Day 2 (Saturday) dawned, and it was even harder for me to get out of bed and get going! Nothing to do with any lack of excitement over the conference – today is going to be about conversions, and that’s definitely something to get excited about! – just plain old tiredness. But, today being Saturday and an easier day, traffic-wise (well, that combined with the fact the first train didn’t leave til 7:30 a.m. – far too late to make it to the first session in time), I’d decided to drive up to the conference (about 50 miles north of where I live, San Jose).

Seemed like a good idea at the time, but, even armed with a stiff shot of Starbuck’s Holiday Blend coffee, I was REALLY sleepy driving up there, but made it without too much trouble. But, now the fun begins – finding parking that doesn’t cost more than our monthly mortgage – and I’m talking PER HOUR, here! Actually, I cheated – I found a garage online not too far from the conference and pre-booked it, since it seemed reasonable at $24 for the day.

It turned out to be a bit further from the conference than I thought, so I was a bit late arriving. Drat! That means I missed out on the chance to win an iPad – everybody there for the start at 8 a.m. had a chance to win one of those coveted gizmos. Now I’m depressed (just kidding)!

Showtime!

I grabbed a seat near the back for the first session, Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher covering “Conversion Hacks”. Chaim and Alyssa were there and had saved me a seat near the front, but I didn’t want to disturb everybody trying to get to the seat they were saving me, so I just stayed where I was. Such a nice chap, I know!

First item to be discussed was testing, and the key metrics involved, such as opt-in rate, conversion rate, etc. Next was some really interesting stuff about “Impact Points” and how to increase the success rate of these. Impact points are defined as:

• The Open
• The Click
• The Opt-In
• Conversion

They showed an example of how dramatic an effect increasing the success rates of these points can have on your business. All well and good, but now I was really chomping at the bit and wondering just HOW to do that. Patience, my man! Ryan and Perry won’t let you down.

And, sure enough, they went into a discussion on how to go about improving these metrics, providing methods for each particular impact point:

• Increasing the Open Rate – it’s all about the subject line, because nothing happens until an email is opened. Here are proven types of subject lines:
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  1. Odd numbers (Doing this increased his sales by $25,295.37 in one month)
  2. Percentages (%)  (75% of marketers don’t do this…)
  3. [New Video], [Video] ( [Video] Top affiliate shows EXACTLY how he….)
  4. (free report) (Get the hidden secret the gurus won’t tell you (free report))
  5. RE: (RE: Your future success story)
  6. Personal Pronouns (You, Your, etc…) (You don’t want to miss this!)
  7. Scarcity (Only 3 of these left)

• Increasing the Click Rate – the important factors here are send times, link placement and image placement:          

1. Send time – best time = 4 am CST (US Central Standard Time); best days = Tuesday-Thursday; here’s a big tip – weekends are great for low dollar amount and lead-gen offers
2. Short emails produce higher CTRs (click-through rates)
3. Link placement – 3 links – intro, body and close/P.S.
4. Images – at beginning and end of email

• Increasing the Opt-in Rate
  

1. Keep opt-in forms BASIC – ugly wins every time!
2. An alternative is using ladies in bikinis or something equally revealing – tests have shown THIS WORKS! This is not some male thing; it’s actually a proven marketing statistic.

• Increasing the Conversion Rate

1. Statistics show that 1 in 3 customers who use the chat feature buy. Add a chat feature to your site.
2. Customer service people are your best affiliates. They know your business and interact directly with customers – make sure they’re educating people about your products. Add a promotion as a signature to customer service emails.

That was a great session – a lot of useful and actionable info.

Sales, Sales, Sales

Next session was Perry Belcher’s “Secret Selling System”. There are 5 aspects:

1. Targeting – this is all about knowing your customer. Create a profile of your ideal customer so you know how to promote to them.
2. Getting leads – once you’ve identified your target audience, you need to get them on your list by offering list-building bait.
3. Getting sales – create an irresistible offer that addresses one of the reasons people buy – gain, fear, pride, value, imitation. The sequence in the sales letter is vital – space doesn’t permit here, but Perry went through a 21 step sales presentation formula (which actually stretched to 24 steps, but who’s counting!) that was very thorough. Proof trumps all – social proof is essential. New always wins, i.e. getting to market first. Be aware of reasons people don’t buy – lack of connection, lack of confidence, wrong price, lack of urgency, no money. Always provide value and OVERDELIVER!
4. Increase profit per sale – offer upsells. Customer is in buying frenzy – take advantage.
5. Frequency – increase the frequency of contacts. Use social media, snail mail, telephone, events and parties. Build loyalty and continuity.

