Because of the nature of business, it has two and only two functions, innovation & marketing.
Innovation & marketing make money, everything else is a cost.
You’re invited to be part of a Mastermind designed expressly for high-level Plantscape business owners who want to innovate and scale their business, and themselves. If that resonates with you, let’s have a conversation.
Wait… let me save you some time – you’re busy with lots of stuff to read, so let me reiterate – this is a high-level Mastermind for ‘best-in-class’ Plantscape business owners who… “want to innovate and scale their business and themselves.” If that doesn’t resonate, stop reading now. This is a comprehensive account of my experience with the power Mastermind – and if you’re not feeling it, you will be bored.
Now for everyone who’s still with me, you will find this story fascinating and intriguing. You will see yourself and your business journey. You will see the next-level opportunity of what I call…Growing You, Growing Your Business.
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Table of Contents
Why Mastermind?
Topics Covered
What's Included?
Your
is Completely Doable
Do you know that term? Lifestyle Business simply stated, is having both the rewards and the freedom of business ownership. A business and a life. Or said another way: “standard of living and quality of life.”
Your business could be better, your business should be better – much better! You may think that sounds a little bold of me, not knowing you or anything about your business. Friend, it’s a ‘core belief’ of mine: continuous improvement (or as the Japanese say, Kaizen). Not only is ‘kaizen’ rewarding (and fun), it’s how to create a prosperous business and a large life. More on that in a minute.
The Innovation & Marketing Mastermind for Plantscapers, is inspired by my all-time favorite quote by Peter Drucker, and which, in my small business experience, I know to be absolutely true…
Because of the nature of business, it has two and only two functions, innovation, and marketing. Innovation and marketing make money, everything else is a cost. - Peter Drucker
Don’t you love that? Innovation and marketing make money! As a small business owner, you should be proud of your desire to make money. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, in his book, Thou Shall Prosper, says it even stronger, “A person’s quest for profit and wealth is inherently moral.” The nature of business is making money. Innovation and marketing are the key focus of every super successful business, as they will also be in our Mastermind.
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Business (and personal) innovation is my story of learning...
You may be wondering right now about innovation. Innovate what? Only everything! Every business function you currently have is fair game, but even more important is you! Innovating the business owners thinking is where the real breakthroughs begin. It certainly was true for me. More on innovation in a minute.
Over 30 years ago, I joined my first Mastermind, and it was my big leap into a way of thinking about business and life, that I’d never known. It literally changed everything. Friend, when the business owners thinking changes, breakthroughs are inevitable.
It was the power of a Mastermind group that helped me slowly implement several mind-blowing epiphanies that led to breakthroughs in my business and my life. Without the help of this group I doubt I would’ve taken action on the ideas I was learning from a new business book.
The E-Myth book (Subtitle: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It) was recommended to me by another businessman. If you’re not familiar with the book by Michael Gerber, you likely know his now famous quote: “You need to stop going to work in your business as an employee and go to work on it.”
As the facilitator of our Mastermind, I’ll give you everything you need to enjoy the benefits of working ON your business. You can learn more about my journey to a business that works in my book, Victory Goes to the Business with Superior Systems.
Today I have the business life of my dreams, but that wasn’t always true. When I started my business as a one-man operation I worked hard - I did all the things. As the business grew and I started to add employees, I was unprepared for the growth and without a plan the business was all consuming.
My business didn’t work for one big reason - I didn’t know how a business was supposed to work. Innovation, systems thinking, process improvement, training manuals, LEAN thinking were all foreign to me. Without this thinking I lost my joy, business wasn’t fun or rewarding.
My Mess Becomes...
My message - my “Second-half Work” was born out of a business start-up that was flawed and unsustainable. The message, is the essence of this invitation to join me and others in the Innovation and Marketing Mastermind.
The decision to join this group was one of the smartest of my life. The group was designed for people like me who wanted to go deeper – it was in every way, a Mastermind. It was the Mastermind that saved me from throwing in the towel.
Every week I’d get on a conference call with my Mastermind group: the facilitator and 12 other business people across the country.
