Episode two five, three.
Speaker 2:Late night. Internet marketing.
Speaker 1:This week on the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, we dive into a riveting conversation with the incomparable Cliff Ravenscraff. Cliff is a master of transformation and coaching and he shares his journey from leading Bible study at the ripe old age of 18 to becoming a sought after coach and speaker. His unique perspective on achieving goals, overcoming fears and the power of mindset will leave you inspired and eager for more. Tune in as we explore the depths of personal growth and the secrets to unlocking your full potential in both life and business. All this and more on the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast.
Speaker 2:The Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast. You've been working for somebody else, but you want a business to run yourself. You want to know how to start and where to begin. Can you get out your comfort zone, my friend? Yes, you can do it right. When it's late at night, at the end of the day, your dreams burn in your sights. Keep it up and you will find that you're building your business one night at a time.
Speaker 1:And now broadcasting late at night from a little studio in the big state of Texas, your host, mark Mason. Hey, hey, hey, how is everyone doing? I am Mark Mason, your host of the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast, coming to you from the little studio in Dallas, texas. It's been an amazing week. Lots of progress going on here in the studio. Just a couple of days left. If you're interested in starting that Amazon business, go on over to latenightoffercom, and if it's February or later, you just missed it. I'll catch you next time. Otherwise, we have an amazing show today.
Speaker 1:I love talking to Cliff Ravenscrapped. He's one of my best friends in the whole world, not just in business but in life. We've been doing life together now for over a decade. We talk every Wednesday on our Mastermind call with some of our other close friends. That's also been going on for a decade, and Cliff is just the guy that inspires me to do more, be better, achieve more and just really dream about what's possible and then go get it. That's what Cliff does, that's his secret superpower, and I want you to have some of that. So I've got Cliff on the show. So, without further ado, here's my conversation with the Mindset Answer man, and I can't believe I'm face to face virtually, unfortunately not actually face to face with my good friend Cliff Ravenscrapped. Cliff, it's been a while, man, how are you, Mark?
Speaker 3:as you know, I have never been better. It gets better every single millisecond of the day, my friend.
Speaker 1:That's super cool. You know I say it's been a while, but we talk literally every Wednesday, almost no matter what. In our Mastermind call we used to do a lot more recording and I was trying to remember the last time we got the opportunity to sit down together and talk about a topic that we both cared about to share with other people, and I couldn't remember the last time. It's been a while.
Speaker 3:Well, I think it was an episode of your show where we talked about coaching back in the day, and it was the episode right before your guest, russell DeBree. Oh, that's right. So whenever that was was the last time I was a guest on your show, and then you and I did an episode of a podcast that will probably never be heard. Actually, wait a second. No, we never did record that episode, did we?
Speaker 1:I, you know, I was trying to remember. We talked about it, Did we record it? I couldn't remember.
Speaker 3:I can't remember. Yeah, but I have a. I have a podcast that I launched a long time ago called Cliff's Notes on the Phone Book, and because you had joked around many times in the past, he said you know what, Cliff, it doesn't matter what you talk about. If you just talked about the phone book, I'd probably listen. And so I, as a as a joke, one day I created two episodes of a podcast called Cliff's Notes on the Phone Book.
Speaker 1:You know I specifically remember this and I think you'll remember it too the first time that we met face to face was in Dallas, and you had come for the some kind of Catholic social media conference, I think is what it was called, or something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the CNMC Catholic New Media Conference, it was. I think it was 2012. Yeah and yeah, I was the opening keynote address.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I think, I think maybe that was your first keynote.
Speaker 3:It was. I had just set out the goal. It was the end of 2011 and I had 12 goals for 2012, and two of those goals were speaking related. One is that I wanted to become a paid public speaker because I had only been speaking for free at that, up to that point, and I also wanted to be a keynote public speaker so that I would be the person who would either open an event or close an event. Right, and this event, the CNMC 2012, was the very first paid and keynote address I ever had, and to say that I was a little bit nervous was an understatement.
Speaker 1:Right and and right. And I picked up on that. I was there, I actually paid to attend that so I could come see you. And I, picking up on your nervousness, I said at that meeting, dude, you could read from the phone book and it would be entertaining to people. And that is the gen, that's where the genesis of this, genesis of this, and so it's a, it's a good story because it it it just offers up the segue into goals, because that was a huge and I think, seemingly, I know, at some time, when we had talked previous to that, this idea of you being a keynote speaker, that seemed like a huge goal. I mean now, keynote speaking, I mean you, I mean there are some keynote opportunities you would turn down, you know, I mean it's like it's, it's, that's nothing now, but it's all a matter of frame.
Speaker 1:And I know, when I'm talking to the listeners of my show, all the time I run into people who have this goal and whatever it is, to start a business, to become financially independent, to leave their day job, to create a side hustle so they can pay their mom's medical bills, whatever it is, and they get in the way of themselves. There's a lot of. They don't achieve their goal, and so what I thought we could talk about a little bit today Are things, maybe experiences that you've had in coaching people, because you've done so much of that, and I want to talk about that too. That might help these people, and let's start by helping people understand why you're a good person to ask, because at this point you've coached hundreds, or maybe it's getting towards thousands of people.
Speaker 3:It's in the thousands at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and can you talk about that a little bit and just sort of the breadth. I guess this goes all the way back to before the podcast mastermind, all the way up to what you're doing now and give us a little sense of what's going on.
Speaker 3:So you want to know a little sense of what's going on, like how long I've been coaching.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, what's your, what's your coaching?
Speaker 3:experience like. So I one could argue that I started coaching when I was 18 years old, and what I mean by that is, at 18 years old I was already leading young adult Bible study groups and Sunday school classes in small groups that met not just on Sunday but also throughout the week, and basically during that period of time I was responsible for inviting people who were not a part of any Faith or religious tradition in their life to participate in these groups that I was facilitates, facilitating and hosting and, ironically, a lot of these people had built and established some incredible relationships With what they would consider, you know, to have a relationship with God, and yet here they are. They haven't yet attended a church or anything of that nature. They're just hanging out in somebody's living room for example.
Speaker 3:And so, as a result of that, here I am 18 years old and I am leading small groups of 12 to 15 people at a time on a weekly basis, anywhere between the ages of 14 all the way up into early 20s and maybe even early 30s, and During that period of time, over the next several years of my life, the next decade, it led me into the path of becoming an ordained minister or a pastor within a church. I was associate pastor for more than 10 years and At the same side that I was doing that, I was an insurance agent as a auto, home life business and health insurance agent in a family run agency. And so Imagine here's here's a couple of things that I had as experiences in these two worlds where my where coaching came in. So I'm doing premarital counseling and coaching for people who are getting ready to get married. I'm sitting there talking to people because I'm getting ready to do a funeral, lead a role right, there's communication, so preaching sermons, but then not only the teaching aspect of it, but I probably about four different people that I talked out of committed suicide.
Speaker 3:I literally was called to go and visit somebody who was on the verge of committing suicide. There were in as an insurance agent. Sometimes I was receiving a phone call. I was like one of the first three to five people that's been contacted after their daughter was just killed in a car accident. House is just burned to the ground. Tornado just wiped out their home. So, speaking to people in crisis moments Dealing with some of the most challenging things you can possibly face, this has been a part of my life, going all the way back to 18 years, 18 years of age, and today I'm 50.
Speaker 1:You know, I never really thought about that origin story in terms of coaching, but that explains how you have ended up with Thousands of coaching clients. I mean, I I know that I participated in some of your masterminds. I've been, I've attended some of your in-person stuff and you're coaching now and I guess it's true that you run into people all the time that have a dream and Don't know where to get there or don't know why they haven't gotten there. I guess that's two different things, I guess, not knowing how, but I mean there's also this class of people, I guess, that have tried and failed and need to unpack that and overcome it. Is that right?
Speaker 3:Well, there's. There's a lot that could be said. There's a little bit of a nuance to all of those different distinctions that could be made. The One thing is that I would say is a majority of people, quite frankly, don't need to know how to achieve their goal. They just simply failed to get to the first few steps in the process that would be required for the how to reveal itself. I see, yeah, so this is what happens.
Speaker 3:A lot of people go straight into strategy. So let's just say, somebody has a desire to leave their current day job that they have been working for the last however many years. They've been seeing people like you, mark, talk about internet marketing and all the different opportunities that exist as a Online business owner, and it's like now it's like, okay, I Want to be an online business owner. Doesn't matter what kind of online business owner, but that's their dream, that's their goal, this is my desire. So, instantly, what a lot of people do is they go straight for strategy. So they go and sign up for a course, they go and sign up for a conference, they go and they're hiring coaches to teach them frameworks and formulas and next steps and all of this other stuff, and they're making Almost no progress at all, or if any, it just seems like in their mind. It's like this will never happen and the the problem is is that there is a significant Gap, a void if you will, in between the mindset of an employee and the mindset of a business owner, and One does not just Logically just go straight from here to here because you have some form, works and for formulas and frameworks. Those things will really never help you bridge that gap between the mindset of a of the employee and a business owner.
