How to find money, access money, raise money that you didn’t know you had or thought you had, either money you’ve already got, or money that you haven’t yet got?
A lot of people say to me, I can’t afford it. That’s not true. You can afford it. Okay, maybe you can’t afford a little jet. But you can afford many things you think you can’t. It’s just when you say I can’t afford it, you rule out the option of finding it.
I have 15 or 20 points. I’ll make them quite snappy for you, that I think can help you find money, you didn’t think you had, or raise money that you want, or spend and invest money more wisely to reach your ultimate goals as opposed to appeasing the spending habits that you may have.
The reality, is, you probably have, but you’re probably spending it somewhere else. I believe that everyone spends their money based on their areas of highest value. What is most important to them. If someone’s appearance is really important to them, creams, potions, cosmetics, even artificial cosmetics. If say, for example, their hobby, let’s say, photography is really important to them, they will have up and work overtime for a new lens or something like that. Harry has been teaching me about lens. They can be tens of thousands of pounds. In films, apparently, they have to rent the lens, because they’re so expensive.
The reality, is, you have money. You think you don’t, because you’ve got none left. And you think you’ve got nothing to spend on disposable, because you’ve already spent it, and you’ve got none left. You’re not earning enough. But this is not true. The reality, is, if you actually, properly track where you’re spending the money, you would discover that your spending money in areas that are important to you. You may not be consciously aware of it, but you are.
If you want growth, progress, success, et cetera, you have to rethink where you’re spending your money, and how you spend your money, and change what’s important to you around your money. When you change what’s most important to you in your life, that cascades down, and you change where you spend.
If, for example, health and fitness all of a sudden became really important to you. Let’s say, you’ve had a significant injury or illness, that really actually made you worry about your health and fitness, you’re going to get devices. You’re going to get food. You’re going to go to gyms and buy equipment. And all of a sudden, your spending habits are going to naturally change.
A lot of people fight their spending habits over the years or decades. If you want loads of tips on spending habits, on how to manage money better, I wrote a book called, Money on that. But if you want to actually sort of not have to change your spending habits and addictions over decades, you want an easier way, what you do, is, you change what’s most important to you in your life.
2020, New Year is a really good opportunity for you to do that. You could, for example, say, I’m going to have my best year ever. If you commit to that, you’d probably going to invest in personal development, in courses, in books, in audiobooks, in masterminds, et cetera.
You could say I’m going to have my healthies year ever. I’m going to get my health and fitness back in shape, and you make a commitment to that. Then all of a sudden, you’re going to get protein shakes. You’re going to maybe, spend on the Mindful Chef, et cetera. Then when you do that, you will naturally stop spending elsewhere, where you’ve been spending before as that becomes less important to you.
I used to spend all my money on things that went down in value to make me feel better about myself. I didn’t know this. I didn’t know that I had way more money than I thought. I thought I had no money. But the reality, was, I was spending a lot. I thought, well, I’ve got all these expenses. They have to be covered, and there’s nothing left. No, they don’t have to be covered.
I used to buy £500 Victoria suits. I sued to spend all my money on designer gear. That used to be important to me, because I’d go out socially. And I’d spend all my money on drinks. And I’d buy everyone drinks. That was really important to me, socially to get connection with people, to be noticed, and liked. I didn’t even realise I was spending all that money there, because I was feeling this void and this hole.
Drinks, clothes, material items, social events, especially drinking with my mates, I can spend thousands of pounds a month on that. I do overtime. I actually hustled a bit and earned a bit. If I’d got rid of all of that, I’d probably be able to save 2-2.5 grand a month back then. I wasn’t not earning. I was overspending. But I was spending in areas that were so important to me, unconsciously, that I had this blind spot and this myopia that I was actually spending that money.
I thought I had no money left, when in reality I had half decent amount of money, I was just spending it all. And then things changed. Things changed for me, because on December 15th, 2005, my dad had a huge breakdown in his pub in front of all of his customers. He was admitted to Ward 5 Hospital. He was sectioned. He was quite aggressively treated by the police. No emotion towards that. They felt threatened. I not in any way knocking the police. I’m just saying my experience.
And we didn’t see my dad for a few months. We had to relearn who my dad was, and get used to this new man, or at least losing our dad. And that was a shameful, embarrassing, hard, lonely, painful event for me. The week after that, there was about a week of self-pity and loathing and hatred towards myself. Then it turned into action, and desperation, and relentless pursuit.
I met my business partner, Mark Homer at a property networking event. A week after that, we bought 20 properties in the first year, 30 in the second year, and 50 in the third year. I stopped spending on stuff I didn’t need. I sold all my Hi Fi. You can see in the background, I’m a bit of a lover of Hi Fi. I sold all my Hi Fi, sold my drum kit. I sold all my clothes. I sold all my records. I sold everything I had, because they all of a sudden weren’t important to me anymore, because of what happened. And I started buying courses, mentorships, masterminds. I started listening to personal development. Back then, it was CDs. I was relentless pursuit and hunger of mastery, and progress, and education, and knowledge. And instantly what became important to me changed.
