How to Model Others For Faster Success – 7 Steps

We often look at others in fascination of their success and say to ourselves, “I wish I could be as successful as _______”. Leaving it all to a dream to think about, and yet never take action towards.

When in reality, what makes that person ANY different than you or I? On a human level, the answer is really a resounding NOTHING! There’s nothing different and there’s nothing that’s really holding you or I back from achieving the same level of success.

The only difference are the things they are doing, the way in which they are thinking, and the belief they have in themselves.

However, by studying more successful people, or even competitors in the industry you want to be in, we can break down their behaviors, their mentality, AND their tactics to start seeing the same results for ourselves.

We call this “Modeling”. As Tony Robbins puts it, “Success leaves clues, it’s not just because they are lucky”.

The benefit for all of us in today’s world is that the success clues are left out in the open for all of us to see, analyze, interpret, and then implement.

Therefor, if we take the time to really dive in to the actions, behaviors, mindset, tactics and routines of those more successful than ourselves, we each can start to climb the success ladder that others have climbed before us.

Modeling Success Does Not Mean Copying Others

What I am not implying is that you go find the person you want to be and start to just copy everything they do. Each person must take their own path, speak from their own voice and think with their own mind.

However, you can start to adopt new beliefs, take on new routines, and even start to talk about similar topics with your own take or spin on it.

And while there is no shortcut to success, there is definitely a path that has been carved out of the landscape by others. Successful people or even your top 10 competitors have already taken that path and PROVEN that it can be done.

In fact, if you look into the landscape and you can’t find a competitor that’s successful, then that’s a RED FLAG! You don’t want to be the pioneer, because they are the ones who get arrows in the back. Instead, you WANT to follow the path already laid out for you!

As you set out to find the people or person that you want to model yourself after, you want to take a look at both the Tactical steps they take in their business, but you also need to take a look at the Mental steps they take as well.

But before we start to take in and model the behaviors of others, we need to make sure that we understand how to leave our egos at the door and understand how COMPETENCE works, and how we can work to achieve the level of competency that other more successful people have achieved.

The Four Stages Of Competence

Before we dive into this portion of the article, let me preface by first stating that it’s O.K. to be incompetent on something that you’ve NEVER done before!

In fact, it’s one of my favorite parts of becoming an entrepreneur is that by searching out the things we are incompetent at, we have the opportunity to become better, more well rounded at skills that we would have never sought after to begin with.

But by identifying that we are incompetent at something, that is ACTUALLY the first step of growth in that topic.

So with that, let’s talk about the Four Stages of Competence:

So now that I’ve laid out the 4 levels of competency, let’s put some real world applications on them to better define it.

On level 1, you aren’t even aware that there is something that you don’t know. For example, if you only use TikTok to watch videos, you may not even be aware that there are creators making thousands of dollars a month creating content. You don’t know how they monetize, you don’t know how they drive traffic. You’re unconsciously incompetent.

If that is the case, then I just helped you reach level 2. You’re now aware that you’re incompetent on how people make some crazy money on TikTok!

As you can probably tell, it’s a lot easier to go from level 1 to 2, than it is to go from level 2 to level 3. That’s where modeling the behaviors and tactics of more successful people really starts to kick in.

The goal is grow yourself into Level 3: Consciously Competent where you now are comfortable putting in the work and practicing the skills it takes to, for example, make money creating content on TikTok. You can put together a video, you have a strong 3 second hook, you are including a good Call to Action, and you’ve embedded links into your profile.

The goal is to grow into Level 4. Where you can just start to do the things without having to put much thought behind it. A great example of Level 4, is if you have been driving for more than a year… you can probably drive without thinking to much behind it.

Modeling Tactical Behaviors AND Mental Behaviors

It’s important to remember that successful people aren’t just that way because they DO the right things. They also BELIEVE the right things.

You can start to model all the tactics and strategies they use, but if your mindset isn’t in a similar place as theirs, will you truly see the success that they do?

The answer is probably not. If you go into your business thinking that money is a difficult thing to get your hands on, then it’s going to be. However most successful people believe in an abundance mentality. That there is more than enough to go around for everyone, they are just going to go work for a bigger piece of the pie for themselves.

Yet, at the same token, if all you’re taking in is the mindset and belief system, without diving into the daily tactics they deploy in their business, then you’ll never develop the tangible skills that your competitors have developed over time either.

You have to do BOTH.

