2023-09-07_1000_Percent_Formula
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00:00:30.620 | The holidays start here at Ralph's
00:00:32.460 | with a variety of options to celebrate traditions old and new.
00:00:36.120 | You could do a classic herb roasted turkey
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00:00:45.400 | for your first Cajun risotto.
00:00:47.400 | Make creamy mac and cheese or a spinach artichoke fondue
00:00:50.900 | from our selection of Murray's Cheese.
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00:00:56.040 | to embrace all your holiday traditions.
00:00:58.040 | Ralph's, fresh for everyone.
00:01:00.380 | - Welcome to Radical Personal Finance,
00:01:01.920 | a show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge,
00:01:03.620 | skills, insight, and encouragement you need
00:01:05.720 | to live a rich and meaningful life now
00:01:07.860 | while building a plan for financial freedom
00:01:09.360 | in 10 years or less.
00:01:11.000 | My name is Joshua Sheets, I'm your host.
00:01:12.500 | And in today's podcast, I would like to share with you
00:01:16.860 | a concept that has been extremely helpful to me
00:01:20.040 | throughout my life called the 1000% formula.
00:01:24.080 | This is something that I first learned in high school
00:01:26.600 | from Brian Tracy, who was one of my mentors
00:01:30.540 | that I listened to for many, many years.
00:01:33.120 | And I found this to be such a practical and useful outline
00:01:38.120 | that I've just never been able to get away from it.
00:01:41.120 | I've mentioned this repeatedly in podcasts
00:01:43.060 | and sometimes I'll get a question from a listener saying,
00:01:44.800 | "Hey, what was that podcast that Joshua talked about,
00:01:47.700 | "the 1000% formula?"
00:01:49.400 | And in the past, I didn't have a standalone podcast for that.
00:01:52.560 | It's buried in, I talk about it in many of my courses,
00:01:55.540 | I talk about it in various podcasts,
00:01:58.360 | but I wanted to create a standalone podcast for you
00:02:01.100 | to teach you the 1000% formula.
00:02:04.400 | Now, again, I learned this from Brian Tracy.
00:02:06.900 | His version was somewhat close to my version,
00:02:10.520 | but I've taken it, I've modified it
00:02:12.320 | and adapted it to my own needs over the years.
00:02:15.400 | And I want to share it with you now.
00:02:18.880 | The basic idea of the 1000% formula
00:02:22.060 | is that small daily increases in productivity,
00:02:25.840 | repeated consistently,
00:02:28.100 | can lead to dramatic improvements over time.
00:02:32.480 | The way that Brian would ask the question would be to say,
00:02:34.740 | "Could you, if you really wanted to,
00:02:38.400 | "could you increase your productivity,
00:02:41.420 | "your performance, your output,
00:02:43.540 | "and your effectiveness and your work in business today
00:02:47.080 | "by a mere 1/10 of 1%?
00:02:51.300 | "Could you get 1/10 of 1% better?"
00:02:54.140 | Well, I confess that I certainly could today
00:02:58.140 | get 1/10 of 1%.
00:03:00.140 | And I believe that you also could get 1/10 of 1% better,
00:03:04.540 | more productive, higher performance, more effective, et cetera
00:03:07.980 | in your work and in your business today if you wanted to.
00:03:12.420 | And I think that that can be repeated over time.
00:03:15.260 | Well, if you do the math,
00:03:16.100 | 1/10 of 1% improvement per day
00:03:19.260 | leads to 1/2 of 1% improvement per week.
00:03:22.940 | Over time, that makes about a 2% improvement per month
00:03:27.880 | and winds up being about a 26% improvement over the year
00:03:31.940 | if we use four-week months.
00:03:33.700 | And that's about 1,000% improvement
00:03:35.840 | in the course of a decade
00:03:37.620 | knowing how these things compound.
00:03:39.960 | Don't get too bogged down in the specific numbers.
00:03:42.100 | The idea is that 1/10 of 1% per day
00:03:45.900 | repeated over a five-day workweek consistently
00:03:49.020 | over the years allows you to be about 1,000%
00:03:52.060 | more productive, more effective in your work life.
00:03:56.120 | Now, if you wind up being more effective, more productive,
00:04:02.060 | then in a capitalist system, in the fullness of time,
00:04:07.340 | your own personal effectiveness
00:04:10.020 | will be recognized by higher income.
00:04:13.540 | And so I think that if you're 1,000% better
00:04:17.580 | at your job and at your income,
00:04:19.420 | then there's a good chance that you'll be able to command
00:04:23.980 | a 10 times higher wage, 1,000% higher wage.
00:04:28.060 | It's not automatic, it's not linear.
00:04:32.000 | You have to do some significant career advancement moves
00:04:36.540 | in order to fully realize the value of this plan.
