One of my mentors, David Osborn, and his colleague, Paul Morris, released a new book this year called Wealth Can’t Wait:  Avoid the 7 Wealth Traps, Implement the 7 Business Pillars, and Complete a Life Audit Today!

Both these gentlemen managed to grow their Keller Williams Real Estate brokerages into company behemoths.

However, they both have gone on to build wealth in other areas as well, and both focus on creating multiple streams of income.

Knowing this is what led me to read this book in the first place, since most of you know that I am a firm believer in having multiple income streams.

This book is broken down into 5 sections, so my goal is to pull one main takeaway from each and write about it in this post.

Just reading this post won’t do you any good though.  The book is full of wisdom for anyone who is serious about building wealth.  It is a must read, and this post is just a taste of what you will get out of reading it.

Let’s get to it.

 

Part 1:  Make The Choice To Build Wealth

The first section of Wealth Can’t Wait, is all about making the choice to build wealth.  This section of the book is broken down into eleven chapters, such as “Avoiding the Seven Wealth Traps,” and “Taking Responsibility For Your Wealth,” to name a couple.

This part of the book was eye-opening for me, as it reinforced what so many of my mentors have been trying to instill in me…becoming wealthy starts with a choice.

My big takeaway for this section is that “wealth is just a code for freedom, and freedom is the ultimate gift in life.”  By choosing to build wealth, you are granting yourself the freedom to make the choices you want to make in life.  You are taking control of your destiny.  You are giving yourself the power of possibility.  When you think about what is truly possible in life, you realize that being wealthy gives you the opportunities to explore many of those possibilities.

You owe it to yourself to build wealth, so that you can enjoy all the gifts of this world.

Part 2:  Embrace The Mind-Set That Builds Wealth

Once you make the choice to build wealth, it becomes a matter of mind-set.

You know you can do anything you put your mind to, and building wealth is no different.  The 16 chapters in the section really break down what to think, and just as important, how to think.

Osborn and Morris state “So much of wealth is about who you are, and how you see the world.”

Think about that for a second.

What they are saying is that a big part of the battle towards building wealth starts and ends with you, and your mind-set.  It is one of the few things in this world that is free, and available to everyone.  Yet, not everyone takes the steps necessary to become capable of creating a healthy wealth mind-set.

For me, the biggest takeaway in this section of the book is the authors truly believe if you are willing to change how you think about wealth, and take the steps necessary to build wealth, then anyone is capable of becoming wealthy.

Think about that for a second.  You, me, anyone else reading this post, who then goes on to read this book, will have the road map to becoming wealthy.  There are no hidden secrets.  It is all there for each of us.  We just have to commit to having the right mind-set to begin with, or else, it’s just mental masturbation.

Part 3:  Create The Habits That Build Wealth

Part 3 of Wealth Can’t Wait is all about the habits that are necessary in order to build wealth.  Mind-set is important, but mind-set alone won’t build wealth for you no matter how many times you watch The Secret.

You have to take action.

Consistent action.

Habits.

You need to build the habits that will build your wealth.

This section of the book goes into the 7 habits you need to develop in order to build wealth.  Those habits are:

1.  Live Life By Design
2. Make Business Decisions Based On Solid Fundamentals
3. Stick With What You Know And Drill Deep
4. Earn More By Learning More
5. Chunk Down Big Goals And Add Accountability
6. Spend Less Than You Earn And Invest The Rest
7. Let Go Of The Small Stuff

Each of these habits can be a blog post on their own.  In fact, I may just create a series on these in the future.

But for now, I want to focus on what was a huge takeaway after reading this section of the book.

Stick with what you know and drill deep.

I HATED reading the title of this chapter.

This is why I hated reading The One Thing, by Gary Keller.

I hate the idea of “A One Thing.”

I get bored easily, and am always “trying” the next idea.

If you remember in the beginning of this post, I wrote that both authors have many streams of income.  So you may be saying to yourself (as I was when I first read this chapter) this seems contradictory.

What they are saying here is that you should have your one core competency (for them, it is real estate) and use that to continuously grow your wealth.  They aren’t saying not to diversify, what they are saying here is to get really good a one thing that generates revenue and wealth, and drill very deep on it.

I must say, this is my biggest weakness, and is the number one thing that has held me back from creating the wealth I desire.  I “try” too many things instead of focusing on just one and crushing it.  My goal for 2018 and beyond is to create that intense focus on this habit.

Part 4:  Develop A Business That Builds Wealth

This section of the book is all about the 7 Business Pillars you will want to implement on your road to building wealth.  These 7 pillars are:

1.  Client Acquisition Is King-(it is the most important skill)
2.  Look For Barriers To Entry
3.  Magnify Your Effectiveness and Power Through Leverage
4.  Modeling- Identifying a Person or Company Who is Doing What You Are Doing At a Much Higher Level
5.  Invest In Your Area Of Core Competence
6.  Use The 80/20 Rule To Drill Down To The Vital Few
7.  Invest In Coaches, Mentors, and Masterminds

Now again, each of these can stand alone as their own posts.  It is just too much information to try to cover here.  The big takeaway for me is looking for barriers to entry.  In almost every endeavor I have been a part of, the barrier to entry is not particularly high.  From owning pizzerias and restaurants, to operating a real estate investing company, none of these involved rocket science.  Yet, according to one of Paul’s partners, Eddie Krifcher, “if you can find high barriers to entry that will chase away most investors, and you invest the time and money to resolve the problems, you can create unique opportunity.”

Part 5:  Generate The Momentum That Builds Wealth

The final section of the book is all about momentum.  Topics covered include momentum through scale and health, just to name a few.

However, my biggest takeaway came from the authors statement that once you begin to build wealth, then wealth becomes about flow.  The three most important forms of flow are:

1.  Deal Flow
2.  Talent Flow
3.  Life Flow

For me, the realization that I must constantly be on the lookout for talented people who will buy into my vision should be one of my top priorities is eye-opening.

I need to develop a plan to make this a conscious effort on my part.

Conclusion For The 5 Takeaways From Reading Wealth Can’t Wait

David Osborn has become a mentor of mine, not only through Keller Williams, but through Gobundance as well (www.gobundance.com).

Because of this, I was excited to read his book and support someone who has supported me more than he will ever realize.  I was expecting a great book filled with actionable items to help me on my path to building wealth.

What I was not expecting was a roadmap where all the “secrets” would be revealed, and in a way that is so easy to comprehend, I now realize the only thing stopping me from becoming wealthy is me.

Do yourself a favor and get a copy of Wealth Can’t Wait by clicking HERE.

You will thank me for it!