You might spend quite a lot of money on Christmas. Of course, there are all these material items. I have seen some. It’s not just women. I’m just saying. Don’t kill me. But I have seen some women go mad over 1,200 quid push chair or a 600 quid nappy bag. I’m like what?!! Ooh hoo, really. So, it’s me, of course. But yeah, all of a sudden what becomes important to you changes. And then, what is important to you, you justify. You defend. You fight to the death for. A lot of people, what’s important to them, like I said, there are material items, all these things that maybe don’t matter, but it’s important to them. The creams, the potions, hundreds of pounds on face creams, the Botox, and the lips, and the hips, and the pits, and everything else that they do.
By the way, I’m not judging. I’m just saying. Because I spend a load of money on Doo Dads, on liabilities that went down in value. That was important to me. That filled my void. But the problem is, this void is never ending, if you’re spending according to your own addictions, voids, fears, failings and ultimate needs from pain. That’s like a bucket that you pour water in, but it has a big hole in the bottom. It will never fill.
This event changed me. I started thinking about growth, progress, personal development, knowledge, business and myself as an investment, not a liability, and increasing my self-worth and investing in myself to then grow my net worth. Well, I say, it’s not just network that leads to net worth. It’s self-worth that leads to net worth. You could say, network times self-worth equals net worth.
Let me ask you. Think about where you’re spending quite a lot of money. Actually, go through all of your spending habits, and direct debits, and everything else, and go hmm, okay. Am I filling some kind of need there? Am I spending it emotionally? Am I spending on something that I think is important, but it’s not? And you probably could liberate a few hundred or maybe, even a few thousand depending on how much you earn per month, that you can then invest in things that make you grow, your knowledge, your education, your experience, your network, the people you meet, the content you put out there, the quality of your work, which will then bring in extra reach and revenue. And all of a sudden, you’ve got thousands of pounds, that you didn’t know you had.
But this is also hugely important. Mark my words here. People think that it’s the money, that means, they can afford or not afford. It’s not that. It’s the access to the money that you have through your network, through your contacts, through your reach, through the amount of reach and presence and impact, and scale of listeners to your podcast, the viewers of your videos.
I believe, if I was in trouble, I would ask. I’m just letting you know. I really value you, I would ask. And I’m not scared to ask anymore. I have been in the past. But if I was in trouble, I would ask my network and say, hey look, I’m struggling with this. I wonder, if there’s anyone who can help me. I believe through my live videos, and my podcast, and the reach I have, which is now pushing 2 million people, I believe someone out there would help me.
When I needed to do a joint-venture, now that might now come from a place of help. That might come from a place of very good business opportunity or a desire to grow, or if my own funds are fully invested. I’ve got quite a few million pounds in property projects at the moment. So, the 20-million, 50-million deal came along that I wanted, I might need to go to my network to raise the money. That’s not for need, that’s for investment and for want. But I think, if I went to my entire network and say, hey look, I’ve got a great investment. I’ve done all this diligence, here’s the deal. Let me know what you think. I think you’d probably go in with me, many of you. I think you might lend me some money, or do a JV, or do some kind of crowdfund.
I know that the hundreds of thousands or millions I have in my current account or my savings account or my investments, that’s not really my access to cash. What’s my access to cash is the network, the people, the banks, the lenders, the reputation, the goodwill that I have, that I’ve built. All of my followers and fans, and email connections, I think now we have about 600,000 people that subscribed to our two different companies on the email databases. This is how you find the money.
But the problem, is, if you’re only looking at what you’ve got in your bank, then you immediately go, I can’t afford it, because I haven’t got it in the bank. But there isn’t only the amount of money in the world in your bank. I think there’s something like, 56 trillion flowing through the global economy, or at least there was when I did the research for my book, Money. But that might flow 2, 3, 5 hundred times. So, you’ve got to times that by 2 or 3, or 5 hundred. Then there’s all the gold. Then there’s the other assets. And if you think about it, it’s virtually limitless the amount of money that is flowing through the world economy.
But it’s not just about the global GDP or the national GDP, it’s about your GDP. How much money is flowing through you? and if you increase the flow through you, then you increase the amount you can spend, invest, save etc.
You have money. You just need to rethink where you spend and invest it, and what is important to you. And if you make personal development, growth, business, success, wealth, and value, and your product, and your service, and your self-worth, if you make all of those important to you in your life, all of a sudden, you will stop spending money on all these things that don’t add value and go down in value. You will start spending money on all the areas that do add value and go up in value. That will go up in value. That will compound. Then you’ll attract more money. Then you’ll create this virtuous cycle of growth and compounding. You either find the money, or you find the excuse. You, either go right, I’m going to make this happen, or you just go, okay, well, I didn’t have the money at the time. That wasn’t really fair, and life isn’t really fair. I couldn’t take that opportunity, and that always happens to me.
