Yesterday we tore apart the first track: Fastest Path to Cash. Today, let’s paint some possible runways for the other track: The Big Picture.

While some of it might seem out of reach right now, stay with me. This is futurecasting and it’s a big part of a successful business. Forecasting, projecting, whatever you want to call it, it’s creating one version of a vision for where you’re heading.

Don’t get hung up on the ‘how’ right now. We are going to hit the ‘what’ really well and that will inform the how. A bit backward? Well, welcome to big leagues.

What seeds can you plant right now?

• Who is the big producer, big end-client, big event that you have recently started imagining yourself in front of? You know the one, don’t be coy. Even a step as small as setting up a Google Alert so you have a finger near the pulse of this behemoth is a a seed in the ground. More aggressive, you say? OK – scour your LinkedIN profile and find someone who you are 1st or 2nd level connection who is closer to that holy grail. Start sharpening your axe.

Build relationship / network

• Or, as I just referred to it, sharpen your axe. You’re going to discover over the course of this program that I am 100% committed to relationship marketing. We learn what people like, offer it to them in non-threatening, non-creepy ways, and deepen the connection. Before long, we become the trusted advisor who makes their life better, easier, more gratifying. Can you pick one of those people you found in the last step and connect some dots between their world and your world?

Looking into your future

• Doing this exercise right now will allow you to do it on a bigger level in 6 months. Yep – as soon as November you will be doing this exact same practice on those who today seem untouchable. I got a front-cover testimonial for my book from Brian Tracy. BRIAN TRACY! I did this exact same exercise over the course of a year and moved up in the ranks of who I could reach to. So I ask you, name the big connection you’ll make in 6 months. You’re doing what it takes, so why not own it right now?

Looking for new trees!

• [wlm_firstname], you told me why you came here. I listened, nodded my head, and held a much bigger vision for you. Seriously, I heard you – and I know that your idea of where you want to be is based on your past. I’m not clouded by that at all. So in this section, I want you to name a bigger game. Workshop leader? Keynote speaker? World educator? Revolutionary? Producer? What’s possible for you if I rip off the shirt that’s decaled with your past? Yeah, write about that for a little while.

Plot necessary steps for big proposals

• We’ll be digging into this more in the weeks to come. Right now, I want you to take this in: the #1 way to have money coming IN is to have proposals going OUT. Seriously, all the wishing and waiting in the world doesn’t hold a candle to a few big proposals. All the work above is the ground work for these proposals. Do it, and then rest and do it again. The motivation for taking the risks is written all over the questionnaire you sent me.

You have some time to refine

• We’re not letting perfectionism in the door, but we are taking a second and possibly third pass at our work. I asked a famous writer once, “How do you know when a piece is finished?” She had the best answer in the world, “It’s good enough”. So we will develop templates that are ‘good enough’ and modify them for each proposal we send out. I do this regularly and add small touches once in a while. Knowing that it’s good enough gives me latitude to add and subtract. What do you have in your business that is eating your time away, and might just be ‘good enough’?

Aim for 2x – 10x the fee

• Your fee is costing you gigs. Believe me? You should. Your fee is costing you gigs. I regularly work for producers and end-clients that wouldn’t touch us with a pole if we cost $5,000. At $10,000 or higher we enter into another level of opportunity that isn’t looking at options that cost less. So while we don’t just jack the price up overnight, we adopt a brand, a congruent message that doesn’t attract low bidders. And if they do call, we treat them with the respect that they don’t often see or expect.I recently got a call for a bar mitzvah. The woman saw us speaking at the TED Conference in Vancouver and thought we’d be great for her son’s big day. I quoted $13,500 plus plus and she told me she had a budget of $1,000. I hooked her up with a great local act, and she hooked me up with the head of her Medical Practice. We booked a date for an after-dinner appearance at a National Conference.Your fee is costing you gigs. You’ll bump it up over the next year, I promise you that. Right now, write the fee you will be charging in a year. Write it again. One more time. Write it until you stop smirking. Write it until it feels natural.

Spend the professional capital

• This step is the opposite of jump starting. This is the top of the hierarchy and a place where you aim to be as an entertainer. It’s when you can bring friends onto shows with you. It’s when every show you do produces a number of referrals and you treat them as golden tickets. It’s when you feel as confident about your business acumen as you do about your show. You have a team: sales, accounting, admin, VA, and maybe a creative mastermind? For now, write about your professional capital and what it will mean to you, your family, your mission? (Hey gang, this is textbook “Why” stuff).

Tomorrow you’ll have access to Module 2 and will again dig into some nuts and bolts for connecting with buyers, and spend some time talking with a man that would be impossible to get on the phone without connection. And he’s going to guide you through some mental unpacking that will open you up to infinity. Seriously.

Rest up!