It's funny, I've worked with businesses that have been treading water for the last 10 years, in that feast-and-famine kind of focus because I think when we stay in that transactional mindset of defining ourselves by the commodity, people are like, "Oh, can you just do this one thing? Can you just do this one thing?" We're constantly finding ourselves hustling, so there are businesses that just get it right and they succeed. There are a lot of businesses that I work with and they're like, "Gosh, I wish I'd met you 10 years ago because I've just been stuck in this hustle for the last 10 years."
Then there are other businesses that reach out, or people that will reach out to me really, six months, eight months before they are leaving their job because they understand, I mean, they might have great six-figure incomes, and they're about to transition into business for themselves. Their mindset goes to, "Well, I can spend the next six months, eight months, 12 months, burning through my savings while I try and figure it out for myself. Or, I could work with Matt when I first start working for myself, but the problem with that is I'm burning through my savings. Why not do it from the safety of the job?"
I mean, I have this concept, I call it the middle path, but I'm a big believer in the fact that you should build your IP, you should build your messaging, you should build your niche well before you ever leave your job. I've had certain people that ... I had one client that was looking to go out and do it for themselves, and then they got hit by Hurricane Harvey when it hit Texas, their house flooded, they ended up having to move and it just killed their finances. They use the unified message to get themselves a new job. And the job that they went for by using the unified message actually got promoted two levels above and got $100,000 on top of what they were going in for the interview with, just by using that unified message.
I mean, unified messaging really helps anybody. It works within a job. But where I really like to focus is helping people even in the really in the initial stages, get it right. Now for some people, sadly, the initial stages is 10 years later because they'd been still getting it wrong for those last 10 years. It is helpful to have a past series of customers that we can look back upon.
But just like you'll tell your accountant, "The way the books and records looked last year is not the way they're going to look this year because you transitioned business objectives, or you now got a lot of bigger clients that you're going to be working with." It's kind of more you've got to look backwards to look at what we enjoy, what people have sung our praises, what people would make great money out of, what people we love working with, which is generally a cross-section of that.
But then, we also have to look forward about where the market is trending, what things in the marketplace we can really leverage our unique experience with, so there is some benefit to having a track record of past customers. However, a lot of times when people want to go into business for themselves, whether they've done the same thing for three different organizations, we can look back upon that and really create that message. Or, we can look back at a lot of people will help different individuals from their friend and family network or colleagues' network well before they ever go out and do it for themselves because that's what gives them the mindset of, "I need to go and do this."