One afternoon, just over eight years ago, I woke up from another late binge and faced a shocking realization. I was a drug addict and an alcoholic.
I once had a different addiction – algorithms. In 2004, I was considered a search engine optimization pioneer and had raised over $4 million for a corporate-backed digital marketing firm. This was my third company, and it was going to be “the big one”. As this company imploded in 2011, and with the recognition that my whole life had become unmanageable, it seemed like everything I worked for was incinerated before my eyes.
So if you had told me that day , I'd ultimately be seen as a leading expert on the next mindset shift, or to host one of the world's best personal development events for entrepreneurs, or that I'd build an eight-figure business helping thousands of entrepreneurs create amazing businesses and lives - all in less than three years and alongside the woman I love - I would have asked what you were smoking.
Guess that's why I was asked asked to write this article. I am an unlikely candidate. And maybe you think you are, too.
I want to help you see that building a successful business isn't mysterious. Want to create more impact, more revenue, more joy, and a business and life you love? Turns out there's an algorithm for that too.
Let's be real; entrepreneurship can be very difficult. Everyone can talk about the dream and excitement of business ownership, but few people talk about the dark side. It's often soon after the inspiration to start a business that uncertainty, anxiety, and overwhelm quickly turn our dreams into the greatest source of stress in our lives.
All entrepreneurs do not struggle with drug addiction and alcoholism. Many do. I consider myself one of the lucky ones. My inability to handle the challenges of owning a business and the resulting negative impact on my life was evident. But for many entrepreneurs, the disease is far more cunning, confusing, and powerful.
Procrastination, impostor syndrome, comparing with others, self-sabotage, feelings of financial insecurity, and of loneliness represent a common emotional spectrum for some aspiring entrepreneurs.
Uncertainty will do that. As humans, we are not wired for this. Whenever we engage in an environment with unknowns, our nervous system is wired to lead us to fight or flight. As far as he is concerned, the known equals security. The challenge is that everything you want that you don't yet have — more income, more impact, a thriving business, your soul mate, sitting on Oprah's leather couch sharing your message with the world — everything exists in the unknown.
So how do we reconcile the apparent conflict between our need for certainty and the fact that an extraordinary future exists in the unknown? We create a balance between the two by understanding the fundamentals that underpin every successful business, and being clear on what we should be working on, in the right order, to produce the results we need. With this, we can establish the certainty we need, while operating in the beautiful unknown.
Related: An open letter to the future
It's simple when you understand how it all works. Here are six fundamental guiding principles that shape success in the entrepreneurial journey. If you are experiencing emotional or financial difficulties in your business, you will be able to see what principle needs to be heeded in order to get you back on track in creating a business and a life you love.
Opportunity vs Spiritual Vision
When my digital marketing company imploded, I began to put some distance between me and my addiction. I became obsessed with the idea of personal evolution and consumed everything I could find on personal development, neuroscience, metaphysics, quantum theory, world spiritual traditions, behavioral psychology and human performance . At the time, I never imagined building a multi-million dollar business out of this passion.
As entrepreneurs, we have a knack for seeing opportunity, but not all opportunity is not to us. If you want to achieve extraordinary success, you must eliminate the many “ooh shiny” options out there, burn bridges, and take advantage of a single opportunity you would be willing to die for – your spiritual vision. All great entrepreneurs exponentially accelerated their success when they aligned with the essence of their spiritual vision.
Your spiritual vision is the change you wish to see in the world. It is always directly related to the experiences of your life and draws on your natural gifts and talents. For my wife Carol and me, it is a vision to end all human suffering. For other entrepreneurs we support, it's to create a change in health care or education for young people, or a new form of architecture, or a better way to recycle plastics, or a deep desire to helping struggling businesses generate predictable, high-quality leads. There should be one thing that you are incredibly passionate about. Be willing to dedicate your life to the cause.
