Mindset
061: Supercharge Your Inner Game: How to Stop, Avoid, Destroy & Overcome the Negative Thinking Patterns in Your Life (and Become Happier Without Losing Your Edge)
I'm going in for surgery on the ankle today (Friday) and it has me thinking a lot about being negative (or rather, avoiding or "fixing" that negativity that creeps up), being honest and owning up to things like procrastinating without labeling and feeling sorry for yourself, so you can actually make progress on yourself -- because no one else will do it for you.
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As internet marketers, we need to motivate ourselves. Let's be real... sometimes stuff just happens.
You have to find the good in situations, get some perspective, and be honest without feeling sorry for yourself and labeling your situations or the emotions. Then, you are better able to look at things in a positive light.
Be Honest With Yourself
This is probably the most important thing we're going to talk about today. Just think about how you would answer these questions and we're going to talk about some solutions afterwards.
- Do you find yourself filtering out the positive things that happen to you? Or, do you minimize all the good things while only focusing on one negative circumstance?
- Do you blame yourself for everything that happens, even if it is out of your control?
- Do you always expect the worst in any situation?Do you only see things in terms of black and white?
If any of these 4 things apply to you, then you might have some negativity problems. Let's talk about some ways to combat those.
Approaches, Strategies and Solutions
Do you have a support system that gets you out of that "rut" you sometimes fall into? It's tough to go it alone. Just explaining the problem or the frustration itself can help you get past it.
Are you preventing the problem before it even happens? "Play out" the scenarios of what could happen. A good strategy here is to make a list of the "enemies" you're fighting against and categorize the fears. Out of those, what's the simplest one to take care of?
Let's say your situation is that you're going to be broke and your fears about it are losing your car, your marriage breaking up, and becoming homeless. Which one of these can you work on first and easiest?
A lot of the issues that led you to a problem are by you not getting out of your comfort zone or not having real goals to drive you.
Let's use the money example again. You are basing all of your income hopes on this one product launch and it doesn't go well and you're afraid you're going to lose it all.
Then, it would be time to get out of your comfort zone and do things you might not want to do so you don't lose your shirt. Things like joining Fiverr, freelancing, getting a part-time job, etc. "Always do what you're afraid to do."
Are you aware of simple mindset tools? It's simple. There are simple mindset tools and strategies all over the place-you can just search the internet for "self-help mindset." For Robert, there's no one solution. There's probably 5 or 6 at any given time. it's a matter of identifying which one works for the situation.
A mindset is also called "a state", which is a collection of emotions that can get you thinking and acting in a certain way. Sometimes you just need to "change your state." Maybe you've been in front of the computer for too long working on a problem. Go for a drive. Go to a movie.
It might also mean removing the triggers that put you in that state. If you get in a ‘bad mood' from something that you can remove, then do so.
Think about the words you're using. We tend to describe "positive" feelings in one syllable words, like "good" while we use big words for negative feelings. Start replacing the ‘positive' feelings with big words, like ‘fantastic', ‘fabulous', etc. They're less automatic, meaning we have to think about them more. The more you think about something…you guessed it-the more it becomes your ‘state'.
Think about the words that you're using to describe situations. Turn "negative words" into "challenge" words. Instead of something being a "disaster", call it an "adventure."
7 Quick Exercises To Turn Negativity on its Head
1. What's good about the situation? What could be good about it? Take the negative and make it a positive. If you're a procrastinator, and you're close to a deadline, now you're not a slacker; you are motivated to get the project done.
2. What are 3 things you're grateful for today? The sky is the limit!
3. What small step could you take today to fix your situation? Are you thinking about going back to school? Print out the college brochure. Do you need or want to replace your old car? Get a catalog for the new one you like.
4. Are you predictable? What usually sets you off? And, what can you do to avoid it? Expecting a bad result "off the bat" is a typical coping mechanism for a lot of people. But, negativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy so just don't do it this time. Just tell yourself you're going to expect the best this time. Break that pattern.
5. Do you journal and meditate? Both of these turn your thoughts into words so you can make sense of them and seek out a solution. The plus to journaling is it can help you to identify those triggers that set you off.
6. If you have a negative person in your life, how do you deal with them? It sounds simple, but tell them the thing that's bothering you. If they can't change it, you have to. Call them less. Don't go ‘hang out' with them unless it's necessary to see them for family events, etc.
Remember: Negativity is contagious.
The more you're around it, the more it infects you.
7. Can you identify your own negative thought patterns? Do you find yourself the "victim" in most situations? In life, you can be the hero, the villain, or the victim. It's easiest to see yourself as the victim and hardest to see yourself as the villain. Why? Because if you're the villain, then you might be the problem and you might have to change.
In many situations, it's helpful to take a step back and say "The thing I'm doing right now-maybe it's not working", "Am I really doing the right thing?", "Maybe I need to change".
There 7 "Flavors" of the Negative Mindset
The Echo Chamber: "If you think you can or you can't, you're right."
Negativity leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. You end up attracting more negativity and then you surround yourself with other miserable people because misery loves company. Pretty soon it's a merry-go-round of negativity.
Your Solution: Anticipate the best. Stay away from other negative people.
The "I Told You So" Syndrome: Many people will root for someone else to fail so that they can be right.
It's easy for someone else to make fun of you and look for you to fail because they hate themselves, they want to be you, or they're threatened by you. It's easier for them, instead of being as good as you, to tear you down and root for you to fail because when you do, they were right all along.
Your solution: Success is the best revenge.
The "Realistic" Fallacy: This sounds like, "I'm not being negative, I'm just being realistic." The problem with being "realistic" is that it causes you to give up too soon.
The other side of the coin, being "unrealistic" is another form of self-sabotage. Sometimes people set huge, huge unattainable goals.
Your Solution: Just look at the situation for what it is. Don't make it huge and don't belittle it. Give it all you've got but don't make it so unattainable that you'll never achieve it.
Social Policing: Setting absolute rules for society. Why don't they play by your rules?
"I never lie, so neither should anyone else, ever.", "It's so unfair that they get away with that and I don't.". This is playing the victim again.
Your Solution: Don't try to apply so many rules to everything and pick your battles.
Mind Reader Pitfall: Many negative people somehow think that they have been granted the ability to read minds. They just know what someone else is thinking and can anticipate everything that person is going to say and do, generally for the worst.
Your Solution: Give people the benefit of the doubt. You don't know what else they're going through.
Overgeneralizing: Be careful about thinking that things "always" seem to happen to you. Most of the things that happen to you are random and happenstance. Fate is not conspiring to give you a bad day. This is victim mode again.
Your Solution: The only time you should even let this enter your mind is if you're going to use it as motivation for you to discover better things.
Playing the Tape: You think about what others might say and their reactions to everything you're doing.
It's a bad place to be when you're letting someone else live in your head rent-free. You're letting them control you.
