This week’s Misfit Entrepreneurs are Adam and Kerry Anderson. Adam and Kerry are at the forefront of helping with one of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs’ face - how to create a successful relationship with your spouse and family while devoting yourself to and building a business. In fact, their business is called Whole Life Entrepreneurship, because that is what it takes to succeed on all these fronts, a whole life approach.

Adam and Kerry help entrepreneurs and their families work through the side of entrepreneurship and family relationships that most don’t want to talk about or deal with that eventually causes major issues in their lives.

In fact, they started Whole Life Entrepreneurship because they went through major challenges with Adam building his global business and eventually selling it. Everything looked good on the surface, but it really wasn’t. Their journey to regain their relationship and learn to thrive as an entrepreneur family is full of amazing lessons that I can’t wait for them to share with you.

www.WLEMission.com ​​

The journey for Adam and Kerry started when Adam was building an amazing company that he was desperately in love with. And unbeknownst to him, at the end of the day, it was causing a number of ripples across his life that he wasn’t aware of until he and Kerry reached a breaking point. He didn’t realize that he had been a whirlwind of destruction. His years of building the business took him away from the business.

This focus on the business created anger and resentment with Kerry. The business was the sun and the other things, like family, revolved around it. Their marriage began to fall apart. Adam was traveling a lot and they couldn’t work on themselves until Adam had a breaking point and after a few years of working deeply on themselves together, they made their ways through and created the life they really wanted.

What was the darkest point of your journey that you had to overcome and what kept you together through all of this?

• Things were spread out. There was a time Kerry was ready to leave and had a plan (which is a bad sign).
• She had a friend take her to task and call her out. It was jarring to have someone ask her, “Are you sure you don’t have something to do with this?
• Kerry realized that the hateful, bitter person she had become was on her and she needed to do self-work.
• Kerry realized, she may not be able to change Adam, but she could change herself.
• After a couple of years of working on herself.
• Then one night, Adam got a little out of control drinking and Kerry got a call from a cop that told her if she came and got him, he wouldn’t got to jail.
• The fact that she showed up and helped – not scream or get angry, was a turning point for Adam.
• He was a successful entrepreneur and had begun to believe his own hype on his success and thought he was invincible. He was wrong and it was a big reality check.
• They both decided that if there was a problem in the family, that they both start with self-reflection, instead of blaming. They were not going to be victims of each other. When you are the problem – you are the solution.
• They decided to be “All in” together.

What is Whole Life Entrepreneurship?

• A community that is built around encouraging, supporting, and holding people accountable to building a life of success without regrets that is powered by business and directed by the family.
• You are called to make an impact through entrepreneurship, but it cannot be done alone.
• You have to look at how you measure success and make sure you do so holistically in your life.

What are the different challenges that entrepreneur families face?

• It’s almost like a military family.
• You have risky lives.
• You are expected to get up and take action as an entrepreneur and family.
• There is no “base” to live on, you are more alone.
• Entrepreneurial lifestyle for many is “Alone, Stressed, and Scared.”
• You don’t’ have predictability, you have financials strain; entrepreneurship is a high impact, high burnout occupation.
• And many times, everything on the outside looks good, but on the inside you are screaming and that comes home if you are not intention with dealing with it.

What are the things entrepreneurs should be sharing with their family?

• If you are not on the same page with your spouse, it is very difficult to succeed. You have to share the vision and build your business and family goals together.
• Do a standing “Family Business Meeting” every week.
  • Talk about time – sync calendars
  • Talk about money
  • Talk about home, family, the kids
  • Tell each other what you need help with and ask for help

What should the spouse or significant other be sharing with the entrepreneur?

• You need to break down the walls between your roles.
• You have to discuss how to share lives.
• Ask them how you can help them.
• Remember, you as the spouse are responsible for the same things that the entrepreneur is. If they were gone tomorrow, you are on the hook for everything they are. You have have to be an active participant and take responsibility.

At the 23 minute mark, Adam and Kerry talk about the board of directors for Family Inc.

• Adam is the Chief Energy Officer
• Kerry is the Chief Family Officer

What are the 3 C’s?

• Chill: How do you learn to connect with yourself again and love yourself. It’s all about rediscovering yourself and bringing it to your partner so you both can fill each other up.
• Communication: All of the skills necessary to make Chill happen without killing each other.
• Community: How do you get a group together to support you when you get tired and keep you going.

If an entrepreneur wants to implement Whole Life Entrepreneurship, where should they start?

• Check in with your mindset on what you believe and how you are showing up.
• Adam and Kerry have assessments that you can use to see where you are.
• You can join Adam and Kerry’s community
• Kerry has written a great book, In Bed with Business.
• Dip your toe and don’t go full in all at once, take your time.

Kerry, what are a few of the biggest takeaways from your book that could share with us?

• Awareness. You’re lifestyle is unique and you are feeling alone and others can’t relate – you have probably outgrown your current community. You need to get one that reflects where you are now.
• There is a huge iceberg of the entrepreneur’s life under the water. And you don’t see it. There is so much going on to build, create, and maintain a business that most don’t understand unless they do it. Be careful throwing shade on someone if you don’t know what that is lie.

Tell us about A.S.S.

• Alone - Entrepreneur life can be lonely, but it can be just lonely or more for the spouse.
• The isolation is very important to understand and work through.
• Stressed – Make no mistake, entrepreneurship is and can be stressful. If you don’t open yourself up and work through the stress together, it is much higher.
• Scared – Entrepreneurship is a riskier lifestyle and it does have times of fear and scared times.

What is the one thing someone can do today to get on the right path?

• Forgive yourself.
• Then give yourself the permission to take the next steps.

Best Quote: "If you are not on the same page with your spouse, it is very difficult to succeed. You have to share the vision and build your business and family goals together."

Adam and Kerry's Misfit 3:

1:  Adam: Take care of yourself.

1:  Kerry: ​Let it go. Stop blaming. Learn to let it go. You cannot move forward carrying the burden.

2:  Adam: Take care of others. ​

2:  Kerry: ​Look up from what you are doing. Look at how you show up and how you are working with those around you

3:  Adam: Change the world.

3:  Kerry: Be willing to share and be authentically yourself for you person, yourself, your people, and your business.

Show Sponsors:

Blinkist - www.Blinkist.com/Misfit

Smile - www.TextExpander.com/podcast

Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!" In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.

"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at support@misfitentrepreneur.com. We’d love to share it.

This week’s Lesson for Hannah

Hannah, ​ I want to talk to you about 5 very important financial lessons that I wish I learned earlier in life. I’ve done my best and will continue to do my best to teach these and others to you as you grow, but I wanted to put them all in one place for you in this episode.

Your financial education is probably the most important piece of your learning journey. Understanding the language of finance and how taxes, income structures, debt, and how a host of other financial areas work is something that most people never put much time into. This may be because our school system doesn’t really teach these things, unless as an elective or unless you make your career in finance. But, even then, much of the financial education required to thrive in the real world is not taught. There is so much I can share with you about financial education that I could spend months just doing episodes on it. Thankfully, I’ve got years to teach you, but here are 5 very key lessons that are at the heart of what you need to learn.

#1. How You Make Money is Much More Important Than How Much Money You Make

Most people just focus on “making more money” in their lives when, it is never how much you make, but how much you keep that matters. And because most people make their money as employees, there is not much they can do about this because they don’t have any control. A W2 is the highest taxed form of making money. And not only is it the highest taxed, but you must pay the government before you get any of your money.

Let’s contrast that with being an owner of a business and deriving your income from that business. Now, there are a lot of different business structures that differ by country around the world, but as I teach you this, there a few predominant ones for small business owners in the U.S.. These are an LLC, closely held S-Corporation with 1 or 2 owners, and a partnership or limited partnership. These entities all have about the same tax benefits, but from a legal standpoint can be used in different ways. When you are an owner in one of these entities, the tax laws favor you. First, you don’t have to take all your income as a W2 type income. In fact, in the case of the S-corp, you take what is called a reasonable salary as a W2 and then the other income you earn from the profits of the business are taxed differently – effectively almost 15% less.

More importantly, the business allows you to deduct expenses and items that you use for it. So, for example, if you are a W2 and you want to buy a computer for your work at home, you really can’t deduct that, or maybe only a small portion on your taxes. As a business owner, you can deduct the full amount.

On top of that, you get paid first – not the government. For the profits your business earns through the year, you get to utilize that money as you see fit and then at the end of the year, you pay tax on the amount left after investing in and paying for your business. This allows you to have your money work for you instead of being taken every paycheck.

I know this is a very simplistic example of the difference between a W2 vs. deriving income as an owner of a business, and there are actually many other benefits to creating income as a business owner- what I most want you to understand is that it is not how much you make, it’s how you make it that matters. If I make $100,000 from my business, I will take home a lot more than if I make $100,000 as a W2 employee.