 

Today’s post is a review of The 10 Pillars of Wealth by Alex Becker.  I was first introduced to Alex Becker from a YouTube.  He was promoting a friend who does well with Shopify.  The reason Becker resonates with me is he is genuine.

He curses.

I like that.

It shows he is not trying to be politically correct.  Which means he doesn’t care what everyone thinks.

Which means he is either very successful, or just a douche bag.

It turns out Alex Becker is very successful.

If you visit his website’s about page, (click here) you will see that he started out building an SEO business and scaled into a major software business.  He is considered a tech entrepreneur and investor.  Alex Becker wrote The 10 Pillars Of Wealth to set the record straight about online businesses and generating wealth in general.

In the introduction, Becker states “There is one belief that has been ground into the majority of our heads.  One belief that is so damaging it makes it virtually impossible for you to ever become rich and successful.  In fact, the first step to ever becoming successful is recognizing this belief and murdering it with a medieval battle-ax.”

So what is this belief Becker is talking about?

According to Alex Becker, “The belief that to become rich, something extraordinary, rare or lucky has to happen.  You have to cheat the system, trick people into giving you money, be a super genius with a loophole, be ‘lucky,’ or be a sleazebag to become a success.  Or at the very least, become a porn mogul!”

The rest of The 10 Pillars Of Wealth is about the beliefs multimillionaires have that others lack.  The beliefs that make the successful ultra wealthy, and those lacking the beliefs stuck in the rat race.  Becker refers to people in the rat race as “traffic fighters.”  By this he means those that are stuck in jobs and lifestyles they hate.

For the rest of this post will be a brief description of each of the 10 pillars of wealth.  Of course, no matter how deep I go on each pillar, I won’t be able to do for you what reading this book will do for you.  Because of this, I will just give an overview of each pillar.  You need to put the work in and read the book, then commit to the mindset.

The 10 Pillars Of Wealth Pillar One: Rejecting Getting Rich Slow

Becker starts this pillar with a warning.  He states that if you are new to the idea that you can make as much money as you want, then he is probably going to piss you off.  He goes on to say that this is because everything everyone has ever taught you about becoming successful is completely wrong (unless you were taught by a self-made millionaire).

If you think about it, he is right.  Most of the people telling you how to be successful (parents, professors, co-workers, friends, family) live a middle class life at best.  There is nothing wrong with that, but our goal is to be wealthy, not average.

The premise of this pillar is that you can get rich slowly, following the advice of everyone around you, which is some form of get a good job and work your way up the corporate ladder.  However, it will take a lifetime to get anywhere.  Not to mention it is just not safe, because you are at the mercy of someone else.  You trade five days a week in order to get two days to yourself, if you’re lucky.

By being an entrepreneur you have the ability to get rich quickly.  Not only that, but it is actually lower risk than being a traffic fighter for the next 30-40 years because you have the ability to control everything.  What Becker doesn’t do is claim that it is easy to do this.  He flat-out tells you it is a steep learning curve, and you will most likely fail at first.  However, if you stick to it, you will eventually get good at it.

The 10 Pillars Of Wealth Pillar Two:  Separating Time From Money

Becker starts off this chapter by giving the example of Jordan Belfort in the movie, The Wolf Of Wall Street.  He notes that Belfort spent almost 90% of his time doing hard drugs, partying, and having sex with prostitutes.  Yet, he was able to generate tens of millions of dollars during this time (yes, he did so by scamming people, but that’s not the point here…stay focused).

Belfort did this by creating a SYSTEM that ran and generated wealth for him no matter what he was doing.  He first put in the time by creating a lethal sales pitch, then trained other brokers to act like Belfort on the phone.  By doing so he was able to leverage himself, and create a wealth machine in the process.  He separated his time from his income.

You have two choices.

Choice number one is increase the value of your time.  This is what many professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and accountants do.  The problem with this method is other people decide how much your time is worth.  What he means by this, is you will get to a point where people will decline to pay what you perceive your hourly worth to be because they will perceive it to be too expensive, no matter how good you are.  You will hit an income ceiling.

Choice number two is to completely separate your time from income.  You don’t want your income to be solely based on your time alone.

If you want to get rich quickly, you need to set up a business in which you can separate your time from your income.  You want to set up a machine that can work for you while you sleep, thus leveraging your time.

The 10 Pillars Of Wealth Pillar Three:  Accepting That You Must Be Better Than Everyone Else

This was a tough chapter to read.  The line that stuck out the most for me was “Building your business must be your number one priority in life for you to succeed.  If it’s not, that’s okay, but you have to accept the fact that it will be unlikely that you will become a multimillionaire.”

Damn.

Those are some harsh words.  But when you think about all the mega successful people, you realize that getting there was their number one priority.  They put that goal ahead of everything else.

So the question for me became just how successful do you want to be?

What am I willing to sacrifice today, to have an amazing life tomorrow?

Then I continued reading and came to the section of the chapter where Becker asks his questions:

1. Do you think you are great?
2. Do you advantages that others do not have?
3. If you were in a room with 99 other people, would you be the best, smartest, most capable, most competent person in the room?

Becker says, “If your answer is no, or even a hesitant yes, I am sorry but you are 100% screwed.

Oh shit.

That is a wake up call for me.  I have shining moments, but this belief is not 100% cemented into my being.  I need to work on that.

“The biggest thing holding people back is believing they are average or not good enough.”

I know this to be true, because I have experienced it myself.

The rest of the chapter is about overcoming the challenge of accepting you must be better than everyone else.

The 10 Pillars Of Wealth Pillar Four:  Knowing Every Little Thing Is 100% Your Fault

This is one of the hardest chapters to read, based on the story he opens with.

Fair warning, it is very dark.

And it drives home the point very clearly.

I am not going to write the example he uses, because I don’t want it to cloud your decision on whether or not you read this book.

I am going to keep the description to this pillar short and just conclude with the most important fact Becker makes early on in the chapter: Here is the problem with blaming other people or factors for things that happen in your life…by doing so, you release responsibility and control over your life.  You are letting bad things happen to you are deciding they are not under your control.

The 10 Pillars Of Wealth Pillar Five:  Adopting An Abundance Mind-Set

Becker states that contrary to popular belief, people’s views of you are actually based on how you act rather than what you say in social situations.  He also states that how you act (your actions) determines your success in becoming wealthy.

Since actions are controlled by mindset and beliefs, your success in anything in life from dating to entrepreneurship is based on your mind-set and core beliefs.

Becker says it is hard to have abundance without abundance.

He explains this by saying it is hard to have a belief without the actions attached to it, so it is hard to have an abundance mind-set without having abundance.  However, you need to have an abundance mind-set in order to attract abundance.  So this is a catch 22.

The way to change this is to go back to the core and actually change our beliefs so we can trick our brains into thinking we have abundance right now.