Your Solution: find a better, more positive, person to ‘talk' in your head, someone who supports you.
Seven Helpful Thoughts
- "I'm not smart." We all think we have more common sense than we have. If we think we've seen it all, there's no point to keep driving. You need to be a little bit naïve. It keeps you learning.
- Negative people are negative about everyone and everything. Don't take it personally.
- It is what it is. Sometimes stuff just happens. Stop worrying because you're bigger than your problems and you can choose to ignore those bad incoming thoughts.
- Control what you can control. You don't have to take responsibility of everything good and bad that happens. If you are little more optimistic and happier to do things for your business you'll probably make more money which will lead into a feedback loop.
- Imagination can work for or against you. Turn the things that you don't want to focus on into tiny, silly little hallucinations and transform the good things into big powerful things.
- Replace what you delete in life. If you decide today to stop talking to everyone negative, you might find yourself with no one to talk to. Instead, replace talking to the bad people with new people. Join a new group or club. Join a different mastermind. Devote the time you used to spend on bad habits to doing something positive.
- You can't compare your inside to someone else's outsides. Robert calls this "The Facebook Projection." Many people put on a "face" of living in paradise, although they have the same ups and downs as you or they might even be a total fake. Don't worry more about someone else than you do about yourself.
Closing Thoughts
When you're faced with feeling negative, narrow it down to one of the "mindsets." Then, you can approach it with a solution.
Understand that for so many people, the worry, stress, and fear of the upcoming situation is almost worse than the event itself. Redirect that negative energy.
If you see someone doing better than you, you don't need to take that personally. There's no point in comparing yourself to others. It's a losing game. Realize that you are on a different path than that person.
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052: Three Activities That Don’t Make Money vs. Three Activities That Make Money
At one of the earliest internet marketing events Robert ever attended, he went to one of the Q&A panels. Usually, in these panels, people will have these really vague, generalized questions and in turn the speakers will have really "big", generalized responses, answers that don't really give any specific, overly helpful answers. During one of these, an attendee asked "Where can I get graphics made?"
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Most speakers will answer with something like, "You can go to any one of these 10 sites", which isn't very helpful.
At this particular one, a speaker, Ross Goldberg said: "You need to get graphics made. Is anyone in the audience a freelance graphics designer? Okay, during the break, go talk to each other. "
Sometimes it really can be that easy.
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Ever since that moment, every time Robert listens to a podcast or reads a blog post, he looks for that one solution, pursues it and gleans from it what he needs instead of going down the learning "rabbit hole."
He's heard a lot of struggling marketers talk about how much they've spent on "X" amount of courses over the last X amount of years. He thinks to himself, out of the 30 or 40 courses you bought, what was the best one? What did it teach you exactly that you implemented?
Often, Robert talks about "The 4 Daily Tasks", the principle of taking 4 tasks a day at 3 tasks for 45 minutes each and 1 "gimme" task at 15 minutes.
Why The Time Limits?
Because no one actually puts in a 40-hr week. Even if you are paid on that basis, you still do things like: take long lunches, wait for the coffee to start, wait for the computer to boot up, talk to your coworker, etc. There's no point in committing to 8 hour days.
What works better are focused spurts of productivity, actually putting something in place, actually implementing something that can bring you money.
Checking your email, retweeting, Facebook posting, etc. should not count as one of your tasks.
Sometimes, exceptions can be made if those activities can be proven to bring you traffic. So, what about grouping off of these activities together that are distractions and have it be the 15 minute task? It's all about the activities that you do.
Since we're talking about activities that do or don't result in bringing you money, we're going to look at some of these today.
A "7-Ways" Type of Book vs. A "7-Steps" Type of Book
Unconscious incompetence: you don't know what you don't know. For example, you know what a sales letter is but you don't know any of the elements of one, such as how to add graphics, do code, build a webpage, write good copy with compelling bullet points, etc.
Conscious incompetence: you realize that there are holes in your knowledge. You know what a sales letter is and you know all the elements to make a good one but you don't really know how to develop or implement them successfully.
Conscious competence: you understand all the aspects and how to fix them. At this stage you might even understand some advanced aspects.
Unconscious competence: now you're just the maestro. You just "know" how to do something without really thinking about it. You couldn't really tell someone how to do it because it's so easy for you and it's a smooth process. You don't even think about the steps anymore.
In any situation, we want to get someone from unconscious incompetence to conscious competence. But it's very easy for us to overlook the newbie point of view especially if we're now masters at it.
When you're making anything on any topic, and you're an expert at it, it's easy to show off your knowledge even though it may not be helpful and in some cases harmful.
If you're teaching "7 Ways To Do...", you're giving people multiple "OR's" which can be really confusing for a beginner.
You only want to do this as a way to "introduce" yourself to your audience. It should be something that is either free (like an opt-in "gift") or very low-ticket because it's not terribly useful for your audience.
Instead, you want to do something high-ticket if you want to make a great income, and you want to make it a "7 Steps To..." product.
An easy way to decide what steps to include is to have your end goal figured out and backtrack from there all the steps necessary to achieve that end goal.
Having an end goal, a quantifiable result in sight is exciting to your customer.
Private Label Rights Articles vs. Resale Rights
"Private Label Rights" are where you can buy or sell groups/packages of articles, and make limitless changes to them, including claiming ownership of the articles. One of the most common purposes of buying articles like this is to supply your own website.
For example, you have a product on how to plan a wedding and you have a free blog but you don't want to spend all day writing articles. An option would be for you to go to one of these PLR sites (like master-resale-rights.com), and now you have 10 blog post articles that you can tailor to make it look like you wrote them. You'd use the articles to market your product.
Another option is, what if, for $5 you can get an article written on any topic that you want.
You could allocate $50 and hire 10 different article writers, and have 10 articles in a few days that you could do whatever you wanted to with. Then, you'd have this 10 article pack for $10 each so if you made 6 sales, you'd have a $10 profit on each pack of 10.
The theory behind this was that Robert could keep picking random niches, and just keep generating different packs of articles and before he knew it, he'd be multiplying his money every step of the way.
Sometimes this worked but it was very hit or miss on the niches.
Resale Rights is where you sell the rights to the product but with no changes allowed. Resale rights work better. They're more substantial and far more high-ticket.
For resale rights, you want to create an entire product, something high value, where you include videos, plugin's, checklists, etc.
The strategy is to make a very good course that sells successfully and after a couple of weeks, start selling re-sale rights to it after you can demonstrate how successful your sales were, your "proven track record."
When you sell the resale rights to your product, you are selling it "as is", meaning the buyer can't change it.
You can sell it for a much higher price because once the person buys the resale rights, they will get 100% of the sales income. It is literally a "business in a box."
There's a big difference between selling a $10 package of articles and selling a $300 product with resale rights, that has a built-in sales letter, maybe some email examples, videos, etc.
