Brian Basilico — January 4, 2018 — January 4, 2018
Welcome to 2018 and the first post of the new year. I really hope you had an incredible 2017. Being the first episode, it’s time for all of us to get out of our pajamas, put on our big boy pants or big girl pants, and get to work. Except for those of us who work from home — we can still work in our pajamas — but that’s a whole different story. Anyway, I hope you had an incredible year last year. I really wish you much success in the coming year. Let’s get down to business.
Lot of times people talk about what it is that they have in their lives. I hear this all the time about time, talent, and treasure. Usually, that equates to how you can give back, how you can be of service. Now, as part of my daily ritual I do something called Deep Bacon Quotes on Facebook. The Deep Bacon Quote I did on the first day of the year said, “Strive not to be a success, but rather be of value.”
Time, Talent, and Treasure
When you have your time, your talent, and your treasure, how can you share the things that you have to help other people gain what they want? One of my all-time favorite quotes by Zig Ziglar is, “You can have anything in life that you want if you just help other people get what they want.”
(January 05, 2018)’s quote of the day was, “Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom” by Euripides. It’s about having those two things. We’re all blessed with certain things, but ultimately, if you’re going to be a success, you have to have certain things. Those three things that I’m talking about today also begin with today. It’s not time, talent, and treasure, although all of us need those. The three things I want to talk about today are thoughts, techniques, and tools.
1) Thought
The first T is your thoughts. This equates to your business. When I talk about thoughts, what I’m talking about is being a thought leader. Now, there are many people out there that consider themselves thought leaders. I saw a post on Facebook again… Yeah, I spent a lot of time on Facebook over the last couple of days because it was kind of downtime. One of the quotes that I saw said, “What makes a thought leader?” My answer to that question is that a thought leader leads by example and not by edict.
What I mean by that is if you have the ability to do it for yourself, then you should be able to help other people learn how to do it. A true thought leader is somebody who’s out there on the cutting edge trying things. It could be about cryptocurrency. It could be about video on demand. It could be about anything, whatever your business is about. It’s you doing something different than everybody else is.
Now in my space, in the online marketing and social media space, there are a ton of coaches and a ton of “thought leaders.” I’m not saying necessarily that I am a thought leader. I like to think I am because I do do a lot of these things for myself, but ultimately there’s a lot of people out there that are simply regurgitating and selling other people’s thoughts rather than doing it for themselves.
The question is, can you execute it on your own, be successful, and then turn around and teach other people how to do the exact same thing? Now a lot of the time, when we teach people, sometimes what we do does not translate 100% to them, so we have to figure out the ways to make what we’ve learned work for those people to be of value.
2) Technique
The second thing, or the second T, is techniques. When I’m talking about techniques, what I’m talking about is how you create systems around those thoughts and how you make them so you can do them over and over and over again. You need to be sure that it’s not just one of those experiments that happens to work and you can’t repeat it. Science is all about repeating experiments. The science of success in business is exactly that. It’s about figuring out ways where you can do things over and over and over again and make them a success. Those techniques and those systems that you create. I created the Bacon System on my own, by teaching a whole bunch of people how to do it, and the results have been literally amazing in some cases. By teaching people certain techniques, I’ve seen lots of great things happen.
One guy finally realized his product and his vision for that product, and is in the process of getting it patented. Another person had a vision of creating a series of ebooks, and that ebook series was so successful he was actually interviewed on his local TV station as an expert. Another person was selling on Amazon, and that person not only had the best year ever but also started to create their own course to teach other people how to do it.
Other people I’ve worked with have learned to rebrand themselves. I did this myself. I spent a good chunk of the end of the year rebranding my websites, rebranding myself so that it could be more focused on what I am doing now versus what I did three to five years ago. Really getting clear on what it is that you do and getting it out there.
One of my clients actually exceeded their expectations so much they completely sold out of inventory and had to purchase another 50% to meet the expected demand starting this year.
3) Tools
The third T is tools. When we talk about tools, I’m talking about technology. Now it can come in the form of hardware or software or whatever it is. Which one of those things help you to succeed in whatever it is that you’re trying to do both personally and business-wise? I think about my technology as an extension of my knowledge and how I could put it out. The mic that I talk into, the recording software that I’m use, the desktop computer, my phone, my iWatch, all of those things help me to communicate what it is that I’m doing better. These tools help me to communicate with you and share my thoughts and teach you my techniques, and even sometimes show you the tools that I use to help you learn how to run your business better so that you can help make other peoples’ lives better.
Final Thoughts
It’s all a cycle. It’s all something that we have to think about. So yes, we all have time. How do you spend that time? Get intentional about what you do with your time. Your talent, you have ingrown talents that you can use to help other people either learn something or something better. Treasure, we all make money. Do we invest in our community? Do we invest in ourselves? Are we spending money to make ourselves better with that treasure so that we can help make other people better?
From there, you learn to become a thought leader who has the systems and techniques in place and the tools ready to make it the best year you’ve ever had. I hope this has been motivational. I hope it’s helped you think a little differently and ultimately grow your business.
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on how you or others become thought leaders. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas or questions about showing the concepts presented. Have you or your business ever had to coach your clients into becoming thought leaders? Do you have any ideas or advice you could share?
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