Empire Builders Get What They Pitch For
How do I define an Empire Builder? Anyone inspired by a message, a vision or a cause which they feverishly broadcast to the world with the aim of enrolling others in their vision. Of course, that definition is totally up for debate but the point is these are people who have taken a stance in the world, believe in something and are constantly pitching it from whatever platform they can get their hands on. Great entrepreneurs are often great empire builders. They’ve got an insatiable desire to get their beliefs out there and enrol others in what they believe. From watching and observing them do it, I’ve come to a few conclusions:
You get what you pitch for — The kind of things that start to ‘show up’ in their business are the kind of things they pitch for. If they’re pitching that they’ve got no time, no money, no energy, no authority then these things usually show up. If they’re pitching they’re entering a new phase of growth, they’re looking for an outstanding team, they’re raising capital to fund their expansion — then for reasons I’m not quite sure — that kind of stuff starts to show up.
Your vision is pitched into reality — This is a really important one. Before their business does start to grow, before they do expand nationally, before they do raise capital — all they simply have is their vision. It’s not reality. What turns their vision into reality is their pitch — the stance, the belief or the message that they’re broadcasting to the world.
Have absolute certainty in your vision. From certainty comes belief — It takes a lot of guts and tenacity to pitch something that isn’t yet real. We all hear that voice saying, “Who do you think you are? You can’t do that! You’ve never done that before.”. Yet As Tony Robbins would say the past does not equal the future. Empire Builders have absolute certainty in their vision and it won’t matter whether it’s a reality just yet, it’s already real in their eyes.
Therefore, your belief is pitched into existence — Empire Builders pitch with absolute certainty. From certainty comes belief in what they do. Therefore by pitching with absolute certainty, they also pitch their belief in what they’re doing into existence. Now I’m not just talking about saying they believe in what they’re doing, I’m talking about driving their message into your heart like a dagger, the kind of piercing feeling that cuts to your core and makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck when you hear it. That’s the kind of belief Empire Builders inspire in others.
Inspiring others around you is a sign that your message is on song — You’ve seen someone inspired by a message haven’t you? You’ve probably felt it as well right? Well that look and that feeling is the one that Empire builders see when they touch people with their message. Empire Builders look out for it like a sign pointing them in the direction they need to go. When they create that kind of reaction in those around them, they know the message is landing and they’re on song.
A startup will take on a life of its own when people around it become inspired by your pitch — When they pitch their vision with absolute clarity and absolute certainty and it inspires, inspired people do amazing things. All of a sudden the Empire Builder is like a magnet, attracting people, resources and opportunities to their cause. Their pitch is like a beacon of light, guiding the way for those who want to follow in their footsteps and fulfil their call to action. The new crusaders start to spread the message on the Empire Builder’s behalf, they promote it, they write articles about it, they want to be a part of it, they want to refer more people to it, they want to debate it, they want to glorify and vilify it. Most importantly of all is they won’t ignore it.
Case Study: Laura Mae Davey of Maer Snowboarding — Laura is my girlfriend and also enrolled in the KPI program here in Melbourne. She started her business less than 6 months ago with little more than an idea and a heap of passion and determination. She always said to me, “You know what I just want to do it. I just want to Get Shit Done” and over the coming weeks she developed clarity on her message, pitched it to whoever she could with absolute certainty and her belief in what she is doing sprang to life as a result. Maer believes that everyone should live their most adventures life. It’s a simple statement and that’s why its so powerful. Her niche is to run snow trips for chicks — because if she can get more girls taking up snowboarding then she will be a step closer to helping more people live their most adventurous life. After running her first trip up to Mt Hotham last month, everyone hasn’t stopped raving about it since. And the funny thing is, when she launched her second trip “The Falls Trip”, all her fans and followers started to spread the message on her behalf, people promoted the trip on their Facebook walls (even if they couldn’t go themselves) and some people were even inspired to blog about it as well.
It’s amazing. You get what you pitch for.
What are you pitching for? What’s the message you think more people should know about? I’d love you to share.
In the words of Maer. Live Big.
