Personal Development;Life Enhancement;Achievement
online business
I’m an Idiot for Self-Publishing?
Feb 4th
“One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it”. ~Sidney Howard
I’m an idiot for self-publishing? Maybe, but maybe not. Last time I talked a bit about what I had recently learned from my study of the genius British novelist Charles Dickens. I also mentioned that some of what I had learned from my study of him had been a deciding factor in my decision to self-publish my first book. I think if Dickens had been beginning his writing career today, he would have almost certainly self-published his first works. Then I think he would have partnered with a great publisher for his next works.
For me, the decision to self-publish was a hard one. I am already busy and writing and then publishing a book – and really doing the proper promotion to ensure a great reception for the fledgling book – this is a lot of work. I had no idea how much work it was until I began the process. For me at least, the writing of the book has turned out to be the easiest part. All of the things that the publisher would do for me, if I had sold the rights of my first book immediately to a publisher, – that has been quite a steep learning curve.
So why did I decide to self-publish? I’ll start from the side of what I won’t be getting or what I am giving up.
- It will cost me more money to self-publish, quite a bit more. Since I am taking on all of the costs of proofreaders and editors, cover designers and printing and the hiring of top-notch PR people, all things that a publisher might have done for me, I am spending more money.
- I am giving up a great deal of my time learning the book business. Had I sold my book immediately, I would have needed to learn very little about the book business – at least at first. I could have let the publishers handle all of the details for me.
- I am giving up the money that I could have made by simply coaching or speaking instead of learning the book business. I am usually fully booked or as booked as I care to be for coaching and I could have simply coached more, earned more, and let the publishers do what they know best.
- I am giving up some credibility for this my first book. A self-published book does not have the credibility in the eyes of some people that a traditionally published book has.
- I am almost certainly giving up some sales that I might have had otherwise. I don’t know all of the distribution channels that an established publisher knows and although I am learning fast – it is certain that I will miss some of them – and not sell those copies of my book.
So, with all of that, why on earth would I self-publish? We will both have to wait until next time for that answer – my time is up for this entry.
Next time I will explain the balance of my thinking about traditional publishing versus self-publishing.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs”. ~Vance Havner
Testing New WordPress Themes
Sep 14th
“Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” ~John F. Kennedy
My website got hacked again over the weekend – not once but twice – and you know what? I’m grateful. At first I was upset and angry at the hacker that had targeted me. Now I am actually grateful to the little online cockroach that attacked me – I was forced to learn and change – it has already been great!
What I Learned from Being Hacked
- I was forced to learn more about website security – this will certainly be critical in the future.
- I was forced to update my WordPress code – a great thing to update.
- I was forced to review and then select a new online security and anti-virus program – this was something I had always meant to do.
- I was forced to review and then select from a number of newer and more robust WordPress Themes – this is what I am doing now and I love all of the new options.
So, being hacked was actually a great learning experience for me, and all this learning happened in just the last few days. So thank you little online cockroach! In your desire to hurt me and feel in some pitiful way significant, you actually helped!
Testing WordPress Themes
I am taking this opportunity to completely revamp my website. I am going to make it more comprehensive, more viewer friendly, of course more secure, and I intend – more visually interesting. Come back often and see the changes.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” ~Niccolo Machiavelli
Making Money Online and Writing Part 9
Aug 27th
“If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up.” ~J.M. Power
A couple of entries ago, I was talking about the things that I have been consistently procrastinating. Here is a recap of that list of shame (well, really mild embarrassment):
- I am not consistently writing at least 1000 words per day on my book.
- I am not consistently doing the needed research weekly to have the 1000 words to write.
- I am not consistently getting up every morning at 5am to write.
- I am not consistently lifting weights 4 times per week.
- I am not consistently marketing myself to new speaking venues weekly.
- I am not consistently reading the blogs of writers that I respect.
- I am not consistently commenting on the blogs of writers that I respect.
This week I have done much better. Really, as soon as I wrote up the list and looked it over, I knew I could do better. Why did I do better? Here is the process that I went over to put myself into a different place – to come from a different perspective:
- I looked at my dreams for my life – business and personal – for the next few years and re-associated to how great it would feel when I had achieved these things. It will feel incredible!
- I looked at the things I was procrastinating and verified that there were critical – they were – they are.