So before we dive into the 7 steps you can take to start modeling BOTH tactics and behaviors, be sure to download this weeks Free Guide with a worksheet on modeling. I’ve sectioned out places you can take notes on your competitors or someone you look up to in your industry of choice, so you can see right on paper what they are doing.

Now, that you have that downloaded, let’s start diving into the questions you can start asking yourself.

Modeling Tactical Behaviors

1. Start by writing down your Top 5 Competitors, and Top 3 People You look up to. – I don’t want you to start with just one. If you have a business or you’re looking to start a business, find people that do it already. Start searching and find the top 5 that show up. On the other hand, there are people I’m sure you look up to online that you may consider a mentor. Write them down so you can start going deeper.
2. Go through their online ecosystem – Start your deep dive. You want to see their entire foot print. Sign up for a freebie, start receiving their emails, go through their sales funnels. How are they communicating through their long form content.
3. What topics are they talking about? – If you’re looking through their content, what kinds of topics are resonating with their audience? How can you produce similar content but different? How can you communicate the same topics but use your own words and thoughts along the way?
4. What is their content cycle? – Here you want to see how they produce their content. How often do they publish a new blog post? How often do they post a new video. How often do they post on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok? Why? As you start to see how often they produce, maybe you should be too?
5. What are their Call To Actions? – This may be one of the most important intangibles that most people look past. A call to action gets SOMEONE to do SOMETHING. This moves people forward in their funnels, gets them to comment on a post, gets someone to subscribe to a channel. Write down multiple calls to action so you can start to curate quality CTA’s.
6. How do they show up on social? – First, where are they? Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? How often are they there? Do they schedule their posts? Do they focus on written word? Video? GIF? What’s the mix of their content? When you start to know how they show up, you can start to model that behavior.
7. Start finding commonalities between the 8 you’re researching. – Remember what I said before… success leaves clues. What are the common things you’re finding between the 8 people you’re researching? You should probably start in the common traits.

Modeling Mental Behaviors

• What is their “Story” – At the beginning of most content, or somewhere embedded in their webpage is the “Story”. This is the story that they have built up around them that they use to express their goals and motivations for what it is they do. How can you start to craft YOUR “Story”
• What are their beliefs about money? – Believe it or not, but successful people think about money much differently than the average person. Here you should be hearing a lot about abundance and law of attraction. These are belief systems you should probably start adopting.
• What is their morning routine? – This has become a real hot topic over the last decade as modeling success has become more common (and successful in it’s own right). This isn’t to say that you should simply copy what others do in the morning, but maybe you don’t HAVE a morning routine. This is an opportunity to start building one.
• How do they value and manage their time? – As people become more successful, they tend to view their time differently. The days of sitting on the couch binging Netflix becomes a thing of the past as you realize that time is a depreciating asset and you can never get it back. So how do your competitors and mentors spend and maximize their time?
• What are their core values? – Successful people tend to operate off a core set of principles and values. This is the framework for which they use to make decisions, build their business and work with their clients.
• Where do they place their attention? – It’s incredible to see where successful people place their attention. You won’t find it placed on frivolous drama or when the next season of Hell’s Kitchen is coming out. This gives you insight into how their prioritize their work and you’ll be surprised at how many people will explain this directly to you.
• Start finding commonalities between the 8 you’re researching. – Again, where can you find intersections in the 8 people that you are researching? If you start to find commonalities within this framework, then it’s something you should probably start adapting in your daily life.

Set The Right Expectations In Your Mind

As you start diving in to how you can begin modeling the behaviors of your competitors and mentors, it’s so crucial to set the right expectations with yourself. How long did it take THEM to be successful.

While there is absolutely the possibility that you can do it faster by following them down the path, it doesn’t mean that success by acting like someone else can happen overnight.

Know that any business or venture takes time, consistency and resiliency.

The other part to keep in mind is the Time vs Money matrix. If you want to learn from these people, there is most likely a good amount of free content. That free content is great and you should take in all of it, but being that it’s free, you’re most likely not getting all the steps.

Paying for courses, masterminds and coaching can absolutely speed your growth up faster, but understand that it’s going to get more expensive the closer the access you can get. Only you can decide on the speed in which you operate at, but those are definitely options you can take.

I hope this guide on modeling behavior has helped, as this is the exact steps that I’m using for myself in my journey to build my business and find more and more success on our path.

Again, feel free to download the free guide sheets with space for you to do your modeling research so you can accelerate your growth!

See you next week!