The rest of this chapter goes into how to achieve that at your current point in life.

The 10 Pillars Of Wealth Pillar Six:  Forgetting “What If” and Focusing on “What Is”

This chapter starts with a made up story of two salespeople who took two different paths to becoming successful.  One worried about all the things that could go wrong, and how he wanted to make sure he performed his job perfectly.  He focused on the “what if,” also known as perfection paralysis  Before taking any action, he broke down every potential problem and worked out a solution.  The other salesperson just jumped in, made mistakes and learned to fix them along the way.  He focused on the “what is.”

Which one do you think was the more successful salesperson?

Planning for every potential problem that can arise before you take action will not help you succeed.  Becker talks about working with thousands of people trying to build an online business over the years who never move forward because they can’t get it perfect, so they quit out of frustration.

Instead, if you focus on problems when they happen (not before, and not after), you will have more time, energy, and mental space to see the situation for what it really is, versus what could potentially happen.

The 10 Pillars Of Wealth Pillar Seven:  Mapping Out Actions That Achieve Goals

“The richer a person (or company) is, the better they are at creating and following through on their goals.  More importantly, the better they are at mapping out how to reach these goals and understanding what these goals mean for their future.”

“On the flip side, if you look at someone with low-income, they usually have extremely short-term goals, small goals, that they don’t make much effort to achieve (or make excuses for), or large goals without any mapped out way to reach them.”

This chapter talks about how multimillionaires plan their goals, and how you can also.

First, start with your big goal.  At a bare minimum, you must have an income goal, as well as a defined way to get there.  Becker states that the easiest way to get there is to start at the absolute base of why people want to make money: lifestyle.

The rest of the chapter breaks down how to turn this big goal into five smaller goals, and then break each of these goals down into five even smaller action steps.

By going through this exercise, you can create your own roadmap to your wealth journey.

The 10 Pillars Of Wealth Pillar Eight:  Focusing Solely On What Gets You Paid

This chapter starts off with a far-fetched, yet incredibly simple example of why it is important to solely focus on what gets you paid.  I won’t explain the whole example, but the concept is you get paid $1000 for every mile you run a day, but you have a limited number of hours you can run each day.  So much goes into the preparation to be able to run, that you actually cost yourself money by focusing on these things.

The main point of the chapter is that you need to delegate as much of the things that don’t generate income and profits for you, or increase your current ROI.

“No matter who you are, you are only one person and can only learn so many skills and can only put in so many hours of work each day.”

“But once you are controlling the machine, you can push over a skyscraper.”

The machine Becker refers to is the leveraged business you are building.

The rest of the chapter focuses on a system you can use, no matter your income level, to identify your highest ROI actions while removing your lowest ROI actions.

The 10 Pillars Of Wealth Pillar Nine:  People Give Money To People That Get People

“Money is power over other people.  More so, it is the exchange of power between people.”

This entire pillar is about people, and understanding the relationship between people and money.

“The sole factor of how successful you are is how good you are at influencing and controlling other people’s decisions.  How you react, judge, and influence people is going to be the most important factor of your success.”

One of the biggest mistakes of those who are unsuccessful is that they try to make money without understanding people.

Wealth is the exchange of money that is the result of a trade of perceived value.

The rest of this pillar describes the art of learning to understand people, among other things such as the importance of learning how to sell.

The 10 Pillars Of Wealth Pillar Ten:  Finding Competitive Friends And Suitable Mentors

This was one of my favorite pillars as it gave me clarity as to why I excel in certain situations, even if I have no desire to do the task at hand.

It is the fact that if you surround yourself with competitive friends, a community of like-minded people with the same goal, it will trigger an obsession to work hard, succeed and compete.

For whatever reason, I love competition.

Becker goes on to say that humans are like pack animals and every single person wants recognition from their pack.  When we find a group we want to be in, we also start acting like them so we can blend in and feel like we are part of that group.

I have never much cared about what other people thought of me.

Now I realize that is not completely true.  I very much care what the people I care about think of me.

There is a big difference there.

Having the right people around you will help you grow and help you want to succeed, and even start to enjoy what you are doing.

The second part of this pillar talks about finding a suitable mentor.

You really can’t reach massive success on your own without personal mentors.

If you think of getting rich is like a minefield, only a mentor can get you through the minefield ten times faster and with one-tenth the effort.

The rest of this pillar goes into where to look for, and what to look for in a mentor.

Conclusion

Guess what?

There is still another pillar!  It is the “secret pillar” and you will need to read the book on your own to find out what it’s all about.

Yeah, I know.

You just spent a fair amount of time reading this 2600 word post and I am not even going to tell you what the last pillar is!

Well, no, I am not.  I know you want to know what it says and you need to read the book to find out.  Not because I want to be a jerk, but because just reading a review and not reading the actual book will be doing a disservice for yourself.

So do yourself a favor and buy The 10 Pillars Of Wealth HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

I have been deep diving into Mike Dillard’s Mentoring Program, and I decided to write a review of what the program offers, and my thoughts so far.

My first introduction to Mike Dillard came from a webinar I watched with Russell Brunson.  Russell runs a business called ClickFunnels.  Clickfunnels (www.clickfunnels.com) is a software company that provides click and drag sales funnels for almost any business vertical you can think of.  While watching the webinar, I felt as though both Russell and Mike seemed very genuine, and for those of you that know me, I am pretty skeptical when it comes to people I don’t know.

Because of my skepticism, I decided to begin my journey by reading the books that each of these men wrote.  I started with Mike Dillard’s Magnetic Sponsoring: How To Attract Endless Leads and Distributors To You Automatically.  I felt the book was genuinely written, and had plenty of actionable information.  From here, I joined his mailing list and began listening to his podcast.  I found that both his drip emails and the podcasts always added value to me.

Then came the Mentoring Program pitch.  Now, I am a sucker for information, so I always have to check myself from going crazy jumping from one coaching/mentoring program to the next without implementing what I am learning.  So, I resisted pulling out my credit card, and decided to research the program first.

Specifically, I wanted to know how the information would be presented and who would be mentoring me.

I have been involved in many mentoring and coaching programs.  Some of these are carefully thought out, and take a systematic approach.

Me?

I love systems.  So this approach is best for me.  Other programs are thrown together the day before the module is released.  They are all over the place.  This is something I wanted to avoid.

I also have been part of some programs where the person leading the training is someone who is all theory and no real life experience.  This was also something I wanted to avoid.

Luckily, I was able to find a ton of information on exactly how the program work via the program’s landing page and opt-in funnel.  So for the rest of this post, I will break down these two aspects of the program.  In future posts, I will go through my biggest takeaways from each module.

