During the 2008 election, Senator Obama went to visit Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape, to discuss tech policy. Andreessen, never one to mince words, asked Obama, “How concerned should we be that you haven’t had meaningful experience as an executive — as a manager and leader of people?”

Obama’s reply?

“Watch how I run my campaign — you’ll see my leadership skills in action.”

That is a powerful response. And like him or not, his campaign was executed masterfully.

“Watch me and see.”

My goal is to give you the strategic and tactical advice to say that with confidence — and then back it up. Say it when you’re starting a new side business. Say it when you’re negotiating for a job. Say it when you’re trying to pick up a new hobby.

In fact, this is exactly what I said on the first day of this year. Whenever you try something different that challenges people, you’ll get trolls and whiners. So when I launched my 30-day course on hustling, the common criticisms were: This is the same old stuff, you’re only doing it to make money, this stuff doesn’t work, I don’t have time.

“Watch me and see,” I said.

30 days later, here are some of the incredible results that IWT readers have gotten:

$13,000 RAISE
“When the interview panel asked about my education experience, I handed each of them a copy, explaining that I wasn’t able to fit all my experience on the previous resume. They were definitely impressed by the preparation and foresight. I start next month earning $13,000 more a year! (Plus I used your techniques for not giving away my salary expectations.)” – Amy

NO MORE PROCRASTINATION + $2,500
“In the course of just a few weeks, I’ve essentially BEAT my procrastination habit, which was slowly killing my freelance writing career. I applied for and landed a new gig editing and writing for a well known personality’s website. I earned about $2500 more (AMAZING!) than I usually do simply by accepting more assignments with the confidence that I could complete them.” – Tanya

$10,000 PROMOTION
“In the last month I have successfully negotiated a promotion that includes a 6k raise, with an additional 1k each month for the next four months, and then a review to see if the 1k per month continues.” – Karen

TRIPLED PROFIT
“Prior to taking the hustle course, I sold my hand made gnomes for $40 each (in December I sold 13 X$40 for a total of $520). Using the info from the hustle course, I have sold 7 gnomes X $200 for a total of $1400–nearly 3 times the profit for half the price.” – Karen

Negotiated $1,500 in savings on a Ford F-350 Pickup
“I did successfully help a friend save more than $1,500. I started by just offering general money saving advice to a number of people, but that was not well received. A person who doesn’t even need the money–took my advice (and the free copy of IWTYTBR) and used it to negotiate an additional savings of about $1,500 on an Ford F-350 pickup.” – Wayne

You can see more results here, here, here, and here.

Now I want to show you what I was doing behind the scenes.

A 30-day hustling challenge: Why?

I started off with several bombastic promises for the course:

• You’ll get more done in 30 days than you accomplished in all of last year
• You’ll be able to save hundreds or even thousands of dollars
• You’ll be able to get disproportionate results, or extraordinary outcomes that are disproportionate with the amount of work you put in.

Here’s why:

Most people have become comfortable with mediocrity.

For many of us, the people around us rarely challenge us. For example, it’s almost taboo to call someone out for bullshitting their way through yet another excuse. Instead, we allow ourselves to use the same old tired cliches: “I don’t have enough time to do that,” “I could never get X results,” “I didn’t go to X university / I don’t have Y,000 blog readers / I don’t live in Z city.”

Interestingly, when I call out loser commenters on this site — respectfully but firmly — they love it. Few people around us have the honesty to tell us we’re simply making excuses for things we could do.

And so I wanted to show you that with a week’s work with the right guidance, you could accomplish more than in an entire year.

Guidance matters.

I got 2 months’ of results from 2 months of working out with a personal trainer. I learned more from a conversation with a master copywriter than from 4 months of reading books. And in this course, I showed you tested methods to change your behavior, including experts like BJ Fogg, Derek Sivers, and Tim Ferriss.  Telling yourself to “try harder” is not enough. Telling yourself you could get the information for free “if you really wanted” is delusional. Trusted guidance matters.

I’m well aware that the surrounding market is sleazy.

The name “I Will Teach You To Be Rich.” A course on earning more money. If you were to stumble on this site, what would you think first? Scam, of course.

I work in one of the most difficult markets of all: money. Where there’s lots of money to be made, there are scammers. There are schemes. And there are a few legitimate people who offer incredible value.

That’s why I have to prove that my material works — to separate myself. And proof doesn’t come from me saying it works, it comes from you actually getting results on your own.

Yes, there are other background factors that enhance credibility — like the fact that I have a book, or went to X college, or have 300,000+ readers/month — but there is nothing as persuasive as you getting results.

But if we’re speaking frankly, most of the material on earning money is pure sleaze. In fact, go search for [earn more money] to see what I mean. Compare any of that — free or paid — to the material you’ve read here.

