3 WAYS TO GO FURTHER, FASTER (Michael Hyatt)
Several years ago, I wrote out a list of “100 Things I Want to Do Before I Die.” It’s really an amazing, audacious list. Whenever I review it, I am both inspired and stunned by how many of the items I have already accomplished. And yet, there is so much more. The list keeps growing.
I’ll bet you have a list, too. Perhaps you’ve written it down; perhaps not. Regardless, you doubtless want to accomplish things—probably a lot of things. Really important things. Unfortunately, life is short. I have more to accomplish than I could probably do in seven lifetimes.
So how do you actually make significant progress on your goals? How can you get more things done and squeeze as much juice out of life as possible?
One of the most important things you can do, of course, is to write down your goals. I have written about this in The 90-Day Challenge, so I won’t repeat myself here. But assuming you have done that, what’s next?
Head over to Michael Hyatt‘s website to read further.
WHAT’S YOUR MESSAGE? WHY NOT SHARE IT? (Chris Guillebeau)
Greetings from Burlington, Vermont. After today, I have a few days home in Portland, Oregon, then I’ll set out to visit the midwest and Great Lakes region starting next week.
In this (very windblown) video update, I talk about social media and why if you’re trying to build a platform, you should talk about yourself more than others.
Stay with me, because this idea is definitely contrarian to the conventional wisdom.
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If you can’t watch the video or just prefer to read, here are a few highlights.
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Shouldn’t you use social media to promote other people’s work? Isn’t it good to make others look good?
Well, yes, I think it’s generally a good idea to be a nice person. But I don’t think that has much to do with building your brand or platform. If you care about building a platform, it’s far better to actually do something of your own. This usually involves talking about yourself, and that’s OK.
Let’s take the case of someone like @lancearmstrong. I’m a fan of Lance, but he doesn’t know me. That’s OK, I don’t expect Lance to follow me back—and here is the critical point: I also don’t want him to spend all his time promoting other people’s projects and “retweeting” his followers’ notes. I want him to talk about what he’s doing, and I want him to share his own opinions. In other words, I want Lance to talk about himself.
Should you only talk about yourself? No, of course not. It’s good to share other resources, promote other people, and so on from time to time. But ultimately, people will follow you because you are doing something interesting, not because you are good at passing on other people’s messages.
This is why if you want to build something, you have to have your own message. If someone feels like you’re talking too much about your own projects, they can unfollow you. Whenever someone tells me they don’t like what I write or talk about, I always wish them well and say, “Hey, it’s a big internet out there—hopefully something else will resonate with you better.”
But more likely, instead of losing followers or readers, you’ll gain them once you start speaking out more and being yourself. That’s why you need a message!
So… what’s your message?
What are you working on over there, and what’s the next step? You can share it here in the comments for the world to see. As usual, keep the web site in the URL field (not the comment itself), and if you’re doing something interesting, you’ll definitely get your share of visitors.
Most importantly, be yourself! Don’t be shy…
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Chris Guillebeau http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/whats-your-message-why-not-share-it/IS THIS A SCAM? (Dan Miller)
At 48Days we field a lot of questions where readers want to know if something being promoted is a scam. Just today someone wanted to know about a Robert Kiyosaki business idea. The dictionary defines “scam” as to obtain money from somebody by dishonest means.
If someone asks you to send $4000 as a processing fee so he can release his uncle’s money from Nigeria and share the windfall with you, trust me, you’re being scammed. But most ideas are not that easy to read.
If you see a training course to teach you how to write your own book and after spending $495 you didn’t get a deal from any major publisher, were you scammed? If you spent $1250 for a windshield repair business and never even recaptured your investment, were you scammed? What about if you went to an investment training seminar and then proceeded to lose your own capital? If you purchased a business opportunity to do medical billing – which included you buying an expensive computer system, and then you found out the only key to success in this is being able to market and sell your services, were you scammed?
