We all dream of hitting the lottery (though I discourage this thinking).

What if a pile of money landed in your lap?

A common question that comes up in discussion groups goes something like this:

If someone gave you $100,000, how would you use it for marketing your business?

As an experiment, I posted this question in my Facebook discussion group – just to see the reactions.

Someone saw the question and responded as follows:

The first thing I would do is pay off all my business debt.

Right now, 17% of my revenues are dedicated to debt service.

So I’d pay all that off to free up my EXISTING revenue for marketing.

Plus bank money I’d otherwise lose down the road on interest payments and use that for marketing instead.

I made some progress last year using a cash infusion from a private lender and it’s already helped, but I’d take another bite.

Then, I’d look at all the things I have to support my business that I pay for monthly, and take their annual payment option instead.

This usually means getting about two months for free, so that’s more existing cash flow I can use for marketing my business.

After that, I would hire an outside consultant to analyze my business and locate money leaks I may be missing.

That would probably run about $5K, but I bet they find $10K in leaks.

That nets me $5K more for marketing.

That, right there, would be a year’s worth of a $500/month assistant to do outreach so I don’t have to hustle so hard.

Gee whiz.

What an analytical approach from someone who worries a lot about debt!

First off, I disagreed with him.

I’ve shared, time and time again, how to use debt and the investors you already have to fund your growth.

You know – Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.

Then you repay them out of your profits once you have enough money in your checking account to sleep at night.

My magic number is $10,000 – yours may be different.

That’s what my mindset coach, Melanie Benson, told me to do when I was still struggling with debt – it worked like a charm bracelet.

Thanks, Melanie! :-)

Second off, I corrected him.

I replied, “This is okay, but I asked how you would spend the money on MARKETING!”

Candidly, I was baiting him, and he knew it.

He doubled down on me:

I stand by everything about freeing up cash flow to increase the percentage of my existing revenues I can devote to marketing.

See, if you give me $100,000 and it doesn’t get me the ROI I expected, I still have 17% (and I may need to take on more debt!) of my revenues going to debt service.

I’m still owing interest, paying more monthly and missing out on annual discounts, and not getting that extra assistant to help me prospect.

Doing it my way means all that goes away.

Without having to get any more clients or change my business in any way before I even begin, I have revenues that will KEEP COMING to fund the marketing I need.

If the first thing I try doesn’t work out, I know more money is on its way.

I can try something else, even before I am able to drum up new business to increase gross revenues.

Oh, and I get to sleep at night knowing I don’t have to sell my soul on projects I hate just to pay bills.

That’s my personal “3am Holy Crap” moment!

I’m still not 100% sure – I think he’d get a lot further by intelligently leveraging debt.

I have Robert Kiyosaki and Elon Musk backing me up on this one, while he leans on Benjamin Franklin‘s penny-saved, penny-earned thing.

I chose to leverage debt, then turned around and paid it off.

Now, I’m enjoying a lifestyle of travel and adventure while working just three days per week.

Mr. and Mrs. Palmer’s son knows a thing or two about building profitable businesses and creating dream lifestyles – he’s been doing it since he was 18 years old!

That said, you’ve just seen something very important.

This two-part dialogue exemplifies the power of masterminding.

I continue to disagree with him and I say so every time this topic comes up.

But is he wrong?

I don’t know – you could say that his way will get rid of his “3AM Holy Crap Moments”.

What do YOU have to say about this guy’s answers?

Well, how do you define money mindset?

Maybe you agree with him and think he has a Long Game mindset that has him thinking years ahead.

Maybe you think he has a “poverty mindset” and he’s in his own way right now thinking about what he owes people.

The power of a mastermind is that you learn from others who bring different experiences and viewpoints to the table.

Adopt whatever you find useful.

At the same time, mastermind members challenge each other and help each other develop even better solutions.

After all, a rising tide buoys all ships.

When all ships rise, that means smoother sailing.

You will sail a lot further as part of an armada than you will trying to navigate alone.

Oh, and that guy likes me enough, he’s been in my mastermind for 14 years.

He’s made hundreds of thousands of dollars by following my advice in other areas.

So I can bust his chops a little :-)

Here’s what he says about his 1:1 calls with me: