Dan Martell - The only 4 skills you need to get to $10M a year...

00:00:00.000 These are the four CEO skills that you need to get to 10 million a year.

00:00:04.200 Number one is value. And this is how we grow. This is at the base of every great company.

00:00:10.960 Zero to 300k is about finding a huge pain in the market and collecting resources to solve it.

00:00:17.240 I first learned this strategy reading the book, The Four Steps to the Epiphany by an incredible

00:00:21.780 entrepreneur named Steve Blank. In that book, he goes over the four steps that you use to pre-sell

00:00:28.100 your product before you even build it.

00:00:30.380 And I know that sounds crazy.

00:00:31.740 I actually used these four steps recently

00:00:33.680 in launching my new AI product

00:00:35.400 before we even went to market.

00:00:37.000 Whether it's a consulting company, a service company,

00:00:39.620 honestly a coaching company, whatever it is, make an offer.

00:00:43.180 But see, most people mess it up

00:00:44.260 because they're just trying to do a sale.

00:00:45.880 What they don't get is how to validate their idea

00:00:48.480 with the market.

00:00:49.520 So here's how we do it right.

00:00:51.180 The first thing we have to get right is discovery, okay?

00:00:55.560 And discovery is all about talking to the market.

00:01:01.260 We wanna talk to real people.

00:01:03.440 We wanna get outside of our office,

00:01:05.480 not hide behind our keyboard and pick up the phone

00:01:08.260 or go into the world and talk to people

00:01:11.660 that have the problem that we think we can solve.

00:01:14.520 We wanna ask them questions about the challenges

00:01:17.720 they face around the solution that we wanna offer.

00:01:20.640 We wanna figure out how they make decisions

00:01:22.460 about solving this problem.

00:01:23.320 We wanna understand, do we have a painkiller

00:01:26.040 or do we have a vitamin?

00:01:27.700 Is this something that's meaningful

00:01:29.120 for them to wanna solve?

00:01:30.840 Because if not, you can spend all your time

00:01:32.980 in your office, behind your keyboard,

00:01:35.080 trying to solve a problem.

00:01:36.120 When you finally go out there to sell it,

00:01:38.280 nobody wants to buy.

00:01:39.280 The second step is validation.

00:01:44.100 Validation, once you have an idea

00:01:46.080 of how your market wants to buy,

00:01:47.780 that they have a problem,

00:01:48.960 then you wanna go collect data.

00:01:50.500 You wanna understand how big the market is.

00:01:52.320 You wanna figure out what the one clear problem is.

00:01:55.460 You wanna see how people have sold to that market before.

00:01:59.140 What's the channel they've used?

00:02:00.680 What's the language?

00:02:01.580 What's the offer?

00:02:02.420 What's the ads?

00:02:03.400 You can do a lot of work on the validation step

00:02:06.020 before you ever build anything

00:02:07.580 so that you don't waste your time.

00:02:09.540 The third step is to test, okay?

00:02:13.280 And the way we test is we build a clickable prototype.

00:02:18.200 We simulate the offer.

00:02:19.780 Some people call it Amiibo, a minimum economical viable offer.

00:02:24.120 I like to create clickable prototypes when I'm building software and I want to show it

00:02:28.400 to real buyers.

00:02:29.300 I wanted to show it to people that have the problem and through that process, I get feedback

00:02:34.560 actually on simulated software or on a solution, an offer specifically where they can evaluate

00:02:41.800 it and then ask me questions.

00:02:43.960 Doing it that way ensures that we don't just get a bunch of people that say nice things

00:02:47.600 and tell us, hey, this is a great idea.

00:02:48.760 go off and build it and then we wake up one day and realize nobody wanted the thing we built the

00:02:53.240 fourth step is offer here's why this one's so important what we want to do in that step is get

00:03:01.640 money get dollars get them to pull out their wallet give you a credit card pay with real

00:03:07.320 money i can't tell you the amount of times that i've had people say to my face great idea amazing

00:03:13.080 keep building it i would love to be a customer and then i spent all the time i hired the engineers i

00:03:17.800 I build a prototype, or I build a team,

00:03:20.380 I build the whole thing,

00:03:21.300 and when I go back to these folks

00:03:22.480 who said it was a great idea, they go,

00:03:24.420 oh, I'm busy, send me the link, I'll sign up.

00:03:27.360 And they never use the thing that I've built.

00:03:29.980 We wanna get real dollars so that people validate

00:03:33.080 with their money, not with their words.

00:03:35.520 So if you wanna go from zero to 300K,

00:03:37.520 make sure that you create value in the market

00:03:39.860 to make sure that you don't mess this up.

00:03:41.720 Step one, focus on discovery, then validate, talk,

00:03:45.340 figure out the market sizing,

00:03:46.900 test your idea by talking to people,

00:03:49.020 and then make an offer where you get paid.

00:03:52.040 Number two is delegate.

00:03:54.080 To go from 300 to a million,

00:03:56.360 these are the areas that you need to focus on.

00:03:59.640 To delegate and go from that 300K to a million,

00:04:03.160 it's all about running as fast as possible

00:04:05.200 while backfilling those roles in your company.

00:04:08.160 See, once you're solving a problem in the market

00:04:10.300 and collecting dollars for it,

00:04:12.040 you need to redeploy that dollar to buy back your time.

00:04:15.760 See, there's a lot of people out there that are specialists,

00:04:17.680 like doctors, lawyers, et cetera,

00:04:19.740 and they always peter out at that 300 level

00:04:21.940 because that is the most they can make as a specialist.

00:04:24.800 But as you build your business,

00:04:26.220 you want to start buying back your time

00:04:28.280 to do more of the thing that only you can do,

00:04:30.640 the thing that makes you money.

00:04:31.900 So if you're a logo designer, design more logos.

00:04:34.360 If you're an artist, create more art.

00:04:36.680 If you're a developer, develop more, write more code.

00:04:39.760 Don't hire somebody to do that

00:04:41.320 because that's the thing that you do

00:04:42.780 that makes you money so you can scale.

00:04:44.840 Instead, you need to use the replacement ladder

00:04:47.260 because it'll show you the clear strategy

00:04:49.660 to backfill your time so you can focus on the things

00:04:52.980 that are gonna make you the most money.

00:04:54.160 So the first level is admin, okay?

00:04:57.040 So you might be feeling stuck.

00:04:59.160 The way we fix this is an admin hire,

00:05:02.120 and the key is they gotta manage your inbox

00:05:05.020 and your calendar 100%.

00:05:07.240 If you don't give up the emails that are coming in,

00:05:10.100 the scheduling so that you can focus 100%

00:05:12.940 on just the thing that makes you the most money,

00:05:15.380 then you'll have a hard time scaling up.

00:05:17.340 You might grow, but then you'll fall back down.

00:05:20.000 The second rung is all about feeling stalled.

00:05:23.600 If you're stalled, the key hire

00:05:25.840 is somebody to help with delivery.

00:05:29.760 So once you sell whatever you sell,

00:05:32.180 that person comes in,

00:05:33.600 they take the customer relationship

00:05:35.380 and they move it forward.

00:05:37.120 The key ownership is all about support and onboarding.

00:05:43.560 That means that once you get somebody in your world,

00:05:46.120 they onboard them and they support them

00:05:48.460 so that you can still do your genius,

00:05:50.240 but somebody else takes care of ensuring

00:05:52.440 that delivery is done well.

00:05:54.060 The third level, you might be feeling friction.

00:05:56.940 And to fix the friction in your business

00:05:59.080 where it's not growing too well,

00:06:00.420 you need to focus on marketing.

00:06:02.660 This is where you can hire somebody part-time or full-time.

00:06:07.020 The key ownership that most people mess up

00:06:09.360 is they don't give people focus on traffic,

00:06:12.980 making sure that your landing pages still get traffic,

00:06:15.740 your social is growing, and campaigns.

00:06:18.800 Campaigns are ways to focus your marketing energy

00:06:24.380 to enroll people per season.

00:06:26.460 You want somebody coming up with creative ideas

00:06:28.520 to communicate to the market how you do what you do

00:06:31.080 in a unique way.

00:06:32.080 The fourth level, you start to feel freedom.

00:06:34.680 Why is that?

00:06:37.260 Well, freedom is where you hire somebody to help with sales.

00:06:40.880 And I know you might think, I'm the best salesperson.

00:06:43.080 Why would I hire away that?

00:06:44.180 Well, here's what I know.

00:06:45.780 At this level, the reason it's freedom

00:06:47.820 is because if you have somebody taking all the calls

00:06:52.060 and doing the follow-up, you now have an engine.

00:06:57.100 This is only four hires, admin, delivery, marketing, and sales.

00:07:00.940 And this means that you can go on vacation

00:07:03.060 and have somebody else generate an opportunity,

00:07:05.820 somebody talk to that person

00:07:07.080 and get them enrolled in your service

00:07:08.540 or your product or your business,

00:07:09.660 and then have somebody else deliver on that promise

00:07:12.900 that the salesperson made, et cetera,

00:07:14.580 so that it moves forward while you're away.

00:07:17.900 This is at the level with four hires

00:07:20.140 where you now have a business

00:07:21.540 that makes money while you're not there,

00:07:23.560 which is the promise we've all wanted.

00:07:25.860 Now, the fifth level,

00:07:27.380 this is where you start feeling flow.

00:07:30.800 Why is it flow?

00:07:32.000 because this is where you start creating

00:07:34.320 without feeling the constraints.

00:07:36.140 To do that, we need to hire leadership.

00:07:42.220 Leadership that owns two specific areas, okay?

00:07:45.560 You don't hire leaders

00:07:46.740 and then have to tell them to do this.

00:07:48.400 So they're gonna come to you with strategy and outcomes.

00:07:52.900 They're gonna own those outcomes.

00:07:55.820 This means that they come to the business with playbooks,

00:07:58.080 they come with the tactics,

00:07:59.260 They come with the know-how to move it forward,

00:08:02.760 but most people get stuck here with leadership,

00:08:05.620 and that's what I wanna talk about next.

00:08:07.500 So to go from 300K to a million,

00:08:09.960 you have to work your way through the different hires

00:08:13.540 in the replacement ladder,

00:08:14.640 but most people, they get stuck right here around leadership,

00:08:18.120 and that's what we're gonna address next.

00:08:19.660 The third skill is leadership.

00:08:24.760 So to ensure you keep growing from one to three million,

00:08:28.620 you need to use the transformational leadership strategy.

00:08:31.320 See, most people get stuck here

00:08:32.940 and they do transactional leadership,

00:08:34.620 which is really tough,

00:08:35.820 where you essentially do one of three things.

00:08:37.480 You tell people what to do,

00:08:39.940 you check they got done,

00:08:42.440 and then you tell them what to do next.

00:08:44.740 The challenge with this strategy

00:08:46.720 that it's really around 12 employees,

00:08:49.220 about 1 million to 1.2 million in revenue,

00:08:52.200 where you get to a place where you wake up every day

00:08:54.380 and you spend most of your day telling people what to do,

00:08:57.320 check they got done, answering questions,

00:08:59.760 and you hit this area called the pain line.

00:09:02.080 The pain line is where the more you grow,

00:09:04.220 the more pain you feel.

00:09:05.560 And what I've discovered is entrepreneurs

00:09:07.320 will not grow into pain.

00:09:09.200 So to solve that, we need to use transformational leadership.

00:09:13.940 Here's how it works.

00:09:14.980 So I learned this strategy by watching

00:09:16.980 some of the top Silicon Valley entrepreneurs

00:09:19.080 scale these companies.

00:09:20.160 I mean, you gotta understand these 20 year olds

00:09:21.500 build a hundred million dollar companies

00:09:22.940 in five, six, seven years.

00:09:24.080 I mean, Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and Square,

00:09:27.320 you know, $2 billion companies.

00:09:29.440 He focuses on this concept called the editor, not the author.

00:09:32.700 See, if you're spending all your time

00:09:33.920 trying to author all the strategies,

00:09:36.080 then you're not gonna have time

00:09:37.300 to actually think strategic.

00:09:38.960 What you wanna be is an editor.

00:09:40.760 You want other people to own the outcome

00:09:43.200 so that you can coach them to move things forward,

00:09:45.880 but not have to be the ones

00:09:47.080 to always give people the answers.

00:09:48.840 Here's how we do it.

00:09:50.060 Number one is we gotta start by focusing on outcomes.

00:09:54.620 And outcomes is really about talking about

00:09:57.500 what it looks like when it's done.

00:09:58.820 Talk about the mountaintop.

00:10:00.080 Don't tell them how to get there.

00:10:01.620 So the difference is,

00:10:03.000 hey, I want you to go set up the whiteboard.

00:10:06.440 Go get the cameras and put them here, here, and here.

00:10:09.180 And then I want you to connect the wires on the set.

00:10:11.740 That is transactional leadership

00:10:13.780 because you're telling them what to do.

00:10:15.560 Transformational leadership would look totally different.

00:10:17.900 It says, hey, I need you to set up the podcast set

00:10:20.700 or I need you to set up the studio

00:10:22.620 so that we can have great lighting,

00:10:24.500 that the audio's works, everything's set up.

00:10:26.620 You explain the future and you say,

00:10:29.100 you own the outcome of setting it up.

00:10:32.000 Now that doesn't mean that they don't have a checklist

00:10:33.640 to follow, but you're giving them ownership

00:10:36.800 of the outcome that is called get ready to shoot.

00:10:41.060 Because if not, then if they forget a step

00:10:43.680 or you didn't tell them to do it,

00:10:45.040 then the thing doesn't get done

00:10:46.140 where you want them to use their mind

00:10:47.840 to actually create an outcome.

00:10:50.580 Now, once we have that,

00:10:51.740 the second thing is we gotta measure.

00:10:54.500 How do we measure?

00:10:57.280 We have to pick a number that tells them,

00:11:00.040 this is how we move forward.

00:11:02.380 So if I was trying to get somebody to climb a mountain,

00:11:04.600 like we're all doing in business,

00:11:05.760 I'd wanna figure out one number

00:11:07.960 that I could get them to measure every day

00:11:10.320 that would give them feedback on their progress.

00:11:12.740 So if we were trying to climb a mountain,

00:11:14.140 it might be elevation achieved per day.

00:11:17.700 And then that way every day they could report back

00:11:19.560 and say, I made 17 feet or I made 25 feet of elevation.

00:11:22.740 You're like, why only 17 today?

00:11:24.260 They're like, well, I got lost.

00:11:25.840 Well, and then it goes the third step, which is coach, okay?

00:11:30.480 Coach means that when they come back and they're not performing,

00:11:34.340 I have the opportunity to give them some strategy.

00:11:37.140 So if they didn't gain a lot of elevation that day,

00:11:39.460 one of the coaching questions would be,

00:11:41.460 what are ways that you could get better insights to stay on course?

00:11:45.920 And they go, well, I don't have a map to get to the top of this mountain.

00:11:49.680 Hmm. Could you buy a map?

00:11:51.860 Yeah, I think I've met somebody to add a map.

00:11:54.080 Maybe I can borrow their map.

00:11:55.480 Take a picture of the map.

00:11:56.820 That's a great idea.

00:11:57.820 Is that a commitment you're making to me?

00:11:59.640 Yeah, I'm gonna do that.

00:12:00.560 Perfect. Any other ideas?

00:12:02.340 And that is how we coach.

00:12:03.960 See too often, if we just keep telling people what to do,

00:12:07.000 check they got done, and then tell them what to do next,

00:12:09.500 we're not building the people.

00:12:11.180 And why transformational leadership is so powerful

00:12:13.800 is because it's one concept.

00:12:15.340 Our goals as leaders is to create other leaders.

00:12:18.140 We build the people, the people build the business,

00:12:20.960 And that's how we grow, using transformational leadership.

00:12:24.360 Number four in the CEO skills is brand.

00:12:29.140 That's how we go from 3 million to 10 million.

00:12:32.620 Now, I've got a unique approach to this

00:12:35.040 that you're not gonna wanna miss.

00:12:36.140 Here's how it works.

00:12:37.340 So this is how brand works, the four levels of luck.

00:12:41.740 Check this out, it's all about brand.

00:12:44.040 See, a long time ago, I was talking to one of my mentors,

00:12:46.960 this guy named Naval Ravikant,

00:12:48.380 and he's one of the, you know, luminaries in the valley.

