How Frameworks Drive Value, Revenues & Profits with Shana Bresnahan

You see, as an entrepreneur and business consultant, I've come to realize that having a solid framework is one of the keys to success in any business endeavor. In fact, I believe that frameworks are essential for driving value, revenues, and profits.

And I'm not alone in this belief. My friend and fellow entrepreneur, Shana Bresnahan, is also a big proponent of using frameworks in business.

Recently, Shana and I had a fascinating conversation about the power of frameworks and how they can be used to create and retain customers, increase revenue, and boost profitability. It was such an insightful conversation that I wanted to share it with you all.

Trust me, you don't want to miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable insights into how frameworks can transform your business. Tune in now and start leveraging frameworks for success!

IN TODAY’S EPISODE, I DISCUSS: 

• The four pieces of a powerful framework
• The three critical outcomes of being an entrepreneur
• How framework helps measure progress

CONNECT WITH SHANA:
Visit Shana’s website: https://www.shanalynn.com
Know more about Shana: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanabresnahan
Follow Shana on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShanaSpeaks

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If you liked this episode, you'll love these ones:

• How Community Drives Sales, Profit & Wealth With Lindsey Schwartz
• Why Financial Freedom Needs to be a MUST For You
• Your Business Is a Bad Wealth Plan
• Do This Now In Case of a Recession

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OTHER RESOURCES:
Learn more about The Affluence Blueprint: https://melabraham.com/book-mel/the-affluence-blueprint4/
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Transcript

Mel Abraham  0:00  
Wow, wow, this was an incredible episode. Actually, it wasn't supposed to be an episode of the absolute Entrepreneur Show, I was being interviewed by a friend, Shana Brett Bresnahan. And she focuses on retention and community building and everything. But we were talking about this idea of frameworks. And how that creates retention value increases revenue increases profitability. But we had such a juicy conversation that I decided, We're going to air it on our show also. So welcome to this episode of the affluent Entrepreneur Show. If you have knowledge or wisdom, expertise, that you want to take out to the world in some way, shape, or form. This is an episode you're going to want to listen to because we talk deep about frameworks, we talk deep about how to do this and how to stand out and how it makes an impact on your financial future. I'll see the apps. This is the Affluent Entrepreneur Show for entrepreneurs that want to operate at a high level and achieve financial liberation. I'm your host, Mel Abraham, and I'll be sharing with you what it takes to create success beyond wealth. So you can have a richer, more fulfilling lifestyle. In this show, you'll learn how business and money intersect. So you can scale your business, scale your money, and scale your life while creating a deeper impact and living with complete freedom. Because that's what it really means to be an affluent entrepreneur.

Shana Bresnahan  1:35  
All right, Mel, I'm so excited that you are here. You know, we were talking just before I turn this on. And I was telling you, I was listening to your podcast this morning, which I'll tell you is perfect timing because I have my my journal actually right here where I was mapping out my world domination and life domination plans last night, I wake up, I'm getting ready. I look at your podcast, and it's like this a fluent entrepreneur, I'm like, Okay, what is this? I listened to it, you break down this amazing four part framework. I mean, I can't even like spit it out right now because I remembered it so well. I get in the car to go drop my kids off at school with my husband and I share the framework with him. I'm like, we need to apply this, we need to learn this. And I'm like, this is the power of frameworks. And I know there's so much we could be talking to you about today, because you've just had so much success. And you've you've been in this game, if you don't mind me saying for quite a while. But what I've noticed about what you've done and and what everybody has pointed out to me is that you are the master of frameworks and leveraging frameworks in your business to not just be able to sell more, but to really be able to differentiate yourself. So thank you for coming and talking to us about frameworks today.

Mel Abraham  2:52  
Oh my God, I am so so happy to be here. I think it's gonna be a ton of fun. You know, we obviously we just met, and it was yeah, it's kind of interesting, because you talk about community and everything. And literally, there was a post. And that you you asked a question, and then people put my name in, and I put my name in. And then we got on, we got on DMS and we started to chat through DM and, and here we are. And I think that's the beauty of reaching out connecting and, and trying to communicate more directly with with our market with our audience and with the people that are in, in in our world.

Shana Bresnahan  3:31  
While you're speaking my language and the language of my listeners for sure. Because we're all about creating really thriving communities and how that supports your business in so many ways. We talk a lot about the retention side, obviously. But I tell people all the time that you know, 80% of my success is due to the relationships that I've built in my business 100% Like, the knowledge is a little bit of it, you know, Will and grit is a big part of it. But relationships are a huge part of so when I had a client, actually client and a friend of mine asked and just say hey, you have your framework, I need a framework in my business or we need to refine a framework. Who do you go to? And I'm like, Oh, I'll put it out to my network. And I'll see and overwhelmingly it was like Mel Abraham, Mel Abraham, whoever, like, okay, let's talk about this. And then the more I thought about it, I'm like how we need to have a conversation because I know my framework has has been the foundation of my business and I believe is what has set me apart from everybody else out there that's talking about community. So before we dive in, I always like to just get to know you a little bit by talking about your favorite community that you've ever been a part of and what you love about it.