We took turns sharing our struggles and the progress we’d made from the previous week. The ideas and encouragement I got from the group (not just the facilitator) literally changed my life. I wouldn’t dare miss my weekly time with this group.
My Mastermind changed my business and my life
Today I have the business of my dreams. Yes, I have a business that works, but best of all I have a business that works without me in the daily operations. It’s what I like to call a, Lifestyle Business: standard of living and quality of life.
Let me ask you a question…do you have a group like that? Do you have a group of best-in-class performers raising the bar and challenging you to live your large life? Do you have someone interested and invested in you so that you become everything you were meant to be? If not, I’d like to be that person in your life. Truly.
If you’re interested in joining a bigger group (a group desiring to grow to be the best version of themselves), if you want to learn more about being a member of The Innovation & Marketing Mastermind, click the button and schedule a conversation with me.
The Secret of Every Successful Person
A mastermind consists of two or more people who work in perfect harmony, for the attainment of a definite purpose.
It is the principal through which you may borrow the education, experience influence and intellectual capital of other people, in carrying out your own plans in life.
“It is the principle through which you may accomplish in one year, more than you could accomplish in a lifetime, if you relied only on your own efforts.” - Napoleon Hill
Slow down and read that again. You don’t have to “rely only on your own efforts.” The Innovation & Marketing Mastermind is for small business owners who share the same ideals and desires around business and serving others. People like you with a passion to do their Big Work. If you have this kind of passion in your heart, you will need the help of others to bring it to reality.
Friend, this is not a new idea - check out this ancient wisdom, written by King Solomon…
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” - Proverbs 15:22
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I N N O V A T I O N
Because of the nature of business, it has two and only two functions, innovation, and marketing. Innovation and marketing make money, everything else is a cost. - Peter Drucker
You have to admit, that’s a pretty bold statement - “…two and only two functions.” Really Mr. Drucker, only two? -- Yes, I agree and believe everything about business fits into those two functions.
Let me explain with a quote from another of my business heroes, Edwards Deming.
“If you can’t describe what you’re doing, as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” - Deming
Innovation is simply the ability to Think about your work and see everything as a system – a process waiting to be created. Our Mastermind will dig deep into breaking your work into chunks and create the step-by-step system anyone can use. Then document the systems! If you’d like to see my Signature Process and download a copy of the flowchart, click here. It is called, Your Best Work The Best Way.
That’s how you get free of your business and grow it – at the same time. You can be the Visionary, the Inventor and Chief Innovator of your business – I’ll show you how.
- Innovation 101 starts with systems thinking.
“The System is the Solution.” – AT&T - A systems strategy of creating Process for Everything... “If you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” – Demings
- Process Improvement. Once you have your process, how to continually improve it. The Japanese call it, Kaizen.
- Micro-manage your business to the max. No, not your people, your business systems.
- Create Extraordinary Systems, for use by ordinary people (the secret of every great business).
- LEAN Thinking to eliminate waste, rework, and extra steps.
- Zero-Defect installations and order-fulfillment. Yes, it can be done.
- Stop playing Whack-a-Mole in your business and enjoy your life.
- How to document your systems to create training manuals.
- Making your systems stick.
- How to build AOR’s (areas of responsibility) into every process.
- How to use systems to innovate your Customer Experience – learn how to “Do Something Different” and defy comparison.
M A R K E T I N G
The purpose of innovation and systems is to create your best business – the goal of marketing is to attract a stream of perfect prospects to your best business.
Or said another way...
A lack of systems is why your business isn’t better;
A lack of marketing is why your business isn’t bigger.
If you’re business is “the best kept secret in town” that’s not a compliment. It means you stink at marketing. Ouch, I know that stings a little!
Best kept secret means, people love your work, but no one knows about you. Friend that’s tragic!
Marketing can also be a system – a new client acquisition system, and I’ll teach you how to create one (several actually).
When you crack the code on client acquisition, you can control your business: your order-fulfillment systems + your marketing systems = your money-machine.
- Know what business you’re in - you are in the marketing business!
- Marketing is Everything and Everything is Marketing (two ideas you have to embrace if you want to grow your business).
