10 Steps To Gaining A Millionaire Mindset
10-step guide to creating a millionaire mindset & implementing it in your life
There is something every self-made millionaire I’ve ever met has in common…
They understand how crucial your attitude is when it comes to success in any business venture.
The truth is that if you think you can’t make money online then you’re right. But if you think you can, you’re right again. It’s your mindset that is critically important.
Even people like myself, who know the importance of having an abundance mentality, sometimes struggle with it. You see, I’ve spent the last few decades showing nearly half a million people how to smash through the emotional blockages that were holding them back from wealth, health and success.
My nine wealthiest clients are worth more than $300 million between them. I’ve trained elite athletes to over 1000 international level performances. I’ve helped dozens of businesses skyrocket their growth by showing their staff how to bust through self-limiting thinking and achieve beyond their wildest dreams.
Sadly, just like a plumber with leaky taps, I struggled to make the money I wanted to. Don’t get me wrong - I certainly did okay. My family was comfortable, I could live where I chose, drive a nice car and enjoy the odd holiday. But I was frustrated with my inability to turn on the money tap and make it gush.
Then, about ten years ago, something extraordinary happened…
Unexpectedly, my personal development company tripled its income and turned over a million dollars for the year. The next month, we turned over another million dollars. A few months later, we turned over million dollars in a single weekend.
I’ve seen similar results countless times when I’ve worked with people to help them achieve breakthroughs in their businesses - only now it was happening to us. We were a classic case of the 30-year overnight success.
So…how did I do it?
After 30 years of helping other people get rich, how did I finally ramp my own business up to rocket speed?
Well, that’s what I’m about to share with you because these strategies will work for you too. They are fundamental for anyone who wants to thrive in business - online or offline.
Looking back, I realise I made 10 critical changes that set the business up to soar. There were no new products, extra staff, fancy investments or creative business building. Instead, there were three life-transforming words - changing my mindset.
Here’s exactly what it looked like…
Mindset Change 1: Understand It’s Not About The Money
The first step to becoming independently wealthy is to recognise that money doesn’t matter. While it may be a great ride getting rich, the most important lesson you can learn is to measure your success in terms other than monetary ones.
The first step to becoming independently wealthy is to recognise that money doesn’t matter.
Millionaires know this - that’s why they are millionaires. They love what they do and the money is just a bonus.
A focus on making money kept me from generating the financial results I wanted.
Why?
Because like most people, money itself is not a big enough motivator for me when times get tough. A fixation on the cash will stop you from ‘seeing’ the breakthrough that would transform your business and your life.
For 20 years, I put the best part of 100 hours a week into making money. I supported others, employed superstars, contributed first and asked to be paid later and generally operated as what I’d call a ‘good bloke’ - all to no avail as far as creating wealth was concerned.
What I had failed to truly understand was something I was fond of telling everyone else…
If making money is your number one reason for going into business, get a successful franchise and leave it at that.
A fixation on the cash will stop you from ‘seeing’ the breakthrough that would transform your business and your life.
Mindset Change 2: Believe It’s Possible
“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.”
I’m fond of quoting this line in my workshops when people say something won’t work. Success is as simple as that. Some people say, ‘I can’t’ and others ask, ‘Why can’t I?’
I’m not saying spectacular success will happen overnight simply because you believe in yourself. There have been plenty of misguided souls who believed in themselves and saw their businesses go bust and their dreams crumble.
The real message is this: believe in the possibility of achieving your goal.
Once you start to believe it’s possible, that quite conceivably it could happen, then you can start thinking about what you need to do to make it happen.
Belief is the ignition switch that helps you to put the wheels in motion. Belief enables traction. Only when you believe can you ask yourself, ‘If this is possible, what do I need to do?’
Belief is the ignition switch that helps you to put the wheels in motion. Belief enables traction. Only when you believe can you ask yourself, ‘If this is possible, what do I need to do?’
