A Visit to Holistic Business

On last week’s visit to world-renown motivator Anthony Robbin’s Business Mastery course, I have to admit that it totally caught off guard at how much I got away from the immersion. For one I am not someone who would give high praise to how good business workshop programs usually are. Previous workshops seem too aloof to me and many of the theories defers so much to its application of real business life.

I started day one skeptical, being welcomed by a staff full of energy and Tony Robbins die-hard participants full of energy and excitement awaiting Tony’s stage introduction looking more like cult followers awaiting their messiah. I became curious at how good this guy Robbins really is. Five days later I left MGM Vegas admitting that his program is truly special. Highly recommended to any business owners would want to elevate their business with truly useful tools and a business mindset to achieve success. These are my key take away to the five-day course.

The program was heavy on the philosophy and psychology (something Anthony Robbins is famous for) aspect of the business. Philosophy and psychology in business cover a whole deal with the business owner’s relationship “company culture” with their employees and “marketing” with clients.

Robbins expressed how essential it is to first identify customers’ problems and what they want. At the heart of it, customers really don’t care about you and are only in it for what you will bring for them, so focus on enhancing your added value. I really enjoyed that he made his points straightforward and logical. Keeps me on my toes!

He identified the 6 human needs; certainty, uncertainty, significance, love and connection, growth and contribution. One must know their target market and identify their human needs through their products. People buy products for their identity and emotion. Giving your target market one or a number of their human needs and you will make customers hooked to your product.

To market, your product keeps your marketing simple and easy to understand for customers. He repeatedly gave credit to Apple to ascend from its simple yet effective marketing.

In dealing with our workers and customers he taught us to show love through our work/ service. Always work with your employees and serve your customers with a heart; you must love your customers as you love yourself to be successful. At the core of running a business is to serve your customers through your product to improve lives. I really like Robbins philosophy of business as it transcends money and digs deep into the purpose of our existence; to serve a higher purpose. Like he says, “Business is a spiritual thing.”

In running a business, he repeatedly stated that execution trumps knowledge and that complexity is the enemy of execution. Only through simple execution will we get results! This really resonated with me.
In one of Tony’s talk, he was able to shift participants’ mindset into believing that nothing is impossible, a signature talk that has made him the best- known motivator as whom he is known to be.

He gave an analogy of legs on a table and how people can shift their belief systems and breakthrough their chokeholds by asking the right questions, “shake the leg tables”/ shift your beliefs.

The chokehold on the growth of the business is the psychology and skills of its leaders, therefore with the right mindset, any growth possibility is possible.

The program brought in many incredible leaders in their field speakers to talk about their field of specialty. Marketing guru Storybrand, Donald Miller taught us how to create a loyal customer base or what he calls “raving fans.” People get hooked by a storyline and having told a story will turn customers to “raving fans.” Miller continues to explain the omnipresent essentials in a story: a character, a problem, meeting a guide, giving a plan, call to action, and results. Having all these elements at your marketing storyline and you will have “raving fans.” Often enough businesses make a mistake by marketing themselves as the hero and not the provider. We must position ourselves as the guide the hero has been looking for. Provide guidance to the hero, the customers, and spell out a simple plan they can follow thru to solve their problems. Every story is a transformation, and having a story for your product will turn customers to your “raving fans.”

Coming from a finance environment I was fascinated by how speaker Keith Cunningham was able to breakdown and simplify mundane basics of Financial Accounting, an optic to seeing the health of a business Cunningham explained. An analogy he gave was that running a business without understanding Financial Accounting is like running a plane without understanding how the cockpit panel operates.

Cunningham gave a simple metaphor of a balance sheet as a snapshot, the Income statement as a theoretical movie and the cash flow statement as a real movie. He emphasized the importance of mastering these financial statements and how they relate to one another. He repeatedly emphasized the difference between profits and cash in understanding the health of a business. Participants came out of Cunningham’s class knowing how to decipher through common creative accounting practices and understand key financial indicators to differentiate a healthy company from a sick one, a tool he mentioned critical to every business owner.

Tony followed up by emphasizing what he called the 8th wonder of the world in business: the law of compounding interest. Many who are familiar with it know how powerful it can be and that people must utilize business investments to take advantage of the rule. An investment of $10 with a 15% annual interest will compound to $81.3 in 15 years!

The five-day immersion gave a holistic, well-rounded education on the importance of business. It covered materials of how to do effective business and more importantly to find the correct purpose of doing business. Robbins believes that with the right mindset, intention (to do good to the world) and the right tools we will have a successful business career.

My explanation really does no justice at how enthralling, educational, and fulfilling my Anthony Robbins experience truly was. I look forward to Business Mastery part 2 next summer!

A.K, 20 Agustus 2019