What Your Boss Doesn't Know... Ancient Roman Success Secrets... Using Your Imagination... and Much, Much More...
By Michael Masterson
In today's essay, I give you a challenge. And no matter how hard you have to work to meet it, you're going to thank me when you do. Also in this issue, I reveal a vital element in your back-end marketing that you're probably missing. And I show you how the Food Pyramid is a monument to special interests, not nutrition. Later in the week... Clayton Makepeace explains why imagining yourself as a 70-year-old man can drastically improve your ad copy. Brian Edmondson, Director of our Internet Money Club, shows you seven simple steps to building your own money-making online business the ETR way. And you can do it working just part-time. Robert Ringer talks about a subject near and dear to my heart. In fact, I wrote an entire book on this success secret. Alexander Green, of Spiritual Wealth, tells us what one Roman emperor knew about success and living a good and just life. This week's essay are all very strong. It's one of the best weeks I can remember in a while. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- What Do You Want Your Outcome to Be? - Becoming more disciplined and more purposeful are two ways to make sure you accomplish your most important goals. You can learn dozens more strategies for achieving your dreams with ETR's Epiphany Alliance personal success program. Get the details here.
"There is nothing more demoralizing than a small but adequate income." Edmund Wilson Your Boss Doesn't Know It Yet... but You're Getting a Big Raise Next Year
By Michael Masterson
Let's start with some simple arithmetic. Joe Ordinary is 25 years old, makes $28,000 a year, and gets ordinary 3 percent to 4 percent yearly increases. Over a 40-year career, he makes approximately $2.3 million. Elwood Extraordinary is not satisfied with ordinary. He follows the advice he gets in Early to Rise every morning and averages a 6 percent increase in wages over the same 40-year period. By the time Elwood retires, he's earned about $4.3 million.
As you can see, increasing your income -- even by as little as 3 percent or 4 percent a year -- can make a giant difference over the course of a lifetime. Imagine what's going to happen when you do even better than that! Today, I want to talk about how you can get BIG salary increases -- double, triple, or even quadruple what your peers get. And to get your New Year started right, I want you to set a goal for yourself to increase your salary by at least 10 percent. First, a few words about how salaries work in a normal, free-market economy... Businesses exist to make profits. As an employee of a business, it's your job to perform a function that helps produce those profits. The more important your work is seen as being in terms of creating profits, the greater your salary is likely to be. Thus, salespeople generally make more than accountants and profit-center managers make more than engineers. In other words, if you want to get your boss to pay you more, you have to make yourself more valuable to him. So let's talk about how you're going to make that happen. Make a list of all the ways you are currently valuable to your boss. Then make another list of things you can do to increase your value. That list will be a good source of ideas for you. In January, for example, you might make it a point to get your boss his most important report a day earlier than normal. In February, you might tell him he can delegate to you the sales call he hates to make. As the months roll by, your boss will recognize that you are operating at a higher level. He may be surprised at first -- even feel a little threatened, if you aren't going about it diplomatically. But he will appreciate how you are making his work life easier and more productive. And he'll begin to depend on you. Eventually -- and this may happen in four months or it may take a year -- he will see you as an entirely different and more important employee than any of the others he deals with. He will begin to think of you as indispensable. At that point, you will have no trouble getting your 10 percent raise. You might do much better than that. Here's a key point: The habits you have to develop now in order to get yourself that 10 percent raise will be the same habits that will help you double or triple your salary in the future. Superstar employees don't do a hundred things better than ordinary, good employees. They usually do just a handful. You'll discover and perfect your handful next year in seeking to please your boss, and you'll be able to use those new skills to go all the way to the top. One caution: To get the raise you want, it's not enough to do a better job and make your boss's life easier. Sometimes, you have to ASK FOR IT. You have to promote yourself not only when your salary review comes up but throughout the year. (Remember, it's your responsibility to make sure your efforts get noticed.) Another caution: Sometimes, what you have to do to please your boss is not the best thing for the business. Some businesses -- and this happens more often with larger, corporate businesses than with growing enterprises -- become politically divided. In such businesses, it's possible to get a job working for someone who cares more about himself and his own power than about the company's future. If you have such a boss, you have to be a bit duplicitous. You have to do everything you can to please him. At the same time, you have to find a mentor at your boss's level (or above) whose interests are aligned with those of the company. Work to please your mentor at the same time as you work to please your boss. By pleasing your boss, you'll get your big raise next year. And by pleasing your mentor, you eventually will be able to abandon your boss's rotten ship and secure a much better position. The greater your contribution to your company's success, the higher the salary you will demand. And the best way to be a big contributor is to practice a financially valuable skill. There aren't a whole lot of financially valuable business skills to choose from. Though it's good to know how to analyze a spreadsheet or engineer a new design, if you want to make dramatically more money than you're making now, you are almost certainly going to have to start doing at least one of the three things businesses traditionally pay big bucks for: selling, marketing, and/or managing profits. Yes, I know you've heard it from me before. And, no, I won't be angry with you if you decide to stick with what you already know. I'm just pointing out that, in going after the goal of increasing your income, you might consider changing your profession. It really will jet-propel your progress. But even if you choose not to do that, you can and should be able to boost your salary by 10 percent next year. And here is how you are going to do it: 1. Make a resolution to be more valuable to your boss and/or your business. Do it now. Write it down. 2. Make a list of all the ways you are currently valuable to your boss and/or your business. 3. Make a list of a dozen or so ways that you can increase your value to your boss and/or business. And pick at least one of them as your objective for January. 4. Figure out some way to communicate to your boss or to your company's president that you want to make a bigger contribution this year. (No need to tell him you want a higher salary. He will "get" that" without your saying so.) If you set for yourself the modest goal of getting a 10 percent raise next year -- and get it. And then get an increase of just half that amount for the next 10 or 15 years... you'll be worth millions more when you retire than you will be worth if you do nothing. So start with that 10 percent goal. And develop the habit of continuing to make yourself more valuable. Don't brag, but do promote yourself. Then watch your income grow. P.S. Good for you! You've just made a commitment to get a big raise next year. And I'm sure you have some other big goals for 2010 -- maybe losing weight, starting a business, or learning a financially valuable skill. Of course, it can be tough to go it alone and stay motivated. But if you had a coach pushing you forward, your chances of success would increase exponentially. We have such a coach here at ETR. His name is Bob Cox. And he's mentored four men who went on to become billionaires. Find out more about Bob and his goal-achievement program here. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Break the "Rules" of Selling. No, Throw Them Out - No pitching, no schmoozing, no selling, and even no customers. With this business model, you don't need any of that. And you could make an "extra" full-time salary by going about your day.
