I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about giving away free material vs. charging for it. Here’s a recent 1-hour interview where I talk about free vs. paid material, including how I went from charging $4.95 for my first ebook to $12,000 for my most recent course.

I also did another interview on the psychology of monetization, too, where I cover more academic psychological and marketing theory. This is for the true psychology/marketing nerds, so I reveal some gems that only they would appreciate. Based on the kinds of emails I get, I assume about 80% of you are huge huge nerds.

So, let’s talk about monetization and information addicts. Whenever people say “all information should be free,” I laugh. Nonsense. I feel absolutely comfortable charging premium prices for my most valuable courses because they deliver quantifiable results, and I give away so much free material — free material that I aim to make better than anyone else’s paid stuff.

Sometimes, though, I offer something in between. I’ll give away something I could charge hundreds of dollars for for free, like a 4,355-word email. But I always ask for something from you — because if I invest in you, I expect you to invest in yourself by taking action. Sometimes it’s leaving a comment. Sometimes it’s sharing with a friend. Or sometimes it’s joining my email list.

I ask you to take action because I’m not simply giving away information. Anyone can give away information. (Just google Top 10 [anything].) In fact, there’s something far more powerful than information alone.

For example, when I released my interview with Stanford psychologist and persuasion expert BJ Fogg, which took me 16 hours to prepare for, I told my readers that I could charge $1,000 for the material in the interview. (It has easily been worth 1000x that to me.) But I gave it away for free. Instead of charging, I told my readers to treat it like a $1,000 purchase, and to implement the strategies we outlined, in order to effect true behavioral change from it.

And that’s the real goal: behavioral change. It is far more challenging and rewarding to change behavior than to write some crappy pageview-generating post with “information” alone.

All of this is designed to sift the true action-takers from the information addicts — the people who wake up every morning, load their RSS reader/Twitter, and look for that new information to flow over them. “AHHHH! I NEED IT!! GIMME THAT BLOGGY GOODNESS!!!” they cry. I kick their asses to the curb.

I have no interest in information addicts. They use phrases like, “This site jumped the shark! Why don’t you write about investing any more?” When I calmly reply, “Have you read my book?” they say, “No…I should definitely do that….”

When I hear morons like this, I retreat to my happy place, a dream-like state where I am sitting on a behavioral-change throne, dismissively waving off losers and whiners with one hand, while holding a gold scepter in the other. Naturally, I am being fanned with bald-eagle-feathered wands waved by bikini-clad women.

Of course, I have to earn my way into your life. Why would you invest your time unless my material actually produces results? To judge for yourself, here’s some of the free material I’ve released this month on finding your Dream Job:

• How to use Natural Networking to connect with anyone — including the exact email scripts (160+ comments)
• What the pros know about networking that you don’t (100+ comments)
• YouTube videos

I invite you to compare my free material to anyone else’s paid material to see how it stacks up. I don’t say this to be arrogant, but because I invest years in studying this material so I can offer you the best — and I respect you enough not to pander to the lowest common denominator.

So, for the final week of the Dream Job Boot Camp — starting today — this blog will be quiet. I’m releasing new material only to the people who sign up for my Dream Job launch list. Here’s what you’ll get in the next 7 days:

• The Dream Job Guide to Finding Your Passion (never before released)
• How to get paid what you’re worth
• Specific psychological insights on regret
• A BONUS live webinar about…well, you have to be on the list to find out.

I’ll also be releasing my new Find Your Dream Job course only to people on my launch list. (Interesting behind-the-scenes note: When I first released Earn1K, I told people I might raise the price down the road. And in fact, just as I promised and based on student feedback, I doubled the price immediately afterwards. IWT readers who didn’t join the first time had to pay 2x what my pioneer students paid.)

Live Webcast Tonight: Master-Level Interviewing

And I intend to make it worth your time — like the 100,000+ others who have joined and gotten material that the public will never see.

If you’ve ever wondered how the masters interview, tonight I’ll show you — down to the exact words and psychological strategies used.

I’m doing a live webcast TONIGHT — Monday, 1/23 — at 9pm EST. You will learn the subtle psychological and verbal strategies used in high-level interviews. No, I will not make recordings. No, not even if you live in Spain and it’s 3am there. Last time, 3,000+ people from around the globe attended, live, and said it was one of the best things I’d ever done.

I hope to see you tonight, and I hope to see you on the launch list. I’m about to release some of my best material ever, and I genuinely hope to see you there.

Can’t see the above form? Click here to join.

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When I was on the Today Show a couple years ago, I sat down to prep a few minutes before air time. About 45 seconds before we went live, Meredith Viera came onto set. She took one look at the topic sheet, then reached out to shake all of our hands. In the next 30 seconds, she asked a couple questions to get to know us, and then we started the segment.

What was fascinating was that, within those 30 seconds, she was so personable that we instantly felt a connection to her (“Wow, she’s so friendly!”). And I realized that the masters — like the world’s top TV anchors, politicians, and business leaders — are the best for a reason. One of their skills is the invisible talent of being able to instantly connect with someone. Bill Clinton, for example, is legendary for this.

How was Meredith able to instantly connect with all of us? Was it about the words she used? The body language she employed? Or was there something deeper going on?

Building soft skills and deep personal relationships is a mystery to most of us. And what we don’t understand, we’re skeptical of.

That’s why we’re almost all skeptical of “networking” and “building relationships.” We all hear phrases like “The majority of jobs are found through personal contacts.” But how does that actually work? How do you go from knowing your friends to turning that into jobs?

We don’t understand how this works, so we create false dichotomies like…

• “Whatever, networking is for douches”
• “I’m not good at selling myself”
• “I’d rather get a job based on WHAT I know instead of WHO I know”

They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I will add Ramit’s Maxim #38: Hell hath no fury like an anonymous internet commenter who sees something going on he does not understand. Witness the angry comments on my Lifehacker post from yesterday.

We get skeptical of things we can’t immediately grasp. We see people who are doing insanely impressive things (like my students earning tens of thousands of dollars), and we don’t understand how it’s possible they’re doing it but we cannot. So we start throwing around words like “Ugh, he’s just a networker/slimeball/fake.” This is for people we’ve never met, but we’re sure they must be…otherwise, how would they be doing so well?

To try to do something about it, we seek out shiny tactics to earn more and find our Dream Jobs. We try them — like tweaking our resumes and finding a new job website — but we’re never really sure which random techniques will work and which ones won’t. We’re basically shooting in the dark, never aware of the entire game being played around us.

The Million-Dollar Sentence: Some of the best advice I’ve ever received

A few years ago, I got introduced to a senior person at a company very similar to IWT — except they were earning $40m/year. I was curious to learn what insights they’d had along the way. (I outline this very principle in The Best $20 You’ll Ever Spend.)

“Ramit,” this woman told me, “your tactics are great, but over time, they’ll become commodities. But when you can connect with people’s psychological and emotional barriers, you can massively help them.”

My initial reaction was denial: “You don’t understand…my tactics are REALLY GOOD.” But a few days after that call, I started to understand.

Now, years later, I think about that simple sentence almost every week. If you’ve been reading my site for years, you’ve seen the changes over time — I’ve stuck by my idea of providing you the best tactics to earn more, save more, and get an edge in life, but I’ve also started to rail against “information seekers” who simply want yet another tactic…without ever delving into their own psychological barriers.

In fact, I could give you the best tactics in the world, and if you have psychological barriers, they simply won’t matter. There are infinite numbers of worthless bloggers who will give you “Top 10” lists…but we already KNOW we should be spending less than we earn. We “know” we should be networking. We “know” we should be working out.

Yet we don’t. Why?

The subtle answer to this question is why I’ve been able to get results for IWT readers like this — and why most “experts” continue writing yet another worthless piece on 5 ways to save on groceries — or useless career advice.

And it’s precisely what we’re going to dig into today — a look behind the veil — in the area that has been the single-most influential area of my life.

* * *

What we WANT vs. what we NEED

I get a lot of people emailing, wondering how I grew my blog or monetized or got on TV. Or sometimes they just want to know about themselves, like how they can interview better or find their passion.

