Tina Tower [00:00:00]:
Hi friends. Today I have an amazing interview for you. I am talking to my friend Mel Abraham who is the author of the new book building your money machine. Mel I have known for a few years. Well, but we met years and years ago like pre Covid when I was at the start of my online course journey and I saw him popping up with all the big course creators.

There he was with like Brendan Burchard and Charlene Johnson and James Wedmore and I was like this guy, like must be the guy, you know. And so I was at the Kajabi conference in 2018 or 19 and I saw him there and went up to introduce myself and say hello and he was like in, in work mode. He was, he was doing all the things and, and work in the room and doing all that.

 

Main Episode

Tina Tower [00:00:53]:
Anyway, I've got a really funny photo that I'm going to put on social media when I share this episode of me like trying to pose with Mellow while he was just like ignoring me. And I have shared this photo with him and how funny I found that and we've had a good laugh over it, you know, the loveliest guy ever. But I was, I was just a fan girl. And then a couple of years ago, about three years ago now, we ended up in the same mastermind together. And so I've come to know Mel quite well. He's such an incredibly generous human being. He shares his knowledge so well and truly wants everyone to just be more well off financially so that you can have all the freedom and flexibility that you dream of in life. And that is what I love so much.

Tina Tower [00:01:44]:
And so in today's conversation we're sharing, we're sharing all about how he has done that in his own life, but also how you can do that in your life as well and the difference between people that are employed and for us as digital course creators. So it is very, very specific towards what we do as course creators and the way that we build wealth inside, like using our business as a vehicle to build long lasting wealth. So little bit of the formal stuff. Mel Abraham is a seasoned CPA turned entrepreneurial innovator and money mentor. He's the mind behind the US today bestseller building your money machine, how to get your money to work harder for you than you do for it. As the founder of the Affluence blueprint, the Legacy Factor and Thoughtpreneur Academy, Mel dedicated his career to empowering individuals and entrepreneurs to transform their financial destinies and craft lives of choice, not chance. He has been recognized globally as an AFFLUENCE mentor and the thought leader to thought leaders. And that's something that I can totally attest to.

Tina Tower [00:02:50]:
Mel advises some of the world's foremost experts in business and personal development. His insights are sought after on top media platforms and podcasts where he discusses achieving financial freedom, affluence and creating businesses that leave a legacy, including her Empire Builder Show. His work has helped people to become more engaged, focused and productive while building profitability inside of your business. So he has a track record of building, acquiring and selling multimillion dollar ventures. He's not only a theorist, but a practiced expert in the financial domain. He shares stages with luminaries like Arianna Huffington, Brendan Burchard, Ed Mylett, Amy Porterfield and Tony Robbins, imparting that propel individuals to businesses and businesses to extraordinary heights. Mel's work helps folks not just navigate, but thrive in the complexities of modern economics and personal wealth. It's about bringing financial security to individuals and organizations so it drives focus, productivity and profits.

Tina Tower [00:03:55]:
And that is exactly what we're sharing with you today. I want you to end this conversation having inspiration and practical ideas on how you can take all of the money that your business is generating and use that to create legacy, wealth and freedom for yourself. Let's get to it. Welcome to her Empire Builder Show. I'm your host, Tina Tower, business strategist, course creator, best selling author and unapologetic champion for women chasing big, audacious dreams. Since starting my first business at 20, I've built and sold multiple companies, traveled the globe and discovered the magic of online courses. A business model that has changed my life forever. Building a business is no easy feat.

Tina Tower [00:04:40]:
It's a long road filled with sometimes challenges. But with the right strategy and consistency, your success is not only possible, but it's inevitable. Here on the show, I'm bringing you candid conversations with extraordinary humans, practical strategies and a whole lot of inspiration to help you scale your online business, create wealth, freedom and impact that you deserve. This is where bold dreams meet, proven action, where we ditch the limits and go all in on business building. And we get to live lives full of fun and freedom that light us up. If you're ready to play bigger, earn more and step into your power as a fearless empire builder. You're in the right place. Let's make it happen.

Tina Tower [00:05:23]:
The fabulous Mel Abraham. Welcome to her Empire Builder Show.

Mel Abraham [00:05:28]:
Oh my God, Tina, it's so good to be here. It's a blessing to get a chance to spend some time with you.

Tina Tower [00:05:33]:
Well, I mean I so in the Intro told the story of how we met, which I don't know if you remember me telling you this when we, when we started our Mastermind a couple of years ago together and, and I met you on the stage and like I couldn't get a conversation with you because you were like Mr. Big Deal. And now to be talking to you, I'm like, that's cool.

Mel Abraham [00:05:54]:
Oh my God. I know, I'm not, I'm not big. Mr. Big Deal.

Tina Tower [00:05:58]:
For sure you are Mr. Big Deal. I mean, you've been through so many different things and you know, it's part of. I want to talk about wealth and, and building wealth and, and helping other entrepreneurs in our conversation, but also, also with your journey too, and, and how you've got to where you are now. And I want to. This was something I was going to ask at the end, but just before we hit record, you, we were kind of casually talking about what success means to us now. And so I want to flip that and bring it right to the front. When you're talking about building a successful business, what does that mean to you now and how has that changed since you got into the world of this digital online space?

Mel Abraham [00:06:39]:
Wow. So I think that for me, I always wanted to build a business that had an impact, but the challenge was early on is I didn't ask the question of at what cost?