Presentation Of Information

The way the information in Mike Dillard’s Mentoring Program is presented is systematic perfection.  There are twelve lessons that are broken down into three stages, plus a bonus stage, which is the ability to leave questions at the end of each lesson and get a response from Mike Dillard whenever possible.  I will go through the presenters in the nest section, but here are the stages and what they contain:

Stage 1:  Transforming You Into The Person You Need To Become, In Order To Get The Results You Want:

 

In this stage of Mike Dillard’s Mentoring Program, the focus is all on you, your mindset, your habits, and your goals.  This stage covers the first four modules in the program.  The idea is to get your head and body in alignment so you can achieve your goals.

This stage is all about YOU.  The main premise being before you can build a business that generates $1k, $5K, $50K, or even $500K a month, you need to become a person who is actually capable of achieving such goals.

Mike states:  “Ideas and opportunities are worthless, unless you have the ability to execute them.”

The four modules in this stage cover:

1.  How to implement the world’s best daily routine to maximize productivity.

2.  7 Billion dollar real estate mogul teach you how to systematically define and achieve your goals.

3.  Values that create a business and a life of extraordinary achievement.

4.  How to transform your health, lose weight, and increase your energy levels.

Stage 2:  Growing Your Business With Traffic, Sales, and Brand Mastery:

 

In this stage, the focus is all about starting, growing, and scaling your business.  Remember, if you don’t scale your business to the point that you spend your time working on it, rather than in it, all you have is a glorified job.

The modules for this stage cover:

5.  How to go from waiting tables to 7 figures in 18 months.

6.  Make over $100K a month with Facebook ad campaigns.

7.  How to write a best-selling book that attracts customers to you.

8.  The most effective way to get unlimited traffic and sales in an online business.

9.  How to build a $100 Million product brand from scratch.

Stage 3:  How To Build Wealth and Protect Your Assets:

 

Your business may become a rock star income producer and spin-off mounds of cash.  However, if you don’t learn the basics of how to save, invest, and protect that income, you may end up broke one day.  Producing income and building wealth are two very different skill sets, and you need to master both if you want to win this game called business.  Mike Dillard’s Mentoring Program can fix this.

The modules covered in this stage are:

10.  How to turn small amounts of money into lasting wealth.

11.  The easiest way to make passive income with cash flow apartment complexes.

12.  How to lawsuit-proof your life.

Now, if you are anything like me, you read some of the tag lines for these modules and thought to yourself “What a bunch of B.S. marketing hype.”  I admit, I thought the same things at first.  However, once I started to take a look at who the presenters were, my opinion changed instantly.

Below I will go through the presenters for each module.  I have had the pleasure of personally masterminding with the first two through a group called Gobundance, which is a high net worth mastermind group of adventure seeking, take no shit, positive attitude winners in the game of business, but more importantly, the game of life.  While I am not yet part of this mastermind because I haven’t hit the net worth milestone, I make it a point to be around them every chance I get, to soak up some of the value they give, and hopefully add some value to them as well.

Presenters For Each Of The 12 Module Of Mike Dillard’s Mentoring Program:

1:  Hal Elrod: Author of The Miracle Morning: The Not So Obvious Secret Guaranteed To Change Your Life

2:  David Osborn: Business owner, investor, and author of Wealth Can’t Wait

3:  Charlie Garcia:  Successful businessman AND family man

4:  Drew Canole:  Transformed his life through juicing and eating as close to the way Mother Nature intended

5:  Mike Dillard:  In this module, Mike shares a ton of resources as well as his own knowledge

6:  Jason Hornung:  Runs many of the Facebook campaigns for several top marketers today

7:  Tucker Max:  Author of 3 #1 New York Times Best Selling books

8:  Russell Brunson:  Entrepreneur, author, and the man behind ClickFunnels.com

9:  Andy Firsella:  Mastermind behind the 1st Phorm Nutrition brand

10:  Patrick Donohoe:  Expert at the Infinite Banking model

11:  JP Newman and Adrian Lufschanowski of www.ThriveFP.com

12:  Kevin Day:  Estate planner and asset protection attorney

As you can see, this line up is phenomenal.  I highly recommend you sign up for Mike Dillard’s Mentoring Program.  If you do,  contact me through this blog, and let me know how you feel about it!

 

 

 

Today’s post is going to cover who are my current mentors.  In the previous post, we talked about why you should have multiple mentors (you can read that post HERE).  As I mentioned, I wanted to share with you some of my current mentors, and why I chose them.

Now, if I went through all the mentors I currently have in my life, I might as well write a book rather than a blog post.  So for today, I am going to cover just three of my mentors.

I will focus on just “virtual” mentors, so that is easier to understand why I chose them, without having to go through my personal relationships with them, as I have formed with some of my other mentors.

As I previously mentioned, you do not need to know someone personally to consider them a mentor.  Many of today’s top leaders have a platform used for sharing their knowledge.  This may consist of blogs, books, newsletters, podcasts, videos, group coaching programs, etc.

By following those people who you feel can add value to your life, you can establish that mentor relationship through these various platforms.  Once you find someone who really resonates with you, and you want to gain a deeper understanding of the knowledge they possess, you can reach out to them and build a more personal relationship through one on one coaching or mastermind experiences.

The three mentors I will discussing today are in the business, personal development, and location independent lifestyle aspects of my life.  They are Mike Dillard, Tony Robbins, and Pat Flynn.

Let’s go through them one at a time.

1) Mike Dillard

The reason I chose Mike Dillard as one of my mentors is for one simple reason:  He knows how to build a massive audience by creating extreme value for his community.  In doing so, he has built a list of customers that are hungry for anything he has to offer.  As my business models shift, and I begin focusing more on creating a location independent lifestyle, it is clear to me that building a good list of customers is the lifeblood of sustainability.

Well, at least that is what I thought before I began following Mike.

It turns out, that building a list of customers is fine if you want to have mediocre results.  If you want to build a true business, one that is able to impact people’s lives, you need to create a list of fans.

Scratch that, you need to create a list of raving fans.

Actually, you need to build a community, a tribe, if you will.

In order to do this you need to bring MASSIVE value to people in order to build a business for yourself that can become your legacy.

I learned this by reading Mike’s book: Magnetic Sponsoring (you can click HERE to learn more about the book, and order a copy.  This is an affiliate link, so even though it won’t cost you any more money, I may earn a small commission from it).

 

From there, I began listening to his podcasts and his messages really resonated with me.  Then I found out Mike Dillard offered a mentorship program.  When I saw the line up of some of the guests who shared their knowledge in the course, I decided to sign up for it.  This program has given me incredible insight, and some very actionable steps I am currently using in various business projects.