Mel Abraham  4:43  
So it was actually an entrepreneur community. It was actually a mastermind that I was involved in a number of years ago but the reason I liked it was It wasn't all business. Every time we got together every time we We would come together for business, there was always a day that was dedicated to service. And that service was working at an orphanage, building homes, making a difference. Because, look, we're, we're, we're blessed, we're privileged, however you want to put it, we, I don't think we're lucky because we've worked hard. But I think that, that we've had the blessings of our life and to try and pay that forward is important. Too often, we can see that people, they may be successful, but are they are they really, I believe that legacy is something that we create in the moment, it's not something that we have to die and leave behind. But that when we interact with someone, in a moment, we can shift a life, we can give them a smile, we can make them better. And I think that when we use our talents, or skills or tools and our gifts, to make a great life for ourselves, but at the same time, give a path to a better life for others than that's, that's where I think that that we should be playing. And that was weren't probably one of my favorite things to do. In fact, one of them. In my first book, the only picture that I have in there is of me and a little boy, it was we didn't speak the language. But we spoke the language of connection at an orphanage because I walked into the orphanage and he saw me, I saw him and he just came running up. And he would not leave my arms the whole time I was there.

Shana Bresnahan  6:34  
Oh, man, I can I can picture moments like that. And my wife and I love that. Because whether they know it or not when they did it, serving together is actually one of the best ways to create a connection among to people, because you're working together towards a common cause, which is the first part of my framework, you're working together towards a common cause. And having that and then serving alongside each other creates this shared experience, that creates a bond that you can't get back, I think, to very similar instances for myself, like doing like a mission trip, for example, in college and, and the friendships that I developed there, and nobody can take that from us. Right, that moment, that shared experience will be with us forever. And those are the people that when you when you see them, you have a deeper connection with them than you do a lot of people even if you haven't seen them for years, because you shared those moments together. Yeah. So good. All right. So okay, when we're talking about frameworks here, you know, I got great advice, when I was going out into the world of trying to teach what I had done for so long, where they said, you really gotta have a framework around this. And I remember when I was first asked to speak on stage, years ago about how I create a thriving community. That was the first thing that came to mind was like, I need to flesh out this framework a little bit more. So that that can be the thing that I teach about, and it is grown legs. From there. It's become the foundation of my course, and really everything that I teach, but I'm curious, like, how did you discover the power and the beauty of frameworks because I know you teach a bunch of different things. And you have different businesses and revenue streams, because that's a big part of what you teach. But like, where did the framework piece become so important for you. So

Mel Abraham  8:21  
it's, it's an odd, odd story. So I'm a CPA by education. But I didn't do typical CPA stuff. I primarily valued businesses bought and sold businesses consulted to build businesses, but I got involved with being an expert witness in financial matters. Show I would testify in front of a judge in front of a jury, I'd be the kind of person they would hire to testify against Bernie Madoff and people like that. So one of the things that happened is the first couple of cases I would go in, and here I am going on the flip chart and doing math, you know, for a jury. And it's like about as interesting as watching paint dry. And so my opposition, the opposing expert would do the same thing. And I had an idea one time, because I was studying the influence, persuasion and communication. And I said, to my attorney said, Will you trust me on this? And they said, What are you going to do? It said, I'm going to try and draw a picture for them. And so, that case, what I did is when I got called up to testify, you know, I got the permission from the judges. Is it okay if I drew a picture for you and told you a store? And so I took the numbers that I was using, and I drew it into a framework into a picture and told them a story around the numbers without necessarily doing all the intricate math and everything, and then I just sat down. Now when the jury went to the deliberation with them, the only thing they remember, was the story and the picture they never understood The man that what happened is that we won that case, hands down. And from that point forward, I started to really dig into how do you become more influential with your communication. And the key with frameworks for me was that I realized that since now, when I talk about frameworks, I'm talking about diagrammatic. Frameworks, not not a mnemonic, not an acronym, an acronym is just meant for memorization. But when you create a framework, a diagram, the proper way, you create simplicity out of complexity, you create, you connect emotion and logic, you, you drive them to act action through understanding, and you have layers of influence in it, because of the way you unpack the framework. And so So what I started to do is, is look at how can we do this, because a visual intake is actually an emotional intake, it's why we have the emotional response to seeing a baby or a puppy. But because there are structured deliberate, intentional structure to the framework, squares, circles, triangles put together in his very specific way. It creates logic. So it's the one tool I found that I can marry the emotional side of our world to the logical side of our world, and, and have it become vivid in. So that's how it started to come about. And if you follow me for any length of time, you will know that everything I do is driven by a frame, everything you know, and I start to see things in frameworks, I remember sitting in an audience of have a dear friend of mine, who's he has live event, he's got 500 people there, he's teaching, he's doing his thing, and I'm on my iPad, by the time he's done, I walk up and I say, that's your last two hours right there in a picture. He goes, You're like the cartoonist it does. So that's how it came about. That's how I started to do it and explore the ideas of using visual frameworks, as a mechanism and method to one get my point across, make it memorable, make it valuable, make it distinct and have me stand out.

Shana Bresnahan  12:15  
This is so important, I'm glad you shared the history of that, because first off those that know me know, I'm nerding out with you right now, because you're talking about human psychology in the brain. And I'm always reserving myself a little bit on this podcast, because I'm like, Oh, they don't need to know all of that. But at the same time, it's really important because it's human to human. And our brain does work in a certain way. And having those different inputs like that visual input, the emotional input, even with the story, all of that comes into play. And it's very important. But one of the things that you said that I just want to point out to those listening is that this didn't start as a tool that he was using to sell his info product, right? This started as a way for him to be able to transmit understanding of a complicated concept to people in a way that they would remember. So if you are a course creator, or consultant, even, or you have a membership, or a group program, that is your job, I talk about this all the time, you cannot say I'm not responsible for my people success. Yeah, to a point like you can't even leave the horse water, you can't make them drink, I get it. But so often, we are spending so much time on the marketing and the selling there, we're not investing the work in creating a solid product that gives people the best opportunity of success. And so what I'm hearing is that creating frameworks around what you want to teach is doing that work. It's making it to where you take this complicated concept, you deliver it in a way that people are going to be able to understand and implement, which ultimately leads to more success and more progress for your people, which is ultimately what we want for them

Mel Abraham  13:58  
without a doubt. And I think that with what you said, how people say, Well, I'm not I'm not responsible for their success. No, you're not. But you are responsible to them, to give them the tools and the the training that would get them success if they acted on it. And so this idea of for me was this, the the reality that communication isn't a two way street. It's a one way street in the sense that I have to take 100 100% responsibility for my message to land correctly on the people I'm trying to talk to or give that message to. And I can't turn around and say well, they don't understand it because they're whatever, they're they're not as smart or they're not as sophisticated. No, I didn't communicate it in an effective way for them to understand it. It's my responsibility to do that. And when we do that, I think that we in have ourselves to look at it through the eyes of saying, Okay, how do I make sure that this is going to land for them? Now, frameworks is one of the biggest tools, but also metaphors analogies are huge in trying to bring those things home to because we're relating to something they already know. And when we start to understand those things, when we're delivering through a framework, you start to uplevel, your ability to communicate. And it's not, this is something that I get from people who say, Oh, you're just manipulating the mind, I said, No, I'm concentrating their focus. And when I can get them to focus, the idea with a jury was I needed them to buy in. And this is something to think about is that if they don't buy the initial premise of what you're going to say, they will not buy the promise of what you're going to sell. And so I need to know that they're with me every step of the way. And now I want to focus that jury, or I want to focus at that boardroom, or the banker, or whoever it is, I'm talking to, on the specific point they need right now, then I'll move on to the next point, then the next point, so say, connect the dots. So by the time we get to the end, the only logical conclusion is to rule in your favor to buy the course to, to hire you to do these things. But if we don't allow, if we don't control their focus, we can't make sure that the message lands.

Shana Bresnahan  16:36  
Yeah. And that's always the challenge for so many of us right is we have to get their attention, but we have to sustain their attention, get them to focus, and then ultimately, get them into momentum and taking action. And it's so good, because I recently interviewed my friend, Dr. Carrie rose, and she was talking deep about the psychology, of course, creation. And it was a lot of these concepts and recognizing, not only do we want to communicate effectively, but everybody learns differently, you know, we have people who are neurodivergent. In fact, those of you that serve entrepreneurs and business owners, many of them are dyslexic, and neurodivergent. And their brain works differently. And so when we communicate things in the way that we understand them, we're missing out on probably 70% of the people that we're educating. So I love how frameworks and like you said, metaphors and analogies and all of this come into play. And I think about my framework even and I'm going oh, man, I want to, I want to go deeper by creating some metaphors and analogies around that, that core framework, which you all hear me if you're listening to my podcast at all, you know, I have frameworks for a lot of things now. But it started with one, it started with this one framework. And I tell people all the time, this isn't something, the framework itself isn't something I invented. It's a truth that I am communicating. I know the four keys to a thriving community, from the dawn of time from the Civil Rights Movement and beyond, right, this isn't something I just whipped up one day, I am curating knowledge from the experience that I've had, and from the research that I've done and have put it into a translatable format. And now I tried to do that all the time. With my retention framework and my progress, we'll framework and it ends up becoming such an effective way to communicate a concept. And so can you help me selfishly understand, like, what, what makes a good framework? If somebody is listening to this right now? And they're like, I don't have a framework? I don't have a visual around that what I teach were, how would you get them started?