Great stuff, Perry. Thanks!

Time for lunch – a quick trip to the local mall and the food court, one of the classiest (and most expensive!) I’ve seen. Very nice.

Let’s get physical!

First session after lunch was all about ecommerce. I actually have an ecommerce web site, so this definitely intrigued me. Everything was covered, from finding a niche to validating that niche with a marketing checklist. One of the niches the presenter suggested made me giggle a bit – manscaping! Never thought of personal grooming for men quite that way – I like it.

Next up was “Mobile Voodoo”. I think we all know that mobile is the future, and this just reinforced it. Optimise landing pages, etc. for mobile, and get ready for the goldrush to come!

The last session was “Lifecycle Marketing”. There are 7 phases to the client lifecycle, namely:

1. Know thy target client
2. What’s your lead magnet?
3. Nurture your prospects
4. Convert into sales
5. Deliver value and satisfy customers
6. Upsells
7. Get referrals

Wow! A long day, but a great one. One of the great features of this type of event is the ability to meet and mingle with like-minded people, and I met some great folks during the breaks and over lunch. It’s always good to network – you never know where your next JV partner may come from.

So, exhausted but exhilarated I trudged off to the parking lot and headed off back home to crash for the night, a hot cup of Starbucks coffee and KFJC for company.

See you tomorrow! But, don’t forget to leave your thoughts, comments, questions, insults (if you must!), jibes, etc., below and, love it or hate it, let your social media chums know what’s going on here.

Cheers!

How was your weekend? I hope it was good and that you enjoyed a couple of days free from the daily weekday grind. I’ve got to say mine was EXTREMELY busy, but in a REALLY good way.

This last weekend I attended Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher’s Traffic and Conversion Summit up in San Francisco. If you don’t know who Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher are, just search for their names in your favourite browser, and you’ll soon see that they are 2 of the most respected names in internet marketing.

Let the show begin

The conference lasted 3 days (Friday, January 18th to Sunday, January 20th.), and started at 8 a.m. each day. I decided to take the train the first day, since it was a weekday and since I knew the traffic would be terrible. So, SUPER tired but ULTRA excited, I dragged myself out to the railway station to catch the 6:45 a.m. train to 4th and Townsend station in San Francisco.

The conference was being held at the Marriott Marquis hotel, about a mile from the station. It was a nice morning in The City (as people in this area refer to it), so I took a brisk walk up 4th Street to the hotel, also on 4th, just south of Market, with a stop at Peet’s on the way (can’t beat a hefty shot of Peet’s to start the day!).

I got there and met up with Chaim, my accountability partner in Alex Jeffrey’s Inner Circle. Chaim and I had chatted over the phone weekly for a while, trying to keep each other accountable for our businesses, but we’d never met in person before, so it was great putting a face to the name finally. He’d come from Las Vegas, and just flew in REALLY early that morning, so was feeling pretty tired.

Friday morning session

The first session started out with Ryan Deiss, one of the organisers, discussing what he expects the future to hold. He predicts the “Channelisation of Everything”, resulting in businesses being run through niche channels, and the “Dollar Store Mentality”, in which consumers purchase lots of small items and we as business owners need to provide the tools to make the overall experience as simple as possible for them via 1-click shopping, free shipping, etc.

Next up was the keynote speaker of the day, none other than William “Captain Kirk” Shatner! Wow, talk about excitement boost! The pulse of the place just about went through the roof, and, as a life-long Star Trek fan (and, no, I’m not a Trekkie!), this was worth the price of admission by itself. But, the bonus was that the next hour or so that Mr. Shatner was on stage proved to be not only interesting but also enlightening as he talked (in a mini-panel format flanked by Ryan Deiss and his co-conspirator, Perry Belcher) about building his brand and his years marketing Priceline.com (did you know their shares are at nearly $700 per share? No, neither did I – in fact, Chaim and I were convinced he’d lost his marbles, but, after checking online, we verified what he said. Turns out Mr. Shatner could have been a billionaire today, except he sold his Priceline shares when they hit rock bottom after the Dotcom bust!).

At the break, Chaim and I met up with Alyssa, another member of the AJIC, whom I was meeting for the first time also. Again, nice to put a face to the name.

The final session  of the morning was titled “Post Panda SEO”, presented by Eric Lancheres, who gave out some great tips on how to Google-proof web sites. Here are a few of the tips he shared that you can also implement to safeguard against future Google shenanigans:

These tips alone could improve your site’s performance in Google’s eyes considerably. Great session – thanks for the tips, Eric!

Friday afternoon session

The first session of the afternoon was “List Banking”, presented by Ryan Deiss and Chris Oyolokor, all about building a marketer’s greatest asset, a list. They discussed the need to determine leading performance indicators (LPI), competitive analysis to see what’s working and getting leads for competitors, testing banners, etc., pruning and weeding out what is and isn’t working, and then optimising for improved performance. Once all this has been done, the results should be used on other web sites to improve their results also.

The final session on Friday was called “Traffic Hacks”, and was basically a panel hosted by Perry Belcher, in which each panelist presented an idea for a different method of getting traffic to sites. The topics ranged from Facebook to YouTube, solo ads to PPC, and a whole lot more. I’ve got to admit, one or 2 of them went well over my head, but hopefully they weren’t lost on everybody.

So, that was it – Day 1 in the books and a great day it was as well. I think we learned a lot about traffic and various traffic-getting methods, which is vitally important, of course. This made me think of a traffic course that came out towards the end of last year and that was superb. I’m talking about John Thornhill’s “Simple Traffic Solutions” course. I picked this course up towards the end of last year and learned a TON of stuff. John’s a great teacher and he explains just about every method of getting traffic there is and then has separate modules devoted to implementing the various methods. The amount of detail is amazing, and I’d advise you to at least take a look at the course and decide for yourself by clicking the following link to access the most comprehensive course on traffic I’ve ever come across.

I’ll be back with details on how Day 2 went next. In the meantime, leave your comments below and hit any of the “share” buttons to spread the good word.

Cheers,

Ray

Continuing on in this series of articles about the mental approach to success, in this article I want to focus on getting out of our comfort zone. In case “comfort zone” is a term you’re not familiar with it, allow me to explain what it means as it relates to our discussion of the mental approach to success.

Your comfort zone is everything you’re used to and that you’re comfortable with. In other words, if you do something that you do regularly, you’re probably  comfortable doing that, and it’s something that doesn’t cause you to feel uncomfortable. For instance, you take a trip to the movies every week, so you’re perfectly at ease and comfortable doing that. But, if you’ve never appeared on stage and you’re asked to take a part in a play, that would probably be something you would be a bit apprehensive about because it’s something you’ve never done before, i.e. you would be well out of your comfort zone.

Why should I leave my comfort zone?

So,  you may be asking yourself, why would I want to do something that makes me uncomfortable, i.e. voluntarily decide to leave my comfort zone? Well, the good news is that nobody can force you to leave your comfort zone (unless you commit a crime or do something where you have no choice (being in the military springs to mind – disobeying your superior officers could be a bit problematic!)), so, normally, you wouldn’t have to. For example, you’re invited to speak in front of a group and you’re scared to death of even the thought of speaking in public (more good news – you’re FAR from alone in that!), feel free to stay in your comfort zone by declining the request. 

Simple, right? Yes, but then you may start feeling bad about not only letting others down but about letting yourself down. Here was a chance to expand your comfort zone and stretch yourself and improve yourself, but you declined and so you carry on as before, living a settled-for life, accepting your limitations and  living with them.

That may sound a bit harsh, but that’s basically what it boils down to. And that’s exactly the opposite attitude you need to have if you’re going to separate yourself from everybody else and become successful in your own business.

Self-growth and reaching your potential

If you’re going to be successful in your own business, there will be many times you’ll be called upon to leave your comfort zone. Just making the decision to start your own business is a big step outside your comfort zone, because you’re taking a chance and risking not only success but also failure. This is where it gets REALLY scary!

And, yes, while it is scary, it’s also liberating, because you’re breaking free of the shackles of the known and stepping into the unknown. So, yes, scary, because you’re taking a leap of faith, but at the same time exciting because you’re doing something new that, provided you add the key ingredient “action” to your decision, could be the most life-changing decision you’ve ever made.

This then leads to self-growth and the possibility of reaching your potential. You’ll be learning a lot of new skills and techniques, and generally expanding your horizons as you grow and develop your new business. You’ll have to decide on an area of internet marketing you want to specialise in, be it affiliate marketing, product creation, CPA (Cost Per Action), niche marketing, etc.

You’ll need to learn how to make videos – an integral part of internet marketing these days. And here’s the part that scares me the most right now – you’ll want to lead your own webinars at some point. Brrrr! Gives me the shivers just thinking about it, because I haven’t done one yet. But, I WILL do one, and will be MILES outside my comfort zone when I do, as you will probably be, but the results both personally and business-wise will probably be more than worth the anxiety we may feel at first.

