10: PLAN IT
The agent’s master plan — 100% chance of success
The 3D Marketing System to create a plan that inspires you!
The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
— Confucius
‘Don't talk to me unless you have a groundbreaking book idea!' boomed the voice over the microphone at the briefing session during the publicity summit. It was Matt Holt, the US publisher for Business at Wiley, one of the largest publishing companies in the world, with offices throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia.
I approached him immediately after being rejected by the producer of The View. I hadn't planned to speak to him. In all honesty, he scared the crap out of me. Six foot tall, with a powerful presence, he was intimidating — and I don't consider myself someone who is easily intimidated.
Call it gut instinct, or part of ‘becoming a New Yorker', but in that brief moment I quit caring about what other people thought of me, put one foot in front of the other, and confidently walked up to him and made my pitch.
It was over in 20 seconds, and three weeks later I left New York and Hurricane Sandy behind, getting out of JFK Airport just before it was shut down for a second time, this time due to a cold snap that was set to engulf the city that still had much of its power out.
I left unsure of what would come of my testing visit. Opportunities for face time with the likes of Fox News had been wiped out by the hurricane, and I was coming home to a business partnership in tatters. Had it all been a waste of time?
Strike out on your own — it's time …
I was already beginning to realize that the only way to conduct oneself in a situation where bombs rained down and bullets whizzed past, was to accept the dangers and all the consequences as calmly as possible. Fretting and sweating about it all was not going to help.
— Roald Dahl, Going Solo
Everyone at some stage has to clear out the old to make room for the new. And sometimes the universe, God or whatever you call it, will do it for you. If you're ready to shape the world we live in and to have greater impact than you ever imagined possible, regardless of the products or services you sell, the industry you work in or the message you plan to share, know that the next step is a critical one. It's decision time. Time to decide on the tools and resources you will assemble to turn your vision into reality.
In the previous chapters I've armed you with some powerful strategies to quickly and effortlessly monetise your message and potentially reach millions who need your help and guidance to achieve their own goals. And I've shown you how to reach them in ways that are meaningful to them and to you, so you never need to feel like you work another day in your life — you can instantly flee 9 to 5. But before our journey ends I want to share with you some strategies that take theory to reality through your Agent's Master Plan, a plan I've shared with very few until now.
From theory to reality: will you pass the test?
It's strange how dreams get under your skin and give your heart a test for what's real and what's imaginary.
— Jason Mraz
No matter how idealistic your vision is, it is susceptible to human frailty. Agents of influence are constantly tested and must stay ahead of the game. Let's take a look at the agent of influence's mindset strategies to ensure 100 per cent success, along with one final marketing plan that will help you organise your daily, weekly and monthly calendar based on all the work we've completed together to date.
As we have outlined, planning is step 1; passionately pursuing is step 2. The two meet and, as in any good marriage, readjust their paths as they travel together. At any given point one may fall off the tracks, and it will be up to the other one to take up the slack until the other comes back online. The best way to stay on track and pass the test is to make decisions — and lots of them, in quick succession. Decisions about when to get started, and about your transition plan if you haven't already begun the process.
Agents know there is no reward without execution and there is no execution without the promise of reward. The reward you gain from sharing your message with the world will be to fulfil your life's purpose and passions. You can choose to amplify your passions or to disempower them by not recognising them. To amplify them and find the courage to pursue them confidently, every night before you go to bed visualise what you want to achieve. Mentally rehearse how things will unfold … and then let go of the outcome. Great leaders know that for a vision to become reality, they mustn't hold onto it so tightly that it slips right through their fingers. Unfortunately, learning flexibility, going with the flow instead of against it, is an art some will only ever experience in their sleep, when they let go of everything.
Cultivate the leader I know you are by knowing what you want and owning the right to have it, with the understanding that there is no one right path to your destination. Each misstep is also a step in the right direction — you're simply collecting more experiences that are leading towards greater, more profound moments in your life, experiences that groom you for each consecutive step up the ladder, wherever that may take you. It's all on course. You never fall off, you never get it done and you never fail.
Challenge yourself daily by stepping out of your comfort zone and making the decision to ask for what you want.
Late one night in Melbourne, after dining out in Chapel Street, I headed for the supermarket. There was a homeless woman sitting outside asking for change. Her sign read: ‘Down on luck, please help'. I leant down and asked her, ‘Can I get you any food from the supermarket?' She replied, ‘Just a banana, please'. A few minutes later I came out with a couple of bags of groceries. I'd bought her several bananas, water and non-perishable items she could put in her backpack.
