by graphics Team | Mar 21, 2019 | Podcasts
Is it possible to make a six or seven figure income as a coach or consultant without a college degree or credentials?
Here’s the truth: the only person who actually cares about your credentials is you. Two positioning secrets will get you that high income you desire, regardless of your education. The first secret is internal positioning.
Secret #1: Your Mindset Or Internal Positioning
Another name for internal positioning is mindset or self esteem. What’s holding you back from becoming a highly paid coach or consultant is your lack of education or perceived lack of education or credentials. But you can forget about college because no one in the marketplace cares.
I once told someone I have an MBA in marketing because someone asked me. It’s different from the usual MBA because it stands for Massive Bank Account. Those are my credentials. Only one group of people actually care about your certification.
These are the ones dominating and controlling the industry by selling you certifications through their propaganda. My clients have never asked about my qualifications. They look at my demonstrations and positioning and that’s enough to hire me. What they are actually looking for is something other than credentials.
They don’t care if you have 1, 10 or 20 years of experience as long as you can help them.
Your age also doesn’t matter for the same reason, especially if you’re young. For example, a friend of mine who is an educator in real estate bought two properties. He didn’t believe he could be successful as a consultant compared to someone who had bought two hundred properties.
However, there are people who will resonate with him more because they can learn from someone who has done two deals, compared to someone who has done hundreds. That high number is too far out of their reach. You don’t need to be a 100 steps ahead of your clients.
Even if you are just one step ahead, you already can add value and help them solve a problem. Never overestimate your client’s abilities. Even if it’s a successful CEO, that person doesn’t know everything. Your client doesn’t know everything, so they are delegating by hiring you.
So don’t sell to people who make less income-wise than you. Sell up and don’t be intimidated by a low self esteem.
If you sell to clients who won’t pay high-ticket prices, you will deal with a lot of hassle. They will try to nickel and dime you and they won’t appreciate you, compared to high-ticket clients who see you as the expert and trust your expertise.
High-end clients trust your expertise because they don’t have the time to haggle over prices. They’re too busy. Working with affluent clients and having that prosperity mindset is what will get you that high income.
Secret #2: The Power Of An Abundance Mindset
If you want to make a lot of money as a consultant or coach, you must make a decision to do that and not be ashamed of your goal. You must have an abundance, or prosperity mindset or you will struggle to find success because of the way the industry is set up.
The entire coaching and consulting industry thinks in terms of trading a block of time for a block of money. Your monetary compensation is based on the actual value provided, defined by the client, not you. You cannot afford to have any hangups about money, power, or strong boundaries if you want to be successful.
Most people with a regular income will think your $3000 fee is a big investment. They’ll say, “I can’t afford this. I need to save up first.”
When you hear them say that, don’t back down and offer a discount because you think they can’t afford it. Know your value because you want to serve people who appreciate what you do for $3000. Don’t sell to people without money.
If you want to help these people, make a lot of money first and then help them when you don’t need the money.
Coaching and consulting has to do with your attitudes to yourself and wealth, and your ability to keep a straight face when you ask for the big bucks. It’s all self-image related.
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by graphics Team | Mar 20, 2019 | Podcasts
Matt Barrie is an award winning technology entrepreneur. He is Chief Executive of Freelancer.com, the world’s largest freelancing marketplace connecting over 30 million professionals globally, which has been awarded by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences eleven Webby Awards, the “Internet’s highest honour”.
In this episode, Matt talks about how he started Freelancer after buying and combining 13 mini sites. He gained some valuable insights on how and who to hire for a business, and how culture and talent factor in to the interview and selection process.
Matt is a frequent speaker on the topics of technology and entrepreneurship. In this podcast, he talks about his perspective on technology and how it will affect industry in the future. In 2011, he was one of nineteen featured from the 600 speakers at SXSW. He has been a keynote speaker at conferences including The Next Web, Summit Series and CEBIT.
Matt is a prolific speaker globally and has featured at SXSW, The Summit Series, Tony Robbins, The Next Web, in the New York Times, Bloomberg TV, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, BRW and the Economist.
