Only listen to these people (ignore the others)

In today’s new video, I would like to inspire you to think deeper about who you should and shouldn’t take business advice from.

The other night at dinner, my son was updating us on his new business. 

(He’s very keen on having his own business since attending the Mindset Retreat, I think from seeing the kind of freedom, impact and money that entrepreneurship can bring by watching mom and dad. ;))

He’s started a new business creating background music for rappers and artists. He hasn’t sold anything yet, but I know that he will and we were talking about how much he should charge for his very first song.

He proposed a dollar amount that I thought was very, very, very low. Here’s what I said to him (this advice also applies to you):

“You know, I think even for your first time around you can charge a little bit more than that. You can probably charge two to 10 times more as a starting price.” 

And he said, “Yeah, but my friends think I should start at that price.” 

I responded, “You know, it’s really interesting that sometimes we make decisions based on who we listen to.” 

I reminded him that I’m a pretty in-demand business coach and I’m right within an arm’s reach of him. (He laughed and agreed.) I’ve been coaching for 20 years, have worked with tens of thousands of self-employed people to make them money, and he gets my coaching for free.

And he said, “You know, I’m just going to do what me and my friends think.” 

Fair enough. 

But it made me think about the countless self-employed women who ask their friends, ask their mother and other non-business owners what they should do in their business…

…and I have a very strong opinion about who you should listen to in terms of business advice. 

There are really only two people that I can think of that you should listen to:

1. People who are way ahead of you.These are people who have a lot of experience in business, who make a lot more money than you do, they’ve been in business for a long time and are very successful at it. (Ideally somebody who’s doing what you want to do but is just further up the ladder.) 

This is someone who truly understands the game. 

They’ve been there, they’re in the trenches with you and maybe they’re further along than you are. 

That’s a great person to listen to because they’ve done it before, they can tell you what’s around the corner, they can tell you what to avoid, they can give you their hacks and best practices. 

2. The check-writers.

These are people who are already paying you or people who have bought from you before. The best ones to listen to are those people who have paid you repeatedly, who come back to you again and again and again, they are people that you want to ask advice from. 

Their advice is valuable because you don’t have to guess whether they’d want something or not. If they keep buying from you, they’ll probably want the next thing that you offer. So they’re a great person to listen to. 

Just my two cents…

So start seeking advice from check-writers and people who have a lot more experience than you, okay? They’re the ones to listen to.