The Law of Attraction

I remember when I first came into Internet Marketing and lots of people talking about The Law of Attraction, The Secret and I really had no idea what it was all about.

However, I bowed to their wisdom and started looking into it to see what was so great about it and everything just seemed to make so much sense.  I bought a book called ‘The Secret’ and that is when I started looking at life in a much more positive light.

I have lost count now of the many ‘coincidences’ whereby really good things have happened to me.  This has happened both personally and within my business.  I have more patience now because I just ‘know things will happen’ and they will be as I want them to be.

Here’s 2 short clips that I really enjoy and hope you do too.

The Law of Attraction

Letting Your Results Dictate Your Mental State - Bob Proctor

Find Out How to Succeed at Being Yourself

I have to say right out the gate that this article is not based on any theory you may find in books, nor is it based on an academic’s teachings.  No siree, this article is written by someone who is renowned for her straight talking and honest approach to everything and everyone.  The author is also a graduate from that awesome University of Life having taken a few hard knocks along the rocky road.

How to succeed at being yourself is 100% down to you and what choices you decide to make in any given situation at any given time.

When we come into this world we come in naked, that is both physically and mentally and we are 100% being ourselves.  Yes the theorists amongst us would say there are many things we are genetically pre-disposed to.  For example, they would say that if one or both our parents had addictions then our chances of having that same addictive aspect to our personality is greater.  But forget all that because how you succeed at being yourself is down to one thing and one thing only – the choices you make.

When we are small children, choices are made for us by our parents and other family members.  As our personalities start to develop we quickly get a sense of what is right and what is wrong because everyone around us lets us know.  That is when external influences start to take effect and stop us being ourselves.  As we get that bit older and start kindergarten or school, peer pressure also starts to chip away at who we really are.  By the time we reach elementary stage, only about 30% of who we really are is on public display.  The remainder is blocked by filters and we can have a multitude of personas dependant on the situation.  We are only successful at being ourselves when we feel safe to do so.  Ask yourself when that time is for you.  Is it in the car in the morning driving to work when ‘you sing like no-one can hear you’, is it when you escape to that ‘space’ you have in the home?

We all choose how to respond when someone says something we don’t like, we choose to behave in a specific way in a variety of situations.  If your automatic response to a comment you did not like is to raise your voice and start shouting then just for that nano second ask yourself “what are my chances of dying here if I were to just smile and say nothing?”  If the answer to that is anything between 90-100% then by all means raise your voice……..

Now you may quickly respond to that by saying “if I were to just smile and walk away then that is not me being me”.  Well let me ask you something “how much fun is it being you?  Are you happy in that angry world?  What are you like when there is no-one around you, what sort of thoughts do you have, what dreams do you want to make happen, when was the last time you told yourself that you are an OK sort of person?  Was there ever a time when you allowed you to be just you and told yourself that it really does not matter what others may think about me.  When others judge us, their thoughts are mapped out by their own life experiences and there is little or nothing we can do to change them so why bother?

How would you like to be someone that people having nothing bad to say about?  The type of person that is warm, friendly and never sees anyone as a threat.

You can be that person, the one who all those years ago wanted to be a certain way before others told you it was not right.  Perhaps you love to make others laugh but somewhere along the way, you didn’t have the normal receptive audience and you lost confidence.  That was their issue and not yours, just go out now and find an audience that does appreciate your humour.  Maybe you wanted to be something in your career but many people told you it was impossible so you just gave up.  That says everything about them and nothing about you so ignore them.  If you have the belief, you can do it, I believe in you so just go and do it!  Make it happen, start making some small choices to change and you’re half way there.

You can be honest with people so long as you never deliberately hurt their feelings.   Before you speak, always ask yourself “how would I like to hear that something doesn’t look right on me, my essay is not quite up to scratch?” etc.

I would just like to finish up by asking you to ask yourself is “how successful am I at truly being MYSELF?”  If I started as a baby being 100% ME, what percentage is left today?  You can get back there; you just have to make different choices than perhaps you are at the moment.

Follow Your Dreams!

I remember quite a few years back being told by a senior manager that I had a unique ability to engage people and make them feel they could do anything.  This has always remained with me and although I don’t intentionally set out to ‘push people to achieve’ I naturally find myself doing it.