Increased self-confidence and reaching your dreams and goals

As you challenge yourself and go outside your comfort zone more and more, you’ll feel your self-confidence increase and you’ll be ready to take on bigger and bigger challenges. And with each new challenge, you’ll be moving yourself and your business closer to your dreams and goals, and, eventually, your ultimate success, however you’ve defined that for yourself.

While all this may seem a bit overwhelming, especially if you’re at the beginning stages of your internet marketing journey, just remember that it’s a bit like eating an elephant – impossible to do in one sitting, but definitely achievable in bite-sized chunks . Just take things one step at a time, and take the time to celebrate each gain, or step forward, however small, before moving on to the next one.

Leaving your comfort zone can be a scary proposition, but every time you do so, you’ll not only feel great but you’ll be improving yourself and growing as a person, while growing your business at the same time.

What makes you uncomfortable or scares you? How will you go about getting over that? Share your thoughts here and share this with your friends using our “Like” and “Tweet” buttons.

Grow  and prosper,

Ray                                                                                                                                         

The last post I wrote in this series was about courage and having the guts to face your fears and go through them. The common denominator in this whole series on the mindset of success is the 6 inches between our ears, our brain. Because that’s where most of these feelings and emotions emanate – it’s all to do with what we say to ourselves and the feelings we allow to rise to the top.

This latest post is about self-confidence. First of all, what is self-confidence? It’s the confidence we have in our own abilities and powers, and it’s what gives us the ability to do certain things and perform certain tasks we may not otherwise be able to. For example, during our dating days (mine are well past me!) we may see a member of the opposite sex we like and are attracted to, and would like to ask out on a date, but do we have the nerve (read “self-confidence”) to go up to this person and ask them out? And, if not, why not?

The fear factor

One of the reasons we lack self-confidence is fear – fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of what others will think, etc. The number one fear that most people  have is public speaking, which is a fairly well-known fact, but here’s the really scary part of this whole thing – death is regarded as the FOURTH most dreaded event. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it, but some people would actually rather choose dying over doing such things as speak in public. It’s crazy, but that’s how strong a hold fear can have on the lives of some of us.

Do you ever find yourself wondering how some people just radiate self-confidence? How do they manage to do most things with such apparent ease? Well, for a start, even the most self-confidence people will tell you that, despite their outward appearance, their stomach actually does somersaults before such things as giving a speech.

Face the fear and do it

Some people just have a natural air of self-confidence about them – they’re the exception rather than the rule. For most of us, the only way we can develop self-confidence is to face our fears and just do it, to steal Nike’s thunder. I speak from experience here, because, when I was a kid, I was absolutely terrified of things like ferris wheels and roller-coasters, and used to stand and watch with envy as my younger brothers went on all the  roller-coasters and had a great time. I used to think to myself, “Why can’t I do that?”.

That fear really affected my ability to enjoy our trips to amusement parks and seaside resorts like that (I grew up in England and most seaside resorts used to have amusement parks), until finally one day I decided I’d had enough and jumped, scared to death, on a roller-coaster. And, guess what, surprise, surprise, I loved it! And I’ve loved roller-coasters and similar rides ever since, and enjoyed amusement parks so much more as a result.

So, what’s the answer to the question, “Why can’t I do that?”? The answer is there is no reason! I could do that, and anything else I felt fearful about. How? By doing exactly that which I’m afraid of. That’s right. You have to face the fear and just do it, otherwise that fear will consume you for as long as you allow it to, and will adversely affect your overall enjoyment of life. And the more you do that of which you are afraid, the easier it will get and the greater your self-confidence will be. Then, others will look at you and wonder how you manage to be so self-confident, and won’t that be a nice feeling to know!

So, yes, some people are naturally more self-confident than others, of that there is no doubt. But, we can all develop our self-confidence over time if we are willing to make the effort to step out of our comfort zone and do that of which we’re afraid, and the more often we do it, the more confidence we’ll develop.

In which area of your life do you wish you had more confidence? What type of fears do you want to overcome? Feel free to leave your thoughts and let’s help each other develop our confidence. 

And, do me a favour, if you found this interesting or helpful, show this piece some “Like” love or Tweet it to your followers and help them overcome their fears and develop their self-confidence.

Confidently yours,

Ray

In this, the third in the series covering the mental approach to success, we’ll discuss the concept of courage. “Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage!”. You probably recognise that quote. Of course, it’s the Cowardly Lion from the “Wizard of Oz”. He was a lion, the King of the Beasts, but in the film he was scared of his own shadow. Yes, he really needed a hefty dose of courage, and, of course, by the end of the film he had all the courage he needed.

