He’s also an awesome internet marketer although he doesn’t exclusively have an online business.

The majority of his business is actually more face-to-face (speaking, coaching & consulting) but when he started his company in 1999 he knew that he’d leverage the online medium to help grow my business.

Todd and his team truly offer the most challenging and difficult program for athletes to help build their confidence, improve game performance and earn scholarships/wins on the web today…

And, they’re very honest about that.

Too many people try to sell the “this is easy” type program; they don’t. They tell athletes and parents that this is the hardest thing you’ll ever do, but if you master your inner game, there’s nothing you won’t be able to achieve.

This type of message resonates with the type of client they want and it’s just plain true. Changing yourself is really hard work!

Quick Fire Questions

Book Your Currently Reading?
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger (13th time re-reading)

Best Business Purchase?

Text Expander (Massive time-saver, Great systems creator & some incredibly ninja ways to make scaling a business SUPER easy.)

Favourite Business Resource?

Blinkist – it’s a great way to read the most important parts of a book in 10 minutes and decide if you want to go deeper with it. You can stay current with so much information without bloating the brain.

Biggest Inspiration?

Definitely my family. I lucked out and got parents that are incredible people, brothers and a sister that each have a special quality I admire. My wife who is never afraid to take on a new challenge and give everything to make it happen.

Favourite Business Website?

Hubspot.com, so much helpful, actionable information. They truly demonstrate how to win in the new media world.

How I Started

Hahaha, I’m definitely not the poster child for “4 Hr work week”! Like many others try to reach.

I absolutely love what I do and probably work about 50-60 hrs in a week.

However, I do have flexibility built in so I can take a day off if needed and golf with friends or roam the streets of NYC with my wife and little girl hunting for cool experiences.

The online portion (membership website) generates a 6 figure revenue for the company, but it’s an exceptionally small portion of our company’s revenue.

We’re looking to scale up and do more products for athletes and business people this year, though. 

Leveraging systems and technology to help reach a larger audience, the internet is amazing at ‘reach’. 

At the end of the day, the online medium allows a person to serve more people and because the core motivation for our company is to serve people, there was no thought that we would ever stop even if we weren’t getting results.

So because of that thinking, there was no worry about whether we should keep going even if we weren’t getting results.

It’s a mindset thing. 

The Best Thing I Did For My Business

People. Making and connecting with great people.

Whether it’s an online or offline focused business, great relationships make the path to success so much easier. Start with an attitude of, ‘how can I be of value and help others’.

If you think about serving others first, you’ll build lasting trust and loyalty – ideal for HUGE profits.

How I Make Money

The most profitable part of our ‘online business’ is our membership site.

The biggest reason is because it satisfies a core need the sports niche has, which is an important lesson for others. Don’t fall in love with your ideas until you’ve proven it satisfies a core need/problem of the market.

How I Work

I wake up early and focus on the 3 core activities that drive our company,

1. Developing the culture and building our people’s skills,

2. Meeting with clients, talking to customers and connecting with partners or other business people etc. I do this by, speaking a ton, coaching/consulting and getting on the phone/skype,

3. Strategy work. Developing new systems, courses, products etc.

The Day I Realized I Made It

I realized all the hard work was paying off when the Indonesian government awarded me with the ‘Rama Award’ in 2007. It’s an honour they give to someone who displays ‘Exceptional Wisdom and Leadership’ at a young age. 

They originally found me for a consulting project via the web in 2004, which reinforced the power of the web to me.

And, I celebrated by getting my ass back to working hard so I could continue to serve.

I Would Have Become Successful Sooner If…

Nothing.

The Biggest Benefit Of Running A Digital Business

Connecting with amazing people all over the globe and being able to coach/consult with Olympic athletes in multiple countries around the globe.

It’s been an amazing experience to leverage the power of the web and help athletes achieve Olympic dreams and win medals or achieve personal goals. It’s a high that money can’t buy.

What YOU Should Be Focusing On

Connecting.

If someone is in the position where they don’t have all the skills yet, go get a mentor and work for them (for free if needed). 

It’s what I did with my business at 21 and it made a huge difference. Saved me years of time, learned so much and was introduced to a network of people that would’ve been difficult to crack into on my own.

How We Get Our Customers 

• 33% – Affiliate/JV’s promoting our stuff.
• 31% – Email list building and promotion.
• 25% – Customers liking the program so much they send our links to friends, teammates or post on social media.
• 8% – Search – People doing a keyword search and finding us.
• 3% – Other – People buy after hearing me speak, or from random social media stuff etc.

Why I’m Successful And You May Not Be

Ego.

Most of the people that I see ‘make it’ are willing to reach out to others, ask for help or build their idea.

I say, ‘Ego’ is the difference, because too many people let the idea of worry, rejection or judgment stop them from taking action.

The post Todd Herman – Supercharge Your Consulting Business With Internet Marketing appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

It wasn’t always this way: I used to struggle to get leads and only converted a small percentage of them into paying customers. But I’ve learned a lot in the last year and today I want to share it with you so that you can experience a similar boom for your small business, startup, or online service.

You’ll learn about the blog post that has earned me a ton of leads thanks to a little note that I added as an afterthought. I’ll also share with you a simple trick that my friend taught me that has had a huge impact on the percentage of leads that I’m actually able to turn into clients.

How to Attract More Leads Online

My clientele is about half local and half online. My local leads are more likely to become clients whereas I tend to get more online leads per month, so it all evens out.

The great thing about attracting business online is that you get to work with clients from all over the world. Last month, I worked for a company based out of Hong Kong. That’s the magic of attracting leads online (though admittedly it didn’t seem so magical when I was trying to schedule meetings with a 15-hour time difference).

From Interviewee to Lead

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: my network has been the single most important factor in my business success. One of the primary ways that I’ve expanded my online network is through interviews.

Last year, I helped conduct interviews with 20 of the world’s top online entrepreneurs for Web Domination 20. I gained a ton of insight into what it takes to build a successful online business, but I also formed a connection with the entrepreneurs we interviewed.

Four of the 20 interviewees ended up inquiring about hiring my company’s services over the next six months. That’s pretty amazing – especially when you consider that learning from these people and being able to share their advice with others was already more than enough incentive to interview them.

