Author Archive | Donnie Ellis

…even if you’re the world’s worst procrastinator.

I’ve used this technique to create all sorts of things, from a free bonus I put together and gave away for an affiliate product, all the way up to $1,000 training programs.

Creating content and products is a huge obstacle for most marketers because it takes so much time and effort.

But what if you had a way to create products – such as expensive training programs – that you could finish in a week?

And better still, what if you got paid for them before they were even done?

The first key you need is a big, fat, public DEADLINE.

If your deadline is public, then you will move heaven and earth to get it done – or at least I hope you will.

If you don’t, you’re in for some major public ridicule and embarrassment, not to mention the fact that you are letting people down.

The second key here – and this goes hand in hand with the first – is you’re going to sell what you’re selling BEFORE it’s created.

You tell people what you’re creating, you tell them when it’s going to be done, and you sell it before you ever make it.

And in the case of a training program, you’re going to create your product LIVE and then continue to sell the recordings as a product after the event.

So, in a nutshell – decide what you’re selling. Tell the world what you’re selling and when it will take place, and take orders. Hold the live event, create the product and continue to sell it.

Here are the details:

This works best if you are already good at something. This way, you know the material and don’t need to do any research. If you need research, then you might need to add a day or two to this process or use this shortcut – bring in an expert.

If you’re using experts, then you can cover any topic. Or every topic. Because no matter what your topic is, there is someone out there that can do the actual teaching for you – you just split the profits with them.

For the rest of this article, we’ll assume you’re the one with the information.

Set a deadline, because with a deadline and a hundred or so people depending on you to get your work done, you will get the work done. It’s that simple. They’ve put their money on you, and they believe in you.

You will not let them down, which ensures the training course you’re making – which would normally be finished in a month or two – is completed in a week’s time.

Deadlines are magic this way, regardless of whether or not you naturally procrastinate. Without a deadline, your work expands to fill the time. This doesn’t necessarily mean a better product – it just means it takes longer to make.

You can be surprisingly nimble with this method, getting products out fast on hot topics and things people want right now.

Figure out what the big 5 to 7 things are that you want to cover. What are the big ideas? What are the giant take-aways?

Instead of writing a sales letter, write bullet points. Remember, you’re doing this FAST. Don’t write a giant sales letter, write the high points. Tell them what they’re going to discover and how it’s going to benefit them through bullet points. Use curiosity, too.

You’re going to do a webinar. Create a Powerpoint with an intro and all of the major points. Let people ask questions at the end, because some of your very best material will come from the questions, things you didn’t even think of.

Cut up your recording into parts and sell it as a course. You’ll have an intro, and each of the major points. You might also want to get it transcribed and then edit the transcription to give your customers a written copy, too.

Selling your course BEFORE you make it gives you a DEADLINE. You’re telling people when the live event will happen. You’re giving them a deadline, too, because they have to sign up before the deadline or they will miss the class. 

Once you hold the class, upload the webinar into the members area and give access to everyone who bought. Some people will make it to the live event, some won’t, but they all get access to the recordings.

If there is something you feel you can do better, go ahead and record it again. Make a new recording of that section and replace it in the member’s section.

That’s the beauty of this system – you get it done fast, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you feel like it, you can go back and improve on it. And if you omitted something, make a new recording for that, too.

And what if you create a flop? That’s not even possible with this system. If you promote a product you’re going to create and no one buys, then you know not to waste your time making it.

Using this simple system, you get paid before you ever create your products, and you can crank products out faster than ever before. Plus, you can sell the recordings for a long time to come.

Just imagine if you create a new product every two weeks. In a year’s time you’ll have 26 new products you can continue to sell, repurpose, use as bonuses, sell the rights to and so forth. 26 new launches, 26 new products and 26 new revenue generators.

The kid who got straight A’s in school is probably the most successful person from that class, right? Actually, no. While good grades and a high I.Q. can be helpful, they not only don’t guarantee success – they sometimes hamper success.