Tina Tower [00:06:54]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:06:55]:
And, and I was, you know, I'm, I'm an accountant. So we got, we got indoctrinated into the, the swap your hours for dollars type of mindset and go earn and earn. If you want to earn more, just run faster, run more hours, do more things. And, and I was a single full time dad raising my son from five and a half years old. And one day he comes in and says, dad, Daddy, I drew a picture of you to school today. And so I kneeled down to look at this picture because he was so excited about it. I couldn't wait to see. And here's this picture of me and blue felt to pen.

Mel Abraham [00:07:32]:
I was a stick figure and I'm staring at two computer screens and a phone in each ear and I realized at the hands of a six year old, I had a mirror into my soul that said, you're screwing it up. The greatest gift I was given and that was to be a parent. I was messing up. And I had this urge, this tug at me to say, but kid, we need the prophets. We need to do this. That's how we get to do the things we get to do. And the roof over our Head and all that. And I know that a lot of us feel this way.

Mel Abraham [00:08:06]:
But the thing is that if Jeremy understood what prophets were at six years old, my guess is he was looking at me and this picture was telling me, dad, I don't need your profits. I just need your presence. And that was this birth of this obsession of me to try and look at how do I create a business that allows me to have the impact I want, but to serve the life that I desire, that I dream of. And the only way that I could figure it out is that there had to be a way to separate the earnings from the efforts to earn it. And until we separated the two, I was going to be beholden and imprisoned by the treadmill of earnings. And so now I look at things from a couple different ways. One is not trying to grow the largest business in the world, but to grow the most efficient and profitable business that I have while having an impact, but me having full agency over my time.

Tina Tower [00:09:16]:
Yeah, absolutely. So when that happened, was that when you started looking at more leveraged, like online offerings? Is that how you got into this from traditional accounting?

Mel Abraham [00:09:27]:
Yes. So the truth be told is that I started to look at other offerings. What I first did is this, is that when I was building my. My accounting and my consulting practice, I was speaking to get clients. So I was out there speaking. It was. It was kind of pre Internet, so we didn't have the technology. So, so speaking.

Mel Abraham [00:09:51]:
I was networking, I was writing, I was doing workshops, I was moderating panels, doing those kinds of things to just be out there. And someone came to me and said, you know, you could make money at speaking. And I thought, what? I go, all I got was a U on my report card because of speaking. And now you're telling me I can make money at it. So that's when I started to say, it dawned on me. The light went on and said, wait a second, I'm doing five or six things to get a project to get paid. What would happen if on the road to get the project to get paid all five or six things, I got paid also.

Tina Tower [00:10:29]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:10:30]:
And that's when I said, oh. So now I start to look at things through. If I'm going to write, how do I. How do I monetize it? If I'm going to speak, how do I monetize it? If I'm going to do those kinds of things, how do I monetize it? Which got me to sit back and say, oh, I'm a content creator. I'm a messenger with A message. And this allows me to create it once and deliver it multiple times and still get paid for it without kind of leveraging my efforts and then enter in technology. And now I wasn't, I wasn't, you know, there wasn't this tyranny of distance of me having to get on a plane and all that stuff. Like we are now.

Mel Abraham [00:11:14]:
We can have this conversation and we can have good quality conversations and, and everything. And, and so that's where I started to say there's another level to this, to even leverage it more. And that's where I started to, to build into, to these other areas.

Tina Tower [00:11:30]:
Yeah. And so when you talk about, like, the, the distance between presence and profits, I know that for a lot of people listening, like my audience is 90% women. They will resonate with that massively because it's something that we talk about all the time. And, and, you know, I know that you ask a child and they want your presence over your profits every single time. However, like, I talk to my kids, their life is expensive. They love their life. It's amazing. But, man, they cost me a fortune and I'm very happy for it.

Tina Tower [00:12:03]:
And so I'm always like, how did you, how did you work out as you grew? Because you, you were good at what you did. You could make a lot of money. You knew which levers to pull. How did you find the balance between how much is enough and when to actually put it all away and, and pull back? Because I know that, you know, we're constantly fed this. Bigger is better. Like, go as fast as you can, go more. But then we want both, we want this and that. So how did you find that balance?

Mel Abraham [00:12:31]:
So the interesting thing is, like, 65 to 70% of my audience is, is female also. And I, I'm not sure why that is, but I, I, it's, it's wonderful to be able to have these kinds of conversations.

Tina Tower [00:12:46]:
Women are going to end up holding so much more of the wealth in the, in the generations to come. It's wonderful.

Mel Abraham [00:12:52]:
Oh, heck, yeah. And statistics show that women are actually better investors than men.

Tina Tower [00:12:57]:
Nice.

Mel Abraham [00:12:59]:
Yeah, yeah, the data shows that. So it's, so it's interesting. I, you know, I would love to say that I got it all dialed in and figured out. The thing that I started to realize with Jeremy is that it wasn't necessarily the amount of time I spent with him, but it was how I framed the time and the quality of the time I spent with him. And so one of the things that I did with him after this Drawing was, I created a calendar, and there were red zones, and those red zones were all his. And he knew it in advance that this was my time with him. He also knew that any other color on that calendar could. He could go and change to red.

Mel Abraham [00:13:46]:
And so the thing that I wanted to gift him was certainty, safety, and access to allow for that. And then when we were together, we were together. And I've tried to bring that into my marriage, which will be married 14 years. To putting the phone down. I think that we will be busy. But the question is, if you're at your kid's game or sporting event and you're on the phone and you're not present, I think that that impacts the perception of you really weren't there. And so that's one part of it. The other part of it is this idea of defining in advance how much is enough.