#2: The Super Wealthy Make their Money Predominantly Using 3 Mediums: Owning Businesses, Real Estate, Stock Market

Following on our last example, if you study the Forbes 400 wealthiest that is listed each year, you will see they overwhelmingly make their money in either being a business owner, investing in real estate, or investing the stock market. Most do all three to some degree.

As I got into my career, it dawned on me that if that’s how the super wealthy make their money, I might want to pay attention to it. I was already on the path of entrepreneurship, but It was then that I started to study real estate and the stock markets. And what I learned about these areas was shocking. There are so many opportunities and ways to create wealth. In real estate, you can purchase rental real estate, or buy tax lien certificates, invest in developer projects, flip houses, and host of other types of transactions. In the stock market, you don’t just have to buy a stock or mutual fund, you can use options or sell and write option contracts. You can do all kinds of different trades, including my favorite, selling naked puts and credit spreads, which pay you up front for even taking a risk with your money in the market, as well as put the odds of winning in your favor. Buying a stock or mutual fund gives you none of that.

It literally pays to learn about these different areas of finance and business, so learn all you can.

#3: Rental Real Estate Offers the Best Tax Benefits

Owning businesses and investing through tax advantaged business owner specific IRAs gives you some great tax advantages and leverage, but unless you have an army of lawyers to pour through the tax code each year and find every little thing you can do to maximize your wealth, the best tax advantages I’ve found are in rental real estate.

Real estate has incredible advantages as long as you are willing look at things long term and are willing to hold. That doesn’t mean you don’t get a benefit in the short term in creating cashflow from rents, it just means that the biggest benefits come over time. For example, rental real estate allows you to deduct an expense each year called “depreciation.” Basically, what it means is that you can deduct 1/27 of the value of your property each year for 27 years. Now, why does this matter, first, it is an expense you get to take without actually paying money from your pocket. You are essentially taking a deduction for your property getting older each year. This will then act like an expense against your rental income alongside your mortgage (if you have one), taxes, other expenses, etc. And like a business you get paid first and take deductions and expenses before you pay the government. Depreciation is almost like phantom income as it allows you to keep more of your rent tax free. Now, there are rules that when you go to sell a property, depreciation comes back to be taxed as part of your profits, but even then there are things like carryover than can go against it and one of the biggest tax benefits of real estate, the 1031 exchange.

1031 is an area of the tax code that basically says, if you sell a property and take the proceeds and invest them into a new property of greater value, the proceeds or profits can roll into that property tax free. In fact, many investors just keep using the 1031 laws to roll their gains over and over into new and larger properties over time.

Now, why does the government allow this with rental real estate? Because people need a place to live and the government incentivizes investors to help make that a possibility.

Again, these are simplistic examples and there are a ton of other tax advantages to real estate, but these two alone make it one of the best investments out there.

#4: 401k’s Are Not as Good of an Investment as You Think

If you are a W2 employee, you pretty much have no other choice but to invest in a $401k for retirement and when the market is good, then your 401k is good, but have you ever looked at how broker fees and expense ratios eat away at your profits over time? Tony Robbins did a great job exposing this in his book, “Money, Master the Game.” A good read for those wanting to improve their financial education. But, did you know as a business owner, you have a lot more options. You could do what’s called a Solo 401k in which you can choose the investment choices, lowering the fees, and put over $50k per year away tax free? Or you can do a Simple or SEP IRA that allow you to have total control over how you invest and what you invest in including things like real estate or physical gold. And these IRA’s allow you to invest 10’s of thousands as well each year.

What I want you to understand is that when it comes to your retirement, there are much better ways to save and grow your money than a 401k, but you need to be a business owner to use them.

#5: Keep Your Cash Working for You, Otherwise, It’s Basically Worthless

We’ve all heard the phrase “Cash is king,” and while yes, in rough times, cash can be very useful in a number of ways, the realty though, is that if you are not putting your cash to work for you, it is losing its value every day. It’s called time value of money and every day; money is worth less than it was the day before if it is not generating enough to keep up with inflation. In fact, since 1913, the dollar has lost 96% of its value. That’s right one dollar in today’s dollars is worth $.04 priced in 1913’s dollars.