If you have a blog and you’re not asking the top people in your niche to sit down with you for an interview, then you’re missing out. It will expand your knowledge, create valuable content for your audience, build your network… and if you’re lucky you may just get some new leads out of it as well.

Write Blog Posts that Generate Leads

I’ve never written a blog post with the goal of it getting leads for my business, but many of my posts have done that for me anyway.

My most successful post ever at getting leads is ‘Ultimate Guide: How to Make a Successful Kickstarter Campaign‘. It’s an extremely in-depth resource (3,000+ words) designed to help anybody who’s interested in starting a Kickstarter project.

One of the sections is about making a great Kickstarter video. But by the end of it, I realized that I had really only scratched the surface about what makes a good video. So, I added this little note:

Still Have Questions about Video?

Video is my forte and I’ve produced a handful of videos for Kickstarter campaigns through my video production company. There’s too much that goes into a great video to cover fully here, so if you still have questions feel free to ask me a question in the comment section below and I’ll do my best to respond promptly.

I didn’t think much of it at the time, but ever since I’ve been getting emails from leads all around the world inquiring about my rates for Kickstarter video production. These leads have been especially warm and – after talking with them – I find that it’s because they’re impressed by the knowledge of Kickstarter that I displayed in the article.

You can use this same formula in your industry to attract leads. Write an amazingly valuable, in-depth article that will appeal to an audience of your potential customers. Then at some point in the article, let them know that you offer a paid service to those interested in benefiting further from your expertise.

Turning Leads into Clients

All the leads in the world don’t mean a thing if you can’t close the sale. When I first started out, I was letting most of my online leads slip through the cracks.

One of my big mistakes was writing long emails that included lots of complicated questions. Video projects are complex by nature, but it was my job to make it simple for the client. I didn’t realize that at first and the result was that I overwhelmed some leads to the point where they just didn’t reply back.

With each lead I’ve responded to, I’ve learned a little bit more about how to talk with somebody who’s interested in hiring my services. I’ve come a long way and today I feel confident that – as long as the our businesses are a good fit for one another – I can turn every lead into a client.

Seek First to Understand

When you get an email from a new lead, your instinct is probably to reply right away. But before you click ‘send’, make sure that you’ve done a little bit of online sleuthing into the identity of your new lead.

After a quick read-through of your lead’s website or LinkedIn profile, you can generally get a good feeling for the size of their business, their role in the business, and their likely objectives for the project. This knowledge will inform you as you consider the services you could offer them and the rates you will charge.

You may also get the impression that the person on the other end of the email isn’t likely to make a good client. Maybe you can glean from their website that they haven’t invested much time in their business, that their resources are very limited, or that they engage in shady business practices.

Not all leads are created equal – and some simply aren’t worth following up with. For those who are, the more you know about them and their business, the more likely you’ll be able to close the deal.

Get Them on the Phone / Skype

The best advice I’ve ever received about landing clients online came from Nicholas Tart. He told me that closing a sale over email is incredibly difficult and that I would have better luck if I instead used email to schedule a conversation over phone or Skype.

I tried this with my very next lead – and I closed the sale in that first conversation over Skype. Ever since I’ve taken up this practice I’ve enjoyed a significantly higher conversion rate.

Why Talking Voice-to-Voice is So Important

First, a phone conversation helps me to understand the client’s project and their needs better than email. I can ask questions of them and get immediate responses, one after the other (something that would probably take six emails over the course of a week otherwise). When I understand my clients better, I’m better able to offer them the right service at the right rate. Hence, more sales.

Talking to a potential client in person helps me to make a personal connection with the person on the other line. This is helpful in earning their trust – and trust is all-important in doing business.

The Shortcomings of Talking Over the Phone

While a phone conversation is great for getting the ball rolling, it isn’t the best way to seal a project in stone. After all, the details of phone conversation are quickly lost. That’s why I end each conversation with a promise to compile some of what we discussed into a project plan that I’ll send to them the following day.

The Power of Project Plans

I learned my lesson early on that it’s important to have some sort of written agreement between both parties that details the services to be rendered, the method and amount of payment, and all other important expectations of the project.

I used to call these documents ‘contracts’ but now I call them ‘project plans’. It may just be a matter of semantics, but I find that it’s made a difference both in how I prepare the documents and how they’re received by my clients. Project plans come off as more interesting – and less intimidating – than contracts.

What’s in a good project plan?

I start with a brief overview that describes the nature of the project and the services to be rendered very generally. Then I delve into the details for each service (broken up into Item A, Item B, Item C and so on). Next is a project timetable, followed by payment information.

At the top of each page is the full name of the client’s company and at the bottom of each page is the name of my company and all of my contact information.

Lately, I’ve been putting a lot of care and attention to detail in my project plans and the result have been spectacular. Clients see the quality of the project plan and rightfully assume that our work on their actual project will be of the same pedigree. More importantly, a well-made project plan provides answers to many of their questions, overcomes their objections to proceeding, and sets the whole project up for success.

Once your lead receives your project plan, they should have everything they need to make a decision about doing business with you. If you’ve presented yourself well up to this point, then chances are you’ve just converted your lead into a client.

The Single Best Way to Get More Leads and Clients

Just like how Michael Dunlop says that the best way to get traffic to your website is simply to write great content for it, the single best way to get more leads and clients is to do quality work. Do quality work and you’ll have a stronger portfolio, better testimonials, and more referrals.

For me, that means striving to make every video that we produce better than the one that preceded it. The result is that right now three of our clients are all referrals from one client we had last spring.

So the quality of your work comes first, but that doesn’t make the other strategies I’ve shared any less important. I’m interested in learning what techniques or approaches you have found most helpful in attracting leads and landing clients, so please feel free to share your responses in the comments below.

For more on offering an online service, check out my 20 tips for making money with a service business.

Photo Credit: MyTudut via Compfight.

The post How to Attract Leads and Land Clients Online appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Below I’ve compiled what I’ve learned – 20 tips based on my worst mistakes and biggest triumphs. You can learn how to run a successful service business much more quickly than I did by reading on.

#1 Network

People like to do business with someone they know.

My company’s first client was someone who I had met a few times through our shared publishing company. Since he knew me, he was willing to take a chance with us even though we had never made a commercial video. Fast forward a year and our most recent client is someone I met through a small business development group.

