Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is the mastermind for business podcast. The podcast that's designed for business owners and professionals in private practice who really feel shackled to their business and want to work out how to have a business and not just a job.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: If you want more time, money, freedom, and have a business that's not reliant on you, then you're in the right place. Each week, Mark Creedon, along with some of the very best business minds in the world, will take you through simple, practical steps you can take to create the business you always wanted. From his own practical experience, Mark will show you how to work less, make more, and get the business you always wanted, the one that you deserve. Now, here's your host, one of Australia's most sought after business coaches, Mark Creedon.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Mark Creed, and welcome to the latest edition of the Mastermind for Business podcast. In this podcast, we're going to look at two things.
We're going to look at what is holding you back in terms of the way you think about things. And then the second thing is we're going to look at what kind of a message are you putting out about your business. What should that message be and how do you make it perfect? Let's get that underway.
All right, so let's, first of all, look at what's, what's holding you back. So about a week or so ago, we spent five days at the Gold coast with Michael Yardney, a whole bunch of experts, Simon Kerstamaker, Brett Warren, Greg Hankinson, a whole bunch of guys talking about Mark Boris, of course, talking about wealth, success, entrepreneurship. But the big thing we spoke about was mindset. And so the challenge that I want to put to you today is what part of your mindset is holding you back?
Right? Let's say that again. What part of your mindset is holding you back? And Michael Gaudeney often refers to this concept of your wealth thermostat.
So if you think about it in terms of a thermostat for heating or cooling, the temperature of the room sits at the level that you set on the thermostat.
And maybe your success sits at the level because that's what you've set on your thermostat.
So as you're listening to this podcast, I want you to just think about this.
Where is my success thermostat set? In other words, what are my expectations around my own success? Where do I think I deserve to be?
Who do I hang out with? Because do I hang out with people who are more successful than me or do I feel intimidated by people were more successful than me? So therefore, do I hang out with people who are maybe less successful than me so that I. So I don't have that level of intimidation?
These are all the factors that lead to your. To your thermostat. I mean, there's a whole bunch of things lead to how your thermostat set, right? It could be the way you were brought up, the people that you associated, the teachings from, your parents and your family at the time. But I want you to stop and think about this.
If your level of success is not where you want it to be, then before we start looking at all of the external factors around the market, discretionary spending, what people will do, you know, consumer confidence, all of those consumer habits, all of those things.
Let's think about you. Let's just turn the vision inward for a minute and think about, do you believe that you deserve a level of success which is beyond where you are? So in last week's episode, we spoke about one of the biggest things that I see holding people back is the concept of comfort. Right? They feel comfortable. Let's not move beyond this. Let's not take a risk.
One of the things that leads to that comfort level is, in fact, this internal thermostat where you sort of got yourself in a position where you go, well, do you know what? I'm actually, I'm okay where I am, because nobody in my family has extended beyond this. My friends, my peer group aren't more successful than this. If you are the most successful in your group or your circle of friends and contacts, then you're in the wrong circle.
You're in the wrong group because what you want to do is find a group of people who want to help you to move to the next level, who want to encourage you, support you, and get you along to the next level. It's one of the things that I love about our mastermind business accelerator group, because everybody in mastermind is at different levels of success. There are different points in their journey. But the important thing is that each and every one of our members is really keen to help the other to achieve the next level, whatever that next level may be for them.
So the concept of this is just a bit of a mindset moment where we can go, well, hang on a second. Where is my thermostat set?
Where is your thermostat set?
Do you believe that you've achieved the maximum that you can achieve?
Is this as good as it gets?
Because if it's not, then step number one is to start looking internally. Why is my thermostat set at this point? What do I need to do differently? And what you need to do differently is start setting yourself some stretch goals, right? If I've achieved this level and I really want to move forward, then I'm going to set myself some stretch goals. Step number one. Step number two is to start looking at who you surround yourself with. Now, I want to be really clear about this. This is not about, you know, moving away from old friends.
This is not about cutting people off, but it is about understanding that, I think Michael, Michael Yudney often says, you know, your network is a sign of your net worth.
So if your network are people who are less successful than you or less wealthy than you, if you think about it, it's a little bit like happiness.
