This New Years Eve, and Rika and I attended a Chamber Music concert with a post concert champagne reception. I don’t know the difference between Dvorak, Mendelssohn, and Mozart, but I can appreciate beautiful music. It was a lovely evening, filled with analogies, three of which I will share with you.

#1 – Mastery Takes Time

The violin (and viola and cello) only has four strings. One of the guest musicians was Catherine French, who has been playing the violin since the age of four. Julliard, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall – she’s very good, and she plays beautiful music on those four strings.

Any one of us can go out and buy a violin, buy the music, and pay for classes, but it will take time before we can play like Ms. French. She makes it look easy. Donald Trump plays the business / money violin. He has been exposed to it his whole life. He makes millions of dollars from the same opportunities that we all have.

My point is that it takes time to learn how to play the game. I see people attend a Bootcamp and then whine because they’re not making a fortune within two months, with a few hours of work. It would do them good to read this analogy.

#2 – Together We Do Amazing Things

First work: Octet in Eb Major, Opus 20 – Allegro moderato, ma con fuoco by Felix Mendelssohn: Five musicians playing violins, two with violas, two with cellos. Nine people playing together in perfect harmony, making beautiful music. Real team work, each person reading their own music, playing their own instrument, taking full and absolute responsibility for their contribution, focused, committed, after massive preparation and practice. The failure of one affects the whole team. The world is watching.

My point is that teamwork makes the dream work, and together we do amazing things, but each team member is responsible and important. For the music to sound wonderful, each must do his or her part – there is no place for excuses and blame.

#3 – The Audience (or Marketplace) is Unforgiving

My final analogy is the audience. We paid good money to be there last night, and we expected value for our money, and excellence. Our time was valuable, and we wanted our money’s worth. We were not going to be impressed or understanding if one of the musicians arrived late with a weak excuse, or if one of them didn’t do his job properly.

My point is simple: The marketplace is unforgiving and demanding, and your competition is waiting to take your customers. Go big, or go home. Be as good as you can be, don’t make excuses. Deliver, or be replaced.

From My JV Broker Perspective

Finally, from a marketing perspective, the program for last night’s event contained no website, contact details, call to action, upsell, back-end, opportunities, or items for sale. And we were not entered into a database. This is another golden opportunity for any smart Joint Venture Broker to work with these wonderful artists, and everyone can make money.

Happy New Year!

“What will it take?”

This is a powerful question, and yet people seldom use it.

• It gives the person being asked the question the opportunity to “Name their price”, as it were.
• This is very exciting because it gives you the opportunity to find out what that person really wants – their “Hot Button”, if you like, plus it is often relatively easy to get them what they want in order to grant whatever it is you’re requesting in return. Especially if you’re using Joint Ventures!
• This question also implies reciprocity – it is not selling or begging, but trading from a position of strength, insight, sensitivity and equality.
• You can remove the guesswork from your transactions by using this approach.

How to Use This Outstanding Question

You might say, “Mr. Faulty, I would like very much to enjoy the hospitality of your fishing lodge for a week with my wife in June. And I would like to trade you for the privilege. Now, in order to cut to the chase and avoid wasting your valuable time or offering you stuff that isn’t of interest to you, may I ask you, in exchange for that week at your Lodge, what will it take? What are you looking for that I might be able to deliver to you that could be more valuable than a simple monetary transaction?”

You might be amazed at the response.

• Mr. Faulty might respond that if you bring a party of six, he will only charge you for four people.
• Or he might be looking for a canoe that he can rent out to his guests, and you might just have access to one.
• Or he might want something that you can purchase with Trade Dollars.
• Perhaps he would be satisfied with advertising exposure that you could arrange through a Joint Venture.

Be well prepared for the meeting and, having done your homework, be well armed with some juicy options, like the aforementioned advertising exposure, seats on seminars, consultations, Gift Certificates (“How about I give you $10,000 worth of Gift Certificates that you can offer your clients in order to increase loyalty, referrals and return business, Mr. Faulty?”) and so on.