You see the way I learn is through doing or listening to other people relate their experiences, their failures and successes.  This does not mean I still don’t try things that haven’t worked for others, I do what I think is right and best for me.  I never allow anyone telling me I cannot do something to stand in the way of my success, to the contrary.

Success is a very personal thing but I think most people would agree that success is about being fulfilled in your life.   It’s that warm feeling you have, knowing you’re doing OK but more importantly that you are making a difference in other people’s lives.  Now this doesn’t mean heading off to third world countries to do voluntary work although that is highly commendable.  No, what I mean is just touching briefly into the lives of others.

There are lots of people I remember and think highly of and every one of those is because I can remember how I felt when I was around them.  Most are positive and the others – well, I just choose a different path than the one they are on.

The end result is the happiness I have and peace of mind now to know that I always do my best by others and if I can reach out a hand to help, that hand is there and I will stretch it as far as it needs to go.

How would you like to be able to look back on your life with a huge smile on your face knowing you made many of your dreams come true and you made a difference in others’ lives and helped them realise their own dreams?

Here’s a short video I shot with a few personal photos of people and things that are important in my life – everything else is the small stuff and I don’t sweat that!

Follow Your Dreams & Never Give Up

Anyone who knows me will totally get why I have written this blog post.  You see, I absolutely adore dogs and any positive stories relating to a dog immediately has me going into meltdown.  This video below did exactly that but it also resonated with me on another level.

The message I want to pass to you from this and I hope you get it like I did is “never, ever give up on following your dream.”  If you believe you are worth something, let no-one tell you differently and just keep trying to find that way in.  It may be that your true strengths lie, not within your immediate goal but more effectively in doing something different although possibly related.

I really hope you enjoy Ricki’s story just as much as I did:

When one door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often we look so long at the closed door that
we do not see the one which has opened for us.
Helen Keller

The REAL secret to Making Money Online and what most people do not do

Making money online is a skill and just like any other skill in life, it CAN be taught.  Many people online teach how to make money, or claim to teach this but what they are doing in effect is trying to sell lame products.

How do you actually make money online?

Similar to any offline business, there is a system to success, it is no good starting out in a web business ‘hoping’ and ‘wishing’ and sitting with fingers crossed; there is a process to learn and you need to learn what this process is.

Does this process take time to learn?   Yes it does and it took me 5-6 months to really learn what it was all about.  Does it work?  You bet it does but you really do need to know what you are doing if you want to build a sustainable business and you are in it for the long haul.

4 main elements to online success

Basically there are 4 main elements, all equally vital to online success and these are:   Having the correct attitude, the right mindset

• Knowing some simple web skills
• Having a product(s) (be it yours or someone elses)
• Having the skills to market your product

You have the correct mindset already if you are reading this article, because it means you are interested in, or are considering moving towards an online business.

If you are serious about wanting to make money online and you have a fear of the web, you need to get over this.  I am sure 99% of people have this fear when they first start off and I was no different.

Products – this is where I see a lot of people make mistakes.  A large majority of new marketers will spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars buying a vast range of products from experienced marketers with great promises of ‘riches’ by simply selling them on.  What happens in many cases are these products, be they DVDs, CD ROMs or elearning materials end up gathering dust under the bed, in the garage or sitting on a computer hard drive and never opened up.  Why is this?  It is because most people do not know WHAT to actually do with the products.

Do you know how the majority of people make their money online?  They sell directly to their own list.  This means they sell directly to people who are already on their database.  How do they get people on this database?  Well they work very hard to capture our details when we first visit their website, we enter our name and email and we are entered straight into the marketers’ list or database.

How do they make money from their list?

The marketers spend a lot of time and energy into building their list by sending out regular emails talking about themselves and offering value to the people on their list by way of free products etc.  They start to build up respect and trust with the people on their lists and then every time they have a product, they send out an email to this list.  Because they have spent time cultivating and building a relationship with their list, it normally always results in a sale.   You will hear the saying time and time again in internet marketing “the money is in the list” and this is absolutely true.

I see many newcomers to the industry make the same mistake in believing that simply having a product online will result in sales.  This may have been true some 8 or 9 years ago but no more.

