Apr

30

Maximize Your Self Concept for Business Success

Filed Under Personal Development, Change & Growth, Identity | 2 Comments


Your business success depends upon how you see yourself every day.

This notion sounds very simple and even smacks of traditional self-help approaches to life improvement, goal setting, and so on. Yet much of the personal transformation literature available focuses almost exclusively on changing specific parts of who you are.

If you are an entrepreneur, for example, a lot of what you read about in the success genre tells you how to make it, how to achieve your dreams, etc. Even if you experience some luck with these methods, you’re likely to find yourself right back where you began before too long.

Your self concept is essentially that collection of ideas you hold about yourself and carry around with you every minute of every day. Although you might spend more time thinking positively or visualizing success, the core concept will remain the same until you go to work on it.

I just finished my audio copy of Maxwell Maltz’s revised classic work, The New Psycho-Cybernetics.

Maltz’s approach to self improvement psychology is specifically targeted to redesign (to reprogram) your self concept. I can think of no other self help book that points directly to the core issue in such compelling and clear ways.

I have listened to this book at least three times now, and each time I find myself experiencing new revelations and making new connections.

As for its application to the business world, this new edition is edited by Dan Kennedy, the world renowned copywriter and marketing expert. Kennedy swears by the Psycho-Cybernetics methods and attributes a large part of his business success to his own application of mental re-programming.

Behind every successful business, from the largest corporations to the smallest solo entrepreneur projects, you will ultimately find people who have maximized self concept.

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Apr

26

Manage Internet Business Projects

Filed Under Goal Setting, Time Management, Change & Growth | 1 Comment


Internet Entrepreneurs are notorious for chasing down new ideas compulsively.

New ideas can energize your work and propel your business forward, no doubt. But unfinished projects can create an unmanageable number of loose ends and lots of frustrated mental energy.

My approach to managing projects is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and is based on David Allen’s GTD system.

Here are the steps:

1. Create lists for general “project areas” in your business.

Open up your word processor and create new document files for every area. As GTD advises, it’s immensely important to manage different areas of your system on separate sheets and in separate files.

Think of these “project areas” in terms of MAJOR sectors of your business. In internet business, areas might be associated with the web properties you’re developing, backend product development, etc.

2. Identify the key objective for each project area.
Step number two is crucial. Your key objective is the long-term goal you’re shooting for with that area of your business. Getting clear about your ultimate objective will help you focus on the following steps.

Write your key objective at the very top of your document. Put it in bold, italics, larger font – whatever you need to do to get your attention each and every time you open that file and start planning.

3. List your mini-objectives for each area.
Now it’s time to make lists in each document file. Here’s an example of how steps one and two relate:

One of my major project areas is building and maintaining this website. So, I have one word processor file titled “MindfulEntrepreneur.com Project.”

At the very top of the document, I have my key objective in capital letters.

Below that header, I have a list of my mini-objectives. One objective, for example, is “Create an attractive two-column theme.” This is something I am working on at the moment and, eventually, will fall off the list.

On with step four…

4. Describe the specific next task associated with each mini-objective.
I’ll continue with the example from above to explain this step as well.

Under each mini-objective in the “MindfulEntrepreneur.com” file I write the exact next step I will need to take to move closer to completion.

For the mini-objective I mentioned in Step 3, I listed “Pick a Wordpress Template online.”

This next step helps break down the mini-objective into a quantifiable action and, as David Allen explains, makes it far more likely that I will focus my attention on the easy steps in-between instead of the overwhelming bigger picture.


5. Update and review the list every business day.

Once you have these lists going, you will need to work with them every day. Let your business be guided by organization and planning – not the other way around.

Try this system out and let me know how it works for you!

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Apr

25

Find the Top Keywords for Your Next Information Product or Website

Filed Under Copywriting, Affiliate Marketing, Information Products, Blogging, Information Marketing | Leave a Comment


Here’s a classic keyword tool for your information marketing success:

Overture Keyword Selector

Many of you may already know about and use this keyword generator, but I’m often surprised by how many still don’t.

If you’re not thinking in terms of “top keywords” for your projects, you may be missing the boat in a big way.