In my case, for the better part of 10 years, I was surrounded by evidence that there was money to be made training people to be coaches. Yet I somehow always found a way to undermine the value of other people’s success. Perhaps they weren’t as honest as us, maybe they had more money for marketing or a better location.
The truth was I couldn’t see the opportunity.
When I first started training coaches, I didn’t believe anyone would want to train as a coach for a fee. Instead, I thought, ‘I’ll have to train them and then see if I can earn a trailing commission from what they earn over the years and we’ll end up recouping the cost of the training eventually.’ Once that belief was established in my mind, the right people turned up to reflect that belief.
Then, one day someone said to me, ‘Why don’t you price coach training at $25,000 and just give it a try?’ At the time, I was sure I couldn’t get $1000 for it. I’d been in the industry for more than two decades and knew more about it than some Johnny-come-lately with crazy ideas. Right?
But I went away and the thought stuck with me. I asked myself, ‘Is this possible? What have I got to lose?’
And here’s where the big shift happened…
I began to question myself. I thought, ‘Maybe I’m not right, perhaps this is possible.’
Like I said above - once you start to believe in the possibility, magic can happen. ‘Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Thoughts are things!’, says Napoleon Hill in Think & Grow Rich.
When I went to my next conference as a keynote speaker I was convinced I’d crash and burn, but during the presentation, I told the audience that anyone who wanted to learn how to do what I do (success coaching) was welcome to stay at the end of the presentation. 20 people stayed and six of them purchased coach training on the spot. At $25,000 each.
The same thing happened the following week, this time with nine people choosing to pay for coach training. A month later, I had 23 people opt-in.
So what changed?
The audiences were similar. My talk was the same.
The difference - me.
I began to think ‘It’s possible!’ And after that, ‘If it were to happen - what would I have to do?’
Mindset Change 3: Dump Your Emotional Baggage
To be successful in business, we need to dump our emotional baggage. Many of our greatest business breakthroughs occur in the space between our ears. How we feel about ourselves and the world around us can spark or sabotage our success.
For each one of us, our single most powerful business tools are our minds, yet we so often let them be clogged up with old stories, resentment and ideas about how things ‘really are’, that there is little chance of success.
Many of our greatest business breakthroughs occur in the space between our ears.
The first step for anyone who wants to master their emotions is to understand that they are real. Emotions are an energy force that needs to be expressed, no matter their level of social acceptability.
We simply must find safe ways to express our emotions, rather than bottling them up. After all, you cannot think your way through a feeling.
Mindset Change 4: Face Your Fears
Far too many people go to their graves with songs that were never written, pictures that were never painted, businesses that were never built and troubled hearts that never experienced joy.
The reason? Fear. The problem is we become fearful about things that turn out to be nothing at all.
In psychology, a common breakdown of the time we spend on various worries goes something like this:
Things that will never happen - 40%
Things that are in the past - 30%
Needless concerns about health - 12%
Petty and miscellaneous cares - 10%
Real and legitimate concerns - 8%
Half of that eight per cent of worry assigned to real and legitimate concerns is about things we cannot influence. The solution is to face our fears head-on rather than trying to avoid or dispel them.
As crazy as it may seem, a fear of success often also prevents people from achieving their goals. You see, success involves change. The greater the success, the greater the change and change is often terrifying.
But playing it safe has inherent risks. If you never dare to fail (or succeed) your success will have a low ceiling. Most people underestimate their merit and ability to recover from failure, leading them to pass up valuable opportunities. The ability to fail big and fail often has been a mark of the spectacularly successful throughout history.
The ability to fail big and fail often has been a mark of the spectacularly successful throughout history.
In business, as in just about every other endeavour from sport to romance, it’s important to remember that you’ll miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take. Michael Jordan knew this. ‘There was never any fear for me, no fear of failure,’ he said. ‘If I miss a shot, so what?’