Speaker 3:There are all sorts of things where people are have Thoughts and feelings about how much money should one should earn. They have beliefs related to what they're worthy of of having. So there's a there's a lot that goes on there, and I would say that a majority of the people who are out there who have not had any real success in turning a dream, like Leaving the day job and going out and starting their own business, turning it into a reality, it's not because of the how to do it. It is, quite frankly, that they're sometimes Overwhelmed by all of the how and the reason why they get so overwhelmed by the how and they can't just say well, let me just take one that the next logical step, the next logical step, the next one. The reason why they're just not able to just have it naturally flow for them is because they have beliefs that are Resistant to them succeeding. So there's a lot of people who will say to you I think my problem is that I'm afraid of failure, and there's certainly a lot to be said for that.
Speaker 3:But many people could get over their fear of failure. What most people are not even aware of is their fear of success. And what if I succeed? What if I actually earn enough money over the next 18 months to leave my day job? What if I earn enough money where I'm consistently making $20,000 a month, every single month, but then after I leave the day job, it all goes away? Yes, what if? What if the economy changes? What if? What if the social platforms that I'm using that's driving my traffic Drives up overnight? So it they're literally afraid of succeeding. And if they succeed and leave the day job, subconsciously they're not. They're afraid of what's on the other side, and a lot of them don't, are not aware of the fact that it's actually their fear of success that keeps them from actually taking the actions.
Speaker 1:So I guess In those cases the first thing, as you described, is to recognize it, to understand, to own it, to realize that's there. But then what do you do about that? I mean, it doesn't change the fact that you're afraid of it, just because you recognize you're afraid of it. What do you do about that?
Speaker 3:Well, it depends on the person. It is a case-by-case basis, but generally, when I am working with somebody who has this and we've uncovered the fact that they have a fear of failure, I ask them I need to know how serious you are about this dream. I mean, I need to know why this is important to you. What is it that you want? What are you going to receive from this? Having achieved this dream that you can't achieve in your day job, or just getting a better day job, getting something that's more aligned with the values and beliefs you already hold about earning income? Because it would be a whole lot easier for you to make a leap from the job that you're in now to a better-paying job than it would be to go here. I need to know are you genuinely is this a genuine desire? Why is this a must for you? If I can't get there?
Speaker 3:As a coach, I don't try to actually help them overcome that belief of the fear of success. I think that sometimes our fears are there and they could be a great source of enlightenment. That says wait a second. I kind of like my life over here. There's a lot that goes with the roller coaster of becoming an entrepreneur, and so I'm not quick to erase one's fears that are associated with success as an entrepreneur. But let's just say somebody does have a solid list of reasons why entrepreneurship is definitely their dream. This is a must for them. Let's just make some assumptions there. Then how do I help them overcome that?
Speaker 3:Well, we just get down and we create a bullet point list of all of the beliefs, of what they're afraid of. Tell me all of the things that could go wrong, worst case scenario, lay it all out, everything. Let's just make a list of every single one of them. Then let's just sit here and pretend, create images in our mind. Let's just assume that happens. What are you going to do about it? Is the fact that this is a possibility?
Speaker 3:By the way, I'm going to tell you, many of your fears are very real possibilities. They could happen to you. My question is is that going to be the end of your life? Is that going to be the end of your marriage? Is that going to be the end of whatever relationships that you have? I mean, let's talk about this. Sometimes these things aren't as worse as we catastrophize in our mind. Again, I will only do this. I will only do this if somebody has convinced me that becoming an entrepreneur is their must, then what I will do is I will show them that every single fear they have about what it would be like as an entrepreneur. I can show them how the dangers and the fears of actually hanging your shingle of income on one employer might just be more risky than the opportunity of self-employment. But only if they've convinced me that they're ready to make the leap.
Speaker 1:Is it common, I guess, especially with people that are struggling? But in general, when you coach people, is it common that they're not clear on why it is they're on the path that they're on? Is that a common thing? Is it more common that you run into people that are mystically sure why they've been called into being by whatever creator they believe in, and like a bell went off and there was a road sign and it said you are destined to be this? I mean, what do you encounter? What's the normal state of people?
Speaker 3:The normal state of people. I'd say 2% to 3% of the people that I've interacted with on this planet have a clear picture of who they are, what they want to achieve in life and they are determined to create it. 2% to 3%.
Speaker 2:That's like none.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's like none. If you haven't heard about this statistic before, go ahead and read something like the Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale or listen to that audio recording you can find. Just go the Strangest Secret, Earl Nightingale on YouTube. It's 30 to 45 minutes depending on which version People hear about it. It talks about this phenomenon and it's not changed.
Speaker 3:What I run into the most are people who are going through life in a hypnotic rhythm. They are literally walking through life in a sleepy, trance-like state. They are going through what's called autopilot. So basically, all of the beliefs that they've picked up throughout their life and our beliefs come from the environment we grew up with. It's the way our mom and dad talked about money, religion, sex, relationships, all that other stuff. It comes from the beliefs that we picked up from the religious institutions that we may have been a part of. It's the peer group, the things that friends on the playground said on the playground when we were five or six years old All of those things got pretty much conditioned into our brain waves and stored as long-term memory and can listen. This is the way the world is. This is the way Sue sees it. If you remember that little clip from Glee, this is the way Sue sees it. This is the way you see it. This is your perception of the world. So we all have our own reality and this is just what we do. It's kind of like the last time.
Speaker 3:Mark, I know that you commute back and forth from your day job. When you're commuting, there are a number of times where you left the day job and you probably have had 45 minutes to an hour for you to get home. If I were to stop you in the driveway after you got home and say, Mark, can you tell me how many times you turned your turn signal on? Or do you remember pressing your brake pedal at any point during that drive? No, Can you tell me? Do you recall making one lane change? Just one. Tell me one lane change you made and why you made it. And chances are the answer is no. Why, by the way? Do you remember when you were 16 years old and you started, or 15, or, however? Do you remember when you were young and you started driving for the very first time? Do you remember how every decision Every lane change?
Speaker 1:Every bump in the road.
Speaker 3:Exactly, you were so. But the thing is is, once you learned and conditioned yourself on how the ways of the roads work, you're on autopilot and that's how, and that's the same thing. So the same thing that our subconscious mind allows us to do. Once we become aware of something, once it becomes predictable even if it's not truly predictable but once it's become predictable we start to make assumptions about how this all works. And many times that works for us. But then, all of a sudden, something that's unexpected, something that's unpredictable happens, and then boom, we get a wake up call. But this is what happens in life.
Speaker 3:So most people come to me for coaching when something that was unpredictable, undesirable and unexpected happens and it wakes them up from a hypnotic rhythm. And then they come to me and they say, cliff, I need to leave my day job so that I can do this. Or hey, cliff, I already have my business. And here's the situation I need to increase my income by 50%, and if I don't do that, I won't be able to get out of the situation I have. And now tell me about the situation you have. Well, the situation is that I'm waking up at two or three o'clock in the morning with night sweats because it's all the anxiety and worry that I've got because I used to make this amount of income and now I'm only making this amount of income. And I know that if I could just get to this level of income, I know for a fact I'll be able to be at peace again.
Speaker 3:And I can tell you right now, mark, that's just not the case. It's just not true. It's not how life works. So most people they say, cliff, I want to leave the day job and have a business. Most people say I have a business and I'm currently at this level of income and what I want is this level of income, but what they truly want is peace. What they truly want is freedom. What they truly want is purpose, meaning alignment. But most people have never been taught to think about emotionally meeting these needs that we have this need for peace, this need for freedom, this need for certainty, this need for variety, this need for significance, growth and contribution at high levels. And so most people are just not aware of what they truly want. But they have this idea of what they want and a lot of times it's what society has taught them that they should want and what will fix the problem.
Speaker 1:A college degree, a job for 25 years, two and a half kids, a two car garage and a pickup truck or whatever right. I mean something like that.
Speaker 3:Oh, and today I could tell you right now. And financial independence so that I have enough income that I'll never have to work another day again in my life. I'd say eight out of 10 people I talk to Mark tell me that that's what they want.
Speaker 1:And what's wrong with that? I mean, what does that tell you that you're getting that same sort of answer? Is it that there's nothing behind it?
