strategy – Alphadog Success

8 Important Tasks for One Person Marketing Teams

You could easily succeed if you had a dedicated team, a million-dollar marketing budget, and 48 hours in a day. But that’s not how real life works. Especially for a new entrepreneur or one-person marketing team. It’s easy to get into the “if only” mindset when you’re the only employee/marketer at your company. But if you want to grow your business, it’s important to get solution-oriented. Try to focus on getting the biggest ROI from every marketing activity you have the time and resources to execute. To help you out – I’ve compiled eight incredibly important marketing activities that a one-man or one-woman team can execute that will start moving key metrics. No more dilly dallying around with things that don’t move the needle. 1) Set strategic and measurable marketing goals. Before you start posting, sending emails or scheduling tweets, be sure you’ve properly set goals for your marketing. Think of your marketing like a road trip. You wouldn’t start driving until you’ve found your destination, and mapped out the most effective route to get there. In the same way, you should always make sure your activities and goals help you drive your business forward. You wouldn’t want a goal of converting more leads into customers if you aren’t converting visitors into leads already. You can’t pull people through the funnel until you’ve gotten them there in the first place. And of course, ensure the goals you set are measurable. For instance, if your goal is to increase visitor-to-lead conversion rate, think about whether you have the tools in place to measure whether you’re doing that. If you need help determining which goals are right for your business, check out my guide to setting SMART goals. 2) Establish exactly who your target audience is. With only so much time in the day to devote to marketing, you want to make sure that every piece of content you produce (ebook, landing page, blog post, or email) is on-target and effective. Wouldn’t it be frustrating to spend a ton of time creating content that falls on deaf ears? The best way to guard against wasting your time creating content is to create and use buyer personas/ideal client/customer avatar/etc. If you’re not familiar with buyer personas, they’re models for what your ideal customers are like. A persona includes information such as what sort of person they are (education, income level, or job, for example) as well as what’s important to them (saving time or money, for example). If you haven’t developed them yet, or you think you could put a little more elbow grease into ones you already have, here’s a free checklist to help you nail down your market research and target audience. If you put together buyer personas now, and then create every piece of content with a persona in mind, your content will work harder for you — in fact, you may find persona-driven content results in your audience marketing your content for you! 3) Focus on the right social media platforms. Now that we have some important baselines established that will make your subsequent marketing efforts pack a more powerful punch, let’s figure out the right places to spend your time (so it’s not wasted in the wrong ones). And if there’s one area rife with opportunities for misspent time, it’s on social media. It’s tempting to try to be on all of the social media platforms because everyone else is doing it, and it feels like that’s what good marketers do. Fortunately for you, they are most definitely wrong. Instead of wasting your time engaging on social networks that won’t help you achieve your SMART goals, strategically choose one or two platforms to be on and knock them out of the park. To find out which social networks you should spend your time on, check out your analytics. In your sources report Identify which social networks are already sending you the most traffic, and then capitalize on them. If you have closed-loop analytics, I also recommend drilling down further to see which networks are sending you the most leads and customers. Have access to all of this information will help you make better decisions on which social networks you spend your marketing time. You may find that a top social network for you isn’t Facebook or Twitter, but rather a niche social network specific to your industry. Instead of wasting time on a big social network because it’s something you’re just “supposed” to do, switch your efforts to social networks that will pay off big time for your business. 4) Schedule out social media posts/updates. Now that you know where to spend your time on social media, let’s make your time spent on it both efficient, and effective. First, let’s talk about scheduling your content in advance. Instead of freaking out every day trying to find something amazing to post to social media, sit down once a week to think of all of the subsequent week’s social media content. While you may have a couple things come up that warrant posting – like breaking industry news, for example – bucketing your time like this will make you more efficient. (platform itself, buffer, later, hootsuite, etc.) Alright, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s make your time on social media more effective by thinking about the best times of day to publish your content. I encourage you to look for timing trends for your own social media presences. 5) Create evergreen content to reap short and long term benefits. Since content creation can get pretty time consuming, focus on creating evergreen content – content that stays relevant over a long period of time — to pack the biggest punch. This type of content pays for itself over and over again. Because it’s not time-sensitive, search engines will continue to drive traffic to evergreen posts, helping to drive leads long after you hit publish. If you’re having trouble finding an evergreen topic to write about on your company’s

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The Science of Analysis Paralysis: How To Overcome Over-Thinking

Let me start by saying that I’m a millennial. I can barely remember before the internet made all collective knowledge accessible for any question that crossed my mind. Unfortunately, despite having more access to high-quality information to help us make life’s decisions, it hasn’t made decision-making any easier. We can now research the pros and cons of each and every option available to us. A simple search can often open a time-sucking black hole of link clicking, article reading, video watching. That search may end hours later…with no new answers. Psychologist Barry Schwartz coined the phrase “Paradox of Choice”. He says, while increased choice allows us to achieve objectively better results, it also leads to greater anxiety, indecision, and dissatisfaction. Instead of making better choices, our unlimited access to information often leads to fear of making the wrong decision. This can lead to us spinning our wheels in analysis paralysis, all the while getting nowhere on our important projects. Naturally, I was curious about what goes on in our brains when we experience indecision; and what we can do about it. How overthinking decisions is holding you back Delaying action while over-analyzing information doesn’t help anyone get things done. In fact, a 2010 survey showed that employees spend more than half their workdays receiving and managing information. This takes away from time spent actually doing their jobs!(Does this sound like you?) Unfortunately, that’s just the start of the bad news. Studies in psychology and neuroscience reveal that analysis paralysis impact our productivity and well-being more than just the lost time. Here are four not-so-obvious ways that overthinking your decisions is holding you back: 1. Analysis paralysis lowers your performance on mentally-demanding tasks In short, our working memory is like computer RAM, allowing us to focus on the information we need to get things done. Unfortunately, our working memory is in limited supply. You can think of it like our brain’s computer memory. Once it’s used up, there’s not much we can do. Studies have shown that high-pressure, anxiety-producing situations lead to lower performance on cognitively demanding tasks – the tasks that rely most heavily on working memory. Furthermore, the more participants want to perform well on a task, the more their performance suffers. Researchers believe both anxiety and pressure generate distractions that take up space in our working memory. When you overanalyze a situation, the over-analysis, anxiety, and self-doubt decrease the amount of working memory you have available to complete challenging tasks. This causes your productivity to plummet even further. 2. Analysis paralysis kills your creativity A recent Stanford study suggests that over-thinking not only impedes our ability to perform cognitive tasks, but keeps us from reaching our creative potential as well. “Participants in the study were placed into a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine with a nonmagnetic tablet and asked to draw a series of pictures based on action words (for example, vote, exhaust, salute) with 30 seconds for each word. (They also drew a zigzag line to establish baseline brain function for the task of drawing.) The participants later ranked each word picture based on its difficulty to draw. The tablet transmitted the drawings to researchers at the school who scored them on a 5-point scale of creativity, and researchers at the School of Medicine analyzed the fMRI scans for brain activity patterns. The results were surprising: the prefrontal cortex, traditionally associated with thinking, was most active for the drawings the participants ranked as most difficult; the cerebellum [the part of the brain traditionally associated with movement] was most active for the drawings the participants scored highest on for creativity. Essentially, the less the participants thought about what they were drawing, the more creative their drawings were.” These findings suggest that overthinking a problem makes it harder to do your best creative work. 3. Overthinking eats up your willpower A fascinating (and rather alarming) study published by the National Academy of Science looked at the decisions of parole board judges over a 10-month period. They found that judges were significantly more likely to grant parole earlier in the morning and immediately after a food break. Cases that came before judges at the end of long sessions were much more likely to be denied. This phenomenon held true over 1,100 cases regardless of the severity of the crime. As a lawyer – this was important! The judges were experiencing what psychologists call decision fatigue. Each decision that we make, from whether or not to hit snooze to what outfit we’ll wear to what we’ll eat for lunch, draws on the same limited supply of willpower. You can think of willpower as a muscle (I like to think of it as MANA from a video game).The more you use it, the more it wears out, leaving you feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. That’s why so many dieters start out strong at the beginning of the day with a healthy breakfast and lunch, only to succumb to the temptations of junk food from the office break room in the afternoon. Actions that we take automatically, like brushing our teeth, take little willpower. However, when we agonize over a decision, we deplete our limited supply of willpower much more quickly, causing us to feel exhausted and overwhelmed. Not only does this decision fatigue inhibit our ability to clearly assess the situation at hand, it also makes us more likely to choose unhealthy food, skip exercise, and put-off working on side projects in favor of watching TV. In short, analysis paralysis makes it much more difficult to make high-quality, long-term choices later on. 4. Analysis Paralysis makes you less happy Essentially you are either a Satisficer or a Maximizer. Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project says: “Satisficers make a decision once their criteria are met. When they find the hotel or the pasta sauce with the qualities they want, they’re satisfied.” In contrast, “Maximizers want to make the best possible decision; even if they see a bicycle that meets their requirements, they can’t make a decision until they’ve examined every option.” Research suggests

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Grow Your Biz Faster With Focused Efforts

How To Grow Your Business While Doing Less By Working Smarter And Focusing Your Efforts

I get it…you’ve been working hard to grow your business…but for some reason you aren’t seeing the results you were expecting. But don’t worry, it happens to the best of us, it’s all part of the learning and growth process. After talking to numerous business owners over the last few years I realized most of them were facing a handful of very similar issues. Below is a quick outline of exactly what I tell clients. How to grow your business without adding hours of additional work to your already busy schedule! Review all the products or services that have brought in profits and will grow your business. Make a list of everything your offer or would like to offer. (If you’re brand new, then this will be something you can revisit when you have more numbers to work with.) Find the one or two core services (If you are in e-comm then you can get away with 5-10 products). Separate the ones that produced the best profits and focus all of your effort on selling more of those. SAY NO to anything that does not fall under those core products and services. This allows you to control your time and scale your business with more predictability and profitability. STOP following fake idols and countless guru’s. Find a real mentor, join a mastermind group, and pay the money to get into a REAL course. Outsource the time-consuming work so that you can focus on income-producing activities and being the best at what you do. If you think you’re getting all you need from YouTube videos and other free trainings, you are sadly mistaken. People come to you for your expertise or for the products you sell. It’s NOT because you were the person doing the marketing. Find someone that can help with your marketing and enlist them for training or services. Stop listening to all the noise. Stop chasing shiny objects. Focus your ad dollars on things that actually provide a return. If you’re unable to track a client’s engagement with your business from click to customer, then that’s your first priority. You should think twice before making any additional investments until that’s managed. Start with Google Ads then follow up with a social media campaign. According to the National Sales Executive Association, Very few people (≅ 2%) will actually purchase a product the first time they see an offer. The vast majority of them, ≅ 80%, will purchase between the 5th and 11th touch. This makes follow up and retargeting crucial aspects of your marketing campaign. Visitors that come from Google PPC campaigns are typically more responsive to social retargeting campaigns. They are more likely to become customers after viewing additional relevant ads/content on another platform. Data and Tracking are THE most important parts to grow your business effectively. If you do not understand what you are looking at and how to read the reports that are given to you, it’s a sure way to lose money. Make sure you understand which numbers are important to pay attention to, and how to find them. If you are using an omnichannel marketing strategy, then you will need to know exactly who came from where. This was you’ll understand which campaigns are successful and which you can do without. This may mean creating a custom tracking URL for each platform or campaign. Each type of business will have different performance indicators (KPI). Understanding what is essential to your business will help dictate how and where you choose to grow your business. Treat your social platforms like a job. Unless your business requires you to be on social media, 24/7 (it almost always doesn’t) use it only when you need to and then get off. Don’t worry about all the NOISE happening on social because it is just that…NOISE. You don’t need to field every reaction or comment as it comes in. If you want to use social media for your business, come up with a plan and stick to it. In general, I tell companies to start posting three times a week and gradually work their way up to everyday. Make sure the content is of high quality and features your core products or services. Most small businesses see success by posting original, authentic content and using up to 30 relevant hashtags (where applicable). YOU DON’T NEED A MILLION FOLLOWERS to be successful, do not buy into the cheap follower programs or software. Social platforms are getting smarter, and they WILL suspend your account for utilizing shady tactics. Plus, it’s much better to have fewer, more engaging followers than a bunch of empty numbers. Do you believe that YOU are why you can’t grow your business? Throughout the day the average person thinks over 50,000 thoughts, including good and bad, empowering and limiting. It is natural to doubt yourself, especially if you own or operate your own business. Sometimes you don’t see the progress because you are in the thick of it, or you lose track of your goals because life happens, and that’s normal! Creating confidence and finding your ability to overcome self-doubt happens gradually over time; there is no magic pill. What does help is controlling your mindset, managing your mental state, working with a coach, having a proven process, and keeping track of your goals. Having a proven process will keep you on task regardless of how you feel about yourself and your abilities. Writing down your goals and creating check-in’s is how you begin that accountability process. As you see yourself accomplishing and checking off goals, the fear of not being good enough goes away and the motivation to continue increases. So now I guess you are thinking, “Drew, this is great… but, what are my next steps?” First, as I mentioned above, you need to focus your efforts, so start by finding the most profitable products or services you offer. Having more offers will not grow your business. Second, choose no more than 2 subject matter

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How Successful Affiliates Are Making More Commissions Than Their Competitors

Affiliate marketing is the easiest way to make money online, without having to create your own products, build a formal website, or design a sales page with integrated payment processing. So, why is it that most affiliate marketers never make nearly what they could make? Anyone has the potential to make HUGE money in affiliate marketing, yet > 90% or more of affiliates make a pittance. Think about this: If you earn an average of $50 on each sale in a sales funnel you promote, and you make 6 sales, you’ve made $300. Sounds good, right? But guaranteed, there is something else who made 600 sales and walked away with $30,000. Why did they make 600 sales when you made just 6? There are reasons why a handful of affiliate marketers do amazingly well, and everyone else barely makes a profit. And marketers who understand this will always have a tremendous advantage over marketers who don’t. 1. Build a Relationship I know you’ve heard it before, but are you doing it? People buy people, not products. If you want them to open your email and click your link, or visit your Facebook Group and click a link, you’ve got to have a RELATIONSHIP with your people. This is so simple to do, yet few marketers take the time. Start with a blog post that is all about you, and then send new opt-ins to the post so they can get to know you better. Make the post silly, funny and most of all REAL. Talk about the stupid stuff you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, where you live and what your goals are. Don’t even think about affiliate marketing yet. Do you have a strange hobby or unusual taste in food? Include that. Do you have 17 pets? Talk about them. Do you work until 3 in the morning and sleep until noon? Mentions that too. Reveal the real you. Not the details people don’t want, but the ones that amuse and interest. You’re looking to make a real connection, not apply for a job, nobody wants your resume. And above all else, don’t make your life seem like a series of magnificent accomplishments. No one is going to relate to someone who turns everything they touch into gold. But they are going to relate to the time you bought Bitcoin when it was worthless and sold it just before it took off, or the time you thought you could fly and jumped off your parent’s back deck into the pool. And don’t stop with your ‘about me’ page, either. Use this relationship building in your lead magnets, your emails, your other blog posts, etc. Always inject a little bit about yourself in everything you do. Not so much that you bore people, or make everything seem about you, but just enough to keep it real. Think about relating an event to a friend. Aren’t you going to give your own perceptions of what happened, as well as tell about how you got out of your car and stepped into the mud puddle just before your big presentation? Use this same method of personal, one-on-one friend communication with your readers and followers. Post on your blog as often as possible, at least once a week, but as much as every day. Encourage your list to follow you on social media or subscribe to your list so they know when you add a new post. Your readers will realize you’re a real person who isn’t out to pitch them a new product every 5-minutes. So, they’ll gladly read your sales emails much more readily when they know there is a real live human being who is sending them these messages. 2. Use Your Own Voice Just because you’re doing affiliate marketing, doesn’t mean you need to act like someone else. How many emails do you receive that say something along the lines of, “Buy this product – this product is the greatest product ever – you will be sorry if you miss this – this is the one thing that will help you create success – but it now.” Yeah. Same old stuff, over and over again. There is a marketer (or maybe several, but I’m thinking of one in particular) who sells MASSIVE quantities of this exact type of emails as a swipe file to new marketers. Like a brand-new marketer couldn’t write their own 25-word email that basically says, “buy this magic product now.” People don’t like getting sold to and are TIRED of seeing this crap. You’re tired of getting these emails. I’m tired of getting these emails. Same phrases, same message, same B.S. If you’re not going to stand apart from the crowd, then you’re going to have to share the same crumbs they’re getting. Here’s what to say: Instead, take 30-minutes and write your own promotional email with your own voice. You can even do this by dictating and having a free software like Google Docs to type the email for you! Forget about all the hype. Be sincere, be honest. “Hey, this product isn’t for everyone. I don’t even know if it’s for you. But, if you have this problem, then maybe this is your solution. Check it out and decide if it’s right for you, because I know it’s worked like crazy for some people, including me.” I’ve written emails where I basically tell people not to buy something unless they really really want it or need it. “Don’t buy this if you already know how to do XYZ.” “Don’t buy this if you’re not going to be doing this type of marketing.” This is only for people who want _______. It’s like I’m trying to talk them out of it, which paradoxically often results in more sales, not fewer. But the point isn’t tricking people into buying, it’s to be honest. You know this, but the latest, greatest product you’re promoting isn’t for everyone on your list. Some of them sure, but

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Develop a Growth Mindset & Do Everything Better!

When deciding what new habit to pursue, it’s easy to look at all the things we shouldn’t do as a place to begin. We want to stop smoking or stress eating. We want to learn how to say ‘no’ or to quit spending so much time on social media. Have you ever considered the flipside of all that by building a habit that’s positive? What if the habit you formed was one of growth and personal development? Having a growth mindset positively impacts your life in multiple ways, so it’s a great healthy habit to build into your life. What are the benefits of developing a growth mindset? 1. You keep learning. Learning is important as you not only discover new ways to do things, but by making a practice of constantly learning, you develop new ways of thinking, and start having new ideas. Learning connects you with more of the world and helps you see things with a deeper significance than you ever thought possible. But more than that, people who stop learning very quickly become stagnant…and unfulfilled. Studies have shown that the practice of learning new things when you are older helps ward off problems related to dementia. In short, learning is good for your brain! 2. You expand your awareness. As we learn new things, we adapt and change how we think. That gives us the ability to see other solutions to problems that would have frustrated us in the past. In a sense, this expanded awareness allows us to think out of the box and become more resourceful. By challenging yourself to grow, you learn how to find new paths and overcome previously impassable obstacles. How about some more actionable benefits? 3. You learn how to embrace challenges. Growth can be challenging, and scary. But by pushing yourself to grow, that means you’re also pushing yourself to look at everything differently; your personal abilities, your influence in your life, the world around you is working for you, previous “challenges” no longer cause stress, anxiety, or overwhelm. An obstacle now becomes an opportunity to learn something new and to do things in a way you haven’t tried before. That’s exciting…not scary. 4. You learn how to embrace failure. When you’re interested in growing as an individual, you start to see failure differently. Everything becomes a potential lesson in a way that you didn’t think would work. For every failure that you make, you figure out something that didn’t work, and you are one step closer to finding the solution. On to the next one! 5. You become more open to criticism. By embracing a willingness to grow, you start to see that sometimes the input of other people has significance. You see their words not so much as something negative, but something you can use to develop as a person and learn something about yourself, or how you engage with others. You might not always like the lesson, or agree with it, but that’s part of growing too. Keep in mind: life doesn’t happen on your schedule, things are not always linear, and sometimes the lesson isn’t always clear…until later. Who doesn’t want to be…better at everything? By embracing personal growth, you uncover and fortify the best version of yourself. You’re able to become more than you ever thought possible, and then surprise yourself again by finding out that you can become more still. You’ll find that the furthest edges of yourself are far beyond what you thought you ever could be. To jumpstart your growth mindset – check out my free Mindset Shifts mini-course.

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Why An Introvert Makes A Better Salesperson

Let me start by defining the parties of today’s story. An Introvert is a person predominantly concerned with their own thoughts and feelings more so than with external things. An extrovert is a person predominantly concerned with external things or objective considerations. So, introverts aren’t necessarily shy, but, they are quieter than extroverts. Introverts will gladly open their mouths when talking about something they are passionate about, but tend to stay quieter when the topic is small talk. Why? Because small talk just isn’t important to them. Now, let’s say you have 2 salespeople – an extrovert and an introvert. The extrovert is likely to talk – and talk – and talk – which is exactly what you expect from a sales person. And in the midst of all this talking, the extrovert will make sales. However, the introvert will do something the extrovert commonly fails to do – the introvert will ask questions and LISTEN to the answers. I don’t mean they wait for the prospect to stop talking so they can begin extolling all the many benefits of the product. I mean they LISTEN. They want to know what’s keeping the prospect awake at night in relation to the problem the product solves. They want to know the prospect’s fears, desires, dreams, etc. They want to know what’s worked for the prospect, what’s failed for the prospect, and what that prospect really, truly wants so they can help this prospect get it. It’s this same sales person who will continue to use questions as they present their product or service, questions that direct the prospect to the desired conclusion – that this product is what they want and need. Shift Happens When You Ask Better Questions Everything else being equal, 9 times out of 10 the introvert salesperson will outsell the extrovert. All because they stepped back, asked questions, and listened closely to the answers, instead of just trying to sell their product. Introverted marketers have the same advantage as introverted sales people. They dig to discover what it is their prospects truly want. They ask questions, be it in person, over Skype, in forums, via email, etc. And they pay close attention to the answers. These same marketers spend time researching what successful marketers are doing. They don’t assume they already have the answers. Instead, they look to those who’ve succeeded and they ask how it was done and how it can be duplicated. That being said, extroverts can master the skills of asking questions and listening to the answers as well as any introvert, if they try. It doesn’t come as naturally for them, but it will come with practice and patience. And if you look at the most successful people in the world, what you will find is they stand on the shoulders of those who came before. They asked questions, got the answers and used this knowledge to carve their place in the world. Try it. Next time someone asks you for advice, ask them questions first. Next time someone asks about your product, ask them about their needs first. Next time someone is on a forum looking for help, ask them for more information. And then pay close attention to what they say before you respond. This falls under my favorite category to talk about, something I call: “un-common sense”. But, asking the right questions and listening to the answers can be one of the most rewarding and highest paying skills in the world.

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What Are SMART Goals & How To Use Them

What Does SMART Goals Mean? SMART is an acronym that you can use to guide your goal setting. To make sure your goals are clear and reachable, each one should be: How to Use SMART Goals 1. Specific Your goal should be clear and specific, otherwise you won’t be able to focus your efforts or feel truly motivated to achieve it. When drafting your goal, try to answer the five “W” questions: Example Imagine that you are currently a marketing executive, and you’d like to become head of marketing. A specific goal could be, “I want to gain the skills and experience necessary to become head of marketing within my organization, so that I can build my career and lead a successful team.” 2. Measurable It’s important to have measurable goals, so that you can track your progress and stay motivated. Assessing progress helps you to stay focused, meet your deadlines, and feel the excitement of getting closer to achieving your goal. A measurable goal should address questions such as: Example You might measure your goal of acquiring the skills to become head of marketing by determining that you will have completed the necessary training courses and gained the relevant experience within five years’ time. 3. Achievable Your goal also needs to be realistic and attainable to be successful. In other words, it should stretch your abilities but still remain possible. When you set an achievable goal, you may be able to identify previously overlooked opportunities or resources that can bring you closer to it. An achievable goal will usually answer questions such as: Example You might need to ask yourself whether developing the skills required to become head of marketing is realistic, based on your existing experience and qualifications. For example, do you have the time to complete the required training effectively? Are the necessary resources available to you? Can you afford to do it? Tip: Beware setting goals that someone else has power over. For example, “Get that promotion!” depends on who else applies, and on the recruiter’s decision. But “Get the experience and training that I need to be considered for that promotion” is entirely down to you. 4. Relevant This step is about ensuring that your goal matters to you, and that it also aligns with other relevant goals. We all need support and assistance in achieving our goals, but it’s important to retain control over them. So, make sure that your plans drive everyone forward, but that you’re still responsible for achieving your own goal. A relevant goal can answer “yes” to these questions: Example You might want to gain the skills to become head of marketing within your organization, but is it the right time to undertake the required training, or work toward additional qualifications? Are you sure that you’re the right person for the head of marketing role? Have you considered your spouse’s goals? For example, if you want to start a family, would completing training in your free time make this more difficult? 5. Time-bound Every goal needs a target date, so that you have a deadline to focus on and something to work toward. This part of the SMART goal criteria helps to prevent everyday tasks from taking priority over your longer-term goals. A time-bound goal will usually answer these questions: Example Gaining the skills to become head of marketing may require additional training or experience, as we mentioned earlier. How long will it take you to acquire these skills? Do you need further training, so that you’re eligible for certain exams or qualifications? It’s important to give yourself a realistic time frame for accomplishing the smaller goals that are necessary to achieving your final objective. So, if you aren’t using SMART goals in your planning process, now is the time to start! For a little extra guidance on better goal setting, check out this email course, or consider talking with a coach.

