Richelle Shaw
Hey, hey, hey, hey! It’s Richelle, author of The Million Dollar Equation. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about Taco Bell serving chicken, the number one thing that we do inside The Million Dollar Equation, your assignment to help you build your own million dollar business, and of course my message to Devin. All coming up here in a minute.

Narrator
Welcome to The Million Dollar Equation Podcast — a podcast about the easiest, fastest way to build a million dollar business based on the best selling book, The Million Dollar Equation. If you love business, each episode reveals all of the core fundamental essentials for growth. Now, here’s your host, Richelle Shaw.

Richelle Shaw
Hey, there! Hey, there! It’s your girl, Richelle Shaw. And yeah. Taco Bell, what in the world? Right?

So I always like to start off every episode with things that are going on in the world, things that made me go, “?”.

And things that made me go, “Is that the best business lesson.” So today on this podcast, I want to just talk to you to a little bit about why I’m doing it.

If you listen to the first episode, you’ve heard me explain how this episode is going to go down and how each episode is going to be structured. But I think it’s important that you also know why I’m doing this.

So I was asked a couple days ago, you know, “Why are you doing the episodes and structuring them with assignments and with messages for your kid?”

Ultimately, this podcast is my love letter to entrepreneurs – to those folks that were like me, who said, “A job?”

My mother was so upset that I didn’t utilize my degree from UCLA, you know.

“We spent so much money sending you there.”

And, “Why don’t you go get a great job.” is what they said to me.

…as a person who only had one real job in her life. Let’s say one real job that lasted more than 90 days. And then I bought the company, if you’ve read my bio, I know that working for somebody just wasn’t my thing. So this podcast is an ode to you. A love letter to you for those who put their retirement on the line; for those who take their children’s college fund and put it on the line; for those who work daily on their unrealized dream of success as they want to own a really amazing business. That’s why I wrote The Million Dollar Equation.

This is why I just want you to kind of hear what my brain is going through, right? This is my love letter to you. And to tell you to keep going — that this is all worth it in the end and that nobody’s going to believe in you until you actually make it. Nobody’s going to believe that this is the right direction.

And after years of therapy, I will tell you what I learned when my mother was telling me to get a job was that just like any parent. She was protecting me. She was protecting me from those things that that didn’t make sense to her. She didn’t understand why I would not go and make the maximum amount of money because that’s what her brain was.

“Hey, you go to college and you make lots of money.” she didn’t realize what this entrepreneurship dream was even though both my stepfather and my full time father were both entrepreneurs. She just didn’t get it.

And so, this is a love letter to those parents that you know… My kid one year didn’t get Christmas because I was waiting for a client to pay. Things got busy, it’s the holidays, and I didn’t get the payment. Really.

So this is my love letter to her. I want her to know and learn all the lessons. I’m on that other side of 50 now and I think it’s important that I share all the things that are between my ears.

So will I have interviews? Yes, I’ll have interviews with people that I respect and that I actually learned from. But I’m not just going to do interviews and not really share all of the 30 years of entrepreneurship that I have.

So let’s get started and hopefully, you love my love letter. And just let me know if it is meaningful to you; if it means something to you; if it’s helping you through either those dark times or help you really celebrate when the world is not telling you that you should be celebrating.

All right. So here’s the other thing. If you’re really if you’ve got something in your notebook, you need to get it out of your notebook and get it into the world. If Taco Bell can now serve fried chicken wings, then you my friend, can do anything that you want. Even Burger Kings got tacos. What in the world is going on in this fast food world?

So funny story. I went to Taco Bell the other day because my daughter wanted tacos. Right? And she loves Mountain Dew, so do I. I love Mountain Dew too. I don’t drink coffee, but man, Mountain Dew is the thing.

So we go to Taco Bell. I’m going through the drive thru and the gal comes out and she says, “Hello. Welcome to Taco Bell. Before you get started, let me tell you we have no chalupas, no enchiladas, no chips, no tortilla shells. But if you’d like to try our new fried chicken, I’d love for you to have some.

So I look at my kid? And I’m like, “Are they for real? Like? What are you talking about? Like who? What’s wrong with the manager? How do you order chicken fried chicken but forget to order your staples?”