My goal is make my free content more valuable than anything else out there. Which means that my premium content is of a quality level that most people have never seen before. Here’s what one of my readers sent me:

“I really like where you are heading. Your free material is better than what I paid for in college. You should have a “Ramit in lieu of college” course, because your info is much more applicable to the actual world.” – Wayne Patton

I hope I can continue to do that for you, because I know that in a world filled with “Top 10” lists and linkbait junk, true quality is rare — and when I spend time investing in you and you get results, you’ll keep coming back…and one day explore some of my premium offerings.

Skepticism is not a strategy.

I spoke to one of my top Earn1k students last week — she earned over $80,000 in 8 weeks — and she was talking about how much her entire viewpoint has changed. Once you realize that you can control your situation — how much you earn, how much you work, where you live, etc — it’s amazing to look back at ourselves a few years ago…when we were skeptical and disbelieving that any of this could work.

Skeptics always have an excuse because it’s easier to be skeptical than to take the risk of trying something and possibly failing. Skeptics use codewords — much like racists do — to mask their fear and loathing of something different. For example, they’ll say they don’t have enough time (when everyone has the same 24 hours per day). They’ll complain about having “already tried that,” but when you dig in and ask them what they actually tried, they’ll demur.

There’s nothing I hate more than vocal skeptics — not only because they cheat themselves out of their own potential, but because they convince others that they can’t do it, either.

As Seth Godin said,

“A check in your wallet does you very little good. It represents opportunity, sure, but not action.

Most of us are carrying around a check, an opportunity to make an impact, to do the work we’re capable of, to ship the art that would make a difference.

No, the world isn’t fair, and most people don’t get all the chances they deserve. There are barriers due to income, to race, to social standing and to education, and they are inexcusable and must fall. But the check remains, now more than ever. The opportunity to step up and to fail (and then to fail again, and to fail again) and to continue failing until we succeed is greater now than it has ever been.”

I write for the As, Bs, and Cs — but I systematically ignore one of them.

Imagine the world has As, Bs, and Cs in any field. In this one, the As are already managing their money, they’ve read my book (and others), and they’re earning as much as they need to lead the lifestyle they choose. They’re already doing it.

The Bs are the greatest in number. They have the potential to do something great, but for whatever reason — like actual barriers, self-imposed barriers, or external responsibilities — they  haven’t achieved what their potential first. They can be reached if you communicate to them in the right way.

The Cs are a lost cause. Sure, they might be salvageable to help, but that’s not something I’m interested in or capable of. This enrages certain people who believe that we should help everyone, but I live in the world of practicality, not utopia. If I have the chance to help an A become an A+ in 3 months, or a C become a B- in 3 years, who am I going to choose? There are other people who make it their life’s work to work with Cs, but it’s not me.

And so this is also applicable for you. When I teach negotiation, or interviewing, or automation, or even earning more money, I teach you how to focus on the right level of analysis for you. It’s ok not to please everyone. I’d rather spend my time hyper-focused on exactly your needs than try to serve everyone.

I’m separating out the people for the next step.

The first step was hustling. We covered how to use automated scripts to live anywhere, quit your job, or get promoted.

Then we covered the psychological techniques from the worlds of social influence and persuasion to dominate your goals.

Next, I showed you how to negotiate better than 99% of people to get higher hourly rates, meetings with top executives, and how to convince people to pay you for your valuable services.

And finally, I showed you the fundamental differences between people who win and people who dream, and the characteristics of both.

Now I’m turning the entire hustling series on its head to show you how to take your new skills…and get paid for them.

For the last 30 days, every post on this site has had a box to join a free Earn1k Insider’s List. While this is the last public post on the 30-day hustling course, I have an entire week of new material for the people who took action and signed up.

Even with tens of thousands of new people who signed up, it’s still incredible how few people (relatively) take even the smallest step to sign up for something where they’ll get more free material. It goes to show you how low the bar is for taking action — and why people who take action get disproportionate rewards.

The Invisible Scripts — What’s stopping you from the next step?

Last week I asked you “What do you want more of?” But inside that survey I snuck in a question: “What do you worry about?”.

Do any of these sound familiar?

“I worry about spending too much time doing the wrong things.” – Justin

“I worry about being ordinary when I see others doing so well for themselves with the actions and risks that they have taken.”  – Erik

“I worry about not having big enough ideas, or not knowing enough people.” – Erica

“I worry about wasting all my time reading your site and like minded sites and not taking action, missing out on a great deal of reward. I just don’t think my ideas are good enough and that I have the determination to carry them through. I’m very good at starting things, not so great at finishing.” – Phil

“I worry that about not having enough savings to launch a business. I worry about not having enough skill to make money on the side. I worry about not being able to connect with the right people to make money.” – Wade

“I worry that I will be stuck in my current low paying and dead end position because I do not know how to tackle applying for and landing better jobs.” – Julie

This month has been all about giving you baby steps to show you that hustling works. Negotiation works. Your own barriers can be overcome (relatively easily) to get you disproportionate rewards.