So, if you are stashing a ton of money in the bank at effectively 0% interest, each day it loses some of its value.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hold some cash. I advocate having a “rainy day fund” that you don’t touch unless for emergencies that is at least 6 months’ living expenses, preferably one year if you can do it. But, once you have your rainy-day fund in place, you should look to put your money to work for you.

And you must be diligent about it. I’ve shared a number of concepts in this episode, but each one of them takes knowledge, skill, and good judgment to execute successfully. Just because you have been able to make and save some money, doesn’t mean you can’t lose it. And there are always those out there looking to separate you from your money – so make sure you keep up on your financial education.

Hannah, If I had learned these lessons even one year earlier in my life, they would have made an even bigger difference for me than they already have. It’s important that you commit to your financial education and learn all you can starting as young as possible. The lessons you learn, whether you use them immediately, or at all, will still prove to be invaluable for you and help you throughout your life. And I’ll be there to help you and teach you as your grow.

I love you, ​

Daddy

Best Quote: Most people just focus on “making more money” in their lives, when, it is never how much you make, but how much you keep that matters.

Misfit 3:

1. Your financial education is probably the most important piece of your learning journey.
2. If you study the Forbes 400 wealthiest that is listed each year, you will see they overwhelmingly make their money in either being a business owner, investing in real estate, or investing the stock market.
3. Resolve to financially educate yourself starting today. It literally "pays" to do so.

Show Sponsors:

5 Minute Journal: www.MisfitEntrepreneur.com/Journal

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Mitchell Levy. Mitchell is a global Credibility Expert, TEDx speaker and international best-selling author of over 60 books. He is a serial entrepreneur who has created twenty businesses in Silicon Valley including four publishing companies that have published over 800 books. Mitchell and his teams help clients with positioning, establishing their credibility, marketing themselves, and creating best-selling books.

He’s provided strategic consulting to over one hundred companies and has been chairman of the board of a NASDAQ-listed company.

Needless to say, Mitchell knows a thing or two about how to stand out and share your value in the world. And that is exactly what I’ve asked him to come on the show and teach you how to do.

www.MitchellLevy360.com ​ ​

Mitchell starts by talking about what he does today. He works with busy professionals that want to increase their credibility with a book, but don’t have time. His firm makes you a best-selling author and does everything for your book with you putting in 8-10 hours of work.

Before he got into publishing, he was an e-commerce/business strategist in the Dotcom boom. In fact, he was labeled “Mr. E-commerce” during that time. It was great during the boom and not great when everything went under. Almost overnight, he lost a lot of revenue streams. In the early 2000’s, he saw the democratization of book publishing on the horizon and capitalized on it. His firms published over 800 books from 2005-2017. But he says that he was serving the wrong audience. He wanted to change the world, but was doing it in the wrong way.

He did a Ted Talk and a Kickstarter to fund a company that was not serving people who wanted to write a book, but for people that wanted a book and had great ideas, but didn’t have the time.

During this time, he started to become a thought leader on global credibility. He currently has a initiative to interview over 500 top minds on credibility. The information being gained on this initiative is driving his next decade of business solutions.

What’s your process for finding a market and maximizing how you succeed in it?

• You have to solve a problem.
• Look at what friends you have that can be a credibility, financial, or awareness sponsor for you.
• What friends do you have that you can offer to provide a service for that will solve a problem.
• First, you have to determine if there is a value to the problem that you want to solve. See if someone will pay you, even $1 or a discounted rate.
• Then, ask yourself “Do I want to do this again?” once you’ve solved it.
• If the answer is “no” drop it, if it is “yes,” then start to ask what you can be focused on as the expert and then outsource the rest.
• You may need to do the process once and then document and put a structure in place…but once it is done, you can hand it off and outsource it.

At the 14 min mark, Mitchell and I discuss partnerships…

What is the #1 thing an individual or business can do to cement credibility?

• For individuals – Having a book
• The book that you should have that cements your credibility is the book that demonstrates you are an expert of what you want to do tomorrow.
• You need to write your book for your customer base to solve their main point of pain.
• The title should be the pain point you solve for your customers.
• Being the author of a book that is easy to consume and easy to share is the best way to cement credibility.

What is a book?

• In the old days, it was typically something a multi-year project with the content needed.
• People don’t consume books that way anymore.
• Now people go to Youtube to learn or google things
• A book in today’s age should have 7-8 sections, color on the inside, each section having a summary and a QR code to video on the subject with the author talking about it, etc. It’s an interactive experience.
• It needs to have many “aha” messages that help your credibility.
• A book is a vehicle that shows you have expertise in an area that summarizes the aha moments and messages. It’s an asset.