Common mistakes made

As outlined above, many people misled into the industry believing they will make their fortune overnight become rapidly disillusioned.  Their initial all important enthusiasm (correct mindset and attitude) gets slowly chipped away.  Goodbye excitement quickly changes to hello resentment and they will start to say things like “the web is a con; you can’t make any money on it….”  Well, yes you can but you need to know WHAT and HOW you should be working your business.

The successful online marketers today work smarter, not necessarily harder but smarter.  By that I mean they focus on building their lists.  This business is a marathon and not a sprint.  You may be excited to get you site online and let everyone know about your product and this is great; this enthusiasm is encouraged and supported.

However, if you could just slightly change your thinking to concentrate, at least for a while on simply building a list, this will probably be the one defining element that will separate you from the majority of people who do NOT make money online.

In summary, the three most important elements to your business are:

• Building your list
• List building
• Building your list

There is a HUGE difference between having a website and having a business.  Whilst you do need a website, there are thousands if not millions of websites out there not making money.  Therefore having a website is not having a web business.

Having a product is also NOT a business, again there are hundreds of thousands of websites that have a product but make no money.

So, to finish off, what is the key to having a successful online web business?  The answer………Customers - or in other words ‘YOUR LIST’.

Want to work with me and start off the RIGHT way?  Just enter your details on the right hand side of the page here and get lots of FREE information that will start you off, and more importantly make sure you STAY on the path to MAKING MONEY ONLINE.

Why so many people give up on their online business opportunity

A question I am asked time and time again is “can a complete newcomer make money online”.  My response to that is, and always will be “absolutely YES, if the correct mindset is in place”.  The correct mindset CAN make money online.

Now if you’re reading this article here and already you have those doubts in your head, those nagging fears and you’re questioning yourself in this business, do you know what? – That is absolutely fine, it really is and I almost embrace that.  I was like that when I started out in the online industry.  I was excited about my new business, of course I had fears and I questioned myself many, many times as to whether I could do this.

There has never been a better time than right now to start an online business.  Please do not start thinking that you’re too late, that you should have done this years ago, that you’ve missed the boat because nothing could be further from the truth.

Just think about Google for a second, Google is almost 12 years old.  Imagine 12 years into the car industry or the computer industry or the airline industry.  Do you think people are saying “oh well, it’s almost 12 years old now, we’ve missed the boat”.  Absolutely they are not, people are always looking for the next best thing, how to improve on what is already out there and the world of the internet is no different.

Here we are into the second decade of the 21^st century and this is the perfect time to start, to really consider an online business.  The web is still in its infancy, yet it’s not a fad, it’s not a phase, it’s not going to disappear.

The fundamental fact about the internet, if you decide to really take this seriously, is that you can reach an unlimited audience and the entry costs are pretty much next to nothing.  Compare this to any other business and there simply is no comparison.  This opportunity that is in right in front of both you and I has never been seen before in our lifetime but I suspect there’s a part of you that actually does know that, and it will never be seen again.

Now if you’re familiar with Robert Kiyosaki and his books on success, he always says that the way to success is to stand in front of a trend.  We are all in front of the biggest trend we will ever see.  My question to you therefore is, what are you going to do about it?  Are you going to sit there and let it pass and in a few years from now turn round and say “oh, I should have got involved” or are you going to dive in despite having some fears, which I’m sure you do have, and actually get involved?

Can a Beginner Really Make Money Online?

YES, YES, YES!  Like any business though, there will be a certain number of new skills you will have to learn first.  For some reason, the web has got a kind of reputation of being really quick and you don’t have to do any work.  That is not strictly true, it’s not particularly quick, and it’s not particularly easy.  Great incomes can be made however, but only AFTER a new Skillset is learnt.

The problem or difficulty facing most people starting out online is that all these new skills are more of less thrown at you at once and we end up with ‘information overload’.  It’s at this point that many people give up, they tell themselves it’s not for them, it’s too difficult, they don’t have the skills to make money online.

What I’d like to do now is to take these new skills and break them down.  The new skills you will need to get comfortable with are:

• Correct mindset
• Simple web skills – get over that web fear
• How to create a webpage
• How to upload
• Autoresponders
• How to generate traffic

The very definition of a skill is that it can be learnt, that is what a skill is.  Just think of a baby trying to walk, takes its first steps then falls down.  Mother then says out loud “oh well, that’s it, this one’s never going to be a walker”.  No, the baby is developing a skill that needs to be perfected and the only way this is going to happen is to take a few bumps along the way, get frustrated but the baby never gives up.  You are a baby in the world of internet marketing, you will take many bumps along the way, you will probably want to tear your hair out in frustration but what you must NEVER do is GIVE UP.