Special Opportunities for Your VIP Customers
By Michael Masterson
A good way to increase the lifetime value of your customers is to sell them products and services that are outside the scope of what you can deliver yourself. An example: Dry Creek Vineyard recently sent me, as a member of their VIP Club, an invitation to participate in a cruise. The promotion was simple -- a personalized letter from Kim and Don Wallace, the "proprietors" of Dry Creek, explaining that they were "reaching out" to me about an opportunity that they thought I "might be interested in." In this case, it's a first-class Mediterranean cruise aboard the Silversea, topped off with a few days of watching some of the America's Cup race. I'm not a big cruise person, and I have no interest in yacht racing, but I feel pretty good about the invitation. It seems appropriate for the exclusive, upscale personality that Dry Creek has attributed to its VIP Club. The accompanying brochure has the high-quality appearance I would expect from the VIP Club. And, of course, there is a substantial discount for VIP Club members. Overall, it's a well-crafted package. Despite the fact that I own two travel businesses that run tours and cruises I can never find time for, I am almost tempted to go on this one. And if I did, they would probably earn a year's worth of wine profits from that single sale. Dry Creek Vineyard is good at back-end marketing. They follow the most important rules: - Acknowledge the first sale with a thank you note and a value-driven up-sale.
- Follow that with a lifetime or continuity offer.
- Continue to sell throughout the life of the customer relationship -- high-priced products that you own as well as others from affiliates.
But make sure each sale is consistent with the image established by the first sale. Think about your own back-end marketing. Do your marketing people follow these rules? If not, you have an opportunity to increase your profits. As we've said before in ETR, you need to have high-quality front-end products that attract new customers. But if you don't develop a strong lineup of back-end offerings, you'll have a hard (if not impossible) time keeping those customers you worked so hard to get. In his last THB Undercover, Total Health Breakthroughs' Managing Editor Jon Herring exposed the idiocy of the government-recommended Food Pyramid. If you trust the government for advice about health, this will edify you. If you don't, it will amuse you. In either case, read it here... In the early 1980s, nutrition expert Luise Light, MS, Ed.D., was teaching at New York University when she was recruited to work for the Department of Agriculture. As the director of Dietary Guidance and Nutrition Education Research, Light was asked to create a new Food Guide. The idea was to replace the "Basic Four Food Groups" with something fresh and more memorable. Luise Light and her team developed the concept of the "Food Pyramid." Her version of the pyramid promoted a diet based on fruits and vegetables. Lean meats and fish came next. And grains were placed near the top, where only limited amounts were recommended. As an expert in nutrition, Light knew that the body processes breads, cereals, and starchy foods just like sugar. That is how the Food Pyramid was originally submitted to the authorities within the USDA. The USDA loved the idea of the Food Pyramid. And they were thrilled with the simplicity of the design. But when Light saw "her" pyramid in its final form, she was shocked... (To read the rest, go here.) Far too many entrepreneurs don't keep their eye on the prize. They go to meetings, make phone calls, talk to staff and contractors... flying by the seat of their pants. They aren't clear about the specific outcome they want from each of these interactions. The solution? It's simple. Before you start any activity, get into the habit of asking yourself "What do I want my outcome to be?" To make asking this question a habit, put visual reminders where you can't miss them. Write it in your daily schedule, on a Post-it on your desk, on an index card that you carry in your briefcase, and on a label on the bottom of your computer monitor. Constantly seeing these reminders makes it easy to develop a new way of thinking. And anything you do consistently quickly develops into a habit. [Ed. Note: Rich Schefren's businesses have done over $35 million in sales. A renowned business strategist, Rich coaches many of today's top Internet gurus and service providers on streamlining their businesses while exploding their profits. Learn more at www.StrategicProfits.com.]
Latest News -
You've heard a lot about the Internet Money Club in recent weeks. You've heard from Brian Edmondson, the Director of IMC, and from Julie Broad, one of his students. We're closing the door to new applications this Thursday. So if you haven't yet taken a serious look at IMC, do it today.
"Thank you for motivating me during this difficult period of my life."
PT -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended----------------------------------------------------- How's Your Back End? - As Michael just explained, back-end marketing can make or break your business. In his book Ready, Fire, Aim, he gives you a detailed strategy for implementing a killer back-end marketing program. Every entrepreneur -- in any business -- who wants long-term profits should read this book.
Today's Words That Work: Duplicitous Duplicitous (doo-PLIS-ih-tus) -- from the Latin for "double" -- means two-faced; intentionally deceptive. Example (as used by Michael Masterson today): "Some businesses... become politically divided. In such businesses, it's possible to get a job working for someone who cares more about himself and his own power than about the company's future. If you have such a boss, you have to be a bit duplicitous."
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