Your Move: The Underdog’s Guide to Building Your Business

by Ramit Sethi

When you set audacious goals, like doubling your revenue instead of increasing it by 10%, it gives your business instant clarity. You can immediately clear off your plate all the projects that won’t help you reach the goal. “Is that going to help me double my revenue? If no, then kill it.”

If I’m playing to win, it’s easy to make that decision. It doesn’t matter if I really like the project, or if we’re already 20% or 50% or 70% of the way to completion. If the best-case scenario is not helping me reach my goal, then I can kill it instantly and not lose any sleep over it.

I spoke at a conference for online marketers, and was sharing some of the growth strategies that have worked for us. Afterward, 5 people came up to me separately and said, “Thank you for dressing up in a suit and thank you for being professional.”

When you go to an I Will Teach event, you better believe it’s going to be professional: From the website, to the emails, to the second you get to the event. You’re going to be taken care of. It’s like ordering from Amazon — you know your order is going to be handled. That professionalism gives all of your customers confidence.

At any I Will Teach meeting, the agenda is sent out beforehand, and every action item is laid out. If there’s a question for a Product Developer or a UX Designer, their name is in capitals and it’s highlighted. We know exactly who’s on the call because they bold themselves. It’s all done, so we can jump right into the action items. That’s being 100% prepared. Anyone who comes into an IWT meeting from the outside is SHOCKED at this level of preparation.

It’s really easy to go into a client meeting, listen to what they want, and do it. It’s easy to send out an email with some newsletter tool, then never follow-up with any of your readers. This is table stakes. What would be amazing is to go in there and say, “Last week you wanted me to deliver X. Here it is. Also, I noticed there’s something else that you mentioned you were interested in. I’ve actually done some work on that over here — take a look.” They already trust you to work on one thing — now they’re more likely to trust you with MORE responsibility. That’s being proactive.

“What did you say you were going to do? What did you do? What are the roadblocks?”

Years ago, I did an hour-long interview with one of my mentors. It took 16 hours of research before we ever sat down -- and I gave it to my readers for free. But I included this caveat: “Treat it like something you spent $1,000 on. Use it. Implement it. Don’t just listen to it and then move on with your life. There are dozens of profoundly useful and applicable techniques that you can use to kick-start a project, get out of a rut, improve your health, make more money, improve your relationships, excel at work, and challenge your beliefs about behavioral change.”

Because as a professional, it’s your job to teach them — your clients, customers, and team — to revere your work. If you don’t, then they won’t respect the work you do. It’s that simple.

A friend of mine used to sell low-cost information products, in the $29 range, and he wanted to move upmarket, to $1,000 products. He asks, “Can you help me take a look at my sales page?” “Sure,” I said. “I’ll give you feedback on your sales page, but you have to send me the notes that you take from our call.” Why did I do that? The guy’s my friend, I’m not going to charge him to look at his sales page, but my work is highly valuable and I teach everyone to revere it. That is my goal. By telling him, “I want you to send me the notes on our call,” I’m teaching him 2 things: This is going to be so valuable that you’re going to want to take notes. I want him to understand that message. Those notes ar...

For example, I learned from Seth Godin that while it takes 2x or 3x the amount of work to become the absolute best in your field, the best reap 5x or 10x the reward as everyone else. I call this “disproportionate results.”

Another mentor is BJ Fogg, the director at Stanford’s persuasive technology lab. BJ taught me the skills that are the foundation to my business: writing effective emails, how to run meetings, and the deep theoretical knowledge of how to change behavior.

Finally, Jay Abraham’s insights completely changed my life. His book made me over $100,000 in one month, and he helped me double my business in one year. I applied his advice to my personal life and had amazing experiences in just a few months.

“Hi Ramit, I love your book on blah blah. I noticed you said I should XYZ in chapter 5, and so I tried it. I’m stuck due to XYZ. So I’ve come up with 3 possible routes: Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Which do you think I should do?” This gets almost a 100% response rate, since you have actually done the work in advance… plus all the busy person has to do is tell you which option is best. GOOD JOB.

One of the best ways I added value to CEOs was by giving presentations on how millennials used technology. Millennials were their target market but they had no idea how they spent their time: Were they watching TV? If so, on the television set or laptop or on their phone? How much time did they spend on television vs. Facebook? Why?