. Because he's French doesn't mean he gets there quicker than anyone else. It doesn't matter what your color of your skin is, what your nationality is. What got you there quicker? What do you believe got you to these goals a lot quicker? Because, by 30, you didn't have to think about things. You were financially set. In fact, I remember chatting with you, and you said, by 36, you were bored out of your skull because you were retired.
My first requirement was over at 36, actually. So, basically, I began the bucket list thing, I was 22 or 23 maybe, and then I just started knocking these goals. The first one was a $450 pen, and that came three weeks after I wrote that down. It's like going to, with your shopping cart, do your grocery shopping because you have some spaghetti sauce to buy and you know you need the meat, you need the tomato juice and so forth. So everything you need, you pick up, and you knock it off the list, and that's how I saw things. And, nowadays, I can tell you, I do some work with some clients, and I tell them, "Tonight, get a piece of paper and a pen," and sometimes, in the morning after, I'll ask them, "How have you done?" "Oh, I couldn't find a paper," "I couldn't find a pen," or "I couldn't find the time."
They're full of excuses.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. A boatload of excuses.
And I know you hate excuses. You're the non-excuse guy, cut through the BS, do what you need to get done, am I right?
Totally. I cannot stand for people who do not do what they said they would do.
So, listeners, I want you to listen to this because you're sitting there thinking, "Well, this guy's achieved stuff." Yes, because he took action. He pretty much put his pen to paper to get what he needed to do, and there wasn't any excuse. "I was tired." He could've gone out with buddies to the bar that night or whatever at the convention, or wherever they went, maybe out for dinner, whatever they're going to go do. But he took the time to go, "Screw it. I want to be different to them. I want to be ahead. I'm going to be retired by 30. I'm not screwing around, wondering where my life's going to be by the time I'm 30 because I want to go out in the evening with my friends."
What it really takes, what it tells me about you and who you are, you are not easily led by other people. You're not led astray. You have your goals set, and you want to fricking achieve them. Listeners, I want you to hear this. Steve is one of those driven individuals that will get what he wants, and he won't be taken off-course for other people. So can you talk to them a little bit about who you are and the kind of people that are in your life right now? Do you have people in your life right now that tend to take you off-course or they're holding you to a higher place in where you want to be?
If you let me go through this system of the goal list, then, eventually, I was able to clear my house, buy a motorcycle. Things were just happening so quickly. I was reverse-engineering everything, and I was like, "I need the house, I need the retirement before 50," and I was doing some math and things were happening so quickly that I couldn't even believe it, that writing down those things would make them happen so quickly. I had only one thing in my mind, that it was like, "This guy with his suit and his attitude, man, he was right. Just do it. Just write it down and start with the first one, and then you'll go and knock out one after the other."
That's exactly what I did, and at some point, I reached a point where at 30 years old, I was ready to retire and I had a couple million packed in the bank account. Then the only goal left was to go sailing around the world on a sailboat. You know the difference between a monohull, a catamaran, and a trimaran? So monohull has one hull, and a catamaran has two, and a trimaran has three. I wanted to have that. That was the thing I really wanted was a trimaran, so I shopped around the world to find trimarans. I couldn't find one, so, eventually, I decided to build it. So I hired a full crew, and I hired a naval engineer, and I did some drawing with him, and, eventually, he would build the plan, and then we started building the boat. We took three and half years to build it.
Wait, so let me ask something. You've never built a boat in your life before?
No.
You never studied how to build a boat?
Not even repairing a canoe.
Wow, and so now you're building a trimaran.
Yeah. It’s 65 feet long by 60 feet wide, so it's as big as a tennis court. It would weigh 17 tons. I did that without prior experience, but I did teach myself. Because as soon as I was ready to retire and I said, "Yeah, I want to go around the world with a trimaran," I realized that I couldn't get it as easy as I wanted. So I said, "I'll have to work hard," and then I began a second goal list at that point.
So a second bucket list? Okay.
Exactly.
Goal list, bucket list, whatever, but really detailed. Listen again, listeners, this is not he wrote down a few goals to achieve. He wrote down detailed goals of what he wanted to achieve. So keep on going. Sorry.
The first list was 10 goals because the guy told us to do ten. I said, "Well, I have my independence. I'll do my own stuff now." So I decided to put it up, a 22-goal list, and then I went through that one within less than seven years, actually. I'm working on a 33-goal list right now. I'm eight goals shy of the 33, basically.
So you would say, for people listening, is get the goal list done. Don't think how you're going to achieve it.
Ever.
Write it down first, what you want to achieve, whatever it is. I went for a walk on the beach today, which was really cool and I really enjoyed that, and you're talking about these five homes that you want to have. I think it was five in different places in the world.
Four.
Four.
Yep.
So four homes around the world in very strategic places, built very differently. Some crazy fricking goals, like 2.8 million dollars per home that you want to build, and that's without any furnishings, no fancies, no nothing.
Nope, nothing.
So I want our listeners to realize, this is not talking about, "Oh, Steve's some rockstar." No. What Steve's done is he's gone out, put his goal list together, and it was very detailed. Because when you put your goals out there, and you reverse engineer them, and, in fact, you say, "I want to achieve this. I want to buy my five million dollar home in a year's time," well, you need to know what to do like, "I need a two-million dollar deposit, I'm going to pay it cash," or "I'm going to get five million bucks in the bank in the next 12 months." You've got to reverse engineer that to what are you doing today? Are you going out for dinner with your buddies and chit-chatting about stuff that's never going to get you there, or are you doing something right now today to get you to that goal? Am I right with that?
Absolutely.
So that's the way you and your beautiful wife think.
Yeah, yeah, we live by those goals lists. Now, the goal lists that I create are much more detailed. I cannot fit them on a single piece of paper now. I use books with a lot of pages. Some of the goals take at least one page up, and I write them as a story. The most important factor, and this is really important for your listeners to understand, you have to put not an exact date, but a before date. So before the end of 2019, I need that house, car, boat, whatever that you really want to acquire. It can be much different things. You can decide to have all your cavities restored in your mouth if you're having a problem with your teeth. It's an endless possibility, but just put a date. Before that date, it has to be done.
Beautiful.
This is always the way I did it, and this is always the way I knock each of them out of the goal list one after the other. I can tell you, it is the way, also, that you can work on a day-to-day basis. For people that are in the sales industry, sometimes every morning is a new morning. You get out of your comfort zone again, and you're like, "Yeah, I'm starting at zero again this morning." If you're talking about real estate agent, insurance agent, life insurance agent, these type of jobs, every Monday morning is like they start the counter at zero. But don't get discouraged by that, and just keep on going, and it will happen. Just put those before dates, and you will get there. It's the secret.
Let me ask this, though, Steve. I love this discussion because it's a great discussion. Listeners, you have to understand, we have some really good fun, myself and Steve, together.
Yes.
Of course we challenge each other a lot on different things around how things work. So I'm going to go to something that might be interesting for you.
Sure.
Okay. So you write these things down, so they come from your head. I want to write this, write this, write this. I want to achieve. I want to buy my whatever it is. We're talking about cars today, but let's say whatever car you want to buy, and you write down all the details: what color, what price, all that kind of stuff, what dealership. But the key thing is you're already putting it out there as if you've already achieved it, so you don't even think it. Actually, you feel like you've achieved it. Am I correct with that?
Yeah, yeah, and it literally is a story that you tell yourself, basically.
But it's a story that you embody.
Absolutely.
And when you embody it, that's when it shows up.
Exactly.
So I want you to hear that, listeners. It's not just about writing down specific goals and thinking about them. It's how do you feel about those goals? I love one thing, and I know it happened in my life maybe two years ago, is that over the last two years or so, I released 40 pounds. That 40 pounds, I felt myself on the stage 40 pounds lighter. I thought about the goal, I wrote it down, and I said, "Within the next two years, I'm going to release these 40 pounds," and I felt people walking up to me saying to me, "Colin, what happened to you? Are you sick? Have you got some kind of illness?" Because they'd seen the weight release. But I had felt that weight release. I felt the end goal. So is that how it works for you as well? As you write this down, you write this story down, do you start to really get in touch with that story?
Yeah, well...
And that end goal?
That comes into a second phase where I sit down with my wife and I would say, "All right, let's dream build together." We do take a bit of time together every so often to just strategize about our dreams. I'm super strategic about dreams. It's not like I'm waiting for someone else to come and fill up my dreams. It's a strategy.
You're in control.
Yeah. If you don't write them down, it's like picking up your car and saying, "I'm going somewhere," and I might be sitting next to you and say, "Where?" and you'll say, "I don't know. Just I'll drive forward to some extent." If you don't have that goal list, it's exactly what you're doing. You're not going anywhere. So when you do have the goal list, then you start working on it, and then you keep it with you all the time, and then you strategize. You sit down with your wife and you're like, "Hey, honey, listen, about the goal list, we have this, this, this done. How about we dream again? Let's dream again where we're going."
That's something that we've been doing in the last maybe two, three years a lot more clearly than we ever did before. We're telling ourselves the story of our life five years from now. We're going to be traveling always business class or first class to go from here to there, and we'll spend maybe four to five months per year on vacation. We'll go to our houses, or we'll go on our sailboat and so forth. And the sailboat's going to be called this, it's going to be that color. We put all the details into it, and we make it extremely clear as to what we're going to take and do and how much we're going to spend and how happy we're going to be, as well.
This is also about being happy. If you do this just for the sole purpose of bringing money into your equation and fill your pocket bigger, it's just not going to make you happy. In our goals, being happy is one of the goal as well. So we do reflect, together, as to what situation makes us happy. How do we feel about this and that? Do we want to visit some countries where there are problems or not or we want to be safe? This is something we want, to be happy on a regular basis, that it's something that after you've been thriving in business, you really owe it to yourselves to find a nice place where you're going to be happy. If it can be 365 days a year, that's the bare minimum.
I agree, man. I agree.
Am I right?
Steve, we're going to be coming towards the end here, which is really awesome and, sincerely, thank you. One thing I want you to hear here, listeners. You might be sitting going, "Yeah, this guy is so successful. This guy has got everything made for him and everything else." Yes, he has. But guess what? He took the action. He did his first goal list. Once he got those goals done, did the second goal list. He's gone larger, 33 goals, really well-written down goals, probably 33 pages minimum of stuff he's written down. But here's the thing. You might be thinking, "Yeah, but he's talking about five homes and crazy stuff around the world." Remember, it all started with a pen. His first goal was to get that Montblanc, whatever, pen.
Montblanc pen, yeah.
A $450 pen. You might think, wow, that's even out of your reach right now. Well, then, start with something really small. Maybe start with, "I'm going to the grocery store." Instead of buying no-name brand products, you start to buy organic products.
Excellent.
Whatever it is, it doesn't matter where you start. You have to start somewhere. Are you with me on that, Steve?
Oh, absolutely. To your listeners, understand this. I started from the lowest class in Quebec. I was not good at school. I quit school before college. I had to build myself from pretty much zero. I had no support from my parents. I had to go and build my life by myself. So if anybody here is like, "Yeah, he was lucky," or whatever, you can try me on that any time you like but you will not get me. I was not fortunate to have parents that would pay for everything for me. I was not fortunate to have people to pay for everything for me. So I did have to build everything and build myself to go to that point. There is no slacking. If you're into it, you put everything you have and, especially, you know where you're going. If you have that goal list, you will know where you're going.
It seems like an overdue trick, but in the end, with my company, Leaders Factory, we end up with a few hundred clients a year, coaching with them, and in the end, these people, most of them don't have dreams. They don't have end goals either. You talk with them about goals and even goals for the company, and they're like, "Yeah, yeah, it's on the program. We should do that sometime soon this year." You go crazy. You're like, "Come on, man, how can you run a company without a goal or even goal list for your own company?" So this is really where it kicks in. You do the work, take that piece of paper. What Colin is saying is just grab the paper and start. Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, that list is going to be on the corner of that table. It will be there. It will be, really, something that's real that you can hold in your hand and that you can talk about with other people. As much as you're going to be talking about, the more that road is going to be unfolding in your head. "Oh, yeah, to achieve that number six goal, I can do this."
And on this, I have to say that some goals are not attainable. I mentioned that to you, Colin, a bit earlier, and I want your listeners to understand that. I had a goal that was my number seven goal that was to buy a Lamborghini Diablo at that time and, for some reason, which is that I'm six foot four, when I came to that I was fortunate enough to buy that Lamborghini, I just couldn't fit in the car.
But the goal's still achievable. It was just maybe sometimes you've got to go do your homework first to realize you couldn't fit in it.
Yeah, exactly.
You still had the cash there, but you then bought another vehicle.
Yeah, I ended up in a Mercedes, which I was very happy with. But don't research and write the goal after. Write the goal first. They come from your imagination, from everything that you believe, everything that you are from the inside. Write the goal first and research afterwards if it's doable.
So what you're saying, write down what you want, don't think how you're going to get it right now.
Yeah, absolutely.
Don't think about the how because when you think about the how, you could screw the whole damn thing up.
Exactly, and it's going to look like a mountain basically. Just so it's clear, those 10 goals on the first list, I strongly recommend people just to start with those 10, and if it seems too much work for now, just start with five and you can write a second list once those five are done. But if you go for a 10-goal process, three short-term, three mid-term, and three long-term. This is really how I learned to do it, and now I think it's the best thing because long-term, you'll take something that's three years and over, to get at retirement basically. Then, shorter term, you will take zero to six month, eight months, and then from eight months to three years roughly in the mid-term.
So this is really how I've built mine. It's allowed me to build businesses and sell them, so many things, and it opens so many doors.
Just for example, you can put on your goal list that you want to meet certain type of people. You want to meet celebrities maybe and reach these people. Maybe you want to be happy. It doesn't have to be material things. Sometimes, these are easier to get because once you write them down and if you know, "Yeah, I want to spend two hours with my wife every day," this is a simple goal to reach.
Absolutely.
And once you declare that, if you're a real person...
You have to declare them. Do you share them with anyone else, as well, in your life?
Absolutely.
So it's declare and share?
Here is my trick, though. I have personal goals that sit in my book that I don't show people, and I have those goals that are public ones, and all of my staff, all my coaches, or the people that work with me on a very regular basis, know my goals. I share them with them very often, I would say, "Hey, we're about to reach that one," and so forth, and they're happy helping to contribute. I do exactly the same with them. Everyone that works for us, they have their goal list. This is one of the mandatory things that they have to deal with before they even start working with us. If they show up on their first day, they don't have a goal list, they have an off-day that day and, happily, it was their last day.
Oh, man. I know we need to sign off here in a minute.
Okay.
Steve, what a pleasure, man. I know that Steve's company Leaders Factory, of course, based in Montreal. Steve, if people want to get hold of you and learn more about what you do or maybe just give you a little message or something like that, what's the easy way? Is it go to your website, is it email address, what's the best way to connect with you?
Just go on Facebook, Steve Long. Just type Steve Long, coach, or Steve Long/LF, for Leaders Factory, and you'll find us. Just type "Steve Long Leaders Factory" or "Steve Long coach" on YouTube, and you'll find a lot of our content over there. We have some free advice for everyone to learn about. If that can be of any help, just don't hesitate, and I'll be more than happy to help.
Yeah, it's beautiful. It's great tools there. And just for everyone listening, just to make sure that everyone gets it really clear, even with my crazy South African accent, that's Steve Long Leaders Factory, so that you really get that clear when you're going on Facebook, and Steve would love to connect with you there. You can see some great tools, things that can help you. This is just a little tip of the iceberg of what Steve does. So, Steve, I cannot thank you enough for being here today and sharing your brilliance, sharing just some of the things, I think the most important thing in life. If you haven't got a destination, how the frick are you going to get there?
Yeah, that's the basic. If you don't start by that, just don't complain later on that it didn't work.
You can't complain later on about you didn't get there because you didn't know where you were fricking going.
Exactly, exactly. There's no way you'll get there without that, and I've seen that. I've been in the coaching and business industry for ages now. Almost twenty years, I've been doing this, and I've seen so many people saying, "Yeah, I'll do it," and they never did, and they never did anything.
I agree, man. Wow.
So just do that.
Just fricking do it. So when you hear this podcast and you are done with this today ... you know this is the way I do everything, of course. It's MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth with Colin Sprake. When you press stop to this or whatever, I don't care if you're on the side of the highway stopped in your car, if you're in a plane listening to this recording, if you're jogging, you've got a notepad in your pocket, you stop, sit down on a bench, do whatever you need to do, and start writing out your goals.
Now.
Now. Don’t wait till tomorrow morning. You want to wait for the rest of your life to pass by? I am very blunt about this because people always put things off. How many times have you put things off waiting for things to happen? "I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it next week." My worst word I hate is "when." "When I stop running, I'll start writing them down." "When I get home, I'll write them down." "When I listen to this again" Please, get rid of that word "when" and just get the stuff done immediately. This has been an incredible episode. Thank you so much to share your time with me, Steve.
Thank you, Colin. Thank you.
Ways to contact Steve:
- Website: www.stevelong.co
- Twitter: @SteveLongLF
- Skype: live:initialcorp
- Linkedin:www.linkedin.com/in/stevelongco
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/stevelongLF
- YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCjHtnMkeqAQaJ2lt2Wvfk6w
- Blog: stevelong.co/blog
Hi, this is Colin Sprake and welcome to MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth with myself. Today, I am getting right inside your head. I'm going to talk about something that's really important to me and as we get into this today, I want you to be thinking, taking notes and really getting the most from this podcast. Today's episode is really going to make you think differently so that you're right in line with what I did a few weeks back about getting your head into the game and talking about the conscious and subconscious mind.
Today, I'm going to dig right into my mind, really make you think differently around what is happening in your life and why it's happening in your life. Get ready, and get excited because this is going to rock your world.
Welcome to today. I am so excited to get you up and running and get you thinking differently and getting more results than you ever thought achievable in your business, in your life, whatever it is for you because this podcast is not just for business owners. It's for people that support the business owners. In fact, my wife just wrote a book called "What The...I Did Not Sign Up for This: The Ups and Downs of Supporting an Entrepreneur" and it's a really cool book about supporting entrepreneurs.
If you want people to really understand who you are as an entrepreneur business owner, have them listen to this podcast every single week and we'll get them on track by having them thinking just the way you think and understanding you the way that you do things as well. Let's get going. Let's get fun today. Make sure you have a pen and paper handy so you can take notes or if you take notes on some kind of electronic device, that's awesome as well but let's get rocking and rolling and get you thinking differently, doing differently, achieving differently and getting you to have what you've never had by doing things that you maybe have never done. Let's get rocking.
I want you to write this down. I want you to write the letter G and D with an arrow pointing towards the letter D. G with an arrow to the letter D.
I want you to think about this. You want growth in your life, you want growth in your business. You want to get ahead. Well, growth is very important. The G stands for growth. In order to have growth, you need the D. You're probably thinking, what is the D? Do I need to have desire? Do I have to have a destination? Absolutely. You need those things. What D is, is discomfort.
In order to have growth you need to have discomfort happening in your life because if you don't have discomfort, you won't be getting the growth that you want.
You're probably sitting there chuckling right now saying, "Colin, I should be growing exponentially because I have so much discomfort happening right now that I should be a billionaire." Here's the challenge, success is not determined by the events that happen in your life. Success is determined by how you perceive those events in your life. I want you to get that very clear. How are you perceiving the events that are happening in your life? Remember, you've heard the statement before and it's a cliched statement in some ways. You have to go through the pain to get the gain. Let me share this with you, I went through this in December of 2016.
In 2016, I woke up and said, I want to release weight. I woke up on the 3rd of December, 2016 and I decided to make a conscious change to do what I had not done in a long time, to get results that I had not had in a long time. I wanted to release 40 pounds. Guess what? I got up on December the 3rd, I made this conscious decision to do things differently. I wanted to grow in terms of my own health. I knew it was going to be uncomfortable. I knew that discomfort was going to be extreme. I gave up sugar. I gave up alcohol. I gave up coffee. I gave up gluten. I gave up bread. I gave up just about everything. All I ate was protein and I ate raw. Raw vegetables, what have you. Protein, most of the time, was cooked but the vegetables and everything were raw.
I can tell you, that first two to three weeks before Christmas of 2016, the headaches for me were intense. It felt like someone put their cigar through my head. There was such intense pain in making those choices but you know what? The discomfort was so huge but the growth from it was fantastic. By the time I got to the middle of January, I was already 25 pounds released or 25 pounds down but I had to make the change in order to get the results that I wanted. I couldn't keep on going. That's a challenging part I find for most people. There's always this “when” word in their life. When I finish Christmas, I will start to go on a weight release campaign. Then I'll focus on my business or what have you. There's never a good time to start anything.
The best time to start anything is right now as you listen to this episode. Make a change in your life. Make a change in your business. Make a change in your health but you need to have discomfort in order to get the growth. When you start to get that growth, man, does your life change. I released that weight. I am just happy with where my weight is. I continue to release weight, continue to work on it but that first three to four weeks, the pain was so intense to get the gain that I wanted, you need to go through that in some way or form in your business, in your life. It might be around financial, spiritual, health, fitness, relationship wise, whatever it is for you, you have to go through the making a big decision to do things maybe that you haven't done before or that you haven't done in a long time to get the results that you haven't had in a long time or to get the results you've never had before.
Really think about this today: what conscious decisions are you going to make and do differently in life? Remember, how you perceive the events that happen, you can look at them as negative. Those events that have happened are super positive. They are there to get you ahead, get you rocking and rolling and get you to that next level. Please, look at what you're doing in your life right now. Are you just comfortable? Remember, there's three areas in life; you're either going into a challenge, you're in a challenge, or you're coming out of a challenge. There is no comfortable. If you're sitting back going, "Colin, this episode's really awesome. I'm super comfortable. I've got all my financial well-being and what have you." You're just about to go into a challenge.
There are only three areas in life; going into a challenge, in a challenge or coming out of a challenge. I want you to think about this as you rock your business, as you rock your life and you get yourself to the next level because remember, when you become comfortable, that's when things start to become challenging. Remember, those challenges are only there to give you the growth that you need because that discomfort takes you always, to that next level. I believe that we can always be growing. I think we grow until we put the final nail in the box. I want you to think about that because so many people, you focus on, "I've learnt everything. I know stuff." You should be learning every single day.
I have four personal mentors that mentor me, help me grow, get me to the next level and you know what? I love learning from other people. Just one small nugget. As you listen to these episodes, one small nugget can make a big impact on your life. I go to seminars, workshops, retreats, master minds, what have you. I have my own ones. Even at all of them that I attend, there's just one nugget I want to walk away with. I don't need 40, 50, 100 nuggets to walk away with. Why? Because when you have so many things to do, guess what happens? Your brain goes, "Um, too much to do. Confusion. Do nothing." Guess what happens? You do nothing.
My goal for you is to take one or two nuggets from each of these episodes, write them down, implement them in your life and your business and watch what happens to you. Make sure that the discomfort that you're having, are you looking at that as growth or are you looking at that as negative, holding you back and not getting you ahead? As we go into this, I want you to also write this down now. Make sure that the discomfort that you're having is perceived in a different way as part of everything that happens for you in life. I want you to look at this as well, when you talk about what I call the three S's. The three S's. On the left hand side of your page or whatever, write three S's, one below each other on the left hand side.
I'm going to talk about this because you're going to be finding this really interesting. Write the three S's down. The top S, the one at the top of your page, I want you to write down that S stands for strategies.
You come on these podcasts, you want to get lots of information. You're like, "Colin, I want to learn strategies. Give me more strategies." I can give you more strategies. The challenging part is, if you do not change who you are and the way you do things, the strategies will be implemented or you'll look at the strategies the same way you do a lot of other strategies. I'm going to ask you this question, How many seminars, workshops have you been to where you go, you get amazing information, lots of great stuff and then you go home and you put this stuff on the shelf and that's where it stays. It becomes shelf help and not self help.
I want to teach you how to think about strategies really differently today. The top S is strategies. I want you to go to the bottom S now, of the three S's. The bottom S is changing your state. The bottom S is state.
As you change your state, your state of openness, your state of acceptance, your state of well-being, your state of stubbornness, what have you, when you change your state, then you can be open to the second S, the one in the middle. The second S being your stories or the non-supportive stories. What happens is, you change your state, you become aware of your non-supportive stories, which is the second S, and then the top S, right at the top, then you'll look at strategies completely differently. It goes from the bottom up.
How open are you? Are you open hearted? Are you open minded to learning new things and doing things differently? These three S's, I'm going to get right into the depth of these three S's in different areas in your life because, when you see how powerful these three S's are, you will start to do things very differently, but it all starts, number one, with the first S, which is the one at the bottom around changing your state. Once you change your state, you can be aware of your non-supportive stories and then we get into some of those non-supportive stories. Things like, I'm too old. I'm too young. I'm not good enough. I don't have enough knowledge. It's not done this way in our industry. It takes three to five years to be successful in business. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
All those non-supportive stories, I say to you, if you are hanging around with people in your industry that are not the top people in your industry, you will start to hear non-supportive stories from all those people. Let's say you're a mortgage broker or you do mortgages, bonds, whatever you want to call it, whatever country you're in. Let's just say you're a mortgage broker, if you're hanging out with other mortgage brokers that are broke and not achieving results, guess what stories you start to hear? The economy's down. Things don't work. It takes two to three, maybe even four years to even make a decent income as a mortgage broker. You hear all these non-supportive stories. Guess what happens when you hear those non-supportive stories, the only thing you learn is strategies of how to implement those non-supportive stories which really, at the end of the day, means you'll end up just like them. You will stay broke, you'll believe what they say, and you'll keep on getting the same results.
