Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Are You Starting a Business or Just Throwing Mud?
A fellow marketer told me the other day about a friend of his who did something scary. Years ago, he sold office and school supplies.

He took the usual approach. Whenever he had a chance, he added more products to his store.

It seemed, though, that the more products he added, the harder he worked. Yet his profits remained roughly the same.

Finally, he took a good look at his business -- what was working and what wasn't. What he found surprised him.

His hottest sellers were maps. And not just any maps, either. People were buying those little dashboard map books at a rate that he could barely keep them in stock.

So he did a very counter-intuitive thing. He dropped all of his products other than those map books. Instead of adding more products to give customers more choices, he cut back on products and focused on finding more customers who were looking for that one line of products.

His results were just the opposite of what he was used to. Instead of working harder and harder to keep profits the same, he found himself working no harder, but reaping far greater profits.

A lot of business owners wouldn't think of taking such a step. They take the same attitude that this business owner had started with. They think, "The more mud I throw against the wall, the more of it will stick." And I think the reason that we fall into that thinking is because, deep down, we don't believe that anything we focus on will work.

We figure that we need something outside of ourselves to "save us." We need some outside tool or strategy that will attract and win customers. If it relies on what we put into it of ourselves, we fear it will fail and we'll be to blame.

But, hey, if all we're doing is throwing mud against the wall and it doesn't stick, at least our failure isn't our fault. We tried, it's the mud that failed.

In reality, though, the only way to succeed is through the unique effort, knowledge, and passion that we bring to it. Those maps did well for him, but cutting back to just maps was probably pretty scary for that marketer.

He probably heard more than one person tell him he was crazy to move away from being a nice, generic store to a tight niche. He knew he would have to bring his whole knowledge, passion, and perseverance to making it take off. His success would all be on him -- not on the product.

But by making the choice to move away from throwing mud at a wall and bringing all those dabs of mud together and shaping it into a single, artistic sculpture, he finally had something that others would really want.
Jeff

Labels: entrepreneurship, motivation, start business

When You WANT Your Business to Succeed
It's one thing to want your business to succeed. It's another thing entirely to WANT your business to succeed.

It gives you an extra boost. It gets you away from feeling put upon or bored to do the little things that need to be done in your business.

The only way I can describe it is that it becomes personal.

It's no longer something you do because it seems like a fairly good idea to get a little extra income flowing in. It's something you do because you have a goal that resonates deep inside of you that can only be reached by making that business succeed.

I've been experiencing that lately as I've been working a big project that I'll fill you in on a little more once it's closer to completion. But after years of doing things that seemed like workable ideas for making money, I've finally turned off the intellect and engaged the heart.

I'm working harder than I've ever worked sitting down. Maybe even harder than the physical exertion of landscaping or house painting or heavy-lifting factory work I've done. Yet I'm loving it, because it's letting me reach for a goal I've never fully let myself believe I could attain.

And when you're working toward something that means something more to you than just a paycheck, it makes all the difference in the world.
Jeff

Labels: mindset, motivation

The Latest Gem by Perry Marshall
One of my favorite Internet marketers is Perry Marshall of Definitive Guide to Google AdWords fame and founder of the Renaissance Club. I love his no-nonsense approach to marketing.

Today, I got an email from him about a subject that is dear to my heart: overcoming the fears that so often stop us from being the success we want to be online. I'm reprinting it here. If you like it, check out his Renaissance Club. If you like the clarity with which he writes, you'll love getting 20 pages every month of similar insights on marketing, success, and life.

Marcus is eleven, and last summer I took him to father/son camp. Years ago Marcus' younger sister Andria lived with us for three months as our foster daughter. Marcus (a.k.a. "Tank") became my buddy from the inner city and has been ever since. So here we are with no electricity, no running water, 3 days on the Tahquamenon river and every day we do some daring activity like pole-climbing or the ropes course.

The ropes course is 25 feet above the ground and even though Marcus had a helmet, climbing gear and able assistants at every side, he was totally intimidated.

