Citation

Church, Matt, and Peter Cook. The Thought Leaders Practice. Thought Leaders, 2016, https://www.amazon.com/Thought-Leaders-Practice-Matt-Church/dp/0977572498/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=thought+leaders+practice&qid=1618715620&sr=8-1.

Quotes

• species:
• themes:

Collations

Literature notes

01 - Practice Vs. Business

Practice

• Based on the expertise of the principal
• Runs top down in a very hierarchical triangle
• Everything gets created and deployed from the principal’s mind
• A great team is also essential
• The players are very much interdependent

Infopreneurial Practice

• Everything built around the subject-matter expertise (ideas) of the principal

Expert

• Consultant
• Speaker
• Author
• Trainer
• Mentor
• Facilitator
• Coach
• A combination of these

Practice Finances

• Low start-up costs
• Funded from the cash flow created by the practice
• Needs to operate with low running costs and high margins
• You can’t sell a practice so you need to be making good money along the way

The Principal

• The principal never gets replaced
• Job is to think, sell, and deliver even when a support staff is added
• You have to be prepared to work hard especially at the start and you have to love what you do
• ::Practitioners pursue fulfillment first before freedom.::
• ::In a practice, it is all about you, your brand, and your name.::
• Your practice should literally be built around www.yourname.com

Practice

Business

Small team

Large team

Low start up cost

High start up cost

Based around expert

Based on systems

Has no value outside founder

Has value outside founder

Can’t be sold

Can be sold

High profit margin

Low profit margin

Low overheads

High overheads

Can be cash-flow funded

Requires start-up funding

Highly agile and responsive to market

Less agile and less responsive

Leverage positioning (be professionally famous)

Leverage media exposure (be famous)

In the game of trading time for money (with the goal of increasing price of time to move us up the belts)

Stop trading time for money

Business advice is different from practice advice

• ::If you’re playing the practice game, you need to understand how it differs from the common small business model. Take advice that only applies to practices, not businesses.::

3 main functions of a thought leader practitioner

1. ::Think - Create the intellectual property and turn it into activities that will make a contribution to people.::
2. ::Sell - Get in front of your target market and invite them to participate in one of your offerings.::
3. ::Deliver - Deliver your services and products.::

Upside of a practice from a business

• People follow people.
• A business led by a convincing and recognizable individual has a much greater chance of cutting through the clutter of modern marketing and reaching the hearts and minds of its customers.

02 - Cluster Strategy

Map

::Practices are tactical.::

Businesses are strategic.

Agility in a practice

• ::Practice should be built around a series of profitable projects.::
• ::Each project is a profit center in its own right.::
• ::Know your overarching context.::
• ::Run your practice so that the projects are profitable and pleasurable.::
• ::Agility prevents us from becoming bored doing the same thing over and over.::
• ::It’s brand YOU that matters in a practice.::
• ::Each year you can have different projects that you launch to new or existing markets that you have identified will benefit from your IP.::
• ::Wherever there is a problem that your level of thinking can affect positively, go there.::
• ::Don’t do so in a scattered, haphazard way; rather, move from one concept to the next in a way that respects your highest context.::

Cluster strategy

• Helps practices make money by organizing scarce resources and filtering attention into a series of specific focal points.
• ::A cluster is a combination of message, market and method.::
• Clusters are key in moving up through the belts.
• Everything we do is based on the cluster strategy.

How to get to Black Belt

• 6 clusters bringing in $10,000 a month each
• ::Build your first cluster making sure that it is stable and spinning before you put up your second plate.::
• In reality it never looks exactly like this but this is a helpful template to keep in mind.
• ::Get to Black Belt one belt at a time.::
• ::Work up one mode at a time, gradually adding in others as you grow as a thought leader.::
• ::Different modes build on each other (book -> speaking -> training -> mentoring).::
• Journey to black belt is three years.

Every cluster is an experiment

• ::Launch a cluster every 90 days (every quarter).::
• ::Launch a cluster as an experiment.::
• ::Your hypothesis is “these people will pay this much money for this offering.”::
• ::Then go to the market and test it.::
• ::Expect 50% chance to succeed.::
• ::Don’t get attached to the results.::
• ::They were only hypotheses providing feedback.::
• ::Those that don’t work, fail them quickly, quietly, and cheaply.::
• ::The ones that succeed, keep them going, generating $10,000 a month.::
• 3 years = launched 12 clusters, 6 of them succeeded.