Mel Abraham [00:14:39]:
And this was something that happened with me. I, I didn't know this. I was, I was running like crazy because of what you said. Oh, I did a hundred thousand. Well, how do I make it 150? How do I make it a million? And I was just, more, more, more, more, more. And what happened was I literally got into a. A mountain biking accident that put me in a neck brace. I was.

Mel Abraham [00:15:00]:
Had no feeling on the right side. I was stuttering at a grade four concussion. And a dear, dear friend of mine who had retired at 38 years old took me out to lunch after I got out of the hospital, and he looked at me and he says, how much is enough? I go, what do you mean? Says you were distracted, you were angry, you were running. He says, but you don't even know where your finish line is. You don't know what it looks like. He says, it could be behind you, but you're still running the race. It could be in front of you, but you're. You're running the race so fast that you're going to burn out.

Mel Abraham [00:15:36]:
You could be standing on it. He says, but the one thing that I do know is you'll recover from this bike accident. And if you don't know where your finish line and what it looks like, at least for now, you'll get back on that bike, you'll do it again, but maybe next time you won't recover. And he said, so. So I think one of the challenges we get is, is especially in the kind of world we're in where we're comparing ourselves to other people, we're associating. We can see things on, on the Internet and, and social and we think that that's the reality and that's what we should be doing. What we should be doing is starting with a vision for our life and allowing that to inform everything we do. The vision for my life doesn't require a $20 million business.

Mel Abraham [00:16:27]:
Now there's plenty of people around me that are doing 20, 50, $100 million and everything that's. That's for them. So. So I think the first piece of me was, was really starting to understand what's the vision for my life. And not just financial, because the financial is just one aspect. You know, it's, it's. You know, when I talk about affluence, I said there's four elements to affluence, and only one has to do with money. The first is that you're living a meaningful life, and that's joy from the inside, the energy and the excitement.

Mel Abraham [00:17:04]:
The second is that it's an impactful life, that it's giving and that people are better because of it. The third is the money side, the fruitful life. And then the fourth is that it's. It's a peaceful life.

Tina Tower [00:17:21]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:17:21]:
That you're living in alignment with your values, with your vision and the things that you want. And. And so we tend to fall prey to what our degree tells us to do, what society tells us, what our parents, what our siblings, all these other factors. And we never go back in and say, no, I'm okay with a million dollar business because it gives me a life that, that I get to live.

Tina Tower [00:17:47]:
I think that's one of the hardest things to really define because, you know, I know for me, and I'll ask you about how often yours has changed after. But when I was in my early 20s, like when I was a teenager, I went to my first Anthony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki seminars, and I was like, all in. So I went into my 20s going, I'm going to build a $10 million property portfolio. I'm going to have all these businesses. I'm going to have a $10 million oceanfront house and a super yacht. And I wanted all of this, this big stuff. And then I worked as hard and fast as I could in my 20s before I got my company to a level that I realized, like what you said before, at what cost? And I was. We were looking at expanding internationally, and I was like, this is awful.

Tina Tower [00:18:31]:
Like, this life is no fun at all. And so in my early 30s, I kind of went and redefined all of that and made my this is enough. And I'm 41 now. And it hasn't changed since then. I have a really clear picture of how much money I need to retire so that I can live on that money for the rest of my life and what I'm willing to sacrifice. I had a great coach at the time say initially I was like, I want to get there in five years. I want that money in five years. This is what I'm going to do to take, to get there.

Tina Tower [00:19:01]:
And he's like, what if you took 10 instead and just calmed your farm a little? What would that look like? And what that. What would that feel like? And that's kind of the long game that I went. And so I'm interested to know from you how often has yours changed along the way and has there been catalysts for that or have you had like, this is my vision for my life and you've stuck it for a really long time?

Mel Abraham [00:19:24]:
No, I. It's changed. It's changed a bunch of times. Usually there's a life event, right? Or, or a realization. You know, when, when I got. I got. In 2019, I got diagnosed with cancer, which wasn't very. No, it wasn't.

Mel Abraham [00:19:45]:
It wasn't. But you know, I look at, at all the things that happened when my wife came into my life 15 years ago. You know, that was a lot. Now I'm thinking differently. And so the vision for the quality of life I want probably never changed. The thing that gave me the quality of life changed. So before early on it was the, you know, the cars and, and the possessions. And now it's like, you don't need all that.

Mel Abraham [00:20:18]:
There's this, there's this concept of, of a quiet millionaires. And I just, I just. To be quiet and just sharing the time with my wife as we travel and do the things and create the memories now with, with the grandkids. I've got two little granddaughters, one's two and one's almost four. And I remember when Emily was born, the first granddaughter, and walking down the beach with my wife and she goes, you're thinking about things. I said, you know what I just realized? I just realized that there's going to be 80 more years of Abraham on this earth. How do we live in a way that supports that? Not that we're going to give them assets and money, but how do we live into it so we have an indelible impact on their lives that actually matters? And I think that the things that created the definition of success for me changed now. Numbers changed when my wife came in and things.

Mel Abraham [00:21:23]:
So I kept moving the number up, but not at a level that put me under a enough stress that it jeopardized health, relationships and other things, because that was too much of a. Of a cost. And so that's kind of how I looked at it. And we revisit the vision and the plan and everything every year. Her and I, we spend a lot of time together having the conversations, what do we want for our life? And, you know, like, I'll be 64 this year and I'll never really retire. I love what I do. I love serving. I feel like it's post cancer era, that I'm in a season of service.