You can get big results with small actions.

You can leave your job within 6 months and work for yourself (or travel). Not all of you, but many of you.

You can control how many hours you work, how much you make, and where you live.

So in the survey, I also asked this:

Based on those responses, I’ve put together a 1-week MBA on hustling — going step-by-step to find the right idea to start earning money on the side. This starts on Sunday.

In private, I’ll include far more detailed material than the stuff you’ve read so far. For example, in a webcast, I’ll show you not only what to say, but how to say it – and then I’ll do live teardowns of negotiation tactics.

Here’s some of what I’ll be releasing next week on the Insider’s List only:

• A 3-step process you can follow to find your first profitable idea and start getting paid right now
• Live webcasts, including The Psychology of Mind Reading: How to Get Deep Inside People’s Heads
• Case studies on how some of my students — just regular people — earned tremendous amounts of money and have quit their job, traveled, or simply stuffed their bank accounts

With the free material you’ve seen so far, my goal was to get you to accomplish more than you accomplished all of last year.

With this Insider’s List, I’m stepping it up: My goal is to make this one week worth more than the average MBA.

And after a week of that material, which is still free…

Earn1k 2.0 launches

Earn1k 2.0 is the culmination of the work I’ve been doing on hustling, earning more, and psychology over the last two years.

Personally, I don’t really care about the dollar value in my bank account — but it’s a fairly accurate marker of whether you’re doing something valuable or not.

That’s why I teach my students how to earn $1,000 on the side first — then $1,000/month — then $2,000, or $5,000, or $10,000/month.

Some of them want to work more to earn more. Others want to work less and are more than satisfied with a few extra thousand dollars every month.

Some of them quit their jobs, never to set foot in a 9-to-5 office again.

But it’s not for everyone.

By definition, the people who haven’t taken 8 seconds to sign up for the Insider’s List will not be invited to join Earn1k. That’s because I’m not publicly releasing it this time. I’m just opening it up to people who have raised their hands and asked to take it to the next level.

It’s not for people with credit-card debt.

It’s not for people who are still stuck on basic questions like “How do you stay motivated?”

It’s a little ridiculous to tell people who Earn1k is NOT for, but I also feel confident enough to choose my customers since I’ve helped hundreds and hundreds of students get results.

Here are a few Earn1k students telling their story:

Sneak peek at next week

This is a simple overview of what’s coming next week. You’ll see far more detail starting Sunday.

Step 1: Start with your goals

Too many people jump into the tips/tactics without understanding why they’re doing what they’re doing.

It’s better to do something WRONG than to do nothing at all. But if you can spend a little time planning — and still continue executing — you can save hundreds of hours of missteps.  Starting with your goals helps point you in the right direction for getting started.

For example:

“I just want more money” - Let’s say you simply want to earn an extra $1,000/month because you want to pay down student loans. Great! Your first goal, then, is to generate income. As a simple rule of thumb, figure out the most profitable market that matches your skills and pursue it relentlessly.

“I am passionate about painting” – Conversely, if your passionate about painting, you wouldn’t want to, say, start a freelance business helping with marketing and sales.  You already know you want to earn income painting, so spend your time researching different services you can offer to create paintings that people will pay for, like re-designing an entire room of your customers house to fit the painting.

Remember: Start with your goals and follow up with the tactics.

Step 2: Match your skills to earning money on the side

This is a simplified process to turn your skills into side income. Next week during the private course, I’ll get into it in extreme detail. But I encourage you to try these principles with your skills.

I’ve written about this in detail, but just take it one step at a time.

1. What industry are you in? Oh, finance? Ok, you probably don’t want to be a freelance investment banker. But..hmm….you spend all day doing analyses. How can you use that? Example: Excel is a breeze to you. Maybe there are people (like me) who HATE Excel yet need detailed analyses for their business. Could you build models for other people?
2. Identify your skills and interests — then think more broadly. People want to pay you money to solve their problems. Are you great at writing press releases? (I’d pay for that.) Are you fluent in Chinese? Boom, I’d instantly be a tutor for Chinese kids since their parents will love/trust someone who speaks Chinese — even when tutoring their kids for any subject.
3. If you don’t have any marketable skills, there are still options. Etsy is a perfect example of people making great side income — and many of them don’t have any skills that would commonly be considered “valuable.” Yet they do well selling niche products to a niche audience. If you aren’t some professional with software-engineering skills or online-marketing experience, that’s okay.

Remember: People pay for solutions, not your skills.

For example, last year I did a webcast where I was suggesting ways for people to earn money on the side, and I mentioned that I hate cooking, am not good at it, and would love it if someone cooked for me. I got an email later that night from Andrew who said, “Ramit, I can help. I can teach you everything you need to know over one weekend, and you’ll know 3-5 great dishes to cook.” I appreciated the offer, but wrote back, “Thanks for the offer! But you don’t understand. I don’t want to learn — I want someone to do it for me.” He ended up sending me another proposal and 2 weeks later I started paying him over $1,000/month to prepare all my meals (Read the detailed case study on how he did it here: from $0 to $1,500 in 2 weeks.)