Speaker 3:Well, that's exactly it, or that there is some false beliefs behind it. So, by the way, I don't think there's anything at all wrong with financial independence. I wish for everyone to have such financial wealth and abundance that you would never have to work another day in your life to meet all of your current and future financial needs. I think that would be wonderful. However, my concern for those who say that they want this and it's usually coming from somebody who's somewhere between $20,000 to $220,000 in debt currently so it's a significant change in the way that they are experiencing life they have a belief Mark that if they could get there, they will finally have peace, joy and satisfaction and fulfillment in life. They believe that having attained that thing, financial independence will grant them the end of suffering, the end of anxiety, the end of worry. But here's the truth money and wealth will amplify whatever's already internally happening for you. So problems or when I say problems, opportunities to overcome, opportunities for growth aka problems, problems, obstacles you can work in my corporate job.
Speaker 1:If you're starting to describe problems as opportunities for to excel, you're right in there. I can hire you tomorrow.
Speaker 3:There you go, so problems don't go away when you get more income. It's just that what happens is you, as a person towards getting the more income, hopefully are growing personally and you're growing in your emotional intelligence, you're growing in your level of consciousness and you're getting out of fear and anxiety and worry. It's such that you are able to grow in the level of the problems that you're able to face. But what I will tell you is those who attain great wealth and do it over time tend to have a little bit of a growth personally and professionally along the way. Everybody I know who has incredible wealth have problem. Let's just say they have 10x the net worth of the average person. They also have 10x net of the problems and the level of problems that they deal with.
Speaker 3:It's like, oh my gosh, I'll be on a coaching call with one of my clients. It's like, oh my gosh, I just got a notification that my CPA made a mistake. I owe the IRS another $150. This always happens to me and they're completely destroyed that they owe $150 to the IRS. Later that afternoon I'm talking to somebody. It's like, oh my gosh, my accountant made a huge mistake and it looks like we owe an extra $750,000, and we got to pay that off within the next three months and I'm like how are you going to do that? I don't know. I've got my team on it, I don't worry about those things.
Speaker 3:So what I'm getting at is you have to get to the place where you can find peace. Whether you're $250,000 in debt or you've got $250 million in net worth, the money doesn't give or take away peace. It's your beliefs about life and how things ought to be, and it's your ability to perceive external situations in a way that either attack your belief about who you are and what people think about you and how you believe you should be and how you're making people proud, and all this other stuff that you have to deal with. So that's the real issue, mark. It's not an issue with people wanting to be independently wealthy. It's just the belief that that's going to be the magic pill that solves their mid-eat or late night anxiety issues.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's say you get past all that and you're on whatever. Being on the right path means You're on the right path.
Speaker 3:You're emotionally stable. How about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're emotionally stable, you're clear on what you want and why you want it, but you fear that you're not capable or other people will perceive you as not capable. You have this thing that.
Speaker 3:By the way, I just pause you right there. Yeah, if you're not emotionally stable, if you're still concerned about how you will be perceived by others, there's still work to be done there, okay.
Speaker 1:Now, that's an interesting point. So you would say people with imposter syndrome have fundamental emotional stability issues that need to be addressed.
Speaker 3:Not necessarily imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is a lot different in my mind, than what you had stated with the words just a moment ago.
Speaker 1:So let's peel that a little bit, so tell me the difference.
Speaker 3:So what I heard you say is I think there's a fundamental emotional stability issue with people who are afraid of what other people might say about them or how they might be perceived by others All right. But then imposter syndrome certainly has a little bit of a layer to that right. Okay, I see where you're coming from. That imposter syndrome came in. But imposter syndrome is more along the lines of I don't think imposter syndrome ever personally goes away. I don't care how emotionally stable you are Interesting.
Speaker 1:Even for a guy like you, that's Absolutely. You have moments where you're having these kind of feelings.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. It depends on how you define it's. Not that I'm concerned about how other people will think about me, how other people will feel about me, how other people will perceive me. So, for example, I have no problem at all going out and saying hey guys, welcome to the next episode of the Cliff Ravenscraft Show. By the way, I want to let you know I have a brand new coaching program. It's only available to two clients, it's $250,000 a year, and here's how it will look for you and I to work together.
Speaker 3:Now, if I was to make that my marketing promotion and that's what I'm going after in 2024, where I currently sit today I would have imposter syndrome around that. I had to have a lot of limiting beliefs about my ability to go out and sell a $250,000 coaching practice, because it's so far away and beyond what I've done previously that I'm like what value do I have? I mean, I know that I've charged this as much as this and I know that I've provided this amount of money, but this is so much bigger and so I don't have any experience in this area. I don't have any track record in this area. There's other people who do this, but I don't know how they've done it and I don't know. It's like would people? How is this going to happen? But I'm not necessarily concerned about being perceived.