In fact, nearly every single client I’ve landed has come from my personal network.

If you’re having trouble finding work, you could double your marketing efforts, redesign your website, or reconsider your sales tactics. But it would probably be a lot easier and more effective to change your networking habits. It’s as simple as becoming more involved in your community, going to events, or joining an organization.

#2 Recurring Work is the Best Kind of Work

If you keep landing one-time jobs, you’re always going to be looking for new clients. That’s fine when you’re just starting out, but it makes growth very difficult.

Recurring business is a foundation that allows you to hire full-time employees and spend less time pursuing new accounts. So start thinking of ways that your clients could benefit from receiving your service month in and month out.

#3 Under Promise, Over Deliver

Good companies meet their clients’ expectations. Companies destined for greatness so exceed those expectations that their clients jaws hit the floor.

That means pulling all-nighters to put on that last coat of polish and add features that your client never paid for. That’s the type of service that earns you repeat business and word of mouth referrals.

#4 Get a Contract

A company contacted me last fall through the contact form on my website. Over the course of a few emails, we discussed a video for their home page and agreed to terms. But I didn’t get a contract from then.

Long story short, this was a big mistake. Trust me when I say that if you can’t get somebody to agree to a contract, then you don’t want to work with them.

#5 Don’t Overpay Yourself

You start a business to make money, but if you’re personally taking every penny of profit then you’ll have nothing left over to invest in your business.

Think of your business as a hard-working member of your team who needs to get paid just like everyone else. My partner and I divvy up our earnings 1/3 for him, 1/3 for me, and 1/3 for the company. This policy has allowed us to invest in better equipment and pay contractors for projects up front.

Obviously, you need a salary that pays for the bare essentials. But the more you invest in your company, the sooner you’ll be able to make a salary befitting a CEO.

#6 A Good Partner Can Be Your Best Asset

Taking on a business partner means splitting the ownership of your company in half. But the right business partner will more than double the company’s profits, so it won’t matter.

#7 Ask Questions

I’ve developed a list of questions that I ask all of our new clients: What’s your company’s story? What are the biggest objections of your prospective customers? What is the specific action that you want a viewer to take after viewing your video?

The more you know about who a client is and what they want, the better you’ll be able to help them get it.

#8 The Customer isn’t Always Right

Don’t get me wrong. You should bend over backwards to make your customers happy, even when they’re being a little bit unreasonable.

But often the customer is wrong about how you can best help them. When your client thinks you should do something that you know isn’t in their best interest, it’s your duty as an expert in the field to put your foot down.

Don’t tell them that they’re wrong. Take their idea into consideration and then explain the way you envision doing things. They’re hiring you for your expertise. After they hear all of the well-informed benefits of proceeding your way, they’ll forget they ever had a different vision to begin with.

#9 Do Something You’re Willing to Stay Up Late For

Last week, my partner and I were finishing up a video project on a limited schedule. Looking back on it, I realized we had been working 10-14 hour days.

But we hardly noticed the long hours while we were putting them in because we were so thoroughly immersed in all the creative and technical challenges of producing an animated video.

It’s a tired point, but it’s true: do something you love and you’ll actually be able to put in the necessary work.

#10 Choose a Growing Industry

With a commitment to excellence, you can start a thriving service business in any industry – even if it’s on the decline.

But why not choose a fast-growing industry? Starting a company in a growing industry is like running downhill. There are more clients and fewer competitors.

#11 You’re only as Good as Your Portfolio

When you’re trying to land a client, it doesn’t matter what you’re capable of doing for them. It matters what you’ve proven you can do. So the more impressive and diverse your portfolio is, the easier it will be for you to get lucrative work.

Think of each project as an opportunity to enrich your portfolio. You may find that this influences what type of work you take on and the quality of the work.

If you’re looking for your first project, then you’ve got nothing to prove your value. So you may need to work for free just to get started.

#12 Get Feedback

Have you had someone tell you that you’ve got a piece of food stuck in your teeth?

It’s an awkward moment, but my guess is you were happy they let you know so that you could do something about it.

The same concept applies to a service-based businesses. You could be making an embarrassing mistake with your clients or letting them down in an important way, but you won’t know unless they tell you.

That’s why you ask. I have a ‘Client Feedback Survey’ that I ask companies to fill out after I’ve worked with them. One of the questions is, “How could your experience with this project have been improved?”

#13 Ask for Endorsements

Our ‘Client Feedback Survey’ kills two birds with one stone because another question on it is, “What would you tell a friend who’s thinking about employing our services?”

The answer to that question usually makes for a great endorsement. To a prospective client, there’s little more persuasive than reading a hearty recommendation from someone who just worked with you.

#14 You Don’t Need an Extravagant Website

A website is a huge asset for any business. It’s both a place to provide helpful information for your current clients and a virtual salesperson that works 24 hours a day.

But for most service businesses, a fully-featured and robust website isn’t necessary.

Ideally, the site would have a blog, a login area for clients, and rank at the top of Google for ‘video production company’. But for now, it’s serving our purposes elegantly. It’s a place people can go to learn more about our service and it garners unsolicited leads every month.

#15 You’re Always Looking for New Clients

It’s good to feel a sense of satisfaction when you land a new client.

But don’t let that fool you into a false sense of security. If you stop pursuing more clients just because you have a project on your hands, then you’ll have no work when the project is complete. That means you’ll probably have costly dead time before you get another contract signed.

Always be looking for your next client – even if your company’s next availability isn’t until six months out.

#16 Don’t Expect to Earn a Full-Time Income Right Away

I don’t think any entrepreneur should expect to make living wages their first month of business. Or their second. Or their third.

It’s possible, but it also puts a ton of unneeded pressure on you and your business. Worse still, the desire to make lots of money up front could cause you to skimp on essential investments or rush through projects that deserve your full attention.

I recommend that you start a service business when you either have another source of income, like a part-time job or a healthy nest egg in your savings account. That way you can give your business room to grow at its own pace – and you won’t go hungry if a client is unexpectedly late on their payments.

#17 Your Primary Job isn’t Providing the Service

I run a video production company, but I spend less than half of my time making videos.

I spend more time meeting with current and prospective clients, developing business materials, establishing systems, and doing the million other little things that come with running a successful business.