The first section was a sort of horizontal rope ladder that sorely tested his balance and stability. At long last he made it across. But then the next section was a tightrope walk on a single cable.... That's when Marcus lost it.

He looked down at the ground far below and shook with terror. "I'm afraid of heights!" Just to put one foot on that cable and put his weight on it took all the will he could summon.

When he got his second foot on the cable, panic swallowed him up. He melted into a crying, quivering, sobbing mess. He begged, he pleaded, 'please, please, let me go back.'

But... on the ropes course, you can't go back. Once you're on, you have no choice but to finish it. After awhile this became a real problem.

The camp counselors tried to soothe him and reassure him but to no avail. Their experience of helping hundreds of other dads and kids get across meant nothing in comparison to the yawning expanse of terror that lay below that cable.

But then one of the counselors had an idea.

She adjusted his harness and physically proved to him how far he would fall if he completely lost control, by making him sit down right there on the high-wire. He wouldn't even fall far enough for his butt to touch that cable. He sat there and realized how low, low actually was.

No matter what happens, Marcus, no matter how bad you screw up, you won't die. You won't tumble helplessly to the ground and shatter your bones into pieces. You'll be OK. That was the turning point.

He got a hold of himself.

He calmed down. He tested and re-tested his harness and realized, hey wait a minute, I can only fall about four feet, not 25. This harness really will hold me up.

He was still terrified - his emotions were still raging in a war with his mind - but he started putting one foot in front of the other and making progress.

I told the camp counselor, "This isn't one one-hundredth as dangerous as the neighborhood he grew up in, with drive-by shootings and crack dealers on the corner.

"But he doesn't know that." This reign of terror probably lasted 25 minutes. It held up a lot of other campers. But Marcus eventually made it all the way through the ropes course, including the giant rope swing that spans 100 feet (took him a full minute before he was willing to open his eyes).

Somebody at Camp Paradise took notice and decided to give Marcus some recognition. This wouldn't be a big deal to some of the other boys but it was to Marcus, it was a major victory. Maybe the grandest accomplishment of his 11 years.

At dinner the camp director announced that Marcus has triumphed over the ropes course and 120 men and boys gave him a round of applause.

He got high fives the rest of the day, and you should have seen his beaming smile. The most celebrated kid at camp.

I remember watching him during the worst part of the terror, thinking "Man, that's me, at a whole bunch of different points in my life. This isn't something that happens to you once in your life at summer camp. The Black Wall of Fear is something that you stare down multiple, multiple times. Especially if you're an entrepreneur.

And not just in business; The Black Wall of Fear obstructs your path in every sphere of life that matters. There will always be times when the lizard part of your brain is screaming at you, to retreat to safety and sanity.

Hey, isn't this precisely the thing that keeps millions of people locked in allegedly safe, secure Dilbert Cubes? Laboring miserably under buzzing fluorescent lights... going home to colorless nights washed down with a beer and a bag of Ruffles. Drowning the droning of their dreary, desolate lives with episodes of 'reality TV.'

Creating products or inventions or dreaming up things and never having the courage to step out and expose them to the harsh light of day.

Hey Marcus, don't ever forget this - you're going to confront this same Black Wall of Fear at every important transition of your life. You will always question your sanity and you will always wonder, at some level, if the bottom is going to fall out. If the other shoe is going to drop. If you're going to tumble to the ground and smash every bone in your body to bits.

Dear friend and subscriber, I only know of ONE way to defeat that black
Wall of Fear:

Punch your fist right through it and drive on.

Do it.

Again, if you like what Perry had to say, check out his Renaissance Club.
Jeff

Labels: mindset, motivation, Perry Marshall, personal growth

What Would Donald Trump Do?
I'm not trying to be facetious or sacreligious with that title.

Personally, I don't like "The Donald's" ego and self-promotion, but I find certain things about him worth emulating.

I get caught up in mind chatter, avoidance, and procrastination A LOT. I've missed plenty of golden opportunities because I've overanalyzed them until their time had passed.