00:04:40.540 | But the foundation is in what you do.
00:04:43.900 | If you wanna make more money,
00:04:44.900 | you have to begin by becoming more valuable.
00:04:48.060 | And so how do you do that?
00:04:51.420 | Well, step one is reading.
00:04:54.080 | Every day, you get up at least two hours
00:04:56.900 | before you have to be somewhere every day,
00:04:58.660 | and you invest the first hour into yourself
00:05:01.620 | by reading something that is uplifting,
00:05:04.780 | educational, motivational, spiritual,
00:05:08.740 | something that's going to help you and improve you
00:05:12.180 | and give you ideas and concepts, inspiration in your life.
00:05:17.180 | As Tracy puts it,
00:05:18.980 | "Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body."
00:05:23.160 | Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body.
00:05:27.780 | And so what's cool is that if you spend
00:05:30.140 | about one hour a day reading a book,
00:05:33.600 | by the way, this should include and can include
00:05:36.420 | reading a book with your ears,
00:05:37.740 | it doesn't only have to be with your eyes,
00:05:39.700 | but if you spend about an hour a day reading a book,
00:05:42.220 | then you'll read on average about a book a week.
00:05:45.740 | If you read on average about a book a week,
00:05:47.780 | you'll read on average about 50 books per year.
00:05:50.340 | If you go and you look at the world of academia,
00:05:53.620 | a formal advanced degree, a doctoral degree,
00:05:57.300 | a master's degree, et cetera,
00:05:58.940 | will often require you to read and absorb
00:06:01.900 | and synthesize something around 30 to 50 books
00:06:05.620 | and then write a dissertation on those books.
00:06:09.520 | And so if you do this per year,
00:06:12.420 | you're getting the equivalent of about a master's degree
00:06:16.020 | or a doctoral degree of information, training, et cetera,
00:06:20.620 | in your field every single year.
00:06:23.820 | Now, I think that you should have a deeper strategy,
00:06:28.460 | which I won't go into here,
00:06:29.580 | but the basic idea behind what you choose to read
00:06:33.220 | is that you should read in your field
00:06:35.140 | and read towards your goals.
00:06:37.700 | So read anything that you want,
00:06:39.600 | but I think there should be a good variety
00:06:41.660 | in your reading materials.
00:06:43.100 | You want to choose books that are gonna move you
00:06:44.860 | in the direction that you want to go in life.
00:06:47.500 | This does not have to all be how to become a better manager,
00:06:51.460 | but if you are a manager,
00:06:52.860 | it should include some books
00:06:54.240 | on how to become a better manager,
00:06:56.320 | but it should also include books on other areas of goals
00:06:59.240 | that you have or directions that you want to take yourself.
00:07:03.460 | Do not keep all of your reading light and fluffy.
00:07:07.520 | Instead, focus on learning the real meat of your industry.
00:07:12.520 | Study the textbooks, study the formal textbooks,
00:07:15.880 | the deep level content, the fundamental texts
00:07:19.080 | that are available in your field.
00:07:21.540 | I say this because in our modern day,
00:07:24.100 | we have access now to so much great information
00:07:27.500 | through podcasts, videos, et cetera,
00:07:30.000 | but this kind of information in any field
00:07:32.380 | is often the most surface level information.
00:07:35.780 | And there are many of us who consume that information
00:07:38.840 | and that's a great start, better than not consuming it.
00:07:41.720 | But if you don't go deeper,
00:07:43.040 | you're never gonna wind up being a thought leader.
00:07:45.200 | So when you consume information and education
00:07:47.680 | and learning in an area, you should go a little deeper
00:07:50.320 | and say, how can I get back
00:07:51.580 | to the core fundamental sources of this area?
00:07:55.780 | So make sure that some of your reading is at a deep level.
00:07:59.720 | Make sure that you are looking up, again,
00:08:01.840 | the college textbooks that are in use,
00:08:04.520 | in the classes that are related to something
00:08:06.500 | that you want to improve at.
00:08:07.960 | Make sure that you're going back to the source materials.
00:08:10.120 | Make sure you're reading the old books and the new books.
00:08:13.420 | Incidentally, this is one of the things
00:08:15.020 | that is most important about making sure
00:08:16.920 | that you have habits of reading with your eyes,
00:08:19.000 | as well as with your ears.
00:08:20.760 | For modern popular level texts,
00:08:22.780 | you can often find an audio book.
00:08:24.560 | And so I find this a very convenient format
00:08:27.460 | to consume books in while I'm out walking,
00:08:30.100 | jogging, hiking, et cetera, doing exercise, doing dishes.
00:08:34.500 | I like to consume modern popular level texts
00:08:37.660 | in the form of an audio book.