If you want to change your results, be aware of who you're hanging out with to change your state. Then, you'll start to hang out with the rock stars in your industry because guess what? While other people are busy complaining in your industry that things are slow, things are not working, the economy's down or what have you, there's other people in your industry, exactly the same as you, signing million dollar or multi-million dollar contracts. What's the difference? Guess what, they have a different mindset. They're hanging out with winners that don't hang out with people who whine and complain all the time. When you change your state, you become aware of who's in your life, in what area of your life.
I'm talking about this in all areas of your life. You need to understand this because, if you're not looking at where you're hanging out, you'll start to get confused and you'll start to go off track. I want you to look at who's in your life, in all areas of your life. Let me give you another really powerful example. Let's just say you want to have a beautiful, soulful, loving, amazing relationship. Well then, you need to change your state around. Who's in your life right now around relationships? Do the people you hang out with talk favorably around relationships or are you hanging around with a whole bunch of people that have recently split from their partners and they're talking negatively about relationships?
All the stories you hear around you are negative around relationships. Guess what happens? Do you learn great strategies around relationships, from those people? Probably not. You're probably hearing really sad strategies around relationships and guess what happens, it's only a matter of time then all of a sudden, your relationship starts to be challenged. Why? Because the only strategies you're hearing from the stories around you, are strategies around how relationships end up falling apart, how people don't like each other and people don't ever want to be around each other, don't ever want to be in a relationship again, blah, blah, blah. All those non-supportive stories lead to you learning strategies.
Of course, like I said, one of the previous episodes on the conscious and subconscious mind, this stuff goes onto your subconscious mind and just runs and that's what ends up happening. You end up getting results in your life that you really, really don't want. If you want great, soulful, beautiful, amazing, loving relationship in your life, think of who you're hanging out with. What is your state? Are you open to being aware of who's really in your life around relationships? You want to hang out with people who have beautiful, soulful, amazing relationships and then all of a sudden, you'll start to see, your relationship will start to flourish. Why? Because you'll hear supportive stories around relationships and then you'll learn strategies about how to have beautiful, soulful relationships. Why? Because people will be telling you what they do. The date nights that go on. How they spoil each other. How they surprise each other and do little fun things for each other. That they buy each other flowers.
Whatever it is that they do, you'll learn really cool strategies on how to have beautiful, amazing relationships. I hope you understand this, you see this from the bottom up. You need to change your state in different areas of your life. Let me talk about that. You need to change your state, then you'll be aware of the stories, some of them even non-supportive that are around you. Especially, you become very aware of the non-supportive stories that are around you and then the third thing is, you'll start to learn very different strategies. I want you to really get this today. I want you to start to think about what strategies are you learning and who are they coming from?
Are they supportive strategies or are they non-supportive strategies and the supportive strategies come from supportive stories. The non-supportive strategies come from non-supportive stories. Then of course, you need to be aware of all the people in your life that you are with. Are they talking favorable about what you want to achieve? Think about this in terms of health, fitness, money, relationships, business, everything. If you're hanging out with other business owners that are not very successful and they keep on saying, business is hard, business is tough. I hate business. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It takes money to make money. All these different non-supportive stories that they say. Be open and change your state of being aware of, are you hanging out with winners or are you hanging out with whiners in your business?
When you hang out with winners, you're going to learn amazing strategies and just by being on this podcast, you'll start to learn amazing strategies from myself. I consider myself a true winner in business and that's not from a place of arrogance, it's from a place of being massively successful in so many areas of my life and why? Because I live what I am teaching you here. These are not rocket science concepts. They are simple concepts but it's the brutal truth from me. You've got to make some decisions of being aware of what's around you and sometimes, you have to look at who's in your life. Who are these people that are speaking into your life on a daily basis? I'm going to talk about this on a later episode when I get to what I call, the life formula, which will come two or maybe four weeks time.
Listen to what I'm talking about here. These strategies are designed to help you get ahead and when you start to get ahead and start to be aware of what's happening around you, life starts to change. Look at around money. Let's say you're hanging around people. Jim Rohn said this the best and bless his heart, he's no longer with us but Jim Rohn said it the best he said, "You are a product of the five people you hang out the most with." Listen to that again, "You are a product of the five people you hang out the most with in all areas of your life." If you want to be physically fit and healthy, then you need to hang out with physically fit and healthy people. If you are hanging out with people who sit on the couch, eat potato chips and are not fit and healthy then guess what? You're going to hear stories around, you don't have to be fit. You can lie on the couch. Why do you have to go do that? Why do you want to run? Why do you want to go to the gym? People who go to the gym aren't as healthy as other people. They think they are.
All those kind of stories that are non-supportive will teach you strategies that are not supportive to where you want to be. Think about all these areas of your life. I want you to even just write them down. Write down, in terms of money, who are you hanging out with? Like Jim Rohn said, "You are the product of the five people you hang out with the most." In your financial area of your life, are you hanging out with winners in money or you're hanging out with people who are so financially challenged, all they ever talk about are financial challenges, how they're not getting ahead, they cannot save money, they don't have any money, they can't go on vacation, they cannot buy what they want, they cannot afford a house, they cannot buy a new car. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
All these non-supportive stories lead to you hearing strategies that will never serve you because you will be just as broke as them if not worse off, by listening to their non-supportive stories. You want to hang out with people that are super, super successful financially if you want to be ahead financially. You might be thinking, "How do I do that Colin? Do I just get rid of all my friends?" Well, sometimes, I'm going to be very up front with you. You have to be so aware and change your state and be open to maybe actually making some changes in your life around the people you hang out with.
If you want to get ahead financially, hang out with people that are more financially abundant. I always say, my favorite thing I did when I arrived in Canada, around 20 years ago is, I heard the statement, go take a millionaire to lunch once a month. That's what I did. I’d go and take a millionaire to lunch once a month and you know what? I did that for many, many, many years. Now I have other great people in my life that I can call on, people that are billionaires, very successful, the sharks from Shark Tank, I'm very blessed to have them in my life.
I have people from Dragon's Den that I do work with. I have Sir Richard Branson that I was with him on his private island earlier on this year. The key thing is, I have these people around me now that are massively successful financially, massively successful in business. I have people who are massively successful in their fitness and their health, that I learned from. I became aware, I changed my state of being, my state of awareness and all of a sudden I realized, I need different people in my life. Think about this for yourself. Go take a millionaire to lunch. Now, for those of you thinking, I'll take a millionaire to lunch, when you phone to take a millionaire to lunch number one, you pay for the lunch. Just so you get that. Don't expect them to pay because they're the millionaire.
The second thing I also want you to do when you go for lunch him, introduce yourself, sit down, chat, what have you. The second thing I want you to do, when you sit down, say to them, "What is your critical need and how can you serve them?" Just say to them, "What is your critical need?" Here's why, because when you really serve them that way, they become enamored with you. Don’ sit down and say, "Start giving to me," rather than give to them first.
When I sat down when I first met Jack Canfield, the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, when I first met Jack I sat down I said, "Jack, what is your critical need?" Jack said, "Colin, I'm relaunching Success Principles. Would you mind pushing it out to your database and to your social media?" I'm like, "Jack, I have a small following."
He said, "Colin, I don't care. Just by doing that small favor for me, I would be very, very happy and it would really touch me." I said, "Great Jack." That's what I did. I pushed it out, let him know that I pushed it out afterwards. Of course, followed through completely on what he asked me to do. Then, I asked him the key questions I wanted from him. Now, when you go out with a millionaire and you book a lunch with a millionaire, please don't say, "Tell me how you became successful?" Have very set strategies.
I know when I went with Richard Branson and I met Richard Branson for the first time, I asked him, what was his critical need, number one. The second thing I asked him after he did that, I said, "Richard, I would like to learn how you have created such amazing, successful teams in the seven billion dollar companies that you run." He does an amazing job with his staff. He does an incredible job. I wanted to learn more about that so I had a very specific question for him that stroked his ego, number one. You want to stroke the ego of the person you're sitting down with and it also shows that you've learned something about them.
He's exceptional. Sir Richard Branson is absolutely exceptional at building teams and having amazing teams. In fact, he has seven billion dollar companies all in seven different industries and guess what, he barely goes to a board meeting because he trusts his staff to do the work for him. I wanted to learn how he did that so I had a very set question for him. That's virtually the three things. Number one; take a millionaire to lunch, you buy them lunch. Number two; ask them what their critical need is and make sure you do the research and you figure out who that person you're taking for lunch, what has made them successful and ask them how they could teach you that little piece to help you in your business.
I trust that this has helped you today. I want you to be completely open. When you're finished listening to today, I want you to go think of in your life, who is in your life, what stories are you listening to? Are you listening to supportive stories in your life around money, health, fitness, what have you, your business or are you listening to non-supportive stories, which are leading to non-supportive strategies and guess what? You'll end up being the same as everyone else if you keep on listening to non-supportive stories and then listening to the strategies you learned from that.
Listen to massively supportive stories by changing your state. Sometimes you have to do a friend-adectomy. You have to get rid of a few people in your life. That's okay. Remember one thing, I want you to start being completely aware of the stories that you are hearing and making sure that they are all supportive stories so you can learn amazing strategies, go out, achieve incredible success in all areas of your life. I'm going to round off for today by saying remember, growth requires discomfort. If you are not prepared to be uncomfortable, you'll never get the growth that you are looking for and remember, it's how you perceive the events that will lead to the success that you are looking for, not just being uncomfortable, it's around the perception of those events, will lead you to amazing results because guess what?
It is all about perception in life. All events are there to make us stronger, we've just got to look at them differently. If you got lots of value from this and you are absolutely excited about what you're hearing on this podcast, please go on and leave a review for us or give us a rating, a really favorable rating and a favorable review. I thank you so much, I look forward to seeing you, being on an episode with you really soon. Keep rocking it and keep on living it, keep on implementing. When you get off this today, make sure you take what you've learn and implement. Go see what's happening in your life, in all areas of your life. Do not just listen to this and say, "That was really interesting." Go take action, go be brilliant and I will see you at the top and see you on an episode really soon. Thank you so much.
Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of three bestselling books including the recently released Profitable Podcasting. He is also a speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.
Hi everyone, this is Colin Sprake with MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth. Today, I have a real special guest with me on board who I'm going to ask some really key questions, so make sure you have a pen and paper handy because when I go to ask these questions. I'm not asking them to be simple. I want these people that we bring on the show to give their expertise, but also to dive deep and also give the brutal truth of how they got to where they got to today, so you can get some really good nuggets of information.
So as you listen to this, if you're in your car, jogging, what-have-you, make sure that you do take notes and relisten to the shows because I am all about implementation. Remember, knowledge is not power, knowledge is potential power, implementation is power.
So welcome, let's get rocking and rolling. I have Stephen Woessner with me today, who runs a company called Predictive ROI. They really go out and make people's lives so much easier around podcasting. In fact, here at Make Your Mark, we use the services of Predictive ROI and Stephen and his team, to get our podcast to the next level. And of course, they have their own podcast called Onward Nation. It’s really, really awesome, and I want to welcome Stephen today.
Stephen, give our listeners a little bit about who you are and what's got you to where you are today.
Well, first of all, thank you very much for the wonderful invitation. I mean it's a joy, it's a privilege, it's an honor to be one of your guests, one of your esteemed guests and I just really, really appreciate it Colin, so thank you.
You're so welcome.
Oh my gosh. A little bit about me, you mentioned Predictive ROI already, Onward Nation, just some additional context. We have listeners in 113 countries, 20,000 email subscribers and we've had the good fortune of being able to interview some of the most amazing, top business owners in the country, to be able to learn how they think, act and achieve. And we've been doing it now for well over two and a half years. I think we've aired just shy of 600 episodes and it's just been a game changer for our business, but also just me personally, being able to hang out with really smart, amazing people like you Colin and others, and so that's just such a gift.
I come from a long line of entrepreneurs. My grandfather immigrated here from Istanbul, Turkey in 1920. He couldn't speak the language, had $10 in his pocket, and after 6 years of being in the country, owned his own restaurant, went on to a career of 42 years in the restaurant business. I come from Kent, Ohio. Predictive ROI is my fifth business. Immediately after high school, I spent four years in the Air Force, then went through school and so forth.
Entrepreneurship is in my DNA. It's part of my roots and so it's just such a privilege to be able to do what it is we do, every single day, and being able to serve amazing business owners like you and others. What a gift.
Thank you Stephen, and it is really a gift. I mean, at the end of the day, for our listeners out there, I really wanted them to understand that entrepreneurship takes work. Most people think “I'm going to become an entrepreneur.” Even starting a multi-level marketing company or direct selling business, people think, "I'm going to become rich overnight."
It take serious fricking work to be a really good business owner and as we grow and as I've grown in my own business, I started to realize there's been some things that I wish I'd known right in the beginning, Stephen. And this is what the challenging part for me is, is that I want our listeners to understand that there's certain things that I've learned. You as a great business owner in a long line of entrepreneurs, all the way from 1920, your granddad from Turkey, there's things we wish we'd learned 20 years ago. Maybe 30 years ago.
So I want to get right into this today and ask you, if you would like to say, "Here's the most brutal thing I've learned, which I hope no one else who's listening to this ever does," maybe some people have done it already, which might be the challenge. But what would be your one piece of key information to say, "I wish I'd never done this and I wish I'd learnt this decades ago, because I know I'd be in a different place today." What would that one massive learning experience be for you Stephen?
Yeah, I think it really revolves around mentorship and mentorship is a really big deal for me, and now I take it so much more seriously than I ever did. It's probably because I had several really colossal failures that cost me hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, both within Predictive ROI, as well as previous companies.
And it isn't that I didn't have access to the right mentorship or that I didn't have the right opportunity to learn from some of the best of the best. For example, at Predictive here, early on in our business, Darren Hardy, former publisher of Success Magazine, but he was publisher of Success at the time, he was on our Board of Advisors for 12 months. I was in the trenches with him, in person, on phone calls, at events, and working with him just one-on-one in hotel rooms, trying to get stuff done for this event that we were planning at the time. And he gave me great mentorship and great advice, really tactical, and I didn't do any of it. I didn't execute.
So when you were talking at the top of the show about how knowledge is not power, it's based on execution, I have felt that in my wallet to a very deep degree. So here's one of the best minds in marketing and leadership and time management and a litany of expertise and he's telling me what I need to do and I don't do it. Ultimately, it cost me a couple hundred thousand dollars. Really dumb. And so it's not that I didn't have the information available, it's that I didn't do what you are encouraging your audience to do and that is execute. So mentorship plus action is something I will always, from here on out, put those two ingredients together.
I don't understand why people are like, "I don't want to spend money on mentorship. I don't want to invest in mentorship." You are fricking crazy, if you're listening to the show thinking that way, because mentorship to me is what you must invest in because people have had the experience already. You hear Stephen here who has bashed his head against the wall and said, "I didn't take action."
One of the biggest gurus in this industry, Darren Hardy, you got advice from him, but didn't take that advice. I know you're going to really drill into this Stephen, but what would you do differently, in terms of going forward? I know you're going to say, "I would definitely implement," but what would you maybe have done differently around any of those relationships, your board of advisers and really around the mentorship. Implementation is one thing, anything else you would let our listeners know, that you would have done differently around the key mentors that you've had in your life and continue to have in your life?
I think I can answer that in a couple of different ways, I'm happy to break it down as granular as you'd like to go and as transparent. I believe freely sharing, whether that's the good stuff or the bad stuff and we really learned with the bad stuff sometimes, and so to get even more specific about Darren. He and I started off our Board of Advisors relationship because I attended one of his events, the high performance forum, two and half days, there was just 23 of us in the room with him and that was exceptional.
Then a couple months later, I was back in San Diego. He and I spent the entire day together, just he and I in a hotel suite, and we're just kind of mapping out the next level of the business and that was really, really great. And then we got together again a few months later and we shot a video together, where he interviewed me about some of the eight money draining mistakes and the eight money making opportunities, and then through all of that, we had monthly checkpoint calls, as well as email exchanges and that kind of stuff.
It revolved around this event that we had scheduled for January of 2014, called Predictive ROI Live, where literally I guaranteed and rented, or I should say booked, 350 rooms at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Florida. It's a 425 room hotel, so essentially, I booked the entire hotel for this event. 1,000 room nights, yeah, it was a 2 million dollar operating budget, 2 million dollars.
And so I put it all on the line and I mean it was insane, the amount of risk and so forth. And Darren in a phone call says to me, "You have to be either the gutsiest person I've ever met or you might be insane." And so then the question, the mentorship question he continued to ask me every single time we were together, which was often. He was going to be a speaker at the event, along with Gary Vaynerchuk, along with Avinash Kaushik from Google, along with Don Yaeger and Scott McCain and myself, of course, and then several others.
Darren would say to me, "Look, I get the fact that this is going to be a cool place and all of that. Why would anyone want to come to this event?" I'm like "What do you mean why would anybody want to come to this event? It's at the fricking Ritz-Carlton and Gary's going to be there, you're going to be there, Don, Scott, me, Avinash." He's like, "Oh for Pete's sake. Do you think that somebody is really going to spend $8,000 to come listen to me?" Meaning him, "Yak about stuff? Why would anybody come?" And I'm like, "I don't know." He's like, "Okay, well that's dumb. You have to get that figured out."
And he asked me that question every single time that we were together and I could never answer it. When we opened it up for registration, out of 350 seats, Colin, we sold 3 seats.
Wow.
Pretty intimate meeting, right?
Extremely intimate.
Exactly, so we had to cancel it, and you know what? The Ritz-Carlton, when you cancel a 2 million dollar event, they go, "All of those hotel rooms that we had reserved, you still have to pay for those." So $200,000 out the door because I didn't answer the question that he always asked me. It wasn't his fault; he asked me every single time that we were together and I never answered the question.
Stephen, that's what the fascinating part for me is, we have these mentors that ask us those key questions. For me, those key questions are really important. I'll never forget when I met with one of my mentors here in Vancouver, I actually met him across the border, he was just across the border in Ferndale, Washington.
He met me in a beautiful restaurant out over the water and I got to the meeting around, maybe 15 minutes before he got there, so I got myself comfortable, got the table sorted out, was super excited for my mentorship meeting. His name's Randy and Randy walks in and he says, "Hey Colin, how's things going?" I said, "Randy, things are awesome," and the next question he said to me was, "Are you paying yourself what you want and are you having the time off that you want and are you spending your time with your family that you really, really want?" And I said, "Hell no, Randy."
And he said, "Well, then things suck in your life. I want you to think about it," and he walked out of the restaurant. And I said, "Where are you going?" And he said, "You need an hour and a half to think about those three things because things aren't that fricking awesome. You think about it and phone me in an hour and a half's time and tell me what decision you're going to do differently to get those three things happening in your life and stop BSing yourself. Things aren't that awesome." I was like, "Wow."
But that Stephen, that to me is mentorship. Mentorship is not meant to be love, and I hug you and you're awesome and you're beautiful and put up with all your BS. Mentorships are meant to be that size 14 shoe with a very pointy toe that fits into most places that people I enjoy. So for me, it's like sometimes, I always believe that if you were mentoring me or I was mentoring you, we will always love each other, but we don't always have to like each other. And that's what true mentorship is. When people get you really thinking about where you're going, what you're doing. So I'm a big fan of having great mentors in our lives as well, just like you are, and I have four personal mentors right now that are mentoring me in different areas.
One is mentoring me in health and fitness and another one is mentoring me in systems and processes in the business, and the other one's mentoring me, sometimes just in mindset. So for me, as you've grown and continue to grow Predictive ROI and you continue to move forward, what would you say, in terms of mentorship, are your next steps in mentorship? What are you looking for? Where do you think your biggest weakness is right now in Predictive ROI and are you to bring a mentor in to assist you with that weakness?
Boy, excellent question. Wow, and that just really cuts to the heart of it, doesn't it? I mean that's the key, being able to identify weaknesses and then being able to say, "Okay, who has done this really, really well and what can I learn from him or her," that can plug in this hole, gap, whatever metaphor you want to use. That's really using mentorship smartly.
So the biggest weakness that we have right now in Predictive ROI, we have 17 people, we're adding probably 2 or 3 more by the end of this year. So let's call it 20 by the end of the year, but we're looking to add about maybe 15 to 18 people by the end of next year. So essentially, we're essentially doubling in the next 12 months, let's just call it that.
And and so with that, we've spent a lot of time and effort and money investing in our culture. One of my mentors, his name is Colonel Bernard Banks and he recently retired from West Point, but he was in charge of the leadership curriculum at West Point for a number of years. What he said to me was, when I spent some time with him along with some others at West Point for a day last year about 18 months ago, he said to me, "You know what we do with our cadets here? We are responsible for hugging them," and this is the United States Military Academy, right? So when he says hug, I'm like, "What?"
And he says, "We are responsible to hug and push our cadets. It's important for our cadets to know, that as their mentors, is that sometimes they need a hug. Not sit by the fire sing Kumbaya, but that we got you. That you're okay and you're in a safe place, and then it's our job to also put on that size-14 boot in this case and sometimes kick them in the rear when they need to be kicked. Hugged when they need to be loved and to know the difference between the two." I'm like, "Okay."
So as we continue to grow, we need to look for those opportunities to keep our culture intact and making sure that we hug and push our teammates to continue to grow and develop and mentor each other and be great teammates. So that's a big challenge for us. We're aware of it and we just need to, using your word, execute.
Okay, so what is the executable item here? What are you going to be doing that between now and the end of the year, maybe into next year, to maintain the culture. So what kind of mentorship would you be putting in place to make sure that you get to where you need to be?
Excellent, and we just actually realigned our mentorship program, Tuesday, last week, my leadership team and I were in Boston, working specifically on this. First of all, the two most valuable words within Predictive ROI are team and mate. So every single teammate has a mentor assigned and every single teammate meets with his or her mentor, every single week for a mentorship session. So every single day at 8:45 central time, we all dial in and we spend virtual time with one another. We have seven, excuse me, seven different cities across the U.S. where we have full-time employees, and we're in every single time zone in the U.S.
So because of that, we all dial in, virtually at 8:45 central time, we spend fifteen minutes with each other, so we can visually see one another. And then each week, each teammate meets with his or her mentor for an hour-long mentorship session. I then spend an hour long meeting with my business partner, Erik Jensen, and we spend mentorship both back and forth. He mentors me, I mentor him and then on Thursdays, we all spend two hours together, virtually, where we go through strengths, weaknesses, problems in the business, things that need to be addressed with clients and so forth.
And then each year, because again, we're virtual, we do two meetups every year. One in La Crosse, Wisconsin and one in Disney World. So La Crosse Wisconsin is in August and then Disney World is in January, where we all physically get together and have a little bit of fun and tackle it. So every single day, in every single week, there is active mentorship going on and it's hug and push, every single session.
Beautiful man, and so I'm going to dig a little bit deeper into that, because I love this stuff and I know our listeners out there probably thinking, "Wow, Stephen, a lot of time goes into building culture and spending time with mentorship sessions and what-have-you. Where do you find the hours to actually do your work, when you have this happening?"
But the key thing for me is, I want our listeners to understand that if you don't put these things in place and the mentorship doesn't happen, then a lot of times, there's inefficiencies that creep in, poor culture, you get cancers in your business. You only have to have one person that's a cancer in your business to destroy your entire good team members as well. Just like cancer grows within the body, one cancer cell can make really great cells become cancerous as well.
So, talk to that in terms of the investment of time into mentorship within your own team. How does that translate into dollars for your business, leading to your business being more, more successful? So our listeners out there realize, yes, you need to put the time in to get the rewards out and not just always be thinking if I don't see you sitting at your desk eight hours a day, then we're not making money, we're not being efficient. Let's talk to that a little bit, in terms of what do you see this investment of time and energy, how does it translate into growing your business and being more successful?
Okay, the first layer, it's going to sound a little bit flippant. First of all, you ask a very, very good question, and I've been asked that same question before by other business owners. And so my initial response is, would anybody ever say, "Wow, Colin, you spend too much time being a dad." No one would ever walk up to a mom and say, "Man, you spend way too much time being a parent." And that's exactly how I look at mentorship. How can I possibly expect that we have a high-performing team, if I don't invest in them? With not only money and professional development and all of that, but my time.
We constantly see reports and surveys and statistics that the fourth most valuable thing that employees want from you is compensation. The number one thing that your teammates want from you, above anything else, is your time, attention and love. And if you don't give that to them, then you're really creating a hunger in your business.