What they WANT is a shiny tactic — like the actual email scripts I used to reach out to people. Losers love tactics.

What they NEED is to understand the strategy behind it.

I realized that the sites that provide only tactics quickly become a morass of useless, pageview-generating “Top 10” lists desperately consumed by shiny tactic-seeking losers.

Yet sites that provide “strategic advice” are often so high-level that they’re not actionable.

I want to give you both, but show you how they work together. Earlier this week, I gave you the actual email scripts you can use to meet extremely busy people.

Today, let’s go deeper. Let’s examine the strategy and psychology of building a great network — a group of people who WANT to help you. A group of people who keep an eye out for jobs and can actually get you hired at jobs that aren’t even public yet. We can ALL have friends and business relationships like this — and none of it involves being sleazy, slimy, or scammy.

Let me show you how.

How To Separate Yourself from Scammy Networkers

Michael Ellsberg at Forbes just wrote a long piece on building relationships and the importance of single-author blogs. He quoted me at length:

“I asked Ramit the Million Dollar Question: let’s say you’ve identified this Holy Grail blogger. How do you get on his or her radar?

“Here’s the worst way. The worst way is to send one email with a ton of content saying, ‘Hey, I would love for you to review my product. I think it’s great. I think your readers would really love it’ and then it’s just a bunch of gibberish markety stuff.

“Guess what? Any big blogger gets at least 50 of those a week. I wish we could answer all of them, but they just get deleted. The more effective way is to take a long-term approach. The real misfortune is that nobody else does it. So people will nod and say, ‘Yeah, I should really do that,’ and then they don’t.

“You want to focus on the idea, ‘I’m going to add value to this person over time.’ The first thing you could do is leave some thoughtful comments on their blog. Next, you could send them some email saying, ‘Hey, that was really great, but I thought you may have missed this one point. Here’s an interesting article with a different perspective on it.’ If you thought it through and did some research, the author will think, ‘Wow, thanks very much!’ and you are not asking for anything.

“All of a sudden now you’ve differentiated yourself first by adding value. You are not going directly for the kill. Eventually, you could reach out and say, ‘Hey, these are a couple of things I noticed you’re doing that I think that I could help with. I’d love to connect you to this person, etc.’ Then eventually, you can ask, ‘If it’s okay, I just want to ask you for about 60 seconds,’ and ask them about your thing and say, ‘Do you have any advice?’ and ‘Do you think maybe this might be interesting to your audience?’

“No pressure. One mistake people make is they often have a ‘one shot and done’ attitude about this: ‘If I don’t get my pitch in, and they don’t like it, it’s over.’ Wrong. It’s really about building a relationship over the long-term. Sounds like a lot of work? Good! Because 99% of people will not do that. That’s why they will send one email, it will be rejected and they’ll complain that, ‘Oh this blogger’s not nice,’ or ‘Oh, it’s too hard to get media. If only I had connections.’ The point is to reach those people, it’s not about luck or magic, it’s about being really thoughtful and systematic about how you can help them first.”

Now let’s deconstruct what’s going on there.

The 5 Barriers to Becoming a Master Connector

Networking is one of those things we nod, shrug, and say, “Yeah, I need to figure that out.” But we don’t:

Ironically, in our search for tactics, we become less and less likely to take action. We say things like, “I don’t know where to begin.” Two days ago, I gave you scripts and powerful tactics to start meeting busy people so you could learn from their expertise and shortcut your learning cycle by months or years. How many of you actually did it?

Instead, we constantly search for more and more tactics. And we make assumptions that people who network are sleazy, etc. (To see what I mean, go check out what the young/engineering guys at Hacker News say about my friend Tim Ferriss. The bitterness is palpable, because it’s easy to be skeptical on the internet.)

All of these are assumptions, but we never test them. Some of my really good friends, like Tim, are consummate networkers, but if you met them in person, you’d just like them because they’re cool and fun.

It turns out that we have deep psychological barriers around networking. And because it is such an invisible art — with no clear step-by-step formula — it’s easy to let the barriers overwhelm us.

Watch this video where I deconstruct these very psychological barriers:

Based on our research of 20,000+ people, here are some of the top psychological barriers around networking. Remember, without understanding your own barriers, no tactic matters.

• “It’s not about WHAT you know, it’s about WHO you know.” This phrase has been bitterly spit out by countless unemployed Brooklyn hipsters who make me want to take their plaid Keffiyehs and shove them…never mind. You know what? They’re right! The more you progress in your career, the more important relationships are — sometimes even more than your technical skills. So you can either (1) Whine about the way the world is constructed and complain about the President/tax policy/geo-political affairs and why you don’t have the right connections, or (2) Learn the skills of meeting the right people, helping them, and learn the invisible game being played around you.
• “I’m not the kind of person who could network. I hate selling myself.” The invisible script here is “only naturals know how to network” and “I’m not that kind of person.” Wrong, wrong, wrong. When you meet people who have learned to build long-term relationships, you realize how much practice they’ve put into it. There’s a secondary invisible script here: People who use this phrase typically don’t have any positive role models as examples of ethical networkers. It’s not sleazy or slimy. In fact, it’s the height of serving other people — like how my friend got $20,000 of my time.
• “I wouldn’t know what to say.” Of course you wouldn’t — you haven’t done this before. I look back at some of my early emails to meet people and they were just awful. But you study the greats, you practice, and you get better. If you ever heard a kid saying, “But I don’t know how to ride a bike!” you would laugh, pat him on the head, and shove his ass on that bike. You would not let him use “I don’t know how” as a crutch…for the rest of his life. Again, I can’t wait to be an Asian parent.

3 Case Studies: Learning Instant Soft Skills

I recently ran a program called “Dream Job Elite,” a focused course where I taught a small group of students some of my most inside material on finding Dream Jobs, interviewing, negotiation, and soft skills.

I invited them to New York and spent hours and hours showing them subtle tweaks on how to improve their storytelling, persuasive skills, and body language. As much as I wish I could help everyone one on one, this was an elite, $12,000-a-head program designed to demonstrate that all of us can make rapid gains using subtle soft skills.

I want to show you these examples because they’re people just like you — who made massive gains in their ability to connect with people.

“I used to think I was really good at networking, but this…showed me what a novice I was…”

“I used to think I was really good at networking, but this module showed me what a novice I was.

I knew that important people were always busy, but I never took the time to think through what they were feeling on their end and how to impress them by making their lives easier.

I’ve reached out to 5 people who are either directly related or indirectly related to my first choice and second choice dream jobs. I used the methods in module 4 to craft emails that were brief but effective with specific times so it makes it easier to say yes… I’m waiting to hear back from three and the other two already responded but we’re working through scheduling conflicts. I should be able to have coffee with them sometime around Thanksgiving.”
– “Jessica,” Dream Job Elite graduate

“Of the 5 e-mails, I got 4 responses. 3 offered to respond…”

“I really think this [course] gives more structure and guidance to how I approach networking.

The multi-touch strategy is a great way to keep in touch without just taking and never giving back. It is also an easier way to follow up after the initial meeting, which I’ve always had trouble with, and gives me guideposts on what I should be doing after the initial meeting.

I reached out to 5 people this week. All were cold e-mails to people I do not have connections with. Of the 5 e-mails, I got 4 responses. 3 offered to respond to questions and communicate via e-mail.”
– “Steve,” Dream Job Elite graduate

“I’d honestly never even considered this…”

“[I learned] very specifically what my goals should be from these initial meetings with experts on my potential dream jobs. Prior to the lesson, I understood the general idea that I should be getting in touch with experts on particular job titles, but now I know exactly what my I’m after: 1) “Would I enjoy this job?” 2) “Can I get this job and how to best do so?”

[I learned] that acting on an expert’s advice is a way to add value back to them. (I’d honestly never even considered this). I’ve always gotten hung up on how to give value back to an expert who’s helped me. This always turns in to a barrier for me and I tend to not follow up for a long time. And I always assumed their advice was for me to simply take back and execute quietly on my own. So, it’s great to understand that top performers really do like seeing their advice put into practice and knowing that a new contact is succeeding.