- I honestly asked myself, expecting an answer and willing to listen, “Why am I procrastinating on these critical items?”
- I wrote down the answers for each of these “procrastination issues”.
- I committed to taking action daily both on the critical steps and the answers. (By the way, the most common reason for me not taking action was comparing my early work in progress to the great completed works of others – I felt badly and then did not take action.)
Now, everything isn’t just as I want it yet. I will need to fine tune some attitudes and beliefs and habits to make it so. Still, I am now taking action on all of these and that feels great. A similar process can work for almost anyone that is putting off what needs to be done.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings.” ~C.D. Jackson
Making Money Online and Writing Part 8
Aug 24th
“Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.” ~Frank Herbert
In my last entry, I alluded to the things that I had been procrastinating – a little bit or a lot. Now is the time to publicly fess up. Here are the things that I am doing poorly, fitfully, or not at all:
What am I Procrastinating?
- I am not consistently writing at least 1000 words per day on my book.
- I am not consistently doing the needed research weekly to have the 1000 words to write.
- I am not consistently getting up every morning at 5am to write.
- I am not consistently lifting weights 4 times per week.
- I am not consistently marketing myself to new speaking venues weekly.
- I am not consistently reading the blogs of writers that I respect.
- I am not consistently commenting on the blogs of writers that I respect.
The vast majority of these are business related – only the weightlifting falls outside of my professional life and even that one has a powerful business component. Weight lifting is the one sure thing that I know from my past that will ensure that I rapidly return to optimal health and bodyweight. For me, weightlifting matters more than diet or aerobic exercise.
So Why Do I Think I Procrastinate and Why Should You Care?
I’ll cover the whys first:
- I am afraid of something – of failing. When I probe deeper, I am comparing my first efforts with the polished final results of other authors – of course this would make me feel badly.
- I am not in the habit of getting up early – this is just a habit, but it is not serving me.
- I feel uncomfortable going to gym to workout by myself and since no one is expecting me, it is easy to skip.
- I am comfortable in my life and so I am not doing the things that I already know to do. Am I manifesting my potential? Not at all. Am I serving my family and my future? Only at a minimal level. I have gotten comfortable with doing less than my potential.
Why should you care? I want to be an example for you. If I can’t be a example of doing good – and I always want to be that – at least I will be an example of what not to do! In the next entry, I will talk about what I am doing to change these bothersome whys!
So What am I going to do this week to enhance my business and make money online?
- I am going to get up every morning at 5am sharp!
- I am going to do my research!
- I am going to write and post 5 blog entries.
- I am going to locate at least 600 compatible twitter accounts and follow them.
- I am going to lift weights four times.
Tune in next time and I will talk about how I am going to get myself to do these things (and do them consistently!). Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.” ~Aristotle
Making Money Online and Writing Part 7
Aug 20th
“Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.” ~Victor Kiam
I’ve been procrastinating. There is no other way to say it. Some other time we can explore the causes and cures for procrastination. For today, I’ll say what I believe: the root cause is almost always fear combined with poorly designed goals. So, now I am back on track and I apologize to my future self that is depending upon me to create my dream life.
What have I been doing, when I wasn’t procrastinating, to move my life forward? I thought today I would split my actions into two categories: 1) Personal and 2) Business
Personal
- I have been dieting successfully alternating between Atkins, Carbohydrate Addicts and Protein Fasting. I am now at my lowest weight in many years and I got to throw away a complete wardrobe and buy a smaller size. Now that was exciting!
- I have been working at licensing a boat and trailer that I picked up for a song. This has been much more complex that I expected and has been an excellent time and energy waster.
- I have been looking at houses to buy. The market is still dropping so we may still rent another year, but I am really tired of renting!
- I have been reading lots of books. This is one of my favorite ways to escape something I’d rather not do.
- I have been looking at new cars to buy. I am a recovering car addict, at the peak of my illness I owned 13 simultaneously, but in my defense it is getting to be time for a new car.
Business
- I have been using twitter fairly well and am getting in the habit of 3 daily tweets and following people of interest. I broke 1600 followers this morning just before I wrote this blog entry.
- I have been putting together a new seminar series for entrepreneurs and small business owners. I expect this series to be very well received and I will start marketing it in just a few days.
- I have been working with my existing coaching clients.
- I have been working with my existing consulting client (just one at this time).