Driving home I pondered the brief interaction. In life, you generally only ever get what you ask for. Fear prevents us from asking for what we really want. We fear we'll be rejected, laughed at, judged, even condemned. Sometimes we can end up in situations of lack, not because we got unlucky, but because we don't have the courage to own the right to ask for what we want. It's not about being greedy, either. The fact that you're on this planet means you have earned the right to ask; more importantly and rewardingly, you've earned the right to earn.
The question is, when did you stop asking for what you wanted?
Inspiration gives us the courage to pursue our passions, while structure gives us the framework to realise them. Blind optimism can impair our judgement, and that's why we must have strategies in place to support our ‘asking' for what we want in this lifetime.
Execute it, frame it, empower it: turning a crisis into an opportunity
The Flee 9 to 5 lifestyle is built on experience after experience, and on providing real value to oneself and others. The prospect of retirement makes my skin crawl. Why would I want to retire from a life that fulfils me, is rewarding and takes me to places I never thought I'd ever get to experience? Retirement is a false premise, and while some books encourage retirement, this one doesn't. We need to fill our lives with experiences to bring about personal evolution. Happiness lies in evolving, not remaining in some sort of unchanging lived purgatory. The agent's lifestyle isn't a means to an end. It's about living a meaningful life while contributing to the world at large.
To achieve this, I have one system that frames this entire process from beginning to end. Whether I decide to work seven days or half a day a week is irrelevant. As long as I apply the 3D Marketing System, I've got all of my bases covered, as you will too.
In the previous chapter I shared with you a framework to help support you emotionally. It's now time to frame all of the marketing strategies I've covered in this book within the 3D Marketing System, supporting your business structurally in a way that is designed to generate six- to seven-figure revenues.
The 3D Marketing System: the agent's master plan
The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you are not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one. All the shortcuts and economies and common-sense changes that your native intelligence suggests to you are mistakes. Learn to quash them. Constantly ask yourself, ‘how would I do this if I were a fool?' Throttle down your mind to a crawl. Then you will never go wrong.
— Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny
The most successful entrepreneurs and agents have simplified highly complex processes to ensure they achieve their outcomes. They've made them child's play so that anyone can pick them up and apply them — think McDonald's. They have also simplified the steps that they take on a weekly and monthly basis to maximise their time, reach and revenue. These steps and structures support swift decision making, and it's easy to see why: they cut out the clutter and cut to the core of what's important for an agent — building their profile, getting publicity and generating profits.
Whether they know it or not, highly successful and influential agents like Bethenny Frankel, Anthony Robbins, Tim Ferriss, Martha Stewart, Dr Phil and thousands more work within the 3D framework. It's this framework that creates breakthrough moments, makes your life easier and helps ensure success. It helps you plan your day, week, month and year, and within minutes can take you from ‘Where shall I start?' to ‘When will I start?'
Your 3D Marketing System, also called the Profile, Publicity & Profits Planner, is the control centre for your business. It helps you plan three key projects you will focus on each month to bring in new sales and profits. Using the ‘Income-generating activities for this week' worksheet (see figure 10.2, p. 181), you can break these key activities down into weekly tasks to ensure you are constantly implementing strategies that will increase cash flow while building a profitable public profile.
Make it a goal to work on activities in each of these three key areas every week, then watch your business grow while the number of hours you work diminishes. We'll now run through the three dimensions of the system.
1D: Profile — content and collateral
Activities in this area cover everything to do with the creation of content and marketing collateral, and automation that allows you to extend your reach significantly and can be leveraged year after year. This is what turns you into an agent of influence in your field. It's the first step, before you go to market. It's all about planning and preparation.
1D activities include:
- writing articles/guest blogs
- preparing speaking topic ideas that can be marketed to event coordinators
- creating marketing material
- writing press releases
- producing social media updates
- producing products to take to market
- setting up automated email campaigns
- recording educational upsell videos
- project managing or setting up online landing pages
- finetuning your existing marketing messages and then relaunching them.
2D: Publicity — market your message, spread the word
There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.
— Brendan Behan
In 1D you created content and marketing collateral that will attract your target market. Now you must expose this content and marketing collateral to the world. This is about generating publicity for your content and your personal brand, to engage your tribe. If in 1D you wrote a press release, in 2D you distribute that press release, schedule your social media updates and send out direct email marketing campaigns. 2D is pulling the trigger on your campaigns. It's when you officially go public with engaging content that fills your sales funnel with hot prospects.
