Welcome overwhelm and frustration – it means you’re learning and growing…

Do you ever feel like you’re just not "getting it", no matter how hard you’re trying?

If you do, please read this entire message – it’s a very personal story I think you’ll relate to, and hopefully be encouraged by…

I really do understand that sometimes when there’s so much to learn, it can feel like you’re never going to "get it".  Here’s just one time in my life that I felt the same way…

I went to a university on a business scholarship. To round out my classes in first year, I had to choose an "elective" course – one that wasn’t part of my core curriculum.

I had no experience with computers at all, but thought it would help my business degree to be familiar with them, so I elected to enroll in an introductory computer science course.

After months of classes and many, many sleepless nights in the computer lab, I nearly dropped out of the course.

While I could barely figure out how to turn the darn computer on, everyone around me was pumping out software with apparent ease.

It seemed like no matter how I tried, and how much I wanted to, I just wasn’t "getting it."

I sat in classes and the professors sounded like they were speaking in a foreign language.

I spent nights and nights in the lab, trying everything I could, getting help from everyone and anyone who had the patience to answer the same basic questions – over and over.

Finally, after months of dedicated but fruitless effort, I asked my professor to let me out of the course before the deadline so I could avoid a failing mark on this – my elective course – and lose my entire scholarship, which I could not financially afford to do.

She smiled knowingly and made me a deal.  "Stick with it for another month. Keep doing what you’re doing, and ask me for as much help as you want. If after that month you still want to drop the course, I will let you do it without assigning the failing grade."

"What’s the point?" I asked.  "I’ve been at this for months, and I’m not getting it at all.  Even if I did, I’d be a half year behind the calls and probably fail anyway."

"I’ll help you," she said.  "Why don’t you try it? You’ve got nothing to lose, really."

So I agreed, even though in the back of my mind I thought I’d be having this same conversation with her after a month.

But I was very interested in learning how this darn computer stuff worked.  So I applied myself in earnest.  After all, I had nothing to lose. The pressure was off.

After a week, nothing changed.

But I kept at it.

After two weeks, I was more frustrated than ever, and all my classmates by now figured I was a lost cause.

But I kept at it.

I tried everything.

I mean EVERYTHING.

I focused to the exclusion of everything else.

Nothing worked.

Until mid way through the third week…

In one sudden, unexpected moment … EVERYTHING changed.

For the first time after months and months of "failure" (which I now know was actually "learning"), my first program worked.  IT WORKED!

In the middle of the night, surrounded in the computer lab by a few of my fellow students I let out a victory scream that I’m sure carried across the campus and woke up the kids in residence bunk beds.

It was sheer joy.  An unbelievable sense of accomplishment.  I thought I heard harps playing as the clouds parted!

Mind you, it was the most basic of programs.  The other kids were writing more sophisticated programs since high school.

But it was MY program.  And now I had a taste of what *I* could do, and a budding sense of "I CAN do this"….

Well, thanks to that lovely professor who wouldn’t let me give up on myself, I wound up shifting my classes to major in computer science and minor in business admin and graduated second in my class, missing the "Gold" by fractions of a percentage point.

That degree, plus the business courses, has meant millions of dollars to me, and has been some of the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done.

Because of it, I’ve travelled extensively all around the world, doing business in Asia, Europe, North and South America.

To think I was about to give up on it altogether because I thought I couldn’t "get it" at first…

Why am I telling you this?

In case you’re feeling like you are overwhelmend, and aren’t "getting it," or don’t see how you’re going to achieve your information business goals.

I am paying forward the same encouragement my angel professor offered me.

I realized that the reason I was "frustrated" was because I had such a huge desire to learn but I set expectations that far exceeded my current ability to achieve them. 

Worse, I was comparing myself to my classmates and activated some pretty harsh self-talk when I couldn’t "keep up" – ignoring completely the years of prior learning and experience they already had!

As soon as I took the pressure off, stopped comparing myself to others, and just took on the challenge of "me against the machine" for my own personal joy and satisfaction, I created the space for the breakthrough that I’d been unkowingly resisting for all those months before.

Is any of this sounding familiar?

If it is, I encourage you to "shift into glide" during your learning process and let it come … naturally, effortlessly, joyfully – in it’s right and perfect time (for you!)

Focus on your dreams. 

Commit to your learning.

Stop comparing yourself to others and honor your own unique and special path.

And when you let out your victory scream — let me hear all the way over here!

Share your comments below and let me know how this resonates with you — and inspire me and others with your story.

The Most Important Tip for New Business Startups

One of the newsletters I subscribe to and always make a point of reading is Michael Masterson’s "Ready, Fire, Aim" dispatch.   It’s smart, engaging and no-nonsense insight into how Michael thinks and looks at business, and is a fast, easy read.

For example, today he mentioned the basics of starting a business that new entrepreneurs should be focused on:

• Know the top-selling products in your industry.
• Know what marketing methods the most successful companies use.
• Understand what your optimal selling strategy is.
• Know what the best offers are for the market you have targeted.
• Understand what a house file is and how to build it.
• Know why you shouldn’t use brand marketing when starting out.
• Have a very good idea of which marketing channel will work best.
• Be prepared to spend 80 percent of your time, money, and efforts to make your first profitable sales.

This really resonates with me.  Lately, I’ve been emphasizing to many of my clients how important it is to focus on understanding the market, knowing your customers’ deepest needs and desires, and using your competition as an ultimate resource to (a) prove there is a market, (b) identify the features and benefits customers value; and (c) how you might position your own products and services in the market to fulfill an unmet need.

It’s a tough sell.

Usually clients want to go straight to tactical questions.  "Yeah, but how do I get my website up" or "How do I create an ebook" and so on. 

I get that.   Having a site online, or an optin page ready to collect email addresses gives the feeling of progress.  We can DO something, and after a while, we can SEE something.

Strategy and research don’t give us that same visceral feeling of success.  It’s mundane, laborious, work with no tangible results.

The challenge is that without the clarity that market research provides, your beautiful website and product graphics and world-leading content may not be relevant in the market to which you promote.  Think of it like trying to sell a hamburger to vegetarians.  Great product, wrong market.

So I urge you now: slow down on the implementation just long enough so you get real clear that all your time, money and effort will produce a product or service that has the greatest chance of success.  Take a month to understand your market fully, and save yourself from losing money over years of frustration.

And please take special note of the final bullet: "Be prepared to spend 80 percent of your time, money, and efforts to make your first profitable sales".

My heart breaks to watch so many well-intended entrepreneurs invest in professional development, continuing education, a myriad of $97 products that end up on the shelf, or trying each new marketing tactic that some guru or another made a million dollars on last month. 

In no time, they are tens, even hundreds, of thousands of dollars in debt trying to get the business off the ground – with no income to offset these expenses.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a BIG fan of continuing education and development.  But at the start of a new business – especially if you’re a novice entrepreneur – cash is king.  All those advanced strategies and indirect marketing techniques can come later, when you have the business assets (cash, large list, industry relationships, experience, etc) that will make them work.

If you’re just starting out, or if you’ve been at it for a while and not seeing income, consider the following:

- Don’t spend anymore money on anything that doesn’t directly produce sales – unless it comes from the PROFITS you generate from those sales.

- Budget your expenses and know where you apply your funds, what results you expect, and by when.  Don’t talk yourself into going over budget because what you’re buying has a fuzzy, indirect or unmeasurable impact on generating more sales.

- Become familiar with the lowest cost, or free, marketing strategies and use them first.

- Focus most of your early time, energy and money on creating products and services, and promoting those products and services.  Everything else is secondary until you are sustainably, predictably, profitable.

- Focus on direct-response marketing.

- Adopt the paradigm that "everything is a test".  Don’t get down about things that don’t work out as planned.  It’s not about you – it’s just more market data that you can use.  Review the results, then quickly correct and continue on course until you get the results you expect.

You know enough, and you are enough to get started now.  Act quickly, but wisely.

To your fulfilling success,
Lou

Technorati Tags: business, marketing, entrepreneur, advice, tips, internet, coaches, coaching, small business

Are you making this big teleseminar mistake?

I have a mantra – my ABR mantra – that I share with all my clients when they do teleseminars.

Before I reveal the mantra to you, the big mistake people make and how to avoid it, let me first ask you this…

If you knew that by adding one simple step to your teleseminar checklist, you could:

• mutiply the benefits of any teleseminar you did;
   
• drive massive marketing visibility for you and your business at virtually no extra time or cost to you; and 
   
• create a stable of high-quality products that could strengthen your brand and provide additional streams of income to your business

wouldn’t you do it?

The ABR mantra, which stands for "Always Be Recording" is the secret to doing just that.

Seems like a simple thing, and it is.   But why is this so important?

Because once you have a teleseminar recorded, it creates the possibility for repurposing that teleseminar into many other forms, media and channels of distribution.

"Repurposing", in it’s simplest sense, simply means converting into a new format or media, so as to be used for a new purpose.

When you record your teleseminar, you set in motion a domino effect of repurposing benefits.

For example, MP3 recordings can be quickly repurposed into CDs, transcripts, slide shows, screencasts, streaming audio, and more.

Then these newly created formats can be further repurposed into physical products, courses, programs, workshops, speeches, articles, blog posts, social media content, and much more.

In turn, these repurposed products can be turned into social marketing content, articles, blog posts, slide shows, screencasts, videos for youtube and other portals, member area content, home study courses, optin page incentives, and so much more.

From a single teleseminar comes all this opportunity to create content for your marketing and promotions, for your listbuilding, and for your products and services. And it all starts with the highest quality audio recording of a teleseminar.

So please: "Always Be Recording" your teleseminars.

And, just as importantly, avoid the big mistake people make when recording their telesemianrs: not doing a second, backup recording. 

(You see ABR also means "Always Backup Recordings".Pretty deep, eh?)

There’s no worse feeling than to hold a great teleseminar, with an important guest perhaps, and suddenly realize that the audio recording failed, or stopped because it ran out of time, or didn’t get started for some reason.

And there’s no great sense of relief and joy than to know that you have nothing to worry about, because the backup recording captured every single minute of the call.

With your recording in place, you can not only set your repurposing machine into action, but you can also avoid the embarrassment of having to call your very important guest and ask to re-do the call. (Did you just feel that shiver down your spine?)

So from now on, promise me won’t you? Always record every teleseminar you do, and always backup your recording.

It won’t even break your bank.  I use WebAudioAcrobat.com to backup all my recordings. For less than $20 a month, I am able to record an unlimited number of calls.

For the orginal recording, I use the built-in recording feature of either my current favorite free conferencing service FreeConferencePro.com, or my ab-so-lu-tely indispensable Instant Teleseminar service.  

Please take a deep breath now. Sit in a relaxed posture with your hands on your lap, palms open and facing upwards. Close your eyes and repeat after me:

ABR, ABR, ABR, ABR, ohmmmmmm…