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Successful People Aim To Fail Quickly

You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Why in the world would somebody want to fail quickly?” You may have read the article title and did a double take….“Isn’t failure something we’re supposed to avoid?” “Isn’t it something we’re supposed to run away from?” “Isn’t it a mark of embarrassment or even humiliation?” Why in the world would successful people, of all people, aim to fail quickly? You should understand that successful people know failure is always a possibility. So, they don’t candy-coat it, try to avoid it, or make up excuses for it. They also don’t try to cover it up with rationalizations, excuses, or justifications. Instead, they look it straight in the eye and address it. Failure is inevitable, suffering is options. Maybe, it’s monetary…or maybe, it’s social like a loss of reputation. Whatever the case may be, failure conventionally means pain and/or suffering. Successful people realize that failure is inevitable so they look at what they stand to gain. They do a calculated risk-benefit analysis and if the analysis comes out right, and the project is worth taking on, they still keep looking at the possibility of failure to motivate them. These people know the difference between wanting to fail and getting ready for setbacks. Their mindset shifts to failing quickly. They want to know if this will not pan out. I want this to flame out quickly so I can pick myself up, dust myself off, and go on to the next opportunity. Quick failure means quick lessons. Don’t look at it as a judgment on your character as a human being. It is not some summation of your value as a person, nor does it define you. Instead, you learn what you need to learn like Thomas Edison who once used a hair from a man’s beard in his efforts to invent the light bulb. Obviously, that did not pan out, but that didn’t stop Edison from trying many times. You need to fail quickly so you can quickly determine that the road you’re on is not the right road. You can then shift to another road and then try the next one. Quick lessons mean a faster track to eventual success. That’s how successful people think. On the contrary, people who struggle for the rest of their lives experience failure and look at failure as something that defines them. What did they do wrong? They dwelled on it. Instead of a quick failure that yields important quick lessons, they dwell on the failure and the lessons they get are worse lessons because it’s all about them. They create stories in their head about things like: They’re not thinking intelligently They don’t have enough money People don’t like them. They can’t get ahead. They don’t have enough time to get things done. They’re trapped in their life with all these ‘toxic’ lessons Fail quickly and get the lesson quickly. Learn from it and apply this knowledge moving forward. This enables you to minimize the cost and the pain. Suffering will always be a part of the equation but it doesn’t mean that you have to maximize it. It doesn’t mean that you have to let it burn you and define you as a person. When you do that, you are only making success more elusive. In today’s business environment, where things are changing constantly, speed of execution is a lot more important than perfect execution. While you’re trying to perfect a certain solution or product, the situation might change, rendering your product or solution irrelevant. Make it “good enough,” publish it, improve it based on market feedback, rinse and repeat. This approach creates success much faster. By failing, we are learning. By learning, I mean we see how best to adapt to the environment and respond by adjusting our behavior incrementally but continually. This helps build momentum internally and externally. This also creates better quality solutions over time. If you’re holding on to an idea, product, service, in fear of rejection or failure – what are you waiting for? ~Wishing you success!

