Module 1: Installing & Instilling The Entrepreneur’s Mindset

In this module you are going to learn a different way of thinking of yourself and the vast world around you.

Jay will show you how to think, act and transact business like a successful entrepreneur.

I am usually quite dismissive of the mindset modules in courses, but here we have a legend speaking, so anything that comes from it is welcome!

The first thing Jay tells us is that the entrepreneur's mindset starts with the burning desire to create something of value: a product, a service or a business.

It is the ability of looking at an industry and see a gap that can be filled by you. Or it's the ability of seeing opportunities that are not successfully met yet.

Jay's main poin is that we are rewarded according to the problems we solve for others and for the opportunities we create for others. As an entrepreneur your job is to add more value in any niche you choose to work in.

There are many people around us who feel helpless and hopeless, and your role as entrepreneur is to solve these helpless and hopeless environments.

You want to be able to add value by solving problems that your business advocates to solve and smooth out.

Jay makes a distinction between multiplier and divider entrepeneurs, and you definitely want to be the multiplier, adding and improving services that will make clients, colleagues and vendors happy with added value.

Moreover, in business, you are going to use the problems that come your way as a great opportunity to turn negatives into positives.

 For example, leveraging your lack of funds and partnering with companies that have funds but not the expertize you bring to the table.

This module is awesome because Jay really gives you a huge amount of enterprizes you can start,  and the different methods to achieve them:

It's hands down practical from the very beginning!

Module 2: Drivers of Performance

In this module, you learn how to maximize your performance and output for each and every action you take through understating  what Jay calls "The Drivers of Performance."

If you are not doing so, you're leaving it up to luck/chance or factors beyond your awareness that most likely won't be in your favor.

By drivers Jay refers to 'power principles that drive up performance, that are critical to maximizing performance'.

Jay divides drivers into macro-drivers and micro-drivers, and the difference is quite important. I had never come across this stuff in other courses and it really got my entrepreneurial juices pumpin'.

Let's focus on macro-drivers.

Macro-drivers the key elements that in any business give you the maximum advantage with the minimum effort.

• The first one is Strategy, or the ability to have a master game-plan to your business model, with your end in mind. This includes making offers that are incredibly easy to say yes to.
• The second is Changing Your Marketing in order to change your result. You need to positively impact the client wanting to do business with you. Through marketing, you make potential buyers know that they have a problem, that the problem needs solving, that you are the best at solving the problem
• Then comes Relationships: it is the art of having access to people, be they mentors, partners, introducers to other people. You need to figure out how to find relationships that complement your weaknesses and sinergize with them.

• The fourth driver is Capital: it doesn't only mean cash, but in the larger concept of Capital you also have human capital and any kind of leverage that you can have work at your advantage.
  
• The fifth and final macro-driver is Trust: the rapport you build with your partners, with potential buyers or consultants is fundamental. You want to make sure that whoever it is you are dealing with trusts your business and trusts your track record to avoid pitfalls.

These drivers really give you the power to understand the many levels of doing business, they are the main bulding blocks that you must understand before going deeper in other aspects of the course.

Module 3: The Entrepreneur's Template

In this module, Jay shares with you the details of templated processes for what you need to do right away.

It also teaches you how you should be using whatever you should be doing right now to move yourself to a higher ground.

There is not much to say about this module in specific, so I'm going to use this space to face a problem most modules have, some more, some less.

The course sees Jay freestyle it without a script, and for the most part it is a good thing.

He'll be talking about a subject and he'll remember an experience in his life that has something to do with it, and so he'll give you first hand experience stories that make things easier to understand.

Sometimes though Jay will start talking about a subject and, for example, say that it can be divided in 3 main strands..

He'll start explaining the first strand and then he'll lose himself in one of his stories, and never come back to the first subject, drifting onto something else altogether.

This module in particular lacks focus and is all over the place.

It could have definitely done with a tighter editing, or even a more cohesive script.

Module 4: Positioning

In this module, Jay focuses on why and how to implement correct positioning in your business, product or services.

With the wrong positioning your telegraph a totally wrong message to the market that you want. 

With no positioning, you are no different than anybody else in the eyes of your market.

Positioning is the totally integrated message that you and your product send out to the market.

It is not just words, but a way of being.

You will have to decide what you are to the market, because until you don't know where you stand, you can't create a positioning in the market.

Who is the market you are going to serve? Who is not?

This is a crucial step when starting a business.

Next, you have to answer why you want to serve that market.

Your position in the market will reflect the advantage you bring to your chosen market, whether you choose to go for high-ticket services or whether you sell entry level products.

Once you have a why, and you know you can deliver to your market, you'llbe able to position yourself much better than your competition.