It's at those times that I try to picture how Donald Trump would respond to whatever situation I'm in. Would he procrastinate when faced with an unfamiliar task? No. Would he put trying to look like a nice guy ahead of taking an unpleasant stand that needed to be made for the good of the business? No. Would he let his mind overload with a million little details when it needs to focus on just one? No.

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't look to "The Donald" for guidance when it comes to moral issues. But when it comes to self-defeating behaviors like self-doubt and lack of focus, it helps me to picture Donald Trump dealing with the situation. (And it makes me feel a little foolish to let such behaviors even be a possibility of guiding my actions.)
Jeff

Labels: Donald Trump, mindset, motivation

Building Your Entrepreneurial Muscles
Do you have entrepreneurial muscles? And more importantly, are you building them?

I got back to working out recently after a couple of crazy months where my workouts got kind of scattered. It feels good to feel sore muscles again. But it's been frustrating to scale things back from where I had been before I got away from working out.

My first day back, I ran my usual pace and time. The second day, I had to cut it in half. I just didn't have the endurance to do my usual. My third day, I got near that halfway point and wasn't sure whether to continue.

I didn't really feel completely unable to go on as I had the second day. But I wasn't really sure I could make it my usual length of time. Part of me wanted to play it safe. Part of me wanted to push as far as I could.

I pushed.

I went the whole time I had planned to. I was pretty winded, but I made it. And succeeding gave me a lot of confidence that I could get back to my old times and distances in short order.

Had I played it safe and quit halfway through, I probably would have had the same doubts the next time I ran. Maybe I would have pushed through. Maybe I would have decided again that I simply wasn't ready to go the distance.

Then I realized how much my experience on the treadmill was like building an online business.

Plenty of times we hesitate. Plenty of times we doubt. Plenty of times we're tempted to hold back because we're not sure we're up to some challenging and unfamiliar task. It's easy to stick to the comfortable and the familiar.

But you don't build muscles -- physical or entrepreneurial -- by holding back. You have to be ready to push forward through the discomfort and simply get it done. It's the only way to grow.
Jeff

Labels: mindset, motivation

Learning to Ride the Bike of Business
I got an email from Mike Kemski of BANABU fame the other day that had some great things to say about what we all need to move forward in our businesses and our lives.

Here it is:

I'm sitting here with half a case of the flu pondering my life. And when I'm sick I always feel a little vulnerable and weak.

So I started thinking about other times I've felt like this and how I was able to take
action even when I was scared and felt like I couldn't pull it off.

Then the question popped up...

How do you take action when you're scared and don't recognize your own value?

You need to surround yourself with people who can not only see your value but also
extract it.

Even leaders need leadership...

Everyone has breakdowns in confidence at some point in life.

And being around people who believe in you more than you believe in yourself sometimes is one of the best ways I know how to get through those slumps.

They don't last forever and they're perfectly normal (and even useful if you know how to use them) but even so, those times in life certainly aren't fun!

If you've ever helped a kid learn to ride a bike you've noticed a few things.

That bike is very scary at first and they have no balance. So you hold onto the back of the seat and give them the balance they need which provides them with the confidence they need to learn to ride on their own.

Then as your trotting behind the bike and you get moving a little you let go.

Amazingly the bike keeps going and the kid is doing it all on their own until...

They look back and see you're no where near the bike anymore and then they crash!

The only thing that changed is their belief in their own ability.

For some it takes a couple more attempts with you holding the seat and for others it takes another month... Either way they needed you their for the confidence until they built up enough of their own to believe in their own ability.

And guess what?

The process is the same for every single person on the planet.

See, I want you to know that just because people understand how things work and how to create results, it doesn't mean that they get to just skip the part where they have to learn and grow.

That process where they learn and grow takes time no matter how you look at it.

But learning is just the first step. Knowing something will NEVER substitute experiencing something first hand.

Learning is the easy part...

Implementation is the scary part...

Find people in your life that will hold your "bike seat". Build the correct support team in your life and you will do things you never thought you could.

And notice I said correct support team, not just any team of people. Not everyone is a good fit for you and it may take some exploring to find where you fit but once you do, you'll know.

Because you'll feel that sense of value that you get and contribute to the team which locks in a place where you fit and belong...

Mike

Who you have supporting you is essential to your growth as a person and as a business person.

So why do we so often go all Lone Ranger on our business? I think it's because we like to think we can do it all, DESPITE the fact that we harbor insecurities that we can't.

We'd rather struggle and fail than let others know that we aren't able to do everything ourselves. But even Superman had his support team who urged him on.

Take the effort to seek out those who can encourage you, inspire you, support you. We all need that person to hold that bike seat for us until we discover what we were capable of all along.

Now, get ready, get set, and get connected!
Jeff


P.S. I really enjoy Mike. He has overcome more in his life than most people could bear. And he shares the steps he took to beat adversity and build himself into the type of person he longed to be in BANABU. I urge you to check it out. I have found working on building a better me to be an essential part of building a better business.

Labels: mindset, motivation

Is It OK to Be Afraid?
I just want to clear up something from my post yesterday. I went all rah-rah on you about venturing out into the unknown and treating the building of your business as an adventure of overcoming obstacles, like in the movies.

I don't want to come across as saying that you have to be Indiana Jones, always cool, collected and fearless, in order to stand a chance of succeeding. Most heros in the movies are far from that when they start out.

Consider Luke Skywalker, for example. At the beginning of the movie he's whining about how his uncle refuses to let him seek adventure in exotic new world of college.

So Luke stumbles upon these silly droids who take him to this crazy old man who tells him, "Guess what, Luke. We're going to go off together and save the universe!" And what does good old adventure-starved Luke say? "But... but... but... my uncle needs me at home to tend the crops!"

Yep. Good old Luke. When faced with a real adventure, he suddenly wants the safety of home.

And you find that with the vast majority of characters in the stories we love. They won't take on the adventure on their own. They have to be forced into it.

It's only after they find themselves with no choice but to move forward that they do. And it's only the growth they experience along the way that enables them to act heroically at the end.

It's the same thing with our adventure on the good ship entrepreneur. As we sit back in the safety of working for somebody else, we all long for the benefits of running our own business -- the income, the freedom, the status.

But as soon as we face the reality of what it takes to build a business, we go all "But... but... but..." on ourselves.

We discover that we need to do a lot of new things we know nothing about and we are tempted to shrink away from them into the easy and familiar. For many people, that's where the entrepreneurial adventure ends, with us "But... but... butting" ourselves right out of business and back into the old, familiar life we were trying to escape.

No, being afraid of the unfamiliar path we need to take is nothing unusual. It's part of the journey.

But, like Luke, we need something to force us into action. For Luke, it was clear-cut. The evil Empire destroyed all that was familiar to him and gave him no choice but to take the path of adventure. For us, it usually isn't.

No evil Empire is going to come along and force us to journey down the unfamiliar path of entrepreneurship. We have to take that initiative ourselves. We need to recognize the pull of the old and the familiar, the time-wasters and the dead ends, that suck us away from tackling the tasks that actually propel us toward our goal.

To a certain degree, we actually have it tougher than Luke did. Somebody made the choice of adventure for him. And once he was on that path, there was no turning back.

We walk a path where we have to motivate ourselves daily to continue forward. Because the easy chair of our old life is always right there within easy reach for us to sink back into.

Don't give in to the fears, the uncertainties, the apprehensions that try to send you scurrying back to the old ways you wanted to leave behind. Move forward. The Marines have a saying, "Pain is just weakness leaving the body."

In the same way, fears, uncertainties, and apprehensions are just weaknesses leaving your heart. Move forward. Your journey will strengthen you. And who knows. It may just strengthen you enough to be a hero to somebody else.
Jeff


P.S. The first step in becoming an entrepreneur is to change your mindset. And I know of nothing better to help with that than BANABU.

What is BANABU? It's a no-nonsense set of exercises to help you change your mindset to a more successful one. It was created by someone who has overcome some pretty dramatic obstacles in his life to enjoy a pretty awesome life.

It has definitely helped me. In my opinion, it's definitely worth checking out.

Labels: BANABU, mindset, motivation