How did that happen? Well, the lion was never really a coward. In fact, he displayed tons of courage and bravery throughout the film. It’s just that he was fearful, and, because of that, he considered himself a coward, thinking to himself “How can I be King of the Beasts if I’m afraid?”. Yet, he battled through his fear to show tons of courage.

Battle through your fears

When it comes to stepping away from the herd and doing something different, that takes a lot of courage. More often than not, you face self-doubt, fear of the unknown, negative comments from family and friends and quite often financial challenges. That’s the lot of the entrepreneur, and that’s why most people don’t follow the entrepreneurial path because it’s just too risky. They’d rather stick to the familiar comforts of a regular job, however limiting or demoralising that may be.

If you want to get out of “the rut” and follow your own path, you’ll need that elusive quality the lion had all along without realising it, the quality of courage. If you’re reading this, the chances are you’ve already made the decision to be in business for yourself, and I applaud you for that. If you’re just considering it, I encourage you to do so, as long as you’re not putting yourself and your family in jeopardy.

Either way, you’ll face plenty of fears, and you can either allow those fears to get the better of you and leave you frozen like a deer in the headlights, or you can decide to battle through them and do whatever it takes to reach your goals. Hopefully, you’ll decide to do the latter and forge your own path as an entrepreneur.

Getting out of your comfort zone

As an entrepreneur and would-be business owner, part of facing your fears and conquering them will involve getting out of your comfort zone. Chances are you’ve already had to do that on more than one occasion. Think back to your schooldays. You were probably called on to give a speech or make a presentation in front of the class, which probably meant you were well out of your comfort zone the first time you did it. I speak from experience here because I was petrified first time I had to stand up before a crowd, but it did get easier the more I did it.

But, if you did it more than once, did you notice something the following times? It probably felt a lot easier, didn’t it? That’s because you’ve already done it at least once, and, even if you were a bit nervous or uncomfortable again, I can guarantee you weren’t as fearful as the first time. Why? Because you made the breakthrough by getting out of your comfort zone and doing what made you fearful.

Feel the fear and do it anyway

If you’re jumping into the world of internet marketing and this is your first business venture, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be more than a bit apprehensive. For a start, there’s a whole new language to learn practically. At least, there was for me. There were terms and concepts I’d NEVER heard of – what’s a “squeeze page”?; “autoresponder”? “webinar”?, etc. There were new skills to learn and new methods to follow. It was like a new world opening up to me – exciting but scary at the same time.

The best advice I can give is to learn as much as you can as you’re doing what you need to to become successful. In other words, feel the fear and do it anyway. You’ve already shown immense courage by deciding to take a chance on yourself and getting into business for yourself, so congratulations on that.

Now, gather up your courage and press on, taking action and having the courage to face your fears and do it anyway.

What’s your biggest fear as far as being a business owner is concerned? Drop a note in the comments area and let’s discuss it.

Press the “Like” or “Tweet” button and see what your friends think.

To your courage and success,

Ray

Remember when MTV introduced the world to music videos? All of a sudden, if a band or musician didn’t have a video in regular rotation on MTV, they’d be regarded as nobodies. It wasn’t so much about the music anymore – it was all about the video.

You could say the same about business these days. If your business doesn’t have a video on its web site,  your  site may end up being lost in the shuffle as more and more people look to get their information visually rather than just in the written form, and your business’s site may end up being overlooked for one that does provide the information in the format your visitor wants, i.e. video.

The age of the viral video

After the internet became available to everyone, video became even more prevalent – enter YouTube. YouTube set the stage for videos to make it possible for stars to be made overnight, as videos went viral and the number of views went through the roof.

Suddenly, it was possible for anyone to become famous just by making a video. Here’s an example of this phenomenon in action recently, and if you haven’t heard about this, you must have been hanging around on Mars or somewhere for the last year or so; I’m talking about the “Gangnam Style” video by an unknown fellow from South Korea named Psy, who’s now a worldwide superstar thanks to the fact his video went viral on YouTube.

Jumping on the bandwagon

All this hasn’t been lost on business owners, and, as I said, business web sites without videos are now more the exception than the rule as businesses embrace video as a vital tool in their marketing arsenal. Nowhere is this more obvious than in internet marketing where video has almost become a necessity for marketers to stand out against their competition. 

A few years ago, a fellow Englishman named Josh Bartlett saw the video trend taking place and realised that marketing videos were about to explode, so he introduced Easy Video Player, which rapidly became the video tool of choice amongst savvy marketers.

It made it possible for marketers to create videos incorporating marketing tools with just the click of a mouse rather than requiring extensive programming knowledge or expensive outsourcing services. In short, it revolutionised video marketing practically overnight.

