The Freedom Formula

“The question is then, how can one achieve the millionaire lifestyle of complete freedom without first having $1,000,000?” - Tim Ferriss, The Four Hour Work Week.

What if I told you there were just seven things you need to do to build a life of absolute freedom?

And that if you did them, in the exact order I told you to, you’d could virtually guarantee that you’ll build a high six or seven figure business fast, and without all the struggle most people suffer through?

Twenty Years of Research…

I’ve spent the better part of two decades in the relentless pursuit of what I term Success Dynamics – the recognizable, predictable, and transferrable underlying dynamics of success in any situation, venture or relationship.

As a young Acupuncturist I was taught the ten diagnostics methods and four diagnostic skills of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). When combined, these methods and skills allow a competent practitioner to diagnose with pinpoint accuracy.

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Energetic, mental, emotional, and physical conditions are all easily identified even before they present symptoms at a level significant enough to be detected by modern Western medical diagnostic approaches.

The one thing that ties these ten unique diagnostic approaches together is that they’re all based on one underlying principle:

Bian Zheng, which translates into English as “Pattern Identification”.

Although I didn’t realize it at the time, the four years I spent immersed in learning the obscure and challenging arts of pattern identification would later serve me in my entrepreneurial life in ways I couldn’t have possibly imagined.

Years later, when I studied and improved upon a neurolinguistic programming (NLP) concept called “modeling” to create the Sales SHIFT and Leader SHIFT methodologies, I discovered that by combining what I’d learned from NLP with the pattern identification skills I’d gained from Chinese medicine, I was able to recognize and replicate – with staggering speed and accuracy – patterns of success in virtually any field I chose.

So I turned my focus to business.

And the result of that focus is the Freedom Formula.

Seven Leaps To Freedom

The Freedom Formula comprises seven steps over three stages. The first stage is focus.

Stage One: Focus

Step One: Mindset

Focus requires you to work diligently on your mindset to eliminate the seven habits of failure, and replace them with the seven habits of success. I’ll give a brief explanation of these habits in another post. For more information, check out my book 7 Minute Mindset.

Working on your mindset is a never-ending process. Don’t expect to ever reach a point where you are completely free of making “mindset upgrades”. Every time you level up your Income Altitude you’ll find there are new mental and emotional challenges to overcome. It’s completely normal, and if you’re expecting it you’re less likely to be caught by surprise.

Forewarned is forearmed!

Step Two: Model

Your next focus is to determine your Leveraged Value Delivery Model.

This is one of the most crucial phases in your business development. The right model will set you free very quickly. The wrong model will tie you down, drive you insane, and steal your freedom. Skip this step at your peril.

How do you know when you have the right Leveraged Value Delivery Model?

It will be obvious because you’re customers will be overjoyed to work with you; they’ll get awesome results with your products or services, they’ll send you more customers via referral, and they’ll happily pay whatever you’re asking.

Stay. Pay. Refer. The three golden signs that you’ve chosen the right model.

And the right Leveraged Value Delivery Model will also take you to Stage Two…

Stage Two: Flow

Flow is the intermediate stage, and the pre-requisite for freedom.

Specifically, you want flow in three areas: Time, cash, and assets.

Step Three: Time

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Time flow is a direct result of the right model.

What you want is to create a business that provides you with all the free time you could possibly desire, whilst simultaneously pumping out happy customers and tons of cash.

Here’s an example.

One of my services is called WP Smart Site.

WP Smart Site was built with my business partner, tech genius, and international man of mystery – Sam Patton. The system provides WordPress website hosting, automated site back-ups, proactive malware scanning and threat detection, and a range of powerful sales conversion-boosting tools such as heat maps, scroll tracking, conversion funnel analytics, and social media marketing metrics.

There are twenty-two tools in all available to WP Smart Site clients, and pricing starts at $99 per month.

What I love about WP Smart Site is when a client comes on board, they almost never leave. This service is sticky because it provides over $763 worth of value every month for just $99 (which in itself is a no-brainer).

It takes our technical team about three hours to set up a new client in the system (which is an additional service worth roughly $300 we often provide free of charge as a value-added bonus).

Once the client is set up, there’s almost no additional work on our part, except for answering the occasional support email – and half the time those emails are from existing clients who are so happy with the service they want to upgrade their account.

Notice I said technical team. I don’t do any of this myself. My personal time involvement with this service is roughly two hours per month (that’s cumulative; not all at once). And I can do that from my laptop – and most of the time with just my iPhone – from anywhere in the world.

In fact as I write these words right now, I’m in Vietnam for three months with my family.

All of which is a direct result of building multiple Leveraged Value Delivery Models.

Step Four: Cash Flow

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If you had all the free time you could dream of, but you didn’t have the money to use that time doing what you want to do, you’d be bored or miserable (or both).

That means the next flow you need is cash flow.

Money is always flowing. That’s why it’s referred to as currency. As in a current – like in a stream or river. Your goal here is to have that flow working in your favor by ensuring there’s always more cash flowing in than out.

As you’ll discover later, cash flowing in is a function of effective, automated client attraction and conversion systems. Cash flowing out is a result of expenses and taxes.

To keep the cash flowing in you need to attract a steady stream of high-quality prospects who are cashed-up, and hungry to buy what you’re selling.