After all, life is not school. And the skills it takes to get great grades don’t always transfer over into running a successful online business. Heck, I know people who struggled in high school and never made it to college who are pulling down 6 and 7 figure incomes online. How do they do it? By possessing the following traits…

They have the drive to succeed. How you define success will determine exactly what this means to you. Success for you might be making as much money as possible, it might be furthering a cause of yours, or it might be one of a hundred other things. Whatever it is, you’ve got to have a need to reach this success that you can feel in your bones. It should be your total focus so that your mind is constantly at work finding ways to make it happen.

They’re good at networking. Even online, or perhaps especially online, it’s important that you build relationships with your fellow marketers and your customers. And even if you’re not a born schmoozer, don’t worry – networking is a skill like any other that can be learned. Work on building yourself a large network of people you can turn to for advice, assistance and so forth, and always focus on what you can do for them.

They stay focused. Imagine you’re driving your car and you decide to go 5 different directions – at once. How far will you get? Or imagine chasing 5 different rabbits all at the same time – how many will you catch? Business is no different. Decide what you’re going to do and then do it, rather than falling for the flavor-of-the-week business idea.

They’re persistent. You’re not going to build a super-profitable business overnight. And if you’re looking at others thinking they became successful in a flash, know that in reality their success probably took years. Remember, nothing worth having comes easy, and persistence does conquer all.

They stand on their own two feet. I’ve seen people purchase a course on how to do something online, such as build a website or get more traffic. Then they bombard the author with a hundred different questions rather than figure anything out for themselves. Are they ever successful? I doubt it. Being an online marketer, or any type of entrepreneur, carries with it a certain autonomy. So don’t expect others to hold your hand.

They work first, they work hard and they play later. Sometimes MUCH later. You know those stories of working 2 hours a day and then laying on the beach? That’s for AFTER you make it big and you can hire somebody to oversee things for you. Maybe. Or even when you do make it big in online marketing, you may find that you still work hard. But either way, in the beginning you’ll be working long hours to get your business up and running. And yes, work does come before play if you want to be successful. If you want to play first, you might as well ditch the idea of being an online marketer and stick with a job.

Learn to outsource. There is only so much you can accomplish by yourself, even when you are working long hours. So yes, you’ve got to outsource. The first thing to outsource is anything you’re not good at, whether that’s website building, product creation, or whatever. Because if you’re not good at something, it makes more sense to bring in an expert than to spend weeks trying to master it yourself. Then as you begin earning more and more, you can also outsource more and more.

To be an online marketer, you don’t need to be the next Einstein. Your grades in school don’t matter a hill of beans. What DOES matter is what you do here and now. Adopt the above 7 traits and you are already halfway to growing an online business that can take care of you for the rest of your life.

If you’re not repurposing your content, you’re losing traffic.

Repurposing is a technique to change either the format of your content or change its target audience.

For example, you might convert a blogpost into a video and publish it on YouTube. Or you might turn that blogpost into a series of emails, a podcast or even an infographic.

A blogpost on your website will only attract people who are interested in reading content. But when you repurpose it, you reach a new target audience on different channels.

Imagine converting your blogpost into a Slideshare presentation, and then getting 50,000 views. It’s entirely possible to do this. And further imagine that at the end of your Slideshare, you had an appropriate and highly relevant offer to join your list.

Even if a tiny fraction of people who viewed your presentation joined your list, it could still be 1,000 or more new subscribers for you.

You can convert your existing content into:

• Social Media Snippets
• Infographics
• Videos
• Slideshows
• Ebooks
• Pdfs
• Case Studies
• Lead Magnets
• Email Courses
• Images
• Podcasts

And more…

I’d recommend starting off with videos on YouTube, republishing on Medium, pulling out social media snippets, and creating a slideshow on SlideShare.