Mel Abraham  18:43  
So there's two things to think. And I'll walk off walk through the four pieces of a powerful framework and the second here, but I think the you hit on it that there's a lot of different learning styles out there. When I capture so I, when I'm speaking and I'm creating content, I actually catalog my content in a very, very specific way. I know what the point is I'm trying to make but then I catalog it in the sense of I define upfront, what my analogies are, are metaphors. I capture them on a document, I decide upfront, because that speaks to the visionary, the the emotional, visionary, abstract thinker, I capture the stories that will bring the point home, that speaks to the more detailed emotional person. So it's, it's really the right brain that we're speaking to, I capture the stats or the steps that they need. That's the data want the people that are detail oriented and want the logic and then I capture the framework. And so what happens is I'm exercising the muscle of capturing and cataloging, cataloging the content that gives me the flexibility. Say I'm going to speak to a group of engineers, I know that I'm going to lean To the left side of their brain, you know, I'm gonna lean to the logic side, but I don't have to go research is already done. And, and I've done the work to allow me to speak to creators to speak to logic folks to, to speak big thinking, detail thinking all of that. And I think that we, we tend to not do the work to allow us to set things up that there have been times and I'm betting that you've watched someone on stage, they do a presentation, it could be 30 minutes could be 45 minutes could be an hour. And you look at them, and you go, whew, that just dented the surface, there is much more. And the reason there's much more to them is because they did the deeper work to know, when we take your framework, you've got years and years of knowledge that go along with that framework that you might present and a half an hour, but the people are in are sitting there realizing, oh my god, there is so many more layers to her and to what she knows. And so that's the first thing to realize that it's not just something that we slap together. And I'm going to throw this out at the beginning, cute, doesn't sell I want effective. Okay, so I know that we want to keep it in brand colors, but you know what, red, yellow, and green have an impact psychologically on us. And if we understand the psychology behind it, we we will depart when it's necessary from our brand colors and, and trying to make things cute. So there's four things that you want our framework, the first is the formation, that is a combination of circles, triangles, and squares, good. Those are the only three shapes that are out there in the world, if you want an oval, squash the circle, if you want a rectangle, squash the square, you know, but those are the only three things. But if you think about it, the question is, what does the what is the impact on the mind the psyche, of a specific shape. If I think about a square, it typically is boundaries, its structure. If I think about circle, it's a lot of it's a lot of inclusiveness. And so there is this underlying psychology behind the shape, a triangle can sense growth or direction or movement. So we need to understand what shapes are going to tie to the point we want to make the formation. The second piece is that we want to look at the information that we want to put in place, okay, and the information is the stuff they need to know. And here's the challenge that a lot of us will do is that we know a lot of stuff. The first time I did a live event was in 2012. And I had 30 people in the room and I gave them three days of entrepreneurship and all kinds of stuff, it was a ton of good information. And it was totally useless. Because I dumped everything on them, we need to think about I tell people to use the three hour rule, we're gonna go to a gourmet coffee shop like Starbucks, and we're going to sit there for three hours, I'm going to have the time for you with you for three hours, what are the points, the three to five things, I need to know, if I'm never going to see you again. That's it, stop there. Because the reason we stop there is our job is to get them a micro success. So they they have the belief in themselves to take the next step not to get them all the way there because it's too overwhelming. So we need to set them up for success. So what's the information that needs to get them from point A to point B, not all the way to Z? This is where a lot of people stop. The other two elements of this is where it starts to come to life. This the third element is emotion. What emotion do I want to instill in the framework in the delivery of the family? Is it angst is a desire? Is it is it you know, frustration. There are all those emotions that we can put into it as a possibility is an aspiration, how we build the framework has to have an emotional compelling element to it. And so we decide upfront because that's what attaches us to the heart. What's the emotion I'm trying to create, with this image or this diagram that I'm going to create? And then the fourth framework is the is the is the thing that brings it to life. And that's orchestration. So we have we have, you know, formation, we've got information, we've got emotion and we have orchestration. You never ever turn around and take your framework and slap it up on a slide or slap it up on the on the board because remember, as I said, our job is to control their focus. Not and so what happens if I take a framework that has say eight or 10 items on it? When I'm speaking of item one, they might be looking at item for God I wonder what he means by that and now I've lost their focus. So All the magic is in the orchestration and the reveal. And you think about the reveal of the letters in, you know with with Vanna White and all that stuff. And so what we typically do is we build the frameworks for them step by step, and make sure that they're with us every step of the way, and make sure that they're in the right emotional state every step of the way. So when it is complete, they go, Oh, I get it. I got it. I need it. That's the key. Now. If you go back, and you watch or listen to this, I just did exactly what I told you, verbally.

