QUESTION: I am looking at Next Level Exchange and been using your materials for a couple of years now with great results. Actually recently, your Inner Circle coaching program helped me close a $24,000 placement a couple months ago from a client I got using the flip marketing technique. Anyway, I am doing budgets for next year and I know the answer that you will probably give me, but if you had to pick one, which and why? -Rob, Maryland

ANSWER: You know what – I thought about this Rob and I was not going to answer this publicly, but I thought – You know what, this is actually a great teaching moment on the Law of Abundance and the Law of Scarcity. I am not going to answer it the way you wanted because, bluntly, I would do both. If anything, I might tack on a couple more in order to create access to a virtual library of phenomenal content.  

You said one key thing – you are getting results, so I am not sure why you are asking the question if you are getting results. If you said – Geez, I have been in this for 2 years and nothing I have attempted of yours has worked. Well, the definition of insanity for you would be doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result and I would probably not use me at all, but at $24,000 you have paid for your membership with me.  

When people do budgets for training, I think that is insane. I can honestly tell you I am not a hypocrite here.  When I ran an office I bought everybody’s stuff. I had everything Scott Love did, and I agreed and disagreed with some of his stuff. I had everything Danny Cahill did. I do not agree with anything all of them do. I had Next Level Exchange. We had Peter Lefkowitz, Tony Byrne when he was still alive. If there was somebody, Bill Radin, if they had valuable stuff, even if I only invested in a $300 or $400 program and did not like 7 of the 8 modules . . . but 1 was brilliant, that was what we used in our office on a recruiting technique.  

When you look at investing in yourself through whatever means you want to invest in yourself, you should be looking at adding to stay in a state of growth, a placement or 2 a year and you are going to get 10, 20, 30, 40 to 1 return on investment if there is no other vehicle for you.  

That is that scarcity mindset. The only way to maximize return in an environment where you are living in a scarcity environment, meaning revenue is fixed, is to reduce expenses.  Then your big question becomes much more valid. But my main point is you are in an environment where revenue is not fixed. There are people out there that are solo that bill $100,000 a year. They have the same 7 days in a week that solos out there that are my clients that bill $600,000, $700,000, or $800,000 a year, who probably work fewer hours, bluntly, than the people that bill $100,000 a year.  

My challenge to you is look at those sources where you are getting returns on investment and figure out a way to give those people more money so you can get more money back.  As a matter of fact, this kind of stinking thinking crept in my own thinking, for the main reason I am a member of a program mostly for coaches and marketers and it costs about the same as the program you are in with me. The main reason I fall behind. I said – You know, I have been a member of this since 2007. There has been some really good stuff in it, which is why I continue to invest in it. I almost emailed them and said suspend my membership.  

Then I just happened to listen to one of the CDs and engineered something and rolled it out to dormant part of my list and it brought back $32,000. I have used numerous other techniques that I have put in place that have helped me grow my business and bluntly even help my clients grow their businesses.  

My main thing is, I hear this all the time about budget and expenses. Since I am talking to a group of entrepreneurs and there are a variety of sources for this, other mentors, other coaches, other training, other reading, Amazon, books, and it is a matter too of using your time. When you zero in on those they give you great ROI. Figure out how to leverage some more, for selfishly more ROI.  

Anytime I give someone else a dollar, through their training product, their coaching, their mentoring programs, I look for ways to get a minimum of $5 if not $10 back. That is how I evaluate, especially the higher end programs I am in to develop myself. I can look to specific areas at the end of the year that I have in my business that I did not have before and can I honestly say, but not for the effort of that person redirecting me a little bit, would be that be there? If the answer is yes, I would have done that anyway and there are some things that I have ceased to give ROI and I have left, but there are a few things that people have been hanging out with for 4 or 5 years.