Secrets of self-made millionaires

Posted from ersonal Finance at www.money.msn.com:

Do you dream of becoming rich but aren't sure how to make your millions -- or better yet, billions? Then who better to ask than the rich themselves about how they made their way to the top.  Steve Siebold did just that. He's spent nearly 30 years interviewing the world's wealthiest people. Siebold, the author of "How Rich People Think," spoke with U.S. News about what the rich have in common, how self-made millionaires attained their wealth and why now is the best time to strike it rich. Excerpts:

Q: What sparked your fascination with the rich?

A: I was a broke college student in 1984, and I wanted to be rich. But I didn't feel like I was getting the information I needed from my college business classes. In a lot of the classes, the business professors seemed to put down the rich, and that didn't make sense to me. So I started looking for outside sources until I found a millionaire to interview.

Q: Was he difficult to find?

A: Yes, because I didn't know any millionaires and I was just a kid. I was probably 19 years old. And I found the rich don't really like to flaunt their wealth. Most of the rich, in my experience, aren't like Donald Trump -- they're the polar opposite. They want to be left alone, because as soon as people know they've got a lot of money, people come after them and the media goes after them. They want to be quiet and unexposed.  The deal they made with me was I wouldn't give their names out unless they gave me permission, and very few of them gave me permission.

 

 

Q: Have you found any commonalities among the people you've interviewed?

A: Their personality styles vary: Some are introverts, some are extroverts. But their belief systems around money are the same. That was the one thread that really helped me throughout the process: They all have a really positive relationship with money. They think about money in terms of freedom, as opposed to the negative relationship a lot of people have with money.

Q: The net worth of the richest Americans grew by 13% in the past year to $1.7 trillion. Does that surprise you?

A: No, not at all. If you look at the global equity markets over the last few years, they're up 18%. As where the average Americans have their money wrapped up in their home equity and low-interest vehicles, like 401k's, the rich have their money in the global equity markets. They've got the money to invest, and it's a good place to be right now. They're also in a nice position because they can afford to lose.

Q: Did self-made millionaires simply work harder than the rest of us to get where they are?

A: Most people think the rich got lucky. People think their money wasn't earned by hard work and strategic, calculated thinking, which is not the truth for most people. There are crooks in every income category, but in my experience, there's no more on the rich side than the poor side.

But it's interesting how the self-made rich are a really hated group. They're discriminated against, even in the wealthiest country of the world. I think it's really sad. I think we should celebrate these people. There's a tendency to demonize them, which I think is just crazy.

Q: Is there any way that contempt some people have for the rich can change?

A: I hope so. It's so easy to take a shot at people who are rich. I hope that, over time, we can change our beliefs in this country, because if we don't lead the way in changing people's beliefs about capitalism and wealth, I think we're really in trouble.

Q: Do rich people feel that resentment to the point where they only want to associate with other rich people?

A: Absolutely. I call it "cocooning." But they don't like to talk about money when they get together. They genuinely like to associate with one another. But many people think it's because the rich think they're better than other people, and it's not -- it's because they're discriminated against. I think they just want to be with similar people who won't discriminate against them. They're a minority that people target, which is why they tend to hide out and stick together.

Is a hamburger really a hamburger?

I read an interesting guest column from Maria Landon, an affiliate professor in the marketing department at Grand Valley State University.  She talked about hamburgers from McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's, from Smashburger and Bagger Dave's, to rice burgers in East Asian countries, chicken burgers in India, or sliced pork burgers in China.  Then in part, she said:

Each semester, I ask my students "Is a hamburger a hamburger?"  Their response is normally "no."  I then state it is merely ground beef and the marketer has tweaked customers' perception to think there is a big difference.  Then I ask, "If a marketer can differentiate ground beef, do you think they can also do so with jewelry, clothing, cars, beverages, Etc.?  I get them thinking, and that's the point.  The starting step is to know your target market and its expectations.  What is most important to them?  The quality of the meat?  The cut? The size of the hamburger?  The taste?  The grade of beef?  Toppings?  Price?  The environment where it is sold?

"The next step is finding a benefit that other marketers do not promote.  This really plays on the customers' perceptions.  No matter which burger is your favorite, rest assured it is good business to take a low-tech product, position it as a cut above the rest and make a major killing.  I'll let you decide if a hamburger is a hamburger.  Meanwhile, please pass the ketchup."

Good lesson for all marketers to consider over your next cup of coffee. 

