MENTORS Magazine: Issue 3

1. MENTORS Magazine Magazine Interview with Noah St John By A.J. Titus By Dian Griesel By Marty Schultz By Scott Hogle By Neil Ball

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3. MENTORS Magazine Publisher Neil Ball Editor Sally Jones Graphic Designer Tim Swan Ad Designer Joseph Dawson Edition 3 Writers and Contributors Tom Black Garrison Wynn Dian Griesel A.J. Titus Brian Tracy Arvin Patel Dr. Gleb Tsipursky Rob Shelton Scott Hogle Neil Ball Marty Schultz Noah St John Cover Photograph: Courtesy of Brian Tracy You may NOT copy or use any of the articles in this magazine without permission from MENTORS Magazine. The articles in this magazine are teaching and instructing other people about how to develop personally, in business and other things the writers feel is beneficial to developing personally and in different areas of business. Other articles in our magazine are written by companies, authors, and businesses that have something of value to share and they promote their work to our readers. We also share other stories which we feel are valuable resources for people to learn from. MENTORS Magazine is not responsible for the content or claims of any advertising or editorial in this publication. All information is believed to be accurate but is not warranted. The reader should do their own due diligence on any information provided in editorial content and for any advertising claims before taking any further action. The reader is responsible for their own actions. Some of the links in the magazine may be affiliate links and we may receive a payment if you make a purchase using them. Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use. If you would like the magazine to share a blogpost or website please contact editor@MentorsMagazine.com All Rights Reserved © 2019 MENTORS Magazine Contact Information E-Mail: editor@MentorsMagazine.com Website: www.mentorsmagazine.com Facebook: @MentorsMagazine Twitter: @MentorsMagazine MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 3

4. IN THIS ISSUE By Tom Black By Scott Hogle with Brian Tracy & Neil Ball By Garrison Wynn By Arvin Patel By Neil Ball By Dian Griesel By Dr. Gleb Tsipursky By Marty Schultz By Rob Shelton By A.J. Titus With Noah St John & Neil Ball 4 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

5. Contributing Writers A.J. Titus MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 5

6. By Tom Black I have the privilege of knowing some very suc- cessful interesting people. One of my friends, Jess, passed away about 8 years ago, he was 81. One night at dinner, I asked him what he thought his life would be like when he was 75 (his age that night). He told me he al- ways expected great things to happen. Jess grew up in the depression. He told me many days his family only had rice to eat. He worked during high school, college and law school (he went into real estate law when he gradu- ated). He was working his way up the food chain. was going fine until 1981. In 1981, there were too may grapes and he couldn’t sell his. He and his wife, Jane, decided to make their own wine. They decided to name the wine In 1974, he and his wife bought an or- chard in Napa and planted grapes to sell to local wine makers. Everything 6 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

7. for both of their last names, Kendall Jackson. would have gotten a discouraging word. I can just see Martina’s co- workers at the Dairy Queen saying “That’s nice, but we got to make more dip cones.” Yes, when Jess passed away, Forbes magazine said his net worth exceed- ed two billion dollars. Jess also told me he didn’t believe in circumstances. He said he found his cir- cumstances or made them, always with the expectation of something great. There is one thing that no employer, friend or your family can control, that’s your ability to “think big”. You can think as big as you’d like and “You can think as big as you’d like and you can make your expectations come true” you can make your expectations come true. It starts with your own be- lief system. Another friend of mine grew up in the same part of rural Kansas as me. She told me she worked at the Dairy Queen in my hometown (Hutchinson) to pay her way through junior college. I asked her “When you were 18 work- ing in the DQ in Hutchinson, what did you expect your life to be like when you were 35. That’s how old she was when I met her. She said something very similar to Jess, that she had great belief and expectations in her personal success. That woman was Martina McBride. During my entire career, I’ve heard this over and over again, “What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” I believe it! There is a law of the universe that says, “What you ardently believe and act upon, you can achieve.” The operative word in both of these bits of wisdom are be- lief and action. Start today believing in the home run. Where you are to- day has nothing to do with where you can be. As I’ve said before, don’t look in the rearview mirror, you aren’t going that way. I always think if either of these peo- ple would have told their co-workers about their expectations that they MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 7

8. In college, Tom worked for the South- western Company of Nashville, Tennes- see. Southwestern employs thousands of college students each summer to sell books door-to- door. Based on his success in sales (number one for three successive summers), Tom became a sales manager at Southwestern. Tom then joined FISI*Madison Finan- cial and successfully ran the sales organization. Tom grew sales from $2 million to over $350 million. Tom left FISI*Madison to start Private Business, Inc. Under his leadership as CEO, Private Business grew into the country’s leading provider of accounts receivable programs for community banks. Tom served as CEO for six years and took the company public in May of 1999. Tom was the first employee and the only CEO until the company was sold. In January 1999, Tom purchased Tecniflex/Bancsource, Inc. Tom formed a sister company, Imagic Corporation, that develops and supports check-imaging systems to community banks. As CEO, Tom expanded both companies from small regional providers to national sales and service organizations. Imagic grew quickly, merged with OSI and went public. Un- der his leadership, Tecniflex/Bancsource has gone from 27 employees to almost 500 serv- ing 4,000 banks in 49 states. 8 years ago Tom cofounded Ncontracts, now the leading provider of vendor compliance and risk management for financial institutions. Ncontracts serves over 900 financial institu- tions nationwide. More recently, Tom has founded the Tom Black Center for Excellence. The Tom Black Cen- ter for Excellence, a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA), offers customized sales training and coaching services to national clients of all sizes in a wide range of fields. www.tomblack.com Facebook: @Tom.Black.104 LinkedIn: @TheBoxCarMillionaire Twitter: @TomBlackCenter Facebook Page: @TomBlackCenter 8 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

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10. By Garrison Wynn Increasingly, we hear terms like “seller bots,” “cognitive computing” and “relevant metadata” (which one can only assume is a lot more valuable than irrelevant metada- ta). Such terms can sound pretty scary to many people who work in an under- automated environment. Even for those of us who are tech savvy, the idea that human beings found a way to steal their own jobs indicates that it is mankind’s intelligence that may have been artificial all along. plots, bots are simply tools for humans to use to do a better job and provide socially intelligent customer service while increas- ing profits. Bots allow agents to offer per- sonalized service while their electronically animated brethren do menial tasks. Pre- dominantly, research shows that human beings still value connecting with each oth- er, preferring it over any other interaction. That includes the screen-glazed-eyed 19- year-old Generation Z customer who, de- spite his professed love of all things auto- mated, was thrilled to find out that Haley A reality check shows good news Despite their typecast use in many sci-fi 10 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

11. (or Kaylee or Bailey) was a real person when his overly confident trial-and-error trouble-shooting method wasn’t enough. Self-learning algorithms are impressive and can even beat humans in games of logic. Still, to be intelligent is one thing. To live in the reality of the human experience is a different thing entirely. Intelligence that does not feel or have empathy is by its very definition artificial. As phony as some peo- ple can be, they can still have an emotional connection to a motive. An AI mechanism may even perform well on an IQ test; it just would not know why it was taking the test and would not care about the result. Artificial intelligence is an oxymoron It’s right there in the name: it’s artificial in- telligence. After decades of research and billions of dollars poured into that re- search, robots still can- not think. Many people might take exception to that statement, but the fact remains. Being learned, gaining knowledge and apply- ing it at record speed does not mean your AI can turn an angry customer around in 7 minutes. Why should you hope your AI can do it? This customer is getting ready to write the worst review anyone’s ever read on Yelp and tell her 5,000 Facebook friends that your company is “actually” the devil. Yet, why can’t your AI do it? Because an artificial brain does not read emotions or urgency. That’s what makes it artificial. Facebook’s original AI program, touted as able to identify suicidal thoughts, essentially turned out to be a fil- ter for flagging posts that human handlers must then interpret and respond to. Quite often, AI is just a very focused computer program—with some programs (as in this Facebook case) designed with nobler pur- poses than others. “to be intelligent is one thing. To live in the reality of the human experience is a different thing entirely” Keeping and attracting talented people is job 1 I’m not saying that we’ll never have tech- nology that can replicate human intelli- gence and behavior 100%. I’m sure some- one in Florida will invent the first robot to be arrested for a DUI. I’m just saying the return on investment for artificial intelli- gence does not include anything beyond programming, at this point. The future of customer relationship man- agement is still dependent on the acquisi- tion and retention of talented employees. Those who are highly skilled at making the customer feel valuable are themselves the most valuable asset the organization has to offer. MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 11

