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The 30-Day "Bigger Than You" Challenge

Kak

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The challenge should be over at this point for many of us, but I certainly have results that remain. Like I said earlier in this thread, I want to make this a lifelong habit because it is that good.

Over the last 30 days, because of the challenge, I have:

-Arranged an advertising deal for one of my companies.

-Landed Nord VPN as a KKRS sponsor.

- Got someone promising on board with on a profit sharing arrangement with one of my companies.

-Met a new supplier of something related to what I sell, and they seem to have a very competitive price.

-Was featured on the Frank Speech platform live-streamed to 2.5 million people, several times.

-Got the privilege to meet executives from Salem communications and Newsmax and will still potentially work a deal with them.

-And the absolute GEM of the month: Met, in person, and became friends with the guy responsible for syndicating a popular radio show to over 300 radio stations. The wisdom I have gotten from our discussions is like leaping a year worth of research into the future.
 

The-J

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Challenge isn't over for me yet because I took a vacation in the middle of it, however in the meantime I've already got someone who is not only interested in providing his services for me to sell with my new project, but has also linked me up with a person who invests in companies similar to what I'm working on.

Most of the rest have ignored me or said no, but that's not a bad thing because it showed me that I need to improve my pitch deck.

So far I've kept the focus singular but KAK seems to have looked for multiple opportunities to help solve problems in his businesses. I'm not sure which is better but I think it might have to do with what stage your business is in.
 

ArmanK

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This thread has been a long time coming and I am going to make a claim that might be uncomfortable for some, but not untrue.

Before we get there, I preface this with the fact that I have a belief in the entrepreneur as a force for good. Despite the world vilifying them, the world needs value creators more than any other kind of person. I have a belief that everyone, and particularly the types of people that sought out a forum like this one, have greatness in them. Call it limiting beliefs, call it mindset, whatever, some people rise to a bigger challenge and others simply toil away hoping something good will come of their toil.

By greatness, I am talking multi-millionaire entrepreneurship and beyond. This isn't just billionaire ambition stuff, which I indeed have. No, this is about building something bigger than just you and your efforts. Not having to settle for a shitty website anymore. Not having to do your own books. Not having to work harder just because your business is bigger. I could go on and on for days. This is about making the most effective self possible and shedding beliefs about business that are holding us back.

Something bigger isn't JUST FOR OTHER PEOPLE... It can also be FOR YOU... If you are willing to accept it of course. There is a mindset that the greats in this world are great because "they just are." That is patently false and really what's left of many of our external locus beliefs. Remember locus of control is a spectrum, not binary. It may be thinking on an order of magnitude higher than we are used to, but the fact remains the same. It's not luck, it's not genius, and it is not a skill they were born with.

Elon Musk wasn't born with the innate ability to build marketable electric cars and land rockets on barges. Steve Jobs wasn't born with plans for the iPhone. Sam Walton wasn't born with the skills to build the world's largest retailer.

These skills were universally discovered by the greats as first, SOMETHING THEY NEEDED, and then DEVELOPED into what LATER became greatness.

There is another claim many will make... "I am just going to do this (insert something super small and easy) for a while and then, when I have enough (insert skills, resources, whatever they believe they don't have enough of yet), I will go after my big idea" as if this little business will somehow prepare them for something cooler by osmosis. Ladies and gentlemen, there are young multi-millionaires and billionaires in this world. They didn't wait, and it wasn't osmosis.

What was it?

So as a foundation... If you want to change something.... If you want to make a difference.... If you want to make progress that truly matters in your entrepreneurial journey.... You need to accept the following: THE ENTIRETY OF THE WORLD'S RESOURCES, SKILLS, PEOPLE, WHATEVER... IS AVAILABLE TO ME, IF I CAN ORGANIZE THEM TO MY END.

Every single great in the history of entrepreneurship operated under some form of this assumption. They may not have ever put words to it, but THAT is how they built. THAT is how their businesses became bigger than them.

Nitpickers may try to prove that wrong, but they can't... So we are moving on.

Ok so... "BIGGER THAN YOU" is the point of the exercise here. I had a KBRS show called "The 1000 Hour Workweek," it was a jab at the 4 Hour Workweek... Basically the notion is that the truly wealthy businesspeople of the world have full-time hours worked, to their end, by hundreds or thousands of people... Willingly.

I have had other shows where I talked about how there are two kinds of wealth. Monetary, of course, and INFLUENCE. Influence is the focus here, because many entrepreneurs have NONE and none of us have enough.

The belief that with business growth comes more work for you is also false. How could it not be? How could ANYONE grow a business to tens of millions of dollars per year if EVERYONE has the same 24 hours in a day? The answer is this very force at play. Their businesses are bigger than them.

It works with any business...