- Create Marketing systems to guarantee a continuous stream of clients ready to do business with you. Until you can do this, you can’t control your business.
- Know when to be selling and when to be marketing.
- Marketing is lead generation, Selling is lead conversion - learn how to do both - with systems.
- Stop one-off marketing - Start creating multi-step marketing campaigns.
- High-touch marketing techniques that people can’t ignore.
- Create your “new client acquisition system” (key word: system).
- Learn why, it’s not who can spend the least to a attract a prospect, it’s who can spend the most (when you get this, you are the market leader).
- Offline to Online marketing that drive prospects directly to Your website, so that you circumvent search engines (make Google irrelevant to your business)
- A prospecting process to create the best customers (prospects become customers – lol, choose to work only with the best)
M I N D S E T
But wait…there’s more. There’s an elephant in the room we have to talk about, or all this innovation and marketing will never transform your Plantscape business, or your life. The elephant will keep you from even considering this Mastermind.
It’s your BS. The elephant is your mind-set. Your Belief Systems of course!
“Your business is either good or bad between your own two ears.” - Zig
The possibilities of innovation and marketing are exciting, but without vision and belief, nothing changes. When Zig Ziglar said that he was talking about the head-game of business. It’s not just positive-thinking (critical as that is) it’s possibility-thinking: “believing” your business can serve you with a large-life and freedom.
You have to stop living to serve your business with an employee mindset and become a business owner. This all begins with the belief that it’s possible! Hint: It Is!
- Nothing changes until your thinking does.
- Your BS is holding you back (your belief systems).
- Demolish “industry-influenza” and limiting beliefs of comparing your business to others (Think so differently, your business defies comparison).
- Finally, learn what it really means to work ON your business, not IN it (an absolute game-changer).
- Learn why your “product/service” is not your product, your business is (Friend, this is huge).
- Your pricing is a function of your belief systems. Learn to charge more for your work, and why your clients want to pay more.
- Stay out of the red, shark-infested waters and create your Blue Ocean strategies
- Drive your business with Crystal Clear Vision (because Cash Follows Clarity)
- Create a lifestyle business: You decide on the life you want, then create your business to make that life possible.
- Real wealth is not about money, real wealth is freedom.
- Scale Your Business, Create Free Time, Do the Work You Love™.
P L A N T S C A P E
Make no mistake, we’ll be talking Plantscaping! The Plantscape world is where I’ve lived for the last 40+ years. I was 22 years old and months away from marrying my high school sweetheart, when I got my business license. Friend, the only thing I knew less about than plants was business. Like many Plantscapers, I had a love for potted houseplants and saw the business opportunity.
My naivete and 20-year old cockiness (ego), said, “how hard could it be?” You can stop laughing now. And so slowly, I started to learn about business – the business of Plantscaping.
Stop thinking like a Plantscaper!
Start thinking like a business person. Yes, the technical work of Plantscaping is critical. We’ll invest a lot of our Mastermind time learning from each other the “techniques, tactics and tricks” of the Plantscaping trade, and, we’ll do it with a critical eye to best business practices. Make no mistake: The technical work of Plantscaping is vital – but beware the fatal assumption.
The fatal assumption.
E-Myth (n.) The fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that does that technical work.
That fatal assumption is why most small business owners fail or stay small. It’s also why most small business owners will forever be an employee in their own business. Ouch!
- Plant Care: Hire the very best attitude (great people who love life and love people) and train them with your plant care systems.
- Sales: Selling (influencing with integrity) is a learned skill - there’s no such thing as a born salesperson.
- Marketing: Sales is not marketing, and marketing is not sales, but the two are intricately entwined.
- Finance & Accounting: If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” and “Whatever you measure, improves” – Drucker.
- Office Administration: The hub of everything & the voice of your company.
- Staff Development: If you fail to train, you fail. How to create a People-First culture.
- Plant Preparation: Prior plant preparation prevents poor performance.
- Delivery & Installation: Zero defect installations to eliminate waste and go-backs.
- Quality Assurance: Vigilance against the “curse of the familiar” and “the deception of the gradual”.
- Greenhouse Management: Inspire your Gardeners with your beautiful account (Order is the sign of leadership and intention).