00:08:39.420 | But when you go to your serious reading
00:08:41.420 | and you're reading a textbook,
00:08:43.820 | a college level textbook in your field,
00:08:47.380 | or you're going back to the primary sources
00:08:49.720 | and you're studying the doctoral dissertation
00:08:52.140 | that somebody wrote,
00:08:53.280 | or you're reading a book that was written in 1950
00:08:55.620 | that continues to be the basic book
00:08:58.700 | that explains everything you need to know about a subject,
00:09:01.340 | it's unusual to find those books in an audio book format.
00:09:03.860 | So you need to make sure
00:09:04.820 | that you have time to read with your ears,
00:09:07.180 | but also that you have a basic habit
00:09:09.740 | of reading with your eyes on a daily basis.
00:09:12.180 | Now, step number two of Tracy's 1000% formula
00:09:15.260 | is to make a list.
00:09:16.780 | You make a list of everything you have to do that day.
00:09:19.820 | It's important to have a physical list
00:09:23.820 | of the things that you need to do.
00:09:25.780 | And then you take that list and you organize it
00:09:28.660 | and you prioritize it.
00:09:31.000 | You organize your list by priorities.
00:09:33.260 | You determine which task is of number one importance,
00:09:35.820 | number two importance, et cetera.
00:09:37.860 | As Tracy says, if you will simply plan
00:09:39.940 | and prioritize your activities every day in advance,
00:09:43.460 | you'll increase your productivity by 25%
00:09:45.780 | on your very first day.
00:09:47.280 | This is a habit that's easy to know about.
00:09:51.400 | It's harder to do consistently.
00:09:53.460 | And yet it remains the fundamental action
00:09:56.500 | that you and I can take on a daily basis
00:09:59.200 | to improve our effectiveness.
00:10:01.860 | Prioritize the things that we need to do
00:10:04.900 | and always do the most important things first.
00:10:08.220 | Step four, start on your most important task
00:10:13.340 | and work on it single-mindedly
00:10:15.660 | with concentration, focus, and discipline
00:10:18.060 | until your most important task is done.
00:10:22.700 | As Tracy says, if you will concentrate
00:10:24.600 | on your most important task,
00:10:26.460 | you will increase your productivity by 50%.
00:10:30.860 | So the point of combining these things together
00:10:35.240 | is that the reading provides you
00:10:36.740 | with creative fodder and information,
00:10:39.360 | but reading is never enough to advance and to be useful.
00:10:43.640 | Productivity is the key.
00:10:46.580 | And so notice that listing out what you need to do,
00:10:48.980 | prioritizing it, starting on your most important task
00:10:51.980 | and working on it single-mindedly
00:10:53.660 | with concentration, focus, and discipline
00:10:55.300 | and until it's done, that's where you get action, action.
00:11:01.060 | Step number five, listen to educational audio in your car.
00:11:06.060 | For most people, historically,
00:11:10.020 | I haven't seen this data updated in a very long time,
00:11:12.880 | but back in the '90s and the 2000s,
00:11:15.100 | it was said that the average person spends
00:11:17.300 | about the same amount of time in his or her car
00:11:20.260 | as the average college student spends in class.
00:11:23.060 | Let's say that's, and how you get there is,
00:11:25.380 | let's say that a full-time college load
00:11:27.460 | is considered to be 12 to 18 credit hours per week.
00:11:30.740 | So 12 hours per week divided over seven days
00:11:35.740 | would be 1.7 hours per day of time in the car.
00:11:41.500 | That's probably not too far off of what many people commute.
00:11:44.820 | Frequently, people commute 35 minutes back and forth
00:11:47.460 | to work and then all the other little time,
00:11:49.220 | little trips here and there.
00:11:50.700 | And so if you turn your drive time into learning time,
00:11:54.740 | you can spend about the same amount of time
00:11:57.060 | learning as a college student does
00:11:59.460 | while you're also doing other things.
00:12:01.140 | And of course, many of us have other activities as well,
00:12:04.180 | doing dishes, cleaning up, doing yard work, et cetera.
00:12:08.100 | And so you wanna listen to educational audio.
00:12:10.980 | Now, my answer here is, or my suggestion,
00:12:13.860 | is that you choose your learning materials,
00:12:16.060 | again, based upon your goals
00:12:17.540 | and what is valuable to you in the moment.
00:12:20.420 | And so your content should include podcasts.
00:12:23.820 | Podcasts have a lot of benefits
00:12:27.260 | and some significant disadvantages.
00:12:29.420 | A great benefit of a podcast is the access
00:12:32.060 | to current cutting edge ideas and conversations.
00:12:36.780 | The problem of podcasts is they're not all very content rich.
00:12:41.780 | There's a lot of time that can be lost
00:12:45.020 | due to the minimal preparation
00:12:48.120 | that is put into the production of many podcasts.