Who works harder?
A.) Someone that owns and operates a small plumbing company He has a receptionist and one truck. He goes out on 5-6 calls per day, orders new inventory, keeps the books, makes sure the website is updated, and finally goes home.
OR
B.) Someone that owns a plumbing company, doesn't go out on any calls, and LEADS an organization of 20 trucks and 25 plumbers EACH going out on 5-6 calls per day.

I know who...

The theory is solid. Bigger than you means PEOPLE!

OK, we are done with theory. What about practice?

Now comes the challenge. @Mathuin posted a bang up thread the other day that inspired one of my newest radio show episodes. His thread detailed how one entrepreneur got the ball rolling and eventually built the kind of business we are talking about here. The baby step that made the next stuff happen. The first revolution of the snowball.


Based on this, I believe there is immense power here and it works with any business... It also works for anyone at any stage in their business...

I know how amazingly some of my contacts have worked out in my entrepreneurial journey... We could all use more.

MY IDEA: THOUGHTFULLY choose, research, and contact one new person per day with some kind of goal in mind.

It could be getting them on the phone and picking their brain. It could be working some kind of strategic partnership. It could be putting some kind of deal together. It could be to make a new friend in the industry. It could be to learn pain points, discovering needs. Whatever.

The most effective entrepreneurs in the world have great people in their network.

There's a chance that 2/3 of the people you contact don't answer or even tell you to F*ck off. That's ok... The people that you do meet could change everything.

So my personal goal is this: 1 new outreach per day, 5 days a week, for a month. Not some canned sales email, no, something individualistic. Something singled out for them and a good reason to contact them.

This is quality 100x higher than quantity. Make every outreach count and give every single one your very best effort.

This is probably a 30 minute per day task. Everyone can find 30 minutes in a day. Given the thread above, there is a chance that someone you meet along the way could change absolutely everything for your business. If this doesn't get results for many of you that choose to join me, I will be SHOCKED.

Furthermore, I intend to make this into a lifelong habit if the power I think is there, truly is. I can see this being 30 minutes we can't afford not to spend this way. It is also FREE.

Who is with me?

Accompanying KBRS episode to come shortly.
LOVE this idea @Kak !!! also just started binging your podcast. I know I am late to the game but looking forward to it.

I work in BD and have worked in sales for 5+ years so I have seen the power of highly personalized outreach.

I have gotten dozens of positive email/LinkedIn replies from CEOs, VPs, and C-suite execs of small startups to unicorn tech companies and everything in between.

There are probably many formats that work and I am sure this is nothing ground breaking but I typically follow this kind of framework:

compliment on something meaningful you found about them (interview they did, new product they launched, became a parent, etc.) which is usually pretty easy after doing 5 minutes of research.

explain (briefly) who you are and the one reason why they should care or could benefit from this.

then ask a personalized question that shows you have done your homework.

and most importantly end with this (feel free to use word for word or don't):

"I understand you have tremendous demands on your time. And if you don't have time to respond, no problem. But if you do, even a sentence would mean a lot to me."

Happy outreaching!
 
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Antifragile

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Thanks for this thread @Kak

This is the kind of challenge that must reset every 30 days and start anew.

I’ll share with you that I feel quite tired from the massive effort over the past 12 months. It’s been relentless pursuit in 30 day increments. To do bigger deals I needed new investors, better relationships, more staff. I’ve met some very powerful people, one billionaire and @Kak knows the story. I just asked for an introduction, then asked for a lunch and then we hit it off and had another lunch 6 months later.

I met another investor in the mid 9 figure net worth, used to be friends with Steve Jobs, honestly, I felt a bit star struck. The most shocking thing for me was the fact that these people actually met me. I mean they gave me their time, which is the most valuable commodity!

Unfortunately with one very promising investor, it didn’t work out - in fact, it ended with… let’s just call it “fireworks” type of meeting. I didn’t initiate it, but that’s where it went. It became a low point for me, because effort I‘ve put was relentless and basically I rejected an investor who otherwise was willing to put in solid 8 figures! I rejected him when I had immense need for capital because of deals I had under contract - timing was horrible. Try that on for size if you feel down. But I did it because my gut said to do it and that I’d be OK. Just double the effort, get better at your pitch, meet new people etc.

Similar to the challenge of this thread, I’ve had my eye on the ball. It took 12 months and last week it finally came together, paperwork signed and all. We’ve partnered with two family offices which basically 10x my reach in our industry. It has been a lot of effort and of course I am tired. Some of you may have noticed more rants or prickly posts from me as I vented here… but I am not taking any breaks, this is not the end. This is the beginning! In fact, now is when the really hard work begins. When you have 10x capital, you have to be smart and add value - or you lose more than just capital, far more - your reputation!

That’s how I see this challenge too, it is like taking stairs in a high rise building. It’s hard but each floor has better views ;)

With that, @Kak - what’s on your agenda for the next 30? And who’s joining? :)
 

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