If you want to spend all of your time providing a service, then you should become an employee. Only start a business if you’re ready to be a business person.

#18 Always Be Learning

Whatever your service, you can – and should – be doing it better.

Don’t take your improvement for granted. Actively get better by seeking out training videos, reading relevant books, and challenging yourself with each new job.

#19 Hire Character, Train Skill

There’s nothing more important to the growth of a service company than the quality of the people that you bring on board. But while it’s a good idea to hire people who are technically great at what they do, that shouldn’t be your number one priority:

Integrity, honor, reliability, work ethic, adaptability, passion, and the desire to learn cannot be taught.

#20 Nothing’s More Important than the Quality of Your Work

There are no small contracts, only small companies.

If you treat each $1000 project like a $1000 project, then you’ll keep getting contracts for $1000. But if you start treating each $1000 like a $10,000 project, then pretty soon reality is going to catch up to the quality of your work.

See each new project as an opportunity to make a statement. Nothing will accelerate the success of your service business better than excellent performance. You never know who may see your work or when you’ll get a big break.

Read more: ‘7 Secrets To Achieving Mega Online Success’

The post 20 Tips for How to Make Money with a Service Business appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Today it is my great honor to introduce one of my personal mentors – Mr Andy Miller, discussing something that Andy and I are equally passionate about – Making Your Life An Adventure.

Andy is also one of the most modest, highly successful people I have ever met – he doesn’t beat a drum about being a Guru or anything but I promise you he is. Andy is at the very top of his Niche and today is one of the top 15 sales management consultants in the world.

Mind you, as you will soon discover, this Interview is not about Corporate America or Sales Management — rather it is about something much more important: Making Life An Adventure.

I first met Andy way back in 2006 at a Yanik Silver Mastermind group meeting. I was only aged 17 and frankly, I was well out of my depth when it came to business but Andy in particular always made time for me, encouraged me and was always happy to share his considerable knowledge.

Maybe I should also mention I was only 17 at the time and having difficulty holding on to my newly acquired Driving License. (Driving cars too fast and one or two unfortunate meeting with Traffic Cops). Turns out Andy had similar issues as a young man (actually said he was worse — but I doubt it) so many times we ‘bonded’ over that.

Andy quotes one of my favorite quotes in this interview:

Will the boy of yesterday respect the man of tomorrow?

But as you will see, Andy thought about this a little differently. You see when you were a kid, you have a hero but the amazing fact is that can actually grow up and become that hero, yet so many people don’t get that. I hope that with this interview, no matter what your age, you feel inspired to make life the Great Adventure it should be.

Enjoy this podcast – a Transcript is also available below.

I look forward to your comments and your inspiration.

Make Life An Adventure!

Michael

PS: This interview is a little less structured than some – in part because Andy and I are such good friends and also because it just flowed better that way. I would really love for people to share some of the things on their Bucket List – come on, let us inspire each other.

Andy Miller Interview

Transcript:

Michael Dunlop: Hello everybody this is Michael Dunlop from Incomediary.com, and today I am with a really good friend of mine – Mr Andy Miller.  Andy has always been a really good guy and I have really enjoyed all the things he has been doing.  But I was particularly impressed by something he was talking to me about back last month.

Andy was talking about doing the things you really want to do – about making life an adventure, about having a bucket list. Welcome Andy.

Andy Miller: Thanks Michael, welcome to everybody.

Michael Dunlop: OK, I will jump straight to the point Andy –  we want to talk to everyone today about creating a bucket list and doing the things they want to do before they die. As I put it, about making life your adventure. Can you explain the Bucket List and share your thoughts please.

Andy Miller: Okay. First Michael does everybody even know what a bucket list is?  Bucket is probably an American slang term of “kick the bucket” before you die.  There was a movie that came out with Morgan Freeman and it was called Bucket List and Jack Nicholson was in it.  So anyhow, it’s a great movie worth watching but the more important part is the theme of the movie and the theme is, what do you want to do before you die. I prefer to view this a little differently, which is make your life an adventure and adventure doesn’t necessarily mean, you know, elephant tracking in Thailand, its whatever you define as an adventure.  Life is too short, and you can speak from this from experience.  I have always been somewhat of an adventurer ever since I was, I don’t know somewhere between twelve, thirteen or fourteen and somehow, somewhere I don’t know where I learned it from. Wish I did because I would call that person back and thank them, but I learned you know, make a list of dreams that you want to have happen in your life and then pursue them.

Now you know some of that may have been my mother, she was a very dynamic person and made a lot of things happen and she died at an early age of thirty-six but people referred to her as somebody who ran through life. And ran through life meaning getting a lot things accomplished and that made an impression on me.  So I made a list of things that I want to do at a very young age and started making them happen. So you know for example, when I was a kid I was a big bicycler and I rode at fourteen from Chicago, Illinois to Washington, DC on a bicycle with a couple of friends and no adult supervision.  There was just six of us and then when I was sixteen I rode coast to coast from Washington DC to Fresno California, wasn’t quite the pacific ocean but it was pretty close, but you know, make things happen and do things that fire you up and life is to short. What you don’t know is, How much life do you have? Right? You don’t know if you going to live till 80 or a 104 or 30. and I will talk about that in a second but one of the things on my list was I was going to hike the continental divide in the U. S. that’s the Rocky Mountains with two friends, we were going to hike from Mexico to Canada.  Through New Mexico, through the Rocky Mountains it was going to be nine months trip about five months of that was going to be in snow.  And we had written all these companies for sponsorship and gotten sponsors and equipment and at the same time, so that was on my list.  And at the same time I had an opportunity to move to Europe and start a software company and I ended up moving to Europe and starting the software company instead of doing the trip my friends went and they still did the trip but it is because I had my list and I kind of prioritized what was important to me, that I went to Europe and you know what I am glad I did.  I spent three years there, had the time of my life and grew a company and sold it, so I hope people are starting to get excited about what is possible. Lets talk about that. You have any questions Michael before I keep going?

Michael Dunlop: No its perfect I would just love to know, and I’m sure everyone would love to know, which is – how do they work out what they really want to do?