Here’s just a sampling of our “industry-norm-busters” that will be hot discussion topics in our Mastermind.
MARKETING: (click for more)
Sales is not marketing, and marketing is not sales, but the two are intricately entwined.
PLANT CARE: (click for more)
Hire the very best attitude (great people who love life and love people) and train them with your plant care systems.
SELLING: (click for more)
Selling (influencing with integrity) is a learned skill - there’s no such thing as a born salesperson.
FINANCE & ACCOUNTING: (click for more)
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” and “Whatever you measure, improves” – Drucker.
OFFICE ADMINISTRATION: (click for more)
The hub of everything and the voice of your company.
STAFF DEVELOPMENT: (click for more)
If you fail to train, you fail. How to create a People-First culture.
PLANT PREPARATION: (click for more)
Prior plant preparation prevents poor performance.
DELIVERY & INSTALLATION: (click for more)
Zero defect installations to eliminate waste and go-backs.
QUALITY ASSURANCE: (click for more)
Vigilance against the “curse of the familiar” and “the deception of the gradual”.
GREENHOUSE (or facility, of course): (click for more)
Inspire your Gardeners with your beautiful account (Order is the sign of leadership and intention).
Are you asking...
That voice inside your head is either serving you or holding you back from the business and life of your dreams. Right now even. Are you thinking any of these…
- I’ve heard all this before
- My business is doing just fine
- It’s too much money
- I don’t really want to grow my business
- My business is different, this won’t work for me
You're either embracing the idea of building the business of your dreams, or you’re rejecting it. Your mindset is responsible for that.
Limiting Beliefs. Fear. Mental Lies. Scarcity. Negativity. Doubt
Let’s be honest, we all deal with it. If you don’t face it down, you lose. Building a solid and successful business is more than anything – A head game
The Innovation & Marketing Mastermind
for Plantscapers
What to expect?
Friend, you can expect Your Best Year Yet, because your new peer group (me especially) will expect your best. You know you have another gear you haven’t used - more potential, a talent that’s still buried, or maybe even a dream that’s burning to be realized. Whatever your Best Work is, your Mastermind peer group will help you realize it.
“Your life will be the direct reflection of the expectations of your peer group.” - Tony Robbins
In your time with me and other high performers, I want your expectations high. This is a paid mastermind group and it’s not cheap - I won’t let you waste your money. You can expect to be challenged with big ideas to grow your business, but also to grow yourself.
Why Should You Work
Your high expectations of me:
- You can expect me to “show up big” ready to focus on you and your big life
- You can expect me to be interested and invested in your success; to learn about you, study you, and dive deep into your business and how you define Victory
- You can expect me to speak into your life and say things that perhaps no one else has said
You can expect absolute positivity and kindness (shame and guilt is not how I roll)
You can expect a safe, confidential and encouraging experience every time we meet
Your work is not your job, and it’s not your business. Your Work is something special, even sacred. A huge part of my Work is helping you find your Work. The best way I’ve found to describe it is, my Bradmillerness Work. It’s the work I was created for, and only I can do it.
Fill in the blank with your first and last name:
“I am doing my _____________ness Work.”
Your Work of serving others, is serving the world, and only You can do it. I want to be part of your journey to find that work. If you’re reading this and you’re a small business owner, there’s a really good chance, we should be working together.
That’s pretty bold of me, but I say it because small business owners are a rare breed and because of my unique belief systems, it’s who I connect with deeply.
In my 40 years of growing a business, I have discovered my Work: how I can show up big in the world and serve others (especially small business owners) in a life-transforming way.
The following page details what I bring to the table to serve you, as the creator and lead facilitator. They are my core beliefs and unique areas of expertise – my Bradmillerness.
- Your business is not your life. If you’re winning at business, and losing at home, you lose! You can, and you must have a life and a business. Friend, please please don’t sacrifice your family, your marriage, your health, your…whatever, for your business. That would be Stupid, and you’re not stupid.
- Prosperity is a good thing. Your desire for prosperity, firmly hitched to your belief in the high calling of business, serves everyone. Let’s make a lot of money and serve the world.