So we all have seen numbers about retention and people leave bosses and how expensive it is to replace somebody. I am a firm believer that if you invest in your culture, not only will you fix the retention problem, but you'll add dollars to your bottom line, because you don't have to replace people. Your teammates will truly be teammates, they will back each other, they will work weekends, they will protect one another, they'll take bullets for each other, they'll defend each other, and that is a valuable thing.
From an ROI perspective, I look at that as investing in the emotional bank account, because when I go to Louie on my team and I say, "Hey, you know what? Boy, we're really slammed on this project and we have to get this out and it looks like you might need to work the weekend in order to be able to get that done for our client." And Louie doesn't fight me on it, Louie says, "Game on, I'm full of joy. I'll get it done."
And the only reason is because we've invested so much in the emotional bank account, and when I need to go to a teammate and say, "You know what? Your performance on that last project wasn't up to your standard. It wasn't to the client's standard, it wasn't up to my standard and I deserve your best, the client deserves your best. You know what? You deserve to do your best. So let's talk about that." And then the person on the other end says, "You know what? You're totally right. I'm going to fix that."
And it's only because we've invested in culture and the hug and the push, that we're allowed to have those types of conversations without somebody getting defensive and argumentative or just leaving. So I think mentorship as a leader, is one of our most vital priorities in how we add value into our business and our team.
Wow, that's great man. I look at it Stephen, from my side too. I mean, a couple of weeks back, one of the episodes, I really spoke about culture and what we've created here, even here at Make Your Mark, because I'm a big fan of creating an amazing culture as well and really spending time with the team and assisting the team to that next level. And I think a lot of people don't realize, for me even in my business, I give every team member, the day they join us as a full-time staff member, they get five weeks of paid leave a year.
Wow.
And people say to me, "You're crazy, Colin." No, I'm not crazy. I know that people need to recharge their batteries. If you don't recharge your cell phone, of course it doesn't do anything for you, it becomes dead and useless. Well, the same thing happens with your team. If you don't allow them to have time off and allow them to have fun while they're at the office, I mean, I have a cafe at my office that people can go into the cafe and take whatever they want out of the café. It's there for them to use because sometimes they run out of the house in the morning and they don't get breakfast. So great, they come to the office, there's cereal there and whatever they want. Any kind of food or health foods and health snacks as well, that they can then take advantage of, because that creates an amazing culture.
So for those of you listening, just think about, what culture are you creating? Even if you're just a single solopreneur, as you start out and you start to hire people and get them on board, your culture is really important. Because then you have you staff retention.
In fact, I'm a big believer, Stephen, you might laugh about this as well, people always talk about your customers only remember the experience with you and how you made them feel. Well, that's okay, I agree with that fully, but those two statements go into every area of your life. They go into your employees at your office, they need to remember the experience that day and how you made them feel at the office.
When they go home, what are they talking around the dinner table about? Are they talking about how much they hate you as a boss or how much they hate the company and how much they're going to look for another job? Or are they sitting around the dinner table going, "You know what? I love my company, I love my boss," or not even boss, I don't like the word boss, "I love the team I work with." And you know what? I want people at that dinner table to go, "I want to come work for the company you work for," because then you know you've created a great culture. What would you say to that?
I would give you a big Amen to that. That's 100%. And I think that the companies you have the good fortune of working with and mentoring and that are part of your group in this amazing community that you have built, I think many of them, if not all of them share that same sort of ideal or value system, if you will. Because it's that important.
Look, you can choose to not do this, right? Speaking to your listeners in your audience. You can choose not to do it, that's okay, but I'm telling you it is an incontrovertible fact that Gallup studies this every single year, in nearly 70% of your employees are either disengaged or actively disengaged. Meaning that a large chunk of your employees are actually doing subterfuge every day. They're actually working against you. Your own team. And so not doing what Colin is recommending is silly because the companies that win are the ones who master what you just said, Colin.
Wow man, thank you for that. On a previous episode, a couple of weeks back, we actually spoke about this in detail. If you want to learn more about it, go back to one of our previous episodes and there's a whole episode just on building amazing culture, and the key things we do here at Make Your Mark. So Stephen, thank you so much for be here today and being with me on this episode.
As we leave today, I know mentorship is really important to you, but if there's another piece of advice that if I was sitting in front of you and let's say you were on stage, and there was a big audience, and it was like Stephen, you have one piece of advice to impart upon all of us, because after you've given that piece of advice, you will no longer be around to give this advice to us, what would that one piece of advice be, that you would say you'd be crazy not to do this.
And I want it to be outside of mentorship. Just one real nugget that you'd be like, "My goodness, please people," in business, in life, whatever it is, I don't care what area of ... because remember, our personal life sucks, probably our business sucks too. So really, at the end of the day, what's that one piece of advice that you'd be like, "I'm burning in my seat as Colin says this," just give this piece of advice, because if going forward, I would just love to make sure that I don't make the same mistake or look at things differently. What would that one piece of advice be that you're like, "It's the most important piece of advice I've learnt in my entire life."
Well okay, so let's think about something outside of mentorship. Let's think about business development, biz dev. I mean, if it's not on everybody's radar screen as a business owner, it really should be. Oftentimes, business owners don't pay attention to biz dev because it's not a burning pain point until you lose a client, you lose two clients, whatever. A big tax payment comes due and you don't have the funds and then it's like, "Oh, holy bananas, I need a new client or two," or whatever.
And so my biggest piece of like non-mentorship advice would be to create a consistent biz dev program that focuses on your dream 50 prospects. And if you don't have a list of your dream 50 prospects, then that's the first place to start, identify a list of the dream 50 companies, the companies you would love to work for, and the person within that company who is your decision-maker -- the person who has the approval authority on whatever it is that you provide.
Make the dream 50 list and then make it very detailed or granular with a person, first name, last name, email address, all of that, connect with that person on LinkedIn, and then devise your own, what we like to call, the Trojan horse strategy, which is essentially how are you going to connect with that person? Whether that be through a podcast interview, a blog interview, a video interview, a something.
What are you going to be able to leverage to use as a way to open the door, to have a private conversation with that person? And then what are you going to do downstream from that thing, that interview, that interaction, that is going to demonstrate your smarts in a value-give way? Not like yak, yak, yak, I'm really, really smart, you should work with me. No. How are you going to add value to that person, maybe over the next 2 to 3 years?
But if you don't have a biz dev program that is focused on your dream 50 and your competitors do, and they're also matching with culture and mentorship, that's going to be a problem.
Absolutely agree with that. Wow, what a great nugget to end off with today, and for me, it's just been a great, powerful interview with you today because of course, you're extremely smart at what you've done and what you've created with all the different businesses over the years, and for our listenership out there, please, take these nuggets from your notes and go out and implement because there's some key little pieces in here to really get your business to the next level.
So Stephen, it's been so great having you on this episode today and I really, really cherish the time that we've had and the knowledge that you've shared. Should people want to connect with you in some way or form, what's the best way to connect with you, to maybe even to learn a little bit more or just to understand more about what you do? What's the best way to connect with you, my friend?
Well, thank you for that. If any of your listeners happen to be interested in learning a little bit more about what I just kind of chatted about, they can go to onwardnation.com/FreeChapter and that'll give them a free chapter out of my latest book. It became a number one new release on Amazon in 18 hours, it was awesome. It's called Profitable Podcasting. So that's just a free gift to your listeners.
If anybody has any questions, concerns, please know I read and reply to every single email. You can find me at stephen@predictiveroi.com and I'm happy to freely share and answer any questions or concerns that somebody might have. So feel free to hit me up, email, LinkedIn, wherever, and I'm happy to reply.
Wow, thank you so much my friend. It's been awesome having you on the show and remember, please make sure, listening is one thing, implementation is another thing, so Stephen thank you so much for being on. Thank you everybody for listening and look forward to being on another episode with you really, really soon. And Stephen, go out, be brilliant and you're making massive changes in this world and for those business owners listening, please go out and change the world as well, through the amazing businesses that we all run together. So once again, thanks a million Stephen for being on the show with me today.
Thank you Colin, I am grateful for the invitation. It was so much fun to be here with you.
Thank you, man.
Ways to contact Stephen:
- Email: stephen@predictiveroi.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner
- Podcast: onwardnation.com
- Website: predictiveroi.com
- Free chapter of Stephen’s new book: onwardnation.com/FreeChapter
Welcome everybody. This is Colin Sprake again, and welcome to MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth with me, Colin Sprake, as we get you rocking and rolling in your business. Today, I am going to be walking you through something which is one of my favorite, favorite topics in the world, and that is marketing. I want you to get this and really understand this.
Branding comes before marketing. I want you to really get ready for this today. Get your pen and paper ready. Remember, what you implement from this is really vital. It's not just what you learn but what you implement that makes all the difference. Today, I'm going to give you nuggets for small business marketing like you've never ever dreamt of because these are key tips that I wish I'd had marketing-wise years and years ago that would have taken my marketing to the next level, and I want to walk you through some really cool points.
Very simply, branding is what differentiates you, what makes you different in your market space, what makes you stand out, and marketing is communicating those differences. So if you don't know what makes you stand out, you really need to get clear on what makes you stand out. Now, let's get into understanding, really, what I'm going to be talking about today, and that's getting you to understand who is your audience.
Now start to write this down. This fascinates me. How many people don't know who their audience is? They want to go ahead and have amazing results in their business in every way and form, but you're really not understanding who your audience is. Who are you speaking to? And when you speak to them, can you segment your audiences into different audiences?
So I am going to give you an avatar today. I'd like you to write this down, and if you're in your car or busy running or you can’t write it down for another reason, re-listen to this episode because it will get you thinking and get your marketing absolutely on fire and give you the brutal truth of how to do effective marketing for small businesses, SMEs, what have you.
So I want you to write this down. First, let me make the statement before you write anything down. Do you have a client that buys from you frequently, that you make a ton of profit on, that you love to deal with, never complains about price and appreciates value? I’ll say it again: do you have a client that buys from you frequently, that you make a ton of profit on, that you love to deal with, never complains about price and appreciates value? In fact, they don't even shop somewhere else.
If you have a client right now, it could be a business or could be a client, I want you to write down the name of the business or the name of the client right now. That's your avatar client. Imagine if your database was filled with avatar clients all the time, buying from you and never complaining about price, appreciating your value, you love to deal with them, they love to deal with you. Because remember, we can do B2C, which is business to consumer, or B2B, which is business to business. It doesn't matter which one. Write down a name of a client or company that you love to deal with that fits that description.
When you do that, the number one thing is I want you to profile that person or that company. When you profile the person or the company, figure out the number one thing is where they hang out. So many people are busy. You might be busy dealing with a client. How much do you know about your client? Where does your client hang out? Where do they go on vacation? What organizations do they belong to? What conferences do they attend? What groups are they a part of? What charity work do they do? Because guess what, birds of a feather flock together. You want to find wherever your avatar client hangs out, the one you make tons of profit on. Wherever they hang out, that's where you want to hang out.
I'll give you an example of this. So I go to Mexico maybe once every couple of years, and I never pay for my vacation. Let me tell you why. I go to four and a half to five star resorts. That's where our elite amazing customers of Make Your Mark hang out, these amazing entrepreneurs. They go down to Mexico. Mexico is full of Americans and Canadians; there are lots of Canadians down there. So I go to four and a half and five star resorts. While I'm there hanging out at the pool, we get chatting, of course. I can never stop talking about what I do. I love what I do. I'm not there verbally puking on them. Just people ask me, "So what do you do?" All entrepreneurs often hang out at the pool, hanging out at the bar, having cocktails together. The key thing is when I tell them what I do, guess what happens? They get super interested. I invite them out to one of our two-hour events or our big three day event in whatever city back in Canada, and they end up becoming customers
So I go, and I spend maybe $10,000 or $15,000 or even $20,000, going to a four and a half or five star resort in Mexico. Why? Because my ideal clients hang out there. My avatar clients hang out there. And guess who I get to meet? More of those people. Now how did I find that out? I spoke to my real top clients, who lots of them have now become really great friends, and I asked them where do they hang out. They said, "Colin, this is where we go on vacation." In fact, they started to invite me on their vacations, so now I go with them. It's even more powerful.
Now I am sitting at the pool, on the deck, or in a restaurant. I'm there with my buddy, who's a client, who's been super successful with our program. And guess what? Other people ask me what we do, we get socializing, we have a bunch of fun. And those people, I don't have to do anything because I got a client with me who is talking about my product or service to another client. I can tell you one thing. It might cost me between 10 and $20,000 to go to Mexico. But when I come back ... Because my avatar is hanging out in Mexico at four and a half and five star resorts, I come back, over time, maybe three to six months afterwards, majority of them become clients that I met down there, and we do like $100,000, so nearly a 10:1 ratio of people becoming clients.
So I want you to ask yourself this: where do your clients hang out? Now, if you don't have avatars. You're like, "Oh, Colin, I don't have avatars. I don't have that client that buys from me frequently that I make a ton of profit on, that I love to deal with, never complains about price and appreciates value. I don't have one of those." Then you need to write down, and especially for your brand new business, what does your ideal customer look like? What would you like them to be in order to fit that avatar description so that you can put it out intentionally?
Because, remember, I'm all about mindset in business. What you put out there is what you get back. If you look for poor-paying clients, clients that are challenging, clients that don't appreciate value, clients that want discounts, clients wanting stuff for free, you'll always attract that to you. You want to attract high-paying clients that love to deal with you, that you make a ton of profit, that appreciate value, and that will buy from you frequently. Now, when you get this right, I can tell you, your business will really, really change. So you just need to determine who you're looking for.
Now, here's the caveat to all this discussion today, is what you need to look for. This is where the challenge is. You might have different products and services, and there are different combinations of them. You need to look at your avatar for each one of the products and services that you have, and you need to define who your avatar is for each one. Now, here's the challenge. If you have, let's say, five different products and services and each one of them requires you to hang out in completely different areas, then all of a sudden, it becomes challenging for you because you have to hang out in all these different areas to get these different customers.
I'm a big fan of really getting rich in your niche, and that's the way the Americans say it, is get rich in your niche, and that, for me, is really important. You need to figure out where do you make most of your money, number one, and number two, what are your avatars for each one of those categories? If there's not a ton of overlap and you have to keep on hanging out at different networking groups and different places for each product and service, that becomes extremely tedious and a ton of work. So I want you to think about who is your market and where are they hanging out so you can go hang out where they hang out. There's nothing better than this.
And, of course, once you know what your avatar is, then you look at all your marketing campaigns. If I know my avatar is start-up business owners to a million dollars in revenue, it doesn't matter what industry, what product, what service, that's where I hang out. I look for different groups, organizations, charities, what have you, where those kind of people hang out. Now, the challenging part, what I see with so many people is you start hanging out at places where you'll never find your customer. That's crazy. Why do you want to hang out in places where your customers will never be?
I joke about this because I'm a Catholic guy married to a Jewish lady by a Presbyterian minister, and I'll say, "If you're looking for Jewish people, you would never hang out at Catholic cathedrals." And you might say, "Well, yes, Colin, but I can convert them." That's a ton of work, I can tell you, over the top a ton of work. You want to be hanging out where your customers hang out. You're looking for Jewish, you want to hang out at synagogues. You're looking for Catholic people, you want to hang out at cathedrals or Catholic churches, whatever it might be. But if you hang out in the wrong places, you'll never get the results you're looking for.
So once you know what your avatar is, your ideal client description, then you look at all the places you're hanging out. There's trade shows that you are going to, the networking meetings that you are going to, the organizations, charity functions. Write down the description on one side, write down the description or the demographics of where you are hanging out, and if they don't match, you don't go. Don't think about this.
Think about this. People say, "I'm going to go networking. I'm looking for high net worth individuals." Let's say a million dollars plus. And you go to groups where people hang out that are all small business owners that are way less than a million dollar businesses, and then you say, "But those people will refer me to other people that are million dollar business owners." Not in all cases, but pretty much across the board, when you hang out in the wrong places, guess what happens? Those people, birds of a feather flock together. If they're all $50,000, $100,000 business owners, that's probably who they're hanging out with. So you think they're going to refer you to million dollar business owners. No. Rather, go to groups where million dollar business owners hang out. In all your networking, whether you network at courses or workshops or groups, official networking groups, organizations, charity balls, whatever it might be, hang out where your potential customer will be hanging out.
And, of course, if you have your own clients that you have avatars that are awesome, hang out where they hang out. Go to their charity functions. Go to their organizations. Go to the trade shows where they hang out. Because guess what? You'll find way more clients, get way more satisfaction, grow your business way quicker when you know what you're looking for. I hope that makes sense for everyone as you listen to this today and as you get going because the avatars are absolutely important, your avatars and your ideal customers.
The more you define, the more you can find. Let me say it again: the more you define who you are looking for, the quicker you will find who you are looking for. If you say, "I am just looking for people," but yet you really want to find Jewish people or Catholic people, when you define exactly, "I'm looking for Jewish people of a certain kind of group and a certain kind of place," then you know which synagogues to go hang out at. I'm not being facetious about this. This is the challenging thing for most people. Many people are selling walkers to the football team. No one on the football team needs your walkers. So what I want you to think about is where are you hanging out because once you define who you're looking for, then you go and find them.
People say to me, "Colin, shouldn't I just go networking?" Yes, but network where your potential clients hang out because if you hang out in places where there are none of your potential clients, then you tell me, "Colin, the networking doesn't work." Here's my caveat to that: networking does work. You just don't know how to work networking because you're hanging out at the wrong place, expecting to find clients there that you will never find. It's like hanging out in your backyard and thinking you're going to find a lion or a giraffe or a zebra or what have you. You need to go hang out in safari parks to find those animals. Hanging out in your backyard, you're not going to find them, but that's most people in their businesses. They don't know who they're looking for, and then they don't know how to find them.
So your number one thing today is to look at every product and service that you have, define who is your ideal client or your avatar client for that product or service, then figure out where they hang out and go and find them. If that makes sense to you, please, just make sure that you get this really clear in your mind. This is not a question of if this makes sense to you. Once it makes sense to you, you will get this clear and you will not hang out in any other places.
Even when you do advertising, you will ask a person that says to you, "Here's our trade show," or "Here's our magazine," or "Here's our newspaper," or "Here's our website," or whatever it is, first thing you ask them: What are the demographics of the readership, viewership, or listenership? Even for radio stations and TV, once they give you that, look at them. When they give you the details of who their listenership, viewership, or readership is, then you take what your definition of your avatar or ideal client is and you put them next to each other. If they don't match, don't do that advertising. I don't care how cheap it is.
I get phone calls in my office. "Colin, I've got a really good deal to advertise in a newspaper. It's super cheap. It's normally 1500 bucks. Today, they're doing it for 200 bucks." I don't care if it's 200 bucks, free, or whatever. If it's not matched to your avatar or your ideal client, do not do it. It's just a waste of your money. I don't care. Even if it's for free, it's still wasting money. Why? Because you have to put time and energy and effort together to put the ad together to go into that newspaper or magazine or what have you, and the people reading it aren't your ideal client or your avatar client. So please, with your avatars, you have to define what you're looking for then figure out where to find them, and then any marketing you do needs to correspond to that. Now I want you to really think about that. All needs to correspond. So when you go out, make sure you're hanging out in the right places.
I'm going to get onto another topic for today, so, please, as we go through today, really, really get clear on this. I cannot stress enough how important it is to hang out in the right places and, most importantly, hang out where your existing clients hang out or your avatars hang out that love who you are. Why? Because when you go there and they see you there, they will just talk about you, and all of a sudden, you'll get a ton of results happening for you. That's how you do effective networking because you're hanging out where your customers hang out that are absolutely avatar clients of yours that you make a ton of profit on. Now, I wish you amazing and profit and success in that. Be very careful. Be very, very clear. The more effort you put into defining, the more you'll be able to find, and then once you've put your definition together, then, every sixth month, you must refine who you are looking for.
I'll give you an example of this. So Universal Studios, a few years back, was doing around two billion dollars a year, so they are a very big company. They work on refining who they're looking for all the time, continue to refine, continue to refine. A few years back, when they were doing two billion dollars, they said, "Let's refine who we're looking for." Now you see most of their advertising and their advertising campaigns, whether it be TV, brochures, whatever, radio ... When you see an advertisement, majority of their ads are a female with two children aged 13 to 17, one boy, one girl, that's it. There's no men in the picture or what have you. It's just two kids, 13 to 17, one female mom, that's it. Why? Because that's the market they know that they've refined and refined, so that's who they're looking for. They're hanging out in places, and their marketing speaks to single moms, not necessarily single moms, but moms with two children. They don't want three children. They don't want one child. That's what they've figured out really works for them, and that's the people that spend the most money with them at Universal Studios. They did this a couple of years back. It doubled their revenues. They went from a two billion dollar company to over four billion dollars just by refining who they are looking for.
So I want you to think about this for yourself. Who are you truly looking for? Define, refine, define, refine, and go and find, and always be refining. I find this so amazing about small business owners. You define who you're looking for, and then you go out and find them, and then you never, ever go back and redefine who you are looking for. The more you define it, the more you refine it, the more accurate it gets and, eventually, you are shooting fish in a barrel.
Most business owners have this little hook on a rod, and they're throwing it out into the Atlantic Ocean hoping to catch a fish that's in the Pacific Ocean. It’s an absolutely useless waste of time, and you wonder why most small business owners go broke. This is the key reason. They don't know who they're looking for, and they don't know where to find them. You cannot go hang out in networking groups if you don't know who's hanging out in the networking group or what you need from that networking group. I trust you to really get this today. It's a super passionate topic of mine because I watch people hang out in places where they'll never, ever get results.
This next thing I want to talk about today, in terms of marketing, there are two key topics. One is your avatar, your ideal client, and how to define them and then go find them and then define and then redefine and also go find again. I want to talk about headlines.
So many people have brochures, like you have a brochure in your company and that brochure is so detailed and what have you. I ask this at all my events, "How many of you love to read very detailed brochures?" Percentage-wise, about 1% of the hands go up of people that want to read brochures from beginning to end. So then I ask them, "How many of you just read the basics of a brochure?" Majority of the hands go up. Brochures, websites, what have you, do not need to sell. They need to influence the person, but it doesn't need to be so much information because there's different types of personalities out there, which I will talk about on later shows. But the key thing is there's different personalities out there. Majority of people do not have time to read everything. Some people make such detailed websites. People don't read the websites.
What you need to think about is what are your headlines. Write these down, because they’re really important. Headlines, number one, must be attention-grabbing. They must grab the pain of the reader, the viewer, or the listener because you can use headlines in video, audio, and in print. When they read that headline or they hear that headline, it must scream, "This is for me." Imagine you sitting in front of your computer and you've got lower back pain and you're really uncomfortable and you're busy maybe doing some searching on Facebook ... or not searching, but you're scrolling through Facebook. And then, suddenly, there's an ad in Facebook that says, "Eliminate lower back pain, guaranteed." You pretty much scroll across that, click on it automatically. Why? Because you have that pain.
Now, in your marketing, headlines become extremely important. So many people have logos everywhere. Remember one thing: no one loves your logo as much as you do. Most people, they say to you, "Oh, I love your logo. It's really nice." There are some people that might say that to you, but majority of them aren't even your buying customers in the first place. Remember, in marketing, you only listen to people that are your potential customers or existing customers. To take marketing, give it to your spouse or to a friend or to somebody else, and then they'd say, "Wow, I don't like that," or "I don't like the way it's done," or "That's awesome," or what have you. If they are not your buying customers, do not listen to them, really one of the most important things about marketing.
I was sitting in a meeting just this last week, and one of the guys said, "You know what, guys? I want to bring you back some video segments of his video training that he's doing for kids ages nine to 14. So I'm going to do some video training for them." I said, "Why are you going to bring them back to us? We can tell you how good it is, how great it is, maybe how this, or whatever. We are not your market. You need to put focus groups together, which they do in the advertising industry, for kids nine to 14. Bring them in and let them tell you if it's good or bad because they're the ones who are going to be using it that you need to interact with." He said, "Colin, thank you for that." I said, "Absolutely."
So headlines are super important. In fact, in my training, I say, yes, your logo is important, but your logo is only part of your brand image. So many people, on the back of their business cards, giant fat logos. On the front of their brochures, giant fat logos. On their websites, giant fat logos. Your logo is part of your brand image. In a small business, you haven't got the money to brand a logo. Branding logos takes a ton of money. McDonald's, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Gillette, all those companies have billions of dollars to brand a logo onto the brain of the people they're marketing to.
The majority of you listening to this show do not have that branding budget, so the key thing for us, in terms of branding a logo ... What we need to do is brand you through headlines, which says what differentiates you. In other words, that's a real, true brand. What differentiates you? On the front of your brochures, really good headlines that scream to that person, "This is for me." On your website, on your homepage, instead of the word "Welcome" at the top of your homepage, put a powerful headline. Now if you want to see what we do, go to MYMsuccess.com, and you'll see right on the top of the homepage is a headline, attracting and grabbing people, then, to read the rest of the page. I cannot stress this enough. I watch people do such sad marketing. Headlines need to be really attention-grabbing. They must scream, "This is for me." And, of course, my favorite thing: don't make your logo your amigo. People get so stuck on their logos and doing the things that really don't get them ahead.