12. I’ve heard from the latest generation of ge- niuses about accepting the new truth about technology. And I certainly under- stand where they’re coming from because every generation has said the same thing. However, there is no such thing as new truth. The truth can never be invented; it can only be revealed. So, allow me to pull back the curtain. are disrupted when they don’t grow and change, but if you know the value of your people you won’t disrupt yourself! We re- alized that the sci-fi concept of humans be- ing replaced by the technology they create was just that—science fiction. According to many sources (including robotic manufac- tures) it's believed that robots will actually add jobs and improve the lives of existing workers. Since 1990 the number of call centers and call center employees has in- creased well over 400%. So, the profitabil- ity of artificial intelligence is not always a threat to job security. On the contrary, it could be proof that your industry is worth investing in long term because it has a big future. I was corporate leader over call centers in 38 states, back when they became auto- mated with predictive dialers and comput- er screens. There was resistance and some initial job shrinkage and talk of everyone being replaced by robots (though we envi- sioned something that resembled Daft Punk more than Siri). We faced new com- pliance restrictions, regulatory issues and other problems. In truth, the technology made humans better and the industry started to grow. It turns out that industries So, the next time someone tells you that the ROI for AI will cost you your JOB, you can LOL! Garrison Wynn is a nationally known keynote speaker, author, and consultant. He is the CEO and founder of Wynn Solutions, special- izing in how people and organizations can be more influential. www.Garrisonwynn.com Instagram: @KeynoteSpeakerGarrisonWynn LinkedIn:@GarrisonWynn Twitter: @GarrisonWynn Facebook: @GarrisonWynn 12 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

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15. By Dian Griesel They were the slackers. They were dazed and confused. They wore flannel. They lis- tened to Nirvana and epitomized grunge. Generation X, born anywhere from 1965 to 1980, has long been viewed with disdain by cultural critics, dismissed as a “middle child” generation between the more popu- lous Baby Boomers and the ubiquitous Mil- lennials. But in recent years, something momentous has happened to these kids in the middle: Gen X has grown up. In fact, the oldest Gen Xers are now 54 years old. Has the gen- eration that once worshipped Kurt Cobain success- fully transitioned to adulthood at long last? To a large extent, adulthood is just the next challenge that Gen X is managing to mas- ter. And it indubitably has had many hur- dles to overcome. According to Kip- linger.com, the Great Recession impacted the net worth of Gen X more than other generations. But the now middle-aged Gen X is using its ingenuity to come out fine in the end. Here are some of the strengths of Gen X in today’s soci- ety. As more Gen Xers enter their 50s, these are some of the ad- vantages that will see it through, keep it influential as a gen- Gen X is using its ingenuity to come out fine in the end eration, and especially make it a prime tar- get for any business that wants to stay competitive: All signs point to yes. And any entrepre- neurs who expect to thrive in the coming years must pay attention to the needs, wants and dreams of this generation, which is now a major economic force in our society. Looking at who Gen X is—and studying how they are influencing and shaping the world—is a vital task for com- panies selling a wide range of products and services. The health of your bottom line could depend on it. Gen X is running the office. While organi- zations are transforming themselves for the digital era, Gen X is playing a crucial role. According to the 2018 DDI Global Leadership Forecast, they fill the majority of all leadership positions around the world, and since they possess an average of two decades of work experience, they are well prepared to enter the C-suite. Gen MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 15

16. X is also proving itself adept at leadership in ways comparable with leaders of previ- ous generations, including the ability to find and foster fresh talent. trips, summer vacation trips and weekend getaways, while Allianz Global Assistance’s Vacation Confidence Index found that Gen X is more likely to overspend on vacation than other generations. Gen X is planning to stay active. As Gen X looks toward retirement, it is not dreaming of sitting still. In fact, when it comes to life after work, Gen Xers are throwing away old traditions altogeth- er. As noted by AARP, even those members of this generation who plan to remain in the workforce anticipate their em- ployment in their lat- er years will provide them with flexibility, fulfillment, purpose and social interac- tion—as well as physical health. Gen X is spending money on its kids. Ac- cording to the Pew Research Center, a sig- nificant fraction of middle-aged adults (a cohort that now includes Gen X) is bringing up small chil- dren—or serving as the financial support to older chil- Gen X is worth taking extremely seriously by every entrepreneur dren—and the costs associated with this responsibility are steadily increasing. Gen X is spending money on entertain- ment. Gen Xers like to have a good time, if data from the most recent Consumer Ex- penditure Survey released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are accurate: members of this generation are spending more on en- tertainment than any other. Gen X is filling social media feeds. Not on- ly are Gen Xersenthusiastic about technol- ogy and gaming; they also utilize social me- dia at a rate that surpasses that of other generations, according to research by Niel- sen, which calls Gen X “the most connect- ed generation.” Gen X was also reported to be more likely than millennials to devote more time to using smartphones, comput- ers and tablets. For all of these reasons, it should be clear that Gen X is worth taking extremely seri- ously by every entrepreneur targeting the worlds of business, technology, travel, fam- ily and leisure. If the facts above haven’t convinced current and aspiring entrepre- neurs of this fact...it is probable that noth- ing will. Gen X is traveling the world. Gen X has put on its traveling shoes, and loves to traverse the globe both alone and with friends and family in tow. In an AARP survey on travel trends, Gen X led Millennials and Baby Boomers in number of multigenerational Another obvious strength of Gen X is its 16 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

17. recognition of itself as a growing force within society. I’ve witnessed this self- awareness firsthand. As the founder of the Silver Disobedience® movement, my blog has long invited comments from those ag- es 48-plus about life, love, family and more. It is clear to me that the youngest of my fellow “Silver Disobedients”—who hap- pen fall into the Gen X category—are every bit as cognizant of their own potential as their own children, parents and grandpar- ents are. In short, any company in 2019 that writes off Gen X as a bunch of slackers is trading on a bogus stereotype that is at least 25 years out of date. This is a demographic worth paying attention to—a powerful group of adults who are now changing the world as completely as any of those that came before them. The last thing any busi- ness should be saying about them is, “oh well, whatever, nevermind.” Dian Griesel is a perception analyst, social influencer, businesswoman, bestselling author and a model who has appeared in many national brand campaigns. She and her family live in New York City. Business Website: www.silverdisobedience.rocks Facebook: @SilverDisobedience Instagram: @SilverDisobedience Facebook: @SilverDisobedience Pinterest: @SilverDisobedience LinkedIN: @DianGriesel Instagram: @DianGriesel Twitter: @DianGriesel Facebook: @DianGriesel/ MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 17

18. By A.J. Titus For many, a family business is the epitome of the American Dream. To follow in the footsteps of your father and his father and continue the family legacy is the ultimate dream. While there are no secrets to a thriving family business, every business has a unique recipe for success. The Titus fami- ly Is no exception. If you ask my father and CEO, Ray Titus, just how it happened, he’ll tell you the real competitive advantage is -- and always has been -- family. As the third-generation brand President for the family-owned sign franchise, I’ve learned everything about succeeding in business from my family. That’s because 18 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

19. the same mindset that builds strong family work environments also empowers busi- nesses to achieve more together. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Cen- sus, about 90 percent of American busi- nesses are family-owned or controlled. So, with all the benefits of a family business, why aren’t more of them winning in their industries? I believe it has a lot to do with maximizing relationships –and while it’s vital in family businesses, it goes a long way towards achieving success in any business model. That brings me to our five keys to success: 1. Recognize the ad- vantages of family own- ership. One of the most attrac- tive benefits in a family-owned business is fast, agile, nimble decision making. The era of digital transformation is here. Quicker decisions must be made whether it’s lever- aging data, closing the gap with customers, or something else. Now, more than ever, businesses must make decisions, as my fa- ther would say, in a New York minute. It is more than a trend; there’s plenty of re- search to support an action-oriented busi- ness model. In a review of traits linked to organizational health, McKinsey research- ers found that businesses scoring high for agility also ranked within the top quartile of overall business health. For their pur- poses, agile companies were those who could successfully combine speed and sta- bility without sacrificing quality. The Har- vard Business Review also reported that decision-making windows are shrinking, and managers must continually produce results in less time. Speed: In family-owned businesses, deci- sions are often made immediately –with- out lengthy approvals or formal votes. The speed of change either moves companies forward or holds them back. For us, our family is inherently a team that wants to get things done –we have al- ways embraced change and growth as being fundamen- tal to our core values. Stability: Many companies struggle with balancing cur- rent gains against business longevity. In a family busi- ness, stability is not in question when words like legacy and heritage are used daily. It simplifies decision making by es- tablishing a preferred approach. For over 30 years, our company has thrived, and we make decisions that let us continue that story. Along the way, our leadership has experienced longevity within the industry – allowing keen insight into this now-passing fad in the business world, and what is truly a shift in the way business happens. That kind of expertise is invaluable. Commitment: With a family business, there is a greater sense of commitment and accountability. Younger generations “about 90 percent of American businesses are family-owned or controlled” MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 19