00:12:51.620 | And so you want your listening time to be efficient.
00:12:54.180 | And so you want to consume the things
00:12:56.700 | that are gonna be the most efficient.
00:12:58.380 | Podcasts are most useful to you
00:13:01.560 | to dip your toe in something new.
00:13:04.820 | And that's how I tend to consume podcasts,
00:13:07.100 | is simply to take an area of interest of mine
00:13:10.540 | and go and look for a podcast on it.
00:13:12.540 | Because there's no financial cost,
00:13:14.360 | I don't have to make a big commitment to it.
00:13:16.100 | I don't have to go and buy a bunch of books.
00:13:18.140 | I just, eh, here's a podcast on it.
00:13:20.260 | And then because of the way podcasts are often done,
00:13:23.380 | in an hour of podcast listening,
00:13:24.900 | you can get an overview of a subject
00:13:26.800 | that may be hard to get in an eight hour audio book
00:13:30.500 | that is trying to provide information
00:13:32.700 | in a more comprehensive manner.
00:13:34.540 | So choose podcasts to listen to that fit your goals
00:13:37.660 | and that are based around things
00:13:39.960 | that are valuable to you in the moment.
00:13:42.460 | There are classic audio programs that are available.
00:13:45.380 | I've been a big consumer over the years
00:13:47.520 | of Nightingale Conant programs.
00:13:50.020 | They were a provider of audio programs, self-help programs.
00:13:55.020 | They're still really good, a lot of the good old stuff.
00:13:58.780 | And this is where Tony Robbins got his start
00:14:00.700 | and Brian Tracy programs, et cetera.
00:14:02.740 | And there's lots of other programs
00:14:04.180 | that are available from places like that.
00:14:06.660 | I think audio books are in many ways a superior option
00:14:10.680 | to either of these options.
00:14:12.320 | Because an audio book gives you superior quality
00:14:15.260 | and insights into a subject
00:14:17.740 | because of the nature of its creation and editing.
00:14:21.820 | When an author sits down and writes a book,
00:14:24.040 | unless it's just a quick $1.99 Kindle book,
00:14:27.020 | he generally will invest thousands of hours,
00:14:31.380 | definitely hundreds and generally thousands of hours
00:14:34.100 | into the actual creation of that book,
00:14:36.260 | a systemized research process, preparing for it,
00:14:41.180 | a very careful organization principle behind the book.
00:14:46.460 | He will engage in very careful editing
00:14:48.500 | to make sure that all of the fluff is gone
00:14:50.660 | and the real meat is there.
00:14:52.780 | This is why books are such a superior option
00:14:55.460 | for your learning,
00:14:58.500 | because they are giants standing on the shoulders of giants,
00:15:01.820 | standing on the shoulders of giants,
00:15:03.500 | giving you their insights and education
00:15:06.300 | for a mere $10 or $15 or $20, et cetera.
00:15:11.300 | And so here, your best options are an Audible subscription,
00:15:16.340 | as well as something through your local library,
00:15:20.100 | such as Hoopla, where you gain access to free books.
00:15:23.180 | So if you have a local library card,
00:15:25.540 | a lot of times most local libraries
00:15:27.260 | now have some kind of audio book service,
00:15:29.540 | Hoopla, there are others as well,
00:15:31.060 | but Hoopla seems to be the leading one at the moment,
00:15:33.300 | where now you can listen to audio books for free
00:15:36.660 | based on your library subscription.
00:15:38.380 | It's a really great option.
00:15:40.040 | Next, I really love YouTube University.
00:15:44.140 | And by that, I just mean going to YouTube
00:15:46.180 | and looking for videos on things.
00:15:48.380 | I think that a YouTube premium subscription
00:15:50.740 | that allows you to skip all advertisements
00:15:54.020 | and to download videos so that they're always available
00:15:57.020 | is some of the best money that you can make.
00:16:00.420 | YouTube is fantastic because of its cutting edge nature.
00:16:04.260 | You can often get some of the most current insights
00:16:07.300 | into a field, get involved with some of the current debates,
00:16:11.140 | current best practices, et cetera.
00:16:13.300 | The downside of YouTube is it can be time consuming
00:16:16.180 | and hard to filter for quality.
00:16:18.340 | There's not a really great quality filter.
00:16:20.700 | And this is again why I think that something
00:16:23.020 | that has been vetted by trusted editors
00:16:26.820 | is of higher priority,
00:16:29.500 | but because that vetting process is so time consuming,
00:16:34.100 | you often don't get cutting edge information.
00:16:36.740 | So they should go together.
00:16:38.820 | And then in addition to YouTube University,
00:16:40.900 | of course, iTunes University quite literally leads
00:16:43.860 | into free online college courses.