Mindset Change 5: Think Abundance
Someone with an abundance mentality believes there is plenty out there for everyone. In contrast, someone with a scarcity mindset subconsciously believes there’s only a finite amount of resources, and that they must protect their share.
In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey says that most people are deeply scripted in the scarcity mentality. ‘They see life as having only so much, as though there was only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else. People with a scarcity mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit…’
If you trust that there is enough success to go around; if you believe that others don’t need to fail for you to succeed; if you believe that life provides an abundance of opportunities, experiences and blessings, then one thing’s for sure: you’ll live a happier life if nothing else. And you may just achieve some success along the way.
Mindset Change 6: Surround Yourself With Success
Your peer group has a powerful effect on your life. If we grab five of your friends and ask them about their net worth or average incomes, we are likely to predict yours.
The smart thing to do is to mix and mingle with people in the next success bracket to you. If you are a plumber but have aspirations to become a property developer, then you need to find ways to seek out the people who have already achieved what you desire. Start to move in their orbit. You’ll gain subtle and subconscious lessons and ideas that can radically alter your thinking and your results.
One of our breakthroughs occurred because, after 25 years in business, Mary and I started to be influenced by people who thought and acted differently from us. They looked at our business and laughed, asking, 'Why do you do that?’ or ‘What is the point in this?' They wondered why we wanted to work so hard for so little reward and came up with crazy ideas that we were sure couldn’t possibly work.
Don’t feel embarrassed about the fact that you haven’t made it yet. Make your moves in increments. You don’t have to leap from laying bricks to schmoozing with multimillionaires.
But with time, their influence started to have a profound effect on us. We started to listen. We learned. We applied some of those crazy ideas. And guess what? They worked.
Don’t feel embarrassed about the fact that you haven’t made it yet. Make your moves in increments. You don’t have to leap from laying bricks to schmoozing with multimillionaires.
An apprentice bricklayer needs to learn how to lay bricks before he can start building skyscrapers. You can take it step by step, learning from people a little bit further ahead on the road to success.
Mindset Change 7: Leverage Yourself
A lever is a device that multiplies the effort applied. Archimedes once said: ‘If I had a lever long enough I could move the world.’
The concept applies to better output: if we apply enough leverage we can achieve better results. Successful business people don’t think in terms of saving time, they think of leveraging time. An even more precious asset - knowledge - can also be leveraged.
There are three key things you can leverage to be successful: your time, your knowledge, and the knowledge of others. The Internet revolution has created a twenty-first-century renaissance of ideas and innovation. And whether you’re living in New York or Newcastle, Venice or Vientiane, you have the same access to the sum of all human knowledge on the information superhighway.
With geographical isolation and the tyranny of distance now a memory, the world has become ‘flat’ and anything that can be done will be done. The only question is: will it be done by you or to you?
So, why wouldn’t you leverage someone’s knowledge about marketing to help you boost your business? Why not leverage someone’s years of research into demographics to pinpoint the best target market for your business? Why not tap into someone’s creative ideas to help you spur on your dreams?
‘You can’t know it all,’ advises a property developer. ‘No matter how smart you are, no matter how comprehensive your education, no matter how wide-ranging your experience, there is simply no way to acquire all the wisdom you need to make your business thrive.’
Mindset Change 8: Find Your Niche
Whether you’re selling your product at your local arts and crafts market or in the global marketplace of the internet, the principle is still the same: find your niche.
Many of today’s most successful companies have stopped marketing to the broad customer categories of the past and instead reach out to narrowly-focused groups, using a strategy called ‘niche marketing’.
Picking the right segment of the market is vital to not just your success, but your business survival. While niche marketing is often considered the domain of small, agile companies who can react to customer demands more quickly than the global giants, even the big end of town is embracing niche marketing, by refining and targeting their product offerings to different buyer groups.