Andy Miller: Well that’s a great question and so lets talk about that.  So its funny as we get older we forget how to dream and you can notice this in little kids.  If you take a little kid and you give him a balloon and everybody knows what a balloon is right? So you give him a balloon, what happens, their eyes get all big and bright and they get all excited over something as simple as a balloon and yet as we get older we forget about that simple passion, simple excitement, you know you give an adult a balloon and they look at you and go what the heck is this why are you giving me a balloon and its like dude there is nothing behind its just a balloon get excited about it right?  So somehow we suppress our passion at least that’s my opinion and its like, I don’t care how old you are, I still think you should have the excitement and joy of a child.  And I really think what life is about I think its about excitement, I think its about joy, I think its about passion and if that’s not what you have in your life, then you definitely need to make a bucket list.  Lets talk about how to do that and by the way I don’t mean to be polyanish and say that you should be joyful and passionate and excited every minute of the day.  If you are trying to get some big internet project done sometimes its just a grind and you gotta  grind it out right and its not always fun.  But thats temporarily, I am talking about what’s more your constant state of being seven days a week, twelve months a year. Overall, I would expect that you would more passion, excitement and joy.  More than you would have dreadedness and feeling laborious, painful, hating life kind of thing.  So lets talk about how you make a bucket list.  So the first thing I would encourage you to do is just keep a little journal and what I did was I just grabbed a couple of pieces of paper and a pen and I kept in my pocket and for a weekend I just went around and I wrote down every dream, every fantasy I ever had, no matter what those were and I did not edit it.  So I didn’t say I would like to be a brain surgeon, no no thats too many years of school.  Forget about whether it is possible or not.  I just want you to write it down. So it could be simple things.  Some of the things on my list were that I wanted to make wine, I don’t know, I have been curious, what does it really take to make wine?  So that went down on my list. I did make it and it turned out horribly and I will never make it again but you gave it a shot right. Nobody says its got to turn out great, you just have to try it.  Another thing I had down is, I like to own a florist, I like flowers. I’m color blind so I can’t do arrangements but that went down on my list and you know what I will probably never turn that into a reality. But I just want you to take things and put it down and take a weekend and just write down on a piece of paper everything you ever dreamed about. That could be scuba-diving, it could be, making your own cheese, it could be spending the weekend taking your parents somewhere you know they would never go on their own.  It could be volunteering in a school with helping children who have a problem reading read better. It could be writing a book, I mean it could be going to some country you want to go to, It could be having a personal trainer.  It could be going to medical school.  I’m just trying to things of all the things I had on my list.  I wanted to own a cheesecake bakery cause I am a good baker but I don’t like getting up early in the morning so that will never happen.  But I had made a whole list, I had marshal arts on there, I had to see the great wall of China, I had go to Machu Picchu.  I had to, you know, tell my parents I love them more often.  I had to write a book, I failed English in sixth grade, so writing a book would be a major feat for me or accomplishment.  You know what, for a kid who couldn’t pass English in the sixth grade, hey look at me, I wrote a book, right.  So you know, all kinds of things, anything that really get you excited but its about dreaming.

So how do you build that list?

One of things that I did was, that I looked at the books or magazines that I used to keep around as a kid.  There is an expression that says, “Will the boy of yesterday respect the man of tomorrow?”.  I always thought it a little differently. When you were a kid, you had a hero and the fact is you can actually grow up and become your hero and why wouldn’t you?  You know, a hero was somebody who excited you and inspired you and why don’t you grow up and become your own hero.  If that makes any sense at all.

Michael Dunlop: That sounds great.

Andy Miller: Hey, its like why not?  So I don’t know Michael, who’s the hero that you had? Maybe I shouldn’t ask you this and put you on the spot but who was the hero that you had?

Michael Dunlop: Oh like a proper person?

Andy Miller: Oh no a cartoon person or whatever. Who was somebody that was a hero to you?

Michael Dunlop: I liked just about all the super-heros when I was a kid. I liked to dream I could be him, I could be anyone.

Andy Miller: Yeah and what was it that attracted you to them or the qualities?

Michael Dunlop: That they could do things no one else would go out and do themselves. They were just they were their own person.

Andy Miller: Okay, so you are kind of doing that now.

Michael Dunlop: Yeah I am aren’t I?

Andy Miller: Think about it or you know. One guy that I really admire is Richard Branson.
Here’s a guy who has done it his own way, making his dreams reality and yet doing a lot of charity and having an impact on the world but also having lots of adventure. And he is kind of a modern day superhero or if you ever saw the movie Indiana Jones.

Michael Dunlop: Oh Yeah. Thats on my bucket list.

Andy Miller: Okay so there is a real life Indiana Jones and I found his book and I Iooked him up and I actually called him on the phone and John Gottered is his name and he invited me to come out and he’s like, hey I’m having my 65thbirthday party, its next week, why don’t you come on out and see me? So you its amazing what is  possible when you decide, hey lets make some of these dreams come true. So other things you could have on your list, scuba diving, it could be long.  So here is how I made it, as I started off to say, yeah look at the books and things I admired as a kid.  We had a TV show when I was a kid called Kung Fu. David Carradine, he’s like this martial arts guy and I respected his ability as a martial artist but I also respected how even keel his mentality was.  He didn’t really like to get into fights, it was always the last resort, he was always kind of a peaceful warrior kind of thing and almost like a zen. Well he was a monk. So I looked at things I admired when I was a kid, TV  shows, cartoons, superheroes, I looked at books. One of the things I wanted to do as a kid, I read books about how to build log cabins.  So that went down on my list. Hey, build a log cabin, now as I said, you don’t have to make this come true right now.  Lets just get your fantasies and your dreams down on paper. The other thing I did, I went to the bookstore, where they had all the books and all the magazines and I just walked through different sections.  Hey look at all the magazines they have got there.  Okay they had car and driver or a hot rod and I’m like, I always wanted to own a race car or so I wrote that down. And you know, that’s one thing that was on my list and I went out and bought a race car. So yeah, look at the magazines and let the magazines inspire you and help you remember of what you used to dream about.  So thats one way I did it.  Magazines, books, I also went through the yellow pages at the time ‘cause we did’nt have the internet.  Now you could go through the internet and you could just type in all kinds of things and see what comes up.  Adventure travel comes up, charity causes come up, anything you want, but allow yourself two to three days of doing nothing but dreaming and you know what, ask your friends. I’ve some friends and one of their fantasies, they want to learn how the play guitar. Yeah, you know what, thats very doable.  But like I said, right now just make a list of things that you would like to have, of dreams and fantasies. Make the list don’t filter it.  Once you do that, then I want you to take it to the next level. The next level is I want you to look at different categories.

Now, there is a lot of goal setting programs out there and I don’t know I have always felt like that was kind of a futile exercise  because somebody is telling you to set some goals and I have always felt like it was missing a little extra kick behind it.

This changes goal setting.  When you can take a dream and turn it into a reality your goal setting becomes totally different.  Now am not here to necessarily talk about goal setting cause this was something you and I talked about over dinner you know just between two buddies.  So I just wanting to share with everybody what fires me up. The way to take it to the next level is, I broke it down into categories and zig ziglar did a program on goal setting that I thought was really good and I kind of copied his categories.  And its, once you have done your dream list, now I want you to put the next section on it which is, how about some financial dreams?  I’m going to actually give you some structure now.  How about some financial dreams, social dreams in terms of contributions to society or maybe friends are under that.  Then I have a section on family.  Things you might want to do for your parents or your spouse or your kids or your siblings.  Another one I had was spiritual, you know if you have any spiritual goals, some people that matters to, some people it doesn’t. Another one I had was health.  Just health overall you know you mentioned getting a personal trainer.  Or if you are overweight you know maybe pick a goal of losing ten pounds. I put different categories because in my dreaming you know, there is certain categories that were void in my dreams and I realized I needed to add some dreams to that, so that’s what I did. And once that’s done, once you have gone through all those categories.  Then this is real simple.  I pick one to three dreams that I want to turn into reality every year and I make them come true. So you got this bit long list, my list is eight pages long literally single spaced. Eight pages long of things that I want to do.  One thing on there was, I want to build a helicopter. You can buy these kits where you can build a helicopter and its big enough for you and another person and luggage to fly in. And at time it was forty thousand dollars and quite frankly, if I made it a longer term goal and say hey I want to save eight thousands of dollars a year for five years. You know what I would have the forty-thousand set aside to buy the helicopter and then you need to take  a year to build it.  But that was then am sure now its more expensive now. But you know what that was on my dream list, I’d probably never make that a reality, but thats okay.  So take your list and look at one to three thing that you want to become a reality and make it happen.   I don’ t know Michael I have just been talking nonstop.  I have certainly got more to say but I want to take a breadth for a sec and see if you have any questions.

Michael Dunlop: One thing I hear from a lot of people who want to create a businesses or make money online, is I cant do it.

Andy Miller: Right

Michael Dunlop: You know and even when I wrote my list and you know you look at your list and you are like, why haven’t I done this already?  I have been wanting to do this for ages.  It is just as simple as going out and doing it and what would you say to those people who say I cant do this right now or I can’t do it full stop?

Andy Miller:  You know there may be some things that you cant do right now but then pick something you can. Do you guys have the storybook when you were a kid about the little engine that couldn’t.  Do you know that story?

Michael Dunlop: No I have never heard of that sorry.

Andy Miller: That’s okay, so its probably an American storybook.  But its about a train that has to go up a hill and has a lot of cars on the back of it and the big engine is saying, that’s too many cars I can’t do it and the little engine am sorry its the little engine that could, that’s the name of the book, so the little engine goes up to the big engine and says hey I think I can do that so step aside let me give it a shot and its really interesting right because it is a metaphor for people in life. A lot of people are like I can’t, I can’t, I can’t if that’s what you tell yourself thats absolutely true you can’t.  And if you can or you think you can, you will at least try and most of the time you can get a whole lot more done or you can make it happen when you didn’t.  So I liked to be the little engine that can versus the little engine that cannot.  So I think part of is to develop I can do it attitude.  That’s one thing and the other thing is how do you want to live your life.  I mean you must have zombie movies in the UK right?

Michael Dunlop: Oh Yeah!

Andy Miller: Okay so what’s interesting is I think thats a lot of society.  I think a lot of society are zombies.  I think they died when they were somewhere around 21 to 25. They just happen to be living in the shell of a body why. Because I think they got into a routine, they get up in the morning, they go to work, they do their thing, they come home, they open up a beer, they turn on a soccer game, they scratch themselves, and thats what they do seven days a week for the rest of their lives.  I am being a little sarcastic here so please forgive me.  I hope that’s not too off color but in essence thats what they do, they go down to the pub but they just fall into a routine and you know hey how are you doing? What going on in life? Same old Same old. Well, yeah, it is same old, same old for another fifty years. I am sorry I don’t want to live that way.  They are walking zombies and its like don’t let yourself live that life. So in answering your question of what do you say to the folks who are like I can’t do this right now. Well that’s your choice but I will tell you what, you may think you’ve got a nice long life and you don’t know that.  You don’t know how long you are going to live. You don’t know when you going die. I mean I was, when I was living in Amsterdam and I just sold the software company and I wasn’t feeling very well and I went to doctor because I said hey doc am not feeling well something’s wrong and they did some tests and I was terminally ill and he’s like go home make up out your will, if you have people you have done wrong in your life, which is wise advise, make a list of all the people you have done wrong and call them and clean it all up. and I went home and made out my will and i made up my list of people and I called them and tried to clean up all I could possible could but I was also not saying hey I am dead. I am like, na I am going to beat this thing and it took me a year and I beat it.  But you know, thats at 30 years old and you don’t know how long you got to live.  Now three four years later, I moved back to the US and was in an elevator or lift depending on what you call it and it fell six floors and fell to the bottom with me in it and I was paralyzed on my right side for a couple of months and they said you will never walk again, you will never run and I was a marathon runner at the time,  and again that was the doctors saying this is the way its going to be and you know what Michael, you met me four years ago, do I look like a guy who was an invalid?

Michael Dunlop: No

Andy Miller: I’m an avid runner, am an avid weight lifter and I built my body back about 99.5% , but my point is that is twice now that I probably should have dead and that was two times before the age of 35.   So you don’t know how much time you have and I am going  to encourage you to know what, go out and make some things happen. but hey things that are important to you because if something happens and you are in a lift that falls or a car accident, you know wouldn’t it be nice to be sitting there going, hey there’s some things I have always wanted to do in my life and I did them?

