The 6 Pillars Of A Happy And Successful Top Earner
An Overview.
I’m going to give you an overview of the six pillars. I do believe that you’re going to get some value, but we did a full deep dive in our Time Money Freedom Immersive Workshop. You can grab the recordings here, Higdongroup.com/tmfworkshop, but let’s jump in and talk about “what” are the six pillars.
Here we go! First I’ll just kind of share with you the six pillars. Now those of you who’ve been through my Time Money Freedom Blueprint you may know the six pillars, but what’s interesting is I didn’t come up with these six pillar after being a number one income earner, I didn’t come up with these six pillars after helping our rank makers bring over 300,000 new customers 71,000 new reps and Achieve over 14,000 rank advances, I didn’t come up with these six pillars after working with over five, six and seven figure earners….I came up with these six pillars after all of that stuff but also understanding what can actually fulfill you, Christ. My walk with Christ.
The workshop was very faith-based and I taught some scripture that has been revealed to me. I’m just so grateful for being led and I’m just so honored to be a child of God and to be obedient.
Let’s jump in the six pillars.
These aren’t in order and some of them are very common sense sales.
Number One, Sales:Â What to say, how to overcome objections, what is the psychology behind sales.
Number Two, Marketing:Â how do you attract other people to you, how do you generate leads, how do you handle leads that are coming to you, what works on social media right now, what should you be doing on a daily basis, what does a good daily routine look like…
Number Three, Work/Life Balance: because if you don’t include this you will be out of balance and it’s going to sabotage all the other pillars. If you don’t have that pillar you can build up all these other things and eventually be at top (and I’ve seen this happen) where either mom guilt kicks in or your kid says something to you like “wish you could make it to a practice” and you’re like “ahh ugg” right? – I mean just a dagger in the heart, right? Or they’ll say something like, “well you don’t love me” and you’ll say, “what do you mean?” and they’ll say, “because you work all the time.” Let’s avoid that…let’s not have to deal with that… let’s not have that one topple all the work that we’ve done. You can do that with conversation, you can do that with time buckets and time management. You can also get some prayers around that too because it does take prayers.
Number Four, Mindset. Which is the pillar we started with during our Time Money Freedom Workshop.Â
Number Five, Leadership: onboarding, culture, what is that? What does that look like? For example I just did a reaction video for James Clear. Now I met James Clear (the author of atomic habits) . I met him in a John Maxwell event, great dude and super smart. Have you read Atomic Habits? Atomic Habits is a very smartly written book, a New York Times bestseller, but I just saw a clip and did a reaction video to it and in it he talks about how one of his clients lost 100 pounds. It started with less than five minutes a day. Does that sound interesting? He recommends that if you’re going to start a new habit to start it at an infant level. So one of his clients used that concept and they forced themselves to go to the gym every day but they could not stay for more than five minutes. They had to show up but they couldn’t stay for more than five minutes so they would go and they would do an exercise they would do two sets and then “ding” time to go. Now most gurus they would say….man you have to go all in! Right? They would say, “that’ll never work man.” Just building that muscle. I say it a little differently than James but just building that muscle of showing up even if it’s not some monumental effort over a period of a year he lost a hundred pounds. Why? because once he started showing up he kept to that rule of no longer than five minutes then all of a sudden he wanted to stay a little bit longer...”okay I’ll stay a little bit longer” but the only Force he was doing was showing up less than five minutes.
Most leaders and companies when they run a contest…. they have first, second, third or top ten. The problem with first, second, third or even top 10 is that most people if you have a large organization (more than 50…more than 30), the majority of them don’t even think they can be in the top 10…certainly not the top three. So when you announce a contest and say, “hey top three get this or top 10 get this…” the majority of your team says “why bother, I can’t make it happen…I’m not going to be at the top.” You could actually have someone that was planning on working see the contest and decide not to work. So the key is to get people to show up. Get people to show up because most people are playing to prove they lose, they’re not playing to win they’re playing to prove that this also isn’t going to work.
On page 91 and 92 of my leadership book (you can get it here), I tell you the most effective way to run a contest, but the gist is to get a lot of people doing a little. It’s okay to have a top three, it’s okay to have a top 10, but don’t just have that…have a “do this” to “get that.” Bring in one customer – you’re on a special training or you’re on a special Q&A with the CEO or CFO or whatever. Have an extremely low barrier. You go to the gym for five minutes – you drink a gallon of water… right? Start thinking when you’re working with a group of people that have varying levels of desire, not all of them are psychopath goal oriented maniacs. Right? Not all of them are foaming at the mouth – run through brick walls – I want to make 100 G’s a month kind of people. You would like them to be, but they’re not, but guess what? If you give them a taste of progress, of hope, of results, they get a taste and they like it. So they start going to the gym five minutes…all of a sudden they’re like “you know what? Maybe I’ll stay a little bit longer. I’m kind of craving doing that thing. I’m going to do three exercises.” Getting people to show is such a big deal.