Best Selling Book By Paul Blackburn
Resolving The Money Riddle
Your relationship with money is the number one factor when it comes to creating the wealth you want. Therefore your beliefs about money determine how difficult (or easy) it is for you to accumulate, invest and nurture what you have. If financial freedom is your ultimate goal, your mindset must come first.
Mindset Change 9: Stretch Your Prices
Marketing 101 - one of the easiest ways to up the perceived value of a product is to up its price. The fashion industry is a fantastic example - ask anyone dressed in designer labels why they’ve paid hundreds of dollars for a white T-shirt when they could have purchased a similar one for $10. They’ll tell you that their designer glad rags are higher quality, better made and will last longer. If they’re honest, they’ll say that they’re buying the image of the label and the prestige associated with wearing the uniform of an elite group. The confidence of wearing the Chanel suit or flaunting the Ray-Ban sunglasses is of genuine value to those people, affecting their behaviour and even their levels of success.
Do not differentiate yourself on price. Instead, find the target market that appreciates quality over price. The bargain hunters can go find the bargains. Do you want to be in business for the bargain hunters?
More often than not people are not looking for products and services: they are looking for a result. It may be a greater sense of convenience, safety, confidence, status, pleasure, accomplishment or self-esteem. Whatever it is, it’s up to you to determine how your idea solves their problems, and then to communicate to them in a way that makes it clear that your product will make their lives better. If you do that well enough, the price won’t concern your customers.
Mindset Change 10: Work On The Business, Not In It
Most businesses don’t fail to thrive because the owners don’t put in the hard yards. They fail because the business owners work too hard - working in the business, rather than on the business.
I know this from first-hand experience. Mary and I spent the best part of two decades rolling from one gruelling workshop to the next, thinking that the more seminars we held, the more successful our business would become. And each year, we’d feel like we were making progress, only to discover at the end of the financial year that the results were the same as they’d always been.
What finally dawned on us was this: while we were busy in our business, there was no time to look for innovations to take our business to the next level. There was no time to dream and scheme. No time to think expansively about the possibilities. No time to instigate new methods or marketing tactics. And I know that we’re not alone - a typical small business has more things to get done in a day than there is time available. In response, we all get out our to-do lists and start ticking off the tasks.
Small business owners fall into the ‘DIY trap’ - where they must do everything themselves - from handling customer complaints to balancing the books, to un-jamming the photocopier. And what happens?
Most businesses don’t fail to thrive because the owners don’t put in the hard yards. They fail because the business owners work too hard - working in the business, rather than on the business.
They rapidly become ensnared in the urgency, the repetition, the daily grind of the business. They find that they don’t own a business, they own a job. It may be a high paying job. It may be a flexible job. It may even be a fun job. But it’s still a job. Very soon, the business becomes a trap with no escape route. And it’s very difficult to be a dreamer when you can’t get out.
In his excellent book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey tells us that we drive our lives based on urgency, rather than importance. The most effective way to change your beliefs about time may be, as Stephen Covey suggests, to “put first things first”. This means making the most important things in your life, the most important things in your life.
How many people on their deathbed wish they spent more time at the office? We are constantly making choices about the way we spend our time and then living with the consequences of those choices. Unfortunately, most of us don’t like the consequences because there’s a gap between how we’re spending our time and what we feel is important in our lives.
What’s the solution?
We need to look at the underlying beliefs that produce these results. Out of these beliefs come our attitudes and behaviours and, therefore, our results.
To avoid learning the hard way, find time for activities that will revitalise and refresh both you and your business. While you need rest and relaxation, you also need to extract yourself from the day-to-day operations of your business to sit with your feet up and think about the big picture. You need to be the person who builds, rebuilds, tweaks, tests and thinks about the direction of your company. You need to be the person who prepares your business for growth.
To avoid learning the hard way, find time for activities that will revitalise and refresh both you and your business.
So that’s it…
Those 10 changes in mindset produced a quantum leap in our business.
Try putting even half of them in place for yourself and I have no doubt you will see extraordinary results.