These are some of the best and proven ways to repurpose content that will send heaps of traffic your way.

I like to write. Heck, to be honest I LOVE to write. Yet sometimes I hate it as well – like when I HAVE to write another newsletter and I’m thinking I just don’t know what to say.

That’s why I like to find ideas that jog me into writing, and I share them with you here. Because I know if I sometimes have trouble writing, then those who aren’t that fond of putting words to paper must sometimes prefer to get a root canal than write another article or blog post. So take heart, here are 8 suggestions that should get your typing fingers flying and your blog readers happy they stopped by your site.

Be impulsive. If you write on a frequent basis, then there should be a part of your brain that’s always on the lookout for ideas, rants, complaints, laughs, etc. When inspiration strikes, WRITE. Yes, right then and there. If you can’t, then at least make lots of notes for later, and at the first available chance sit down and type it out. You can always polish it up later.

Some of my best writing has been where I feel possessed of spirit and the words simply fly into my head of their own accord. It’s almost like magic, but if I don’t immediately type them out then I lose both the spirit and the enthusiasm, and usually the post or article never does get written.

So be impulsive and write the moment the spirit strikes. You may not even know at first where it’s going, but that’s okay. Odds are you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Question everything. Question authority, rules, the way things are and the way things are done. Always be asking yourself “Why?” Why are things this way? Why do we do it this way? Is there a better way? And so forth. Even if you don’t have the answer, sometimes simply asking the questions can make for a terrific post.

Break rules. Above, we’re questioning rules, and this goes one step further. Is your blog about weight loss? We all know there’s a rule that you be kind to everyone, regardless. But sometimes people need tough love, and maybe your next post should be how grossly obese people need to sit down and write their obituaries because odds are really good that they’re not going to live all that long.

And before you send me an email telling me that I should not have said what I just did, I recently read a news story in which a doctor, a DOCTOR, told his patient to write his obituary and it was exactly what the guy needed to lose 376 pounds. So yes, sometimes it’s more than okay to break the rules.

Combine unlikely things. This is the peanut butter and chocolate trick, or the apple pie and cheese trick. Take two ideas, concepts, or whatever that normally do NOT go together, combine them and see what happens.

For example, if your website is all about how to raise money for non-profits, find out what the greediest people in the world do to acquire their fortunes, and then see how that knowledge might be appropriately used to raise funds.

Just write. I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but it’s so good I’ve got to say it again – just sit down and start writing, even if you don’t have a single solitary clue what you’re going to write about. Odds are the first few paragraphs will throw away nonsense, but soon something will emerge from your subconscious that’s been dying to get out. I’ve used this technique many times, and it seldom fails me.

Make an outline. If you’ve got your topic and you have an idea of what you’re going to say, then by all means make an outline. Once you’ve got it, just fill it in. And no, you don’t have to write it in order – pick a section of the outline, write that section, pick another section and so forth. Making the outline first is a dynamite way to then write quickly and nearly effortlessly. Plus you’ll get to see early if your idea is worth writing about or not.

Be crazy. Okay, so this crazy idea popped into your head, and you just KNOW that it’s silly, but what if? That is, what if it’s not so silly after all? We tend to dismiss our crazy ideas too quickly sometimes rather than see them through. And here’s something worth remembering – every great achievement started out as someone’s “crazy idea.” So go ahead, follow through and see what happens.

Chunk it. Write non-stop for a certain length of time, such as 20 minutes or 30 minutes, and then take a 5 minute break. Knowing that you cannot stop writing for that period of time makes you focus and get to work, and knowing you have a break coming up soon makes it all tolerable, even on days when you especially don’t feel like writing.

There you have it… 8 ways to beat writer’s/blogger’s block. Now get to writing, will ya! 🙂

…that you can’t achieve in a year.

What happens when you give yourself a goal to do something in the next year?

You procrastinate. “A year? Heck, I think I’ll take a vacation first. I can work on that tomorrow – next week – next month.”