You could also cap the number of resale rights so that you don't have to compete with all of the copies out on the market. There's something to be said for raising the price based on exclusivity and ease of income-generation for the resale-rights purchaser.
You should sell at least one thing that is high-ticket ($500 to $1000+) because all you need to do to get that to happen is to change a number on a sales letter (i.e. change a $50 product to a $500 product).
You may have to put an extra day of thinking into your offer, you may have to add an extra tool or something like a one-on-one coaching session, a resale-rights option, or you may just have to market it better.
Although you will make less high-ticket sales as compared to low-ticket sales, the amount of $$ will more than make up for that.
Your only purpose for having low-ticket items is to have people get on your list and to get people used to buying from you.
To get that $100-$1000 sale (average $500), what could you sell?
High Ticket Product Bundles vs. High Ticket Webinar Class
Initially, Robert looked at all the "small", lower-ticket items he was selling (i.e. a pop-up plugin for $20, a guide to making sales letters for $10, etc.) and combined them to create one giant, behemoth product package.
It worked so-so. What happened was that:
- Potential customers saw ALL of these things and thought "I'm only going to use 10% of it. Let me go find that one thing and buy it separately."
- Because there were so many lower-ticket items that made it up, Robert had to include the sales letters/sales copy for ALL of them. It was about 102-page sales letter!
- It was kind of a huge mess and people reading it probably gave up.
Interestingly, this actually goes full-circle because if you sell a high-ticket product bundle, full of smaller, random pieces, that is very similar to selling the "7 Ways to...." product/book, etc.
What works better is a high-ticket webinar class. This is now similar to the "7 Steps to...." product where you tell your customers what the end goal/result is going to be at the end of the webinar.
For example, the end goal is that you will have your WordPress site set up, your blog portion is bringing you traffic, your sales letter portion is bringing you money every day, your membership site portion is delivering products and offering upsells, etc.
You could backtrack from your end goal to compress it into 4 Modules and 3 Bonuses. Each module should be about 30-60 minutes so, ideally, you could then divide it up so that it closely matches your 4 Daily Tasks. That means that one of your daily tasks would be to create your 1st module, your 2nd, etc.
Don't overload it with 20, 30, or some other crazy amount of modules. That is overwhelming and it looks like you are just throwing stuff in there, which is no different than the product bundle we just talked about.
When you present it as 4 Modules, each module being about an hour, and each module has an end accomplishment, that is so much easier for your customer to "swallow."
Maybe it seems scary to offer a webinar for a high price of $500. How do you justify that?
You need to offer them something in the webinar package that's worth a couple of thousand dollars so that the $500 price is a real steal.
Ask them how many times have they tried to set up a WordPress blog and failed?
Include 5 different WordPress themes that sell separately for $100 each. Include some WordPress plugin's that they will also set-up as part of the course to complete their site. For instance, you could include an SEO plugin.
You could install a plugin like WP Notepad that they can fill out and submit to your help desk to get their first articles written by a writer you hire for them.
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047: The Mom Test: Is It the Reason Your Internet Marketing is Suffering?
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Don't be another statistic! Run your online business model, product, and sales letter through "The Mom Test" to discover how to sell faster and easier without resorting to painful "copywriting" or piling a lot of extra money into your business. It'll simplify your internet marketing...
Bad situation: A lot of internet marketers too caught up in ‘jargon’ and reinventing terms for concepts that already existed + a lot of people not wanting to look stupid and admit that they don’t know what something is = missed sales .
Too many marketers get too involved in making simple concepts difficult OR they are so vague and oversimplified that they sound ‘sketchy’.
Your marketing should ideally be able to pass "The Mom Test"...
Piece #1: Can You Explain What It Is That You’re Doing Online In A Way That Your Mom Could Understand It?
In other words, can you explain it to someone who isn’t "stupid" but is not necessarily internet-savvy and has zero interest in "internet tech stuff."
Piece #2: Are You Solving A Real Problem?
Figure out what people want to know and where they are personally stuck and how you can help them.
Example: Your niche is the stock market. Most people just want to know how to get started, how to trade some simple stocks. They want to learn how to buy a stock, read the stock quotes and make some return on their investment. They don't need to know the inner workings of Wall Street. THAT is not a real problem you are solving.
Piece #3: Can You Explain It In Less Than One Minute Or In One Sentence?
Just "state the facts."
Uber is a good example. Instead of saying, "I am a freelancer for a website that facilities transportation and is in direct competition with more traditional ways of hiring drivers for important events", etc., you would say, "Uber is a Peer to peer taxi service that costs less than traditional taxi service."
Piece #4: Do You Have A Physical Item?
Tangible items tend to lend credibility, especially to people who are unfamiliar with internet technology and feel that they need to see and touch something for it to be legitimate.
Let’s say that everything you have for sale is 100% online and is in the form of digital downloads.
- You can put this internet-based digital information (ex: a 4-module course) on a physical product like a DVD and puts it with a service called Kunaki.
- Robert uses Sony DVD Architect to create the DVD and Kunaki is company that specializes in DVD replication, packaging and distribution.
- Another option: take several of your blog posts, cut and paste them into Word and then turn those into an e-book.
- Go to Amazon KDP to create a Kindle format version of your book, and CreateSpace to create physical/printed copies of your book.
Robert's course, Make a Product, has a lot more information for you on how to publish your own e-book in less than 24 hours. Go check it out!
Piece #5: Is This Something That Can Change A Life Within 1 To 30 Days?
If it takes longer than 30 days it’s not exciting and you’re probably not doing a very good job marketing.
You need to have a set goal in mind of what your customer is going to achieve or will have been able to produce, as a result of their learning from you, WITHIN 30 days. Will they be able to play guitar? Will they have their own membership site up and running?
Closing Thoughts
- The average person, whether they’re a mom or not, does not understand a lot of the "technical stuff" and think that everyone on the internet is a "crazy new start-up."
- This is not about having an elevator pitch or a customer avatar.
- This is about explaining things in real, simple language and understanding that just because something might be exciting to you or seem simple to you, it might be going over your customers’ heads. Play it safe and dumb it down.
Ask your list and get feedback. Probably 80% of your list thinks that you’re too advanced.
Newbies are going to outnumber experts. The things that are going to keep bringing in leads are your simple things, the ones that are the "first step."
Yes, you want to have high-ticket items that are more advanced but don’t forget about your lead generation, introductory products. People want to know the basics.
[makeaproduct]
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045: How to Create a $10,000+ Per Month Income Stream In Just Five Hours Per Week
The steps to get you to that magical $10K level...
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There's a problem with people wanting to take shortcuts to get to that $10K per month level.
We want to get you out of that way of thinking. You have to do 3rd grade before you go to college. If you jump right in without the warm-up, you stand the chance of the whole venture falling in on itself.
You want to do this the RIGHT way.
A lot of people in internet marketing get to that number but without sufficient preparation, they fall into the trap of having to put a lot of money back into the business or maybe have to hire a lot of employees, so when it comes down to it, they're actually "netting" quite a bit less than the $10K per month.
Four Daily Tasks
We've covered the Four Daily Tasks principle before. To recap, it means to take 4 tasks EVERY DAY that you can complete. 3 of them are your longer tasks, your half hour to 40 minute tasks. Then, you complete a "gimme" task that take just a few minutes.
Being able to finish FOUR THINGS EVERY DAY is very purposeful and motivating.
Why "tasks" and NOT "time"? It's not a matter of how many hours you put in per week. That's an employee way of thinking, i.e. "If I make $10 an hour and I put in 40 hrs. this week, I've made $400."
You're not an employee. You're a one man show, a business owner. For you to be successful, it's about hitting milestones.
Your four tasks need to be things that are actually able to be completed that will put you in the position of making money.
Changing your Twitter background doesn't do that. If you're making a membership site, and you've only made 10% of it, that's not complete. If you register a domain name for your site that is a complete task and puts you on the path. If you have set up your membership site that someone can see is complete with a PayPal button, THAT is a complete step.
Attitude Adjustments
When it comes to mindset, one of the most powerful things Robert ever learned was it's either inside of you or outside of you.
If something is not working for you, only one of two things needs to happen: you either change the way you think about it or you change what you're doing.
80% of your problems are in the way you think about them. If your business is not succeeding and you're walking around complaining that "life isn't fair", it's time to stop feeling sorry for yourself and do something different. If you're buying thousands of dollars of products but you're business still isn't up and running or successful, these 2 things need to happen:
Finish one of the courses that you keep buying. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and start implementing something.
The problem with your beliefs is that your beliefs are set in stone first. Then, you filter the information and facts that you find through that belief system in a way that lets you reinforce those beliefs. A lot of this is subconscious.
If your personal belief is that making money online doesn't work then everything you read or take in that says the opposite, you will ignore it or think it's fake.
What's really scary about this is it turns into an echo chamber. You're going to believe that people who think and talk like you are smarter than everyone else, because you can relate to them better. The problem is that if you're grumpy and you make friends with 5 other grumpies, you reinforce each other's beliefs and drag each other down.
"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." -- Henry Ford
We need to model. We need to look at what it is that we want. We need to find who has it. Then, we need to emulate what they are doing to get there.
Steps On The Path To $10K Per Month
Phase 1: Freelancing. This is your quick way to get from $1k to $2k per month.
- Fiverr (Fiverr.com)- a website where you can sell any service that you are skilled at. It doesn't have to be an advanced skill. It can be anything from transcription to voiceovers to converting documents to testing iOS apps.
It sounds like you'd have to make a crazy amount of sales at $5 each to get anywhere, but the secret is in the up-sells. Additionally, although it doesn't sound like much, it may work out to be $7 or $8 per hour of work in income, you've now saved the time from having to spend countless hours looking for a job, you can work from home avoiding gas and parking costs, etc. - Uber (Uber.com) – this is like being a private taxi service. This works particularly well if you're in a larger-scale city and can work peak times, like weekends and nights. It is possible to make $1000 or more per week doing this if you can meet those 2 aspects.
- Airbnb (AirBNB.com) – a property rental service. You can rent out a shared room, a private room or an entire home. Like Fiverr, there is a public profile rating system so you can see other reviews and know who is trustworthy and who is not.
- Ebay and Craigslist (Ebay.com and Craigslist.net) If you're using it and have no plans of using it in the future, sell it!
- FBA-Fulfillment by Amazon. This is where you find items that are low-priced and ship them into Amazon and make a profit on the difference between what it's sold for and what you purchased it for.
There's a little more advanced information to this and you can find out all the different ways to use and profit from FBA at Robert's program, www.dropshipceo.com.
Phase 2: Information Products. This is where you can make about $2K to $5K per month.
At some point, you're going to cap out on freelancing opportunities and just not be able to get over that $1K-$2K mark due to time constraints, etc. This is your next step.
First, you want to find a niche. Go to Clickbank.com and check out their "Marketplace." These are all the subjects and topics that people are looking for answers to. These are their "pain points"-the issues that they have where they are willing to pay for products that can help solve them.
Then, you can go to Robert's site, IncomeMachine.com, where you can find out how to take advantage of that niche, how to build a product with video and/or e-books, how to optimize putting together a program for people to purchase.
Once you get on the way with selling your product, you are building a "list", i.e. people who are purchasing your product that you can market to in the future.
As you build up that list, you can then joint venture with other peers in your niche (or a very similar niche) to piggyback on each other in an affiliate-type structure, where each of you benefits from the sale of either one of your products and you're both building lists.
You can also set up podcasts or webinars at this point, where you interview each other, guest blog, etc. This grows and grows.
When you're putting together information products for sale, it's best to go from "idea to implementation" within 3 to 7 days.
Some of what you turn out will be great and some of it may turn out to be duds.
It makes no sense to spend a year or two trying to get it perfect. Just get it out there and your customers' responses will tell you what you're doing right and wrong.
The ones that turn out successful, you can then spend more time revising and improving those or capitalizing on them. Let the duds go. They were just experiments.
As your information product business grows, you can let go of the more time-consuming and less-paying things you were doing to get by, you can step renting your room, etc.
Phase 3: Passive Income. This is where you're getting to that magical $10K per month.
This is the dream that you want to achieve. You need to build a membership site where people are paying to keep engaged with your program in one fashion or another.
Robert's MembershipCube.com will walk you through all the steps to set up a successful membership site.
For example, one of Robert's clients/students, Dr. Charles runs a directory. There's a certain procedure he teaches other doctors. When the doctors buy and complete his training, they get added to the nationwide directory so local people interested in that service can find them. These doctors are paying Dr. Charles monthly to stay in that directory. If they stop paying, they are deleted.
Ask yourself, what sort of service related to your niche would people be willing to pay for month after month? Do you have something where you could also provide a directory that people can pay to join?
Robert also has membership sites that people pay to have access to, such as www.podcastcrusher.com and www.makeaproduct.com. People want to learn how to do podcasting and create e-books because these are items that you can sell that will generate leads. What skill do you have that you can teach people that will provide them with real value?
Coaching
Once you've developed your information product in Phase 2 and a membership site in Phase 3, your next step to that $10K per month passive income can be coaching.
You've developed your DVD on guitar playing in easy steps in Phase 2, then you created a membership site in Phase 3, where you show monthly how to learn in just 1 day all the popular radio hits and started a directory for local guitar teachers.
The next step would be coaching. For a certain $ amount per hour (say $200 per hour), you will get on Skype with your client and walk them through any difficulties they are having or help them with starting their own local guitar teaching business.
Now, you've gotten to a level where you wake up in the morning and have an entire leads list that you can email with future products and services. You're pretty advanced at this point and getting ABOVE that $10K is going to seem a lot easier than it was GETTING to it.