20. are expected to buckle down and grow what they’ve inherited. Unlike some re- sumés that are built by strategically jump- ing from one career to the next, those in- volved with a family business must find a way to make things work. Vision: Nothing is as gratifying as everyone being on the same page and pulling in the same direction. A legacy of shared values and vi- sion, coupled with long- term commitment, is what transforms those involved in a family busi- ness to not simply look at their own success, but to also become stewards for future gen- erations. 2. Treat family members equally. Seniority doesn’t win; skill and hard work does. Sometimes the big win will come from one team member. Other times it will come from someone else. Don’t limit peo- ple’s ability to make a positive impact simply because of age or time with the company. 3. Empower the next generation. It is human nature to be resistant to change. It takes practice to be able to rec- ognize change and evaluate its opportuni- ties and drawbacks. That means you have to allow change while remembering your roots, your core values, and key business principles. If you don’t let change in, pro- gress will never happen. 4. Innovate There is no overstating how necessary it has become for businesses to break away from the clutter. That takes people who think creatively to offer a fresh perspective on new ideas. Cultivate a business dynamic that welcomes innovation… and the people who in- spire it. 5. Business is business, family is family. Conflict happens in business. You won’t al- ways see eye-to-eye with everyone. That’s no reason to ever make it personal (or take it personally for that matter). Whether it’s an actual family member or a valued team member, don’t let business dealings -- no matter how frustrating -- become a source of difficulty or resentment outside the business. Family businesses aren’t always easy, but they are most definitely worth it. Appreci- ate the value each person brings to the ta- ble, encourage their contributions, and you’ll see a business that has what it takes to be a leader. “Family businesses aren’t always easy, but they are most definitely worth it” 20 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

21. Signarama President A.J. Titus leads the world’s top sign and graphics franchise. Signarama is a member of United Franchise Group (UFG), comprised of 9 brands and 1,600 franchise owners in 80 countries. A.J. sits on multiple boards, including the Rinker School of Business and the Titus Center for Franchis- ing. A.J. is passionate about driving change in the business world. He was also recognized in South Flor- ida Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” in 2018. Business Website Domain Name: www.signarama.com Facebook Page: @Signarama Twitter Profile ID:@Signarama Pinterest:@Signarama LinkedIn Page:@Sign-a-rama YouTube:@signarama Instagram: @Signarama MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 21

22. Brian Tracy 22 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

23. With Brian Tracy, Interview by Neil Ball Neil: Brian thank you so much for agreeing to this interview today. Brian Tracy: It’s a pleasure, I am very, very happy to be with you Neil. We almost got together last year, and now we have. I am glad we have got together as well; it truly is an honour. Neil: Brian, we are going to be talking about business model re-invention. Can you explain what business model re- invention is? Brian Tracy: Well that’s a great question, and I stumbled across this about five years ago, and I fell in love with the subject be- cause some of the smartest people in the world at the top universities and the big- gest consulting firms are now focusing on this. And basically, your business model is your profit model. So, there is an equal sign between business model = profit mod- el. So, it is how you earn profits in your business, it’s the various things that you do or don't do, that generate profits that de- termine whether you are successful or not. One of the reasons I am very happy to be with you is because you and I have an iden- tical commitment to helping our clients earn more money, to be more successful in their businesses. And sometimes, if you just make one small mistake in your busi- ness; you are driving down the road of life and you take one wrong turn, it can cause your business to fail. And an enormous number of people are struggling. You know the 80/20 rule is applicable eve- rywhere, in that 80% of the profits in any business are earned by 20% of the people. Now I was playing around with a calculator just the other day and I calculated, what would that difference be? And the answer was shocking, is that people in the top 20% are earning on average 16 times the aver- age of the people in the bottom 80% in the same industry, selling the same products and services to the same people under the same competitive conditions. Now that is phenomenal, to think that one person... and there is very little difference in intelli- gence or ability or background or anything else... there is a lot of smart well-educated people who were struggling, and there's a lot of people who just started a business MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 23

24. because they had no other ideas, who are doing well. And the wonderful thing is, these make 16 times... imagine what difference it would make in your life, if you were earning 16 times what you are earning today? And so, I started to really deep dive in to business model reinvention, and I took the recipe and I pulled the parts apart and I found that there is a series of things that you need to question. And one of the things that really affected me when I was a young man, is always be open to the possibility that you could be wrong. Always be open to the possibility that you could be wrong. Because its falling in love with being right, that causes people to fail. Harvard Magazine interviewed the 500 CEO's of the top companies in a major, ma- jor annual business model innovation study for their companies, they found that 80% of company owners, presidents, the CEO's of the biggest companies in the world, ad- mit that their business model is obsolete. But they say, 'why don't you change it?' And they say, 'well I don't know how, and I don't want to create something worse; out of the pan, in to the fire.' And so, what if your business model is not working, what are you going to do? He said, 'well I am go- ing to retire fairly soon'. And they said this over and over again, in interviewing the CEO's. They said, 'well I will pass it on to the next person, my successor can take care of the business model.' Well the fact is that if you are going to have a long run at your job or your company, if you own your own company, you have to take care of it yourself. So that is the starting point, and there is several ingredi- ents. I do two seminars by the way; one seminar is called Business model innovation - the two-day version...or business model re- invention; and then I have a one-day ver- sion. The one-day version has seven parts to the business model and the two-day ver- sion has ten parts. And what I do is I ex- plain, almost like an accordion spreading out. And so, the starting point... let me just step back. When I speak to an audience, and I speak to a 100 audiences a year, all over the world, the first question I ask, is I say, 'why do you get up in the morning and go to work?' Just a sort of a fun question, 'why do you get up in the morning and go to work?' And the audience is usually si- lenced. They sort of smile and look at each other, and they mumble. And I say, 'well, I will tell you the answer, the answer is you get up in the morning and go to work, so that you can make more money.' You want to make more money, you don't want to make the same amount of money, and you don't want to make less money, you want to make more money. Is that correct? And everybody smiles and agrees and nods their head 'yep that's it.' So, we are all on the same page. And so, I said, 'now, when you get your work, there you are at work, there you are in your busi- ness, how do you make more money? What is the key? How do you make mon- 24 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

25. ey?' So, we say, you ‘Make More Money’ it's MMM. So how do you MMM? And I have almost finished a book on the subject, called ‘Make More Money’... and its MMM. So how do you make more money? Well you SMS. Well what is SMS? It's Sell More Stuff. You sell more stuff. And so therefore the key to your success, is to MMM by SMS-ing. And that’s what we are going to talk about today, is how can you sell more stuff? That’s how can you sell it faster and easier and at higher prices, and create more repeat business for more people and so on? And so that’s how we begin, and the seminar starts off and I say that there is several ingredients in a business model. The first one, and if you are wrong by the way, in any one of these models, it can sink your business. It can cause you to struggle and frustration, to worry about money all the time, to lose money, to psychologically be depressed or angry or frustrated and so on. All you have to do is be out one... and there is 55 business models that they have discovered. And I have studied them all, there is 55 different ways that a business can be organised to generate profits. Which means there is a very good likeli- hood that the model that you are using is not the correct model for you. And what happens is, people start a busi- ness and they adopt a business model, sort of accidently, they back in to it. They do what someone else was doing, when they started it. They just duplicate other people, they copy, they read an article in a maga- zine or a book or go to a course, and they say that’s a good idea, and they apply that. Imagine if there are 55 different models, you could very likely be using the wrong business model for your business today. And the way you can tell, is we talked a little bit offline is that your sales are unpre- dictable. If you have a good business model, your sales and profitability go up. Steady, steady, steady. If you're business model is wrong, your sales will fluctuate, good one month, bad another month. Up down, up down, up down, sort of like a Ferris wheel. Or your sales could be flat, or your sales could be declining. In any of those cases, the last three, your sales are fluctuating, are flat or declining, it could be that your business model is not well. Now if you are ill, if you are in pain, if you are sick, what you do is you say, 'this is not normal, I am going to go to my doctor and get a check-up.' And it’s very interesting how many people put off getting a check- up, and they put off getting a check-up, un- til it’s too late to get a check-up. And then they die. And this happens with companies as well, is they are frustrated and they are fighting with their sales and their staff and their customers and their profitability and they are borrowing money and so on. And they do not realise that maybe there is a problem here. And what you have to do is stop the clocks, wait, wait, wait, let’s take a look at this. “the key to your success, is to MMM by SMS-ing” MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 25

