I’m going to speak about exactly that – what it takes to be successful in your business. But first, let me tell you a story…
Growing up, our neighbor had a bull who was just about the most stubborn thing you’ve ever encountered. If you wanted it to go out to the pasture, it would steadfastly refuse to go and instead would spend the day in the barn. If you wanted it to come in out of the rain, it would stand out there in the pasture until it was soaked through and through, and still, it would not come indoors to dry off. And so it went. No matter what you wanted this bull to do, it always seemed resolutely transfixed on taking the opposite course of action.
In business marketing, we often wonder why success comes so hard. Perhaps if we learn just one more technique, it will all fall together for us. Perhaps if we buy one more course, one more ebook, or attend one more webinar, it will all make sense, and money will rain down from the sky. And a month later, and a year later, where do most marketers find themselves? In the exact same place, they were before.
Now you might wonder what a stubborn bull and a struggling business marketer have in common, and it’s this: Both of them already hold success within themselves. The bull doesn’t need an ebook on how to come in out of the rain any more than a struggling marketer needs a 20th or 40th ebook on how to make money.
What the bull and the Marketer both need to be successful is simply a change of mind, or more specifically adopting what we might call a success mindset.
Rather than cursing the journey out to the green pasture when we’re standing in the barn, or the rain when we don’t have sense enough to come inside, we need merely change our thinking, and by changing our thinking we can change our actions, and thereby our results.
Instead of cursing the gurus for having lists of fellow marketers ready to promote their products to thousands of people, ask yourself how you can get into a position where you have a long list of fellow marketers who love to promote your products.
Instead of getting frustrated that you can’t seem to monetize Facebook, find out what others are doing that’s working and copy and improve upon their methods
And so it goes. Playing the victim is telling yourself that it’s too late to get into the marketing game, that all the great niches are gone, that you’ll never be able to do what others have already accomplished, and so forth. Playing the victim is standing out in the rain and refusing to come inside, or standing inside and refusing to head for the green pastures.
Victims don’t make money, they make misery – whereas a success mindset constantly asks how a negative can be turned into a positive, and how a shortfall can be remade into a windfall.
Every time you find yourself reacting negatively to something, correct yourself by seeing it as a challenge rather than a problem or obstacle. Do this enough and you will program yourself for success – after all, you cannot help but be successful if you are constantly taking positive action – and you can only take positive action when you first think the positive thoughts that lead to that action.
Also, learn to think long-term. Success isn’t leaping from one idea to the next, never settling on a course of action. Success is found when you choose your path and then stay on that path until you reach your destination. True, the trip may not unfold as you plan, but so long as you keep your eyes on the prize and continue to move forward, you cannot help but succeed.
And you don’t need to invent new markets – rather, you need only find a market that is already profitable and then find ways to improve on what is being offered to that market. Find out what it is that people want, and not only deliver it to them, but go above and beyond in ways that are so extraordinarily helpful and pleasing, your name becomes synonymous with incredible value in that niche.
Forget magic bullets or new-fangled programs that proclaim they will change everything for you in the wink of an eye. Instead, choose your niche, create your squeeze page and/or website and/or blog and focus on building your list with quality subscribers and new customers. Forget the gimmick that places thousands of people on your list in a week who give you bogus email addresses or couldn’t care less about your niche – it’s a waste of your time and resources. Better to have 50 people on your list who are truly interested in your niche than 500 people who aren’t. And better to have 2 proven buyers in that niche than 50 freebie seekers.
By focusing on finding a system that puts 5 or 10 great leads on your list each day, in short order, you will find the method that works for you, day in and day out. And once you’ve got it, it’s a simple matter to ramp it up so that the 5 or 10 become 50 or 100 or more. But it all starts at the beginning, at finding what works to bring in that first truly interested subscriber, and then the second and so forth. There are no shortcuts. True, there are many who will sell you on the idea that you can make your fortune or build your list overnight, but ask yourself this – who prospers when you purchase their product? Always it is them, while you are left with a little less cash and a little less hope.
Let others search for the holy magic grail of traffic that instantly floods their site with traffic. The thing about floods is while they are fast and deep, they’re also messy and short-lived. Instead, gradually grow your business on a rock-solid foundation that can withstand any storm. Think of grabbing a few hundred or thousand dollars overnight, only to be left with no more income, versus doubling a penny each day for 30 days. Which would you choose? The doubling penny, of course. Yes, it leaves the cupboards bare for the first days and weeks – but then what an embarrassment of riches you receive as it builds and builds into a solid income that arrives day and night, regardless of the economy, trends, quirks in the market, competition and so forth.
And success is not just a matter of mindset, and not just a matter of choosing a path and sticking to it, finding what works, and doing more of it – it’s also about developing your skills as a marketer. What if this week you master how to write and submit articles that send traffic and links to your site? Perhaps next week you master setting up a blog and writing a post each day. And perhaps the week after you learn how to make short videos that inform and drive traffic. If each week you pick one new task to master, in less than 3 months you will know more than 95% of marketers out there. You don’t need to master everything, but you do need to master some things – and those things are again determined by the path that you choose to build your business.