You can learn more about Mike Dillard by visiting his website HERE.

2)  Tony Robbins:

When it comes to personal development, Tony Robbins is hard to beat.  I became of fan of Tony by reading his books.  However, it wasn’t until going to a live event called “Unleash The Power Within,” that I became a believer.  During that event, i did a lot of introspection, and began to gain a better understanding of who I am as a person.

Hell, I even walked on fire!

One of the key principles I came away with after the seminar is it only takes a tiny one millimeter shift in thoughts and actions to get incredible results.  Since then I have done my best to implement these small shifts in every aspect of my life.

3) Pat Flynn:

As many of you already know, my top goal in life is to create a location independent lifestyle.

I wrote a post about it awhile back.  You can read the post HERE.

As I began my research on the best way to create this lifestyle, I came across Pat’s website, SMART PASSIVE INCOME.  Pat has created a very lucrative online business for himself.  A lot of what Pat teaches is about creating passive (or mostly passive) income online.  Through his success, he has created multiple streams of income as well.  These include podcasts, books, public speaking, and masterminds, just to name a few.

Pat is very transparent in everything he does.  The one thing that really resonated with me though, is his sincerity.  You can see it by the way he writes his blog.  You can definitely hear it come through in his podcasts.  Not to mention, Pat is very motivating, especially because he shares his income reports on his blog.  This gives you a glimpse of not only what is possible, but it also gives you benchmarks to strive for.  Below is a screenshot of his most recent income report:

 

 

As you can see, Pat Flynn made over $1 MILLION in net profits over the last twelve months!

And yet, he is still one of the most humble human being on the internet.

 

After seeing the reasons behind why I chose these mentors, I am sure you can why having multiple mentors is important.  These are only three of the current mentors in my life.  I am constantly adding new ones, as well as removing those whom the value well has run dry on.

Who are some of your mentors, and why did you choose them?

Why have multiple mentors?

It’s hard enough just having one mentor, let alone multiple mentors, right?

Well, the fact is, having multiple mentors isn’t that difficult, and it can exponentially increase your chances for success.  In this post I want to cover three benefits to having multiple mentors, and I will wrap up by explaining the benefits of having “virtual mentors” as well.

Let’s begin.

1) By Having Multiple Mentors, All Areas Of Your Life Improve:

For most of us, we get hyper focused on one area of our lives.

It doesn’t matter if it is health, wealth, relationships, the list goes on.  The issue with hyper-focusing on just one area, is that the other areas of our lives tend to suffer.  We start to really excel at that one thing, and the rest of our balance is completely out of whack.

By studying different mentors in all the major areas of our lives, we fall into a more balanced state.  The result is every aspect of our lives improves.  This naturally causes the area we were hyper-focused on from the beginning to improve as well.

 

2) By Having Multiple Mentors, You Get To Learn From Their Mistakes:

There are two main ways to grow in every aspect of your life:  1) Make mistakes and learn from them.  2) Study other people’s mistakes and learn how to avoid them.

Personally, I would much rather learn by studying and understanding the mistakes of those with more experience than I have, rather than make the mistake myself.

Why reinvent the wheel?

The benefit here of having more than one mentor, is you get to apply the lessons learned in multiple areas of your life.

Let me give you a clear example:

Years ago, one of my first business mentors taught me the importance of understanding human behavior when it comes to hiring the right person for a particular job.  He explained that he didn’t take the time to truly understand his employees when he was young and first building his business.  His business was growing so quickly, he was just putting bodies in positions, just to keep things moving.  This ultimately led to high turnover.  I saw that I was heading in the same direction, and was able to refocus and regroup my efforts.  Because of this, my employee retention rate was almost double the industry standard.

 

3)  By Having Multiple Mentors, You Get To Tap Into Their Networks:

Let’s face it, the more mentors you have, the greater the likelihood your network will grow.  In order for a mentor-mentee relationship to work, both parties have to see value.  Part of the value you can offer your mentors is by helping them out when they need something that you can do for them.  By doing a good job, and thus, increasing your worth in their eyes, they will grow more comfortable with you.  The more comfortable they are will you, the more likely they are to introduce you to their circles of influence.  As their circles of influence begin to build relationships with you, they will soon mesh into your own circles.

There is a saying that holds a lot of truth:  “The measure of your net worth is equal to your network.”

Keep that in mind as you continue to expand your relationships and the value you bring into other people’s lives.

 

The Benefits Of Virtual Mentors In Your Quest For Having Multiple Mentors:

You see, having multiple mentors doesn’t necessarily mean you must have a personal, one on one relationship with them.  In fact, some of my mentors don’t even know I exist.  These are men and women who are at the top of their field.  They are experts in areas I am seeking to improve in.  By studying them, I am able to learn from the information they put out both to the public, and information reserved for members of their mastermind groups, etc…

I typically follow their free information, sign up for their newsletters, read their books and blog posts.  I listen to their podcasts, go to their seminars, and if I feel the relationship merits taking the next step, I sign up for their coaching.  When I am ready, I am willing to spend the extra money, to get the more personalized knowledge, because I can directly relate that knowledge to my life and improve my performance drastically.

Consequently, you now know about virtual mentors.  Do you see the value in having multiple mentors in your life?

In my next post, I will go through some of the mentors, both live and virtual that I have as part as my advisory board.

 

 

You may be asking yourself, “Should I sign up for Ebates?”

I have been using Ebates for about four months now, and it has been working out great for me.

For the rest of this post I want to go through what exactly Ebates is and how it works.  I will add a few “Ebates buttons” in the post as well.  Once you have read the post (or sooner by clicking HERE), you can click on either of these buttons to sign up for you own free Ebates account.  This will be an affiliate link, in which I will earn a bonus if you sign up.  It won’t cost you anything, and you will be helping me help you 🙂

Let’s get started.

So What Exactly Is Ebates?

Ebates has a very simple business model based around affiliate marketing.  They have set up relationships with over 2000 retailers who are willing to pay Ebates a commission for sending customers (you) to their websites.  Ebates in turn collects those commissions and splits them with you.

It is a win for the retailer, because you are making a purchase on their website (some even offer in store cash back options in case you are shopping via a brick and mortar store).

It is a win for Ebates, because they collect an affiliate commission based on your purchases.

And ultimately, it is a win for you because you get half of the commission they collect in the form of a cash back rebate.

 

 

Should I Sign Up For Ebates?

 

How Does Ebates Work?

Some of you might be wondering just how cumbersome it would be to actually go through the process of shopping through Ebates to get to your cash back.

The best way to describe the process is to offer an example:

Let’s say you wanted to buy shoes for your child.  You are a fan of TOMS, because for every pair of shoes you buy, the company will donate a pair to someone in need.  You login to Ebates and see that TOMS is a retailer who has a relationship with Ebates.