Shana Bresnahan  25:41  
So good. I'm sitting here going, okay. Intuitively, my community framework is circles. My retention accelerator framework is a triangle. And it's all lining up. I mean, I didn't have I didn't sit and plan it from a psychology perspective. But even just going back in my brain, I'm going okay, how do I apply this to my frameworks that are already exist in and going, oh, yeah, I get it. And I did have a feeling about circles. And I had a feeling about triangles. And that's what led me to choose those shapes for those different frameworks that really call people to a different sort of feeling. And I love that you really tie in the emotion and the orchestration piece. Because I, I have seen frameworks presented in a way that defeat the purpose of the framework, because it's overwhelming. They just like, they just put it all on there. And I'm also pretty sure that the information part was just like, here's everything I've ever learned in my entire life. And let me put it into a framework because someone said I need a framework. But what I hear you saying is that that's not the point of this, the point of this isn't distill your life's work into one graphic that has like 50,000 layers and takes two hours to teach. It's about taking one core concept, and a few key pieces of information and displaying them in a visual way. That's not just oh, here's a visual that fits the shape and size of what I'm trying to do and has enough spots, but actually keeps in mind that motions we tie to those different shapes, but then creating it is just the start, right? Yeah, yeah. Oh, man. Okay, so can you can you give us I mean, I know you just walked through this. But for example, like your, your fluent entrepreneur framework, maybe that's one to share. But I want to give people more examples of this. They've heard me talk about my community framework, cause culture, communication, and connection and how those four things work together to create a thriving community. But I want to give them another example as well, if you don't mind sharing one, so that they can start to just see how this comes together. Because I will say this, when I first asked about frameworks on that Facebook post that you got tagged in, people were saying, I have a template for this. And they were sharing like google doc templates. So like, Oh, I'm really good at creating these. And I'm like, okay, clearly, we're not, you know, we're not on the same page about what a framework means. And so I really want to drive home for people how this, what it is how it applies, give them another example. And then let's talk about like, how to leverage them, how to leverage them to get more sales, how to leverage them to keep people in your programs and help them get more results.

Mel Abraham  28:32  
So so let me walk through, I'll walk through the beginnings of my athletes blue blueprint framework, and I'll do a portion of this that I typically do in my keynotes. So I don't I don't unpack the whole thing. Because there's another part of this. When there's open space, the mind wants to fill it. That means I keep a connection, and they know there's a gap and they go, oh, I need the answer. I need the answer. I need the answer. So, here's how this goes. This is about me trying to help people become what I call an athlete. And so I'm going to do it as if I was presenting it. So you'll start to see it, and then I'll unpack it. If that works. Okay,

Shana Bresnahan  29:12  
that'd be wonderful, perfect. And I'm selfishly taking this in, I have three speaking engagements over the next three weeks, where I present my framework, and I'm already going, Oh, we're gonna go back and work on that. So I'm looking forward to it myself.