You put it off. And put it off. And a year later… you are still exactly where you are right now, today.

But if you only give yourself 90 days, you’ve got to take action NOW. Not tomorrow. Not later today. But right now.

5 year plans? Work for almost no one. Things change during a year’s time – what about during 5 years? Everything can change.

People function in 90 day chunks. You can’t plan to lose 50 pounds in a year because you’re continually eating the wrong things. Why? Because you think you can always eat right later and exercise later.

But you can lose 25 pounds in 90 days. Now you’ve got a deadline that is close, and you’ve got to get busy now.

And once you’ve lost those 25 pounds in 90 days, you can lose 25 more in the 90 days after that.

Let’s talk about your online business. Can you ramp it up in a year? Probably not, because again, the deadline is too far out. You’ll do everything BUT work on your business.

But in 90 days? You can build a website, build a list, create your first three products, recruit a couple dozen affiliates and do a joint venture or two.

And that’s just the start.

Once you’ve laid the groundwork in the first 90 days, you can level up and leverage what you’re already done.

Maybe you make an average of $2,000 a month during your first 90 days.

But now you have products, affiliates, a growing list, a growing reputation, a name for yourself and people who trust you and want to do deals with you. Do you think you can earn a whole lot more in your second 90 day period?

You bet you can.

Decide what you want and then focus on just doing that thing. Don’t get distracted. Don’t buy stuff you don’t need or spend time on things that don’t take you to where you’re going.

Break your 90 day goal up into 30 day increments. Where do you need to be 30 days from now to achieve your goal? Where do you need to be 60 days from now?

You’re looking at one big goal with two checkpoints along the way to make sure you’re on track.

Focus on this goal for 90 days. Will you do that for yourself? For your family? For your future?

The takeaway:

Ask yourself – where do you want to be in 90 days?

What do you have to do to get there?

And are you willing to do it?

Decide what you want.

Write it down.

Make a plan to accomplish it in 90 days.

And then just do it – in 90 days.

I’ll wager that 9 out of 10 people who read this won’t get it.

Not really.

They’ll say, “Yeah, that’s probably right,” and then they’ll blow it off like they never read it.

But the fact is, I’m nearly certain that’s why some people crush it online and others never make more than a few hundred bucks here and there.

For example, imagine you’ve got some individual who maybe isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But he doesn’t know that. He thinks he’s unbelievably smart. He thinks his products are radically awesome. He thinks he’s king of the internet and master of his niche.

And even though his products are average and ordinary, and even though he’s not all that bright and certainly not clued in on what’s happening, he still does really, really well.

Then you’ve got this other person who is smart as can be.

She really cares about her customers and wants to help everybody and anybody she can.

She tries her very best to put out products that can revolutionize lives, but she wonders if she isn’t falling short.

Maybe she needs to work harder, or find more answers to give in her products, or just be an even better person.

And she’s failing miserably.

The first guy KNOWS for a FACT that his products ROCK (as he would say) and that he’s “THE MAN.”

And this comes across in everything he does.

His emails, his videos, his website – they all exude a crazy amount of confidence, and customers pick up on that and are drawn to it.

But on her site, and in her emails and videos, she hesitates.

She’s a little bit unsure.

She wants only the best for her customers, so she holds back, just in case her latest recommendation isn’t good enough.

And customers pick up on her lack of confidence and don’t buy.

Simple, right?

Now the question: Are you going to think about this and find a way to use this in your business?

Or… are you going to dismiss it?

“Because I really do think – or at least I believe – that I’m on to something here.”

“In fact, I KNOW I am.”

Take a look at those last two sentences and notice the contrast.

Which one makes you sit up and take notice?

Which one makes YOU confident that I know what I’m talking about?

See what I mean?

You don’t need to be a jerk about it, but confidence and belief in your products will go a heck of a long way towards making you sales and customers who become raving fans.

