It takes hearing new information seven times in order to retain it.

For people to really hear and internalize your message, they need to be exposed to it seven times.

This concept applies to products you're selling just as it applies to relationships in your personal life.

People don't notice announcements; they notice consistency. It takes hearing about your product or your message seven times for people to even be aware it exists!

We feel like we don't want to be a broken record, but there are creative ways to repeat ourselves while sharing new facets of the story.

There's nothing new under the sun. There are people sharing very similar messages to you, but you have a unique voice and a unique perspective.

The great part about The Magic of 7 is that when someone hears something for the seventh time and it resonates, they will attribute the value of that thing to you. Even if six other people put in those initial impressions, you get the credit just by being the seventh person.

Do you know what revenue looks like for next month? What about the month after that?

A cash flow forecast is incredibly important. Cash is survival. If your business doesn't have cash, you're done!

You can be profitable on paper, but without cash in the bank, you can't pay your bills, cover expenses, or make payroll.

A lesson I've learned this past year is you have to earn the right to think long term. By default, I tend to make long-term investments. This is great if you're around in several years to see the returns, but if you don't survive until then, it doesn't matter!

You have to focus on short-term cash flow and making it predicable. That's what we talk about in today's show.

In doing research on this topic before recording the show, I saw a lot of advice saying to borrow money, talk to banks about getting a loan, or run an extreme sale when you're in a tough spot.

These make sense logically, but they conflict with my no-debt mentality and my decision against discounting and devaluing my products. What this forces me to do is think creatively.

If I'm in survival mode and I can't borrow money and I can't discount my products and run an extreme sale, how can I generate cash flow? That's where you truly get creative.

Learn how to produce a cash flow forecast even if you don't have recurring revenue coming in.

There are two ways to approach life: with an attitude of responsibility and with an attitude of excuses.

Responsibility and excuses have one thing in common: when you look for either one, you will always find what you're looking for.

If you want to find someone to blame for your situation or external forces that are at fault, you will always find them. The same goes for places where you can take responsibility.

You can always find a way to take personal responsibility for everything.

This episode explores what it looks like to apply an attitude of responsibility to various scenarios of life such as clients, money, relationships, communication, and even citizenship.

What you will find with this approach is that there is no such thing as clients from hell. It's your responsibility. The situation you're in with money is because of choices you made. It's your responsibility. The people you're communicating with are not at fault for missing your message. It's your responsibility.

It can be very challenging to approach life with an attitude of responsibility, but it is incredibly rewarding. You have full control over your life when you choose to take responsibility for everything.

You become a happier person, other people like you more, and you put off the victim mindset that is so prevalent in our culture.

You'll never be bitter again. Taking responsibility is the most empowering thing you will ever do.

Today, we talk about the habits of successful people.

There's nothing stopping you from getting what you want in life except yourself.

We kick the episode off with three things you should stop doing immediately (going to bed late, saying yes, and quitting), but then get into the habits that will enable success for you (hyper focus, massive action, writing, reading, ignoring negativity, future focus, and much more!).

Success means a lot of things to different people. We share definitions of success from over a dozen Community members in the first half of the show.

To me, success is freedom. It's choice. Success is doing what you want to do when you want to do it. At least, that's the selfish part. I also believe it's defined by the amount of people who are able to live a better and more fulfilled life as a result of what you've done.

However you define it, this episode is sure to help just about anyone reach any definition of success for themselves.

A lot of people think you need to be an expert to teach.

You don't feel qualified or you don't feel like you know as much as someone else. But all you need to know to teach is more than one other person!

It’s a common misconception that you have to be an expert to teach. It actually works the other way around: leaders are seen as experts BECAUSE they teach.

You might think teaching is a job best left to the masters. But the masters aren't often the best people to teach the beginners. Often someone who is a little bit ahead is better able to relate to the struggles of a beginner. The master has already long forgotten.