00:16:46.500 | So iTunes University or Coursera,
00:16:50.340 | all of the online courses available from MIT,
00:16:53.180 | Harvard, Stanford, et cetera, it's all available.
00:16:56.100 | You simply go to the website
00:16:57.460 | and you can consume the college courses.
00:16:59.540 | And I think this is really important to do
00:17:02.100 | for areas that you have interest in
00:17:04.180 | because you wanna make sure
00:17:05.340 | that your learning is not ignorant,
00:17:09.580 | that you are not ignorant of what is considered
00:17:13.020 | to be the general standard of knowledge in a subject.
00:17:18.020 | You wanna make sure that you're not ignorant
00:17:19.700 | of the corpus of information that a skilled
00:17:24.060 | and trained person in that area would have.
00:17:26.340 | And so going and consuming college lectures
00:17:29.060 | and consuming all of the college lectures for courses
00:17:32.380 | will help you to make sure that your learning
00:17:34.780 | is not unduly influenced by the one book you found
00:17:37.940 | that you really liked
00:17:38.780 | or the author that you latched onto,
00:17:40.580 | but rather that you understand what is taught
00:17:42.740 | at the college level.
00:17:44.180 | And college teachers are,
00:17:47.780 | by virtue of their screening process,
00:17:51.700 | they are experts in their domain.
00:17:53.700 | And they have a duty to their students
00:17:55.540 | to represent all of the different aspects
00:18:00.060 | of their particular course content.
00:18:03.060 | And so it's a really great way of making sure
00:18:04.700 | that your knowledge is compendious
00:18:06.180 | and that you yourself have a broad education
00:18:10.340 | that complements your deep education
00:18:12.340 | in the self-chosen materials.
00:18:14.980 | So those are all things that are available to you
00:18:17.860 | to listen to in your car.
00:18:20.820 | I would encourage you also to make certain
00:18:23.380 | that not all of your learning is autodidactic.
00:18:26.940 | Consider engaging in formalized courses
00:18:30.780 | and credentialization in your field.
00:18:34.540 | While self-directed learning
00:18:35.900 | is the most powerful form of learning
00:18:38.060 | because of your engagement with it,
00:18:40.180 | self-directed learning is not always recognized
00:18:42.260 | immediately in the business world.
00:18:43.540 | And so formalized learning that comes with credentials
00:18:47.100 | is a really important component of your overall package.
00:18:52.100 | It may be hip to despise a college degree
00:18:58.580 | or despise an MBA,
00:19:00.460 | but those formalized credentials
00:19:03.420 | and the achievement of those formalized credentials
00:19:06.180 | is still one of the most reliable way
00:19:09.380 | for individuals to raise salaries.
00:19:12.020 | Pay attention and go ahead
00:19:14.900 | and get your formalized credentials as well.
00:19:17.620 | Now, Tracy's number six in his thousand percent formula
00:19:21.260 | is to ask yourself two questions after every activity.
00:19:23.820 | And these are two questions that I consider
00:19:25.580 | to be incredibly useful for self-coaching.
00:19:30.700 | Question number one is, what did I do right?
00:19:32.900 | You can do this every day.
00:19:34.900 | What did I do right today?
00:19:36.940 | You can do this after every meeting.
00:19:38.100 | What did I do right in that meeting?
00:19:40.220 | You can do this after every date.
00:19:41.420 | What did I do right on that date?
00:19:43.620 | Do this after every trip.
00:19:44.540 | What did I do right on that trip?
00:19:46.500 | What did I do right?
00:19:47.460 | It's important to take a moment
00:19:48.620 | and acknowledge the things that you do well,
00:19:51.660 | the things that went well and celebrate your successes.
00:19:54.740 | Question number two that you ask yourself
00:19:57.540 | after every activity is,
00:19:58.980 | what would I do differently next time?
00:20:00.940 | What would I do differently next time?
00:20:04.460 | Notice the wonderful tone, not judgmental, but informed.
00:20:08.180 | What would I do differently next time if I had the chance?
00:20:10.340 | And if you just ask yourself those two questions
00:20:12.660 | after every activity that you're involved in,
00:20:15.660 | what did I do right?
00:20:16.500 | And what would I do differently next time?
00:20:18.260 | You can coach yourself
00:20:19.220 | in the direction of your goals and dreams.
00:20:21.300 | Now, Tracy's point seven of his thousand percent formula
00:20:25.460 | is treat everyone you meet and interact with
00:20:28.700 | like a million dollar customer.
00:20:30.940 | Treat everybody with respect, with kindness, with esteem.
00:20:34.340 | Treat everyone you meet and interact with
00:20:36.020 | like a million dollar customer.
00:20:37.500 | And if you do that, you go around through the world
00:20:40.860 | surrounded by a pleasant haze of happiness
00:20:44.020 | and respect and appreciation, 'cause it comes from you.
00:20:48.620 | Now, over the years, I've taken those seven points,
00:20:54.340 | which are Tracy's original seven points,
00:20:56.380 | and I've just added just a few things to them.
00:20:58.620 | So again, Tracy's are read two hours a day,
00:21:01.780 | sorry, one hour a day, or first thing in the morning,
00:21:04.260 | list what you need to do that day, prioritize your list,
00:21:06.780 | start on your most important task,
00:21:08.260 | work on it single-mindedly,
00:21:09.700 | listen to educational audio programs in your car,
00:21:12.180 | ask yourself two questions after every activity,
00:21:14.380 | and then treat everyone you meet and interact with
00:21:16.260 | like a million dollar customer.
00:21:17.260 | That was Tracy's.
00:21:18.660 | As I've modified it over the year,
00:21:20.220 | I have a tendency to divide it into education and action.
00:21:24.420 | And so for education, I've always added a couple of things.
00:21:28.060 | Number one, you have reading and listening,
00:21:30.180 | but I've always recommended to people
00:21:31.980 | that they also attend conferences.
00:21:35.380 | I think that having a goal of attending four conferences
00:21:38.300 | per year in your field is a really useful goal.
00:21:43.300 | And I've benefited from this so much.
00:21:44.980 | I have not done this myself over the last few years
00:21:47.500 | because of having a bunch of babies in the house,
00:21:49.420 | hard for my wife for me to be away,
00:21:50.940 | and so I actively avoid being away very much.
00:21:55.740 | Of course, today we can do online conferences,
00:21:57.860 | which are a great option.
00:21:59.180 | But the point of a conference is that you can have
00:22:03.860 | in one single conference, a very concentrated exposure
00:22:08.820 | to all of the activity in your field.
00:22:12.220 | You can not only meet the movers and shakers,
00:22:15.460 | not only harvest the current cutting edge ideas,
00:22:19.020 | but get a broad overview of the topics that are of interest.
00:22:22.540 | I love to take a brochure from a conference
00:22:24.300 | and read through the titles for the talks
00:22:26.700 | and the presentations.
00:22:27.900 | And that'll give me an idea of what are the current areas
00:22:31.500 | of focus for this particular industry
00:22:33.420 | or this particular movement.
00:22:35.300 | You also, of course, have access to an expo hall.
00:22:38.260 | You can go and you can find out who all the companies are
00:22:40.820 | and the vendors that are involved in your industry.
00:22:43.820 | And these things are the threads that you can pull on
00:22:47.180 | to start to push yourself
00:22:48.660 | in the direction of new opportunities.
00:22:51.860 | Conferences are wonderful ways
00:22:54.860 | for you to make connections with people,
00:22:57.740 | to start to build friendships.
00:22:59.720 | They are the best way for you to dig your well
00:23:03.180 | of friendships before you're thirsty.
00:23:05.780 | You always wanna dig your well before you're thirsty
00:23:08.220 | and you wanna dig your well of contacts and connections
00:23:12.060 | and friendships in your industry
00:23:14.540 | or in an industry that you aspire to join
00:23:17.060 | long before you need them.
00:23:18.620 | It's difficult to go to a conference
00:23:21.500 | with a folder full of resumes
00:23:24.260 | and go booth to booth and pass them out.
00:23:27.720 | That's difficult.
00:23:28.980 | Not impossible, not a bad idea, but difficult.
00:23:32.240 | It's much more effective for you to go
00:23:34.380 | to an annual industry conference
00:23:36.140 | for two or three years in a row,
00:23:38.260 | making connections, making friends intentionally
00:23:41.580 | while at that conference.
00:23:44.240 | And then three years from now,
00:23:46.020 | let it be known that you're looking for more opportunities.
00:23:48.860 | But in order to have the best opportunities,
00:23:51.020 | you have to have been digging that well of connection
00:23:53.140 | and contact, et cetera.
00:23:55.060 | I have a whole class that I teach some people
00:23:57.140 | on how to maximize conferences.
00:23:59.860 | They're very under used by many people in today's world.
00:24:03.740 | And yet as we increasingly are isolated physically,
00:24:07.100 | their importance of industry conferences is only rising.
00:24:10.980 | And so making good use of them is really important.
00:24:14.240 | I want to give you just a hint though.
00:24:17.220 | One of the best things that you can do at a conference
00:24:19.880 | is use it as a way to gain access to all of the people
00:24:23.240 | who were involved in that industry.
00:24:25.720 | And so your best friend in making good use of conferences
00:24:29.640 | is for you to take the brochure
00:24:35.400 | and systematically write down the speakers of the conference,
00:24:39.520 | their names, connect with them in some format,
00:24:42.240 | write down the companies that those speakers work for,
00:24:44.680 | get familiar with their work,
00:24:46.000 | and then go through the vendor list
00:24:47.900 | and be connected with all the people
00:24:49.540 | who are supplying that industry.