Again: People have problems. They want solutions. They don’t care what you’re “interested” in.

Step 3: Identify skills that people will pay for

Start by thinking of how your skills can solve other people’s problems right now.  Write down the top three skills you have that can solve other people’s real problems today.

Now, which one of those is most likely going to actually pay you for your services?

“Niche it Down” to target your market.

You’ve probably heard this a million times, but note that this is a critical piece in selling your skills as a service, and one that many people skip for the latest SEO tactic because tactics are easier to chase.

The first question: Who are you targeting?

Most people will say: “Anyone interested in using social media for their business.” Or, “Uh… people with terrible websites!”

Wrong. It’s nearly impossible to reach everyone and anyone, being specific is key.

Let’s say you need a website for your carpet cleaning business. Who are you going to hire to handle that for you? Acme Graphic Design and Web Development, where they build websites for giant corporations and commercial industry? Or Jack’s small business web design, which targets only local small businesses looking for a simple setup?

Of course you’d choose Jack… and you’d pay more, too.

Remember: the more specific you are, the more you can charge.

During the bonus week I will be walking you through step-by-step how to go even deeper and identify skills people will pay for with 2 more advanced frameworks.

Step 4: Join my private bonus week to start getting paid to hustle.

I’m going even deeper into this concept during the bonus week to help you find your first profitable idea and start earning money on the side.

Enter your info below to join the list and start getting paid.  I’ll see you inside next week:

I’m closing the list down on Sunday at 3pm Eastern (2/6) before the private week begins, so sign up now if you’re ready to start getting paid for hustling.

And that’s it. Thanks for reading the 30-day series on hustling. It’s been a pleasure.

Two weeks before the manuscript for “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” was due, I was stuck on the last chapter of my book and didn’t think I could finish. I picked up the phone and called one of my friends and asked him what to do. He listened, he commiserated, and then recommended a book that helped me push through the uncertainty to deliver a manuscript I was proud of.

Everyone loves a dream team. Think about it — in the movies, when somebody important is in trouble, they pick up the phone and call the right person and get it taken care of.

• Relationship problems? Your two girl friends will know the answer
• Not sure what to do about life? Dad’s been there and he’ll talk it over with you
• Got arrested? Call your lawyer, who just happens to know the judge

Think about your own dream team. If you have a job interview tomorrow and you’re not sure what to say, who would you call? Or you have to buy a fancy suit — who would know what to get?

We each have people in our lives who are masters at what they do…and they help us when we need it.

I have my own dream team.

Whenever I’m stuck, I call up one of my friends to help out. Maybe it’s a marketing question, or being stuck on writing, not knowing how to get my publisher to do something quicker. Whatever the case, I have a group of close friends who all help each other back and forth.

One of those friends is Tim Ferriss.

He wrote The Four-Hour Workweek and, recently, The Four-Hour Body.

And we share a love of testing, psychology, human behavior, and ridiculous antics.

I can’t think of something more powerful than being able to call up a friend or family member and ask them for help. Especially the ones who are truly masters at their field.

I’ve been pretty fortunate to build up an amazing group of friends who have done interesting things. For example, I can call up a lawyer friend, or a best-selling author, or my friend who sold his company for tens of millions of dollars, or a pro athlete — and ask them what they think of a situation.

But if you can’t call those people up yourself, I want to at least let you peek in on how I do it.

And tomorrow, I want to invite you to a dream team meeting I’m holding.

Tomorrow, Tim Ferriss and I will be talking about the Psychology of Testing — live. And I’d like to invite you to come and listen in.

In fact, I’d like you to be a part of it, so I’m leaving around 25 minutes for live questions.

Why testing? Because although it’s not sexy, testing is one of the most important ways to accelerate and get disproportionate results. Instead, on most sites, you see people talking about Twitter (!!) and top 10 lifestyle hacks(!!)  and the importance of starting a blog (!!). Total BS.

Testing is as much a series of tactics as a methodology and mindset, and it has helped me get hugely disproportionate results.

Tim and I will talk about:

• The psychology of testing – what we both test, what we’re too nervous to test, even how we’ve tested dating
• Disproportionate results – everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. How does somebody like Tim get so much done? What tools does he use? What does he focus on and what does he simply NOT do?
• The power of a social network – and how to get access to influential people if you’re not famous

There’s really no way to get access to Tim and me, live, answering questions, but the second-best thing I can do for you is to invite you to listen in, live.

Sorry about the late notice, but I just confirmed this for you. The talk is at 10am PST tomorrow, 1 PM EST (Wednesday, 2/2). There are only 1,000 slots on the call so if you can’t make it don’t worry, I’ll send out a recording to my Earn1k Insider’s List.