In this episode you’ll learn:
- 1:35 Matt’s Freelancer.com business and other businesses he’s working on
- 4:34 How a conference can be a show and a business
- 8:25 Where to look if you want to buy a business
- 14:37 How to hire the right people, including freelancers
- 20:06 Matt’s hiring process
- 37:55 Easiest way to lose control when working with a venture capitalist
- 38:55 Insights on how to grow a business
- 43:53 Who to choose as mentors
Resources:
Freelancer.com Website
Connect with Matt
LinkedIn
Twitter
Connect with Dan
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YouTube
Roku
LinkedIn
by graphics Team | Mar 19, 2019 | Podcasts
If you want to be successful in business, then you must set aside alone time.
Two times a year, Bill Gates spends time all by himself for a week in the forest. No cellphone, no computer. He just totally disconnects from the outside modern world and calls that the think week. Now, why do successful people spend time by themselves?
You see, very often, we are so close to our issues that we don’t take enough time to think about it. We need to step back and ask, “What exactly is the problem here?”
During his thinking time, Bill Gates does a lot of reading, thinking, and journaling. And during that time, he thinks about what he does. I also practice something similar to the think week.
I take multiple vacations a year, not to get away from what I do because I hate what I do. That’s why most people go on vacations. For me, I get away because I need thinking time to put some space between what I do, who I want to become, and where I need to be.
I need to know and anticipate and not be disturbed during this think time. That’s why my most productive time is actually the Christmas holiday.
Now you might ask why. In December, everyone else is busy shopping and taking time off. I have the space to plan and strategize. That’s when I put on my thinking hat and decide what I need to focus on in order to be where I want to be in the next year and following years. I ask myself, “What am I going to do?”
When no one’s bugging me, when there are no interviews, no PR tours, I have time to plan. This is different than how other people do business.
In December, they take a long time off. So by the time January comes, they’re just getting back into business after the holidays, right? They are setting new year goals and resolutions. Then when they’re starting to build momentum, it’s already February. That’s too late.
I take my vacation when no one else is taking a vacation. That’s why I took my time off in October instead of December. By December, I have momentum already because of my planning. In January, I am launching. Before the end of January, I’m already months ahead compared to my competitors and peers. That’s the power of thinking time.
So take some time to think and remember that business is an intellectual sport. Creating wealth is an intellectual sport called think and grow rich.
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by graphics Team | Mar 18, 2019 | Podcasts
Is it possible to sell millions without ever opening your mouth?
It is if you’re a strong copywriter. I’ve already shared with you some tips on how to sell with the written word. In the last episode, I talked about using emotions and cliffhangers to keep your customers hooked on reading more about your offer. Next, let’s look at the last three steps, beginning with what I call preemptive credibility.
Stacking Up Your Credibility
What do you have to offer? Maybe you have a long history of being in business. If you have a lot of happy customers who have left reviews, use that. If you have case studies, use that. You can also talk about the scientific research that went into your product.
You want to use any proof you possibly could because people aren’t easily convinced. And you want to use their doubts in your sales copy so that you stop their objections before they even come up.
A good example of stacking your credibility is infomercials. A big chunk of the infomercials are testimonials, stories, and people sharing. Sometimes you have an infomercial that’s entirely a testimonial because what other people say about you is infinitely more powerful than what you can say about yourself.
It’s powerful to say your offer has all these key features and benefits but it’s much more powerful when you have customers sharing how your product helped them or changed their life. To do that, you need to find out what credibility access you have.
Are you collecting all the possible testimonials from your customers? If you are, how many do you need? I want to have thousands. When you only have three to four people, consumers think they are paid actors.
Mine aren’t actors. I don’t have time to hire actors. They are thousand of real people getting real results. These testimonials do a lot for your sales.
So, not only do you want to have testimonials to handle any objections your customers might have, but you also could use a FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions. Let’s say there’s 12 objections that customers usually have for not buying your product.
Turn those questions into your FAQ. For example, one question is “How do I know this works?” You can answer with, “Don’t worry, every single product that we have is backed by a 30 day money back guarantee. By the way, check out this link. Look at what 2567 customers have to say about this product.”
Your FAQ demolishes the possible objections. Another way to get customers to buy is by making comparisons.
Making Comparisons
Another effective way to sell is by comparing apples to oranges. When you are selling something, don’t just sell them the benefit, sell against something.
Show them that if they’re thinking of buying A, they’re going to lose B: buy this, lose that. Let’s say you’re selling a high-end financial planning tech service for ten thousand dollars. It’s a lot of money, so they don’t want to invest in it. How do you overcome their objections?
Overcome objections by comparing apples to oranges. When they have nothing to compare with, they come up with their own comparison, so do the comparing for them. So you tell them, you know what, last year you paid $327,000 in taxes. By investing $10,000 dollars with our accounting tech’s package, you will save X dollars.