- Business is a high calling. I believe in the morality and dignity of business; it is noble and worthy. Business is the business of people. Serving people in meaningful ways is the essence of every successful business.
- You have to work On your business, not just In it. I was ten years into my small business journey, and about to give up, when I learned this. It was the absolute game-changer.
- Marketing is Everything. Once my business was humming with systems, I got interested in marketing. OK, I got obsessed with marketing. I stopped going to industry conferences and went to high-level marketing events instead.
- Selling is a skill, and a system. Even with the best marketing, business is person to person (note: there’s no such thing as B2B or B2C, only P2P). You need the skills of a professional salesperson and you can learn them.
- Training keeps the Train on the tracks. Your business is a locomotive. All the power and potential of a locomotive is useless without the tracks. Training your team to use your systems is keeping your business on track.
- Business is character & personal development. Growing a business is also one of the very best tools to tap the full potential of your life. Jim Rohn was famous for saying, “Make it your goal to earn a million dollars, not for the money, but for the kind of person you have to become.”
TESTIMONIALS
"One of the best investments you can make..."
“Brad and I have grown our companies in the same industry on opposite sides of the country, for over 35 years. As a frequent speaker at conferences, Brad has the reputation of a thought leader in our industry. I’ve read Brad’s book on systems and can attest that his thinking and strategies are sound.”
Scott C. Barron
Founder,
Botanical Designs
"He's learned how to create a real business that works..."
“Many companies talk about systems, Brad’s business is a 360 degree systems machine. He’s learned how to create a real business that works. The work of his newest company, Miller Marketing & Training, will show you how to do the same. Brad excels in his new company as teacher, trainer and speaker.”
Art Campbell, CMC
President,
National Interiorscape Network
“If you’re looking for a business mentor... he’s your guy.”
“Brad has an amazing business journey and I have had the privilege to witness much of it. His commitment and determination to create a lifestyle business driven by systems is admirable. He’s done it! If you’re looking for a business mentor– someone who can help scale your business with a systems strategy, he’s your guy.”
Mark McFalls
General Manager,
Ferguson Waterworks
“I go out of my way to attend anytime he is speaking!”
“Brad’s understanding of how to implement systems to improve your business and personal life are excellent. I’ve heard Brad speak 40 or 50 times and go out of my way to attend anytime he is speaking. I highly recommend Brad’s work, as it has profoundly impacted my thinking on business and life.”
Brad Nash
State Farm agent for 40 years,
Nash Insurance & Associates
“Bottom line, Brad knows his stuff!”
“I’ve had the opportunity to experience both his businesses up close -Brad is the real deal. His businesses have become my visual reference of successful business-systems in action. He has a real-world business with a lot of moving parts, and his systems strategies make it look effortless. Bottom line, Brad knows his stuff.”
Dan Fadayomi
President/Owner,
Anywhere Computer Repair
WHAT'S INCLUDED
A One-on-One Session with me. Our opportunity to meet and learn. You and I will have a 2 hour Zoom meeting for a meaningful conversation. To learn about you, your life, your business history.
- Learning and conversation about your: Mission, Vision and Core Values.
- Evaluation of the Core Assessment – A Robust Pre-meeting survey to learn about you and your business. About 50 questions…answer as much or as little as you want.
- Introduction to my Signature Process: Your Best Work The Best Way. This is a process that will be a part of our Mastermind work. Your Best Work is Vision. The Best Way is Systems.
First Meeting: The Mastermind Meeting
A 5-hour Zoom meeting with your Mastermind group and me as lead facilitator
Five hours of fast-paced agendas with inspiring strategies, business building content, mind-expanding challenges, and questions that your team will never ask you. (With all humility, I’m a skilled leader and facilitator and coach, but I am not “the show” – the Mastermind is). If you’ve never been part of a process-driven Mastermind, prepare to be blown away.
- Good News Segue. The meeting opens with a 3 to 5 minute share. Share your wins, your weekend, or any good news personal or professional. It’s team building time and an opportunity to build the bonds of our community
- Core Business Topic. The best business practices presented and facilitated in an open forum style. Members are invited and encouraged to share their own experiences and conundrums and ask for input and advice. The Core Business Topic changes each month.
