Could my “message” really be worth a million dollars? That may sound cheesy, but that was the hook that grabbed my attention as I singled this title out amongst the many recent publications of finance books on Amazon.
There are a million books that encourage you to save as much money as you can in your 401k and IRA. However, as a student of passive income, I wanted to read about something different from conventional advice. Along the same theme of how the book “ProBlogger” entices you to become a six-figure blogger, I figured why not see if this guy can help me step it up to a million?
What Is This Book About?
As you would expect, “The Millionaire Messenger: Make a Difference and a Fortune Sharing Your Advice” is precisely about what the title suggests – marketing yourself as an “expert guru” and getting paid to do so. Afraid you’re not expert? Author Brendon Burchard disagrees.
Chapter 1 begins with Burchard describing the event that changed his life forever – a near-death car crash in the Dominican Republic. His survival of the wreck led him to the deep realization that his second chance to live should be measured by three simple questions:
• Did I live?
• Did I love?
• Did I matter?
During his young corporate career, Burchard quickly began to realize that his true calling was to spread the power of his message. Chapter 2 chronicles his departure from his day-time job and the struggle to make it in the expert industry.
However, within 24 months, Burchard started to see massive results. He became a best-selling author with his book “Life’s Golden Ticket
“, getting paid $25,000 for speeches, selling out seminars for $10,000 per ticket, and making $2 million per major marketing promotion. Talk about finding the silver lining to your misfortune!
Are You an Expert?
Would anyone ever believe you’re an expert? Could you ever get paid for it? These are exactly the topics that the remaining eight chapters cover.
Did you know that there’s more than one type of expert? Chapter 4 goes over each of them:
1. The Results Expert
2. The Research Expert
3. The Role Model
For example, you don’t have to be married to be an expert in marriage. You could research the topic and become a Research Expert. You don’t need to be a financial planner to give money advice. If your methods lead to repeatable results, then you could be regarded as a Results Expert.
If you accept that you might actually have what it takes, then Chapter 5 moves on to outline a path for picking your message, directing it towards your audience, developing your story, and finally packaging it into something of value for others (in other words, creating your product).
That’s Great. So How Do I Get Rich Doing All This?
Once you’ve got a passionate message and a value-added product, Burchard outlines his six “pillars” for making money:
1. Writing
2. Speaking
3. Giving Seminars
4. Coaching
5. Consulting
6. Online Marketing
Depending on how many of these you’re willing to engage in will dictate how much revenue you generate. Burchard goes through several examples where doing a combination of these pillars could generate +$1 million in revenue each year.
As you may guess, many of these pillars involve creating videos and DVD sets that sell for $400 each. Or hosting seminars that cost +$10,000 per ticket.
The Bottom Line:
Usually when I read a book that encourages you to start selling this type of overpriced mumbo-jumbo, I stop right there and put it down. I want like to have advice that is tangible and can be useful, and I usually dismiss this as being not helpful.
But I’ll admit: there was something a little different about this book. It held the same positive encouragement that a Dale Carnegie book would have. It was very persuasive in making you believe that you may actually have what it takes to break into this market.
On top of that, he makes several good points about the expert industry. Why are billions of dollars spent every year on this type of stuff? Why does Burchard make millions of dollars each year coaching and speaking?
To some degree I can see this already within our limited blogging niche. Why do some bloggers produce six figure incomes? To Burchard’s point: The money is there for the taking. You just have to find something you can be passionate about and create a product that matters and provides value to others.
Overall, this book was an interesting mix of things I both liked and disliked. But as I’ve mentioned before: Getting rich comes in many forms, and you have to be open to all kinds of advice. Even if I never act upon one word from this book, it is helpful to know about this industry and the potential market it serves.
Readers: Check back on Wednesday when my next post explores this theory a little more closely. But for now, has anyone else read this book? What do you think about this type of advice?
Related Posts:
2) Book Review: “ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income” by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
3) What Results Are You Getting From Learning?
i secretly want to become an expert financial planner that doesnt care about making money but about whipping peoples finances in order.
MMD – any thoughts on being a domain expert?
Thanks for the great review. I will check out the book. I am always looking for great books to read and improve myself.