This is great news!

You were going to spend money at TOMS regardless.  Now you can access the website through Ebates, and collect a cash back rebate of 4%.  Sometimes they even offer additional savings, such as this one below:

 

 

For this example, you would get and additional $10 off $100 or $25 off of $250 PLUS 4% cash back.

This is so simple to do it is a no brainer.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t want take the extra step of logging into Ebates and searching for a store every time I want to buy something online.

Apparently I am not alone.  Ebates has partnered with Chrome to form an extension that you can add to your browser.

 

 

By adding the Chrome Extension to your computer, you bypass having to log into Ebates before shopping at your favorite websites.  All you do is type in the website (or search Google for it) name of where you want to shop and you will have the option to click the top right hand corner to apply your Ebates cash back, if that retailer is part of the Ebates program.

Going back to our TOMS example from above, all you would need to do is type in www.toms.com into your browser and you would see this:

 

 

All you would have to do next is click on the red rectangle in the top right hand corner.  You will see it says “Activate 4% Cash Back.” Next, start shopping.  When you check out, any promo code available through Ebates.com will be already applied.

You can then log into your Ebates.com account and see how much you saved.  Here, you can also see when those savings will be made available to you.

Talk about simple!

You are going to shop online anyway, so you might as well earn some cash back for it.  Not to mention, you also get bonus for referring people to Ebates.com once they sign up.

I trust this answers the question: “Should I sign up for Ebates?”

So here is what to do next…

1.  Click this image below and sign up for your own Ebates.com account:

    2.  Send an email, text, snapchat, whatever, to your friends and family so they can join as well.

3.  Put some time aside to respond to all your friends and family. They are going to reach out to you and thank you for being          awesome.

 

 

Can you really learn 3 business lessons from watching the Floyd Mayweather/Conor McGregor fight?

Yes, indeed!

Actually, you can go back to when the rumors of this fight first started, and make a complete case study out of this.

There has been A LOT of hype leading up to this fight.  In fact, at times it became an out-and-out circus, which many believed disrespected the sport itself.

Be that as it may, it has been one of the most talked about sporting events of recent times.

Here are 3 business lessons from the Floyd Mayweather/Conor McGregor fight I have been contemplating:

Business Lesson #1:  You Don’t Get Big Rewards By Staying Inside Your Comfort Zone

It is human nature to want to stay inside your comfort zone.

I get it.

I do it too.

In fact, I am sure both Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather like to stay within their comfort zones as well.  Like I said, it is human nature.  However, if you ONLY stay within your comfort zone, you are not likely to get your unfair share of rewards.

In this fight, both Mayweather and McGregor went well outside their comfort zones.

Floyd Mayweather had been sitting atop the box world as a king of the sport.  He had forty-nine fights in which he went undefeated.  His entire professional career, he never lost.  He hadn’t fought in two years. Floyd Mayweather had gone out on top.  However, he went out at 49-0, missing that benchmark of fifty wins without a single defeat.  He stated the only way he would come out of retirement was to face Conor McGregor, a mixed martial arts beast.

McGregor is twelve years younger, taller, and bigger than Mayweather.  McGregor has a two-inch longer reach, as well.  In fact, the only column in which Mayweather has the advantage is in their net worths…McGregor is worth $22 million and Mayweather is worth $650 million (both estimated through CBS Sports).

Conor McGregor is in his prime, and sits atop the Ultimate Fighting Championship as one of the greatest MMA (mixed martial arts) fighters of all time.  He has won multiple titles.  He has won 17 of his last 18 matches.  McGregor once knocked out an opponent in the first 3.5 seconds of a fight.  He earned $3 million dollars in his most recent MMA fight.  But here is the catch…he did all this in MMA, not boxing.

So why would Conor McGregor agree to a boxing match (not an MMA match) with one of the greatest boxers of all times?

Why would Floyd Mayweather agree to step in the ring with an opponent who has incredible knock out power, is younger, and bigger than he is?

The Big Reward.

For both of these athletes, by stepping out of their comfort zones, they have the opportunity for HUGE rewards.  There is a lot on the line as far as their professional careers, and egos go.  However, both fighters regardless of outcome will know 2 things:

1)  They both overcame extreme odds and have cultivated the spirit of a true champion.

2)  They both will make an incredible payday.

It is estimated that Floyd Mayweather will make at least $100 million for this fight, whether he wins or loses.  McGregor will make at least $30 million, regardless of the outcome.  This is ten times the amount he made on his last fight.

I would call that a pretty damn big reward!

Business Lesson #2:  If You Are Going To Be an Entrepreneur, You Need To Excel At Self Promotion

 

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, there has been a ton of hype around this fight.  A big part of that hype has come from the two competitors themselves.  A lot has changed in the way these fights are promoted, which has changed how much each fighter earns over the past few years.  By taking an entrepreneurial stance, both Mayweather and McGregor were able to negotiate much larger payouts for themselves.  In fact, both fighters actually started their own promotion companies so they could create multiple streams of income from the fight.

Since their paydays for this fight is centered on how many people bought tickets, or purchased the Pay Per View through Showtime, it only makes sense that they would both be doing a hell of a lot of self promotion.

It is bigger than just the payday for this one fight however.

Floyd Mayweather has a huge following of boxing fans.

Conor McGregor has a huge following of MMA fans.

However, just because you are a fan of one sport, doesn’t mean you automatically like the other.  By strategically crossing over the two sports, both fighters have the opportunity to increase their fan base.  By doing so, they create the opportunity for their promotions companies to create footholds in both sports, and thus ensuring they will continue to earn well after they retire from fighting.

Business Lesson #3:  You Have To Believe In Yourself, Even If No One Else Does

Let’s face it…both Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor believed they were the better fighter.  One of them must be wrong (unless the match was called a draw, but that wasn’t the outcome).

They both thought they had what it took to beat the other in the ring.

If Mayweather thought he would lose, he wouldn’t risk coming out of retirement after having never lost a fight.

McGregor on the other hand, would not have talked as much trash as he did if he truly didn’t believe he had what it would take to knock out Mayweather, and come out on top.

On top of that, you have millions of fans on both sides, literally berating the other camp’s fighter.  A brief scroll of any social media site would show the deep seated believe by the fans that “their” fighter was the better option.

Both Mayweather and McGregor were aware of this, of course.  They both had to fight off the uncertainty and self doubt that type of criticism must create.

Ultimately, they both must believe they are the best of the best.  If not, they would have beaten themselves before they even stepped in the ring.