Try it.

Regardless of what you’re writing – a blog post, an article, a sales message, etc. – your copy should sound personal and relevant to the person reading it. You don’t want to sound like you’re writing a textbook to a class of students or a news article to the masses. Instead, your tone should be similar to a one on one conversation with a friend.

So how can you achieve this? With a little research and a healthy dose of imagination. This is one of those tricks that natural writers do without thinking about, and the rest of us can learn with just a little practice. What you’re going to do is create a “persona” of your ideal reader. For example, if you’re writing a sales letter, your persona is the customer. Hopefully you have a good idea of who your customers are, and if not you might want to engage in some research to find out.

Choose one customer: Someone who has purchased your products in the past and reads all your stuff. This person might be real or imaginary, it doesn’t really matter. Now write a bio for your customer, answering these questions: Male or female? Age? Where does s/he live? Occupation? Likes? Dislikes? Desires? Goals? You get the idea – you’re creating this person just as if they were real and sitting there in the room with you. Picture them in your mind, or choose a photo from the Internet.

Now for the fun part: Make friends with this customer. Imagine having a face to face chat about your latest product or the blogpost you’re about to write. What do you tell him or her? What questions do they have? Do they understand what you’re saying, or do they need clarification?

If you’re thinking you can’t do this, it simply means you’re out of practice. All children have imaginary conversations in their heads, and you did as well. This is your chance to let your subconscious mind go to work, filling in the words your persona would say to you in a conversation. You’ll be surprised by what you discover because you’re opening the door to knowledge you didn’t even know you had.

Now then, once you’ve got a good sense of who your persona is, go ahead and write that blog post or article or sales message directly to your persona, just as you would write a personal letter. Be sure to connect with them on an emotional as well as intellectual level. Your persona is the only one that matters when you are writing because it is just the two of you having an intimate conversation.

And if all of this sounds terribly silly, don’t worry. Just try it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much better your writing can become when you’re writing to that one specific persona.

BONUS: As you get to know your persona better and better, you might try asking him or her questions and quietly listening for the answers. Your persona can tell you why your marketing is falling short, how to market your product for more sales, and even what product to create.

Once you’re well acquainted with your first persona, consider getting a second one that is quite different from the first. For example, if your niche is Internet marketing and your persona is a 50 year old male looking to make extra money to sock away for retirement, your second persona might be a 22 year old looking to earn a full time living online as fast as possible, or perhaps a newly divorced 35 year old mother of 3 trying to make ends meet.

These personas will make your writing come alive, as well as accessing useful and sometimes brilliant information and insights that take you by complete surprise and significantly add to your bottom line.

“I want to start an online business but I don’t know how.”

“I want to start my own blog and list build but I don’t know how.”

“I want to create a product but I don’t know how.”

I want to [insert whatever it is you want to do] but I don’t know how.”

Well guess what… neither did every single person who did it for the first time.

But you’re got to take the leap anyway, and take it on faith that you will land on your feet.

Figuring things out on the fly is a learned skill.

And the more often you take the leap – any leap – without knowing exactly where you’re going to land, the better you get at it. Plus, each time makes you better equipped to leap again and again and again.

Learning to operate at a high level within unknown scenarios is more valuable than learning a specific set of skills for a specific situation.

Prepare yourself mentally for being unprepared. 

You can never anticipate the exact skills you will need until you need them. In fact, you don’t know what you don’t know until you find out you don’t know it.

You’re going to hit roadblocks. Expect them. And expect to crash through those roadblock to the other side, too.

Expect challenges. Expect setbacks.

They are coming for you, so be prepared mentally.

Go in fighting, not retreating. 

Keep your eye on the goal and nothing will stop you…

…but if you look only at the obstacles, you will never get far.

Think about this – your entire life you have been flying by the seat of your pants in one fashion or another.

Don’t stop now.