Michael Dunlop: Yeah

Andy Miller: The funny thing is at least for me I can’t speak for everybody, the funny thing is most of those things are experiences for me so I doubt if I will look back and say hey am really glad I bought that couch for my house or and I will probably look back and say am really glad I bought that Porsche, but its not the possession of the Porsche its the driving experience that I get when I am in it.  But to me its the experiences that I would look back at and in another one of my ways that I make decisions is if I have an opportunity to do something and I am debating whether I should do it or not, I sit there and I go you know five years from now if I don’t do this will I look back and say I wish I had. Because If I am going to look back and regret that I didn’t do it and wish I had, it tells me I should just go do it and if I look back and go and you know, five years from now I am looking back and go no, not a big deal, then I got my answer,  but that’s kinda some of my philosophy but its make that dream list and pick one thing, two things three things on it that you can turn into reality for this year.

Michael Dunlop: Brilliant idea

Andy Miller: That’s what I do and some of the thing on that list Michael are easy like you said going hey gosh I have always wanted to do that look at this its so simple. Why haven’t I done it.  Mean it could be as simple as have you ever been to bath? Have you ever seen the Roman ruins there?

Michael Dunlop: Yeah, I have yeah.

Andy Miller: Okay so, for some folks who aren’t that far away from it, it could be as simple as jumping in a car and going up and spending the weekend there right or you know have you been to Lake District, have you been to Hadrian’s wall or you know, there are so many simple things that we could do that its been on our list of going you know I’d like to do that some day, I’d like to do that some day and then ten years later its like I’d like to do that some day and its real simple. Put it on your list and go freaking do it. But don’t let time pass you by cause you just don’t know how much time you have. I mean that’s really it.

Michael Dunlop: Now, one last sort of thing I would like to touch on the whole thing is sort of the financial sides to those things.  Cause a lot of people you know, its not just I can’t do because you know I am scared or because I don’t have the time, and sometimes its the whole fact that some people don’t want to spend the money to do the things they really want and lot of the times like I have things on my list and I am thinking to myself I have the money to do this why I am saving for something I have no idea why  I need the money for?  Why don’t I just go and do it? What would you say to those people who are sort of thinking why,  said that ?

Andy Miller: Well, elaborate on your question a little bit more cause I am not sure what you are asking. I think I know, but give me a little more.

Michael Dunlop:  Well like, people are scared to spend money a lot of the time and you know they save money and they don’t want to spend it. They don’t know exactly what they are saving for but they are saving it because they know they are going to need it someday and some people, somethings don’t cost that much money like one of my things on my list is, I used to play drums and I wasn’t too bad at it and this was when I was probably about thirteen or fourteen and I sort of made school in the way and I gave up but I was recently in America when I visited you I went to a Best Buy and they had this audio section and I have never seen this sort of thing before because none of that we have PC World over here and we don’t have a whole musical area and they had this musical drum kit area and everything and I played it and I was like wow I really miss this and I put it on my list and I am thinking to myself its like if I get a good one, it wouldn’t be anything more than a thousand pounds and that’s something I can afford to do but so many people you know, they can afford to do it but they just don’t want to spend the money and so thats something a lot of people have to come over. Its just saying, this will give me a much better return than the money I have spent on it.

Andy Miller: Gotcha

Michael Dunlop: So that’s the thing I wanted to touch upon, only because a lot of people don’t let it click that what they going to get in return is so much better.

Andy Miller: Yeah got it. Okay so I think there’s multiple answers to your question. I mean there’s striking a balance and I don’t know what the balance is. But there is striking a balance between what you spend today and saving for the future, and so thats part of why that section on your dream list. I mean do the dreams first but then start to categorize it and lets face it, you want to save for tomorrow, you don’t want to get to retirement age which I will never retire.  If you get to retirement age and you want the option to retire, it would be nice if you had enough money to do that and you need to plan for that.  And some of the statistics I have seen which I don’t remember the exact statistics now but I was stunned at least in the U. S. of how many people are going to reach retirement age and not have enough money that they are going to have more life then they are money.  You know what happens then.  Thats happened with my parents and I am taking care of them from now financially. So I think the statistic I saw was something like that’s going to happen to 40%  of Americans.  You can’t quote me on that number but it was a huge number and I was stunned and appalled by that number. So part of it is you do need to do some financial planning on what kind of lifestyle you want to live when you get to retirement age. So you do have to save for that but you know what the flip side of that is, I think about my grandparents who were farmers and they saved their whole life to be able to go on trips, they wanted to travel. But as a farmer you know you never get a sick day, you never get a holiday. Cause the animals still have to be fed.  The cows still have to be milked, the crops still have to be taken care of.  So there is no time off and yet when they got to the age where they could retire and they sold the animals, so that then they could have a relative check on the crops,  physically they weren’t able to travel.  So there is a balance between living for today and making sure they plan for tomorrow.  But then again you don’t know how much tomorrow you have. So am not saying purely live for today, what I don’t have the answer to is. What’s the proper balance. So that’s one part of the answer to your question.  The other part of the question is, you know we don’t spend money as you were talking about drums its like you know I think there’s a piece of there’s something we really love to do when we were younger and we got away from it.  And you know, the question is why did we get away from it, well here are lots of reasons why.   But when you saw that electronic drum set. It sparked some passion back in you correct?

Michael Dunlop: Oh yeah. I got excited.

Andy Miller: Exactly, it’s like what are the things. I think thats what its about, its about doing things that excite you and things that you used to do and we got away from. Me as a kid I used to a lot of camping.  I haven’t been camping in years and I am dying to go.  It’s like wait I just need to put it on my calendar and go camping cause I love camping.  Or same with the bicycling you know I mentioned earlier I was a big bicycler and every time I get on a bike, its like man I love this. How come I’m not out doing this every weekend.  So I mean there is taking care of your business and there is taking care of your family and sometimes other things get in the way but generally speaking, are you doing things you are passionate about. Now me, I love weight lifting and I like weight lifting more than I like bicycling at this point and so its easy.  I go to the gym like probably six days a week.  You know what, thats something that I really enjoy. So maybe you are replacing one passion with another thats kind of a higher passion.  So I don’t know is this answering your question?

Michael Dunlop: No this is great. This is what I need to hear.