Opportunities come and go, but your spiritual vision is non-negotiable. The only way you will be willing to work long hours, overcome constant challenges, and pick yourself up when you get knocked down (which will happen) is to immerse yourself in effort that exceeds opportunity. It's more than just making money. It's bigger than you. I'm not going to wake up one day and be like 'this whole thing of human suffering is just too hard, I think I'm just going to go back to digital marketing. “Find something big. Find something you are passionate about. Find something you care about so much it scares you, and learn how to wrap a business around it so you can create the change you know you're destined to create in the world.
Courtesy of Debbie Lefever
Cash is King:Generate Now Income
Most entrepreneurs suffer from what I call a “finish mentality”. Instead of focusing on activities that generate cash flow, they pursue long-term strategies that have never generated short-term income. The latest get-rich-quick strategies tout podcasts, write books, launch products, build a social media following, funnels, joint ventures, and Facebook ads like magic pills that will make you money while you sleep . For the vast majority of entrepreneurs, they don't and they won't.
I attended a very popular business coaching event where the celebrity host's mantra was "don't barter your time for money” and he sold the idea of multiple recurring revenue streams. I absolutely agree that, in the long run, your goal should be to build a business that generates continuous, consistent, and predictable income that isn't dependent on your time. But do you know how you get there? You start by trading your time for money.
Cash flow is the circulatory system of your business, and if you're not generating revenue, you have a major problem. For most businesses, generate Now Income is not that complicated. You just need to focus on the laser. If you are a coach or consultant, you should find opportunities to teach, train, and share your expertise. You will start by working individually, then you will evolve. If you're selling a product, you need to go to Amazon and start optimizing for search results. Find your starting line and work from there.
I don't have a lot of social media followers, podcast downloads, or YouTube views. What I have is over 400 coaching clients paying me anywhere from $10,000 to $150,000 a year. You need to put aside the ego-based desire to be a well-known thought leader or the idea of making money while you sleep and instead focus on building a consistent flow of customers. and predictable. If you focus on cash flow instead of rewards, and stay in the game long enough, you'll get both.
Become a category of your own
Whatever you do, you can probably start a rock and hit someone who does the same thing. So how do you differentiate yourself in a saturated market?
Differentiation is key. It allows you to stand out from the competition. It allows you to charge a premium rather than compete on price. Your ability to differentiate yourself is what will allow you to build a tribe of raving fans that will give you all sorts of additional competitive advantages (and dramatically increase your customer lifetime value). So how do you do?
Share what you believe.
Most contractors are happy to explain the technical nuances of how they are better than their competitors. But no one cares. Your prospects make decisions based on emotion, not logic. And more than that, your prospects want to know that you believe in something different from everyone else shouting the same messages.
In our programs, we teach cutting-edge methodologies and highly effective business strategies. But it wasn't until I started sharing what I thought the floodgates of new clients opened up.
We believe the current personal development industry is based on a broken model. We think this mindset is about brain change. We believe that no matter what strategies you try, if you don't have the right mindset, you will always fail. We believe that you have to win the game offline before you can win the game online. And we think you should spend 90% of your time in your business doing what you love and what you're good at. I can't tell you how many times we have a sign-up conversation with a prospect who says "I heard what David believed on the webinar and I was like 'finally someone says something I'm with. OK " . »
So what do you think? The sharing that is the foundation for creating a unique positioning in the market or what is also called a blue ocean strategy (from the name of the book of the same title). Too many entrepreneurs focus on their products. If you focus your communications on your product, you will get lost in the red ocean of noise and competition. Focus on what you believe in, and spend the majority of your marketing efforts communicating that to the market, and you'll draw your tribe from the masses.
I'm often asked how we attracted over 800 attendees to our third event (which is virtually unheard of). My response… I shared what I believed. And those who believed the same were the ones who came forward.
Predictability is power
If you don't have predictability, you don't have a business. Most entrepreneurs don't have a predictable way to generate leads, customers, and revenue. This leads to financial insecurity and with it, considerable stress, anxiety and overwhelm. That's why your first objective after generating Now Revenue is about establishing the predictability of your business. This means testing a few strategies, finding one that works, and then repeating that strategy while making improvements and testing even more strategies.
