If Mozart had YouTube…

 

The next time you’re about to chastise yourself about procrastinating on something… I want you to take a deep breath and calm down.

First of all, everyone procrastinates.

Take Mozart, for example. Massive procrastinator. He wrote the overture for his famous opera Don Giovanni the night before it premiered… and it’s been said he might’ve been hungover while doing it. During the premiere, the ink on the music sheet had still not dried.

Victor Hugo had to strip naked and lock himself in a room to avoid the temptation of going outside (yeah, this was before YouTube and whatever else we have today at our fingertips). Only when he was done with his work for the day, would the servants be allowed to return his clothes to him.

Then there’s Bill Clinton. Think of the man what you will, but he was the leader of the free world at one point… and he managed to accomplish that feat while being a massive procrastinator. His aides reportedly had to give him deadlines that were weeks or months ahead in hopes of getting stuff done on time. Still, he tended to finish things at the very last minute. Even Al Gore, his vice president, called him “punctually challenged”.

The list goes on.

Da Vinci only completed 20 total paintings in his lifetime… because he preferred doodling.

The Dalai Lama had a hard time focusing on his schoolwork and meeting deadlines (now, he teaches about the perils of procrastination).

Margaret Atwood (one of Canada’s most celebrated and prolific writers) spends the morning procrastinating and worrying, and then “plunges into the manuscript in a frenzy of anxiety around 3pm”.

My point is… everyone has their own working patterns. Just because you don’t belong to some guru’s “5am club” (or is it the 4:30am club nowadays? I can’t keep track), doesn’t mean you can’t get stuff done. You can.

Which means that you’re more than capable of achieving your goals - financial, health, relationships, or whatnot - despite procrastinating every now and then.

Again, everyone procrastinates.

What, then, is the “secret sauce” that makes some procrastinators leave a legacy for centuries (literally!) and getting absolutely nothing meaningful done?

Two things.

1. Flow state

Have you ever been so immersed in an activity so that things happen almost effortlessly and time seems to disappear? You’re 100% focused, involved, and thoroughly enjoying the thing you’re doing… and when you come out of it, you feel exhausted, but somehow still energized, too?

Congratulations, my friend.. You’ve experienced the flow state.

It’s a pretty mythical beast - especially, when it comes to experiencing it “on demand”.

Most people have no problems entering the flow state when it comes to their favorite video game, for example - but when it comes to things that would really move the needle, such as setting up a lead magnet to build their email list, or coming up with a new product, or researching and figuring out a new training routine for their next fitness achievement… they struggle to put in even 15 minutes of focused work.

Well, it’s not their fault.

Turns out flow state has a certain set of prerequisites that must be met.

• Your skills need to be matched to the task. In other words, if you have no idea about how lead magnets work, you won’t be able to enter the flow state and create one… or if you have no idea about fitness, you won’t be able to magically enter the flow state and create a meaningful fitness routine for yourself. The solution here is to lower the difficulty of what you intend to accomplish. For example, instead of setting out to create a lead magnet, set a goal to research lead magnets for 90 minutes.
• You can also grow by stretching your skills a little. If you’re trying to do too much right away, you’ll be overwhelmed (for example, if you’re trying to deadlift a 1,000lbs, you’ll be overwhelmed - if your name is not Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson). However, make sure you stretch yourself a little every time… that will also help foster the state of flow.
• Always have a clear goal of what you need to accomplish, and how will you know when you’re done. For example, I had a goal to write this email and now I’m just about done, and I’ll know when I’m done. There will be no ambiguity. That helps my state of flow.
• Eliminate distractions. Multitasking, your phone, even your family… flow state is easily interrupted.
• Most importantly, focus on the process, not the end state. For example, if your goal is to write a lead magnet that will contain 5 tips on how to be more productive, look at what you need to do (research, outline, write), and then just work through all the parts of the process without being attached to any outcome.

Do this and the fact that you only “worked” for 2 hours a day (while procrastinating for 10) will have no impact on the amount (or quality) of work you’ll get done.