I have purchased thousands of dollars worth of seminars, workshops, training programs and business opportunity products over the years. I consider this an integral part of my ongoing learning process. Yes, I have a library of “millionaire” tapes that provided little useful information, “business opportunities” that consisted of photocopied government forms, teleclasses where there was too much background noise to hear the presenter, and hot cashew vending machines that quickly produced moldy products.
But I have never considered that I was scammed.
The real key is to see the learning that takes place for you in this process. Not every college course offered any real value – but it was part of a larger process to help you clarify your best options. I recently worked with a young couple who had just sent over $20,000 to an invention company that promised them wealth and fortune. We know they will never see any return on the very ordinary ideas they submitted. But my counsel to them is that some people are sitting in classrooms spending $20,000 a year hoping to get a good idea here and there, and some people are getting their “education” in other ways. Either way, it’s a legitimate way to be moving toward the right idea for your ultimate success.
Bottom Line: There’s less risk from getting “Scammed” than there is from doing nothing.
Dan Miller www.48days.com http://www.48days.com/2010/03/03/779/HOW DO MOST BUSINESSES GET NEW CUSTOMERS? KNOWING THE ANSWER IS POWERFUL. (Jim Cockrum)
See if you can answer this simple business question…
…but first the “back story”:
David Frey has done marketing consulting for Fortune 500 clients and mom and pop businesses alike for well over a decade. He’s helped online businesses thrive and he’s helped offline businesses alike.
He often asks a simple question when he meets business owners (online and offline).
He asks businesses:
“Where do you get most of your new clients and customers?”
What answer do you think he hears the vast majority of the time?
The answer is “referrals”.
Thanks to all who took a stab at the answer BEFORE I revealed it.
I asked my readers to take a guess at the answer in the blog comments and several of you nailed the answer.
The opportunity:Very few businesses ever deploy a solid referral strategy with a systematic approach. Which leads David to his next simple question he asks business owners which is:
“Do you have a simple system in place to automate and capture referrals?”
If you are bold enough to ask those two questions you could have a thriving, fun business.
David is the sharpest guy I know is this arena – you’ll meet no one better.
He’s agreed to do a training webinar with me to teach you some new things that I promise you’ve never seen before. He’ll also show us a tool he uses to generate literally MILLIONS for his own business.
Watch a replay of the webinar by clicking here
Here’s some of what we covered:
- He’ll show us the tool he uses to automate referrals for his own business and multiple other businesses.
- He’ll reveal his most successful advertising campaign ever (he’s NEVER shared this before online and has revealed it only once before to ANYONE outside his business).
- Shows you the system he uses to generate autopilot income month after month (and has been using it for years)
- One of the things he’ll show us is what I call a $150,000 business model that I believe ANYONE can duplicate
- Shows us a simple service that those of us in the “Offline Biz” world can use to attract and serve clients in a way unlike anything they’ve seen before
- David will share with us his PERSONAL CELL PHONE number if you want more detail about what he’s teaching us
The webinar is aimed primarily at those of us that work with “offline businesses“, but even if that’s not part of your business plan you should attend this webinar or watch the replay. David will teach you some simple stuff that ANY business can benefit from including your own.
He’ll be revealing the MOST POWERFUL WAY HE’S EVER SEEN to attract and build relationships with prospects and clients. It’s not to be missed if you have a business of any kind.
If you have any questions or comments about the webinar or the topics we cover feel free to post them here as a comment.
Have a question for David about the presentation or SOC? Here’s his email address:
SOCDavidFrey[at]gmail.com (replace [at] with @ of course)
We’re Back!
After “fixing” our website , I was surprised to see Relevant Entrepreneur disappear off the face of the world wide web!! I guess we should leave the tech work to the “techies”. Oops! So, after almost a month without a single post, Relevant Entrepreneur is back! It’s been a busy month in our personal lives, but Relevant Entrepreneur is important to us and we don’t want to let our readers down!