Message

• ::You must have a folder full of ideas (Intellectual Property Snapshots)::
• ::The folder is titled by some abstract context word.::
• ::All ideas inside the folder are subsets of this big context word.::

Market

• ::You must have a step-by-step process that helps you build engagement with a person or group in your target market.::
• ::The process must wealth through the problems that your market experiences daily.::
• ::The process must link how your expertise might eliminate their problems.::

Method

• ::How you deliver your idea to the marketplace.::
• ::6 modes: speaker, author, trainer, mentor, facilitator, and coach.::
• ::Is there a particular mode most suited to your market?::
• ::What modes have you already established yourself in?::
• ::Select your modes based on the correct next mode in your practice rollout strategy.::

Intersection 1 - Message + Market = Problems

• ::A deep understanding of the problems your market experiences::
• ::3 levels: (1) problems expressed publicly, (2) problems expressed when admitting a deeper fear, and (3) problems you see as an expert.::
• ::Move through these in order. Start with what is comfortable for the receiver.::
• ::Smarten your ideas down. Connect your expertise to the world of the novice. Take what you know and articulate it in a way that makes sense to others.::

Intersection 2 - Market + Method = Preferences

• ::Your preference, and your market’s preference.::
• ::Certain markets have a preference for certain communication methods. Find that out.::
• ::3 communication techniques: (1) tell moments - stories and examples, (2) show moments - ideas and principles, and (3) ask moments - power of enquiry to lead people through your ideas.::
• ::Some will want to be told, some shown, some asked.::
• ::Based on your preference: (1) be closer to people by using all modes or (2) distanced from people by speaking at conferences and mentoring executive leaders.::

Intersection 3 - Message + Method = Perspective

• ::3 dimensions of an idea: (1) content (concrete), (2) concept (specific), and (3) context (abstract).::
• ::We build these 3 into a framework called an IP Snapshot (purpose: "think once and use often”).::

Tell a story.

Content Speaking

When keynote speaking, be sure to focus on content. For example, use stories that inspire, tell the relevance of your ideas, unpack a three-step process, share facts and statistics.

Show an idea.

Concept

Training

When training or running a workshop, be sure to focus on the concept. For example, draw a model, make a point, present a case study of how the idea has worked already for someone else.

Ask a question.

Context

Coaching

When coaching people, be sure to focus on context. For example, ask questions that elicit content, get them to tell stories from their own experience, guide the conversation with your own model or metaphor.

03 - The Ten Year Plan

Map

You can’t sell a practice.

::You need to keep your expenses in both the practice and your lifestyle down.::

::Invest significantly in appreciating assets outside of your practice.::

::To build wealth and not just your income, you need to be effective at managing your money and growing your investments while you are building your practice.::

Financial independence

• The real financial goal behind building your practice.
• Means you have enough money invested wisely in a diverse portfolio so that you can live off your investments for the rest of your life and never have to work again if you don’t want to.
• You don’t need to retire. You just need to have the freedom to do so.
• Your passive income that you make from your investments exceeds your living expenses.

3 things that dictate how quickly you reach financial independence

1. How much you earn
2. How much you spend
3. How well you invest

To reach financial independence sooner

• Earn more
• Spend less
• Invest better
• Ideally, all three

Step 1 - Earn more

• Ensure that the income into your practice translates to take-home income for you.
• Keep the base costs of your practice low ($250,000 for a black belt practice)
• Ensure that most of your money ends up in your pocket.

Step 2 - Spend less

• Create a substantial gap between what you earn and what you spend.

Step 3 - Invest better

• Invest that gap money wisely.

5 million and 10 years

• ::5 million is enough money for about anybody to be comfortably financially independent.::
• ::10 years is how long you have to run a black-belt practice for you to get there.::

How to get to 5 million in 10 years?