2. Pre-committing

Remember Victor Hugo who had to strip naked, hand off his clothes to his servants, and if he wanted the clothes back, he had to do the work for the day?

That’s pre-committing. Without going into all the details about how our willpower works, for our intents and purposes here it’s just important to know that it’s way easier to make a decision once than it is to make it over and over again. By giving his clothes to his servants, Hugo made one decision that freed him of having to make the decision of whether to work or to go outside over and over again.

I don’t advise you to surprise your family by getting into your birthday suit, but perhaps there’s another way for you to precommit?

Bottom line is this.

Even though you may think of yourself as a master procrastinator, it might not matter as much as you think.

As long as you utilize the flow state and pre-commit to certain outcomes, you can tap into your full potential. When you focus that potential into creating needle-moving outcomes that get you closer and closer to your goals...

Then, the sky’s the limit.

To Your Success!

Steve

Master Online Entrepreneur

The dream lifestyle will never be yours unless...

 

I don’t know about you… but I always get slightly depressed when I go on Instagram or Facebook.

(And yes, I’m well aware of all the productivity porn pushers saying that I should delete my account from these sites. I just don’t want to.)

I know exactly why I’m feeling a tingle of sadness.

It’s the perfect lifestyle that everyone seemingly has. While I’m over here, working hard, they’re having the time of their lives.

The entrepreneurs, living large on a Thai beach, laptop next to them while they sit there and sip a kombucha. The scantily clad models. The fitness coaches who walk like gods among men. And so forth.

You just can’t help but feel a bit down about your own achievements, right?

Don’t.

Instead, get motivated.

Not in the “hustle hard” kind of way where you work for 16 hours a day - that’s just burnout in the making.

Instead, realize this.

What you don’t see is what it takes to earn the lifestyle. You just see the lifestyle.

That fitness model with the perfect body? Years of eating lean chicken and a leaf of salad every day 3 times, and 2 hours in a gym… 365 days a year, for 5 years.

The entrepreneur on a beach with a laptop? Long evenings doing the most menial technical tasks and supporting her own customers before she could afford to hire anyone. No Netflix, no games, and barely any time for the people she loves.

The fitness coach? Years of mastering nutrition, and the way the human body works, and then applying a rigorous regimen to himself, and giving everything to their every client.

And yes… there’s a darker side. That amazing trip your high school buddy took? Not paid for. He’s going to pay for it for 5 years, $179 monthly. But it’s the same thing… you don’t see what it takes to get the lifestyle.

You just see the lifestyle.

Stop comparing. The only person you should be comparing yourself to is yourself - how far have you come since you started?

The next time you see someone living an amazing life… think about what it took for them. If it’s something you would feel right doing for your own goals… feel inspired. If you suspect it’s something that will hold you back (like a huge monthly payment for a car you don’t need right now), let it be a warning sign.

To Your Success!

Steve

Master Online Entrepreneur

What keeps you from your goals?

 

There’s a silent but unstoppable force that prevents you from achieving your goals.

It’s not just you. It’s every single person on this planet.

What’s even worse is, there’s no amount of willpower or discipline or diets or vitamin pills that will make this go away. It’s just something you’re born with.

And you must learn to live with it… or your goals will forever remain beyond your reach.

It’s the force that keeps you from eating healthy - and instead of a carrot, it makes you reach for a donut. Instead of writing an email to your list, it makes you open a new tab and check out what’s new on Facebook (and 30 minutes later, you can’t even figure out what it is you were looking at). Instead of saving up your money for a reasonably priced TV, you sign up for monthly payments for a 60” LED monstrosity which is too big for any reasonable living room.

It’s a force that keeps people locked in prisons. Literally. (Well, figuratively too.)

When researchers examined 1,112 judicial rulings over a 10-month period to see what factors impacted whether or not a judge would approve a criminal for parole, they thought they were going to find something sensible, like type of crime committed, or what particular laws were broken.