If you associate with people who are less happy than you. And we've all sort of hung around people, for whatever reason, who they are in a negative space at that particular point in time in their life, they tend to drag you down, right? They don't mean to.
And it's the same with your success or your wealth thermostat. So if you are regularly associating with people who are going to never move past your level of success, then what's going to happen is they are going to drag you down to the level that they are at, as opposed to you bringing them up to your level. So the first step is to think about, what are my goals? Because we can talk about this concept of smart goals, right? Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound. That's great.
What's the definition of realistic in that smart acronym?
What goal is realistic?
My parents always used to say that they would hope that I would not aim too high just in case I missed out. Whereas I've always said to my kids, shoot for the stars, and if you don't quite get there, you hit a planet. That's perfectly all right.
So I want you to stop and think for a minute. In your business, how successful are you right now? And how close is that to where you really hoped it would be or where you currently wish it could be?
And if there's a gap, then all we need to do is work out how we're going to fill that gap. And how we fill that gap is by looking at what are our stretch goals? What are the things that we should be aiming toward that are going to get us to that level of success? That's number one. Number two, who are the people around us, whether it's our friends, associates, suppliers, clients, business partners, or even your team. Who are the people around you that are actually going to help you to get to that point? Who are the people that you need to associate with that are going to get you to that level?
And if you feel that you're associating with people who are not going to get you to that level, then your question has to be right, well, where am I going to find them? You know, how am I going to do that? I mean, by obviously find a mastermind group, find a chamber of commerce, find an industry group, find someone where people are more successful than you. You know, the really interesting thing is that when you look at someone who's more successful and you, you ask them to chat with you to give you some help. I'm always amazed at how open those people are to giving you some time. And I've often told the story. Many years ago, I was looking for a mentor, and my wife Caroline said to me, well, you know, if you were looking for a mentor, who would it be? And at the time I said, I'd love to have someone like Bob Ansett from budget rent a car. And she said, well, why don't you just, why don't you ask him? So I tracked Bob down, got him off his website, send him an email saying, hey, I'm looking for a mentor. And he came back to me really quickly and he said, look, mark, thanks for reaching out. I don't mentor people, but here's my home address. If you want to be around here Friday afternoon, come and I'll spend a couple of hours with you. And we sat and talked about a whole bunch of things. And I met with Bob on a number of occasions. And he was incredible, incredibly generous with his time, incredibly generous sharing his stories of success, helping me to navigate what were some of the roadblocks to my own success. And ive done that countless times. And now I find people do it with me. Mark, can we just, can we, can we have a coffee with you and talk to you about the various areas that we might need to improve? So step number one, think about your stretch goals. Step number two, think about the people you're associating with and what you need to do differently. Who else could you start to mix with? Where else could you go? Are there industry associations? Are there mastermind clubs, mastermind groups that you could join? Obviously, you can always have a talk. Talk to me about the Mastermind business accelerator group that we have.
Love to help you be a part of that, but that's not what this podcast is about. This podcast isn't about selling membership into mastermind, much as we'd love to have you as members. This podcast is about actually helping you to build a business and not just have a job, right. So that you can spend more time in your life and less time in your business, more time with those who matter most to you, and really making your dreams come true. What motivates me on a daily basis is knowing that I am helping people to make their dreams come true. That is, at the end of the day, why I do what I do.
So think about it for you and critically examine. Ask yourself, what's holding me back? Have I set my wealth thermostat at such a level that I've achieved my own ceiling and I haven't moved beyond that ceiling, not because I'm not capable, not because I don't have the opportunity, not because I don't have the skills, because I haven't thought about it, because I haven't given myself permission to move to next to that level, because I haven't said to myself, it's okay. It's okay for you to achieve the next level of success.
And then, so I think once you've looked at those couple of steps, right, is to, you know, to map out what those stretch goals are and work out who you should be associating with. And I think the third step, and we probably should do them in reverse order. So I'm going to give it to you at number three. It should actually be number one. And that is to work out why. If you've ever read the Simon Sneck book, start with why. You'll know where I'm coming from here. But the concept here is to go, okay, this is what I want to achieve.