When we started our business, my wife was certified in marketing automation and gave a lecture at the local university. She enrolled two clients in her $2,500 consultation package. The following week, she was invited back to speak to another group of business owners, raised her price to $3,500, and sold three packages. The following week, she gave a talk at the local chamber of commerce and sold another $5,000 in consulting packages. While Carol and I wouldn't have been particularly thrilled to go on a statewide college and chamber of commerce tour, the fact is, we could have, if we had to. We found a strategy that worked and that peace of mind took all our financial fears away. And that's when things really started to change.
We created predictability in our business. For every 12-15 business owners she met, we could generate between $4,000 and $6,000. Was that sexy? Absolutely not. But it was predictable, and predictability is power. As soon as the fear of financial insecurity is gone, you can begin to operate within your business with a much higher level of confidence, creativity, vitality and energy, and everything begins to change.
The primary goal of your business should be to create predictability. Forget your social media following, or your book, or your podcast, at least for now. Find a way to create predictable and consistent cash flow, and eventually you can have it all.
You don't have a lead problem – you have a business problem
At a recent panel, I was asked what we were doing to increase lead costs. I said, "I don't have a problem with increasing lead costs. » Startups can (and should) take it to the next level by generating Now Income and creating predictability. But at some point, if you want to build a scalable business that doesn't depend on you, you have to be able to spend a dollar in the market and earn more than a dollar.
That's called de advertising, and believe it or not, most companies are not able to do that. They think the reason is the high cost of leads.
But the real problem isn't the cost of the lead, it's that their customer lifetime value is too low. Two years ago, it cost me about $500 in advertising to sell a $500 digital program. Over the next 12 months, we would generate an additional $1,000 from program upsells. Today, and as the business has grown, we've designed half a dozen additional programs ranging from $2,000 to $150,000 that produce over $6,000 in upsells for each digital program $500. This means that even if the lead costs twice next year (which they won't have), we still make a big margin on every sale.
Once you have predictability in your business , you'll want to launch additional products and programs that solve our customer's next problem, and in doing so, you'll increase your customer lifetime value (CLTV). Whoever has the most lifetime customers wins the business game. As you increase your CLTV, you will be able to outpace your competition for leads, and this is how you begin to dominate your market.
The brain is a goal-achieving machine
I will keep this last principle, which is by far the most important, short and sweet. Mindset is 90% of success. The thoughts and ideas you have, the way you perceive the world, and the unconscious coincidences you create in your life are all fundamentally aligned with what you believe.
Consider every belief you have as an assumption that your brain is trying to prove. If you think you're not good enough, you'll only notice evidence supporting that theory and ignore anything against it. If you lack clarity and believe you have no idea, your brain will limit your access to additional clarity and ideas. If you believe it's never working for you, you'll be making unconscious decisions in your business so that, in fact, it doesn't.
It's for this reason that the emerging science of evolution personal, and the methodologies that allow you to use your mind to rewire and reorganize your brain and thought processes, are perhaps the most valuable and under-emphasized aspects of entrepreneurship. Personal development is undergoing a massive revolution, and the most successful entrepreneurs are learning to access new mental methodologies to produce radical, seemingly superhuman results. But the majority of entrepreneurs are addicted to finding the “magic pill” strategy, even though strategies are only as good as the operating system of thinking behind them.
A telltale sign that your thought process is not aligned with the results you produce is the amount of stress, anxiety and overwhelm you experience in your business. These emotions are what we call suffering. You can give someone all the tools and strategies they need to succeed in business, but if your thoughts (represented by the neural networks in your brain) aren't in sync with producing those results, you'll unconsciously make decisions and execute in a manner that can only produce failure. This is self-sabotage.
Not good enough? If you say so. Not enough time? Very well then. You will never train? You got it, buddy. Nobody cares what you have to say? Sure thing. Your brain is a goal-achieving machine and until you learn to remove the pattern of negative biases from your mind, it is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve success.
Six basic principles to help you create structure in the inherently uncertain arena of entrepreneurship. Pursue your spiritual vision, generate Now Revenue, differentiate yourself from your competition, establish predictability, increase your customer lifetime value, and align your thinking with the results you actually want to produce. Do it, and you will succeed, not suffer, on your entrepreneurial journey.