What is an “Aha” message?

• An aha is that moment of time when you hear something that reinforces something you know or changes your thought process about something.
• It makes you think in a new or different way.

Are there specific sections that every book should have or does it vary by author?

• It does depend.
• It depends on the major themes or messages/problem you are trying to solve, but 8-10 sections should be max.
• You should repurpose your content in different ways throughout the book for people to consume.
• You want to make a book as 3-dimensional as possible.

What has to be done to become a best-seller?

• It’s a multi-pronged approach utilizing all types of media and mediums.
• When you elect to go into the kindle program exclusively to sell your book for 90 days.
• You can give your book away for free for 5 days with this program.
• If you can get 300-400 people to buy your book for free and this can get you onto the best-seller list on Amazon, maybe #1.

What is a CPOP?

• It stands for Customer Point of Pain.
• It’s not selling pain…it’s solving pain.
• It’s 3-5 seconds of you describing the pain point you solve from the viewpoint of your customer.
• It’s different than a value proposition.
• Most people don’t care about what you do, they care about how you can help them.
• It should know who you customers are, how you solve their problem, and your solution.
• Mitchell uses his CPOP as an example
• Thoughtleaderlife.com for examples
• 3 Steps to do it
  • Narrowly define your customer.
  • What is the overarching issue/pain that you solve for them?
  • Say it without leading with “I do this” or “We do that.” ​

At the 44-minute mark, I dig one of Mitchell’s old principles, the HELP principle and we have some fun with him remembering it…

• Healthy Following in the particular market you serve.
• Execute well. If you execute well, people will recommend you.
• Leadership. What are you sharing that helps people know that you are the expert at what you do and driving success?
• Platform. This is where you share your thought-leadership. You should play on the platforms where your prospects are.

At the 47 min mark, Mitchell talks about other patterns/thing he’s learned from the hundreds of interviews on credibility he’s done.

• Show up. And when you show up, come early, be prepared, and show your heart.
• Of his interview 7% come early and 6% show up after the 30 min window for the meeting.
• 98% of people cannot answer their CPOP, even with a 4 min video Mitchell sends prior.
• Show your heart – be open, be honest, be vulnerable. That is how people know, like, and trust you.

Best Quote: "Develop your CPOP - A 3-5 second answer on how you solve your "customer's point of pain."

Mitchell's Misfit 3:

1. Show up when you show up. Come early, be prepared, show your heart.
2. Go through life with 5 sponsors: Financial, Accountability, Content, Awareness, Credibility
3. When you find someone, who is a friend that fits you well, do the work necessary to keep them in your life.

Show Sponsors:

Tunnelbear:  TunnelBear.com/Misfit 

5 Minute Journal: www.MisfitEntrepreneur.com/Journal

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Jay Abraham. Jay needs no introduction as the world’s top marketing and business growth expert and founder of the Abraham Group. Jay has worked with most of the Fortune 500, been featured just about everywhere on TV throughout the world to Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Investor’s Business Daily and he’s helped increase the bottom lines of over 10,000 clients working across a 1000 plus industries.

Jay’s become who he is because he looks at things in a totally different way. He has an uncanny ability to find overlooked opportunities and create significant profits where not else can see them.

Jay has probably forgotten more about how to succeed in growing a business than most of us will ever learn in a lifetime and I’m going to do my best to squeeze every ounce of wisdom I can from him in today’s episode. 

www.Abraham.com ​

Jay got started in an unusual way. He was married at 18, had two children by the time he was 20 which meant he had the needs of a 40 year old in his life. He was fortunate and challenged enough that a bunch of entrepreneurs found him interesting and gave him commission only positions. As Jay says, “When you only eat when you earn, you find out very quickly what works and what doesn’t.”

That experience was his “trial by fire.” He began to jump around from industry to different industry over the next 4 years taking things he had learned in one industry and bringing them to other industries where the strategies were unfamiliar. Jay notes that he was sort of the one-eyed man in the land of the blind. He imported ideas from outside industries and combine them with other ideas to turbocharge results. It wasn’t that Jay was that great, but he had an uncanny ability to bring different strategies together in new and never before-seen ways.

At the 8:30 mark, Jay talks about “best practices” in the context of seeing beyond “best-practices” in your industry to create new ways of generating and growing revenue.

