Business Coaching

Brian Tracy - 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires 4.5 Stars

I received an email from Brian Tracy a few days ago telling me that he is still giving away for free his audio recording program, 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires and I thought that I should listen to my copy again and write a review (if you just want to jump straight to the free offer see Self Made Millionaires.)

The 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires is a 72 minute audio CD and is part of a series of 21 Success Secret audios (I reviewed the 21 Success Secrets of High Performance Businesses some months ago).

The CD tells you about the mindset issues involved in becoming a self made millionaire and this is a journey that top business trainer and guru Brian Tracy has made himself from his early days as a manual worker, through his time as a salesperson and from managing and starting many different businesses.

It promises to tell you the simple, effective and fairly easy to apply steps to becoming a self made millionaire based on research and interviews with self made millionaires. Brian Tracy always has this simple premise. If you think and act like a self made millionaire, you will start to accumulate wealth.

I will just pick out a few of the secrets to explore in a little detail although the 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires has about an hour of solid content with a short introduction at the beginning and a five minute pitch for a financial training program at the end.

Secret 3 - See Yourself As Self Employed

It doesn't matter whether you already have your own significant sized business, you are a self employed professional or you are an employee, you must adopt a self employed mindset.

Your success depends on you - what you think and do. While you will receive some help along the way, you must accept complete responsibility for your life.

If you want something, you have to make it happen and be prepared to make the changes necessary in your life.

Secret 7 - Dedicate Yourself To Lifelong Learning

I wrote yesterday about the problems of information overload and introduced you to Peter Thomson's ideas on the Performance Effectiveness Quotient but I wanted to make sure that I was still advocating lifelong learning.

Ideally you learn knowledge, learn to apply that knowledge and then practice so that you build up your skills and your actions lead you to success.

Unfortunately we tend to use only a small part of our mental powers but that means that we have a great potential for improvement by training our brain and building up the mental muscles.

Brian Tracy says that the average person spends 500 to 1,000 hours per year in their car. The lower end means that you spend the equivalent of 62 eight hour working days there. Think how much you could learn by attending so many intensive seminars and then commit to audio learning to make more productive use of the time.

This is what I do. Some of my driving will be spent listening to classic rock bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones but much of the time is spent listening to people like Brian Tracy, Jay Abraham, Peter Thomson and many others as I have come to appreciate the power of audio learning.

Secret 8 - Pay Yourself First

You may have heard this secret before in books like Rich Dad Poor Dad but the idea is that you take a certain percentage off the top of your income, save/invest that and then live within your remaining earnings. This common amount recommended to save is 10%.

It seems that poor people spend whatever they earn and then spend a bit more while people destined to be rich, commit to saving some of their income, virtually regardless of how much they earn.

I admit that it's much easier for the well off to cut back on their champagne and caviar lifestyle than it is for lower paid households struggling to meet life's essentials but it's the concept that's important.

Brian Tracy makes the point that if you can't imagine saving 10% of your income, then don't try to start by saving 10%. Instead save 1% and commit to living within the 99% remainder (and not a penny more).

Then when you have proven that you can save a little, increase your savings rate to 2%, then 3%...

Secret 15 - Practice Self Discipline In All Things

If you want to be a self made millionaire, you have to realise that it's not going to happen without commitment to paying the price you have to pay.

You have to do what you should do, when you should do it, regardless of whether you feel like it. Put off the necessary actions to become a millionaire and you introduce delays in the flood of cash that should be going into your bank account.

Brian Tracy says that successful people do the things that people who fail don't like to do. Successful people often don't like to do them either but they do them.

Conclusion

I've just looked at four of the 21 Success Secrets but I hope you can see that it is a good program to help you get your mind focused on becoming a self made millionaire.

I rate Brian Tracy very highly and the 21 Success Secrets Of Self Made Millionaires is another excellent product. I rate it as 4.5 stars and when you have your copy, I recommend that you listen to it about five times (or more) to really drill the ideas and millionaire making mindset into your brain. Do the exercises Brian sets - this isn't a spectator sport.

Then listen to it again every three to six months to make sure that you are keeping on the right track.

You can order your free copy of the audio CD from 21 Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires.

To Your Success

Paul Simister

Your Profit Coach, business coaching for the customer focused entrepreneur

© Planning & Control Solutions Ltd 2007-2008 All Rights Reserved

How To Be A Complete And Utter Failure - Steve McDermott

In a radical departure for my blog, instead of helping you to succeed, today I want to help you learn "How To Be A Complete and Utter Failure in Life, Work & Everything"

So here is my tip - listen to Steve McDermott.

I was introduced to the ideas of Steve and "how to fail" by Peter Thomson's Achiever's Edge but I'll let you into a little secret.

Steve McDermott doesn't really want you to fail. It's reverse psychology.

He has written the book "How to Be a Complete and Utter Failure in Life, Work and Everything: 44 1/2 Steps to Lasting Underachievement" which I haven't read yet but I am excited by the live CD "How to Be a Complete and Utter Failure."

Two reasons:

1. It is very funny
    
2. The messages are powerful

The CD covers Six and a Half steps that have to be listened to very carefully in case you might do the opposite:

1. Don't change your mood
    
2. Don't change your beliefs
    
3. Don't know what you value
    
4. Don't do things on purpose
    
5. Don't spend any time in the future
    
6. Don't have goals
    
7. Don't stop doing everything by halves

Steve McDermott has been voted European speaker of the year.