Mel Abraham [00:22:07]:
So I'll keep speaking and doing the things that I love because the currency of hope is what I see. Seeing hope in people's eyes is important, but on her side, her career, she might slow down and go more into the charity work and all that stuff. And we've had these conversations about it that maybe in a couple, two, three years, what does that look like? And what are the numbers are that we need to have in place and are we good with it right now? And we have those conversations, and I think that all of our financial conversations should be framed from the vision for our life and not from the balance in our bank account.

Tina Tower [00:22:49]:
Yeah. 100%. Isn't it funny you say your, your number's gone up as you've gone on in life. My number keeps dropping. Think maybe I started out too ambitious. But I keep. When we do, like, our yearly review, I'm like, yeah, we don't need all that. Like, it's, it's.

Tina Tower [00:23:05]:
Yeah. How happy life is right now. I, I do think, actually I want your take on that. What is your take on the money doesn't buy happiness line? Because I have been very broke in, in my life and I was miserable. And having money now, I am so much happier. Life is so much easier. And I always think when I hear people say that, man, you either mustn't have ever had to survive with no money or you haven't given enough away or like, money makes, like, it makes life way easier. What is your take on the whole.

Tina Tower [00:23:41]:
Money doesn't buy happiness.

Mel Abraham [00:23:43]:
I think that it's a combination of both. There is a threshold that. Yes, that, that without the money, we're struggling.

Tina Tower [00:23:53]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:23:53]:
I mean, when you look at statistics in the Data that say 50, 60% of people are living check to check. 30%. 30% of people making 150,000 or more are living check to check, there's a challenge there that creates a level of stress. 72% of people say that they're stressed about money, and 22% say it's extreme stress. So. So it permeates. And think about this. If you look at any choice in your life, tell me how many choices in your life have no financial impact or something connected to money.

Mel Abraham [00:24:30]:
It permeates a lot of our world. So if we don't cross that threshold of what I would call stability and security, then we're struggling and stressed by the fact that we don't have stability and security, then. Then once we're beyond that and we know that our necessities and everything are taken care of, there is a lessening impact of the volume of money. And I think what really is causing us to feel good about it is not the money itself, but the choice that I get by having it.

Tina Tower [00:25:08]:
Yeah, 100%. And I think there's a sweet spot, too. Before I know some people that have a lot, a lot of money, and it kind of swings the other way where the pressure of that gets too much. So I think there could be a sweet spot there as well. But. So I do. You know, like, I have not asked you one of my questions on my list yet. I'm going.

Tina Tower [00:25:28]:
I haven't. I'm just, like, being. I'm just, like, interested in the com. But I'm like, I need answers to these questions, so I'm going to get there. You have a wonderful book, Building your money Machine, and you're talking in that and in your programs about entrepreneurs and how they often have financial blind spots. When you're looking at it from an entrepreneur's perspective, what are the most common ones? And what's your advice? To kind of identify them and get over them?

Mel Abraham [00:25:54]:
Yeah. The first and the biggest blind spot that most entrepreneurs have is the belief that their business is their wealth. It's not. The business was never meant to give you wealth. It was never meant to create freedom. It was never meant to give control. If you. If.

Mel Abraham [00:26:13]:
If there's an entrepreneur out there that said, hey, I started. I started my own business because I wanted to have control. You know, it's really quick where you go, wait a second, I feel totally out of control. Okay, but here's what it was meant to do. It was meant to create a solution. It was meant to have an impact, and it was meant to generate cash flow. What people didn't learn and what we were never told is the idea that even with the cash flow, we got to take that and build the money. Machine, which is what the book is about, is that as an entrepreneur, you're actually on two journeys.

Mel Abraham [00:26:52]:
As an individual, you're on both journeys too. There is the earnings journey, that's where you get the fuel. And then there's the money journey, that's where you get the freedom. And they have to be run together and done together in order to, to, to do. What I, I was saying is that to separate my, my earnings from the efforts to earn it by building the machine, and that is getting my money to work harder for me than I did for it.

Tina Tower [00:27:24]:
Yeah. And so in that, are you saying that you're using the business to generate the cash flow and then you're taking that cash flow and then building your machine outside of that so that it's more leveraged?

Mel Abraham [00:27:35]:
Yes. Yeah. And I love that you use the word leverage because a lot of people will say passive income.

Tina Tower [00:27:40]:
Oh, very little.

Mel Abraham [00:27:41]:
You can't. There's nothing passive about it.

Tina Tower [00:27:45]:
I mean, don't you know that even running an online course business is passive income?

Mel Abraham [00:27:49]:
Oh my God. You know, it's like. So I talk about in the book, the idea of five incomes and, and the level of the five incomes is the degree in which you leverage your time. Because, because our relationship, and it is a relationship, but money and wealth is, is just like any other relationship. If, if you or I took a passive approach to, to our marriage, we wouldn't have been, we wouldn't be married as long as we are.

Tina Tower [00:28:24]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:28:24]:
And it's the same thing with our money. If, if we want to lose sight of the values and the wealth and the richness that life comes with, just be passive about it. It'll go away. And so I look at things through the eyes of leverage and saying, how much of my effort is it taking? Is it a one on one relationship or something more? And that's where you start to get the time back in your life. And I think we should be measuring our wealth in the, the, our ability to control the moments. So measure our wealth in time and not dollars.