Discover What They Really Want

“You have not, because you ask”, could also be “You have not, because you ask the wrong questions”. And because you have not done your due diligence to find out what it is that Mr. Faulty really WANTS, as opposed to what you might imagine he NEEDS.

• Is it more important, for example, for him to get more guests or to make more money from his existing guests?
• Is it an introduction to someone, a new supplier, or access to a database?

Use this powerful question and you may be amazed at the responses you get. “What will it take?”

How do you feel about telesales? Don’t you think,

“What an irritation – this salesperson hasn’t earned the right to call me, interrupt me and try to sell me something that I can easily buy from any number of trusted friends if I wanted it?”

That’s exactly how I feel about salespeople who call me up and pitch me on their products and services. There is no reason why I should even consider talking to them, let alone do business with them.

And yet, that’s how 95% of salespeople operate these days. There is a better way.

5 Guidelines for a Positive Response

Whatever you’re selling, even if you’re selling yourself into a job opportunity, the same principles apply. Guarantee the positive, even eager attention of the person you want to sell to, using these simple guidelines:

1. Get introduced to them by someone whom they know, trust and respect.
2. EARN the right – use the Law of Reciprocity to sow before you attempt to reap. Only the brainless and desperate still believe that works.
3. Know the person to whom you are pitching – do your homework. I have been approached by some geniuses who haven’t even taken the time to look at my website before calling me. Then you can push the right buttons and make them an offer they simply can’t refuse.
4. Whatever it is you’re selling, the person you are approaching has dozens of alternatives. Remember that and be prepared to differentiate yourself by adding massive, unprecedented value.
5. DON’T be CHEAP. Be prepared to spend some money to position and package yourself or you will simply reveal your desperation and ignorance. I had someone ask me to call him back so that he could save on the telephone call!

We live in a dichotomous business world – on the one hand, we have the highly sophisticated, slick approach that is often too well packaged to be believable, and then on the other the hand the coffee-stained, computer printed business card of the MLM’er. By using the above principles, you can elevate yourself to a position where you demand and get the positive attention of those you wish to sell to.

Wayne Dyer said:

“Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.”

This is true in business as well as in life. We don’t have money problems; we have thinking problems. Many people have a “Shrinking Pie” mentality – they think in terms of shortage and limitations. They’re afraid of the competition. The fact is that everything you could possibly require for your business is already, easily available to you.

How Do You Get at It?

You can unlock this vault through Joint Ventures. Whatever it is that you need, be it space, advertising, distribution, a sales team, labor, equipment reputation, a database or anything else, as long as someone else has it, you can get access to it!

Most businesses have underutilized resources. Not every resource in every business is fully utilized. I visited my printer the other day to discuss the printing of my new book and I found that he also, at time, has excess capacity or inventory.

• Could people put more seats into their seminars?
• Add a few more seats in a restaurant?
• Do they have inventory that isn’t moving?
• Idle staff members?

Of course they do.

See the Opportunity & Make It Worth Their While

Once we realize that these resources are all available to us, be they seats on aircraft, rooms in hotels or credit, memberships, cars, printers or time, we have to understand how to access that resource with no cost or risk to us. Once we realize that the Law of Reciprocity works very well when understood, just like gravity, we can simply use that law. We can barter, trade, or simply set up simple Joint Ventures to leverage resources.

• How big do you think?
• What do you expect?
• How confident are you?

This will determine how much you can get.

Real-life Examples

If you ask for a million, you might get it. If you ask for a hundred… You simply have to give the owner or controller of those resources a good reason to share them with you. If he gets what he wants, you can get what you want. Here are some real-life examples from Barternews.com:

1. Peter Pocklington acquired 50% of the Edmonton Oilers from Nelson Skalbania in 1977 in exchange for a Rolls Royce, a 15-carat ring, and a Renoir painting.
2. Continental Airlines traded five terminal gates it had at Los Angeles International to United Airlines for several of their gates at the Newark (NJ) airport.
3. Star Wars creator George Lucas’ company Lucasfilm is quietly negotiating a huge barter deal that will see one company having the toy manufacturing rights to a new series of his upcoming films. Offers reportedly approaching $1 billion are on the table with Lucas getting a sizable equity (ownership) stake in the toy company with which he eventually barters.