Then came Easy Video Player 2.0, which took video marketing to an entirely different and more powerful level, adding more tools and enhancements to an already amazing tool.

Enter Easy Video Suite

Now the next evolution of Easy Video Player is about to be unleashed to a highly expectant audience, and, in conjunction with that launch, John Thornhill and Omar Martin are holding a contest that involves accumulating points just for spreading the word about the upcoming launch.

And they’re giving away some amazing prizes – click here to take a look and get involved in the contest and what promises to be a historic launch. The great thing about this contest is you don’t have to sell anything nor do you have to buy anything – you just let as many people as you can know about the contest via such things as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

I made a short video about the contest – take a look.

Are you using video in your business? If so, how are you using it? To market products, to provide information to your visitors and customers, or some other way?

Please share this post with your social media contacts, and I’ll look for your videos in YouTube. In fact, feel free to come back and let us all know when you post your next video.

Action – take 1!

Ray “Spielberg” Boreham

This is the second in the series of articles I’m writing on our mental approach to things (life, challenges, setbacks, etc., but, in particular, as it relates to the business of internet marketing) and how that affects not only our present but also dictates our future.

In the first post I wrote on this subject, I talked about the fact that there are several factors, or keys, that influence our mental approach, and, ultimately, our success or otherwise. In the upcoming series of articles, I’m going to discuss each of these factors individually. I already covered mindset (since mindset is pretty much the same as attitude, I included the discussion of attitude in that article also).

In this post I’m going to cover another key to building a successful business and that is our beliefs, whether that’s personal, spiritual or whatever. Our beliefs aren’t necessarily all going to be the same, but certain beliefs will be central to becoming successful.

If you believe it, you can achieve it

This is a saying that’s often quoted, and is so very true, as is the opposite. You may also think of belief as confidence, because, if your belief in something is strong enough, that will in turn breed the confidence in you that you can do or achieve that particular something. But, is having the belief or confidence that you can achieve your goals enough? Sadly, no, it’s not, because, if that’s all it took, I could sit here, believing I would be the next millionaire, and, hey presto, I’d be a millionaire. Wait – I believe, I believe!!! Would that it were that simple.

But, even though there’s more to it than just believing you’ll succeed, having the belief you will succeed is the essential first step. If you don’t have the belief in your eventual success, one thing is certain and that is that you won’t succeed, because the chances are almost one hundred percent that you won’t even get started on the journey towards achieving the success you want.

The formula for success

So, yes, there’s more to being successful than believing you will be. You not only have to believe it, but you then have to take the steps needed to achieve that success. So, the formula for success is:

Belief + Action = Success (BAS)

If all you do is believe you’ll be successful, that’s as far as you’ll get – success will be a dream and be just as far out of your reach as if you didn’t believe it. But, once you start to do whatever’s necessary to succeed, then those actions, combined with your belief, will eventually get you where you want to be. 

Note that word “eventually”. Along the way, you’ll have successes and failures, and you may have to change course more than once, all of which will add to the time it takes to reach your goal. But, as long as you stay the course and maintain your belief in yourself (i.e. remain confident), then success is inevitable. It’s like an irresistible force meeting an immovable object, the irresistible force being your actions and the momentum they create and the immovable object being your success, which will eventually be hammered into submission by the irresistible force of your momentum.

The key is your willingness to do whatever it takes (within reason) to achieve your dreams and goals, regardless of what others say or even how you feel.  And you will meet people who’ll tell you you can’t or won’t succeed, the naysayers, and you’ll have to just ignore them and press on regardless. These are the dream stealers – people who have no ambition and/or are jealous of your ambition, and you simply can’t let them steal your dream. And some days you’ll feel like you can’t or don’t want to go on – those are the days it’s even more important to push forward and move through that to get to the next level. That’s where your belief will really come into play, because that will force you to press on regardless.

Belief, then, is vital to your success in whatever endeavour you choose. But, belief on its own won’t get you where you want to be. It has to be combined with the action necessary to achieve the success you desire. Most people want to be successful, but aren’t willing to do what it takes to achieve that success, and that’s the major differentiating factor between the successful and the unsuccessful. So, harness your belief and hitch it to ongoing, consistent action and you will reach your goal and attain the success you are reaching for.

I hope you found this helpful. Let me know what you think in the comments section – what is it you want to succeed at? How would you define success for you?

And don’t forget to be social and share with your friends and relatives – maybe they need to learn the secret to success.

To your success,

Ray

In my last post about our overall attitude to success, I talked about how success in any endeavour is directly linked to one’s outlook and attitude. In other words, if you approach what you do with a positive attitude, and you stay positive through obstacles and setbacks, success is pretty much inevitable.