Details of the webcast:

• When: Wednesday (2/2) at 10 AM PT (1pm ET).  Be early as only 1,000 can attend.
• Where: IMPORTANT: Sign up below to get the secret registration URL
• Will it be recorded: Yes, but I’m only releasing the recording to my private Earn1k Insider’s List.

Update: The live webcast just ended and people are raving…

@ramit holy crap man – this was just as good, if not better, than your last webinar with BJ. solid. @tferriss you rock my worldless than a minute ago via Twitter for MacDanny Lamas
DannyLamas

Don’t worry, you can still sign up for my private list below to get the recording when I release it:

(Can’t see the form? Click here to sign up.)

]]>

About 18 months ago, I was in a strategy meeting with my publisher. There were about 7 people around the table — all women. (Most of publishing is women.) We were discussing which markets to promote my book to, and we’d discussed all the obvious ones: Men 24-35, women, moms, parents, etc.

Then I spoke up. “I want to talk to the pickup artists.”

The room got quiet. “Who?” somebody asked.

“There’s a huge sub-culture of guys who help other guys learn how to be more confident and get a girlfriend,” I said. “They’re all interested in self-development and psychology — which is exactly what my book is about.”

“Ugh,” somebody else said. “Is this like those guys who ‘neg’ women to try to take them home from bars?”

I was not surprised to hear the skepticism. Pickup artists (PUA) have gotten a terrible name — and rightfully so. They first become famous through the fascinating book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, and have gone on to create a multi-million-dollar market.

The main idea was to help men learn how to approach and engage women. It could be used for short-term gain or to help men become more confident and get into long-term relationships. Personally, I have many friends who could benefit from some coaching.

Predictably, many people saw only the surface applications and were angry. Common complaints include “How dare they use tricks on women,” “Only certain kinds of girls fall for this crap,” and “This is only for weirdos who have no social life.”

However, I was hearing dozens and dozens of stories from guys who’d had success from using the principles. Notice I said principles — not tactics. Principles underlie everything you do and are critically important to long-term behavioral change.

For example, I can teach you a cool negotiation script — a tactic — and it will probably work. But once you use it, have you changed anything long-term? No. That comes with automating the behavior and changing your overall mindset.

So I got interested. I investigated the field. I examined the principles and tactics. I made friends with some people in the field.

And I became simultaneously fascinated and disgusted.

I was fascinated because pickup artists employ extremely sophisticated applied persuasion techniques, including inoculation, commitment, and social influence. They rigorously test their ideas to find out which works. And they are committed to deeply understanding their approach.

However, PUA quickly became ethically questionable. The first players in this game kept it to themselves and a small group of people, who all shared techniques to encourage self-development. Once The Game launched, the market exploded — and where there are young guys with money, there is a rich market.

To many, PUA became less about self-development and more about extremely expensive seminars and bootcamps.

Now, I have nothing against expensive educational material. In fact, I sell some of the most expensive material you can buy on earning more money. And it is extremely good. But I can only sell it for such a high price because my free material works — and my premium material works even better. Slowly, steadily, I’ve built up trust with my readers over the last 6 years.

Some of the PUA guys are very, very good. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. But many are bad and sleazy, and the field is now filled with a combination of excellent instructors and disenchanted customers who were promised a quick fix but failed to see it — even after spending thousands of dollars.

The importance of being interdisciplinary

It’s controversial to talk about pickup on this site. Women get angry, men scoff publicly (but secretly go Google “PUA forum”), and nobody likes thinking that we’re susceptible to scripts and techniques to get us to go to bed with someone else.

But I’m going to talk about PUA anyway.

Do you know why?

Because you need to be more interdisciplinary.

Enough reading 50 blogs about the same topic.

For example, I’m honestly bored by most personal-finance sites. With a few excellent exceptions, most of it is trite, conformist, and reveals very few new insights about money. Instead, I read books and blogs on psychology, persuasion, deception, biology, health and fitness, entrepreneurship, and gender relations.

And that is why I like to think this site keeps you engaged.

This is why I bring you exclusive material like my interview with BJ Fogg, a Stanford psychologist who is one of the foremost experts on persuasion.

It’s why I did an interview with my friend Derek Sivers, a successful entrepreneur who’s a keen observer of human behavior that’s systematically studied how to get disproportionate results.

It’s why I emphasize negotiation and testing and the psychology of money, not just saving money on cat food.

And that’s why I did an interview with a group of pickup artists.

I hope this doesn’t offend you. There are critical insights to be gained here, even if the topic is controversial. And I think you’ll find that I presented my argument respectfully.

If you are offended, let me remind you that skepticism is not a strategy.

If you’re open to the ideas, I invite you to listen. I covered some material that will challenge the way you think — specifically about the similarities between the personal finance and pickup.