Serious about starting your own Home Business or still Window Shopping?

I have come across many people asking me questions about the Home Business Opportunity I am currently in.  The first question I always get asked is “what is it you actually sell” and this quickly turns to a look that is desperate to ask “well how much money do you make at it”?

So in my head I divide the people asking me questions into 2 groups and don’t get me wrong there is nothing negative about either group but it’s just that one section is more ready to act on their instincts.

I will call the groups ‘prospects’ and ‘searchers’.  The prospects adopt a more realistic and holistic approach whilst the searchers are on a journey seeking out as many different opportunities as they can in the hope that the next email they receive is the one that will make them a millionaire overnight!

So how do you tell the difference I hear you ask?  It is quite simple really and the categorising of each group is based on a) types of questions asked and b) how many other businesses they try and compare.

Let’s go ahead here and I’ll come up with some of the personality traits that I have come across:

1. Prospects understand the principles of costs being associated with a business opportunity and totally get that aside from the initial costs, there will be some small additional and eventually some marketing costs.  Searchers will complain about the time it is taking their business to bring them in a substantial income or how much they have to pay to get it up and running where it is making a living for them.  They will also raise comment about having to put in a lot of work in the early days and immediately expect to just work 3-4 hours each day, from the get go and the money comes rolling in.
2. Prospects are willing to learn and are like sponges in the early days, thirstily soaking up all the knowledge they can get.  Searchers will normally have their own way and consider it a better way of doing things.
3. Prospects understand the fundamental concept of internet marketing and will use the internet to grow their business whilst on the other hand Searchers will talk about all the people they know who are going to join them and help them grow their business.
4. Prospects will rapidly implement the training given whilst Searchers are always looking for ways to innovate rather than duplicate.  This can be a good thing though sometimes as well.  The world of internet marketing is continually evolving and we have to remain ahead of the game.
5. Prospects tend to follow their gut instincts and will quickly see the opportunity is right for them and will join.  Searchers will seek out the opinion of others first, valuing their opinions above their own.
6. Prospects will want to know exactly what they have to do to make money and build their team.  Searchers will be more interested in what the top earners are making and how quickly they can do the same.

The qualities I’ve found to be prevalent in both groups are:

Prospects – commitment, vision, ambition, strong work ethic, trainable, learn from mistakes

Searchers – dreamlike, unrealistic expectation and vision, work ethic if it reaps financial gain, mistakes are seen as confirmation that it doesn’t work.

If you fall into the Prospect category, you are the kind of person I want to work with in this first class opportunity.    You know where you want to go and I will do my hardest to ensure you get there.

If you are a Searcher and have been doing this for some time now, I really hope you find what you are looking for although something tells me you may spend a long, long time searching but I wish you all the best in your venture.

3900 Saturdays & 1000 Marbles

I read something today that really stopped me in my tracks and created some strange feelings followed by even stranger thoughts inside my head.  It was the story of the ‘1000 marbles’ and ‘3900 Saturdays’.

The story was about a man who, whilst working happily in his garage one Saturday morning had his ham radio on in the background, stopped in his tracks to listen to a conversation between two enthusiasts.  It sounded like an older man who was talking and initially it was the sound of his voice that brought him to attention; it was crystal clear with golden overtones.  He was telling the other person something about ‘a thousand marbles’.  The conversation went something like this:

“Well Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job.  I’m sure they pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It’s too bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital,” he continued; “Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.” And that’s when he began to explain his theory of a “thousand marbles.”

He went on to say “You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic.  The average person lives about seventy-five years, some live more and some live less but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

Now, I multiplied 75 x 52 and came up with 3,900 and this is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.  It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about this in any detail, he went on, and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.  This led to me thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.

I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had.  I took them home, put them inside a large clear plastic container in my garage here next to my working gear.

Every Saturday since then, I have taken out one marble and thrown it away.  I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focussed more on the really important things in life.  There’s nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

He then went on to say “this morning I took my very last marble out of the container and figured that if I make it until next Saturday, I have been truly blessed.  The one thing we can all use is a little more time.