Have reached out to 6 UI Designers at Apple in total so far RESULTS: 50% response rate = 1 IM chat, 1 email with my questions answered, 1 offer to answer my questions on Quora.”
– “Lance,” Dream Job Elite graduate

By the way — I have the actual before & after videos, showing the actual teardowns and techniques employed. You’ll be astonished when you see them. And I’ll give some of you access, soon.

How can you apply this TODAY?

I love pointing out that there are always hundreds more comments on the posts where people can just jot down something they feel vs. posts where I ask them to do something concrete. It’s a classic example of using small barriers to avoid kooks.

You saw this earlier this week, when people spent tons of time writing email scripts…but how many of you actually emailed people and set up a coffee meeting?

Today, I challenge you to try putting this into practice.

To Do Today

1. Leave a comment: Identify 3 barriers you have about networking (e.g., “I always thought that networking meant ____ but recently, I realized that it means _____. But I’m still stuck at _____.”)
2. Tell me 1 specific thing you will do by MONDAY — 3 days from now — to start on the path to meeting interesting people. Do not say something vague like “I’m really gonna try hard to think about who I should meet,” because if you do I will kill you. BE SPECIFIC.

I will be doing a live webcast covering how to interview — the exact phrases, body language, and answers to master interviewing. This will be next Monday, 1/23 at 9pm EST. “Waaa Ramit, I live in Antarctica, can u pls record it?” No recordings, no whining. If you can make it, I’m thrilled to show you inside techniques you’ve never seen.

Sign up below so I know where to send the invitation link.

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I have a special talent for making women cry. It’s not intentional, it just happens. I remember, one year during college I was an RA, and one Saturday I had a series of back-to-back meetings with my residents to try to resolve all kinds of problems. I hate my roommate! I just failed my test. What should I do with my life? Stuff like that. By the end of the day, I was pretty hungry. So it was with great disappointment that I looked at my calendar and realized I had one more meeting, this one with two roommates.

One of them was a really sweet girl who just wanted the normal college experience. The other roommate was a little odd — she would wake up at 5am and immediately start typing really loudly and calling people on the phone to talk about her grades. While I was hearing their complaints, all I could think about was how my stomach was slowly eating itself. 15 minutes later, I found myself in the very odd situation of having two women crying on my futon while I ate a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos. “Want some?” was pretty much all I could muster. The Cheetos were really good though.

This year, I want to help you cover some of the most important techniques, frameworks, and tactics you can use anywhere to live a richer life. These will help you find your passion, earn more, find your Dream Job, learn extreme social fluency, interview against the world’s top companies (and win), and integrate powerful systems into your life — instead of relying on fleeting willpower.

I was also debating including a 3-month series on cutting back on lattes, but I decided I would rather inflict 1,001 teen-angst/emo-style cuts on my body, then have my bloody corpse kicked around in a citrus field.

So, let me show you how I learned about the game being played around me — the origin of these powerful systems.

What Is The Game Being Played Around You?

In my early 20s, I finally discovered there was a game being played around me that I didn’t even realize.

I was working out regularly but not seeing any real results: Even after 6 months of trying to gain weight, I saw exactly 0 change. As a tall/ectomorphic guy, I had the body of a supermodel — a female supermodel. Not good.

I wondered why girls always went for bad boys, then complained about how these guys treated them…but avoided nice guys.

I couldn’t understand how some authors, bloggers, and business people blew up, while my blog couldn’t even get more than 5 comments per blog post.

What did I do? Did I decide to do exhaustive research and unearth the secrets of working out, women, and business? Did I dedicate 4 hours per day to create and test different approaches, then take detailed notes, then iteratively improve?

Of course not. I told myself I needed to “figure it out” some day. When I was out with friends, I would complain about it with them. Then I did nothing.

It was completely irrational! In the back of my head, I never connected this low-level feeling of complaint/malaise with actually CHANGING THINGS. I was just content to complain…or defer it until another day.

You guys know that I was studying persuasion and social influence at Stanford. I started to understand how human behavior really works. And as I started to study it intensely, I discovered fascinating insights. Mostly about myself.

Like your racist uncle who monopolizes Thanksgiving by saying that Obama is “too different than us Americans” (but who is really just racist), it turns out that, for people in our 20s and 30s, the phrase “I need to figure it out” is also CODE for something much deeper.

Here’s a deeper analysis:

Look at that shirt. Shit just got real.

(In the video, you hear me referring to a Dream Job course. More on that later.)

For most of us, there is a game being played around us that we don’t realize.

For example, look at this quote from the New York Times:

“We did everything we were supposed to,” said Stephanie Morales, 23, who graduated from Dartmouth College in 2009 with hopes of working in the arts. Instead she ended up waiting tables at a Chart House restaurant in Weehawken, N.J., earning $2.17 an hour plus tips, to pay off her student loans. “What was the point of working so hard for 22 years if there was nothing out there?” said Ms. Morales, who is now a paralegal and plans on attending law school.

The game being played around Stephanie is that she believes she is owed a job. I’m willing to bet she believes if she sends out her resume enough, she “should” get a job. Only when it doesn’t happen, we blame everyone else…but ourselves.

“I have applied to hundreds and hundreds of jobs in that time, and despite a strong educational and professional background and outstanding references I have yet to get so much as an interview. ” –NYT

Over the years, I learned that I could blame the economy, I could blame women, I could blame everyone else…or I could try to deeply understand the game that was being played around me. For example, there were guys working out who were getting pretty ripped. Why wasn’t I? Ok, so women kept going back to what I considered “bad boys”…why? And I systematically learned the intricacies of building a business until, for example, I earned over $100,000 in one hour.

I found it fascinating that we’re “supposed” to know how to master these skills, but nobody ever actually teaches us how. Think about it: You graduate from college and you’re suddenly supposed to get a job. Who taught us how to do that?

We’re supposed to find a life partner. Who taught us how?

We’re “supposed” to buy a house, provide for a family, be healthy, respect our elders, have proper etiquette, travel around the world…but who taught us how?

That’s what I want to teach you: the actual strategies and tactics that I tested to get disproportionate results. Not vague platitudes (“keep a budget!” + “spend less than you earn!” + “Be yourself!”) but rather, actual strategies that have worked under repeated stress-testing. Stuff that is bulletproof and will work — including the actual word-for-word scripts that IWT has become known for.

It strikes me that the vast majority of people have huge, unrealized potential. Think about all the things we dreamed about doing at 22, right out of college. By 25, how many of us thought we’d have traveled around the world? Be making 6 figures (for some of us, even more). Or have an enviable job that we were passionate about — and made a huge impact?

Just a few years later, it’s amazing to see the difference between dreams and reality.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. MOST people, looking at the difference between their dreams and reality, begin to blame some external forces. The economy is bad! Those girls should choose me for me. Ramit, you’re out of touch…it doesn’t work like that.

But a very elite group of people realize that external forces like “the economy” mean very little to them. Look at this link, for example — it’s a discussion thread about a guy choosing between working at a hedge fund or Facebook/Google/etc.

Stop. Don’t throw up your hands in exasperation. Don’t say, “That might be fine if you went to STANFORD, but I could never get a job like that.” Maybe you can’t. But you can certainly learn from the discussion. Study the words they use. Analyze their mindset. What makes these people able to get elite jobs, while other people complain about the economy?

For my IWT students who have internalized this, they realize that macro-economics has nothing to do with their personal finances. These people begin to focus on systematically improving themselves.

I’ll prove it to you. In 2010 and 2011 the press was writing about how the economy was in tatters, which is a great way to sell advertising. OMG! CHICKEN LITTLE! RUN LOLFTW!! Yet in that same year, here are the results some of my students got:

“I’ve been a IWTYTBR reader for years, have the book and bought Earn1K. I’m now running a side business… that earned $25k+ last year.” – Jordan G.