Tina Tower [00:29:03]:
Yeah, yeah, of course. So for us, you know, we, we build our business on, on our thought leadership. And a lot of the people that you work with, a lot of the people that I work with, are all the same with that, that rely heavily on our personal effort, on our intellect, on our ideas. What are the key strategies that people can use for turning their business into more of an asset beyond their own hustle that you have seen.

Mel Abraham [00:29:31]:
So I think we all need to think about ourselves as a, as a Brand versus a person. And that sometimes is challenging because if we're not careful, the personal, we're building a personal brand becomes a personal burden because we get so caught up in. It has to be me, it has to be me. And in some cases it does have to be you, but not in all cases. I, I think that when you start to look at say you have the intellectual property, you have the knowledge, the skills, the experience, the expertise, the stories, all the frameworks, the processes, all of it. Now we, we look at that and say that is a product. How do I productize this so it can run separate and apart from me and start to put that in, in a place, in a frame that allows it to run without its dependency on me? Because when I, when I got diagnosed with the cancer, I shut everything down. Now there was aspects of my business that I couldn't do because I chose not to.

Mel Abraham [00:30:44]:
I was going to fight, fight the demon and, and so things like I couldn't delegate or have a process or system to go do a keynote speech. Yeah, it was either me or no one. Yeah. But having coaches, certifications, online programs, digital products that would have good onboarding sequences, good follow through sequences and all that stuff allows you to remove yourself from the process, but allow it to continue to roll. And I think that we need to think about things further than just, just us if we really truly want to separate ourselves and do that.

Tina Tower [00:31:26]:
Yeah. And you have worked with some of the really, really big name course creators. What do you see? And I mean you don't have to name, name any names, but can you give an example of someone that does this really well and what do you think sets them apart both in the way that they like operate their day to day business, but also in their big picture thinking?

Mel Abraham [00:31:50]:
There's a couple of them that have done it really well. And I think that the biggest thing that they do is they look for avenues that things like can I take some of my tools and stuff and put it into an app or software?

Tina Tower [00:32:05]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:32:08]:
One, two, they, they, there's a number of them that, whether you're going to do a membership or something like the software or an app where there's monthly recurring revenue that, so you're taking that knowledge and you're annuitizing it. So it's. So you get, you get regular reoccurring revenue. Yeah, there's a attrition on it and everything. But, but as long as we have that continued growth, at some point that becomes the lion's share of, of the revenues and the Other nice thing about it is that we have this, this long term hum of income that's just coming in on a regular basis we can depend on and then, then we can get the spikes on a launch or, or something like that. So they've done that really well. The other thing is that they realized that they needed to have the right team in place and because that's what, what allows them to get out of, out of the, the wheels. The tendency when we first start out is to believe that we're the only ones that can do it and do it the way that we, that that's best.

Mel Abraham [00:33:12]:
And, and I get that. And that may be for some things.

Tina Tower [00:33:15]:
I mean, I'm 20 years in business and I still struggle with that sometimes. We're planning a launch right now and I was like, I have to do that because I don't want anyone. And then I battle with it and go, let it go. Like let it go. Someone else can do that. But yeah, so I, I get it.

Mel Abraham [00:33:31]:
Well, and you know, you end up asking yourself that, the Pareto principle and say if they did it 80% of the way and still got the results.

Tina Tower [00:33:40]:
Yeah, what's better?

Mel Abraham [00:33:42]:
Yeah, yeah. And how much time did I get back? What did I get a chance to do? And I, and so, so they got the right team. Now I guess the other side of that is the ones that get it right and the ones that I've mentored and coached during this is anytime I bring a team member on, I want to be really clear what success looks like for me and for their role and what they believe success looks like. Because if there's a disconnect on that, they may think that they're doing great. And I see this a lot with social media folks because they typically will try to sell you a package. Hey, here's our social media package. We'll post five posts a week. And I look at him, I said, I don't care about that.

Mel Abraham [00:34:34]:
My metric for success is engagement and account growth. So if you can get engagement and account growth in one post, all you got to do is one post. Yeah, if you can get it in five, that's fine. If you can get, if you need 100 to do it, you probably don't know what you're doing. But, but the bottom line is that their measure of success was a to do list. But that's not what I'm paying for. I'm paying for results. And I think when you hire on a contractor or a team member, it's really important to get really clear and be on the same page of what does success look like? 1, 2, how are you going to measure it? What are the metrics you're going to use to determine whether you're hitting it? And three, what's the rhythm of reporting? So you can evaluate whether they're getting there.

Mel Abraham [00:35:26]:
Because every person or everyone you bring on there needs to be an roi, a return on investment. And that ROI can be in the form of a couple of currencies. One, it could be more profits, or, or two, it could be more efficiency, or three, it might be additional time. Back to you. Yeah, but we need to define it beforehand so everyone's on the same page. And I think the ones that do it, well, they get that right at the beginning.

Tina Tower [00:35:56]:
And I mean that's the, it's the exact same thing as your wealth too, in knowing what success looks like for you and then keeping track of that regularly. And so I want to ask you that question because I know that when I read a lot of investing books and money books, they're always geared at employees that have the same amount of money coming in every week. So you can set up your automated spending same amount of deposit every week. And for entrepreneurs, as we know from most entrepreneurs, income is lumpy. You may not know what's going to happen next month or, or next quarter, or you may have a bonza launch, or you may have a launch that flops. What is your advice to entrepreneurs that, that don't have that steady paycheck on an investment strategy that can actually work for them with that lumpiness?