Positioning entails the value proposition that you build your business upon, and that position has to be very clear both to you and the market.

Once you have decided to position yourself, you have to check the competition and see what their positioning is, and how you can take advantage of their shortcomings.

You need to differentiate yourself and your offer and make your business unique:

You need to make sure the client is knowledgeable about what sets you apart from the competition.

How do you create your product? Why did you get into this particular niche?

Let your business define your uniqueness and position in the market.

Jay suggests studying FB customer groups and complaints websites that can give you ideas on how to position yourself.

Anyone starting a new business should look up all the books that are published in your niche and read the titles and subtitles, and the reviews of the books.

This will show the problems that need solving in your niche, and you can position yourself most effectively if you know your niche and its mindset.

Once you've individuated your position, this will have to be applied to all your marketing, messaging, your own conduct, your employees' conduct etc.

Positioning is a thread that runs through everything you do, and you must become fanatical to make your positioning shine in every aspect of your business.

Module 5: Tactics vs. Strategy

In this module, Jay talks about the difference between tactics and strategy. 

Most people do not understand or can't differentiate between the two and as a result, they operate episodically.

Not understanding and implementing the right strategy and tactics in all areas of your business can result in failure.

Strategy, according to Jay, is the 'big overarching master gameplan that drives your whole business'.

Tactics, on the other hand, are the methods and mechanisms you use to reach the market and achieve the ultimate strategy.

Nothing should be done as a tactic that doesn't congruently and coherently advance your overall strategy towards the ultimate goal that you have set for your business.

Tactics could be many things:

•  advertizing
• email marketing
• seminars or webinars
  
• PR campaigns
  
• online marketing

Choosing tactics is a process dictated by three factors:

1. Find the more cost effective, low risk, high income targeted markets.
   
2. Used your different methods of marketing to reach the targeted market.
   
3. Be constistent and repeat the most profitable marketing tactics to get your business of the ground.
   

After this you should have calculated what your main customer life value is:

This is how much the customer is worth to your business over their purchasing lifetime.

Once you know how much they are worth to your business, (their lifetime value) you may want to spend more money getting market share and new customers, and make better offers to attract them in the first place.

Always be ready to change and adapt your marketing tactics to increase revenue.

Advertising and marketing studies, according to Jay, have shown that a change in a headline, offer, target or marketing concept can impact the results by hundreds (even thousands) of percent.

Test offers, test headlines, test choosing ideas, test add-ons, test, test, test.

Module 6: Re-Defining Marketing

In this module, Jay discusses in great depth the concept that has taken him 30 years of testing and implementing in over 465 industries, and that is the concept of marketing.

If you thought you had marketing down, be ready to change your mind after this incredible module.

When trying to explain what marketing is, Jay first eliminates the concepts of what marketing isn't. 

Marketing isn't:

• hyperbolic words
  
• manipulation
  
• getting advantage over people
  

It is making people knowledgeable of the fact that they have a problem they haven't considered or desires they have not achieved, so they will want to solve the problem and achieve that desired object.

It is proving to the customer that you understand their problems in a more empathic, understanding manner.

It is showing them that there is an improved situation that they can get to.

It is showing that YOU and your business are the best way to achieve the solution to the problem and that you will fulfill their expectations.

Finally, it is making it natural for the client to come back and buy more of what you are offering.

But according to Jay, the biggest problem entrepreneurs have when they start out is that they lack a process, and are very erratic and follow no systems.

You first must consider your buyers and realize they are at different states of readiness to buy your product, and adjust your marketing accordingly.

According to Marylou Tyler, these are the groups of potential customers:

• Unfamiliar and uninterested in your business
  
• Familiar but uninterested in your business
  
• Familiar and vaguely interested w/o motivation to buy
  
• Familiar, interested, motivated to buy from someone
  
• Familiar, interested, motivated to buy from you
  

Each type of buying maturity necessitates a different kind of marketing that addresses different segments of the market.

You really need to invest the time into learning all these different facets of your market, because a marketing system is fundamental to your growth.

One of Jay's foundational principles is the Power Parthenon:

This, according to Jay, is the ultimate way to multiply and compound the effectiveness and reach of your success and to eliminate the risk of not going updward.

Usually, one business has one source of revenue, and Jay calls this the diving-board method, because it represents on pillar of revenue.

If anything ever were to go wrong with that primary source of revenue, the business would go bust very soon.

Jay's solution is to create multiple pillars of additional sources of revenue:

Different marketing approaches, different channels, adding different sources of revenue on different sources of revenue.

This is what Jay calls the Power Parthenon, as opposed to the diving-board method, and this is the method he suggests to all the company he is hired as a consultant for.

What Jay is doing is focusing on the compound effect of different sources of revenue.

Module 7: Three Ways to Grow a Business

In this module, Jay teaches you the key to all business growth no matter what business you are in.

This is one of the most powerful models that Jay has ever constructed in his massive body of work.

This threeway route is possibly one of Jay's most famous contribution to entrepreneurship.

For the sake of brevity, these rules can be summed as:

• Increase the number of clients
  
• Increase the size of the transaction
  
• Increase the frequency of repeat purchases with a buyer
  

Anyone of these activities will increase the size of your business, but if you increase all three, the compound result will be astounding.

The order of magnitude by which you will see the profits skyrocket is what really happens when you increase at least two out of these factors.

If you only increase all three categories by 10% each, clients, transactions and transactions per customer, the difference will be an increase of 33.3% in revenue for your business.

Even a small increase in the three rules will see your overhead remain the same and the revenue balloon to an insane amount.

These rules are showing you the lifetime of your clients.

Once you know about these rules, it will be easy to figure out which clients are worth more than others.

The ones that generate value to you are the ones that you want to focus on, limiting your attention on the clients that really don't bring much to the table.

Once you can laser-focus on the clients that bring you most, you can make all the marketing targeted to that kind of client.

Each of these three categories has several tactics that you can use:

• have a low tier entry product to hook even more buyers to the process.
  
• breaking even on the front end, so you can make a fortune on the back end: the sooner you get your first sale, the sooner you get your second.
  
• create recurring, perpetual relationships with your clients, that will be guarantee a recurring revenue for your business.
  

There are also 3 more advanced ways of doing business too:

1. every year you penetrate one new market, one new way to reach the market.
   
2. every year you introduce one new service or product that you add to your business.
   
3. every year you will look at businesses that you can acquire: businesses complementary to yours, struggling competitors, a related business.

The good thing is that by processing these advanced new ways, your overhead will mostly remain the same, while your profits will skyrocket without you even doing that much!

By using the advanced ways of doing business down the line, you will also be adding pillars to your Power Parthenon:

Adding new sources of income, separate ways of approaching the seller that will make your business even more solid.

Module 8: Up-selling, Cross-selling, Down-selling

In this module, Jay describes and explains in detail these very important concepts.

He goes into the how, where and why of implementing them to increase your sales.

Once you have made the basic three methods of growing your business your own, and really understood their power, there are four keywords, according to Jay, that you have to keep in mind to implement the methods:

• Up-selling
  
• Cross-selling
  
• Down-selling
  
• Packaging
  

You may all be familiar with the first one. It happens everytime you move your mouse away from the buying page, or when you have bought an entry product, and you are enticed into buying more by a discounted price, for example.

In Jay's words, 'it's the noble and honorable process of taking a buyer who has already made the decision to buy your product and moving them up to either a higher quality product or a larger quantity'.

Cross-selling means being prepared to add when the customer decides to buy other products or services that naturally complement the original product.

The philosophy behind this is contribution in service:

You are making sure that your customer buys complementary products that the buyer would have to buy in anycase.

Jay is very serious about the ethical way of doing this.

Down-selling is realizing when one of your client would not benefit from the high ticket product that you are selling, so you guide them towards the lower tier object, losing some money but making up in creating a rapport with a buyer.

Packaging, or re-selling, is going beyond thinking that the client is always going to be there for you and he will be coming back for you.

The reality is that competitors are enticing your clients towards their products!

Packaging means staying in touch with your client, making sure that he will be coming back.

These four tactics are four ways in which you can make your business grow through the 3 ways discussed in the previous module.

Module 9: Managing Relational Capital

Here you will learn the methodology, strategy, methods, concepts, and systems Jay has used to generate well in excess of $2 billion dollars for his clients and himself with no capital and no risk.

According to Jay, Relational Capital is constituted by a multitude of intangible elements that exist within and outside of your business that can give you infinite access to any resource you can ever want.

Most starting businesses think they lack in anyone department:

Capital, credibility, technology, employees...

But this is not a problem, because someone else already owns these things and you can reach out to them for:

• a joint venture
  
• a strategic alliance
  
• a power partnership
  
• an affiliate arrangement
  
• a distributorship deal
  
• a licencing deal
  
• buying or selling a right
  

Any kind of alliance with another entity will boost your business forward, because you will be able to do without many of the factors that a lot of new businesses lack!

There are eight major benefits to relational capital, according to Jay:

• You can gain advantage of scale, scope or speed.
  
• You can increase market penetration.
  
• You can enhance competitiveness.
  