00:12:52.260 And he shared this idea of having four levels of luck

00:12:56.200 that propels businesses forward.

00:12:58.160 And honestly, it's not even just to go

00:13:00.140 from three to 10 million.

00:13:01.700 It's from going to 10 million to 100 million to 500 million.

00:13:04.480 You'll see why in a second.

00:13:06.180 The first level is pure luck.

00:13:09.760 Okay, pure luck.

00:13:12.260 This is, you won the lottery.

00:13:14.220 It's pure luck.

00:13:15.140 You did zero to achieve lucky status at level one.

00:13:19.420 Level two is grit luck.

00:13:23.000 Grit luck is you just are in the game and you're grinding,

00:13:26.740 you're not strategic about it at all, and you get lucky.

00:13:30.780 Now, the third level is where it starts to get interesting.

00:13:33.640 This is skilled luck.

00:13:36.400 And skilled luck is you're working on your craft,

00:13:39.200 you're working on your skill,

00:13:40.620 you're becoming an artist in your field.

00:13:43.140 And because you're doing it,

00:13:44.600 you're actually getting lucky, you're focused.

00:13:47.040 It's more strategic.

00:13:48.180 This is just brute force, this is more strategic.

00:13:51.040 Now, when you get to the top of your field,

00:13:53.680 because you've worked, you've got decades of focus

00:13:56.860 and outputs and a reputation,

00:13:58.960 that's when you get prepared luck, prepared luck.

00:14:03.820 This is the beautiful place where everybody else

00:14:08.000 who's working hard, who's top of their craft,

00:14:10.440 who are artists and they're getting lucky

00:14:12.340 because you are the tip of the spear.

00:14:13.960 they bring their luck and opportunities to you.

00:14:16.920 This is Warren Buffett.

00:14:18.180 This is Mark Cuban.

00:14:19.240 This is Richard Branson.

00:14:20.440 These are the luminaries in their industry.

00:14:23.500 And because of it, they're getting other people's luck

00:14:26.460 and they're being presented opportunities

00:14:28.240 to partner with them.

00:14:29.200 This is what makes this exponential.

00:14:31.640 And the only way it works is to have a brand.

00:14:34.420 Most people don't know how to build their brand.

00:14:36.520 So I wanna show you how that's done

00:14:38.360 so you can have prepared luck.

00:14:39.960 So let me tell you this next framework with a story.

00:14:43.380 About six years ago, I got the privilege of spending time

00:14:46.040 with Richard Branson at his home in Switzerland.

00:14:48.400 And I was in shock, you understand.

00:14:50.120 I grew up in a small town in Eastern Canada.

00:14:52.780 The fact that I got invited kind of blew my mind.

00:14:55.000 So I'm sitting there and I can only go one way,

00:14:57.800 getting kicked out, so I don't say a lot.

00:15:00.140 I'm being quiet, I'm just observing.

00:15:02.680 And I remember we were having dinner

00:15:04.040 and Richard was sitting next to me

00:15:05.740 and I had the chance to ask him a question.

00:15:07.340 And the question I asked him is,

00:15:08.460 what do you think the most important thing is

00:15:10.880 to get right in business?

00:15:12.660 And he pauses and he thinks about it.

00:15:15.880 And then he says, brand.

00:15:18.660 Now you gotta understand at the time

00:15:20.180 I was expecting like leadership or go to market

00:15:23.620 or sales tactics or some crazy financing thing

00:15:27.900 about bringing companies public.

00:15:29.140 And he just says brand.

00:15:30.500 And I didn't get it, honestly,

00:15:32.040 because now I've learned that brand is not a name.

00:15:35.260 Brand is not a logo.

00:15:36.700 Brand is not your product.

00:15:38.340 Brand is not your customers.

00:15:40.280 Brand is everything about reach and reputation.

00:15:43.620 It's association.

00:15:44.820 It's do people have a positive association with your company

00:15:48.600 and are they aware of it, the reach?

00:15:51.260 So how do we increase our reach?

00:15:52.900 You've got a ton of different options,

00:15:54.720 but I'm gonna show you the ones

00:15:55.760 that I've focused on over the years.

00:15:57.700 Number one is paid.