Mel Abraham [00:36:44]:
So this is a great question. There's a couple of things that I think we need to do. One is liquidity becomes huge, meaning that having cash available to me to carry me in a downtime is important. So at some point what we need to do is start putting some money away, whether it's in a high yield savings account or something, to have the flexibility or the peace of mind, like I call it in my book, to know that if there's a hiccup, I've got a place to go. Okay. The second thing is we all should be operating from a plan. And I see this, especially with finances and everything. You think about this, you're going to hire 10 employees and you put an ad in.

Mel Abraham [00:37:34]:
I almost said the paper. We don't do ads and papers anymore, do we?

Tina Tower [00:37:37]:
Hey you guys, he's in his 60s. We can forgive him for saying tapes.

Mel Abraham [00:37:42]:
And eight track tapes too. So, so you, you put an ad out there, you get a bunch of employees. You hire 10 of them. They come into the, into the, the conference room and say, welcome aboard. You're part of my business. You're part of my company. You'll notice I do things differently around here. We don't have roles, we don't have goals, we don't have tasks.

Mel Abraham [00:38:01]:
I don't give you titles, I don't give you job descriptions. But I want to double the business in the next 12 months. All right, let's go do it. Like, what's the chance of success? And the thing is that you would never do that with employees. But we do that with our money and our money. They are employees. They're there to work for us. The money is there to do stuff for us.

Mel Abraham [00:38:25]:
The challenge is we never tell it what to do. And the thing is, just like those employees, we would know their job description, their role, their tasks, their goals before we ever even put the ad in, in online, or in the paper or wherever we put it to do that. Well, that's what we got to do with our money. And so I think one of the things that is missing for a lot is that we don't have a plan. And that plan will be, you know, the revenues, the expenses, and all that stuff. But at the same time, what I try to coach people to do is I want your financial future, your wealth building, to be a line item in every plan. In other words, there's going to be a portion or percentage that's always going to go towards your financial future. Now, for people that are lumpy in their income and their earnings, one of the things that we try to do is we will see if we can find a.

Mel Abraham [00:39:22]:
A settle point, a. An average that we can go with, that you can get in. Into the rhythm of. Of investing and putting money away. And the reason for that is this building wealth is, is. Is so much more. People say, well, I got money issues. I said, you're in money issues.

Mel Abraham [00:39:42]:
I go, you haven't seen my checking account? And I said, no, I don't need to see your checking account. You don't have money issues. No one has money issues. You have money symptoms. And there's symptoms of behaviors, decisions, and habits of the past. Now, that's confronting for a lot of people. They go, wait a second. You blame it on me? I said, no, I'm just making you the responsible person because now you're empowered to just change the decisions, the behaviors and the habits and get a different future.

Mel Abraham [00:40:08]:
So when we blame it on other things, we don't have control. But it is truly that is that we create this habit. So that's why I want to have this regular, consistent money put away. Even if it's $5, $10, 100, if it's not big, what you're doing is you're exercising a muscle and a habit that creates a process that drives wealth. And then you add to that what I call leapfrog, leapfrog funding. So you get the launch, that hits it out of the park, and that really goes. And now all of a sudden, you bring in, I don't know, $200,000. Now I tell them, all right, so now you got $200,000 in.

Mel Abraham [00:40:54]:
Now let's take a piece and put it away for taxes. So we got that taken care of. Also, let's take a slice, a small slice of it for your celebration. Because I don't believe in chasing dreams and not enjoying the journey. If you don't enjoy the journey to financial freedom, you will never enjoy the destination of it. So we take and we celebrate. But then you look at it and say, now, what's my next timeline for my revenue generation? If all of a sudden I don't have any launches or something coming in for another 90 days, then I got to look at that money and say, how do I make a piece of that to carry me for that 90 days? And then everything above that, you put away to the future. And so you're leapfrog, leapfrogging your wealth every time you get a chance while being smart about making sure that all the pieces are taken care of in the interim.

Mel Abraham [00:41:52]:
And so it's one of the things that I did because I would get big projects, 50,000, 150,000 as a consultant, I didn't need it all right away. And so that's how I pieced it up and then would jump it into wealth building.

Tina Tower [00:42:06]:
Yeah. That's such good advice. One of my favorite quotes in business is revenues for vanity. Profit is for sanity. Cash flow is reality. And I see people all the time celebrating, you know, the massive revenue numbers, but then when I talk to them, have little actual wealth. Can you explain the difference between focusing on cash flow and revenue building and what your advice to entrepreneurs, especially in our space in the online world, where everyone's going for, you know, big numbers are glorified all the time.

Mel Abraham [00:42:38]:
Yeah, listen, you know, Warren Buffett said, when the tide goes out, you see who's been swimming naked. And it's true. There's a lot of people that will parade numbers. They'll parade their Lamborghini on social media and all this stuff. We can't judge that book by their cover. Too often they're in debt. They're creating a facade. It's not.

Mel Abraham [00:43:06]:
The reality is the same thing with revenues. Revenues or big launches. Okay, great. They give you bragging rights. I just did a big launch. $6 million. Okay, let's break it down. The thing is that $6 million isn't $6 million unless you get $6 million in your bank account.