Let's say I come and see you at your office or your facility or your home, whatever it might be, or I'll meet you in a coffee shop. I want to give you my brochure. It lands on the table. I'll go through it with you. Then, when I leave, that brochure sits face-up on the table, and guess what? Somebody else comes in and meets with you. They read the headline, and that headline talks to them. That's what I want you to understand. What headlines are you using in your business? They must be attention-grabbing, must target the pain of the reader, viewer, or listener, so when they see that, it grabs them and brings them in.
So headlines need to be used, tops of brochures. You open you the brochure, top in the center of a brochure, like a tri-fold brochure, on the front of a tri-fold brochure, headline. Yes, you can put your logo, maybe down the bottom as a footer, but definitely not front and center of a tri-fold brochure. Then, as you open up the brochure, where you see across the inside, there should be another killer headline.
I did this for a company that does roll screens, roll shutters, a company called Mr. Cover All here in Canada, and guess what? We took their business from $188,000 a year -- and they had been that on average for the last three years -- and we took them to $733,000 in 12 months by changing their brochure, going to different trade shows, going to trade shows where their ideal clients hang out, where their avatar clients hang out, and that's where we converted their entire business. A few years later, we took them to 1.4 million. That company continues to grow, and here's the reason why: because they use great marketing, which means using headlines to draw people in.
The key thing about headlines: when you read a newspaper, the thing in the newspaper that draws you into read the article in the newspaper, the amazing headline. The same thing for you when you do brochures, when you do your websites, when you have any advertisements that you put together, you need to speak directly to their pain. Even in your emails you send out, you want to send out a good email, the subject line needs to target the pain of the reader reading that email. When you have a really good headline on your brochure or website, email, what have you, when you have a good headline, it draws them in to read the rest of the content. If the headline sucks, you will not get them. You want to grab them, bring them in to read. If they're watching a video, grab them in the video and bring them into reading or to listening to the rest of the video.
I cannot stress this enough of how many people put together really poor marketing because they use logos everywhere. Do not make your logo your amigo. Really good powerful headlines speaking to the pain of the viewer or reader or listener, and then once you get that working for you and you start to target those headlines.
Please, after today, you want to get people to open your emails? Put good headlines in the subject line. You want people to even return your voicemails? When you leave a voicemail, leave an intriguing voicemail. I'm going to talk a lot about that as we go through these shows. Why? Because so many people don't get people to return their phone calls. Why? Because they phone and leave such detailed messages that the person who picks up the message makes a decision to either phone you back or not because they have all the information. You want them to phone you back by simply saying things like, "Hey, it's Colin Sprake here. I got your email. There's something that I need to really talk to you about. Please call me back as soon as you can." That person is intrigued to call you back. If you leave all the information of all the details of all your products and services or all that kind of stuff that people do in the long, crazy, long voicemails, people don't phone you back because they make a determination of whether to phone you back because you've left enough content for them to make a decision.
Remember: they buy you, they don't buy your products and services. And I want you to write that down. People buy you, they don't buy your products and services. It's really important to create great relationships with people, and the way you attract them in, in all your marketing, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, your brochures, your websites, any kind of other advertising, doorknob ads, whatever it is, the headline attracts people, brings them in to read the rest of the content.
I want to dig deeper into this over the next few months, but I want you to really get this. The deeper we go into this, I'm going to show you how to do advertising, how to really create great ads, and really get your business to the next level. I trust you've found this super informative. Make sure you use headlines. Make sure you hang out in the right places. Make sure you define who you're looking for to go and find them, and become very, very clear in all your marketing campaigns. I wish you an amazing, amazing week or month ahead. Be brilliant, be awesome, and I'll talk to you very, very soon on the next show. Thank you so much, and have a great, great day.
Louise Neville is a Brain Health Trainer, Concussion Recovery Specialist, Certified Health Coach, Author and Keynote Speaker. Louise works with Athletes, CEOs, entrepreneurs and individuals to maximize their brain health and optimize their cognitive performance. Louise empowers individuals to reach new levels of health and transform their lives… giving new meaning to our brain+body connection. Imagine a world where everyone knew how to conquer their greatest health concern… and felt empowered to do it? This is the new world she is working to build. Louise is all about inspiring individuals to turn their health dreams into reality. To say she is passionate about ‘shifting’ the world’s collective knowledge around our brain-body metabolic and energy connection… is an understatement! Educating, coaching and inspiring individuals on how to take back their power and become their own health warrior - transforming their life, and fulfilling their health goals - is her “raison d’être” and her passion.
Louise, welcome to the podcast today.
Thank you so much, Colin. I'm really looking forward to being here.
It's great to have you here. Just give us a little bit of an intro. Give our listeners an intro to who you are, what you do, what have you, so they can understand what kind of business you're in.
Absolutely. I'm a concussion specialist. I'm a concussion recovery coach and a brain health trainer. So what that means is I work with individuals who have had concussions who really want to fast-track their recovery. I also work from a brain health perspective. I work with CEOs and other individuals and organizations who just really want to maximize their performance and focus and really have that elite brain when we talk about brain performance.
Beautiful. Thank you, Louise. Of course, it's really interesting of how people interact when there's certain business types they're in, in terms of doing business in terms of what you're in. So give us an idea of how do you even get into this? I guess, was this something for you that you woke up one day and said, "I want to be a concussion specialist and help people," or what have you been through that's really got you on this journey to really serving other people that have these challenges?
Absolutely, that's a great question, Colin. For me, it all came from experience-driven. So I have had multiple concussions in my own life. I suffered from post-concussion syndrome a few times, and my last concussion actually almost ended my life. So it was very severe. I had lost a good chunk of my vision. I had almost no short-term memory. So we're talking about a really reduced quality of life. I had been working with those symptoms for just almost a year, and I had 20 different specialists, and at that point, all of them were sort of, "This is going to be your life. This is what you need to cope with."
I'm an a-type. I just didn't want to accept that, and that really drove me to seek out other solutions and other answers. So I started working with R&D specialists. I really only did research and looked at research within the last two years, and not only on concussion, but on brain health as a whole. I pieced different research components together and came up with more of a recovery system, if you will, and really looked at how to maximize brain power. So, from that research and that system, when I started implementing that, within three months, I was fully recovered. All symptoms gone, completely shocked my specialist that had told me differently.
What happened is actually the business started organically. People just started hearing my story, and then I started to do some coaching here and there. Then it really turned into, wow, this is a real need out there in the world, specifically in North America. For various reasons, Canada's different in terms of our healthcare than the US, but both countries have challenges and the outcome is the same. It's that we're not necessarily getting the right care from a concussion standpoint. Most people don't even understand how to really maximize their brain to a new level of performance. That is absolutely possible, but we don't really talk about that in life.
So what happened is I started the business and definitely started really getting the value, both from an education point of view, out there to the marketplace and to different clients, but also it was very rewarding for me to see people improve considerably when they have stories just like mine around their doctors didn't really know how to fast-track their recovery. They've been told different things. It's been a really rewarding experience.
I hear that. I think the key thing for me and what I want our listeners to actually just think through today is...you went through 20 specialists. You went through people that said to you, "You're going to be this way for the rest of your life. You're going to have limited vision. You're going to have all these challenges going forward." And you were adamant that, no, that would not happen. What I want our listeners to hear is there's opportunity in your adversity. You've created a business. Your story's become such a huge part of creating such a successful business.
I want people to listen to this because every time you have a challenge that happens in your life, so many people look for the danger inside their challenge or inside their crisis, but there's so much opportunity inside every crisis or challenge that happens in our lives. I just hope that people just hear this and think it through, that there might be a business owner lying there, going, "My goodness, I have so much challenge in my life right now." But listen to what Louise has to say. There's opportunity in it. Yes, right in the situation right now, you might not hear that.
Louise, I look at ... I don't want to get too much into the politics of things here, but the NFL in the United States, there's so many, apparently, major lawsuits on the go with concussions because of course these people are bashing their heads against each other because they have this false sense of protecting wearing helmets. I grew up playing rugby. You used your head to think through the strategy of the game. You didn't use your head to stop other people. That fascinates me, how much opportunity there actually is in the whole ... or, actually, how much concussion, sadly, there is in the marketplace in terms of the world and around us happening every single day.
Absolutely, Colin. In terms of concussions, you mentioned politics. There's a lot of politics around this topic, not only from a sporting aspect but also from a medical community aspect. We have a lot of healthcare practitioners that are using old protocols for how to manage concussion or brain injury. In the sporting world, there's lots of cover-ups on many different fronts, by the way, so we have the cover-up that I think a lot of people are sort of familiar with. It started with the NFL, but which is that concussion is a brain injury, and the more concussions you have in your life, you're more at risk for something called CTE, which is a very highly damaging condition later on in life and can cause death. Then, we also have the helmet industry, actually. There's been this widespread proliferation ... concept of helmets have to be in every sport. Helmets can save your life, but the way that helmets are designed today actually contributes to some concussions, so ...
Wow. That's crazy.
It is crazy. We're not getting the right information, and there's cover-ups on multiple fronts, right? I think, obviously, not saying one person's to blame because that's not accurate either. It's just if we take the helmet industry right now, it's people trying to do the right thing. They thought that helmets were the right approach. I think in five years, 10 years, they will be. In five years, you'll see, probably, different design. You'll see a lot more ventilation in helmets. You'll see a much more lighter helmet.
Because helmets right now, they do two things. They change the physics of weight when we're accelerating or decelerating, so that's why the brain inside the skull can move around and create a bit more bruising. But, also, it creates heat. As we know with anything, when we have heat, everything expands, and so the brain is a bit closer to the skull so, again, that can cause a bit more bruising, which is technically a concussion. So, when we think about this, it's people trying to do the right thing, but then now that the technology is improving and that we're not probably using the right helmets for the right types of sports, now there seems to be this cover-up instead of people just being open and honest around, "Hey, listen, we need some new designs. We didn't get it right out of the gate the first time. Let's go back to the drawing board and get this done, right, for people's safety."
Absolutely, and I think what's really happening here is the entire industry's putting a helmet on and trying to bounce these accusations or these challenges off. What a great amount of opportunity in this. I really love what you're doing, and I trust our listeners are seeing there's opportunity in every situation, but as a business owner taking your challenge and turning it into an opportunity, what would you say, if you went back five years, whatever the duration is, and you went back and you said to yourself, "You know what? There's things I'm doing today I wish I'd done five years ago or known five years ago," as you got into making this into a business, what would that piece of advice be that you would say was one of the key things that you wish you had learned earlier on to make this into a business and really run with things? What could you share with our listeners today?
Absolutely. I had mentioned earlier, I said this started a little bit organically, and I don't think I was confident in the business model or that there was even a market out there for concussion recovery coaching. So I don't think I really fully, in the early days, trusted in that business model. For all your listeners out there, I think the key thing is really trust in yourself. If you have a business idea and you develop your business plan and it's solid, trust in that and action it right away. Don't wait. Because obviously the marketplace can change if you wait, you may lose confidence in yourself if you wait, so it's one of those things of if I look back and I think, "What would I have done differently," I would've jumped in with two feet right away. That's really a lesson that I want to share with others.
Yeah, and I think the key thing is, if you haven't got a business plan and you're listening, that's something you should have, which I'll be talking on an upcoming podcast pretty soon. For people to really think this through is that you've put this plan together, you have this courage of your convictions, what have you, and then how many people threw darts at you and said that it wasn't possible to build a business? Do you have any family or friends that thought you had the most crazy idea? Maybe they thought that your concussion was still active.
Oh my gosh, yes, Colin, yes. Oh. So I actually had a definitely two-fold problem. The first thing is that, in my personal experience, some people knew about my concussion, other people did not, and so it was hard for me to even understand who at this point knew. It was also interesting because I didn't want to just blast out, "Hey, I'm recovered from my concussion." I wasn't ready at that moment to do that. As the months went on, I just didn't even realize that some people still thought that I had a concussion or concussion symptoms, which was interesting in itself.
But in term of the naysayers, I definitely had quite a bit of that when I talked with specific medical organizations. The medical community is a bit more of a niche community in itself. For them, there's a lot of nay-saying in terms of, "Well, concussions don't really need coaching. This is not really what we recommend." When you take hits to your person and obviously to your confidence, you really have to get past that because had I listened to them, then I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today, and I wouldn't be helping the many people that I am helping today. That's a really key thing, really going back to having that self-confidence in your business plan and in whatever you're trying to deliver, if it's service-based, whatever service you're trying to deliver to the community and to your target market.
Yeah, and what I love about this is how you've taken this amazing opportunity, and, yeah, you've got the medical community saying, "Well, no, you could never do it." I think it's the same thing that happened with the taxi industry and Uber. Everyone said that Uber would never be successful, and now the taxi industry is screaming, attempting as much as they can to shut down Uber, and Uber just keeps on growing and growing into multiple markets. I think that's what you've done. You've been the disruptor in your industry. There's a traditional way of doing it, and doctors have said, "No, you can only do it this way."
I want our listeners to realize you need to be a disruptor in your own industry. People say you cannot do something, even people at a very high level. Of course we all respect doctors, they go through a lot of education to get where they are today, but the challenging part is they only have one way of doing it. Remember, the more educated you become, the more specialized you become in a much smaller slice of the pie as opposed to being more open and a greater general knowledge of what's happening around the world.
I think the key thing for me, for our listeners to really listen to this today, Louise, is that there was opportunity and people attempted to shut you down and even maybe even say that you still had symptoms of concussion by doing what you were doing. But the key thing is you had the courage of your convictions, you had the plan, and you followed through on it. If there was one piece of advice, Louise, today that you could really give our listeners in terms of ... As they move forward and they have their plan and what have you or whatever they need, what would that piece of advice be to really help people stay committed to what they're doing even though they're going to face some challenges as they move forward? Is there anything you can say to them, like, "Listen, listeners, this is what I did to stay committed even though I've got these people telling me I couldn't do it?" How did you stay committed on a daily basis to get where you are today?
Absolutely. To stay committed, there's not one thing, for me anyways. It was a multitude of things. One, it was being surrounded by really great people, really supportive business owners, and really having that community of support where there's a lot of open-mindedness.
Also, I guess, when we talk about confidence, it's also all around making sure that you really come back to why you're doing this. Obviously, anyone listening, if you've taken any of Colin's courses, you'll know the universal challenge line. I've hit that many times, that universal challenge line, and for me, what really gets me through is when I come back, I center myself and I really go back to, Why am I doing this? I'm doing this to truly help others. I'm doing this to make sure that other people feel empowered in their recovery, other people understand that they can improve their health, they can improve their brain health, and they can get to a better place. When I really focus back onto that, if you want to call it, that heart-centered purpose, that really gets me through. That really powers me through to that next level, to really say, "This is why I'm doing it, and because of this, I'm not going to let anyone stop me because I know that there is value. I see value every single day when I work with my clients."
Yeah, and I think that you've also seen it, too, when you know you're living on purpose and you know you have a real true mission and why in life is when you start to go from doing one-on-one coaching, which I know you do a lot of one-on-one coaching. You've also made a really big decision to move into actually doing workshops where people can come out -
Absolutely.
... that have concussions to really understand. You want to help as many people as you can, and that's the real leverage part of it. Instead of working one-on-one, it's working one-on-many for people to even understand this, more so, even the family members to understand what's happening with their family. We've had some challenges here, even at my own company, of people that have been through concussions and really behaving in a certain way and really, we sit back and we go, "Wow, I can't believe that person behaved that way." But then you realize a lot of it has to do with the concussion that they have or that they think they've overcome already.
It's so awesome to hear you as you walk through your business and what you've done. I'd like to just ask, really dig into a really important question of what are you going to do going forward? You say you have a why and you have your own purpose and what have you. What do you see in the next five years for your business? So, what are you going to be maybe doing differently or what have you thought through of or what are you going to be doing pricing-wise maybe? Maybe you started out at a certain price range, and now you're starting to realize, "I should've had higher prices from the day I started." What are you doing differently around what you've learned so far in the last five years or the last few years that you're going to carry forward and even maybe dig deeper into so that you actually continue to build and serve so many people.
Absolutely. I think that that's more of a three-part question for me. The first thing is you mentioned Uber earlier, and I just really want to go back on that, so Uber as a disruptive industry. What I'm doing right now, as you mentioned, is quite disruptive, so what I've done is I've basically taken concepts that really exist more in other industries, and I'm applying them into the health industry. So when we talk business coaching, if you're at 500,000 in your business and you want to get to a million, it's a pretty no-brainer that you can get a business coach. You might hire a business coach, you might take, Colin, some of your courses as a trainer, someone to coach you through this, right? Because this is what we do. In relationships, relationship coaching is becoming a little bit more of a known practice, if you're having troubles in your relationship, to get some coaching on that and how to move forward.
But health coaching doesn't really exist. It's really interesting that I'm taking principles from other industries and applying them in health. From that disruptive type of concept, what that's created for me is some opportunity. I challenge your listeners as you listen to this to really think about what other principles that are out there in maybe other industries or maybe in different business models that you can now apply to your business model. Sometimes, we get stuck in one mode of working. Well, it's always been done this way, and this is the way I should do it. So I really challenge you to take little tips and tricks and techniques from other places and bring them into your business. So that's the first thing.
Let me just add to that for a second, Louise, because I think that's such a great point, before you carry on. I think the key thing is for people to really see that, that there's so many great tips and strategies out there from different industries. People come to me very frequently, they'll say to me, "Colin, you're not a realtor. You've never had a concussion. How can you be a concussion coach. You're not a mortgage broker. How can you coach me as a mortgage broker?" I go, "That's the thing I want you to realize." When you get stuck in your industry, all you ever seem to hear is, "Well, it's only done this way in our industry," and what Louise is saying to listeners today is that you need to sometimes get out of your industry, do things differently. Stop being the taxis of the world, be the Uber of the world in your industry by using different strategies and techniques from other industries.
Absolutely awesome. I'll let you carry on, Louise. I just wanted to really add that because it's such an important thing for people to really understand, that there are opportunities and you've just got to think outside of the box and sometimes think outside of your industry. Go get a coach or mentor or someone who's not in your industry because if they are, often they'll tell you it's only done one way, and that's the way your industry's always done it. Be the disruptor, don't be the conformer.
Absolutely. That's a great way to put it, Colin. Thanks. When you do that, that creates opportunities. It actually will create new opportunities that you may not even have envisioned. For me, I had initially only envisioned ever doing one-on-one coaching, and so what that's now turned into for me is I'm running workshops. I actually run a Calgary concussion group out here in Calgary. It's just allowed me, really, to expand into a one-to-many type of environment, helping more people. Interestingly enough, it actually created this unique opportunity, when we look at destructing the industry. It created a brand new opportunity I hadn't even envisioned. What started to happen is people that were interested in brain health but did not have a concussion started to apply some of my techniques and be interested in what I'm doing.
And so you had asked me the question around what am I envisioning for the next five years? I'm actually going to be launching a brand new brand. It's actually going to be called the Brain-Body Shift. So it'll be a brain-specific brand, so not concussion, and it'll be for individuals who are just looking to really increase their brain performance. A lot of the work that I do with concussion and a lot of the techniques that we use and the system as a whole absolutely does apply to improved brain health, even for just any individual looking to improve their health as a whole.
I'm really excited about that. I had never envisioned this when I first started the business. It's a brand new opportunity for me. Definitely working with organizations and CEOs, looking to help their teams really get to the next level.
So let me ask you a question around, which I really love as well within what you're doing. Let's go back to the one key thing. Tell me a little bit about your pricing, where you started off pricing-wise. You don't have to give me the numbers, but where you started off and where you're at today and where you're going around pricing because I think that's a big part of this whole confidence thing that so many people say, "Oh, no, I need to start off low." Give us where you're going and what your experience has been around pricing, and what advice would you give our listeners around pricing?
Absolutely. Initially, I was coaching for free, let's face it. That's how it all started for me before I actually did up my business plan and, actually, it kicked off my business. In terms of pricing, I've gone through probably, at this point, definitely three sets of pricing. With the Brain-Body Shift, what I've also realized, too, with the new brand that I'm going to be launching, is that I realize in that particular sort of environment I'm definitely going to need some online programs, so I'm actually building out some online programs as well. So not only many-to-one or, say, one-to-many group coaching but also some things that you can just download and use on your own.
I think what I would share with listeners is don't think of your pricing as necessarily ... Because you set your price at one point, this is the price that it has to stay at for ten years. I don't think it really works like that. This is always trial and error. If you can, when you start off, really have that self-confidence to really understand your worth in the marketplace and do that market assessment and really see how you can really affect change and then price that accordingly.
For me, it was a little bit hard because, don't forget, as we talked about earlier, I'm the disruption in the market, so I had no benchmark in terms of what pricing strategies would be effective. For me, it was a little bit of trial and error, and also, understanding my new market is very interesting as well, so the non-concussed market. That would need different online programs, so also I switch it up. I really think that that whole trial and error is really important, piloting different things, very important in my business.
Yeah, and I think that's one thing I know that I'm going to be doing an upcoming podcast, an upcoming episode, as well, is I'm going to be talking around really cash-flowing your pricing because it fascinates me how many people start out at pricing that they think is really acceptable but actually doesn’t make money. So watch out for that episode. It'll be coming up in the next few weeks, to all our listeners, around pricing.
So, Louise, thank you for that. This has been awesome today. I really, really love you coming on the show and sharing your brilliance with our listeners. As we round off for today, for me, I really wanted to, most of all, say thank you, Louise. I'm going to just do a little bit of a summary here for our listeners here, a very quick, short summary.
Number one, be courageous. Have the courage of your convictions, everybody. Really, really important. When you make a decision to be a disrupter in your industry and you decide to be a non-conformer, you're going to get arrows thrown at you and have darts shot at you and what have you by so many different people. That's okay. You've got to get a thick skin so you can move forward and keep on doing it because when you know you're doing things that are right to serve humanity and you're doing it through your business, you've got to keep going no matter what. And, yes, those arrows might hurt, but guess what? When you get to where you need to be, you become the disrupter. And as you go through your pricing, be thinking of your pricing. Think of your pricing in a very structured way of, "Okay, what can the market bear? What is my pricing currently? Am I even going to make money at what I'm doing?" Have you cash-flowed that pricing? If you're not sure what the cash flow means, we'll talk about that in an upcoming episode.
So, Louise, it's been so super interesting listening to you today, as well as just hearing where you're going and what you're doing. I'm sure there's people out there that might have people in their lives that have had concussion, or they might even be listening and not even know they're suffering from post-concussion disorder or what have you. So how can people easily get hold of you if they have any questions, what have you? And please, listeners, you're more than welcome to connect with Louise, but she's not going to give you free consultation. As much as she said she used to do that, she no longer does that. Just saying. If you want to get hold of Louise ... Louise, what's the easiest way for them to get hold of you?
Absolutely. They can go to my website at www.concussionshift.com.
Louise, just thank you for being on today. I wish you massive success as you go forward, and I look forward, maybe in a few episodes' time or maybe in a year's time or so, to get you back on to give us an update on where things are at.
Absolutely. I'd love to, Colin.
Ways to contact Louise:
- Website: www.concussionshift.com
Hi, this is Colin Sprake and I'm super excited to be here today because I'm going to take you through a topic that's going to get you really thinking and doing things differently because if you don't change your way of doing things, you'll keep on getting the same results. You’re Einstein's version of insanity. Keep on doing the same things expecting a different result.
Today make sure you’ve got your pen and paper ready. Make sure you are in a place where you can really think this stuff through because it's going to really get you to understand what it takes to build a very successful business. People always say to me, "Colin, I want to learn more strategies. I want to learn so many new things on how to get my business to the next level." But the challenging part is yes, I can teach you more strategies. I can take you through that and part of the podcasts are actually taking you through strategies: marketing, sales, different kinds of strategies. But what I want you to think about is I can teach you all that, but the most important part is once you've got the strategies, why aren't you using them?
How many times have you gone out and been taught an incredible strategy only to go back home and that strategy is not getting implemented? There's a very sad reason why and I want you to think about this as we get into this episode today because as we go through today, I'm going to get your brain doing things differently because I want you to get things you've never had before by doing things you've never done before. Make sure you get your pens and paper ready because this MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth with Colin Sprake and I'm will walk you through getting your head completely into the game.
I really mean that. Is your head in the game right now? Or are you wondering why you're not getting results? There's reasons why you're not getting results. If I ask you right now, do you have habits that you wake up every single day and do and you've mastered them, but they're not serving you? They might be really bad habits. Bad habits are things like you get up late every morning. Bad habits like really knowing that you should be doing certain things in your business and you're not doing them. Maybe answering emails and then you say, "You know what, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it the next day."
These are all bad habits that aren't serving you and will never get you to be being a multiple seven-figure, eight-figure, even nine-figure business. Why? Because you need to shift, and wherever you're listening, really envision this finger pointing in front of you. Like your hand in front of you, pointing back at you saying, "You are the challenge."