Well, no such luck.

The choices made by judges were impacted by all kinds of things that shouldn’t have any effect in the courtroom. Such as…

The time of the day.

At the start of the day, a judge would likely parole about 65% of the prisoners. However, as the day went on, the likelihood of a criminal getting a favorable ruling steadily dropped to zero. After taking a lunch break, the judge would feel rested and refreshed, and the likelihood of a criminal getting a parole would jump back up to 65%… and then, slowly dwindle back down to zero by the end of the day.

Just like your decisions on whether to eat healthy or not, or to work on your online business or not, or to be financially responsible or not, these judges relied on…

Willpower!

Willpower is often compared to a muscle - it will get tired the more you use it.  (It also implies that you can exercise it, but that’s not really true). The term they use for it is ego depletion… which is something I discovered a few decades ago.

However… it seems like the researchers have jumped to conclusions a bit.

(Which makes it all the worse that the self-help industry mostly clings to this belief).

There might not be such a thing as ego depletion. Instead… if you see willpower as a finite resource, it will be a finite resource for you. If you don’t know it’s a finite resource, it won’t be.

The ego depletion hypothesis is making people less likely to succeed - because it gives you a reason to quit when you could’ve otherwise persisted.

Michael Inzlicht, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, believes willpower is more like an emotion. Just like you don’t feel happy or sad all day long every day, you will have ebbs and flows of willpower.

Meaning, it’s fine to cut yourself some slack every now and then.

And then get back at it. You have more willpower than you think. And there’s no mystic tank in your head filled with ego that can be depleted, as far as I can tell.

To Your Success!

Steve

Master Online Entrepreneur

I don’t like selling drills, and I don’t like selling holes in the wall - instead...

 

If you want to get paid, you must add value to the world in one way or another.

If you want to get paid really well… you must also communicate the value you’ve created effectively - by creating perceived value.

It’s the most important part… because perceived value is arguably way more important than the real value (there are even studies that show we get more pleasure from higher priced goods just because they cost more, not that they’re functionally different).

So manipulating perceived value in an ethical way is a critical skill that you must master as a marketer.

But first, let’s look at two major ways people get this wrong.

The first is… in the online marketing world, the term perceived value basically means…

“Let’s see by how much I can inflate the price of my product and still get away with it.”

And then they go and do stuff that some people might call cheesy… like assigning their bonus PDF a $3,999 value. By the way...

I have no problem with people charging what they can get. If the numbers work on their end, it means they must be doing something right.

However, if you’re starting out, it might not be the best strategy, simply because you lack any credibility.

Instead, let’s take a broader view.

The textbook definition of perceived value is basically “the customer's evaluation of the merits of a product or service and its ability to meet their expectations”.

Pretty fancy, right?

Now, a specific example would be a customer buying a drill because they perceive that the drill is going to help them hang that painting on the wall that their spouse has been bugging them about for 6 months and 17 days, and they’ll make their spouse happy. That’s perceived value.

Would you agree that the perceived value of a happy spouse is much higher than the drill itself?

(By the way, the original maxim goes “sell the hole in the wall, not the drill”… Like anyone really wants a hole in the wall. I digress…)

Perceived value can take on many different forms.

For you, as a marketer, it simply means if they slam the door in your face, crawl in through the window. Meaning, if you can’t make a case that your product is worth a huge amount of dollars, make a case that it’ll make someone’s spouse happy.

Look at the function - what can your customers achieve with your product or service? What are the features? What’s the visual appeal? Usability? Packaging? And so on. Most importantly… how does that connect to the true needs of your customer?

So the second way I’ve seen people mess up the perceived value part of their products is simply by thinking that in order to be able to charge more than their competitors, they must come up with a huge, ground-shattering improvement.

Not so.

Just look at how Google is improving their search engine. On the surface, it’s the same thing it was 5 or 10 years ago. Under the hood? They’ve made 3,234 updates in 2018 alone. In May 2020, they announced yet another huge core algorithm update - and undoubtedly they’re keeping the steady pulse of smaller updates going, too!