26. So, what I do is I start off with what I call the golden triangle of success in business. Which is very simple... and by the way, I am a professional seminar leader and speaker and I charge a lot for what I do. And my cli- ents are universally very happy. I am not bragging, I am just saying that the stuff that I teach them is so helpful to them, that they just beam afterwards. And I get letters and emails saying that basically these ideas opened their eyes, changed their lives, transformed their businesses. Wonderful stories, I mean it’s great, ence. So anyway, here is the golden triangle, the gold- en triangle is 'what do you sell?' 'Who do you sell it to?' and 'How do you sell it to that particular cus- tomer?' And the WHAT is really important because what we find is nobody buys a product, what people buy is they buy a transfor- mation or a change in their life of some kind. They buy a 'getting from A to get to B'. I was working with IBM... I worked with IBM more than 30 times over the years. And they have a way of calculating price and value. They say 'here is the product, and here is the amount that you charge.' Well the more value there is in your prod- uct, the more positive the difference your product can make in their life, the more they are willing to pay. So, the price is completely subjective, it’s not relevant to anything else... people pay, the biggest companies pay based on how much of a return they feel that they are go- ing to get. And so therefore, you say, 'alright, what is your product?' well your product is a transformation or a transition to get from Point A to Point B. So, the question you really ask, is 'what difference does your product make in your customer's life?' What difference does your product make in your customer's life? And one of the examples I use is the Ein- stein model. And Einstein said that if you can't ex- plain something in your life, your goals or your products to a six-year old child and have the 6-year old child understand so clearly that they can turn to another six-year old child and tell them what your product is and why people should buy it, well that means you do not know it yourself. So, the question is, imagine you have a 6- year old child and the 6-year old child says, 'what do you do?' and you say, 'well I sell this product.' And I said, 'well what does the product do? Why would people want to buy it? What change does it make in that person's life?' And that is really the es- sence of great business. It’s your job and my job by the way is to help people, to improve their life at work in some way. We help people with infor- mation and ideas that are simple, practical, easy-to-use, and virtually guarantee the great experi- “nobody buys a product, what people buy is they buy a transformation or a change in their life of some kind” 26 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

27. success because so many people have al- ready used these ideas. That’s what we do. So, if someone says, 'what do you do?' You say, 'oh I help companies dramatically in- crease their sales and their profitability.' That’s it. That’s basically your business model. And everything that you do is look- ing for ways or people like me who can give ideas that will help business owners in- crease their sales and profitability. SMS so that they can MMM. Really simple. So, one of the things that I will do, is I will say, 'do you agree with that?' and every- body always agrees. I have a wonderful rapport with my audience, I say, 'now so the only time you are working, is when?' Well the only time you are working is when you are SMS-ing. If you are not talking to a prospect, or a customer and looking for ways to help them with your product or service, if you are not selling... and I say in selling, there is also a golden triangle. And its prospecting, presenting, and closing. Its finding new people to talk to, it’s telling them about your product or service and how it can help them improve the quality of their life or work, and them asking them to take action to buy from you. So therefore, the only time you are work- ing is when you are SMS-ing, and the only time you are SMS-ing, is when you're pro- specting, presenting and closing. If you are not doing that, if you are in the office or you are talking to your friends, if you are going for a coffee or tea or whatever it happens to be, then you are not working and you might as well go home and pull the covers up over your head, and go back to sleep. Because, you are of no use to any- body. And when I say that, everybody laughs because it is funny, because people easily get in to the habit of going to work and chatting with their friends. And as much as 50% of working time today is wasted, and the biggest reason for time wastage is idle chit chat with your co- workers. And then of course there is coffee and checking your emails and there is reading the newspaper and going out for lunch and starting late and leaving early and so on. So, I talk about business separately in terms of personal productivity, but the fact is that when you start work, there is a very simple solution to all of your problems and it is to work all the time you work. Work all the time you work. When you go to work, work. Go a little bit earlier, work a little bit harder, stay a little bit later and work all the time you work. Don't chit chat with your friends, don't dawdle over lunch or tea or something like that... is just work. And the only time you are working is when you are face-to-face with customers. So therefore, start off with what is the differ- ence and who can most benefit from the change that I could bring about with this customer, with my product or service? Who is the customer? And then I go through a demographic analysis. What is their age? What is their income? What is their occupation? What is their education? What is their family style? What is their family information and so on? So that we look at all these things and we say alright, MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 27

28. who exactly is our customer? Who? And then the second question is, what does the customer think about with all the demographic and the psychographic? Is what is going on inside the customers' mind that would motivate them to buy your product or service? What is it that they want and need? What is it they fear and hope for? What is it they are dreaming for? What are their goals? So, you have those two graphics if you like, de- mographics and psycho- graphics. And you have to be really accurate, because if you are not, you will be trying to sell two people who are not the type of people who will buy your product or service. So, you have to be extremely accurate. And you will find that the very best compa- nies, spend millions... and I think the num- ber this year is about $20 billion dollars, just on customer research. Just analysing who exactly are our customers and why would they buy? Why would they buy? And if they are buying now, why are they buying now? And if they are not buying, why aren't they buying? And how can I change my offerings so that they are far-more attractive so that more people will buy them faster and easier? So that's my starting point. So, the first of the golden triangle is who? who? sometimes I will ask, I will say what does the owl say in the deep woods? And everybody in the audience smiles and say 'who? Who, who, who?' And I say... the worst thing you can do is to spend too much of your time speaking to people who are not good prospects for you. They have not bought your products in the past and they won’t buy it in the future. So, it’s very important, you shouldn't spend... I read one study recently, you shouldn't spend more than 17 minutes with a pro- spect to know whether or not this person can and will buy and pay in a reasonable period of time. If you are taking longer than that... if you are going back over and over, if you are sending them messages and going out for lunch and tea and so on, and so forth. No, you should know al- most immediately. It’s sort of like, going to the doctor, if you have a pain, you go to a doctor. You don't want to go back and visit the doctor, over and over, and come back next week and go for tea and have a chat and so on and so forth. You want immediate attention to your problem. So, you are looking for people who have a need, that is an immediate need, they want it now, they want the product or ser- vice now. As a matter of fact, they want it so much that they don't even ask you the price, because they want that benefit that you are offering. “you shouldn't spend more than 17 minutes with a prospect to know whether or not this person can and will buy and pay in a reasonable period of time.” 28 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

29. Anyway, let me just throw it back to you, have you got any comments? Neil: Is business model reinvention some- thing that you do all of the time, or is it something that you do some of the time? Brian Tracy: Yes, its continuous. As a matter of fact, I have created as I told you, a one and two-day programme. But I also have a one and two-day programme on personal model reinvention; is each person has to be continually reinventing themselves, based on the changes that are taking place in the world around them. You get married, you have a child, you start a business, you introduce a new product or service, in every one of these cases, you need to make a massive shift in your busi- ness model. Because it’s going to require different things that you need to do in different proportions, and in different ways in order to be successful, in order to be happy. So yes, it’s an ongoing never-ending pro- cess is to find a way to SMS so you can MMM. And the question is, how are you doing? How is it going for you? And it’s a wonderful question because you can tell if you have a good business model, because you are selling all you want, you are mak- ing more money than you ever dreamed possible. And if you are not, well then what we do is, we organise it, sit down and we look at it. Number one, it’s always WHO? Forbes Magazine had a study last year and they said, that 80% of the reason why com- panies fail is because people simply do not want their product. They just don't want the product. They may have wanted it in the past, but now what they want is differ- ent from what you are offering. And if that's the case, you can advertise and you can re-package and you can aggressively sell and market and everything else. It's not going to do a darn bit of good, if cus- tomers do not want the product. So that means customers don't want the change that your product or service will bring about in their lives and their work. The second part of the golden triangle is WHO? So, start with WHAT? WHAT is your product? And then WHO? WHO is your customer? And you go through all of the details. Who is the customer? who is the person who is most likely to buy from me the fastest? And you spend all of your time focused on your very best potential cus- tomers. And the third part of the triangle is HOW. HOW do you market? HOW do you sell? HOW do advertise? HOW do you promote? HOW do you find the very best customers for you? HOW do you approach them? HOW do you speak to them? HOW do you talk to them? And HOW do you get them to make a buying decision? When I started my career many years ago, I was speaking on personal success/ person- al development and more and more of my clients would say, 'this programme is a wonderful programme but do you have an- ything on sales? On sales success?' So, I sat MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 29

30. down and I designed a programme called the “Psychology of Selling”. It’s how you think as a sales person, and what you do as a sales person, and it became the best- selling sales programme in history of the world. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies; it was wonderful when you are sell- ing products on a royalty basis. It was very, very good, and people literally went from rags to riches. Some compa- nies bought a 1000 sets. It was a 6-hour, 6 and a half hour, 7 hour programme on selling. And what they learned was that you could have the best product or service in the world, but if you can't sell it, if you do not know how to prospect, present, and close the sale, if you do not know how to answer objections and to get your customers to buy, and buy again, and bring their friends to buy as well, well then your product will just sit on the shelf. And so, those are the big three. WHAT is it that you sell? WHAT is the product? In terms of how it changes the customers life. And WHO is the customer for whom this change is more important; far more im- portant than the price? It's interesting if you connect your products with what it does to the customers' needs the customer does not ask how much is it? The customer only asks how soon can I get it? And because the customer knows... sur- prisingly the customer knows that you are a good person and whatever you charge, it’s probably a reasonable price. And I am interested in the price because I am need to know what to write down on the cheque, but it’s not the determining factor. And I am not going to buy it or not buy it because of its small difference in the cost. What I want is the benefit, and in many cases, people will pay any price for the benefit. Imagine you have an ail- ment of some kind, and your doctor recommends a prescription, you don't say 'how much does it cost? Can I get it cheaper somewhere else?' with regard to a pill or a pharmaceutical, no, it’s HOW soon can I get it so that I can start getting the benefits. And then you rush and the first thing you do when you leave the doctors' office, if you have a prescription, is you go straight to the nearest drug store, and get the prescription filled and take it. In other words, you are not concerned about petty details. If you go and start say- ing, HOW much is it, it costs too much, I can get it cheaper somewhere else, I can get it cheaper from your competitors, what they are basically saying is, that I am not convinced that its really that good an idea for me. And so, selling is so important. And when I began to learn how to sell and then to teach HOW to sell, I was able to change the lives of probably millions of sales people all over the world. And that programme has also been translated in to about 30 /35 lan- “if you connect your products with what it does to the customers' needs the customer does not ask how much is it?” 30 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

31. guages; psychology of selling. And then I produced a programme called 'The Art of Closing the Sale' all of these are available on AMAZON by the way. And the art of closing the sale is just HOW do you ask the person to make a decision? It’s not high pressure, it’s very friendly, and it’s just asking the customer 'if you like what I've shown you so far, when would you like to get started? How soon would you like to get started?’ And it’s a series of ways of very gently and very professionally asking the customer to make a decision so that he or she can begin enjoying the benefits of your product or service. And so, it’s a great problem in selling, not only in the UK but everywhere. The sales people are so afraid of selling, they are so afraid of rejection, they are so afraid that the person would say 'NO, I don't want it or something else.' And so, they freeze up. And when I teach people how to do... is how to design the presentations, so that the closing is a normal and natural part of the process. And it just flows together at the end. And people actually increase their sales, and they double them within a week, they increase them five or ten times within a year, especially if they are learning how to sell properly. In fact, I have a good friend who is from London who got my book, it’s called 'Advanced Selling Strategies' and he bought it and he was selling on the street, Door-to-Door in London, and he fell in love with the book. Because the book is quite extraordinary, probably the best book ever MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 31

32. written on selling. And he literally just went on fire, he became the best salesman in his company. He was hired by one of the big- gest internet companies, in the world. He was made a vice-president, and then he has moved to San Francisco... And then in San Francisco they made him a senior exec- utive, at a salary that was hundreds of thousands of pounds or dollars, beyond an- ything he ever dreamed possible. And he said, 'it was just the sales techniques'. They said basically 'whatever you are doing, to achieve that level of sales, show our peo- ple how to do it as well.' And he did and they did. So that’s been my major focus is to help people with the practical tools. WHAT is it that you sell? WHO do you sell it to? And HOW do you sell it? And then there is a whole series of others, there is your competition. Is WHO are your competitors? If people don't buy your product, WHAT product do they buy and WHY? And WHAT is it that people see in your competitors that they don't see in your product or service, and HOW could you change your product or service so that its more attractive in the perception of your customer than it is now? And so on. So, there is about ten of those and what I would recommend a person who is inter- ested in this, just go to AMAZON and go on to business model innovation. In fact, I read all the time, I just got this book last week, no a few weeks ago, and it’s called 'On Business Model Innovation,'...it's 'Business Model Innovation' it’s from Har- vard Business School. And what Harvard Business School, did is they took the ten best articles on business model innova- tion... which is different from mine, which is business model reinvention... and they put it together and this is...it’s beautiful, it’s a series of diamonds, gems, that just get your eyes to open up and you go WOW. Just one good idea can transform your business forever. Neil: Over the years, I have interviewed so many entrepreneurs and one of the things I have found that’s very, very common, is so many of them are scared of selling. Why do you think it is that so many are afraid of selling? Brian Tracy: Well when I began to study hu- man development, I found that human be- ings have unlimited potential and they are born with no fears except two fears which they develop. The fear of failure and the fear of rejection. The fear of failure is the greatest single rea- son for failure in adult life, is that we are afraid that we will lose our time or lose our money or it won't work or I won't be suc- cessful. And we become overwhelmed with the possibility of failing and then we paralyze like a deer in the headlights. And that’s number one. So, we have to over- come the fear of failure. The second fear, and especially in selling, is the fear of rejection. The fear that some- body will say no or reject you, or tell you that they are not interested in some way. And every single thing that happens to you affects your self-esteem, in that it either 32 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

33. raises your self-esteem, and makes you more positive and confident or it lowers your self-esteem. And your self-esteem is so important, that you're hyper-sensitive to doing or not doing anything that may cause your self-esteem to be affected. So, what I do in my seminars, I say for ex- ample, how do you elimi- nate the fear of failure? And the answer is, you re- peat the words over and over again. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it, I can do anything I can put my mind to. I can do it. With my children, I have always told them, knowing this is you can do anything you put your mind to. You have no limits; you can do it. You can do it; you can do it. And if you say 'I can do it, I can do it' what you do, is you programme yourself to eliminate the fear. And with rejection, the way that you deal with rejection, is you realise that rejection is not personal. If a person says 'no I don't want it, I am not interested', and so on and so forth, it’s not personal, because they don't even know who you are. So, don't be hyper-sensitive about being the tentative opinion of a person that you don't even know. Don't be afraid to ask. And when I went off selling in my twenties, I started knocking on doors and in my first year, I knocked on 20,000 doors. And got rejected almost 20,000 times but I learned how to sell. So, what I would recommend to our listeners, yours and mine, is that you need to owe it to yourself...you owe it to yourself to become pretty excellent at sell- ing. And wonderfully enough selling is a learna- ble skill. Every skill in business is learnable, you can learn how to sell, and once you learn it, it’s sort of like riding a bicycle. You do not have to go back out and practise every sin- gle day. Once you learn how to ride a bicycle, you can ride a bicycle for the rest of your life. Once you learn how to sell, you can sell for the rest of your life. But it’s a price you must pay if you are going to be successful as an entrepreneur. You have to be pre- pared to pay that price. And it’s hard. And since fear is the greatest obstacle too failure as an adult what I say is...”do the thing you fear”, which comes from Ralph Waldo Emmerson, and the death of fear is certain. It's the most amazing thing in psychology is when you confront a fear, you say 'I am afraid of this, then I am going to do it. And I am going to do it over and over until I no longer have any fear of it.' And the most amazing thing is, if you move toward a fear, if you address a fear, if you do the thing you fear, the fear goes away. It’s almost like it disappears. Whereas if you back-off and “Once you learn how to sell, you can sell for the rest of your life. But it’s a price you must pay if you are going to be successful as an entrepreneur. You have to be prepared to pay that price. And it’s hard.” MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 33

34. you look for excuses, and you avoid it, you hang around in the office, rather than go- ing out and calling on new prospective cus- tomers, the fear gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And pretty soon you are just pre- occupied with the fear, that’s all you think about is the fear. And what you do, the an- swer is always, do the thing you fear. Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain. When you become completely unafraid to sell... and what is the major reason by the way... you are hitting a lot of the right buttons... The major reason why people are afraid to sell is because they haven't learned how. That's the reason no doubt... I mean think of the first time you drove a car, sometimes I joke with you, remember when you drove a car, the person who was teaching you and there you are behind the wheel, and they are telling you, 'go slower, go faster, change the gear and so on.' Re- member how panicked you were when you were driving the car? You were slamming on the brakes, and stepping on the gas, and stopping and jerking and going over the kerb and everything else. And you were so nervous, but you were so determined to learn, that you finally did and now you can drive from one end of the country to the other and not even think about it. You have no fears at all, because know you have learned the skill. The reason why people are unsuccessful in selling is that they have not learned the skill. And they learn the skill... it’s a very simple way is learn and do, learn and do, learn and do, practise. Is, learn the skill and practise it. Learn a new idea do; a new way to approach a customer well practise it 10 times. When I began selling, I would say basically I 34 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

35. will try every new idea ten times, before I give up. And what I found was that most new ideas do not work the first time, so therefore I am going to try it ten times. And then I will pass judgement on whether or not it’s a good idea for me, my business, my selling, my customer. And I found that if it’s a good idea by the fourth or fifth or sixth time of trying it, you start to get more fluent with it, more confident, more competent, you feel better, you feel happier, you smile more. And if it’s a good idea, you add it to your repertoire. Your tool case, and you have it for the rest of your career. And now you can go any- where in the world and you can be an out- standing salesperson of any product that you have to sell. But you are right, the fear of selling is what holds people back and the way that we overcome the fear, is we just do it over and over again until the fear is gone. Neil: How do people make sure that they continue to use business model reinven- tion in their business? Brian Tracy: Well I teach very practical techniques. And one of my favourite... and by the way I wish I could say I invented these. I have just spent by my estimation about 150,000 hours in the study of a prac- tical subject for most of my lifetime... One of the things that I learned which I teach to all of my clients, is called “Zero Based Thinking”. And zero-based thinking, comes from management science, and it basically says, 'is there anything that you are doing today that knowing what you now know, you would not do again today if you had to do it over?' You would not get in to it again today if you had to do it over. So, what you do is you zero base, you draw a line under all the de- cisions that you have made in your life up to now. And say, 'is there anything that I have decided to do up to now that knowing what I know I would not have done?' I wouldn't get in to it again. And if the answer is yes, then the next question is how do you get help and how fast? In other words, you cut and run. If you decided that you wouldn't get in to it, it means that it’s over. It means that its finished, it means that the situation cannot be saved. Sometimes I talk to large audiences, I say, for example, let us say you are in a bad re- lationship, and you ask this question, the zero-based thinking question... And the question is, 'if you were not in this relation- ship with this person, knowing what you now know, would you get in to the rela- tionship again?' And if the answer is no then how do you get out and how fast? And it’s astonishing how many peoples' lives would change by that because they are trying so hard. And so, I ask, 'how do you know if you are in a zero-based thinking situation?' And the “is there anything that you are doing today that knowing what you now know, you would not do again today if you had to do it over?” MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 35

36. answer is stress. Is it causing you stress and frustration and you're not happy, and you're not making progress, and you don't look forward to your work and your rela- tionships and your life? And it’s the same thing in business. How do you know that you need to zero-base something? It’s because it’s causing you a lot of stress and frustration. And no matter how hard you work, you cannot seem to get the sales up and you can't seem to get this person to do the job they've been hired to do, and you can't seem to please this customer or something like that. Be- cause you have to keep ask- ing... you have to be willing to walk away. So, one of the things I teach in my coaching programme, I say there is four ways to change your life. Number one is you can do more of certain things. So, the question is, what should you be doing more of in your situation today? And the answer is, you should be doing more of those things that work the very best for you, one thing from which you are currently getting your very best results. So, no matter what your situation is, there are some things that you are doing well that are working. The second way you can change your life or your business, is you can do less of other things. And what is it that you should do less of? Well you should do less of those things that aren't working, that are not giv- ing you good results, that are not leading to sales, that are causing you frustration. They are not motivating you to do more of it, you just do not want to do it at all. So, the third way that you can change your life or business, you could start something new. And starting something new is the hardest thing of all, because human beings get in to the comfort zone, and the great- est enemy of success in business is the comfort zone. The reason that... they found at Harvard... is the reason the top executives would not change, is be- cause they were in a com- fort zone. And they were comfortable there, and it wasn't that great but at least it was better than the risk or the fear or the dan- ger of trying something completely new or different. And so, the comfort zone is your greatest enemy. So very often for you to change what you're doing, you have to do something new. And doing something new is really the great breakthrough strategy of life. You do something new, you use different tech- nology, you use different ways of promo- tion, you change the product that you're offering, and the way that you are offering, and the people that you are offering it to and so on. And there is all kinds of examples and com- “So very often for you to change what you're doing, you have to do something new. And doing something new is really the great breakthrough strategy of life.” 36 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

37. panies that have totally transformed the way they sell their products, and the way they deliver them, and the way that they service them and so on. So that... before customers were not interested but now, they are just love the product. And wher- ever you see a great market success, a per- son has actually really come up with a new business model. And all the great success- es today are new business models, new ways of doing business that nobody ever thought of before. And one of the greatest, my favourite of all is the iPhone. When they came up with the iPhone, and they combined everything to- gether in one phone, photographs, movies, music, messaging, text, everything so that you could communicate with everybody, anybody, anywhere. And then they changed the business model for music in- stead of having to buy an album you could buy music for one song at a time. And then they changed the way of being able to transfer pictures and movies and things like that. They changed the business model and they made it so easy that people could have all the different things that they want- ed in a communications device, all in one place at a low price, and unconditionally guaranteed. And within 10 years, Apple was the richest company in the history of the world, tril- lion dollars... the first company to have a trillion dollars in the bank. I remember when they first came out with their phone, I was using a Blackberry, and the market... the world market was dominated by Black- berry and Nokia, and they each had about 50% of the world market for cellular phones. And they both came out and made an announcement, that Steve Jobs had just developed a high-priced toy, and that it was only for teenagers and children who wanted to communicate and send messag- es and talk to their friends and so on. Adults are interested in business phones, what they want to do is communicate and correspond on business matters, quickly, in and out and so on. And so they... Blackberry one of my favour- ite examples, Blackberry in the year after they brought out the iPhone, cut back their research and development by 50% and they said, 'we are so far ahead, our phones are so good and they are so advanced, and they are so current with the market, we don't even have to improve them in any way, as a matter of fact, we are going to save the money and distribute it in profits to our owners. Five years later, both companies were bankrupt, gone, gone. They went from 50% each of the market to less than 1% and then disappeared. And of course, Apple, was copied by Samsung and then by many others. But Apple came out with the most profitable phone in the world. What they did, was they changed the business model and it was so great, everyone wanted to do it. Neil: You mentioned Nokia and Blackber- ry, when Apple launched the iPhone. They were much bigger than Apple in the phone market at that time. Using your measure of growth, how could they have MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 37

38. anticipated the threat? Brian Tracy: Well you must again... you must be open to the possibility that you could be wrong. You must be open to the possibility that this has the potential to change the market. I have studied leadership and military strat- egy and there is a wonderful line they teach in Sandhurst and in West point it is that 'diversion that you are ignoring is the main attack'. And it’s a won- derful thing... in other words when something happens in the market, that seems peripheral, that could be what is going to put you out of business completely. And that’s what happened to both Nokia and Blackberry, is that pe- ripheral business, that com- pany that... Apple that had never had a telephone in their history, that was the main attack, that was what was going to put you out of business completely, and it did. So, you have to be open to the possi- bility that you could be wrong. You have to be open to the possibility that one new de- velopment in technology, could change your business completely. And the critical thing is always, 'what do your customers want?' And what do they want more of, and they want it faster, and they want it easier, and they want it at low- er cost, and they want it to be more con- venient. We can wrap up with what I want to share with you, and it’s a book that I am thinking of writing. I have five or six books on my back middle shelves. And the book is called “The 'Er' Factor.” And English is the only language in which this would work because 'Er' stands for the comparative. So, its easi-ER, its fast-ER, its cheap-ER, its Costli-ER, and so on. And all of your suc- cess in life as a business person is the num- ber of Er's that you have, is your product... is fast-ER to use, its easi-ER too to get, its cheap-ER, and so on. But you're always looking for ways to make your prod- uct or service superior to your competitors in some way. And your competitors are thinking day and night about how to make their products and services supe- rior to yours. And so, it goes on and on, sort of like leap-frog when you are a child, you jump over one person, then the other person jumps over you, and then you jump over them and so on. So, your job is to be superior to your competi- tor and then your competitors' job is to be superior to you. The ER factor, find some way to do it faster, easier, cheaper. We have in the United States today, and I do not know if it’s happening in the UK but in the US we have a phenomenon that’s taking place, its home delivery of food and restaurant food. And about five years ago, somebody started to offer home delivery “So, your job is to be superior to your competitor and then your competitors' job is to be superior to you. The ER factor, find some way to do it faster, easier, cheaper.” 38 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

39. and UBER was the first one, they started a company called UBER Eats. This is UBER drivers who deliver foods. And so, you can call... the menu is online... you can call and you can click in what you want, there is the menu ... and you click, and its delivered in an average of about 30 minutes, some- times faster. But then most of the compa- nies are trying to work on the 'Er' to get it fastER bettER, cheapER, tastiER and so on. The business has now be- come a ten billion business, it’s there in every single ma- jor city and people don't go out, Restaurants are empty. You go to restaurants in the middle of the week and all the tables and chairs are empty but there is people coming in, there is drivers coming in, picking up the or- ders, to take the orders and deliver them to the homes. In the major cities, food is being delivered for lunch, people don't go out to restaurants at lunch, they just simp- ly click it in, and bang, its delivered in a few minutes. The convenience of it and the cost is the same. But the convenience make it easier, faster and so on. It’s created a multi-billion-dollar business that people who have started... and there is several competitors now... are earning billions of dollars from delivering food. And that in- dustry did not exist five years ago. And I know Barbara and I, my wife and I we go out to a nearby restaurant for dinner, almost every night. And then she discov- ered that you could just order it online, and it was exactly the same food that we were accustomed to enjoying at our local restaurant, and it would be delivered to our door, exactly the same price. Most amazing darn thing. So, the rule is, keep your ear to the ground, keep your ear to the ground, pay atten- tion... Because the rate of change today is faster than it’s ever been in all of human history. And your job is to change faster than your competitors. And remember that your com- petitors get up every morn- ing, thinking about how to put you out of business. And you had better get up every morning, thinking about how to put them out of business because if you don't, they will. And busi- ness is just the game of be- ing in business and competition. And so, your job is to be better than your competitors, have the 'Er', betterER, fast- ER, cheapER, easiER. One ER can make you the market leader. And what is it going to be? And the interesting thing is that if you are better than your customers, initially its more expensive, but as you master this way of offering your product in an im- proved way, it gets cheaper and cheaper, and you can do it faster and faster and eas- ier and easier. And you can put your com- petitors out of business. A good friend of mine, a good salesman asked me once, he said, I want to get all your business, he said, 'what would I have “ask your customers, ‘what do I have to do to get all your business? Not just a little bit but all your business?’ Over and over.” MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 39