What kind of business lessons do these tell you? Here’s what he told me: number one, that sometimes simpler is better. When you’re doing too many things, they get all caught up. And now, do they really want to be known for chicken wings? No, they don’t. They don’t.

What they want to be known for is really kind of not authentic Mexican food, right? That’s why they’ve got a Cheeto taco. You know, I’m I’m a I’m a Southern California Mexican food snob. So it’s like, you can’t tell me about good Mexican food and Taco Bell is not the place.

But when you are looking at your business, do not take that as an example to do more things, right? Because often, here’s what I found — you can really multiply when things are simple, you can really get to that million-dollar level when things are much smaller.

So do not take any any ideas from the Taco Bell folks, or from the Burger King folks. Because here’s what I want you to know. Statistics have shown that there’s Applebee’s on one side of the street or Chili’s on the other as you drive down.

What makes you go to one or the other? Studies have shown that the only thing that makes you go to Taco Bell or to Chili’s or to Applebee’s is which side of the street it’s on, and whether you have to make a left turn.

Because basically, their menus are virtually the same. So now Taco Bell, and Burger King are trying to do the same thing. Don’t do that.

When you are smaller — when you don’t have a ton of money to burn and when you are building your million dollar business. Which, by the way, you know, I didn’t have a rich uncle after I lost it all after 9/11. I didn’t have anybody.

You know I filed for bankruptcy. Nobody wanted to loan me any money. They didn’t want to do anything. So I had to figure out a way to stand out and to build my Million Dollar Business back. So I’m telling you, don’t get caught up in what bigger businesses are doing. Focus on what you want to do and how you can communicate that message. Yes. All right. Hey, we’ll be right back. And we will go into our lesson for today, which is the one great solution. Thanks.

Thank you so much for listening to my passion projects and the million dollar equation podcast which you’re hearing if you like it, I love it. So click the subscribe button to get your new favorite episodes

Hey, we’re back. So remember we’re talking about Taco Bell and doing too many things. So chapter one of the millions equation and of really building your million dollar business, I believe starts with having one je s. So part of the solution is one je s. So what is that? And that’s having one great solution and not doing 1000 things. You know, have you ever been to a network? a networking meeting and you meet somebody, you go, Hey, so what do you do? And they go, Oh, my gosh, and they start pulling out four cards, right? I guys, yay. Okay. And if you’re doing that, stop it. Stop it right now not do that. You want to go in and be very clear about what you do and what you offer. So I would go to a networking event, I wouldn’t have to worry about meeting a whole bunch of people go in, they would say, oh, introduce yourself. Yes. Stand up. Hello, my name is Rochelle shot. And for many years, I was the only female African American Public Utility owner in the nation, and lost it all after 911. But then I rebuilt back my million dollar business, and about five months. And now I teach entrepreneurs how to build their own million dollar business. Guess what happened? Exactly. There’s a line of people who couldn’t wait to meet me who couldn’t wait to talk to me, right? When you have one great solution, you are able to really communicate what you do. And it can be very specific. And I often like for it to be extremely specific, so that we can target those folks in your target market. So that’s next week’s lesson. But today, as we talk about the great solution, you want to have these five things, okay? So if you don’t have your pen and paper, now would be the time to get it or you want to put this on pause so that you can go get it. So the first thing in your great solution is you want to be very specific, exactly what I just talked about, you want to be very clear in who you serve, and what you do. Yes. So even if you have a store, or a you know, 99 cent store is one of those things, they’re very clear on what they do and what you’re going to get there. Right. So if I’m going to buy toothpaste at the 99 cent store, I can’t imagine that I’m going to have all the top brands, there’s not going to really be two teeth whitening brands there. Yes. If I’m going to get hair color for my hair at the 99 cent store, yes, it’s not going to be the best product with the extra conditioner in it. So that name is already telling you that, hey, it’s a great solution, no shade to the 99 cent store people that shop there. But folks who do shop, they’re looking for a deep deep discount, they’re looking for a really good bargain, a great solution. Domino’s Pizza used to be, you know, easy, hot, juicy pizza in 30 minutes or less? Yes. So you’re not expecting it to be an Italian Picassa. Right? You’re expecting it to be hot, fresh pizza in 30 minutes or less? Yes. So when you’re looking at what is your great solution, and you need to be able to communicate it effectively. And the best way is number one is to make sure that it’s specific. Number two, it needs to solve a really big problem. So let’s think about that. Right? Let’s do the two examples that I gave you. So Domino’s, right? Well, people were oh my gosh, I want pizza delivery when they first came out, I want it to my house and I want it really fast. So that made sense to them, right? Um, when you’re thinking about the 99 cent store, okay, what is that? Right? It solves a big problem. Because things are expensive. If you need just something to get you to tide you over. You can go in the 99 cent store and grab plastic forks. If you just need five, right? You can get a tape you can get anything that that normally in a target or a Walmart is a little bit more expensive, right? So they give it to you in a smaller quantity or they break it up so that things are better. Um so my mother loved the Dollar Tree, right? Like that’s her favorite store to go in to get items to decorate, especially for Christmas, right? And so we get to the Dollar Tree and my mom’s looking and she’s like, Oh, they’ve got steaks at the Dollar Tree and I’m like really? Really? So what you think you’re getting flaming yawn?