Mel Abraham  29:27  
So here's the thing that I've been obsessed with for most people is I want you to become an absolute entrepreneur. And what that means to me is that I what I found in the years that I've worked with entrepreneurs, in their money to try and make that happen is there's three critical outcomes that we need. And the first critical outcome is that they end up with a richer lifestyle. And now this isn't about the money in the bank. Richer lifestyle is about the feelings you have the experience and how you're experiencing life and we know a lot of people that that probably have made a lot of money, but they're miserable, their house sucks, the relationships suck. And that isn't richness. richness is the experience and the joy that you that you have love now could be a 10 to Montana, a yacht in Monaco. No judgement here, but I'll take the yacht and Monaco. But the question is, what's your rich ritualized style? The second critical outcome is that you have a deeper impact know, as entrepreneurs, we know that we're impacting our customers, our clients, the people we serve. But there's two other impacts that we fail to really deliberately think about. And the second impact is to the right and left, it's the people we love. It's the people that share life with us. And we got to ask ourselves deliberately, how are we showing up in that space, to make that impact, as well as the impact and for us, and then the third impact that we we typically leave off the table is the one in the mirror, who do we become in the process of becoming an athlete much better, and when we know that we can impact and become the kind of person we want to be, and that we're impacting the people we love, and the people we serve, that's the kind of impact we're looking for. And then the third critical outcome for an affluent entrepreneur is that they have complete freedom. Now, I have a lot of people that say, I just want financial freedom. Well, that's the most rudimentary freedom, because it really isn't the money we want. It's the things that money can give us. And so there's two other freedoms that I think we actually are looking for. And the second freedom is time freedom, the freedom to decide what we're going to do with our time, I actually think our wealth should be measured in time, and not money. If I asked you today, how much of the moments of your life do you control that would tell me how rich your life is. And the third freedom is mind freedom. It's about having the freedom and the peace of mind to know that the people the causes, the missions, the movements that you care about, are taken care of long after you're gone. And so that's the three critical outcomes of an affluent entrepreneur. Now you sit back and go, great, Mel, what do I need, you need three systems in place, the first system is you need a system to generate leads to generate income, this is where you scale and optimize your profits. This is how you go from a from a drip of cash flow to a flood of cash flow. This is how you make the money. And most entrepreneurs are really, really good at that they make the money of that they don't do is they they end up spending the money so they don't do the second thing. The second system you need is a system to accumulate the money, how do we take the income and convert it to assets because that's where we multiply the money. It's where we become create a money machine that gives us the support, we need to do the things we want to have the time we want because it's not tied to just making money, we create a way to multiply the money we make. And then the third, the third system you need, which unfortunately we need in our society, is we need a system to insulate how do we go from exposed to protected? How do we shield what we make, and our ability to make it so our causes our missions, our movements, our family, our loved ones, and our future are taken care of. So that's, that was the big the basics of

Shana Bresnahan  33:25  
it. Oh, it's so good. Because, I mean, if you're listening to this, you can see him doing this from a stage. And you can see you doing this on a webinar, or as an intro an onboarding videos inside of a course or a program. And I know I'm sitting here going this is the missing key for so many entrepreneurs like it is the missing key of having this one or two, these core frameworks that you know, if somebody calls on you, at any moment, at any time, any day that you can communicate effectively, what it is that you do and what it is that you make possible. And I hope everyone heard that is that it wasn't just like, here's my framework is the how to of accomplishing XYZ result. Right? It was based on the outcomes as well that people are desiring and then you kind of got to Okay, look, and here's like the three things that you need to get in place. But it wasn't I think we're so quick to get into the how, and the details of it all that we think my framework needs to be a step by step plan. But for you, it's like really designing this life of an affluent entrepreneur. And what is so cool about what you just communicated, is that they know though that is their desire, but they can't even communicate it themselves. And so what you've just done is taken what is in their own head and communicated it back to them better than they could have ever communicated it to themselves. Yeah,

Mel Abraham  35:02  
so, so here's how this played out just so you see, because you, you nailed the you nailed it on the head. I started with the why I started with the emotions. So the center section the critical outcomes was all about the emotions, it was all about their why he was attaching to it, it was it was getting them because Bernice McCarthy talked about this format system, then in accelerated learning, where we lose the people, the why people first. So we want to start with why go to what go to how and then go to if. So all I did was deliver the why, and the what. And I went from a motion and abstract to a little more concrete, and a little more logic. And then if I were to continue, I would then go to the how, and I would be detail. And steps. Yeah, and so but I needed I need buy in, if I don't get capture them on the richer lifestyle. I won't have them the rest of the way.

Shana Bresnahan  36:07  
Yeah, so they're bought into that vision that why, and then you take them into more of the what and the how, I would imagine, depending on the amount of time that you have, you might even just go into detail on what you might. And then and you're leaving some some mystery, if you will, you know, it's I have a PDF document that I use it as essentially, a whole bunch of blank frameworks of mine. And I teach from that. And I might only get to one or two of them. And then there's a whole bunch of other blank frameworks on their PDF. And that that tension between like what they see, they don't know. And what I haven't shared, it's so so fascinating. But it leaves them knowing there's so much more to this. And that's part of it right and less. So we're talking about now like, yeah, like how do we? How do we leverage these frameworks, right, and it clearly speaking, clearly, you know, communicating our message to a larger audience, but the conversion side, the conversion piece of it is that is a big part of that leaving a little bit of that gap of that unknown that tension of I see the framework, I see the vision, but I don't have the full picture. There's so