When you look in the mirror every day, you're the one that is responsible for the results you're achieving in your life. I really mean that. You cannot say, "No, I blame my spouse. I blame somebody else for the results I'm not getting." No, the results in your life, you're directly responsible for those results so next time you want to blame somebody else, to me, winners take responsibility for their actions. Whiners blame other people for where they're not at in life. The winners I want you to be from this podcast is to look in that mirror. See that person standing in the mirror and say, "You're a winner. You're the person that I want to make sure gets exceptional results in every way and form." You know what? When you start to take responsibility and take actions for all the things that are happening in your life, that's when you truly start to win.
Let's get into this today. I'm super excited for this topic today. I want you to take lots of detailed notes. Now our mind is divided into two. We have the conscious mind and we have the subconscious mind. Now our conscious mind, we have all our thoughts, everything else that go inside our conscious mind. Our subconscious mind ... and what I want you to think about is if you had to draw a circle and then put a horizontal line through the center of the circle. The top half would be your conscious mind and the bottom half your subconscious mind.
Now in your conscious mind, that top half, I'd like you write thoughts. What we think, our thoughts that we have what, what have you. On the outside of the circle, top half, I want you to put key things like what you speak, what you hear, what you see, what have you on the outside, what your culture is. Those are really, really important. Then I want you to draw arrows coming down directly from the outside of the circle down into your subconscious.
I want you think about this because in your subconscious mind, you have a hard drive. This hard drive runs your entire life. I want you to think about this. This hard drive is running exactly what you put into it; from your thoughts, what you say, what you see, everything. I want you to think about it because it’s also what you hear. All this information comes through your conscious mind and goes onto your subconscious mind, unedited. What I mean by unedited, your subconscious mind doesn't know what's right or wrong or good or bad for you. It just runs what you put on the hard drive.
Let's just say, you want to run a spreadsheet in a computer system. Well, great, you have to have the software on the computer system loaded on that hard drive, loaded, so you can bring up a spreadsheet and you can work on a spreadsheet. If you want to do word processing, you have to have the word processing software loaded on that hard drive in order to access it so you can do word processing. The same thing goes for success in your life, you have to have success software loaded on your subconscious hard drive to get you the results that you're looking for. If you've got malware or maybe you've got a virus or two on your hard drive, you might be wondering why you're not getting the results that you're looking for.
What are you loading onto that hard drive every single day? In other words, what are you putting onto your subconscious mind every single day in your life, your business, your relationships, your health, and your fitness? Let's just say, what you hear out there from negative people, negative things around you, whatever it might be. That stuff goes onto your hard drive, unedited. What you say.
If you say things like I cannot remember names; how many times have you ever heard yourself say that or maybe somebody else say that? I cannot remember names. That goes directly onto your hard drive, unedited, and what runs on your hard drive? I cannot remember names. You'll never be able to remember names if you keep on putting this information onto your hard drive. The same thing as I cannot find high paying customers, that goes right onto your hard drive even if you say this or you think this, it goes from your conscious mind onto your subconscious mind, hard drive and that's what runs your life.
If you think you cannot find clients, cannot find high paying clients, cannot keep clients, all the stuff runs on your subconscious, hard drive and this is what gives you results in your life. This is what gives you either exceptional results or things that hold you back and you don't get ahead. I want you to really think about this. It's one of my most passionate topics. You can probably hear it in my voice how passionate I am around this topic because people are wondering why they're not getting results. It's what you are thinking and what you are saying are going onto your hard drive every single day.
Dr. Murphy said it the best. He has a great book out there called "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind." This book was written in 1965 and people still to this day, I'm stunned why people aren't working on what they put on the subconscious mind every single day because just think about it this way. Dr. Murphy's analogy is your conscious mind is like the captain of your ship. It's a captain of your boat so what happens is the captain gives instructions to the sailors on the boat and the sailors go and carry out exactly what the captain asks. The sailors don't question the captain. The sailors don't think it's right or wrong or whatever. They just do what the captain asks. That's exactly the same way with your conscious and your subconscious mind.
Your conscious mind is your captain of your ship. Your subconscious mind are your sailors so whatever you think and whatever you say is an instruction to your sailors to go out and carry out. If you say, "I cannot remember names." Your little sailors run off and guess what they do? Cannot remember names. Cannot remember names. If you say, "I cannot find high paying clients," your instruction from the captain of your ship, from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind is I cannot find high paying clients and guess what? You'll never find high paying clients. I want you to really start to think about this and start to realize every word you say and every thought you have, what are you putting on your hard drive? What is running on your hard drive every single day?
A very good friend of mine, Lenore, who's a mortgage broker and actually one of our students, consistently said things like this. "I keep on finding clients who lie to me, that don't give me all their info ... maybe not lie, but they don't give me all the information when they do their applications for a mortgage or refinancing. I keep on finding clients who have really tough mortgages. I'm putting these mortgage together. They're so complicated and I keep on getting these complicated tough mortgages." I said to her, "Lenoir, listen to what you're doing. What instructions you're going from ... your captain of your ship to your hard drive and to your sailors. You are saying, 'I find tough mortgages. It's always awkward. People never give me the information,' and guess what you're getting? Exactly what you asked for because your subconscious mind is running that programming." It was such a huge epiphany for her. She was like, "My goodness, Colin. I now realize where I'm going wrong with this." I said, "I would like you to shift what you're saying and what you're thinking to 'I am finding clients who are easy to deal with, who want million dollar mortgages and we can get them done with simplicity and ease.'"
She started saying that and started to really internalize it and believe it. In three months, her entire business changed. Why? Because what she was putting, what instructions she was giving from the captain of her ship to her sailors completely changed. Those instructions were instructions of abundance, wealth, different mindset, exactly what she was looking for. My question to you is what are you putting on your hard drive?
As you sit in your vehicle right now, are you saying I'm going to see a client or maybe you're not in a vehicle, but maybe you're running or whatever you're doing as you listen to this podcast. You may be thinking “ah, it's so tough to get clients to buy my products or service. Or when I go networking, no one seems to buy from me. No one wants to engage with me.” You keep on saying that, your sailors are running out. You're putting it on your hard drive and giving you exactly those results. Please think about every single thing that you're putting on your hard drive.
My goal from this episode today is to get you to think about how do you become more self-absorbent and self-aware? How do you become more self-absorbent and self-aware about what you are saying and what you are thinking? The sooner we get you in that place, the quicker you will start to implement strategies differently. Why? Because you will think differently, do things differently and what have you.
Remember you are the product of the five people that you hang around with the most in all areas of your life. If you want to be super healthy and fit then you want to hang around with super healthy and fit people. You want to have an abundant business then you're hanging around with abundant business owners. Don't hang around with business owners that are broke because guess what happens? They start to talk to you about different things around their challenges in their business and why they're broke and why they're not making money and guess what? That goes onto your hard drive as well because it comes in unedited onto your hard drive into your subconscious. Guess what you get? You start to get the same results as them. You want to be hanging around with super successful people in all areas of your life.
Jim Rohn said it the best, "The results you're getting in your life right now are directly proportional to the five people you spend most of the time with." Think about this in terms of your health, fitness, spirituality, business, what have you. Who are you spending time with?
I joke about this at my events. People say to me, "But Colin, I've been friends with this person for so many years. This person's my favorite, favorite person." I said, "Yes, but is that person driving you forward and helping you go forward or are they holding you back? If they're holding you back, you need to either do one of two things. Raise them up or push them down." I never agree with pushing people down, but you can raise them up. Lift them up to a higher standard. If they decide to go back down, that's their choice. Do not let them be a concrete block around your ankles, holding you back. Sometimes you have to do friend-endectomies.
People laugh about this. What does that mean? Well, sometimes, you have to look at who's in your life, in the different areas of your life because in order to get ahead, you have to surround yourself with the right people. If you want to be a very successful business owner, surround yourself with five very successful business owners. That's what happens when people come into my company and into our groups. The biggest part about our groups and the success of our groups, like minded people hanging out together.
I want you to get exceptional results in your life, but you've got to figure out what are you putting on your hard drive? Think about this. During the course of the day, what are you surrounding yourself with? People get in their cars. They come home at night. They wake up in the morning and they listen to the news. That to me is so negative. You're listening to rape, death, murder, all that kind of stuff and then you wake up with that and guess what happens to your day? That's what's running on your hard drive. The worst thing you can ever do is listen to all these death, rape, pillage, murder before you go to sleep at night because what runs on your hard drive? This stuff just continually runs on your hard drive. As you go to sleep people lie in bed and watch the news. It's probably the worst thing you could ever do because that stuff runs on your hard drive all the way through the night. You might wonder why sometimes you have really bad nightmares.
Even those different TV shows where there's murder, rape, really negative stuff happening. You see that, you go to sleep and you sleep on that at the end of your day, that stuff runs and people have nightmares over the stuff and they go, "Why am I not sleeping well?" Because it's directly proportion to what you do just before you go to bed. Before you go to bed, you should be setting up your day for the next day. Before I go to bed at night, I journal my successes. I journal my gratitudes every night before I go to bed ... Just as I go into that daisy state, I state, may my day tomorrow be exceptional and I look forward to the day and the abundance in every single way. I say that as I go to sleep and I continue to say that so guess what I sleep on? My successes, my gratitudes and I set my day up.
When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do in the morning is give gratitude for everything that I have; gratitude for my amazing wife, gratitude for my kids, gratitude for my life, and everyone else holding me to a higher standard. I don't roll over, grab my cell phone. Why? because the worst thing you can do is grab that cell phone and then something negative and guess what happens? Your whole head goes into that game and you wonder why you're not getting results that you want.
What are you putting on this hard drive? What are you as the captain of your ship, what instructions are you giving to your sailors every single minute and second of the day even while you are sleeping? Your conscious mind is giving instructions to your subconscious or your subconscious is running. Your sailors are running on what you gave them just before you went to sleep. What instructions you gave them will continue to run all the way through while you're busy sleeping.
I hope you're finding this super interesting today because it's one of the most important things to get your head into the game and start to realize you are the captain of your ship. You cannot blame your family, friends, or anyone else for the results that you have in your life right now. You are 100% responsible and if your life is not where you want it to be right now, your business is not where you want it to be right now, look at what you are thinking and look at what you are saying. Once you start to understand that, then I want you to think about what I call the Four S's.
Write the Four S’s in a vertical line down a page.
S
S
S
S
The top one is strategies. People say to me, "Colin, I want to learn more strategies." Well, yes, I can give you more strategies, but most people have learned so many strategies. How many times have you been to a seminar, workshop, retreat where you learn all this great information, you go home, you put the binder on the shelf, and it becomes shelf-help instead of self-help.
I want you to really start to think things through differently. The third S down before we get to bottom one, the fourth one. The third S down is I want you to think about changing your state. Change your state of mind, state of openness, state of acceptance, state of being. Once you change your state and become aware of things that are happening in your life and you'll start to realize the second S is stories. The third one is state. The stories in between so it goes from the bottom up; state, stories, strategies.
I want you to think in order to implement strategies differently and get different results from the strategies you're learning, even the strategies you're learning today right now as we go through this episode together, I want you to think what are the strategies you're learning, but are you prepared to change your state first? State of openness, state of acceptance, state of being, state of willingness because once you change your state then you become aware of the stories and non-supportive stories that are happening in your life.
I'm fascinated by how many people have so many non-supportive stories. I'm too old to be successful. I'm too young to be successful. I don't have enough knowledge to be successful. I need more experience. I need more credentials. Yes, in certain areas of your life, you do need credentials. In other areas, you don't. The biggest thing is we keep on telling ourselves these different things and putting stories in our heads and guess what? Those stories go on to our subconscious drive. Our little sailors are running around doing exactly what we asked them to do.
I want you to become aware of the stories. Stories come from, mostly, the people we hang out with. When you want to be fit and healthy, you hang out with people that eat healthy, run, do different exercise activities, what have you. What stories do you hear? You hear amazing stories on how to become fit and healthy from these amazing people. Guess what happens? You could get to learn strategies, which you finally implement because those people hold you accountable to implementing them and getting to where you need to be.
Most people are hanging around with the wrong people. It's very difficult to become fit and healthy if your five closest people that you spend most of your time with are not doing any activity, are eating really unhealthy because guess what they're going to tell you? Order pizza. Order these other foods. Order these fatty foods. Don't run. Let's rather go and do something else. Let's go sit in the pub. If you learn those, you surround yourself with people that talk around those stories. Those stories go onto your hard drive. Guess what strategies you learn? You learn strategies of how to be unfit and unhealthy.
Just take it into your relationships in your life; the three S's: state, stories, strategies. If your relationship right now, you're learning strategies on how to make your relationship better, let's go to your state. Are you prepared to be open, different, what have you? Change your state around your relationship. Let's say it's your primary relationship: your spouse, your loved one, whatever it might be.
You might laugh about this, but let's say if are you hanging around with couples who are recently divorced. They've separated. They've divorced from one another and they are talking negatively about relationships. “Relationships don't work. Most people have baggage. I never want to get into another relationship. I can't stand men. I can't stand women.” Whatever it might be. Guess what happens? You start to hear stories that are non-supportive around having a great relationship. The chance of you learning great strategies on how to have a beautiful relationship are really limited by hanging out with those kind of people.
You want to have a beautiful soulful, incredible relationship then what you need to be looking at is who am I hanging around with? The couples I hang around with, old people are they talking amazing about their relationship? Do they say the durations awesome? What do they do? Do they go on date nights? What are they doing to make their relationship amazing? You start to hear incredible stories of how they've got their relationship to be amazing and guess what? Those stories lead to an incredible number of strategies to get your relationship to the next level.
I hope this is making sense for you as you listen to this today and I hope you're taking detailed notes because this is for all areas of your life. You might be saying, "Colin, I thought this was a business podcast." Yes, it is, but remember the state of your life, your state of your business is often determined by the state of your relationships. Your relationships aren't working at home, with your clients, with your vendors. Guess what? The state of your business is not going to be working either.
You won't be getting the results that you're looking for so I want you to think about this, the three S's. Now see, in the beginning, I said there were four S's. I'm going to come to the fourth one in a moment. You go from the bottom up. Change your state to get different, then you'll start to realize and become aware of the stories you're surrounding yourself with or that you're telling yourself. Then you'll implement strategies different.
I want you to become very aware of the stories. Many people have non-supportive stories around them, which get them to think non-supportive stories and you'll never implement the strategies the way you'd like to implement them. Why? because you're learning strategies that are completely non-supportive because of the stories that you're surrounding yourself with.
My question to you is who are you surrounding yourself with in the different areas of your life? Non-supportive strategies; let me give you a really great example of this. Like I said, I don't want to generalize completely. To me, the worst people you can ever hang out with in business are those people in the same industry as you that are broke or financially challenged because here's the thing. What stories are you going to hear? All the negative stories. That it takes three to five years to be successful in my industry. Or you know what? The economy's down right now. Blah, ba-blah, ba-blah. All those different stories that are non-supportive that'll never give you a strategy on how to be successful.
You wonder in your industry. Be hanging out with people that are super successful, that have different stories, that have strategies of success that you can learn from them because that's how you get ahead. Please and you might be saying, "Well, Colin ... there's lots of competitors in my industry." I understand. Maybe you're a realtor. If you're a great realtor or let's say you're just starting out as a realtor, go hang out with the five best realtors that you can ever imagine to hang out with.
Let's just say you're in the Vancouver market and you're like, "Well, Colin, the five best realtors don't want to train me in the Vancouver market because then I'll become a competitor." Great. Go learn from another realtor. Befriend a realtor in another office. Maybe in Calgary or Toronto what have you, somewhere else. Maybe the United States. Befriend the really successful realtors in the other offices where you're not going to be a competitor to in their market space. Ask them. Go and fly out there and take 'em for lunch or maybe ask them if they'll mentor you because you want to learn strategies that come from the stories that you surround yourself with, but the stories you hear from the successful people, you'll get such amazing strategies that you'll never look back.
The fourth S is right at the bottom, before you even get near to changing your state. This is the thing I say why most business owners go absolutely broke is stubbornness. Most business owners are so darn stubborn. They don't ask for help. I'm telling you every time I think about doing something new in my business, I think who is a mentor that can help me and get me there the quickest with the least amount of stress and least amount of financial implications. I think about that immediately.
You might be thinking well, wait a minute. What do I want to do in my business? Right now is have Make Your Mark grow as we grow into a multiple, multiple, multiple eight-figure business. Our goal within the next two years is to be a nine-figure business. I am surrounding myself with people who've done that already, who've run 100 million, 200 million, 300 million dollar companies. Why?
Number one, that's their skill set. They know how to get there. They know how to do it. If I'm going to go and swim the English Channel, I want to find a coach that's actually swam the English Channel already that knows how to do it. I'm the same way with my business and every aspect of my life. I want to find somebody who maybe was unhealthy who became super healthy and knows what it takes to be healthy to get me to where I want to be health wise. I want somebody who knows how to have a great relationship, mentor me in how to have a great relationship.
The same with business. Who are your mentors in your business and in life? Or are you too stubborn to take advice from anyone because you think you can do it by yourself? Doing things by yourself costs you a freaking fortune, number one. You learn so much along the way, yes. Some of the best learning happens when you have challenges in your life, but just think about this. I want you to start to think differently. First, you have to get rid of your stubbornness. Then you can look at your state and change your state in every way and form. Once you do that, you learn more stories. You surround yourself with the right people and then you can take strategies you learn and implement them very, very effectively.
Now, I want you just to think about this going forward because I can tell you, we're going to talk about this in an upcoming episodes, as well, around really getting your business to the next level, but it all starts with you. If you do not shift who you are, the way you think and what you do mind-set wise, you'll probably never get where you want to be. That's the biggest shift I see with people. People come to me all the time. "Colin, teach me business. Teach me business."
No. What we need to first do is work on you, the human being. Get your head in the game. Get your mindset set. Get the right stuff going onto your hard drive, onto your subconscious mind so that when you think things and say things, your little sailors are running off and doing exactly what you asked them to do to get you the results you're looking for, get you to the destinations you want to achieve, making the money that you want and the time off that you deserve. It is so, so important.
I thank you so much for listening today. You love what you've heard today? I'm sure that it's got you really thinking. As you go off today, every single second of today, every single minute of today, I want you to be self-aware and self-observant of what you are thinking and what you are saying because that's dictating your results.
If you think when you're driving to a parking lot, ah, I can never find parking in this parking lot. Guess what? You never will. This stuff just runs on your hard drive all the time. Or, you know, I can never find high paying clients. It's very difficult to find great staff members or it's very difficult to find great employees. Most employees I have never stay. I have high staff turnover rates. You keep on saying that, it runs on your hard drive and you get exactly what you're asking for whether you want it or not.
Please make sure you give us a review on iTunes; a really good, favorable review if you've loved what you've heard from the show, MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth with Colin Sprake and give us a rating as well. Give us a good, high rating. If you found this favorable, please I want it to help people out there. I want businesses to be successful, where we have a successful business and successful families, simultaneously; the true thing of having business with soul because that's what the world needs more of.
People need to become more conscious of what they are doing to serve humanity to a higher place and get things working in every way and form. Thank you so much. Keep listening and I look forward to being with you next week on our next show, but keep listening, keep being abundant and be brilliant in every single way. Thank you so much for showing up today.
Neal Sperling is the Founder and CEO of a global business strategic advisory service that has advised start-ups, mid-cap companies, non-profits, to very high net worth individuals.
Neal has strategized and helped his clients solve often extremely complex and difficult business challenges, and then connected them to individuals who have changed their lives for the better, and has even helped them to fulfill their unique life's purpose; hence, he's been called a "World Class Problem Solver" and a “World Class Connector.”
At last count, Neal has connected with over 50 billionaires, the President of the United States, U.S. Vice-President, various heads of state, prime ministers, a five star military general, governors, mayors, Academy Award-winning actors, directors, producers and 15 Nobel Laureates (inclusive of 9 Nobel Peace Prize Winners.)
Recently, Neal developed a series of masterminds to reveal a number of relatively simple techniques that can help anyone to think more abundantly, more efficiently, and more successfully to become super competitive . "Supercreativity" aims to teach anyone how to break down, understand, and replicate the thinking processes, pathways, and approaches consistently used by history's most innovative, successful thinkers – from DaVinci, Edison, Einstein, Tesla, Buckminster Fuller, Steve Jobs to Elon Musk.
The variety of approaches to innovation and problem-solving Neal has made it his business to research, study, and replicate can help those facing common challenges in their everyday business, professional, and even personal lives to more efficiently identify and resolve problems, uplevel their thinking skills and abilities, achieve greater confidence, and ultimately leapfrog ahead of virtually any competitor by looking at most any future challenge faced through the above "expanded eyes of genius."
Hi, it's Colin Sprake here and I'm super excited because today we have a very special guest on MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth, with myself Colin Sprake. Our guest today is Neal Sperling. We're going to take you on a journey today and really dig deep into being more successful and getting answers that you're looking for. Neal's been one of those people that I got to meet only really recently.
In fact, he was on my stage at one of my big events here in Vancouver called Business Excellence, and the one thing that really impressed me about Neal is his heart and his soul and his dedication to other people's success. The way he's done things -- I mean he spoke to me once on the phone recently about trust and he has a great, amazing information and knowledge and just awesome at what he does. Neal, maybe you want to give us a little bit more of an intro to who you are, so our listeners today can understand where you come from, what you do in just a short abbreviated version of who you are and your brilliance that you bring to this podcast today.
Well thank you Colin, it's very, very flattering. I really appreciate it, and it's a great chance to be here and share information with everybody out there. I guess I'm primarily known as a world class connector, and a world class problem solver. The world class connector brand was actually given to me by Robert Allan. I had a chance meeting with him and it led to a meeting in his living room. After he looked at my card and met me for three hours, he said, "You know, you're not a business development and marketing consultant," and I said, "I'm not?" He said, "No, I think you're much more than that, you're a world class connector."
I actually had to go home and look up what that meant because what I'd been doing is essentially something I've been doing all my life, which seeing the connections, puzzle pieces, people and how things fit together and in the most optimal sense, so eventually I've taken that and built that into a career. I think I'm able to help people navigate and see things more clearly from that perspective of how their own puzzle pieces and their own lives to fit in the most optimal sense.
Wow! That's awesome, and you know Neal, one of the big things for me which just fascinates me is absolutely how you are that true connector and how you've even cared to meet with so many amazing people as well. Maybe you could give our listeners today's some real insights into what does it truly mean to connect. Big people talk about this being a connector. If we want people to get the concepts, the understanding of what it truly means to connect with somebody, maybe you can give us, one, two, or three amazing tips on how to be a really good connector, but a genuine, heart sense of connector. Not connecting because you hear from Neal today on how to really connect, but because you've gotten you do it from a real heart sense of place. Can you give maybe one, two, three tips on how to be fantastic at connecting?
Yes, sure. I think it starts with being aware, and the more aware you are, the more successful you can be. Having that awareness really extends to several areas. First of, a lot of people when they hear about connecting it's kind of a fancy concept for them, and they immediately equate it with networking, or they'll equate it with communicating. No, actually it's different than that. Communicating is one facet of connecting. You can communicate but not necessarily connect. You can network with people, but not necessarily communicate or connect.
I think connecting takes it to a deeper level, and the connections really starts for me with being an active listener, with being very aware of other people, taking the owner self, my own agenda and focusing more in on the other person's agenda and trying to figure out not what they really want, but what they actually need. That becomes a place of authenticity when you meet them on that ground. By having a sense of what they could really use, it is almost like you're getting beyond the superficiality in a very quick way to get to the core truths of who they are.
They sense very often, I find, when you do that it's taking a little risk because you meet someone early on and they don't know where you are coming from or what your agenda is, but they instantly sense intuitively that you're authentic and you really want to help them, and it's almost like giving them tough love or tough truth. Consequently when you establish a rapport on that basis and early on, it builds a sense of trust and I think in accelerated way, that allows you to accelerate the connection and the relationship.
That sounds awesome; for me it's so fascinating. I'm going to dig a little deeper into this because I've always believed that you can be authentic in your connection or you should be authentic in all of your connections, but for me, I'm a big fan of getting rid of the word authentic. I say often you get, you can get a person who's authentically inauthentic, which is a con artist. I love the two words, realness and vulnerability, because I think that's really key that when you really connect with someone, you just be real with them and be vulnerable. Be open to maybe some suggestion, maybe some criticism, some feedback on different things. What would you say to that around the two keywords of realness and vulnerability?
Yes, I think that's absolutely true. I think the reason I use authentic is because it goes through a deeper level for me and how I look at it in that, when I'm looking to be authentic, I'm expecting other people to come back at me and meet me in the same way. To be authentic, or have authentic connection, you first have to authenticate the people. When I look to people, put people in my own private network, I often say to friends that I have or close friends I share, that I have friends and then I have authentic friends, but the authentic friends have been authenticated. I really do believe on this friendship level it's an important concept to understand, whether you're in business or dealing with people outside of business, that you want to have people engaging with you at this level, where it builds and establishes the trust.
I don't think that happens without you first kind of verifying each other, whether some people do it subliminally or I do it through various rules that I've developed as some of which I shared on your stage.