Teaching establishes you as an expert. It's a fantastic way to build an audience. But don't think it stops there. Teaching is actually a great way to get clients too. While clients aren't necessarily interested in learning how to do what you do, the very existence of educational material positions you as an expert.

Guess who clients want to hire? An expert.

There are so many benefits to teaching. In today's show, we talk about those benefits and why you should be teaching what you know right now even if it's not a part of your long-term focus.

A listener wrote in to ask if we'd do an episode dedicated to business lessons found in nature.

Boy, did we deliver!

Ben and I spent the past week gathering inspiration from nature for this metaphor-and-parable-laden episode.

From bananas, squirrels, water, and vineyards, this episode truly packs some exciting stories and unexpected insights that apply to business and life.

This episode was unlike any in recent memory and was a lot of fun to do.

Thanks for the suggestion, Robert!

Aaron says I need to charge for this one.

He's our podcast editor. After listening, he said, "No, really, you need to be charging money for this episode."

And I know. It's true, I should. I'm giving away better content and education here than what other people are charging for. But I'm demonstrating what I teach you in this episode.

Give away your best 10% for free. The reason this episode is so good is because I'm giving you my best.

Learn to build a writing habit, the difference between content marketing and copywriting (and why not knowing the difference is destroying your sales), and what to give away for free vs. what to sell.

Do you really need a website? Do you really need your own domain and a place to call home?

There are a lot of tools and platforms out there happy to represent you and act as your home. A lot of the hard work of development is taken care of for you. You can just show up, do your thing and be done.

But it does mean pointing people to those platforms. If you're telling anyone to go to your profile on these other platforms, you are telling them that's where your home is.

This means you are putting your trust and livelihood in platforms that are looking out for their own best interest. They can change the rules, they can change the game, and there's nothing you can do about it.

The online world looked very different 10 years ago and you can be sure it will look very different 10 years from now. The only thing that is certain is change. When you build your home on someone else's platform, you are putting your full trust in them. But they have to look out for their own best interest.

The only platform you control is your own. When you build and sell on other platforms, you often don't get the customer data either. You might get more exposure, but without the customer data you can't build a relationship.

If you don't have the customer data to build a relationship, you won't get repeat buyers. The lifetime value of your customers is going to be very small.

Yes, the cost of building your own platform is great. But you should also be considering the long-term cost of not building your own platform. What is the price you place on being irrelevant in 10 years?

What does it look like to own your life?

What if everything you had was bought in cash? People say they don't like living in debt, but they keep using it as a tool.

It is possible to live a life without debt. It is possible to buy the life you want in cash. But it's not easy.

Just wanting to have no debt isn't enough. You have to define the life you want to have and work backwards from that. Shift your focus back toward the life you've always wanted to have for yourself: what does that look like? What does your ideal day entail?

It's a matter of reverse engineering the life you want and making sacrifices to get there.

I guarantee this episode will give you a ton of ideas and a ton to think about. It's not just about how to cut expenses and save money (though there are some great tips on that), it's about shifting your focus to the areas where you have the greatest impact.

It's better to make $10 than to save $2. I'll show you places where you're missing out on the $10.

I get really practical in the episode on how to focus your time, invest your resources, and take back ownership of your life.

We often use the expression, "leave a legacy."

Usually, the emphasis is on the word legacy. But the first word is just as important: leave. You have to actually depart at some point. That is when you leave a legacy.

While you're alive, you can influence your legacy, but eventually it goes on without you. Other people will be the ones to define it.

Imparting a legacy starts with defining your values. If your values aren't written down, you don't have values. I'm serious. That statement might offend you if you believe you have values, but unless you can articulate them, all you have is a warm, fuzzy feeling. Most of us want to believe we are people of values, but if you don't have those values written down, they are not actually tangible.

Once you have your values defined, take those values and turn them into principles. Principles are like sayings or expressions that are based on your values. Principles can be shared and passed on and referenced by others without your being there.

We talk about what to do from this point to communicate your values to others and give them the resources to carry them on without you. We also talk about the difference between mere influence and true legacy.