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P.S. 5 hours per week to $10K....where'd that come from? Your 5 hours per week is your 4 daily tasks. Spend an hour or less every day on the path to making money. It's fun, things move a lot of faster, and it keeps you motivated!
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042: Finish Now, Revise Later (How To Actually Get the Results and Income You Want in Your Internet Marketing Business)
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Tune in today (in fact, right now) to discover how to "get your head on straight!" Get your business built up to the level you want, as fast as you want, while you're excited each and every day and growing bigger and bigger every day...
Someone who hates you normally hates you for one of three reasons:
1. They see you as a threat
2. They hate themselves
3. They want to be you
Today's program is going to be very different than the normal format because we're going to jump around between real money-making case studies, mindset, mistakes I've made and the things YOU PERSONALLY can do to incrementally improve your business as your income increases and you gain simplicity and clarity along the way -- finish now and revise later!
How do you get the results and the income you want from your internet marketing business?
Tip #1: Self-Actualize
Be aware of the little crutches you fall back on daily that keep you from achieving your goals and keep you from being confident. When someone asks how you're doing, instead of saying "Good", change it up to "Fantastic", "Wonderful", etc…
Also, be aware of these "negative" words, Robert's 3 pet peeves:
- Try: sounds like you're not even going to attempt it, whatever "IT" is. It is like you are giving yourself permission to fail. Instead, say "I'm going to do"
- Work: sounds like something you don't want to do, like labor. Instead, say "I am (doing) this today", for ex. I am formatting my website today. Use an action.
- Start: just like "try." Sounds like you're only going to get halfway done. Instead, use action again, such as "I am meeting a client today about my product."
If you complain all the time, you cement your ideas. If it's your belief that internet marketing is a scam or that you have to make only minimum wage, or someone else has to lose for you to win, anything you discover or new information, will only reinforce that. If information comes in that contradicts those beliefs, you're going to find a mental block/way around it instead of being inspired by it.
Tip #2: The Rule of FOUR: The Best Way of Increasing Productivity
Complete 4 tasks every day. They can be 4 big things or 4 small things but the best combination is 3 things at 45-60 minutes and a 4th thing at about 15 minutes.
Fancy planners and endless to-do lists get so bogged down and leave you feeling unmotivated.
Successfully finish 4 tasks today, call it a day, and you are ready to succeed again tomorrow!
Robert's program, www.incomemachine.com, has a Facebook group where each member posts their 4 things for today, every day.
Tip #3: Finish Now, Revise Later: The Substance of Today's Podcast
You do NOT have to wait for something to be perfect. Finish it for NOW and you can make revisions later. What matters is that you have something on the table NOW that you can offer customers.
Why does Finish Now, Revise Later work?
You will start earning money to keep motivated and productive and inspired to keep growing and developing your business.
You can see what sells and what doesn't. You want to concentrate on your best sellers.
It's very important to start selling your product so you can see how people use it. You don't want to keep adding elements to it that people may not use and therefore waste your time and effort.
Example: Netscape Navigator "Blink Tags." Developers did this because it was "fun" to develop-but it doesn't make any money. In the same way, a lot of internet marketers spend entirely too much time on business cards, fancy logos, building Twitter followings, but those things do not make money. Get a product out there that does!
Let's talk about "Backup Creator" (www.backupcreator.com)
This is a WordPress plug-in that allows you to back up your WordPress site, as well as clone it so you can keep using it to make new sites.
This took about 3 days to make and it was not perfect but Robert and Lance put it out anyway because it was finished ENOUGH. It functioned and it did what it promised to do. Along the way, there were little hiccups and de-bugs they've had to make but if they had waited the last 3 ½ years until they thought it was perfect, they would have lost 3 ½ years of income PLUS the opportunity to see what worked and didn't. Along the way, they've made some upgrades and now it's just a matter of maintenance. At time of airing, Backup Creator is powering about 85 THOUSAND sites-imagine if they had lost all that opportunity by constantly waiting to "finish."
Tip #4: Avoid the "Money Zone"
What is the money zone? It is the zone of your lowest to your highest income.
If you are in the "money zone", you are either in a situation where you will make a certain amount of money no matter what happens in your life, which is holding you back AND the flip side of that is when you have an upper limit, no matter what you do, you'll always find a way to self-sabotage getting past that point.
You don't want to be TOO tactical OR too strategic.
Tactical: you're only looking ahead to your next installment, say $100.
Strategic: you're planning 10-20 years down the road
The first step to fixing this is realizing you have this mindset and start to think differently. Just TODAY, think about what you can do differently to increase your income NOW.
For example, with Backup Creator, Robert and Lance thought what else can they do to increase money on the success they were already having with this product?
They started the Developer License that people can purchase as an add-on after purchasing Backup Creator. It is no extra work for them to maintain, it is simply a license for buyers to use it with their own clients to keep producing new sites. This is an additional income stream. They thought not just about their next $100, they had ideas of increasing their success, but they didn't get so far ahead that they got bogged down in details and couldn't make another move.
One final thought:
Be very careful with lifetime memberships. You really have to analyze the averages that people pay, how often they renew, etc. You do not want to offer a lifetime membership on a product that people would continue to renew on a yearly basis because in the end you will sell yourself short, have to keep working to add new upgrades and content, and start working on a less by less hourly basis.
For more great guidance and tips on Robert's system, you can also visit www.incomemachine.com.
This will help you get something out there, get to your first $100 or $1000 and get yourself motivated!!
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040: Self-Help for Internet Marketers & Entrerepreneurs (What to Do When No One Else Seems to Get It)
I'll admit it, I DON'T have it all figured out! But I'm right there with you when it feels like, as a home-based entrepreneur, no one else seems to be on the same track as you. In today's podcast I'm going to share a few tools with you to avoid burnout, information overload, fear of failure, and more. It's easier to edit crap than air!
(Lots of show notes this time around, please scroll down a little to see the audio player for today's action-packed super-sized episode.)
Self Help Advice You Might Have Heard Before (But Need to Hear Again)
- You are your own worst enemy: it feels good to complain, self fulfilling prophecy
- "We are what we repeatedly do" (you are what you eat)
- "Your income is the average of your 5 closest friends"
- Abundance mindset vs victimhood, resentment
- "Some people say self help doesn't last. Neither does showering, and that's why we recommend it daily"
- "Ask the computer called your brain the right questions" -- the phrasing is important, i.e. HOW can this be done and not CAN it be done
"Get Back on Track" Checklist
Don't share these answers with me or anyone else... it's explained in the second half of today's episode...