Again these are not in order but pillar six….
Number Six, Wealth. if you have issues around wealth you’re going to constantly sabotage. You’ll never become what you despise. The biggest issue is in so many circles you can’t even say the word wealth without someone saying “Prosperity Gospel” well it’s not the “poverty gospel” it’s the gospel. The gospel doesn’t say anywhere “thou must remaineth poor…. there is virtue in remaining poor.” It says “don’t put anything above your God.” God should be your source, not how much money is in your bank account. Don’t rely on uncertain riches but be rich in good deeds. How does one become rich in good deeds? Go make some money.
Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “I give you the power to get wealth”
Ecclesiastes 9:16 says, “the poor man’s wisdom is despised, his words are not heard.”
Luke 16 says, “use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when you move into Eternal dwellings you will be welcomed.”
That’s very clear, right?
2 Corinthians 9 (I think 2 through 6) talks about how we want to be generous so that people see more glory to God. We are to be more generous. Well how do you be more generous? You can be more generous by making more money. As your soul prospers may you prosper. So it’s okay to have money, just don’t have money, have you. Here’s the deal. I know when I have been broke (a couple times in my life I’ve been broke) I thought about money a whole lot more than when I wasn’t. It’s what’s in your heart. What do you do? What is controlling your emotions? Your intentions and your thoughts? If that’s around money whether you have it or not that’s the idol you’re worshiping. So don’t worship it. Don’t let money have you, don’t make money your source. Here’s what I’ve noticed, I’ve hung out with people that have net worth of 20 million, 100 million…I mean I’ve hung out with people that literally are billionaires, I won’t say this of the billionaires because I don’t think I’ve heard them say this but I’ve hung out with many people that range from 20 to 100 million net worth guess what they talk about all the time? Other people. People that make more money than them…that’s what most of them talk about. So don’t make money your source.
There’s a powerful verse, 2 Corinthians 10:12,“we do not dare to classify or compare or listen to this man we do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves they are not wise.”
Paul doesn’t play…Paul chose violence.
God is meant to be our source. God is meant to be where we get our significance, our status, our refuge, our protector, our provider, our safety, our security, we’re to find that in God. Not in what’s in the bank account today.
I can speak from experience because for most of my life if I didn’t have money I was sad, I was bummed out, depressed, my self-worth was similar to my net worth. Right? So I felt worthless, felt like a loser. Then if I had a whole bunch of money I just needed more.
I revealed how to actually think about Time Money Freedom in our workshop and I assure you it’s not what you think. I have good news for you…for most of my life I was self-development, personal development, if it’s going to be it’s up to me. Let me tell you…there’s an easier way. You want to hear something that’ll blow your mind? I haven’t stopped thinking about this verse and that’s 2 Corinthians 12:9, Jesus says to Paul, “my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Whoa!
Stop relying on “if it’s going to be it’s up to me.” The power is made perfect in weakness of you.
I just saw a Denzel speech at a college University and he said “everything you think I have” and “everything I actually have is from God.” Gave him all the credit. So powerful.
Jesus says, “pick up my yoke it’s easy…” right? What’s a yoke? When they have two oxen or two cattle or two horses or whatever, it makes it easier if one stumbles and the other one picks them up, helps them out. You have one leg in a hole… your partner picks it up.
That’s what it’s like when you’re relying not on your own power and that to me is the number one issue in the self-development industry. You are making yourself your own savior. It’s all up to you.
This is an interesting scenario because here I sell courses and I sell coaching and I sell you these different things but I’m telling you to learn these things, right? Did the Apostle Paul teach people things? He taught people things. He was a Tentmaker but he also taught people things. right? Taught them how to stop acting the fool and relying on the law and all those different things. I’m just telling you don’t don’t try to go out this alone….it’s much harder than it has to be when everything’s on your shoulders. God doesn’t want you independent God Wants You dependent God wants you to lean on him to lean not on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5-6, “but to trust in him to cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.”