Your Only Limitation

Your imagination is your only limitation. Together, we can do amazing things. It’s hard to do it alone, and you don’t have to. ASK. “You have not because you ask not.” Be bold. Find out what the other person wants and trade. Everything you need is readily available and waiting for you!

Big business understands the leverage and reach available through Joint Ventures.  Don’t create a competency or distribution channel – borrow one! Share the love, as it were.

H&R Block and 7-Eleven

H&R Block Inc. and 7-Eleven Inc. signed a three-year agreement Wednesday that enables Block customers to cash refund loan checks at 1,100 7-Eleven stores in the United States.

Yahoo! and Starbucks

Online dating is growing in popularity. And people who meet online typically like to meet for the first time in a coffee house like Starbucks. Armed with that data, Starbucks teamed with Yahoo! Personals to produce an “Espresso Dating Guide” that can be found exclusively online. The guide offers advice such as what to wear on a first date, what to talk about and, if necessary, how to end the date gracefully. Starbucks is running a print ad campaign to support the online site.

Time for small & medium business to get in the game!

The ego-driven, “Lone Ranger” mentality of the typical small to medium business owner is expensive and risky. Big business has been using Joint Ventures for a long time because they have the ability to be objective, bottom line oriented and unthreatened. Now it’s time for small and medium businesses to benefit as well.

After the Joint Venture Broker Bootcamp I presented in Toronto on Sunday, one of the Delegates, the owner of a well known eatery on Bloor street, reacted fast and immediately started arranging Joint Ventures that will bring him serious profit with very little risk and negligible cost.

You don’t even need a business to JV!

The good news is that you don’t even need a business to benefit financially from brokering Joint Ventures. It’s just a matter of seeing the opportunities, much like the stereogram analogy. At first, a stereogram looks like a nonsensical arrangement of patterns, but when you look long enough, a 3D picture magically emerges. Joint Venture brokers simply link supply and demand and take a piece of the ongoing action. There is literally no end to the opportunities available and the potential income, especially since it’s all 100% profit to the broker.

Got a database?

When I hear of a person who has a good relationship with a large number of other people, I see massive opportunity. By providing all those people with what they want, value is created. We get paid in direct proportion to the value we provide. The more people you help, the more money you can make.

Linking 1,000 people with solutions and being paid on every transaction is great, especially when you don’t have to provide the services or carry the inventory – you simply link A and B and become a little tollgate. You stand on the money bridge and collect. No cost or risk to you, and very little time.

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Strong and successful entrepreneurs make decisions fast and stick to them. They don’t wait for the cat to fall out of a tree or Grandma to buy a new dress. They don’t have twenty committee meetings before they decide whether or not to order the Beef Wellington.

• They say, “Yes” or they say, “No.”
• They are fast on their feet.
• They don’t find excuses to procrastinate.
• They will weigh the information, do their due diligence and decide.

You don’t have to run after them for a decision, either; they will get back to you when they say they will. They are winners.

“All I needed was a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’.”

One seminar attendee gave me SEVEN reasons why he wouldn’t be able to attend an event. At the end of his whining, I said, “All I needed was a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’.”

Winston Churchill put it this way: “They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.” And George Canning said,

“Indecision and delays are the parents of failure.”

Those who vacillate, dither, hesitate and flounder are simply fearful of making ANY decision. They are afraid of the consequences of agreeing and equally terrified of the results of disagreeing. As Tony Blair once said of a certain politician, “Weak, weak, weak!”

Be willing to make decisions.

The chairman of Mesa Petroleum said,

“Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader. Don’t fall victim to what I call the Ready- Aim-Aim-Aim Syndrome. You must be willing to fire.”

Any decision is better than no decision. “I’ll get back to you” and “I’ll think about it / discuss it / review it” usually means, “I’m too scared to decide – please leave me in my misery and go find a real man”. Let us decide to decide. Let us be warriors and Eagles. Let us be confident, courageous and focused. Time is money and the window of opportunity doesn’t wait. Seize the day!