- Self sabotage: In what way do you SOMETIMES have one foot on the break? (So you can overcome it)
- What are you really afraid of and what sometimes stalls you out? (i.e. What if my websites go down, too many refunds, FTC, IRS)
- Why did you get started in the first place? (what excited you back then that maybe you lost track of)
- What gets you excited to grow your business and do what really needs to be done? (must be a different, better, more detailed and more emotional answer to the previous question)
- Based on all this, what do you REALLY want to become a reality in the next 6 months? (a thing or activity, not money)
Simple Solutions to Become Motivated & Productive Anytime You Want
- Willpower (iffy and unreliable but happens on occasion)
- Take the first step today towards that goal (i.e. make that one quick phone call to get the ball rolling)
- Lift app: take multivitamin, go to gym, read 30 minutes (just don't load it up with more than 3 things)
- Morning routine: walk or run to "change the channel" in your mind
- Mentor where you'll behave yourself (unmuted in a group), and you're looking for a SIMPLE SOLUTION to an EASILY EXPLAINABLE PROBLEM
- Countdown timer or record your computer screen of you performing the task you want
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032: The Decline of Social Proof (Why You Should Value Money Over Blog Comments)
Tune in to today's Robert Plank Show to discover:
- how you too can make your own set of rules (do whatever you want and still make as much money as you want)
- how to "rise above being a geek" (a huge factor in those that make it and those that don't)
- when social proof works against you (dangerous)
- the 10/20/30 strategic reverse comment strategy to get a flood of blog comments
- when you don't even want blog comments (like under this post!)
- and more!
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020: How to Quit Your Day Job and Become a Full Time Self-Employed Entrepreneur
There are no guarantees in life! And you don't know how much time you have left. That's why I think it makes ZERO sense to continue "getting by"... or running out the clock, or just trying to survive and just trying to make ends meet.
If you want to know exactly how I was able to quit my day job and become a full time self employed entrepreneur, then you're going to want to tune in to the latest and greatest installment of the Robert Plank Show...
"Quit Your Day Job" FREE Report
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Topics Covered Include:
- How to shake off that scarcity employee mindset and embrace the entrepreneur abundance mindset by solving a big problem that people have, be proactive not reactive (quit on your own terms), break down YOUR problem into manageable chunks, and use your weaknesses & aggravations to get things done
- How to manage your time and find that 1 hour per day to move your own business forward -- no matter how "busy" you already are
- Develop the right habits to ensure you're moving forward everyday and never have to go back to any kind of hourly or salaried employment
- How to always stay productive and conquer your own self-sabotaging inner game to instead live life on your own terms
Day Job Quitting Checklist
- entrepreneur mindset (strategic, career, discipline, Plan B, mindset)
- social support system (reason-why)
- cashflow
- money in the bank (safety net)
- legitimacy (i.e. health insurance)
- deadline to quit (urgency)
Finally, don't do what I did! I waited too long before quitting. I almost didn't quit and as a result, the last 5 years of my life almost didn't happen! Click the play button below to listen instantly and as always, let me know what you think.
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The Danger of Novelty (and the Most Disturbing Marketing Trends I’m Seeing This Year That You Need to Avoid)
Let's talk about some shiny brand new stuff. Some of you are already excited, right? You don't know if I'm talking about hip new social media site, the latest WordPress plugin or the next edition iPhone, but you're ready for it! Screw that old stuff, it never worked, I want something new!
The reason the old stuff didn't work is because you either didn't apply it or you were eager to throw it all out in favor for the latest and greatest thing.
You'd be surprised how many people don't get this. Especially the ones who respond to something like this with, "I've heard of that... that's Bright Shiny Object Syndrome." Ok, you memorized the words but did you actually implement? Do you actually connect the phrases, facts, and figures you memorized (not sure why'd you do all that) to the actions you actually take or don't take? (Don't answer that.)
When Lance and I check in on the support desk for Backup Creator, you would be SHOCKED at how many people are moving their sites from one web host or another (sometimes the same people every month) because this other web host is 1 dollar a month cheaper or has a 1 month trial or has some new feature that I know I won't use but I think I might need.
It's fine if you've already done that, but I've caught you red-handed and it's time to stop.
The way I've always done business is... I try a few things out, repeat what does work and I don't repeat what DOESN'T work.
Direct response style sales letters, 1-hour webinars, 4-week webinar classes, emailing every day, those are all things that MAKE ME MONEY. I know everyone thinks they're special and that they're the one to business where sales letters don't apply or webinars don't apply – and yet, if you look up your most successful competitors, they're probably doing those things.
Danger #1: Google+ Hangouts on Air
Whether you do or you don't have a product or course yet, but you have a niche, you have a skill, and you have something to say, condense your "greatest hits" down to a 45 minute presentation (preferably with a live demo or magic trick) in there, mail every day for 5 days about it, do whatever you can to get 1000 people to view the special link to your live webinar presentation.
1000 eyeballs means you'll get about 500 people to register, and 166 people to show up. If you're "on a budget" so to speak, then register for GoToWebinar's 30-day trial or go with the lowest price packaged so that 66 out of your 166 people will actually be locked out of your webinar and you'll present to your 100 best people. Record it with Camtasia (also has a free trial) and post it online, email for that one for at least once a day for 5 days after you run it. Promote either your existing course or book, or promise the course you're about to create, at the end of that presentation.
Running a webinar usually means that you're 100% live on the spot, people can see your screen (so you should show a PowerPoint presentation and flip to your browser or to whatever you're showing on your screen) and speak your voice out live. Answering questions doesn't matter as much as you think it does. Running a "Q&A" session at the end is a really bad idea, makes your presentation way too long and gives people lots of reasons NOT to buy.
If you've heard of Google+ (Google's social network) they have added a feature called "Google+ Hangouts" for video conferencing, and "Google+ Hangouts on Air" where people can VIEW that video conference.
The problem with Hangouts:
- It shows up in a browser tab (instead of an actual program like GoToWebinar) so people can easily close it – even on accident
- It either shows your screen in a really tiny window (so no one can see what's going on)...
- OR most people opt for the web camera option, so I can see you drinking your bottle of water, I can see the stuff on your bookshelf behind you, I can see your bad lighting, I can see the reflection in your glasses and all your facial expressions, it's way less professional and way more distracting than a PowerPoint presentation
The best reasons I've heard for running a Hangout instead of a webinar have been:
- It's free (you don't have 100 bucks a month to spare to grow your business?)
- The recording appears on YouTube instantly (you can't click the "Record" button on Camtasia?)
- I can show my face to you (I actually don't want to see your face)
- I can have multiple speakers on my Hangout (so you want a messy recording you can't control?)
The problem with running webinars for longer than an hour, running so-called "Q&A sessions", going for 4 or 5 hours, showing your face or answering every possible question under the sun, is that you're either talking to people who have no intention of buying (they're trying to squeeze all the information out of you in pieces) or you're talking to the people who can't buy it and are looking to justify a reason to NOT buy it. They'll keep asking until you give them the reason.