I spoke about the fact that there are several factors, or keys, that influence our mental approach, and, ultimately, our success or otherwise. In the upcoming series of articles, I’m going to discuss each of these factors individually, beginning with mindset.

What is mindset?

Let’s start our discussion of mindset with a dictionary definition. Here’s how mindset is defined in http://www.thefreedictionary.com:

“A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations”

In other words, the way you think determines how you react to and handle whatever happens to you. So, if you think that everything you touch turns to gold, you’re already well ahead of the game because you EXPECT a positive outcome from everything you are involved in, whereas if you feel you can’t do anything right, then you’ll see yourself failing at whatever you do.

Now, ask yourself – which would you prefer? That you see yourself succeeding at the things you do, or that you see yourself failing at everything you do? I think it’s fairly obvious which outcome most of us would prefer, so why is it we don’t all think that way? Is it because we were just born that way? Or did we learn to become that way over time? And, most importantly, is it possible to change the way we think (our outlook), or are we destined to think the way we do forever more? 

Fortunately, the way we think is completely within our control.

Turn negative into positive

Do you remember the Monty Python film, “Life Of Brian”? There was a great song in there that relates directly to putting a positive spin on negative events or experiences – it’s called “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life”. That’s a great mantra to live by. It doesn’t mean you’re going to be positive and upbeat constantly (we are human, after all, and prone to setbacks, which will no doubt derail us, at least momentarily), but it’s about how you react to and handle negative things that happen to you.

It’s a commonly held belief that we learn from our failures, and that only by failing can we succeed. You’ve probably heard this before, but Einstein failed a THOUSAND times when he was trying to invent the light bulb. He could easily have given up after just a few failures, deciding he’d never succeed. But, instead, he regarded each failure as one step closer to success, and that’s what happened – he learned from his failures and eventually succeeded.

And that’s the key point here. Whatever you do, whether it’s business or sport or any other undertaking, you will run into difficulties and adversity at some point, but if you press on through the challenging times, you will eventually succeed, provided you don’t give up before success arrives. 

A mindset of perseverance

So, what it boils down to is perseverance. Provided you have the attitude that you won’t give up on your goals and dreams before you’ve achieved success, then, as I said earlier, success will be inevitable, as long as you keep moving forward and learning from your mistakes and failures. Every mistake is a learning opportunity, and, if you learn the lesson each particular mistake or failure offers, you can’t help but improve and move closer to your goal.

Mindset then is the way we think and deal with situations and life in general. You can decide to be positive and not let setbacks and difficulties hold you back, and, if that is your mindset, you will find a way to get over these problems when they arise. Or you can decide to be negative and just let your life and your future be shaped by the challenges you face and let them get the better of you so that you avoid any adversity by choosing a different path and never getting where you want to be, accepting failure and defeat and living a life of “settling for”.

You can equate mindset with attitude or outlook, and you get to choose the mindset you have on your journey to success or failure. You can either let your life be shaped by the events that happen to you or you can shape your life despite what happens to you. It all comes down to your mindset, so choose  the mindset of success and don’t let setbacks stand in the way of you and your eventual success.

How’s your mindset? Are you determined to let nothing stand in the way of you and the success you want to achieve? Share your thoughts here, and don’t forget to hit one or more of the social share buttons to get your friends involved.

To your success,

Ray

Consider this scenario. You wake up to go to work, and, unfortunately, you hate your job and so you’ve already told yourself it’s going to be a miserable day at work and that you just can’t wait til it’s over. You go downstairs to grab a bite to eat before you set off to the job you hate, only to find the kids drank all the milk, so you can’t have that bowl of cereals you’ve been craving for the last half hour, since you got up. You check the fridge – it’s practically empty; no bread, no fruit, nothing to snack on. The day’s barely begun and it’s already a disaster – and that’s before you even set foot in the office!

(Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

The Wrong Attitude

So, after all that, what would you guess your attitude would be? You probably wouldn’t be relishing another day in that soul-destroying job you’ve got, would you? I didn’t think so. In fact, you’re probably ready to expect nothing but the worst from the rest of this day, and you even find yourself wishing the day was already over before it’s even begun!

You’ve got off on completely the wrong footing and it’s basically set you up for failure for the rest of the day. In other words, your attitude is ALL wrong. But, the good news is, it doesn’t have to be that way, thanks to the fact that you – nobody else and nothing else – are in control of your attitude. And it’s that fact that determines whether or not you’ll be a success or a failure in any endeavour you undertake.

