Andrew Baird Interview

Stuart Macadam

Stuart Macadam is a contributing editor to Getfrank. With a focus on entertainment, he enjoys watching the latest movies, reading the latest books and discovering the latest and greatest technological innovations.

Andrew Baird is so fired up for the interview with me he kicks the table, accidentally of course. It would be easy to mistake Andrew Baird as an accountant at Deloitte or a secondary school teacher at an affluent decile 10 school. But from the word go, it is very difficult not to be impressed by his business acumen.

"When I was around 10 I wanted to either be a writer or a scientist. Those were the things I wanted to do. We moved up to Auckland from Timaru. So I was a mainland boy for quite a bit of my life. When we moved up to Auckland I started becoming interested in business. As I hit my teen years I thought 'Yeah I want to start a business and retire by 30.'  My wife and I have published a book so I am a published writer which is great to have fulfilled that dream."

With his wife Kim he runs Amazing Business. The main philosophy espoused on the website is that you can have more profits in your business while working less. It sounds absurd right? But once Andrew begins to explain the concept in more detail, it doesn’t sound any more farfetched than saying an elite marathon runner can win a big race by running 150km a week, rather than 150 miles.

“I get that a lot,” he tells me. “The whole 'it sounds too good to be true.' There are strategies you can use to make a lot more money. For example we were just talking about webinars. We use webinars to reach people all over the world, even in such remote places as Cambodia that we wouldn't have been able to reach five or ten years ago.  What that means is you can reach more people now in a normal fashion. Then if you look at another example like McDonald’s, they have the classic example of the up sell. Now people traditionally think the upsell is really cheesy. What they don't realise is that if I own a McDonald’s and I've got all these costs (like staff, overheads, electricity), if someone comes in and buys extra, it doesn't actually cost me very much to make and I can make a lot more money."

Amazing business runs what is known as webinars, interactive online trainings with Andrew, Kim (or both) which explain different concepts about business which people may overlook or miss.There are also one on one VIP days, business retreats and yearlong mentoring opportunities available.

"At the moment we don't have any low price products. We used to sell products that went between $300-1000. This year we decided to stop selling low end products and to only sell high end products. This means that people get our focused attention and one on one help when they work with us - we can be a sounding board for them. For example there's our profits pyramid program, it's a holistic business training. What we've found from personal experience after hiring a mentor, they helped us with a sales funnel. But when we did it with this mentor the funnel worked worse than when we did it by ourselves because there was a missing piece. So we figured out that a lot of people (just like us) need that holistic package - not just one piece of the puzzle. We've also got one day VIP day and we just focus on one persons business for the whole day. We also have a four day retreat where we take four business owners through transforming their businesses. It's a focused planning, strategy and wealth workshop. We also have annual coaching where people can work with us for the whole year to truly transform their business."

He is a regular user and graduate of the ‘Mind Power course,’ developed largely by John Kehoe. The personal success he has had with Mind Power is something extraordinary. His first company almost failed because it lacked the direction needed to be successful. He uses Mind Power to help focus on success, control the direction he is heading in and he uses it to set high aiming but realistic goals. It is really no surprise when he says “I use Mind Power every day.”

The clients which Amazing Business has spans around the world, from Australia to North America. A lot of interest comes from overseas but it may just be the success stories which are the most intriguing. And Andrew has no shortage of them. “One of our clients we helped her set up webinars in her business. It took her about four hours to set up the webinar and it made her over $41,000 over the course of the year. Another client we worked with this year had done lots of marketing and selling training. She's done a lot of coaching and personal development but hasn't been able to make it work for her business. And we've been able to look at her business with her so she realises how she can develop the business and show her how to go out and generate big contracts and grow it to her goal level."

Sometimes the smallest changes can have the biggest influence on a business. As we finish our drinks and get ready to leave the business coach of a decade looks at me intently and says “It's about shifting people's beliefs and turning those thoughts and beliefs into action.” In our actions success is destined to be waiting.

 
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