Now, your situation is obviously different.

However, if you keep adding small improvements to your product or service geared towards being able to create more perceived (and real) value to your customer…

You, my friend, will be on your way to the big leagues.

To Your Success!

Steve

Master Online Entrepreneur

My most valuable advice

 

If you cornered me on a dark street, pulled out a knife and demanded that I reveal to you the most powerful secret to marketing that I know, I’d go with…

GULP…

“Tell your story and be authentic. Now get that thing out of my face.”

Huh?

“Tell your story and be authentic” is hardly a secret. In fact, I’m sure you’ve noticed it’s a line that influencers, gurus, and magazines like Forbes trot out all the time. I suspect it’s just something they say to seem wise and up-to-speed with current marketing trends. It’s an easy thing to say, too.

So why am I still picking it as my answer to your (very dramatically) posed question?

Because done right…

It is the most powerful thing you’ll do for your business.

Influencers, gurus, and Forbes are right. Kind of.

Regardless of what you do - information products, services, Amazon, local consulting or whatnot - a story well told will make you unforgettable, let you build a tribe of loyal customers, and profit hand over fist… while still remaining a relatable human being to your audience.

But…

There’s a reason we’re not drowning in amazing storytelling by brands, businesses, and individuals.

It’s insanely hard to tell your story, to be completely out in the open about your life, be vulnerable and authentic while still being able to ignore the haters.

For one, there’s impostor syndrome.

It’s the idea that you’ve only succeeded due to luck, not because of your talent, qualifications, or hard work.

It’s the incessant feeling that you don’t belong. For example, for some reason your boss just hasn’t figured out that you’re a fraud and it’s just due to a lucky set of circumstances you were able to get your job and keep it.

So when it comes to telling your story, it feels like… why bother?

Meaning, who cares about your story if you’re a fraud?

Well the good news is almost everyone feels that way. According to the International Journal of Behavioral Science, about 70% of people are suffering from impostor syndrome.

What’s even worse is that impostor syndrome has many faces, and because of that, it can be hard to recognize it most of the time.

Perfectionism, for example, is where you set extremely high expectations for yourself. Even if you meet 99% of your goals, impostor syndrome will tell you that you’re still a failure.

Or it may leave you feeling that you need to be an expert - meaning, before you start a project, you need to collect every piece of information and obtain every possible certification, and so on.

Another thing that plagues even the most talented people is when they suddenly have to struggle or work hard on something. What happens is you might think that because it is easy for you to play a piano, for example, it should be just as easy to pick up Java programming.

There are many more examples. But the main thing, however, is that these thoughts stop you from sharing your story, or even if you somehow force yourself to do it, your story comes out stifled… unnatural… and completely inauthentic.

Next, there’s the close cousin of impostor syndrome…

The thought that you’re just not enough.

That little voice inside your head that says: “There are people who have it way worse than I do, so why should they care?” Or the complete opposite: “Who am I to tell my story, when there are people who are so much more successful than I am?”

There could be a bunch of reasons for that. Perhaps it’s some of your hidden core beliefs running the show. Perhaps, your inner voice is judgmental, or people around you are overly critical.

Listen… I’m not a therapist. It could be a number of those things, or none of them.

However, as far as you being able to share your story and do it the right way (and to be able to reap the benefits), here are the things that work.

First of all, understand that it’s perfectly fine to be mediocre.

Meaning, a lot of people think that something huge - bad or good - needs to happen in order to have a reason to share their story.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if you’re not miles ahead of your audience, and are perhaps only one step ahead on a certain journey (for example, if they haven’t figured out how to pick a product to sell on Amazon, but you have 3 successful products selling), that makes you much more relatable and your story will have a much bigger impact than if you were this God-like figure.

Give up your impostor syndrome.

The best way to beat it is to acknowledge the thoughts and put them in perspective. For example, if you’re worried that you can’t give people advice on writing copy because you haven’t written a single persuasive line… well, what about that time you persuaded your parents to buy you a bike? Tell that and it’ll be better than 90% of what the so-called copywriting experts are doing.

And remember that people who are lucky enough not to feel like impostors are no better, no more capable, and no more talented than you.

Second, find your voice and don’t be ashamed of it.

People will appreciate you for who you are, and those that don’t, do you really want to work with them anyway?

If you like to make corny puns, have a field day with it! (Too forced? I’m not great at puns, as you can see. But you might be). It's your playground, your rules.

The side benefit of that is that the more you do it, the more you’ll connect with your true inner voice and help you organize your own inner story about what happened to you throughout your life.

Third, realize that you’re building your tribe around your story.

This goes beyond “having an email list” or a “following” or whatnot. Once you connect with people over your story - that you tell unapologetically and sincerely - that bond goes deep.

I still follow some people from years back whose story just resonated with me. You simply can’t buy this with money.

Once you have that…

It’s the most impenetrable edge you’ll ever have in any marketplace.

Oh, and the last thing…

Start small.

Share one thing with your existing following. A thing that you didn’t think you were going to share, ever. But share it anyway.

If I’m not on your list, make sure to ping me, too. I’d love to hear it!

To Your Success!

Steve

Master Online Entrepreneur

Here's a "POP" QUIZ to Begin Your Week!

 

What do:   Russell Brunson Dean Graziosi  Gary Vaynerchuk Daymond John All have in common?    They are all Entrepreneurs with BEST SELLING books!    If there's one thing I know about Entrepreneurs, it's that they LOVE to read good books. Together, these Entrepreneurs have sold millions upon millions of books.    The reason for this seems pretty clear.    The ability to distill years (even decades) of experience into a 200 page book, chock-full of their latest, cutting edge strategies, and most sage wisdom is worth far more than the $24.95 price tag on most hardcover books (and even cheaper on Amazon).    The problem is, most people don't have the TIME to sift through all of the books they'd love to read - even if they have the money to purchase them.    So why does this matter to you?    In the past few years I've seen almost a dozen websites and apps that SUMMARISE  popular, Non-Fiction books. These sites provide key insights from the books so readers can enjoy the BEST of the BEST - without having to read the entire book and take careful notes.   The cool part?    These sites often make their money selling these books as an affiliate or other programs that help Entrepreneurs grow their business.   So go ahead, start a review site & review popular books in your niche. And don't forget those links for people to buy them!

This Will Help You Make WAY More Sales

 

Sell More Without “Selling”   I recently watched a video which walks through a basic step-by-step way to open a Clickbank account, find hot products, and promote them using free or paid methods.   Why is that important?   Well within the video (which had all sorts of great techniques BTW) the presenter mentions a number of products which he uses to run his online business.   And guess what? He has links to those products below the video on his YouTube channel.   So do you think he might earn a commission if anyone buys through those links?   Of course he will - but he never "sold" anything.   He taught some great content, and then explained the value of the software tools that he uses and how they benefit his business.   So here’s my challenge for you in YOUR business:   Instead of thinking, “what can I SELL to my subscribers today?”    Think, “what can I TEACH my subscribers today?”

You Don't Have a REAL Online Business?

 

...an email list!   Let’s walk through a few of the major points:   1) With an Email List, YOU Own Your Audience   Followers on Instagram?   Subscribers on Youtube?   Fans on Facebook?   Every other platform is subject to algorithm changes and ultimately, your content not being placed in front of YOUR audience.   You don’t own your audience on any of these social networks…   But with an Email List, you aren’t subject to algorithm whims and waves - when you want to send a message to your audience, just click send.   2) Email is the KING of Sales   Statistics prove time and time again that people are FAR more likely to make a purchase through an email than any other platform.   Sure, people will engage with brands through social media…   But email is still the king when it comes to people reading a message and making a purchase decision from your content.   3) Email Helps You Build Your Platforms   Want to learn how 8-figure marketers build their Instagram?   What about their Youtube channel?    How about their Facebook following?   You probably guessed it already - EMAIL.   Every time they want to build out one of these “here-today-gone-tomorrow” social channels - they go back to their trusty Email List and promotes the content there.   Seriously, if you want to be in this business for the long haul, build your email list ASAP.   This is why the PRIORITY of your online business must be to begin by building your Email List.   It doesn’t matter if your plan is to be an Affiliate, launch an eCommerce Store, run an agency…   Building your email list should be the craft you master.

Ever wondered why 99% of Online Businesses Fail?

 

The fact is, no matter what method you’re using to make money online, every method of launching an online business will FAIL without this one thing:   RECURRING. INCOME.   So what is Recurring Income?   Recurring income is PASSIVE income that’s generated each month. You make the initial sale just once, then you can enjoy the profits long-term.    Why is that so awesome?   With traditional affiliate marketing, you are constantly finding new hot products to promote , and new customers to promote them to…   It’s a never ending cycle of selling and selling and selling (and selling and selling and selling).   With products that feature Recurring Income, you only need a handful of customers to get paid month after month without any additional selling, finding new products, or searching for new customers.   Examples of types of products you could promote are:   Funnel Software Autoresponders Solo Ads Link Tracking software When a customer signs up to the programs listed above, they are incredibly valuable to your business…they become more than just a customer - they become a VIP Client.   So my encouragement is to treat them like one!    Reach out to them, see if they have any questions and if you can help them in any step of their journey! A classic business fact is that it costs much more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one… So take the time to reach out to your VIP Clients and see if there’s anything they need to keep going. :)    Here is what one smart marketer has to say:   “Well Facebook ads and solo ads have worked well. With solo ads I make it a top priority to ask many questions of the provider. I stay away from solo ad providers who have dealt with my offering in the last 90 days . I’m noticing from 1000 clicks I’m generating roughly 15 sales.”   He then adds:   “Many emails I send are conversational, looking for a response. I’m noticing when a person responds to your question in an email...they are a lead that’s on fire lol. Still, a ton of trial and error on my part, but I’m constantly just trying to do what the majority aren’t doing. I even posted flyers that worked .”   Well! So much good stuff here! So my challenge to those reading…   Think about:   Finding Solo Ad Sellers who you haven't used before Asking many, many questions of your Sellers to make sure you’re getting a great deal Being conversational with your leads and encouraging a dialogue  Non-Traditional ways of reaching out to people like flyers   Try them out and let me know how you get on!

The challenge of finding Beginner to Advanced Internet Marketing Training

 

Free is great, and the internet is flooded with mountains of free information…   But free information isn’t always helpful.   In fact, some free information can actually be harmful. Some information will hurt your business more than it will help.    That’s why, today’s newsletter features ideas of helpful content… so you know it’s information you can trust.    1) Webinars Many Webinars will claim to teach but they are a lead in to a sales pitch. Having teased you with their techniques, they will then make you an offer of the "full system" or something similar. But there are webinars which work through building new Done-For-You Businesses, and teaching Digital Marketing strategies that apply no matter what you’re selling or what your business model may be. When I find any of these, be sure that I'll bring them to your attention.   2) Affiliate Marketing Training The most popular business for newbies is Affiliate Marketing. That is, learning how to partner with OTHER people’s awesome products and services, promote them, and make a commission on each sale or signup. And it is possible to find mentors who will guide your through the process if you join their programme.  Well, as you can imagine, the world of affiliate marketing is large, and if you’re not careful, you can get lost in the weeds of all the moving pieces. I will be aiming to bring you reviews of some of these programmes and highlight the ones which I think deliver value and are worth following.   3) Advanced Digital Marketing Trainings The next step up from Affiliate Marketing is building a course of your own to sell. This step is not easy and definitely not for beginners. However, if you want to take your business to the next level and believe you have something that would fit perfectly into an online course, there are many ways to create the content and bring it to market. Think Email Marketing Strategies, Choosing a Niche, Building the Perfect Webinar, just to get you started… Keep an eye out, as I will be letting you know what I think of some of these offerings also.   Remember, starting any kind of business isn’t easy, and often the thing that prevents us from success is our mindset that’s either limiting or holding us back.   But by following genuine mentors and their teachings you will have an edge that many other will not.