He Smashed His Head Bloody, Pounding It On His Locker Door, and Broke Off Two Teeth Biting On It

What Will You Accept?

By Dan Kennedy - You may recall a story like that from Dan Jenkins' football novel, Semi-Tough. (made into an okay movie.) The story is reportedly based on actual behavior of Howie Long when he was playing for the Oakland Raiders. You now see a mild-mannered, pleasant Howie on the Sunday morning football show on FOX. That is not the Howie teammates and opponents saw on the field. There, they saw and encountered a man who hated to lose. In his newest novel, about the LPGA, The Franchise Babe, Jenkins again talks about the hate-to-lose element.

I find fewer and fewer people exhibiting this. In pro sports. In business. Most are all too willing to accept losing and losses, to shrug them off, to end days without productive accomplishment, to miss sales, to let revenue escape, to let customers disappear, to bank excuses instead of money. And as I said last week, you get what you accept.

I have always hated not doing well. Hate is, or is supposed to be a very strong word. Hate is dark and violent and intense. I mean it that way. I hate not doing well. People interfering with my ability to do well, through negligence, incompetence, stupidity, have seen and felt my wrath. Like Howie, I have actually, physically injured myself - smashing fist into wall, steel file cabinet; kicking car fender repeatedly; etc. - in unchecked rage after screwing up badly.

When I set out in the A.M. with a To-Do List, I resist with every fiber of being, carrying an item on it over to the next day. I hate that. When advertising, marketing or sales campaigns are slowed or sabotaged by peoples' sloppy or careless implementation, I immediately begin scheming to rid my life of the culprits. I hate people who don't hate things being f'd up. I approve of the Oriental tradition of falling on one's own sword when performing badly. By normal standards, I suppose I am emotionally unstable or dysfunctional, and might be diagnosed as mentally ill, but then normal standards lead to normal results, which suck.

By the way, every doctor always expects me to have high blood pressure. I do not. I cause high blood pressure, I don't have it. Seems to me, if you don't care deeply, passionately about getting whatever you're doing right, done fast and on time, done in the way that produces best results, you ought to find something worth caring about to do - or find a way to do nothing at all. If I had a team, I'd much rather have a Howie Long, and have to pry the damaged locker door from his hands and talk him out of the depths of rage, despair and depression over losing, than have a modern-day, laissez-faire, shit happens, we'll try to do better next time wimpus and struggle to talk him into performing. When I look around the ranks of the rich, I see people like me who hate losing. When I look around everywhere else, I see loads of good losers.

At the moment, a lot of willing-to-accept-not-doing-well folks have been handed an extra supply of excuses - gas prices, real estate slump, - etc. - and many are unconsciously delighted to have them. Be careful. Their mental illness is contagious.

DAN S. KENNEDY is a serial, multi-millionaire entrepreneur; highly paid and sought after marketing and business strategist; advisor to countless first-generation, from-scratch multi­millionaire and 7-figurc income entrepreneurs and professionals; and, in his personal practice, one of the very highest paid direct-response copywriters in America.

Think Small for Your Next Marketing Piece

Think Small for Big Marketing Response!

Written on November 7, 2012 by Mike Capuzzi in Marketing Ideas

Recently I received what I thought was a great look marketing piece from one of my mastermind members and elder law attorney, Julie Steinbacher of Steinbacher & Stahl.

What caught my attention immediately was the size of the marketing piece, in this case a 5.5 inch wide mini pocket folder.  I had never seen a pocket folder this size and it immediately stood out (which is a critical first step to any marketing).  Inside the folder was a marketing information kit, which included an audio CD, some firm information and her business card.  Overall a very well designed and thought out piece.

As soon as I saw it, it prompted me to write this article on an important concept many business owners and marketers gloss over, but can have a huge impact on whether or not your marketing piece gets noticed.
The size and shape of your marketing pieces should be a consideration when coming up with them and rather than default to standard sized items (e.g. letter-sized paper, etc.) think about how you can do something different to stand out.  I’m a fan of creating and using odd-sized marketing pieces and as I prepared this article, I pulled a few items I’ve created in the past to kick-start your own ideas…

Starting from the top left, this was a 4 inch wide by 8.5 inch tall booklet I created as informational booklet for an entrepreneur’s group I led.  I designed it specifically to be this size, so business people who attended the meeting could put it in their inside coat pocket and so I could always have one at hand myself.
Moving right, these are four examples of other booklets or “shooks” (short book) I’ve created.  Closed they are 5.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall and when they are opened they are basically printed on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper turned on its side.  My current use of this booklet is for a product catalog I put together of all my products.