And then you need to consistently convert them into high-paying clients who stay, pay, and refer.

*(Side-note: Check out my previous Steemit post on the four most persuasive words in the English language for more help on this).

Get those two things right, and cash flow will never be an issue for you.

And when you have both the time flow and cash flow to do whatever you want, you’ve reached the first Freedom milestone.

Notice in the Freedom Formula diagram there are arrows going in both directions between time and cash flow. The reason for this is because time and cash flow have a reciprocal relationship.

The more time you have, the more you can focus on income-producing activities. And the more cash flow you generate (and more importantly, the higher the percentage you keep in the form of profits), the more you can afford to leverage your marketing, sales and delivery by employing staff, outsourcing, or investing in automation systems, tools and software… which all free up more time for you.

Notice also that both time and cash flow point to Lifestyle. Your lifestyle will achieve a new level of awesomeness when you have both the time and cash flow to indulge your needs, wants and fantasies.

However, there is one challenge still to handle when it comes to cash flow… and that’s what to do with all that money when you’re making substantial profits, so as to avoid losing a hefty chunk of it to taxes.

And that’s where Assets come into play.

Step Five: Assets

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My definition of an asset is something with inherent value, that appreciates in value, or throws off more value (in the form of more cash flow), or preferably both.

If you’re looking for investing advice here, you’re in the wrong place.

Although I wrote a post on Steemit previously about How to Teach Your Kids About Money, Saving and Investing… All I’ll say is when you follow the steps I’m teaching you, you’ll reach a point where you’re making so much money you’ll need the advice of a competent accountant, lawyer and financial advisor to ensure you get to keep the fruits of your labor.

I recommend you seek out at a minimum:

• An accountant who has experience with the type of business you’re running or want to build, and is well-versed in legal tax minimization strategies,

• A lawyer specializing in asset protection, estate planning and business structuring, as choosing the right trading structure at the outset will potentially have a massive impact on both how profitable you are, and how much of the money you make you get to keep, and

• An independent financial adviser who is not bound to provide investment products from only a handful of companies. Instead you want someone who will help you put a plan in place for long-term wealth generation.

Stage Three: Freedom

Step Six: Wealth

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Remember my definition of an asset?

Something with inherent value, that appreciates in value, or throws off more value (in the form of more cash flow), or preferably both.

Look again at the Freedom Formula diagram. Assets and cash flow also have a reciprocal relationship, because if you’ve chosen well your assets will either appreciate in value (for example investment property, and precious metals like gold and silver), or produce more cash flow (again, investment property that is positively geared, or businesses that generate a profit).

Then you will re-invest that additional cash flow into either enhancing your lifestyle again, or buying more assets.

If you employ this strategy over time you should end up with a balanced portfolio of assets that continue to appreciate in value, and provide ever more value to you in the form of increased positive cash flow.

That is a fantastic definition of wealth.

Notice also the arrows pointing from Wealth back to Assets and Mindset.

That’s because your asset portfolio will allow you to (potentially) acquire further assets without the need for cash (in other words, you can leverage your existing assets to get more assets) at which point you’ll either come up against some very interesting mental and emotional roadblocks (…are you ready for that kind of freedom? Do you deserve it?) or you’ll experience the accompanying mindset upgrade that being able to produce results at this level requires.

The other arrow from Wealth points back to Lifestyle, and here’s why…

Step Seven: Lifestyle

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You’ve done it.

You’ve overcome the seven habits of failure and upgraded your mindset with the seven habits of success.

You’ve found a Leveraged Value Delivery Model that pumps out super happy clients who stay, pay and refer without chewing up your time.

You’re generating awesome cash flow, and you get to keep it because you’re structured wisely and pay minimal taxes.

You’ve invested in assets that either continue to appreciate in value, or throw-off even more cash flow (or both)… and now you have all the time and money to do what you want, when you want, with whomever you want – and the peace of mind to know that your business is solid.

So… what do you do now?

Throw a party? Buy a yacht? Travel the world? (That’s what I’m doing… check out my Steemit post about my trip to Vietnam with my wife and two young children here).

Sure. Do all that stuff. It’s crazy fun, and you won’t regret it.

There’ll come a time when it’s not enough though. If you’re entrepreneurial by nature, you’ll eventually start to feel that familiar itch, and begin dreaming up new ways to add value and change the world.

The big difference I’ve noticed at this stage is now adding value IS the focus and the lifestyle.

(Side-note: If you’re interested, you might want to check out my intro post where I talk about how to create your life model).

Every client I’ve ever worked with who hit this level went on a quest to find a way to make a lasting, positive impact on the world.

And that’s why the final two arrows on the Freedom Formula diagram head out from Lifestyle back to Time (which you’ll now have much more of), and then on to Value (because this is where you’ll want to spend your time).

Hi, I'm Nick.

When I was 13 a friend gave me a book on body language, and my obsession with understanding (and influencing) people was born. It's lead me to the heights of entrepreneurial success, the lows of depression, finding and marrying my dream girl, meeting my heroes, travelling the world, writing my book 7 Minute Mindset, smashing most of my life goals before I was 30, and now to writing here on Steemit. You can find my intro and verification post here.