Oh, no. How? How tough is that steak gonna be it? No, that is not the opportunity. Are you? So you definitely want to look at your business, see what big problem it solves, and that you’re very specific. So even in my coaching business, right, I like to work with folks that are already at the six figure level. So I’m going to take you from six to seven figures. So I have the website, six to seven figures.com, right? Because those are the folks that I really love to help and to help them because a lot of times, it’s just a few tweaks, yes. So you want to be very clear in what you do for your great solution. Number three is that you want to make sure that it creates a transformation, right? Like it’s, it’s something big, that’s going to make a difference in their lives. So even like the Dollar Tree, or the 99 cent store, that makes a huge difference. If you’ve got $3. Now, you know, you can get personal hygiene items, things that that traditionally cost 678 $9. But you can go in, come out, get what you need to tide you over until your next opportunity to invest in something a little bit more expensive. Yes. And there’s some people who that’s just what they do they go to the 99 cent store for those items. That may be a little bit more expensive than other places. Frames. I used to love picture frames at the Dollar Tree. Because really picture frame, you know, I’m not spending $100 on a picture frame. It’s like, stop it. I’ll go to the Dollar Tree good for dollar. Yeah, yeah, sometimes, you know, the backing is missing. Sometimes a little thongs are there, right? Corn? Boy, guys, you gotta use tape, but it’s still a frame and it still looks great on the wall. Um, number four, here’s some questions that you definitely want to ask. And the first one is that what makes you different, what sets you apart, right? So what sets me apart from other consultants or coaches or authors, right is that I only write specifically about business things that I have done. So I don’t like read something and then come and tell you to do something that I haven’t done myself. So I can always give examples of it. Templates, scripts, if it is a particular way to introduce yourself, which is all in, in my programs. But the the reason why I am doing this podcast is I want you to be able to no matter what, you know, you don’t have to invest in anything else, you can just learn from the things that I’m telling you to do. And you can just do them. If you’re a go getter. Great. If you’re not, and you need a little bit of help. Just make sure you go to Michelle shaw.com. You can see on the podcast, you can read listen to this episode, of course, or you can, you know, fill out a form and, and apply to work directly with me. Here’s the other question. Why should you? Why should your customer pick you other than anybody else? Right? That’s my favorite Dan Kennedy quote, for his USP unique selling proposition, right, like what sets you apart? Why would they choose you? Over anybody else? Right? I think people choose me because I am been in this game. 30 years. I know, online. I know, offline. I know. You know, I’ve I’ve risked my own money to build a business, not just a business that’s teaching you, right? That’s different. That’s what sets me apart. But what sets you apart my accountant. I love my accountant. Because my accountant is an entrepreneur. He’s not just an accountant. Right. So he’s owned several businesses. And so I chose him because he thinks like I do, he doesn’t just think as a very straight like an accountant. So, for example, here’s here’s what happened. I went to the accountant, I’m like, here, here are my deductions, here’s what so can you put it all together for my tax return? And they came back and said, you know, you know, these things are a little like, wait a minute, what, you know you your education, investment is really, really high and it’s really intended for you to to ducked college and accredited college. And I said, Well, that’s not true. I’ve read the code and the code said, so any educational expense, I believe that any program any,