Let’s have some fun - 5 types of marketers

 

I’ve observed 5 types of bad marketers while being in this business. Let me know if you’ve spotted others!   (And this should go without saying… it’s all good fun, I’m not making fun of someone specific here.)   #1 - The Nervous One. Always overthinking every little detail. What if people don’t like how I worded this sentence in my email? What if this product doesn’t become an absolute hit in the marketplace? How do I make this page look pixel perfect? And so on and so on. If they start to teach others, they will produce a 1,000+ page PDF covering every little detail, a 182+ video courses, and so on, just to be on the safe side.   #2 - The Expert With Zero Sales. Always knows whether something is going to work or not, despite not having made any sales themselves. If you spot them in nature, back away slowly, without any sudden movements… lest you want to listen to a long lecture on why something you want to do won’t work.   #3 - The Crusty Guru. Someone who had success a good while ago and has no idea how things work now, yet still dispenses advice left and right, often unsolicited. Often found on Facebook lamenting how the marketers of today don’t know what they’re doing. Now, there’s a good and a bad kind. The good ones realize that their success was a while back, and they shared timeless lessons they’ve learned from it, not the specific tactics… which makes them kind of awesome. Like the cool uncles some of us had when we were kids. The bad ones? Well those will complain the loudest about “kids today” without offering any constructive advice.   #4 - The Tone-Deaf. At the upper echelon of marketing, these are the ones who have made ads like “White Is Purity” by Nivea… one of the biggest gaffes in advertising, ever. When it comes to digital marketing… that could be anything from shaming people for not having enough money to pay for their coaching, to actually suggesting that if you’re procrastinating you’re just lazy, unmotivated, and a piece of garbage. (Yes, in those exact words. I won’t mention names though.) Best avoided.   #5 - The Social Media Facade Guru You know the type. These will have million+ followers on Insta-Twitter-TikTok, and will often share meaningless motivational advice left and right… while in private, you’ll find that their credit cards are maxed and they haven’t seen their family for a month because they’ve just been too busy.  If that’s something that resonates with you, no judgement… but make sure you want to live like that before you follow their tactics.   So those are the most common types I’ve come across. Let’s make this fun… Send over some that you’ve encountered and perhaps I’ll put the best ones in another email and send those to you!

Don’t “just take action” — read this first

 

Tell me any goal of yours and I guarantee that you can achieve it.   Without a coach, without buying anything from me, nothing. It’s all within your reach.   Weird how this works.   There’s a saying… “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, of course”. By the way, don’t eat elephants. They’re too cool.   So, let's instead use the Chinese proverb: “the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step” and leave the elephants out of it.   But anyway.   How do you achieve any goal that you have?   One step at a time, most gurus will tell you. (And they’ll quote the above proverb, too, for good measure.)   That’s not the entire picture, though.   If you take one step at a time in the wrong direction, you might crawl, you might run, but you’re going to end up thousands of miles away from where you wanted to go.   So there’s something you need to do first…   Can you guess what it is?   You need to figure out with 100% certainty where it is you want to get to at the end of your journey.   Then, work backwards.   Be brave when you’re doing it. The biggest regret people admitted to at the end of their lives was that they haven’t lived true to themselves… but instead did what others expected of them.   So be brave. Imagine a goal that you think is awesome.   Then, if it seems within reach, double it, triple it, 10x it.   For example, if you’re thinking that you want to go from making $50k a year to $70k a year, that’s too easy and a goal like that won’t make you change your behaviour.   Instead… 10x it. How do you make $500k a year? What behaviours, relationships, habits you need to have?   Now take that first step with purpose and clarity.   Then, the next.   And you’ll get there.