• Studying other industries and what succeeds in them is like when you travel around the world to other countries.
• It opens your eyes to ways of doing things and ideas you never thought of.

What is Pre-Imminence? Why is it so important?

• It is the ultimate strategic philosophy that guides and governs your business.
• It is a way of living.
• It is the foundation on which a business, culture, philosophy is built.
• It is based on premise that you want to be seen in the eyes of your audience as the most trusted adviser they could ever turn to in the category that your business serves – for life.
• You want to be seen as the only viable choice for your solution/service.
• Second to that is being able to provide people with authentic advice in their best interest – not in yours. Sometimes your product or service is not the best fit.
• Your role is not transactional, but transformative. Making clients lives better, safer, happier, more enriched, etc.
• Look at your prospects like clients, not customers. Customer is a someone who buys a commodity. When you approach things for “customers” you commoditize yourself.
• A client is defined as someone who is under the care, well-being, and protection of another.
• Clients are 3 categories:
  • People you transact business with
  • People you employ
  • People who provide products/services to you
• You must strive to examine and explore and understand these people in every way possible so you can serve them in the best way.
• People should be better off every time they interact with you.
• Then it is translated into your foundation.

Patterns of success you’ve seen throughout your career?

• The ability of the entrepreneur to understand and appreciate the dynamic that their target audience is experience.
• The best ones are the ones that have been there and done and suffered through the challenges they set out to solve.
• Intention and attention – external focus is important.
• The ability to listen. To listen to the market. Ask questions and utilize the answers.
• Passion, purpose, and a sense of possibility
  • Passion for the people the product or service will help.
  • The greatest can genuinely rally people together for the purpose and give them the sense of possibility.

Biggest problem with business growth?

• The more success entrepreneurs get, the more distant they become from the initial purpose.
• Money is interesting. We are rewarded in our lives for the quantity, quality, consistency of the problems we solve for others and opportunities we make possible for others.
• When we stop doing that, the rewards diminish.
• The biggest mistake people make is trying to make money first vs. trying to solve problems.
• Value is the key to everything. If you know how to create value, you’ll never truly fail. There will be setbacks, but you’ll win long-term.
• You are playing a long game in life, even if you don’t know it, you are accumulating your whole life. It compounds one way or the other, good or bad.
• If you build something solid, it will serve you for years to come.
• There is much joy in playing the long game, it is much more fulfilling.
• You have to constantly look to make things better, but if it’s built solid with the right intentions, it serve you well.

How can someone use the Socratic method to close more deals and grow their business better?

• If you want to ethically own relationships, you want to ask a lot of questions and listen deeply to the responses. You can then build on every answer
• This build trust
• You’ll understand their needs very well.
• They will feel understood and appreciated.
• Anyone that interacts with those who transact business with you, should practice this method.
• When you ask the right question, you uncover better ways to add value, create more need, and better serve.
• Assumptive thinking is the kiss of death.
• Assessing is the process of question – most salespeople don’t do this. The dialogue should be about adding value, not manipulating.
• By mastering soft skills, you can 3-4x outcomes. It’s geometric.

The first thing Jay does with a new client is look at how a client is performing in all areas of their business because most of the time, they are not optimized in any of the areas.

At the 46 min mark, Jay talks about how to sell better.

It’s best to just listen.

One thing you can do now to grow your business?

• Create a serious, focused referral strategy.
• Referrals are the easiest and best way to grow your business.
• There are hundreds of ways to get referrals – stop and think deeply on how you can do it in your business.
• Doing nothing is much more dangerous than experimentation. You must start trying strategies.

One way to improve your processes is to look at the people doing the work in your business, see how the best is at certain things, and then take what they do and teach it to the others doing the role, the whole group will improve. When you find who is better what, you can take all the best practices, put them together and teach everyone making them better.

At the end of the day, there are 3 ways to grow a business:

• Increase the number of buyers
• Increase the size of the transaction
• Increase the number of transactions

Working on one will make a big difference, but you get geometric increases by improving all 3 together.

Best Quote: When you only eat when you earn, you find out very quickly what works and what doesn’t.

Jay's Misfit 3:

1. Every human being has value. You can’t appreciate the value if you don’t take the time to examine and explore it. How they see life is a denominator in how you impact them.
2. Every time you interact with anyone for any reason in your life, you need to make them better off for interacting with you.
3. Listening is more powerful than talking. And listening can help you learn to grow outside your comfort zone and understand in new ways.

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