Hi Abdur Rafi,
“If you plant corn, you get corn!
If you plant watermelons, you get watermelons.
Success is a simple equation.
If you find someone that is getting the results you want, just model them and you’ll win.”
I sat on the front row listening to my friend and mentor, Lennon Ledbetter.
I was 23 years old and passionately hungry for success.
Most of my growing up years were filled with financial stress and pressure.
I was ready to take a ride to the other side of wealth and see how the rich lived.
The auditorium was filled over 20,000 people. I was back stage, watching Lennon from just behind the curtains.
“Membership has it privileges,” I thought to myself.
I was Lennon’s office manager, gopher boy, and “handler”. I made sure he had everything he needed, both going onto stage and coming off.
As he talked about planting corn, my heart beat fast and my head swirled with excitement.
I just new that this idea was my ticket to financial freedom.
So, I modeled and mirrored everything Lennon did.
He was worth millions. Drove a Ferrari, a Rolls Royce, and lived in a 12,000 square foot home. He had a beautiful wife and lovely children.
To me, it looked like he had it all.
And, I wanted it all.
So I talked like him, walked like him, and tried to dress like him.
You see, when Lennon said you have to model people, what I heard was, “Follow the processes and procedures of their business. That is the ticket.”
In other words… look at the tasks they are doing and replicate those.
But something went horribly wrong…
After 5 years of replicating tasks, systems and procedures, I was still broke.
I couldn’t understand it.
I eventually left working with Lennon and struck out on my own gigs… first a software company… then public speaking and training… then politics… then non-profit fundraising.
Over a 10 year period of time, I tried sooo many things.
All the time I was looking at tasks, systems, blueprints, and plans and doing everything I could to implement those things to create the success I wanted.
But nothing “clicked”.
Today, I want to talk with you about a core secret to success that took me over 18 years to learn… but, when I did, I was able to finally realize my dreams.
Would you like that?
Have you been working hard for years… doing all the “right things” and taking all the right steps… but not seeing the results in life you really want?
If so, this email might be the most important email of your life…
I sure wish someone had told me this when I was starting.
I really believe that I could have achieved my dreams 15 years earlier.
Before I give you this simple principle of success, let’s review what we’ve been talking about for the past week…
I promised to tell you my secret formula for landing HUGE clients.
We started talking about “Opportunity Awareness”.
You can’t land the clients and capture the opportunities that you can’t see.
We talked about how every project, every client, every gig has a hundred or a thousand other opportunities inside of it, if you just know how to find them.
And the key to find them?
Questions!
Get really curious!
That’s when I outlined the three steps to my formula…
Step One: Curiosity
Step Two: Connection
Step Three: Creation
So, today, we are on the “Connection” step.
When you ask questions, you get answers.
Data. Insights. Strategies.
But what do you do with all that?
As I just told you, I used to think my job was to take all of that and uncover the systems, the process, the tasks.
And, you know what?
That stuff is REALLY important!
So the first aspect of “Connection” is to literally connect the dots.
You’ve got to figure out how to implement and use all the data you uncovered with your quality questions.
I love doing this by sitting down and doing what I call a “brain dump”.
I open a blank document and type out this question on the top…
“What do I know about__________ [product, service, industry, person, systems, etc…]?
And then I just start typing.
I don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, or any of that stuff.
I just write and write.
When I slow down I ask follow up questions and keep on going.
This usually results in 2-20 pages of ramblings.
But, in the middle of all that something magical happens.
My brain starts connecting the dots.
I see patterns. I see ideas. I see new angles. I see processes.
It is really powerful.
But, that is not the MOST important part of “Connections”... in fact, it is only about 20% of the power I get from being “Curious”.
The second part - the most important part - is the Human Connection.
What have I learned about the human beings that I’m dealing with - not the tasks, systems or processes.
You see, the one thing that Lennon did that I never thought to model was make people feel like kings and queens.
He - and other super successful people I have studied - know how to increase the perceived significance of those around them.
For example, Dale Carnegie, the world’s most famous and powerful steel and manufacturing tycoon, was fond of saying that he didn’t know anything about steel.
He hired people that knew about all that stuff.
What he really knew about was how to lift people up, get them to see their own greatness, and get them to work together.
There is wealth and magic and power in that statement.
I realized a long time ago that I companies and computers don’t hire copywriters.
The only “thing” that hires
copywriters are human beings.
And computers and companies and statistics don’t buy products, services, and information… only human beings do that.
It was a transformational moment in my life when I realized that I'm not in the copywriting business…
I am actually in the people business.
Every aspect of what I do deals with real human beings.
If you disconnect your work from the human beings and focus on templates, strategies, processes, and tasks, you will fail.
Just like I did for over 10 years… even though I was modeling the best in the business!
Step two is Connection… learn how to mentally and emotionally connect with other human beings.
Figure out how to lift their perceived significance and social status.
Tomorrow, let’s wrap things up with my secrets for closing deals.
Connecting with people is one thing… and essential… but there is one last thing you need to land HUGE clients automatically…
You need the secrets to negotiating and closing the deal… over and over and over again.
I’ll show you how to do that tomorrow…
To Your Best Life,
Joshua
P.S. Tomorrow, you’ll get two emails from me… one talking about closing huge deals… the other will give you details on the two day’s we’re spending together on October 15-16.
I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
More to come..
I hope you liked it. I just shared it for my curiosity. I think it a motivation.
By the way, good morning dear pulse 🙂 how is going your day?
This is @Rafi2002 ( Abdur Rafi).
I am from Bangladesh. 🇧🇩