Mel Abraham [00:43:29]:
Because I have to pay my team, I have to pay my ads, I have to pay my affiliates, I have to pay all the other costs. And by the time you're done with the 6 million, you might be down to 3 or 4 million. Yeah, I mean, 3 or 2 million. And then you look at it and say, but I, but then, but then I sold a lot of it on payment plans. Oh. And, you know, 20% of the payment plans failed. So how much did you actually put in your pocket? Because it's the money that you put in your pocket that you can take home to put food on the table. And so I don't really, I never chase the top line number.

Mel Abraham [00:44:13]:
I chase the cash in my pocket. What is this going to generate from a profit standpoint, a cash flow standpoint. And that's the thing that I'm trying to optimize for. I don't really, I don't, I don't care for the, the huge launches and all the, the team and all the effort and all the stuff that goes into it if it's going to translate into a, a very small bottom line. This business, unlike other businesses that I, you know, I sit on boards of directors of, of, you know, old stodgy businesses and, and consult with online business. This online space is the highest margin business, I guess, except for drug dealing. I don't know.

Tina Tower [00:44:59]:
Yeah, yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:45:01]:
It's the highest legal margin business out there. And if your margins are, are down below 30% and really below 50%, you got to check some things because there should be a high, high margin in your business. Now, if you're one of those businesses in this space that primarily works off of affiliates and you're paying a good portion off to affiliates. Okay, I get it. It'll, it'll erode your margins. That's, that's fine. But it's cautious, it's aware, it's intentional. You understand it.

Mel Abraham [00:45:36]:
But if you're sitting back running a business in this space that is 10%, 5%, 10% margins, there's something wrong. Yeah, there's something not working. Right.

Tina Tower [00:45:48]:
Yeah. Yes. Usually I see it's team blowout. Team blowout and ad spend. Those two things, the biggest culprits that I see when people hit it big. But I want to switch into your legacy, wealth building. Looking back on your journey that you've had, what's a mistake that you've made in wealth building that you now wish every other entrepreneur could avoid?

Mel Abraham [00:46:13]:
You know, the whole song. Jesus, take the wheel. Yeah. Entrepreneur, take the wheel. One of the things that I did early on is I relied on professionals, but I relied on them in a way that I shouldn't have. I relinquished control and said, you got this.

Tina Tower [00:46:30]:
Yeah, right.

Mel Abraham [00:46:31]:
All right. Never, ever do you relinquish control of your financial future to a professional. They are your navigator, they are your, your, your second mate. They're your second chair. They're there to inform you, educate you, guide you. But you're there to choose. You're there to have your hands on the wheel and, and make sure that you're guiding it. And so once I took control of the decisions and got involved, now I'm far deep into it because of what I do.

Mel Abraham [00:47:06]:
I mean, I look at charts and all that stuff, but I'm not saying at that level. What I am saying is that the critical decisions, the critical information, everyone should be understanding on the wealth journey. They should be willing to ask the difficult questions if they're with an advisor, if that advisor does not want to take the time to educate you, inform you, help you understand which is their primary job, then they're the wrong one for you. And so that's probably the first, first piece is that I would get much more involved in the wealth building journey and how it integrates with the business and not relinquish it to some professional that's just going to do it behind the scenes.

Tina Tower [00:47:47]:
Yeah, yeah. And I know that takes, that takes time. Like, there's, there's so much, especially when I was in my twenties, that I just, I did exactly what you said. Like, I go to the professionals and just go, okay, I'll do that. You're smarter than me, you're wiser than me. Like, I'll do that. Whereas as I've gotten older, I've gotten a lot more questioning and not taking everything. And everyone's different too.

Tina Tower [00:48:08]:
So I think it takes, it's that muscle that takes that exercise in, in going, well, what is for me and what isn't for me and what do I need to take? And what am I? Okay to leave?

Mel Abraham [00:48:18]:
Yeah, exactly. And I Think the other thing is I would have started earlier.

Tina Tower [00:48:24]:
I mean, doesn't everyone say that people don't realize.

Mel Abraham [00:48:27]:
Yeah, I mean, people don't realize that because we think like when you're in your 20s or 30s even, I got time. You do have time.

Tina Tower [00:48:35]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:48:36]:
But imagine what this is. Here's, here's what people don't realize. There's a thing that I talk about in my book that when you first start investing, you're in this zone called the wealth flatline. And this is where you're, you're putting money away. You're investing, you're investing and you don't see any progress. You, like, do it for, for five, six, seven years. And it's like I keep putting money away. This guy Mel Abraham told me to do it and I did that.

Mel Abraham [00:48:59]:
I made $67. This guy's doesn't know what he's talking about. What's happening is you're compressing a spring and you're going to hit a tipping point. And when you cross that tipping point, you're in the acceleration zone and it rockets. Here's what, think about this. I want, let's say I want to build a million dollars and I'm going to put $10,000 away a year. I'm going to put it into an S and P shares that make 8% a year. It will take me 7.6 years to get my first hundred thousand, which is the most critical because you've never done it before and it's who you become in the process.

Mel Abraham [00:49:41]:
It takes 7.6 years. By the time you hit 20 and a half years, you will got, you will have gotten to half a million dollars. So you're now going, it's taking me 20 years to get a half a million dollars at $10,000 a year. But I have another half million to go. You know, to get that last half million, it takes seven and a half years. It takes less time to get the half, second half a million than it did to get the first hundred thousand. And that's because you crossed the tipping point and your money's working harder for you than you did for it. But the challenge is when you don't see that progress, people jump out of the line and they get out of that flat line.