How are personal finance and pickup similar?

• We all think we “should” know about money — and meeting women (or men) — but nobody really teaches us
• Friends give us random “tips” and “tricks” (say this! invest in that!) but we never have a holistic, systematic understanding of the process
• It’s taboo to talk about money — and it’s taboo to talk about how you’re failing with women
• Quick wins are important, but BIG WINS — attitudinal and behavioral changes — provide the best long-term benefits
• We can read book after book about investing…but it means nothing until we implement
• Testing is critical
• 99% of people will stop at the surface of both topics — PUA and personal finance — but the very few, the very best, will see them as deeply connected in the area of self-development. This is why so many people who succeed in automating their finances go on to improve themselves in health & fitness, public speaking, and relationships
• Many more

Making connections between fields is so important. For instance, in undergrad and grad school, I took courses on negotiation, deception, cults, magic, minority influence, organizational development, group dynamics, arbitration, personality/social psychology, persuasive technology, and social systems.

Some were controversial. But every one contributed to my views on human behavior.

And I hope to bring that to you through this site and my premium products.

If you’re interested in checking out my interview with Jordan Harbinger of The Art of Charm, I’ve put together the full 69-min recording for you. I’ve included a transcript, too.

This is free to readers of “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” — but in exchange, I ask that you trust me with your name and email address so I can continue to challenge the way you think.

You can get the recording of my pickup podcast interview, here:

(Can’t see the form? Click here to sign up.)

]]>

In this week’s challenge of my 30-day hustling course, I asked you to negotiate one thing before Wednesday night.  We got some interesting results…

…because hardly anyone even tried it!

Compare that to week 1, I asked you to identify one positive script and automate it into your life. I got over 300 terrific comments.

Why? Because it’s easy, you can sit safely in your house, write down a script, and find a way to automate it.

In week 2, I showed you the powerful strategy of taking people out to coffee and asked you to do it within 48 hours. Over 200 people shared their stories about taking people out to lunch/coffee — with some incredible results on the spot.

Still, like an Asian mother, I’m never satisfied. From 300 to 200 is a considerable drop — because it’s easy to sit in your room and be an internet warrior, but it actually takes effort to GET OUT OF YOUR ROOM and negotiate something.

This week, when I asked you to negotiate something, there were less than 100 comments.

Keep in mind that over 100,000 people read this post.

Which leads me to the overall point this week.

The 1 tool every good negotiator needs to dominate

…is experience.

I can show you every negotiation tool known to mankind and analyze script after script — but the only thing that’s going to help you get what you want, is actually doing it.

This is the same as parenting or having a relationship partner (I’m not being more specific than that since my mom reads this blog.)

It’s comforting to sit back and read my negotiation scripts. It’s fun to watch me do role-play negotiations on camera. You feel like you’re learning.

But until you test it in the real world, it’s pointless. As Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

In fact, there’s something different about the small number of people I help with negotiation coaching — people who average $10,000 when they negotiate for a new job, and over $5,000 when negotiating for a raise.

The difference is that they take what I teach them…and apply it.

That’s why my challenge this week was so simple: Just try negotiating. Do it over the phone. Do it in person at your farmers’ market. Learn to practice it as something you do in your life — a mindset – not just something you do once a year at your performance review.

Script it out, define what you’re looking to achieve, and give it a shot. You will fail — but you know to use Failure Expectation to expect and plan for it.

Like the winner this week, Alex, who negotiated 2 days/week of working from home so he can spend more time with his wife and 1-year-old daughter. I included my notes, too.

Alex’s winning negotiation script to work from home 2 days per week:

WEEK 3 RESULTS

“The short story – today I negotiated a work-from-home arrangement for 2 days per week from my full-time job, with no end date. My commute is 3 hours roundtrip per day, so this saves me 6 hours per week, which I can now spend with my wife and 1yr old daughter. Totally liberating, although it still hasn’t really hit me. Thanks to Ramit for the tips which helped me succeed at this. (and also to Tim Ferriss, I re-read the script in ‘Disappearing Act’ of 4HWW too)

The details –
I work at a large TBTF bank, managing a team of software developers. It’s review season, and I got my annual compensation communication last week, but by phone since I was on vacation. I was disappointed with the compensation (2% increase total from last year, despite ranking pretty well at 4 of 5). My goal: negotiate an increase in my “total compensation”. By the way, I know from research that I make a fair amount more than others in similar jobs, and my job is kinda cool, so I’m not really ready to run out the door.

[RAMIT’S NOTE: Notice the amount of preparation Alex has put into his negotiation and the specificity of his goal. 85% of the work is done before you ever step foot in a room to interview or negotiate.]

Script -
Me: As I mentioned last week, I’m disappointed in my compensation this year, considering I performed well, and the bank did fairly well. [went through percentages last year, this year]. It would be one thing if I underperformed, but what really bothers me is the disconnect between performance and pay.
Boss: [checked my percentages, generally nodded, explained about bank performance and 'the way it works']
Me: This disconnect has really made my start to dislike my job. I felt this way last year, and hoped it would get better, but it hasn’t.