I give you an example of this. I’m just in the process of going through all the applications for my Brand and Marketing Mastermind. I’ve had 200 applications. The emails are going out today. I might end up getting 300 applications. I’m trying to whittle it down to 41 people in the group. And some people say to me, Rob, I can’t afford it. I’m like, well, you can. What is it? It’s like not even… It’s 5 grand plus VAT for a 6-month Mastermind. It ends up being 9. 3 one-to-ones with me. 8 hours a day, one per month for 6 months. We give you content on marketing, and business, and growth strategy, and create multiple streams of leads, and multiple streams of income. What else have we got? My guest experts that come in and support you, and give you advice, or at least education on Facebook Ads, on LinkedIn.
People say they can’t afford it. Well, what about you can’t afford not to do it. And I think if you really want it, you’ll find a way. If you kind of don’t want it, or other things are more important to you, you’ll find an excuse. How hard is it to find 6 grand? It’s not hard at all. It’s not hard at all. Sell 2 courses for 3 grand. Sell 4 courses for 1,500 quid. Sell 6 courses for a grand. Sell 60 courses for 100 quid. You’ve found the money.
By the way, if you go and find the money by selling products and services, and then you have the money, you also have then the business that you’ve built that will bring in more and more money. You might oversell. You might need to raise 6 grand, and end up raising 10, because you oversold. As in oversold, the volume of the products and services that was your target. You do overtime. You save extra money. You go, okay, I’m going to make a 3-month goal. I’m going to find the money. I know I can make it happen.
This is how you raise money for property projects. You raise money for businesses. You go and sell a business. Or, look to sell shares in the business. Or, create extra revenue for a project. Or, you raise money to buy stock. Or, whatever it is that you need to build, or create, or launch, or put out to the world. The money is usually coming from someone else. Nearly all money comes from someone else, unless you’ve got it. But what you’ve got, is, finite. And even if you have 10 million, it’s finite. You can’t survive on 10 million in capital. You could probably just about live off the interest, if you invest in it well. But capital 10 million, if you’re under 60 years old, you’re going to go down, and down, and down, and down. You’ll end up eroding it.
Whatever you’ve got now, you’d probably need more. Where does all your money come from? Other people. Some people say, oh, banks and institutions, or whatever. No, because you still have to deal with the broker, or someone who works in the bank. A private investor, a JV partner, a Dragon, an Angel, a friend, a family member, an investor. All money comes from people. If you’re always worried about what’s in the bank, and you’re looking about the money that you’ve got, it’s in the bank. You’re always limited to what’s in the bank. And so, you’re always thinking, ah, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 instead of 100,000, 300,000, 3 million, 30 million, 300 million. So, it’s something to think about.
Could you go and raise money through crowdfunding? Or, putting some messages out to the marketplace for a great business opportunity? Of course, you could. You’re just not doing it, because you think you can’t. If you think you can, or you think you can’t, as Henry Ford said, you are right. So, you need to change “I can’t afford it” to “who can I afford it”. Do I really need it? You need to change your values, and what’s important to you in spending to make you to fill voids. The only void you really want to be filling when spending money, is, your personal development, your growth, your wealth, your knowledge, and your experience.
That’s why I will think nothing about a 2-grand course, or a 20-grand mentorship, or a £3,000 an hour mentor. I love going on Audible and buy a load of 30 or 40 books at a time on Amazon. 30 or 40 books a time. I will think absolutely nothing of that. Because if I can’t get 100 percent, 500 percent return on that information, that education, my knowledge, then I’m doing something wrong.
Save extra money, change your spending habits. Sell a load of shit you don’t need. Stop buying shit you don’t need. Move money from certain vehicles and start investing in yourself, your education, your experience, your knowledge, your mentors, your masterminds, getting accountable. Look to raise finance from friends, from family, from Angels, from investors on social media. Be careful around laws about pitching for money. Just check with that. Look to do joint-ventures. Look to get loans from people. only to invest in assets, not liabilities. Look at short-term debt to invest in yourself, to generate money and sales, investing in marketing to generate sales. Reach out to your network. Grow your network. Grow your contacts. Grow the amount of people that you know, the amount of people that follow you. You reach past and present all the people you used to go to University to. All the people you’ve known your whole life, you’d probably still got all their contacts in your WhatsApp or your phone book.
When was the last time you reach out to them? When was the last time you just develop the relationship? Because money moving without friction is all about relationships. It’s trust. The whole Government, the whole financial system is based on trust. No trust, it all falls apart. You getting money from people is based on trust. They trust you, and they trust you to do well with their money, and the money flows. They don’t trust you, the money doesn’t flow. To trust you, they have to be aware of you and to be aware of you, they have to know you. You’ve got all these contacts. Yeah, you knew them 15 years ago, but they’re not aware of you. And you’re not in their mind space and their awareness. Honestly, your financial life will change, when this changes.