What Have I Been Putting Off (and why!)
This is a much more interesting list and will be the subject of my next blog entry.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” ~Eva Young
My First Impressions of Twitter
Aug 13th
“We talk about the quality of product and service. What about the quality of our relationships and the quality of our communications and the quality of our promises to each other?” ~Max de Pree
I have been on using the micro-blogging service Twitter for about three weeks now. I have acquired, as I write this blog entry, exactly 1014 followers. That may seem like an impressive number, but I don’t think so. I think most Twitter users are sorters, not relationship builders, and it takes a very large number of “sorts” to generate business.
I am a networker and I have been studying the process of how to naturally and effectively move from first contact to mutually beneficial referral relationship for years – this is one of my areas of world-class expertise. My studies and my actions and results and my clients actions and results confirm these facts about networking:
The Truth About Networking
- It takes time to develop relationships
- It works best to build relationships first – then focus on business
- People will always do business first with people they like and trust
- Always give value first in any relationship
- Until you have had at least 8 contacts with someone, separated by time, you are not real to them
- In every interaction with a new contact, always be learning about them – a topic they know well
- People will naturally use your services or buy from you once they know you, like you and trust that you will do a good job
- People will naturally refer business to you – great presold business, as soon as they know you, like you and trust that you will do a great job
So, back to my 1000+ followers; How did I get these? Some came to me from people that know me, from seminars or coaching or consulting. These are very solid followers. Some came to me from people that share common hobbies and business pursuits. Some of these will over time become solid, some of these will not – fair enough. Some of these followers came to me looking to sell me something right away – before I know a thing about them – most of these will drop out – sooner or later. They spent and are spending zero time developing a relationship with me – they are just sorting and hoping, against all odds, that I happen to need exactly what they are selling at the exact instant in time that they are selling it. Wow! This is not my preferred way to do business at all!
My Takes on Twitter so far
- Make sure that you include a variety of information in your bio section – let people get a feeling for the whole you.
- In your tweets, talk about yourself and truly what you are doing – give people a chance to learn about you – and perhaps know you, like you and trust you!
- For most people, tweeting about 3 times per day is optimal – except in special circumstances. The people that are tweeting every few minutes are sorting and provide a huge tweet load – I tend to dump these followers – it’s too much effort and it is always about them and what they are selling!
- Provide value first – good blog articles or links that you feel your followers would enjoy or quotes – all of these are okay – in moderation
- If all you ever do is quote, how is someone going to learn much about you – talk about yourself!
- If someone is nice enough to follow you, in general follow them back – unless you don’t care about what they are or talk about and cannot handle more tweet load
That’s all for today – I’m off to work. I like Twitter. It has generated business for me already and look to see more about my results with this service in the future.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow grow, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.” ~George Washington
Making Money Online and Writing Part Six
Aug 5th
“Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!” ~Andrew Carnegie
In my last entry, I was talking about the pain that I was causing myself and wondering why. I had set my unconscious mind the task of giving me information about this issue. Here is the download from my unconscious mind to my conscious mind: I keep remembering this issue and feeling pain about it because my unconscious mind wants me to be safe in the future and does not feel that I have prepared myself sufficiently to feel safe should this happen again. I would have to agree!
In other words, the positive intention of this behavior – an unpleasant memory coming up again and again and then my feeling bad about it again and again – this behavior is happening to serve me. This behavior, if I temporarily view it as a separate aspect of myself, is trying to help me. Once I have satisfied the requirements of this aspect of me, then the behavior should go away.
(I realize that I am throwing a whole structure of beliefs and presuppositions at you – many of which would take hours to fully explain. Here is the best way that I know to start you off in the study of NLP, other than taking certification courses: read a good book. Years ago, when I was first sent on the mission to study NLP by a nearly magical executive recruiter, someone who was so good at his job that it literally seemed like magic to me, I started by reading a book about NLP. I started by reading “Heart of the Mind” by Connirae Andreas and Steve Andreas. This is still a good way to start.)
I’ll talk more about positive intentions and seemingly unpleasant aspects of behaviors another time. For today, consider reading some NLP – I know it would serve you. For me, as soon as I recognized that this behavior and the unpleasant feelings associated with it, had a positive intention for me and I could agree with the positive intention, then I started to feel better immediately. Now I am taking steps to mentally prepare myself should the same situation happen again – with poorly-evolved coworkers.