Mel Abraham  37:25  
part of it is that is, is is them seeing that there's there's a gap. So when we present something, the other way to present something is to highlight their current reality, compared to where they want to go. And so now, they see that gap. You by proximity, say in this is what the mind says, if they understand where I'm at. And they really understand where I'm going. And they know those two points, I bet they know how to get there. And so then it's about our credibility, trust, and then seeing a process that can get them there. And so even if I gave you the how it becomes a checklist of what you need to do, but there's action steps that you probably couldn't do on your own, you could figure it out, but I can get you there faster, easier, and more directly. And so, so that's part of part of it. The other side of it is every step of the way, if I can, I will have them self assess. It's far more power, powerful for me to say on a scale of one to five, you know, or one to 10. Where are you on this? Because, and I may not reveal exactly why I'm asking it until later. Because I want their feet in concrete. Once they, once they self assess, they have a hard time arguing themselves. But if I turned around and said to someone, well, you know what, I think you're about six on this, they're gonna push back. So I want to put it in their lap. So every step of the way, like I could have asked. So if we talk about the accumulate pillar of the affluent off birth, and it looks like this, do you have a critical mass of acids, say half a million dollars or above, you know, if you're on the road to doing that, you know, then maybe you put yourself at a three to maybe a six, if you haven't already, and half a million is just an arbitrary number, then maybe you're in a seven or eight. If you hadn't thought about and you think it's down the road, you're probably a one or two. So just on your own, no judgment, just write that number down now and write it now come back to it later in a presentation or in the sales conversation and do it in a way where I go, you remember those numbers? Let's just look at those numbers real quickly. Because then what happens is that, let's say they have five factors, and all of them are six and below, I simply have to say, my job with what I do is to turn all of those into nines and 10s. For you. That's it, I'm done. But I let them self assess.

Shana Bresnahan  40:28  
And the thing I like about this is you're talking about it from a sales perspective. But this applies as well inside of our programs, because I know I use this, I have them assess on a scale of one to four on each of the pillars. But we talk all the time about getting their buy in before you ever pitch and then that buy in should carry into their program carry into your program or in your onboarding, you're re emphasizing that big vision of what you want them to do. But you need a way for them to measure their progress. Yes, because all the time like people say, Oh, well, this is what you know, keeps people at the end of the day, if people are making progress, they aren't going to leave. But they have to not just be making progress, they have to be able to see the progress they're making. And so being able to assess that through this framework is so valuable. This is

Mel Abraham  41:15  
this is huge. So for those that are watching a video, you can see certificates behind me. So I lived in Japan and been in martial arts for 40 plus year. And those are my handpainted certificates from my sensei in Japan, but in Japan, you only had one color belt, white. By the time you got proficient at the techniques, your white belt was so dark, so dirty, it turned black. When we brought the martial arts, back to the stage to Western civilization, the idea of needing to see where we are created the belt system. And what it does is exactly what you're saying is that, yes, it tells us where you're at in the journey. And more importantly, it tells you how far you've come. And if we don't remind ourselves how far we've come, we tend to discount all our progress. And go, Liz, Oregon.

Shana Bresnahan  42:21  
Yeah, yeah. And it. It's so important, because I think we've talked about how a framework applies in so many areas of the business, we've talked about how it just helps you communicate more effectively with people when you're trying to teach and educate. We've talked about how it can help you sell, or speak on stage and really cast that vision. We're talking now about how it helps measure progress for people inside of your programs. And so if you're not believer now, in frameworks, I don't think we can help you. Well, I think I think we're just there beyond health at this point. But I would assume now people are they get it, I hope they get it. And I hope those of us if you're like me, and you have frameworks, you're reevaluating the ones that you have, because I know for me, I'm like, Oh, I this is what I kind of did on my own, and I've gotten this far. But now I actually have a deeper understanding of how to craft them better, set them up better, like you said, orchestrate it better, how to leverage it in all different aspects of the business. And so I want to do the work to improve my frameworks. So I know you have a program, right, that walks people through framework development or training, tell me a little bit more about so

Mel Abraham  43:41  
I have, I have a larger program called Thoughtpreneur Academy that I walked through all the cataloguing and all that thought process and everything, but also have a tool that for those that want to just dig a little bit deeper into frameworks itself. That's called the framework formula that we can get the I'll get the link to you, I don't have it up top my head, but get the link to you that will allow them to go and grab the second 20 minute training and a worksheet for free to go a little bit deeper to start investigating where they want to go. Because this using a framework also becomes your, your calling card of your brand. If you think about Stephen Covey, he made a whole living on four boxes. And when you think about urgent versus important, here's the interesting thing because I hear a lot of people say well, someone's gonna steal my stuff. Well, if it's good stuff, it's probably gonna get stolen. You're okay. Yeah. And the best way to protect it is to be so prolific with it, that you cannot be separated from it. The framework that Stephen Covey used urgent versus important was not his. It was developed by Eisenhower

Shana Bresnahan  44:57  
Eisenhower, the Eisenhower matrix Right. But he became

Mel Abraham  45:01  
so prolific at IT people associated with him. And so if we're worried about people taking our stuff, just put it all over the internet, put it out there so much with your face and everything attached to it, that when someone sees it, they go, that's smells.