That's why I don't like Google Hangouts and you should instead run a real business, sign up for that GoToWebinar account and PITCH a real product instead of being a chicken. (Sorry if that seems harsh.)
Danger #2: Automated Webinars
The average marketer doesn't do webinars. Of those marketers that run webinars, I would say they run one webinar per YEAR on average. Why? It's awkward, they dread everything leading up to it, they dread running it, they don't want to go through that hell again. (Until a year later and they want money and forget how much they suffered through it.)
Condense your webinar down to 1 hour and find a way to have fun doing it, run at least 5 webinars per year (instead of just once per year) to work up that webinar muscle.
I see people hesitate with their webinars because they want to make sure they can "play that evergreen webinar 3 times a day afterwards."
They want to present once, record that webinar presentation, then put it online using a special service so someone sees a page that says... free training on this subject, coming up at this date and time, register here. That person enters their name and email address, then it says ome come back at this date and time to watch the live webinar.
The problem is the webinar isn't actually live, you're not on there at all, it's just a special video player that only streams the video once per day.
I know some people swear by automated webinars, but I don't use them and I don't suggest you use them either. Don't even get near it.
Why? Because you're LYING on an automated webinar. If someone registers and comes back at that special date and time, watches your stream and you claim to be live, you're actually lying to your webinar attendees.
I've heard some really bad advice about automated webinars including:
- Record about 10 minutes before the webinar starts so it looks like you're getting ready (what???)
- Make sure you play special sounds at the end of your call so it sounds like sales are coming in, or call your office phone from your cell phone so it sounds like people are calling to place their orders (your merchant account wouldn't like to hear that you do that)
- Use a countdown timer in your auto-webinar to "trick" people into thinking your offer is about to expire! (that can't be legal)
And you might say... but Robert, that's why I run automated webinars and I let them know it's automated. In that case, just put a video on a web page! When I tried out fake webinars a few times, here were my numbers:
- 50% of people opted in
- 33% of people actually came back to the webinar at the right time
- 6% of those people stayed till the end
When you combine those numbers, we're talking about 1% even looking at that offer. You send 1000 clicks to that fake webinar, 990 dropped off after jumping through all your hoops. If you convert at 10% at $100, then congratulations, you just made one sale.
Compare that to a video on a web page. My webinar replays tend to convert at 2 to 3 percent. I don't track how long people stay on the videos but I know that, because there's no opt-in, 100% of the people who click get to the web page (instead of 50%). 100% of people start watching the video (instead of 33% of 50%).
If you're interesting, it won't matter if you're showing it on a video or a webinar replay. But if you're uninteresting, an auto-webinar isn't going to save you! No one cares how beautiful the soufflé is, if the appetizer is turds in a blanket.
Danger #3: Busybody Marketing
There's nothing wrong with getting traffic. There's nothing wrong with getting your name out there. There's nothing wrong with presenting an offer and making sales.
Do you see some marketers who seem to be everywhere? You ask what's the best WordPress plugin for this, they're there. Ask on a forum the best way to do this thing, that person's there. It's almost like you're following you around the internet!
That's how they make sales. Spend most of their day on Facebook closing one-on-one. I have no problem hopping on Facebook every now and then to help out, but it's time consuming and I tend to get in a lot of fights. I also feel bad about being a broken record and promoting myself in someone else's group or thread.
But it doesn't stop after the sale. The current "trend" is to add a private Facebook Group as a bonus to a product or member's area. You buy that course about YouTube traffic, they link you to a Facebook group where you can ask any question about YouTube traffic at any time, or show your videos and get advice.
Sounds good... but the PROBLEM is that these groups are full of questions that are already answered in the product. Instead of saying... go to module 1 or page 12, they keep re-teaching the course over and over, one person at a time.
Once again, I have NO ISSUE answering questions, but if it takes that much time, and it's already covered, why repeat myself?
- Instead of Google Hangouts, run a 1-hour pitch webinar using GoToWebinar.
- Instead of automated webinars, place a video on a web page... we have a plugin called Paper Template for that.
- Instead of being a busybody marketer, make a product based on the activities YOU perform, that YOU reference, so that others will as well.
Can you please comment below, not just about your thoughts about Google+ Hangouts, fake webinars, and busybody marketers (whether you agree with me or not), but also... how do YOU PERSONALLY avoid shiny object syndrome? I look forward to seeing your comments below.
Four Daily Tasks: Focus Yourself, Defeat Overwhelm, and Enjoy Peak Productivity Using a Solution That’s Far Easier Than Time Management
If you've ever found yourself unfocused, unmotivated, unable to get "in the zone" ... you can't break free of procrastination, confusion, overwhelm... there's no time to get anything done... then you have TIME MANAGEMENT issues!
Look, you can either continue what you've been doing (and get the same results you've been getting), or drastically change everything in your life (which we both know won't last for longer than a couple of days) OR you can...
Admit you want to change
Decide what to change, and...
Make SMALL but LASTING improvements
to your everyday life...
To solve the problem, you might have heard advice like this:
- Create a long to-do list (now you have 100+ items you'll never complete)
- Say "no" to everything (now I'm bored within my own business)
- Schedule all activities, including bathroom breaks and free time, into a calendar (but what if I fall behind?)
- "Learn" about the 80/20 rule, Inbox Zero, Parkinson's Law (cute but how does that help me? And now I'm checking my email every 5 minutes to keep it at Inbox Zero)
- Delegate, outsource, lifehack
- Chunk down large tasks
- Organize your to-do list into A-B-C-D, or "Urgent But Not Important" (now I've spent all week organizing my to-do list or to-do lists)
- Just get started (gee, why didn't I think of that?)
- Write everything down on a whiteboard or on hundreds of post-it notes (how will you keep it all organized?)
I believe that you ignore most problems until they become so bad that you NEED to make a change NOW... so you take too-drastic measures, and now the solution is worse than the problem.
The Brutal Truth...
Example: You're 10-15 pounds overweight. Unhappy but comfortable. Not disturbed enough to make any real change. But suddenly, your high school reunion is a month away, or you realize you somehow became 30 pounds overweight without noticing, or you can't fit into that pair of pants...
You vow to stop eating fast food forever, wake up at 5AM every morning and hit the gym for a one hour run every morning.
What happens? You do it for one day, maybe two, until you realize HOW miserable you are. HOW much of a pain it is to wake up so early. Can't you just sleep in this one time? You're so hungry for a Quarter Pounder now... why not just quit?
Now, if your reunion was six months away, and you could REALISTICALLY lose the weight in time... you'd create a clear weight loss goal. Count your calories using an app to track your progress. Limit your portions, substitute one meal per day, swim or walk for a short time every day, get a partner to exercise with you and make yourself accountable to someone who ISN'T participating with you. That sounds to me like better planning.
7 Ways the "Regular" Approach Fails...
The same is true with your business. Most entrepreneurs that fail...