What am I working on today to make money online?
- I am making a blog post.
- I am reviewing 3 weeks worth of my blogging coaching.
- I am installing some new plugins into my blog.
- I am continuing to look for new and targeted followers on twitter.
- I am making 3 tweets on twitter.
- I am reviewing my vision of my intended future to stay motivated.
- I have added more notifiers to my blog so that when I make a new post, more services are notified.
That’s it for today. Sorry if this entry seems complex – it probably is too much information without enough background. I really do encourage you to explore NLP, there are lots of great ways to begin that process. I know for me, my initial study of NLP and then the dedicated time I invested in training; all of this totally transformed my life then and my life now. I am still grateful for being sent on the mission to explore it, almost exactly 20 years ago today.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“Picture yourself in your minds eye as having already achieved this goal. See yourself doing the things you’ll be doing when you’ve reached your goal.” ~Earl Nightingale
Making Money Online and Writing Part Five
Aug 4th
“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” ~Paul Boese
I woke up thinking this morning about an old injury that I had received. This wasn’t an injury of the body, it was an injury to my spirit. I had worked with someone in the past and they had consistently treated me poorly, for no reason other than jealousy of my performance. They even made a habit of talking me down to others when I was not around to defend myself. I felt hurt and angered. Now why did I feel this way – even more powerfully, why do I still feel this way?
I felt and feel this way because my rules of behavior had been violated, someone had behaved towards me in a way that was inappropriate to my rules – so much okay. Now here is the next part of my pattern: my pattern then has me brood on this violation not just for awhile, but anytime anything triggers this memory! Wow! I have been hurt hundreds of times now from this person – but who is really doing the hurting? Not the original poorly evolved co-worker; they aren’t even around me. I am now hurting myself! Why?
Every Behavior has a Positive Intention
So why do I continue to think about this person, from time to time, and still feel pain about it? Because at some level, it serves me to do so. Wow! That can be a hard statement to take in and digest, but I don’t think there is another bettter answer. So how does it serve me and equally important, what am I going to do about this so it no longer bothers me? I have set my unconscious mind to this task and tomorrow we will explore my options. I think it will be fun to come back and read the results tomorrow. How about you, do you have some recurring memory that causes you pain? What could be the positive intention and how can you satisfy that intention?
What am I Doing Today to Make Money Online
- I am making a blog entry.
- I am making three entries to my twitter account.
- I am working on my product that I intend to sell related to goal achievement.
- I am exploring competitive products and see what they are offering and how much they are charging.
- I am working on a speaking proposal to a new audience that will increase my following.
- i am exploring the software package “tweet adder” and seeing if I want to explore this tool.
- I am going to attend my writer’s group tonight and learn all I can and give support and be supported.
- I am working hard to increase my physical vitality so that I have more energy to devote to achieving my goals. (Translation: exercise and diet)
- I am doing my best with my existing clients to continue the process of making them achieve their dreams as quickly and elegantly as possible.
Till next time…Jack
“He who has injured thee was stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.” ~Seneca (Seneca the Elder)
Making Money Online and Writing Part Four
Aug 3rd
“The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitudes.” ~Victor Frankl
So the story of my quest to make money from my own products online continues. My biggest challenge is finding the time to do the things that I already know work. My coaching practice is busy, I am gearing up for speaking more this fall, and I am continuing my quest to return to the lean, mean Jack machine of my younger years; so where do I find the time to write and also create the needed online presence to sell my own products? This is the question that haunts me.
I know that I have exactly the same amount of time that every other struggling author has had to make their deadlines – I might even have more. So, no more bellyaching. The bottom line: I need to stop doing some of things that I currently do, at least for awhile, and do more of less. In other words, I need to focus.
At the start of this year, I wrote down five words that I believed would describe the attributes and actions that I needed in order to achieve my goals for the year. Here are those words:
- Focus
- Self-discipline
- Self-promotion
- Courage
- Massive Action
I think those are still the right five words. Now I just need to do a better job of evidencing them! What would your five words be?
More about Minneapolis
I went to Minneapolis, Minnesota USA for a business trip last week. As always, I try and include unique food adventures and history with my business trips. The James J. Hill mansion was great, but I didn’t have time in my last entry to talk about food. As many of you know, I worked my way thru college cooking at various restaurants around Boulder, Colorado USA. In the many years since, I have become a fairly accomplished amateur gourmet cook; I even casually ran a gourmet food club for years – more about that some other time.