Speaker 1:a certain way Sure, 100%. I understand the distinction.
Speaker 3:A great example of this would be when I have this day with Cliff package that is $10,000 to come spend eight hours with me one-on-one here in my office, in my studio in Northern Kentucky. I have no problem at all inviting people to pay that People have. Actually, I've had three people pay $7,500 because that's what the price used to be. And I say it's $10,000 because my most recent client who paid $7,500 says listen, I wanted to let you know, number one, I'm giving you a $5,000 bonus after today, but only if you agree that you'll never offer the day with.
Speaker 3:Cliff package for less than $10,000 again. So I made that agreement Anyway. So I've done this a couple of times and then I put out this one offer. I go out to social media marketing world on an annual basis, as you know, and I typically add an extra day and I go to the San Diego Zoo and I would go there and they open at nine, they close at five and I'd listen to an audio book and that was like my annual tradition.
Speaker 3:And one year I said you know what would it be like if somebody paid me $5,000 just to walk with me through the San Diego Zoo for eight hours? You know, a day of mentoring? Hey, it's cheaper than if you were to do a day of mentoring with me here, plus it's walking through the zoo. Let's just you and I walk together for eight hours through the San Diego Zoo. What do you think? And guess what?
Speaker 3:I had people who absolutely says who do you think you are? I mean, this is absolutely. You're like the poor man's Tony Robbins, except for the fact that you want people to pay you. How much to spend eight hours just to walk the zoo with you.
Speaker 3:Gosh Cliff, what's to keep me from going to the zoo and running into you and just bumping in and say, hey, do you mind if I walk with you? You know I mean, come on, this is ridiculous. But somebody from North Carolina signed up immediately, flew to San Diego just for that opportunity and so I don't have any issues. I don't care how I'm perceived. I got a one star negative review and it's got some very colorful language about who I am as a person and Cliff's all about money and all this other stuff. So I don't have the emotional instability issue about having any fear, guilt or shame about how others will perceive me. But if I were to put out, hey, come spend the day at the San Diego Zoo with me, it's $50,000. I'm going to have a lot of mindset limitations to break through about that and I consider that to be a level of imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1:Okay, Thank you. So Understand the distinction and it's an important one, so I'm glad you made it. I think it's a pretty common problem. It's a growth pain in some sense, that people have when they're trying to extend into something new. Start a new thing, start a coaching business, start an online business. They don't be on YouTube, be on social media. Who cares what I have to say? Who wants to know why? Is what I have to say any better than what everybody else has already said? Those sort of things. What do you tell those people?
Speaker 3:The first thing that I do is I work with them and say have you ever heard of an inventory of value? And most people haven't. I think I came up with this thing, although I'm sure other people have some other form of it. But I had a guy who applied for the next level master money a couple of years ago, never responded to any of my things after he submitted his application and I said, hey, are you just checking in, are you ready? And he says you know what? I heard? You have a three package coaching offer. I think that would be a better fit for me. And I said, great, that's $3,500. My rates are not this low anymore. But I said it's great, that's $3,500. That's three 90 minute sessions once per month for the next three months. I'll send you the invoice and here's the link to schedule. And he wrote back and he goes what who do you think you are? He's like my Harvard educated attorney doesn't charge that much cliff. How do you judge, justify your rates? It's either a set of new tires for my car or three conversations with you. And I'm like that. I love that question. I had never been approached with this question how do you justify your rates? And so I immediately I'm like, oh, this will make a good podcast episode.
Speaker 3:So I opened up a word document or yeah, I think it was a word document at the time, but it's in notion today. But I created a document. It's like okay, what value do I bring to the table? And so I began writing an entire list of like here's all of my experience. Here's all of my education. Here's all of my experiences I've had. Here's my skills, my talents, my abilities. Here's the things that I've achieved in the world. Here's the myriad list of things that people are consistently asked me my advice about. Here are the experiences that I've had. Here's the network of people that I'm connected to in the world. Here's all of this and blah, blah, blah blah.
Speaker 3:And, by the way, I probably spent about two and a half hours If I were to print that out. It's already about 15 pages and I just literally got bored with adding more information to it. So I could go on for probably four or five or six more days to add more to this, but eventually I stopped and then I hit record and I said, hey, let me tell you about this email I just got and let me share it with you. I just made an inventory of the value and here's how I would answer the question how do I justify my rates? Here's all the things that I've experienced in my life. Here's all the things I know. Here's all the things I've learned. Here's all of these skills, talents, and this is what I could help you do, by the way.