- Marketing Minute. I love marketing. Each month we’ll talk about a new and creative idea to “make your work known” – my personal definition of marketing.
Innovation Initiative. A member driven segment where everyone has an opportunity to share their latest and greatest innovation. We want to encourage each other to “always be innovating.” - Member Business Focus. Once a year every member will have the opportunity to prepare and present their own business snapshot. Then hold tight as your colleagues share their observations and ideas. All in a spirit of growth and love. You’ll be amazed at the breakthroughs that emerge.
- Issues and Conundrums. Want your members input, advice and opinions on a perplexing problem or opportunity? This may be your favorite segment, as small business people are experienced problem solvers and know how to assess market opportunities.
Second Meeting: “One-On-One”
A scheduled 50 minute Zoom meeting with You and me once a month
In case you missed this above: “My magnificent obsession is your abundant life and a business that works.” The One-On-One meeting is my time to obsess on you and your Large Life
- Questions. Encouragement. Ideas. Transparency. Accountability
- Your opportunity to AMA (ask me anything) about my company Interior Plant Scapes, systems creation, sales, marketing or whatever’s on your mind
Updates on your To Dos from the previous month - You drive the agenda – the game plan, I’ll both coach and cheer!
BONUS CONTENT
As a member of the The Innovation & Marketing Mastermind for Plantscapers, you’ll have access to my best training products, created to implement innovation, sales and marketing into every area of your business. In addition, you will receive training materials and templates we use at my company, Interior Plant Scapes.
My Flagship on-line course, Systems Manual Blueprints
Sold on my website for $997.00, this is my flagship course for how to work on your business to create training manuals for every division of your business.
My Marketing course - Victory Goes to the Business with Superior MARKETING Systems:
DVD/CD’s of my best training on how to build a multi-step marketing campaigns, and a Multi-pillar marketing Parthenon.
6-Module Sales Training Manual - Plantscapers Selling Systems Manual: 5 Steps in each module. This was a 2 year project of “Expert Downloads” from myself and my team into printed manuals. It is a comprehensive step-by-step guide to train the skills of Professional Plantscape Sales.
Ongoing Training in my signature process, Your Best Work The Best Way
This is a new way of thinking about your business and your work.
Our Recruitment/Hiring Process that we’ve used and tweaked for almost two decades. Find the best-of-the-best people through a step-by-step process that weeds out anyone that would not fit your culture. Freaking Amazing!
Forms, Checklists and Systems Templates from Interior Plant Scapes, copies of our Marketing Materials: Postcards, Brochures, Sales letters, etc… and how we use them.
And lastly, my absolute favorite:
Our “Plantscape Prospecting Marketing System” – it is so good, I can’t say enough about it, except this: Never make another cold-call again. Unless you want to of course.
My book, Victory Goes to the Business with Superior Systems. A How to Guide to Transform Your Business and Your Life Through Systems
COST
The Innovation & Marketing Mastermind for Plantscapers is not for everyone.
This is not a beginner’s group. To protect and enrich the experience of all members, you must come with some business experience and accomplishments.
The annual membership cost is $27,000,
Payable one-time, or in monthly installments of $2250.00.
To be a part of this unique Mastermind, you must meet the following benchmarks.*
*In order to create a trusting environment where all members share trade secrets this Mastermind is open to only one person/company per market.
See Agreement Here
whenever you
see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision
Friend, this is about
you, and for you!
You are that person who, “once made a courageous decision.”
Is your “successful business” giving you the life you desired when you made that decision? Or is it consuming your life?
I’d like to ask you to make another courageous decision, “Apply for The Innovation and Marketing Mastermind, and learn to create the business life of your dreams.”
With Enthusiasm and Spirit,
So How Do I Apply?
SHOOT ME AN EMAIL
Let’s keep it SIMPLE. Send me an email and tell me...
- a little about yourself and your company
- why you feel you’d be a valuable member of this Mastermind
- and please confirm you meet the Benchmarks on page 19
- include your preferred way of follow up and your contact information
I will be in touch with you personally.