• You can enhance product development.
  
• You can develop new business opportunities.
  
• You can create new businesses at will.
  
• You can gain control of tangible and intangible assets.
  
• You can use joint ventures to reduce costs.
  

There are 43 minor benefits to relational, or intellectual capital, but there isn't really time to list all of them.

Luckily the workbook you get with your course is a 500 page of golden nuggets, and they are all listed there.

Once learned how to master, relational capital can easily help you increase sales and multiply profitability.

Add the 3 ways to grow your business to the Power Parthenon, and mix them with relation capital:

You'll have an arsenal of successful weapons to grow your business, no limits!

Module 10: Consultative/Advisory Selling

In this module, Jay covers a universal concept, one that is applicable in all industries.

Consultative/Advisory selling is a certain type of sales process that does not involve manipulative techniques or pushy methods to ethically persuade your market to buy your products and services.

Consultative selling is a concept that applies to any kind of business at any stage of its inception.

All elements of business require selling:

Most people think selling is manipulative, but according to Jay and the idea of consultative selling, this is a laughable idea.

To carry on being successful in your business, you don't have to master the art of manipulation, but the art of understanding the buyer's needs, psychology or approach to your business.

CS is a strategic way of thinking that allows you to represent to the potential buyer, or your team, or your partner, the fact that you are a leader and your role is that of the ultimate advisor.

With CS you give an objective and externally focused advise.

You are not focused to selling anything to anyone, but you have the prospect's interest at heart more than the sale itself.

You establish your dominance in the marketplace with tact and respect for the client.

To employ CS, you have to change your mindset: 

You are not manipulating anyone, but are directioning your clients into what you truly believe to be the best solution for them.

It puts you in a role where you have a moral responsibility in what you suggest to your client and the steps they have to take.

CS is something you have to teach to all your team, so that from your receptionist to your consultants, all your team is on the same wavelength and will therefore provide assets for your whole business.

With CS you are not just a seller but a partner that becomes a consultant to every buyer you have and will work with you.

CS is not based on scripts and structures, but working with clients on a personal, human level:

It affects marketing, sales, distributors, every single team in your business, and your client will most likely become recurring instead of a short-term one.

Module 11: Trust Building

This module may define your success probability and how you market sees you, your team, product or service, and brand more than anything else.

It is about how to create the connection with your market and team as the most trustworthy, authentic, qualitative and pure representation of their best interest.

According to Jay, companies who enjoy the highest level of trust produce triple of least trustworthy competitors.

Trustworthiness in the marketplace is a fundamental aspect for any business.

High trust can really move your business faster and in a more profitable way.

There are 13 characteristics that define and establish trustworthiness:

To sum up, you should genuinely care for others:

Show you care. Respect the dignity of every person and every role.

Treat everyone with respect, especially those who can’t do anything for you.

Show kindness in the little things.

Don’t fake care.

Don’t attempt to be “efficient” with people.

Also, you need to be real with your clients or employees and take responsability for your actions.

Make things right when you’re wrong.

Apologize quickly. Make restitution where possible. 

Practice “service recoveries.” Demonstrate personal humility.

Don’t cover things up.

Don’t let personal pride get in the way of doing the right thing.

Establish a track record of results.

Get the right things done. Make things happen. 

Accomplish what you’re hired to do. Be on time and within budget.

Don’t overpromise and under deliver.

Don’t make excuses for not delivering.

Building trust is one of the most important factors in the building blocks of a business, especially early on.

I appreciate the fact Jay dedicated a whole module to it.

Module 12: Practice Accountability

This module teaches you the importance of accountability, following from the previous model.

If you don't perform the priorities that are necessary in a timely way, if you don't follow through, if you don't deal with opportunities or problems in a proper way, then you are going to limit your success.

First of all, according to Jay, you really have to be accountable to yourself.

You are the head of the business, you are the leader of your team, and if you don't make yourself accountable, you will limit your growth..

If you are not accountable to yourself, you cannot expect others to be honest and straightforward with you.

You must look at your business, your marketplace, your relationship with your team, you have to improve on, without equivocation or procrastination.

Another idea is to keep commitments:

Call that client, be on time for the meeting, ship your product when you say you will, pay your bills on time.

Whatever you do, keep commitments to others, but also to yourself.

You will always know if you've been unreliable to yourself and that idea will consume your excellence in the business market.

Another fundamental step is listening first, before trying to be heard.

People need to be heard, they need to be acknowledged.

Listen to possible clients, but also people on your team, who have put their career in your hands and have trusted you for it.

Finally, if you want to be tursted, extend trust:

Trust your coworkers, trust your buyers, trust your advisors.