It wouldn’t be a healthy Friday (Saturday this week) without Cinco Bala. This week's top 5 lessons, hacks and quotes I’ve been pondering, applying and battling.
For those of you who are new, this is a concept I took from Tim Ferriss. (This is just focused on MLM and online marketing) If you don’t subscribe to his newsletter. You should do it.
Lesson in Network Marketing: Set Expectations - The most frustrating part of network marketing is without a doubt trying to drag people across the finish line.
They told YOU they wanted to be successful yet make nothing but excuses when it’s time to put the rubber to the road.
You spend countless hours doing work and motivating them only to find out that when you’re gone… they’re gone.
It’s even worse that when you’re talking to a bunch of people and no one is getting in…
Are people just that messed up? Is network marketing really that hard?
No.
The quality and speed of the team is determined by one thing and one thing only.
The leader.
If your team is awesome, it’s in part because YOU are awesome.
If your team is not, well…
So how to fix it?
Set proper expectations.
After 6 years in my first business I was still turning down vacations because I knew if I took 4 days off my team would fall apart. Not a good place to be.
Why?
I was attracting high quality people but we weren’t setting expectations up front. Their mindset was that “we worked for them.”
Which couldn’t be further from the truth.
We FINALLY fixed this by setting stern and unmovable expectations BEFORE they ever got registered. We expect the BEST from our people.
You better believe I’m not going to do something for you if you can do it for yourself. If you cater to the weak, you’ll have a weak team.
Your growth will likely slow down when initially implementing higher expectations but eventually… it’ll slingshot because your team will grow without you.
One of the Book(s) I’m Reading: Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged The World - Sounds crazy but this is my night time relaxation book. While meaty and advanced, it offers an incredibly detailed timeline of what’s happened behind the economic veil in the world today.
If you didn’t know, the 2008 crash was a result of complete stupidity. It could have been avoided many times over. What’s worse is that the same people in positions of banking power that allowed the 2008 catastrophe to happen, are still at the helm today.
In fact, from an economic standpoint, we as a society are on a more unstable foundation than we were leading up to 08’.
The government and private economy did not rebound naturally from the 2008 recession…
The U.S. Government printed our way out of it. They created money out of thin air that was not earned, worked for or produced by the private economy. They then proceeded to jam that money into various institutions *cough* favors *cough* to eventually trickle down to the population.
...But it never trickled down, did it?
My first and most basic question to help you start thinking about the semantics that have taken place in the economy is: Have you or anyone you know received any of the new money that has been printed since 2008? (Besides the recent stimulus check).
...Trillions have been printed…
Yet hardly any deserving small business owner or stay-at-home mom has received much.
To provide some context for how big a trillion is: One trillion seconds = 32,511 years.
Many people think of this subject of money as ‘boring’. Meanwhile, they proceed to feel beaten by the world of money. As the ancient proverb says, “Before you play the game, know the rules.”
Before you read this book, “Collusion”, I recommend starting with “Fake” by Robert Kiyosaki, if you haven’t already. It is a much easier initial read.
I don’t share this knowledge to scare you, I share it to open your eyes to the reality of the world we live in. The best thing we can do is learn which assets to invest in that will weather any storm that the geniuses create…
And the best way to acquire those assets is to increase our current income.
Which brings me to...
Lesson in Online Marketing: Your Biggest Asset - My most recent lesson in online marketing was also my first. But I seem to have forgotten it…
Your list is your biggest asset in online marketing. Actually, it’s your biggest asset in any business.
Taking from an example in “Expert Secrets”, Russell shares the story of why Skype was acquired by ebay. Ebay could have easily replicated Skype with its team of world class developers. But instead ebay paid over $1 Billion for it.
Then in 2010, Microsoft paid $8.5 Billion for it.
Why would Microsoft pay for Skype when they could easily replicate it? Why would Facebook pay over $1B for Instagram when it could easily copy it?
The answer?
Their list. Or customer base.
During Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype, they had 660 million users on the platform.
Microsoft didn’t need the technology per se. They wanted the 660 million users. They wanted the trust that Skype had built up with them.
A company’s biggest asset is the relationship it has with its customers. In online marketing speak, this is translated into a “list”. A list is a group of people who know, like and trust you.
And buy from you.
The main reason I first learned to run ads was so that I could take traffic I had to buy and convert it into traffic I owned - my list.
Then I could build a relationship with the people on that list by sending valuable content. And when the times were right, I could make irresistible offers.
I say I forgot this lesson because most of our revenue at Rebels comes from our advertising. We only run 1-2 promotions to our various “lists” every year.
My goal is not necessarily to sell to our lists more but rather to add more value to the people that follow our work.
I’ve been reminded thanks to that book, Traffic Secrets about the value of a list. I highly suggest you not forget the lesson.
Lesson in Finance: Cash is Trash - Oh where do I begin? How about the basics.
Before money, humans traded things. You have a chicken, I have a shovel. Give me a chicken and I’ll give you a shovel.
This became cumbersome. So a unit of exchange was created that everyone agreed could be used for trade. Gold and silver. I could use my gold for chickens, shovels or livestock. And everyone else accepted it too. The world became smaller...
This was the birth of money.
Gold became cumbersome to carry so humans created “claim checks or redemption notes” or as you know them - dollars. These notes represented gold. If you took a claim check/redemption note to a bank, they’d give you gold in return.
Throughout history, civilizations have collapsed thanks to stupid economic choices.
The primary reason for collapse?
Removing the currency’s “peg” to a true store of value - namely Gold or Silver.
When the US dollar was created it was “pegged” to gold. Meaning you could take your dollar to the fed and say “I want my gold”. They agreed. This “check” in the system forced the government to be intelligent with their spending, because you can’t print gold.
It made money limited in nature and thus much harder to fiddle with.
But because bureaucrats hate abiding by their own rules, governments throughout history have “unpegged” their currency from gold. This allowed them to print money freely, take on obscene projects, do under the table deals, fund wars and get themselves into massive debt. The U.S. is no different.
In 1971, Tricky Dick Nixon took the US off the gold standard and sealed our currency’s fate as one that would inflate beyond comprehension and destroy the middle class.
Contrary to belief, Inflation is NOT the increase of prices, it is the decrease of your dollar’s power thanks to money printing (QE). Inflation actually happens incredibly slowly in an economic system with a fixed currency supply. This is why pre-1971, saving cash was actually good advice.
But because the US dollar has been on a crash course with hyperinflation, saving cash has become a relic of the past and is actually quite dumb today.
Every year the dollar loses 2-4% due to money printing (inflation). And I can almost guarantee you’re not getting that kind of return from the savings account. So that means that just by holding onto cash, you’re losing 2-4% of your buying power per year.
It is highly likely that within our lifetimes, the US dollar will hyper-inflate and cease to exist.
Our recourse?
Build a business and acquire assets that have nothing to do with the cash we hold.
That is why I am emphatic about building positive influence through network marketing, acquiring real estate and holding gold - in offshore vaults, calm down.
Remember, only hold enough cash for 6-12 months of emergency. Get the rest into assets that are not based on bureaucratic promises.
Quote I Love: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
Talk soon,
Zach