Shana Bresnahan  45:19  
Yeah. And the other thing, I'll say, that's really great about that as well, is that when when people come into your online programs, when people join your membership, or buy your course, ideally, they all come with a baseline of learning a baseline of knowledge. And so when everybody's entering through this same gateway, if you will, of having that understanding of your core framework, as it relates to that program, you have set yourself up for so much success with that cohort of people or those members, because they're all coming in having already bought into a really core concept of what you teach. So if anything, you know that that is something that I really encourage. And you know, Stu McLaren has said, I can't remember who he got it from. But he said, You don't have to create a new talk all the time, you just need to get a new audience. And that's something that has really stuck with me, for me to go. It's always the framework, it is always the framework. So when I speak over the next three weeks, it's the framework every single time.

Mel Abraham  46:23  
Exactly. And here's the other it's the if you want to take it a step even further. And I don't know if you have this, but say you wanted to certify people in your process. The framework is an absolute must. Because now I have the a process that I can uplevel and train the trainer's and now instead of me having to do all the work, I've got this leveraging of my intellectual property beyond me, with a quality control of delivery, and a revenue stream.

Shana Bresnahan  46:54  
Yeah, you know, I, people are pushing me all the time to certify community managers. And I have not stepped into that because I don't feel like I really fleshed out the frameworks enough to have that I have a ton of IP, but to be able to translate that IP and have the quality control around it takes a whole nother level of care which there's tons of people out there with frameworks or with certifications, if you will, that have just thrown things together. So not all certifications are created equal. I will just say that. But I'm like, yeah, if I if I ever get to the place where I'm going to create a Community Manager Certification, I'm going to come to you for smell. So you can help me make sure that all of my frameworks in my IP are good and solid and ready to be translated.

Mel Abraham  47:41  
So good. So that I would love to help.

Shana Bresnahan  47:43  
Yeah, okay. Well, this has been so fun. All right, how else can people stay in touch with you? Because I know obviously, in the description, we're going to have the link to that training that you can get on frameworks. But that is just scratching the surface of who Mel is and what he teaches. And I will just say, because so many of you listening are business owners. I thought all listen to a podcast episode while I was getting ready this morning and three podcast episodes later, I'm in the car with my husband going, I think we need to rethink our financial strategy. And we have one rental property, but we need to be you know, setting aside money for them. So there's so much wealth in being in Mel's world. So what's the best way for them to just continue to soak up everything you have?

Mel Abraham  48:27  
Probably. So there's a couple of things. One, my website Mel abraham.com, I'm on Instagram, Mel Abraham nine, I had no idea who the first eight are. And I love hearing from people. And I love hearing questions. So I put it together a separate site called Ask Mel now.com where you can leave a question. Record a question. And I can bring it on my show the affluent entrepreneurs show to make sure that we respond especially to the money in the financial questions because I want people to feel safe. Yeah, and

Shana Bresnahan  48:59  
and that's needed so much right now. And that's one of the things that really stood out to me. We're kind of sidebar in just a bit as we wrap up. But depending on when you're listening to this, we're headed into this time when we we say we're not in a recession. But you know, all the signs are saying we're in a recession, there's this there's a whole economic turmoil that is going on right now with banks. And there's a lot of fear and uncertainty, especially with those of us that don't have what what many people consider as job security of a traditional job, although I would, I would buck up against that statement. But all that to say, you really as a business owner, you need to have a plan. And for me to be somebody I'm the sole provider in my family. There's a lot of wait for me to have a plan of what to do in times of economic uncertainty and to make sure that I have built stability into what we're creating as a family. And you talk about that very thing. Yeah. So I'm I'm grateful for that because it's an important conversation right now. And I'm also grateful that you have the CPA background so that you're coming in with an an additional level of knowledge that a lot of people don't have a lot of people in the finances and wealth space, they speak just from their own personal experience. And you speak from education, personal experience, but also consulting in helping hundreds of people with their own wealth and how to do exactly what you laid out in that framework for us earlier. So connect with Mel that's all I gotta say. Thank you so much for being a part and hanging out and I look forward to chatting with you next time you're in Nashville. We're gonna have to meet up for sure. 

Mel Abraham  50:45  
Without a
doubt without a doubt, this has been so much fun and i i It's a blessing for me to be able to serve and be part of it. I appreciate you asking me. Of course. Thank you for listening to the affluent entrepreneur show with me your host Mel Abraham. If you want to achieve financial liberation to create an affluent lifestyle, join me in the affluent entrepreneur Facebook group now by going to melabraham.com/group and I'll see you there.