The older man finished the conversation with “It was nice speaking with you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family and I hope to meet you again here on the band,  this is a 75 year old man now signing off to go and do the things that matter most to me, while I still can”.

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when the older man signed off and he certainly gave us all a lot to think about.

So how do you spend your Saturdays?  Are you still working, do you tinker away in your garage, sit hunched up over your computer or do you do the things that really matter?  Cherish each and every day you have with your loved ones, it is time with them that counts, everything else is of lesser importance.

If you really wanted to make every day a Saturday and stop trading your time for money, why not consider working from home in your own home based business?  There has never been a better time to make money online and all it takes is that one step.  If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting!

Courage is not being without fear, courage is going forward despite having fear!  Have a great day and make it one you will remember FOREVER.

Correct Mindset – 4 factors you need to consider for success in the online world

Everybody says they have the correct mindset but more often than not people don’t.  So what exactly is the correct mindset and how does it work?

TIME

What exactly does it mean to have the correct mindset to make money online?  Most people I speak with do not realise that to establish a credible and sustainable business is going to take time.  If your entire focus is on making money, then I ask you to challenge your mindset.  So TIME is the first thing you will need.

When I discuss making money online with this group of people I always advise them to either stay where they are in their regular job or go and get another job because they are not going to build a sustainable business online.  Now you can make really good money eventually but it did take me 5 months before I saw any signs of income coming in.

Do I think everyone takes that long to generate an income?  Absolutely not – providing they have the correct tools and do not have mentors that tell them WHAT to do but not HOW to do it.  With the most appropriate form of training you can easily be in profit sooner than that but a realistic timeframe would be 2-3 months.

EFFORT

The second important factor in building an online business is EFFORT.  It is going to take some effort on your part to learn all these new skills and implement them as soon as you learn them.  I would advise that as soon as you do learn a new skill, put it into practice immediately otherwise you will forget it.  I align this to that famous quote ‘tell a man how to fish and he’ll remember it for an hour, show him and he’ll remember it for a day but let him do it himself and he’ll remember it forever’.  The same principles apply when learning new skills in online marketing – learn it then do it!

DISCIPLINE

The third factor you need to apply is DISCIPLINE.  Yes you are working from home, yes you have no-one breathing down your neck and giving tight deadlines, but you are working and that should be your focus.  Do not keep checking your emails, do not download another eBook, do not go into forums to see what is going on.  Unsubscribe from all those lists that clutter up your inbox.

EXPENSE

To create an online business it will need an amount of expense from you.   It is a business and like any offline business there is the initial set up costs.  Proportionally however, in comparison to an offline business the costs are almost negligible.  The three essential expenses you need to invest in setting up an online business are:

·         Domain name – approx $10 (one-off payment)

·         Hosting account – approx $7 per month

·         Auto responder – approx $19 per month

You will see that you can start a web business for less than $40 and be in substantial profit in just a few short months.

In summary then, the correct mindset in order to succeed in an online business is TIME, EFFORT, DISCIPLINE and minor EXPENSE.  To be successful you need to have all 4 and work each day employing the 3 main factors.  If you just take the time to REALLY learn and master all the tools, you will continue to reap the rewards every day you work at your online business.

Lessons from geese – a leader is nothing without their team

The acronym TEAM represents Together Everyone Achieves More and there is no truer representation of teamwork and teambuilding at its best than through the geese that share out planet.  When I first read this, it just made so much sense to me and having always operated in a teamworking environment, I know that although I was in a leadership position, I was nothing without the backing and support of a strong team. 

I have carried this through to my current business in internet marketing, and although it is my own business, there is always a strong team with a positive mindset behind each individual that makes the opportunity and business sustainable and profitable for everyone.

Learn from the geese

As each goose flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the others behind it. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.
Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of another.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the “lifting power” of the bird immediately in front.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as the goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed where we want to go (and be willing to accept their help as well as give ours to others.)

When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position.
Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership–with people, as with geese, we are interdependent on each other.

The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging, and not something else.

When a goose gets sick or wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it is able to fly again or dies. Then they launch out on their own, with another formation, or catch up with the flock.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we too will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

By Milton Olson