- they don't have a clear goal
- they don't have a good reason to reach that goal
- theydon't have a clear plan to make consistent progress
- they have no way to measure their progress towards that goal
- they undertake activities that aren't easy and fun (i.e. creating videos and outsource the boring activities like writing)
- they have no business partner (or team) to help
- they have no accountability partner to report back to (this is a DIFFERENT PERSON than the partner mentioned above)
The time management and productivity systems you've heard of have so many rules, and are so complicated, that the SOLUTION is less fun and more "work" than your old habits. Your old procrastinating ways. You'd rather be comfortable and slightly unhappy, than in unfamiliar territory trying to make some confusing time management system behave the way you want.
You know the type... set that timer and "work" 15 minutes, then take a 5 minute break, then "work" for 20 minutes, and break for 30 minutes... or something like that?
Or... list everything you have to do in a notebook in multiple columns and give yourself a "point" system.
Or... one of the worst, list 100 tasks and then pick the 10 that are the easiest to cross off your list today. Great, now you're just finishing the easy unimportant tasks every day.
The "Real" Easy Answer You're Looking For
Or, how about this? Follow a VERY SIMPLE system so that you don't have to throw your entire way of life out the window and make a few SMALL changes in your everyday lifestyle to point yourself in the right direction...
Here's what will help:
- 4DT: Complete just four small tasks everyday (three 45-minute tasks and one 10-minute task) and nothing else
- Calendar: Use Gmail instead of a desktop email program (it's the best solution for labeling, filtering, archiving, and searching for emails), and Google Calendar (to keep track of meetings, product launches, and other "milestone" activities)
- Accountability: Create your four tasks in the morning (or the night before) and list these to someone who is not a part of your business, but wants you to succeed, like a friend or a spouse. Don't go into detail about what they are, but meet with them at the end of the day so you can explain that you finish each task, or, if you left some unfinished, what was your excuse?
I go into each of these three building blocks in more detail in my new book, "Four Daily Tasks" which you should check out right away. The fact is that this is all you need, and you SHOULDN'T take drastic measures throwing out all the usual rules.
The Most Important Tasks
When you limit yourself to four tasks per day (not 10 or 20) they'll be the most important tasks. Here's what I mean. Let's say this was your task list on Monday night:
- Send broadcast message to email list and to Facebook: 10 minutes (DONE!)
- Record video seven of new product: 45 minutes. (DONE!)
- Contact three new joint venture partners: 45 minutes. (DONE!)
- Setup Facebook ads: 45 minutes. (didn't do it, ran out of time)
Then this was Tuesday night:
- Send broadcast email and schedule one followup email: 10 minutes. (DONE!)
- Record new podcast episode: 45 minutes. (DONE!)
- Dictate five new articles: 45 minutes. (DONE!)
- Setup Facebook ads: 45 minutes. (didn't do it, ran out of time)
Do you see what happened? Two days in a row, I didn't setup those Facebook ads like I planned. Here's what will happen on Wednesday: I'll either schedule it AGAIN, and not finish it AGAIN, and have to report back to my accountability partner once AGAIN that I didn't finish this task.
Maybe you ran out of time because the other tasks ran longer and you need to either budget your time better, take on smaller tasks, or just get those darned Facebook ads out of the way first thing on Wednesday, to save yourself the embarrassment and disappointment of reporting that, once again, you didn't do it.
OR! You might even leave those Facebook ads OFF the list for Wednesday, because they weren't important in the first place.
Self-Calibration
The more you use the "Four Daily Tasks" system, the better you'll be focused because your easy task HAS to be done in 10 minutes, and your medium tasks HAVE to be done in 45 minutes.
You'll also find yourself completing more tasks in bulk. Instead of putting out twenty 5-minute fires here and there... like, check Facebook, respond to blog comments, check YouTube, check Twitter... you're doing all those 5-minute tasks back to back so there is no break time, no procrastinating, no switching gears, just finishing everything.
Over time you'll get a good idea of what tasks really do take 45 minutes. You'll have one day after another where you will get all four tasks done, get all four tasks done, get all four tasks done, then look back and notice how many accomplishments that added up to. As opposed to having a 20-item "marathon day" and then taking the rest of the month off.
Because you built up this momentum, it's now hard to stop! Because you're moving in the direction you want, there's less overwhelm, less indecision, you'll get good at making snap decisions and you'll have renewed drive and focus like never before.
I need to stress that these must be four tasks in your BUSINESS, not in your personal or home life. They need to have DELIVERABLES, such as, write chapter 7 of book, and not "degrees of doneness" such as, "write 90% of book" or "edit web page." These need to be accomplishments that you can literally PROVE if you had to.
I've tried all the other "extreme" time management systems. They didn't last for me, and they didn't last for most people. I ended up spending my time on non-money-making tasks, I'd have trouble finishing tasks, trouble starting tasks, or accomplishing goals here and there but not actually PROGRESSING in the direction I wanted, if that makes sense.
Everything Changed When I Simplified It!
And if you find yourself completing four tasks every single weekday (or every day you choose to build your business), you've organized your life in Gmail and a Google Calendar, and you've created a private Team Site to share tasks with an accountability partner, there are a few more milestones you can use to inch yourself even closer to Peak Productivity:
- Countdown Timer: use a program like Cool Timer to countdown the amount of time you have left to make sure you stay on task and finish on time
- Unplug Days (for family): decide in advance which days of the week will be 100% dedicated to yourself or your family. This means no checking email, Facebook, or even cell phones
- Hotseat Computer (with no TV next to it): speaking of taking breaks, LEAVE the computer, leave your office and possibly go outside between tasks. That way, when you return to your computer, you can sit down, knock out the next task for today, and then leave the computer again before you have time to distract yourself with email or social media
- Camtasia Babysitter: if you're really trying to overcome a focus problem, use a tool like Camtasia Recorder to literally record yourself completing a task. You'd be surprised at how well this gets you in gear!
- Clean Desk: don't spend too much time on this, but clear out all the papers, clutter, and notes on your desk and at least store them away in a drawer or file cabinet so you aren't distracted and can dedicate yourself to the task at hand
- Cautious Outsourcing: hire someone to manage the parts of your business that you don't enjoy, or can't do, like customer support, traffic, copywriting, graphics, or email marketing
- Self-Awareness (turn "needs" into "wants"): the bottom line is that you aren't going to make any lasting change on yourself unless you gain pleasure from it and you enjoy it, so don't "force" yourself to take any action and if you find yourself stressed, confused, or just not having fun, then find out why you're not getting closer to your goal and what you can do in order to look forward to the day and eagerly knock out the tasks you have in front of you
That's the simple Four Daily Tasks approach that took me from a lazy, bored, unproductive person into someone who makes a lot more money, puts in a lot less hours, and has a lot more fun building my business.
Which of these components will you use, or have you already used, in your everyday life to achieve your goals and get to where you want to be?