Andy Miller: Yeah, so you know its, I think the theme overall really of our conversation is make your life an adventure. Whatever that adventure is. For some people their dream is they want to get married have kids and they want to stay home and become a housewife and you know what, there is nothing wrong with that.  Quite frankly, that’s an adventure. Having kids, taking care of kids, raising kids thats an adventure and you know kids are just funny as heck as far as I am concerned. So you know, you decide what the adventure is. The adventure is not trekking in Nepal necessarily.  Its whatever is the adventure for you and I am probably defining adventure a little different than most. But its your life, you get to live it according to your rules and maybe thats the other thing I need to talk about. That there is lots of what society says you should do or should not do and I think thats a bunch of BS.  You know, its your life, I think you make the rules, quite frankly if Richard Branson lived by societies rules none of us would ever have even heard of him.

Michael Dunlop: No

Andy Miller: Right? If Donald Trump lived by society’s rules none of us would have ever heard of Donald Trump.  So I think its you decide the rules, you decide how you want to live your life. Hey lets take Hugh Hefner, founder of playboy.  Here’s the guy who broke the rules, everyone knows him for playboy.  Here’s something they don’t know him for.  He’s the first guy who did interracial television.  So at the time he wanted to do this TV show called playboy after dark and I remember as a kid.  I remember seeing this on late night and he wanted to have a black singer, a very good singer, named Sammy Davis Junior on the show and the producers were like, no we can’t have any blacks on the show and he said well, then forget it you can’t have my show. But they wanted his show badly enough.  It was a television show that where they just had famous people on it and Sammy Davis would play the piano and he was kind of like the cohost and they wanted the show badly enough, that they said okay you can have Sammy Davis Junior on the show. He was the first guy in America to have a interracial television show.  So he is breaking the race barrier and again the point of my story is, you decide how you want to live your life, you decide your rules, you decide what excites you.  You decide what is your adventure and what is your passion and then go live it and we know you can do everything right.  So just pick. Listen if you do one or two things a year ten years from know you have done ten or twenty things.  My big thing is I like adventure travel to other countries and I like to do one trip of a lifetime every year.  So this year my trip of a lifetime was to Morocco.  That was good.  I did another trip a couple of months ago to Cuba and I want to do one trip of a l lifetime a year because I don’t know how much lifetime I have and I can go wow that was an incredible trip and I had a great time and I have got two other friends that I do this with. I’ve been doing this for sixteen years now, every September October we take three weeks and we go somewhere in the world. We have been to Thailand, we have been to Cambodia, we have been to Brazil. The list goes on and on and this is something that we love to do.  Its three weeks with really close friends going to exotic places that we have always wanted to go to and we go make it happen and you know what, if I am on my Harley tomorrow and I get hit by a truck and I am dead.  You know what, I know I lived my life to about the fullest I possibly could have and I will have no regrets. I’ll have no regrets.  So maybe thats the last thing, I mentioned this earlier about what the doctor said.  Make out your will and make up your clean up list. I would encourage you to make a list of people you need to clean it up with and you know, go have a clean up conversation and life is too short to… Lots of people get into fights with their best friends or they lost touch or they are pissed of with their sister or brother, they haven’t talked to for ten or twenty years and its like you know what, thats a shame.  Am not saying that they are wrong for doing that but you know if you are on your death bed and you are awake and you’ve got a week to sit there and contemplate.  You’re gonna to look back and say man I really wish I had cleaned that up.  Then I would say, you know what, put that on your list and go clean it up because life again is just too short. Just too short.  So Michael what else?

Michael Dunlop: That’s just a great night to probably to end this recording on our thing you’ve, you know, hit the nail and I think that’s just perfect.  Is there anything you really want to add, any last advice? Or anywhere people can find out more about you or contact you?

Andy Miller:  Well if they want to they can go to AndyMillerInternational.com if they want to contact me.  I mean you know me really as a sales consultant and sales trainer. But I will tell you what, its a real interesting exercise to do when you make your dream come list and I have done this with groups before and you had people share their dream list.  Now there are some things on my dream list that are a little x-rated so I really wouldn’t want to share that part of my list but if you want to do a group call sometime where people share their list or what would be interesting is to have people share a partial list on your website. I don’t know if that’s even possible.

Michael Dunlop: Yeah, though we have a comment section for the whole. The interview will be transcribed and we will able to read it and everyone can comment and share their list.  I’m sure a lot of people will over latent and a lot of people will have the same goals.

Andy Miller: Well, thats what I found when I have had a group.  If I am doing sales training and trying to help them set some goals,  I have them take an hour and do a dream list and then we go around the room and I just have them share two or three things on that list that they are comfortable sharing with the group and you would be surprised. Someone will go, yeah I want to learn how to play guitar and somebody goes oh I forgot about that, I have always wanted to learn how to do that.  You know what, put it down on your list.  So if people are willing to share their list on your site, that would be a great place to go for other people to take a look at it and get ideas for them because you know there are a lot things we’ve wanted to do.  That we have even forgotten about.  I mean thats how.  You know I mention earlier about people being zombies.  I think a lot of people have numbed out in life.  Do you guys use that term? No. You’ve kinda of gone numb.

Michael  Dunlop: Yeah definitely.

Andy Miller: So a lot people have just gone numb in life and they are getting through the day and they are not getting from the day.   I mean you are supposed to get something out of each day not just get through it and survive.  So you know what, quit being numb make your dream list and start living with some passion.  Living by your rules that’s what it is about.

Michael Dunlop:  Alright thanks very much Andy that was a great interview and a great insight into the bucket list and getting the adventure out of life you really should have.

More About Andy Miller:

Andy Miller is recognized as one of the top 15 sales management consultants in the world. He has worked with over 2000 CEO’s – Sales VP’s, 14,000 sales people and 16 of the Fortune 500. His clients include high tech companies, manufacturers, financial services, entrepreneurs and venture capitalist throughout Europe, Asia and Australia. He has been featured on CNN and in Newsweek, Sales and Marketing Management, Selling Power, Success, Your Company and Human Resource Executive Magazines. He has been on stage with speaking greats Jay Abraham, Denis Waitley, Brian Tracy, John Assaraf, Mark Victor Hansen, Tony Robbins, Robert Allen, Zig Zigler and Chet Holmes.

And online at: AndyMillerInternational.com

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