00:15:59.760 Running ads to have people be aware of you.

00:16:03.220 Number two is organic.

00:16:06.640 Creating content that serves your market

00:16:09.480 no different than this video so that people share it but it's all done through organic or social

00:16:14.360 third is cold reaching out having conversations opening conversations messaging people i call it

00:16:21.320 your personal economy most people are not talking to enough people and they wonder why is my business

00:16:26.200 not growing the fourth is partners partners is having other people that your customers of the

00:16:33.560 market trust to talk about you huge opportunity to get distribution quick it's actually one of my

00:16:39.160 favorite ways to create reach if you're starting from scratch. And the last one is referrals.

00:16:44.620 Having your existing customers asking them, is there anybody that you trust that are just like

00:16:50.440 you, that you think that we could serve with our product or service and getting them to increase

00:16:54.740 your reach. Do these steps and you will build a massive audience of people that are very familiar

00:17:00.640 with your work and believe in what you sell. Now, reputation is totally different because some of

00:17:05.340 you may not have the most positive reputation because you're starting off and you're doing

00:17:08.180 some stuff and you're wheeling and dealing and you may have made the wrong decisions and you got

00:17:12.240 to fix. For me, it's all about delivery. Can you deliver on your promise? This essentially means

00:17:19.580 that you're out there and you're making promises to the market through your marketing, through your

00:17:23.440 sales team, through your partners, and you need to show up and not only deliver, over deliver based

00:17:29.820 on what people are saying. Number two is focusing on being world class. It takes nothing for you

00:17:37.440 to decide right now that you wanna be the best in class.

00:17:41.500 It may not mean that you're the biggest,

00:17:43.420 but you can literally decide in this moment,

00:17:46.200 no matter what you do,

00:17:47.660 you can say, I wanna be world-class with this

00:17:49.340 and give yourself a decade.

00:17:51.300 I call it a dedicate.

00:17:52.600 Give yourself the time to be the best in class,

00:17:54.960 just like Buffett.

00:17:55.960 He's like, I'm gonna do this for the rest of my life

00:17:58.040 and I wanna be the best at what I do.

00:18:00.260 And he called his shot.

00:18:01.680 You can do the same thing.

00:18:02.600 The third are values.

00:18:05.320 If you stand for nothing,

00:18:06.680 you'll fall for anything i want to ask you a question what do you stand for what do you believe

00:18:12.120 in what would you fight for what are your values what do you believe and do you share those because

00:18:19.640 if you have that you'll have reputation people will know that they can expect certain things

00:18:24.840 from you based on what you share with the world the fourth is integrity integrity is powerful

00:18:31.320 because it's not what you do when things are going good that matter it's how you react when

00:18:36.600 things go bad i've seen too many people when everything business partnerships employees

00:18:41.560 customers everything's good no issues two three years but then one major thing happens and

00:18:47.400 everybody just totally falls apart the integrity is not there if you want reputation especially if

00:18:53.560 you're focused on reach you want to make sure that in those moments you do the right thing

00:18:58.280 and the last one which is the most important is to shine your light shine your light share with

00:19:08.360 other people here's the deal there's nobody else that is you your brand who you are you're the

00:19:16.140 ultimate niche you are the biggest competitive advantage your name literally your personal brand

00:19:21.980 if you're out there and creating a reputation and increasing that reach through organic through

00:19:28.100 through partners, speaking at events,

00:19:31.360 that will allow you to attract other people's luck.

00:19:34.700 That will put you to prepared luck,

00:19:36.480 put you at the top of the stack

00:19:38.920 so that as everybody else in the market grows,

00:19:41.360 you inherently grow just as fast, if not faster,

00:19:44.660 by doing half the work

00:19:45.680 because you will have those opportunities presented to you.

00:19:48.640 That's how we go from 3 million to 10 million,

00:19:51.260 really fast and honestly beyond.

00:19:53.620 So those are the four CEO skills to get to 10 million.

00:19:56.980 value, delegate, leadership, and brand.

00:19:59.940 Now, if you wanna learn how CEOs schedule their day,

00:20:02.320 click the link and I'll see you on the other side.

Dan Martell - December 20, 2023

The only 4 skills you need to get to $10M a year...

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