So leaning on Him doesn’t mean that I don’t learn proper business strategies or marketing strategies or things of that nature, it’s just don’t draw the conclusion that it’s because of my skill set that I learned and that’s why I got all these different results. It reminds me, if you look at someone who was a friend of God, Abraham. One of my favorite stories and it always comes up for me because it stands out as kind of strange and bewildering and amazing. These five different Kings band together; they’re just causing shenanigans and tomfoolery and they kidnap Abraham’s nephew Lot. So Abraham rounds up the troops….what troops? you know the chef, the baker, the Candlestick maker…. the shepherd… right? They have their pitchforks and maybe a wooden spoon and a couple rocks maybe and they go and conquer these five kingdoms, his merry band of servants. Abraham gets these whip snappers and he just opens a can of whiptail on five kingdoms and he takes all of their people and all of their riches. So just imagine five cities around you…. so let’s say I go and I take the riches of Naples Florida, of Marco Island, of Estero, of Bonita Beach, and of Fort Myers. I get all these riches. Then the five Kings come to Abraham and they beg, they plead, they said, “please just just give us our people back, we don’t want…” (they’re terrified apparently) and Abraham says, “take your riches I don’t want you to think that you’re the source of my wealth, God’s the source of my wealth.” Think about that? Wild. It’s just wild. I don’t want you to think that you’re the source of my wealth. He’s the source of my wealth. It’s just amazing.
Speaking of Abraham, Abraham goes to Lot and they had grown so abundantly (oh no Prosperity Gospel look out…) their houses had grown so abundantly that they could no longer occupy the same piece of land and so Abraham goes to Lot and says, “hey bro you need to pick a place…you want to go left or right….you want to go this way or that way? You pick and I’ll go the opposite way.” So Lot looks and he sees this green lush area. Maybe there’s waterfalls and deer prancing around and it’s just beautiful. Then he looks over at Canaan and it’s kind of a desert and not nearly as cool right? It’s like you want desert or lush green forest? So Lot walked by sight not faith. See Abraham didn’t. It didn’t matter to him where. Wherever he went he knew the presence of God would go with him so Lot chose the obvious answer if you live by sight. Looks pretty good over here, goes there which ends up being in the areas of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham goes because by faith he knew wherever he went….
Exodus 33Â God says to Moses after being fed up, “man you guys and your golden calves and your constant bickering and your constant lack of belief and he just like you know what Moses just take your people….just take them into the land of milk and honey. I’ll send Angels, we’ll wipe out all the armies, don’t worry about it but just take your people. Just go get in the land of milk and honey but my presence….I’m not going to go with y’all. and Abraham says
Now keep in mind they’re in the desert. They’ve been there for many years, people are bickering, people are upset, they’re mad at the leadership…Moses, not being a people pleaser…that’s in direct opposition to God. In fact those who struggle with people pleasing the Bible does not record that Jesus reacted to any of the men who left Him, His only delight was to do the will of the Father. In doing so He would benefit the greatest number of people. So God says to Moses he says “hey you know what y’all just y’all are too much just go ahead just go in the land of milk and honey but I’m not going to go with you. Despite being in the desert, despite people being angry, despite people being very frustrated, Moses says “if your presence won’t go with us please don’t send us away.” See that’s the fear of the Lord. That is, I am terrified of being away from you. I’m terrified of leaning on my own efforts, I don’t want to do that, please don’t send me away. So powerful!
Recap!
Okay there’s six pillars. We will go backwards now, pillar number six wealth and understanding wealth. If you have a propensity to think that there’s virtue in poverty (which is not biblical) now don’t get me wrong that doesn’t mean I think everyone should be super wealthy or everyone’s called to be wealthy, it’s okay to have money just don’t have money have you. There are people with no money that have them, money is their Idol…it’s what they think about all the time. It’s what they think about when they wake up. It’s what they think about when they comment on Facebook. It’s constantly what occupies their mind, yet they don’t have any. The key is don’t let money have you, don’t let money be your source, your security, your safety, significance, status, none of that stuff. God’s supposed to be our source for all of those things. See if you think there’s virtue in poverty and you puff your chest up and you boast about how anyone with money is evil, greedy, whatever then you will stay broke. You are Ecclesiastes 9:16 “the poor man’s wisdom is despised no one hears his words.” Your influence will be small…that’s just the way it goes. If there was so much virtue in poverty then we would not be instructed to give to the poor because we would screw it up for them. If money was so terrible (and I heard this from my buddy Pastor Baker) “if money was so terrible just like horrible then wouldn’t the devil be rooting for all Christians to have a whole bunch of it because it would just ruin them?” It’s okay to have it, just don’t let it have you. Pillar number five leadership, number four mindset, number three work / life balance, number two marketing and number one sales.
Want to dive deeper?Â
If you want to dive really deep on all six pillars then check out the recordings of our workshop we did a couple of weeks ago. You can grab them here, higdongroup.com/workshop. We went for three days from 9:30 a.m. to 2 pm. I had my friend Rebecca on and our friends Nicole and Staci. They taught some really powerful stuff and I know it can really help you. If you want to check it out go to higdongroup.com/workshop. We went hard and had fun. It was really cool and can set you up for a great rest of 2023. There’s still time, don’t quit now. Don’t quit the year now! Let’s end 2023 strong so that we can really step it up in 2024.
Ray Higdon
Play Bigger. Make An Impact.
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