[RAMIT’S NOTE: He’s expressing disappointment, not anger, and leading the conversation where he wants it to go. Predictably, the boss responds with a...]

Boss [look of concern]
Me: HOWEVER, I also understand your predicament. You have a lot of great performers which you’d like to pay well, but you are at the mercy of pre-determined money pools, and a company whose overall performance is out of your control, at the whim of markets and economies.
Boss [profuse nodding, almost smiling]

[RAMIT’S NOTE: What Alex just did was extremely sophisticated. He expressed disappointment, then re-framed the conversation to empathize with the boss’s situation. Notice how deeply he gets in his boss’s head -- he’s literally using the eaxct words his boss would use to describe his corporate shackles. When you are deeply in someone else’s head, you will see them irresistibly respond with nods, words like “EXACTLY,” and so on. And you are being ethical as you are simply describing their own situation, perhaps better than they could even articulate it. Alex is doing a masterful job.]

Me: So I’ve been thinking of ways out of this stalemate which don’t involve me leaving the company.
Boss: Oh well that is good, what are you thinking

[RAMIT’S NOTE: This is the turning point in the conversation: The boss just essentially invited Alex to write his own ticket. But notice that it took weeks of thinking and planning to get to this point.]

Me: I’d like to propose working from home a few days a week on a regular basis. I am much more productive working from home, and the saved commute time would allow me to put in more hours without sacrificing work-life-balance. I could increase my performance, and also be happier with less commute, so it’s win-win. Of course I’d be in the office for meetings requiring my physical presence, and always available on cell.
Boss: Well that sounds ok, you don’t have to sell it to me. But how many days were you thinking?

[RAMIT’S NOTE: “You don’t have to sell it to me.” That’s because he already successfully sold it with his research, top performance, and understanding of the situation. Negotiations don’t have to be a hard sell, which is precisely what Alex is demonstrating. The boss actually WANTS to give Alex his demands!]

Me: 3 days per week
Boss: That sounds like a little much, I’d feel much better about 2 days, which is less than half the time.
Me: Ok I think I can do 2 days.

[RAMIT’S NOTE: Classic door-in-the-face technique.]

Boss: Ok good, let’s talk some more about your compensation numbers
Me: [blah blah not listening, huge grin on INSIDE, I can't believe he went for it]

Tactics I used:
- Reviewed scripts of other similar situations, and picked key words to reuse
- Wrote out a loose script in advance
- Decided increasing pay was a non-starter at this point, so went for something else (tele-commuting)
- Decided 2 days would be great, so asked for 3 so I had something to give back
- Decided NOT to use the phrase “on a trial basis” on my wife’s recommendation, but instead keep it in my pocket. this was a good idea since I didn’t need it.
- Made a soft threat to quit to make the alternative seem less severe
- Showed I understand his side, and played to his desire to have happy employees and compensate them
- Practiced! I found a conference room 1 hour before to write my script and said it a few times out loud
- Timeboxing – I didn’t have a lot of time to work on this – total prep was 2 hours (15 mins at home night before, 45 mins on bus reading 4HWW & this post, 1 hour at office writing script & practicing). This made me focus, especially in that final hour

Results, and why it’s good –
– even though it wasn’t dollars, 6 hours of my life back is worth a lot. also gives lots of flexibility to shift hours around. I increased my total compensation. actually it saves me $30 on commute per week also
- while I worked from home 2-3 times per month previously, a regular arrangement is unheard of, and 2 days/wk is absolutely crazy. Can’t believe I didn’t ask earlier.”

A superb job by Alex. See the [RAMIT’S NOTES] to see behind the obvious and to analyze what’s really going on.

Congratulations, Alex. My assistant will be contacting you to send you either $200 of negotiation books or a 15-minute call with me to strategize your next negotiation.

What you’ll notice is that Alex has internalized a negotiation mindset. It’s not just a series of unrelated tactics for him, but part of a holistic mindset of negotiation as a lifestyle.

To get that mindset,  let’s go deeper.

The $22 Million-Dollar Man

I have a treat for you.

This is my friend Derek Sivers, who runs one of the best blogs online. He founded CD Baby, the largest seller of independent music on the Web, drove it over $100 million in sales, automated himself out of day-to-day operations, and then sold it to focus on helping musicians.

I asked him to join me on a call to share his best techniques in areas like business, motivation, accelerated learning, marketing, and finding your passion. My favorite part is how he combines WHAT he did with WHY.

It was a fascinating call: The $22 Million-Dollar Man: The Psychology of Disproportionate Results.

You don’t meet deep thinkers like Derek outside of academia much. And I carefully crafted our call to get Derek’s best stories for you.