1. ::Get to 720k a year within 3 years.::
2. ::Maintain that level for 10 years.::
3. ::Keep overheads down.::
4. ::Spend less.::
5. ::Invest the amount until it reaches 5 million.::

Top 3 characteristics of millionaires

• Lived well below their means
• Prioritized financial independence over high social status
• Allocated time, energy, and money efficiently in ways conducive to building wealth (don’t leave it to someone else)

High income wasn’t one of the characteristics.

Rule of Thirds

• ::One third goes to overheads.::
• ::One third goes to your expenses.::
• ::One third gets invested.::

How to invest

• Choose between active investment strategies and passive investment strategies (low-cost index funds for unsophisticated investors as per Warren Buffet’s advice).
• Pick financial advisors that made their money from the successful implementation of their strategies.

04 - The Power of Expertise

Map

::It’s not enough that you know what you know.::

::You have to be able to share what you know in a way that engages people.::

::Think once and deliver often.::

::Reduce the need to reinvent over and over.::

Goal

• ::Build your intellectual property in a way that is able to be delivered in multiple ways.::
• ::Whatever your IP is, it must be packaged and delivered into any one of the six core delivery modes available to you.::
• A message that can be made into a book, a speech, and a mentoring session.
• ::Quality of idea first before size of market.::
• ::Build a bank of ideas to generate more ideas and sell them to different markets in a host of different ways.::
• ::Take a message and target a new market or make a new message and target a new market.::

How to build your intellectual property

• ::Start capturing a number of thoughts, articles, and book summaries on your topics of expertise and put them in individual folders to help provide you with more background and to create a working library that you can continue referring back to.::

How to capture the areas of your expertise

1. ::Write the individual topics you’re interested in.::
2. ::5-7 individual ideas or topics that you want to explore is a good place to start.::
3. ::Identify the correlation between the topics.::
4. ::There might be an order or hierarchy to them.::
5. ::Or each of these topics is a subset of another topic.::

Deck of 52

• ::1 IP folder must have at least 52 distinct ideas that are fully formed and fully thought out around a specific topic that you want to become an expert in.::
• ::The quality of the thinking must ensure full spectrum thinking.::
• Some ideas will be incredible, inspiring others.
• Some ideas will not be as fabulous (not as clear, not as valuable, or simply support the bigger ideas).
• ::Go for quantity and identify as many thoughts around a topic as possible.::
• ::Then improve these ideas using the IP Snapshot process.::

Quality of Thinking

• Commercial PhD
• ::Your quality of thinking must earn you the right to identify yourself as an expert because of the quality of thought that is relevant, thorough, elegant and unique.::
• The conviction that is gained from creating this main ideas can cement your expertise at an even deeper level.

Position yourself in multiple domains

• Do not stick to one domain of expertise.
• ::Create 3-7 domains of expertise.::
• ::Then develop a strategy to position yourself in different markets using different delivery modes to share this expertise.::

Start with your message not your market

• ::Dedicate yourself to crafting a compelling message and shaping your ideas so that people see the quality of thought behind your work.::
• ::Coming from message give you the best chance to build your thought leadership around true expertise.::
• ::Treat your ideas as continual works in progress.::

Target messages with these outcomes

1. ::Relevant - meets a need and solves a problem::
2. ::Thorough - has depth of meaning that stands on its own::
3. ::Elegant - captured in a way that is simple and clean::
4. ::Unique - adds insights or value in new ways::

::As you move through these four, your idea gains value.::

Aspire for uniqueness

• ::Discover your unique perspective then use that to inform your great ideas.::
• ::The essence of who you are needs to shine in your thought leadership.::
• ::Position your ideas so that they are congruent with your true nature.::
• ::Create an identity that supports your profitable practice and influences your ideas.::

Aspire for full-spectrum ideas

• ::Your messages must appeal to many different thinking styles.::
• ::Your messages must be applicable in many different situations.::
• ::Logical + creative::
• ::Specific examples + high-order contextual ideas::
• ::Develop your ideas so that they are mode agnostic::
• ::Balance robust information and simplicity.::
• ::Make ideas that seem so simple but are actually well-planned and crafted.::

What makes you a thought leader

• ::Your ability to capture your expertise::
• ::Your ability to share it with others in an easily understandable manner::

3 message outcomes to target

• ::Clarity - accessible to most people most of the time::
• ::Flexible - can be used repeatedly in different forms::
• ::Integrity - received by others in a way that retains the original meaning::

::The IP Snapshot helps you achieve these 3 outcomes::

3 layers of an idea

• ::Content - stuff you say that is specific::
• ::Concept - the point you are making::
• ::Context - the big picture theme that the idea is a part of::

::Each idea or point should be able to be captured on a single sheet of paper.::

It creates a depth around your ideas and forces you to create messages with substance and balance.