When they tell you to seize the day, they don’t mean tomorrow – they mean TODAY.

Take the leap, because you got this!

Regardless of what niche you are in, there is no doubt that building a list of prospects and customers who know you, like you and trust you is your most powerful business marketing strategy.

So what’s the second most powerful business marketing strategy? It’s up for debate, but I’d like to suggest the following:

Writing a book in your niche to give away to your prospective customers.

And no, I don’t mean a 20 page report, although that’s far better than nothing. Nor am I suggesting you write a “book” that’s nothing more than a cleverly disguised sales letter, although those can be useful as well.

Let’s stand in our prospect’s shoes for just a moment. Let’s say you live in Chicago and you’re looking to invest a substantial amount of money in marketing your brick and mortar business online. Obviously you don’t want to hand the work over to just anyone – you want someone who clearly knows exactly what they’re doing and can deliver the results you seek. Someone who will get customers streaming through the door and the cash register ringing non-stop. Bottom Line: Someone who won’t waste your time and money.

A fellow drops by out of the clear blue and offers to do your marketing. You’ve never heard of this guy and you’re cautious. You do some research, ask your fellow business people, and locate 3 more small business marketing types who all say they’re experts at marketing small businesses online. They even have references. Still, you’re cautious.

Then one day you’re at a friend’s place of business when you spot a book on his desk. The title immediately grabs your attention: Effective Online Marketing For Small Businesses In The Chicago Area.

It’s not a snappy title by any means, but you don’t care. You’re riveted. You want to know everything in the book and you especially want to know who the author is and can you hire him.

And all you’ve seen so far is a book title. So why are you so interested in hiring THIS guy? Why does he stand head and shoulders above all the other small business online marketers you’ve already spoken to?

First, he’s an author. And like it or not, author’s carry a mystique and an air of credibility virtually untouchable by any peers who haven’t authored a book.

Second, not only did he write a book on marketing your small business online – he wrote about marketing your small business online in the area in which you live.

It’s akin to having the name Abdul Anderson and finding a book titled: What Abdul Anderson Should Do Right Now to Solve His Problems. Tell me you wouldn’t pick that book up in a heartbeat if your name was Abdul Anderson!

Okay, you’ve got the point. When you write a book, you’ve got instant star attraction and a ton of perceived credibility. People are no longer asking, “Can I see 5 references?” They’re not asking, “What if you can’t do what you say you will do?” They’re not asking about your guarantee, how long you’ve been in business, and all those other questions.

Instead, they’re asking how much you charge and when can you start.

And this isn’t just for marketers working with offline businesses – this is for almost anyone offering a service or even a product.

Imagine someone comes to your website – has never heard of you before or been to your website before – and there on the home page sees the book that you’ve written. Do you think you’ve just scored some serious credibility with that new visitor? Absolutely.

Or what if you’re sending traffic to a squeeze page to capture their email address. Do you think offering them the e-version of a REAL book that is currently being sold on Amazon will increase your conversion rate? You bet!

Back to marketing to offline businesses – if you hand a prospect a copy of your book, do you think you’ve increased the odds you’ll close them on a $5,000 marketing package? Of course.

Your book should contain tons of dynamite information and no sales pitch. Yes, it’s fine to refer them to your website, but the main focus should be on educating your reader. The more you tell, the more of an instant expert you become in your reader’s mind.

Make the book comprehensive, covering a great deal about your particular niche. Don’t be afraid of telling too much – generally when a prospect realizes how complex your service is, if they can afford you then they will hire you rather than attempt it themselves.

Include your contact information, including phone number, address and of course your website. Realize that people hang onto books, and even if they don’t need your service right now, they might refer back to it in a year or even in 5 years, so don’t change your contact information unless you absolutely have to. The book you give to someone today could result in a $20,000 sale 5 years from now, but only IF they can easily find you.

Make it easy to read. Just like a sales letter, you don’t want page after page of fat paragraphs. Use plenty of headings, bullet points and space to break it up.