You’ll learn:

• How he “accidentally” started a company…then automated himself out of the way
• When he knew it was time to go
• How much he sold his company for — and what he did with the money
• The $100,000 principle that leads to a rich life
• What he spends lots of money on…and waht he doesn’t care about
• Disproportionate results: The key lesson he learned to graduate college in only 2 years
• Disproportionate results: How he toured with a top musician
• Using the Initiative Principle to stand out from others
• How to become really smart in one area in 10-15 hours of focused work
• How to find your passion
• High-value vs. low-value activities

I’ve put together the full 1-hour recording for you, along with a transcript.

This is free to readers of “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” — but if you find it useful, all I ask is two things.

1. Treat this recording like something you spent $1,000 on. Use it. Implement it. Don’t just listen to it and then move on with your life. It’s rare that you ge the opportunity to hear in-depth interviews with people who have achieved success — when they’re brutally honest about what works and what doesn’t.

2. Share it with 3 friends who want to improve themselves. Every one of us has friends who say, “I just haven’t found my passion yet!” This is the perfect answer for them, but they’ll have to invest something. In this case, it’s not money, but 1 hour of their time. If they’re serious about changing, they will. If they’re not — if they just want to complain but do nothing — they won’t. But at least give them the opportunity.

You can get the recording of Derek Sivers and me, Ramit Sethi, here:

(Can’t see the form? Click here to sign up.)

]]>

I recently met someone who, in short order, convinced me to give him $20,000 of my time — for free.

How? Let me share his story.

A few months ago, somebody named @michaelfishman introduced himself to me via twitter. He said something interesting about copywriting (I don’t remember what), so I clicked through to his website. It looked interesting…but vague.

We struck up a conversation via email, and he mentioned some more interesting things on copywriting, marketing, and analytics — deep, non-obvious stuff that showed he actually knew what he was talking about. Then he mentioned a couple of big names he had recently met and spoken with at conferences.

I happened to know one of the guys, so I checked with him. “Is this guy Michael legit?” I asked. See, in the marketing world, there are a lot of scammy weirdos.

Turned out my friend respected him.

So when Michael invited me to lunch in New York, I went.

When we got to lunch, he gave me a gift — a book called Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz. I didn’t know it at the time, but it costs around $100. More importantly, I’ve come to realize it’s one of the most sophisticated books on human behavior and persuasion I’ve ever read. He also gave me a couple other books that have since shaped my views on copywriting and psychology. These were incredibly thoughtful gifts that were not only on-target with my interests, but obscure pieces I’d never seen.

When we talked, we discovered how we share many of the same views on persuasion, yet we approach it from different angles.

A few weeks later, Michael invited me to a Boardroom dinner, one of the most exclusive invitations you can receive. I put on a suit and went to The Four Seasons, where I met some of the top authors and businesspeople from the worlds of health, psychology, and marketing.

Long story short, over the next few months, he:

• Threw a dinner party and introduced me to fascinating people I would have never met
• Offered to connect me with VIPs who I’d tried to meet (and failed)
• Linked to several articles I’d written and emailed me some behind-the-scenes advice

At the same time, I was helping him. He’d asked me to record a few videos for his site, Spendlesstv.com, but I was always busy. But finally, I cleared my schedule to record 3 videos for him. You can watch them here.

After all, how could I say no?

Finally, last time we met, Michael told me he was throwing a health summit where he wanted me to be the keynote speaker on behavioral change. Unfortunately, he couldn’t pay my normal speaking fee ($20k) but would I be able to do it?

The magic of his request is this: Not only did I say yes, but I wanted to do it. It wasn’t a chore. It was a pleasure.

And this is how “networking” is done.

Notice all the things Michael did before he ever asked me for something substantial? He introduced me to people I never would have had access to…he gave me thoughtful gifts on topics I’m fascinated with…he offered to help with several parts of my business…and he never asked for anything.

Compare this to what most people think of “networkers” as: sleazy, slimy, and scammy.

When you use networking effectively — when you help other people before you ever expect anything in return — you can get more than you had ever imagined.

And you can use these same principles in negotiation.

In fact, I have 4 more case studies to give you:

• 2 stories from the hiring side of the negotiating table (what not to do)
• 1 phone call, 1 interview, and 3 emails = 28% increase in salary
• $5K per week, 6 month contract
• An automatic $5,000 raise in 6 months

I’ve added them to my private bonuses area for this week, enter your info below to get access to them now.

(Can’t see the form? Click here to sign up.)

Random things….

1. How can I help you more? Let me know in this quick survey.
2. We were going to have a live call tonight, but due to scheduling conflicts, I’ve recorded it and will release it tomorrow. Hint: It’s with Derek Sivers (read his blog and be amazed)
3. Remember to fill out your WEEK 3 NEGOTIATION RESULTS here. Best answer gets $200 in negotiation books or a negotiation consultation with me.