Absolutely. So the key thing for me and I suppose that's really, if you take it right into a business sense is, true authentic connections or realness and vulnerability, you go to that deeper level with people, and that's when people begin to know that they can trust you and then start to refer you out to their friends, their authentic connections, and what have you. I love this because for me that's how you grow your business really. Most business is not really what you know, but often who you know and how authentic your relationships are with those people. What would you say to that?
Absolutely, and I find that very often when I meet people, they find it refreshing that they sense that I don't have hidden agendas. I'm really trying to get to the core truth of what they need, and hoping that when they see that and they're part of the minority people who have that enlightened ability to understand reciprocity, that they will reciprocate, and so I will always take the first action in that respect. I talked about Newton's third law, which is all about for every action there's an equal opposite reaction.
What I add to that is that you really can't expect to receive an action until you first take one, so I'm always willing to be vulnerable and be real by basically taking that first action and then see how people show up. It leads to that other chain of roles that I shared with you, which is basically that it's all about consistency. As over time as you see how people are consistently showing up responding to those actions that you initially take, provided they're acting in reciprocity and they're real and they're vulnerable and they're basically sharing their real needs with you, I think you can build a strong foundation of trust off of that basic platform.
Yes. I once read the book by Robert Cialdini, The Power of Persuasion. The challenging part is, to me it's really authentic reciprocity or real reciprocity where you're doing things from a place of, "I'm doing this to help this person," serve the person that I'm with, not doing because I expect something in return. That for me is what I find so challenging in this world we live in right now. Everyone says, "Well, the universe whatever you superior being is, when you give you'll get 10 fold in return," but if you expect that all the time, you actually don't get 10 fold in return. Most of you get nothing, so what fascinates me with the power of reciprocity is how many people I think abuse reciprocity because they, or use it in a manipulative way, which I disagree with completely in business. It should all be about serving people first, and the reciprocity comes anyways. Yes, you want to add anything to that?
Actually I totally agree with it, but the key is how to decipher who you're dealing with. If you're dealing with somebody who is a manipulator and they're clever, and they use that to establish their own aims and agenda, or they have that service mentality. When I meet people, I try to meet them at a place, again, first identifying their needs to see how I can be helpful, I don't have expectations, and generally when I'm in that frame of mind, I do find that the universe steps in and responds or rewards me and sometimes in amazingly unexpected ways.
In terms of authenticating whether people are master manipulators or whether they're really showing up from a place of true service, again, I just counsel people to take it slow and observe carefully and see how they consistently show up. As I said when I was doing my talk with you folks, one of the ways is just to look at not only what people say and what they do, but also look at what they don't say and what they don't do because all those things give pieces of information to you to then sort, mix together and see the consistency and how they are operating with others.
Yes, absolutely, Neal, and I think that's the interesting part here because, what we're talking about here today can be used in any part of your life. I think so many people don't, there are so many watching what people, you know do in their relationships. Their relationships with their child, with their business partner, with their life partner, customers what a view, that so many are focusing on what the person's doing as opposed to how you can also you learn a lot about the person, like you said Neal, of what the stuff they don't do is also very eye opening. Maybe they don't do the follow up, maybe there's no follow through, maybe they say certain things and don't do it. They say one thing and do something else. For our listeners out there, I want you to really think about this in all your relationships because really getting that true connection to me is one of the most important things we can have in our lives.
I look at the relationship I have with my wife, it's a deep connection, but we give unconditionally to each other. There's no I'm giving with an expectation in return. I give and it comes in abundance in return and I think that's for all the relationships we have in our lives, for all our listeners out there. So, Neal, I'm going to get to ask you another nice, deep question on this, and really if there was one piece of advice, of course you're known as the global connector and Robert Kiyosaki or Robert Allan said in towards giving you that term, I would like you to maybe give our listeners maybe a key nugget of -- what would you consider the number one thing to being successful is? What would you, if you were to say, "Colin, the number one thing in my life that I've learned maybe in the last five years, 10 years" -- or maybe you've done it all your life -- what would you consider that number one thing to be, that's got you to the success of where you are today?
Well, I think it's really two keywords, discipline and consistency. You have to be disciplined in your habits, you have to be disciplined in your judgment, you have to be disciplined in your character and disciplined in your temperament. By doing that, you put structure around, for as I shared again at your conference, four important qualities that make up for success. Provided that's all done consistently and packaged up in that way, you become dependable in people's eyes. If you become dependable, you become trustworthy and you develop that speed of trust. Consequently, when you have that with people, it's worth more than anything in the bank because they'll always come to you and they won't have their guard up. Whether it's just to ask a question or they need a favor or they want to do something nice for you in return, there's no guardedness about that and you create this great ability to receive.
Well, you know that's fascinating for me, and if you said, and I love that. Consistency, I just don't know how many people out there, they just don't listen. They want to get results in their lives, but they do things for one or two weeks or maybe one or two months and then they fall off and they don't continue with those items. I mean their consistency to me is one of the most important things. To all our listeners out there, please make sure that you're understanding this, that you've got to be consistent in all your actions. You've got to consistently get out of bed, do things every day towards the results that you want. If you fall off track and you let consistency even one or two days, where you just fall off track completely, you've got to get back on track and get that consistency back. My consistency goal for you means you never fall off track, that you actually stay on track and do whatever you need to do to get to where you want to be.
Neal, in terms of something that you've maybe learned yourself in the last five years, let's say because you've given me your key nugget on already being dependable and consistent in everything you do. What about in the last five years for you, what is one of the key things you've learned that you go, "I wish every other business owner knew this," or, "I wish they would get this, because if I knew it 25 years ago, I'd be in a different place completely, maybe financially, maybe success wise," whatever, it is for you. What would that one nugget of advice be that you've learned in the last five years, and maybe who was that advice from that you would say as being, well could have been a game changer for you 20 or 30 years ago?
Well, I think it's a jumping up point, the law of attraction is real, but it comes at a price. For me it's not just something that you think about, it's a mantra or it's an abstraction that you channel it, it's really about the discipline and consistency and how you show up and how that attracts light. In my TED Talk, I spoke about this and it was interesting. I identified the idea that when you show up you're not only showing things overly, but in a sense subliminally. If people are sensing you have good character, good judgment, good temperament, good habits, those that also have those tenets within them and practice them, which are increasingly rare as you combine them, will recognize that in you as they continue a conversation. Those that do those things at as increasingly higher level of discipline and consistency will recognize you and want to be in your orbit. That is the law of attraction.
The more that you practice these precepts and the more you do them consistently and increasingly service oriented ways, people who are also at that level of consciousness and awareness will recognize that in you, and you will start attracting amazing people at that level in your orbit. When you are doing business with people of the exact same like mindedness, that truly is that kind of master mind mentality that was discussed 100 years ago, and it's really refreshing to have enlightened people surrounding you to do business with.
Yes. You know that's what fascinates me is how many people -- Jim Rowan said it best -- you're the product of the five people you hang out the most with in terms of any area of your life, and that fascinates me how many people want to take their connections to a higher level, they want to be more disciplined, have more consistency in their life, but they don't seem to get what it takes to get to that next level. Especially the law of attraction where you stand back and you welcome in what needs, you welcome in these people into your world.
When you play at that level, you attract more people at that level and you play in complete integrity. It’s amazing that the kind of integrity people that you actually welcome into your world as well. I mean the law of attraction for me came only into my life maybe 15 years ago. What I'm trying to say came in my life about this every day because it didn't come in, it's always been in my life. The misery I had in certain parts of my life is what I was truly attracting into my life, so I realize that now, now I also realize, you know what, how powerful this tool is to really helping you get ahead. Every thought we have, every single thing we say is really putting out what we really want in our life, so you have to be really conscious of what we're thinking and what we're saying and really getting into that next level, so.
It's a form of social engineering and it's really engineering yourself. If you want to be the CEO of your own life, which is how I look at myself as an entrepreneur, every morning I wake up I have a checklist of things that I want to do. I don't always get completely through it, and I actually sometimes may take myself outside and have a talk with myself for not accomplishing my complete agenda, but I also give myself a break because I know I did my very best. I'm an overachiever, I set high goals and standards for myself in everything I do, including all the things that I need to get through the day. The real point here is that, you have the ability every morning you wake up to decide who you're going to be and how you can be the best you can be. The way to do that I believe is really to set achievable goals for yourself, but the kind of standards also that you want to attract.
By shedding other types of habits and deficiencies and we all have them and continuing to perfect yourself, you become a perfectible organism that attracts the same in other people. For example, I can look back on my life and say that I've had the privilege of getting to know amazing people, academy award-winning actors, billionaires, Nobel Prize winners. They didn't know who I was, they didn't necessarily know my resume, they didn't necessarily know my accomplishments, but they were attracted to these facets and particularly my values.
I remember when I was in my earlier political fundraising days, I was invited to the homes of preliminaries and power brokers, but none of that was important in terms of what they did for a living. It was all sharing a common passion, a common philosophy, a common values and it was like this very level playing field discussions one on one, where nobody was really interested in those other affectations. They really just want to know about the core of who you are, whether they liked you and could relate to you, and I think really that is a lot of the secret.
Yes, you know what I think, I absolutely agree with you on that, because it fascinates me. I'm a big fan of values, core values because that's what really attracts us to people or often repels us from people, depending on what their values are. We’ve got together and we've done work together now, because we have similar values. If we didn't have similar values, you would either think I'm a jerk and you don't want to work with me, or what a view, I'd either repel you, attract you and vice versa. I'm such a big believer in values, and I wish more people would understand that values are what drive us, and values are what really create for me in many ways, really good part of your connection too is having the right people around you with the right values.
I really hope our listeners out there are really thinking this through and taking some detailed notes because what are your values? What's important to you? What's core to you as a human being? I think that for me, you just hit the nail on the head around, we really need to get in touch with our values. I think sometimes people in partnerships, business partnerships, life partnerships, sometimes split apart because their values in some way or form change. When you don't have the same values between you, the chance of really staying together or having a really true deep relationship I think disappears. What are your thoughts on that?
Well, exactly and interestingly enough I could amplify on that one. When I gave my TED Talk, one of the points that I made that I think really resonated with people is that, common interest bring people together. So often we're focused on more of those superficial qualities or the common interest that we have strictly with merchants and acquisitions in companies, they're not really looking at corporate culture. They're looking at the synergies between the products they make and the customers they service, but they're not looking at the underlying, underpinnings. For me as I said, common interests may bring people together, but it's common values, common perspective and common personalities that keep people together.
Yes, absolutely. You know Neal, as we get into this today, it's been my privilege to be on this call with you and it's to go through really understanding more about who you are. You are an extremely wise and smart man, and what's one, another piece of wisdom that you would want to share with our listeners that you would consider to be, maybe not just around success. To me success is a globe, like a really broad term of success in any area of your life, but what would be the one thing that you would say, "You know what, here's something, a golden nugget that I'd love to share with your listeners to really have them get that next level in their life whatever they're looking for." What would be that golden nugget that is just something that is so wow for you to help our listeners to get to that next level themselves?
Well, I think the core of my success at least with connecting with people is I trace back -- I spoke about it on stage to your audience -- to my mom. I always marvel that the idea that even though she was a secretary and she worked a difficult job, that she attracted people. She actually worked at a film studio, that she attracted people who were not just on her level. She had experiences where she would work for one day for her producer and years later, after years have passed she got sick, she had cancer, it was a rare cancer. She suffered and she passed away.
It was interesting to me that the chiefs of the studio, legendary producers she worked for, for one day, famed actors, all insisted that they have a service for her at the studio, she was treated like a head of state. The reason was, that she instantly befriended people and everyone knew that she was real, and that she cared. The secret that I learned as I reflected on and after she passed away, which has influenced my life is that she looked at everybody as an opportunity. Not an opportunity for herself, but an opportunity to do work like in a garden, where she realized that many people who she saw, most everyone else saw them as bitter or angry or difficult people, she saw as wounded. She saw that somewhere in their childhood something happened and that wounded-ness was being carried through the rest of their lives like a bear that had a stick in their paw and no one could see that. All they see is the angry bear.
It was her almost mission to get to know people, the most difficult cantankerous people she insisted on sitting next to in her secretarial pool, who didn't have any friends. She would meet them where they stood and just try to accept them and try to accept that wounded-ness and find what the root was, and people of course who are wounded are looking for someone to talk to, and the next thing you know, it was like she was plucking the weeds out of a garden and allowing the rest of the garden to flourish. Then she transformed people and she had that transformative effect with whoever she worked with.
The point that I wanted to get to was that, at the end of her life, she never had an enemy. I don't know about you Colin, but I rarely have ever met anyone like that, just because she happened to be my mum was special, but it had a tremendous impact on me that someone could be that pure and put their own agenda aside. If anything if they had an agenda, it was just basically to do some healing work with other people without any expectation and to attract that kind of resident response. I think people could apply some of those lessons in their own life, in their business life and their personal life to enhance their ability to achieve connectedness and succeed and the relationships, which ultimately is what this is about.
Absolutely. What a great story, thank you for that and what a special person your mom must have been. I would have loved to have met her and what a view as well, because you that fascinates me Neal. I was in Moscow maybe 15 years ago and I was standing out there waiting for a train. The gentleman next to me who used to work for us in Moscow said to me, "Colin, you know what, all human beings are greedy. It's just the level of greed that differs from one to the other."
I actually pondered that and I still ponder that still to this day because I don't necessarily believe it's greed. It sounded like your mom was a person of zero greed, was just someone that was beautiful, giving, caring, and wanted to make a change on this planet and a change on that person's life that she sat with and directly impacted them in some way or form. Wow, how awesome.
Well, yes. Gandhi said it best, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” and we all have that opportunity. I don't even know if she ever read Gandhi, but she epitomized those values in that perspective and her personality was one of basically just wanting to be a better gardener, and she did that.
She sure did. Wow, she sure did man, and what a pleasure to grow up in that environment. I wish many people were able to grow up in that similar environment, because wow, many of us, I think there's many lessons out there that have lots of weeds in their gardens growing, "I wish I could actually meet Neal's mom so she could pluck the weeds out of my garden."
She never judged other people, and she realized she couldn't do that because she hadn't walked in their shoes. I think it's really important because people show up and we get these superficial impressions of each other and very often it goes back to that protective sense that we had going back to the days when we were out there with these wild beasts and you don't know what you're dealing with.
One of the interesting things that I got about that -- that I didn't get to talk about in my stage discussion with the audience -- is that, I had an experience and I think it directly relates to this. I always try to learn something from wherever I'm at and whatever facet of learning I can do to add to myself and then share back. I happen to be at a nonprofit that was working to protect endangered wildlife and that led to that slide that I did with you folks about branding and preserving the orangutan, the endangered orangutan. Here's what is interesting, most people kind of pass that over.
I thought it's fascinating that the organizations devoted to saving these orangutans in the wild is the second largest rainforest in the world, they brought a point forward to me that I never forgot. Orangutan have 97% of human DNA. They are 97% like us, but the thing that we distinguish when we look at them goes back to that same quality that we needed to preserve ourselves in the wild, we look at the differences and we look at how different the orangutan is from us even though they're 97% like us. If you take that to the next level when we're looking at people in business, we look at people in politics, we look at people who are different races, different creeds, we're always first seizing upon the differences. Wouldn't it be a much more wonderful and special world that we could live in if we started to first try to look at the similarities and we have that common ground to work from?
We are headed for a terrible time as I'm reading the newspapers right now in the world and in a tremendous war that could escalate simply because everyone is doubling down and focusing on the differences between us. It's the same principle that we can apply in business to attract greater numbers of like minded people and a movement will be sparked by a person of one. I do believe and one of the things I'm looking forward to as one of my goals, is to create a greater movement of awareness for everyone to start looking more at the similarities than the differences. Imagine the conflicts that could be reduced, the number of court cases that could be eliminated that are clogging up our legal system, that people just start off from a place of that.
Wow! I absolutely agree with you on that. For me it's, I say that the world is, we've lost three amazing words in this world in so many ways and form, and those three words are, respect, responsibility and commitment. If we all took responsibility for our actions we wouldn't have half the lawsuits that are happening out there or pray most of them if we all respected each other and each others' property and truly respected them or committed, I even sound silly just saying this, committed to our commitments, life would be different. While that is just great advice for people out there to really start to really look at, what are the similarities you have with other people, not looking at the differences you have.
Everyone's busy focusing on, I think it's all the time back to the way that Neal, so people say, "Well there's 60% chance of rain today in the weather forecast." No, there's actually 40% chance of sunshine with no rain.
That is exactly the point, it gets back to, how do you see the world? Are you an optimist? Are you a pessimist? There are so many people who live in fear and scarcity and that drives their decisions in business, so they want to get the last crumb, they want to out negotiate you, they want to out maneuver you and everyone is on their guard and in agendas, like attracts like, Newton's third law.
If you take the reverse thought process, and try to see how we can create a situation where it's not about me first, but about we first, and how we can work together to resolve a problem and that's basically what this is. I told you, I'm a person who enjoys puzzles, and it's really about solving puzzles, solving challenges, solving problems, but you can't do that from this even subconscious adversarial mindset. You really have to start thinking not about scarcity but abundance, and thinking about how the universe, the world we operate in, the businesses that we practice are not closed systems. They can be opened up and it's like I often share with people, if you're looking about the pie and how to divide up the pie, why are you limiting yourself to that one view point? What if you were to invest and work together in a bakery that could bake lots of pies, right? Or you can enlarge the pie, you can bake a bigger pie, you just expand the oven, I mean et cetera, et cetera.
It's a metaphorical approach, but it really is about that. It's, limits to growth will limit our ability to grow and our ability to succeed, but if you take off the ceiling off the limits and start thinking abundantly and more creatively, which is what was at the heart and soul of my talk, then I really believe it's an opportunity and a journey for everyone to improve and enjoy their time well while they are here.
Well, Neal, I know we're getting close to the end here. For me, that's why I think everyone should be looking at life and for our listeners out there, raised on to look at, how do you wake up in the morning? What do you think about when you wake up in the morning? Are you optimistic? Are you pessimistic? Do you wake up in the morning knowing that you have certain disciplines? Are you going to get consistency up in your life? Or are you waking up and just doing things that will never serve you to a higher place of where you truly want to be? I want people to really think about that.
Neal, I really, really appreciate you being live with me, because number one, I care for you dearly, I love who you are, I love the teachings and the brilliance of who you are. If people want to learn more about you, where could they find more information about you Neal and what you do?
Thank you, that's very kind. My website is www.worldclassconnections.com and I'm considering to add to my library I'm out there now on YouTube having done some interviews and looking forward to doing more speaking et cetera.
Fantastic Neal. Neal I really appreciate your time, it's been my privilege to actually do this interview with you. I trust that listeners got a ton of value. Most important thing, and you'll hear this in the extra listeners, is make sure you take action, even one or two nuggets that you get from today, make sure you implement it, because remember knowledge is not power, knowledge is only potential power. Implementation is where the power is, so thank you so much for being on with us, thank you for listening. Make sure you're listening next week as well, and if you haven't, make sure you go back to the previous podcast, listen to the earlier episodes. Neal thank you so much for being on, thank you for your time and thank you for blessing us with your brilliance.
It's been an honor and a privilege and I wanted to say, I am so impressed with you and I look forward to many happy years of getting to know you even better.
Thank you so much and I look forward to connecting deeper with you as well. Thank you so much Neal.
Thank you, thank you very much.
Ways to contact Neal:
- Website: worldclassconnections.com
Welcome everyone. It's awesome to have you here with me today. Today I'm here by myself, so I'm just going to go through a number of key things for you. I want you to make sure that you get so much out of today as we jump in and make a huge, huge different for you and your business.
It's Colin Sprake here, and I want to go into what I call the 12 important beats of running a very, very, successful and powerful company. One thing I want you to understand, as we go through today is that you take lots of notes. It is so important. The way you get ahead is by taking action with what you learn from me on this amazing podcast. Let's get going. Let's get rocking, rolling with today. We're going to go through the 12 important beats of building a really powerful, successful, eight-figure business and way beyond that and it all starts with these really important beats.
Beat number one, which I'm going to start with is really building a business with purpose. So many people are so focused on, "How do I make money?" It's all about, "Let me make more money" or "How do I make money in my business?" My goal for you is to start to think about how do you go and serve people? How do you really focus on serving more people because my mantra at Make Your Mark is the following: When you focus on dollars you'll have money to count; when you focus on people you have countless dollars.
I really want you to think about this because so many people are focused on going out there and how to make money today. As you listen to this, think about this: are you just focused on making money or are you focused on serving people with what you have. When you serve people, I promise you, you'll come out with way more money than you ever thought possible. So think about this, beat number one is what is your purpose? Are you there to truly serve people to a higher level or are you just there to make money and that's it. If you're only focused on making money, yes, you'll make money, but I can tell you one thing, you'll make a lot more money when you start truly with thinking “how can I serve people today?” Go out there and change humanity. Change mankind. Give people a leg up with your products or service to get them ahead to have amazing life and amazing success.
Beat number two is what is your freedom plan? I want you to think about this. Most people aren't thinking about whatever's happening in their life right now because people are so focused on “go bold, put a business plan together.” I meet so many trainers, coaches, what have you, especially around business saying, "Put your business plan together. Get your business plan rocking and rolling." The saddest part is, I'm a big believer in what you focus on expands, so if you're so focused on building a business plan, guess what happens, often your family and your life falls apart because you're so busy focusing on this business plan because you need a plan for both.
I call it the freedom plan. When you take your life plan plus your business plan and you put them together that becomes your freedom plan. What does your life look like, your one year, two year, five years, 10 years out from now? What does your business look like, one year, five year, two year, five year, 10 years from now, because when you put the two together, that's when you get massive success. To me, just having a business plan doesn't cut it. Your support structure at home, your amazing love, the kindness of the people around you, your friends, your family, all those people that are supporting you, it's really important to understand that when you have that support that you really start to be thankful for that support.
In particular, your life plan, your family plan, everything else because your life plan plus your business plan gives you your freedom plan. I want you to think about that as you read this today. I want you to be taking notes, writing down what's really important to you. You might be mobile right now, I understand that, but start to think about what you focus on expands. When you put your life plan and your business plan together, that's when you get true freedom. That's when you get this amazing business that generates so much money for you and so much cash for you as you go and serve humanity and serve your clientele.
At the same time, you have this amazing family life, you travel, you enjoy whatever's important to you, you get those cherished moments. That's what I want you to be really understanding. Let's get your freedom plan working for you so that you get what I call a business with soul where you really have a successful business and the successful family simultaneously. Focus on putting together a really important freedom plan.
Another thing I want to share with you, and I'm going to talk about this in later episodes, I want to share with you what I call beat number three, what is your vivid vision? What is your vivid vision for your business? Where do you see yourself in the next three to four years? I like to create a very detailed vivid vision. If you want to download my vivid vision you're more than welcome to. My vivid vision is live on my website at mymsuccess.com. The MYM stands for Make Your Mark. My vivid vision is there. I highly recommend you go over there, you click and you download the PDF of my vivid vision and you take that vivid vision and you start to create your own vivid vision three to four years from now.
Really creating a powerful vivid vision for your business lets people know where you're going, what you're doing, and what have you. You need to share your vivid vision with everybody. Now, this is not just a vision statement, this is a vivid vision. Mine is six pages long, every single piece of my business, my family, everything else in terms of my freedom plan of where I see myself three to four years from now. Now, when you go and download it and you get this vivid vision, use my document as a template to create your own vivid vision for your business. I really want to make sure you're getting that vivid vision that you're looking for. The most important part of the vivid vision is it's so detailed of where you will be, but you're writing it as if you three years to four years from now and your team can see where you're at.
When I come to hire people, the first thing I send them, we put an ad out, it could be on any kind of platform. We're looking for team members to come and join Make Your Mark or new employees to join us, when we do that, when people write back to us and they're super excited we send them out the vivid vision. We send out this PDF document. We don't ask them to reply to it. We don't ask them are they interested in working with us, we just say, "Thank you for your resume, here's the vivid vision for the company." We send it out to them, if they write back and they say, "I am super excited. I want to be part of that. I want to get to the next level by being with you on that vivid vision and that journey," and then we start to interview them and we bring them in and we go through a very said process of interviewing.
Unless they respond back to the vivid vision we send out when they first send their resume in, we don't do anything with them. Why? Because we want the same people on the bus driving the bus forward, going to where we want to be in line with the vivid vision for the company because my vivid vision is so important to me to achieving the results that I'm looking for, and of course, to really gotten serve so many people out there. You really need to create that vivid vision that's got lots of feeling in it. People can see that there's growth in the company because here's the most important point. Your vivid vision gets shared with everyone. I share with prospective team members or employees. I don't like the word employees. I love the word team.
At the same time, share it with your vendors because your vendors will love to know what your growth plans are so they can prepare accordingly as well. You share it with your current employees or your current team members. You share that vivid vision with your family, your friends, everybody. Why? Because you want them to support you on your vision in terms of where you're going on this, and it's a massive journey of where you're going. At the same time, you want to make sure that your vendors know there's opportunities to grow with you. You want your team members or employees to know there's so much opportunity with you for them to get to the next level because employees want to know, "What is the growth with your company? What's the growth opportunity?"