The Right Attitude

So, to make the most of every moment of every day, and to be successful, you need to cultivate the right attitude, or mindset. That’s especially true when it comes to business and making money online. Before I go any further, I want to credit Eric Louviere, of Job Crusher, for providing me with the inspiration for this and the upcoming posts related to mindset.

How do we go about developing the right attitude then? Is it something that just happens – I decide I’m going to have the right attitude and, hey presto, there it is? Well, yes and no. Yes, you need to decide that you’re going to have the right attitude, and, no, it won’t just magically appear. It does actually take work and effort, not just once, but on an ongoing basis, to acquire.

No Magic Button Instant Riches

Let’s get this out of the way straightaway. The ability to create instant wealth online at the click of a mouse or the push of a button is a complete MYTH! If you come across anybody selling you that online (or offline for that matter), run as fast as you can a million miles the other way. This is a BUSINESS, whether online or not, and it needs to be treated that way, the only major difference being that you can actually conduct this business in your pajamas.

The keys to the success of any online venture are the following:

• Mindset
• Beliefs
• Attitude
• Courage
• Self-confidence
• Getting out of your comfort zone
• Knowing EXACTLY what you want
• Growth
• Empowerment

The REAL Key

I’ll discuss the above keys to success individually in upcoming posts, but when all is said and done, the REAL key to your success is YOU. That may not be an easy thing for some of us to come to terms with, but that’s essentially what it boils down to. You, and only you, determine how successful you’ll be, regardless of what system you use or whose coaching or mentorship you follow or what type of business you start, at the end of the day, it all comes down to you.

That’s a massive responsibility to take on, and I hope you’re as ready as I am to take it on, because I want to succeed and I want you to join me. First, I’ve got to allow myself to accept that it’s OK for me to be successful, not only financially but personally and career-wise also. I believe that’s my first major obstacle to overcome in my personal battle to achieve the right attitude. That and an attitude of gratitude – a cliche, I know, but one that is so true.

What’s the biggest obstacle you face in having the right attitude to success? Leave a comment and let me know, and let the friends you’ve got on the social networks know how you plan to become successful and encourage them to do the same.

Ray “Getting my attitude right” Boreham

The other day I wrote a post, in which I talked about setting goals and challenges for myself in the upcoming year, and how I would be posting about them right here on my blog so as to keep myself accountable. Well, true to my word, here I am reporting to you about the fact I’ve decided to undertake my first challenge to myself of the year.

(Image courtesy of scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

I started this blog about 8 or 9 months ago, first when I bought a coaching programme of John Thornhill’s, called “One Month Mentor” (excellent course, by the way, and I believe John recently re-opened it, so I’d encourage you to take a look at it, especially if you’re just starting out, as it will help you build an excellent foundation and springboard from which to launch your career online), the first objective of which was to start your own blog. I expanded on that when I joined a high-end coaching programme, again offered by John Thornhill (are you spotting a recurring theme here?  John Thornhill’s mentioned several times here already, and that’s due to the fact he’s a top man and an excellent teacher).

I’ve been a bit inconsistent posting here, so my first challenge of the year is to become more consistent with posting to my blog, and I’m going to do that by writing a post or a page here every day throughout January. I’ll check, but I think this is the third post I’ve written this month, so I’m off to a pretty good start.

If you’ve been around the internet – and internet marketing in particular – for any length of time, then you’ve probably seen similar challenges posed to themselves by other bloggers. And you may think – “Big deal! What’s so hard about writing something on a blog every day for a few weeks?”. Granted, the task of writing a post on a blog every day isn’t that hard in and of itself; I mean, I could come back tomorrow and write about what I did all day – Got up, had breakfast, worked on my latest online project, went to the gym, etc. But, that would get old after a while, not only for you, the reader, but for me, the writer. That would be just like posting a diary online.

No, the real challenge is coming up with something interesting AND original every day. So, that’s the major challenge I have to face, and, as I write this, I’ve no idea what I’ll write about tomorrow, or the day after, etc. And when I say “write”, I plan to also post videos occasionally as well to add a bit of variety (and to help me improve in making videos, and there’s plenty of room for improvement!). 

I’m going to sit down and map out some of the ideas I come up with for content, and, once I’ve come up with a few, hopefully the rest will follow without too much brain-scrambling, but we’ll see.

So, there it is – my first challenge of 2013. What do you think? Good idea? Waste of time? Leave your comments and let me know what you think, or if you’ve done something similar yourself. What challenges are you going to set for yourself? I’d be interested to know.

And, of course, hit any of the “share” options and get your friends to join in the conversation.

Wish me luck!

Ray