2D activities include:
- promoting your free opt-in offer
- running Facebook or Google ads
- running joint or cross-promotional campaigns
- asking for referrals via existing clients
- running ads in other people's e-newsletters
- any of the activities covered in chapter 5.
Which leads us to the final dimension …
3D: Profits — monetise your message
Art is making something out of nothing, and selling it.
— Frank Zappa
Now, if you've successfully executed 1D and 2D, you should be ready to monetise and profit from your message. Your automated process will have been triggered and your sales will have started ticking over. This is the next phase in your evolution as an agent: increasing sales and profit margins on a weekly basis in big hits.
3D action steps include:
- promoting other people's digital products that are complementary to yours and deriving a commission from them to boost your own profits
- identifying the customers who have already purchased from you, and looking at what other products you could introduce to them (this process returns you to 1D for segments of your fan base — customers you know will purchase from you again. For a dramatic and quick boost in income, tempt them with a pre-order offer, thereby funding your next product launch)
- creating special ‘one-off' offers that you can send out to promote specific products for an immediate jump in sales
- launching new products
- speaking at events and selling your products from the stage
- running webinars or Google+ hangouts with an upsell
- pitching for high-level consulting work that takes little time and hassle but is well paid and allows you to continue to grow your online sales with little effort.
Each of these three dimensions is critical to your success. You can't have profits without products and marketing collateral, and you won't get them without publicity and exposure to your target market. Each works in sync with the others. Missing one would be like trying to drive a car without the motor — it's going nowhere fast.
I created the 3D Marketing System through years of testing and measuring, and I've found it by far the most effective strategy for simplifying key activities that need to be done regularly to successfully establish a new agent or to get an existing agent who is experiencing a plateau back in flow. Once you have identified the major projects you will be focusing on, it's time to identify the people and resources you'll need to help you achieve your outcomes. Start now by using the monthly planner shown in figure 10.1 (overleaf) to plan your major projects, then break them down into weekly activities. Your virtual assistant might help you or even project manage the whole process.
Now you have identified the major monthly activities for each of these key areas, it's time to break them down into weekly action steps to simplify your marketing and ensure your success. Complete your weekly action plan now using the planner shown in figure 10.2.
The 20X Formula: if execution is king, distribution is force
There is no learning in the comfort zone and no comfort in the learning zone.
— Dana Eisentein
There is no success without execution, and there are no sales without distribution of marketing materials. The biggest challenge for agents of influence is in lining up their marketing distribution channels to guarantee they have maximum publicity and profits. The 3D Marketing System ensures both goals are successfully achieved by challenging the agent to come up with innovative ways every week to reach their target market by refocusing their thinking.
Time is key here, and there is a clear and distinct link between training and productivity. Writer's block occurs only when there is a lack of structure and knowledge. Overcoming these two gaps has been among the challenges I've shared with you in this book. The product creation system extracts your knowledge, but only constant education can provide you with the inspiration to continue to grow your business and evolve and monetise your knowledge.
It is this education that will help you stay ahead of the curve in trends in your industry, allowing you to claim new ground and harvest the resulting explosion in sales. There is supremacy in habit and habit in self-mastery. All are interlinked. Creating extraordinary results comes from being prepared to do 20 times the work to generate the results you desire. In other words, aim for the moon and you'll fall amongst the stars.
This includes constantly pursuing opportunities to educate yourself, reading, listening to audio books, keeping fit, and keeping your mind healthy and active. At least twice a year, embrace a training course that takes you out of your comfort zone. This will help you find new solutions to the old challenge of creating newsworthy and profitable products, thereby making them easier to promote. Marketing made easy.
Inside or outside of the plane?
A standard 747 can travel at speeds of up to 600 miles per hour (nearly 1000 kilometres per hour). From inside the cabin everything seems to flow as it does on the ground. You are served your meal. You sit back and relax, watch some TV or flick through a magazine, with no physical sense of the speed at which you're travelling.
Now imagine yourself outside, hanging on to one of the wings! It's hurtling along at a massive speed. The rush of air is deafening, it's chaotic, confusing and terrifying. You can hang on for only seconds before your ride comes to an abrupt end and you're flung off straight into freefall, plunging towards the ground.