Should you wish to book Steve McDermott you can find out more details from his entry on Speakers for Business Steve McDermott and there are a few samples of his public speaking.

The CD is strongly recommended if you feel that you need to get yourself motivated, learn and have a laugh all at the same time. I am sure that this is one "change your life" CD that I will be listening to many times.

The CD is available from Amazon.co.uk

and his book on the same theme has great reviews which you can get from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com 

This is the problem with Peter Thomson's Achievers Edge, Peter does introduce you to so much good stuff that you will want to know more.

To Your Success

Paul Simister

Your Profit Coach, business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

© Planning & Control Solutions Ltd 2007-2008 All Rights Reserved

Brian Tracy: 21 Great Ways To Build A High Profit Business - 4.5 Stars

I am a big believer in audio training courses, particularly for anyone who spends far too long in a car or has to commute on public transport and can use an mp3 player.

I thought that my first review should feature one of a great series of audios from Brian Tracy in his 21 Secrets to Success series. I have decided to start with"21 Ways To Build A High Profit Business."

I don't think I'm taking too many risks assuming that profit is what you are interested in and that it is what attracts you to my blog on a regular basis.

By the way have you tried the RSS feed. it is really neat as it lets you keep updated on what is happening on the Business Coaching Blog without you having to remember to click over here.

What Causes High Profits?

Brian asks a simple question that you may have been asking yourself:

"Why is it that some businesses are much more profitable than others in the same industry?"

The answer is that in almost everything we do, there are predictable causes and effects. Put your hand in a fire and you get burnt. Profitable companies are profitable because they have done the things that make them profitable.

So the implications for you are that the cause and effect relationship can work for you too. If you do the things that profitable companies do, then you will start earning higher profits.

Brian Tracy's Style

I know that some people are concerned about how "hyper-active" motivational speakers can become and wonder whether they could bear to listen to an audio. It's one thing to get all excited in front of an audience, another to do it on an audio recording that will be listened to many times.

Well let me reassure you.

Brian Tracy has a nice calm gentle delivery in a natural speaking voice but with plenty of inflexion. He is very easy to listen to and this audio recording bears repeated listening. I have already heard it about five times as it is in my car at the moment.

He does however deliver a lot of content quite quickly and I find that he will say something that will spark my brain into gear as I start to think about how I can use the idea, either for myself or for a client's business.

Because my brain is racing ahead on the practicalities of making more money and Brian's delivery doesn't demand attention, I can miss his next two tips.

Fortunately that's the beauty of audio recordings. Miss two tracks and with a couple of clicks you are back where you want to be or you can pick up on the ideas the next time you listen.

The alternative approach is to use active listening techniques and really concentrate on what he says (and the audios work well like that) but then you miss those initial sparks of insight that can be so important.

The Key To High Profits Is Flexibility

Have you noticed how quickly things seems to change around us?

If so, you won't be surprised to learn that Brian Tracy regards flexibility as the key to building a high profit business.

You have to be open to the idea that what you are doing is no longer working as well as it used to or it could if you make some changes in your approach.

The powerful technique that Brian Tracy recommend is called zero based thinking and I love it.

Zero based thinking really focuses your mind on an issue and is the best way I know for making those difficult decisions, that bit clearer.

Are you ready to try some new approaches?

Are you ready to do what high profit businesses do so that you too have a high profit business?

21 Great Ways To Build A High Profit Business

Sorry but I'm not going to tell you what all 21 ways are for a couple of good reasons that I'll explain below but I will tell you what the first first ways to build a high profit business are:

1. Develop a clear mission for your business.
    
2. Determine exactly what business you are in.
    
3. Decide exactly who your customer is.
    
4. Strive for competitive advantage.
    
5. Take the long term view.

Each of these five take what I think of as a strategic perspective. Brian is asking you to answer the big questions with as much clarity as you can. Later tips cover sales and marketing, customer service, leadership and people management.

My rating

I have decided that "21 Ways To Build A High Profit Business" merits a 4.5 star rating and that makes it a strong buy recommendation.

To put this into perspective I can currently only think of two audio programs that will receive a 5 star rating - one by Jay Abraham and the other by Peter Thomson - and so far I only have four books carrying the full five stars.

Why I Held Back The Goods

1. I need to respect Brian Tracy's copyright and not go too far.
    
2. I believe that you should buy the audio Cd from Brian Tracy International (click on the link to go straight to the product). Buy through my affiliate link and I earn a small commission.
    
3. I want to blog around these issues individually by giving you Brian's ways but my interpretation.
    
4. Because Brian is running a great offer at the time of writing - you can get this CD free provided you are prepared to pay for the post and packing.

Brian Tracy is offering the CD free for one good reason. He knows that many people who receive the CD and then listen to it will be so impressed that they will come back and buy more of the 21 Secrets of Success, some of his more extensive audio programs or even enrol in the Brian Tracy University.

You could chose to take away the time delay because there is a great value compilation of the 21 Secrets to Success available.

Brian Tracy 21 Great Ways Combination Pack

Brian Tracy will feature much more in this blog in 2008. He covers a wide range of topics similar to the Business Coaching Blog and even extends his thoughts outside of my scope but everything I have seen or heard from him has been of a high quality.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs