I am a big believer in having clarity on “Where You Are Now” so that you can decide how you can go to where you want to go. That’s why I strongly advocate people to create a Personal Financial Statement and to use the Money Jar System.
And wouldn’t it be good if someone told you where you are now and how to move to the next level?
Recently, I took the Wealth Spectrum profiling test created by Roger J. Hamilton. What attracted me to the Wealth Spectrum was the tagline,
“Don’t chase the pot of gold. Instead, paint the rainbow.”
Roger is an author, educator and social entrepreneur. He is best known as Asia’s leading wealth consultant and the creator of the various profiling tools such as Wealth Dynamics, Wealth Spectrum and The Genius Test
He also has another profiling test called, Wealth Dynamics. This is a test that shows you who you are and what you are good at. On the other hand, the Wealth Spectrum test shows you where you are on the Wealth Map. And after the online test (which takes me 10-15 minutes to complete), I get instant result and full report on the next steps to take based on my level.
This would mean that I can avoid following the wrong advice or strategies and more importantly, knowing what to say NO to. As a result, it will save me more time, energy and money by getting clarity and certainty now.
The report was sent to me in 2 parts.
Here are my results for Part 1:
I benefitted from the report by knowing
- how I can strengthen my YELLOW (under the section “How do I stay here?”)
- how I can transit to GREEN (under the section “How do I move up?”)
HOW DO I STAY HERE? (in YELLOW)
Here are the 3 recommendations in the report.
1. Identify my identity – I create attraction in my business by asking questions such as
- What does the market need?
- What price is right?
- Who should I connect with?
- What position am I playing in this game?”
2. Master my market – I connect with the market and my potential clients and find the smartest way to exchange my value for money.
3. Monetize my moment – I continue to package value and exchange it for money (e.g. my Money Coaching service).
HOW DO I MOVE UP? (to GREEN)
1. Establish my business – give “Smart About My Money” a stronger identity; Be clear about
- What size of flow I plan to see three years from now?
- How is my market position?
- How many customers?
- What revenue and profit?
- What is the value?
- What size is the team?
- What is the financial systems do you need?
- What is the quality of the team?
- What culture, service, training, partnerships and communications?
Basically, I have to give more time in preparation of the strategies, systems, service and team necessary to cope with a bigger business. And this is a switch from a focus on the plumber to the focus on the plumbing system.
2. Refine my rhythm – I would need to have a rhythm of manage and measure, review and renew for my business and my team.
- When do I meet each week to review my key metrics?
- When do I meet every month to review my financials?
- How do I connect every quarter to review my team and projects?
- How do I connect every year to renew your strategy?
I also have to stick with my strategy and review key metrics often to keep the heartbeat of the business in rhythm.
3. Synchronize my steps – Give time each week and month to re-synchronize with my customers, partners, stakeholders and the market.
MY LEARNING
1. I would need to trust others as much as I trust myself (ok ok… I know I am a Perfectionist) because I would need to create a team to run the business.
2. I would also need to move from independence (YELLOW) to interdependence (GREEN) on a system and team. This is a switch from a focus on the plumber to the focus on the plumbing system.
3. At YELLOW, I rely on myself as the centre of control. At GREEN, I need to shift the centre to my business. The business will have its own identity, character and rhythm and how I guide it is the key.
4. At YELLOW, the question is “How do I make money” but at GREEN, it becomes “How can I help you make money.” There is a paradigm shift from moments of wealth creation to an ongoing wealth stream that flows outside of me.
5. A YELLOW is a player while a GREEN is a performer. As the YELLOW Player, I don’t need to write down the notes I’m going to play, but as a Performer in an orchestra, I need to be following the same score as everyone else on the stage. That means more time working internally with the team where every person does one thing instead of one person doing
everything.
6. As a YELLOW, I often pride myself on my time freedom – where I do what I want to do and when I want. So, I also start to realize why I resist moving into GREEN. It appears that I am giving up freedom when I move into GREEN (e.g. I have a team to work with) and I resonate with Roger’s analogue on my resistance:
“Like a player who wants to join a band, but then realises that means he now needs to show up for practice.”
But he also says that once GREEN has a flow of its own, I will have far more freedom and flow than I can achieve at YELLOW.
Let’s take my coaching business as an example. Currently, it is in YELLOW and I am doing a lot of things by myself. I have a lot of freedom to choose who I want to coach and when I want to coach. But I also have to do my own marketing and admin work like creating Google Spreadsheets to share with my clients as an accountability tool.
And what I learn from the Wealth Spectrum is that if I choose to move into GREEN, I should create a team consisting of
- marketing people to promote my service and draw clients to my service
- admin people to handle the routine stuff and customer service.
- coaches who believes in the Smart About My Money vision to handle the bigger number of clients who decides to take charge of their Money
7. Lastly, at the end of the report, there is a word of caution:
Many at YELLOW level aspire to multiple streams of income – which is BLUE level. The only way to get there sustainably is through GREEN, as GREEN puts a heart and rhythm in every stream.
WHAT I NEED TO DO…
At this stage of the “Smart About My Money” business, I aim to strengthen my YELLOW more before I transit to GREEN in one year time. So, my strategies are:
1. Identify my identity
2. Master my market
3. Monetize my moment
I have also started to prepare for GREEN activities such as creating a Branding, writing a book, sourcing out for Virtual Assistants, etc. But through this profiling tool, I know I should focus 80% of my time to strengthen my YELLOW and 20% of my time to transit to GREEN.
If you want to download my Wealth Spectrum Part 1 report, click here
By the way, at the Wealth Spectrum test side, you can also download the Wealth Spectrum E-guide. In it, it says that the 3 books that I should read to move from YELLOW to GREEN are:
- “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber
- “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Covey
- “Your Life, your Legacy” by Roger J Hamilton
I had added this book to my library
Here are my results for Part 2:
In Part Two, I was given more tips for me to apply, including:
- A detailed report on my level (i.e. YELLOW), covering each area in the summary. Part-1 only covered some and Part-2 covered everything.
- How each Wealth Dynamics profile uses their own personal strengths to move to the next level
Part 2 of the report is a superset of the Part 1 of the report. Here is a visual representation on which part is included in Part 1 and Part 2 of the report.
And according to the ending of Part 1, it is stated:
“This is Part One of your Wealth Spectrum Results. We want to make it as digestible as possible, and so have kept the first part to include an overview of the Spectrum levels and a summary of your level.”
And I appreciate that they split up the report into 2 parts so that I don’t feel overwhelm.
MEASURE: Positive Cash Flow From Mastering Your Market
I am in the ENTERPRISE prism and I create a way to attract people to me by mastering an area I am good at. In my case, this is in Personal Finance.
STATE: Independence
Roger’s analogue is very good here:
ORANGE: I am a driver who is dependent on my car not breaking down
YELLOW: I have learnt how to build its own engine. If the car breaks down, I know how to fix it – or build a new car. That has given me a level of independence and freedom that I don’t want to give up.
(and my own interpretation) GREEN: I own a F1 racing team. I move from independence to creating systems and a team. When I complete this process, I would move faster
CITIZENSHIP: Skill, Self-reliance & Limitation
ORANGE: I can swim (and keep my head above water)
YELLOW: I got out of the water and become a sea-faring sailor
PASSPORT OUT: Rhythm & Mastery
To move to GREEN, I have to reset my rhythm from doing things by myself to doing things with other people (i.e. team). I have to learn how to help others get into the flow as well. This also means being accountable for and to others to gain a far higher level of performance.
HOW DID I GET THERE?
1. Making a stand – I stand out from the crowd in a specific area (in my case… Personal Finance) that reflects who I am. And my curiosity and skill in understanding how to create something that I own means that I am not dependent on a job.
2. Doing it yourself – I have relied more on myself – which means I have shrunk my
circle of trust (and effectiveness) to surround just myself and a few others. So while I have the freedom to play my own music, I’ve trapped myself in a state where it’s impossible at this level to reclaim my time.
Some people stay at YELLOW all their life, and are quite happy to keep doing what they do. It’s a choice that I can now be conscious of. Stay where I am without frustration and envy, or make the choice to move up to GREEN and BLUE level.
3. Seeking freedom – The easiest way to gain time freedom is to do what I’ve done, and live at YELLOW level. This is not the same as gaining financial freedom, which comes from mastering GREEN and then BLUE level (as it will be high performing teams managing my assets and not assets on their own that will sustain my flow of passive income).
So while the desire to create my destiny got me here, now I have to decide whether I want to create my destiny or master my destiny.
NOTE: And as mentioned in the previous post, I am choosing to stay at YELLOW for now
HOW DO I STAY HERE? (in YELLOW)
HOW DO I MOVE UP? (to GREEN)
WHAT’S MY BENEFIT: Freedom, Flexibility, Self-Indulgence
It’s good to be aware that every level has its own costs and benefits.
YELLOW has freedom and flexibility to break free of the dependence on a job but is concerned if I build our business too big or too many people are relying on me. Hence, as a YELLOW, I fantasize about expanding my business but then the personal freedom I think I will lose makes me shy away from building the team and taking the actions.
This self-indulgence is a need for instant gratification with our time similar to how INFRARED are stuck in instant gratification with their money. They lose their money, and I lose my time. Investing my time in building a plumbing system maintained by others when I reach BLUE is a different level of freedom waiting for me.
WHAT’S MY COST: Limited Growth, Limited Impact, Lack of Trust
The cost when I choose to stay at YELLOW is limited growth. Like a pot plant limited by the pot, the height to which I can grow depends on the reach of my roots.
While limited growth is a current cost to me, my limited impact is my future cost. As long as I am relying on myself for all my major strategic decisions, I am the bottleneck in my own legacy. My results are largely limited by my own time, and my opportunities are limited by what passes my way, rather than what passes through my environment and picked up by others.
Finally, by living at a level where I am a focal point of action and attraction, I am limiting my own relationship with trust, and the experience of selecting the right people around me who I can trust – others who hold my future in their hands, and where their trust in me becomes both valuable and necessary.
THE ROLE OF YELLOW: Sparks of genius, Collaborative Economy
Every level serves a role in our economies in creating flow. Otherwise, the level would not exist.
YELLOW serves as the self-employed ‘prosumers’ who have a role in both production and consumption. Through my independent nature, I am quick to move and fill up the gaps in demand and supply to create a more efficient economy.
THE REWARD OF YELLOW: Degrees of Freedom
Every level receives a reward for their role in our economies. Otherwise, the level would choose not to exist.
YELLOW gets the reward of degrees of freedom in time, flexibility and earning capability.
Many who step into the Yellow level earn less than they could when they were at Orange Worker level, but the reward for this is the freedom they have to be fulfilled in living a life on their terms. This freedom is the most precious commodity of a YELLOW, and when a company recruits a YELLOW to join their team, it is often better to bring them on board as a freelance contractor than a fully employed member of the team.
While this freedom is seductive at YELLOW, understanding that BLUE gives both freedom and sustainable cash flow drives many at YELLOW to build the discipline needed to move up to GREEN. After all, it is not money that makes money, but people that make money. And it will be other people that make my money.
And after Wealth Spectrum, I also took the Wealth Dynamics Profiling Test. Again, let me digest first before I post my results.
If you want to download my Wealth Spectrum Part 2 report, click here
By the way, at the Wealth Spectrum test side, you can also download the Wealth Spectrum E-guide. In it, it says that the 3 books that I should read to move from YELLOW to GREEN are:
“The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber
“The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Covey
“Your Life, your Legacy” by Roger J Hamilton
I had added this book to my library
Moving Forward
In the next part of the report, it illustrates how each of the eight Wealth Dynamics profiles can move up to GREEN (which is YELLOW next level).
So, I went on to take my Wealth Dynamics profiling test. And I will report my results in the next blog post. But from the Wealth Dynamics profiling test, I am a LORD. And the report continues to explain:
“YELLOW LORDS are masters of the detail. Whether this is in managing the cash flow of a particular market or delivering a process that increases the efficiency to their customers, YELLOW LOADS have become both linchpin and bottleneck. Connecting with a CREATOR to operate as strategist to build my business is the first step to GREEN, as you focus at the back end.”
Check out the Wealth Dynamics profiling test and download the 34 page free Wealth Dynamics eBook where Roger shares the principles behind Wealth Dynamics so that you can sooner be on your path to dynamic wealth, opportunity, and flow.
If you are taking the profiling test, click here. What I would love to do for you is to give you a free Skype coaching session to explain the profile to you in more details.
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"I will show you how I set myself up to be financially free…"