05 - Intellectual Property Snapshots

Map

Intellectual Propert Snapshots

• A system to capture and develop your ideas.
• A process that allows you to take a fragment of an idea and develop it to a level that reaches a higher level of thinking.
• Lets you capture ideas without worrying too much about the specific applications of those ideas. That comes later.
• Well worked out ideas can be repurposed for a variety of different markets.

5 Components of an IP Snapshot

1. Model (for logical context)
2. Metaphor (for creative content)
3. Declarative Point (for central concept)
4. Case Study (for logical content)
5. Story (for creative content)

Context

• The big picture representation of your idea.
• The architecture of the idea.
• The framework that all the detail will be built around.
• Provides a broad framework to give people a map to a message or line of thought.
• Create context by creating a visual model of your ideas.
• Diagram, model, metaphor, allegory or applicable quotes.

Models (left brain)

• Geometric in nature.
• Consists of squares, lines, circles, triangles, pentagons, and graphs
• A visual representation of your key idea
• The word above each model is simply a starting point for consideration, to assist you in quickly identifying which dynamics can be described by which model.
• Helps you make more than one point.
• Helps define the conversational boundaries of any discussion.
• Capture and clipboard every model you see. Study the anatomy of models, tracking their structure, their design and their intent.

Metaphors (right brain)

• Object- and activity-based
• Can be sourced from real life and everyday examples

Examples of metaphors

• Instruments (measuring and feedback): compass, clock, thermometer, map
• Transport (movement and effort): boat, car, train, plane, rocket
• Creating (art and combining): painting, building, sculpting
• Professions (quality and process): medicine, law, accounting
• Trade: plumber, carpenter
• Handyman: plumber
• Nature (growth and order): spider’s web, pool of water, bamboo, trees
• Universe (scale and relationships): stars, orbit, gravity
• Sport (roles and responsibilities): positions for players, game comparison
• Interests: make a list of your hobbies and interests

Other tools of context

• Icons
• Fables
• Idea hierarchies
• Stacked metaphors

Concept

• Where you give ideas specific meaning
• The point around which all your models, metaphors, case studies and stories pivot
• Be clear on the point of your idea (why is this important for others to know)
• Summarize your idea in one or two simple sentences that explain the whole point.
• Create several different ways of delivering this idea.

2 parts of making a point

1. Declarative statement

• Something you believe to be true
• Something that needs to be realized by others
• A specific point is like a title of a book

2. A one sentence explanation of what the declarative statement means

Palette layers

• After capturing your idea, run it through several other palette layers
• How might it be said simply, or inspiringly, or practically, or wisely?
• Say the same thing in different ways.

6 linguistic palettes to use

1. Formal
2. Casual
3. Simple
4. Inspiring
5. Practical
6. Sagacious

Content

• The detailed and practical section of the IP Snapshot
• Case studies
• Stories
• Gather examples, facts, stories and other detail elements to support or explain your point.

Case Studies (left brain)

• Logical stories
• Contain facts and figures that provide an analytical perspective with data and information
• Has a real world vibe
• Factual story telling
• Make your point with real concrete examples

3 areas of a case study

1. Incident - describe what happened
2. Point - what the incident really means
3. Benefit - how you can use this information

Example

1. Share some statistics around a particular issue (incident).
2. Describe what is actually causing these statistics (point).
3. Describe how this information can help your audience (benefit).