Try out Overture and start enhancing your blogging, web development, and information products today!

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Apr

24

What is a Niche Expert?

Filed Under Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing, Information Marketing | Leave a Comment


The best definition I have heard for an EXPERT is “one who knows more than most people about a topic.”

By this loose definition, most everyone is an expert in at least one area if not many.

Think about it. What things do you know more about than most people? You should be able to generate a list of about 5-10 topics immediately. Even if 2 or 3 of these topics are just interest areas for you, there’s still potential to become an expert through more reading and experience.

What truly separates the recognized expert from the rest of us is not related to knowledge at all. I learned this very quickly when I started teaching other people what I know.

Let me back up one step and offer my own definition for “niche expert”:

A niche expert is a trusted authority on a topic.

The key word here is “trusted.” Of course, part of earning an audience’s trust is demonstrating knowledge and experience. But that part is actually very small.

You might have all the knowledge and experience on Topic Z, but that’s not going to guarantee that your audience will *trust* your authority.

The students in my business & writing classes are not persuaded by my knowledge of copywriting, business communication concepts, and so on. I cannot show it to them and thereby guarantee that I am the expert – at least not until I have earned their trust.

Achieving niche expert status depends entirely upon your relationship to your audience. Let’s recall that definition:

A niche expert is a trusted authority on a topic.

Once you gain the trust of an audience, you become the expert. We’ll look at the process for successful niche expert positioning in another post.

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Apr

23

How to Guarantee Your Success in Internet Business

Filed Under Goal Setting, Change & Growth, Identity, Life Balance | 4 Comments


I got into Harvard Law School two months ago, and I know that my success is guaranteed!

Well, that’s not exactly true, at least not the first part. But it does prove an important point about the mindset of success. Allow me to explain:

First, let’s look at why getting into Harvard equates with guaranteed success.

Until I made the decision to become completely committed to information marketing and internet entrepreneurship, I was going to become a lawyer. That seemed like a logical route for me: I’m good with words, ideas, and logic. I’m also a savvy writer and quick on my feet. (Not to mention that I’m a total “ham” on stage.)

But there was only one reason I was interested in going to law school: fear of failure.

Becoming an attorney is what Robert Frost would have called “a well worn path.” Entrepreneurship is definitely one “less traveled by.” And at a point in my life when I arrived at a fork in the road, I’ll be honest: the well worn path looked very enticing.

Needless to say, I turned away from that route almost as soon as I started down it. Then, I returned to the fork in the road, got a little coaching, and thought long & hard about the kind of life I wanted to live. The answer was easy. I knew where I would find happiness. But there was still that burning fear of failure.

You see, internet entrepreneurship just doesn’t have the same “guarantee of success” that the life of an attorney seems to have. Or at least that’s how it *seemed* at the time - until I had a dream…

One night after I had already made a final decision to fully invest my time and energy in entrepreneurship, I had a dream that changed my life forever. In that dream, you guessed it, I got into Harvard Law School.

In all of my research about law school, I consistently found Harvard at the top of nearly every list of best schools. We know what kind of cachet the very word “Harvard” has in our culture. But I wanted to know *why* it was so great. So I did a little investigating…

Here’s the thing: I discovered that everyone who gets into HLS becomes successful. Everyone. The drop-out rate at Harvard is basically zero. If I recall correctly, something like one person every decade drops out of the school. With those kinds of numbers, you know that just getting into the school GUARANTEES your success.

During my dream, I was TOTALLY ecstatic about my acceptance. I had never felt so happy in my life (or at least so it seemed in the dream). Even after I came to my senses and realized it was all just a dream, I still felt ecstatic.

Here’s why:

I suddenly realized that the dream revealed the key to success. This is nothing new, and I’m sure you’ve heard it all before. So had I. But this dream illustrated the point in a way that still resonates with me today:

The key to success is to guarantee your success.

Yes, it’s that simple. Just do it.

When I realized that the dream about Harvard was just a dream, I made a conscious decision to transfer that same feeling of definite success into my work as an internet entrepreneur.

Every day, I remind myself that my success is guaranteed. All I have to do is show up.

And the best part is, I don’t have to go to law school!

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