These are the people I need around me to achieve it. But before you step on that, you've got to work out why. Hang on a second. Why do I want to achieve that? And look, we can talk about I want to achieve it to serve. I want to achieve it. You know, sometimes you want to achieve it because you want to make more money.
And it's not money per se, but it's what that money does for you, right? It's the freedom, the options, the choices that you get from having the money. And that is perfectly okay. I listen to other podcasts and read articles all the time. People go, oh, don't. Don't talk it in terms of how much money you want to make. Talk it in terms of what's the contribution you want to make. Back to the world. That's awesome, right? That's awesome. But can I tell you, it's so much easier to make a contribution back to the world when you're making good money, because then you've got freedom on options.
You can create time to volunteer, you can donate money to good organizations, you can free yourself up so you can actually contribute back to your community. And that's perfectly all right. So it's a little bit like, you know, Mark, Boris draws the link between health and wealth. So much easier to be healthy when you're wealthy.
And it's the same thing. You've got to understand what your driving force is. What is your motivator? What makes you want to go out and be more successful? And if the answer is because I want to make more coin, Mark, I want to make more money because with that money, I can do a bunch of things. I can help my family, I can help my favorite charities, I can support my local community. And that's awesome. Don't shy away from it. Wear that as a badge of honor and work out. That is exactly your why. Once you've got that nailed, you've got your why, then you can work out. Right? Well, now I've got my why. Here's my stretch goals. I know why I'm working toward them.
Who am I going to need around me? You're not a rock, you're not an island. You do actually need people around you and supporting you, and that has to be people who are in the same position as you. In other words, people who have the same mindset. That is the number one secret. Think about your wealth thermostat and how your wealth thermostat sits right now. What's it set at?
Have you actually achieved what it's set at? Maybe you've set your own ceiling, and that's why you're at that point. Not because of the market, not because people aren't buying, not because of lack of consumer confidence, not because of the Reserve bank interest rates, not because of any of that, because you've set out to believe that that's exactly where you should be.
Have a think about your wealth thermostat. Follow those really simple processes and see if you can shift the dial on that very point.
Having a chat with one of our mastermind members recently about the concept of messaging. Right, so you're talking about attracting people into your business. So this is attracting people into your business, whether it's clients, whether it's staff, your team, but about attracting the right people into your business. And I think one of the things that contributes to that the most is the concept of making sure that you're delivering the right message. This is not about branding. It's not about logos. It's not about colors. It's not about. This is about messages.
And I think that there are six really simple steps that you need to follow, and you need to get these right in order to fine tune your message. Now, why do you want to fine tune your message? Well, people are going to be attracted, whether it's as team members or clients, customers, they're going to be attracted by who you are and not just what you do. And I think I mentioned in a, in an earlier podcast, Simon Bowen shared this with me over dinner one night, is the concept of, you know, that at the baseline, you've got the mechanics, which is what you do. You've got a model, which is how you do it. But then the pinnacle is the magic, the magic in what you deliver. People are going to be attracted once they understand your magic, but in order to be attracted to that, they have to hear your message.
Taki Moore often says that finding new clients is not about shouting from the hilltops. It's about whispering the right message in the right ear at the right time.
And so if you've identified who your avatar is, who your ideal client is, it's then not a matter about shouting your message out to all of those potential ideal clients. It's about being very, very clear about what your message is and then whispering that message into the right ears. Let's look at what the six steps are. I think the first thing that you want to look at is to ask yourself, what is the reaction that you want your prospects to have when they hear your name or your brand?
What's the reaction? So we've looked at, you know, things like McDonald's. Well, it's fast and convenient. We've looked at things like Uber. It's convenient. We look at something like the Sheraton le Sofitel. It's luxury. So when we see a certain brand or hear a certain name, the message that they're sending has a certain reaction that comes automatically to people when they hear it. So step number one of the, of the six steps is to think about what is the reaction that you want people to have when they hear of you or your brand.
Number two is to come down to the logistics a little bit or the practicalities and think about what are the features and benefits of the service or product that I have, that I provide. What are the main features or benefits. In other words, why me? Why work with me? Why choose my product? Why choose my service?