40. to do to get all your business, not just a little bit of your business, but just to get all your business? What do I have to do more of, less of, start or stop? What do I have to change to get all your business?' And it was a great question, and I never forgot it and I said 'well if you would do this and this and this and this, I would give you all my busi- ness.' And he said, 'ok, I will do all those things.' And so, I tried him out, and he de- livered. And for the next ten years, I pat- ronised his business and spent an enor- mous amount of money with his business, because he delivered and he continued to deliver, he moved away and his company became huge. But ask your customers, “what do I have to do to get all your business? Not just a little bit but all your business?” Over and over. Peter Drucker... this is what I teach is... you have three goals in life, as a business per- son. The first is to make the first sale, you can't do anything unless you make the first sale. Second is, to make the second sale to the same customer because they were so happy with the first sale that they came back to buy more. And the third goal is to have them bring their friends and associ- ates and tell other people to buy from you as well. So, it’s 123, 123. Sell, the first sale. Second, make the customer soooo happy that they buy from you again. And then get the cus- tomers so happy that they bring their friends. And all successful companies do the big three. Make the sale, make the sale again because the customer is happy, and then bring their friends. We could talk all day by the way, ha ha ha, if you have noticed. Neil: Where can people find out more about business model reinvention? Brian Tracy: Just go to my website which is BrianTracy.com. And we have just started a goal-setting programme that...it’s available at no charge. We have a goal-setting pro- gramme that you pay for, but there is a simple goal-setting programme that is free. And there is a lot of resources, that are free at BrianTracy.com. And what I would suggest that people start with is goal- setting, and that takes you through a pro- cess where you determine exactly what your goals are in each part of your life, you organise your goals by priority, you develop a plan to achieve your most important goals, you organise those steps by priority and then you work on the steps every sin- gle day. And what it does is it will save you five to ten years of hard work getting to the same place. Neil: Thank you for a fantastic interview Brian, we really appreciate you providing all this great information about business model reinvention, talking about selling, and giving us some great examples as well and many other things you have talked about. Just such great value, and I know that our readers will really benefit from what you've had to say today. Brian Tracy: Thank you, wonderful to see you Neil. 40 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

41. Meet Brian Tracy Brian Tracy is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations. He is the leading coach on the topics of Leadership, Selling, Self-Esteem, Goals, Strategy, Creativity and Success Psycholo- gy. Throughout his 40+ year career, Brian has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and addressed more than 5,000,000 people in 5,000 talks and seminars throughout the US, Canada and 70 other countries worldwide. He is the top-selling author of over 70 books, including Eat That Frog, a New York Times Best Selling book. In addition to this, he has written and produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs, including the worldwide, best-selling Psychology of Achievement, which has been translated into more than 28 languages. Website: www.briantracy.com Facebook: @BrianTracyPage Instagram: @TheBrianTracy YouTube: @BrianTracySpeaker MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 41

42. ByArvin Patel, EVP and Chief Intellectual Property Officer, TiVo It's easy to think of mindfulness as some- thing that happens only in ideal surroundings — meditating on a peace- ful mountaintop, doing yoga on the beach at sunrise, being "in the moment" with an Insta- gram-ready backdrop. But what if mindfulness could be more of an everyday way of life? What if we could bring mindfulness into the workplace? One of the emerging trends in management in recent years has been the rise of mindful- ness in the workplace. Many CEOs and exec- utives are exploring meditation and yoga as a way to center their minds; feel more pre- sent in the moment, and make better deci- sions based on deep reflection and more re- laxed thinking. I have a meditation practice of my own, and I find it to be a wonderful way to help reset myself and rest my mind after a busy day at the office. But meditation and mindfulness have benefits beyond the individual practi- tioner. Mindfulness is not just about medita- tion; it’s a movement to adopt a more hu- man-centric philosophy on how to manage people. Mindfulness at work is a way of rec- ognizing and supporting people’s emotional needs and different types of intelligence— and if handled correct- ly—can foster a more stress-free, productive, and innovative work- force. There are many strate- gies that management can employ to help fos- ter mindfulness at work and promote mindful- ness practices through- out the work day. Here are five that have worked for me: Reduce Interruptions It’s difficult to feel fully “present” and in the moment when you’re being interrupted all day by email, chat notifications, and meetings.Research has shownthat a typical office worker gets only 11 minutes between interruptions and needs an average of 25 minutes to be able to fully refocus on work after each interruption. Too many interrup- tions can cause stress and make it hard for people to enter a “deep work” mode, where they can be the most creative and truly laser focused on solving problems. Managers can help reduce interruptions by giving workers permission to block out their time and protect themselves from distrac- Research has shownthat a typical office worker gets only 11 minutes between interruptions and needs an average of 25 minutes to be able to fully refocus on work after each interruption. 42 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

43. tions. Allow team members to put their phones on Airplane Mode and also log out of email for a few hours during the day. If employees see their managers setting the tone at the top, they will be more likely to adopt these mindful practices for them- selves. Make it clear to your team that you want them to be able to focus and really dig deep into their work. Help them to protect their work time and to prevent it from getting chopped up into useless pieces by distractions and inter- ruptions. Have Fewer, Shorter Meetings Do you ever feel like your entire workday is a series of never-ending back-to-back meetings? What if you could reduce or elim- inate some of this meeting time? Managers should start to implement 45-minute (or shorter) meetings, so that people have extra time built into their day and do not end up running from meeting to meeting all day long. Better yet, re-evaluate which meetings are really necessary and which ones could be canceled. We’ve all experienced those dreaded situations where we’re required to sit through a meeting that could have been an email. Why not be more proactive in weeding out the non-essential meetings? Free up more of your team’s time; this will increase their productivity. Get Up from the Desk and Out of the Office Mindfulness is often associated with yoga, and it’s true that yoga practice can be a great way to align the mind and body but it’s not the only way. Em- ployees can also ben- efit significantly frommindful stretch- ing exercises—just a few minutes of stretching can help reduce job stress and on-the-job injuries. Or try hosting your next team meeting out- doors at a nearby park or hiking trail. Studies have shown thatspending even a few minutes in na- tureeach day can boost productivity, reduce stress, and result in other positive health benefits. In addition to health benefits, mindful stretching and daily nature walks can help people be more innovative. Just like the joke, “all my best ideas happen in the show- er”—sometimes our best creative break- throughs happen during moments of mental rest and reflection, when we actually have a moment to let our minds wander. Stan- fordresearch has foundthat creative think- ing is significantly improved simply by going for a short walk, whether it’s indoors or out- doors. The more mindful your organization is, the more innovative many of your em- ployees will be. MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 43

44. Introduce Your Team to Mindfulness Apps The idea of “mindfulness” might sound strange or intimidating to some. Not every- one will want to attend a company yoga class or meditate side-by-side with their co- workers. That’s why the new generation ofmeditation and mindfulness appscan be so helpful. You can share these apps with your team as a way to introduce mindfulness on a small scale. Let people experiment indi- vidually with them to see what they like the most. Many people may benefit from using apps for a guided meditation during the work day which may help them learn how to calm themselves, focus their minds, and re- duce stress at work. Be a Mindfulness Role Model Ideally, mindfulness practices will help cre- ate a more peaceful, calm, and people- centered work environment. But for a mind- ful workplace to become a reality, organiza- tion leaders need to becomemore mindful managers. Mindfulness can help managers work on their self-awareness, patience, and empathy. Is your management style still based on traditional hierarchies and com- mand-and-control, or are you truly embrac- ing the potential of a flat and Agile organiza- tion where everyone can freely contribute their creative thinking? Are you leading with fear, or inspiring your people with authentic emotional connection? Are you exhibiting impatient, angry, exasperated behavior, or are you creating a calm, collaborative, reflec- tive work environment where people can relax and feel empowered enough to share their best ideas? In this economy companies need to work harder than ever to compete for talent, re- tain talent, and be known as an employer of choice. Managers need to use supportive soft skills to maximize the talents of every- one on their team and connect with employ- ees from diverse cultural and generational backgrounds. Mindfulness is an ideal tool that can really help today’s managers. Re- searchers are still learning more about the impacts of mindfulness at work. But I believe that in the future, as demands continue to increase while the number of hours in the day remains constant, more managers are going to need to embrace creative strategies to help their teams be healthier, calmer, more productive, and more fully present in every moment. Arvin Patel is the EVP and Chief Intellectual Property Officer at TiVo. LinkedIN: @ArvinPatel 44 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

45. By Dr. Gleb Tsipursky You probably heard the business advice of “failing to plan is planning to fail.” That phrase is a misleading myth at best and ac- tively dangerous at worst. Making plans is important, but our gut reaction is to plan for the best-case outcomes, ignoring the high likelihood that things will go wrong. for a project with a clear plan to come in at or under budget. For instance, a 2002 study of major con- struction projects found that 86% went over budget. In turn, a 2014 study of large IT projects found that only 16.2% succeed- ed in meeting the original planned re- source expenditure. Of the 83.8% of pro- jects that did not, the average IT project suffered from a cost overrun of 189%. A much better phrase is “failing to plan for problems is planning to fail.” To address the very high likelihood that problems will crop up, you need to plan for contingen- cies. Such cost overruns can seriously damage your bottom line. Imagine if a serious IT project such as implementing a new data- base at your organization goes even 50% When was the last time you saw a major planned project suffer from a cost over- run? It’s not as common as you might think MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 45