any seminar, any webinar that I invested in, is a deduction. And we were going back and forth with my accountant and I realized, Oh, you’re not the best one for me. Right? Yeah, this isn’t gonna work. So my accountant promotes that he is an entrepreneur and he thinks like we do. And so that’s what sets him apart from everybody else. So when you are looking at your business, you want to make sure that you are doing this too. And then the five thing is fifth thing is that what is your story? Like? What’s your why? Right? Like? Like, why are you doing this? Why did you buy a 99 cent store? Or $1? tree or a store that have discounted items? You know? Are you buying them because you want to help people who might be struggling with their finances, you know, be able to communicate those things like we started this podcast with with why am I doing it? Because it’s my love letter, because it’s, it’s for those that are, you know, I want you to have access to me, whether you have the investment or not, I want you to be able to ask questions to to implement the things that I’m saying, so that you can get to where exactly you want to be. There is a place on the website where you can submit questions, that of course, I will answer. I have a really great question here. Coming up in two minutes. So yes, so let’s work on your great solution this week. And then next week, we’ll move on, but we can’t until you complete this part. All right, hey, we’ll be right back.

Hey, hey, hey, MD, nation. Have you grabbed the original the OG book, the book that started it all? The book, The million dollar equation, that was my original passion project, where everybody kept asking yourself, tell me how you rebuild back your million dollar business? How in the world? Did you come back from losing it all? How in the world did you do it? And I sat. And I spent two weeks and I wrote the million dollar equation. So it sounds exactly how I talk. If you put my voice to it, while you’re reading it, you will feel the essence of me. But you will also learn some really great valuable lessons on how to build your own million dollar business. Yep, you can grab it right there on Amazon.

Alright, right, Hey, we’re back. So in this this segment, I’m going to give you your assignment for the week, other than the lesson that you just learned rates, as well as a question that I just got. So I’m in lots of groups, and one of my former students posted a picture of my book and said, hey, you know, Michelle, I finally reached year 22, in my business, and I’m really ready to go back to fundamentals after COVID things are kind of tough. And I know that this book will take you there. Take me there. So I wrote the book in 2012. And so most of the people were commenting, congratulations, you know, congratulations on making 22 years. And one of her friends commented. Um, that book was written in like, 2012. So is it still relevant? So my answer is fundamentals don’t change. Okay. I don’t care what business it is. Fundamentals don’t change. So if you notice that when you go, if you watch Shark Tank, right, and they’ll ask them all okay, so how much did it cost you to acquire a customer? What are you investing in advertising? Do you have the patent, like, like, all of those questions are our standard questions, fundamentals don’t change. Now, the tactic of how you deliver the fundamental may change, right? So when I built my telephone company, yes, I did a ton of direct mail. But what that did for me, is because I couldn’t had to invest to mail to people, I had to make sure that my target market was right, that my great solution was correct, that I called out my clients so that I have been a great copywriter for years because I had to, not because, ah, you know, I don’t really have to or want to, you know, Facebook now will allow you to test for $5 a day, you know, you can do some $1 a day as long as the aggregate is there. We didn’t get to test. We didn’t get to test with mailing. Yeah, I could mail you know, 100 amount, but I still had to invest in the printing. I still had to invest in the postage. So, you know, does that work? Yes. So that when I do put out headlines, they are stronger than those that have never had to put their money on the line to make sure this works before we get it out. Right. So you know, so my my solution or my response To the Gala’s, yes, dorks yet still works. You know, I am working on a revision to the million dollar equation, which is set to come out around September. It. When I wrote it, I wrote it hindsight, right. And I just wrote the things that I did to rebuild back my million dollar business, you know, I took my first one, too, I did over $100 million in three years doing these things that I talked about in the book. And so I’m in the book, I am moving a couple of things around, like when you should be doing them. But that doesn’t mean that the items aren’t relevant. So I love questions, and I love to be challenged. So please, please, if you have any questions, you have anything you want me to answer, I would love to answer it. All right. So let’s get to your assignment for today. Okay, I’m on every podcast, I’m going to give you an assignment. I mean, do something, do something and think about something to to go and look at your business and grab. So today’s assignment is, is make a list of your assets. You go, What do you mean by that? Right? What are your assets, so your assets aren’t more than the money in the bank? It’s more than