Same plane. The only difference is your seat on the ride, but the contrast in experience is stark.
Any new journey will have you desperately trying to catch on to its wing to get a ride. After a while you may try to fling the door open so you can take a seat for a while in the economy cabin, before moving up to first class. Eventually you may choose to make the pilot redundant and take full control of your life.
Where are you right now?
Understand and accept that in life each part of this journey is necessary and potentially incredibly fulfilling; it may at times just take hindsight to recognise it.
By finding your anchor you can force your way into the cabin a lot faster than you might have initially anticipated. Once you've got your foot inside, you no longer have to try to keep up with the momentum of life from the outside. You suddenly join it and it's from this position that you can do absolutely anything, because you're finally working ‘with' life instead of ‘against' it.
There is nothing that kills a career more quickly than the kind of perfectionism that doesn't allow you to get started. Perfectionism in any field is learned and cultivated. In the beginning the road will be a little bit bumpy. Each step you take is building up to an outcome that will change everything. Business renegades and agents know this. Trust the process and understand that in every profession, including an agent's, your role will change significantly along the way. That's the joy of the journey.
Disrupt the norm — and never work another day in your life
Wasting away in life not doing what you love is like drinking a slow-acting poison. There is power in proximity to your passion. Disrupt the norm by dedicating at least an hour each day to what you love doing. The energy created by being close to your passion will give you a launching pad from which you can confidently take off on your next big step up. And, as Marc Anthony said, ‘If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life'.
If there is uncertainty in your future, be inspired, as it means it's wide open for you to choose where that future will take you. In this book I've given you a vehicle to use to achieve it, and it's up to you to drive it wherever you want to go. You've now got the tools; if you haven't already begun, you just have to find the courage to get started.
It finally pays off …
The end is not the reward; the path you take, the emotions that course through you as you grasp life — that is the reward.
— Jamie Magee, Embody
I hit refresh on my inbox. It was an email from Kristen, a publisher at Wiley, but in their Australian office in Melbourne. It was a full month after I'd got back home to Australia. She said her US boss had sent her an email suggesting they meet me. That 20-second pitch in New York led to a contract for the book you hold in your hands.
Had I not been rejected by that producer at The View, I would not have published this book. It wasn't even on my radar at the time. It's funny the directions your life will take you sometimes. I don't focus on outcomes any more, I focus on the experiences, the process. That's where I derive my joy. I'm detached from the outcome, and out of that detachment comes great freedom. I really found this freedom only after I was thrown into a situation in which it had been taken away, with only chaos left.
Everything changed after I got back from New York. I overhauled my work practices, including my entire business model. I took back full control of the business. Where there had been three team members, now I had one virtual assistant who contributed 40 hours per month. I was approached by three TV producers and invited to make three appearances in The Real Housewives of Melbourne, appearing alongside my good friend the gorgeous Andrea Moss. I took on an international client in the field of fashion, a great love of mine, launched new digital products and redesigned my life from the ground up so I could do what I love and make six figures — all in six months.
I downsized everything but increased my profits massively. I had finally learned that you can work less and earn more, with the bonus of operating from anywhere in the world, including Thailand, New Zealand, New York and Australia. You just need the strategies to make it happen — the strategies that I have introduced to you in these pages.
Each of us has a unique store of knowledge, expertise and stories to share with the world. There is no greater gift than knowing that you're influencing opinions, shaping behaviours and empowering others to get what they want out of life, while being rewarded yourself.
You've always been an agent of influence in your own life. What I've shared with you here is simply a blueprint for creating an authentic and amplified version of you that reaches the masses by bringing your unique voice, opinion, stories and ideas to help others solve the problems confronting them. And no matter what your story or message, there is someone who wants to hear it. Incite conversation that inspires change.
Now it's time for you to go out and shape the world. Just promise me you'll begin by shaping your own world. Use this book to create a plan that inspires you, because the plan itself is a source of growth and joy.
My journey wasn't always an easy one, but I can say it has been and continues to be a rewarding one. And the best part is that, just like you, I'm only just getting started …
Challenge yourself by stepping out of your comfort zone daily. Plan three key projects you will focus on each month to bring in new sales and profits. Make it a goal to work every week on activities in each of the three key areas of the 3D Marketing System — Profile, Publicity and Profits.Join me at www.benangel.com.au/flee9-5 for bonus resources, links, and downloadable templates and worksheets for this book.