And here’s the kicker – when you’ve chosen your path to success and know what it is that you want to accomplish, you can go back to all those many programs you’ve purchased in the past and extract the jewels of information that do fit in with your business. Because now that you know your destination and you have a good idea of how to get there, you’ve also gained the discernment necessary to find just the right information you need to get you there faster. All this lead us to the question
Are You a Successful??
You’re only as successful as your performance today. Know why? Because the better your productivity, the more you get done. And the more you get done, the faster your business grows. Not to mention the fact that if you can get all of your work done in 6 hours instead of 12, you now have 6 more hours in which you can either play or grow your business even larger.
No matter what you’re doing, if you’re productive you’re not only building your business – you’re also gaining confidence. And studies show you’re also happier. After all, what feels better – relaxing at the end of a day in which you accomplished nothing or a day in which you did everything you set out to do?
One more thing about being productive – the faster you get a task done, the more likely you are to want to do that task again. For example, if it takes you 3 hours to write one article, the next time you want to write an article you’re going to be sorely tempted to procrastinate because you remember what a long, tedious, arduous process it was for you last time. But if you can crank out an excellent article in 15 minutes, then the next time you write an article you’ll be enthusiastic and ready to jump in with both feet.
No matter how you look at it, being productive is a tremendous help to you, your business, and your mindset. So what are some simple ways to get more done in less time?
Set a timer. Whatever it is that you need to do, set a time limit in which you will accomplish the task and allow nothing to distract you. Keep an eye on the timer so you can gauge your progress, and when the timer goes off you are finished.
This single tip alone can double or even triple your productivity because work invariably expands to fill the time we allot to it. If we allow 5 hours, it will take 5 hours. But if we only allot 90 minutes, then that’s how long it will almost certainly take.
And surprisingly, the work performed in the shorter time frame tends to be equal to or even surpass the quality of work performed in the longer time frame. Perhaps this is because we do not allow distractions to derail our performance when we know we’re under a time crunch.
Set a measurable goal each and every day, and then STICK to it.
Don’t worry about long terms goals – the marketplace changes so rapidly that any long-term goal is likely irrelevant. Instead, focus on short-term goals – specifically, what exactly are you going to accomplish today?
Write it down, keep it in front of you, and at the end of the day ask yourself one question: “Did I meet my goal or not?” There are only 2 possible answers and absolutely no room for excuses because you either did or you did not. If you met your goal, congratulations – you did exactly what you set out to do. Now set another goal for tomorrow. If you did not accomplish your goal, determine what went wrong and do not make the same mistake twice.
Accountability partners. Having a daily goal forces you to become more productive, and if you want to put this technique on steroids, get yourself an accountability partner. This is someone you phone or email your daily goal(s) to, and then at the end of the day you report back and tell them if you succeeded or failed in meeting those goals. Better yet, start an accountability group. There’s something about having an entire group of people keeping you accountable that will cause you to move heaven and earth to not only meet but exceed your daily goals.
Forget perfection
If you’re one of those folks who can’t send an email or launch a product until it’s perfect, then it’s high time you got over yourself. Trying to be perfect is just another form of procrastination – an excuse to not get your work done until it’s just right, which it never is. This is the business, and doing things well enough is far, far better than not doing it at all.
People who email you want an answer now, not a perfect answer 3 days from now. People looking for solutions to their problems want to buy your product now, not in 6 months when you’ve proofread it a dozen times. And if you simply can’t seem to get past the need to make things perfect, then try this – procrastinate about being perfect. Tell yourself you will go back later and make it perfect, but for right now you’re launching this product or making this blog post or whatever. And if you’re worried about the nitpickers out there who will email you about the typo on page 22, place this disclaimer in all of your products and on your websites:
“Did you find a typo on this page? Congratulations! Sometimes I’m in such a hurry to get this great information to you that I make little mistakes along the way. Go ahead and email me the typo if you like, and thanks so much for paying attention – you’re the best!”
Those who feel it is their duty to find typos will feel applauded and may spend even more time on your web page reading your info and searching for more typos (they’ll love this!) And you know what? It’s like getting your proofreading done for free. Sly, I know. As for the vast majority who just don’t care about typos – they may have a good chuckle when they read this disclaimer and remember the last time someone pointed out their typos to them.
Impose the immovable deadline on yourself. Let’s say you want to create a new product: Determine how long it will take you and then email your list and let them know exactly when it will be ready. Better yet, get a fellow marketer to announce a webinar complete with sign-ups. For example, you’re creating a new product and you figure it will take you 48 hours. Either email your list or get another marketer to email their list announcing that you’re doing a webinar on the topic in 3 days or less.
Now you MUST finish the product on time or you won’t have anything to present and offer on the webinar. Begin creating your product by starting with the very best information first, and working your way down the information hierarchy from most important to least important. This way if you don’t get it all in, it won’t matter anyway because you will have the most important info in place, and that’s what your customers want anyway.
Do you realize you could create 2 new products per WEEK using this method? Now, what would that do for your bottom line?