00:24:53.200 | And if you do that and you start systematically
00:24:55.560 | making connections at a conference,
00:24:57.360 | all you need is one conference
00:24:58.600 | to give you your connection roadmap,
00:25:00.440 | which can be in a tremendous roadmap for your opportunities.
00:25:05.040 | Now, another thing that I urge people to do
00:25:07.240 | is to learn how to be an effective public speaker.
00:25:11.560 | I really love still to recommend Toastmasters International
00:25:15.240 | as the single best, most available organization
00:25:19.520 | for you to practice and polish
00:25:22.240 | both your public speaking skills and your leadership skills
00:25:25.600 | in a structured, safe, risk-free environment.
00:25:30.000 | And if you do that,
00:25:31.120 | then conferences will ultimately become
00:25:34.000 | one of the most important ways
00:25:35.320 | for you to gain exposure for yourself and your ideas.
00:25:38.840 | After all, think of what we've said.
00:25:40.720 | You've read, if you've read 500 books in your field
00:25:43.640 | over the next decade,
00:25:44.920 | and you develop polished public speaking skills,
00:25:48.120 | how is it possible that anyone at that conference
00:25:50.880 | is going to know more than you?
00:25:53.240 | And why wouldn't you be one of the most sought-after speakers
00:25:56.320 | in that field?
00:25:57.240 | If you're doing the hard work of genuinely preparing yourself
00:26:01.880 | and you're implementing on a daily basis
00:26:03.840 | these ideas into your actual work,
00:26:05.760 | thus building a resume of success on a daily basis,
00:26:10.760 | why wouldn't you yourself be one of the sought-after speakers
00:26:14.520 | on the industry conference circuit?
00:26:16.880 | That's the 25-minute version of the 1000% formula.
00:26:23.640 | Brian Tracy taught that to me in high school.
00:26:27.440 | I have implemented it pretty decently over the years,
00:26:31.200 | and the formula has worked pretty decently.
00:26:34.040 | And I think that this can be repeated multiple times
00:26:37.880 | during somebody's career.
00:26:39.680 | I think that it's very reasonable
00:26:41.920 | for somebody to start off as a young adult,
00:26:45.320 | early 20s, mid 20s,
00:26:48.280 | make a 10x increase in income
00:26:49.880 | over the first decade of his or her career.
00:26:52.160 | I think it's very reasonable to make another 10x jump
00:26:55.680 | over the second decade.
00:26:57.000 | At that point in time,
00:26:59.680 | your selection of an industry
00:27:02.920 | seems to make a much bigger difference
00:27:05.280 | than some other factors,
00:27:07.440 | and your willingness to do the hard work.
00:27:10.360 | So let's put some numbers on this to get an idea.
00:27:13.320 | Let's say you come out of,
00:27:14.880 | let's say that you're 25 years old
00:27:16.760 | and you're making $60,000.
00:27:19.040 | Well, going from 60 to $600,000 is very doable
00:27:23.400 | in a decade in many industries.
00:27:25.040 | Again, there's a lot of strategic shuffling
00:27:26.760 | that has to happen.
00:27:27.800 | You need to be good at promoting yourself
00:27:29.360 | and your ideas.
00:27:30.200 | You need to be good at moving for opportunities.
00:27:32.480 | You need to be good at choosing companies
00:27:34.960 | that are on the upswing,
00:27:37.800 | choosing industries that are on the upswing, et cetera.
00:27:39.760 | It's not automatic,
00:27:40.960 | but I think that's a very reliable path.
00:27:44.440 | I've seen it done again and again.
00:27:46.080 | Making another jump from $600,000 a year
00:27:48.960 | to $6 million a year is very doable, very doable.
00:27:53.480 | But in order for it to be done,
00:27:55.480 | you need to be in an industry
00:27:57.080 | where you are directly rewarded for your great effectiveness.
00:28:01.120 | And so you're either gonna be
00:28:02.680 | in upper levels of management at a company
00:28:05.120 | where you have good bonus compensation, et cetera,
00:28:08.320 | or you are gonna be in a place
00:28:10.600 | where you have a direct connection
00:28:11.960 | between your impact and your effectiveness.
00:28:16.080 | And that's only possible
00:28:17.400 | in certain highly compensated areas.
00:28:20.240 | So if you are involved in sales,
00:28:22.200 | you're involved in marketing,
00:28:23.560 | and you have a piece of the action, so to speak,
00:28:26.320 | then you can definitely justify
00:28:29.040 | excellent multi-seven figure salaries.