• What gets you bounding out of bed before the alarm clock goes off?  On a cold, rainy Monday morning, after 4 hours of sleep and jetlagged into last year?
• What compels you to work deep into the night?
• What drives you to go the extra thousand miles?
• What sets you apart from the herd of mediocre also-rans?

Your Vision.

What Separates the Masterful from the Mediocre

Successful people are prepared to do what unsuccessful people are not prepared to do. And the reason why they are prepared to – no – obsessed with doing it, is their purpose and their vision. Without a vision for your future, life is dull, boring, frustrating, repetitive, meaningless. Woodrow Wilson said,

“No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise.”

Dream or Drudgery

“Without a vision, the people perish” Proverbs 29 vs18. Vision gives us focus, endurance, courage, passion and purpose. Dreams determine destiny. Imagination determines aspiration. We have a choice, every minute of every day – we can focus on the problem or the purpose, the dream or the drudgery.

People who flit aimlessly from one thing to another simply haven’t discovered their purpose. They are without a vision; rudderless ships, destined to end up on the rocks. They are guaranteeing regret in their old age, when they no longer have the youth and energy to attempt great things. Two sad words will haunt them: “If only…”

Transcend Limitations & Mistakes

Peter Drucker said:

“The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make, for the more new things he will try in the pursuit of his vision.”

Visionaries are bulletproof. They don’t fear making mistakes. They eagerly embrace every new opportunity to make their dreams come true. They live in faith, not fear. Anais Nin said:

“We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.”

We become our vision. The greater the vision, the greater we become. Patanjali said:

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

What if you don’t yet have a clearly defined vision?

Easy. Find someone who does, and hitch your wagon to their star until you’re ready. You will be infused with joy, peace and a new perspective on life.

The best part of Joint Ventures, as well as the easiest and most lucrative, is “Piggybacking”.

When I was 11 years old, my favorite game at school was similar to piggybacking. Small guys like me would ride on the backs of big, strong guys and we would try to pull our opponents over. They key to winning was strong arms and a strong “Horse”. I had strong arms and I always chose a strong horse, so I usually won.

A Strong Recommendation

In business, the book, “Horse Sense” by Al Ries and Jack Trout applies the same concept. This book was personally recommended to me by a multimillionaire client of mine, many years ago. I read the book three times.

A Lucrative Piggybacking Example

I recently talked with a man who has 1,200 people in his database. I suggested he offer them Membership in my DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum at a great discount. By sending out two e-mails and one voice broadcast and adding value, for which I would pay, and by mentioning the opportunity in his e-zine, we estimated that he would have at least 120 join (10%). That would earn him significant money, at no cost or risk to him. That’s piggybacking – and it’s that simple.

The same can be done with shared advertising, mailings, e-mails, e-zines, direct mail, seminars and business opportunities. Riding on the back of existing distribution, reputation, reach, access and exposure is very effective.

Consider the Power of Partnering

• Don’t buy a 747 to fly to LA – simply rent a seat.
• Don’t own the overhead or create a competency; borrow it.

Consider the power of partnering: everyone wins by sharing underutilized resources and Hidden Assets. And here’s the Good News – you don’t need to own the resource, be it a database, distribution route or relationship – you simply make the connection – it’s called “Triangulation”. No risk or cost, no downside, lots of fun and lots of money. You don’t need a business to set this up. Link me up with someone else and take a piece of the action. Link Bob up with Sally and get paid on all ensuing business over the next two years, why not?

The key to successful piggybacking…

is a strong horse and a strong rider – both parties should be ethical, generous, smart, professional and proactive. That’s the hard part. I know people whose databases I wouldn’t touch with a 20 foot pole. Be selective; be VERY selective.

Talk with Members of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum and if you want to make a lot of money easily, remember that all it takes is a bit of thought. It’s not hard work and there’s no risk if you’re dealing with the right people.

The Bottom Line

Bundle a product or service with one that is already selling well or add a product or service to an existing database or distribution route – that’s piggybacking, and it can create increasing, multiple streams of passive income for you.