Speaker 3:And I went on for probably 90 minutes in the episode and I said I'm going to have to just stop here, otherwise this episode would be too long. But here's the interesting thing. If any of that sounds appealing to you, just so you know, you get unlimited access to all of that for a window of 90 minutes, for only this price. And then I said, after I published that episode, I hit reply and I said what an incredible question. Thank you so much. It prompted me to create an inventory of the value that I bring to the table. I encourage you to listen to this podcast episode and let me know if you're interested.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So now you coach that and people do that and it helps them.
Speaker 3:It does, it helps people understand. It's like, wow, I didn't realize how much confidence I had or how much confidence I could have about the experience that I've had throughout my life. I've totally discounted some of these things, and this especially comes from somebody who, let's just say, they got a college degree, worked in corporate for a couple years and then became a mom for 18 years of their life, right, and they absolutely it's like I'd have nothing Gosh.
Speaker 1:I have nothing to offer. I've just been only just a mom, right.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 3:And when we get down and evaluate the things that they volunteered for, the projects that they've been a part of, it's insane how much value.
Speaker 3:And so, all of a sudden, it's like, wow, I do have a lot, I have overcome a lot, and that's the key thing. One of my favorite things about the inventory of value is not the degrees that you got from universities, it's not the certifications you have from certification programs. My favorite thing to write down is all the goals you've ever had in life, and sure, start with the ones where you had the goal and you achieved it and write down the things that you learned as a result. But spend even more time on listing every goal you've ever had that you failed to achieve and write down all the things you learned that didn't work and what you learned in that process. Because I'm going to tell you right now, especially if you're going to be a coach or a thought leader or something like that in the online world that you and I kind of live in mostly if you're going to be that, then what people are looking for is to reduce the amount of time and trial and error 100%, 100%.
Speaker 3:You have so much value to bring to the table. It's like listen. I went down that route and I do let people know when I'm coaching. It's like listen. I want to let you know if I'm going to give you any advice outside of coaching. So, coaching typically, I'm going to ask you lots of questions. I'm going to help dig deep to find out what's inside of you, and I think a lot of answers are inside of you. If not, the answer to every question you have is found inside yourself. But I don't play just the role of a coach. I'm more than happy to be a mentor and advisor.
Speaker 3:Just understand this. Any piece of advice you ever get from me or any other person on this planet when they are giving you advice, it is always autobiographical. Please understand that the advice they are giving you is based upon their experience, it's based upon their network, it's based upon what worked for them, their perceptions of the world, their personality, all of these other things. And just because it worked for them doesn't mean it will work for you. And if they give you advice to avoid something and because it didn't work for them, that also doesn't mean it won't work for you, and the same is true for me. So if you are going to ask me to give you advice, just know that I'm not right. I'm only going to tell you my experience.
Speaker 1:Amazing. You know what else is amazing? When we started this conversation, I said, hey, let's just talk for 20 minutes and talk about some stuff. And we did what we always do, which we doubled it just right out of the gate. But I'm not done yet. I've got one last question for you. I think my experience with building businesses is that mindset is an absolutely critical piece. It could be the most important piece to success in all things, really, and so you, being an expert on mindset, can you tell us a little bit how people can get more cliff Raven's craft in their life and where they can find out more about what you're up to and help them some more?
Speaker 3:Sure. So if you're watching me on YouTube, of course, just look up Cliff Ravenscraft on YouTube. And if you are listening to me in a podcast, look up Cliff Ravenscraft and look for the Cliff Ravenscraft show in your favorite podcast directory. And if you're a coach, check out Cliff's notes on profitable coaching. However, no matter who you are, no matter how you're consuming this piece of content, there is one place everyone should go. This is the one place you should go Head over to mindsetansormancom slash free.
Speaker 3:If you go there, you will get the opening keynote address to my Free the Dream conference, titled All Beliefs have Consequences.
Speaker 3:You'll see a 90-second video clip of me tearing up $300 bills to demonstrate what I used to do in the first year of my business, or the first two years of my business. I was throwing money in the trash, refusing to send clients invoices because I did not believe I had earned the money that they had promised to pay me. You have to check this out. In fact, you will discover, number one, that every belief has consequences and that you're unaware of more than 90% of the things that you've believed throughout your lifetime, that you are living under this hypnotic rhythm, just automatically, on autopilot, letting those beliefs drive your every thought and emotion and therefore your action. You will also discover what beliefs you have that are holding you back, how to discover them, how to discover where those beliefs came from, how to eliminate them and how to condition and replace those old beliefs with empowering new beliefs. This one 60-minute talk can absolutely transform your experience of life. It's my guaranteed promise to you. Head over to mindsetansormancom. Slash free.