Mel Abraham [00:50:19]:
And there's only one thing that eats up the flatline. It's time. And so the sooner we get in the game and stay in the game, even if it's with low dollars, we will get past that flat line and the money will do the hard work at 20 years old. When you put money away into shares, say at 8%, it will go up 88 times by the time you hit age 65. If you wait just five years to age 25, it will only go up 44 times. You lose half of it. Time is the greatest lever. Now, I didn't understand that.

Mel Abraham [00:50:58]:
No one explained it to me. And I'm trained as an accountant. Accountants. The training as an accountant didn't teach me about wealth and money. It taught me how to. How to punch a timesheet and work from nine to nine and only get paid nine to five.

Tina Tower [00:51:15]:
Yeah, right.

Mel Abraham [00:51:16]:
Yeah, it was like crazy. And until once I realized it, like my son. So my son is now 34, his wife's 32, they've got the two granddaughters, but they have four homes and a multi million dollar net worth. But I started having conversations with him at 11 years old. He started a business at 16 and he understood now at the beginning, he pushed back on how to do it. And I'm so conservative now, they're looking at me and going, four more years. The machine's built.

Tina Tower [00:51:49]:
I said, yeah, that's awesome. So that brings me beautifully into my last question for you, Mel, is what does your future success look like? It's a question I love to ask everybody.

Mel Abraham [00:52:00]:
Gosh, for me, like I said, post cancer, I feel like I'm in the season of service. I wrote the book, so I had the cancer. The cancer came. I got diagnosed in 2019. We had two surgeries and a bunch of treatments and everything. And in December of that year, we thought everything was fine. April comes around and I go back in for a scan and they found the cancer had come back. So I was in a dark place.

Mel Abraham [00:52:29]:
It was during COVID also, and I was struggling. I was walking on the beach and trying to figure out why did I get the cancer? Who did I piss? No one in my family had cancer. I wasn't a smoker, not a drinker, you know, no one ever had. So, like, who did I piss off? Who did I wrong? Why did I deserve this? What was going on? What did I do? And I was talking to a dear friend of mine and, and walking on the beach. And he said, you know, you've been searching your past to figure out what you did to get the cancer. And I said, yeah. He said, you find anything? I said, darkness. It was hard.

Mel Abraham [00:53:05]:
He says, well, what if the cancer wasn't because of something you did, but something you were meant to do? What would it mean for you then? And that's when I looked at it and said, oh, everyone in Covid in the pandemic was struggling financially, but I didn't. Not with the cancer and not with that. Not because I was better, but because of what I had done, because of a picture that my son drew that got me to think differently. And I realized that's the message. Maybe that's what the message is, and that's what allows me to give the cancer value and to be able to come out and say, this is what I want to do. I don't. I mean, and I say this not from a. An ego standard.

Mel Abraham [00:53:53]:
I don't necessarily have to work the machines built. We're good. But I want to serve because the currency that I want. Someone asked me recently said, mel, if you could do only one thing in your business, what would it be? And I said, speak. I said, really? That was that quick? And I said, yeah. And he says, why? And I said, because it's the one place that I know I can serve a big group. And the currency I get back is the hope that I see in their eyes. And that's really how I'm looking at this next season, is that, yeah, let's sell the books, let's do the things, and we'll make some money, and we'll do that.

Mel Abraham [00:54:35]:
But at the same time, if I made the money but didn't change the lives, that's not enough for me, because I don't believe legacy. We talk about legacy. I want to leave. We don't build things to leave behind. That's not legacy. That's stuff. That's. That's.

Mel Abraham [00:54:54]:
That's. That doesn't matter. Legacy is not in what you leave. Legacy is in how you live. And so I look at. And say when I look at.

Tina Tower [00:55:04]:
That's a beautiful.

Mel Abraham [00:55:05]:
Framing this conversation.

Tina Tower [00:55:07]:
It's how you live. That's a great quote, because then I.

Mel Abraham [00:55:10]:
Get a chance to enjoy my legacy. Who. If I gotta wait to die, I don't enjoy my. My legacy is this. To know that every moment of an interaction matters. And now I create legacy in each and every moment by knowing that I give it the importance and the reverence that the moment deserves and know that I've lived it fully and that I gave that moment everything. That's. That's.

Mel Abraham [00:55:37]:
To me what. What's driving me right now with everything that I do and. And saying, I. I want to be out there serving. I want to be out there giving. I want to. I want to. Of.

Mel Abraham [00:55:49]:
Of hope in their eyes. I believe financial Freedom is everyone's birthright.

Tina Tower [00:55:53]:
Yeah.

Mel Abraham [00:55:54]:
And I want to help them go claim it. Not because of the money in the bank account, but the richness in their life account.

Tina Tower [00:56:01]:
I love that. Well, thank you for being in this moment with us and sharing your story and sharing your wisdom. I will link to all of your programs and your book and everything that you have in the show. Notes Mel, thank you so, so much.

Mel Abraham [00:56:15]:
Oh my God. Thank you so much for having me. This is such a joy. Such a joy.

Tina Tower [00:56:20]:
This episode was brought to you by my signature group coaching program, Her Empire Builder, the best online education for female course creators in the world. Check it [email protected] along with so many free resources to help you get building your empire and seeing those results that you deserve. If you if you loved this episode, please don't keep it a secret. Share it with a friend on social media and tag me inatower and give it a review. It really does help us to be able to bring you bigger and better content as we grow. Have the most beautiful day. I'm Tina Tower and I'm cheering you on all the way.