Over the years, I’ve been a big fan of mini CD-ROMs and business-card CD-ROMs.  Handing somebody a business card CD, loaded with a video, demo, etc. can be very powerful. The last item is a USB drive, which can be loaded with all kinds of digital goodies and branded with your company information.  They definitely don’t get thrown away and their small size makes them easy to mail or carry with you.
Here is a short checklist of marketing pieces that can have smaller or odd sizes:

• Books and reports
• Envelopes
• CDs and DVDs
• Information kits
• Business cards
• Direct mail pieces

The takeaway I want to leave you with is to try not to always default to standard and traditional sized marketing pieces.  Remember, think small for big response!

Sending Emails to New Prospects

Sales Question: "I'm more comfortable sending emails first to new prospects rather than calling and interrupting their day, but my manager says its better to call first... who's right?"

Answer:Well, couple things here…

1) When you say "you're more comfortable" emailing a prospect first, how do you mean, exactly? Most times when I hear this, what the salesperson is really saying to me is "I get less rejection this way". Well, you probably get the same amount, if not more rejection (depending on how many emails you send out compared to how many dials you would make) but they are less PAINFUL rejections because they didn't tell you "No" over the phone… they simply ignored your email.

2) The comment about "not wanting to interrupt" their day doesn't fly with me.  Again, if your prospects feel like you are interrupting their day, your opening value statement needs work. A prospects interest should be piqued in the first few seconds of the call. If that's not happening, you're either calling the wrong prospects or your opening value statement (What you say after: Hello, my name is _____) needs a tune-up.
With that said if you still prefer to send out emails AND you're making quota, why fix what isn't broken? Keep doing what you're doing.

The Problem With Emailing First

If on the other hand you aren't hitting your numbers, you may want to fix what's causing you to get rejected and then start making the sales calls first. Let me share a personal story with you that may change your mind about wanting to hit the "send" button on that email before calling.

I recently completed an online form requesting to be contacted about a service I'm interested in. This makes me a WARM LEAD because I've RAISED MY HAND.  To my dismay, the company that I contacted either has salespeople who are afraid to pick up the phone or have an automated system that takes the sales rep out of the picture because I continuously get emails asking when I would like to set up a time to have a conversation regarding my request.

I wanted to have that conversation (like I usually do with all things) YESTERDAY. However, I have yet to respond to their request, even though I am highly interested… Want to know why? Because I always have so much on my plate, I keep pushing it off! But if the salesperson would just call me, there's a great chance (unless he/she is totally unprepared) that I would stop what I'm doing and talk with them!

It is way too easy to push emails aside. So if you want to increase your pipeline and shorten your sales cycle, make the call first, then follow that up immediately with an email, a LinkedIn connection request and a tweet.

Four touches in less than 120-seconds I'm sure will prove to deliver a better response rate than simply emailing.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist, SalesBuzz.com

Interviews

One of the things that I do is interview women business owners, frequently as a part of their certification process to become a WBE.  This week, I was privileged to talk with five women business owners, representing the manufacturing, construction, and service sectors.  I asked each woman what one thing would make her job easier as a business owner, and received a number of responses.  One response involved wanting more time, and another involved wanting more access to capital.  The one response that stuck with me is that she said that it would be easier if she were a man.

That reminded me of Jeffrey Toobin's books "The Oath" and "The Nine."  In each, he discusses the workings of the Supreme Court Justices and in particular, about Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Justice O'Connor was the first woman Justice.  Anyone who goes "through the wall" is the bloodiest, and "The Nine" talks about what Justice O'Connor had to do to compete and earn her career.  "The Oath" talks about Justice Ginsburg and her being a swing vote on the court, and how she prevails.

For those of you who are pioneers in your field, investigate these books to remind yourself that you are not nuts and that you are paving the way for those women coming behind you.  The first one through the wall is the bloodiest.  Stay the course.

AND for those in West Michigan, be sure to enter your nomination for the Grand Rapids Business Journal's Top Women Owned Businesses awards to be held in March 2013.  www.grbj.com  The women entrepreneurs coming up the ranks need to see you as a role model. 

It's all good.

Women are Making it Happen

I’ve been a woman entrepreneur in West Michigan for some time, and this week attended two distinctive events celebrating women business owners.