Everyone wants to grow, but if you don't have a vivid vision that outlines what you're going to be doing and where you're going, they just think that they're going to come to a J-O-B every day and do the same job day, after day, after day. The best thing about a vivid vision for employees or your team members is they see the opportunity and growth and that they can actually get to the next level.
The next important part, beat number four, what are your core values for your company? Now, you might wonder, what do you mean by core values? The core values set the culture of who you are. When we hire at Make Your Mark, we are so set on this because here's the challenge. If you don't have core values, I mean, everyone has core values but really good core values that drive your company forward, you end up hiring people that are really, really, really good at what they do but sometimes they irritate the snot out of you. Seriously, sometimes they just really irritate you.
I'm sure if I ask you this question, "Have you ever worked with somebody who is extremely good at what they do, very skilled in what they do but they irritate you to the core?" Here's the reason why, is because they don't have the same core values as you. In my company, we have very set core values. We have six core values. I'm going to share them with you today. Directly on our website as well you can definitely download them at mymsuccess.com and then look at what our core values are. We have the six of them: Unconditional gratitude, open to possibilities, commitment to excellence, respect individual, community of trust, and integrity. Those are our six core values and each one of them is also defined because when you have core values it's really important to define each of your core values.
The reason being, because if I went to a number of my team members at the office and I said to them, "Tell me what integrity means?" Every single one of them would give me a different definition, maybe slightly different, but definitely in their own words would be different. At Make Your Mark, our definition of integrity is doing the right thing at the right time all the time. When you put a definition to each of the core values, then when I ask my team members, "What does integrity mean to Make Your Mark?" They can give me exactly what integrity means and I'll get the same thing from each one of them.
Now, this drives the culture because most people don't hire on culture, they'll hire on skill set, talent, what have you. That's great, but if people don't have the same core values as you, they will irritate you. In fact, often they become a cancer in your organization. How many times have I ever worked with a company, and I can't tell you how many times this has happened where I'll work with a company, I go in, I start doing work with them and there's one person that does not have the core values. They’re really good at what they do, so the company owners keep this person on because they're good at what they do, but the challenging part is they’re a cancer to the organization.
In fact, really good people that are good at what they do and have the company core values actually end up leaving the company because of that one person that's a cancer that does not have the core values. That person often starts the talk around the water cooler, the backstabbing, all the negative stuff often comes from the person who does not share your core values. Make sure you have your core values. The maximum number of core values you should have -- which I'm going to talk about this on upcoming episodes -- is seven core values. In fact, anything between five to seven is really, really good.
Core values can be anything. Really understand what your core values are, and remember, you have to live your core values. These aren't things you would like your company to be, because that really doesn't help you. This is who you are today that's created the culture that you have. When you define your core values, you'll be amazed at the exceptional culture you will start to develop. In fact, you'll have people lining up to work for you and you'll have people really devoted to being with you and people lining up to buy your products and services. It is so cool when you have the right core values and you live them every single minute of the day.
Let me go to beat number five. Beat number five is really important because I want you to think about really doing what's right for people. So many people don't really realize this, that they go out and they just do business, but really, are you doing what's right for people? My goal for you is to really think about doing what's right for them. I want to ask you to really think about three questions, what's working in your industry or marketplace right now that you will copy? The second thing is, what's not working in your industry right now or possibly what's working but is unethical and you don't agree with? I'm going to give you an example in a moment. Thirdly, what's missing in your industry?
You answer these three questions, you will number one understand what is right in your industry, but also you'll be doing things that are right for people and at the same time, you will really become me only in your marketplace. Let me give you an example of this. So, what's working? When I started out in this industry, people called us a seminar company. I was like, "Well, I'm not really a seminar company." I went out to as many seminars as I could, seminars, workshops, retreats and I figured out what was working for these people and I copied it. That's okay.
The second thing was, what's not working? There was a number of things that weren't working for them, which I did not copy, but there were a number of things which were working for them which I considered not to be ethical or manipulative or what have you, and I decided not to copy them. Like the slash and burn, run to the back of the room like most people teach. I don't agree with that in any way or form. I'm all about making sure people get immense value and they get what they're looking for when they come out to our programs.
Then the third thing we did, as I went out to all these seminars, workshops, what have you, I was listening to what's missing. Most people said to me, "Yeah, it's so cool. I go out to these events. I go out to seminars and get all pumped up, all excited, but guess what? I feel down after three or four days and then I go back to normal and it never gets implemented." So we created a whole bunch of accountability groups at different levels for different business owners to really help them understand that you can implement and we hold you accountable to implementing. That made us unique in our market space because we became this company, and yes, of course many people have copied us since then, but we were the leaders in this industry for creating amazing seminars, a system of seminars incorporated with these accountability groups, holding people to a higher standard so that they implement and they get the results because my reputation to me is the most important thing. I'm sure your reputation is to you as well.
You want people to be using your product. You want people to be using your service, whatever it might be because when they use it and the implement and they get the right results, that's when they rave about you. I'm not a big fan of raving fans in my business, I want evangelists for my business, going out and going crazy about who we are and what we do to other people out there to bring people in, so we can truly MYM their business for them. That's what excites me so much.
I want you to be a leader in your industry. Really think about what's working, what's not working, and what's missing and start to think about how can you start to get yourself to be me only in your industry. When you start to think about what's missing as well, just start to think about really, truly what's missing. So many people don't get what's missing and their clients will tell them every single day what's missing but they not listening because they are so stuck in it's only done this way in my industry. Start to think about how can you do it other ways.
When I have people just like you that are listening come to me and say, "Colin, can you assist me with my business?" I say, "Yes, I can help you. I can get you ahead. I can help you get to where you want to be." The big thing you have to do though, is understand that if you want to get ahead, then you need to make sure that you are listening to what takes place. So many people aren't listening to what their clients are telling them every single day. When your clients are listening to you, and the reason why I get people ahead so quickly is because I am not in your industry. When I'm not in your industry I give you advice outside of your industry because the worst thing you can ever do is listen to somebody who's broke in your industry.
When a person's broke in your industry and saying, "Well, the economy is tough right now. This is not working right now. It takes two to five years to be successful in our industry. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." If they're all broke in your industry and not making the money that you desire to make, then don't listen to them. I believe the worst person you can listen to is someone who is broke in your industry. Listen to the rock stars in your industry. Listen to the people who are making more money than you ever want to make, who are making the big bucks. Listen to them and ask them their advice, because I can tell you one thing, when you listen to people that are super successful in any industry, they are not thinking the same way as the people who are not making money, who are broke in your industry. Think about it, who can you get in your industry who can absolutely help you get to that next level?
Beat number six, know why. This goes back to being earlier about really knowing your purpose, know why you do things because remember, it's not just about focusing on the money, focus on the people. I now have 49,000 clients across the world and these 49,000 clients that I serve every single day, I never stop thinking about how to make their lives better. In fact, when I get out of bed in the morning, my number one thing that gets me out of bed with an absolute excitement and a bounce in my step is going to the mail and getting out gratitude cards, gratitude letters, letters of appreciation from our clients who say thank you for changing my business, changing my life, what have you.
Understand what is driving you. If you're counting your money in your bank account every day, that might not be the thing that should be driving you. It should not be, but of course it's good to focus on your money because what you focus on expands, but truly what are you doing for mankind? What are you doing for humanity? Are you getting people ahead to the next level? What drives you? I can tell you what drives me is knowing why I do what I do. I do what I do and my why is live on my website as well. You can go read my why. I was suicidal as a child. I attempted to commit suicide twice. My life has become so abundant. Those challenges in my childhood, guess what, those are just those challenges.
One thing I can tell you about that what it did for me though, it helped me understand my fellow human beings, so when they're in a tough place I can actually serve them and get them to the next level. I know why I do what I do. I love watching the underdog succeed. Just like many of you listening here, I want you to get ahead like you've never got ahead before, to get results you never, ever dreamt possible before, but you have to know why you're doing it. Don't be doing it just for the money, be doing it to serve humanity. Be doing it to be a better business owner, to make a difference on this planet. I hope you really get that as you listen to this today.
Beat number seven. This is my favorite one. We are stuck in a place right now where I think we've lost community in the world. It used to always be you'd walk down the street and you'd say, "There's Bobby's mom and there's Mary's grandma," and what have you. Now as people walk down the street, walk through the mall, and lots of times we don't even know who's who, we just walk past. People always got their faces stuck in technology and screens and what have you. We used to be a real good community-based marketplace where we always thought about community first as we and then me as secondary. That was 30 years ago. Now, in the 21st century, so many people are focused on me first and then we.
I believe in my heart, and you should think about this, in terms of being successful the next biggest businesses will be ones that build community. Look at the massive community with all the social media out there. Some of the most successful companies right now are those that are building community, having their clients talk to one another. Now, you say, "I don't want my clients to talk to one another." Here's the challenge, if you don't have your clients talk to one another or you're nervous of them talking to one another, here's the challenge with that, then you must be doing something wrong. If your clients talk to each other and they love what you do, it becomes like this pandemic of love for you, them going out and propagating what you have.
As you listen to this, think about how do I build community in my business. How do I get my business to that next level where community is absolutely everything? Go back to a we-based society and then a me instead of being focused where we're at today where it's me first and then we. That's beat number seven is build amazing community in your business.
Beat number eight is all around gratitude. I'm all about gratitude. In our business every single week we send out around 40 gratitude cards. This is not something we add to our business each week, it's part of what we do. All my team members are requested to give out one, two, maybe three gratitude cards every week. It could be just supplier, to a student, or to a vendor. It could be completely to anybody. The key thing is giving gratitude is so important. So many people don't give gratitude's. People think they're vendors should be grateful for having them as a client. I'm a big fan of being so thankful to my vendors.
So many people don't think of how important their vendors are. If you treat your vendors poorly and they go see another client that could use your product or service, do you think they going to recommend you? Probably not, so look after your vendors, your clients, your family, friends, whatever all equally. Don't treat certain people with a certain amount of respect and others not. Every single person is important. Give gratitude every single day. In fact, when I wake up in the mornings I spend 10 to 15 minutes lying in bed every morning just giving gratitude for the most amazing things in my life, gratitude for my wife, gratitude for my daughters, gratitude for my business, gratitude for you, the listeners, to this podcast. I am so grateful for every single person in my life because I know the more I give out gratitude the more the universe gives me to be grateful for. Beat number eight is give gratitude.
Beat number nine is hire with intention. This is how you create an amazing eight-figure business, what I call how do you create a heart-centered eight-figured business with heart because it's all about putting the heart and soul into what you do. Love your clients. Love people. I'm going to go through this with you in detail.
Beat number nine is hire with intention. Number one, only hire A players because if you hire a B player or a C player, guess what, they'll only hire people that are B or C players. A players want A players on their team, so only hire A players in every area of your company. Your clients success is your success. Never forget that. Most importantly think about it a little bit differently. I don't hire employees, I hire team members. I want people to be on my team so we can have an amazing team at Make Your Mark. We don't have the word can't in our office, we only think about how can I.
Think about this for yourself. Every time you think to yourself can't you say, "Stop. Terminate. Give up. Won't go any further." Think about how can I serve people. At Make Your Mark, we work together it's not for each other. Nobody works for me, we work together as a team, collectively to the success of the company. I work with our team members, nobody reports to me. All these funny, old, archaic 19th and 20th century terms, to me are gonzo, man. We work together. We work with each other and in every situation verify and clarify. I cannot stress this enough. How many people do not verify and clarify situations.
Something happens at the office, somebody does something and you get so mad and you only realize, sadly, that the people that you verify and clarify ... Maybe someone did something or put something away or filed something away for you and you get all mad about it and then when you verify and clarify, you actually realize they were helping you and serving you. Be very careful to judge things and draw conclusions to things until you verified and clarified every situation in every event. When you do that, you'll have less conflict in your office plus you'll have an exceptional culture in your office as well.
One of my favorite things for you to think about is be quick to compliment, not to complain. So many people are so busy complaining every single day ... Here's the challenge, if you complain the universe gives you more to complain about. When you compliment, the universe gives you more to compliment about. What do you want today? Do you want more to complain about or more to be complimented about? Be very, very careful because what you put out there is what you get back. At the same time, when you hire with intention, at Make Your Mark we look at things a little bit differently is we always hire with looking at people's resumes, we look at their disk profile, which of course could be Myers/Briggs a number of different profiling companies that are out there. We look at sacred gifts, which is really awesome determining one of the 24 sacred gifts and looking at which sacred gifts require what role in the company.
If you want to learn more about that, you're more than welcome to send me an email and I'll happily chat you about that or connect with me via our website as well. Then the fourth thing we do is a destiny profile. That destiny profile is so awesome because it's actually using Feng Shui. My entire office is Feng Shuied. I believe all around the energy of everything that happens in life and Feng Shui is not just about your environment. Feng Shui is actually also where the human destiny is in terms of the people you're hiring.
In fact, at Make Your Mark I have this beautiful wall in our office called our family wall where every person we hire, their profile board with their disk profile, their sacred gifts and their destiny profile are put on the wall. Next to them, when they join us on the first day we actually give them this beautiful package what consists of a dream board, our core values with all their definitions, a photo frame. We have a cool photo frame we give every one of our team members that joins us the first day they join where they can put a photograph of the most important people in their lives. It could be family. It could be friends. It could be their best friend. It could be their dog. It could be their cat, whatever it is.
I give them a copy of my book and I get this amazing binder, which was our welcome binder, which our team binder to welcome them to the team. They get a t-shirt for the company. We have this beautiful blue carpet that rolls up to our reception area and as the person comes in on their first day, all our team members come running out. We stand either side of the blue carpet, they walk up to our reception counter and right on the reception counter is this beautiful package with a gorgeous plant with a motivational stone in that has a word on it. That word is what we determined from when we've interviewed them, so when they join us they have this whole package.
The dream board is so cool. It says, "My Dreams" across the top. It's 8 1/2 x 11 and they then have 24 hours to fill that out. Then we have this family wall with their profile already done for them. We add their dreams to it. Here's what I want you to think about as a business owner. If your team members are helping you achieve your dream, your vivid vision to where you want to go, what are you doing to help them achieve their dreams. This podcast today, I just want you to think about what are you doing for the benefit of your people at your office? Really important. I want you to think about that.
Number ten. I hope you're learning a ton from today because these are key nuggets I know can actually help you get ahead. Energy is everything. I want you to think, "What is the energy of your office?" This is beat number 10. We don't have any departments at Make Your Mark. We have divided everything to pods. Whales swim in pods. The reason being because I want high energy in our pods. I don't want departments. Departments have this whole archaic way of looking at things. I am the visionary pod of Make Your Mark and then we have the prosper pod, which is myself and two of my key team members who are looking at the prosperous nature of everything that we do.
Our abundance pod, which would typically be called the financial department in the company, our abundance pod is absolutely incredible. Our abundance pod does all our finances because I believe words have energy. When you put the right words in each area of your company that's when you start to get different results. Our growth pod of course is sales and marketing. We have our love pod. Our love pod are our client care specialists. So everyone, they love our clients. We love them. They go out and they make sure they create love in every aspect of the company. They are called our love pod because without our clients we have zero. We have nothing. I don't drive the cars I drive, to have the house I have, have the beautiful team and office I have without our amazing clients.
Are you loving your clients every day or are you just counting their money and taking their money from them? What are you doing to help your clients, love your clients, respect them, honor them for every dollar they give you because without them you have nothing. And then our final pod at Make Your Mark is our creation pod, which are the people that put all our events on, they create this amazing environment and the exceptional events and then everywhere in form. These are the people that put every little detail to every one of our events to make our events absolutely exceptional.
When people come in during the day, we have this thing called word of the day, so when people walk in the first thing they do is they put a word of the day on the board. Every person, before they sit at their desk or before they sit in their area writes a word of the day on the board. Then we have a thrive meeting where we share the words. We have this most amazing environment where ... Of course, energy is everything, which is beat number 10 ... the environment we're in. We have lots of great team fun activities.
Most importantly, I'm a big wine lover and you'll learn this about me as we go through these episodes together. I love wine, so every Friday afternoon we have wine Friday's, where our team, we break at 3:00 pm, we have a glass of wine together. We discuss fun stuff on the weekends. We have just a lot of great, high energy, lots of interaction because I care for every single one of my team members and I want you to care for your team members as well. Remember, you have to have employees if you want to leverage yourself and get to the next level.
If you say, "I hate employees," you are crazy. Employees are your biggest leverage because while you're away your business keeps on running and you make money and they make money. If you don't want employees, every time you go away and your business virtually comes to a standstill, then you're crazy. I like to take three or four months off a year. Without employees, I would never be where I am today and I want you to think about that as well. We also change the energy of everything as well. We look at each day of the week very different. We have Money Monday's, Terrific Tuesday's, Winning Wednesday's, Thriving Thursday's, and Fabulous Friday's. Energy is everything. What words are you putting to everything that you do.
Of course, most importantly we love to celebrate. I want you to think about and what is a hashtag you've created for your business? We have the #MYMfamily because we have such an amazing community across the country, across the nation, across the globe. Our family is really important to us. We have this MYM family, this amazing community. What community are you creating?
Beat number 11. I hope you're getting a ton from this today. I hope you're taking detailed notes. You might listen to the episode or read through this transcript many times, often to start to think, "How do I get my business to a place where people line up to work for me and people line up to buy my products and services?" Communication is key. Within Make Your Mark we have the Make Your Mark University, which is internal training program for all our team at the office, all our faculty, all our facilitators, all our trainers all come in once a year to the Make Your Mark University. We put them through this university to really make sure we have consistency in all our training, consistency in the messages that we have so that we sing one song and we sing it often.
We have consistency in the words in terms of the vocabulary we use and the verbiage we use and the jargon we use at the office and that also our team is always living our core values.
Then beat number 12 and I want you to think about this in all areas of your life because people only remember two things from you, the experience they had with you and then number two, how you made them feel. Now, people think this is only for customers. No way, it's for every person in your life because when a person gets up from the table with you, from your living room from you, from your boardroom, from your office, in everywhere in form, the only thing they remember is what was the experience with you and how did you make them feel.
People think this is only a thing that clients remember. No, your team remembers it too, your staff, as well as your vendors. My goal for all my staff or my team is when they go home in the evening, they sit around their dinner table with their family members and their friends and they talk favorably about my company. Why, because I want them to talk so favorably about that experience and how we make them feel at our office so that people say, "I would love to join your company."
In fact, I'm one of the few companies out there that gives five weeks of paid leave the day a team member joins us. Why do I do that, because that's the way I would like to be respected. People need time out. People need time away from the office in order to get the results that you're looking for and if people work themselves to a bone and only have one or two weeks off a year, you're crazy, man. In Europe, it's four weeks, five weeks, six weeks, seven weeks, even eight weeks in some countries of paid leave a year. People think that's crazy. I'm telling you, it's the best thing you can do for your business, of course if you can afford to do it. Why, because when you give people time off they can recharge their batteries and get to that next level.
Maya Angelou said this the best, and bless her she's no longer with us, "People will forget what you said. People forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Think about your last interaction with your spouse, your kids, as a client and you maybe went to a restaurant somewhere, how did they make you feel because that's the only thing you talk about. Guess what? That's the only thing your team talks about, your clients talk about, your vendors talk about are the experiences with you.
I want you to remember this as we finish off here today. Remember, your culture determines your level of success. What culture are you creating in your business today? I want you to really think about it. I am brutally direct about this because you could have the best people on your team, skilled, awesome, but if they don't share your culture, your core values, and understand who you are and where you're going you'll get to where you want to be, but maybe not retain your clients or retain your staff. You might have high staff turnover rates.
My goal for you is to realize you can create a culture of success, amazing success. Think about it for you today, what culture are you creating? What are your nuggets you're going to write down from this episode today? What are the key nuggets you're going to write down to get you to the next level? One of my best friends and I spent an amazing time with him in Necker Island earlier on this year is Sir Richard Branson. Sir Richard Branson said it the best, "Clients do not come first, employees come first. If you take care of your employees they will take care of your clients."
That's what you have to realize. You treat your employees like gold, they will treat your clients like platinum. You're treating your employees like trash, what do you expect them to do with your clients and how do you expect your clients to feel. What a great comment from Sir Richard Branson. What I'd like you to think about today as we end off here is what are you doing that's going to be different? What are you going to do to get your business to the next level around your culture?
I can tell you I didn't think much about this in the beginning, but now, I can tell you it's one of the most important things for me. I have got my business to a level where we're eight-figures, multiple eight-figures, now I'm going on to nine-figures and that's not to brag. I want you to think about it, and I don't care if you're a solo-preneur or a business owner with many employees or many team members, think about what culture are you creating and what results are you looking for?
I am so excited for you. Please feel free to jump on our website, download my WHY statement, download my vivid business. They're right there at mymsuccess.com. Most importantly, I cannot wait to serve you and see you at the next level, hear your comments. Keep listening because in a week's time we've got an amazing, amazing interview coming up so make sure you're ready for the interview it's coming up with one of my really, really great friends who's really going to give you his brutal truth on what it takes to build a successful business no matter what level you're at to get the results you're looking for. Thank you so much. Keep being awesome. Keep being amazing. Keep building and most of all keep implementing. Have a great day everyone. Bye.
Today we’re speaking with Steve Cunningham from Pivot Point Family Growth Centers.
I am super excited to get going today to give you some really golden nuggets from people that have built successful businesses, but guess what? They haven't always been that way. There's trials, tribulations, challenges they've gone through to get to where they are today, and I have Steve with me. I’m really going to take you through some of the most challenging things that he's been through. But before we get there, I want Steve to do a little bit of an intro of who he is, and who Pivot Point is as a company, and maybe where that started just so, as a listener, you get an idea of how long Steve's been around and how long their business has been around, and what's taken to get where they are today. So, I'm going to hand it over to you Steve. Just give a little bit of a background of Pivot Point, as itself, maybe a little bit of a background of yourself.
Sure. Fantastic, thanks Colin. Yeah, Pivot Point was a fantastic dream that came to life about 14 years ago when I started to reach out to the needs of parents who had children with autism or other problems. So, in British Columbia, there were a lot of changes 14 years ago, in terms of how funding was provided to parents who had children with autism and other diverse abilities, and that created an opportunity to meet those needs for those parents. So, we got started with just a few families, and now we're up to several hundred, 400, almost 500 families now.
Wow.
All over the province.
Fantastic. So, give me a little bit about your background. So, in terms of the listeners listening to this podcast today, and for those of you that don't know where British Columbia is, that's here in Canada, right on the West Coast. It's the most western province of Canada, and of course we've got listeners from all over the globe listening to this podcast. So, brilliant. Give us a little bit of your background. What gives you that expertise in terms of really giving services to these families with kids that have autism or maybe some of their family members, the adults, that have autism?
That's a great question, and it's always fun to be able to tell that story. My journey actually began way when I was a child at summer camps, when my family life was going through a few little struggles here and there, and I had an opportunity to run into some really powerful male role models at summer camps. These older teens and young 20s people who would teach me how to rock climb and canoe and kayak and build campfires, really inspired me to become a better person, a better version of myself than the path I was following when I was younger.
So, within a short while, I started working at the summer camp, and that gave me a lot of exposure to working with different children of different abilities, and really my whole working career, from my teens through my 20s and 30s and 40s, has been in service of children and their families around diverse abilities, behavior needs, autism, down syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning challenges, kind of the full spectrum. So, I've been doing child youth care work. I've done teaching assistant work in the public schools. I've become a clinical counselor, so I have a counseling degree in counseling psychology, and had worked for an agency for several years before this opportunity opened up here in the province of British Columbia, and I started my business 14 years ago.
Beautiful, man. Now, one of the key things I'd love to dig right into, and it's just something that came into my head as you were talking, is that counselors, people that really want to serve people ... I even went through some of this myself as I started my own business, as I started Make Your Mark, and of course this podcast is called The Brutal Truth. So, I don't want you to hold back on anything.
One of the key things for me is we love to give and love to serve and what have you, and I'm sure somewhere along the lines we might have had some challenges around even charging for your services because your heart is there to serve people. Of course, probably have a lot of listeners out there that are serving people in some way or form, but probably not charging what they should be charging, don't know their own self worth, what have you. Can you speak completely open on maybe some of the challenges you went through? Maybe about how you overcame those challenges to charging, maybe what you should be charging, or even making money in an environment that people think you shouldn't be making money?
Absolutely. As you asked me the question, I'm starting to smile thinking about that. There are a lot of triggers that come up for me around that. When I first got started, like many new professionals out of university, I was suffering from what is known as the imposter syndrome. You go through school, you get the degree, you have the training, and you step out into the real world and think, "Wow. Does anyone know that I haven't done this before? Do I really belong here? I don't fit in. Everybody else seems to know what they're doing, and I'm just getting started."
So, early on, it was really difficult for me to charge a higher rate for my counseling services, and I had to start to compare myself to others and realize that maybe I can provide a meaningful service, maybe I can deliver something that's of value to people, maybe I am coming from the heart and trying to meet the needs genuinely, and therefore, it's on par cost-wise with what other people are charging. That's absolutely been an important barrier for me to overcome. That was fairly early on in the business.