Case study strategies

• Set the scene - explain why the case study matters to the audience.
• Ensure relevance - ensure that the case study you are sharing is something which people can relate to on a personal level.
• Integrate statistics

Other logical content tools

• A step by step process
• A set of statistics that create meaning
• A graph or table
• An infographic
• A book reference that supports the idea

Stories (right brain)

• Vignettes that carry a message which connects with and inspires others
• Tale with ups and downs -> happy ending
• Have a moral that was memorable

How to use stories

• Feature people or organizations that people admire (admiration causes open-mindedness).
• Relive the story: become the characters, speak as they speak, bring it to life
• Personal + Topical + Historical
• Be careful of sharing stories about yourself that make you the hero
• Share a personal story that is self-deprecating or humorous

Other right brain content tools

• Photos of actual places and people
• Biographical pieces around a relevant quote
• Movie extracts, scripts that make the point
• Songs or poems played, recited shared
• Show a video that supports the point

How to unpack an IP snapshot

• Adapt your delivery depending upon your experience and that of your audience.
• Start by delivering at a contextual level before going into the detail of what you are trying to communicate.
• Give people a visual map to follow (model) or a specific context for them to be thinking around (metaphor).
• Present your ideas from left to right - start by presenting with a logical emphasis first and an emotional emphasis second.

Left to right presentation steps

1. Share your model - show the logical framework for people to follow.
2. Share a metaphor - engage the audience with a more abstract and creative perspective.
3. Share the point you are trying to make.
4. Share a case study - provide the practical and analytical detail.
5. Share a story - demonstrate what the point really means + engage the audience at a more emotional or personal level.

06 - Capture Your Genius

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Method 1: Identify what you know already

1. Generate at least 5-7 things that you know to be true about the topic and place these on a wall.
2. Move them around and look for any correlation that you can find between the ideas that can assist you in generating your idea.
3. Try to identify the big word that is at the essence of the point that you are trying to make.
4. Start creating models that show the relationship between a number of the concepts that you are thinking around.
5. Look at possible metaphors and case studies and stories to complete your IP snapshot.

Method 2: Use quotes for inspiration

1. Identify a quote that you find inspirational or sums up the point that you want to explore and develop ideas around.
2. Refer back to this original thinker and show how you are expanding on their initial thought when creating your IP snapshots and layering your content.
3. Google these quotes or principles to identify what others have said about this topic.
4. Start expanding on this simple thought with your additional ideas and thoughts. Use method 1 to do this.

Method 3: Conduct a literature review of best sellers

Why bestsellers?

• Best sellers have captured an idea in a way that others understand, admire and support.

Why literature review?

• Someone that is an expert needs to have background knowledge and understanding of how others view the same particular idea.

3 categories of best sellers to review

• Current - most popular at a given moment, leading edge or trends, current positioning
• Contemporary - enduring, not current and not yet classic, have captured the essence of an idea that others remember and admire
• Classic - cornerstone books, initiated a particular line of thinking, content may not be relevant but essence of the ideas often provide value

How to read a book to generate your ideas

1. Identify the books you will read
2. Read and highlight the relevant points
3. Ask yourself: “What do I think about this?”
4. Original thinking will come from a “yes AND” or a “yes BUT” place
5. When reading a book, have two pads of paper available. One pad = AND, other pad = BUT
6. If an idea is something you agree with and want to expand on, capture it in the AND pad.
7. If an idea is something you disagree with or want to contradict, capture it on the BUT pad.
8. Add to the books you read by contributing to them or contradicting them.
9. Take your ideas and capture them as key points that you want to expand.
10. Use the IP snapshot to start filling in your structure around these ideas.

Attribution and anti-plagiarism

• Thought leaders need to come up with original ideas.
• Their intellectual property needs to bring new thinking to a field of expertise.

Why an anti-plagiarism is good for you

• An anti-plagiarism culture means great thinkers are more likely to share if their ideas are attributed.
• Attribution creates a base for new thinkers to create their own original ideas.
• If you want to advance your thinking, become obsessed with attribution.
• Your status and credibility go up in the room
• Your own creativity and original thinking go up a notch
• Great thinkers begin to share your ideas in exchange

A script to use when attributing

• “My Friend [insert thought leader’s name] is an expert on [insert thought leader’s positioning message]. He created a brilliant framework called [insert the name of IP piece as expressed by the source]. You can learn more about it from [insert website or book title, etc]. I’d love to share it with you today.