“I finally asked for a review from my boss about a year after I began working here (freelancers don’t generally get a review)… Instead of making about $28,800/yr I now make $38,400. Almost a $10,000 raise feels like a lot, but I feel even better about it being a 33% raise – which was not left unmentioned by my boss. He told me it was unprecedented.…it’s really thanks to you that I had the confidence and the script to execute. A $10,000 raise was earned from about $15 for your Ebook, and a little extra reading and planning. I will definitely buy more products from you – whatever you’re puttin down, I’m pickin up!”
– Tessa

“[I interviewed for a senior position and] blew the interviewing managers out of their toilet seats. Why: because I changed the script, used the briefcase method, job shadowed my potential client, wrote a detailed proposal with 5 things they can do TODAY to save the company $1500/week EVEN IF they don’t hire me. Ramit, thanks for the extra $10k, 5+ weeks of vacation, and 6% 401k.” – Justin R.

(There are literally thousands of other comments like this here, here, and here.)

Bottom line: Let other people accept macro circumstances as an excuse for not hitting their goals. You know you have a very good shot at controlling your results using a systematic approach to testing. All to discover the game being played around you.

What I Learned From Testing My Assumptions

This is where it got interesting. As I started building systems to crack these codes and I started testing them, I found patterns I hadn’t seen before.

Think about these scenarios:

We all have friends who somehow knew what they wanted to do from day one. Not only are they successful at it…but they love what they do! How did they do that? Most of us have multiple interests, and it’s insanely hard to choose something and close the other doors. Yet somehow, these friends chose something, focused on it, and it worked. How did they do it?

Or we all know friends who are not as smart as we are, yet they’re more “successful” (whatever that means, e.g., more money, better lifestyle, etc).

Or we have friends who walk into a room and command attention, but we can’t put our fingers on how they do it.

Interestingly, we often complain about these important areas of our lives, but we do nothing — the exact behavior I exhibited in college. I was going to “figure it out” some day. For example…

Money complaints. I learned that most people complain about money for their entire lives, but never take one weekend to read a good book about how to automate their finances. They believe in “trying harder” to save, rather than using the power of psychology to make their money automatic.

Why “bad boys” get girls. I discovered that the “bad boys” most guys complain about actually have certain confidence triggers that they display. Had I not learned this, I’m sure I would still be complaining bitterly about the girls making these choices. Totally irrational! Yet how many of us do this with jobs/money/careers?

Interviewing mastery. If you ask 100 people what they do in a job interview, 90-95 will say “Answer their questions.” Congratulations — they’ve already lost. “Answering questions” is what everyone else does, while top performers walk in and convey a crisp message. These two approaches might sound similar, but they are profoundly different in practice. (I’ll show you the actual videos of how I did this later.) Once I learned how this worked, I started getting closing interview after interview, even beating out MBAs while I was a sophomore.

For the past 8 years — since this blog has been around — there have been random commenters/emailers who asked for access to the system I built to secure $100,000+ in college scholarships, or how to ace the world’s toughest interviews.

I was never comfortable releasing them because they had worked for me, but I wasn’t sure they would work for everyone. But about 18 months ago, I started thinking what would make the biggest impact on us living a Rich Life.

Not yet another post on cutting back on something, but something transformative.

Beyond Money. A Rich Life

I want to live a rich life, so it’s amusing to me to see that so many sites focus only on the money part, as if money is everything. Hilariously, even within the money part, these “experts” focus on one thing: cutting back. “No, you can’t buy that latte! No, you can’t buy those jeans. Of course not, you can’t go on vacation.”

If you’re reading this site, you realize you don’t want some 60-year-old dude waving his finger in your face and telling you what you CAN’T do with your money.

You certainly don’t want to be making your own laundry detergent.

Instead, let’s talk about what we DO want. I WANT to buy my friends a round at the bar and not worry about my credit-card statement the next day. I WANT to take spontaneous trips. I EXPECT to be able to buy a gift for my family and not worry if I have the money in my account.

How do we do that? Money is a part of it, but only a small part. I’ve covered earning more money, saving money, and automating money, and I’ve been impressed with the results that you’ve locked down.

Then, over the last few years, I’ve been doing research to figure out the BIGGEST area with the most potential on helping us live a rich life.

Think about it — where do 97%+ of us spend 8+ hours/day?

At our jobs.

And when you think about it, these 3 areas of living a rich life — our jobs, our finances, and our relationships — have one thing in common: We’re “supposed” to know how to master them, but nobody ever taught us how.

That’s why I’m delighted to share some of my very best material on Finding a Dream Job with you in 2012.

This year, I’m going to pull back the curtain to reveal some of the techniques I’ve used to secure job offers at some of the world’s top companies (including Google, Intuit, and a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund), generate millions of dollars of revenue, and negotiate hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary increases. Every one of these techniques is tested and proven to work with not just me, but a panel of students and friends who I’ve been quietly working with for several years.

Not just how we did it, but the actual word-for-word scripts, the actual emails, even the intonation I used in negotiations — all of which you can use, immediately.

It’s finally time to unveil them.

Now, it would be easy to roll out twenty “Top 10″ lists, but I find them to be totally worthless, and I’m not here to waste your time — or to be your intellectual entertainment. Go read TMZ if you want that.

If you’re in your 20s or 30s, the rest of your career is a long time. To not be spending your time doing the HIGHEST and BEST use of your time is a travesty — something I find depressing. Can you imagine being in the same company 15 years from now? On the other hand, can you imagine strategically using your job to help you live a rich life?

What’s amazing about your dream job is that the vast majority of people do the exact same thing: They “update their resume,” (if you use these words, you have already lost…I’ll explain why in Week 3). They submit their resume through a website. And they wait.

Again, if you’ve done any of these things, you’ve already lost.

I can walk into a non-profit tomorrow and get a job. I don’t even like most non-profits. My top-performing friends can get laid off on Tuesday and have a new job by Thursday. I have access to people at the world’s top companies, and I’ve secured permission to have them share their best techniques on how to beat the hiring process. Not through tricks or manipulation, but through a thoughtful, systematic process — not random tactics (“Submit my resume to that job posting!!”) that 99% of job-seekers do.

This includes a SYSTEM everything from figuring out “What is my Dream Job?” to the most tactical questions of all, like “What is the perfect answer to that interview question?”

Sorry, but I won’t tolerate excuses. I’ve catalogued literally thousands of excuses and I’ve tested responses to all of them. For example, one of my favorites is “That only works if you went to Stanford.” False — I’ve tested this material with people from all levels of education. Another: “Well, you need more experience to get that job.” Maybe, but I’ve showed people how to beat out people with 10 years’ more experience. Imagine walking into an interview and getting a Dream Job — more responsibility, higher pay, and something you’re excited to do every day — and watching those people with 10 years’ experience walking out the door, rejected, stopping at the donut shop to contemplate their next pointless tactical maneuver. Ah, the love of watching dejection in action.

Anyway, what if you could use process for discovering your Dream Job, then know how to set yourself apart from other candidates…before you ever walked in to the interview room?

What if you could use these very same techniques instead of sending your resume through worthless recruiters or job-hunting websites?

I know you can, because I’ve tested it with thousands of data points. This will be challenging. This will require a total mindset shift as I show you a new way of approaching a rich life, because this material goes to the core of psychological and behavioral change techniques I write about.

But the rest of your life is a long time.

Some of the material you’ll learn:

• How to discover our passion. This is the #1 question — “What is my passion?” What if there was an actual, step-by-step process that worked? One that didn’t require you to try to guess what you’ll love doing for the next 30 years. (Hint: It does not involve sitting in your room and making lists of the things you love…no matter how many career books tell you to do that.)
• How to interview against the world’s top companies — even if you don’t have as much experience as other candidates. (Hint: 80% of the work is done before you ever walk into the room. But the other 20% involves very specific phrases and body language.)
• How to negotiate the salary you deserve. (My students negotiate, on average, $10,000 more per negotiation.)

You’ll learn how to make your resume stand out so it rises to the top of the pile without submitting it through the “Black Hole of Doom.” And how to use your network to find jobs for you (even if you don’t think you have a network, you do).

All of this, to understand the “game being played around you” — so you can first see it, then master it.

You know what I’m most excited about showing you? The actual, nitty-gritty tactics, including the ACTUAL COPY of emails to send, the ACTUAL WORDS to say when you take people out for informational interviews, and the ACTUAL WORDS and BODY LANGUAGE to successfully interview and negotiate?

You can tell how much I love using actual, tested material, rather than worthless high-level career advice (“Don’t apply for a job you’re not qualified for!” “Make your resume 1 page!” “Definitely get on Twitter!”). Get the hell out of here.

If you want to stay at your current job, great — let me show you how to get a substantial raise and more responsibility.

If you want to find your Dream Job, even better — I can show you how, and I can point you to other people doing what you want to do who have made similar transitions.

And if you want to use this material for more than just your career — for example, to improve your social fluency, storytelling, or even psychological insights of what other people want — feel free. It’s here for you.

Here’s the plan: I’ll release a lot of this material here, on the blog. It will be free, but I’ll going to challenge you with lengthy posts, videos, and scripts. I love when whiny people complain about the length of my posts, because they are basically raising their hands and telling me they’re illiterate. Go read http://animalsbeingdicks.com/ and get the hell off my site please.

Then I’ll be releasing some deeper material on my Insider’s List. Again, it’s free, but to get this more tactical series of videos and scripts, you’ll have to trust me enough to join my list — and I know I need to earn that trust. And later, for those of you who want to go even deeper into implementing these tactics, I’ll have some new course material for you.

The rest of your life is a long time. And a core part of living a rich life is about mastering your career. Use these frameworks and techniques however you like — but I’m confident you’ll be surprised with how effective they are. These are some of my best techniques that I’ve ever developed.

In 2012, I’m going to show you techniques, frameworks, shortcuts, and actual tactics you can apply — tested techniques, including the very word-for-word scripts and emails that have secured 6-figure jobs, meetings with CEOs, natural networking to meet new business contacts and friends, and insane results in interviewing and negotiations.

Finally, this is important, and it’s important now. When we’re in our early 20s, most of us take whatever job we can find. We mess around for a few years, but in our mid 20s, something changes: Some people find careers — discovering what they love and what they excel at — and they rapidly advance. Others meander around, never sure what the next step is. By 30, the chasm between the two is so large, it’s difficult to bridge it.

Which do you want to be?

That’s why we can’t wait to “figure it out” some other day. Let’s start right now.

Today, I have two questions for you:

1. Is this interesting to you?
2. If you could have me write about anything related to finding your passion, interviewing, resumes, negotiation, or social skills, what would it be? Please be SPECIFIC — write as much as you need to — so I can hook you up with my best stuff.

Leave a comment below!

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I was speaking at a conference recently and my buddy pulled me aside. “You have to meet this guy Chase Jarvis,” he told me. “He’s one of the world’s best photographers.”

Chase and I ended up sitting next to each other, and I learned some fascinating stuff about him. For example, I learned that if he gets TEN photo clients per year — just 10 — that’s a “great year” for him. (Just think about that. Is anyone else also fascinated by mastery?)

He also runs a web show where he interviews people like Sir Mix-a-Lot (a personal writing hero of mine for his timeless classic), Tim Ferriss (who introduced us), and famous photographers. Now, you’ve heard me mock Twitter as being worthless for my business. But when Chase tweets, 15,000-30,000 come and watch his web show…concurrently. Holy shit.

Anyway, at this conference, I ended up giving him some advice about the business side of photography while sitting on a bus, my usual spot for wisdom-dispensing, which he later wrote about:

“No one has single-handedly given me better insight about the business side of art/photography than has Ramit Sethi. [Go ahead and read that again.] In a single conversation earlier this year he dropped so much knowledge on me that I couldn’t take notes fast enough.”

I’m telling you this because he recently invited me to his studio in Seattle, where he and I recorded 1.5 hours of material how creative people can master business. This is usually material I save for private talks and my premium students, but today I wanted to share it with you.

The video is 90 minutes long and you guys are gonna love it. It includes word-for-word scripts you can use in negotiations, business, and even personal relationships. You’ll learn some of the material I learned from my top instructors and mentors. And I dig into the psychology of creative people — or anyone who’s tried to persuade someone else to do something.

Happy holidays and enjoy : )

The URL I mention in the video is iwillteachyoutoberich.com/chase

Check out Chase’s blog — it’s got amazing material for creative people and I guarantee you’ll find at least 3 game-changers in an hour.
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P.S. The $10,000+ winner of my giveaway for one year of a virtual assistant is David Zuidema. Congratulations! David, please check your email for details.

Happy New Year and I’ll see you in 2012. Prepare to dominate.

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It’s easy to sit around and lecture people to cut back on spending, pay off debt, and get control of their finances. That’s what so many financial advisers and writers do — yet they never stop to ask themselves why so few of their readers actually follow through.

So today, I want to introduce you to Carl Richards, one of my favorite financial advisers on the planet. You might be familiar with his sketches, which have been seen on the New York Times.

He understands that math is only a small part of personal finance — and that psychology is hugely important. Below, you’ll learn…

• The startling and surprising numbers of how you can actually get equal or higher returns — with lower risk
• The classic mistake investors make after a market has changed directions
• The psychology of automatic rebalancing

I asked him to write up a detailed account on the psychology of investing. And if you read to the end, you’ll see a little surprise just for IWT readers.

Carl, take it away.

* * *

Successful investing is hard. Not complicated, just hard. It’s hard because for the most part, we are wired to make the same mistake over and over again. We buy high and sell low because that’s what everyone else is doing. But like any problem that needs to be fixed, the first step is recognizing the problem and then coming up with a plan to prevent it.

Buying High and Selling Low

We don’t have to look too far to find ample evidence of poor investor behavior on a wide scale. In 1999 when the dot-com bubble got bigger and bigger, the NASDAQ was up over 85 percent…FOR THE YEAR. That was crazy enough, but what happened in the first quarter of 2000 was insane. We went on a buying binge, all of us. Up until January 2000, the record for net inflows (money going in, minus money going out) into stock mutual funds was $29 billion. Now here we are in January 2000, right after an 86 percent run up. Look at these numbers.

In January we poured $44.5 billion into stock mutual funds.

In February, the shortest month of the year, inflows hit $55.6 billion. That’s almost $2 billion a day!

And March was nothing to sneeze at either with an investment of another $39.9 billion.

Think about it. Over three months, $140 billion dollars entered the market—AFTER it already had gained over 80 percent. At a time when we should have shown some caution, we allowed ourselves to get swept along with the crowd, and we paid for it. March 24, 2000, was the peak of the dot-com bubble, and by October 2002 the market had lost 50 percent of its value. So we poured money in, just in time to get our heads taken off!

If the behavior at the top was wild, clearly we still hadn’t learned the lesson on the way down. With the S&P 500 down over 50 percent from its highs, we couldn’t sell fast enough. October marked the fifth month in a row that investors pulled more money out of stock mutual funds than they invested. That had never happened. I repeat, never. October turned out to the market low. So at the market low, instead of buying equities at the best “sale” prices in five years, investors moved their money into bond funds, making the classic mistake of having bought high and sold low. Bond funds experienced a record inflow of $140 billion in 2002, at a time when bonds where at 46 year highs.

How many of us became a real estate investor in 2006? Are we buying gold now? See the pattern.

Breaking the Cycle

Once we recognize the problem we can fix it. The first step is to have a thought-out investment process that we can stick to when things get tough. Investing involves risk so no matter our investment process so there will be times that we are tested. There will be times we are tempted to go to cash, “just until things clear up” like some did in 2002. But the only real hope of sticking with an investment strategy is to understand it at least enough to have the confidence to stay disciplined when times get tough.

Step One: Buy a S&P 500 Index Fund

This is a great first step and I know it is nothing new. It is well documented that 80 percent or more of the actively managed mutual funds out there underperform their index.

So why pay for underperformance?