In Novi on Tuesday, CEED hosted their annual two-day conference, bringing in hundreds of women business owners to celebrate and further our accomplishments.  CEED offers resources for second stage business owners, such as the opportunity to Meet the Buyer.  Women are encouraged not only to determine if a company is buying their goods or service and to arrange for furthering that conversation; women are also encouraged to become second-tier suppliers to the multi-billion dollar corporations represented.  The average certified woman owned business in the Great Lakes region (there are 900 of us) has average annual revenue of $12.3 million, employs 40 families, and is experiencing an annual growth rate of 8%.

On the other side of the spectrum, The Michigan Women’s Foundation and Walsh College hosted Entrepreneur YOU, a woman business owner business plan competition for cash awards, sponsored by Inforum and Huntington.  The caliber of this group of startup women entrepreneurs was phenomenal.  First prize went to Dr. Angelique Johnson of MEMStim LLC.  Dr. Johnson and her team have developed a smaller and cheaper nerve stimulator through innovation, and now is able to mass produce the wires.  Currently, each wire is handmade.  Dr. Johnson’s vision is to bring the manufacturing to a Michigan foundry who can adapt to the production requirements.  Her customers will be the current neurostimulator manufacturers who will enjoy the cost savings of her product.

Second prize went to Susan Sprentall and SurClean, an earth friendly, energy efficient, cost-effective, laser-based surface coating removal system, currently targeting large aircraft.  Susan has a commitment already from a large air force base who will use her product to clean and repair their planes faster, cheaper, and with less hazardous waste.

Third prize went to a true innovator who saw a need and produced a solution.  Angela McCommons from Kids Kruiser LLC is a premium transportation service (think taxi), serving youth ages 3 to 18 in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas.  A working mother can’t leave the office to get her child from school to soccer practice?  After interviewing and approving a Kids Kruiser driver, the mother can arrange a secure escort for her child from one safe environment to the next.  After arrival, the mother then receives a text that her child has been safely transported, and everyone wins.

When the Women’s Foundation opened up the registration process for companies wanting to compete, they hoped for 50 applicants.  They received 150.  As one of the judges of the final 10 contestants, I am left to wonder about the high caliber of business proposals that didn’t make the cut. 

Both events serve to underscore again how Michigan women business owners are a vital part of the economic fabric that will bring this state back to being a powerhouse (are you listening, Doug Rothwell?).  It provides evidence again that women today are busy dreaming and performing big things that will bring innovation and cost savings to consumers at every level.  It emphasizes again how women need to step forward and be recognized for these achievements, because our daughters, nieces, and granddaughters think that women have always been in outer space, that women have always been heads of universities, that women have always led big businesses, and that women have always been editors of business journals.  There is a wealth of experience to be garnered by tapping into the women business owners who are making it happen today (are you paying attention, West Michigan Corporate Boards?).

Encourage your woman business owner to be recognized for all her time and contribution by having her register for the GRBJ’s Top Women Owned Business awards (www.grbj.com) Women business owners are becoming an undeniable force in West Michigan.

Become sticky with your customers.

Ever receive something in the mail with a sticky note that caught your attention and drew your eye to the message?  Did you know you can quickly and easily print these attention-grabbing, realistic sticky notes in your own office on your own printers?

I've used them for years, and they make creating attention-grabbing notes a breeze.  Remember, the more you can get somebody to notice your marketing and interact with it, the higher your response will be.  You can even personalize the notes to every recipient by using the Mail Merge feature.

Where can you find these sticky notes?  Visit http://www.flaire.com/.  They have great customer service, and I highly recommend them.

So... Go Build Your Business!!!

Bev

Welcome to Wall2Wall Marketing

Where Women Business Owners Succeed!

My Dad is a retired farmer - farmed for over 60 years before he called it quits.  On May 8, he eturns 85 years old.  I watched him successfully farm, year after year, subject to all the fury that Mother Nature could throw at him, and he STILL had the attitude of Alfred E. Neumann - What me worry?

Wall2Wall Marketing encourages and walks alongside the next generation of women business owners to give them guidance and reassurance.

INSIGHT - Speed is good, and good enough is good enough. When you start your business, don't get hung up on creating it so that is "just right." That's a time waster. Besides, this is not a lookin' good conversation. This is about making money, the legal way. And a business is a legal ATM machine.

So... Go Build Your Business!!!

 - Bev Wall