John Mayer and a host discuss why defining success before you start matters. Mayer says a vivid picture of what you want, like a record deal or selling millions of copies, shapes the actions you take. The host describes mentoring an entrepreneur whose belief in a million-dollar business limited growth until he shifted the vision to $100 million.
Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is Define Your Expectations. Over to you, John Mayer. I wake up every morning with espresso to keep me going.
Number one thing you have to do before you set out on any other goal or any other course is to define your expectations. Number one thing on the outset of every single project, record, tour, define your expectations. Everyone in this room wants to make it, but I question how you would recognize making it. What is making it? Well, what do you want to be? Who in here wants a record deal? Would it be nice to have a record deal, right? We want a record deal. Okay, well, what does a record deal look like? What does making it look like? Do you want to sell a million copies, 2 million copies? Well, okay, let's say selling 2 million copies is like selling 10 million copies 10 years ago. So let's say you say to yourself, my expectation is that I want to be an artist and I want to put records out and I want to sell millions of copies. If that's your expectation, great. Then you sort of skip straight to another questionnaire. You know, okay, if you answered yes to do I want to be a pop star, do I want to— make music for as many people as possible. Now you have to sort of change your game to fit the expectation.
I think a lot of people undersell themselves. I think a lot of people don't really know what success looks like, and then they never actually go out and accomplish it. I think a lot of people want to start a business, they want it to become this huge success, but because that's not defined what that looks like, they never actually get there. I'm currently mentoring an entrepreneur, I've taken over a business, and I've hired an operations guy to run it for me because I'm busy doing this, and I'm training him to be an entrepreneur and think like an entrepreneur. And he has a short-term goal of turning it into a million-dollar business, and he doesn't actually fully believe yet that it's a million-dollar business, that it can be, because he's thinking, "It's never been a million-dollar business, so why would it ever become a million-dollar business?" And right there, that kind of thinking is what I need to stomp out. By my one-on-one training and coaching with him, That's what I need to push away because as long as he believes that it's never gonna be a million-dollar business, then it never will be. And I want him to start thinking, how do we get this to be a $10 million business, $100 million business? Because when you start thinking like that, it alters not just your confidence, but the actions that you take today, right? To build a $10 million business versus a half a million dollar business, you have to think act, and communicate differently. I look at my business, I want to be able to help a billion entrepreneurs. That's my goal. That means to accomplish that big goal, I have to stop doing certain things today and start doing other ones. Everything I try to do now is at scale, right? I'm not trying to help people one-on-one-on-one-on-one because that will take a long way to get to a billion. Right? I do things at scale through the YouTube channel, through my book, through my radio show, through a lot of different opportunities, seminars, webinars, social media. Everything I do is at scale because it helps me accomplish my goal of hitting that billion entrepreneur mark. So when you have clarity and you know what you want to do and you challenge yourself to think a little bit bigger and you know what that looks like, then it alters your confidence, it alters how you inspire your team, it alters the actions that you take today to help you move forward and reach your goal. So my question of the day for you guys today is, are your expectations too low? Leave it in the comments below and I'm going to join in the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. I wake up every morning, espresso keeps me going.