Matt Church's strategy

• Name three experts and their thinking.
• Name three amazing books or points of reference.
• This strengthens and places your ideas as original.
• This builds advocacy around your ideas.

7-step process for building your ideas

1. Create a list

• Write a numbered list of all the things you know, talk on, or may like to share with others.
• If they are across several fields of expertise, build a list for each field of expertise.
• Think of these ideas as simple bumper stickers that concisely capture the essence of your idea.

2. Identify idea clusters

• Assure that each idea has only 3 central points around it.
• If an idea has more than 3, that is a cluster. Break them down to ideas.

3. Have a point

• You should be able to summarize your idea as one or two simple sentences.
• Be clear on the point or concept of your idea.
• You must be a able to deliver this concept in different ways of saying it.

4. Make it a big idea

• Represent the idea broadly so it is non-specific and can be related to by as many people as possible (idea context).
• Diagram, model, metaphor, allegory, quotes

5. Support your point

• Gather examples, facts, stories, case studies and other detail elements to support or explain your point (content).
• Balance this to cover both left and right brain thinking.

6. Create a folder system

• Document the idea in a searchable, retrievable system.
• A minimum of 52 individual thoughts for each folder.

7. Customize content, not context

• Constantly review your folders particularly in the content area.
• If you clearly think out concepts and can represent them in any context, all you need to worry about is what content you will use to create a connection with your audience.
• Getting good at this allows you to repeat key ideas over and over, with people hearing them again as if for the first time.

07 - Clicking With Value

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08 - Selling Thought Leadership

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09 - Power Of Positioning

Map

10 - Diversifying Delivery Modes

Map

11 - Sequencing Your Channels

Map

12 - Pursuit of Mastery

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13 - The Revenue Ladder

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14 - White Belt

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Monthly revenue: $10,000

Annual revenue: $120,000

Getting to White Belt means you are already commercially successful

Focus: Decision

1. Decide that you will be building a thought leadership practice.

• Are you playing this game?
• Do you have something worth saying?
• Are you prepared to extend the thinking in your field?
• Do you want to commercialize your thinking and deliver it through the six modes of speaker, author, trainer, mentor, facilitator and coach?
• Are you prepared to have your name up in lights?
• Are you inspired by the idea of getting paid extremely well to do work you love, with people you like, the way you want?
• Do you have the patience for a get-rich-slow scheme?
• Do you have the stamina and the resilience to put in the hard yards required to get there?

2. Decide to focus on one market and one message.

• Focusing on the area of expertise that you want to be known for.
• Decide which message and which market.
• Put the alternatives on hold (we will add them at later levels).
• It’s not commercially smart to do all things at once.
• Focus on improving a handful of techniques that you begin to master before you try to do everything else.
• Resist the temptation to do too many “higher level” activities that are built on the foundation you establish at lower levels.

3. Decide that you will aspire to get to black belt.

5 things to do at White Belt

1. Commit to black belt

• Make the decision to be mentally tough.
• Make the decision to do the work.
• Have a clear picture of what you want and why you want it.
• Be open to how you get what you want.
• Do not limit yourself to the past.
• Do not be slow to adjust your approach.
• Learn, change and dig deep to achieve the results you want.
• Do whatever it takes.
• #WWABBD - What would a Black Belt do? (Assume a mindset of a Black Belt before you get there).

2. Choose your message, market and method.

• Get to $10,000 a month using one cluster of message, market and method.
• Once achieved, get to $20,000 a month by adding another cluster of message, market and method.
• Build your practice one cluster at a time.
• Clusters must have sustainable revenue.
• To get to White Belt, you need to choose your first cluster: your first combination of message, market and method.
• Be very attractive to just one market.

How to pick a message

• Think about what you know and whose problems that solves. (Problems that keep people awake at night).
• Make your message about what problem you can solve for your target market.

How to pick a market

• Pick a market you know.
• Pick a market you have some connection with.

How to pick a method

• Start simple.
• Select a delivery mode that you are comfortable with.
• Coach is often the easiest to activate as each person you meet is a potential client.

Make your niche as narrow as possible.