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How A Fear Of Failure Manifests More Failure

Did you know failure is your friend? Depending on where you’re at in your life, you may either be laughing out loud or cringing. You may even have this almost irresistible urge to close this article and move on to more interesting things. Well, hear me out. Most people are afraid of failure. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out. This is part of the human condition. We are drawn to pleasure and we recoil from pain and discomfort. We would love the big mansions, the swimming pools, the global vacations every two months, and the tons of money in the bank, but we hate or we try to avoid putting in day-after-day of seemingly meaningless work. Try to avoid meeting the very difficult people that can lead to great deals because it’s painful to deal with them. We would like to get the reward without going through the painful process. I understand that since that’s part of human nature. This is why we’re afraid of failure because we know it guarantees nothing. We can put in the work, the time, the effort and make all the sacrifices and at the end of that process, there’s nothing there. You’re left holding an empty bag. The truth is you’re already failing right now if you’re not shooting for your goals and dreams. You really are failing because every day you spend being paralyzed by fear of failure is a day not spent working towards success. Fear of failure can paralyze you or make you do things the wrong way. The worst thing you can do is to put things off and wait for the ‘right time’ to happen because that perfect time never comes, right? Stop waiting for tomorrow because tomorrow will never come. There will be many duties, responsibilities, and obligations that will pop up all over the place that will distract you. They will throw you off track. You can bet on that. Fear of failure can also make you hesitate and doubt yourself. Doubt is an emotional cancer in certain contexts. It can burn away at you. The worst part is it builds slowly until it explodes, usually at the moment you least expect it, and you end up crashing and burning. Don’t doubt your capabilities. Challenge yourself but don’t doubt. The ultimate truth about you is that you can do it if you put in the time, effort, and sacrifice and choose the right goals. Unfortunately, if you’re so deathly afraid of failure, you won’t go through the learning process. It’s painful to constantly think about failure, or failing, or not being good enough, or not having enough time, or whatever other excuse or limiting belief you can come up with. That’s why you’re not trying anything new – you think you’re avoiding failure. You don’t even give yourself the chance to succeed or fail. Successful People Think Differently We all want to be successful, but sometimes the fear of failure prevents us from trying new things. Failure is a necessary component on the way to success. If you’re not failing, then chances are you’re just sitting around doing nothing. Successful people don’t fear failure. Believe it or not, successful people know failure is always a possibility. But they make it work for them. They view failure as the price they pay to learn and grow. If you want a good example of this, pay attention to that quote from Thomas Edison. He said, “I didn’t fail to invent the light bulb. I discovered 101 ways of not inventing light bulbs.” Do you see the logic in that? Failure is the price you pay as you learn. You can use it as a steppingstone to the ultimate success or you can use it as a gravestone to all your hopes, wishes, dreams, and ambitions. The truth is successful people view failure as a necessity. Failure is not the opposite of success – instead, it’s part of the process.

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How To Harness Your Beliefs To Create More Success In Your Life

Starting Out: Your beliefs shape how successful you are. This isn’t magic. If you are facing tough times or feel like you’re failing, it’s okay to look for answers. Admitting there’s a problem is the first step to fixing it. Think About a Simple Chair: Imagine you’re sitting down. You trust the chair will hold you up. That’s a belief – you believe the chair won’t break. This tiny decision happens fast, and you might not notice it, but it’s still a choice you make based on belief. Your Beliefs Are Powerful: This small example shows how your beliefs are always working in your life, even in little ways. If you can believe in a chair, why not believe in yourself? If you’re facing problems, it might be because you’re believing in the wrong things. Facing the Truth: It’s hard to accept that we’ve made bad choices because of our beliefs. But facing this truth is a big step forward. Accepting that you’ve been wrong about something means you can start making better choices. Belief Affects Everything: What you believe affects everything you do. If you believe you can succeed, you’ll start making choices that lead to success. If you think you’ll fail, that belief will make you choose things that lead to failure. You Can Change Your Beliefs: The great news is you can change your beliefs. Just like dropping a hot potato, you can drop a bad belief. When you change your beliefs, you change your choices, and that changes your life. Your Beliefs Guide Your Success: In the end, it’s all about belief. Your beliefs shape your choices, and your choices shape your life. Believe in success, make choices that lead to success, and you’ll find success. Take Action Now: Want to learn more about this? There’s a free mini-course that can help. If you know someone stuck in their life, share this with them! Your beliefs determine your success, and it’s as simple as that.

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