Simply own the entire S&P 500 in the form of a low-cost index fund. They are showing up more often in 401(K) plans, and you can buy them easily at Vanguard. The simple decision to invest this way will help you avoid:

• Betting on a particular industry or sector. We see this in the form of trying to pick the next hot sector, like technology, banking, or oil stocks. It’s super common for people to think they can do this, but they can’t.
• Market timing. We all know on a theoretical level that market timing is a loser’s game, but we’re often quick to latch on to anything that might look like detailed research about the direction of the markets. Just remember that forecasts are nothing more than guesses, and you need to stick to your plan.
• Owning individual stocks. While it’s certainly not impossible to identify the next Apple, history proves that it’s highly improbable. Placing large, concentrated bets on individual stocks can be a path to incredible wealth, but so can a single spin of the roulette wheel (if you get lucky).

Step 2: Building a Diversified Equity Portfolio

Diversification is the closest thing we can find to a free lunch in finance. The magic of diversification is that you can take two risky assets, and when you blend them, the result becomes less risky because they zig and zag at different times.

To demonstrate this let’s look at two portfolios. Portfolio A is invested 100 percent in United States stocks, as measured by the S&P 500-stock index, and Portfolio B is invested 100 percent in international stocks, as measured by the MSCI EAFE index. We’ll use 34 years (1976-2010) for our sample period since it’s the longest period available for which we have data from MSCI EAFE.

During those 34 years the S&P 500 had an annualized return of 11.17 percent, and international stocks had an annualized return of 10.72 percent. (All of the portfolios mentioned in the following examples were rebalanced quarterly. Also, while you can’t invest in an index per se, you can buy index funds and similar vehicles for next to nothing.)

Now let’s look at the risk associated with each of these hypothetical investments.

Although there are many ways to view risk, for our purposes we’ll focus on the number of negative quarters and volatility as measured by standard deviation (the lower this number is, the better). From 1976-2010, the S&P 500 had 42 negative quarters and a standard deviation of 15.39 percent. International stocks had 45 negative quarters with a standard deviation of 17.26 percent.

As you can see, each of these portfolios appears risky individually. But the magic of diversification is that when we blend them, the whole is better than the sum of its parts.

So let’s create Portfolio C using use a fairly standard 60 percent allocation to the S&P 500 and 40 percent allocation to international stocks. Now this portfolio gets a return of 11.21 percent. While that’s not much better than the S&P 500 alone, in terms of risk, this 60/40 portfolio only had 37 negative quarters with a standard deviation of 14.45 percent.

That may not sound like much, but it is indeed a free lunch. This portfolio returns at a higher rate with less risk using the simple concept of diversification.

Step 3: Reduce Risk By Adding Bonds

When I talk about diversification, I often get told that it’s been irrelevant over the last 10 years, particularly during the global credit crisis in 2008-2009.

Sure, you can see the benefits of diversification clearly when you’re focused on different types of stocks. But in times of large systematic risks to the stock market (like what we’ve seen during the last five years), the value of diversification among equity asset classes can often go away.

So while it’s still a valuable exercise to carefully plan your equity portfolio to take advantage of a free lunch where you can, the real power of diversification comes in the form of risk reduction when you start to mix stocks and bonds.

Let’s compare the 60/40 stock portfolio we built above (Portfolio C) to a portfolio where we add 40 percent in bond exposure.

Remember that Portfolio C generated a return of 11.21 percent with 37 negative quarters and a standard deviation of 14.54 percent. When we blend in a 40 percent allocation to bonds (in the form of the Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Index), creating Portfolio D, we get a return of 10.4 percent. That’s not much lower than the all-stock portfolio, and we reduce the number of negative quarters to 35.

But the real impact is in the risk reduction we see in the form of much lower volatility as measured by standard deviation at 9.48 percent. In other words, the ups and downs of Portfolio D will be much less sharp than Portfolios A, B, and C.

While I’m not suggesting that this portfolio is right for every individual or serves as a predictive model, the historical data at least show how being diversified can give you a way to protect yourself from many of the random events that have ruined fortunes.

Plus, diversification allows you to position yourself to take advantage of the returns that equities tend to deliver, balanced with the safety that high-quality bonds provide

Step 4: Automate Rebalancing

So now you’ve got your new portfolio, what comes next? It’s time to automate some smart behavior. And one task that too often gets skipped or ignored is rebalancing. The main purpose of rebalancing is to periodically reset your portfolio back to the original split between stocks, bonds, and other investments. All you’re trying to do is keep your portfolio investing risk roughly the same as what you started with.

Most people seem to follow two rebalancing philosophies: do it according to the calendar, say once a year, or do it when you reach a certain trigger point, when one portion of your portfolio grows or shrinks outside of a predetermined range. Either philosophy can be automated to happen without your interference.

Here’s an example of how rebalancing might work.

Let’s say you sat down in 2006 and decided that based on your goals, the right portfolio for you was the hypothetical Portfolio D we just reviewed, 60 percent in stocks and 40 percent in bonds (high quality, short-term bonds). As part of that process, let’s also assume that you committed to rebalancing your portfolio back to that original 60/40 allocation whenever your portfolio balance strayed too far from it.

At 60/40, your portfolio allocation represented the amount of risk that you felt you needed in order to achieve the return necessary to reach your long-term goals. Fifty percent in stocks would be too little to meet your goals, but 70 percent in stocks represented more risk than you felt you could take.

Fast forward a few years to the meltdown of 2008-9. If you went into 2008 with 60 percent of your money in stocks and 40 percent in bonds, then as the market dropped, the composition of your portfolio would have changed from the original 60/40 allocation to something different. We’ll also assume that nothing else in your life changed and your goals remained the same. The only thing that changed was the market.

For our example, let’s assume that you’re using a trigger point to rebalance. Since it’s pretty common to rebalance when your portfolio allocation strays more than five percentage points off of your target, when the market fell in 2008 you would have rebalanced when your portfolio hit 55 percent in stocks and 45 percent bonds. That would have meant selling bonds to buy more stocks.

Rebalancing is not a scientific way to time the market, nor is it a magic bullet to increase your returns. It is true that disciplined rebalancing could result in slightly higher returns, but it could also lead to slightly lower returns depending on what the market does. Rebalancing also does not automatically decrease your investment risk, but again, depending on market conditions, it may slightly increase or slightly decrease your risk over shorter periods of time.

While there is plenty of debate about how to rebalance and the pros and cons of rebalancing, there is one clear benefit to employing a disciplined rebalancing strategy: it prevents you from making the classic behavioral mistake of buying high and selling low. Warren Buffett has said that the key to investment success is to be greedy when everyone else is fearful and fearful when everyone else is greedy. As we all know that is super hard to do.

It was really hard to buy in March 2009. It was also hard to get yourself to sell in December 1999 or October 2007. But if you had committed to rebalancing that is exactly what you would have done. Not because you were a market whiz and not because you knew what the market was going to do. Instead you rebalanced because it made sense to stick with your plan. Rebalancing is the only way I know of to give yourself the highest likelihood of buying low and selling high in a disciplined, unemotional way.

Rebalancing reminds me a bit of the simple checklists used by doctors. I remember going in for a routine surgery that was going to be done on the left side of my body. When I went in for surgery, I met with the doctor who knew exactly what side of my body she was operating on, but as part of her checklist, she asked me again during pre-op. After she left, no fewer than four different people came in with my chart and asked me which side they were operating on.

Each time I answered the left side, but I became increasingly curious about why they were asking me so many times. Then, as I was on the operating table and before I was put under, the doctor who I had just seen the day before asked me which side she was operating on and then handed me a Sharpie and asked me to mark the side.

When I saw her a few days later as part of my post-op visit, I asked her why they had followed such a procedure. She told me it was a simple checklist to keep them from doing something really stupid, like operating on the wrong side. It took them an extra minute or two and a Sharpie to avoid what would obviously be a huge mistake.

And that’s the real magic of rebalancing; it becomes our investment Sharpie.