Step number three is to understand the personality of your business. So certainly part of our mastermind business accelerator. We always talk about, we work hard and play hard. It's about having some fun. We're not corporate. We're not super serious. We're very serious about helping people to grow their business. We're very serious about scaling so people don't have a job anymore, and they've released the shackles of the business that's holding them back, and they now really have a business rather than a job.
But it has to happen in the terms of having some fun, enjoying yourself, spending time with those who matter most to you. And everything we do has that balancing act to it. What is the balancing act in your business? What's the personality of your business?
Does it have one?
Working out what the personality of your business is, is going to make an enormous difference to the message that you put out. Step number four is to have a really clear picture of who you're targeting. Because if you're going to put a message out, you really want to know who's going to be listening to this message.
I often sort of talk about this. No sense having a great message around steaks if your audience are vegetarians.
So what we want to do is make sure that you've got super clear picture on exactly who. Who is this message intended for? And again, let's keep in mind that as we build this message process, we are talking about messages both internally and externally. In other words, messages that will apply to potential team members and then those that will apply to potential clients. So we want to get that balance right, and we want to be really clear on who this is for.
The next thing is, what is the transformation that doing business with you is going to bring to your client?
And that's that. I was saying, nobody goes to Bunnings to buy a quarter inch drill bit. They go to buy the ability to drill a hole on the wall so that they can paint, hang their favorite painting on the wall. So what they're really buying is the ability to hang their favorite painting on the wall. It's not about the hole in the wall or the roll plug or whatever it is that you've used to actually make that happen happen. So the transformation in that situation is painting or floor onto wall. There's the transformation. Ask yourself this, in terms of your business, what's the transformation that comes about for your clients as a direct result of doing business with you. I'm selling lotto tickets. The transformation is the potential to be able to quit my job, be an instant millionaire and never have to work again.
So the concept is what is the transformation? And then 6th step is what is inevitable. In other words, you know what, if you do business with me, I can guarantee you this. People coming to a mastermind program, I can guarantee them that they are going to have a business which is a whole ton load less reliant on them. And I can very easily and comfortably do that.
So quick recap on those six steps. Number one, what's the reaction you want people to have when they hear your name, your business? What is the, what are the features or the benefits of doing? What's your unique selling proposition? Number three, what's the personality of your business? Number four, a very clear and concise picture of who your services or product is actually for.
Number five, what's the transformation?
What is the actual transformation that will come? You know, you could go to somebody, hey, if you, you know, if you come and get this service from me, you're going to look ten years younger. That is the transformation. If you come and work with us, you're going to think that or believe that you have a true business and not just a job. You're not going to be bogged down by it. You're not going to feel like you're in the nine to five grind with every other worker. And because you have your own business, then finally, what's inevitable? What's your guarantee? If you said to somebody, well, okay, what's the inevitability of working with you? The inevitability of working with me is that you are going to have that level of freedom. You are going to see things differently and you're going to have a peer group around you that is going to 100% support you and help you to move to the next level of success, which is back to what we were talking about earlier in this episode, I can guarantee that I will say absolutely, it is inevitable. So the question to ask yourself is what is absolutely inevitable about doing business with you?
Once you got the answer to those six questions, you are now in a position where you can start to build the message that goes out, hey, if you work with us, this is what will happen. This is what we can guarantee. We understand that. This is what you need. This is the transformation.
We're fun or we're serious. We take things serious. Whatever it might be, it doesn't have to be fun.
That's my personality in the business doesn't have to be yours.
But we've got each of those six steps. We know what the reaction is. We've got a clear picture on the features and benefits. We know what our personality is, we know who it's for, and we understand the concept of the transformation that will come and the inevitability of actually doing business with you.
Simple, simple steps that you can implement in your business. These are the sort of things that we teach in our Mastermind Business accelerator program, and I would love to talk to you about how we can help you with your small business or professional practice to actually achieve that. Metropolemastermind.com dot au Dot in the meantime, I wanted to say thank you for joining us. Please, whatever you do, make sure you spend time with those who matter most. This is Mark Creedon saying farewell for now, until next week's episode of the Mastermind for Business podcast.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: Thanks for joining us on the Mastermind for Business podcast. If you're ready to have a business that you're not a slave to, check out Metropolemastermind.com dot au or have a chat with Mark and the team at all the W's. See what's possible today.