To those who have requested guest blogging spots on our site, I’ll be getting back to you shortly! I appreciate all your support! Now let the Relevant posts roll…
5 STEPS TO DEVELOPING MORE DISCIPLINE (Michael Hyatt)
I have been thinking a lot about discipline lately. Everyone knows you can’t succeed without it, yet few people seem to possess it.
My friend, Andy Andrews asks this question:
Can you make yourself do something you don’t want to do in order to get a result you really want?
If so, then you are disciplined—at least in that area.
The key is on focusing on a result you really want. In this sense, the key to discipline is goal-setting.
Over the years, I have found that I can become disciplined in any area of my life by taking five specific steps. Whether it is trying to get in shape, maintain a blog, or develop a great marriage, the psychology is the same.
- Determine your goal. Notice in Andy’s definition that the key is in knowing what you really want. If you are going to succeed, you must be specific. You must be able tosee it. Write it down and—while you are at it—add a “by when” date.Example: I will lose 20 pounds of body fat by December 31, 2011.Continue reading at www.MichaelHyatt.com
TRUST IS ACCELERATING – HERE’S HOW YOU BENEFIT FROM IT (Jim Cockrum)
Often times the best “next step” in growing your business exponentially is to find a “perfect fit” trustworthy partner.
Who can you trust though?
I believe we are living in the best time in human history for entrepreneurs and the “speed of trust” is one of the biggest reasons for it.
Speed of Trust: The amount of time it takes two parties to form a trusting relationship
Partnerships are forming fast these days – and that’s a good thing for those of us in business. You can profit from creative partnerships easily once you know the “tools” of the game.
Some factors contributing to the acceleration:
- Services like Klout.com allow us to find great experts and potential partners on any topic in minutes and can help us quickly identify who the power players are in any niche
- A Google search tells you a lot of course
- Reputations are getting harder to hide. The “good guys” really stand out.
- Topical discussion forums are a great place to find trustworthy partners
- Clickbank can automate the division of profits among multiple partners on a collaboration project. There’s no need to build years or months of “trust” in someone if clickbank is enforcing the payout on your product! See this video
Who makes a great partner? Someone who you can trust who also has the attention of the audience you are trying to reach. This blog post about growing your own audience will help you think this through.
Example: My partner Andrew and I run OfflineBiz.com but we’ve never met, never spoken, and would probably pass each other on the street without even noticing…but we have a 10,000+ member membership site because we both quickly researched and found the other to be a trustworthy and accomplished potential partner. I had the perfect audience and he had the perfect skills.
Jim Cockrum from www.silentjim.com http://www.jimcockrum.com/blog/2011/09/21/trust-is-accelerating-heres-how-you-benefit-from-it/Happy Birthday – Hula Hoop (Dan Miller)
The Hula Hoop turns 50 this year – at least as we know it. Actually, hoops were used as toys, being pushed along with sticks over 3,000 years ago in Egypt. Native Americans used hoops as a target for teaching accuracy in hunting. But then in 1957 Richard Knerr and Arthur Melin of Wham-O started marketing a lightweight plastic version of the Hula Hoop. They sold over 100 million from January to October of 1958 at $1.98 each.
Knerr and Melin were not able to patent the Hula Hoop as it had been around for many years. All they did was make it out of a new material and then market it well. Which highlights a very important point. I see people stuck in the “patenting” process – wasting time and money on what may be an insignificant part of their success.
Keep in mind, most people put too much emphasis on developing their product or idea, and not enough on Marketing. If you have a new invention:
2% of your challenge – Protecting your Idea (Patent, Trademark, Copyright)
8% of your challenge – Is it a valid idea or product?
90% of your challenge – What is your Marketing Plan?
Most people spend too much initial time, energy and money protecting their idea rather than selling or marketing it.
Knerr and Melin did trademark the name Hula Hoop® and that became the recognized and requested name around the world. What could you do with your idea – what could you do to tap into the viral power of the masses? Remember the Pet Rock; the Frisbee?
Here’s more on Inventions and Patents
Dan Miller www.48days.com http://www.48days.com/2008/09/29/happy-birthday-hula-hoop/