When you have that comparison, suddenly the $10,000 is not so expensive anymore.
Giving A Clear Call To Action
The final and most important step is to have a very clear call to action. You have to make that action simple, such as clicking here, buying right now, booking a call with you, or visiting your office for an appointment.
Your call to action must be extremely precise. People love to procrastinate, so unless there’s a reason to act, or some sense of urgency to act now, people don’t act.
Think about why they need to act right now. Maybe it’s a limited time offer. Maybe there’s a limited quantity. Or maybe it’s an exclusive offer. The price may go up after a certain date.
Just remember when you’re copywriting, it’s a powerful kind of closing. You can be speaking to one person or thousands. And it works 24/7 without your involvement. It’s a very powerful form of closing if you think about it.
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by graphics Team | Mar 17, 2019 | Podcasts
Is it possible to sell millions of dollars without ever opening your mouth?
You can if you use the written word to create a compelling offer. It’s step two of my copywriting secrets, which I started to explain in the previous episode. In step three, you tell your customer what will happen if they buy your product.
Listing Features and Benefits
In this step , you list every single feature and benefit about your product or service. For most copywriters and business owners, your list will be very short because you’re too close to your offer. You’ll miss things.
For example, if you sell computers, you might forget that a keyboard is a feature. Now, before you start your list of every feature and benefit, make sure you don’t confuse the two. A feature is what something is. A benefit is what something does. Doing the following exercise will help.
First, you want to create a long list of features. Then you ask yourself the question, “So what?” For example, this computer is very fast. So when you play computer games, it’s so much faster. Turn each feature into a benefits driven statement, bullet points, or headline.
That’s why you want a very long list of benefits to work from. If you have hundreds of points, then you have hundreds of angles to work from. Even for something as simple as a T-shirt, you have different angles, starting with how it keeps you warm.
Target The Benefit Behind the Benefit
You can target certain angles. Let’s go back to the computer example. If I’m a PC gamer, one angle is to talk about the fast processor. Another is the backlit LED keyboard to help reduce electricity use at night.
Keep in mind that what’s important to one customer may not be important to another, so you have to list all of the angles out. By going through this exercise, you already have a deeper understanding of the offer because what you thought you were selling may turn out to be something else.
For example, a marketer called Ted Nicholas told people that a stack of paper could help incorporate a company. People wondered how it was possible to incorporate a company with stacks of paper. Well, the stack of paper is the feature. It’s legal documents for incorporating the company by yourself to save money. The ad worked okay, but became more successful with some more tweaking.
He fixed the ad by talking more about the benefit behind the benefit. People incorporate because of taxes, so he changed the ad headline to The Ultimate Tax Shelter and sold millions and millions of dollars.
So think not only about what you’re selling but also what you’re actually selling. Understanding this will help you with the last copywriting step.
Write multiple, attention-grabbing headlines to sell your offer. You want to write many headlines because some sell better than others. There are so many formulas, like the “How to” and the discovery types that start with “The secrets of”. If you’re stuck for ideas, go to the best source of headlines.
Grab Attention With Emotions
Magazines like Cosmopolitan and National Inquirer have some of the best headlines in the world. They grab your attention with headings like “17 Sex Secrets That You Don’t Know.” Every year it’s the same recycled headlines because they work.
These headlines have to be very compelling and benefit driven. Sometimes, you use curiosity, sometimes a power punch or a huge discount. You can also use credibility with an endorsement from a celebrity.
Here’s an example of a successful headline: If you’ve ever wished you can live on a Caribbean island, don’t let envious naysayers stop you. With our help, you can successfully escape freezing winters, crime, pollution, oil crises and mega stress. Whether you’re looking for a retirement haven, vacation home, land, or business….
The beauty behind this headline is how they sell the benefit behind the benefit. They aren’t just selling a vacation home. They’re selling emotional needs. But that isn’t all.
The purpose of a headline isn’t just to make the sale. The purpose is to get people to read the first paragraph. Also, there is a powerful technique here. People hate cliffhangers. They want closure. They want to know what’s happening next with the vacation home, and this headline leaves you hanging with the “…..”
It’s like pausing a TV drama right before the ending, and then you see the “To be continued” message and you have to tune in next week.
That’s how you keep your customers reading. Use powerful, emotional words in your copy.
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