Let me ask you something. If you went back and you started over today, would you charge what you're charging today then, in the beginning? In the beginning you felt like you couldn't charge what you were worth.
Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's about ... I felt like I wasn't worthy of that higher rate, and so, it took some building of my own self confidence to realize that the service that was being provided was valued at that rate. So it was working on myself first to be ready for the proper billing rate.
Yeah, and I think many of the listeners are thinking when they all started out, "Wow. I should have charged what I was worth right in the beginning." The big thing is, you should be charging what you're worth up front. The challenging part is we always seem to think we're not worthy of it, we don't deserve it, or what have you. So, really great point, thank you for that.
So, let's get into a couple of key things that you've learned along the way. Pivot Point's now 14 years old. I've been really privileged enough to see you grow and grow into different areas of British Columbia here in Canada, as you've expanded, but let's go back right to the beginning as well. What were some of the key things that, if you had to start Pivot Point over again, what would it be that you could say, "Please don't do this," or "Get your thoughts in line," whatever it is.
That's my important thing for all our listeners is get this brutal truth. Because if you don't get this, you bumble along and you fumble and you trip and you fall and what have you. That's why I brought these amazing people on to serve you. So, what's ... give me one or two, maybe a couple of nuggets we could have a discussion about of what you would do differently if you had to start Pivot Point up again today.
You bet. That's an excellent question. Really, I see two different sides to the same coin on that question. It really has to do with the use of others. So, I was very fortunate with Pivot Point that we were growing quickly in the first few years and there was enough revenue to afford to lean on others to reach out for accounting support, legal support, some marketing support, and some administrative support. If I had not reached out to others and invited others into the business, then I would have been trying to do all of those things myself. That's not my background, and I very likely would've steered it off course not knowing better. So, the first nugget for me was really learning to lean on others and trust in others to help guide me.
Which really comes down to -- and it might sound like a really callous word -- but it comes down to leverage. At the end of the day, you've got to leverage other people. There's only two kinds of leverage, other people's time, other people's money. So, in that sense, you're leveraging other people's time, and if you heard one of the keywords there, and listeners if you want to write this word down right now, the most important word I think you can ever learn when building a team, having people, contractors, employees, whatever it is, is the word trust. If you cannot have that trust in people, then guess what? You'll probably never get to where you want to be.
Steve, the saddest thing I hear from so many people is, "I never want employees. I want everyone to be contractors, not employees." For me, what Steve's saying to you is you'll never get to where you want to be if you don't have a team around you, or with you. I don't even like the word, they're working for you, because they don't work for you. You work together as a team.
So, really understand this, listeners, it's all about that trust. If you cannot trust people, well then how are you ever going to get to be able to go on vacation and lie on the beach, have some fun, whatever it is, and your business keeps on running. If it's all about you, while you're lying on the beach, guess what happens? Your business is closed, because while you sit there doing nothing and enjoying yourself, your business is doing nothing. So that leverage point, that's one of the golden nuggets from today. So, give me something else, like another little piece of maybe brutal truth or what have you for our listeners around what you would do differently starting up again today.
Well, it's really an extension of that same idea, and I really love the focus on trust. You're absolutely right. Ironically, what I would do differently, is trust more. So, although I was lucky and brought in a number of people that kept me from ruining my business myself by doing all the things that I didn't have the skill to do, they helped me stay on track. I now look back, after 14 years of business, and realize, I could've been where I am now in half the time.
Wow.
The business could be two times, three times, four times bigger if I had just reached out to other people and learned some of the other aspects of the business, the marketing, the sales, really how to build proper business systems. I wish I had started that pursuit much, much earlier.
Wow. My company, Make Your Mark's been around for 13 years, and I look back at it and I go, "Wow. There's certain things I would have done differently." I think my one thing, what would've got me to grow quicker would've been trust as well, if I had trusted people in the beginning. I don't trust people. I trusted myself, but then, I always thought, "Well, I have to be the kingpin. I am the one that's the specialist. No one can ever do things as good as me," what have you, and then I heard a statement from someone that said, "Well, Colin, there's cemeteries full of indispensable people." You're not the only guru on the planet, not the only great person.
So, just digging into it a little bit more, around saying you'd trust more. If you're going to trust more, where do you see yourself going, and what does “trust more” mean as you grow forward now into the 10 years as you take Pivot Point to the next level?
I think, for me, it really looks like bringing in people who can help see the business in a much larger way. So, I'm now at a place where the business has grown. I've grown alongside with it, and it fills up about as much space as I created in my own mind for it, but I need some help to radically expand my mind, again, so the business can fill that space as well.
So, I need some help to double the capacity of my head so the business can double in size, so to speak. That'll certainly be the first part. That really comes down to marketing systems, sales systems, and the rest of systematization of my business. There are pieces that work, but they don't work nearly as efficiently as they could or should, and they're not ready to scale substantially.
So, I know that other people have some expertise that I can rely on. I can bring in that guidance, that coaching, that executive business coach, and help me see the areas of the business that could be enhanced, and therefore, expand my brain so the business grows into that space.
Well, here's the thing. What Steve just said is you expand your mind, you expand your business. You might be thinking you want to do it by yourself, and run along and do things completely on your own. What a great nugget, Steve, because I think as you listen to this, you start, you might think, "Well, I don't really need to expand my brain.” I can tell you. The more you expand your brain, or your mind, and the more open you are, more open your heart is, the more open your mindset is, the more you grow.
I think a lot of people out there are really super stubborn. They believe they can do it by themselves. That they don't need to learn from somebody else. Even for me as a business coach, or as I call myself, the business Sherpa, the big thing for me is I also have my own personal mentors that mentor me, guide me, what have you, because you know what? We do get stuck in the rut. We do get stuck in the rut and our business keeps on churning over, and we're like, "Well, I'm actually happy with a 10, 15% growth per year, when you could be growing quicker if you wanted to. Of course, hey, growing quickly takes cash. You know that. It can drain your cash flow really quickly as well.
At the same time though, I really love about it really expanding yourself in order to expand your business. I've seen that for my own personal side.
I want you to be just completely transparent with our listeners today. What do you see as your biggest challenge going forward?
That's a great question. In some ways it boils down to, you don't know what you don't know about yourself. So, for me, I think I'm fairly confident, and I got into a place in the business where I knew I had a lot of things that I needed to fix. I knew I had a lot of things that could be improved, and I just wanted to go do that work. Nobody knows the business like I know the business.
So, I'm the right one to go do that work, year after year after year, trying to get caught up. So, for me, maybe that's the stubbornness, but it's really been the challenge that I need to face is my capacity to submit to others and have that guidance to help me get through the areas where I might be disorganized, or help me to learn about better delegation skills or better leadership styles that are more effective with my staff, to help me to find the right marketing approaches or the right marketing leaders within my business, to promote, or to make significant changes in areas of my business that are slowing me down. Sometimes you need to pivot and make a change away from the structures or the systems that you're holding onto. So, that's been the challenge, is learning to let go of certain things, and let the business grow into something new when maybe I was just a little bit stubborn and wanted it to be a certain way or thought that was the best way.
Absolutely. Isn't it funny how the company name is Pivot Point, and of course, we are talking about the clientele pivoting, maybe seeing things differently around autism, but now it's actually come back to you and said, "Guess what? There's a reason why your company name is Pivot Point."
Absolutely.
Sometimes you have to pivot. So, looking at where the company's going now, I've seen this as Make Your Mark's grown. I'm sure you've possibly seen it as Pivot Point's grown as well. You have around 170 employees, and your team is growing quickly as your number of families grow. Have you experienced as you've grown that you don't have control over all the finances the way you used to have? Where maybe, in the beginning, you could control just about every cent of the company and expenditure, but as you've grown, you've had to maybe stand back and watch people spend money the way you would never spend money, or put expenses in that you would never put in.
I used to say in my office that I wish our employees and team at Make Your Mark would treat my money the way they treat their own money. Well, sometimes, you don't want people treating your money the way they treat their own because some of them aren't really good at treating their own money well. So, have you experienced as you've gone through, some really interesting growth around maybe expenses and that kind of stuff that you don't really have control over? Maybe now you can control every hundred dollar expense, but you cannot control down to the cent anymore.
Right, exactly. I think the business struggled with that earlier on in the first several years. Cash flow was so tight. Our margins are just so incredibly thin, but I knew that the business could become profitable and stable if we could just get to a critical mass and create enough efficiency in how we handle all the rest of the administrative details of the business, but early on, yeah. That was really, really tough.
It's funny when you talk about letting other people trust, or trusting in other people to handle money a particular way. There's actually a number of people in the business where they would respond to a situation in a way that was almost better than how I would've responded.
Oh, that's cool. Wow.
So, I started to identify that feeling inside of me when one person, I can think of her in particular, she is just really, really careful with money. So, she handles all money in her world more aggressively and carefully than I would have. So, I would've spent $5, no, she's going to fight to buy that same thing for $1. So, I'm going to let her make all the purchase decisions.
That's a wise man.
And it felt wonderful to let her do that. Sometimes I have staffing issues where I think, "Well, maybe that's not such a big deal, maybe I can tolerate that or I can allow that minor infraction. I'll just let it slide," but I have someone else who manages HR who says, "No way. That's not acceptable." So, I let that person handle those situations from their value base. So, building a team, I've realized that I've actually built a lot of assets, people who are doing things more aggressively or with more detail or with more passion in that one area, than I was able to do myself.
Wow. So, that's really, if you think about it now as you duplicate and as you grow, because I mean really, at the end of the day, you only serve four to five hundred families out of a whole bunch of systems processes, duplication happening. So, would you say one of the key things, and maybe you can even add a little bit to this, around your success and the duplication has been, well now ... You used to do everything in the beginning. So you were this giant pie, and each slice of that pie was all the little different aspects of the business you ran, and you were good at them, but you maybe weren't exceptional at them.
Exactly.
Maybe there's a certain piece of that pie that you're exceptional at, but now you've gone out and found people that are exceptional at the slice you're maybe average at, that they've now taken your business to the next level. So as you duplicate, and then you start to realize, "Wait a minute. I'm not duplicating me." I think it's the biggest myth out there. I'm going to go duplicate myself. No, the way you duplicate yourself in my understanding, and the way I look at it at Make Your Mark, is that you have all these pieces in the beginning that you pretty much, some might even be average at, and then some of them you're exceptional at. So you keep the ones you're exceptional at, because that's probably what you love doing, and you go find other people that are exceptional at what you're average.
Exactly.
Can you speak to that a bit?
Yeah, absolutely. You're right, I started out as the first regional manager. We now have nine of them, and I'm happy to say that they're all much better at it than I was. They're wonderful people, and they come in with vision and passion and leadership, and a history in the social service sector. So, they bring a tremendous amount of heart. Our regional managers, spread throughout the province of British Columbia, are managing the staff that have been hired into that local regional area, and meeting with families and supporting their needs to make sure that our staff are actually delivering exactly what it is that our client families are looking for.
So, yeah, I started the systems. I started the paperwork. I started working through that work, and meeting parents from my heart, and loved being in that position early on, but there's just no way as a business owner I could stay in that position forever. So, it was an interesting journey trying to hire the first and the second and the third regional manager, and some have left, and we'd hire some more, and some would leave, and we'd hire some more. So, over the 14 years, we've probably hired more than 20 people into the position of regional manager, and along with that comes an incredible growth of my understanding of what that position is all about.
So, now, when I interview, I can see very clearly who has the skill set, who has the passion, who is common-grounded and can deliver what that position needs, and sometimes I can see people who might have most of those assets, but who need a little bit of coaching and guidance from me to bring those extra few pieces of their character into the role. So, that's just one segment of course. There's many different staffing positions in the organization, but it's been an amazing journey watching that best regional manager. What makes the best regional manager or what makes the best behavior consultant or what makes the best marketing manager? Whatever the position happens to be in the business, what does this business need most and what are the best qualities that bring that out? It's certainly not just credentials. It's so much more. It's the passion, the heart, the character. Is that individual able to embrace the company values? It's all of those things and the credentials to do the job well.
Yeah, that's so fascinating. Everyone thinks that you go out, you look for "employees" or look for team, and it's just so easy. You find great people, and off you go. I mean, I love what you're bringing to the whole thing of values because, yes, the credentials can be there. Everything can be there, but you know what? And some of you might be listening going, "Yeah, I've hired," and you might even think of this, I'll ask you, how many of you have worked with really, really people who are awesome at what they do, in terms of their skillset, their job, their functionality, but they really irritate. They irritate you completely. The big thing for me is, if you're thinking yes, that's a situation, well they don't really share your values.
Steve and I've had a lot of time to chat about this, and it fascinates me how many people keep people on board who don't have their values. That person, even though they're good at their job, that becomes a cancer in the organization. In fact, the people that are excellent at what they do but also have your values, eventually leave because of that one cancer.
I'm going to talk about some of that on future episodes as well, because I want really people to understand that sometimes it is. I've talked about the brutal truth. You've got to do things sometimes that you're not happy doing in your business, but you know it's the right thing to do. Sometimes, as you grow, what I see happening is you have all these employees coming on board, sometimes you have to go through a few of them to learn, as we grow ... I know I'm growing every single day, and I'm sure Steve's growing every single day. So you learn about this, and eventually you say, "Well, I've been through 20 regional managers to get really nine awesome ones." Well, that's not being rude or disrespectful to people. We learn as we go, and I also call it the H-factor. It doesn't matter what their resume looks like, and what their tentative values are, there's still the human factor that comes into it that shows up somewhere along the line.
Absolutely, Colin. As you're speaking, I'm thinking of all the different restaurants and businesses that I've been in over the years, and they could have everything perfect. It could be beautifully designed and every business system working flawlessly. The product, whether it's a meal or a service, or something I'm purchasing, could be exactly what I need. But if that staff member who delivers it to me doesn't have a smile, can't connect with me with just a little bit of kindness when they take my order or when they put the product or the food on the plate in front of me, there's something missing, and I think we all resonate with that.
So, you're absolutely right. It's not just credentials. It's the human factor, and I'm so proud of the staff in Pivot Point. It's been such an incredible journey of joy for me to see these, some very experienced and credentialed professionals, and other times people just starting into their careers, but coming in and trying to create a space for themselves. Seeing their passion grow, and seeing them get excited about making a difference in the lives of children and families, has been just phenomenal. That is really what the business is all about. The skill in behind the training and competency and experience that people bring to the work, is absolutely foundational. You have to have that, but it's their passion. It's the twinkle in their eye when they make magic happen in the lives of children and families, and they feel fully alive, that's when I know I've got the spark that my business needs to go on and be successful.
Wow, awesome. So, now I want to really put you on the brutal truth path.
Sure.
So, 14 years in existence. You have 165, 170 employees. You have four to five hundred families that you serve, what's the one thing, even with all this experience, that you say, "Wow, I suck at this right now and I need to improve it." What would that be? And you're like, something that's like, "Wow. I cannot believe after 14 years, I'm still not doing this the way it should be done, and I wish I could improve it, and that's what my next goal in the next 12, 24 months to improve is." So what'd you say? Maybe suck's a hard word. Maybe it's a challenging word. Let's be honest with the listeners. We've all been in business for a long time. There are still things we need to learn and that we might not be so fantastic at, or in fact, if you asked our employees, they'd say we completely suck at.
Yeah, for sure.
So, what would that be that you're going to learn or do in the next 12, doesn't matter, 6, 12, 24 months, that would really take your business to the next level and that you could share with people and say, "Don't follow my footsteps"?
Well the problem is I don't know what the solution is necessarily.
Ah, that's interesting.
We'll see where that goes, but really the area that I hold my business back the most is with follow through and little details. My business is large. I've got a lot of clients and a lot of staff, and a lot of areas that are growing quickly in the business, and there is so much to do, and my ability to stay on top of dozens and dozens of email daily, dozens of text messages, and hundreds of documents that need my revision or my involvement, dozens of people every week that I need to interact with to support them in moving forward with their pieces of innovation in my business. It really boils down to my ability to follow through with those small details.
So, I often get buried under the small details. I feel like I've got 10,000 Post-it notes sitting on top of me at any given time.
So you're like most of the listeners out there. You have a to-do list that is way longer than your week.
Yes, absolutely. So it's my inability to follow through with certain tasks sometimes, so it gets bottle-necked. So, I'll get started working on something, and I need to devote 10 hours to it, but I can only get 6 or 7 hours in. It's not quite done, but it's got a good start, but something else comes up. So that first project gets set aside, and I'll get started-
Little bit of squirrel syndrome.
Absolutely. I get started on something else, and then that gets set aside. I now have dozens, or maybe even hundreds of little projects, some small, some really big, some that would require 100 hours. Where am I going to find 100 hours?
So what do you think a solution to this is? Many of us, and many of you listeners out there, there's stuff that we don't know we don't know. So if there's one thing you maybe do know, what do you think it would be in order to get those projects completed? Maybe a small solution to this.
Well, I'm really hoping I can follow my own advice in terms of finding somebody with a skillset that's stronger than my skillset in that area.
Ah, beautiful. Okay.
So, I think a strong executive assistant. Somebody with strong background in project management would be great. There's definitely people who are very diligent, awesome follow through, and they just work, work, work, to get things done. If I can have that support at my side, I think I can stay organized and we can be an efficient team moving forward. So, hopefully that'll work.
Great man. I'm going to give you a piece of advice from my side. I'm going to give it directly to Steve here is that, I've had over the last five years probably five executive assistants. The one thing I've learned, and that's why we have the show called The Brutal Truth of Colin Sprake, is because I will share with you at all transparency on who I am, listeners out there, is that I decided to go out and hire junior executive assistants, people that have been around three, four years, who thought they were executive assistants, but yet, they weren't really executive assistants. I could be doing administrative work for you, or what have you. I've just hired in the last four or five months an executive assistant that I paid more money to. She asked me for more money, 25 years of experience, deserves more money, and I was like, "Okay, you know what? That's ... Wow." Pay another 10 grand a year more.
She started with me. I've traveled for a month. I saw her for the first two days, and then after that, I traveled pretty much for the next month, and she just jumped in. I mean Joanne is spectacular. She jumped in, and she knows what it takes to be an executive assistant. She doesn't need hand holding, babysitting. Jumped in, got going, checked the emails, and all of a sudden, started getting things just working like a machine at the office.
So, for any listeners out there, even back to Steve, really understand that you get what you pay for. We keep on thinking, how do we get executive assistants that are 50 grand a year, 60 grand a year? I now pay my executive assistant more than that, but the key reason why I do that is because she is at a level and has the experience, and I cannot stress this enough. If I had known this my own learning experience with employees and teams, is if I'd known that, I would have hired her, an executive assistant with 25 years experience, five years ago.
Exactly Colin, and that goes back to what we were saying earlier about putting trust in the people and finding people who have a skill that is beyond your own. If I had done that over the last five or ten years, my business would absolutely be way bigger and way more successful than it is today.
That 10 grand extra may be for an employee, might have added two million to your business.
Easily.
But now it's like we hold down the 10 grand.
Easily.
We're pretty smart people aren't we? We'll still ... 10 grand to get to 2 million?
Yeah, it's kind of crazy. It really is. So, for me, that goes back to that point of seeing the business for where it's going, not where it is today. So, very often I was trying to hire people who would fit in with the business right now, but that's not necessarily what I need. You said you've hired some executive assistants who had a little bit of experience, but not a lot of experience. They don't have experience being executive assistants in massive organizations, but that's where you want to be.
So, that's the same for me. I need to envision my business twice the size that it is right now, and then hire an executive assistant who has that kind of experience to bring my business forward.
Exactly. It's like hiring an athletic coach who's going to teach you how to run 100 meters in under 10 seconds, but yet, that person is not a true athletic, sprint coach. They're a long distance coach who's never, ever run under 10 seconds themselves, even under 11 seconds, and now you're saying, "Well, can you guide me to do what they've never done."
Exactly.
I think that's one of the key things. I know where that's in Make Your Mark, right now. We're looking at getting a Chief Operating Officer in, but that person has taken a business from a multiple eight figure business to a nine figure, even a ten figure business. That's what I've learned over time now, hire the people that have got experience with where you want to be, not where you want to go to, and take them with you, drag them with you. Have them drag you to where you want to be because they've actually got that experience. They've been there.
Bingo.
Cool. Beautiful. What a great conversation today, and it's been my privilege Steve to have you on the air with us. Now, if people wanted to get a hold of you or connect with you, maybe they've got children with autism or they just, yeah, want to learn more about Pivot Point Family Growth Centers, give us a little bit of information where our listeners could plug into you today.
Absolutely. I think the best place is really to reach us online. Pivotpoint.ca. There you can learn all about our services to children, youth, and adults with autism and other diverse abilities. You can learn about our educational services like our community classrooms, our mental health services, our transition planning services. There's quite a range of services that we provide that are all accredited and industry best practice services. So, come visit us at pivotpoint.ca and find out what we do.
Fantastic, Steve. What a great conversation today, and thank you for just being completely open, honest with our listeners because we cannot get to where we want to be if we put fluff around stuff all the time. We have to serve each other, help each other, and get to the next level. So, thank you for listening today. It's been my privilege to have Steve Cunningham with me today, and see you very soon. Next week we'll have our next show coming up, and I cannot wait to serve you, and really get into more brutal truths with amazing people that have helped me and mentored me as well as being part of my community here at Make Your Mark. Thank you so much Steve. Thank you listeners. Have a great week ahead, and remember, implementation is everything.
Hi. My name's Colin Sprake and welcome to MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth, my podcast that is devoted to getting business owners and entrepreneurs to be massively successful in all areas of their life. My podcast is a weekly podcast, and the first week of each month is going to be devoted to business mindset. Really getting your mind in the game because your mindset is the most important part to being massively successful in your business.
The second week of each month, I'm going to bring onto the podcast my personal mentors. People who have mentored me in all areas of my life, because to be successful in business doesn't mean just being successful in understanding marketing, sales, what have you. It's also being successful in your relationships, successful in your fitness, your health, what have you. I'm going to bring my personal mentors onto the podcast so we can interview them and you can learn what I've learned from them to get yourself to the next level.
The third week of each month is going to be devoted to business tools. Real solid business tools in sales, marketing, operations, profitability, what have you, to really get your business to the next level. When you are finished with the third week of each month, you'll have set tools that you can use to go and implement and use in your business immediately to get you to the next level.
And the fourth week of each month is super exciting, because I'm going to bring on real successful entrepreneurs and business owners, the business owners that have gone through a lot of challenges in their past and have actually got themselves to the next level and broken through all those challenges, and you're going to learn from them what it took to get through those challenges. These are what we call the entrepreneur stories on the fourth episode of each month to really assist you and get you ahead.
The big part about this is understanding that I am here to serve you, to get you to the next level and to assist you with getting your business way beyond where it is today. It doesn't matter what level you're at. I grew up as a child in South Africa. You can hear from my South African accent. I grew up in an environment where I was severely bullied. I thought at some stage in my life that I would never be successful. I actually, in fact, attempted suicide twice and people said to me, "Wow! I don't how you ever became so successful."
I want you to understand. I am no different to any of you listening to this podcast. I want you to get ahead, no matter what your circumstances are, and my podcast every week is going to assist you with understanding exactly how to do that. At the same time, I want people to understand, too, that you can build a very successful business and a successful family at the same time. You do not have to sacrifice one for the other. In fact, your family and the support you have at home or your friends and what have you are vital to you being successful. The support is to me one of the biggest parts of ensuring you become massively successful in your business.
I've been in business since the age of nine. I started a very small company at the age of nine making calculator cases for very expensive calculators and I sold them at university campuses. I then started a cabinet company in my late teens which I eventually sold in my early 20s. Since then I've continued to build different businesses in healthcare, fitness, mining equipment, and also in the training industry. In terms of businesses, I am very, very devoted to assisting business owners with getting ahead and understanding what it takes to be successful and to learn from other people who have actually done it.
Like I say, this is the brutal truth. There's not going to be any fluff or anything on this podcast that's going to be airy-fairy or anything like. It's going to be let's cut to the chase. Let's give you the tools you need. It's understanding what has taken other people to get to that next level, and I want you to do the same, because I know what it takes to be at that level.
At the same time, I'm going to share with you the things I've learned from my personal mentors. People like Richard Branson. People like Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank, one of the initial original sharks from ABC's Shark Tank show. I've learned so much from them. I want to bring it to you, because right now I'm growing a multiple eight figure business and I'm going to take that into a nine figure business and eventually into a 10 figure business which is that billion dollar, with a B, company. I want to show you how I've taken it from a very small business each time and grown it way beyond what I ever thought possible.
I want you to see that what you think is impossible today actually is really possible, and I'm going to open your eyes to it, open your heart to it so you can see how this can be achieved in your business.
My goal for you on each of the episodes is that you become more successful. You walk away with tools, strategies, thoughts, maybe mind shirts, aha moments, whatever it might be for you, that when you finish listening, you've got very set things that you can do and implement immediately from the shows.
Like I say, there's not going to be any fluff. It's all going to be about the cold, brutal truth of what it's going to take for you to be very, very successful in your business in every way and form. And I look forward to you listening and getting you to that next level.