just what you have tangible, right? So when you are building your million dollar business, I want you to be able to leverage multiple things. And you don’t know how to leverage them if you don’t know what your assets actually are. So here’s some examples. So yeah, I’d love for you to to put down what your savings is, or what you’re willing to invest in this business, credit cards, credit cards that have high balances, if you’re not already going and asking for increases, you need to do that. Because if things are great, and your credit is great, now now’s the time to do that, because business is risky. Yes. But also in your on your assets lead lists, like literally I just have a sheet of paper that I just write down every single asset. I put down a media media where I’ve been featured right USA Today entrepreneurs smart money, with links to all of those articles in case somebody wants to reread them, I’m putting together a really, really strong vital you need that. So that when when folks are looking you up, they can find those things. You want to have your degrees, your certificates, you know, sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesn’t. But depending on if you are an H fac person who is certified in ah back then HELL YEAH, RIGHT heating and air conditioning, you want to make sure that you’ve got those certifications down, so that when people are looking for your business license, they can find it and that they will trust you in their home, especially now that you have a bond software equipment, especially equipment that you need to have you have the latest and greatest engraver, right? If that’s what your business is, you need to list those assets so that you can use them. We say we so that we can use them right in your marketing. So that everything all makes sense. Your relationships. So I love to put on these assets, my relationships, my partnerships, people that I can call and say, Hey, I have this customer. I’d like to reach this customer. Do you have or can you help? Or can we do right? So I have a list of people that just have podcasts, folks that know me folks that I’ve worked with for years. I also have programs courses that I’ve taught. So I’ve got just lists and lists of all of my assets so that when I get stressed, which happens in business, right? I can always look at my assets and go wait a minute. Okay, hold on, am I really utilizing them all in it’s other things that we can sell that we can promote? That we can get done. So it write all of your assets down so that we can use them later on in this year, or while you’re listening to this weekly podcast so that we can use them and leverage them so that you are always able to make more money. All right. So that’s your assignment for this week. And hey, I’ll be right back so that I could share with you this week’s lesson for Devin. All right, I’ll be right back.

Thank you so much for listening to my passion projects and the million dollar equation podcast which you’re hearing. If you like it, I love it. So click the subscribe button to get Your new favorite episode

Hey, welcome back, you were at the end of this week’s podcast and my special time, my message for my kid now that I’m on that other side of 50. I’m positive that I’ve lived more years that I have left. And one of the things for my daughters, I want to make sure that if if, in fact, she wants to be that entrepreneur, that I’m giving everything that I have between my ears, right? So my darling Devin, my message for you this week is consistency over time changes everything. consistency over time, changes everything. So, so many times we want things to happen very, very quickly, you know, and kids these days, they can’t even wait for a microwave, right? They’re pacing, waiting for the microwave to finish. I remember having to put everything in the oven, wait for it, to heat all the way through and getting it and going on. It’s not it’s still cold inside and laborious. But if you want something in life, you need to be consistent at getting. Yeah, my house had a leak in the one of the upper bedrooms, and it was coming down through from the bathroom. It was a small little drip, drip, drip, drip. But that little bit of water. Over two and a half years when I bought the house changed everything the ceiling almost fell through. It just is how things work. Ask doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be the best. It just has to be consistent. So consistency, over time, changes everything. So if in fact you want to quit, just don’t because that win is right around the corner. All right. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. I love you for free. I love you for listening. I love you for downloading. I love you for subscribing. I can’t wait to share more of the million dollar equation with you and more of kind of how my brain thinks and share some of my friends with you to go out and make some money. Alright, thanks everybody.