Use the Tools

Nothing of outlined in this post is particularly difficult. It may take some time to work through the different options and determine the one that fits you best, it’s all doable. Too often I see people look at the tools available to them and then walk away because they don’t want to do the work. We have options, but whether it’s emotion, bad habits, or other road blocks, we end up missing opportunities to achieve our investing goals. Successful investing is hard, but the benefits to those that stick with it are so big, how can you walk away from it?

* * *

Bonus for IWT Readers

What Carl didn’t mention is that he has a new book, The Behavior Gap, coming out on January 3rd. I’ve read it and it’s an excellent deep-dive into the psychology of investing. One thing I love is his explanation of why we “know” the things we should do…yet we don’t do them. This is totally different than most “information” books, which try to convince us about things we already know. Wouldn’t you rather understand why you behave the way you do?

The first 100 of you to buy Carl’s book will get a free 8”x10” letterpress print of “Things to Focus On” (see below). Just pick up a copy at Amazon, then send your receipt and mailing address to book@behaviorgap.com. You’re going to love the book.

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Here’s a productivity tip I use myself.

Years ago, I was invited to speak on some panel about technology and entrepreneurship, and the panelist sitting next to me was a senior executive at Google. This dude walked in, opened up his briefcase, and pulled out a neatly organized packet with colored Post-Its and hand-written notes. I glanced over it and nearly vomited in admiration.

You see, his assistant had prepared an entire DOSSIER (who even uses that word any more) on the event, the organizers, and the topic. It was obvious that he had never even thought about this event until seconds before it began. He was skilled enough that he could do this — and get away with it. He was an awesome panelist.

I started wondering…Why did I have to spend my days on the minutiae of figuring out where the event was? Or what I was supposed to talk about? What if I could batch all that stuff up, and leave my days open to be creative? What if the info I needed appeared EXACTLY when I needed it — not a minute before?

(Note: This is not just about speaking at a conference. Think about all the time you spend planning LOGISTICS instead of being creative and doing what you’re best at.)

For 10 seconds, I did not know what emotion to feel.

Then, I settled on one: envy.

Again, I wondered, what if I could keep my mind free — letting me be creative most of the day — and when it came down to nuts and bolts of preparation, I could walk in somewhere, confidently knowing that I had every piece of relevant information at my fingertips?

And so I built a process to do exactly this, which I want to share with one of you.

Plus…
* When I travel, my appointments in NYC are automatically rescheduled (e.g., gym, lunches, etc).
* When I have a meeting, I get a text message, and I know to start getting ready. As I’m walking down the hall to grab the elevator, I open up my calendar, where I see the exact location (not stated as “123 7th Ave,” but rather “16th and 7th” so it’s easier to relay to the cab driver). I also see the agenda, any prep items I’ve prepared, and bios of the people at the meeting. I can review this all in the time it takes me to get to the meeting, aka my “Taxi time.”

I built and tested all these processes using my personal assistant.

And I’m buying $10,000 worth of a personal assistant’s time — for one of you. It’s just a cool thank-you for making this IWT’s best year yet.

I’ll personally train the assistant, and I’ll even get on the phone with you for 30 minutes to share my tested tips to best work with your new assistant. No catch.

One full year of a virtual assistant for you — free. Enter to win here:
http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/assistant

Good luck!

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So Fortune did a 6-page profile on me, and I want to talk about that. But first, I thought I’d share a hilarious story behind the story…

Rewind a couple months. The reporter, Mina, had been following me around for a few days, and she came to Chicago to watch me give a keynote speech at this personal-finance blogger conference. Later that night, I threw a party for the conference people.

Now, most of you know I hate throwing events. I think this stems from college, when I would hold IWT classes…and nobody would come. Like a beaten child, I had trouble overcoming my past.

Anyway, every year I try to overcome at least 2 big personal barriers, and this year, it was throwing events. So I throw this party, which I had intended to be at a quiet lounge. Somehow, some wires got crossed, and it ended up being at a club. Not a quiet lounge, a STRAIGHT UP CLUB with a DJ and go-go dancers. I was in heaven.

I’m milling around and I spot this 23-year-old dude who is on the PROWL. You know the look — like he’s a prehistoric hunter, searching out his prey (women), using all the tools at his disposal (spiky hair). Turns out he’s a fellow blogger. He comes up to me and says, “Hey Ramit. I spoke to that Fortune reporter of yours.” He says this suggestively like something filthy has already happened. I’m intrigued.

I said, “Yeah? How was that?”

He goes, “Good, man.” He leans in and smirks. “I told her how your techniques got me laid.”

I almost spit my fucking drink out. This is a national reporter following me around for a major profile and I was not trying to have some delinquent story hit the press. So I slowly say, “Uhh…sounds good dude” Then I made my way over to her and casually asked, “Hey…how’s it going? Everything good? So…did you meet that dude?”

This is where it gets hilarious.

She says, “YES! He told me your techniques got him laid!” I started to say something, and then she interrupted –

“AND, do you know what else he said?” I shook my head, praying.

Keep in mind it’s 11:45pm at a loud club where people are grinding on each other, and this young reporter has been completely professional, nursing one drink for like an hour. Apparently this dude had looked her up and down, looked at his watch, then said (with a smirk on his face): “So…you off the clock?”

HAHA. I died laughing. This 23-year-old dude tried to spit his futile game at a Fortune reporter with hilarious results. I begged her to put it in the article, but alas, it didn’t make the cut…

So, here’s the article:
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/13/ramit-sethi-financial-adviser/

One more thing:

I’m really proud of this article. When Fortune looked for the person in the field of personal finance and behavioral change, they came to me, and that’s flattering. It elevates everything we’ve been doing at I Will Teach You To Be Rich to another stage. I find that pretty exciting.

But it’s not just about me. In fact, there are tons of writers with incredibly good material…but without a massive movement of readers, it’s difficult to break through. Not just readers, but the fact that you trust me enough to read my material and apply it to your life. I take that seriously.

When I started this site, it was a rinky-dink blog. I didn’t make a cent off it for years because it was just this random hobby. But over time, the articles resonated with you, and you stuck around, giving me your time and attention. Some of you joined my courses or bought my book. Together, we all grew towards living a rich life.

Overall, it’s an incredible feeling to listen and learn about what we’re ACTUALLY going through — unlike some 68-year-old geezer lecturing us to stop spending money on lattes. Instead, it’s someone who understands we WANT to live a rich life. We WANT to go out and buy a round of drinks for our friends. We EXPECT to be able to travel abroad, or go to Vegas for the weekend, or grab dinner without worrying if we can afford an appetizer.

So, I want you to see this Fortune article, not just because I’m proud of being recognized on a national stage, but because it’s only possible with a readership that takes action. Honestly, there are a lot of blogs with larger readerships than IWT…but none have readers that take action like you. I know this quantitatively (when I show my metrics to a few close friends, they almost shit their pants) and qualitatively (since I intentionally repel whiners and complainers off this site, telling them to go check out a frugality blog to save $0.25 on laundry sheets). That leaves you and me — both of us committed to taking action.

So, thanks for the opportunity. Thanks for listening and telling me when my stuff resonates, and when it sucks. And thanks for sticking around, because this is just the beginning. 2012 is going to knock your socks off.

Here’s that article link:
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/13/ramit-sethi-financial-adviser/

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A few years ago, I started using a virtual assistant. And dear god, I made every mistake in the book: I tried to save a few bucks by using international assistants (I paid between $2/hour and $10/hour), but I ended up wasting tons of time explaining exactly what I wanted. Then I switched to American assistants and got better results, but some were flaky, and sometimes I didn’t know how to use their skills.

Finally, I cracked the code.

I’ve now developed a “playbook” I use with my assistant, who is based in Florida. She anticipates what I want — for example, when I travel somewhere and land, I open my phone and my entire itinerary is there, including turn-by-turn directions, confirmation codes, and special notes about people I’ll meet. She also corrects my weak spots (e.g., not just reminding me to buy gifts for someone, but giving me 3 options along with a recommendation, so I can just reply and say “Yes”).

Working with a skilled virtual assistant — and using a SYSTEMATIC APPROACH to save time — has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made. I save over 30 hours every week, and I can spend time doing the things I love instead of booking travel and doing online research.