00:28:31.600 | To go by another 1,000% jump
00:28:35.560 | from $6 million to $60 million is certainly possible,
00:28:40.560 | but it becomes very difficult to predict the exact pathway.
00:28:46.120 | So eventually this formula does, I think, break down
00:28:52.240 | in terms of its predictability.
00:28:54.720 | I can't promise this four times over,
00:28:57.560 | but there are definitely many people
00:28:59.960 | who over the course of three decades
00:29:01.840 | have been able to repeat the formula three times over.
00:29:06.840 | There are a shockingly high number
00:29:11.640 | of businessmen earning $60 million a year
00:29:15.600 | after a three-decade career, a shockingly high number.
00:29:19.520 | There's a shockingly high number of people
00:29:22.560 | making $600 million a year
00:29:25.640 | on the end of a four-decade career.
00:29:29.240 | But again, this has to do with your willingness
00:29:31.560 | to do the work, your willingness to take the risk, et cetera.
00:29:34.400 | So I don't present this to you
00:29:35.840 | as a perfect description of what you can expect,
00:29:40.840 | but I think it's a useful and compelling mental model,
00:29:45.760 | which when combined with other ways
00:29:48.320 | of making sure that you're moving
00:29:49.720 | in the direction of highly valuable skills,
00:29:54.280 | you're working at the highest levels of value, et cetera,
00:29:56.320 | I think it's a very useful model.
00:29:58.160 | And at the end of the day,
00:29:59.320 | it helps you and me to focus on what we can control.
00:30:03.880 | We can control what time we go to bed today
00:30:06.160 | so that we can get up tomorrow
00:30:08.280 | and read for 30 to 60 minutes in our field.
00:30:12.440 | We can control the list that we make today
00:30:15.960 | of everything that we need to do tomorrow.
00:30:18.440 | We can take a moment and we can prioritize that list
00:30:21.400 | based upon those things that are of the highest priority
00:30:25.360 | and those that are lowest priority.
00:30:27.760 | Tomorrow, we can start on our most important task
00:30:30.960 | and we can work on it single-mindedly
00:30:32.680 | with concentration, focus, and discipline until it's done.
00:30:35.520 | Today and tomorrow, when we have time,
00:30:39.600 | we can line up some useful and helpful educational audio
00:30:42.680 | to put in our ears and in our car
00:30:44.720 | when we're driving, walking, et cetera.
00:30:47.520 | Today and tomorrow, you can ask yourself those two questions
00:30:51.000 | after every activity.
00:30:52.920 | And today and tomorrow,
00:30:54.200 | you can start treating everyone you meet
00:30:56.320 | and interact with like a million dollar customer.
00:30:59.480 | Hope these ideas in one specific place are useful to you
00:31:03.680 | and I hope that you experience great success
00:31:05.560 | from the application of them.
00:31:07.040 | As I close down today's podcast,
00:31:09.520 | I want to remind you of the event that I am hosting
00:31:12.520 | in January of 2024 in Panama City, Panama.
00:31:16.320 | And I would love to extend to you a personal invitation
00:31:18.880 | for you to come to that event.
00:31:20.760 | I've teamed up with my friends, Gabriel Custodiate
00:31:22.720 | and Mikkel Thorup to do a one-week,
00:31:25.200 | we're calling it an investment tour,
00:31:26.800 | an expat exploration and investment tour of Panama.
00:31:30.680 | And this will be a one-week tour.
00:31:32.240 | We're gonna have events in Panama City.
00:31:34.600 | We've got conference presentations
00:31:36.480 | on various aspects of investing, internationalization,
00:31:39.760 | banking, taxation, cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, et cetera,
00:31:44.440 | wealth protection, family foundations, offshore planning.
00:31:47.560 | We have several tours planned
00:31:48.800 | of a couple of different communities
00:31:50.240 | as well as like a gold storage vault
00:31:52.760 | that we're gonna be visiting, et cetera.
00:31:54.040 | It's gonna be an amazing time.
00:31:55.480 | And not only will it be full of information,
00:31:58.200 | inspiration, education, but it's gonna be full of fun.
00:32:01.760 | I'll be there hanging out with you the whole time
00:32:03.760 | as well as 39 of your fellow listeners.
00:32:07.880 | If that sounds interesting to you,
00:32:09.120 | please go to expatmoney.com/radical, sign up now.
00:32:12.400 | We're about 50% sold out at the moment.
00:32:15.920 | So I'm working hard to fill the rest of the slots
00:32:18.680 | and I would love for you to claim one of the remaining slots.
00:32:21.880 | Go to expatmoney.com/radical, sign up today,
00:32:24.560 | expatmoney.com/radical.
00:32:26.880 | Look forward to hanging out with you in Panama.
00:32:30.000 | - The holidays start here at Ralph's
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00:32:34.320 | old and new.
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