This holds true in business as well.  If you don’t believe in your product, service, company, and ultimately your own skills, you will never make it to the top of your field.  You have to believe that you are capable of greatness, even if no one else does, because that is the only way to prove your naysayers wrong.

These are just 3 of the business lessons from the Floyd Mayweather/Conor McGregor fight that I will be spending some time contemplating.  What other business lessons did you come up with?

I have committed to the 30×90 Challenge.  You may not know what that is, since I just made it up.  The goal is to lose 30 pounds in the next 90 days.

I am not looking at this as a weight loss challenge.

I am looking at this as a lifestyle change.

The reason for this is simple.  I have done many “weight loss challenges” in the past.  Because I am so competitive, I almost always won the challenges, and at the very least, hit my personal goal.

However, I didn’t change my lifestyle.

So….I would eventually gain all the weight back.

And then some.

We all know that yo-yo dieting is not healthy for you.  This is exactly what I have been doing.  The only way to change this is to change my habits around eating and exercise.  And the only way to change my habits is to change my lifestyle.  That is why I chose the 30×90 challenge.  Thirty pounds is the amount of weight I want to lose.  And THIS STUDY shows it takes a person an average of sixty-six days to form a new habit (or break an old one).  I figured I would give myself ninety days, since I am definitely not average 🙂

Hence, the 30×90 Challenge.

I figure there are three things I need to focus on:

Food

Exercise

Mindset

For the rest of this post, I will break down these three categories in more detail, and explain my strides and struggles of each one.

Food:

Some eat food to live.

Me?

I live to eat food.  Food has always been an important part of my life.  I come from an Italian family, and no matter what, food always brings us together.

Stressed out?

No problem, just eat.

Happy?

Great, let’s celebrate with a big meal!

Do you see where the issues are?

However, its more that just eating habits.  It is the type of food I eat as well.  I love my carbs.  I love my sweets.  Carbs and sugar are the killers for me.  I know if I can cut back the carbs and all but eliminate the sugars, that would be 80% of the food battle won.  I am willing to bet I eat 700-1000 calories a day just in junk food.

The Food Plan:

Caloric restriction as a line in the sand will not work for me as a long-term lifestyle change.  I know this because during the past competitions, this is how I dropped most of my weight.  I enjoy the ritual of eating far too much to want to feel like I am taking part of that away from me.  What I need to do is change the types of food that I eat.  Here is a rough outline of what that looks like:

Weeks 1 and 2:

1.  Limit refined carbs to just two meals a day.  I currently have carbs at every meal.
2.  Limit snacks to fruit and nuts.
3.  Eliminate buying pre-packaged junk food.
4.  Add at least one vegetable to every meal.
5.  Start my day with 2 teaspoons of Apple Cider Vinegar.
6.  Drink a minimum of 8 glasses of water per day.

Weeks 3 and 4:

1.  Limit refined carbs to just one meal a day, preferably at breakfast to give me ample time to burn it off.
2.  Cut out desserts that are not homemade.
3.  Experiment with 24 hour fasting to see how I feel about it.
4.  Eliminate any sweetened teas and soft drinks with the exception of tonic as a mixer with alcohol, which I don’t drink much of to begin with).

Weeks 5 and Beyond:

1. Eliminate refined carbs as much as possible (meaning anywhere except if we are at someone else’s house for a meal and there are no other options).
2. Skip desserts unless they are made from scratch and are Paleo based.
3.  If the fasting experiment goes well, incorporate it 2-4 times a month.
4.  Eliminate tonic by using club soda with alcohol or switch to only drinking wine.

Again this is a rough outline which will need to be tweaked from time to time.  Next let’s talk about my second biggest obstacle in the 30×90 challenge, which is exercise.

Exercise:

This is tough one for me, for the exact opposite reason food is.  I hate to exercise!  Well, I need to clarify that statement.  I hate to exercise when it feels like exercise.

The idea of going to the gym kills me.

Go for a run?  Not happening.

I actually don’t mind bodyweight exercises, so I can definitely reincorporate those into my daily routine.

The form of exercise I like the best is combative sports.  I practiced martial arts for most of my late teens and early 20’s and absolutely loved it!  Then work got in the way, and I broke the habit of training regularly.  Recently, I have been looking to get back into martial arts, but wanted to find something that was more practical from a self-defense point of view.  I researched Krav Maga, and felt it would best suit my needs.  I went to a class offered by Adam Scholl of Scholl Security Group, and was instantly hooked!  The class is exactly what I wanted from a martial arts perspective.

So what is the down side?

Good question.  It’s getting back into fighting shape.  Hell, it’s getting back into defending myself shape.  I have put on 30 pounds since I was at my peak physical shape and conditioning (hence the 30×90 challenge).  These classes are great, but 95% of the time is spent on actually working the techniques.  So…

1. I need to create time outside of these classes to do the work that will actually put me in a position to not gas out in a true self-defense situation (and to just get in better physical shape).
2. I need to find the motivation to utilize the time I carve out to get back in fighting shape.

Because of my competitive nature, I want to be good at every technique.  In order to do that, I have to get in better shape.  Period.  So, I think following through on the exercise portion of this should be easier than the food.  Time will tell.

That leaves us with….

Mindset:

Overcoming the mindset that this needs to become a lifestyle change for me is the one aspect that is the least black and white.  I have to figure out why the pain of being overweight and gaining back all the weight lost with other challenges is not as strong as the pleasure of the self-indulgence.  Because, let’s face it, at the end of the day this is what it comes down to…self-indulgence.

I think the best way for me to overcome this is through hyper accountability with a strong group who will not allow me to bullshit them about my results, or lack there of.

I think the second aspect of this is coming up with a plan that will make this feel like a life long competition instead of one with a defined start and end date.  That is my only issue with calling it a 30×90 challenge in the first place.  I think the best thing for me to do here is to have 30 day check ins via this website, to help keep me accountable over the long haul.

If you have any suggestions on the mindset part, I would love to hear them!  Please reach out to me via the “contact” page.

Today I wanted to discuss the top 3 reasons why I chose location independence as my number one goal in life.  Ever since I first started telling my friends and colleagues that my goal was to be location independent, I was met with some resistance.  Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of support as well.  But overall, most people thought I was nuts.

“Why do you not want to put down roots?”

This was a question that kept coming up a lot.  A close second was “Why are you afraid of commitment?”

The fact is wanting to have location independence has nothing to do with fear of commitments or not wanting roots.  There a lot of reasons why I choose to have location independence, but let’s go through my top 3 reasons for choosing it as a goal.

Reason #1 For Choosing Location Independence:

My first reason for choosing to be location independent is the fact that I hate the winter, and I want to live in perpetual warmth.

“So move to Florida,” they tell me.

Not so fast though.