46. over budget, which is much less than the average cost overrun. You might be facing many thousands or even millions of dollars in unplanned expenses, causing you to draw on funds assigned for other purpos- es. es are hurting you and others in your team and organization. Then, you can use struc- tured decision-making methods to make “good enough” daily decisions quickly; more thorough ones for moderately im- portant choices; and an in-depth one for truly major decisions. Moreover, cost overruns often spiral out of control, resulting in even bigger disasters. Let’s say you draw the extra money from your cybersecurity budget. As a result, you’ve left yourself open to hackers, who successfully stole customer data, resulting in both bad PR and loss of customer trust. Such techniques will also help you imple- ment your decisions well, and formulate truly effective long-term strategic plans. In addition, you can develop mental habits and skills to notice cognitive biases and prevent yourself from slipping into them. What explains cost overruns? They largely stem from the planning fallacy, our intui- tive belief that everything will go according to plan, whether in IT projects or in other areas of business and life. The planning fal- lacy is one of many dangerous judgment errors, which are mental blind spots re- sulting from how our brain is wired that scholars in cognitive neuroscience and be- havioral economics call cognitive biases. We make these mistakes not only in work, but also in other life areas, for example in our shopping choices, as revealed by a se- ries of studies done by a shopping compar- ison website. For instance, we can address the planning fallacy by planning around it. Such planning involves anticipating what problems might come up and addressing them in advance by using the research-based technique of prospective hindsight, by envisioning your- self in the future looking back at potential challenges in the present. It also involves recognizing that you can’t anticipate all problems, and building in a buffer of at least 40% of the project’s budget in addi- tional funds. If things go better than antici- pated, you can always use the money for a different purpose later. Besides this broad approach, my consulting clients have found three specific research- based techniques effective for addressing the planning fallacy. Fortunately, recent research in these fields shows how you can use pragmatic strate- gies to address these dangerous judgment errors, whether in your professional life, your relationships, your shopping choices, or other life areas. First, break down each project into compo- nent parts. An IT firm struggled with a pattern of taking on projects that ended up losing money for the company. We evaluat- You need to evaluate where cognitive bias- 46 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

47. ed the specific component parts of the pro- jects that had cost overruns, and found that the biggest unanticipated money drain came from permitting the client to make too many changes at the final stages of the project. As a result, the IT firm changed their process to minimize any changes at the tail end of the project. spective from a trusted and objective source. A financial services firm whose CEO I coached wanted to move its headquarters after it outgrew its current building. I con- nected the CEO with a couple of other CEO clients who recently moved and expressed a willingness to share their experience. This experience helped the financial services CEO anticipate contingencies he didn’t pre- viously consider, ranging from additional marketing expenses to print new collateral with the updated address to lost employee productivity due to changing schedules as a result of a different commute. Second, use your past experience with sim- ilar projects to inform your estimates for future projects. A heavy equipment manu- facturer had a systemic struggle with un- derestimating project costs. In one exam- ple, a project that was estimated to cost $2 million ended up costing $3 million. We suggested making it a requirement for pro- ject managers to use past project costs to inform future projections. Doing so result- ed in much more accurate project cost esti- mates. If you take away one message from this article, remember that the key to address- ing cost overruns is to remember that “failing to plan for problems is planning to fail.” Use this phrase as your guide to pre- vent cost overruns and avoid falling prey to the dangerous judgment error of plan- ning fallacy. Third, for projects with which you have little past experience, use an external per- Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is on a mission to protect leaders from dangerous judgment errors known as cognitive biases by developing the most effective decision- making strategies. A best-selling author, he wrote Never Go With Your Gut (2019), The Blindspots Between Us (2020), and The Truth Seeker’s Handbook (2017). His cutting-edge thought leadership was featured in over 400 articles and 350 interviews in Fast Company, CBS News, Time, Business Insider, Govern- ment Executive, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, CNBC, and Inc. Magazine. His expertise stems from over 20 years of consulting, coaching, speaking, and training experience as CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts. It also comes from his research background as a behavioral economist and cognitive neuroscientist with over 15 years in academia, with dozens of peer-reviewed academic publica- tions. Contact him at: Gleb@DisasterAvoidanceExperts.com. Follow him on Twitter: @gleb_tsipursky, on Insta- gram: @dr_gleb_tsipursky. And visit: www.DisasterAvoidanceExperts.com/GlebTsipursky to learn more. MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 47

48. If you’re a social entrepreneur, I’ve got some bad news for you: You weren’t born to scale. But here’s some good news: You can learn to do it anyway. In reviewing 100 successful social enter- prises from the past 10 years, our team at the Miller Center found that less than 10% were able to scale successfully –not just growing incrementally, but rapidly expand- ing their organizations into new markets to multiply impact and revenues. Our analysis of a database of over 10,000 commercial By Rob Shelton startups paints an even bleaker picture: Fewer than 1 in 100 of these enterprises scale. Why is scaling a social enterprise so hard? Because what got you this far is not enough to get you the rest of the way. If you want to scale, you need to shift man- agement gears, learn some new things and act differently. Just pushing harder with your existing model won’t work. 48 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3

49. Over the past three years, Miller Center’s Replication and Scaling team has worked with more than 50 entrepreneurs to ex- pand their reach, helping them to create greater impact more rapidly, with less risk and fewer investment requirements. We have established a process that can make scaling possible for every entrepreneur. Here are some of the important coaching tips we use. Shift from Running the Business to Under- standing How Your Business is Running In the first few years of a startup, your big- gest and most persistent challenge is keep- ing things running. It’s a constant struggle. In startup mode, entrepreneurs typically spend all their time working just to keep the wheels from coming off the enterprise. Premature scaling —the attempt to grow aggressively before your business model is robust enough to stand up to the rigors of massive growth —is one of the major causes of failure. Before making the commitment to scale, you need to make sure you have an organi- zation capable of producing, selling and de- livering much larger volumes of your prod- uct or service –without diminishing quality or impact for existing and new customers. In addition to running the business, you need focus on understanding how the busi- ness is running, to identify the operational capabilities that need strengthening. To that end, your leadership team needs to make an honest appraisal of what they have created. Here are a few things to ask yourself: Do customers think we deliver the best val- ue? Don’t ask your team for their opinion: You need data from customers. To be suc- cessful, you must ensure that the value you’re delivering is a clear winner in the customers’ eyes, and that your products or services have a distinctive advantage over alternatives. If you don’t have proof of a winning value proposition, don’t bother scaling. Has our business model evolved? It makes no sense to scale inefficiencies and grow parts of your business that waste money – that’s a fool’s errand. Good luck trying to get investors to fund that business model. You need business processes that are sta- ble and improve over time. For example, you should be able to consistently and quickly acquire new customers at costs that decrease over time. In other words, you need to manage your business model so the cost per social return on investment improves as you grow and mature. If not, MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 49

50. scaling will take you into a slow but certain death spiral. al leadership, and your ability to partner and collaborate —since no single enter- prise can do everything by themselves. This may sound impossible to achieve, but fortunately, perfection is not a prerequisite for scaling. Don’t worry if you are not top- notch in all these areas; very few startups are. And most weaknesses can be im- proved during scaling so that the enter- prise grows into its new, larger size. But attempting to scale despite gross weak- nesses in almost every element of the busi- ness model will overwhelm the team, chew up funds, and slow your progress to a snail’s pace —a sure formula for failure. Set the Strategic Direction Early Do we consistently make smart, informed decisions? Seat-of-the-pants management without good data may be standard oper- ating procedure in the early startup stage, because you have no choice. But that ap- proach gets risky with increased size. When scaling, lack of performance data frustrates all attempts to make sense of what is actu- ally working, to identify the elements that need to be fixed right away, and to focus on the pieces of the business model that are successfully being transformed to full scale. The ability to measure key elements of the business model, and to use this op- erating data to make timely decisions is one clear signal that you are ready to shift into scaling mode. Before any startup embarks on scaling into new markets they need to decide on a strategy for growth. Some markets are best served by the original business model. But in many new or distant markets, the best business model for scaling the startup is not the same as the original. Before you push the scaling start button, determine if and how your original busi- ness model needs to be adapted to fit com- mercialization in the targeted markets. It is likely the most important decision you will make. Can we acquire top talent when we need it? Talent acquisition is like digging a well: It is best done before you need the water. Don’t let weaknesses in your talent system —in terms of acquisition, motivation and retention —leave you lacking the people and performance you need at critical stag- es of scaling. There are other important questions you need to consider: You need an honest ap- praisal of your organizational stability and effectiveness, your strategic and execution- 50 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3