3. Enhance your contact base.

• Use a CRM (Contact Management System)
• 1 cluster = 150 people in CRM
• Your 150 people must know you and value what you do like Gold that they will give you $10,000 a month or more.
• Choose a simple CRM

How to do it

• Meet 150 people
• Let them know what you do
• Invite them to sign up for your electronic newsletter
• Begin adding insights on a weekly or fortnightly basis
• Once they sign up, add them to your CRM
• Start communicating with them regularly via your electronic newsletter and/or blog
• MailChimp is a great option

4. Hire your first virtual assistant

• 3 stages: preparation, recruitment, and induction
• Spend about a month on each stage to ensure that you have everything in place to hire your VA.

Preparation (Month 1)

• Establish what your VA is going to do for you.
• Establish what needs to be in place before recruiting to make it work.
• TASKS: Carry a notebook for 30 days and record at least 52 things you do every day that your VA can do for you.
• PLATFORMS: Understand the technical stuff you need to manage your VA remotely and learn how to implement them yourself.
• JOB DESCRIPTION: Clearly state the position details (accountabilities, technical skills, personal skills) and the financial details (conditions, remuneration, structure).

Recruiting (Month 2)

• ADVERTISING: Sell your business = Saying what you are looking for
• SELECTION: Testing process, skills matrix, interview questions and evaluation process
• AGREEMENT: Solid contract = how much to pay, how to handle leave, how to transfer money, health insurance, notice period, etc.

Induction (Month 3)

• WEEK 1 (Kickoff): What they need to do + what you need to do to support them
• WEEK 2 (Manage): Put systems in place so that you get the most out of your VA + have them feel like a valued part of the team.
• WEEK 3 (Review): Manage performance reviews + salary reviews with the aim of having your VA with you for the next ten years.

5. Measure the right things

4 critical things to measure

1. Your thinking
2. What you sell
3. What you deliver
4. The cash that comes in

Measuring your thinking

• Count how many IP Snapshots you start.
• Count how many you complete to the point of a working version.
• Working version = something you are ready to use in a program (IP Snapshots are never complete - there is always the next version of your thinking)

Measuring your sales

• Decide when is a sale a sale.
• Determine where the line is that clients need to cross.
• It will be different for different clusters.
• Ex: Deposit for a future program, an invoice that will get paid, verbal agreement with clients, payment for public programs.
• It is also critical to have effective systems for bringing in the money when you make a sale.
• Get paid before delivering a coaching program ideally via credit card.
• Get 50% as a deposit for a keynote speech or a corporate workshop.
• Always get paid in full before a public training.

Measuring your delivery

• Keynote adress = 1 day
• Coaching program = throughout
• Online training program = throughout
• Setup delivery so that it is efficient = preparation time is minimal
• Package once and sell often
• Track currency

Measure the cash

• Know how much hit your bank account.
• Know how much you are owed.
• Know when what is owed is due.
• The shorter the amount of time between you doing the work and getting paid, the better.
• If you can get paid before doing the work, that is ideal.
• Focus on selling. Make your delivery and cashflow systems efficient and effective to do so.
• Each day and each week: “What invitation can I give to whom that could end up in a sale?”

How to track

• Keep a log of what you sell and what you deliver every day.
• Each week, total up what you sold (in currency).
• Each week, total up what you delivered (in currency).
• Benchmark: $2500 each week.
• Do both selling and delivering at the same time.

What to do after White Belt?

• Benchmark: $5000 each week.
• Choose your next cluster.
• Either: (1) Offer new mode of a message to the same market, (2) Offer the same cluster to a new market, (3) Offer a new message to the same market.

Dr. Sean Richardson

• Stop trying to be someone else. Start being yourself in a new environment.
• Share your message with friends and associates (anyone who would listen).
• When starting, work on the ability to be non-judgmental. This means being able to say at an internal level: ‘It’s probably normal that I failed.’
• Expect to fail a lot. The faster you can fail, the better. Don’t take it personal. Treat it as a feedback to your process. It can be an indicator that you didn’t get something right in the process. Get the help of a mentor to identify this if needed.
• Understand that even if it is a hard path requiring time and effort, it is achievable.

Prompts