While being in Florida in the winter sounds great, their summer is BRUTAL.  It is nothing but high humidity and 95 degree weather.  That is not the combination I had in mind.  Ultimately, I want to have a home base either at the Jersey Shore, or somewhere in the North East.  This is where the majority of my family and friends live.  Then I can spend 6 months out of the year in a warmer climate.

I don’t want to buy a place in a warmer climate.  I would rather rent short-term so I can try living in many different places around the world.

Which brings me to reason #2…

Reason #2 For Choosing Location Independence:

Ahh, the world.

I want to see all of it.  Experience all of it.

This may be my biggest reason for wanting to choose location independence as my goal in life.  Traveling is one of my biggest passions.  I am not talking about the four-day trip to the Caribbean, although I like those too.

What I am talking about is submersion.

I love staying where the locals live.  It is exhilarating diving into their culture.  I love trying to hack my way through their language.

That is why I am looking forward to spending three to six months per location.  I am not looking to stay in a hotel, but rather rent a home or apartment.  Websites like Airbnb.com and Vrbo.com make this easy to do.

Reason #3 For Choosing Location Independence:

Dollars and cents.

I love America.

I love the freedoms it affords me.

But the reality is, it can be an expensive place to live.  This is especially true if you like to live the good life.  Well, for me, there is no other type of life worth living.  I don’t want to pinch, scrape, and save my entire adult life so that hopefully I make it to “retirement age.”  There, I can continue to watch my pennies so that I don’t outlive my money.

No thanks.

By choosing to be location independent, I can control the type of lifestyle I want to live more easily.

Think about it this way, if the majority of my business interests are online, I can work from anywhere in the world.  Because I am a U.S. citizen, and America is currently where I am basing my operations from, most of my income will be in dollars.  Now, let’s say I spend 6 months of the year in Thailand.  My income is still in dollars, but my cost of living is considerably less.  This means I am able to save more money, which means I can invest more money.  The more money I save and invest, the quicker I can become financially independent.

 

Take a look at this chart I found showing the differences in living expenses between Philadelphia and Phuket:

This is just one city out of thousands that we can look at and choose to live.

So, do you see why I am choosing location independence as my #1 goal?

 

 

 

Since this blog is dedicated to my journey of creating and living an epic life, I figure I would share with you lessons I learn along the way.  Today’s epic life lesson is to Choose To Be The VIP.

So what does being a VIP mean exactly?

And what happens when a VIP upgrade is not an option?

Those are the two questions I plan to answer in this post.

First, a little background on how this topic even came up.  Cindy’s birthday was a month ago, and I needed to figure out a good present for her.  I try not to buy “stuff,” and  prefer to pick experiences.  I know she is a huge fan of music.  Several of the entertainers on her bucket list include, P!NK, Uncle Kracker, and Kid Rock, to name a few.  It turns out all three were touring this year.  Since I wasn’t sure which one to pick, I reached out to Nicole, Cindy’s daughter, for her insight.  Without hesitation, she blurted out “P!NK.”

I guess I had my answer!

Next up was figuring out the logistics.  It turned out P!nk was playing in Atlantic City, which is only an hour drive for us.  Her concert was part of the Live Nation Atlantic City Beach Concert Series.  If you are unfamiliar (as I was), each year Atlantic City puts on a series of concerts right on the beach.  You can listen from the public beach itself for free.  I haven’t ever tried this, but after seeing the set up, I would guess the experience isn’t great.  You also had the option of general admission tickets, or two levels of VIP tickets.

The gap in ticket prices was dramatic.  You could get general admission for less than $30 per ticket, while the high-end VIP of over $450 per tickets.  There are no seats in general admission, so you get to stand on the beach with 40,000 other people in the blistering heat and Atlantic City sun.  With the VIP, you received a parking pass (most lots were charging $20-50), as well as a food buffet, private cash bars, and private restroom facilities.  You were under a tent next to the stage with tables, and couches, plus you were able to go to the roped off front of the stage if you wanted.

Oh, and you didn’t have to wait in line to get into the general admission with 40,000 other people.

Needless to say, I chose the top-tier VIP package, well, because sweaty half-naked strangers isn’t my idea of a good time.

The doors opened at 5:00 PM and we got there right around 5:30.  We were able to waltz right to the front of the line.  Meanwhile, the general admission line was over 8 blocks long.

No thank you!

The show was amazing.  P!NK is an incredible performer, and her finale was spectacular.  We were comfortable during the entire show, less than 20 yards from the stage, and didn’t have to sweat our butts off with a bunch of strangers.

So, let’s discuss the concept of being a VIP.

What Does It Mean To Be a VIP?

While VIP literally stands for Very Important Person, the idea here is not to act like you THINK you’re one, yet still maintain the mindset of one.

In other words, don’t be douchey.

The goal is to create as many opportunities either through purchasing, or (even better) networking your way to obtaining the status anytime you can.  As a VIP, you just get better perks.  Your seating is better.  Your parking is better.  The after parties are better (or may not even be available to you if you aren’t a VIP).  But most of all, your experience, and the experience of anyone who is with you, is just better.

Having the mindset of a VIP is first and foremost.  You must believe and carry yourself as someone who should be treated as a VIP, because, most people with see that confidence, and just assume you are one.  This could mean the difference between getting that last-minute dinner reservation at the hot new restaurant over the person who is told they are all booked.  It could mean getting upgraded to a suite when you book an economy room at a hotel.  First class on your next flight?  It could happen.

The best way to cultivate the mindset of a VIP is two-fold:

1. Believe you deserve to be a VIP.
2. Treat EVERYONE you come across as if they are a VIP.

When A VIP Upgrade Is Not An Option

Sometimes an upgrade to VIP is not possible, no matter how much you are willing to spend, or who you know.

That’s okay.

If your mindset is right, you still can create a VIP experience for yourself and whoever you are with at the moment.  Remember, first and foremost, this status is about your attitude.  This begins with your attitude towards others.  Just because a formal upgrade is not available, doesn’t mean someone won’t go out of their way to make you feel important if you first make them feel important.

I can’t tell you how many times I have gone to a new restaurant, treated the host, the bartenders and the server like they were the most important person in the room.  Because of this, I received free drinks, appetizers, and desserts.  I have had my table moved from inside the restaurant, near the kitchen, to the best table in the house, with amazing waterfront views.  What about hotels?  I have gone to hotels, and have had my parking fee waived by the front desk, because I was extra nice to them.

I am not talking about kissing someone’s ass.

What I am talking about is treating people better than they are used to be treated.

This is the true meaning of being a VIP. and I challenge you to make the effort everyday to upgrade your status in life.

It’s fun.

It’s easy to do.

It will create so many opportunities for you, you will be amazed at the outcome.