Al’s Breakfast
I watch the food network a few hours a week on television. I suspect this is one of the activities that I am going to need to stop for awhile in order to free up time. Still, I like watching shows about restaurants and cooking and I recently saw a show called “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” that had a short segment about Al’s Breakfast in Minneapolis. It looked like fun on TV and it was! I highly recommend that if you are in that area, plan a breakfast around Al’s. (Al himself passed on, at I believe 97, but when I found out that his last name was Bergstrom – well that sealed the deal for me!) Here is a link to the tiny, but mighty Al’s Breakfast in the Dinkytown area (yep – that’s right, Dinkytown) of Minneapolis near the University: Al’s Breakfast.
- The Front of Al’s Diner in Dinkytown
What am I Working on Today?
- Blogging homework from my coach (of course I have coaches, I am one!)
- My online business presence: My blog, Twitter, starting Facebook
- More writing on my first online product in intend to offer for sale
- Promoting myself to a couple of speaking venues in places I am already traveling
- Nonfiction reading ( I need to cut out that fiction reading for awhile – more focus!)
- Coaching work with some clients
- Exercise and diet – my quest to become less manly continues!
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” ~Mahatma Gandhi
Online Success and Writing Part 2
Jul 22nd
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.” -Samuel Johnson
In my last post, I asked if you were willing to write for two hours per day if you knew that amount of effort would make you successful? Are you? It’s not a casual question and it is not a trivial commitment. Writing, and all of the associated tasks – reading, proofing, rewriting – these can be a challenge to add into your daily schedule. I know for me it was a significant effort to find this much additional time in my daily routine, I have been fully booked as a coach and a speaker for years, but the rewards from the discipline of daily writing have been tremendous and are growing rapidly.
So, are you serious about making money online and gaining all of the benefits that will bring? Then that means you need to write and from this point forward, I am going to assume that you are. (Motivation is not a constant for most people, it surely is not for me. Still you are going to need to stay in touch with your motivation to keep yourself moving forward. My NLP skills can do great things for us here and I will talk about motivation and motivation strategies in later posts.)
The Fundamentals of Online Success
Here again are the five fundamental pieces, as I understand them today, of becoming successful online.
- You need to be visible – people need to easily find you and whatever it is you want to sell online.
- You need to be credible – people need to believe that you know what you are talking about.
- You need something to sell – this can be your own products or the products of someone else or a combination.
- You need a following – people that care about what you write and say.
- You need partners – in Internet terms, you need affiliates, that will sell your products for you.
Writing is the Key!
Writing directly relates to each of these.
- For visibility – you need to be writing to your blog and making tweets on a very regular, but not irksome, basis.
- For credibility – as you write and read and research, you and your readers, will believe that you know what you are talking about.
- For having something to sell – ideally you are going to take some of the life knowledge that you already have and make it easy for the right people to find you and pay you for that knowledge.
- For having a following – the only way that I have discovered to do this, that really works and sticks around, is to be or become an expert and to write about it.
- For finding and developing partners – once you have good content, a following, and a product, it is fairly easy to find good partners.
So, writing really is the key. Another big question is: What do you write? Well, the topics are of course up to you, but there are some fundamental places you must write and I’ll talk about them soon.
This is a Work in Progress
Understand that I don’t have all of the answers yet. My blog is a chronicle of what I am learning and doing to become a success selling products online. I have hired the best coaches to help me and I am learning and doing as fast as I can. Why not come along on the journey?
What I am Doing Today to Move Forward
- I am writing a blog post.
- I am continuing to read: Writing Nonfiction by Dan Poynter and Losing my Virginity by Richard Branson.
- I am putting together my binder for my manuscript on my NLP based Goal Setting Product. (This will be my first product that I offer for sale online.)
- I am going to tweet on Twitter – enough to be useful, but not so much as to irritate.
- I will continue to work with my existing clients and help and learn.
- I will make some outbound marketing calls for locating speaking gigs for later in the year.
- I will go pick up my new IPhone (finally!) and start to learn how to use this tool.
I expect that will keep me busy. Till next time…Jack
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” -Stephen King