And by all means edit it. Get someone else to read it over and tell you if there are any errors or places where it’s difficult to follow. You want it to read as professionally as possible because it is a direct reflection of you and your business.

If you are giving away the e-version of your book on your squeeze page or website, by all means either give them a link or a screenshot that shows your book on Amazon. Anyone can SAY they are giving away a $19.95 ebook, but when they see that you really do charge that much on Amazon, your free gift suddenly becomes much more valuable in their eyes, increasing the likelihood that they will opt into your list AND read your book.

Do encourage your readers to review your book on Amazon. The more reviews you get and the better reviews you get, the more credibility you build up. After all, if you see a book on Amazon with 1 or 2 reviews, and another with 50 reviews, which seems to be the more popular? People tend to be followers, not leaders. That’s why they look for social affirmation that others are reading and liking your book. You might even offer a free gift for every unbiased review you receive. Just be sure not to offer a free gift for every POSITIVE review you receive, or you will lose much of the credibility you’ve worked to achieve.

Is writing a book hard? Yes and no. For some people it’s extremely difficult, not because they’re not intelligent, but because their intelligence lies elsewhere. We all have particular skills we’re good at and others that we really should leave to the “experts.” So if you don’t like to write, consider hiring a ghostwriter to write your book.

If you’re going to write it yourself, set a deadline by which you’ll have it finished, and then decide to write 2 to 5 pages a day, every day. If you’re writing a 200 page book at 2 pages per day, you’ll be finished in 100 days. At 5 pages per day, you’ll be done in just 40 days. See? It doesn’t take long if you stay consistent.

The secret to writing a book? Write your table of contents first. This will become your outline, and it’ll break the book up into manageable pieces. It seems like a daunting task to write 200 pages about your subject, but 10 pages about one particular facet of your niche is a breeze.

For your book cover design, I recommend hiring a professional. People really, truly do judge your book by its cover. Sure, you can create your own, and if you’re a graphic artist then maybe that’s the way to go. For the rest of us, we put too much time and effort into our book to make do with our own amateurish cover. So do some research and find a professional book cover designer with a portfolio you like, and spend the extra money to get it done correctly.

Once you get your book finished, I believe you’ll find it’s the second most important tool in your marketing arsenal, right behind your list of customers and prospects. Your book has the potential to generate more business for you than perhaps a dozen full time sales people, and through the power of the Internet it can be working for you 24/7, making you an instant expert and the go-to person in the eyes of your prospects.

Forewarned is forearmed, and by knowing in advance what can stop you from realizing your goals, you’ll be able to do what’s necessary to overcome these obstacles and move straight through to victory.

The first obstacle is engaging in limiting beliefs. Need I say more? Well, maybe…

If we get what we think about, and we think we don’t have what it takes to accomplish something, what happens? We don’t accomplish it. If we believe that we don’t deserve success, do we get it? Not likely. And if we’re always being negative, thinking negative, speaking negative, what happens? Nothing good.

We achieve what we believe. Period. Not what we hope for, desire, wish for, etc. There used to be a computer expression – garbage in, garbage out. And it’s the same way with your beliefs – bad thoughts in, bad results out.

Whatever it takes, whatever you’ve got to do, find a way to lose the limiting beliefs and replace them with positive, boundless limitless thoughts of success.

The second obstacle to success? It’s giving up too soon. There is a quote I like…

You’ve no doubt heard the story of the man who mined for gold and gave up just inches shy of hitting the mother lode. It’s the same way in anything – every time you give up, you lose. Wayne Gretsky said: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

You’ve got to keep shooting, keep moving towards your goal, because it is only through quitting that you can fail.

If you do not quit, you cannot fail because you are not done yet.

As Winston Churchill said, “Never, never, never, never give up.”

Follow this timeless wisdom in your business and you will overcome obstacles every day.