Speaker 1:I'll double down on that, because I have been in the room. When you tore up $100 bills and threw them into a trash can on stage the reaction that people have to that you can hear them gasp. Usually I'm in the front of the room when you're speaking and behind me I hear all this giant intake of air when you rip through those $100 bills. That's worth seeing and that, again, is at mindsetansormancom forward, slash free. Of course, like all good things, that link will be in the show notes, but it's easy to remember mindsetansormancom forward, slash free. Cliff, we got to do this more often, man, this is super great and I know you've gotten more greatness to give, so how about we agree now that you'll be back soon?
Speaker 3:Let's do it. I'll see you in a couple weeks.
Speaker 1:All right, man, good to talk to you. Bye, see ya. All right, I hope you really enjoyed that. In fact, if you enjoyed listening to that even just 10% as much as I enjoy talking to Cliff then you got a lot out of that.
Speaker 1:If you want more Cliff, head on over to mindsetansormancom. Particularly, cliff's got some free materials there that teach you how to think about your goals, how to think about the things that you're trying to achieve in life, and make them happen by reprogramming literally the neural pathways in your mind so that you become wired for success. It's truly amazing. Cliff has spent tens of thousands of hours literally studying this issue of human performance and he's the guy you need. If you need help actually achieving your goals, cliff is the right guy. Until next week, I hope you have an amazingly productive and outstanding week. I'll be right back here on the channel on Monday, so if you haven't hit that subscribe button, do it right now, because I don't want there to be any chance that you might not hear about the next episode coming on Monday. I want you to be right there so I can help you move your internet business forward Until next week. I am Mark Mason.
Speaker 2:Ciao.
Speaker 1:OK, man, it's been a crazy week. I mean it's just been a crazy productive week. So on Wednesday I had my meeting with my mastermind, finally, where I presented to them my plans for 2024. It turned out that my turn in the hot seat didn't come until the 24th of January, which is later than I would have liked, but it still worked out fantastic. I spent 20 minutes giving them a 30 slide pitch, maybe 25 minutes giving them a 30 slide pitch, and then I got 30 minutes of feedback on what my plans were for 2024. And these plans that I have are bold and the presentation went deep in terms of why I was trying to do what I was trying to do and also to kind of explain and detail what the expected outcomes were, what I was measuring, all of these things that I try to teach you guys about how to achieve your goals. I brought all of that to this meeting and then I got their feedback. I got some outstanding feedback.
Speaker 1:The first bit of feedback that I got was around particular naming for one project that I'm bringing forward and that is my new course, which I had originally named one thing, but after some feedback from them and two or three more hours of beating chat GPT to death for suggestions and ideas and literally having a three hour conversation with chat GPT, I finally settled on the name of the course and I had several names that I liked, but then I had to figure in available domain names and all this kind of stuff. Finally, the course that is coming out in the spring. It's the course I've been. Really it's been inside me for a decade and I just didn't really totally understand exactly what I was trying to say until just recently. But now I'm clear and the name of the course is expertise ignited and I'm very excited about it. I'm very excited I've been working on it full time this last week when I'm not at my day job working full time, so double full time. But yeah, that is going to be released sometime in the spring.
Speaker 1:And this plan that I had that I presented to the mastermind group. That was a centerpiece of this plan, but it's a much bigger plan that involves the entire late night internet marketing brand and I'll be unveiling that to you guys over the course of the next weeks and months. As some of that stuff starts to come to fruition. I'm super excited to hear what your plans are for 2024.
Speaker 1:So if you've got some plans or questions or you just got an idea for the podcast and you want to tell me about an episode idea, or there's something going on in your business and you'd like an opinion, hey, hit me up Feedback at latenightimcom and I would love to have a conversation with you about what's going on, how things are going and how I might be able to help you. Until next week, I hope everything goes great for you. I hope that this episode from Cliff lifts you up and you're able to do more, because it puts you in a frame of mind where you can accomplish more than you might have otherwise, and I hope you're excited about the fact that there's another episode of the late night internet marketing podcast coming to you on Monday. Ciao.
Speaker 2:Late night. Internet marketing.