And now I want to hook you up.

As a thank-you for reading “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” I’m offering one reader an entire year’s worth of virtual assistant services — free. No catch. I’ll even train them myself. And I’ll spend 30 minutes on the phone with you sharing the best ways to use your assistant’s skills.

If you don’t have hours of work per week to assign them, don’t worry. You can use them “on demand” whenever something comes up — through all of 2012.

All I ask is that you send me a few updates throughout the year telling me how it’s going.

This contest is free and you have a pretty good chance to win, so I hope you give yourself a chance to make next year the most productive year of your life.

Good luck!

Click to enter to win a year of virtual assistant services — free:
http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/assistant

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I’m just about to get on a flight to Seattle to do a web show with my buddy Chase Jarvis, a master photographer and host of a hugely popular online web show.

Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday, 12/13, to watch us live at 11am PST (2pm EST). We’ll be talking about how creative people — photographers, writers, artists — can grow their incomes and market themselves. Including…

-Specific techniques to negotiate with your clients
- Concrete strategies to help you earn more money per job, shoot, photo, etc
- How to –in very specific terms– illustrate the value of your creative work to your clients
- When to work for free (or cheap) and when NOT to
- How these principles can guide so many other parts of your life

As Chase mentioned, “If you don’t come away with a new vocabulary for talking about the value of your work AND a new bad-ass approach for negotiating, I’ll eat my shorts.”

Lots of time for live Q&A, too, so I hope to see you tomorrow.

Here’s the link for more details.

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One of the things I almost never do is post the material from my Insider’s List here on the blog.
In fact, for the last two years, I’ve written far more material for the people on my list — including a 4,355-word email that had the internet buzzing — than for this blog.
Today, I want to give you an example of the stuff you’ve been missing if you haven’t subscribed yet. Here’s an email I sent out a few months ago.

* * *
Hi,
Today, a live teardown on two different ads I spotted during recent travels.
You’ll learn how a simple flyer can seem so simple on the surface, but how you can use psychological principles to dramatically improve flyers…and use this same ability to read others’ minds and improve your relationship, workplace performance, or even your ability to earn more money.
The babysitter
In the first example, someone named Brittany is advertising her services as a babysitter. I found this in a coffee shop in Los Angeles while strategizing a new project I’m creating:

I’d give this ad a “B-” because Brittany did a pretty good job — but she could have dramatically increased her chances of getting hired and added a minimum of 20% to her hourly rate.
THE GOOD

• She includes the fact that she is a student, which is good since parents need flexibility
• She notes that she has CPR experience (great!) and is willing to cook and do light cleaning. Perfect
• She does not include her hourly rate, which would have been pointless. With babysitters, first get them to love and trust you, then discuss price

THE BAD

• She wastes space by saying things like “I love children.” Of course you do. I love oxygen.
• More importantly — and now we’re getting into the psychology of this flyer — what do parents care about? REALLY care about? What’s their #1 fear?

#1 fear: THAT YOU’LL MISTREAT, HIT, OR RUN OFF WITH THEIR KID.
#2 fear: That you’ll be IRRESPONSIBLE, like flaking out on an appointment, leaving them stranded.
Solve those two concerns and price essentially becomes a mere triviality.
Yet 99% of babysitters will waste time talking about their love of children (duh), their college major (who cares?), or their interests (talk to me about ME, not you).
Brittany actually has hints of a terrific banner — but she falls short where it really counts.
For example, she talks about how she has 6 years’ experience. Where are the testimonials from past clients?
Where are the SPECIFIC things she helped prior kids do (e.g., learn to read, take them to swimming lessons, coordinate their weekly meals)?
Where is the testimonial from her boss, which says “Brittany is the most responsible analyst I have ever worked with…she has never missed a deadline.”
Do you see the point?
This is just a FLYER right now. It’s not true, deep marketing. It’s actually pretty good, but it’s not GREAT because she hasn’t thought carefully about who she wants to reach out to.
She’s targeting “everyone,” when she should be targeting a VERY specific list of people. Moms, who have kids (which age?), are upper-middle class, and are looking for their (first-ever?) babysitter. Each of these characteristics subtly changes the way she approaches her marketing.
Once she’s clear on who EXACTLY she’s looking for, all tactics fall from that. For example, once she knows precisely who she’s targeting (not “everyone,”) she would probably reconsider hanging flyers in a coffee shop.
The takeaway: With training, you can start to see deep psychology — or the lack of it — everywhere. And with some subtle tweaks, you can dramatically increase your chances of earning money on the side with better clients who pay more.
What the valet knows
Let’s look at a valet sign I shot in San Francisco:

This sign gets a solid “A” for its simple brilliance. Why?
Ask yourself: What’s the #1 thing that people care about when considering a valet?
PRICE.
That’s it. Price represents 99% of the concerns people have when considering a valet.
Accordingly, the sign highlights the price — and nothing else.
The sign owners may not have even known the deep psychology here, but they still executed extremely well.
The takeaway: When trying to persuade someone, try to understand the NUMBER ONE concern they have. Of course there will always be numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5. But if you can adequately address the top concern — which usually represents 80%-90% of what they care about — you win.
How can you use these techniques?
I’d like you to reply to me with 2 examples of how you can use these persuasion principles in your own life.
Just two.
Send me a quick note by replying to this email. I read every message.
On Friday, I’ll send you an applied example of how IWT readers could have used mind-reading to secure thousands of dollars.
-Ramit

* * *
This is the kind of stuff my subscribers have been getting for years. There’s over 80,000+ people who I send new material to every week on psychology, marketing, persuasion, personal finance, and earning more.
This gives you an idea of the caliber of material I send out on my Insider’s List — which I never publish publicly.
If you’re interested, here’s a quick link to join.
 
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I combed the internet to find the most interesting stories about credit cards for you. Here are 7 of my favorites.

1. The Tactics of Discover Card Reps
How did the telemarketers supposedly trick customers into signing up for the products? The Minnesota attorney general’s office gave us audio files of some of the calls,

2. I am a Fraud prevention agent for a major credit card company. Ask me anything.
An anonymous fraud-prevention specialist from Visa answers questions. Lots of fascinating behind-the-scenes Q&A

3. Credit Bailout: Issuers Slashing Card Balances
Credit cards are now allowing people to settle balances for less than the full amount they owe. They’ve done this for years but now it’s finally getting publicity. Note 2009 pub date. Counterargument here.

4. The Real Problem with Credit Cards: The Cardholders
Lots of examples of how consumers make decision-making errors about credit cards (teaser rates, etc), even if all the information is in front of them. “Informational influence” is the least persuasive of all. Yet clueless politicians (and regular Americans) will continue calling for “more disclosure,” as if that alone will solve the problem. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

5. The outrage in your credit card’s fine print
Penalty fees make up nearly half of industry revenues. To avoid these, use the tested scripts in my book.

6. The Debt Trap
Very sad short video about a woman who got into too much credit-card debt.

7. How Much Do You Owe? Guess Again
“It would appear that Americans don’t even know how much they owe. Households underreport the magnitude of their credit card debts by at least one-third, according to a new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The difference for the average household is more than $2,000. Only 50 percent of households reported any credit card debt, while credit card companies reported that 76 percent of households owed them money.” WTF, but also not surprising.

8. Coming soon…The Definitive Guide to Credit Card Rewards
I’ve written about credit card rewards before, but as I was combing the internet, I wanted to find the definitive guide to credit card perks. I found a lot of great tips, but nothing comprehensive. So I’ve decided to write it myself and share it with you here for free.

But I need your help.

I want to hear all of your credit card perk tips and hacks. What are your favorite rewards cards? Any hidden credit card perk dangers you learned about the hard way? Any good credit card reward stories?

Share them here and I’ll include the best ones in my upcoming guide.

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Each day, I post short insights on http://twitter.com/ramit about psychology, testing, personal finance, investing, the best links I’ve found, and stupid people.

You won’t find these on my blog.

Here are a few of my favorite recent tweets:

To get all of my Twitter updates as they happen, follow me here: http://twitter.com/ramit

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